Don't read the last page
But I stay when you're lost and
I'm scared and you're turning away
Screaming.
Someone was screaming.
Piper dropped to her knees, her whole body trembling. She reached for Alex, but recoiled as her fingertips touched the blood beginning to seep out from her chest. Warm and sticky and…everywhere. Piper's hands were covered as she grappled with Alex's dress, pulling at threads as she tried to see what she was dealing with.
"You're okay, you're fine," Piper insisted, more to comfort herself than Alex, who by now was beginning to lose consciousness.
Alex mumbled a response. Piper couldn't make out what it was. Before she got a chance to say anything else, her eyes rolled back in her head.
"No, no, no!" Piper gave Alex's shoulders a tiny shake. "Keep your eyes open!" Piper begged. "Alex. Alex!" She leant down and hovered her ear over Alex's lips. A shallow breath, but a breath all the same. "I'm gonna get you help. Everything will be okay," she promised, planting a kiss on her forehead and clumsily stroking her hair.
"I didn't mean to!" Suzanne cried, flapping her hands as she shrieked. "Oh, Vee is gonna be so mad…"
Piper's throat caught as she drank in the crisp, cold air that didn't seem to be even touching her burning lungs. A metallic taste lingered in her mouth from the gasping.
There was so much blood.
Piper looked up. When that gun fired, everyone scattered. No-one wanted to be next in line and Piper couldn't blame them, but wasn't somebody going to help?
She tried to speak, but her mouth fought against her. Instead of screaming for someone to do something, sobs erupted from her chest. The room blurred with tears as she tried to make sense of what was happening around her.
"Press against the wound," Luschek said. His voice came from the distance and he suddenly appeared, dropping to kneel next to Piper. "911 says to try and stem the bleeding. They should be here soon."
Piper nodded, still unable to speak, and hands trembling, she held her hand against Alex's chest. Alex groaned at her touch. Without thinking, Piper pulled back.
"No, you have to keep up the pressure," Luschek insisted, his hand on top of Piper's now as he kept it in place. "They say talk to her, keep her calm."
"Keep her calm?" Piper choked out, her eyes trained on Alex as she moaned in pain. She locked eyes with Luschek, her voice coming out barely a whisper. "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?"
"I don't know," Luschek said, floundering. He turned around. "I don't know how much longer she can wait," he whispered harshly into the phone. "You need to get here now."
A wail of sirens in the distance meant Piper could let out the breath she was holding. Luschek breathed out too, rubbing his hand over the rough stubble on his chin.
"You need to get her out of here," Piper said, nodding to Suzanne. The fog was lifting, barely, but enough for her to know that. Suzanne sat, back against the wall, rocking, and Piper shook her head. "She can't be here when the cops get here."
"Are you kidding?" Joel asked, covering the microphone on his phone. "Where the hell am I supposed to take her?"
"No," Piper insisted. "Take her wherever you want. Just get her out of here!"
Joel looked at Suzanne uncertainly, but as the sirens screeched ever closer, Piper glared at him.
"This isn't her fault. You need to get her as far away from here as possible. And don't talk to anyone, okay?"
Joel nodded, rubbing a hand over his forehead.
"Come on, Suzanne," he said, grabbing her arm.
Suzanne yanked her arm back. "No, I have to stay. I have to help her. Mommy says if I do something wrong, I need to tell someone and try to make it better. But I don't know how to help here. I. Don't. Know. How!" Suzanne's voice boomed.
Piper took a deep breath. Through tears, she smiled. "You are helping, Suzy," she stammered, swallowing hard. She wiped her cheek with her shoulder, her hands still pressed against Alex, and nodded to Luschek. "Go with Joel. He'll take care of you."
Suzanne lingered for a second longer but eventually let Joel lead her away. Before he closed the door behind him, he paused.
"You'll be okay?" he asked, his brow creased.
Piper couldn't speak.
