It Never Took a Lot to Make This Hard

Louie hadn’t believed Piper when she said that she was leaving Salt Lake City. He had assumed that she would get back to her apartment, get some sleep, and change her mind in the morning. He had been wrong, though.

He had gone to her apartment to try to talk to her, and he had found it odd when she didn’t answer her door right away. He was getting ready to leave and go to the half pipe to see if she was there when one of her neighbors came out of their apartment. “Are you looking for Piper?” the man asked, and Louie nodded his head.

“Yeah, have you seen her?”

“She left late last night,” the man said. “She had a whole bunch of suitcases and bags. When I asked her where she was going, she said she was moving. She didn’t tell me where, though,” he had answered.

“Shit,” Louie mumbled, angry at himself for letting her leave the bar on her own last night. “Thanks,” he added, taking off out of the apartment complex. He had tried calling her several times since then, but she hadn’t picked up her phone. He wasn’t sure if that was because she was ignoring him or if she couldn’t answer her phone, like if she was on an airplane.

“Any luck?” Mason asked from behind him. Louie had already filled him and Shaun in on everything that he knew.

Louie shook his head. “Nope, she still won’t pick up her phone. I don’t get why she’d leave in the middle of the night, though. I thought she’d at least wait a little bit. You know, say goodbye.”

“She did say goodbye,” Shaun pointed out. “Last night at the bar,” he added, earning him a hit to his stomach from Joanna. “What?” he exclaimed, looking down at her. “She did!”

“Is there anything we can do?” Joanna asked, ignoring her boyfriend.

“I don’t know. I’m going to keep trying to call her. I’ll let you know if I hear from her. Thanks,” he added.

“Anytime,” Shaun said.

“I’m going to go try talking to Daphne. I’m hoping she might know something about Piper, though I doubt that at this point,” he muttered. “I’ll talk to you guys later,” he added, trying to figure out the place he would most likely be able to find Daphne right now.

Thirty minutes and four calls to her later, Louie was finally meeting Daphne for lunch. He walked inside, and he couldn’t say he was shocked to see Katrina at her side. It seemed those two were attached at the hip lately. “What was so important?” Daphne asked, standing up and giving Louie a quick kiss before sitting back down at the table, Louie sitting across from her.

“Have you talked to Piper?” he asked.

“Not since we got into that big argument,” Daphne answered. “I’m sure she told you all about it,” she said to Louie, and he nodded his head. “Why? Is she bitching about it again?” she questioned with a hint of attitude in her voice, causing Louie to look at her, wondering if this was the same girl he had fallen in love with so long ago.

“No, she left,” Louie told her.

“What do you mean she left?” Daphne asked, assuming he was simply being overdramatic.

“She left,” Louie repeated. “As in she’s no longer in Salt Lake City.”

“Where the hell did she go?” Daphne practically yelled.

“I don’t know,” Louie admitted. “What the hell happened between the two of you? All I know is that she came to me saying you told her you don’t need her anymore. Why the hell would you say that?” he questioned loudly. He didn’t care that Daphne was his girlfriend at this moment. All he knew was that Daphne had changed a lot in the past couple of weeks, and he had caused one of his best friends to flee Salt Lake City.

“You’re taking her side?” Daphne questioned angrily.

“Bad move, dude,” Katrina muttered.

“Don’t start,” Louie stared at Katrina. “You’re as much to blame as Daphne is at this point.”

“Louie!” Daphne screamed, defending her new best friend. “Don’t talk to Kat like that. She didn’t do anything to Piper. Piper’s just being a little bitch right now about all of this. She’ll get over it soon enough and come back. Just let her go.”

“Piper was right, you have changed,” Louie told her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Daphne asked.

“It means I don’t know who you are anymore. And, I don’t know why I ever liked you in the first place.”

“If you don’t like me, then why are we still together? I’m sure I can find someone way better than you,” Daphne told him, and Katrina nodded in agreement.

“Try, Daphne,” Louie told her lowly. “I don’t care anymore,” he added, turning around and walking out of the restaurant, leaving Daphne sitting there, shocked that he had just walked out on her like that.

***

Piper sat in her hotel room in New York, where she had been for about the past week. When she left Salt Lake City, she had no idea where she wanted to go. She had always loved New York, and on a whim, she had purchased an airline ticket there.

She was happy in the decision she had made. She was loving it in New York so far, though she did miss her friends. She had successfully avoided letting them know where she was, most of the time ignoring any of the phone calls she got from them. Though, she had talked to Louie one time since she had came here, knowing that if she didn’t pick up at least one time, he was going to worry she had died.

She snatched the shopping bag next to her bed, taking out the latest ESPN Magazine from it. This was the issue that was supposed to have Shaun and Daphne’s interview and photo shoot in it. Though she was still angry at what Daphne had said to her and how she had been acting lately, Piper still wanted the best for her cousin, and she wanted to see how her first big interview had gone.

As she read the article, she couldn’t help but smile at all the good things the writer had said about Daphne. Her smile suddenly dropped, though, when she got near the end of the article.

I asked Daphne if she believed if she was better than her cousin and former snowboarder, Piper Lawrence. Daphne was quick to tell us what she thought. “It seems like tricks keep getting harder and harder every day. So, I think if you compare the tricks that one day I’ll be able to do to the ones that Piper was able to do when she was competing, it will look like I’m better than her.” She goes on to say,” Yeah, I’d say I’ll be better than her.”

From talking to Daphne further and from watching her in the past few weeks, it appears obvious that she doesn’t need Piper anymore. She’s become good friends with Katrina Lehti, and Daphne has said that this is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. “I owe pretty much everything to her,” Daphne told us.

It appears Daphne is only going to get better and better. Could she one day be the equivalent of Shaun in female snowboarding?.

Piper sat the magazine down, her mouth wide open, still in shock from what she had read. Did Daphne really think so little of Piper? How could she have said that she owed everything to Katrina? Piper heard her cell phone ringing, bringing her out of her thoughts, and she glanced at it, seeing Louie was calling her.

She assumed he had just read ESPN Magazine, and he wanted to see if she had read it as well. But, at this point, she didn’t want to talk to anyone, especially Louie, even if he was her best friend. She just didn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

She sat down on her bed, lying backwards, wondering how her life had turned out this way. Just one month ago, she was coaching Daphne, the two of them as close as ever. She was still trying to convince Louie to ask her out, knowing he was in love with her, and she was trying to convince Daphne to just give him a chance.

Now, she was sitting in a hotel in New York City by herself. Daphne had become best friends with her enemy, and she didn’t know where Louie and Daphne stood at this point.

She heard a knock on her door, and she furrowed her eyebrows, wondering who it was. She hadn’t ordered room service, and no one knew she was there. The knocking continued, and she finally stood up, walking over to the door. She opened it up, her jaw dropping and her eyes widening when she saw who was on the other side. “Mason?” she questioned, seeing him standing there, leaning against the doorframe.