A/N: Since I didn't update for three days in a row last week, and these next two chapters kind of go together hand-in-hand anyway, I think I'm going to post both tonight.
"So I was thinking…you don't have to join prom committee…"
"I know. I want to. Actually, I meant to ask you for another ride tomorrow after school. There's another meeting."
"But…why? Prom sucks, anyway."
Spencer's lips part in surprise, and she shoots me this incredulous look from beside me at our lunch table. It's Monday, so I'm a little half-dead at the moment, but I still don't miss that look. "You think prom sucks?"
"Uh…yeah. It's completely overrated. Who'd go?"
Spencer drops her fork at that, then turns to face me. "You don't want to go to prom."
It occurs to me then that I've probably just royally screwed up, because obviously if I was going to prom I'd go with Spencer, and if I don't go to prom, that means she doesn't either. Or if she does go, it's dateless, because I honestly can't see her going with someone else. Not even Carmen. Thankfully. "Well…do you?" It's not until the end of April, so…maybe I could convince myself to go by then. If Spencer really wants me to.
"Yeah," Spencer replies, a little guiltily, and I sigh, reaching for her hand and ignoring the kissy faces several guys are making at us right now. The teasing is finally starting to set in, clearly, but I don't really care. If Spencer does, she isn't letting it show. "Will you at least think about it?"
I nod before I can even register that's what I'm doing, and Spencer smiles at me, then kisses me again, and we ignore the ensuing wolf-whistles from those previously mentioned guys.
When we're at our lockers together after lunch, sharp footsteps echo down the halls and reach my ears, but before I can turn to find their source, Madison has blown past me and is slamming Spencer's locker door shut with enough force to make everyone in the hall jump, especially Spencer. Then she starts yelling at Spencer frantically in Spanish, and while I don't understand a thing of it, I know Spencer's pretty good in Spanish and probably can pick up on at least a few select words and phrases.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Ashley was busy hypnotizing me with her lesbian mind control powers and I wasn't paying attention," Spencer deadpans when Madison is finished, and I raise an eyebrow at the two of them curiously, wondering what Madison's problem is.
"Dios mio, Spencer, I was kidding about you two being lesbians. You weren't supposed to actually…" She groans, and I let myself into their conversation.
"Sorry, but I don't see how this has anything to do with you."
Madison turns towards me, glaring, and I cross my arms in response. "I'm dating her brother, aren't I? His business is my business, and if he isn't okay with this, then neither am I."
"Glen knows?" Spencer gasps out, and Madison rolls her eyes, scoffing.
"No, not yet. It spread to the basketball team over the weekend, so he'll know after this afternoon, though. And he's going to kill the two of you when he finds out." She sighs like she actually cares, then shakes her head. "Well, whatever. If you two are as gay as you seem to be, there's nothing he can do to change it. But please don't bother leaving me to deal with the pissed off shell of your brother once he realizes you're gay, because I'm not taking care of him."
With that, Madison stalks away in her four-inch heels, leaving me and Spencer to exchange looks of disbelief. "Well, isn't she quite a catch," I finally comment.
The one good thing about Madison's talk with us is that it forewarned us of when Glen was going to find out, so we already decided it would be better to just let him drive Spencer to school Tuesday morning, instead of me showing up at their house.
Unfortunately, that means that when I get out of my car this morning and spot Spencer near the front of the school, talking to Carmen, of all people, I've hardly taken a step forward before I'm suddenly pinned against the side of my own car with so much force that it actually hurts.
"What did you do to my sister?"
Even in my current position, I can still manage to be a smart-ass. "I turned her gay and forced her to fall in love with me."
"She's not gay, and she's not in love with you," Glen growls, pressing me harder into the metal, and my mind's actually more occupied with the idea of Spencer and Carmen talking uninterrupted than of Glen practically suffocating me here.
"Did she tell you that?"
"It doesn't matter. She's not allowed to love you."
"Says who? She can love whoever she wants, and looks like I'm the lucky girl, so you're just going to have to deal because I love her too," I tell him haughtily, crossing my arms. It's kind of funny that the first time I've said it out loud, it's to Glen. No, actually, that's not funny. It's sad.
"You're a bitch," he spits out venomously.
"And you're an asshole. Now let go of me."
"Not until you promise to leave my sister alone."
I scoff, shoving him away at that, and he's surprised enough by the contact that he actually lets go of me and stumbles a little. "I would rather die," I declare, and Glen cracks his knuckles.
"That can be arranged."
I ignore his comment, continuing with, "Spencer and I have been dating since before I even stayed with you guys over Christmas Break. I hate to break it to you, but I'm not going anywhere unless Spencer wants me to."
