This is the chapter Spencer meets Toby's friends. Take a look.
Flashing neon lights lit up a dark pavement and gave it a nice glow. Inside the small, but large building, people drank and danced like there's no tomorrow. Music bounced off the four walls causing the floor below everybody's feet to vibrate. A large man with thick, brown hair tried to navigate his way through the crowd of bodies. He cursed a little when somebody bumped into him causing him to spill some of the liquid in one of the cops on his leather shoes. Finally, he made his way back to his friends.
"Uh, finally!" The peppy blonde girl exclaimed, reaching for one of the shots.
"What took you so long?" One of his guy friends asked when he sat down next to the peppy blonde.
He sighed, "it took forever for the waitress to get our drink orders. Plus, trying to get through all those dancing people," he shook his head. "Not easy."
"It wasn't easy for us to listen to Hanna complain the whole time," the tan, dark haired girl said while rolling her chocolate brown eyes.
"Hanna's always impatient," he responded with a slight smirk, flinching only when Hanna kicked his foot.
"I'm not impatient, people are just slow."
"Yeah, okay," everybody else mumbled, rolling their eyes.
Thirty minutes later, old faces left the building and were replaced with new ones. Some of the people here are so insane. Some guy with thin, long blonde hair just got kicked out for dancing and singing loudly on his table. Two girls, one with red hair and one with black, long hair, go thrown out for starting a fight. The redhead was sitting at the bar with a nice looking boy, when the black-haired girl came in screaming at her boyfriend for being a cheater. The redhead stood up and screamed at that girl telling her to back off. It all went downhill from there. While those two argued, the guy got up and quietly snuck out of the room. What a coward.
"Men," Hanna scoffed, shaking her head at the whole thing then, took another sip of her drink.
"You have a boyfriend, Hanna," the short brunette said.
"Yeah, I remember. Don't think I'm at the drunken state where I forget my boyfriend's name, Aria. I'm not quite there yet."
"No, before you get to that stage, you start rambling nonsense," the other brunette said.
Hanna glared at them and said, "bite me."
Out in the parking lot, a silver car pulled into one of the parking spaces. Spencer looked up at the colorful neon sign and sighed. Is she really ready to do this? Is she ready to go in there and meet a whole bunch of new people? They're Toby's friends, so they must be good people, right? Toby's always had a pretty good judge of character. If she can trust Toby then she should be able to trust his group of friends.
They slid out of the car and took slow steps toward the door. Just as they were walking in, a drunk guy with light brown hair with skin covered with tattoos, came stumbling out the door. Spencer moved out of the way so the guy wouldn't touch her in anyway. Toby reached out to hold the door open for Spencer. They entered the crowded room of wild people and Toby looked around for his friends. He finally spotted them sitting at a table close to the back of the room.
"I'm ready for another drink," Hanna said just as Toby approached the table with a strange girl behind him.
The other's turned and were shocked to see Toby here tonight. Last they heard he hadn't planned on coming tonight. Caleb said that Toby told him that something had come up, so he couldn't make it. Now, here he is with some mystery girl.
"Toby," the short girl with short light brown hair, and brown eyes looked at him. "What are you doing here? I thought you said you couldn't make it."
Toby shrugged, "I had a change of plans. My dinner with my mom didn't go as late as planned. I thought I'd swing by and see what my crazy friends are up to tonight."
"Well, Hanna's about to move on to her fourth drink, which none of us think she needs," one of the blonde girls said.
"Hey, you drank just as much as I did," Hanna argued.
"I thought I'd come and surprise you all," Toby said. "And, I would like you guys to meet somebody, but please don't pressure her into anything and don't ask too many questions. Basically, don't do anything that would make her feel uncomfortable."
"Who are we even talking about?" Hanna asked.
Toby stepped to the side, tugged on Spencer's hand and pulled her forward. Everyone at the table stared at the girl in front of them.
"Guys, this is Spencer. Spencer these are my friends," Toby pointed each of them out. "That's Caleb and his girlfriend, Hanna. I told you about them before. Then that's Aria and her boyfriend Ezra. That's Alison and lastly, Emily."
Spencer eyed each of them as Toby pointed them out. When her eyes landed on his brown-haired friend, Emily, she froze. Emily looked awfully familiar to her. When Emily finally looked at Spencer, she too looked stunned.
