It had started to rain and Piper parked her car on the side of the road in front of a rundown apartement block, the neighborhood looked like the exact opposite from her own home, it was murky and dirty and looked like a shitty place to grow up, with drug dealers at the end of the street and thugs behind every corner, at least that was what crossed Piper's mind, once they had arrived here.
She hated the pecksniffian appearance of her suburban, stuffy homestreet but at least the worst thing that could happen to you there was wild gossip.
Alex hadn't lied when she had said they had no money. But Piper still wished she could come upstairs with her, see her room, her bed, where and how Alex lived. Maybe even meet her mum.
Alex had avoided to look at Piper ever since they had arrived at this neighborhood but at least she hadn't let go of her hand, yet.
Now they were standing at the sideway and Alex surely would exit the car any minute if Piper didn't say anything soon. She wanted to tell her how comfortable she felt in her presence, she wanted to tell her how her heart was going crazy when she touched her hand, how her breathe was going faster as soon as she looked at her.
„Alex?" Piper whispered to the raven haired girl, who was staring out of the window onto the wet pavement.
„Huh?" Alex rather hummed than said, not taking her eyes off of the grey, dusty footpath.
„Al." Piper squeezed Alex's hand, wanting her to look at her. The nickname just came automatically with the closeness of sitting together in the tiny space of her car, holding hands, while it was raining outside.
Alex turned around, looking Piper directly in the eye and Piper was sure she could read what she was feeling inside.
„Al, why did you come today?" she had asked that before but she still didn't really know and even if she had known, she still would have asked, just to be with Alex for a little while longer.
And she couldn't say what she really wanted to say to her.
Alex looked down on their hands, her thumb was stroking the back of Piper's hand.
„I wanted to make sure you don't bail on me now that you know …. you know!" Alex tried a half-hearted smirk before she felt Piper's body stiffen.
Piper kind of knew that she was more to Alex than an alibi for not studying but hearing Alex say that it was the reason for her showing up today, it still felt like a sting in her heart.
„Besides" Alex mumbled „when you sent me a text in the middle of the night, saying you wouldn't come to school, I got kind of worried."
Piper stared at her, she had not wasted a single second to think about the impression that her text at 3 in the morning might convey.
„I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." but Alex broke her off „Hey, it's ok." she squeezed her hand like Piper had done earlier and then she let go off her hand.
It instantly felt cold.
Alex put her hood over her head, before she exited the car, throwing a last look onto Piper through the rain.
„See you monday, kiddo." She smirked, all badass and cool again
„Oh and by the way, great abs." she winked, before she disappeared through the rain.
Piper sat there in her car and she couldn't wipe her smile off her face, Alex liked her. She really did.
She started the engine and drove off towards the hospital.
The rest of the weekend went by without anything worth mentioning. Piper spent the days with babysitting her brother, while her parents were at the hospital, discussing the future of their marriage.
Piper really didn't want to think about what that meant for her and Cal. And anyway she couldn't really think about anything else than Alex.
How Alex had looked at her, how Alex had smiled at her, how she had touched her. And the thoughts she had had in the shower started to become even more explicit, making it harder and harder to resist the urge to satisfy her desires.
Every half hour she took her phone in her hand, typing a message for Alex but then she erased whatever she had wrote again, not finding her courage to reach out for her crush. And Alex didn't text her either.
The only message she received that weekend, aside from those from Polly, were a text on Friday night.
From: Larry
Hey, Piper. I didn't see you at school today, I hope you're ok. Too bad that you can't come to the party today. Would be much cooler with you there. XX Larry
He was the cutest, nicest guy you could imagine and for a second Piper wished she had fallen for him. No complicated homosexual thoughts, no gruelsome sisters, no questioning if watching other people bullying was as bad as bullying itself, not all these confusing feelings and doubts. But she just didn't, she wanted Alex with every fibre of her body. Some bodyparts even more than others.
