Blended Ch 2

Piper has to reevaluate her summer as she showers off after weeding. She’s tried to include Bella in her friend group a few times, and Bella usually bounces off of it out of pride and introverted disinterest. Now, it’s the other way around. Piper may need to attach herself to Bella this summer, although how that goes will depend on which CCL girls are still in town. She’ll just have to be adaptable.

Maybe it’s a good thing that her friends aren’t around; it’s going to take some work to keep the house presentable, and Mary’s daughters fed. It’s hard not to feel a little bad for the Jameson girls. Divorce is never easy. Piper definitely hasn’t totally dealt with everything that came with her parents splitting up. But Riley and Kayla took theirs a lot worse, and their insecurity comes out in different ways. They’re still carrying that weight, and Mary knows it. That’s why she isn’t harder on them.

Piper gets it, but living with one stepsister who is a walking, oozing pile of anxiety when she’s doing anything other than soccer and one who needs affirmation so badly that she throws herself at every male she sees—it’s exhausting.

What’s not exhausting is having Patty at camp. It’s amazing. Invigorating. The house is so quiet. Piper washes her body and rinses off, then steps out. The door crashes open as she reaches for a towel. Kayla comes through, quite disheveled in her underwear. She has obviously just woken up. There’s water on the floor; she slips and pitches forward with a curse.

Piper catches her, her chest cushioning the blow from Kayla’s face.

Kayla splutters and pulls free, annoyed and embarrassed. “Fuck me.”

“Alexa, what is knocking?” Piper asks, starting to towel off.

Kayla’s eyes dart down to Piper’s soft cock, dangling heavily between her legs. “Just waving that thing around?”

“Am I allowed to dry off?”

“Am I allowed to pee?”

Piper has enough experience dealing with Kayla that she just needs to take a deep breath. She smiles. “Sure,” she says, wrapping the towel around herself and leaving the bathroom.

“Oh, and stay away from Riley. She’s having a meltdown,” Kayla says, then slams the door before Piper can ask her to throw her a hair towel.

A meltdown? Piper stands there, dripping, wrapped in her towel, repeating to herself that she is not Riley’s mother. Or her babysitter.

She takes a deep breath and pads down to Riley’s door, which is ajar. She knocks anyway. Riley paces inside.

The room smells like Adidas. Riley’s work shirt from the gym in town is on the bed. During the school year, she works three nights a week as soccer allows. In the summer, she works shifts all over the place. She’s a good saver, which Piper respects.

“You good?” Piper asks.

Riley pauses for just a moment, but Kayla’s not kidding. This really is a meltdown if Riley isn’t freaking out at the sight of wet Piper in a towel.

“Shondra put me in charge.”

“What?”

“My supervisor. I’m going to be alone on my shifts now. For like a couple weeks.”

Relieved, Piper lets out her breath. This is not a crisis. “That’s not so bad.” Riley’s job is pretty simple: she scans phones when people come in, mops the floor, wipes down the machines, and locks up at the end of the day before cleaning the bathrooms and showers. Piper can’t call it easy work, but it’s not complicated or stressful.

Of course, Riley finds a lot of things stressful that the average person does not.

“What if I like, lose all the business?” she frets. “Jen’s supposed to work, but she’s out of town.”

That’s not going to happen, but Piper’s not a monster. Riley can handle this, but she has to be eased into it, not thrown into the deep end. Shondra’s OK, but she doesn’t really get Riley. She figures because Riley’s a rising star in sports, she has confidence. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

“You want me to take her place? Make sure you have it all under control?” Piper asks kindly.

“I mean, would you? We already shortened our hours and stuff because we don’t have enough workers. We’re supposed to get a certain number of new signups each week. What if it’s not enough while I’m in charge?”

Another completely insane take, but it’s very Riley. Leaving Riley to her own devices here would be like throwing a puppy into a woodchipper. Working part-time at that gym is like 14 dollars an hour. Piper’s willing to help, but she wants to have a little fun at least.

Tell Riley that she should dress cute to bring in new customers? [ +1 Top stat for Piper ]

Or should Piper take on that responsibility herself? [ +1 Bottom stat for Piper ]