7x22

It had been a strenuous day for A-Troupe, both emotionally and physically. Piper was exhausted as she and Summer made their way back to the hotel in a tense silence. Once at their destination, they bid each other goodnight and went to their rooms. Lily was already in their room, in bed and texting on her phone. Piper immediately changed into pajamas and brushed her teeth before re-emerging from the bathroom.

"My mom is shook the judges were so rude tonight," Lily told her without looking up from her phone. "She was so sure we'd win the first round, no problem."

Piper didn't even want to think about what Miss Angela probably had to say about her performance tonight. She crawled onto the bed that she and Amy were sharing as Lily added, "I told her what Fredrico told us after the cameras stopped rolling though."

"What'd she say to that?" Piper asked reluctantly.

"Screw him and that he doesn't know good dance when he sees it." Lily smirked, finally looking away from her phone. "He's not even a dancer, you know. He's just a pretty face for the cameras. They pay him to be harsh because people wouldn't watch otherwise."

That didn't necessarily surprise Piper, but Finn would be horrified to learn the truth of the infamous Dancemania judge.

Not that she was thinking about Finn right now.

Or at least, she was trying not to.

The door to the room suddenly opened, and Amy entered, quietly shutting it behind her. She walked further into the room and crossed her arms, frowning at Piper, who frowned back at her. Amy had that look on her face that said she meant business, and normally, Piper would be curious to know what was on her best friend's mind, but tonight wasn't a normal night.

"What?" Piper asked warily.

"You need to stop being so hard on Finn."

Piper rolled her eyes and looked away from her, pursing her lips bitterly as Amy told her adamantly, "He's really beating himself up, Piper. He knows he messed up, and he feels bad about it, and you're not helping anything."

"This isn't my fault," Piper scoffed defensively, "He brought this all on himself."

"He made it here, and everything was fine."

"I almost got cut from the show because of him!"

"But you didn't."

Piper glared at her best friend, and Amy glared back. She couldn't believe that Amy was defending Finn when she was the one who had threatened to give Nick a piece of her mind when Piper had told her he was cutting her from the dance that morning. Finn had let her down, and he had never done that before. He was the one person who Piper was always supposed to be able to count on to be there for her. It was his careless mistake that had almost cost them the biggest opportunity of their lives.

So excuse her if she was a little mad about it.

"If he hadn't put his phone on silent, he wouldn't have missed his flight, and I wouldn't be mad at him," Piper reasoned, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Amy took a deep breath and slowly let it out through her nose before asking, "Why are you still upset about the phone thing?"

"Because he doesn't care about me," Piper snapped.

Amy blinked then gaped at her in shock. "Are you kidding me? Piper, Finn cares about you more than anything else in this world. Everyone knows that."

"Then why is he always running late for our dates? Or forgetting about them completely? And when I finally try to do one thing to help him be on time for once in his life, he just puts his phone on silent and completely disregards all of the effort I went to help him?" Piper raised her eyebrows as if challenging Amy to answer. Her best friend simply sighed and looked away, and she huffed in an unsatisfying triumph. "And then he thinks he can apologize a minute before we're supposed to perform, and everything will be magically okay again?"

She was sure that would make Amy see her side of things, immediately admit that she was right, and apologize for taking Finn's side. Instead of an apology, however, Amy suggested in a calm tone, "Okay. So instead of telling us that, why don't you tell Finn?"

Piper stared at her best friend, dumbstruck, as Lily piped up, "Piper doesn't have to tell Finn anything she doesn't want to." As Piper and Amy both turned to her, she shrugged nonchalantly. "There are lots of things I don't tell Kingston."

"And how's that working out for you?" Amy deadpanned.

Lily's eyes narrowed, and she gave a smug smile. "We're the happiest we've ever been."

Sighing exasperatedly, Amy looked to the ceiling as if praying for patience as she said in the same calm voice, "You have to have communication in your relationship if you don't want it to fall apart. Trust me on this, okay?"

Amy's advice was all well and fine, but the last thing Piper wanted to do right now was talk to Finn.

