7x08

"I was just looking up ideas on where to take Amy on our date tonight."

"Yeah. I asked Amy out on a date, and she said yes."

Finn and Amy. Amy and Finn. Her two best friends. Dating.

Right now, they were probably finishing their picnic and bonding over Chai tea lattes and not thinking about Piper at all.

Finn wasn't thinking about her at all.

He had liked her at one point in time, and now he didn't. Now he liked Amy. And there was nothing Piper could do about it.

So she danced. Because that was all she could do. Because she was afraid that if she stopped, the tears might come, and they would never stop.

"You said you're not dancing tonight, so I'm not dancing with you."

Why did her heart feel like it was breaking? It didn't have a right to. She'd had so many chances to say yes to Finn in the past, but she hadn't. She'd been so adamant that she didn't like him as more than a friend, and she had convinced everyone around her, but no one more than herself.

What if she had never been so adamant? What if she had allowed herself to open up to Finn sooner? Given him a chance like Amy had once encouraged her to do? (How ironic that Amy had once wanted Piper to date Finn, and now she was the one dating him instead.)

"No, I was sitting all the way over there. Piper, we're meant to be. Look, we're even wearing the same colors!"

If Piper hadn't put up all of her walls after getting her spirits crushed by Josh, she could be the one on a bike ride picnic with Finn right now.

Or maybe that's just what kept telling herself to feel better. Surely, if Finn had liked her when he'd first joined The Next Step, there still had to be a piece of him that liked her now.

But maybe she had only ever been a crush to him. An infatuation that turned platonic as their friendship grew. Maybe Finn had been wrong, and they'd never been meant to be anything more than friends. Maybe Finn had always been destined to fall in love with Amy- her best friend who had jumped at the chance to go to the batting cages with him when Piper turned him down, certain that he was just a flirt with a big ego like James had once been before Riley entered the picture and failing to see that Finn was so much more than that. Finn was so caring and genuine and good. And she'd failed to realize it when it mattered.

"Piper, we've all had embarrassing moments before. It's okay."

"

"Fruity moons, fruity moons, sing a little tune... Let's go watch Noah and Richelle perform their ballet number. Me and you."

Maybe the universe had always been plotting for this to happen.

And if that was the case, then it was certainly doing a fantastic job of catching Piper off guard.

Because as adamant as she'd been that she had never liked Finn, maybe, deep down, there had always been part of her that had known. Maybe she had known when they had danced together at prom and she had thought that dancing with Finn wasn't the worst thing in the world. Maybe she had known when he listened to her anxieties about Miss Angela without complaint and she had realized that loud, goofy Finn might actually be the most trustworthy listener on A-Troupe. Maybe she had known at Regionals when he had sung the Fruity Moons song that he hated so much to cheer her up and she had felt deep in her gut that she was never going to meet anyone else who cared about her as deeply and sincerely as Finn did.

"Wow, Piper. You look really nice with your hair down. You should wear it like that more often."

For a short moment that afternoon, she almost forgot that she was helping him plan his date with Amy. For a split second, she thought that maybe there was still a chance he liked her after all, and maybe that thought had made her feel warm inside in a way that she couldn't quite explain to anyone else.

But then he'd ridden out of Studio A with Amy, and she wondered if it was too late to say something while knowing all the while that it was.

She had missed her chance. Again.

And it was probably the last chance she'd ever have.

When the song came to an end, so did her dancing, and the tears didn't come like she feared, but the aching in her heart remained, an ever-present reminder of the revelation she could no longer hide from.

She liked Finn. She had always liked Finn. But he liked her best friend. And maybe the part that bothered her the most was that no matter what happened, she had always thought Finn would be hers.

But now he was Amy's. How was that fair?

Why did the universe insist on breaking her every few months? Why was it too much to ask to just be happy for once?

She sunk to the floor miserably, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. Not long after sitting down, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and Piper tensed, her thoughts immediately jumping to the worst conclusion. No one else was at the studio this late at night. The only other person who could be there, then, was obviously someone coming to murder her and put her out of her lovelorn misery.

A glance toward the door, however, revealed there was no murderer. Just Henry.

He froze when he noticed her, and Piper quickly wiped at her eyes to ensure there were no tears. Henry was a good friend, but she didn't want him to find her crying in Studio A in the middle of the night no matter close they may have been.

