Hey, so this is chapter 2.
I was really happy that so many of you already started following this story.
Please, please, please also review as much as possible because I can only learn and improve my writing when I get reviews, either good or bad. So please tell me what you think, what you like and what you don't like, because it helps me getting better. Plus it's really motivating to read comments :)
The acid was burning in her throat like the disgusting hooch that Pol and her boyfriend had made in the winecellar of the Chapman's house last spring, while Piper had to keep watch and nearly died from fear of getting caught. She had taken only one sip of the terrible booze, choked at the taste and then watched the other two getting insanely drunk. Later that night she had held Pol's hair while she puked everything back out, crying and slurring how thankful she was and how much she loved Piper.
Now Piper sat all alone on the cold bathroom floor, holding up her own hair and trying to get rid of the sore feeling inside her throat by spitting and spitting into that white toiletbowl until her mouth was bone-dry and her knees ached from kneeling on the hard ground. She flushed the toilet for the fifth time before she finally found the strength to pick herself up again from the cold, skanky floor. Her hands were dusty from supporting herself and she didn't even want to think about all the shoes that walked over this floor in the days and weeks in which noone had made an effort to clean in there.
Wiping her hands on her pants, she trudged herself towards the row of sinks. Standing in front of the mirror she found herself looking exactly like she felt, she was pale as a corpse, her eyes all red and puffy when she hadn't even noticed that she had cried. Thank god that this Alex girl hadn't followed her into that bathroom, her situation was bad enough even without someone taking pictures that would propably be on facebook by now, completing all the humiliation that she had already experienced today.
When she was fed up with her own sight in the mirror, which was after a shockingly short amount of time, she started splashing cold water into her face until she felt like a decent human being again, not caring about the feeling of the water running down the front side of her shirt. Her limbs still hurt and her stomach started cramping again but there was nothing in it anymore that she could have forced out of her system, not that it would have helped against the panic that meandered through her chest like a blindworm, making it hard to breathe.
She resisted the urge to stick her finger down her throat, knowing how much the gall would disgust her while crawling up her gullet. And she could still taste the biterness. Whishing this day would finally end, Piper took her expensive rolex, that her father had given her for her last birthday to honor her discipline, out of her bag to check what time it was.
She always put that watch in her backpack after leaving home, too afraid of carrying it on her wrist around the schoolbullies. While Tricia had suffered from her poverty being a target of mocking in middleschool, Piper had the same problem the other way round. Her rich parents buying her all the expensive stuff somebody could wish for, made her a victim of sovereign contempt. Bullies didn't need any logic.
The clock-face told her that she had spent nearly the whole lunch break in this bathroom without anyone passing by, which might be the first lucky thing she had experienced in a long while. And of course noone had been looking for her whereabouts. She never spent the breaks anywhere at the typical places such as the cafeteria or the smoking area. It didn't matter to the others where exactly she hid herself as long as her rich fat ass wasn't wandering their territory.
Now the breaktime was nearly over and she had one last lesson for that day before she could finally walk home and lock herself in her room. The lesson was not as horrifying as the one before since she had been in time and most of the teachers knew to best leave her alone and not torture her by forcing her out of her invisible state. At the same time Piper had the feeling as if a certain pair of eyes burned holes into her back. But whenever she turned around to check, the blackhaired beauty was looking in a different direction, sometimes pretending to follow the lesson, sometimes staring in a little darkblue bound book that she had placed on her lap under the table, sometimes her eyes were even closed as if she was listening to an inaudible music of some kind, but never, not once, had she been looking in Piper's direction.
It was confusing and Piper just couldn't resist to check every five minutes. As a result she didn't get a single word of what was said in the lesson and all because of this Alex girl. The second the schoolbell rang, Piper threw all her stuff carelessly into her bag instead of putting one thing after another neatly into it. Normally she wasn't very keen to leave the room as one of the first, because it was not overly appealing to risk getting into Nichols' way at the door, instead of waiting until her classmates were all out and then leaving quietly and unseen, praying that she won't meet the leatherjackets in the hallways.
But today was a strange day and she just couldn't wait until she was out there, so she was already through the door when most of her classmates hadn't even moved yet and five minutes later while the rest of the people began strolling through the halls, Piper was already in her car. Her car was an old red Ford Escape with splintered paint, that she had bought used from a friend of his dad. Piper loved cars, a passion she had inherited from her father and her older brother Danny but ever since someone, and she knew exactly who, had scratched her black Mustang on the school parking area, she avoided driving her loved car to the school.
Turning her head to back out of the parking lot, she spotted Larry standing on the other side of the parking area, he was just saying goodbye to a friend when his eyes met hers over the trunk of her car. Piper turned her head fastly pretending to not have seen his brown eyes lighting up at the sight of her. She was not in the mood for another embarrasing talk today, it had already been more than enough humilitation by now. She was confused and feeling vulnerable and she knew she wouldn't survive another uncomfortable situation. She backed out of the lot and stepped on the gas, just wanting to get away from that building that was the embodiment of her personal hell. In her back mirror she could see an irritated Larry lifting his arms in confusion and his lips moved as if he was calling her name but she couldn't hear it anymore.
