Stop
A ONE SHOT
Her wedding day.
Why wasn't she happier?
It was supposed to be the best day of her life. They had only been dating for a short time, and engaged for an even shorter time. But of course, she still went through with it, and that was why she was standing there, looking at the mirror reflection of her in her wedding dress.
"You make a beautiful bride."
She turned around, startled by the voice.
"Toby!" she cried. "What are you doing in here?"
"I needed to see you," he quietly said, stepping closer to her. "I would say the groom shouldn't see the bride before the wedding, but I'm not the groom."
She rolled her eyes and asked, "And whose fault is that?"
"All mine," he said, smiling a sad smile at her. "It wasn't supposed to be this way."
"Then what way was it supposed to be?" she asked, folding her arms.
He stepped dangerously close to her, and she could feel his hot breath on her neck. She tried to keep her breathing pattern steady, but something about him just made her heart race when he was close to her. She looked away, feeling ashamed. She had a fiancé who she was going to marry in a matter of hours, and she was in another room getting cozy with her ex-boyfriend.
"It was supposed to be you, me, and this wedding," he mumbled, and kissed her neck. His hands climbed down her body in a way that almost felt erotic.
"You can't—" she began.
"Marry me, not him," he whispered into her ear, his hands erotically running down her body.
She stepped away from him, feeling guilty for what she was doing. Why was she aroused? He was supposed to be her ex-boyfriend, and she was supposed to love her fiancé, not him! She knew what she was doing should have been considered cheating... practically.
"Toby," she muttered, shaking her head, "this is stupid and wrong."
"Then why does it feel so right, Spencer?" he asked, folding his arms.
"You can't do this to me on my wedding day!" Spencer cried, sighing. "Look Toby, all I needed from you was one thing—I just needed you to tell me I shouldn't marry him. There were so many opportunities for you to do it, and now is too late. One word telling me to stop what I was doing, and I would have left him for you."
"I should have spoken up sooner, I know," he quietly said, nodding his head. "But I couldn't. I didn't know how to tell you."
"I asked you after he proposed... I asked you!" Spencer yelled, her heart pounding as she did so. "I asked you if I should say yes, and you said you didn't care."
"We were in a bad state! I didn't know how to tell you that I want to be with you," he explained. "Don't do this, Spence. Give me one more shot. Our break up was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I should have chased after you the minute we broke up."
"It's too late," she told him. "The door's over there. I have a wedding to get ready for, Toby. And it's not our wedding. It's my wedding with Andrew Campbell."
xxxxx
Toby sat in the audience. He honestly didn't even know why he was attending the wedding of the girl he still was in love with. When he got the invitation, there was a part of him that hoped he could arrive and fix everything. He thought, for some crazy reason, that barging in on her wedding day and telling her that they should have been together was a great idea. He had hope that he still had a chance with Spencer Hastings before she became Spencer Campbell.
"Are you okay?" Hanna asked, glancing at him with concern in her eyes.
"I'm fine, Hanna."
"No, you're not. Spencer's marrying somebody else, and you still love her," Hanna said, as if she knew what was going on in her head.
"It doesn't matter how I feel. This is her big day," he mumbled.
"Toby, all I know is that you and Spencer were both at your happiest when you were together," Hanna told him. "I know that Andrew can never make her as happy as you used to. And of course, I'm happy for Spencer. It's her wedding day! But, I always thought you'd be the one she walked down the aisle with."
"Yeah, well, I guess we both thought that, then," he said, sighing. "I screwed up with her, and she gave me a chance to fix us, but I was too ignorant to see the opportunities that she kept giving me. I should have spoken up sooner."
"She would do anything for you," Hanna said.
"But I owe it to her to let her be happy," Toby said. "I can never give her the rich, full life that Andrew can give her, so I don't want to take her chance to have a good life away."
Hanna patted his back and said, "You're an amazing guy, Cavanaugh. And that's why a good life for Spencer would be with Andrew, but an amazing life would be with you."
"Hanna, the ceremony is starting," Toby muttered. "We should pay attention and support Spencer. This is the decision that she chose, and I have to respect that."
But he couldn't.
His whole self was telling him to stop the wedding before it was too late. He knew he would have to hold his peace forever if he let her marry Andrew. He'd have to live knowing that he let her go for good, and that she had a husband that wasn't him. So how could he live with that when he was still in love with her?
Everything Hanna said got to him. His relationship with Spencer was the happiest thing he'd ever had in his life. No one made him happier than she did. She was the girl that he thought about every night, and she was the girl that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, no doubt.
He knew that taking risks was a part of life, so... he took one.
"Stop."
Everyone looked at him in awe. Andrew furrowed his eyebrows, and Spencer was on the verge of gasping.
"You heard me," he said. "Stop this. It can't happen."
"Toby, what are you doing?" Aria asked, nudging him. "Toby!"
"Sorry, Aria, I know you wanted to see your best friend get married, but I can't let that happen," Toby announced, giving her a sorry look. He smiled at Hanna, who was proud of him. He was scared as hell, but he knew he wouldn't be satisfied unless he took his last shot to win her back.
"Seriously, what are you doing?" Spencer asked, her eyes widening. "Sit down! Whatever you have to say can wait until later."
"No, it can't," he said, and made his way to the stage.
"Hey!" Andrew yelled, clenching his teeth. "Don't do whatever you're about to do, Cavanaugh. I don't know who you think you are, but we're in the middle of our wedding ceremony!"
"Andrew, you're not a bad guy, but I don't think you're the one who should be with Spencer," he said, standing in front of the blond male. "You may have money and a rich lifestyle, but you will never love her the way I do."
