The Broken Girl and The Golden Boy

Regrets and Rainy Days

Chapter 21: Piper

A week after I'd turned Justin down, I found myself splayed out on the floor of my room, listening to the sound of rain tapping on the roof. I had my phone in one hand and the other covering my face. I couldn't bring myself to get up and do something - anything - else. And I couldn't shake the feeling that I might've made a huge mistake. Oh, who was I kidding? I knew I'd messed up royally. The very thing I'd been trying to avoid by not dating him was happening. We barely talked to each other, except when we had to, and our conversations were awkward and stunted. It was so bad that even Elena and Sean were starting to notice and ask questions. Questions that I had no idea how to answer. And worst of all, I had started watching my phone obsessively, waiting for him to call, even though I knew he wouldn't. I never thought I'd be one of those people. Pathetic, needy, hopelessly dependent on someone else. I heard the door to my room creak open and peered through my fingers to see my sister standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Sadie asked, nudging me with her foot.

"I don't even know..." I groaned, rolling over on my side so I (sort of) faced her.

"Are you going to get up soon, or...?" She blinked at me and I stared back for a minute before I finally sighed and pushed myself off the ground. I was being ridiculous here - waiting for a call that would never come. "Oh, good! I was getting bored without you. Do you want to do something?"

"How about we bake some cookies?" I suggested.

"Do you think we have time?" she replied, biting her lower lip, "Father might be home soon..."

"You might be right," I said, "What about a movie?"

"Yeah!" she agreed enthusiastically, but then she paused again, "But he could still get home before then."

"Hmm..." After a moment I just shrugged, "You want to just talk for a while, then?"

"Okay," she said.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"You know that movie I watched at Leo's house?" she piped up, "It was called the Hunger Games."

"Uh-huh. I read the books a couple of years ago," I nodded.

"Well, it was really cool and Leo told me they already had the sequel and that they were going to get the third one as soon as it's released in theaters and I really want to see all of them," she blurted out.

"So... you want to go see Leo?" I concluded.

"NO! I mean, maybe... well, kind of, yeah," she answered shyly, "Well, we haven't gone over in a while, so... can we?" I won't lie, I jumped at the opportunity to use my little sister as an excuse to see Justin. I'm not proud of it, but I was desperate to at least try to fix things between us.

"Alright," I agreed with a smile. I took Justin's number from my missed calls and dialled him up.

"Hello?" His voice crackled through the speakers of my crappy phone.

"Hey, Justin, it's me," I said.

"Pipec-" he cut himself off and cleared his throat, "Piper?" That was another thing, we'd stopped using our nicknames for each other. It got really awkward when one of us slipped up.

"Yeah," I replied.

"So, uh, what's up?" he asked.

"Well, I was wondering if I could bring Sadie over to see Leo," I said, "She misses him." There was a double-meaning behind my words, but I didn't think he caught it, which was probably for the best.