Thursday's Child

tobescared

She could hear him before he could see him. His voice rings out in the shop and she pauses for a moment just to make sure that she's hearing correctly.

"Where is she?" he asks roughly.

"Wha–Daniel?!" her friend exclaims in disbelief as she acknowledges who is talking to her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

There's a passing of silence before he speaks again. "Where's Piper?" She can recognise the tone in his voice and she knows that nothing but trouble will happen with him here. As much as she wants to see him again, a part of her reasons that she doesn't want to see him if he will just cause trouble. But another bigger part of her brushes that reason to the side because it's Daniel for crying out loud!

"Listen, Daniel, you really don't want to be here," she hears her friend try but it doesn't work. She knows it won't work. That's just not who Daniel is. So she finishes stacking the shelf she is on before she steps out from behind it and becomes visible for her friend and Daniel to see.

She places her hands on her hips. "Daniel," she says and that gets his attention directly on her. He steps forward.

"We need to talk, Piper," he spits his last word. She nods at him before telling her friend to cover for her and then she leads Daniel out the back to where they normally go for their smoke breaks. She feels nervous about what he wants to talk to her about but she doesn't show it on her face because why should she? She and Daniel haven't spoken since she went over to his house, and despite that she still loves him.

When Daniel punches the wall almost immediately, Piper realises that it isn't something friendly he's come for. "What the hell are you thinking, Piper? Why the fuck did you send me an invitation? Are you trying to rub it in, or are you just pissed that I didn't accept your damn apology?" he snaps at her, eyes narrow and his tone full of anger. The anger is what gets her because she has no fucking clue as to what he's on about.

"The fuck are you on, Daniel?" she questions.

He shoves her backwards, making her back connect with the wall and her heart speed up a bit. She has never seen him this angry before. Not even after everything that has happened. And if she told the truth, it scares her right now, but she doesn't let it show or even acknowledges it.

Daniel pulls out a crumpled bit of paper from his pocket and flings it at her. "That's what I'm fucking on, Piper," he barks. "You and that fucking dickhead Taylor. Your fucking invitation to your fucking sham of a wedding."

She leans down and picks the paper up, uncrumples it and reads what it says. It's an invitation to their wedding, the wedding that she didn't even know had a date. It's for next year, August the fifteenth. It also says that they're just the first invites; the ones to make sure people could clear the day in advance so that they could show up. She doesn't even know when the fuck this happened, or just how Taylor had managed to do it without her finding out. Hell, she doesn't know just why he would do something like this without telling her considering it's not just his wedding, but hers as well and he knows that she's not all that in to it being in the August any way.

When she doesn't say anything to it, Daniel grows frustrated and rips it from her hand before grasping her arm harshly. "Don't play these games with me, Piper. It's not fucking fair on me and I won't respond to them nicely. If you want to sink this fucking low then I'll meet you there," he seethes, and it's then that she realises that he thinks that it was her who sent the invite to get at him.

"Wait, no, Daniel, I didn't send it," she protests but he just pushes her away and shakes his head. "I swear it, Daniel. I didn't fucking send those invites. Believe me, dammit!"

"Why should I?" he barks.

"Because we used to be best friend, that's why!" Neither of them says anything after that, both just looking at the other. She knows that Taylor will be getting a bollocking when she next sees him for this stunt he pulled, but she just doesn't know how to fix the mess at hand because she knows that he doesn't believe that she didn't send it. Of course even if she did send it she wouldn't admit it because that's just not who she is.

The door creaks open behind them but they don't acknowledge it, at least not until Daniel shakes his head at her one more time before turning around and pushing past whomever was at the door. Piper watches as he leaves and then she sinks to the ground, her head in her hands. She ignores her friend's calling of her name, and instead just wishes that she didn't get up that morning.