In the lack of response, Amy gave Piper an exasperated look. "You can't expect him to read your mind and know exactly what you're feeling. Boys aren't that perceptive. You have to be upfront with him."

"Honestly, I think you should just dump his ass. Show him who's boss in the relationship, and if he doesn't like it, so what? Find someone better," Lily interjected with a shrug.

Lily's advice was even worse than Amy's. Sure, Piper was mad at Finn, but she didn't actually want to break up with him. That seemed too extreme.

The only thing she really wanted right now was for everyone to leave her alone and let her go to sleep in peace.

Amy shook her head at the two of them in frustration before turning to grab her pajamas from her suitcase and moving into the bathroom. The door shut behind her, but then it opened again a few seconds later, and Amy reappeared in the doorway, her arms crossed.

"And you know what? This isn't just about you, Piper. This show is important to me. I want to win and go on the world tour. We all do, but I think tonight proved that we can't do that if you don't put your personal issues aside. Finn's not the only one at fault here, but he is the only one owning up to it." With one last shake of the head, Amy disappeared into the bathroom once more, slamming the door shut behind her.

Piper gaped at the closed door. Lily raised her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side, her lips forming a firm line. "Some people are seriously overreacting tonight," she commented while returning her attention to her phone.

Piper huffed in disbelief and sank down in her bed, grabbing her phone in a desperate attempt to distract herself from the fact that her best friend had just shamelessly called her out. She wasn't sure what bothered her more- the fact that Amy was taking Finn's side over hers or the fact that Amy was right.

When Amy came out of the bathroom, Piper immediately rolled onto her side, turning her back on her best friend. Amy didn't speak to her but climbed into their bed, keeping her back to Piper in return. No one said anything as Lily wordlessly reached over and turned the light off.

Laying in the dark, Piper opened Instagram. She had reluctantly made her account public at Lily's suggestion since dancing on the show was throwing all of them into the spotlight. Piper was shocked and horrified to realize that she had gained hundreds of followers – hundreds of people she didn't know - since the show had aired.

No pressure or anything.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she went to the Dancemania hashtag to see if anyone was posting about her team's performance. Even though she knew realistically that there would be posts about them since they had won the popular vote, it still came as a shock to see so many posts of herself and her teammates in the tag. She looked at some of them and felt flattered to see that many people were saying positive things.

What was most surprising, however, was the number of people commenting about her and Finn.

'Don't know what the judges are talking about. Beautiful and fun performance from The Next Step! Excellent decision to put this couple at the center of the dance. Beautiful couple 💕'

'Fave performance of the night 🙌🏻 @dancemania @thenextstepdance And Piper and Finn?? 🔥🔥🔥'

'Apparently these two are dating and they're super cute 😍 #pinn is the ship for season 13!'

It was too weird to see so many strangers on the Internet going on and on about how cute she and Finn were. If they knew what was going on behind the scenes, maybe they wouldn't think they were so cute.

Piper set her phone aside, rolling over onto her back. She glanced over at Amy, whose back was still to her, then returned to frowning up at the ceiling.

She had just wanted to help Finn and give herself a peace of mind when she had set all of those reminders on his phone. She wasn't actually mad that he'd put his phone on silent. She was mad because the alarms she had set to help him had hurt the whole team instead. She was mad because he'd been MIA for hours yesterday, and she'd worried herself sick over him, and he didn't even seem to realize or care what he'd put her through. She was mad because her team had spent the whole day rechoreographing a routine centered around Piper and Finn without Piper and Finn. She was mad because she'd needed Finn to calm her nerves tonight, but he couldn't because he hadn't been there when she'd needed him to be there.

But mostly, she was mad at herself for being so mad in the first place. Because maybe if her emotions hadn't gotten the best of her tonight, she would have let Finn apologize in the scramble to hair and make-up or right before they were about to perform, and maybe, just maybe, their chemistry wouldn't have been so off and they wouldn't need the Resurrection Round to be moving forward.

Really, this was all her fault, not Finn's.

