All sunday Piper felt like floating on water in a huge transparent plastic bubble. She had to do a shitload of work, homework, studying, cleaning her room. But she felt as euphoric as when she was running or driving.

She felt like the speed was rushing through her body, through her veins, through her heart.

But even after running, when she came home or while she was showering off the layer of sweat that covered her skin, and during the whole day until late afternoon she felt high, like being on drugs, at least that was how she imagined it.

When she had finally finished all her work, it was six already. The sun seemed to be still high in the sky even though it was sinking already, throwing light on her desk like golden liquid. She felt the warmth on her face that was only blocked by the thick glass of her window. Soon the sun would disappear behind the row of red roofs and it would paint the sky pink. Piper felt like the sun was loading her batteries that had been empty for so long.

Closing her notepad after finishing her last sentence of her historessay on the role of propaganda in Nazi Germany, she decided to keep her word.

„Mum?"

It was strange how walking down the stairs in the hallway could feel so different every time. She had walked down these stairs ever since she had been able to walk down stairs, she remembered when she was still too little to even reach the railing properly. But walking down today, when she was feeling so weightless and free was so diferent than walking down to find your mother lying unconscious on the floor, or walking down to fight with your parents when they tried to force you to eat.

„Mum?" Piper entered the kitchen to find her mother sitting at the kitchen counter, a bottle of red wine in her hand.

„What's going on?" Piper asked, feeling like the train that she knew so well already was hitting her like a wrecking ball.

Carol looked up from the bottle, she seemed to look through Piper, like if she was a ghost.

„Mum?"

Shaking her head, Carol smiled at her daughter, putting away the bottle.

„Don't worry, I didn't plan on drinking that." She stood up, stroking Piper over her blonde hair.

„It was just the last bottle we had at home and I was thinking what I should do with it."

She sighed and Piper could feel how much of a struggle this must be for her mum, it was scary.

„So, came to a solution?" Piper asked, afraid of the answer.

Carol smiled again, grabbing the bottle from the counter. She walked over to the sink while opening the screw cap, that the bottle even had a screw cap was a sure sign that this was just a cheap getting drunk wine, and then she poured it into the drain. The look on her face while she did it was surprisingly confident.

It was liked nothing could go wrong right now, everything was scaringly perfect.

„I guess the meeting was good then?"

Carol nodded and Piper could see it in her face. See the relieve, as if someone had finally took the weight off her shoulders, as if someone had told her that after all she didn't need to drown her frustration in wine and booze. As if she hadn't known that herself.

While the sun sunk down outside the window front, painting the leaves in the garden orange, and her mother was telling her everything about her meeting, about the people, about the stories, Piper was asking herself if she should tell her mother about her encouter with Rory.

She wanted to be honest with her mum, wanted to finally trust her and have the relationship with her that she had always wanted.

She had always blamed her mother for their complicated relationship, had blamed her for not being there enough for her, for not being honest enough with her but after all she hadn't been honest and open with her mother either. She had kept quiet about so many things that were important, about her feelings, about her thoughts, about her daily life.

In the end she decided to go with her heart.

„I met somebody friday in the meeting. Somebody I know." She stared on her fingernails while she was telling her mother this, she was nervous. She still wasn't sure how she was feeling about this situation. Rory had texted her twice since, telling her how relieved she felt ever since they had talked and asking her if she wanted to meet next week.

„I... I met Rory. She is in that group too:"

„Oh." Carol sounded surprised, Piper had no idea if she was rather shocked by the news or by the fact that Piper trusted her enough to tell her that.

„Oh?" Piper asked, she already regretted telling her, bracing herself for the blames to come.

„That must be strange for you."

„Strange?" Piper felt like a parrot, a fluffy toy parrot sitting on someone's hand and babbleing and repeating anything someone with a functional brain was saying.

„Well, meeting your first love now that you have a girlfriend must be strange, isn't it?"

It was probably the most heartfelt reaction Piper had ever received from her mother and she was shocked by herself, she had no idea why she always had so little trust in her mum and maybe after all she had just never tried to really get the understanding from her mother she had wanted.

Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling like she did so often, Piper realised that this was probably the best talk she and her mother had ever had. Her mother hadn't blinked an eye while they were talking about Piper's relationship with a girl, about her sexuality, about her feelings for Rory back then and her feelings for Alex now.

She hadn't told her about the whole situation in school and with Nicky, but the decision to not tell her was rather based on the fact that her mum wasn't able to help her in this mess and it was no use to worry her when she had enough worries herself.

She had to resist the urge to take her Mustang to school on Monday morning, wanting to impress and please her girlfriend, she knew how much she liked that car. But Nicky would probably be on her today and she wasn't willing to take any risks.

Nicky scared the shit out of her and the only thing that helped her go through with going to school was the knowlege that Alex was there and they could hide in the prop room in the breaks until the whole story cooled down a little.

But she didn't even get to the break, when she walked through the hallway, eyes pinned on the yellow floortiles like always, she suddenly was grabbed at the front of her jacket.

Nicky slammed her so hard against the lockerdoors that her head fell backwards against the cold metal and she immediately felt dizzy.

Piper didn't even have enough time to get scared and she was too shocked to get enough air out of her lungs to scream, she fell onto the floor like a dead body that was cut off the gibbet, not even touching the floor completely before the impact of the black boot that aimed for her stomach.