And so when Monday came around it was the first time ever that she was actually looking forward to school. Everything was different this Monday morning. Piper woke up really early and went for a run, and though that was kind of routine to her, it felt so totally different. The street didn't feel as false and hypocritical as usual, because maybe people could be that happy, right?
The pavement felt like home as always, but at the same time it felt new and exciting, just knowing that somewhere in that city Alex was using the same ground as she did, maybe not at the same time, but still.
She didn't need to run her brain free from thoughts because right now she kind of liked thinking, not thinking in general but thinking about Alex, and that thought whitewashed every other thought or fear, because Alex liked her.
Her father had been at home all weekend and Piper was torn between being happy about finally having her dad around again and hating his guts for letting it come so far.
But when she came back from her jog that Monday and her dad was in the kitchen, making breakfast for her and Cal she felt like there was finally going to be a change for the better.
With that positive feeling inside her chest, she drove to school. And it stayed that positive during the first lesson, politics, a class that Alex fortunately didn't attend, so Piper was finally able to pay attention in class.
The feeling also stayed during the first break that she spent in the prop room trying to catch up on all the missed lessons.
The feeling stayed there during second lesson, even though Alex's presence in the classroom kept her from listening to anything her teacher said, again.
She literally thought nothing could destroy her bubble.
But of course she was wrong. Because this was highschool and she was Piper Chapman.
All this positivity, all this being on cloud nine, that was actually pretty ridiculous in itself, had made her too careless, maybe because she forgot about realitiy somehow but maybe also because she was so fed up with being careful around people, fed up with trusting nobody, fed up with hiding herself.
After second lesson Piper decided to not go to the prop room and wander the halls instead, a thing she rarely did.
The first thing she did in this newly found alleged freedom was tidying up her locker and she actually managed to open the damn thing without being burried under all of her stuff and she had just finished throwing out all the crap that had accumulated in there, when she heard a familiar voice behind her, a voice that caused her to turn around immediately.
It wasn't Alex's voice that she had heard, it was her sister's. The whole Nichols gang had gathered at the other end of the hallway, one of the rare occassions where they weren't torturing some student but just standing around, enjoying their power and the fact that everbody was so scared of them that they were avoiding their territory.
Normally Piper would do the same thing and leave the hallway before it was too late, but she just couldn't take her eyes off the tall raven-haired girl, that was standing with the group but rather next to the others than really with them, she leaned against the lockers, reading in the blue book she had also been reading the week before.
She looked beautiful, being caught in her book, not giving a fuck about anything that happened around her. But just as if she had felt Piper's presence she suddenly lifted her gaze and her eyes darted in her direction. Piper felt the butterflies in her stomach all of a sudden again and she smiled in Alex's direction, not able to hide her feelings for her, but Alex's eyes were back to her book as suddenly as they had been looking up at her. Alex didn't even seem to recognize her and the smile on Piper's face fell off like a non fitting mask.
No sign of the flirty affections of last Friday, no smile, no hello, nothing and it hurt more than anything Nichols had ever done to her. More than he wanted to admit.
And all of a sudden, just like this all her good feelings were gone and the dark cloud over her head, that she had carried for so long, was there again.
At least she was able to escape the group before any further damage could happen to her.
The rest of the schoolday went by just like any other crappy, shitty schoolday she had ever experienced, leaving her with hopeless suicidal thoughts, because nothing would ever change for the better, not in her world.
Alex spent the whole last lesson whispering with her sister, causing herself to get nearly thrown out of class and Piper was sure they were talking about her, she could literally feel the gossip at the back of the room floating her mind in huge waves.
She struggled long with the question if she should go to the fake tutoring or if she should just skip it, go home and forget about the damn girl.
But her stupid heart just couldn't leave, it wanted to know that everything was a mistake, that Alex just hadn't seen her, that there was an explanation.
And so after school she found herself sitting on the couch of the prop room waiting for Alex to come. And she waited for a while.
First she waited five minutes, then she checked her phone, nothing from Alex.
She waited another ten minutes, but Alex still were nowhere to be seen.
