Piper closed her bedroom door behind her.

Her mother hadn't been overly supportive of her but that was nothing she had actually expected. In fact her mother had been nicer and calmer than Piper had hoped. And she had taken her time to listen to her, completely sober; so after all Piper was confident that she had done the right thing. Before she slipped under her sheets she took her phone in her hand, typing a message to her girlfriend.

She hesitated long before she hit the send button, not knowing if it was the right decision to push her any further. But finally she decided to do it.

To: X

I told my mother. It's your turn. Please Al.

Piper felt like having played her last ace and having put her fate completely into Alex's hands. There was nothing she could do now. When she lied down in bed and stared at the white ceiling, pictures of Rory mingled with those of Alex. Back then she had been on Rory's hook just like she was on Alex's now. She had hung her heart on a string from the ceiling like a punchbag ready to be smashed, she had been ready to put her heart at stake and now she had to pray that Alex wouldn't treat it like Rory had done.

Right before she finally fell asleep, the picture of Larry flashed in front of her face. He didn't cause this scaring, dreading feeling inside of her, he made her feel safe. Sadly he also didn't cause this hot, tingleing feeling like Alex did or Rory had done. It was like her heart wanted what her head knew wasn't the savest choice and her head wished her heart would choose what was less dangerous.

It was a constant fight that haunted her into her dreams and through the night.

When Piper got back from her early morning run, sweating and panting, her stomach was twinching and grumbling from hunger. She felt like throwing up from pushing herself too hard, from running too fast but there was nothing inside that she could have thrown up.

She entered the kitchen after a shower, where her mother and Cal were sitting at the kitchen counter, eating cornflakes out of huge bowls. Piper hadn't seen her mother eat cornflakes ever and the sight was making the corners of her mouth go up. Her mother silently patted the chair next to her and Piper hadn't to be asked twice, sitting down. Cal reached her a bowl and for the first time in months she had breakfast that didn't make her feel sick to her stomach. Noone mentioned Alex, yet everyone knew about her and the silence was not awkward but familiar and Piper knew it was okay.

Until the first break Piper was studying Nichols' and Alex's faces, was trying to read in them if Alex did it, if Nichols knew. But their faces were like stone, like a monument carved into stone a hundred years ago.

Piper could barely focus on the lesson, in her mind she saw herself standing up from her chair, climbing on top of her desk. All eyes pinned on her as she took a deep breath and their mouths gaped open as she proclaimed her never ending love for the ravenhaired girl in the last row. Alex would join her on the desk and pull her in for a intense kiss and Nichols would scream and kick up a stink but everybody would ignore her, finally causing her to shut up for ever.

Her daydream was so absurd that Piper had to suppress her laughter. But just for a second, before she felt the nervousness again.

She didn't know what was making her more anxious, the possibility that maybe Nichols knew everything and was about to rip her apart or that maybe Alex hadn't told her and Piper had to break up with Alex if she wanted to be consequent. Something she didn't think she was able to.

Or the fact that she had promised her mum during breakfast to attend to the bulimics support group this afternoon.

That was the reason why she couldn't wait until after school to ask Alex if she had done it. She had to pull her into a bathroom in the break, something that seemed to be an impossible task considering that Nichols was always in reach.

It shouldn't be that frightening to get a talk wih your own girlfriend.

After a billion different scenarios that she had played in her head, she was even more horrified than before. Being the joke of the whole school and losing a limb through a Nichols-attack were only two of the scenes she saw happening.

She wished she could just pin a note on Alex's locker, but a person who barely ever listened to a single word a teacher said was not the kind of person that went to her locker during a break. Piper didn't even know if Alex had or locker, or where.

So when the schoolbell rang at the end of the lesson her heart was beating in her throat and she felt sick to her stomach. How could speaking to your own girlfriend cause such terror inside a heart.

But Piper knew she had to make it, she knew she couldn't wait until tomorrow.

Passing Alex in the halls, she grabbed her wrist, pulling her after her towards the stairs to the second floor bathroom, she ignored Nichols' „What the fuck!", she ignored all the heads that turned towards them. And she ignored Alex's questioning eyes.

„Piper? What are you doing?" Alex rubbed her wrist and Piper nearly laughed at the sight. It had only been yesterday when the situation happened the other way round. But she didn't feel like laughing.

„I have to know. Did you do it?" Piper leaned against the wall, needing the support to hold her upright, scared that her legs would give up on her.

„I did." Alex said, still rubbing her wrist. The way she stood there in the middle of the bathroom, looking at her red hand, she almost looked small.

„You...you did?" Piper realized that she hadn't expected Alex to really do it. Her whole body had prepared itself for the disappointment.

„Yeah, I told my mum."

Alex's voice wasn't as confident as Piper knew it, almost as if she knew she had fucked up.

„What?" Piper thought she was hard of hearing, her knees being weak under her weight.

