Author's note: Loving the reviews, thanks for taking the time to write them and the predictions are fun to read but before I say any more... all shall be revealed soon...
Chapter Twenty-Two
Piper knocked on the wall, Amber glanced up at the uninvited guest. She let out a sigh then turned back to the book she was reading. Piper strolled in, doing her best to seem completely normal. From the look Amber gave her, her attempt at normality was not working.
"What's up?"
"Nothing. Just reading." Amber replied as she turned back to her book.
"I've said sorry so many times since going to prison that the word seems to have lost its meaning, you know?" Piper said dryly.
"Says a lot." Amber said, Piper frowned at the woman. She didn't have a cutting tone, she had uttered the words with such a casual air that it threw Piper.
"What does that mean?" Piper asked, not liking where this was headed.
"Just that... you've probably hurt a lot of people. Unwittingly." She added quickly as Piper winced.
"That's not true, the only people I've hurt, are Crazy Eyes and Alex...mostly Alex. But she hurt me too. But that's a whole different level of history I'm not ready to go into."
"It's only called history if it's over." Amber answered as she stood up. Piper tilted her head.
"Where're you going?"
"Outside."
"Why?"
"To read." Amber said. Piper flinched but nodded slowly.
"Okay. Sorry..."
Amber paused by the exit, "For?"
"For kissing you and then...disappearing."
"Wrong answer." Amber said, once again using that effortlessly sincere tone. Piper watched her walk away. She sighed, how did she manage to mess up everything she went near?
She sat on the edge of Amber's bed and glanced at the books on Amber's bedside. She frowned at a book, she recognised the weathered cover. She could have sworn Alex had the exact book. She picked it up and flicked through the pages, it was Alex's.
A note slipped out from between the pages, Piper unfolded it.
'Showers. Five minutes. A'
Piper felt a combination of nausea, anger and alarm as she folded the clearly private note and put it back inside the book. She marched out of the room and headed straight for the showers.
She heard the water running as she entered the steam filled room. She approached the shower curtain, somebody was inside humming as they showered. Piper whipped the curtain aside to find a very naked Nicky who whipped it back into place.
"Fuckin' A, Chapman!" She cried. Piper's eyes widened with embarrassment and regret.
"I...am so sorry. So sorry..." She repeated as she backed away, feeling like an idiot. The note must have been between Alex and Amber from when they were in the other prison. Not that it mattered. She hurried out of the shower, angry at herself. A familiar sensation of defeat began seeping through her.
She remembered what Alex had called her, co-dependant. Piper clenched her jaw, she needed to toughen up. She'd rather die than prove Alex right. Fuck Alex. She told herself, she was fine. She could be fine. She just needed to distract herself and somehow switch off the festival of negative emotions swirling through her mind. With enough practice, you could get used to anything.
Alex searched Nicky's room for any sign of the heroin. She turned over furniture and turned her clothes inside out. But she came up with nothing. Her eyes landed on Nicky's socks, she turned them inside out. Again, she came up clean. Alex nodded slowly, somewhat relieved not to have found anything.
"Fuck's sake, not you too." Nicky's voice greeted Alex from behind. Alex turned around and put down Nicky's socks. Nicky narrowed her eyes at Alex.
"This a coup?"
"What?"
Nicky nodded her head in the direction of the other bedrooms, "I just had Chapman do a random check on my goods in the shower."
Alex frowned, "what?"
Nicky shrugged, "She seemed confused. Either she was looking for someone else or I should be very offended."
Alex stared at Nicky. It wasn't like Piper to do that sort of thing, but that wasn't Alex's business. Her business involved substances.
"I need you to be straight with me."
"No can do, I prefer women."
"Not what I mean."
"Then we don't have a problem. What'dya wanna know?" Nicky asked, wiggling an eyebrow at Alex.
Alex braced herself, "Don't be offended but I have to ask. Have you been using again?"
Nicky scowled at Alex, for the first time any hint of humour vanished from her face as she stared at Alex.
"Are you shittin' me? Get out." Nicky scoffed, Alex raised her hands in surrender.
"I had to ask."
"Just get outta here Vause. That's uncool. Am I using again? Jesus." Nicky muttered, making no secret of her annoyance.
Alex kept her head down and walked out of the room, her mind began thinking like clockwork, who's deranged enough to supply Suzanne but not supply Nicky? Maybe the person on Cobra's payroll didn't know the inmates very well? The guards, the cleaners, and any new comers. She paused, could Amber be the insider?
Amber was sincere and sweet, and frankly too easy on the eyes for Alex to think ill of her. If Amber had more sinister intentions than getting laid, Alex would have noticed by now.
Pennsatucky guffawed as her and her groupies strolled through the living quarters. She made it a point to shove past Piper as Piper headed back to Amber's room. She felt a slight pang of dismay toward herself for seeking out Amber's room. She headed over to the bed again and sat on it. Her eyes drifted to Alex's book. The thought of somebody else sharing the sexy and giddy excitement of secretive rendezvous with her ex filled her with misery.
As her fingers skimmed the spines of Amber's various books, Piper began to bitterly wonder if Amber merely collected books from whoever she hooked up with. Piper scolded herself for being petty, then she smirked. There was no point hiding it. If she felt petty, then she'd be petty. This wasn't high society where well behaved women were applauded. This was mother fuckin' prison. Piper glanced around sheepishly. Nobody was around.
As something came over her she began pulling the books off the bedside, and letting them hit the floor with a thud, with each thud, Piper felt a childish amusement. She then smacked the remaining books off the bedside, sending them hurtling across the room.
A book fell to the ground and made a clunking sound. Piper frowned at the book, she picked it up. It was one of those mandatory copies of the bible that were given to inmates upon entering prison. Piper shook the book, it made the strange sound again.
Casting a wary glance at her surroundings, Piper opened the book and stared at its contents. It had been hollowed out, and contained a syringe and a small packet. Piper gaped down at what she had found.
During her time with Alex, she had witnessed enough people taking heroin to know exactly how to shoot up. She sat up, her eyes doing a scan of the large room. Nobody was in sight. She lowered herself to the ground and pulled the packet out of the book, then took a spoon and filled it with water, she returned to the syringe and completed preparing the concoction that was both dizzying and deadly. Then Piper proceeded to do one of the stupidest things she had ever done. She injected herself with heroin.
Fuck... wait...did I do this right? What if I die? What if I made a dumb mistake and I... within seconds she felt weightless, like a helium particle bobbing around. She lay back on the ground and stared up at the ceiling. A weak chuckle escaped her lips, surprising her. It was followed with an eruption of laughter, but was it her own? The colours around her began to melt into each other and sounds lost their structure.