.^.^.^
Summer 2019
Two Years Later
Scooping her shoulder-length blonde hair into a ponytail, Piper padded through the kitchen of her grandparents' beach house. It felt good to be back; the drive from Hartford had seemed especially long this year. Perhaps it was because she was so desperately in need of a vacation. Sophomore year had been stressful; chockfull of AP classes and Driver's Ed and beginning to seriously consider which colleges to apply to. Her finals had ended just last week and were difficult and cumulative. She needed a few weeks to rest her brain; to not think and just relax on the beach under the warm summer sun.
Bobby pins secure between her lips, Piper simultaneously pulled the scrunchie off her wrist to twist around her hair, while using her hip to push open the screen door that led to their enclosed back porch. Getting to the beach was the only thing on her mind.
"Alex," she breathed out unintentionally, stopping abruptly in her tracks. She was surprised at the sight of the older girl lounged on the porch swing, her legs tucked up under her and an open book in her hand. The sight made memories of summers past flash through her mind, leaving her with somewhat of a bittersweet, nostalgic craving for the simplicity of their childhood.
Alex looked up and met her gaze, eyebrow raising when Piper didn't say anything else. "Piper," she replied with a gleam in her eye, mouth twitching upward at one edge in an amused smile.
Piper shook her head slightly and smiled back. She pulled the bobby pins from her lips. "I just wasn't expecting to see you," she explained, adding a little quieter, "I missed you last year."
"Bullshit!" Alex exclaimed with a loud cackle and wide, teasing smile.
Piper's forehead scrunched as her eyebrows furrowed. "Yes I did," she insisted. "It wasn't the same here without you."
With a disbelieving roll of her eyes and shake of her head, Alex brushed her off nonchalantly, "Whatever."
Not sure how to respond, with Alex so confidently telling her how she didn't feel, Piper remained silent. It was kind of infuriating. The truth was she had missed Alex—a lot, actually.
The blonde took a step toward the porch swing, and Alex uncurled her legs to make room for the younger girl to sit.
"So, why didn't you come last year?" she asked.
Alex shrugged, looking down at the book on her lap. "I wasn't able to take a month off from work." She shrugged.
The way she had averted her eyes made Piper question if that was the true reason. She still felt guilty for the way summer had gone two years ago; for yelling at Alex the morning after the bonfire and then avoiding her for the rest of their vacation.
"Are you still working at Friendly's?" Piper kicked her legs casually back and forth as they dangled off the swing.
Alex shook her head, "No. I work at a diner now." She folded the corner of her page down and set the book aside, committing to catching up with Piper.
"And you were able to take a month off this summer?" Piper pressed, feigning innocence, but hoping to catch Alex in a lie.
Frowning a little, Alex's eyes squinted at Piper a little suspiciously, but her voice was even when she said, "Red, my boss, knows me better now that I've been there over a year. She knows that I'm reliable, so she gave me the time off." Alex shrugged again, then continued, "This'll probably be my last summer here anyway, so she knows it's just a one-time thing."
Piper's legs abruptly stopped swinging as her head spun to face Alex. With her face contorted in something like confusion and surprise, she exclaimed, "What?! What do you mean this will be your last summer here?"
An amused smile tugged at Alex's lips in response to Piper's reaction. "Well, yeah," she said, like it was obvious, "I'm eighteen now and done with school. As soon as I save enough money, I'm going to get a place of my own. So, I don't know, it's not like I'm a kid anymore, and Mom has to bring me with her. It feels weird to keep intruding on your family vacations now that I'm grown."
"Alex," Piper began, sounding almost exasperated, "You've never intruded on our vacations, we like having you here with us! We look forward to seeing you every summer. I know that your mom works for my grandparents and that's always been very apparent in your eyes, but I've always only ever thought of you as a friend."
Alex rolled her eyes, but couldn't mask the genuine smile from stretching across her face. "So what have you been up to these past two years?" she asked after the beat of silence that followed Piper's heartfelt words.
"Oh ya know, just started high school, made the junior varsity volleyball team, came in third at our regional track meet, and got my driver's license. Not too much, really," the blonde joked dead-pan.
Alex laughed, hitting Piper in the chest with a throw pillow. "Damn. You're really old enough to drive now? Sixteen?"