She turned on her radio skipping through the stations, her already watery eyes pinned steadily to the street. When she finally found a station with good rock music she turned the volume to max, deafening her ears and her heart. She craved for the speed of her Mustang as soon as she was on the street with her old ford, craved for the adrenaline kicking in, this rush that would show her that she's still alive. The bass started to vibrate in her heart, sending her brain into driving mode, just her, the car, the street and the music, making her feel her heart bumping blood through her veins in sync with the beat of the bass. It was nearly as good as racing her Mustang to the top speed.
Too soon she arrived in the broad suburbane lane between all those neat frontyards, where the birds were cheeping ridiculously happy, where the whole world seemed like a freaking 1950 detergent advertisement and where the people were as republican as Wyoming.
Their Mansion was one of the biggest at the very end of the lane, it was white and nearly sterile looking with neat and square curtains in the windows and perfectly lawn in the frontyard. It was all providing the Perfect Happy Family Image her mother cared so much about. It made Piper feel sick just looking at this phony lie. She parked her lemon in the garage next to the her black loved beauty, breathing in deeply before she turned the engine off and grabbed her bag from the passenger seat.
Passing by her Mustang extra slowly, she traced her fingers over the cool and smooth surface nearly tenderly, collecting the strength she needed to face her mother, the last person she wanted to see after a day like this. Putting her Rolex back on her wrist, she walked through the kitchen door where she knew the dragon would be waiting for her.
"Piper!" she wasn't even one step into the room, when her little brother ran towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist as if he hadn't seen her in days, but on the other hand, if Piper had to spend all day with her mother, she would probably react the same way to every other human being.
She patted her brother's head while looking at her mom who was sitting at the white, barely used looking kitchen island, absorbed in her exposés as always.
"Piper, Piper..." Cal tugged excitedly at her shirt, jumping up and down in front of her. The older sister signaled him to wait, what wasn't really effective, he kept on tugging. "Hey mom" her mother didn't even move her head for a single second to acknowledge her presence, she just shook her head, sighed and turned the page.
"Piiiiiiipeeeer" Cal whined, craving for Piper's attention until Carol bumped her fist on the kitchen counter, causing Cal to hide behind his sister's legs. "Piper, would you please calm your brother!' the unnerved voice cut through the air, making Piper growl inside, she couldn't believe her mother, well actually, sadly, she could. Piper just shook her head, it was the same shit like every other day since her mom had begun working again.
"Come Cal" she took her brother's hand, leading him towards the door to take him with her to her room. "Oh and Piper" her mother snapped when they were nearly at the door "You should make an appointment with Jacob to cut your hair, you look like a runaway." - „I wish I were" Piper whispered before closing the kitchen door behind her, she was close to crying, only the little boy clinging onto her hand stopped her from giving in to her feelings.
All his excitement was gone off him and his eyes were filled with big meaningful children sadness. Piper couldn't stand seeing this little guy like this so she grabbed him under his armpits lifting him onto her hip, tickleing his little cute belly while walking up the stairs to her room. The little boy tried to resist the giggleing but he was just too tickelish and so he broke into laughter trying to free himself from his sister's deathly grip.
"Piper I'm hungry" Cal was sitting on Piper's bed with his gameboy while she were trying to do her homework for the next day, which was quite difficult while a bubbly boy was in the same room as her, singing songs and babbleing all the time. "Cal, I'll cook as soon as mom is gone." she stated unnerved. "But I'm hungry now!" Cal yelled angrily at his older sister, throwing his fists onto her matress again and again until Piper turned around and yelled back "Stopp behaving like a five year old!" She was fuming inside, her mood was the worst, only when she saw the confusion in Cal's blue eyes she realized what she just had said. She had just told a five year old to not behave like a five year old. Sometimes she was afraid she'll become like her mother.
"Sorry baby!" she sighed stroking the soft blonde hair "but let's wait just half an hour please, OK? When that one is there" she showed him the face of her Rolex, explaining how long it would take "And then i'll make you your favourite" As answer Cal cuddled himself in under Piper's blanket, taking his gameboy back in his hands. She looked at him for a few second tenderly before she stood up, walking over to where he was lying, pressing her lips onto his forhead, taking in his scent but he wiggled a little with his head to see past his sister's head, blocking the view to his Gameboy "Piiiiiper, I can't seeeeeee!"
Just then Piper's phone, that was lying on her massive dark wooden table, blinked, showing a new textmessage. Supposing it was from Polly, she ignored it, she could answer it later. She pecked Cal another quick kiss before returning to her desk, trying to finally concentrate on her homework but it was impossible. Pictures were flashing in her head all of the time, Larry, Alex, Larry, Alex, Alex, Alex. They frightened her to no end, making her feel sick again. When her phone blinked a second time, she decided to read it, seemed like Pol wanted something important.
1 message
From: unknown
You know that your phone number is a fucking mystery at this school? Had to hack into the pricipal's pc ;) Can we start tomorrow ? -A
Piper's heart nearly skipped a beat. She had still hoped deep down that the other girl would bail on this study thing, this message made her nightmare become awfully real. She was afraid to read the second message that was also from an unknown number, but she had to.
2 message From: unknown
Hey Piper, this is Larry. Pete gave me your number. I hope this is OK. I wanted to ask if you wanna come to the Party with me this friday. XXX
For a second she didn't knew which message frightened her more. She felt the urge run away from herself, jump out of her skin and never go back. This was the worst day ever.