Glen works his jaw back and forth for a moment, then retorts, "Fine. We'll see." He storms off without saying anything else, and by the time I get another look at the front of the school, Spencer and Carmen have gone inside. I close my eyes and let out a quiet sigh, then decide to just go ahead and skip first period today and go to Starbucks. I could really use some coffee right now.
"Where were you this morning?" Spencer asks me when she spots me at my locker between first and second period. I shrug calmly without looking at her.
"I decided to skip class and go for a coffee run," I tell her, being partially truthful, and then it dawns on me that if Glen was such an ass to me this morning, he couldn't have been all sunshine and rainbows to Spencer, either. "Hey, what happened with you and Glen yesterday afternoon, after he found out?"
This seems to distract Spencer from questioning me, and she wrinkles her nose with disgust as I turn to look at her. "Ugh. We spent all afternoon arguing upstairs, where mom and dad wouldn't hear us. Apparently, you've brainwashed me."
"Naturally," I reply, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms, and Spencer sighs quietly as I close my locker and lean against it calmly.
"Hey, you ladies into three-ways?" some idiot asks teasingly as he passed by us, and I raise my middle finger in his general direction without even looking to see who it is. Spencer sighs again.
"Well, Madison's never said that before," she attempts to joke after a moment of silence, and I give her a small smile, reaching forward to take her hand.
"It'll get better," I promise.
When Spencer and I sit down to eat lunch a couple of hours later, Aiden and Kyla are already there, and they are holding hands openly now, apparently having realized that Spencer and I aren't stupid and have clued into their little "thing".
"I'm surprised you're okay with this, actually," Spencer whispers into my ear as we both watch them exchange grins and feed each other fries.
"I had a talk with Aiden," I tell her, shrugging, then turning to frown at her. "Please promise me we'll never get like that."
Spencer plucks a fry off of her tray and waves it in my face, making kissy faces, and I snatch it out of her hand and throw it at Kyla, who furrows her eyebrows and turns towards me when it hits her on the forehead.
"Hey," I say sharply, "We're trying to eat, here."
Kyla scoffs. "Right. Because I totally didn't have to endure you and Spencer tiptoeing around each other for three weeks' worth of lunches. You can deal."
She does have a point.
It's three-fifteen, school has just ended for today, and I can't believe what I'm seriously about to do.
I hate prom, not to mention any other school dances or functions, with a passion, and the last group, club, union, or committee I would ever consider joining is one involving prom. But here I am anyway, peeking into the cafeteria, where Spencer, Carmen, and many other students are scattered among several tables, chatting as they wait for the meeting to start.
Spencer and Carmen are sitting across from each other at a table by themselves, talking and interacting like they've been best friends since the beginning of time, and I can practically feel the little green monster inside of me lusting after Carmen's blood.
If joining prom committee is what I have to do to keep from losing Spencer to this girl, then so be it. Um…not that I have a reason to worry, right?
My eyebrows furrow as I watch Carmen say something, and Spencer reacts by throwing her head back and laughing, and then my girlfriend is gesturing animatedly to Carmen as she responds to whatever was apparently so funny.
When she's done talking, Spencer rests one of her hands on the table, and Carmen reaches across the table and covers Spencer's hand with hers, nodding her agreement with whatever Spencer's said before she retracts her hand a moment later. Bur the image of her hand on Spencer's is already burned into my brain. This bitch is going down.
I enter the cafeteria, plastering a smug look on my face, because the way they are seated is with Spencer's back almost directly to me, and Carmen pretty much facing me.
"Oh, yeah," I can hear Spencer saying as I grow closer, and neither of them has noticed me yet. "And I hate how they're always burping and making insensitive comments all the time."
"And leaving the toilet seat up," Carmen adds, and Spencer laughs again.
Geez, she's boy-bashing with this girl and still hasn't realized she's gay?
Almost as if to punctuate my thought, Spencer replies, "Definitely. I have no idea how you date them."
Carmen opens her mouth to reply, but then her eyes slide past Spencer and lock on mine, and I simply raise an eyebrow as I continue to approach the table, giving her a look that I know tells her exactly what I'm doing here. Her lips form a thin line, and her eyes remain glued to me even as Spencer turns around to see what she's looking at.
I wipe the smug expression off of my face in an instant, grinning as Spencer's face lights up and she asks, "Ash? What're you doing here?"
"Well," I begin, sitting down next to Spencer and completely ignoring Carmen, "I thought about what you said, and I decided that since this means so much to you, I'm joining prom committee, too. And I would love to go to prom with you."