"Yep," Piper confirmed, popping the 'p'. She noticed Alex's eyes drop for a second to her chest and lower, taking her in, and the color rose to her cheeks. Ignoring the fluttering in her stomach from Alex's attention, she asked, "What's it like to be all graduated?"
"It's weird," Alex replied, eyes returning to Piper's. If she knew she had been caught looking, she didn't seem to care. "Like, I guess I'm an adult now, but I don't really feel like one. Maybe that'll change when I start working full time at the diner."
"What else is new?" Piper asked. She reached across their bodies to run her fingers through a strand of Alex's hair, grasping the end and holding it out in front of Alex's face. "Besides these blue streaks in your hair."
At the unexpected contact and the closeness of Piper's face to hers as she leaned across her, Alex's breath caught and her pupils expanded, making her eyes look very dark. Piper smirked a little. She had always craved Alex's attention, so the older girl's response to her proximity and touch was satisfying.
It was at that moment, however, that Alex's phone alarm went off. Piper jumped a little at the surprise sound and settled back in to her spot beside Alex. The older girl stretched her arms over her head as she stood. Piper wondered where she had to run off to. She wondered if Alex had plans to meet up with McCullough again this year. The thought made Piper frown unconsciously.
"I have to go," Alex answered Piper's questioning look. "I have lifeguard training this afternoon."
"Really?" Piper asked. "You're actually doing it this year?"
Nodding, Alex replied, "Yeah. I've always wanted to, and I just feel bad taking a full month off while my mom has to work. This way, I can still contribute something toward our bills and rent and have fun doing it, hopefully."
"Are you going to see McCullough?" Piper asked, somewhat boldly, she felt, because it was a personal question, one that might be crossing some line, but one she wanted an answer to for some reason.
Alex nodded. Piper could register a bit of surprise on the other girl's face, likely because she wasn't expecting Piper to ask about her ex-fling? –girlfriend? "I already ran into her when I went to apply yesterday. She was nice; I think we can be friends even though we have a history."
"Oh. So you don't want to get back together with her?" Piper asked.
Shrugging a little, Alex replied, "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it."
Piper thought for a minute about what to say next. She knew that she had acted weird about Alex's sexuality two years ago, and she wanted Alex to know that she wasn't like that anymore. High school had given her more experiences than she had had at fourteen, and she wasn't as close-minded as she had been back then. She wanted to tell Alex that a good friend of hers, Zelda, was a lesbian, to show that she was okay with Alex's sexuality, but she couldn't think of a way to say it that didn't seem awkward or self-aggrandizing (like it was important that she was okay with Alex's sexuality).
She decided to just let her actions speak for themselves. Sending her a big smile as Alex opened the back door to head out toward the beach, she settled on, "Okay, well, have fun!"
Alex's smile and small wave in return made her think she had made the right decision.
. . .
The harsh smell of chlorine stung Alex's nostrils as she made her way down a hallway in the building that housed the public indoor pool for the small town on the cape where she spent her summers. Muted shrieks from the children who were swimming echoed from the large room where the pool was located and followed her as she moved further away from the crowded spaces to a room near the back of the building where lifeguard training was to take place.
McCullough had been nice enough to show her where to go when she had expressed her interest in applying the previous day.
She found Piper's nonchalant attitude about her past relationship (if you could even call it that) with McCullough surprising; only two years ago Piper's homophobia had seemed blatantly obvious to the older girl. After finding out about Alex's thing (whatever it was) with McCullough, Piper had made a strange comment about how Alex was dating a girl and then had avoided her for the rest of vacation.
She supposed it was possible for people to change. After all, Piper had been only fourteen at the time. She was now in high school and maybe had become more open-minded as she matured.
The thought relieved Alex. She hoped that she and Piper could continue to become friends as they had been doing before the bonfire incident. Whether Alex liked it or not, she was intrigued and drawn to the younger girl.
As she neared the end of the hall, a new muted chattering replaced the voices of screaming kids; but while quieter, the voices held similar levels of excitement as their younger peers.
"Name?" A very scratchy voice, belonging to a girl seated at a check-in table outside the training room, questioned dully. The girl's crazy auburn waves fell across her face, and she impatiently pushed them away as she peered curiously up at Alex, only for the tresses to settle once more in the same place.