"It's nice to meet you," Aria stood up. When she opened her arms to give the girl a friendly hug, Spencer kind of backed away. Confused, Aria looked at Toby.
"I should've told you guys, Spencer's not too big on the whole touchy-feely thing," Toby ran a hand through his brown locks. "Maybe meeting here with such a big crowd wasn't such a good idea."
"We could go somewhere else," Aria suggested. "That way it's not so crowded."
"My apartment is just above this place," the man sitting beside her said.
"Maybe going someplace less crowded would be better." Toby agreed.
They all got up from the table and walked upstairs to Ezra's apartment. Caleb left money on the table to pay for all their drinks. Ezra' apartment is pretty small, but still big enough to fit everyone in without it feeling too crowded. It's a one bedroom, one bathroom, and room for a kitchen and living room area. Everybody found a place to sit and got comfy.
"Anybody want something to drink?" Ezra asked. "I have water, beer, Pepsi, sprite, tea, or coffee."
"I'll take a Pepsi," Aria said.
"Same as Aria," Emily said.
"I'll have a sprite," Alison said.
"Okay," Ezra nodded. "Anything for you, Hanna?"
"Give me a beer," she said, even though she's a little tipsy already.
Caleb shook his head, "you'll have a bottle of water to help soak up some of that alcohol you consumed just now."
"Don't baby me," Hanna pouted.
"Spencer, would you like something to drink?" Aria, who sat beside her asked.
"Um," Spencer looked at Toby before answering. She turned back towards the others and shrugged. "Maybe just a water is fine."
"Alright," Ezra nodded. "Coming right up."
"I'll give you a hand," Caleb said.
"Me too," Toby moved from his spot next to Spencer and joined the men in the kitchen. He purposely wanted to leave Spencer alone with the girls to give them a chance to bond.
"So," Aria turned her attention on Spencer. "Where are you from?"
"Here actually," they were surprised when she spoke.
"You're from Rosewood," Hanna said.
Spencer nodded, "yeah, I grew up in this town. I've been away for awhile, so things are still new to me. Even though this is a town I once lived in."
"What was Rosewood like when you were growing up?" Aria asked. "Toby's told us a little."
"Well," Spencer bit her lip. "I don't really want to go into detail about how things were, but I spent most of my days dreaming about getting out of it. Now that I'm back here…"
"You don't have to explain," Aria put a comforting hand on her arm then, pulled back quickly. She settled on a comforting smile. "We've all left places we don't want to go back to."
"Do you think the second stay in Rosewood would be good for you?" Hanna asked.
"I'm not sure. Maybe now that my past demons aren't here anymore. One of the reason's why I'm here is because I'm on probation. Toby's supposed to be keeping an eye on me," Spencer smiled softly. "Kind of like when we were kids."
"So, you and Toby were childhood friends," Hanna clarified.
"Yeah. We were very close as kids."
Hanna gave her a sideways smirk, "did you ever have a crush on him?" Spencer just laughed at the question.
"Do you have any siblings?" It surprised everyone when Emily spoke up. She hasn't said anything since Spencer walked in.
"Uh, no. I was an only child."
"Are you sure? If you don't have a sister, maybe I know you from somewhere," Emily pressed.
Spencer swallowed and shook her head, "no, I don't think so."
"Em," Alison nudged her knee. "Come on, don't interrogate the girl. Toby would be pissed if we scared her off already."
"Yeah, you're right," Emily said then turned towards Spencer. "Sorry, maybe it was somebody else."
Over in the kitchen, the three boys stood behind the counter watching the girls interact. Caleb is still a little freaked out to see Spencer. Toby told him that she died. He also told him when he found Spencer alive in that detention facility. Caleb would be lying if he hadn't thought Toby had gone off the deep end.
Ezra didn't seem too weirded out about this. He hadn't known about Toby's history with Spencer. Based on how the other girls are treating Spencer, they seem to be okay with her being here.
"Spencer really is alive," Caleb said. "I was beginning to think that she was a figment of your imagination."
Toby gave him a look, "you've seen pictures of her."
"Yeah, but not since you've seen her. I just can't believe she's really alive. Did she tell you why she faked her death?"
"She didn't fake her own death. That's what her father told me."
"I'm a little confused about this whole Spencer thing," Ezra admitted. "Who is she?"
"Spencer was a really close friend of mine I had growing up. I sort of looked after her and protected her. When she was fourteen, Spencer ran away. I thought she was dead, but she's just been away. A few months ago, I saw her in that detention facility I worked at."
