A/N: SORRY FOR DISAPPEARING. GONNA TRY TO UPDATE MORE OFTEN. I LOVE YOU ALL FOR ALL OF THE CONTINUED SUPPORT. HOPE YOU ENJOY XOXOXOX

Spencer opened her eyes as Hanna pulled a mirror behind her so she could see how she'd curled and pinned her hair half-up, half-down for prom. Spencer insisted she do her own make-up, keeping it low-key, but felt like a princess as Hanna worked her with a curling iron and countless bobby pins.

"Wow, thank you," Spencer smiled as she fingered a banana curl. "This is amazing."

"No problem, now help me zip my dress," she said turning around so Spencer could help her.

"I know, I'm late, I'm late," Aria bounced into the room, huffing from running up the stairs so quickly, immediately starting to undress, leaving her clothes amuck on the floor starting to get dressed in her dress and heels for the night.

"We've got plenty of time," Spencer laughed as the shorter girl fell over in just her heels and underwear and Spencer leaned into the mirror to apply a thin layer of mascara and eyeliner.

"I just hope one of us beats out Ali for queen, especially since Toby is a shoe-in for king. Awkward." Hanna smiled at herself in the mirror as she puckered her lips to apply a dark pink lipstick.

"Hanna!" Aria said as she shimmied up her dress and contorted to pull up the side zipper.

"What, am I supposed to act like it's not going to be awful if they're the crowned couple? Maybe a year ago we would have thought differently, but she's been on no one's good side but her own lately, and poor Spencer —"

Aria kept shaking her head to make Hanna stop talking.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Spencer felt bad about the smile fading from across her lips. She didn't want to be a bummer.

"Yeah…Spencer, could you help me with my makeup? I can never wing my eyeliner evenly and yours looks really good." It was clear Aria was just trying to distract Spencer from whatever can of worms Hanna had opened.

"Sure," Spencer obliged, doing their makeup and silently regretting her decision to ever agree to the night.

xx

"Wow," Toby's hands immediately magnetized to Spencer's waist as she was the last of the girls to come downstairs into Hanna's living room.

She had spent a moment after the other two had sashayed out of the room sitting at Hanna's vanity laboring her breathing and coming down from an impending panic attack. As the reality of the night came closer, she was feeling more and more faint. Why did I agree to this again? Just breathe, she'd thought.

She melted into Toby's arms, not disagreeing or blushing at his compliments or the Damn, maybe we should just stay here, I don't know how I'm going to keep my hands off of you, growled in her ear as she leaned in, or the following You're so beautiful, I am so lucky you're mine in a soft whisper with a finishing kiss on her cheek. She just wanted to feel safe in his arms. She felt like she was being sent off to war. But at least she had him now.

She nodded at his whispers, half in a haze, as she interlocked their fingers as the followed behind Hanna and Caleb and Aria and Holden.

"Babe, you good?" he stopped and looked into her eyes.

"I just…I'm starting to feel like…I forgot why I thought this was a good idea."

He frowned. "Do you want to stay home?" He offered slowly, hesitantly, because he really didn't want to stay home - it was the highlight of senior year, and the kickoff to the week of senior festivities. But he would stay home for her.

She saw the disappointment behind his words though and sucked in some air. She so badly wanted to give up, to say yes, to spend the night holed in his bedroom with his new The Decemberists vinyl on loop and lazy kisses and bad sitcoms. But she remembered how she promised to be brave, to be better for him. So she sucked in a breath and painted a smile on her face as she saw her friends - friends (!) - waving her towards them.

"We're already late, come on lovebirds let's g0o0o0o!" Hanna called out, sticking her head out of the car's window.

Spencer couldn't help but giggle. "Let's go," she tugged on his hand and lifted her dress so she could run towards the car.

xx

Toby and rubbed circles into her shoulder with his thumb the entire ride to the venue. She comfortably leaned into him. She'd calmed down by now.

