I do not owe the songs mentioned in the story below. They are simply used for the advancement of a fanfiction. And if you're going to sue me, ha good luck I am poor.
7
Before Piper knew it, the weekend was over. With how stressed she was with the problems at Litchfield, time seemed to be slipping through her fingers like warm pancake syrup. One second she had her eyes open on a Friday night and the next she blinked only to find out that it was Monday morning by the time she opened them back up.
Not that she had a problem with it as she was hoping to talk to Alex as soon as possible. After their hour long conversation on Friday evening, she had been curious as to what Alex meant by "the part you forgive yourself." After Alex had said the words, Piper had cocked her head to the side and asked for Alex to clarify.
"You'll figure it out. Eventually." Alex answered. She then offered Piper a ride back to her car.
"I don't want to get your car dirty." Piper answered eyeing the expensive car. Most of the sweat had dried out but she still had dirt and a wet spot here and there.
Alex ignored her altogether and walked to the passenger's side. She opened the door and gestured to Piper to get in. Piper eyed the expensive red diamond stitching on the seat and felt more determined than before to decline Alex's offer.
"I'll walk back," she said looking over her shoulder to the path that was now obscured by the lack of sunlight.
"Piper, just get in."
"No, really. It's fine." She began to walk away.
"What if I put a towel on top of the seat? Will that help?"
Piper stopped midstride and turned to Alex. She watched as the tall brunette walked to the trunk of her car and retrieved a long red beach towel. What's with her and the color red? Piper thought. Alex laid it on top of the seat before walking back to the driver's side and getting in. She didn't wait for Piper to reply. Does she assume I will listen to her? Piper further thought. Except as she asked herself this, she was already fixing the towel which Alex had placed half-assedly. Only after making sure no part of her body would have contact with the leather of the seat, did Piper get in.
Once more, Piper tried to get Alex to explain.
"Tell you what, if you don't figure it out over the weekend, I'll explain what all that's about. Deal?"
"Deal." Piper agreed.
Try as she might, Piper could not figure out what Alex meant. She turned the words left and right, shifted them around, and even crossed them, but nothing came up. By Sunday night, she was dying to get to the office.
She arrived early Monday morning, the only person there being Caputo. He greeted her then proceeded to go around the building opening the other entrances and making sure everything was in order. After she closed the door to her office, she removed her blazer and placed it behind her chair. Immediately, she began to work.
Not ten minutes had gone by before she was sighing loudly, unable to concentrate. She twirled her pen between her fingers, bit into the cap, before tossing it against the desk and pushing back on her chair to stand. She paced back and forth—she was having a hard time concentrating.
Maybe it's the silence, she thought. What was it that Nicky had once said about working in silence? Unless you work at a morgue there's no reason the office environment should be dead? In which case, what was so wrong with playing music as long as it was to an acceptable volume? Surely, it would not bother anyone?
She opened YouTube on her cellphone but had no idea what to listen to. Piper had never been the type to "bond" with the music. Growing up, her parents expected total and absolute control from her. She wasn't allowed to have friends over, go over to friends' house, and God forbid she play any of the "thrash these kids are listening to these days." (A courtesy of her mother's."
She typed in "recent music hits". However, after a song or two she got bored. An idea popped into her head and so she busied herself by creating a playlist of her own. Once she was satisfied with the couple dozen songs she'd added, she pressed the shuffle button, connected her phone via Bluetooth to the small speakers next to her monitor, and before she knew it, she was focused on the paperwork in front of her.
…
Alex spent her week drinking. No, not drinking, drowning in alcohol. It was not something she was used to, but when it came to Nicky, the blonde seemed to think that if you could still walk, you had another shot of something left in you. And so Friday night all the way until Sunday morning, Nicky and Alex drank until they were nothing but a chunk of laughing flesh.
Lorna was more than happy to have them both home. The way she saw it, she preferred her partner and friend to be at home getting wasted than somewhere at a bar. Not that she doubted Nicky's fidelity, but she worried about her wife. Plus, she preferred to join in on the fun even if she was stuck drinking milk and orange juice.
When Monday morning came, both Nicky and Alex had a hard time waking. Their heads were pounding and the world was spinning around them.
"See, this is why you should listen to me. I tell you not to do something and you do it. I tell you to do something, and you don't." Lorna said to Nicky. Then to Alex, "I'm not talking about you of course." Alex offered her what she hoped was her best understanding laugh. (It came more like a grimace.)
"Give it a rest woman." Nicky groaned from her chair.
"Then stop complaining."
