7x11
"I can't believe we're going to be dancing on the same stage as legends like Chris Walker!"
"And don't forget Darrell!"
"Obviously not." Finn grinned as he handed Amy her green tea latte then took his own iced tea from The Next Steep barista. He turned to Piper, who was resting against the counter on his other side, and asked, "You sure you don't want anything, Pipes?"
Piper looked up at him, raising her eyebrows like she hadn't heard him at first. Quickly processing his words, she shook her head and gave a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah, I'm trying not to drink caffeine too late. My mom thinks it'll help with my insomnia."
"Is it?"
Her smile faded. "Not really."
Together, the three of them made their way out of The Next Steep and down the hall to the lobby. Most of the time, Finn found himself following behind Piper and Amy as they chatted together, but tonight, both of the girls seemed set on staying on either side of him, almost like they were avoiding each other. He glanced from his girlfriend to his best friend, wondering what exactly was going on with them. Today had been weird enough without Piper and Amy acting strange around each other.
The quiet stretched on as they reached the stairs, and Finn had taken to gulping down his tea in the tense silence. Piper had clenched her jaw next to him but finally broke the silence with, "I can't believe Summer would do something like that."
Finn chewed on his straw, sighing internally. The whole bus ride from the Dancemania audition back to the studio had been spent ranting about Summer's decision to audition as a soloist, and Richelle and Piper had been the ringleaders of it all. Finn understood that they were upset about it. He was too, but couldn't they leave it to rest now? They'd already said everything there was to say about it. Summer hadn't even made it onto the show. It was time to lay the subject to rest and move on.
Amy was the one to respond to Piper's comment. "But I get where she's coming from. What we did really hurt her."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean she should turn her back on the team. She's supposed to be our dance captain!"
Amy heaved a sigh, a tired look in her eyes as she simply said, "It's really unlike Summer to do something so selfish."
Amy had been standing up for Summer the most all evening, and Finn supposed he could understand why. Of everyone on A-Troupe, Amy was the one person who could relate to Summer's decision to see what she could do on her own. After hearing what Summer had to say for herself in Studio A that evening, Finn found himself somewhere in the middle. He still thought it was low of Summer to audition as a soloist without even letting anyone know beforehand, but maybe Amy had a point. Summer had done one selfish thing in her entire time at the studio, but hadn't they all?
Piper didn't seem to think so. Agitatedly, she grit her teeth and muttered, "But you'd know all about that."
Finn and Amy just barely heard the words, but they did hear them. His eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Piper in surprise as Amy suddenly stiffened next to him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, a hard edge to her tone.
Seeming to realize that she'd uttered the words out loud, Piper's eyes widened, and she quickly shook her head. "Nothing."
"No, you definitely meant something. What did you mean, Piper?"
Piper simply stared at her, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights. Finn could practically see the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure out a way to take back what she'd said. Amy had stopped walking, an eyebrow raised as she waited for her best friend to say something.
"It's- you just- I mean, some people thought you were selfish when you left the studio last year. But you came back! So really, you're just- you know- really loyal. Because you came back! And no one's happier than me that you did. Not even Finn!"
It was physically painful to watch Piper stumble over her words as she tried to save herself. She was standing stiffly, nodding reminiscently of a bobble head with a forced smile. Finn glanced cautiously to Amy, whose jaw had clenched as she took a particularly long sip of her latte.
Honestly, the sooner they could get away from the studio tonight, the better. This day had started out on a high with the audition, but it had quickly gone downhill since the team arrived back at the studio. Something felt off with Piper today, and Finn couldn't figure out why for the life of him. He suspected oversleeping that morning had somehow thrown off the entire day.
Note to self: No sleeping in tomorrow. And meet Piper on time so she won't be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
Neither of the girls seemed willing to make the next move. Desperate to divert the conversation from the disastrous route Piper had taken it, Finn leapt toward the door of the building and held it open for them, looking up at the night sky as he said, "Weren't they calling for rain tonight?" He looked back to Amy and Piper, who were still staring each other down. "I think they were wrong. It's not even cloudy."
Finally tearing her gaze from Piper's, Amy hurried outside, her jaw still clenched. "That's tomorrow night," she muttered as she passed him.
"Oh. That makes more sense."