The group was passing around a flask Hanna had shimmied out from between her cleavage, and Spencer was hesitant to drink, wanting to drown herself in the vodka on one count, but afraid that she would be less behaved and more of all the things that made her nervous (mostly an embarrassment to Toby) if she got too drunk. She took the equivalent of about a shot and a half or so, trying to find the perfect amount of tipsy that made her confident without making her a drunken mess.

They arrived and walked in as Spencer clung to Toby's side, almost cowering into his chest.

"How much did you have?" he laughed as he tried to hold her up.

"I'm not drunk," she stiffened her back straighter. "Just a little anxious," she admitted.

"Spencer," Hanna drunkenly slurred at her. "You have to dance with me," she pulled Spencer onto the dance floor.

Spencer shrugged at Toby as she was dragged from him and danced with Hanna and Caleb.

Alison made her way through the crowd and poked the center of Toby's chest with purpose. "I'm shocked you showed up," she smiled. "It's really an embarrassment to both of us how you've brought her here, as if it will change the fact we are still the school's top couple."

"WE aren't anything," Toby removed her finger from his chest. "So get any ideas concerning me out of that thick head of yours."

"Time will tell my darling," She raised her eyebrows with a smile and Toby angrily left the room, slamming the doors shut as he left.

xx

Spencer finally unraveled herself from Hanna and stumbled, laughing into Toby, who was just returning to the room and she could see the grimace on his face.

"What's wrong, Tobes?" She feared she'd done something automatically.

"Nothing, nothing, don't worry," he rubbed her back. "Come on, you owe me a few dances," he smiled and kissed her and Taylor Swift started to echo in the background.

"You gonna dance like you did in your room?" She smiled.

"Only if you dance like you did…" he teased and pressed his forehead against hers as they started to sway.

"Hey, behave," she teased and gave him a quick peck. "And maybe you'll be lucky later…" she flirted.

"You mean get lucky," he smiled wide and felt her squeeze him in response. "I'm kidding," he buried his face in her neck. "I'm already so lucky,"

"Yeah, yeah," she nudged him from her neck, feeling her knees weaken with the stimulation of the thin skin of her neck, pretending to think he was gross and too lovey dovey.

"I know, you hate this," he smiled. "But I can't help myself, besides, I need everyone to know you're mine."

"You're right, you're disgusting," she leaned into him more, feeling comfortable and actually having fun as Aria and Holden appeared next to them as they all let loose and dance.

It wasn't until the jazz music signaling dinner started that Spencer noticed they were in the exact middle of the dance floor, and it did not go unnoticed how the pair sparkled together.

Spencer carefully walked over to their table, specifically eyeing Noel and his posse sitting at the next table. Please, please, Ali don't be sitting there, Spencer begged internally, for the first time since she'd arrived remembering the person she most didn't want to see - and how she, shockingly, hadn't so far.

Spencer pulled her chair out the furthest away from the other table, taking off her shoe to massage her aching arches from all of the dancing she'd done in the miserable four and a half inches.

"You have the right idea," Aria agreed as she sat down and copied Spencer's idea of removing her shoes.

"I'll go get us drinks," Toby offered.

"Water please," Spencer smiled.

"And a diet for me," Aria chimed in.

"Me too," Hanna threw herself down in the chair heavily, her chest heaving as she caught her breath.

"I'll come help," Caleb followed Toby.

Holden was flirtatiously rubbing Aria's shoulders, the only of the couples to not actually be a couple, but Holden finally appearing to more than return Aria's flirts and feelings, the honeymoon phase where they were in their own world.

As Hanna and Spencer settled at the table they hadn't even realized Aria and Holden had left until Spencer spotted them in a giddy journey towards the doors, pulling each other, no doubt to find somewhere to likely hook up, Spencer imagined. Good for them, she couldn't help but smile.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom before we eat," Spencer stood, adhering her shoes back to her feet and using the table to push herself up. "I feel like I sweat off half my makeup. Do you want to come?"

"I don't think I can get up, but if you can bring the bathroom here we're golden," Hanna threw up the "A-OK," hand gesture and leaned her elbow on the table.

