The next day at school, Spencer approached Hanna and Emily as she walked with Aria.
"Hey, are you guys okay? Aria said you got picked up by the cops last night. What were you doing?" Spencer asked.
"We were 'loitering'" Hanna said making air quotes. "Apparently that's frowned upon."
"Where were you 'loitering'?" Spencer asked. Copying Hanna's air quotes.
"We got picked up right outside the Applerose Grille." Aria said.
"What...? What time were you there?" Spencer asked nervously.
"Around eleven." Aria said.
"You were there, weren't you, Spence?" Hanna questioned in a sharp tone of voice.
"Well...I...uh..."
"Save it, Spencer, we saw you...with Maya." Hanna snapped. "How could you do that to Emily?"
"Do what?" Spencer asked.
"Don't play stupid with me." Hanna said cornering Spencer and looking her dead in the eyes. "How could you cheat on Emily with her ex-girlfriend! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"What are you talking about? I'm not cheating on Emily." Spencer stepped sideways, away from Hanna and over to Emily.
"Em, you know that's not true, I'd never cheat on you. I was tutoring Maya in math, I didn't want to because I didn't want you to be upset, but she begged me." Spencer said, taking Emily's hands in her own.
"Oh come on. That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard." Hanna said.
"You believe me, don't you, Emily?" Spencer asked looking straight into Emily's eyes.
"I'd like to, Spence, but I saw her kiss you, I heard you on the phone at Hanna's. I saw the text messages on your phone and all the phone calls you made to her. How could you sleep with her, Spencer? I lost my virginity to you, I can't ever have that back."
"Em, I'm not sleeping with...wait you did what?" Spencer said, in shock, dropping Emily's hands. "You went through my phone, eavesdropped and spied on me? How could you do that?"
"Spencer…" Emily said.
"Forget it. I would've expected something like that from Allison, but never from you, Emily. That's pretty low. I would NEVER do something like that to you and even though you don't believe me, I swear to God that I'm telling you the truth." Spencer said, as she stepped past Emily and walked away, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Em, I know things seem bad, but I really do believe Spencer." Aria said.
"I have to talk to Maya." Emily said as a few tear drops trickled down her cheeks.
Emily took off down the hall, she pushed open the doors and stepped outside, where she found Maya sitting alone at a table.
"Maya."
"Emily?"
"Can we talk?" Emily asked.
"Sure...what do want to talk about?"
"Are you sleeping with Spencer?" Emily asked, sitting down across from Maya.
"What? No. Of course not. I'd never..." Maya said, taken aback by Emily question.
"What exactly is going on between you two?"
"Nothing. Why?"
"Aria, Hanna and I saw you together last night. I saw you kiss her."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, but it was totally innocent. I got a little carried away. I was just really happy, that's all."
"Happy about what?"
"Happy that I actually understand trigonometry now."
"What?"
"Listen Emily, Spencer has been tutoring me. I'm flunking trig, my parents said if I fail any more classes, they're sending me to military school. I needed someone to tutor me and fast. You know just as well as anyone else that Spencer's as brilliant as they come and even though we aren't together anymore, I do still care about you, I'd never go after Spencer."
"You're serious?"
"Yes. Of course I am."
"Why didn't she just tell me in the first place?"
"I asked her not to. I didn't want you to be upset or mad at her. You know, old girlfriend and new girlfriend spending time together. Not exactly the ideal situation. All she did the entire time we spent together was talk about you."
"Really?"
"Absolutely. She's totally crazy about you. You're so lucky to have someone who cares so much about you. Spencer's really got a good heart, she'd do anything for anyone."
"Oh my God. I can't believe this. I'm such an ass. I gotta go." Emily said getting up and walking back into the school.
Emily pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Spencer's number. There was no answer. Emily tried two more times, still to no avail. Throughout the rest of the school day, and all night, Emily sent Spencer countless texts, none of which were returned.
Emily went to school the next day, still having had absolutely no contact with Spencer. Emily was thrilled when she saw Spencer walking down the hall.
"Spence, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." Emily said, approaching her girlfriend.
"I wish I could say the same." Spencer replied.
"Spence, please talk to me. I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am." Emily said, touching Spencer's arm."
"I'm not really in a talking kind of a mood." Spencer said, shrugging off Emily's touch. "I gotta go."
Emily sadly watched as Spencer walked down the hall, alone. She was soon approached by both Aria and Hanna.
"Have you talked to Spencer?" Aria asked.
"No. She won't speak to me."
"Are you breaking up?" Hanna asked.
"I don't know, as of right now, I'm not sure exactly where I stand with her. I talked to Maya, she told me everything. Spencer was telling me the truth and I feel terrible."
