Coming Back to Normal

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Alex heard her, she thought she was going crazy so she needed to see her for herself. She walked to the table where Piper was doing her laundry. This was real, she was real.

"Alex" Piper muttered pathetically. Alex looked at her with a mysterious look. She had to clench her fists to prevent herself from reaching out and stroking Piper's pale face.

"The rumours are true" Alex muttered. Piper was suddenly pulled out of her trance by Alex's raspy voice. She loved that voice, she had waited 18 months for this moment, the moment where they are in the same room again.

Piper let out a shaky breath that she didn't realise she was holding in, she didn't know what to say or what to do. She wanted to turn around and run away, but her feet wouldn't respond, it was as though they had forgotten how to move.

Here she was.

Frozen.

Alex's face was contorted with various emotions, anger, shock, sadness... maybe even relief. It took everything in Piper not to run into Alex's arm and apologise for choosing Larry over her. She wanted to apologise for so many things, but their problems were way to deep rooted.

A simple apology wasn't going to fix all of the fucked-up shit that existed between them, Alex's face suddenly broke out into a grin. The adorable dumbfounded look on Piper's face made her smile, that damn lost puppy look made her heart clench, "I should become a model if people stare at me the way you do"

Piper was once again, broken out of her trance, she closed her mouth and looked down at her dirty clothes, "Sorry what?"

Alex noticed that Piper diverted her attention to the dirty laundry, "You were staring", Alex pointed out. She didn't know what happened to Piper, but she was concerned. Piper looked skinner, which should be humanly impossible, "But I can't blame you for staring"

Piper smiled at this, it was the first, genuine smile that has formed since she had gotten out of MAX, she knew that Alex knew of the rumours, and she knew that Alex thought she had gotten out.

"So" Alex started to say, she was curious as to why Piper wasn't saying anything to her, "Why're you back here? Did you decide to steal from the liquor store to live up to your bad girl reputation? Or did Larry throw you under the bus to get onto my level of narcissism?"

Piper took a piece of paper and wrote down her name, she then stuck the piece of paper onto her laundry and shoved her dirty laundry into a bag. "Funny", Piper muttered as he proceeded to chuck the bag into the other basket filled with dirty laundry bags before looking back up to face Alex.

This time, her face held no expression, she felt a boiling anger in the pits of her stomach but she learnt how to keep her shit together, and she wasn't about to let loose now.

"Back here suggests that I got out of prison. I was sent to Max after the shit that went down with Pennsatucky" Piper saw the shocked look on her face, it was cute to see Alex Vause shocked. Alex Vause is never shocked, so the look on her face was priceless, Piper had to watch Alex in amusement, "Do you really think the officials would let me out when I fucked up an inmate's face?"

Alex knew that there was a possibility that Piper was sent to MAX for her violent outburst, but it was so much easier to be angry at her when Piper was living a perfect life with her perfect husband. Alex personally didn't know how fucked up MAX was, but she knew from what Nicky had told her, that MAX was so fucked up, the prisoners, the conditions, even the fucking guards were a lot more corrupted than Litchfield, and that's saying something.