Spencer laughed. "I'll be right back then," She patted Hanna's head and started towards the restrooms when she overheard Noel and the boys snickering as she approached.

What are they laughing at? Obviously me, but what did I do? I need a mirror. I'm going to be sick. No, you're fine. Brave, you promised, you promised good night. This is not going to ruin it.

She flattened the wrinkles in her dress over her stomach and kept walking.

"Hey tutor girl," Noel called and she turned to him instinctively. "What did you do to get Toby to bring you tonight?" He sneered, the the other boys laughed behind him, whispering to one another.

"Very funny," she rolled her eyes and kept walking past.

"Aw, come on, babe, don't be like that," he took a few chasing steps behind her and wrangled her wrist in his hand. "I'm just asking because, well, I… we," he looked back at his friends with a grin as they laughed and waved and catcalled at her. "could probably offer you a better deal," he raised his eyebrows. "What do you say? Three for the price of one, best deal you'll ever get, Spencer."

She stared him directly in the eyes as she shook her wrist loose from him. "Dont," she gritted the loudest. "Don't touch me," she yanked her arm back and tucked her hair behind her ear angrily, Who does he think he is? Why does everyone think I'm a closet slut to get what I want? Why do they act like they want to fuck me, but also act like I'm the scum of the Earth? I don't understand how I can be a laughing stock and still — why is that even funny? Why won't he let it go? Toby and him used to be such good friends, and —the thoughts raced across one another, not allowing any of them to fully finish in her mind as she continued to stomp off.

"Cheap whore probably isn't worth it," he returned to his friends. "I just can't imagine how desperate Toby must have been… he had Alison throwing herself at him, so what could Geek Hastings be offering? I really need to know." He crumpled his cup in his fist. This was less about not getting Spencer to agree to, essentially, a prom night gang-bang, and more about the fact Toby had Alison begging him, plus this mysterious girl who seemed like a geek, but was kind of hot, and the more time she spent with Toby, the more hot she seemed to Noel, and neither girl would even humor him or his flirtations.

"I think you have it wrong," Sean chimed in. "I think it's Toby bringing her here in payment to all the tutoring she's done. Sex is a good deal, but she probably got bored, just wanted to lose her v-card to someone popular and stir up some drama, but once that faded she needed to up the ante, so she made him take her to prom to flaunt in front of everyone so he could graduate with honors," He rocked onto his heels and buried his hands in his pockets. "Not the other way around. She can't be that special. But she is a weirdo genius freak, and probably worth it for a tutor. She's totally calling the shots. Good ol' Tobes is totally pussy-whipped."

"I don't know, her sister was like Prom Queen, wasn't she? I think it's likely she'd do some pretty nasty things to compete with her sister. Those Hastings are competitive as fuck. Her sister broke my sister's nose during a lacrosse match their senior year - twice. Over literally nothing. And I've seen them fight pretty dirty. They live down the street from me," Jake gave his two cents.

"Or maybe Toby took her here to explosively end everything," Sean's eyes widened, the theatrical part of him having a wet dream over this scenario. "You know, expose how this whole freak thing is just some sort of stunt — actually, it's kind of genius." he licked his lips.

"I need to know," Noel grumbled. "This is fucking garbage," he kicked the table.

xx

Spencer stood dead in her tracks in the corner by the restroom as the rowdy boys' noisy antics came threw the air and landed in her ears. At first, she stood against the wall, ready to lay down and cry. Or dramatically bolt out. In fact, a million escape routes crossed her mind.

Then, she had one of those moments. One where you have an out of body experience, where one minute you're about to give up, and the next minute you're not even sure when or how you got to the next part.

For Spencer, the next part was stomping right in front of the trio of boys and throwing Hanna's cup of soda in their faces.

Hanna gasped and had gone to argue when Spencer had snatched her cup from her, but then realized a show was about to go down and turned her chair to watch instead, transfixed on the group in front of her of some former friends, and a really good one.

