Chapter 10: The Eyes Have It
"So, if I end up killing myself because of this, just know that it is, in no way, your fault." Spencer flopped on Toby's beat-up couch, groaning. She had just returned from the rehearsal for the engagement party – something that no bride but Aria would insist on having.
"Oh, come on, Spence. It can't be that bad. You've said it yourself – you're team Sparia!" Toby insisted as he poured her a much-needed cup of coffee. Even though it was late Friday night, with the engagement party the next day, Spencer knew that it was one of the only things that could mellow her nerves.
Spencer snorted. "Yeah, well this whole Batman and Robin thing would work much easier if she would stop forcing the Joker at me. I can't fight the forces of evil forever. Thanks." She nodded as he handed her the cup over the back of the couch.
"So Aria's wedding – which is supposed to be the utmost good in her life – is now the ultimate force of evil?" Toby asked, standing behind the couch and massaging her shoulders.
"Oh, you know what I mean!" Spencer rolled her eyes, chugging back a few hard gulps of her coffee. It was almost black – just as she liked it.
"Spencer, if it bugs you that much, tell her."
"Oh yeah, that's a good thing to do. How would I begin that conversation? 'Hey, Aria, my best friend since middle school, you know how you're getting married to the man you've loved for five years? And that you've asked me to plan the ceremony? Yeah, well that sickens me and I hate it with every ounce of my being." Spencer said, the sarcasm in her tone almost tangible.
"You don't hate it that much." Toby assured her.
"No, but it's certainly stressful. The smell from all the flowers from the rehearsal gave me a headache." Spencer moaned, rubbing her temples.
"Hmmmm…" Toby replied, and his hands stilled on her shoulders.
"What? That's your thinking tone. And I didn't tell you to stop." Spencer protested, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Alright, you, get up." Toby said, having decided something unknown to Spencer.
"What?" Spencer asked.
"Just do it." Toby grinned, walking around the couch and over to the stereo she had given him for his birthday two years before. He slid a CD off of the shelf above it (sadly, he was old school. His truck still had a cassette player).
Spencer obeyed, getting to her feet.
"I'd play this on my guitar," Toby said, popping the CD into the stereo. "But then, I wouldn't be able to dance with you."
Spencer arched an eyebrow, "Dance with me? You're saying we're going to slow dance? Right here. In your apartment?"
"Mmm-hmmm." Toby smiled evilly, turning up the volume and walking towards her. The first steady notes of the guitar emanated from the speakers, and Spencer recognized the song immediately.
Give me love, like her. 'Cause lately, I've been waking up alone…
He stepped towards her and wrapped his strong arms around her waist, raising his eyebrows and peering into her eyes – an invitation.
Spencer snorted, but smiled nevertheless. "Alright. But only because I love this song."
Toby smiled and rhythmically pulled her into him, taking her hand and laying it against his chest. She sighed and let her body relax into him. She laid her cheek against his chest, sliding her free hand around his back, linking her fingers through the belt loop of his jeans. He put his hand on her lower back and bowed his head against the top of her head. They began to sway softly to the music, just like they used to, oh-so-long ago. At Myrtle Beach, at senior ball…
He didn't try to twirl her – his signature move that her never failed to pull out at every wedding they went to – but instead just swayed her melodically to the tune of the music.
And I'll fight my corner, maybe tonight I'll call ya, after my blood turns into alcohol…
Spencer couldn't help sinking into him. With the pressure of the wedding, and Jason still comatose, trapped within a perpetual state, probably just screaming for release, but unable to bubble to the surface, Spencer needed it. Toby had always been her everything. Her ray of sunshine, her solid rock, her summer breeze. He tended to change form with whatever her needs were. He was one thing she could count on, through the harshest of storms.
After the first chorus, Spencer heard the soft hum of Toby murmuring the words of the song in her ear. She wasn't ever sure if he knew he was doing it, but it soothed her nerves just the same.
"All I want is the taste that your lips allow…." He purred softly and she smiled, sighing and closing her eyes tight, forcing herself to get out of her and be trapped in the preciousness that was this moment.
And they continued in perfect bliss, into that small, but clear window of comfort, their last shred of adolescence. Tomorrow would bring tidings of adulthood - the beginning of a marriage, and the ending of a youthful rite of passage, but they had tonight. And that's what would matter, in the last few moments of life, when everything is laid out in black and white.
"What?" Spence shrieked, unsure if she heard Melissa right.
"Jason's awake!" Her sister repeated, practically squealing with glee.
"What? When?" Spencer asked, already reaching for the navy Toms she had left beside the dresser, hopping around in a failed attempt to get them on without falling. The product was a nasty faceplant on Toby's carpet. Because he was taking off the night to go to the party, he had to go out to work early, while she was still asleep.
