Missing Moments

Piper Falls for Finn

7x08

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

"Date?"

"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.

"What are you doing?"

"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.)

"Did you copy my answers?"

"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.

"I just want to be by myself right now."

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

"No. No. Not like this."

"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.