"Alex Vause."
"Alex!" someone behind her exclaimed, and she felt an arm sling across her shoulder. "I'm so glad you decided to join up this summer!"
Alex turned to smile at McCullough, grateful that she knew someone who could show her the ropes and introduce her around to the others.
"Heya, waita second," the crazy-haired girl at the check-in table stuttered out, obviously intrigued. Flipping her pen back and forth between Alex and McCullough, she continued with a twinkle in her eye, "You two know each other?"
McCullough's arm tightened around Alex's neck. "This girl right here used to be my boo!" she teased playfully.
"Oh geez." It wasn't until she heard his voice that Alex noticed that McCullough's arm that wasn't tightening around her own neck was attached to a boy whose face was growing redder with embarrassment by the second.
McCullough laughed, releasing Alex. "He hates me," she joked, leaning into the boy's side. "Former boo-thang, meet current boo-thang," she introduced, leaning into her boyfriend's side.
"Brice," the boy chimed in with a smile and a small wave.
The girl at the tabled cleared her throat. "And this is Nicky," McCullough finished.
"I'm Alex," she smiled at her new acquaintances, already feeling like she could like these people.
"Alright, I've got the three of you checked off my list. You leading training today, boss?" Nicky asked.
"Yep," McCullough replied with a firm nod. "We'll go over CPR & first aid training today. Then all the newbies will be paired with a vet for the first week so that they can learn the way we do things."
The training was surprisingly quick and painless, and Alex felt like she had found a good group of people to spend her final summer at the Cape with. There was an ease to group, the veteran lifeguards accepting the newbies into the fold, no questions asked. She had hoped to see familiar faces from two years ago, when she had spent some time with McCullough's lifeguard friends, but she found that she only recognized a few faces.
McCullough explained later that only a few people worked the entire summer, she was one of those rare few. Most everyone else worked for a month or so here and there, like Alex was doing. Some of McCullough's lifeguard friends from two years ago were now in college or had moved away. McCullough said she liked it that way; every summer seemed new and fresh and unique from the others.
Alex got paired to work her shifts with Nicky. Alex discovered quite quickly that she and Nicky had similar dispositions and senses of humor, so the pairing was truly perfect.
Midway through her first week as a lifeguard, Alex and Nicky were reclined on one of the lifeguard towers, chatting casually as they surveyed the children wading in the ocean. Nicky had her eyes on a new lifeguard named Shani, and so they were devising ways for Nicky to get to know her better. The first big bonfire party, thrown by the lifeguards, would take place that Friday night, mainly to celebrate the newbie lifeguard's first full week in the books. Nicky was hoping to get some alone time with Shani there.
"Alex!" someone called, and Alex turned her gaze from Nicky to see Piper with Polly, Nate, and Charlie walking along the beach in front of her post.
Piper was waving, seemingly excited to see Alex as a lifeguard, the wind softly blowing her shoulder-length, wavy hair.
"Who's that?" Nicky asked, digging her elbow into Alex's side suggestively.
Irritated by the blush that colored her cheeks as she returned Piper's greeting with a robotic half-wave of her own, she replied to Nicky, "That's Piper."
"Piper, eh?" Nicky replied mischievously before raising her voice a little and calling out to the younger girl, "Hey, Piper!"
Piper, who had already turned her back to them, to rejoin her friends, spun around once more, an inquisitive tilt to her head as she waited for Nicky to continue. Even with the short distance between them, Alex could see the way the sun reflected sparkles of light from her eyes.
"Bonfire party Friday night! You comin'?!" Nicky shouted.
"Wouldn't miss it!" the blonde called back with a large smile, bouncing a little on her feet as she twirled away to catch up with her friends.
"She's cute," Nicky said with a little sideways smirk and eyebrow raise in Alex's direction.
Alex just shook her head and chuckled.
. . .
At 2:30am on Friday night, the bonfire party was winding down. McCullough and Brice had gone back to her place, and Nicky and Shani had disappeared an hour ago (Alex hoped it was together). Alex sat by herself near the bonfire farthest from the remaining crowd, closest to the Chapmans' beach house. She wanted to make sure Piper made it home okay, and the younger girl would have to pass by on her way back to the house.
