All That Still Matters

Daphne stared at Piper in shock. How could she do this to Mason? Sure, Piper and Mason weren't dating anymore, but to simply start flirting around with some other guy, especially a friend and fellow snowboarder of Mason's was unbelievable in Daphne's mind. She turned around to say something to Mason, only to see he had walked off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the crowd.

She promptly began walking towards Piper, only to be stopped by Louie. "What do you think you're going to do?" Louie asked her when she gave him a questioning look. "Lecture Piper on flirting with Scotty? She can do what she wants. I know you don't like that, Barbie, but she's a grown, single woman. She can flirt with whoever she wants, and that includes Scotty."

"When did you get so logical?" Daphne asked him.

"You know, everyone always asks me that. It's like you guys don’t think I'm smart or something," he said, feigning hurt. "What do you say we go back to my room? It appears we'll have it to ourselves," he continued, glancing at Scotty.

Daphne lightly hit him on his arm. "That's not funny," she told him, knowing he'd only said that because he knew Daphne wasn't happy at the thought of Piper and Scotty getting together. "But, let's go before I smack some sense into that cousin of mine," she told him.

"You know," Louie said, leading the way back towards his room. "You and Piper are more alike than you want to admit," he told her, remembering back to when Piper had freaked out on Daphne after she had treated Louie badly. The same thing was happening now that Piper and Mason weren't together any longer.

"I don't know if I want to know what you meant by that," Daphne admitted.

She tried to let the whole Piper and Mason thing go as she and Louie watched a movie in his room, but it was obvious to Louie that Daphne wasn't paying any attention to the movie, and her mind was completely elsewhere. "What're you thinking about?" Louie finally asked her as the movie credits rolled across the screen.

"Huh?" Daphne asked, not having heard what he said.

"Are you sure you don’t want to date Mase?" Louie joked. "I mean, you're awfully worried about him," he smiled at her.

Daphne playfully glared at him. "No, I don't want to date Mase. I just…you know they're happier when they're together. Why can't they see that?" she asked.

"You've got to let them figure that out on their own," Louie told her. "And, you need to get them off of your mind before you let it get to you when you're at the top of the pipe. You know you can't have any worries up there."

"I know," Daphne smiled at Louie, always thinking about snowboarding and competitions. "Got any suggestions on how to get them off my mind?" she asked him suggestively.

"I've got an idea or two," Louie smirked, pushing her backwards on his bed and pressing his lips to hers. Things were just starting to get heated up when they heard the door to the room open up, and Daphne pushed Louie away to see who had interrupted them.

"Finally pull yourself away from Piper long enough to come back to your room?" Daphne snapped at Scotty who walked to his suitcase as if he hadn't just walked in on his two friends making out. Louie turned to look at Daphne, surprised she had just said that to Scotty.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scotty questioned, looking up from rummaging around in his suitcase, trying to find something to change into.

"We saw you and Piper looking awfully friendly a little earlier tonight," Daphne said, not giving him much information.

"What are you talking about, Daph?" Scotty asked. "So, we were talking, am I not allowed to talk to her now?" he asked, having no idea where Daphne was coming from, but beginning to feel a little bit defensive towards her.

"She belongs with Mason," Daphne stated matter-of-factly.

"And she and Mason broke up," Scotty responded.

"And, if some people," she began, giving Scotty a look. "Would stay out of it, they'd get back together," Daphne said through gritted teeth. Scotty began laughing, causing Daphne to get angrier.

"Do you hear your girlfriend?" Scotty asked Louie. "I think she's letting the pressure of being in the Olympics get to her head. Seriously, she thinks Mase and Piper are going to get back together if I'm not in the way," he continued laughing before turning back towards Daphne. "Daph, I hate to break it to you, but I'm not the one keeping Mase and Piper apart. They are. And, I'm not trying to hook up with her, if that's what you think I'm doing. I'm not going to deny that Piper's a hot girl, and trust me, I'd love to tap that," he added semi-jokingly, earning a glare from Daphne. "But, I wasn't the one hitting on her. It was the other way around. So, instead of interrogating me, you might want to be talking to her."

Daphne ignored Scotty, turning to Louie. "I better get going," she told him. "I'll see you tomorrow," she added, giving him a quick kiss before walking straight to the door, not saying a single word to Scotty.

As she walked back towards her room, she thought about what Scotty had said. She knew he wasn't fully to blame, but he was the easy scapegoat. By the time she reached her room, Daphne was even angrier than she had been before, and she turned right around without even walking inside, heading towards Piper's room.

She knew if Louie had been there, he would have tried to stop here, but that was just it, Louie wasn't there with her right now. She wondered what he had meant when he had said that she and Piper were more alike than she thought, but she didn't ponder it anymore when she reached Piper's door. She heard her voice coming from inside, and she knocked on the door, soon to be met by Piper's face a few moments later.

"What do you need, Daph?" Piper asked, sticking her head out the door, but not opening it much further than that.

"I need to talk to you," she replied, pushing on the door a bit. "Piper, let me in!" she ordered.

Piper sighed as she moved out of the way, and Daphne soon understood why Piper didn't want to let her in: sitting on Piper's bed was a man that looked vaguely familiar to Daphne, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she'd seen him before. He had a sexually frustrated look on his face, with half of his buttons of his shirt undone.

"Piper, I need to talk to you in private," Daphne said through gritted teeth, and when it became obvious the man wasn't going to move, Daphne grabbed Piper's arm, tugging on it, leading her out into the hallway. "What the fuck are you thinking?"

"What?" Piper asked obliviously.

"What the hell are you doing in there with that guy?" Daphne asked, exasperated.

"I'm pretty sure I don't need to give you the birds and the bees talk at your age, especially when you're dating Louie," Piper tried joking with her.

"What about Mason?" Daphne asked, ignoring her comment.

"What about him?"

"You still love him," Daphne replied. "We both know you still do."

"Daph, when are you going to come to terms with the fact that Mase and I broke up? Seriously, you're taking the breakup harder than either he or I am. You'd think you were the one that was dating him. And, I'm pretty sure if you don’t stop concerning yourself so much about it, Louie's going to start thinking you like Mase more than you're letting on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got someone waiting inside for me," she told her with a smirk on her face as she walked back inside her room.

Daphne remained outside, shaking her head, before she finally began heading back to her own room. When she walked inside, she found Kelly wasn't inside, and Daphne plopped down on her bed as her cell phone began ringing. She saw it was Louie calling, and a smile formed on her face. "Hey," she answered.

"So, what'd Piper say when you confronted her?" Louie asked, a smile in his voice, and Daphne could just picture a know-it-all sort of expression on his face. It was scary how well he knew both Daphne and Piper, and he seemed to always know their next move before they did themselves.

"Oh, she had a lot to say," Daphne said, leaning her head back against the headboard as she sat up in bed.

"Like?" Louie prodded for information.

"She had a guy in her room."

"Daph, you sound like a mother of a teenager," Louie laughed.

"I just…I feel like if I give up on them, no one else is going to believe in them," she sighed.

"If they're meant to be, they'll end up together," Louie shrugged. "But, in the meantime, you've got to let them do that on their own. And, you need to focus on yourself and snowboarding. What do you say we hit the pipe again tomorrow? Just for fun. No thinking about anyone else. No Piper. No Mason. No anybody. Just you, me, and the pipe."

"Sounds perfect," Daphne smiled. "Meet you at eight," she added.