Piper had already noticed that the bracelet was gone, so she decided to go ahead and ask him about it. At first she assumed that he might have just taken it off because it was uncomfortable or something, but the fact that he was trying to hide it made the whole thing that much more suspicious.
“Hey, what happened to the bracelet?” She asked.
"I-It's back at my room…" He wasn't lying but he wasn't telling the whole truth. "I-I…I overreacted and almost left…" He added telling the rest but the fact he might've got the wrong idea.
“Why’d you do that?” Piper asked, surprised.
"…Probably a misunderstanding…When I heard you earlier I just jumped the gun."
“When you heard what?” Piper was still a bit confused. That wasn’t like Tanner at all, or at least the old tanner.
"The talk with Xander after the…Incident…"
“Oh, you mean when I said I was done chasing you?”
"Right before that."
“When I said you weren’t my boyfriend?”
He nods. "My mind was still a little crazy. With what happened with Nancy and all…"
“But I don’t understand, we had just had that conversation already. Why were you surprised?”
"As I said. Wrong mindset." He looks away. "I don't listen…"
“Oh, ok then,” Piper responded, purely because she didn’t have anything else to say. It was crazy how much she felt like she was talking to a stranger.
Tanner sighs and looks at her. "You have gotten prettier. I mean. You were unrecognizable." He laughs nervously. "And the name change didn't help…"
Piper smiled a teeny tiny smile and let her curls fall over her face.
“Yeah? Well thanks,” she said after a while. “You don’t look too bad yourself. I see you lost the bowl cut,” she poked his shoulder.
"I actually liked that style…Until my mom just Snipped. No more bowl hair." He laughs a little. "Kidding. Thst was Terrible."
She laughed outright at this. “Um, ya don’t say?”
"…" He looks down. "So are we a thing?"
She sighed. “We already talked about this, it’s way too dangerous. Wouldn’t you rather keep your future as a dancer?” Although it pained her to say those words out loud, she knew she had to say them.
"I'd rather be happy. And either way, I'd be happy, but also sad I didn't go the other route…" He sighs loudly. "I'm sorry… I never should have said anything." He looks away.
“No, it’s not bad that you said something,” Piper hated it when he beat himself up about stuff like this. “You think you’d be happy?”
"As long as you're happy." He states.
Well what am I supposed to do now? she asked herself. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t know what she wanted. She was a bit scared, not only because she wanted to keep her identity a secret, but also because he was different. She hated change with a passion, so she wasn’t really sure about how she really felt about this new tanner. They were only a few weeks into the new school year, so she really hadn’t even gotten to know him. But didn’t their friendship mean that she did know him? She decided to go with her head on this one.
“I want to be a dancer. This might be the only shot I’m gonna get.”
"Makes sense." He smiles. "If that's what makes you happy then go for it." He laughs nervously but hid it a little. "We should get some sleep."
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said, and stood up. “Walk with me?”