After 20 minutes Piper wrote her a text.
To: Alex
Are you planning on coming or are you just bailing on me?
Another ten minutes later Piper was sure Alex wouldn't come but the second she decided to go home, she heard the door creek at the end of the stairs and a pretty harried Alex hurried up the stairs, meeting Piper's gaze with a smile. The smile Piper had been missing earlier that day, when everyone else was around.
But it vanished at the sight of Piper's angry face.
„Sorry Pipes." Alex really looked as if she was sorry but Piper had to avert her gaze, she couldn't stand looking at her right now, it hurt too much.
„Ok so you're mad because I'm late, right?" Alex sighed, while moving over to the couch, sitting down next to Piper, facing her, while Piper sat there, staring straight past her gay crush.
„No" Piper grunted, staring at her feet, being not so very convincing. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alex staring at her as if she was trying to make her look at her through telekinesis.
Alex sighed again „You ARE mad."
„As if you would care" Piper whispered, rather to herself, but Alex heard it anyways and Piper immediately regretted saying this.
She looked at Alex to estimate her reaction and was surprised to see Alex looking pretty pissed. The raven haired girl also slid away from her a few inches, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
„What's that supposed to mean?" her voice sounded really pissed off and for a second Piper forgot that she was the one being mad at Alex and not the other way round.
So she turned towards the other girl, crossing her arms as defiantly as Alex had done, throwing her the most pissed look she could provide.
„Actually I'm surprised you even recognized me, didn't seem like you remembered me earlier." gosh, she sounded so pathetic. She probably should look which day of her cycle she was on right now, because this was just childish.
„What?" in that second Alex's jaw dropped open and it took a few seconds until enlightenment hit her like a broken street lamp.
„You're not really mad at me because I didn't say hello to you in the hallway, are you?"
Alex shook her head, making Piper feel even more embarrassed than she already did. She could not believe that she had made herself that vulnerable.
And she definitely hadn't expected that Alex would be that pissed, so when the girl jumped to her feet Piper jerked, startled at her reaction.
„For fuck's sake, Piper. What the fuck do you expect me to do?" she started walking up and down the room, the wooden planks creaking under her feet.
„What do you want? That I say hello to you whereever I see you? Hold your hand no matter who's around?" she was nearly screaming right now „Aren't things bad enough? Do you really need Nicky to get more reasons to torture you? Like really?" she paused her wandering through the room, now standing right in front a sunk down Piper.
„Fuck. Then I could just as well bring her up here every fucking break, ratting out your hiding place. Do you really want her to notice you any time you walk past us?"
„No." Piper whispered, tears dwelling in her eyes „But I want you to notice me."
And just like that she had said everything that had been in her mind for hours, she had put herself into Alex's hands, had risked anything, when she actually hadn't much to lose anymore.
„I do notice you." Alex whispered back at her, all her anger subsided, kneeling down in front of her „I do notice you, I always did!" she breathed.
And then Alex took Piper's face between her hands, wiping away the teardrops that lingered on her cheeks with her thumbs. Her emerald green eyes were warmly looking at Piper's blue one's and for a second Piper thought their eyes would melt into each other.
She had to avert her gaze eventually, her eyes being magnetically drawn to Alex's lips, that were so close to her own that she could feel her breathing.
Alex lowered her hand a little bit, skimming her thumb softly over Piper's lower lip. Piper was unable to move while Alex's other hand wandered towards her neck, pulling her a little bit closer until their lips finally met in a single soft touch.
Piper pressed her body against Alex's, scooping her hands up into Alex's hair.
The light that shot through her body was like a natural force carrying her off the cliff.
Without her even realizing it she had opened her lips to grant entrance to Alex's tongue, that searched for her's until they melted into one another in a deep, thrilling, intimate kiss, that took Piper's breathe away.
There it is, like finally, I mean what took them so long, really? ;)
I really hope you like it, tell me if you do, also tell me if you don't. And of course thanks again for your reviews, you guys are the best XXXXX