Manhattan

Chapter 2:

by: Mistress of the Strange

Hello! I'm sorry for not posting this earlier, but I had my first round of exams last week. Anyway, thank you SO MUCH, for your reviews, alerts, and favorites, they meant the world to me!

I'll try to update on Saturday!

If you were wondering last chapter's song was "Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg, and this one is "Stick Around", by Graham Phillips and Ariana Grande.

This is a short chapter, but it's important anyway!

By the way, if you want to know anything about updates, or the story, I am always on twitter, I'm PurpleSplash77 there if you wanna follow.

There you come with your big, brown eyes and
I'm so sure you got me mesmerized.
So sure, I'm just about to fall for you
But you don't even try and catch me.

Spencer shifted nervously in her seat as she glanced to the door every few minutes.

It had been a week since she and Toby first talked and things were going… pretty good.

The first days were sort of awkward. They talked about average stuff, like the weather, the coffee, books, and things like that, but once the initial awkwardness had been overcome, they started to talk about every kind of random things, like cartoons they watched when they were kids, what they liked to do on the holidays, when they had learned to ride a bike, favorite season, favorite food, favorite gum flavor, and so on and on.

That moment, Toby entered Manhattan and quickly searched for the girl that had been on his mind all day long.

Spencer.

H spotted her, in her usual spot next to the window, with the book "Matched" in her hands, and a half finished coffee mug in the table in front of her.

"Hi Spencer" Toby greeted after grabbing a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye".

Spencer looked up from her book and smiled "Hey, Toby! How are you?"

"Just fine."

Toby had to fight the urge to sigh. Even though he and Spencer had talked about every kind of random things that past week, initiating the conversations was still awkward, and he almost always found himself saying the first thing that came to his head.

"So… um… Scrabble?"

Spencer looked confused, "What?"

Toby pointed at the Scrabble board lying in the table next to her coffee. "Oh, that. There was a couple sitting here when I entered. I think they were playing."

"Want to play?" He asked hopefully.

Spencer smiled again, with a smile that left Toby breathless. "Sure. Just a warning though. I'm gonna win."

Toby knew he was probably in for a challenge, because in the short time he had known Spencer he had noticed she had a somewhat competitive nature, but he smiled anyway and nodded. Scrabble was his thing after all.

"How about this, the loser gets an ice cream for the loser" He asked.

"Game on." She said with a smirk.

He started getting his tiles from the little bag, and sorting them in his green bar.

"Ladies first" Toby said when they were both ready, and Spencer's face immediately changed to complete concentration Toby found extremely cute.

Twenty minutes later, both Spencer and Toby found that the other was the best opponent they've ever faced, Spencer having 265 points and Toby having 287.

The green bag had been emptied, and Spencer and Toby both had only seven letters left.

Toby looked up incredulously as Spencer arranged her word on the board. "Glyceraldehyde?"

"With the C on the double letter it is 32 points, plus the triple word score gets me 96 points". She said proudly, sure of her victory.

Toby stared at his letters, and smiled, placing down his word. "Goofball. You can put down 104 points for me." Spencer stared at him wordlessly "Thanks for the G; I've been waiting for it. Eighteen points times the triple word score, plus the 50 point bingo bonus."

Spencer pursed her lips. "Oh, 104 points. Good for you."

Toby tried to keep a straight face as he said "I like this game"

She glared at him "Let's just go get your ice cream."

Toby burst out laughing, and got up to go the counter. Three minutes later, he came back with two bowls of ice cream, one vanilla and one chocolate, and gave the vanilla one to Spencer, who looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I was buying you ice cream."

"Honestly, I think you need ice cream more than me." He said, smiling widely, earning another glare from Spencer.

"Thanks." She muttered and they both started to eat their ice cream, but when they were almost done, Spencer looked up from her bowl, looking puzzled. "How did you know what flavor to get me?"

Toby rubbed the back of his neck, nervously. "Oh, well, you mentioned last week that your sister ate all the vanilla ice cream in Christmas, because she knew it was your favorite"

"Oh"

She couldn't believe that he remember that. Silence stood in the air for a moment but then she shook her head. "I should have been the one to buy you ice cream anyway. I lost."

"How about you buy me ice cream some other day?" He offered.

Spencer nodded, smiling, but before she could say something, Barbie Girl started playing. Hanna again.

She took her phone out her purse and read the text Hanna sent her, rolling her eyes.

"I gotta go." She said, eating the last spoonfuls of her ice cream quickly and started to walk to the door. "Thanks for the ice cream."

"No problem" Toby said, "To be honest, it was really fun to kick your ass at Scrabble"

Spencer stopped and turned around, an annoyed expression on her face. "It wasn't an ass-kicking. You just won."

"Goodbye, Spencer"