A Place To Call My Home

Chapter 6

Waking up strong in the morning

Walking in a straight line

Lately I'm a desperate believer

Piper woke up the following afternoon, she had no idea what time it was, it didn't really matter. She had nowhere to be, she could do whatever she liked. She could still feel Alex's arm around her and her body pressed up against her. Alex's skin felt so warm, and she was still stound asleep. It had been an extremely long night for them both and Piper wanted to stay in bed longer, she had no reason to get up anyway. She closed her eyes again, but after twenty minutes she couldn't get back to sleep. Her mind felt a lot clearer than it did a few hours ago, and she wanted to talk to the woman next to her, "Alex, are you awake?" Piper waited, but Alex was very much asleep.

Piper rolled over and tried again, "Alex..." Piper gently rubbed Alex's shoulder, hoping she'd wake up. Eventually, the brunette started to stir, "Hmmm."

"How do you feel?"

"Sore, fucking sore."

Piper pulled back the sheet to look at Alex's side, which looked a lot worse than it did last night. The bruising had come out in the last few hours, with her side looking like a mess of purple, "Fuck Alex, can you move?"

"Yeah, it looks worse than it is. Any phone calls from the boyfriend?"

Piper checked her phone, there were no missed calls from Jack, but she did have two missed calls from Nicky from earlier in the day. "Nothing from Jack." Piper was relieved that he hadn't tried to contact her, but another part felt almost hurt that he wouldn't try to contact her after a fight like that. She hated herself for still feeling like that, but after five years together, she couldn't help it. Deep down she still wanted him to care about her, even after all the issues they'd had. Piper went to get up but felt an arm pull her back, "Just stay in bed, you know we can do whatever we want today. You don't need to get up, don't need to cook breakfast or do laundry. All you need to do, is stay in bed with me." Piper felt Alex pull her closer again until their bodies were touching.

"I don't usually just spend all day in bed."

"So, you can do it now."

They stayed in bed together for another hour, drifting in and out of sleep, until Piper heard her phone ringing. She reached over and saw the name flashing on the screen, Jack. As though on autopilot, Piper went to answer the call until Alex reached over and stopped her.

"No Pipes, you cannot make it that easy for him. What would've happened if I wasn't there last night? What would he have done to you?"

Piper just stared at the brunette, she knew it was crazy, but after all this time together she still wanted to answer his calls. She knew that if she had gone home alone last night, Jack would've taken his anger out on her instead of Alex. "I can't help it Alex, I still want him to care about me." Piper managed to hold back her tears, she felt guilty as she said those words to Alex, she felt guilty and stupid. Her phone rang again, but this time it was Nicky. Alex gave the phone back to Piper and let her answer.

"Hey Nicky."

Nicky was worried, she knew things between Piper and Jack were rough, and thought the worst when Piper wasn't at home and wasn't answering her mobile. Piper felt bad for making her friend worry, she was the only one that truly stuck by her and supported her in the last 12 months. Piper put Nicky on hold and gently shook Alex by the shoulder to wake her up again, "Alex, is it okay if my friend Nicky comes over quickly? She....she's worried."

Alex was still half asleep and really didn't care if Piper's friend came over, "Yeah whatever, that's fine." Piper gave Nicky the address, she'd be there in an hour.