Spencer's POV

I sat shot gun in Melissa's black corvette convertible with the windows down and the top back with my hair blowing across my face with the wind. We were on our way to Sarah's beach house, my home away from home. I didn't know what would happen now that the house was in shambles. Or more I guess, the people in it. Jenna practically lived in her room, and she never told anyone what went on in there. Last summer, she went off on Aria for mistakenly going in there while looking for the bathroom. Let's just say that it wasn't pretty. My mom was going to be working on a case down here for some one that was framed for breaking and entering. Sarah was supposed to be resting this summer after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall after we left the beach. Melissa was running around with her college buddies getting drunk and sleeping around. And Toby…..Toby was the last person I was going to be caught dead with this summer.

'Tracy Island, Time travelling diamond, could have shaped heart ache…' My phone went off, playing the song that both Aria and I fell in love with when we heard it at the fair last summer.

"Hello?" I asked, flipping my phone open and answering the call without bothering to look at the caller I.D.

"Spence!" Aria screamed into my ear. "Where the hell are you? You're supposed to be at the beach by now! I've been waiting down here listening to Hannah bitch and moan for the past twenty minutes! Get your ass down here!"

"Aria, calm the crap down! I'll be there in thirty minutes tops. We're driving through town now, meet me at the house and bring Hannah, the second she sees Toby she'll shut up." I suggested, chuckling softly at Aria's desperate tone and Hannah's impatience. Damn, I missed those guys.

Toby's POV

My mom was pissing me off. Like, seriously breaking my balls. She was forcing me to sit outside and wait for the Hastings' to get here. I tried to get out of it, but she was insistent. What was I gonna do, argue with the woman that's dying from breast cancer, I don't think so. So now here I was, sitting outside in the freakin' 100o heat waiting on people that I would be seeing anyway if I was sitting inside. Don't get me wrong, I love Spencer's mom, Veronica was like my second mom, and Spence and I were really close. Well, we were, up until last year when we stopped hanging out. We used to spend the entire summer together, then my friends from school told me they were renting a beach house a few miles up the beach from mine, so I spent some time hanging with them. Spence didn't seem to mind much, in fact, she got over it faster than I thought she would. To be honest, it kind of hurt.

So now I don't know what to expect for this year. Will we be friends? Enemies? Frenemies? What the hell is that anyway? Or will we be worse? Will we turn into Spencer and Jenna, only talking when we have to? Or Spencer and Melissa, who don't talk at all? Can we even go back to the way things were? Will she want to? Will she actually want to hang out with me when she can have girl friends, the ones she has been secretly longing for since she out grew Melissa and Jenna?

The questions were driving me insane. I was actually starting to chew my nails, a disgusting habit of Spencer's that I hated with all my heart. What if she hates me? What if she ignores me? What if I've screwed everything up? What if we can't go back, or forward? As if we're suspended in a time warp. What if…?

My thoughts were cut off by three sharp honks. They're here. In our special summer language that we devised years ago when we were the 'Fantastic Four' we made up signs for everything. Three honks meant 'The Hastings' have arrived'. I stood up and was instantly assaulted by Veronica, engulfing me in a hug.

"Where is she?" She whispered in my ear, referring to my mother who was in the house taking a nap.

"Sleeping," I whispered back. I felt her nod against my shoulder before running into the house in search of my step mom.

The next person out of the car was Melissa, who was barely out of the car before some random as guy in a light blue pick – up drove up to the house. She got in and they drove off. I shook my head in wonder as I waited for Spencer to get out. My gaze never wandered more than an inch from the door that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt that she would be emerging from. Every since Melissa started driving down here, Spencer had ridden shot gun. This summer would be no different.

The car door opened, and my eyes snapped to it like a rocket taking off. Then my jaw dropped. And I couldn't speak. Couldn't think. All I could do was stare. After more than thirty seconds of watching her in awe, I could form one coherent thought. What happened to Spencer?