Soulmates

Chapter 40

Piper sat on Shel's living room floor, simply staring at her. She had glasses. One of those big round glasses with a thin rim.

Piper liked it, but she would love it if the bridge wasn't covering the freckles scattered across the top of Shel's nose.

"I didn't know you had glasses," Piper said, making Shel turn away from Kristen Bell and Jameela Jamil and glace up at her.

"Yeah, I like using contacts. I think it came from when I was, like, nine. Some bitch told me I would look ugly with glasses." Shel paused. "It was the same one who hit my legs with a bat."

Piper nodded. "Damn. She was pathetic."

Shel snorted. "No shit."

"Wait," Alex interrupted. "Someone swung a bat at you?"

"Oh yeah," Shel said like it was a normal thing to say. "I was eight or nine."

Alex said, "Did you punch a bitch?"

"Yeah," Shel said. "I got suspended for two weeks. We went to Disney for a week."

Piper leaned her head against Shel's shoulder, her head moving the tip of Shel's glasses upward.

"Jesus, my parents would never..." Alex trailed off, checking his phone. "I'm going to go. Magnus is out there and I am on curfew."

Sadie looked at the time. "Fuck, it's already five. I need to leave too. But I will see you two tomorrow. Bye, loves."

As Sadie closed the door behind her, Shel sighed and turned off the T.V. After a moment, she said, "Thank you."

Piper raised a brow. "For what?"

"You didn't have to come here, you know." Shel gave a small smile. "I've been trying to shove it down a bit, but I am kind of dying inside right now. And I know that Alex is probably going through worse." She rubbed a hand across her face. "So, um," Piper's heart broke at the way Shel's voice cracked. "It's just not going to be the best for me right now." Shel gave a small smile as tears began to pool in her eyes. "Anyway, are you hungry? I have some arepa costeñas in the fridge. I can heat it up." Before Shel finished the sentence, she was in her kitchen.

"You don't need to do that," Piper said.

"Oh, you don't want one?"

"No, the fuck? I want an arepa. I mean, you don't need to brush it off like that."

Shel paused before the microwave. "I--what?"

"You know what, Shelby." Piper went into the kitchen and hugged her from behind. "It's okay to feel like absolute shit. And I want you to talk to me about it."

Shel placed the plate of arepas on the counter and turned to face Piper. "Okay. I will, but right now, I'm fucking starving because I barfed."

Piper snorted.

"Give me one second." Shel ran off to her bathroom and, 30 seconds later, came back. "Okay, I'm going to kiss you now."

"Okay?" And she did. She tasted like Listerine and Vicks. AS they pulled apart, Piper asked, "Did you just shove mouthwash--"

"Yes, I did. I need to do that every 10 minutes or so. That way, my mouth tastes more like it normally does and not like vomit."

"That's a fun thing to say after a kiss."

Shel smiled. "You know what we never did?"

"What?"

"We never officially declared ourselves as girlfriends," Shel said. "Would you want to?"