Skylar's POV:

When we arrived home, the house was quiet. It was around ten at night, and most of the lights were off. We came in with the groceries, and no one was around.
“Louis and Piper must have gone to bed already,” observed Zayn. He glanced at Scarlett and shrugged. She nodded, and walked into the kitchen with her share of groceries. I was curious by that look; did Zayn and Scarlett know something? I shook the feeling away and followed them into the kitchen, with Niall following behind me.
“Gosh, Niall. We must have spent at least five hundred dollars on groceries,” commented Scarlett, leaving the kitchen to go back to the car to get the rest of the groceries. I had sat in the back with Niall, and we had been surrounded by groceries up to our armpits. There were even some sitting at the foot of the passenger’s seat where Zayn had sat. We really had gone overboard.
Niall grinned.
“I eat a lot,” he said simply, putting the milk away in the fridge. He had insisted on buying skim, 2%, and whole. I had no idea why. He had said that we were going to need all of them.
“I’m glad we paid for it,” said Zayn, taking out some of the groceries from the bag. “I wouldn’t want to make you guys pay.”
He directed the last part at me and Scarlett. Scarlett had returned with three more bags, and set them down on the counter next to the rest.
“Yeah, thanks for that,” said Scarlett, smiling at him. Smiles from Scar were rare when you were a boy. I was finding their interaction more and more suspicious. All throughout dinner, Scar and Zayn had talked and laughed and had basically tuned Niall and I out the entire time. That would have been fine if Niall hadn’t been so focused on the food, so I ended up basically listening to Zayn and Scar banter for an hour and a half.
“No problem. We’re used to having to pay an arm and a leg for Niall’s groceries,” laughed Zayn, putting away the five different kinds of cereal that Niall liked. Pretty much everything we had bought had been Niall’s choice. We needed crackers? He wanted a specific kind. Coffee? Niall will only drink this brand. I found it both amusing and a little annoying.
We heard someone stomp down the stairs, and a moment later, Louis entered the kitchen. He looked a little ruffled and more than a little tired. His eyes were blurry and he yawned.
“Hey guys,” he said, stretching as he yawned. “What’d you bring back?”
“Oh, the usual,” replied Zayn, and I found that a little strange. The usual? As in, Niall ate this much food regularly?
“Ah, did you buy enough for the rest of us?” asked Louis, peering into one of the shopping bags.
“Hopefully. We nearly bought out the store,” said Zayn, putting some napkins away.
Louis took out an apple and washed it in the sink before biting into it.
“Wow,” he said, surprised. “These are really good.”
“Michigan’s known for their apples,” Scarlett said, putting away some vegetables.
“Well, I like Michigan then,” said Louis amiably. He sat down at the little booth jim-jammed in a nook. It overlooked the forest, and in the daytime it was really pretty to look out and see all the different hues of green. At night, though, it was dark and scary, and I hated sitting there or even looking out the window.
“Where’s Piper?” I asked. I was careful not to imply that they had spent the evening together. I didn’t want Louis to get offended.
Louis shrugged, showing little emotion.
“I think she left to go out somewhere,” he said vaguely. “I haven’t seen her really.”
The way he phrased that made me more suspicious. It sounded as if he was trying to cover up something. I wasn’t sure what, and I didn’t know why he would, but I did know that he was doing a good job at hiding it because no one else said anything or acted like there was anything wrong.
“Oh, okay,” I replied, trying to act natural. “I think I’ll just call her on her cell then. I just wanted to ask her if she’d eaten yet.”
Scar looked up.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. After all, there was no food in the house,” she said.
I heard the garage door open, and I figured it must have been Piper, but a moment later Reagan, Liam, Harry, and Lucy walked in.
“Hey,” said Harry, tossing the keys into the key jar we kept on the counter. “I see you guys got groceries.”
Zayn nodded.
“Yeah, we bought enough to maybe feed Niall for a few days,” said Zayn sarcastically.
“Don’t worry, the grocery store’s like five minutes away,” chided Scarlett. “We can get more groceries.”
Reagan sat down across from Louis in the booth and looked around.
“Where’s Piper?” she asked worriedly.
“She left a while ago, according to Louis,” I said, putting Louis on the spot. He didn’t react the way I wanted him to.
“Yeah, she didn’t tell me where she was going,” said Louis, examining his hand. He seemed really interested in it.
“Maybe we should call her? It is really late,” chimed in Lucy.
“Does she usually go out on her own?” asked Harry, sitting down next to Louis.
“Not often, we usually stick together,” said Scar, putting away the last of the groceries and folding the paper bags and putting them in a drawer. We all stood there for a moment, in silence, wondering where Piper may be.
“I’ll call her,” I volunteered, taking out my phone from my back pocket and dialing Piper’s number. I put the phone up to my ear and turned my back on everyone. As the phone rang, I felt my anxiety grow. I wish we hadn’t left Piper alone. She’s been under so much stress lately, and I felt like we’d been so focused on our own love lives that we hadn’t really had much time comforting her. Other than Reagan, most of us had just brushed her off when she admitted to sleeping with Louis.
Finally, she picked up.
“Hi,” she said blandly. It almost seemed like she wasn’t happy that I’d called.
“Hey, where are you?” I asked worriedly. “We just got back and Louis said you went out…”
“Yeah, I decided to go for a drive to clear my head,” sighed Piper. “Louis and I talked.”
I decided it’d be best if I got out of earshot from the others. I went out into the living room, then locked myself in the bathroom.
Sitting on the toilet lid, I said, “What’d you guys talk about?”
“I asked him why we’ve been avoiding each other, and he basically told me that he had a girlfriend, and that it was a mistake,” said Piper in a monotone voice. “How could I have been so stupid?”
“At least he wasn’t using you,” I pointed out.
“True, but Sky…I really…” but she was cut off by a loud screeching sound and a loud pop.
“Piper! Piper! What was that? Oh God, Piper!” I exclaimed, standing up quickly.
There was a long silence, where all I heard was static, before I gasp and the line went dead.