It is now November and the midseason finale has just aired. I checked out some online messageboards to see what people were saying about the show and it seemed like even some of the people that shipped Mandy with Gabby from the start were now shipping her with Rachel instead. That was interesting and I definitely don't think it was what the studio intended. I even checked out some of the fanfiction websites and found out Rachel and Mandy were also very popular. There were some still with Gabby (and I have to say the ones with sex in them made me a little uncomfortable), but they paled in comparison. I wonder if the writers knew about this stuff. Maybe they received fan letters or something. We already had filmed a few episodes from the second half and I heard that the two were supposed to break up in the next episode. I'm not sure if that would be a good idea.
Off-screen, Taylor and Ashley were still dating, as were Deb and I. Carmen had begun a relationship with some girl that I didn't know very well and moved out. It also meant that Deb and I were living together alone now. I got to experience the things that I never had with Sasha. We were just waking up and I went to get breakfast ready. This of course involved no cooking.
Deb had told me that there was talk of her character becoming a regular. Taylor had become a regular after Joseph practically begged her to be.
"Good morning." Deb greeted me, having just exited the shower. "What's for breakfast?"
"I'm making waffles." I said pulled them out of the toaster. "You know I'm surprised that you don't permanently have a Welsh accent."
"Well it's not bad as that week during junior year that you got stuck doing an Australian accent." She reminded me. Yeah that was embarrassing. We were rehearsing for a play and our drama teacher gave a method acting assignment. If we managed to stay in character for a whole week, we would get an A and would also be excused from the midterm. It was tough but I did it. Deb didn't make it easy with her teasing me about it.
"Yeah I don't really want to do method acting after that." I replied. "I guess it was good that it was for only a week because I might sound permanently Australian otherwise."
"That probably wouldn't have happened." She remarked as planted a kiss on my neck.
"So if you were crushing on girls did you ever see a girl on TV that you just wanted to kiss?" I asked.
"That would be Mischa Barton." Deb replied. "I loved her on Once and Again and also The OC. Maybe it's due to the fact that she always seems to play girls who are either lez or bi. I wouldn't cheat on you with her, though."
"So I have to go to Canada for a few days. The show is premiering there soon and we're doing press work." I stated. "So I don't want to come back here and find the house burned down."
"You know I would only do that if I was mad at you." Deb joked. "So are you supposed to get some kind of bonus since the series was renewed for Season 2?
"I get 1 million dollars?" I answered. "I need to negotiate more money into my contract for next season though."
"Well good luck with that." She replied.
So within a few days, I was on a plane to Toronto with the rest of the cast. It would be a trip back to the Eastern Time Zone. It took me a while to get used to the Pacific Time Zone and now I would have to go back. That sounded exhausting. I was sitting next to Ashley.
"So what is it like living with your best friend?" She asked. "I mean you must have had sleepovers so you would know how each other sleep."
"What?" I asked.
"I don't know what that last sentence really means." She stated. "You can just answer the first part and ignore the rest."
"It's different and fun though sometimes I feel that that's all we are: friends." I replied. "I mean I used to have a crush on this girl all throughout my senior year. Why don't I want her now?"
"I can't really answer that." Ashley said. "But that whole cinematic falling in love with your best friend thing doesn't really work in real life. You fall in love with the person that you fall in love with."
"Sounds poetic." I commented.
"I read it off a greeting card this one time." She remarked. I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Anyway I am done letting girlfriends live with me. That's why I'm glad that Taylor already has a house. It's just me and Kyla and that's how it's supposed to be."
"Yeah you're not really like me at all." I told her. "I couldn't wait to get out of my brother's house."
"Well that was probably because you were also living with his wife." She responded. "She is still your agent, though, isn't she?"
"She is." I confirmed. "God, why do we have to be on such a long flight?"
"Do you not like sitting next to me?" She asked.
"No it's not that but we have five hours on this plane. I hate sitting in a moving vehicle for that long. Don't even get me started when we drove to Disney World. It was 7 and half hours just to get to Atlanta." I explained.
"Oh do you have a picture of yourself wearing Mickey ears somewhere?" She asked. I can't believe that that's what she got out of that. I want to sleep.
"I want to sleep." I then said aloud.
"What's stopping you?" She questioned. "Do you need a teddy bear?"
"No I'm just afraid that you're going to do something to me while I sleep." I replied with a smile.
"Spencer, you don't need my help waking up to awkward situations." She remarked, to which I rolled my eyes before I leaned back in my seat and fell asleep.
I don't know where we were when we landed. It didn't look like Toronto, even though I had never been there to know what it looked like. Though, I don't think they would sell Chicago Bears stuff in Toronto.
"Why are we in Chicago?" I asked in confusion.
"I guess you missed the part about the layover." Ashley explained. "We're going to be staying here at a hotel tonight. You and I are going to be in a room together."
"Shouldn't you be in a room with Taylor?" I inquired.
"They want us to share a room since we're top billing." She told me. "We also get the best room. Well it's actually more of a suite so we each get our own room. I asked about being with Taylor but they said no."
