Toby was in rare form. He typically never would have invited her back over. But he felt her loneliness through the phone screen, and it matched his quite well. They might as well be lonely together, maybe be a little less alone.
He kept refreshing the page, trying to see if she'd responded. When she kept making moves in the game without answering, he realized he blew it. She probably still thinks you're a freak. She's probably scared of you, too. Just like the rest of them. Like everybody in this stupid town. He thought, throwing his phone across his bed and grunting. So much that. He thought, giving up.
xx
Spencer kept opening and closing the message, but decided to just finish the game. He won, and she was losing ego. He'd beaten her twice now. Why would he want me to go over there? Is he kidding? Maybe he's kidding… Yeah. But…what if he isn't? Break the cycle…. She hummed, and decided that the only way anything was going to change was if she changed, too. You can't do expect different results when you keep doing the same thing over and over.
Spencer shimmied out of her pajama shorts and into her leggings and tied on her boots. She crept out of the house, running down her porch steps and untangling her hair from the sloppy knot sitting atop her head and smushed her chapstick to her lips, spreading it evenly with her pinky finger. When she arrived at his house, she went along the side and knocked on the small window that lead to his basement apartment.
He came after a minute, opening the window and moving out of the way so she could climb inside. "You scared the shit out of me," he rubbed his eyes.
"Sorry" she bit her lip, holding his hand as she jumped down from the windowsill. "Did I wake you up?"
"Kind of…I mean, no. I was just thinking and resting. I didn't think you were coming."
"I didn't think I was coming, either, honestly… but…I, uh, I changed my mind."
He had sat back on his bed, and was just looking up, admiring her. The faint glow from a mixture of moonlight and the streetlight illuminating her from behind, accenting her curves and the angles of her face. She was such a sweet girl, and she was so pretty… and she gave him the time of day. H'e'd never seen anything quite like her.
He realized then that she had been talking and he was just staring at her. "Well… come, sit" he moved over on his bed making room for her. He leaned back on his elbows and watched her sit down next to him. He exhaled loudly, relieved at the order of events so far.
"I'm not going to get you in trouble am I?" She said only slightly above a whisper.
"No one here cares what I do. Stay as long as you want. Make yourself comfortable." He smiled and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear as she settled a bit into the bed. "So why did you want me to come back?" she turned to him with a sweet half smile.
"I thought we could have some fun," he smiled back. "I mean…we had a good time this afternoon."
"It's a little late…and a little dark for Scrabble. Besides you already beat my ass twice today. I have some ego to protect." She nudged him playfully.
"Maybe we could do something else…" He said softly, putting his arm around her, testing the waters.
"Like what?" She felt her cheeks flush pink.
"Maybe, uhm. Maybe, if you wanted me to, I could kiss you, maybe." He stuttered. He wasn't as smooth out loud as he had been in his mind.
She let out a small little noise and her eyes flickered down. This time she tucked her own hair behind her ear. He looked a little defeated, and moved away from her a bit, "I was…" he started to try to play it off as a joke, but when he looked up to continue speaking he was met with Spencer's lips less than an inch from his. "I'm waiting." She giggled a little as she whispered; he could feel her breath warm on his lips.
Toby wanted to savor this, and wanted her to feel as respected and beautiful as possible. He eased into it, first entangling his hand in her hair, supporting the back of her head, and then locking eyes with her before slowly, finally, after what felt like forever, gently placed his lips against hers and laid a soft kiss on her lips.
She kissed him back at first slowly and softly, their lips barely touching. The kissing soon progressed to be a bit harder, a bit sloppier, a bit more passionate and intense. After all, she was a Hastings – things were to be intense, or not done at all.