Finn watched her set off down the sidewalk then looked back to Piper. She stared back at him helplessly, clearly wishing she hadn't said what she had. He gave her a sympathetic shrug and nodded his head in the direction Amy had taken off in. Her shoulders deflated, and she reluctantly followed after her best friend, Finn bringing up the rear as they followed Amy to the parking lot in stony silence. He wasn't sure what Piper and Amy had been talking about before Summer showed up in Studio A earlier, but they had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since then. It was unnerving.
He couldn't help feeling like he was somehow caught in the middle of the two of them. The problem was, he didn't know why they suddenly felt like opponents.
When they reached the parking lot, Piper hurried away to Finn's car with a guilty look in Amy's direction. Finn stopped next to Amy, and they watched their best friend stalk away from them in silence. Amy was biting her lip, a conflicted look in her eye, and Finn sighed.
"There's no way she meant that," Finn assured her, "She's been in a weird mood all night."
"I know," Amy muttered, still staring after Piper until she finally tore her gaze away to meet Finn's instead. "But maybe she's not wrong."
Finn frowned at that, but before he could reply, she gave him a small smile and muttered that she would see him tomorrow. With a gentle squeeze of the arm, Amy turned and walked away from him. Finn watched her go, his lips pursed.
Seriously, what was up with the girls tonight? All of this sad and bitter tension in the air was killing him inside, and he had a feeling it had nothing to do with Summer.
Piper was waiting for him by his car. He had never gotten the chance to ask her today if she wanted a ride home, but he was glad to give her one. He hated the thought of her riding the bus alone at night, and besides, driving her home would give him the chance to get to the bottom of her weird behavior. First she was telling him to slow down with Amy in case things didn't work out, then she was dodging his hug when they made it onto Dancemania, and now she was making snide remarks about Amy.
That was so not the Piper he knew.
They loaded her bags for the audition into his trunk then climbed into his car without a word. As Finn waited to turn out of the parking lot, he glanced at Piper out of the corner of his eye. Her arms were crossed, and she was staring out the windshield, her jaw clenched. It didn't appear that she was going to talk any time soon, so he turned on his music for background noise. Only a couple of chords played, however, before Piper was suddenly turning it down.
"I didn't mean to call out Amy like that," she said with a huff.
"I know," Finn replied.
"It's just been a long day," she continued as if she hadn't even heard him. She shook her hands out then rested her head against the window. She sighed and repeated in a quiet voice, "It's been a really long day."
Finn frowned as he glanced over at her. "You want to talk about it?"
She met his eye, seeming to contemplate for a moment before slowly shaking her head. "Not really."
"Okay." He looked back to the road in front of him, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of the music playing lowly in the background. Piper had confided in him about so much over the course of their friendship. He couldn't imagine what could possibly be on her mind that she wouldn't want to talk to him about, but he couldn't push her to talk about something if she didn't want to.
Reluctantly, his mind wandered to his conversation with Amy earlier. They had been discussing their two-week anniversary that was coming up, but Finn's conversation with Piper earlier that afternoon had given him some serious doubts about their relationship.
"Do you not like me?"
"What?" Amy had asked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"
"Piper thinks we should slow down."
She had blinked at him, her eyebrows knitting together. "What does Piper care about how fast we're moving?"
He had simply shrugged, none the more confused than her. "I don't know. That's just what she said."
But why had Piper told him to slow down in the first place? Amy had been surprised when she'd heard what Piper had said, but had she not mentioned something to Piper herself? Why else would Piper think they should slow down? It didn't make sense.
"Why do you think I should slow down with Amy?" he asked before he could stop himself, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Piper looked over at him, blinking slowly like it was once again taking her a moment to process his words. When she did, she simply looked back out the window and said, "I already told you."
"Yeah, but why do you think it won't work out with her? Did she say something to you?"
She shook her head. "No."
Her vagueness was really starting to get on his nerves. It felt like that was all she had been giving him all evening – short, vague answers that didn't make sense.
"Do you know something I don't?" he tried again. Was he doing something wrong in this whole dating thing that he wasn't aware of? It was his first relationship. He didn't want to admit it to anyone, but he was kind of just winging it, and it had been working out in his favor so far.
Piper let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. "I shouldn't have even said anything at all, okay? It wasn't my place."