"Woah," Ezra said. "Small world."
"What are you going to tell the other girls?" Caleb asked. "You know they're going to ambush her with question after question. Not to mention Hanna will want to take her shopping."
"I can't make decisions for Spencer. Only she can decide what she wants to do and how she wants to handle everything. It was her decision to come here and meet you guys tonight. I told her that if she wanted to wait, she could, but she's here. We'll just see what she wants to do."
"Hey," Hanna called out to the boys. "How about those drinks?"
The three boys walked over with the drinks and sat with the girls. Toby overhead Hanna inviting Spencer to go shopping with her some time. Just like Caleb expected Hanna to do. Surprisingly, Spencer accepted her offer. Maybe it will be good for Spencer go get out with some other people for a change. Plus, it's been a long time since Spencer's went shopping. His own mother offered to take her, but Spencer politely declined since Marion had already done so much for her as a kid.
"What did you guys used to do for fun around her?" Aria asked.
"Spencer and I spent most of our time in the woods," Toby answered. "I remember playing cops and robbers was her favorite game."
Spencer smiled, "yeah. It always helped train you for when you decided to become a policeman."
"Toby, you've always wanted to be a cop?" Hanna asked.
He nodded, "pretty much ever since I saw my father in action. That's what I've always wanted to do. I liked the idea of being able to save people. Plus, it's kind of fun when I get to tackle people."
"Well, I sure hope you tackle a lot better now than you used to," Spencer mumbled before taking another sip of her water.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Toby asked, slightly offended.
"Nothing," she laughed. "Just that you used to get taken down by a little girl. I just hope you've come a long way since then."
"Wait," Caleb cut in. "Are you telling us that this tough guy right here used to get taken down by a little girl that was twice his size?"
"That's right and I was that little girl." Everybody started laughing.
"Spencer you are great," Hanna said. "You really should hang out with us more often."
Aria rose her hand, "I second that."
"Me too," Alison nodded.
Spencer smiled shyly, "I would like to thank you all for being so kind and accepting towards me. Toby told me you all were good people. You guys are pretty cool."
"You're pretty cool too," Aria said with a sincere smile.
"We should watch a movie," Alison suggested.
"Oh, I would love to, but I have to be back in before midnight and it's already past eleven," Spencer said.
"What, are you Cinderella or something?" Hanna questioned.
"No," Spencer chuckled then stood up. "Uh, where's the bathroom?"
Ezra pointed behind the couch, "it's right through that door."
Emily watched Spencer with her eyes when she walked passed everyone to get to the bathroom. She's definitely seen her before, but where? It may have been under a different name, but she knows that face. Toby once told Emily the real story about what happened to Spencer, but she didn't know she was really alive until she showed up tonight. She has seen that girl from somewhere, but at the time, she didn't know who she was.
"I'll be right back," Emily whispered to Alison then got up from the couch.
Nobody seemed to pay her any mind when she got up to wait outside the bathroom door. She's going to talk to Spencer and find out where she knows her from. Emily's not stupid. She's seen that girl before. Emily leaned against the door trying to think back. Then it came to her. A minute later the door opened and Spencer started making her way out of the bathroom. She was stopped suddenly by a hand shoving her back behind the door. Before Spencer could get one word out, Emily shut the door, locking it behind her. Spencer stood there looking truly terrified, but Emily had not intentions on hurting her. She just wanted answers.
"How's it going, Melissa?"
Sixteen is supposed to be the most important age of any teenage girl's life. It's supposed to be the age where they learn how to drive, share makeup tips, get popular in high school, and possibly get a boyfriend. Typically, it's the age where girls start to feel like actual women. Not to mention the fact that every girl dreams about their sweet sixteen since back when they could crawl.
For Spencer's sixteenth birthday, she was treated to an empty motel room with all of belongings gone. Every few days, the whole group would split up to avoid getting caught by the police. They almost got busted with drugs awhile ago. For now on, when they meet, they meet in private.
That morning, Spencer woke up in desperate need of some coffee. She didn't have money for a motel room, so she slept in a tunnel underneath the playground of an elementary school. Nobody seemed to notice the poor, skinny looking girl walking along the road of passing cars. One car did slow down and even pulled up right beside her. A young girl, with long dark brown hair, tan skin, and brown eyes rolled down her car window.