Spencer's jaw drops, and then she lets out an excited squeal and wraps her arms around me, pulling me to her in a tight hug as he replies, "Oh, thank you so much, Ash. I promise we'll have fun. I can even take dancing lessons before we go, if you want, and-"
I cut her off with a laugh. "Relax, Spence. Your dancing's fine, and if you're really that worried, I can get Kyla to teach you."
Spencer just nods and squeezes me tighter, and I turn my head slightly and stick my tongue out at Carmen, who scowls at me in response. This is all going perfectly.
"Thank you," Spencer repeats again, her voice going softer, and I smile genuinely this time, glad that even though my motives might be just a tad bit off, at least I'm doing something that makes her happy. "I love you, Ash."
I pull away from her, letting her see my smile, and she smiles back because even though I still haven't said it, she knows I love her too.
Spencer leans in to kiss me, which I hadn't been counting on, but it's definitely not unwelcome, and I kiss her back eagerly right in front of what's-her-face, feeling Spencer still smiling against my lips.
I think she intended for it to be short and sweet, but I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to learn what makes Spencer's cheeks flush and what makes little shivers run down her spine, so I use that knowledge to my advantage, and a second later, we're full-on making out in plain sight, tongues and all. Spencer even moans a little when I nibble on her bottom lip, and then Carmen clears her throat and Spencer breaks our kiss, blushing darkly out of embarrassment.
It takes a second for me to recover, but when I do, I smirk at Carmen again, who just shoots me this venomous look in response. That only makes me happier, though, because it means I've gotten to her.
Some girl from our grade moves to stand in front of everyone in the cafeteria, addressing all of us with some speech about decorations for prom, but I'm already busy not listening. I don't care about prom decorations.
What I do care about is making Bangs over there as jealous as humanly possible, though, and with Spencer sitting next to me, still looking a little flushed as her breathing is evening out, it's almost impossible not to reach over and place my hand on her bare thigh. Now that it's early March and LA is starting to warm up, Spencer wore shorts today, which I am very thankful for.
Spencer shoots me a quizzical look, clearly trying to pay attention to what Ms. Prom Organizer is saying, and I just bite down on my bottom lip lightly, playing innocent even though I know it's pointless. Spencer knows I'm never innocent. We're near the back of the group, though, and it's not like many people can see where my hand is, anyway.
"Ash…" she whispers, and if that's supposed to get me to stop, it's not going to work.
My eyes are focused on that girl up front, who is currently babbling on about color coordination, but my mind is completely on what my hand's doing and the way Spencer's breathing is growing more and more erratic with each passing second that we sit here, but it's so quiet that only I'm close enough to hear it.
The plan was to just give Spencer a small reminder of how much she wants me and not the girl across from her, but I think either I underestimate how much Spencer loves me, or my own seductive abilities, because it catches me completely off-guard when she stands up in the middle of the meeting, effectively drawing all attention to her.
"Um…sorry, I just remembered I'm late for an appointment. Ash has to give me a ride."
She grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet, then practically drags me out of the meeting without so much as a glance at ol' Carmen over there.
Spencer hardly even looks at me either, though, not until we reach my car, and for a split second I'm thinking maybe she actually does have an appointment and I just didn't get the memo, but then she turns around and pulls me to her, joining our lips in one of those soft but firm kisses she's so good at. The ones that say "I love you, but I really want you right now".
My seductive skills are pretty amazing, but I think it'd definitely have to be that I underestimate how much she loves me.
I'm not sure how long we kiss for; I just know that I'm disappointed when it ends, but that's gone when Spencer wraps her arms around me and rests her chin on my shoulder, pulling us close enough that I can feel most of the front of her body against mine. After a few moments of silence, she sighs, then pulls away to look into my eyes. "God. You just…sometimes you make me feel like nothing else matters outside of me and you."
I tilt my head to the side, trying not to smile. "Maybe nothing else does."
She laughs a little at that, then averts her gaze to the ground with this small smile still on her face. "Yeah." She looks like she's thinking something over for a moment, then steps closer to me again, reaching behind me to slip her hand into one of the back pockets of my jeans. For a second I think she's trying to cop a feel, but then I remember that that's where I keep the key to my Porsche.
Spencer opens the driver's side door and gets in without saying anything, already sticking the key into the ignition before I'm even in the passenger's seat. I hurry over to the other side of the car and get in, looking over at her nervously. Spencer's never driven my car before, and I'm a little protective. Of the car. But also of Spencer, who would be in the car if we were to crash. Oh, and me. I matter too.
"Where are we going?" I ask her as she pulls out of the parking lot. Spencer's a surprisingly good driver, and I relax a little, trusting her.
"My house."