eastside

chapter two

The next couple of days seemed to fly by for Piper. She woke up to the sound of her alarm going off and the sun shining directly in her eyes, courtesy of not having blinds up yet. With a groan, she rolled over and slapped her alarm, shutting it off before she smooshed her face down into the pillow. She felt a slight pang of anxiety bubbling in her stomach, today was the first day of her new job. A job she was actually pretty excited for. Not only did Pops seem like someone she could get along with, she also got to be surrounded by tons of books all day.

She rolled over out of bed and her feet met the cold floor, taking her towards the bathroom and beginning her day. She showered, got dressed and brushed her hair rather quickly, deciding she needed all the time she could get to prepare herself mentally. She still had about thirty minutes before she needed to leave so she went to make herself breakfast. Usually, she wasn't much of a breakfast person but today, she wanted to do things differently, hoping to conjure up some good luck.. if that were possible..

She made some toast with avocado and egg, something that she learned was fast to make and pretty filling. After she finished, she put her dishes in the sink and headed to brush her teeth, the last thing she wanted was to have stank breath while interacting with anyone.. especially on her first day. Piper walked back into her living room, glancing towards the clock. "10:35 am" it read. "Shit, where did the time go.." she scrambled to put her shoes on, a pair of roughed up old boots that had been through hell and back with her, and headed out the door locking it behind her.

She set off towards the bookstore, her keys dangling from her fingers like her mama taught her just in case some douche decided to get frisky. Growing up in a small town, she never really had to worry about her safety while doing things by herself but since moving to the city, she's had a few close calls. Usually just dudes honking or whistling at her but you can never be too careful with people these days.

As she got closer to the block, she noticed three guys standing in her path on the sidewalk. Gripping her keys tightly, she kept her head down and sped walked past them as fast as she could. The last thing she wanted was to draw unwanted attention to herself... She couldn't help but notice all of the open beer cans spread out around their feet as she passed. Just when she thought she was in the clear, she heard one of the guys call out to her.. Fucking great..

"Hey pretty thing, where you headed?"

She kept her head down as she continued on, her pace quickening even more. She always panicked when it came to situations like this because what was she supposed to do? Stop and say hello? Tell him to fuck off and potentially anger him? Then what? What if he gets violent.. She heard his feet shuffling behind her as he attempted to catch up and felt the panic slowly closing up her throat.

"C'mon don't be like that, we can be friends." He laughed at her, making her skin crawl.

She could practically smell his rancid alcoholic stench at this point. She didn't bother looking back, her grip on the keys were turning her knuckles a ghostly shade of white.. which is probably exactly how her face looked too.. She kept her focus on the sidewalk as she hurriedly rounded the corner of the building, hoping to gain some distance between her and her follower when she slammed face first into something, her feet tripping and sending her spinning forward.

As if they formed out of nowhere, two hands came up and grabbed her arms as she tumbled forward, pulling her back up again. Her shaking hands had instinctively flown out, grabbing onto whatever they could find. Her heart was pounding in her chest and apologetic words were spewing out of her mouth as she looked up to see who she had ran into.

Of course, it'd be him.. Now of all times..

The shy stranger from outside her apartment window..