"This morning. He's still groggy and a bit uncoordinated, but what else is new, really?" Melissa giggled. "Anyway, the hospital told me that there isn't any permanent brain damage, and maybe some familiar faces will clear up the amnesia. They said it won't last long and that after a few days, he'll be fully coherent."
"That is…the best news I've heard in…a long time." Spencer breathed, sliding on her jean jacket while trapping her cell phone between her cheek and shoulder.
"I'm on my way to the hospital – are you coming? I mean, we don't have to be at the engagement party until four-thirty."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way!" Spencer exclaimed, already hurrying down the hall, through the living room, and towards the apartment door, "I'll see you then!"
Pulling the door open, she hung up the phone. But a second later, it slid from her grasp and clattered to the ground.
There, on the other side of the door, stood the one person she didn't think she would see for a very long time and a pair of eyes Spencer didn't think she would ever see again.
"Jenna?"
"What are you even doing here, Jenna?" Spencer asked. Her arms were crossed tight across her chest. She had stood, completely aghast, as Jenna smiled and slid past her into the apartment, where she proceeded to enter the living room. Spencer followed her, her jaw still hanging open slightly. Once she had gotten over the shock, she turned accusatory.
Jenna, still ever-so-chill, smiled back at her and sat on the edge of the side table.
"Well, I was hoping to catch either you or Toby here."
"Well, thankfully, you missed him, and unfortunately, you managed to catch me on my way to the hospital."
"Ooh, something wrong?" Jenna asked. "Did you finally decide to get that nose issue fixed, or…?"
Spencer rolled her eyes, "Cut the crap, Jenna. Why the hell are you here? I heard that you finally got the cure-all, magic-schoolbus surgery that made you able to see, but you skipped town with that guy…uhm…"
"Mitch? Yeah." Jenna lowered her eyes. "Turns out he thought that selling weed was more important than taking care of me."
"Well cry me a river." Spencer said.
"Come on, Spencer. Let's play nice." Jenna said coyly. "I thought we were cool."
"We are. It doesn't mean I can't still be on guard."
"I thought you forgave me for what I did."
"I did. I can forgive, but I don't have to forget." Spencer replied, her arms still knotted across her chest.
"Alright, fine. You want the truth, here it is: I need a place to stay."
Spencer's eyes went wide and she was almost thrown off balance. "What?"
"I need somewhere to stay for a while. Just until I get back on my feet." Jenna said, like the request was nothing more than asking for a glass of water.
"So you seriously think that I'm going to let you, whom I have an insane past with, stay in the same apartment with my boyfriend, whom you used to have a completely perverted thing with?"
"Oh please, Spencer, I lived with him for three years after that. I think I'm past that."
"Why can't you just say with your parents?"
"They moved to Florida, you know that. I got a job out here."
"Doing what?"
"Organizing files for city hall."
"And you really can't get a better job in Florida?"
"Oh please, Spencer. I thought you were the smart one." Jenna rolled her eyes. "I was with Mitch for four years. And he smoked weed more than he breathed. He was in a gang and…they have a record. And, since I was with him for so long, I have a record, too. City hall is the only place where I can keep my records buried."
"Can't you just…get a new identity?"
"I plan to. But I need a game plan. Which is why I need to stay somewhere while I gather my bearings."
"Jenna, it was your choice to run away with a gang-banging pothead. Why the hell are you making it our problem?"
"Well, I see it that you owe me." Jenna shrugged, easy as a summer breeze.
"For what?" Spencer asked, furrowing her eyebrows in complete disbelief.
"For not selling you out to the cops."
"Wha – are you seriously bringing up something that happened freshman year?"
"I didn't want to, but I will if I have to."
"What, are you going to run to the cops, and tell them about some crime that happened six years ago?"
"No, but you're a rightous person, Spencer. You have dignity. You'd respect that you owe me."
Spencer snorted. "Can't believe this…." She murmured. "No. No, Jenna. Just…no. Go pick up the pieces of your shattered life somewhere else. I'm not letting you drag us down with you."
Jenna glared at her and got to her feet. "Spencer – "
"No." Spencer shook her head, "Get out. Now. I don't want to mess anything up more than it is. You said I have dignity? Well, I do. I know that I am dignified enough to know that I'm not going to let this happen. Now, please, just leave, while you still have your dignity. I have to go. My brother is awake, and he's waiting for me."
Not the last you'll see of Ms. Jenna Marshall ;) she doesnt give up without a fight. I always thought a bad-ass chick like her would end up in trouble with some gang-bangers ;)
PS: I do not own 'Give Me Love'. It belongs soley to the talented Ed Sheeran
-AJ
