When the Violin Sings

Chapter 31

Piper knew her next meeting with Lucy would be awkward, but she did not expect them to be aimlessly wandering around the outskirts of the neighborhood without exchanging more than a few words with each other. Lucy walked with purpose at least, and her phone was nowhere in sight, but Piper almost missed the distractions. It at least had given them something to talk about. Piper never knew she could be more annoyed with Lucy's silence than Lucy actually speaking.

"This way," Lucy grumbled, turning a corner.

Piper scribbled down a few notes in her notebook to try to distract herself. She hated this. She hated the silence. She hated the tension. Yet she couldn't gather the courage to speak or apologize.

"Do you think you could've gone to the right instead?" Piper wondered. "It may be more likely based on steepness that there's a road going up that way."

"No. I'm fairly certain I went this way," Lucy said.

Piper kept her mouth shut. She didn't feel like it was appropriate to argue today. She was tired of arguing anyway. Instead she kept quiet and followed Lucy. It was clear the more they walked that they were not making progress. She was sure Lucy could sense this, though Piper knew Lucy's stubbornness better than anyone, so she let Lucy blindly lead her and didn't complain.

It was around the time that the sun was going down and Lucy was still mindlessly walking in circles that Piper finally gathered the courage to speak up.

"I think we should stop here for today before it gets too dark. We can pick up tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," said Lucy somewhat disappointedly.

"I can route us back with my phone," Piper said. She smiled slightly, reminded of the first few days she worked with Lucy where they would end up five miles off from campus. Today wasn't nearly as far. It was a reminder of how far they had come, but Piper's smile dropped when she realized how much work she still had to do, as well as the fact that that work had been made more difficult after her outburst at Lucy the other day.

Piper walked quietly. She was comforted by the sound of Lucy's footsteps walking behind her, but she was disappointed that Lucy wasn't walking alongside her like she used to. When they got closer to the school, Lucy began to turn.

"Where are you going?" Piper asked.

"Going out with a friend. I'll look for your text tomorrow," Lucy said simply.

"Oh. Okay. See you," Piper said.

Lucy said nothing and turned, leaving Piper alone. She wanted to say something to Lucy as she watched her walk away, but she wasn't quite sure what. Piper had made it quite clear where she stood yesterday. It was hard to backtrack on that. And Piper still wasn't too sure if she regretted her words either.

With a sigh, Piper returned to campus. She still had not told Julia about her fight with Lucy. Perhaps she could rant when she returned. She knew Julia had gone home for the afternoon to do laundry. Hopefully she was back. Piper couldn't stand feeling so alone.

When Piper entered into her dorm, she was upset to find that Julia was still gone. She knew she shouldn't be. It wasn't like Julia was out on a date.

Piper moved to the side of the room to shut the blinds and turned on her lamp. The dorm was suddenly lit up in an orange glow. Piper climbed up onto her bed and laid on her back. She reached her phone and began to scroll mindlessly when the door opened suddenly.

Piper looked up, ready to welcome Julia back, and then she saw how red Julia's eyes were. Julia stood in the doorway, sniffling slightly and let her bag drop to the ground.