Her tone made it clear that he wasn't going to get anything else out of her on the subject, so Finn reluctantly dropped it, saying instead. "I was thinking about taking her to that new sushi place downtown for our two-week anniversary. Is that too much?"
Piper frowned at him. "But you hate sushi."
He shrugged at that. "Yeah, but I looked up the menu earlier. They have other stuff too, like stir fry and soup and stuff. I'll find something." He glanced at her again hopefully. "Do you think that'll be okay with her?"
Smiling slightly, her eyes seeming a little glassy, she nodded. "Yeah. She'll love it."
The rest of the drive to Piper's house was mostly silent with only his music playing in the background. It was unusual for the two of them, and Finn was dying to know what was up with his best friend tonight, but he didn't want to force her to talk if she didn't want to either.
Even still, he tried one last time when the car was parked in front of her house. Before Piper could climb out, Finn asked, "Are you okay tonight?"
Her hand was already on the door handle, but she turned back to him with the tight smile she always gave him when she wanted him to believe that she was okay. "I'm fine," she told him, her tone softer than it had been all night. "Don't even worry about it."
Her family's catchphrase did nothing to reassure him. "Pipes," he started to say, but she simply opened the door and climbed out of the car.
"I'll see you tomorrow," was all she said before she shut the door with a final click.
Finn sighed, popping the trunk so she could get her bags. He waited until she was inside her house before driving away with a sigh of despair. That car ride had done nothing but convince him even more than something was definitely going on with Piper. She had been more withdrawn the last couple of weeks, and he had figured it was because of the Dancemania audition because she had told him as much.
But the audition was over, and she was acting even stranger now than she had been before. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else entirely going on here.
It was almost like she had stopped being herself around him. Like she was holding back, distancing herself. And it was bothering him. Really bothering him.
The whole reason he'd fallen for Piper in the first place was because she was always herself. She was never trying to be someone she wasn't. She was real and kind and selfless and beautiful and—
Stop it, Finn.
The second he started thinking about Piper like that was the second he started going down a path he wasn't supposed to be going down anymore. He was moving on. He was dating Amy. He liked Amy.
As he parked in the driveway of his house, he turned off his car and leaned his head against the headrest, slowly letting out a deep breath. He had to pull his thoughts together before he went inside and was ambushed with questions about Dancemania by his parents.
Was it possible to have feelings for two different people at once? His first instinct was to say no, but now, he wasn't so sure. He did really like Amy. She was pretty, and he'd had a blast binging Dancemania with her the night before. Their two weeks together had been fun, but they'd also been a learning curve. He'd tried to kiss her on their second date, and somehow, he had missed, but she had just laughed and pressed her lips against his, and it had been nice.
Nice.
That was how he felt about his relationship with her. They had fun together and bonded over strained parent relationships and kissed every once in a while because that was what you were supposed to do in a relationship. But as much as he liked Amy, there was something missing with her. She had come to Bro Night with him last weekend on the technicality that she could attend as his girlfriend, but she had spent most of the night with Henry while Finn discussed video game lore with Ozzy and Heath, and Finn had never felt even a bit jealous that his girlfriend was spending all of her time with another guy, and one who she had a history with at that.
He didn't know for sure, but he didn't think that was how he was supposed to feel in that kind of situation.
Even their dates felt more like hanging out as friends than anything else. It wasn't serious, and it never had been. Maybe there was a part of him that was holding back in their relationship because he knew deep down that Amy wasn't the one who he belonged with.
The problem was that the girl he thought he belonged with didn't feel the same way and never had.
The whole point of dating Amy was to move on from Piper. Finn had truly believed that Amy was someone he could do that with. But maybe he had been wrong. He liked Amy, but his feelings for her were fading fast. He'd wanted to have a big, special anniversary date with her to celebrate two weeks together because he had thought that doing so would force the spark their relationship needed to ignite.
Now that he thought about it, he realized how stupid that was. And equally as stupid was dating another girl to move on from her best friend.
Amy deserved better than that.
The logical thing to do would be to end things with her now, but breaking up with her would mean hurting her, and that was the last thing Finn wanted to do.
He had really made a mess of things. If he had waited even just a day to think things through before asking Amy out, he liked to think that he would have realized that it wasn't right to date another girl just to get over someone else. What had he been thinking?
Answer: he hadn't been.
He seriously needed to start thinking more before acting.