Hey guys! I think I'm going on hiatus for a little bit while I prewrite this and work on another Ezria story. I'll start a regular update schedule again in mid April. Sorry!
"You ready, Em?" asked Hanna gleefully as Hanna, Emily, and Spencer strolled through the hallways of Rosewood High on school after Tuesday the following week. The big swim meet was scheduled to begin in just a few hours, and Emily was beyond excited.
"I am SO ready!" declared Emily. "I have been practicing every spare second."
"It shows," said Spencer with a smirk. "You still reek of chlorine."
"Well, have I mentioned how little time I have to shower?" said Emily. "I barely have time to go to my locker, let alone lather, rinse, and repeat."
Spencer's heart sped up when Emily mentioned her locker. Yesterday, Spencer delivered the mystery package to Emily's locker during lunch, and she felt nothing but extreme guilt and self-hatred the entire time. She hated not knowing what was inside, but if she opened it, A would know. A would always know.
Spencer had been trailing Emily, watching her like a hawk, ever since she delivered the package. But when Emily went to her locker after lunch yesterday. . . it was gone. It was just gone. Since then, Spencer had followed Emily to her locker between every period, but the package still wasn't there. Spencer had no idea who took it, where it had gone, or what they were going to do with it. If A planned to take it as soon as it was planted, what was the point of putting in there in the first place?
And now, as Emily opened her locker for probably about the 10th time since then, there was still no package. Spencer just didn't understand.
"Hey, Em," called Paige as she appeared from down the hall. She jogged over to Emily with a brilliant smile. "You ready to kick ass today?"
"SO ready," Emily said as she shoved a few books into her locker. "Lets head down to the locker room now. I want to get there early to stretch before-."
The PA system suddenly crackled to life, cutting Emily off. "EMILY FIELDS, PLEASE REPORT TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE," a voice growled angrily on the other end. All eyes in the hall turned to Emily as the person on the PA spoke again: "IMMEDIATELY," it commanded sternly.
Emily's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. "I need to get to the locker room," she gasped. "What if they hold me too long, and I miss sign in before my race, or-"
"Hey, Em, it's okay," consoled Paige. She placed a comforting hand on Emily's shoulder and said, "I'll tell Coach your just ran out to get a pre-race snack, okay? Don't worry. They can't make you miss the meet." Emily nodded, but she still looked panicked. "Hey, Em, it's gonna be okay," Paige repeated, giving Emily a quick kiss. "Just head over there now and get in and out as fast as you can, okay?"
Emily bit her lip, nodded, and dashed down the hallway. Paige watched Emily as she left before giving Hanna and Spencer a cursory glance. "Make sure Emily's okay," Paige directed before heading over to the locker room.
Hanna and Spencer faced each other nervously, not sure what to do. "She. . . . Emily's going to be okay, right?" asked Spencer, her voice quivering. Hanna opened her mouth to speak, but she closed it again when she saw Pam Fields angrily stalking towards them.
"Girls, where is Emily?" Pam demanded harshly. Both girls were caught off guard; Mrs. Fields was pretty even tempered and NEVER yelled. They were even more surprised to see furious tears running down Pam's cheeks.
"They called her to the principal's office," Hanna said softly. In an instant, Mrs. Fields walked away with from them without saying goodbye.
"Han, what's happening?" whispered Spencer.
Hanna shook her head. "I have no idea. But I'm not waiting around here to find out." Hanna motioned for Spencer to follow, and the two girls urgently walked down to the principal's office. There was no one waiting outside, so they crept as close as they could to the door. Both girls gasped; they could definitely hear yelling coming from inside.
"Shit," whispered Hanna as she pressed her ear to the door.
"What are they saying?"
"I'm can't really tell," Hanna mumbled. "Um. . . something about the honor code." Honor code? Emily was the most honorable person in the world. What could she have done that disobeyed the honor code?
Spencer was about to pres her ear to the door, but she suddenly saw a person approaching from down the hall. Holy fuck, Spencer thought. What is HE doing here, right now? "Han, I gotta go," she whispered before running towards the figure.
"Spencer?" Hanna looked up, trying to find Spencer, but she was gone.
"Spencer," said Toby as she approached from down the hall. "What's-" He was cut off by Spencer grabbing him by the arm and throwing him into the nearest broom closet. She stepped in behind him, closed the door, and flipped on the light switch.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Spencer hissed. "Checking up on your plan?" He was A, for crying out loud. Was he here to make sure everything was going smoothly?