"Sorry. I didn't think anyone would be here," he said awkwardly, "I can leave."

He turned to go, but Piper shook her head and stopped him. "No. That's okay."

Henry trudged into the middle of the studio and dropped onto the floor next to her. He mirrored her posture, pulling his legs up and resting his arms on top of his knees. They sat in silence for a long moment until Henry finally asked, "Does Amy and Finn dating bother you as much as it bothers me?"

Piper bit her lip, eyes watering as she slowly nodded. "Yes." Her voice was hardly above a whisper as he met her gaze, understanding in his eyes.

"You still like her?" she asked quietly. She and Henry had never actually talked about what had happened between him and Amy. Hell, she and Amy had hardly talked about it themselves. That had been back when Amy had been so busy and focused on becoming a featured dancer. When their friendship had drifted apart. (Were they destined to drift apart again, now that Amy was dating the boy Piper wanted?)

Henry shrugged to her question, staring at the wooden slabs of the floor as he muttered, "I don't know. Maybe."

A beat of silence passed, and Piper was inclined to accept his answer for what it was, but then she thought of his very recent break-up and couldn't help asking, "What about Summer?"

Again, Henry kept his gaze down and shrugged. "I don't know," he muttered, "I really liked her too." He sighed, shaking his head and closing his eyes. "It's been a confusing week. A confusing year actually."

Piper hummed. "Tell me about it."

Another beat of silence passed, and then Henry murmured, "Sometimes I wish..." He trailed off and suddenly shook his head. "You know what? It doesn't matter."

Piper lifted her gaze to him curiously. "You wish what?"

Henry glanced at her, holding her gaze before admitting, "Sometimes I wish I had just kissed her that day. Then all of this could have been avoided. No one would've had to get hurt."

Piper hated that she could relate so much to him. Hesitating to say the words out loud, she finally uttered, "I wish I had said yes when Finn asked me out."

This seemed to surprise Henry. His eyebrows had shot up as he asked, "You like him?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe." But of course, that was a lie. She knew she did. No more denying it. No more hiding from it.

"He asked me if it was okay, ya know?" Henry said, shaking his head regretfully. "I told him to go for it. I don't know why."

Piper closed her eyes, chewing on the inside of her lip sadly. If Henry had told Finn he wasn't okay with him dating Amy, Finn would have cancelled their date in a heartbeat because that was just the kind of person he was. But Henry hadn't.

She really wished he would have. But there was nothing either of them could do to change it now.

"What do we do now?" Piper asked quietly. "We have to be happy for them, don't we?"

She wished he would say no, that they should fight for them and not sit idly by, but of course he didn't because that was the kind of person Henry was. He cared about others and valued their happiness, especially when it came to Amy.

Indeed, he told her, "We shouldn't stand in the way of their happiness. I did that to Noah and Jacquie. I won't do it to Amy and Finn."

"But how do we do that?" Piper asked, her heart aching. She didn't want to be happy for them, but at the same time, all she'd ever wanted for her best friends was for them to be happy. It was a double-edged sword. She couldn't win either way.

"Sometimes when you love someone, you have to let them go," Henry muttered.

Piper nodded wordlessly, blinking back the tears that had finally sprung to her eyes. Henry gave her a sympathetic look, and they spent the next several minutes just sitting in the silence, sulking and hurting together.

Finally, when the silence was getting to be too much, Piper wiped at her teary eyes and sniffled as she asked, "Um, did you want the studio?"

Henry looked to her as she broke the silence and shrugged. "I was gonna dance it all out, but that's okay."

"No, I can go. I probably need to get home anyway," Piper started to tell him, suddenly feeling bad for taking the space from him. She knew he'd been through a lot recently between his break-up with Summer and now this.

She had started to stand, and Henry asked, "And how are you getting home?" knowing that she had yet to get her driver's license.

"The bus," she mumbled with a shrug.

He stared at her skeptically for a moment then shook his head and pushed himself up from the floor. "Nope, not this late at night. I'll give you a ride."

Finn was usually the one to give her a ride home every night since he'd gotten his license, but given that he was preoccupied tonight, a ride from Henry would certainly beat riding the bus. Wordlessly, Piper agreed without putting up a fight.

Together, they made their way out of Studio A. Piper's heart still felt like it was breaking every time she thought of Finn and Amy together, but Henry's presence made her feel a little less lonely.

At least there was someone else who understood how she was feeling.