My chapters seem to be getting longer and longer I don't know if that's a good thing. I'm trying to update regularly but I work 6 days a week so it makes it difficult. But here you go.

Alex

She woke up to the sound of her phone buzzing. She shut it off assuming that it was her alarm but it kept buzzing on and off for the next couple of minutes so she grabbed her glasses from the side and shoved them on her face before picking up her phone to check what was causing the vibrations. "Nicky." She groans as she picks up the phone. She hears some mumblings from the other end of the line. She grunted in return and threw her phone on the other side of the bed.

She glanced at the alarm clock that now she was really paying attention, was blaring in her face. It read six am. Way too damn early she thought to herself. She would never ever get used to getting up at this time no matter how many times her PA, Nicky would ring her and remind her she would never wake up to her alarm. Some things just weren't meant to go together and Alex Vause waking up early was one of these things.

She had completely forgotten that she needed to be up early. If she had known last night she would not have called up some of her New York friends and definitely would not have drunk the amount of alcohol that she had. As she sat up she put a hand to her forehead and she was sure she felt her head pounding as if it were about to burst. Luckily she had some water left over from last night, which could be seen in the bottle next to her alarm. Fuck, she thought as she took a swig of the water after putting a tablet in her mouth. This isn't water. She had forgotten that once the bottle had been finished she had filled it up with nothing but vodka. So instead of having water with her tablet she had pure vodka. That definitely wasn't going to help her and she was sure it wasn't healthy but there was little she could do now. It was clear to the raven headed woman it was going to be one of those days.

With her head spinning she slowly made her way to the shower. She tried her best not to look at herself in the mirror in fear of what she was going to see. It was clear already that she was going to have to bring the sunglasses out. Her PR team were definitely going to kill her if the alcohol hadn't already done that to her. What had she done? It wasn't like she could cover it up easily. She was going on television for Christ's sake. Live television to be exact. She managed to get into the shower after taking off her glasses and putting them by the sink without looking at herself in the mirror. She freshened up, got changed into a smart suit opting for trousers instead of a skirt. Now the only thing left was to sort out her face.

She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. Her skin was looking paler than ever and she was naturally very pale. Her eyes looked red and the skin surrounding it looking bruised and it was almost as if she were really ill or hadn't slept in weeks. This would be the kind of day where she'd just walk around in sunglasses all day. Usually she would wear eyeliner and that would be about it but that wouldn't cut it today. Today however foundation and concealer went, she was tempted to put more on to make her look less ill but decided that it was better if they did it down at the studio. At least she could wear her sunglasses up until that point.

She grabbed her bag, glancing at the clock to make sure she had enough time, which luckily she did. A quick text message was sent to Nicky asking her to grab a sandwich and a coffee, something she could really do with right now, and then she was off. Switching off the light and closing the door behind her she headed towards the lift in the hotel that she was staying at and called down for her car to be brought to the front.

The journey to the studio seems to take forever even if it's only 20 minutes in New York traffic. It's a Saturday morning and the streets are flooded in the Big Apple, time never seems to stop here. The car parks up just outside so Alex can walk in quickly. She is met at the door by Nicky who hands her a croissant and a coffee, then grabs hers from the side and takes a bite while attempting to explain what is going on. Alex has to get her to repeat because the food in her mouth made her difficult to understand and Nicky just rolled her eyes. She expected Alex to be used to it by now but she never was. They always seemed to be in a rush. It wasn't that they were late just that Alex wanted to ensure every time that she was fully briefed not once but twice. She was that efficient. Nothing was ever allowed to go wrong.

So while Alex had her makeup applied Nicky explained what she was going to be quizzed about, any news she needed to know that had come up recently, and reminded her how best to avoid questions. A small comment was made about Alex's appearance and her looking like a cross between Frankenstein and Dracula by Nicky, which earnt an eye-roll from Alex.

It wasn't long before she was waiting in the wings and was ready to walk onto the set. Once she heard her name called she strolled in doing her best to hold her posture and to act professional. Glancing towards the audience she saw that a majority were teenage girls squealing as she walked on. They seemed to follow her wherever she went. It didn't bother her, in fact she milked it quite a lot. Girls had always thrown themselves at her. She was used to it, but she wasn't boastful about it.

In fact it was the first comment the interviewer made to Alex, observing the reaction she gained from the audience. Alex thanked the woman for her kind comment and that was the start of a very good interview. She went on to discuss the second movie her production company had ever made and she was excited that it was to premier next week, they also addressed her personal life touching on the fact that she is indeed single, which caused some excitement from the audience and if Alex was phased by that it didn't show.

