Work Text:
Piper and Jason are fighting. Again.
Whatever. Not like Piper cares. She listens to Jason’s whining and she curls her hair, barely tuning out whatever he’s saying about her friends.
He almost makes her smudge her eyeliner when he stomps out of the room, shaking the vanity her elbow rests on.
She dabs the corner of her eye with a tissue, determined not to cry and ruin her mascara. She knows she shouldn’t be so upset over an argument that’s happened time and time again, so she takes a deep breath and smiles at her reflection.
She rubs in her lipstick, slightly darker than a true red, the perfect colour to match her skin tone. She fluffs her hair, gives a final spray of hairspray, and begins to raid her closet.
It's times like these when she misses living with Annabeth, allowing her to basically have two full closets to choose from. Alas, she settles on a pair of tight black jeans, a sheer black top, and a vegan leather jacket. She slings her purse over her shoulder and, still pretending she doesn’t care about their argument, goes to face Jason in the living room.
Jason, pouting like the big baby he is, shoots out of his slouched position on the couch. “Where are you going, dressed up like that?”
Piper’s indifferent facade melts away almost immediately, replaced with irritation. “I’m going out tonight.”
“You’re just leaving?” Jason scoffs, crossing his arms in front of his torso. Piper rolls her eyes, and makes her way to the front door to shove her shoes on. “No apology? Nothing?”
Piper stops in her tracks, spinning around quick enough to almost make her dizzy, and she stares daggers at Jason. “I would’ve considered apologizing, if you actually ever cared about me before you cared about yourself. Do you know how frustrating it is to put someone first that doesn't even consider you?”
“Piper–”
Piper slams the door before her second shoe is on, and she leans against the door, trying to even her breathing and stop herself from crying.
Annabeth: on your way?
Piper: yeah, just left. get me a drink
Piper feels the pounding bass in her chest, and that's how she knows tonight will make her forget. Annabeth and Hazel cheer when they see her, and Reyna lifts her glass in greeting.
“This mine?” Piper asks. At Annabeth’s nod, she knocks the shot back, feeling the burning slide down her throat.
“Bad night?” Hazel asks.
“You have no idea.”
Two shots and a whiskey sour later, Piper is sufficiently tipsy, swaying on her stool and giggling at Hazel trying to have an intelligent conversation with a sober Reyna.
“I have an idea,” Reyna says, gently pushing Hazel off of her shoulder. She snatches her keys from the table and jingles them. “Anyone up for a ride?”
After struggling to get Annabeth and Hazel into the car and buckled up, Piper slides into the passenger seat with ease. She asks, “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Reyna turns the music up as she drives, going nowhere that Piper recognizes. She merges onto the highway with not a car in sight, rolls down all the windows and speeds up.
“What is happening?” Piper laughs, her hair whipping around her face.
“Stick your head out!” Reyna yells over the wind and music. Piper turns around to see her friends already half out the windows, cheering and singing along to the music they surely can’t hear anymore.
“Is this safe?” Piper shouts.
Reyna shrugs, which does nothing to calm Piper. “I’ll slow down if I see another car coming!”
Fuck it , Piper thinks, and she unbuckles her seatbelt, leaning her torso out of the window. The wind flicks her hair behind her, and she struggles to keep her eyes open, but she cheers, throwing one of her arms out of the car and pumping it to the music.
The adrenaline almost makes her dizzy, laughing about nothing in particular but enjoying the ride nonetheless. For the first time tonight, Piper feels free . The tears created from the wind dry onto her face almost instantly, and she knows she must look like a mess, but there’s not an ounce of her that truly cares.
Reyna tugs on her pant leg, and she slowly climbs back into the car, breathless and still chuckling. The car slows, and Annabeth and Hazel take that as their cue to come back in too.
“Satisfied?” Reyna asks, a smug look on her face.
“That was insane,” Piper breathes out a laugh. “Are you insane?”
“Only a little,” Reyna chuckles.
She makes the rounds of dropping the other girls off, but when she gets to the front of Piper’s building, she parks and turns to her.
“Can I help you?” Piper asks.
“You’re okay to go back there, right?” Reyna’s eye contact is intense, searching for any sign of hesitance, but Piper nods nonetheless.
“Yeah, I’ll be alright. Thank you for tonight.”
Jason is already asleep on the couch when Piper walks in, and she smiles despite herself. They'll be okay. And if they’re not? Piper has some pretty good friends to get her through it.