A million thoughts sped through Spencer's head as she kissed Toby and welcomed him inside of her mouth. And not one of them was about stopping. She felt weirdly attracted to him. She wanted nothing more than to be there with him, doing this. When she snuck out of her house to sneak into a boy's house, she had at least a small inkling that this might happen. And she still came. And now here she was, on his bed, kissing him like her life depended on it. She wondered for a moment if she was only attracted to him because he saved her, but she quickly sent that thought to the back of her mind, wanting to live in the moment. Screw the Hastings' "Why enjoy today when you could be worrying about tomorrow" bullshit – she deserved to enjoy this.
Soon he laid her down, and his weight pressed onto her. She was nervous underneath him, her Hastings blood not letting her live in the moment without a worry. What if this is for the wrong reasons… Maybe he's not the nice guy that I think that he is… Maybe this is some sick revenge for Jenna… I mean up until a month ago I was sure he hated me… and now his tongue is in my mouth. I'm such an idiot, I shouldn't have come here tonight. What if he tries to go further? What if I say no…. he's so much stronger than me. Oh, stop being ridiculous. That's horrible. Ugh. She debated internally for a while. When they finally separated for a moment for air, he grazed his nose against hers and smiled into her. She giggled slightly and whispered "I've never done anything like this before," she tried to sound silly, but he could sense her nerves.
"I don't want to do anything but kiss, like we've been doing…don't worry." He smiled and kissed her nose, and then her lips. "Unless you want me to stop. I can, uh, drive you home if you're not comfortable." He put some space between their bodies for a moment to let her breathe and think.
He proved that he cared about her. He was gentle. "I'm not worried, Toby" she cooed, his name sounded like a song when she said it. She wanted to be good at everything and keep up appearances, not to show him that she had been nervous. But he had made her feel much better. She hated to admit it, but she could never knock her perfectionist Hastings insides. She hoped he was doing alright.
They kissed for a very long time – the longest she'd ever kissed anybody without stopping, or something else almost happening. Not that she had a large volume of experience, but still. That meant something.
When they pulled apart, they were both left catching their breath. She wanted to cuddle in close, but she wasn't sure if she should be leaving when they were done. She sat up, her cheeks still bright red. "This was…really nice." She bit her lower lip in a slight smile.
"Yeah…do you want to watch a movie?" He smiled.
"It's 3 AM…"
"So just a half hour episode. Come on, please stay. I cant very well invite you here at midnight and kiss you half the night and just send you home at this absurd hour. Let's rest, I know you must be tired too." He argued.
"Okay…" she nodded, and snuggled into him so quickly that he audibly let out a half gasp, half laugh. She couldn't hide how eager she was to be in his arms.
This kind of moment was new to her. Her parents weren't ever really romantic with each other, and they were certainly not the type to coddle their kids. She was too busy with school for boyfriends, and the ones she had had were rich snobs she met at the country club who didn't know how to feel. Yes, she was a perfectionist Hastings at her core, but deep down at heart she was not like her parents or her sister, even if she wanted to be and acted like she might be. She felt things. She was soft.
She let out a soft sigh when she got comfortable against him. "You pick," she motioned to the remote.
"How about we just stay like this instead." He kissed her cheek and played with her hair until they both fell asleep.
She woke up at 7 AM, jumping in his arms as her phone blared out her alarm tone. She groaned and slipped out of his arms to shut it, disoriented by the fact that she didn't wake up in her own room. She heard him groan at the sound and turn over. "Shhhhh go back to sleep" she whispered, her eyes barely open. But when her phone started to ring again, her eyes finally opened. Toby flopped over onto his back and sat up behind her "Ugh, I'm up, I'm up." He rubbed his eyes.
But she didn't say a word. Her phone continued to ring – it wasn't her alarm. The phone finally stopped, and Spencer put her phone down next to her and exhaled loudly, putting her hand on her head as if she had a migraine.
"Spencer, are you alright?" He kissed her cheek and wrapped his arm around her, trying to pull her back into bed to sleep, his eyes barely opened.
But she didn't answer, she just stared at her phone.
3 Missed Calls – Mom