"That would be easier." I commented.
"But we can't do anything about that." Ashley replied. "So let's just get something to eat."
Needless to say, I wasn't expecting Ashley to take me to Hooters. I also found out that I should have grabbed a sweater because it is cold in Chicago in November.
They did sell jackets at a place next to Hooters and I made sure to buy one. I suppose it could have been worse. I could have had to dress up as a Hooters girl. Oh wait…yeah I remember what I read in the early draft of the script. Apparently Gabby works at a Hooters. That's going to be fun. I mean it is something that I could see my character doing but still is going to be strange.
After we went there, we returned to our hotel room.
"I'm going to take a shower." Ashley announced.
"Okay I won't be joining you." I replied.
"Aww I was hoping you would." She responded with a fake pout.
The next evening, I returned to the hotel in Toronto. Once again I was sharing a room with Ashley and she was already there and seemed like she had been crying.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Taylor broke up with me." She answered.
"Why?" I questioned.
"She said that she can't date someone in real life and be their onscreen girlfriend." Ashley explained. I didn't quite understand what that meant. "She also said that it's because people think that we're like our characters. Plus we get it over with now before it gets too serious on the show."
"Do you agree with her?" I asked.
"I don't know." Ashley responded. "I mean I wasn't in love with her but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt or anything."
"Have you ever been in love?" I asked.
"I thought I was in love once in high school." She admitted. "But unfortunately that wasn't love."
I couldn't help but wonder what it was or with whom. Right now I was happy with just comforting her.
So the press tour with a listen less fun because of the cold. I didn't know much about how Canadians felt about gay television. I think I heard somewhere that gay marriage was legal there so I guess they were okay with it. Well there was a big release party so I think the studio was banking on it.
Aside from the cold, being in Canada was kind of fun. We didn't get to anything snow related which I was a little disappointed about. I wanted to take Ashley skiing to get her mind off of the breakup.
We returned to Los Angeles after a few days traveling Canada. It felt good to be home. We were going to have a day off before we resumed filming and I couldn't wait to see how it turned out. But right now, I just wanted to relax and have a lazy day with my girlfriend. I walked in the door.
"Spencer, I need to talk to you about something." Deb replied.
"About what?" I asked curiously.
"Well remember how we were talking about Mischa Barton before you left?" She questioned.
"Yes…" I answered, not sure where this was going.
"Well she asked me out." Deb replied to my shock.
"Did you tell her no?" I asked.
"I said yes." She said which was more shocking. "Spencer this is a once and a lifetime opportunity to go out with a girl that I've been crushing on forever. I thought about but I don't really feel like our relationship is going anywhere. I mean we haven't had sex and I don't really want to. Can you tell me that you feel this too?"
"I do feel like that even though we're together, we're just friends." I agreed. Though, I was a little offended when she said that she didn't want to sleep with me.
"Exactly: I feel that having sex with you would feel like having sex with my sister and I don't want to think about that." She added. Okay that was a scary thought. Come to think of it, I kind of agreed with her about that. "But if you want me to move out, I will."
"You don't have to move." I told her. "You just have to change rooms."
"Great now I need to get ready for my date." She replied.
So, that night I decided to call Ashley over. I don't think I really needed comforting since the decision to break up was kind of mutual but I still needed a friend to talk to about how Deb and I were only going to be friends.
Ashley arrived not soon after I had called her. I guess she didn't really have plans for tonight.
"So it looks like we both got dumped in less than a week apart." She stated.
"Looks that way." I agreed. "But I'm not really depressed about it."
"Still we should break out the ice cream." Ashley replied. "Do you have any?"
"No I don't." I replied.
"Then we should go to the store together and get some." Ashley suggested.
After a trip to the supermarket, Ashley and I returned to my house with ice cream and various toppings. Apparently we were going to be making sundaes. I'm not sure how many calories would be in these but this was going to be a onetime thing and this probably would cause me to gain any weight so I wouldn't need to go to the gym after work.
"Okay this is awesome." Ashley remarked in regards to her chocolate marshmallow sundae.
"This was a good idea." I concurred as I took a bite of my strawberry banana split.
"You know I really like spending time with you." Ashley stated.
"I like spending time with you too." I told her. "You're welcome to stay over if you want. I don't think Deb would mind."
"Are we going to strip to our underwear again?" She asked with a playful look on her face.
"Maybe after we eat." I responded with a smile "I don't want to get any of this stuff on my knickers."
"Yeah that's a good idea." Ashley said. "Wait did you just use the term knickers?"
"I did. That's what Deb calls them." I replied. "I think the British accent is starting to take over a little."
I then noticed that Ashley seemed to be staring at me.
"What is there something on my face?" I asked.
"Yes, let me get it for you." She replied. I expected her to get a napkin. I didn't expect her to kiss me.
Okay so this is what you wanted. It felt rushed to me but I decided to do it. Deb will still be around as Spencer's roommate. Please don't forget to review.