Author's Note This is my first Pretty Little Liars story. I have recently become OBSESSED with this show! No worries, I'm totally caught up. The first couple I found myself shipping with so much force had to be Spoby. They're absolutely perfect, I'm sorry. Anyway, I've been yearning to write a little ficlet on the pair and I am just now getting around to it, but I hope it's fabulous!
Disclaimer I don't own anything to do with Pretty Little Liars. I'm not creative enough, so I'll leave that to Marlene King and Sara Shepard.
Read at your own risk, and please enjoy!
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Credible Concoction
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The inescapable light beamed forcefully from the window of the Hastings barn, piercing Spencer's eyes as she tossed groggily in her sleeping bag. The sharp pounding in between her temples signaled just how hungover she was. Judging by the position of her slim body on the floor, it had to have been some night. She groaned as she pulled her right leg from outside the mess of blankets and covered her head with whatever pillow she could reach. What the hell?
"Wake up, Sleepyhead!" a voice from just next to Spencer blasted through the room.
She sat up and yawned, clearing her throat while the blurred image of the unknown became clearer. "Aria?"
Her petite accompaniment handed her a steaming mug of coffee, to which Spencer immediately snatched, taking a deep gulp from it. "Happy Birthday, Spencer!" Aria grinned, attempting to give her grump of a friend a one-armed hug.
"How did you get in here? Thanks for the coffee."
"Well, if you didn't do those shots last night, you might know the answer to your own question," Aria scoffed. "Hanna, Emily and I took the liberty of throwing you a mini-birthday party before your actual birthday. Hanna brought the Jack Daniels, don't ask me how she got it. And as for the cup of joe, I asked the barista at the grille for your usual order."
Spencer sat indian style on the floor, sipping the strong brew. Small tidbits of the night before were slowly finding their way back into her memory. All she could recollect was the horrible sting of the smoky, burning alcohol running down her throat. She cringed. Just thinking about it made her feel like gagging and dry heaving right there.
"Did I barf?"
"Twice."
"Oh, God! How many shots did I...?"
Aria caught her mid-sentence, "Eight. Hanna insisted on eighteen in honor of your eighteenth year, but we didn't want to kill you before you even hit the big 1-8, so she settled for a meager eight."
"Eight! Eight? And you didn't think that was enough to kill me? I have never been this shit-faced in my entire life!" Spencer pressed her thumb to her temples. "You are the meanest friends ever."
She'd read that seven to ten shots of alcohol in one sitting can kill someone, let alone give them alcohol poisoning. What were they thinking? Emily didn't even make it to five shots before she fell off the barstool on her eighteenth.
Spencer grabbed onto Aria's shoulder and propped herself up onto her feet. She walked from one end of the room to the other. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar leather jacket scrunched into the corner of the sofa. "Toby was here?"
Aria sighed, "Yeah, about a half hour after you did the shots, you started sobbing hysterically and asking... no actually you were begging for him." Spencer could hear the faint chuckle that Aria seemed to be hiding. "Emily took pity and texted him, despite mine and Hanna's desire to keep it an all-girl get together. We all felt terrible, too, he thought you were seriously in trouble."
"Jesus. This story just keeps getting more embarrassing as it progresses. Please tell me I kept all my clothing on and there was no table dancing like at St. Patricks Day." Spencer bit down on her bottom lip.
Just three weeks prior, the gang had all made good use of their fake I.D's and went out for a St. Patricks Day celebration at some authentic pub Ezra's old college buddies opened in Allentown. Spencer had made it very clear that she would not be indulging in any form of alcohol this night, but had somehow crossed paths with the drink. Two and a half tall glasses of Guinness later, she was on top of the bar shaking her hips to some Fergie song as a slew of hammered middle-aged men and frat boys were cheering her on.
As much as Toby had felt bad for her getting so tipsy, it was quite funny to see her up there letting loose. The next morning had been nothing short of humiliating when Hanna and Aria made sure she knew what had gone on, and just how smashed she had been. Drunk Spencer was now a running joke among the seven of them
"Luckily for you, there was no table dancing. But Hanna did sing a very sloppy rendition of the Britney Spears' cover of Satisfaction. That was memorable." Aria cracked up at the thought. "Anyway, Toby rushed in and wasted no time comforting you. It was sort of cute, seeing him all protective-like, but then you vomited on his shoes and it became not so intimate. He left to clean them once he'd gotten you to sleep. He also said he'd come back for his jacket before the party tonight, though."
Spencer glanced up from resting her head in her palm, "Where the hell are Hanna and Em?"
"They left about an hour ago. Apparently Caleb has this amazing recipe to cure hangovers," Aria revealed to her best friend's dismay "Don't lose hope, whatever it is was what got Hanna so sober before the Christmas Pageant." She explained, referring to the night Hanna stayed up til 3 AM drinking vodka because Kate had shown up to her Christmas party in the same Marc Jacobs jumper.
"Who said I was so pessimistic?" she snapped.
"Hey! Stop it, it's your birthday. Get happy, kiddo, you're finally 18!" Aria smiled.
Spencer sighed, "Thank you, Ari. For everything. And to be honest, no one's eighteenth birthday is as monumental as yours will be. What are you and Fitzy planning?" she waggled her eyebrows suggestively at the hint.
Aria had decided back in January that for her birthday the next month, she would finally give in and move all of her belongings to Ezra's and officially live with him. He'd been asking since around Thanksgiving when her parents were flexible enough to allow Ezra to attend Thanksgiving at her grandmother's house in New Hampshire. She had always wanted to, and knew that some day she would. It didn't seem like the best time considering she was still only seventeen. They weren't exactly taking anything slow, she had already spent so many nights in his apartment that there wasn't really anything special about moving in with Fitz, except for the actual step in the relationship of moving in with someone.