„I told my mum." Alex's raspy voice rang through the bathroom and bounced off the tiled walls.

„I told her that I have a girlfriend and that she is smart and beautiful and that she'll be a Harvard student." Piper felt Alex's hands around her waist, something Alex had never done before in a place where Nichols could walk in on them. Actually Piper was kind of confused that the Nichols' gang hadn't been checking on them yet, after they saw her pulling Alex away from them. But she hadn't really minded what Alex was doing or saying while she had pulled her in here. Maybe she had signaled them somehow that it was okay and she could handle this on her own. She didn't know, maybe they were just assholes.

Piper pulled away from the hug, not buying Alex's flirty advances.

„You're kidding me right? How is telling your mother solving any of our problems?" Piper didn't want to yell, but her voice was louder than she wanted it to be, the anger ringing like churchbells on a sunday.

„You were supposed to tell your sister. You were supposed to put an end to this whole hiding thing!"

She couldn't believe that she had really thought for one second that Alex had told her sister. That she had stood up to her. How dumb had she been.

„I told my mother Piper. That is more than I have done for any girl in my life okay?" Alex pushed her glasses to the top of her head.

„Isn't that a little bit sad Alex?" Piper couldn't help herself, she normally wasn't a sarcastic person, but Alex was really pushing her.

„Piper, you could at least give me some time, okay? This isn't fucking easy!"

Alex wasn't yelling but her voice was oozing pugnacity. Piper knew they were on the edge of an eternal fight, yet she had to push them farther to the edge.

„How much more time do you need. How much more signals do you want to overlook? I am tired!"

"I don't know just give me a few fucking days. I'm waiting for the right moment, okay?" Piper was so fed up with waiting, fed up with excuses, even a little fed up with Alex.

"You'll have time until monday. Then I'm done."

She thought Alex might yell, freak out and get mad but all Alex did was shrugging her shoulders. "Fine." Then she left the bathroom only a few seconds before the bell rang for second lesson.

Piper waited one or two minutes until the noise in the halls had vanished a little, then she opened the skanky door with her foot, kicking it open wide enough to go through without having to touch it. Alex had just gone through, not caring about touching it. Piper was so focused on the picture of Alex walking through the door that she didn't look on where she was going.

When someone grabbed her wrist she first thought it was Alex, getting mad now because of the deadline. But when she was pulled behind the row of lockers, she recognized the red hair that glowed like a red warning light which told her to run.

"Stay away from Alex, bitch!" Nichols hissed., while pushing her against the wall.

"What?" Piper was in shock, pain shooting through her back when her protruding bones hit hard against the wall. Fear was crawling through her guts and leaking through every pore. She was sure Nichols could smell it.

"I said, don't mess with her or I will be your worst nightmare."

You already are, Piper thought, pressing her lips together to not say something stupid. She could feel the cold wall behind her with every vetebra, there was nothing in between that could have relieved the pressure that hurt her bones.

Nichols pulled her at her shirt, pulling her away from the wall a few inches before pushing her back against it, the impact pressing all air out of Piper's lungs and she gasped, losing balance when the ginger let go of her.

She watched the girl walk away, sitting on the cold floor while trying to get some air. She tried to put the stone back into her walls, exactly where the humiliation had ripped it out, had made her weaker. Her wall had to be flawless to be able to protect her, a task that seemed to be an impossible life's work. She felt naked. Her back hurt and her muscles were sore from fear. This was unbearable and suddenly she was afraid what might happen if Nichols actually knew what was really going on between the two of them. Could it get any worse?

Instead of going back to class, Piper decided it was best to go home, do some studying on her own and then go to the meeting. Best to prevent a second encounter with Nichols and be far far away from her.

Piper was normally not an aflutter person, but right now she was bobbing her knee up and down to channel her nervousness. She pulled her sleeves over her hands, staring on the seams as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. She avoided looking at anybody, not wanting to look in those stranger's faces.

She had been told she didn't have to say anything if she didn't want to and so she was sure already she would not say a single word.

She wasn't even sure why she was here. She didn't want to talk and she surely didn't want to listen to some teenage girls whine about their tragedies.

So why even bother looking at them? She wouldn't come back here. She would get through this one and a half hour and then never come back.

„Would you start?" the voice of the group leader sounded through the room and Piper waited silently for someone to start talking, still focused on her seam.

„Well, most of you know me already I guess."

Piper knew this voice, she knew it. Her heart dropped to the floor, doing a few weak beats before it crumbled into pieces.

Whoa, so this was chapter 20 already. When I started this, I didn't think that this would get so long, but all your reviews, your thoughts, your critiques, your words made me dig into this story deeper and deeper, made me look into my characters more. So this story has become more than I had expected.

Thanks a lot for that, it is really everything I could have asked for. So keep thinking about my story, keep reading, keep reviewing, keep criticizing, keep making me dig deeper :)

You are the best XXX