inspired by inkskinned's "Queen Bee"
Larry, his name was. Larry was the boy who would be her Prince Charming. Who would woo her with promises of the world and more. He was everything the Chapman parents wanted. I was everything their fears consisted of.
The first time I met Piper Chapman, it was at the park in the late late night. I was 17 years old, she was 15 years young. I was swinging and she stood in front of me, and when I stopped she looked me deep in the eyes and whispered, "you're real, aren't you?" And I mean, I kinda understood because people in this town were made of paper and sometimes they were just like us as we were them and I sat beside her and said, "yeah, yeah I am," and she cried and cried and cried and admitted that she's never fucking sure anymore these days.
She would invite me to sleep over and in the dead of night we would sit together on the edges of her bed and we would talk about our childhoods, hers spent in dresses that felt like nooses and mine spent hiding from the monsters in my head. We would fall asleep with legs touching and hands placed gracefully on tummies and our hair undone and we would lock the doors and say "you're real, aren't you?" ever so lightly, loud enough for the other to hear, but quiet enough to not disturb the peace and I don't think we meant to become friends but we did, and we were
And one day, I saw Piper with the the boy would be her world because he was everything the good life was made of, and he brought a smile to her lips and all I could think was oh dear god oh no oh no and in the late late night we went out where the tulips bloomed and she picked one and put it behind my ear and I asked if she loves him and she couldn't answer she just couldn't
And her hands were cool to the touch but soft like a baby owl and her eyes were the blue of skies before the sun could shine through and her lips would speak words so eloquently and so beautifully and she held onto words as if they were her lifeline and when she read my poetry it always felt like i was being touched everywhere and when she danced for me, I forgot every reason I was sad in the first place, and we were two stars collding into one another and exploding on impact - I was at dances and parties and lunches and never happy until she stepped through those doors and even on nights when she had more important things, I got her all to myself under trees and the moon and
We were in the kitchen laughing and eating a cake our waistlines would hate but both of us pretending like we weren't living down the barrel of a gun and our laughter swelled to fill the empty spaces of our broken bodies and the counters and our faces were covered with flour and she was perched like a bird on the counter in this soft black dress and I slipped my body between her legs to reach for another mouthful and when she cupped my chin with her fingers she kissed me like she was the ocean and I was the wind and I felt my heart almost beat out of my chest and I had to back up and when we stopped touching, she blushed beet red and tried to find a reason but I couldn't listen to that I just couldn't so I kissed her hard and long and I put my hands on Her Majesty and I held her close to me, breathing in her scent and tasting her teeth and touching every inch of skin I've been holding myself back from discovering and we kissed and kissed and kissed and her tongue was hot and wet and i sucked her bottom lip into my mouth and her teeth nipped at my nape and chest and our dresses got in the way so we tore them off like they were layers of lies until it was just us naked, she and I, faces hot and flushed and hearts beating so loud we expected the cops to be called for noise complaint. Her body was so smooth and curved in all the right ways and she held me captive in her touches and the way she tasted was only matched by the way she writhed and we stayed up reinventing each other's ideas of heat, of lust, until it was early morning and we had to pretend we'd never done anything
And we took dance lessons and I wore her soft black dress and it reminded me of the way it felt when her hands were on my waist and at first, we just pretended like nothing was different, that it wasn't happening because it was all so complicated and I mean I knew she was using me to stop feeling so empty but jesus christ when she laughed I felt fireworks go off and the world explode and one day we were practicing and I jokingly partnered her and she paused and pushed my hair behind my ear and said "I love you" like it was the last secret she had to keep, I wrapped my arms around her form and we melted into one another and her hands were uncertain as they grazed against my skin and she ran kisses across my body and she slipped her fingers alongside the inside of my thighs and I ran my fingers through her hair and across her back and she inhaled the way I moaned under her and when her tongue found me I forgot we were supposed to be 'well-behaved' and I watched our reflections in the mirror as we ruined each other's good intentions over and over and over again.
The days ticked by like this, it became routine, we kissed when we were alone and were best friends when we were in company, and my fingers knew how to find the best parts of her in a split instant and on some nights we just laid, entangled in each other trying to explain away the tired, and on some nights we were estranged lovers and on some nights we didn't even talk, we just fucked each other so hard and so raw that it gave us something real to feel in the morning, cradling our bruises as war medals in a land of machines
And the days ticked by like this, and before he proposed to her he knocked on my door, and when I answered he frowned at me and said, "I don't know what she'd like for a ring." And I said, "it figures" and he laughed about it but I didn't mean it in any way that was good, I wanted each of my words to pour like poison down his throat and burn his insides until there was nothing left but acid and I helped him pick out a ring I would have been proud of her to wear
And I went to her room that night and asked, "are you real?" and she said, "as can be!" and when I kissed her my hands couldn't stop shaking and I thought I was going to burst
Loving her was like loving nature, and the way flowers bloom, and loving rainstorms and hurricanes, and sunsets and sunrises and loving her was loving more than you ever thought possible and loving her was loving the moon, loving her was the one thing I felt pretty good at.
Their wedding was beautiful and I cried.