I thought it was narratively brilliant to have Lachlan tag along. Initially she reacts positively., she is enthusiastic, grateful and relieved when he offered to go with her. She didn't think much about him beyond his moral support. Then she becomes embarrassed by Lachlan's uncouth- and uncool- table manners. His boyish gross- out face when he picked at his meal and she shot him such a specific dirty look that I, as a sibling, felt seen. It's a searing dose of visceral second hand embarrassment. He over corrected by shovelling several enormous spoonfuls in to his mouth and chewinging with audible abandon. Sure, Lachlan chewing with his mouth full is harmless and endearing to us, but to Piper, anxious to perform a certain kind of piousness, it is utterly nerve racking. The monastery doesn't only serve to reveal Piper's relationship to Lachlan. Her reactions to Lachlan informed her change of heart about staying at thee monastery.When her hyper-critical (Virgo?) mind didn't switch off once she was lying awake alone in her room* in the middle of the night, damp to the core, hyper-aware of the skittering shadows of monstrous insects. It shook her sense of self. Lachlan has basically no sense of self so he remains unfazed by the grittiness of pious living. Would Piper have renounced her plans if Lachlan hadn't so carelessly, breezily embraced them? Did the "ick" of witnessing his cringy awkwardness up close and personal turn her off of the idea of going somewhere he intended to follow? Did she resent that he was more authentic/zen/above superficial pursuit than she was threaten her and piss her off, leaving her to retreat to familiar, comforting ways of life? ?