Hello. I know I should probably update the story I have going; but I just started writing this. I don't even know where it came from.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars, (I wish I did though.)

Anyway, enjoy.


Spring 2012

Looking back, he didn't really understand how it happened. His mind couldn't comprehend how she slithered her way into his heart and somehow made him feel like this. To be perfectly honest, Toby didn't entirely know what he was experiencing. He was wary and confused by the foreign feeling that consumed his mind and body upon meeting her gaze. That beautiful gaze.

Spencer. Spencer. Oh, beautiful wonderful Spencer. What have you done to me? Thoughts, feelings and things he couldn't recognize ran aloof in the endless maze in his brain.

Why her? This strange and beautiful girl had been unexpected; not to the fact she mysteriously appeared in Toby's life (because that didn't occur) but more to the fact that she had been there all along but seemed the last person anyone sane would pluck from the world to be Toby's romantic interest. Maybe that was it? That all sanity was thrown out when you are in love?

Reminiscing seemed to be the action of the day. Toby didn't know why. He could still remember the day he first saw her.


Summer 2001

"Daddy, please can we go and buy a cupcake?" the miniature girl pleaded. Her brown hair was plaited so tightly it looked painful. Too much pain for such a small human. "I did the work you wanted me to do. All of it. " These pleads did not revoke a response from her father whose stern face remained unchanged as he exchanged business details with another man also wearing a formal suit and the same detached facial expression. "Daddy please..."

While waiting for his mother to pay at a market stall, Toby's attentive ears picked up these cries. The collaboration of his eyes and ears located the source, which shocked Toby as he couldn't believe how insensitive someone could be to such a… girl. Toby's six year old vocabulary did not yet contain the words to describe her.

Wriggling his hand out of his mother's grasp, he walked tentatively up to the girl and placed his small hand in front of hers in the conventional greeting of a handshake.

"Hello. My name's Toby. What's yours?"

Toby edged closer to her and as a result tripped making her fall over into a puddle. She squealed in pain.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

The girl looked up, in her now sodden clothing, and met his gaze; her wide brown eyes sparkled with tears. She wiped any remains of tears. "I don't like you. Go away." Evidently this child held grudges and would not forgive the accidental shove delivered by Toby.

"Wanna come with me and buy a cupcake? I have some money that the tooth fairy gave me." He revealed a variety of different sized coins and a crumpled one dollar note and smiled at her, oblivious to the fact that she was angry from his accidental shove.

Glancing back at the altercation still going on with her father and the other man, her face resolved into a cold mask.

"Daddy says I shouldn't speak to strangers." Pause. "And people like you."

His smile twisted into the beginnings of a frown. "What do you mean?" he said glancing down at his body.

"You're strange and weird. And you pushed me over. That hurt a lot. And go away."

"You're mean."

"You're weird."

Mr Hastings glanced at his daughter. "Spencer," he called sharply.

Tears formed in Toby's eyes. So he ran away from the mean girl who he decided he would hate with a passion for as long as he would live.

That meeting secured the feud that would take part between the two, but even the most securely locked doors can be broken open. After turning eleven, Toby's family moved away for five years. An abundance of things can happen in five years. Toby knew that. He also knew that the war with a certain Spencer Hastings was definitely not over. Not yet.


Fall 2011

Spencer observed the robust men in uniform shift large pieces of furniture out of a removal van into a house much like the others on the street, spacious and distinct.

A snort. "Didn't you hear?" Spencer turned around at the sound.

"That Toby Cavanaugh is moving back to Rosewood. I heard he turned into a freak while he was away. Noel told me. Apparently he tried to set his sister on fire and went into a loony bin. What a freak!" Her friend Alison was perched on her bed leaning her body towards the window to peek a look at the action outside.

"Really? What a freak…" Spencer laughed.

Toby exited his house, appearing in view. Dressed in a gray shirt and loose fitting jeans, he ran a hand through his overgrown shaggy brown hair. He said something to the removal man and then entered the house again.

"I mean, look at him. I bet he's going to have no friends at school. What a loser." Alison scoffed at Toby's appearance and demeanor.

Junior year began tomorrow and Spencer was apprehensive but thrilled. She had chosen a full set of AP courses; a challenge to some, but not to a Hastings – or so she was told. However, there was an underlying feeling that sat at the pit of Spencer's soul that told her that this year and the one to follow would change her forever; for good or bad she didn't know. And that Toby Cavanaugh would play a role in this.


So, what do you think? I hope you liked it. Not sure whether I should continue this or not. Maybe I will, I don't know.

Please review.

- smilesarecookies

xxxxxx :)