"Really? But what we saw...we heard..." Hanna began.
"It was all a horrible misunderstanding." Emily said.
"I can't believe how badly we misjudged Spencer." Hanna said. "I feel awful."
"Not half as awful as I feel." Emily replied.
"It'll be okay, Em. She'll come around." Aria said, putting her hand on Emily's arm.
"Aria, thanks for being kind and not saying 'I told you so.'"
"Em. I'd never say that. We're human. We all make mistakes and I know that even after all of this that Spencer does still love you."
"I hope so. Spencer's the best thing that ever happened to me. I need her."
After school Emily headed straight to Spencer's house. She met Veronica, who was on her way out the door.
"Hi, Emily. Spencer's up in her room, go on up."
"Thanks, Mrs. Hastings."
Emily walked up the stairs and turned the corner to Spencer's room. Emily pushed Spencer's bedroom door open and went in. Spencer was sitting on her bed, reading a book.
"Spence?" Emily said softly.
"How'd you get in here?"
"Your mom let me in."
"Remind me to thank her." Spencer said sarcastically.
"Spencer. Please talk to me. Maya told me everything. I'm so sorry I didn't believe you."
"How am I supposed to trust you again? You went through my personal things and spied on me and got arrested while doing so." Spencer said, closing her book and setting it on her nightstand.
"Spencer. I'm sorry, it's just that when Hanna and I heard you on the phone, it just sounded so much like you were trying to hide something and then when you forgot your phone, Hanna picked it up and everything just went down hill from there. Aria told us to leave it alone, but we didn't listen."
"Em, there's your first problem, you listened to Hanna. I love her to death, but sometimes she doesn't think. She gets an idea in her head and her imagination runs wild."
"I know. I don't know what I was thinking. It just made me so crazy to think that you might be seeing someone else. I'm so sorry, Spencer."
"I get why you thought what you did, but why didn't you just come to me? I would have told you the truth."
"I guess I was just too upset to think logically."
How did you guys know where I'd be anyway? Did you follow me?"
"A tipped me off. A set us up. They told me where to go to catch you and we're pretty sure A is the one who called the cops. We should have known better."
"I'm so sorry, Spencer. I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to me again. I'm the absolute worst girlfriend ever."
"No, you're not. Come here." Spencer said as she patted the empty space next to her on the bed.
"Em, I would never do anything to hurt you. I love you way too much. I know I've been kinda withdrawn lately and I'm sorry. I've just been so overwhelmed with everything."
"I know and I honestly worry about you. You're doing way too much. You need to take it easy, I don't want you to burn yourself out." Emily said shifting her position to look at Spencer. "If Princeton doesn't want you, that's their loss. There are tons of other schools that would jump at the chance to have a student like you."
"Thanks, Em." Spencer said as she leaned her back against the headboard of the bed and stretched her legs out.
"Spence, I'm so glad to be here with you right now. I hated not talking to you." Emily said laying her head on Spencer's chest.
"I know, but if this is going to work, you have to trust me, Em."
"I'm so sorry that I didn't, I was so stupid. I can't believe I almost let A ruin our relationship."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it anymore, we're past that."
"What are we supposed to do, Spencer? We cant tell our parents or the cops about A."
"We just have to stick together. A is trying their best to turn us all against each other. It's a lot easier to torment someone who's already weak."
"You always were the strong one. That's what I love about you, Spencer. I always feel safe with you." Emily said, moving closer to Spencer. "When we were at the police station, I kept hoping that somehow you'd just show up and hug me and tell me everything would be okay, like you always do. I'm scared, Spencer. When did things get so complicated?" Emily asked running her hand over Spencer's leg. "Sometimes I think A knows exactly what our next move will be, before we do."
"It sure seems that way sometimes, doesn't it?" Spencer said running her fingers through Emily hair. "But you don't need to worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be here to protect you...and Hanna and Aria too." Spencer said, wrapping her arms around Emily and pulling her closer.
Spencer smiled, resting her chin on the top of Emily's head.
"Are we gonna be okay?" Emily asked.
"We're gonna be just fine, Em. We always will be. I promise."
"Spencer?" Emily said shifting her body to look at the brunette.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you, for being so amazing. I love you so much. You're perfect. "
"No, I'm not. But this is…You and I together, like this. We're in this together, Em." Spencer said. "I'm in this for the long run and no matter what happens, I'll never let you go."
Spencer smiled and leaned down to kiss Emily. The moment Emily felt Spencer's lips press against her own, she knew that Spencer was sincere and that everything would be okay, as long as they were together.