"Well, as an expecting mother, you should be thanking me for giving you practice. What, you think that little tyke's going to listen to—," Nicky didn't finish as a bout of nausea hit her and she had to run to the bathroom.
"Now she knows what it feels like." Lorna rubbed her stomach.
Alex smiled but before she could answer, she too was running.
…
They arrived almost two hours late. Lorna had to drop them off as neither one was in condition to drive.
"Call me when you're ready to get picked up." She said sweetly.
"Oh God, what are you? Our mother?" Nicky scrunched her nose.
"Oh shut up. It's not my fault you can't handle liquor like an adult." Lorna shot back.
"Sorry babe. My head is just…" Nicky placed both hands to the side of her head and pressed.
"Just call me."
"I don't know how she deals with me." Nicky said after the car turned around the corner. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm a lucky dog or she's just crazy to stay with me."
Alex thought for a second before answering. "I think it's both," she said making sure to keep neutrality.
Nicky gave her a playful shove. "You seem to be in a good mood despite the hangover."
They began to walk into the office but made sure to take their time.
"Yeah. It's doing me good to be away from all of it."
"Have you heard anything from that place you were looking to rent?" Nicky asked.
"Nah. The owner only wants to sell. I have no intention of buying." They reached the door by this point. "But I have something else lined up. I'm hoping to hear from them soon."
"You can always stay with us," Nicky said.
"I know but I want my privacy back as much as you want yours."
Nicky patted her on the back and they both went inside.
…
The office was already buzzing with activity. At the sight of Nicky, several assistants walked over to her to inquire information for their bosses.
"Mr. Healy would like to know how much profit we are expecting once the foreign accounts are sold," asked one.
"—wants to know if we can sell to the Germans even though they're in talks with the Russians," said another.
"–-thinks you should revise the decision you made and is calling for another meeting," said a young woman whom Nicky recognized to be Linda's assistant. It seemed the executive was still having trouble accepting the fact that her original plan of expanding was being pulled off the shelf.
Nicky raised her hands stopping them all at once. "Go back to your desks, write me an email, and I will answer in the order I receive them." All but Linda's assistant shot down the corridor in an attempt to be the first to email Nicky.
"I'm sorry ma'am but Miss Ferguson made it clear I was to get an answer from you immediately," the young woman said timidly.
"Well then, in that case tell her this: start selling." Nicky said. The assistant nodded curtly and left.
When they reached her office, Nicky stepped inside and held the door open but Alex lingered outside. "I'll meet you in a minute." Alex said. Nicky nodded thinking Alex was habing another session in the bathroom. She let the door close behind her and didn't notice Alex heading for the office next to hers.
…
From the moment they pulled into the parking lot and Alex saw the white Jeep, her mood improved. She was reluctant to admit that she was looking forward to seeing Piper.
When the small group of assistants flocked Nicky, she had craned her neck to see if Piper was in her office. Sure enough, the blonde was hard at work reading some papers. Every now and then she would turn to her computer, type something, before resuming her reading.
After the door to Nicky's office closed, she waited to make sure Nicky was seated and her mind occupied before heading over to Piper's office. She gently knocked and smiled when the voice called out to let her in.
"Hey," Piper smiled when she saw Alex.
"Hey." Alex said. "Mind if I come inside?"
Piper nodded and Alex closed the door behind her. Alex sat across from Piper and looked around. The office was small but cozy. Just like Nicky's office, there was a bookcase behind Piper. She cocked her head to one side and smiled when she heard the music coming from Piper's small speakers.
"You know, I didn't take you for the type to listen to them." She nodded in the direction of the sound.
A small blush crossed Piper's cheeks and she turned the volume all the way down. "Uhmm…" she said. "Do you know them?"
"Of course I do. Sick, by Adelita's Way. I used to listen to them when I was in high school and hated the world." Alex chuckled. She leaned over and turned the volume up. She began to sing along with the singer.
I'm so sick of my life
It's the same old shit
Try to make it bend but
It never gives
Look what you made me
Well I hate my boss,
He's a little bitch
If he keeps it up, I'll
Make him quit
"I think that's enough," Alex said as she leaned again to lower the volume. "I used to love that guy."
"What happened?" Piper asked.
"I grew up."
The pink in Piper's turned a very dark crimson color.
"Oh."
"I don't mean to offend you." Alex tried apologizing. "I just happened to think…I didn't mean to say…They're not bad just that people listen to them when they're out of control…" she trailed off. "I'm making this worse aren't I?"
Piper offered a sympathetic smile. "It's okay." She looked disappointed for some reason.
"I still keep them in my playlist though. Just in case I ever need a vent." Alex tried to make light of the situation. She did in fact still keep them in her MP3. To prove her point, she took it out of her pocket and turned it on.
