A Place To Call My Home

Chapter 7

She seems to think

She seems too weak

She takes a week to get over it

Alex got comfortable on the couch while she waited for Piper, it was after 7 pm and she felt exhausted. She started to doze off when her phone went off, it was a text message from Piper. She was on her way back to the apartment and had picked up dinner for both of them. Alex got up to unlock the front door and lay back down on the couch, pulling a blanket over herself as she closed her eyes. She had never been very good at thinking ahead, that always seemed to lead to disappointment. Expecting too much from life, or letting herself want something too badly, it always seemed to end with her getting hurt. From her real father, to anyone Diane brought home, to even not wanting to eat dinner alone when she was growing up. So she learned to live in the moment, and lower her expectations about life. But she couldn't stop her mind wandering when it came to Piper, her mind always wandered to the blonde. All Alex knew was that she wanted more time with her, she would figure out a way to work things out with Fahri. She did not want to encourage Piper to buy more heroin, and to be honest she didn't want her to go back to Jack, at any point.

She'd help her find another place to live, help her get a job, it didn't matter. It had been a long time since Alex felt so strongly about anyone in her life, aside from Diane. It was scary, but there was no stopping it.

But she also didn't want to overstep the mark and scare Piper away, her life was hard enough at the moment. It all felt crazy, they'd only known each other for a few weeks, but Alex still wanted her. She closed her eyes and let her head hit the pillow, thinking about Piper as she let her mind drift off to sleep.

******

Piper was about to knock on Alex's front door when she realised it wasn't locked. She let herself into the apartment, carrying a bag of Thai food she picked up around the corner. She walked into the kitchen to put down the food and then noticed Alex asleep on the couch. She hadn't stirred at all, having wrapped herself up tightly in a blanket.

Piper walked into the lounge room and knelt down next to the couch, just watching Alex while she slept. She leant in and kissed the brunette on the lips, wanting to wake her up in the gentlest way possible. "Alex, I'm back, are you hungry?"

Piper kept looking at Alex, brushing the hair out of her eyes. She looked like she wanted to keep sleeping, like there was no way she'd let go of that blanket, "Mmmhh, you taste like coffee."

Piper smiled into Alex's lips, "I went and had coffee and cake when I left, did some thinking."

Alex finally opened her eyes properly, looking back at Piper, "What were you thinking about?"

"Just how crazy the last few weeks have been." Piper felt Alex's hand on her cheek, pulling her back in for another kiss, but this one was longer. Piper could almost feel Alex trying to convey her emotions in that kiss, pulling her in inch by inch.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, smells good." Piper held out her hands and helped Alex get up from the couch, leading her into the kitchen.

Alex got out the plates and cutlery, while Piper put the food on the table, along with a couple of beers. They sat across from each other at the kitchen table, eating mostly in silence, but it wasn't awkward. It wasn't like the dinner's Piper had with Jack lately, where the silence was tinged with an underlying anger. This was different, it was a comfortable silence. But Piper wanted to get something off her chest, "My mind is a mess at the moment, I can't think straight. I don't know how to fix my life."