"I want you to listen to me," she started off rough, not sure where this had come from, not even aware of the words coming from her lips.

"I didn't do anything to get myself here. Toby and I are real. And you can believe that — or you can choose not to. I don't really care," she shook her head with a fierceness. "You can even say all those things about me. Fine, I'm an unworthy, competitive, fake, embarrassing whore. Fine. I promise you, that nothing you say to me is anything I haven't already thought about myself, or heard before. And trust me, I've heard way better insults," she husked. "You can say any of those things, it won't hurt me — but don't you dare talk about Toby that way, he wouldn't hurt a fly and you have him pegged for making a show out of bringing me here, or using me for sex or answers to tests or — anything else. That's asinine. He used to be your friend, you, of everyone, should know he's not as immature and hurtful as you all are. Now,"

she stood back, straightening up, and losing her footing a bit as she realized what she was doing, and more importantly, that nearly the entire side of the room was crowded around to watch, some taking snap chat videos, some hooting and yelling and laughing and cheering, and most embarrassingly, Toby standing there in front of a set of plates he'd dropped to the floor as he returned to see his girlfriend beating up on his ex-friends. How much has he heard. Oh no, this is the most damage I could have done. How did I get here? She honestly didn't remember.

"Woooooot wooot, Go SPENCER!" Hanna drunkenly stood and started clapping.

"Uhm, now…" she stuttered. "Just let everyone enjoy their evening, okay?" She stumbled back towards Hanna, in disbelief of herself, and turned to Toby. "I'm so—" she started to apologize for the scene she'd made when he grabbed both sides of her face and engaged in a deep kiss. He'd never been more attracted to her because wow, she must really believe in us and herself now, she's never been so confident, that was amazing to watch.

She was confused and went to talk after the kiss when he spun from around her and took her place in front of the trio and punched Noel square in the face, not for the first time since he'd started with Spencer.

Nel went flying back into the table and with a crash, the drunken chaperones finally made their way over to break up the fight and warn that anything further would result in ejection from the dance.

"I'm so sorry for the scene,"

"Are you kidding?!" Aria chimed in, now back with Holden as hey had stood and watched from behind. "That was AMAZING. Where did that come from?! I need more of that Spencer in my life."

"The only thing that would have made that better was if you did the punching, and if you used someone else's soda." Hanna chimed in excitedly.

Spencer felt Caleb squeeze her shoulder as she heard the others continue to buzz about how cool she was. What?!

She spun around and saw Toby rubbing his bloody fist and Spencer raked her fingers through his hair.

"Baby," she cooed. "Let's go get you cleaned up," she pulled him towards the bathroom and locked the door behind them.

"Babe, what did they say to you? I only heard your part," Toby was more worried about her mental wounds than his physical ones, as usual.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter," she turned on the water and started to wash his fist carefully for him as he clenched and unclenched his fist.

"Clearly it was something…" He used his free hand to pet her arm lovingly.

She started to whimper as she cleaned his hand and collapsed into his chest. "The same as always," she admitted. "Trying to wrap their heads around why you would turn down Alison for me… all the grotesque things they imagined I'd done for you," she didn't mention the part where they'd propositioned her, deciding she didn't want a full-on bull-fight.

She pulled back and went back to tending to his hand. "It's fine…I just—"

"Babe, Spence… they can't wrap their heads around us because they've never had the kind of love and connection we do…" he got nervous after the l-word spilled out. "They're just jealous, and confused because they can't have what we've got," he nodded.

"I know, but —"

"But nothing." He took his hand from the water and dried it. "The rest of this evening is going to be magical, I promise, I won't leave your side and give anyone any time to hurt you — unless yu want to leave. We should probably leave,"

"No!" She interrupted him. "I want to stay. With you," she clasped his hand and he lifted her onto the bathroom counter for a short hook up session before the pounding on the door of drunk girls needing to pee became unbearable and they returned to their table.

"It's gonna be a great rest of the evening," he promised and squeezed her hand. She gulped, and hoped he was right.