She had only had two beers, preferring instead the high from McCullough's stash of weed she was generous enough to share with the other lifeguards.
Earlier that night, before the sun had fully set, she had watched Piper with her group of friends, giggly and flirty with one another. At one point, Nate had pulled Piper onto his lap and her beer had sloshed down the front of his white t-shirt, causing her to throw her head back and laugh. He had tickled her sides then, making her laugh harder, and causing more beer to spill as she wriggled away from his grasp.
Alex hated that the scene had made her chest clench with jealousy. Sure, she had had a crush on Piper two years ago, but this, this, felt like more than that. It had been easy to let go of that crush two years ago; fourteen-year-old Piper had been innocent, and while beginning to show signs of maturity in terms of both her intellect and her body, but she had been a follower. She didn't yet know herself or her convictions. Piper at sixteen was so much more than that. She was confident, open-minded, carefree, funny, and smart. It was hard not to fall for her.
"Hey." Speak of the devil.
Alex looked up from where she was currently tracing patterns into the sand with a stick. "Hey Pipes. Heading home?"
"I guess so," the blonde replied. "Polly, Nate, and Charlie all called it a night. I'm not feeling sleepy yet, though."
"Wanna sit with me for a bit?" Alex patted the space on the towel next to her with a small, playful grin.
Piper smiled back and dropped down onto the space beside Alex. "Where are all of your friends?" she asked, not wanting to name McCullough specifically, even though she was the one Piper was most curious about. Alex must have been spending a lot of time with her during her lifeguard hours, and it made her wonder if the two girls would rekindle their summer romance from two years ago. Piper selfishly didn't want that to happen; she seemed to be getting along really well with Alex again this summer, and she didn't want someone to steal all the older girl's free time away again.
"They all already went home for the night," Alex replied. She smiled teasingly and joked, "Losers."
Piper chuckled. She felt relieved that McCullough didn't seem to be clinging to Alex this summer. Maybe both of them had moved on.
"Did you have a good time tonight?" Alex asked. She reached to her side to grab a mostly empty bag of marshmallows and speared one onto her stick.
"Yeah, it was okay," Piper replied, watching as Alex began to roast the sugar-y treat.
Alex's eyebrow raised at Piper's less-than-enthusiastic response, but she didn't want to pry. "You seem much more able to hold your liquor this year compared to two years ago," she joked instead.
Piper laughed again, blushing a little as she remembered how sloppy she had been that night. "I'm more experienced now," she replied, keeping up with the joking tone Alex had set.
Alex's eyes darkened a little at the statement, and she said, "Oh, really?" Her voice was flirtatiously intrigued, and Piper picked up on it.
Her blush deepened, and she attempted to steer the conversation back to safety. "I've been to a party or two since then," she clarified, jokingly under-exaggerating in an obvious sort of way, "and have learned my limits." She enjoyed the buzzed feeling that went along with a few drinks, but disliked feeling out of control that came with being hammered. She had learned to stop right around 2 or 3 drinks.
Alex nodded slowly, turning her attention back to the huge fire in front of them. She pulled the perfectly browned marshmallow from the flames and held it in front of Piper's face. "Marshmallow?" she offered.
The blonde smiled shyly at the older girl, carefully grasping the warm, gooey treat between her fingers and tugging it off of the stick.
Smiling around a mouthful of the sticky sweet morsel, Piper said, "It's good" with her mouth still full. This caused them both to laugh, Piper having to cover her mouth with her hand so that she didn't spew white fluff everywhere.
When they had calmed down, Alex turned to Piper who was staring into the flames with a small smile still gracing her lips. The light from the fire cast her face in a warm glow and made her eyes shine almost black in color.
"Why was tonight just 'okay'?" Alex asked softly, bumping her shoulder against Piper's.
The younger girl's smile faded, and she chewed on the inside of her lip as she avoided Alex's gaze.
"It's embarrassing," she admitted a few moments later, finally shifting her eyes to Alex's before redirecting them back to the fire almost immediately.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Alex said softly, "but I promise I won't laugh or anything if you want to get it off your chest."
