Another Day Without You...

Chapter One.

A/N okay so this is the first chapter, it's a bit sketchy as it's the first time I've done this, hopefully it will get better throughout!

* Rhythmic Vibrating *

Stirring and scrunching her face in dismay, piper squinted and rolled over towards the sound of her phone going off, it was her alarm.
Propping herself up on her elbows whilst laying on her front she unplugged her charger from the phone and turned off the alarm before slumping forward and face planting her pillow.
Piper hated mornings.

* More rhythmic vibrating*

' UGHHHHH' moaned piper as she picked her phone up once more and turned off the alarm.

Staring at the screen, the corner of her mouth was forming into a small but sweet smile..
"One day at a time, kid" she whispered reading her screen- it was one of the last things Alex had told her as she was leaving the prison.
Piper had made it into a wallpaper for her phone aswell as an old picture of the two from when they first got together, piper had deleted all of the other pictures bar this one.

She sighed and looked at the time at the top of the screen - 6:35Am, she knew she had to get up as she had some things to do today.

"One day at a time, Al" she softly said with a smile before closing her eyes briefly and swinging her legs off the bed, her feet hitting the cold hardwood flooring.
She stood and rubbed her eyes before bending down and looking at the calendar on her bedside table as crossing the new day off..

"Another day without you but another day closer too you, Al"  She said out loud with a slight whimper and  furrowed eyebrows, she hated being away from Alex, even though the spend years apart when they broke up- this was different, since they reconnected they told each other that they would never let that happen again. Ever.

Piper slowly made her way towards the bathroom, staggering from the drowsiness of being asleep not 2 minuets earlier..
She turned the shower on and allowed it to warm up some whilst she unchanged and putting her pyjamas into the laundry basket just outside the bathroom.

The shower was always her favourite place, other than her girlfriends arms.
Ever since she was a child she loved getting clean, feeling the warmth of the shower fall down her body made her feel calm like one big safe cuddle; a cuddle she had yearned for from her mother.
Every situation was made better by a shower, getting clean and feeling the stress melt away, it gave her time alone to think and process difficult emotions and thoughts.

Piper lived with her parents and her brother cal until she was 20 and couldn't deal with it any longer.
Money was never an issue to the Chapman's, the children had everything they could ever want, apart from one thing..
Love.

Bill was a millionaire and was hardly ever around, being pulled into work and spending his spare time with whatever woman took his fancy that day, the family knew of his infidelity but nothing was done to stop it.

Carol was always unavailable emotionally, avoidance was her best trait, through her rose tinted glasses she always overlooked any wrong doing in the world and instead either drank or went shopping to take her mind off the massive shit storm that had been brewing in her family for decades.

Cal on the other hand, well.. he was just Cal.
He loved his sister so much, they used to huddle together when arguments broke out in the Chapman household, they used to hide and make sense and have tea parties even though cal was too old for most of this, he done it to make piper happy.
Cal was busy playing rough with his friends or crawling around in the mud or recreating science experiments, although Piper was welcome to play with Cal, she opted to read with the nanny.

The Chapman's had a lot to give compared to other families, they had maids to clean the house and do laundry, gardeners to keep their mansion's grounds pristine, personal drivers that took them and the children wherever they needed to go and more money than they knew what to do with.

Piper didn't want any of that, she was grateful of her lavish lifestyle of corse, but she wanted wanted something that she never had growing up.
The toys, the clothes, the big bedroom, the play room was all well and good but that's not what she needed.

She needed love and time, that's what children really need; but due to her family circumstances that would never happen.
She was closer to the nanny her parents hired than her own mother.. this made it so much easier to leave once she met Alex at the bar that night, she got what she yearned for.
Love.

Hot soapy water ran down her back and disappeared down the drain as she rinsed through her hair once more before getting out of the shower, walking over to the sink and setting her toothbrush and applying toothpaste.

It was time to start the day, piper had a routine that slightly mimicked her prison routine, it made it easier to separate the day into organised chunks rather than just 'seeing how it played out'.
One of the reasons she had to break up with Alex was because of the uncertainty, Alex getting up in the middle of the night having to go on a job, not being able to get hold of her sometimes and the danger of her job was emotionally and mentally draining on piper.

She was dreading the 'family meal ' this evening, she tried to avoid going back to the Chapmans home if she could because it caused to many Tough emotions, it was hard to go back to the house that she spent so many years in, she loved it there but hated the memories.
Arguments, the lies and the fraudulent 'happy family' dinners, the broken promises and the abandonment she felt everyday trying to get noticed by her parents but they was too busy wrapped up in their own lives to remember they even had children most of the time.. that's where the nanny came in.

The Chapmans insisted everyone be present tonight, as there was some important  news that could not and will not be discussed anywhere other than the house.
This never happened, if something was going on it kind of got passed down the grapevine and 9/10 times piper was last to know, it played on her mind as she wondered what could be so important?
It wasn't an anniversary..
It wasn't  a birthday or a wedding..
That she knew of anyway..

She tried to ask questions on the phone but was cut off with a blunt " Stop with the questions and just turn up Piper" from her mother on the phone the previous evening.

Ever since piper had been in prison her relationship with her mother had got increasingly hostile, unsure if it was because she got incarcerated or because she was back with Alex or because her mother was coming to the realisation that piper was right all along, and now her children have flown the nest she has to sit on her own with a man that is unfaithful despite young piper constantly catching her father cheating - she realises she has made her bed and now she has to lie in it.

Throwing the questions and thoughts to the back of her mind, Piper made herself busy around the house doing housework and ironing.
She always listened to something whilst she was keeping busy, whether it be music or an audio book or just relaxing sounds of certain situations call for a minuet of meditation she will do it.

12 o'clock was the most important time of day for Piper, and it wasn't just because it was lunch time!
She sets aside everything for one particular reason.
The best part of the day, but one that comes so slowly and goes so quickly.

11:55am came, she sat and wait impatiently, minuets always felt like hours when she was waiting for 12 o'clock to come.
It was torture.