38. "Shit!" Alex cursed through gritted teeth.
"Alex! I know you're in there. I need to talk to you."
Sarah looked back at her with raised eyebrows. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She pulled her dress back down and straightened it before moving to undo the lock. Alex reached out and pushed the door closed.
"Wait a second will you?!" She hissed under her breath.
"What for? You just got busted by your girlfriend. I don't know whether I can be bothered to stay and watch the shit storm you're about to get into. To be honest, I had something a little more orgasmic in mind, so I might just get on my way." She pulled the door open and left Alex glaring at her back as she left the room. Alex walked out and leaned against the wall, sighing heavily.
"Alright, you found me. What's the fucking emergency Polly?"
Polly's eyebrows were still raised from watching Alex's female companion walk out of the rest room and the gestured her head towards the door as she spoke.
"Seriously? What, Piper wouldn't put out for you so you couldn't fucking wait Alex?!"
The brunette rolled her eyes and bit down on her lip to stop any pathetic excuses from leaving her mouth while she was still quite drunk. There was no point in arguing a case with Polly right now.
"What are you, the chastity police? Why are you following me?"
"I'm not following you dumbass. It's just my luck that I find you cheating on my best friend in a damned toilet cubicle while I'm trying to mind my own business though."
"I'm not cheating on anyone. We're not together in case you haven't noticed. And how did you know I was in there?"
"I saw Nicky at the bar."
"Oh. Well now you've ruined my chances of getting laid, can I go?"
"No you can't. What the fuck was that about Alex?! I didn't let you walk back into Piper's life to mess with her head and screw around on her. I thought you were going to show her that you're a grown up now and could deal with her like one. Do I need to remind you about all of the times I warned you that getting involved with her was a bad idea? I didn't do that for your benefit Alex, I did it for hers. If you screw her over so help me I'll lose my shit with you!" Polly was jabbing her finger at Alex, stopping short of contact, but threatening nonetheless.
"She's no angel Polly. I've tried to be patient, supportive and I've run around after her while she's not been well. She has made it perfectly clear she doesn't appreciate or need any such thing from me, so I'm not going to sit waiting for her to come around and treat me like an actual human being. We're also not together, so I'm free to do whatever I want." Alex crossed her arms, leaning against the wall defiantly.
"You two will drive me to an early grave, I swear it…." Polly sighed, closing her eyes.
"You're gonna have to dig a bit deeper if you want to break down her barriers Alex. She's a little tougher than the Piper you put into prison but she's also a lot more fragile. It's fucked up, but I won't let you fucking break her if you're not going to be serious about winning her over. She'd be better off watching you walk away right now if hooking up with girls in bars is where you're ambitions are."
"I don't think that's f-"
"Save it." Polly held her palms up to stop any further talking from Alex. "I'm not here to win votes or debate anything and I'm certainly not interested in getting involved in Vauseman drama. I only came in here to find out where Piper is. So, where is she?"
"Vauseman?!" Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Vauseman. Where is she Alex?"
"How should I know? The last time I saw her was 3 o'clock when she was telling me, in no uncertain terms, to fuck off. So I did, and I was about to get to a more literal interpretation of that particular direction when you rudely interrupted me."
"You haven't seen her since 3? Where was she?"
"On her way home I guess. She stormed off in her usual blaze of glory in that direction anyway."
"Fuck. I have to go find her. I thought she was with you" Polly started to walk away when Alex grabbed her arm.
"Why would you think she was with me?"
"Because she was supposed to be coming to my place tonight for a quiet night in. She sent me a text at about 5pm saying she had decided to head out to the bars with you and Nicky instead and I should go out with Pete. Fortunately, Pete's mates wanted to come in here for happy hour and I bumped into Nicky."
"I would leave her to calm down if I were you. She's been pretty pissed at me for the last 24 hours and maybe she needs some space to think or something."
Polly pulled her arm away.
"Jesus Alex. Space is the last thing you give Piper when she's angry. If you had any idea at all who she is, you would know that. Fuck! She's been on her own for like 7 hours or something already. I have to go." Polly started running before shouting back to Alex to tell Pete that she's gone to Piper's place.
Alex thought the whole thing was a bit melodramatic and sauntered back into the bar to find Nicky.
"Have fun in there stretch?" Nicky grinned.
"Not exactly. You could have left it another 5 minutes before you sent her in you know."
"You must need a longer warm up these days hey Vause? To be fair, I would have put her off your scent if she wasn't so stressed out when she found out Piper wasn't out with us."
"Mmm. Even when I'm trying forget her with someone else, she's there with a personal reminder. Polly's stressing over nothing. She's honestly better off just leaving Piper to stew in her own venom for a while and then it will all blow over. That's how she is – hot and cold." Alex shrugged.
"You want another beer? Where's Poussey and Taystee at?"
"Um, Poussey is trying her luck with a College girl over there and Taystee went to meet her new squeeze at a bar down the road. Looks like half of us are getting a New Year's kiss anyway. Don't leave me hanging at midnight Vause." Nicky winked as Alex stood up to go to the bar, shaking her head.
While she was waiting to be served, she spotted Pete in a group of loud jocks further down. Remembering that she was supposed to let him know Polly left, she made her way over to them and tapped him on the shoulder to be greeted by a couple of loud wolf whistles.