And she was mad about that too.

-----

The next morning, Piper's alarm went off at 7 a.m., and she groaned as she reached out to turn it off. She laid in bed, trying to wake up and get her bearings. The team wasn't competing today, but they did have the Resurrection Round to think about.

She really hoped Finn was ready.

But she couldn't worry about him today. She had already done enough of that over the last two days. No, he had signed himself up for that responsibility. He could worry about it himself.

Amy was the first one to get out of bed. She quickly got dressed then grabbed a room key and left to go down to breakfast without a word to Piper or Lily. After Amy had called her out for being unfair last night, Piper was glad that she didn't have to face her. She didn't want to have to face her and admit she was right.

Lily rambled about Kingston the entire way to breakfast, but Piper immediately tuned her out when they entered the dining room. Finn was standing at the buffet table just a few feet away. He didn't see her as he filled his plate with food, which gave her just enough time to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, Piper strode toward the food tables, holding her head high.

She was ready to pass by him without saying a word to him when he suddenly looked up, turning to find a seat. He froze at the sight of her, his face falling slightly. "Hey," he said slowly, unsure if he was supposed to talk to her or not.

Piper glanced at him, her resolve faltering for a moment as she mumbled a, "Hi," and continued on to the fruit display. If she didn't want to face Amy, she couldn't face Finn. She was still mad from yesterday, but she was a lot of different emotions today, and she didn't want to think about any of them. She just wanted to watch the competition and not think about the fact that her relationship might be falling apart because of a few (okay, a hundred) stupid alarms that her boyfriend had probably deleted at this point. (And honestly, she wouldn't blame him if he had.)

When she reached the fruit table, she furtively glanced over to find Finn joining Henry and Summer at a table they were presumably sitting at with Amy. Finn's shoulders slumped as he sat down, and something in Piper's heart gave a guilty twinge as she turned back to the fruit spread in front of her.

Someone suddenly appeared next to her, and then Amy was saying, "Are you going to talk to him today?"

"No," Piper told her stubbornly, dropping the strawberry she had picked up a little more aggressively than she meant to on her plate.

Amy gave her an exasperated look, "Piper—"

"I don't want to hear it, Amy," she snapped, looking up at her best friend and shaking her head. "I just want to have a nice day, okay? Because yesterday was not."

Amy pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side in disapproval before moving to join Henry, Summer, and Finn at their table, which only sat four people. No room for Piper to join them if she wanted to (which she didn't).

After filling her plate, Piper joined Lily, Kingston, and Ozzy at the table they were sitting at. "Welcome to the Land of Disgusting PDA," Ozzy told her with an eyeroll as she sat.

Piper feigned a smile, glancing to where Kingston and Lily were currently rubbing their noses together in an Eskimo kiss. Overhearing Ozzy's comment, Kingston pulled away and threw a crumpled napkin at his best friend. "Shut up, bro. We're in love."

"Are you sure?" Ozzy retorted, raising his eyebrows skeptically.

"Go confess your undying love to Richelle if it bothers you that much."

"Nah, she's eating with Jones." Ozzy frowned, sending a glare to where Richelle was eating at a table with Jones and one of his teammates, a genuine smile on her face.

Piper shot a bitter look towards their former teammate before sighing and picking at her potatoes with her fork. All of this talk about love was the last thing she wanted this morning.

Unwittingly, she risked a glance over to Finn. He was watching her, a sad look on his face, but he immediately looked away when she caught him staring. Sighing, Piper shook her head and stabbed a piece of potato. Why were they sitting here like pining fools when they'd been dating for over a month?

She couldn't believe the two of them had been so excited for Dancemania, and this was how they spending it- Finn beating himself up and Piper too stubborn in her anger to just admit she was wrong and apologize for getting them into this mess in the first place.

It was bad enough that Richelle, someone Piper had always respected as a dancer and considered a friend, had left the team without any warning just to become their competition. Fighting with Finn made everything feel a hundred times worse. At this point, Piper couldn't wait to just be done with this entire competition.