In secret Alex hated doing all these interviews, it just wasn't her; having to dress up and be professional wasn't her thing. She much preferred working, but it was because of all that, that this became a necessity. Any one who knew her, knew that she wasn't exactly herself in interviews. As much as Nicky tried to get her personality out in them Alex would just take them like another business meeting. But when you met her individually, away from the cameras she was still this strong confident woman, but her sex appeal would be off the scale. She'd have this thing about her that just sucked all the air out of the room.

After the interview was over Nicky's first words to her were "such bullshit Vause. Absolute bullshit." She was shaking her head and laughing at the same time.

"They know it anyway it doesn't matter what I say." Alex said with a laugh.

They were both referring to the part in the interview where Alex said she just hadn't met the right person to settle down with yet. She wasn't going to out herself as someone who enjoyed the company of many different women so this was the safe option that Nicky had briefed her on beforehand. But Alex knew the drill anyway.

Alex was grateful it was over so now she could go back to her office and do what she was actually good at: working but by the time she left the exit was filled with lines of people wanting to get selfies and autographs with her. "This is going to be a long day," she muttered to Nicky.

Piper

Piper was woken up by Polly shaking here and whispering to her, "Piper there's someone on the phone for you, get up. Piper." After Piper didn't respond Polly took a harsher approach: "get up you son of a bitch, whorebag." That woke Piper up as she sat straight up in her large king sized bed, with her hair flopping in all different directions. If anyone else were to see her right now they'd probably refer her to a scarecrow. Piper gave Polly the worst frown possible before grabbing the phone and yawning. Lazily she responded, "hello Piper Chapman speaking how can I help you?"

It turned out the woman on the other end of the line worked for a small magazine in New York and was inviting her for an interview. She had apologised profusely at the short notice she was giving but wanted Piper to pop along as soon as possible. Piper thanked her for the call and promised she'd be there within the hour. She had a shower in an attempt to wake herself up and tried to recall everything she had put on the application form all those weeks ago. This job wasn't big but it was a start. It would give her a platform to launch off of, and that's what she needed, some experience.

She joined Polly for breakfast but instead of copying Polly's pancakes with bacon and syrup, she opted for a healthier option in porridge with fruit. It was also quicker to make and given she had to be somewhere within what was now 45 minutes she had to get on with it. Eventually she finished and left her bowl in the sink, which Polly would kill her for later that day. With her hair half dry, and no makeup applied she left for the interview.

The woman called it an interview but it barely lasted fifteen minutes and most of that was discussing what Piper liked to blog about before they went off topic to discuss what their favourite movies were. Piper was a sucker for any with a strong female lead while the woman interviewing her preferred chick flicks. After the interview was over, the woman told Piper that she'd get back to her but it was said in such a way that Piper was sure she got the job.

She felt exceedingly giddy afterwards. It wouldn't be the best job in the world but it was right in the centre of New York and if all the people she worked with are as friendly as the woman who interviewed her then she knew she would enjoy working there. But the most important thing of all is that it would help pay the bills and she wouldn't have to go to her parents anymore, which was something she was exceedingly happy about.

As a reward on her way back she thought she would treat herself to a coffee. She had cut back recently with the amount of times she had been out because she simply could not afford it and had avoided getting coffee from anywhere but home, but today she was in such a good mood that she thought she deserved it.

Piper wandered down the street until she came across a Starbucks. This was one of her favourite places to go that is, if she wasn't going to go to a cute little coffee shop where she'd also usually have a slice of cake or brownie. But today she felt like walking about in the fresh air soaking up the atmosphere of the city. Although she'd been in New York for a few months now she had spent very little time exploring the city. It had only really dawned on her that she had done little exploring when she realised she had done very little with her life in New York so far and was pleased to think that she was finally making some steps forward in her life. This was important because her brother Cal had just brought home his first girlfriend and the pressure was on for Piper to find a lovely man, and work her way up the career ladder that she really, up until now, hadn't even got a foot on.

After ordering her coffee Piper took off her suit jacket and put it in her bag as the weather started to heat up. She earnt some strange looks from passers-by as she held a coffee in one hand. People must have thought she was odd to walk around with a hot drink in what seemed to be a very warm September morning. What they didn't know, but Piper did, was that in actual fact hot drinks have a tendency to cool you down better than colder drinks do; she had the right idea. She had opted for a cute stripy black and white dress that was formal enough to wear to an interview but also informal enough that she could wear it casually, which is exactly what she was doing now.