"By the way, I meant to thank you for returning it." She said as she flipped through her playlist. When she found them, she held it up or Piper to see. Piper just shrugged and turned back to her computer.
"So what do you listen to know that you're…mature?" Piper asked.
"It's not that I think immature people listen to them. I just don't have that angry teenager mentality anymore. Songs like those enable you to keep being angry. At who? I don't know."
"Apparently your boss and landlord." Piper said her eyes still fixated on her screen.
"I'm probably sounding like an insensitive person right now."
"Probably," Piper said and turned to look at Alex, expecting the brunette to turn away.
"I'm not." Alex held Piper's gaze. "Piper, I was angry. At my mom, at my dad, at everyone who stepped in my way. I used to listen to songs like those to fuel that anger. Until I realized they, the people and the song, were not at fault for my behavior. I was. Being a teenager has nothing to do with it."
"So you stopped enabling yourself through music." Piper finished.
"Something like that." Alex said.
"I was serious though."
"About?"
"What do you really listen to?"
…
After the song with the guitar riffs and strong voice ended, Piper stayed silent. There was a small chill going through her body.
"Wow." She said.
"Now you see what I meant? It's not that I hate the other band just that some songs empower you in better ways." Alex said hopefully.
Piper thought for a second. "There's more to this song. I feel like it was written with purpose."
And so for the next fifteen minutes or so, Alex explained the meaning behind Zombies by The Cranberries. Piper listened intently as Alex recounted the story of the bombing and the two children who perished because of it. When Alex was done they stayed silent for a couple of minutes.
"Things never change." Piper finally said.
"No, they don't."
"Even today, people will go through whatever means to get what they want. Without caring who they harm."
"Exactly."
"Why do you think history repeats itself?" Piper asked. "Even today, you look around and there's shit going on. Shit here, shit there, why can't we be happy? Why can't we all get along?" With each word, Piper's voice rose. "Why do we have to hate one another? Why do we have to fight for power and money? Why do we have to affiliate ourselves with a group and stay loyal to that group? Why do we have to make stupid sacrifices? Why? Just once I want to wake without hearing that another shooting has occurred or that the country is tearing itself apart. Why do we do this?"
"Because we're human. It's in our nature."
"I don't want to be human," Piper said as she crossed her arms.
"You don't have much of a choice there."
"Seriously, if I could be an animal I would."
"And what animal would you be?" Alex asked. She was interested in where this was going. She had never cared about what was going on in the world. The way she saw it, shit happened. Shit would always happen and if she gave it importance, it would begin to take over her life. So she learned to ignore most of it. Except talking to Piper ignited an interest in her.
"I haven't thought that far ahead." Piper pressed her hands on the sides of her head. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired and stressed. The last couple of weeks have been hell. And then the whole thing with you."
"With me?" Alex raised an eyebrow. What did all these have to do with her?
"Yes. I still don't understand what you meant with I have to forgive myself."
Alex was about to answer when there was a knock on the door. The person on the other side didn't wait to be invited in and opened the door. It was Nicky.
"Here you are," she said spotting Alex, "I was beginning to wonder what happened to you."
"Sorry I-"
"Sorry Vause but I'm kind of in a hurry right now." Nicky said. "I need to steal Piper. Linda is throwing a fit right now and we need to come up with a game plan unless we want her to call a direct board meeting." She said to Piper. "And that is the last thing I need."
"I had an idea that would happen." Piper said. She opened a tab on her screen. "Which is why I got here early today to make just that. A game plan. I just didn't expect it to be so soon."
"How far along are you?" Nicky asked. She walked past Alex and stood behind Piper, peering over the blonde's shoulder onto the screen.
"I'm almost done. I just need to insert our numbers from the last few months. Give me ten minutes. That's all I need."
"Make it five." She walked back to the door. "You're a life saver." Without another word, she left.
"I guess I should be going." Alex said. "I don't want to distract you."
"You weren't." Piper said already busy.
Alex nodded and began to walk out, but stopped when Piper called her.
"Alex, you still owe me an explanation."
Alex smiled. "How about we meet up for drinks one of these days?"
…
A/N: This is more like a filler chapter for the bigger one I have planned. However, while I have an outline of what is going to happen next, I don't guarantee you getting it any time soon. The upcoming month is going to be my busiest yet.
Which reminds me, I might not update until November 15th. Why? I am doing something which I am not going to tell you about unless I jinx it. When that day comes, actually the day after, or that weekend thereof, I will tell you what happened with my…plan. Wish me luck! I am really looking forward to the 15th!