Instead she nodded, although she was sure the opposite was true; that the truth was, she would never truly be okay again after tonight. The tears spilling down her cheeks freely now, and placed her lips against Alex's. Alone together now, the only sounds were Alex's ragged, getting shallower by the minute breathing, and the strangled sobs coming from Piper.
Piper stared at the double doors where they'd taken Alex. Trembling all over, she paced back and forth, her heels clicking like the seconds ticking down. Why wouldn't anyone tell her what was going on? A thousand possibilities flashed through her head.
Alex's cold body laid out on a metal table. Having to face Diane and tell her that her daughter wasn't coming home. It didn't bear thinking about, yet she couldn't shake the images from her head.
Piper hadn't moved from the spot since they'd brought her in, aside from the manic pacing. It was as if her feet were glued to a track. A wind up toy where the crank had been broken off.
Someone had asked for Diane's number, but she hadn't turned up yet. No one had. She was alone - totally, utterly alone.
"The restroom is that way," a nurse said, catching Piper's elbow with a gloved hand.
Piper looked at her dumbly. "What?"
"You can wash all that off," she pressed on kindly, nodding to Piper's bloody hands. "You'll feel better."
Piper looked down at her hands. She was wringing them together, smearing half-dried blood over her knuckles. It looked like a horror movie came to life. She flinched at herself. Those couldn't be her hands. It couldn't be Alex's blood. This couldn't really be happening.
But it was.
"It's just down the hall," she continued, pointing. "Go wash it off. If anything changes, someone will find you."
Piper nodded numbly. Forcing one foot in front of the other, she stumbled down the hallway into the restroom and flipped the faucet on. Steam rose from the sink.
White porcelain turned pink as Piper scrubbed at her hands. All she could smell was blood. She fought the urge to retch as she pummelled the dispenser, wincing as the cold soap hit her red, raw palms.
Lady Macbeth had nothing on this.
"Piper…"
She jumped as the door swung shut.
The smell of cheap, artificial vanilla soap assaulted Carol's senses as she stepped into the restroom, but Piper kept on rubbing her hands together, her knuckles bright white against the lobster hue of the rest of her skin. Even though her daughter looked as if she was losing her mind, relief flooded through her. Because it wasn't her daughter in an operating theatre, life hanging in the balance. Her heart clenched for Diane. She was watching every mother's worst nightmare, but at least she wasn't living it.
"That's enough," Carol said softly, joining Piper at the sink and pulling some paper towels from the rack on the wall. She gently patted Piper's hands dry and then gave them a gentle squeeze. "Your hands are clean, Piper. Look."
Piper looked down at her trembling hands. "I can still smell it, Mom. The blood. I can still smell it."
"Oh, sweetie." Carol sighed. "It's going to be okay."
Piper looked up, her blue eyes watery. "Do you promise?"
Carol swallowed hard. She wrapped her arms around Piper, and for a moment, it felt as if she were five years old again. Against her better judgement, she nodded. "Of course. Everything will be fine."
Over Piper's head, she frowned. First Diane, now Alex. Before Piper met Alex, she didn't know anyone who used guns more than keeping them locked in safes in case of break-ins. Now, two people in her daughter's life had been shot. She chewed on her lip as Piper sank into her touch.
"We should sit in the waiting room," Piper said after a moment. "Diane will be here soon." Piper wriggled out of her mom's grasp and trailed into the waiting room, where she sat down on one of the hard plastic chairs.
She looked out at the doors that went through to operating theatres and God knows what else.
"They took her through there," Piper said, shivering in her dress, grateful that it was dark enough not to show the scarlet stains on it. "When we came in, they took her through there. They wouldn't let me go with her."
"She's probably in surgery," Carol said gently, sitting down next to her. "You did everything you could to help, Piper."
Piper blinked away tears, licking her lips. "If she dies, it'll be my fault."
Carol frowned, drawing in a shocked breath. "Of course it won't be. You didn't shoot her, did you?"
