Darling, I'm Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream
Summary: Spencer could remember clear as day the first time he and Esme had officially talked.
Author's Note: Just an exploration of how these two might've met. I might write a oneshot exploring what caused the fallout between Esme and her friend, Andrea mentioned in here.
Spencer Cassadine knew who Esme Prince was even before they spoke. How could he not? She was a pretty girl, all long, dark hair and glinting grey eyes, somehow able to make the uniforms everyone in the boarding school wore entirely her own. She'd worn her hair tied back with a navy blue silk ribbon back then and he'd always see her with a girl named Andrea, until that suddenly stopped. He never found out what happened, even now, he didn't have a clue. Esme remained tight lipped about whatever had caused their fall out. Spencer had always sort of...admired Esme and how self assured she seemed. He'd always wanted to talk to her but couldn't find the confidence to.
It was a few days after he'd found out his father was actually alive and married to Ava that he and Esme spoke for the first time. He'd been acting weirdly in classes. Quick to anger and easily distracted. One of the teachers had held him back to speak to him, their voice filled with concern and Esme had stayed behind, just outside the door of the classroom. At first he hadn't noticed her. Not until her small hand tugged gently at his wrist and turned him to face her. Her grey eyes reminded him of the stormy sky after the rain when they locked onto his own brown ones, some of her brunette hair escaping the braid it had been tied back in.
His brows furrowed at that and he stared down at her hand for a moment before they met her eyes once more, finding himself unable to look away. "Uh...Esme, right?" He asked, trying to keep his voice cool and collected. This close, he was able see the slight freckles on her nose and smell the cinnamon apple scent of her shampoo.
She beamed at him, smile brightening up her pretty face. "Yeah. And you're Spencer. I just noticed how upset you've been lately. I was worried and wanted to see how you were doing." Her voice was soft and deceptively sweet, her eyes wide and full of sympathy as she stared up at him.
Spencer was unable to explain what made him confide in her. It may have been her smile or eyes. It could've been her voice, though most likely it was just the fact that he'd needed someone to talk to and she was offering to listen to him. They'd went to the dining hall then and took a seat at one of the round tables together, all to themselves. It was there over dinner that he explained everything. How his father was shot at and thought to be dead, how he'd asked Ava Jerome to tell authorities what she'd seen Valentin Cassadine do to his dad, how she hadn't done so, how he'd walked into that room just the other day to see his father alive with Ava by his side. He then informed her of how he'd discovered his father had been and in hiding for over three years while he was left to mourn and was eventually sent away from the only home he'd ever known for his own protection. He'd explained how his father and Ava were married and how as much as he begged, his father still chose money over him.
Esme had held him as he cried, her hands running through his dark hair. "That's absolutely awful!" She told him, her voice gentle and soothing. "I'm so sorry that your dad did that to you."
He sniffled and lifted his head up off her shoulder where he'd been resting it. "I'm just so angry. But more than anything, I feel hurt and betrayed. I mourned my father for almost three and half years and all this time, he's been alive and well. I was taken away from everything and everyone I knew because grandmother wanted to protect me from the man who I believed had murdered my father. And then he comes back and again, he chooses money over me. I was never even a choice in his mind, apparently."
The girl beside him frowned at that and held him tighter. "And you deserve to feel the way that you do. Your dad betrayed you. He let you believe he was dead and didn't regret it. He honestly doesn't deserve you."
Spencer brushed the tears from under his eyes, uncaring of his glasses. "I just wish that he could understand how I feel."
He felt Esme shift and hum beside him before she spoke once more. "What if I could help you do that?"
It was an offer. One he knew now that he should never accepted. His partner in crime was more trouble than he'd previously perceived, especially in that moment of weakness when he'd cried in her arms. The plan took awhile to come up with and at first he'd been unsure but it hadn't taken much convincing on Esme's part. Keeping what he was up to from his grandmother was hard and he knew if he wrote to Josslyn or to his Uncle Sonny, he would've confessed everything, so he stopped doing that, thinking his last year of high school would be explanation enough.
And now the entire plan had blown up in his face. He might've lost his Uncle Sonny's love and affection by bringing Avery into this entire mess, Cam, Josslyn, and Trina were all angry at him. And his father had kicked him out and there was a chance that their relationship may have been destroyed permanently. He hated it. Worst of all, he had covered for Esme and acted as if it wasn't her fault, as if she'd only done the things she'd done, including setting fire to Ava's car and leaving Kiki Jerome's hospital ID badge behind because he'd asked. His grandmother was going to be so disappointed in him, he knew that all to well and he wasn't looking forward to her return in Port Charles. What if he was never able to fix this and he lost everyone he ever cared about? He was unsure of what he was going to do then, but he was going to try and stay strong and take responsibility for all of his actions. He was going to try and make up for all of this, no matter what it took.
The End