(Part 1 of 2)
Spencer had all the girls over on Friday night for a little studying, and a little partying. Finals were coming up and they all needed to blow off some steam. As usual, her parents were out of town. They ordered Thai food and Emily made sure to check the boxes before she left the restaurant, just in case they had a repeat of last time. No one wanted to see worms on the kitchen counter again. A seemed to have been laying low as of late, which was possibly more frightening than the constant torment.
Spencer took advantage of this reprieve, however, and had gotten back together with Toby. It was all she could talk about this night.
"Toby and I are officially back together," Spencer announced.
"That's great, Spence," Hanna said while Aria said, "That's good news."
"Good for you guys," Emily added.
"I decided screw it. I'm not letting A run my life. I never should have broken up with him in the first place."
"I get it," Aria said. "I'm never letting anyone keep me and Ezra apart." She meant it. Not A, not Noel, not Jackie, not her parents, no one.
"How is Fitzy these days?" Hanna asked cheekily. "We haven't seen him since your birthday." Which was all of 2 weeks ago.
"Fitzy is excellent, thank you for asking."
They all laughed.
"So Spence, what did you tell Toby about why you broke up?" Hanna asked.
"I, uhh, well, I told him I was scared of how serious we were getting and I needed some space. And that I thought he'd be better off without me, that I was keeping him here in Rosewood when he could get away from here, from Jenna…"
The other girls all listened while they ate.
"It's not so far from the truth," she said. "Anyway, it took some convincing, but we are finally back together."
"Why'd it take convincing?" Hanna asked. "He loves you right?"
"Well…. I had to tell him the truth. That I was seeing someone after we broke up."
"You were?" Aria and Emily asked simultaneously. "Who?" Hanna asked.
Spencer's eyes darted across each of their plates, then she admitted, "Wren."
"How long were you seeing him?" Hanna asked.
"For about a month or so. It all sort of fell apart," Spencer told, recalling their breakup.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hanna asked on behalf of the others, who were equally curious, but less nosy.
"I don't know… I felt pretty guilty about it. Toby and I had just broken up and Wren was just… there. And he was so persistent… Long story short, Wren wasn't the guy I thought he was and I saw what a mistake it was letting Toby go."
They were all momentarily silent, digesting this revelation.
"He was seeing someone else too. Did you know, Em?"
Lost in thought, Emily snapped out of it, and said, "No."
"Oh." Spencer seemed disappointed. "I'm dying to know who it was, but we both agreed to let go of the past and only think about us."
"You're really gonna let it go?" Aria asked, knowing Spencer well. Spencer was like a dog with a bone when it came to things like this, but she seemed to have mellowed out lately, at least a little bit.
"Yes. I am. I'm gonna try. No, I can let it go. If he can forgive me for Wren, I can forgive him for dating some other girl. I don't even have to forgive him. We were broken up. It's fine."
"Oookay.." said Aria, wondering if Spencer was done talking herself into being a reasonable person, and she excused herself to use the bathroom.
.
When she came back, only Emily remained in the kitchen.
"They went upstairs to go through Spencer's closet. To find the perfect thing to wear for her first date with Toby," Emily said, somewhat glumly.
"Oh okay," Aria said sitting back down. "Is everything okay, Em? You seem a little down."
She looked over her shoulder at the stairs then back at Aria. "If I tell you, will you promise not to repeat it?"
"Of course. What is it?"
Emily took a deep breath then said quietly, "I'm the one Toby was seeing after he and Spencer broke up."
"What? Really?" Aria said, shocked.
Emily nodded to confirm.
"Oh, I didn't realize…"
"Yeah, me neither," Emily said with a slightly surly tone.
"Was it serious? How long did you go out?"
"We didn't really go out… It was more like a friends with benefits sort of thing?" The words began spilling out. "At least, that's what he thought it was. And I guess that's what it was… I don't know what to do. I feel like I ruined a friendship with one of my best friends and I did it behind my other best friend's back. She's gonna find out. I'm not gonna be able to explain it. She's gonna hate me." The 'thing' with Toby had been going well for the first few weeks until he referred to it as 'friends with benefits.' It wasn't that he wasn't interested in turning it into something more, it was that he didn't believe Emily wanted that, and when she was finally honest with herself, she realized she didn't. They argued about what they really were, then mutually decided to end it. Things had been awkward since.
"She's not gonna hate you," Aria reached out to touch Emily's hand. "She'll understand, she loves you, Em. I can help you tell her if you want."
"No," Emily looked up, scared. "No, thanks," she said, a little more politely. "I still need time to figure things out. She doesn't need to know yet."
"Then I won't tell her," Aria promised. "Can I ask you something?"
Emily nodded.
"Are you in love with him?"
Emily thought about this. What a loaded question. "No, but I do love him."
Aria rubbed her hand. She hated seeing her friend like this and couldn't believe she'd been so wrapped up in her own life she hadn't noticed. There was a lot going on in her life and she started to wonder why she hadn't shared it with her friends. What am I waiting for? I should just tell them. Emily had confided in her, and it was her turn to do the same.
"There's something I've been wanting to tell you," Aria said. "A secret I've been keeping."
"Have you been sleeping with Toby too?" Emily asked, joking.
Aria laughed. "Noo…"
Just then they heard footsteps on the stairs. Emily said, "shhh, tell me later," and gave Aria a smile. "What'd you find?" Emily called out to the girls.
"Nothing," Hanna declared. "A huge closet full of clothes and she's got nothing to wear. We're going shopping tomorrow."
[Please assume the earthworms in their takeout thing happened during the month I skipped at the beginning of my story. I had to include it, it was just too good (and gross!) a trick to leave out.
Also, I'm just gonna put it out there that I'd like to know if I made any typos/obvious grammatical errors. I'm kind of meticulous about punctuation and stuff. I know I don't write with perfect sentence structure and whatnot, but I'd like to catch and fix the unintentional stuff. And as always, thanks for reading!
To KatyForYou - your comment made me so happy! I am so glad you are liking the story and that you appreciate the It Happened One Night references. I was afraid it would go over everyone's head and people would be like wtf is she talking about? Haha, it really is a great movie. Thank you so much! ]