Piper shook her head.
"Then it wasn't your fault."
"But-"
"I don't want to hear anymore of that," Carol said, in a voice that Piper hadn't heard in a while. "What good is blaming yourself? It's not helping anyone. I don't want to hear you talking like that. Not to me or anyone else. Okay?"
Piper gave a small nod. She sat back against the hard chair and let out a little sigh. The waiting room was getting busier as the night dragged on.
"We were supposed to go to Paris."
"Hmm?" Carol blinked down at Piper.
"Me and Alex," Piper said. "We were supposed to go to Paris together. You know, in a few years' time. We were gonna see the Eiffel Tower. Walk along the River Seine. Oh, God. What if she can't even walk after this? What if she-"
"Calm down, Piper," Carol murmured, gently cupping her daughter's face. "Alex will be fine. You'll still go to Paris if that's what you want. Tell me more about it," she encouraged. "Was it supposed to be after you graduate college? A girls trip?"
"Not really." Piper's hands shook as took her mom's hand and gave it a squeeze. "It wasn't like that."
"What was it like, then? Tell me. You know, your father and I went to Paris the year after college. There was a whole group of us, but I still thought he was going to ask me to marry him when he took me to the Eiffel Tower." She let out a little laugh. "He thought we were just there as friends. Boys aren't always very smart. You should know. I don't know what Larry was thinking, swapping you for Polly."
Piper said nothing for a moment, and then looked up at her mom again. "Do you think they'll let me see her?"
"I don't know," Carol answered honestly. She let out a deep sigh, and when she spoke, it was in low, hushed tones. "What happened in there, Piper?"
"I…" Piper struggled to keep her voice even. Tears began to stream down her cheeks again as she replayed it in her head. "There was…"
"Piper!" Nicky's voice rang through the waiting room, lost in a blur of copper hair and cigarette smoke. "Piper, what the fuck happened?"
Piper jumped up from her chair.
"You can't smoke in here!" A nurse stepped out from behind the desk and pointed at the no smoking sign, glaring at Nicky.
"Sorry," Nicky said, too tired to think of something witty. She stubbed out the cigarette against the thick denim of her jacket. She looked at Piper's mom, who seemed faintly offended, and then back to Piper. "Can we talk? You know…somewhere else?"
Piper crossed her arms, threw a quick glance back to her mom, and gave a quick, curt nod. "Fine. But I don't know anything more than you do."
Nicky raised her eyebrows. "I don't think that's true."
Piper pressed her lips together and jerked her chin in the direction of the door. "Come on. We have to be quick. I want to be here when the doctor comes back in."
"I'll come and get you if anything changes," Carol said.
"Thanks," Piper said tersely.
Out in the cold, Nicky tried to light another cigarette. "Luschek called," Nicky said, the cigarette dangling from her lips as she cupped around it, trying to shelter the lighter from the wind. Her shaky hands struggled with the flame but eventually she lit it, and blew smoke into the night's air. "He said Alex got shot. Is that true? Is she okay?"
Under the entrance sign, Piper could just about see the red whites of Nicky's eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but it was more than just worry. Piper couldn't place it, but something wasn't right. She eyed Nicky.
"Well?" Nicky demanded, taking a long drag. "Is she alright? Is she?"
Piper held her gaze for a moment but had to look away to give an answer. "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Both girls turned toward the voice. Diane stood on the hospital steps. Still weak from her own months old injuries, she clutched the handrail for support. Piper swallowed hard when she saw her. If things turned out well today - if Alex made it out of that operating theatre, this is what awaited her.
Piper offered her arm for support, which Diane shrugged away.
"Where is she?" Diane demanded. "Where is my baby?"
"She's in theatre," Piper stammered, her voice wavering. "They won't tell me anything else. I'm sorry. I tried to help, but-"
Diane barged past her, making her way into the hospital. Her gait was slow, but determined. Piper watched helplessly.