"Toby..." Spencer mumbled.
"No, Spencer, I'm tired of bottling everything up!" he cried. "Watching you get engaged and now married to Andrew was the hardest part of my life, and I can't let you go through with this without giving you an opportunity. I've missed so many opportunities to get back together with you, so I hope if you still want this, you'll take an opportunity that I'm giving you."
"This is crap," Andrew said. "Will somebody make him sit down, please?"
"Hear me out!" Toby cried, cupping her cheeks. "I love you, Spencer. I'm in love with you. I'm in love with every part of you. You're the only person who's ever made me happy, and I couldn't let you go without putting up one last fight. This is it, Spence. Now is our last chance. Just say stop, and I'll sit down and let you do this. But I wasn't going to let you do this without giving you a way out."
"A way out?" Andrew scoffed. "Honey, please just tell him to stop so he'll sit down."
"Toby, stop," she said, shaking her head. "Sit down."
He nodded his head calmly, but his heart was breaking.
"Alright," he said, continuing to nod his head sadly. "If that's how you feel, then congratulations on your marriage, Spencer."
She felt a lump in her throat as she watched Toby walk back to his seat.
"At least you tried, Toby," Hanna whispered, and gave him a side hug. "I'm so sorry it turned out that way."
"With that rude interruption out of the way, shall we get back to our ceremony?" Andrew proudly asked, taking his fiancé's hands. "Please continue with the vows."
"Yes, yes, where were we?" The Pastor said. "Ahh, we have gotten the vows of the parents, now we must get the final vow from our lovers." He smiled at Andrew and asked, "Do you Andrew James Campbell, take this woman whose hand you now hold, to be your true and wedded wife; and do you solemnly promise before God and these witnesses to love, cherish, honor and protect her—to forsake all others for her sake; to cleave unto her, and her only, until death shall part you?"
Smiling at Spencer, he answered, "I do."
The Pastor continued, "And do you Spencer Jill Hastings, take this man who now holds your hand, to be your true and wedded husband; and do you solemnly promise before God and these witnesses to love, cherish, honor and protect him—to forsake all others for his sake; to cleave unto him and him only, and him forever until death shall part you?"
Everyone looked at her with smiles. Her parents, friends, family, and... Toby. But of course, he wasn't smiling. No matter how supportive he wanted to be, he couldn't even fake a smile for something that he was that unhappy about. He stared at the floor, feeling like his whole world was crumbling. Hanna was trying to coax him, but nothing she said could change anything. He felt like shit.
"Andrew..." she whispered. "You are a really, really great person, and—"
Andrew gave her a look before saying, "I know, Spencer. I want you to say you do, but I know you don't. You can't say 'I do' back. Go. Be with Toby."
"What?" Spencer choked.
"Spencer, I know you still love him," Andrew said. "I can't believe I almost went through with this marriage..." He sighed before explaining, "I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I've always known you're still into Toby. You can't be with me, and I can't be with you. You deserve to be with the person you truly love, and I deserve to be with a person who truly loves me... and only me."
The whole audience was in shock.
"You are amazing, Andrew," she said. "You deserve a person who loves you and only you. I agree with that. Goodbye, Andrew." She placed a kiss on his cheek before walking down the stage.
Andrew nodded his head, accepting the way Spencer felt. He left to go change. He was honestly relieved. He almost married somebody that was still in love with someone else.
"Spencer..." Toby mumbled, biting his lip. "What changed your mind?"
"Nothing. My mind was always set on you. I just was too scared to admit it," she told him before hugging him.
"Are you sure this is what you really want?" Toby asked, gazing into her eyes.
"Even my fiancé knew that I'm still in love with you, Toby!" Spencer exclaimed, laughing. "I'm more sure than ever. You've always been the person I want to be with for the rest of my life. I'm sure of it."
"I love you so much... you... goofball," he whispered, reminiscing about the night before their first kiss—the day that he realized he had massive feelings for her."
Spencer laughed. She was so happy that she was about to start crying. She ended up with the person she loved, and that was all that mattered to her.
"I obviously love you, too," she said, and grabbed his tuxedo collar to pull him in for a kiss. "I always have, and I always will."
xxxxx
"I always knew it would be them in the end," Hanna Marin whispered, her smile wider than ever. "Didn't you?"
"There was something about them that made it seem like they were forever," Emily Fields said.
"I never thought this day would come," Aria Montgomery said, smiling. "I'm just glad that she asked us to be her bridesmaids this time."
"Yeah, it was pretty rude how she asked her evil older sister and random cousins to be her bridesmaids at her failed wedding," Hanna agreed, nodding her head.
"Well, that was a bad wedding, therefore bad bridesmaids," Aria proudly said. "This is the real thing—the best wedding, and that's why she has the best bridesmaids this time."
The girls quietly giggled.
"Wait, stop, it's time," Emily whispered, nudging them. "It's official now."
"You may kiss the bride."
Spencer and Toby's eyes locked for a moment. They both smiled at each other. It felt much more real than her wedding with Andrew because... well, she was actually in love with the person she was marrying! Andrew was in the audience, and he was clapping and cheering. She smiled at him before turning to Toby and leaning forward.
Their lips touched for what they both considered the best kiss in their entire relationship.
He held her close as they kissed like never before, and everyone that came to support them was cheering for them.
"Save it for the honeymoon," Spencer whispered, causing Toby to laugh before she nuzzled her head into his chest, feeling more in love than she ever had felt in her whole life.