„I told you to stay away from my sister, cunt." Nicky hissed between her teeth before she kicked Piper again.

„You have no idea who you're messing with, bloody bitch. Alex is way too good for you."

Piper curled up into an ebryonic position, trying to protect herself from the brutal attack, her head was hurting and she felt everything circleing around her, her stomach was cramped and she thought she had to throw up blood.

She could also taste the blood in her mouth not sure if she had bit her lip or if that was actually blood rising from her stomach. The next kick hit her knee and it felt like her kneecap was breaking apart, her ears were ringing from the impact she didn't even hear her own scream.

And then she saw her, the raven black hair, the emerald green eyes behind those glasses and the pain in them that seemed to break her soul in pieces.

Piper thought that was it. Alex would put an end to it, an end to this pain that filled her whole body.

But instead Alex covered her mouth with her hand and turned away. She turned away.

So Piper did the same, she closed her eyes and waited for it to end, she didn't open them when Nickols spit into her face, Piper lied there and waited for death, waited until Nichols had finally beat her to death.

But instead of another kick, nothing else happened and Piper wasn't sure if she had lost her conscience. Opening her eyes, there was still a crowd of people standing around her but instead of Nichols, it was another person who was kneeling in front of her. Larry had blood on his hands and anger on his face.

„Piper." he whispered. „She left. I'm here, I'm here. I'm here"

He kept saying that again and again but all Piper wanted to know if she was here. If Alex was here, and why she hadn't done anything.

„Piper." She heard her broken voice before she saw her tearstained face. „Piper."

But Larry reacted faster than Alex could even try to get close enough to Piper to touch her. He jumped up, his hands were clenched into fists and for a second Piper thought he would punch her.

„Back off. Go find your psycho sister and tell her that next time I see her beating Piper, I won't stopp beating her until she's dead. Now get lost, sicko!"

Piper was too weak to fight back, she felt like her body was crashed and there was no intact bone in her anymore. So when Alex looked at her with tears in her eyes, begging, Piper just did what Alex had done and turned her eyes away. She closed her eyes again, all she wanted was to zone out, to forget what was happening around her, but when Larry wanted to take her to the hospital, she gathered the last strengh she had to make him clear that she wasn definitely not going to a hospital.

When he insisted to bring her home at least Piper realised she could not possibly go home like this and her first thought was to let him bring her to Polly but she knew that was not an option, she was not sure if she was able to sit in a car long enough to get to Polly's, aside from the fact that she couldn't expect Larry to make that long drive.

So she did the stupidest and only thing she could think of asking him to take her to the suburbs.

„Piper? What the fuck happened to you?"
Only then Piper realised that Rory shouldn't be even home at this time, but yet she was staring at her wide eyed, horrified at her sight while the blonde was barely able to stand on her feet.

„I think she should lay down, can we..." Larry, who had his arm wrapped around Piper, holding her upright, pushed past Rory into the house and it took only a second before Rory woke up from her frozen state and helped him carry her up the stairs into her room.

It felt like everything around her was just a blurr, and Piper let it happen, not fighting it, not living it, she just closed her eyes and let it happen. Everything hurt, her legs and her hand and her back and her head and her stomach but what hurt the most was her heart. Alex had just stood there and she had done nothing.

„I'm gonna get her some water, where's your kitchen?"

Piper heard him talk but she didn't listen. Suddenly Rory kneeled by her side, taking her hand in her's.

„Pipes, what happened, tell me."
A single tear rolled down Piper's face, she couldn't talk, she felt like when she would tell her what had happened, it would get real. More real than it already was.

Larry came back with the water and he sat behind her, leaning her against his chest to hold her upright and she let him do, she even drank the water when he was asking her to. She let it happen.

Rory sat on the other end of the bed, facing her and Piper could see her pain reflecting in Rory's eyes.

„That fucking bitch." Larry mumbled, he had not stopped saying this on the drive here and his hands were still bloody, Piper wasn't sure if it was his, her's or Nichols' blood and she didn't care, she couldn't care about anything, she felt like dead on the inside.

„That stupid fucking bitch."

„What the hell happened?" Rory asked again, this time she looked at Larry while asking this.

„Nichols beat her up. She's a fucking psycho and keeps harrassing everbody at school every fucking day. And now this. And Alex, her fucking stupid arrogant sister, she did nothing about it. She never does anything, they are so sick." He said it all in one breath.

At the mentioning of Alex's name Piper couldn't help herself any longer. The tears started rushing down her cheeks and the anger and disappointment started burning a hole into her guts.

„Wait?" Rory asked, stopping to stroke the back of Piper's hand. „Alex? As in your girlfriend Alex?"

Piper didn't say anything but she saw in Rory's face that she didn't need to say anything.

Larry, who was still holding her upright, stiffened, turning his face to Piper.

„Girlfriend?"

Piper would have laughed. This situation was so absurd, but the urge to cry was way stronger and so she just sank down and started to melt down.

Before you start hating me now, please remember that all of this was supposed to happen right from chapter one, this was all planed and I am not just trying to piss you off ;) Also remember that if Alex had stood up for Piper now that this story would now be done.

But I hope you stay tuned to see what Piper is gonna do and how Alex is gonna hanlde or excuse her unexcusable actions.

Please tell me what you think and don't give up on me ;) like I said this is still a Vauseman fiction.

XXX