"Shut up, we're just going to spend it transporting and unpacking my things." Aria defended bashfully. "If you must know, I've already started to box things up."
Spencer squealed at this confession "What kind of things?"
"Ew, no. Down, girl. I mean just little things, books, DVDs, jewelry, that sort of stuff." Aria said as rolled up her sleeping bag and stuffed it into the carrier.
"What sort of thing?" Hanna butted in inquisitively.
Emily and Hanna had made their way into the barn while Aria was talking. Neither girl had even noticed their entrances.
Spencer spun around in shock, clapping a hand over her chest.
"You look... like a zombie with a hangover." Hanna frowned at the tall brunette.
Spencer gaped at the ditz before her, snatching a Styrofoam cup she had assumed was Caleb's concoction from her hands. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"What she means," Emily began sympathetically "is that you look like you could use a nice hot shower and some real food to sponge up all that alcohol in your system."
Emily elbowed Hanna, who gasped "Yeah, you're so beautiful, happy birthday!" she tried again.
"Thank you, now what is this and is it going to help me or not?" Spencer nodded to the cup she had stolen from Hanna.
"Yes, absolutely, just don't ask what it is. Drink up." Emily rubbed Spencer's shoulders, sitting her down on the sofa.
Spencer sucked in a hard breath before bringing the cup to her lips, gagging at the smell. She didn't feel like chugging anything at the moment, but she knew that it was already two in the afternoon and she didn't have a choice. She had to be at her party in four and a half hours and she'd like to show up smelling like a rose.
Plugging her nose with her thumb and index finger, she took a large swig of the drink. She winced at the vile taste, she suspected it to be a mix of buttermilk, lemon juice and a drop or two of Pepto. She cursed Caleb for having such a disgusting combination, but she'd do anything not to feel like she did at the moment.
"How is it?" Aria asked
"Ugh, it's terrible," Hanna stated "It's like you're drinking liquified bird crap, or regurgitated spoiled milk. Awful. But, it cures you instantly."
All the girls shot confused looks Hanna's way, wondering how she came up with her last statement.
Emily sighed while Spencer downed the last gulp "Feel any better, Spence?"
"I feel like throwing up again, but the headache's already passed."
"You're color is already coming back," Aria suggested, placing the back of her hand to Spencer's cheek "And you're far less clammy than earlier."
"Told you, it works like a charm." Hanna smirked.
The four girls sat in a circle on the floor, watching Spencer go from completely out of it and back to her normal self in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, the mixture seemed to work.
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Spencer was about to pour herself a glass of tomato juice when the double doors to the barn opened noisily and the gruff sounds of Toby's footsteps in his work boots filled Spencer's ears.
"Happy birthday, babe." he smiled, holding up a paper bag. "I come bearing bagels."
Hanna almost tripped on the rug as she ran to snatch the bag from him "God, I'm starving!"
The girls and Toby laughed at Hanna's reaction to the bagels, not really surprised by it either.
"Um, Han, don't choke." Emily mumbled to the blonde who instantly began devouring a cinnamon bagel.
Spencer then ran to her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around his neck and peppering his face with kisses. She buried her face in his neck, smelling his warm scent. She looked back to his face, grinning wildly. "Thank you, baby, that's just what I needed."
Toby backed up, holding onto her torso and laughing "Woah, barf breath!"
"Sorry." Spencer murmured, glancing down at her shoes.
Toby sighed, giving his beautiful girlfriend a once-over before pulling her back into a tight hug. "I'm just glad you're ok. You were really torn up last night, but it's nice to see you sober so soon."
"I saved you an Everything, Spence!" Hanna announced, pulling Spencer out of her trance. Hanna flagged her friend over to the table at which the three of them were all sitting, each munching on their own bagel.
"My favorite," she turned to back Toby "You're the best, Toby. Thank you."
"They're just bagels. Your real present comes later tonight." he smirked.
Spencer kept hold of his hand as she dragged him over the the table. She then proceeded to make her way around the kitchen, grabbing a butter knife from the silverware drawer and doctoring up her everything with cream cheese.
Two bites into her breakfast, Spencer began to feel a little woozy all over again. What now? The drink seemed to rid her of her hangover, yet she was starting to feel nauseous all over again. "Hanna, are you sure there wasn't anything else in that cure recipe?"
"Not that I know of," she replied with a mouthful "Mm, but there was some drug that I don't remember how to say. Caleb said it was for clearing your system or something... Efimack, maybe?"
"Oh, shit." Toby mumbled, eyes wide in realization.
They all braced themselves for what Spencer would do next.
Spencer swallowed hard "You mean, Ipecac?"
Suddenly, she dropped the leftovers on the table, making a beeline for the trashcan by the fridge. Unfortunately, they had moved it to the middle of the room while Spencer was having her barf-fest last night. "Oh, God! Where's the damn waste basket?"
With literally no time left, Spencer spun around hurriedly. By doing this, she'd only made things worse because she accidentally ended up colliding with Toby who had rushed to her aid. She felt the contents creeping up her throat. She looked everywhere, trying like a maniac to find the trash, but couldn't hold it any longer. "Bleck!"
Before she knew it, Spencer was doubled over, vomiting.
"Oh. My. God!" Aria and Emily said in unison.
"Uh oh," mumbled Hanna.
Toby groaned, pulling his hands up to his face, "Spencer..."
Spencer had just managed to soil Toby's second favorite pair of shoes within hours of destroying his first.
How much did that suck? I was going for another, completely different approach, but the idea popped up mid-fic and I just went with it.
I'm thinking of writing a second chapter, dealing with the party. This might be enough, though.
Like? Hate? Review, tell me what you thought!