[Voicemail]:

As the phone rang, Piper found part of herself wanting Austin to answer so he without a doubt had no choice but to hear what she had to say, but another part of her knew that she would struggle to get out what she wanted to if she knew he was avidly listening at the other end of the line. It rang four times before his voicemail picked up and despite her less than cheerful mood, Piper found herself chuckling softly to herself as his voice came through the speaker, belting out his obnoxious voice message. She was surprisingly happy that even though she had asked him multiple times to change it, he had never bothered to listen. After the beep, Piper hesitated, the only sounds being recorded were a jumbled mixture of the loud music echoing off in the distance from the nearby bar she had just left and the nighttime traffic zooming and up and down the bustling streets. She was too nervous to speak at first, afraid of what might come rattling out of her mouth. Finally, she mustered up the courage to begin. “Heyyyy…” Piper drug out the slightly slurred word. “It’s Piper. I um… I got a new number and stuff so… yeah. It’s me.” She laughed awkwardly as she paced back and forth down the sidewalk. “Anyway, I know it’s Christmas or whatever so you’re like… probably out doing Christmas-y stuff with your mystery family or that skinny guy and Rabbit but I just wanted you to know… I can’t stop thinking about how I wish I was spending the holiday with you…” Piper sighed, trying to hide the jealousy in her voice at the thought of him spending time with other people who weren’t her while she wasted her night alone at a bar. After a few more seconds of silence, she spoke again. “I don’t even know if you’re still listening but if you are I just…I just have to know — ” Her voice cracked, and she pulled the phone away from her face so she could take a breath. “I have to know why you never came to see me at the hospital…” Piper immediately grew choked up again, her emotions no doubt heightened by the liquor she’d spent her night consuming. “I waited for you… I waited for you for four days and you never showed. You didn’t visit, you didn’t even call…” She sniffled. “You were the first person I asked about when I woke up… I told you I cared about you, Austin! I agreed to date you for Christ’s fucking sake! I don’t do that and I did it for you, okay? Don’t you get that?” Piper was nearly shouting now. “And you couldn’t even come see me when I needed you the most…” Now she no longer sounded angry, only disappointed. “I just want to know why.” Piper wiped her face with her sleeve, taking a second to regain her composure. “You probably won’t even call me back and I get it. I wouldn’t want to be around someone like me anymore either… I just had to let you know how I felt. So fuck… there it is.” Piper pulled the phone away from her ear again, her finger hovering over the end button with every intention of letting those be her final words. But at the last second she changed her mind and lifted the phone to speak into it again. “Merry Christmas, Austin.” Then the line went dead.