Missing Moments

Finn is Confused

7x11 (But with a twist...)

The next day, Piper was still acting strange and distant. Finn knew as soon as she backed out of seeing Hotel Dystopia that he had to get to the bottom of this. He and Piper had been counting down the days until Hotel Dystopia: Do Not Disturb came out, and there was no way she would give up going to see it for anything, not even a school project.

Despite the obvious tension between the girls last night, Amy was still the first person that Finn thought Piper might talk to if something serious was going on, so she was the first person he went to in his investigation, and his heart nearly stopped when she admitted that she thought Piper might have feelings for him.

There was no way Piper could have feelings for him. Not after all of the times she'd turned him down when he asked her out. Not after that day in Shakes and Ladders when he'd admitted he probably wasn't her type and she hadn't denied it. Not after he'd accepted that she would never have feelings for him and tried so hard to move on.

And as it turned out, he was right because according to Amy, Piper did this weird laugh around guys she really liked, and in all their months of friendship, Finn had never heard her do that laugh around him. She definitely did not have feelings for him.

But then, not an hour later, in the middle of an uncomfortable conversation in Studio A, Piper did the laugh, and something in Finn immediately shifted. The part of him that he had been trying so hard to repress since Regionals sprang to life again. The part of him that liked Piper. The part of him that had always liked Piper.

He hadn't stopped thinking about her since.

It didn't make sense. Piper had done nothing but claim that she didn't have feelings for him since the moment they had met. She had never given any indication that she might feel otherwise.

When could her feelings have changed? And why hadn't she said anything if they had? Finn hadn't exactly been discreet about his crush way back when. She had to know that he'd had feelings for her.

There was nothing to do but wait and ask her about it himself. Finn needed answers, or he was going to drive himself crazy wondering about this.

The longer he waited for her in the locker room, however, the more he started to wonder if she had already gone home. It was getting late, and most of the team had already left. Had he somehow missed her? The locker room had seemed to be the best place to catch her alone to talk because she would have to get her stuff before she went home.

Just as he started to wonder if he should let it go and head home himself, he heard footsteps in the hallway and looked up to see the girl in question entering the locker room. His presence clearly caught her off guard, and Piper froze as their eyes met.

"Pipes, we need to talk," Finn said, serious as he'd ever been, but she was already turning back to the door and muttering an excuse about leaving something in Studio A.

She was avoiding him. And somehow, that told him everything he needed to know. She'd lied to Amy. She did have feelings for him. It was true.

But he needed to hear it from her. So he jumped straight to the point before she could run away like he suspected she so desperately wanted to do.

"When Amy said you like me, was that true?"

Her shoulders tensed, and she turned back to him, clearly knowing that she was caught. Even still, she forced a smile and faked a laugh as she took a reluctant step toward him. "Come on, Finn. You can't be serious."

He raised his eyebrows at her, wishing she would stop running from this and just face it. "Well, I am. I am serious."

Her face fell as she seemed to realize he wasn't going to drop this. Averting her gaze to her fidgeting hands, she muttered, "It's not important."