Piper smiled a little, comforted by Alex's words. She trusted Alex and knew she'd stay true to her word. Sighing a little, Piper said, "Polly and Charlie had sex and now that's all Polly can talk about. She wants me to do it with Nate, but I don't know." She finally looked at Alex, cheeks pink both from embarrassment and the heat of the fire. "I've always been nervous about these kinds of things. Like, what if I don't know what to do, or, like, what if I'm just bad at it?"
Alex chuckled a little, and Piper's blush deepened. "You won't be," she reassured. "It might be a little awkward, first times usually are, but you learn quickly."
"So you've…?" Piper asked, trailing off at the end of her question, but hoping Alex would know what she was asking. It felt weird to her to talk so bluntly and openly about sex.
"Had sex?" Alex asked with a scratchy laugh. "Yeah."
Piper had thought so, but wanted confirmation from the older girl. She nodded thoughtfully. "And was your first time awkward?" She thought Alex blushed at the question, and Alex hardly ever got embarrassed about stuff like this.
"There were some awkward moments, yeah, but overall, not really. But I think I just got lucky."
Piper wanted to ask more questions about Alex's first time, but she didn't.
"Is performance anxiety the only thing that's holding you back? Like, do you want to have sex with Nate?"
Piper inhaled deeply and shrugged. "I think that's the biggest thing, yeah. It's not that I don't feel like I'm ready or anything like that; I want to have sex," she paused stretching her legs out a little in front of her, cheeks coloring in embarrassment at her admission, "and Nate's sweet; I trust him. I just don't want to humiliate myself because I'm so inexperienced and then have the rest our time here be awkward anytime I see him around." Piper let out a frustrated groan. "But I guess, like you said, my first time will be awkward no matter what; there's no point to keep putting it off. I should just get it over with."
"I could always teach you," Alex said with a teasing tone to her voice, eyebrows jumping up and down suggestively on her forehead.
The offer was stated within a joke, but Piper blushed strongly at the implication. Thinking of Alex in that way caused immediate warmth to spread low in her belly, accompanied by a dull throb even lower.
How did one suggestive remark made in jest by Alex cause more of a reaction inside of her than days of thinking of Nate in the very same way?
She crossed her legs purposefully to alleviate some of the ache that had begun between them.
"Seriously," Alex pressed, in a much deeper tone of voice. "If it would make you feel more prepared and less anxious, the offer stands."
Piper sighed, not knowing what to say at that exact moment. Her heart was thudding erratically in her chest at the direction of their conversation.
The thought of being with Alex in that way excited her, but scared her just the same. She knew that admitting to herself what those feelings were would be a big deal; it would change some of the things she had always felt she knew about herself. She didn't know if she was ready to accept such a change.
"You ready to head back?" Alex asked softly, interrupting her thoughts. "It's late."
Piper nodded in agreement. Alex stood, brushing the sand off the backs of her legs, then held out a hand to help Piper up.
As Piper grasped Alex's hand, something she never would have thought twice about in the past, her stomach somersaulted again, and she couldn't help but notice how nice it felt to simply touch Alex. Her hand was soft and smooth and warm as it wrapped around Piper's, and she found herself not wanting to let go once she had been pulled to her feet.
Alex made the choice for her, however, dropping her hand as she turned to walk in the direction of the house.
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the long delay! I've been working so hard on trying to get this chapter finished and uploaded for you! I hope you are still interested in reading this story and Vauseman in general :) :)
A couple of things:
I have no idea what lifeguard training entails - it's probably much more intensive than I described here, so please suspend your disbelief for this story.
Also, I realized I had messed up in a previous chapter when Alex is telling McCullough where she's from. In my headcanon for this story, Alex lives in Northampton with her mom (the town where Smith is). Piper's grandparents also live there, which is how Diane is there housekeeper. Piper & her family live near Hartford in this story.
I corrected it in the previous chapter, but wanted to clarify in case anyone was mixing up this story (where Diane is Piper's grandparents' housekeeper) & Fall Girl (where Diane is Piper's housekeeper).
As always, please let me know what you think & what you want to see happen in this fic! Some of you have already picked up on where I plan to take this & I want you to know I do my best to incorporate your ideas in with the storyline I already have planned out loosely in my head.
Peace & Love,
H.M.