Toby threw his hands up defensively. "What plan? Why are we in here? What did. . . what did I do?"
Spencer narrowed her eyes. "Forget it. Just. . . what are you doing here? I can't deal with you right now!"
Toby was incredulous. "I came here because I wanted to find a place to talk to you without The Doctor hanging over our every word. I wanted to talk to you alone."
"I've told you before, The Doctor has a name," said Spencer, turning up her nose. "And what do you want to tell me? I'm not waiting around here long. I have places to be, hysterical friends to take care of. Let's hear it."
"Okay," said Toby taking a step towards her. The two were mere inches apart, and Spencer began to tremble when she noticed that he was, in fact, TOWERING over her. "I don't know what language you were speaking when I said 'I love you,' but in English, 'I love you' doesn't mean hump and dump."
Spencer felt herself turning bright red. "I didn't 'hump and dump,' I-"
"Um, yes you did. Dammit, Spencer, I basically. . . PROFESSED MY LOVE to you, we slept together, and I wake up to find you missing and never hear from you again? Who do you think you are?"
"Who do I think I am?" gasped Spencer. "Oh, this is just rich. Who do you think YOU are, pretending to love me-"
"PRETENDING? Is that what this is all about? Fuck, Spencer, what do I have to do to prove it to you? I'm sorry that I slept with Alison, but you have to believe me when I say that-"
Spencer pressed a hand over his mouth. "WHAT?" she screamed as her fingers curled around his lips. Her entire body became rigid and stiff, and she almost stopped breathing. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You. Slept. With. ALISON DILAURENTIS?"
Toby gently pulled Spencer's fingers down from his mouth. "Well, yeah," he said with a shrug. "Why are you surprised? We talked about it. At the motel that night."
Spencer's blood went cold. "No we didn't. I was talking about. . . " Mona. She thought the two of them were talking about how he slept with MONA! They were, weren't they? They had talked about it, and Toby admitted he slept with her! hadn't he?
But then she remembered her exact words to Toby: "She might go by the initial 'A.'" They never said her name. Just "A." That could have meant Mona because she was A, but it could have also meant Ali because her name started with the letter A. Did Toby just totally misunderstand her, and she misunderstood him? Were they just totally on different pages?
That didn't add up. It didn't make sense. If Toby had slept with Ali, not Mona, was he even A? Was this all a lie? Who could she believe anymore?
Wren. Wren was who she could believe. And he said that Toby was sleeping with Mona! "That's not what Wren told me. Wren told me you slept with Mona," Spencer breathed as she stared into Toby's eyes, the yes of the boy who she once loved more than anything or anyone else in the world.
Toby sighed as he looked at Spencer's face. He could understand why Wren would lie like that; it was totally like him. Spencer's nose was wrinkled up in concern, like it always was when she was confused. He hated that look, so he had to tell her the truth. "Well, I guess Wren lied to you."
Spencer's mouth dropped open, but before she had a second to process what he said, she heard a very familiar scream from outside the door. "Emily," Spencer gasped as she jumped out of the closet. She walked out to find Emily running down the hallway towards her, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed. Hanna was running behind her, calling Emily's name.
"Emily," Spencer cried, grabbing Emily's arm before she could run past. "What's wrong? What happened?" Emily quickly slapped Spencer's cheek, HARD.
"YOU BITCH," Emily sobbed as Spencer drew back her arm and reflexively reached toward her cheek. "YOU FUCKING BITCH! FUCK YOU!" Without another word, Emily ran down the hall as quickly as she could, hair streaming behind her as she cried. Hanna quickly followed after her, not even stopped to explain everything to Spencer, let alone acknowledge the fact that Emily, one of Spencer's only true friends, had just swore at her and slapped her. In seconds, both Emily and Hanna had disappeared.
"What the hell?" asked Toby as he stepped out of the closet behind Spencer. She had forgotten that he was still there, watching the whole thing take place. "What just happened?"
Spencer swallowed and lightly touched her fingers to the red welt forming on her cheek. "I have no idea," she whispered. Tears quickly began to flow from her eyes.
"Spencer, what's wrong?" asked Toby as he noticed her tears. He took a step towards her and pulled her back into the closet. He closed the door behind them and enveloped her into a tight hug. "What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong."
"Everything," she responded sadly before collapsing into his arms.