She took no notice of the people around her though, her long blonde wavy hair was now drying up in the sun and she glanced around admiring all the New York architecture and the big buildings that surrounded her. She felt rather overwhelmed by it all if she was answering truthfully. The sun shone on her tanning skin, although she wished she had remembered to put sunscreen on that morning as if she wasn't careful she could easily burn.

She looked so young and naïve in such a big city, like a young girl who had no cares or worries in the world. Her eyes were wide-open paying attention to even the minute details, as she'd never been to this part of the city before. She passed a tiny bookstore, which wasn't yet open and she decided to note down where it was exactly so she could be sure to come back at a later time. Reading was Piper's hobby; it was what she would do in her downtime. She loved the fictional world, and loved supporting little independent bookstores; it was just something that was important to her.

As she walked down the street she noticed the architecture started to change so she decided to walk down the next road on her left. She found herself in a familiar place but could not remember where she recognised it. That was until the name of a famous studio was placed on a billboard right in front of her. As she walked closer to it, intrigued to know whether anything was being filmed at the minute she saw swarms of people just hanging around what looked like an entrance. She walked until she was just across the street from where the people stood and noticed that they all seemed to be young girls, some around her age, some young and a few older. She assumed that they were all waiting for a boy band or something but decided to hang around to see what happened.

She leant against a lamppost that was conveniently placed and observed as some of the women chatted away amongst themselves almost as if they were familiar with each other while others just looked in all directions while waiting for this mystery guest to appear.

Alex

A couple of security guards led the way out of the exit trying to create a pathway for Alex's exit. She signed a few people's photos they had ready and took a couple of selfies but Nicky was doing her best to usher her through the crowd. Barriers were eventually put in place so Alex could easily get through to her car that was being brought round for her. The guards were trying to send people away but with little success. Nicky was shouting out that they'd be back in New York for the premier of the movie and they'd all have time then – it was a lie but it had to be said.

Alex glanced towards the road seeing if her car had been brought round yet but it hadn't. She would have to hang around and sign a few more autographs until then. But when she looked up she saw a woman standing across the road. She was beautiful, long blonde hair with natural waves in it. She was leaning against a lamppost with a coffee in her hand looking ever so casual but unbelievably stunning. Alex squinted slightly in her glasses and realised that this woman was familiar to her. The crowd started to notice that Alex's attention was elsewhere but no one realised exactly what was going on. Alex decided to walk towards this woman who had a smirk etched on her face.

"Piper Chapman right?" Alex asked her, but she already knew the answer and it was clear to the blonde as well.

"Fancy seeing you here Alex," she quipped back.

"Yeah, fancy that." Alex raised her eyebrows. "It's almost like you intended it." Alex could only assume that Piper knew about the television interview and decided to make her way down here. Piper looked unnerved apart from the lip bite that made Alex weak at the knees.

"I assure you it wasn't intentional. I couldn't even tell you where I am right now." There was an air of honesty to Piper's voice.

Alex glanced at her observing the blonde and they caught each other's eye for a moment. It was broken when Alex glanced down at the coffee that was in Piper's hand. Alex licked her lips ever so slightly and caught Piper off guard by grabbing it from her hand and taking a swig.

She spluttered. "What is this disgusting vomit tasting cold drink?"

"Are you insulting my taste in coffee?"

"It's fucking cold Pipes."

Piper grinned at the new nickname. "I happen to prefer it that way."

"Anything else I might want to know? Salt in your tea? Ketchup with your pancakes?"

"I tried it once, it wasn't my thing." Piper joked.

"So tell me, why carry a suit jacket around the middle of New York City? Rather formal isn't it?" Alex observed.

"I had an interview for a magazine. Inside Spy I think it's called."

"Clearly you've done your research."

Piper laughed an unbelievably cute laugh and Alex could have stood there all day talking to this mysteriously intriguing woman. But her car pulled up and she was reminded that she had to go back into work.

"What you doing for the rest of the day?"

"Oh I have grand plans." Sarcasm was oozing out of Piper's mouth.

"Oh what a shame, I was going to offer to show you how a real magazine is run. You know one that doesn't sound like a creepy pervert that watches your every move."

Piper did that laugh again.

Alex's driver opened the door for her and she got in. Alex rolled down the window and leaned out, "so are you coming?"

Piper didn't need to be asked twice. She tossed her coffee into the nearest bin and skipped round to the other side of the car and got in. This was unexpected.