"Excuse me," the girl called to her. Spencer stopped walking and stood looking at the girl.
"Aren't you cold? It's freezing out there."
Spencer shrugged her shoulders and mumbled, "I'm fine."
The girl tilted her head, "do you need a ride to someplace?"
"You don't have to…"
"No," the girl stopped her. "I want to help. My name's Emily, Emily Fields. I was just on my way to this diner that's five miles up the road. If you want, I could take you there. Maybe you can get warmed up, get something to it, and make a call if you need to."
Spencer sucked on her bottom lip while she thought about it. Should she really get in a car with a girl she doesn't even know? Emily seems like a trustworthy person, but then again, so do a lot of people. She's already been through a lot. What's the worst that could happen?
"Okay," Spencer finally agreed.
Emily unlocked the door so Spencer could slip right into the front seat. They drove the short five miles to the diner Emily said they were going to. Neither one of them talked much. When they got to the diner, they at a table that was away from the window. Two coffee's were ordered along with a plate of eggs with a blueberry muffin on the side.
"So, I don't know anything about you, would you mind telling me your name?"
"Uh...Melissa. I'm Melissa."
"Do you travel everywhere on foot?" Emily asked.
"No, uh, I'm traveling with a group of friends. I just wanted to get out for a walk. You know to get some fresh air."
"I understand, but it's really cold out. Are you sure you're warm enough out there?"
Spencer shrugged, "I'm fine. The weather's never bothered me much before."
"Where are you headed?"
"We don't know yet. We're waiting on for when we get there."
Emily smiled, "I like your attitude. I'm heading back home to visit my mom in Rosewood Pennsylvania."
Spencer tried not to react to that, "oh, you're from Pennsylvania?"
"Yeah, we moved there before my fifteenth birthday. It's funny, the house we lived in used to belong to this really rich family. I wonder why they would give up a house like that."
"Maybe Rosewood just didn't feel like home."
"Maybe," Emily shrugged. "I'm glad to live in Rosewood. They're some great people in that town. Especially this friend of mine. His name is Toby. He really is the sweetest. When I moved in with my family, my mother had a broken wrist, so Toby offered to help us unpack. He and I have been friends ever since."
"He sounds like a really great guy."
"He is. And lucky for me, we go to the same college. Although, this year he's not coming back to Rosewood for some reason."
Spencer looked up, "how come?"
"I'm not sure. He said it was because he had things to catch up on for school, but I think it's because he's afraid to run into an ex he had grown up with."
"Maybe he really is just busy," Spencer said.
"You don't even know him."
"Oh, I know, but you never know. Sometimes when people say they're busy, they really mean they're busy."
"Yeah, I guess."
"I uh, I should get going. Thank you, Emily, for everything." She started to stand up.
"Melissa, hold on a second," Emily stopped her. Emily opened up her purse and took two-hundred dollars out of her wallet.
"This is some extra money I got while doing some waitressing in college. I don't know who you are or what you're story is, but I know that you're not telling me the real truth. What you're hiding is none of my business, but I'm sensing that you're low on some cash."
"Emily you don't have to…"
"I know I don't, but I want to. You're young and you need something to live off of. I know this money won't last long for you, but I'm giving it to you anyway."
Spencer reached for the money, took it, and looked at it for a minute. It's wrong to be taking money from strangers, but what else can she do? She's desperate and needs a way to survive.
"Thank you, Emily."
Emily smiled back, "you're welcome. You can have the last muffin if you want or take it to go. Whatever works for you. Good luck to you."
Emily picked up her purse from the chair, held it over her shoulder, then walked out. That was the last time Spencer ever saw that girl. Same went for Emily. She never crossed paths with that mystery girl who called herself Melissa.
The water from the faucet in the bathroom kept dripping into the sink. Every other second you could hear it splashing inside the bowl. Spencer kept her faced forward, but her eyes down. She didn't think that she would be seeing Emily here. Guess she should've picked up on the fact that Emily would be here when she talked about Toby back in the diner. With Emily knowing that Spencer was the girl back in the diner, she has a lot of questions for her.
Stopping the chapter here to make you wait and see what happens. Were you surprised that Emily had an encounter with Spencer in the past? What do you think Emily will say to her? What will Spencer say to Emily? Do you think anybody else has had an encounter with Spencer in the past. Keep reading to find out.