Nicky didn't wait to be invited in. She threw her cigarette to the floor, stubbed it out with her shoe, and scurried after Diane like a mouse.
The two girls stood in the hallway, watching intently as Diane hobbled up to the front desk and tearfully asked for news on her daughter.
The nurse pulled her aside and whispered something that they didn't hear. Diane crumbled at whatever she said. Carol quietly rose from her seat and walked to Diane's side. After a moment of hushed words, Carol came away with a sober expression.
"Come on, Piper," she said softly, picking up her purse. "I think it's best we went home. Alex has her mother now."
"What?" Piper cried. "No. No, I'm not going anywhere. She needs me. What if she wakes up? What if she asks for me?"
"Then her mom is here. We're leaving. No arguments."
"Mom-"
"Piper, I said no arguments." Carol held Piper's gaze for a moment, almost daring her to talk back. When she didn't, she turned to Nicky. "Would you like me to take you home, Nicky?"
Nicky's eyes flicked to Piper and then back again. "Uh, no thanks. I'll call you if anything happens, Piper."
Piper wiped her eyes. Her voice was thick when she spoke again. "Thank you, Nicky."
"You don't understand!" Piper cried for the second time that night, pushing her mom away as she tried to gather her into a hug once they arrived home. "You don't get it!"
"Well maybe that's because you never tell me anything!" Carol said, exasperation creeping into her tone. "I don't know what else to do, Piper. You don't talk to me anymore. I don't know what's going on in your life but I don't like it! How long is it going to be before you get hurt?"
Carol set her purse down on the table, heaving a sigh. She sat down heavily on the nearest chair and swept her hair out of her eyes. "One day, when you're a mom, you will understand."
"I doubt it." Piper let out a huff. "I'm not going to get hurt, Mom."
Carol looked away. "Well, I'm not sure I want to take that risk."
"What does that mean?"
"It means…I'm not sure you should be friends with Alex anymore." Carol looked up and saw Piper's face drop but before she could interrupt, she continued. "I'm sorry, Piper. I feel terrible for Alex and it isn't her fault but do you seriously want to be around all of this? One accident is just that, an accident. Two…well, two is asking for trouble. Your father will agree."
"Daddy wouldn't do that to me."
"Piper…"
"Mom, please don't do this." Piper's voice broke.
"I really am sorry." Carol covered her eyes with her hand. Her own voice sounded desperate when she continued. "But you'll make more friends, sweetheart. High school friends don't last!"
"This is why I say you don't understand!" Piper let out a sob. "Alex isn't my friend, Mom!"
Carol looked up. "What are you talking about?"
Piper looked up, skin pale, eyes red. For a moment, she considered running to her room and slamming the door. For a moment, she considered trying to forget all about Alex and what had happened that night. And then she dragged herself over to the chair across from her mom and sat down. Her whole body shook. From shock or anxiety at what was to come, she didn't know.
"Do you remember when I told you that Alex…" Piper let out a breath. "That Alex was…is, I mean…a lesbian?"
Carol stiffened. "Of course I do. It's not the kind of thing you forget, is it? What's that got to do with anything?"
"Alex isn't my friend…because she's…because…"
"You're tired, Piper." Carol stood up, shaking her head. "We're all tired. Let's just go to bed and we'll talk again in the morning, okay?" She reached out and touched Piper's cheek. "You don't need to get so upset. Or say something you regret."
"Mom…"
"I'll make tea. Do you want some tea?" Carol hurried over to the stove, where she filled a kettle up and placed it over the closest burner. "A nice chamomile, hmm? Or lavender, maybe? God knows we could all do with a good sleep."
She turned, holding up the two different types, but the seat was empty and Piper had gone.
A/N:
So here it is, chapter 28! It crossed my mind that some people might see an update and think it was an April Fool's joke...but here it is anyway. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought if you want to. Hope you're all good.
- Star xo