"Hey baby, you came to exactly the right place with that fine ass of yours." One of the grinning buffoons leered at her as Pete turned around to see who they were looking at.
"Haha, hey Alex!" He leaned in to kiss her cheek before turning to the others with his arm around her shoulder.
"This lady right here is so far out of your league you wouldn't believe mate. You can join the very long line of men taking cold showers after laying eyes on the smoking hot Alex Vause." He winked at Alex before turning away so they could talk.
"I heard you were in here somewhere. We saw Nicky when we arrived. Where's Piper?"
"Long story. She didn't come out with me and Polly's worrying about her being on her own. Told me to tell you that she's gone to her place to see if she's OK." Alex relayed the information like she was telling him what was wrong with his car.
"Polly's gone to find her? Shit, sounds serious." Pete furrowed his brow and Alex was even more confused.
"She's alright to stay on her own you know. The Doctor said it was fine for her to be on her own at night. I don't know why everyone has their panties in knots over her."
"I don't think it's that Alex. I don't know the whole story, but I know Polly wouldn't leave a New Year's Eve party with 2 for 1 cocktails if there wasn't a reason to be worried."
XXXXX
Polly managed to catch a cab fairly quickly outside the bar and headed straight over to Piper's place. She had been calling her since she got outside on her cell phone but it was ringing out. Her leg jiggled nervously in the back of the cab, even though it was only a short ride and she quickly paid the driver as soon as he pulled up outside. The lights were off in the apartment as far as she could see but it could mean she went to bed early. She hoped it meant she was sound asleep and she was about to get a mighty ear bashing for waking her up as she approached the door.
She still had a key from all of the toing and froing over the hospital visits, so she let herself in quietly. After fumbling around for the light switch, she closed the door behind her and saw Piper lying face down on the sofa.
"Piper! Thank God you're here…Piper?...Can you hear me?!" Polly walked over to where Piper was sleeping, whisper-shouting as though the urgency would come through in her voice despite it being a whisper. She put her hands on Piper's shoulders and shook her gently. Her skin was a little cold, but she was lying in a t-shirt with the heating turned off. She began shaking her more violently now as she saw an empty vodka bottle lying on its side by the sofa. The blonde was showing no signs of waking and Polly started to panic about how much Piper might have drunk. She tried to hoist her by her arms, but she was a dead weight. Polly ran to the kitchen for a bucket and saw a tub of painkillers on the side. Her blood ran cold.
She fumbled for her phone in her pocket and called Alex.
XXXXX
Nicky was sitting with her arm around Lucy now, so that was 3 out of 4 with a New Year's squeeze Alex thought dejectedly. She could have been the first one to get her rocks off if it hadn't been for Polly.
"Well I think I'll leave you guys to see in the New Year and get home before the great taxi drought of 2016 hits after midnight." She slapped Nicky's thigh as she stood up to leave.
"No, you can't leave now. It's like 15 minutes to midnight!" Nicky tried, even though she knew her mind was already made up.
"Yeah, 15 minutes until drunk dudes are pawing at me trying to land their lips on me just because the calendar flipped over a day. No thanks. I'd rather be in the back of a quiet cab, safe from the testosterone of New York. You ladies enjoy the moment though and have fun starting off 2016. Three times means you're a long term commitment right Nicholls?" Alex winked as she put her jacket on.
"Depends what you're counting. The first night was long term if everything comes in threes." Nicky grinned, nudging Lucy who was blushing now.
"Really? Well at least you set a low bar to improve on tonight then Nicholls." The brunette punched her gently on the shoulder and headed over to the door.
She got into the back of a cab and was on her way home when her phone started ringing. Alex pulled it out of her pocket and read the call I.D., rolling her eyes at what was bound to be an earful of abuse over her daring to have a life that didn't revolve around Piper.
"You're a little early with the New Year wishes. Maybe you should call back in-"
"Shut up Alex and get over to Piper's place now. She's out cold and I don't know if she's taken a load of pills!" Polly sounded frantic and she could hear she was trying not to cry.
"What?...What the fuck are you calling me for? Call a damned ambulance!"
"On New Year's Eve? We can't wait that long! I need your help to empty her stomach….I….I…can't lift her Alex! You've got to help me!"
"Turn around! I need to go back to Brooklyn!" Alex banged on the driver partition.
"Is she breathing Polly?" Alex tried to be calm, but it was very difficult when the cab driver had the radio on and they were caught at every red light in the city it seemed.
"I'll check….." It seemed to take an age for Polly to come back to the phone.
"Polly! Is she breathing?!"
"I can't tell. How do I find out? I can't see her moving like she's breathing….She's not making any noise Alex! Oh fuck!"
"Can you just breathe for a second Polly and calm down? Put three of your fingers on her neck at her pulse point, about two inches below her chin. Is there a pulse?" Alex swallowed hard as soon as she managed to squeak the words out.
Alex knocked on the partition again. "Listen, I have an actual life or death situation I need to get to here. I need you to break any rule in the book to get me there as soon as you possibly can. I'll pay any fines, get you a Lawyer, or even a new fucking job if anything bad happens because you ran lights, but please get me there now!"