Slip Into Your Skin

Slip into your skin and spend the night

Slip into your skin and spend the night

And get out of mine

Walking the streets in dark

Where the lamps are the sunshine

For the dreams

Oh, for the dreams

There they lay, two people who were the very definition of the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. Lying next to each other, bodies craving some semblance of touch from the other's fingers. It was rather poetic in a way - both knowing the truth and yet too scared to admit it and even more terrified to act on it. So they stay blessed in their own imposed ignorance, that isn't really ignorance at all. A cough to cover a sigh and fluttering eyelids with dramatic yawns to disguise lust filled looks. Small, forced, smiles when eye meets eye and blue and green collide in a pathetic attempt at normalcy because god forbid that anything should change; that anything should disrupt the rut of their lives.

Everybody needs somebody to hold them down, they were no different. They just preferred to think they could do all of the holding from a safe distance, with merely a finger placed on a shoulder. After all, Alex and Piper had been friends for a very long time so why, all of a sudden, should they act on those long gestating feelings and desires that bubbled to the surface each time they were both in the same room. It wasn't as if they were oblivious to what they felt towards the other, rather that they just chose to ignore it; it was safer that way. There would be no confusion about where they stand and there would be no risks because what if it didn't work out? What if they ended up hating each other? What if, what if, what if. There was a never-ending list of them all. Each one calculated and thought out, every single possibility well considered and devised in times such as these when each one was recalled to memory in turn as a reminder of why they didn't act on these feelings. Why they couldn't act on them.

"Don't you know it's rude to stare?" Alex is the first to break the silence.

Piper doesn't look away but feels the familiar heat in her cheeks, hidden by the darkness. "I was never good when it came to social etiquette." She quips in response.

"Your mother must hate you."

"Vehemently."

Alex chuckles, the sound shaking the bed they lay on and turns to look at Piper, squinting in the dark. "I'm sure there are plenty of other things she could be more disappointed in you for."

Piper arches a brow, as if challenging Alex to continue. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

And there it is, that flicker of doubt that douses Alex's flirtatious banter as if it were nothing more than a mere match, the same way it always does and Piper feels the familiar sensation of disappointment and confusion surge through her and they both fall silent and sigh heavily, turning away from each other as they both go through their ever growing lists of why.

"Why are you here?" It's Piper who breaks the silence this time and she can feel the bed shift as Alex moves to look at her.

"What?"

"Why are you here?" Piper repeats, slower this time, as if trying to explain something to a child.

"Because you asked me to be." Alex's voice is quiet, unsure, so unlike Alex.

Piper turns to look at Alex, pale features lit in the dim light that filters through her bedroom window. She looks tired, dishevelled, nervous but most of all; sad. Piper wonders how much longer they'll be able to run around each other in circles before one of them falls down, exhausted from all of the games. She wonders if Alex would keep running if she fell. "We shouldn't be doing this." Piper murmurs, sliding further down into the covers.