That weekend, she was to help him with a take-home assignment worth a decent chunk of his grade. It would be the first time she'd seen him since they'd made their "deal." She was going over his house to study. She was oddly nervous about seeing him again, after the last time she'd seen him he stole her first kiss away from her and had left her lips tingling for some time afterwards.

Spencer, it doesn't matter. He's not your real boyfriend and honestly, he's a pig-headed idiot athlete and his opinion doesn't matter she silently scolded herself as she flattened her skirt over her thighs and adjusted her bra so her cleavage sat perfectly. You almost look like Melissa… you almost look like one of them. She wanted to cringe, but she was partially proud of herself. She was wearing a black and red plaid skater skirt she'd taken from one of the boxes of things her sister had left behind when she moved out; it had probably been worn to many football games and in the backseats of many guys' cars when Melissa was in high school. She wore a black tank top underneath a black cardigan and her favorite black Doc Marten's that her mother hated so much. She was running late as it was, but continued to fix her mascara – pretty much the only make up she wore – before running out the door and driving to Toby's house.

She rang the doorbell a few times before he finally answered. He was in pajama pants and nothing else, his hair a mess. "Did you just wake up?" She squinted. "It's 1:30 p.m."

"It's also Saturday." He let her in and shut the door quickly, as the sunlight was blinding him.

She gingerly followed him in as he lead her downstairs. The entire downstairs was converted to his own mini-apartment. He had a small bedroom holding just his bed, a dresser, and a nightstand, and the larger room it was in felt like a small apartment; he had a pool table, a beat-up couch, television, game system, a shelf of board games, and a mini-fridge.

"Make yourself at home," he said, brushing his hair with his fingers.

"You can go shower. I'll wait." She said, sitting on the bench at the end of his bed and spreading out some books. "I brought some of my own work to do. Just be quick."

"Wow, Spencer Hastings isn't rushing me for waking up late? It must be my lucky day," he joked, as she was usually so hard on him.

"Well, I was actually a little late coming over here…" she blushed a little.

"You look good, Hastings." He nodded, noticing that she'd taken extra care today. She just smiled as he ran upstairs. He came back in jeans and was still in the process of pulling a t-shirt over his head when he sat with her.

"So there's fifty questions, so they're only worth two points each. You can afford to get quite a few wrong and still do decently well. That's a good thing." She handed it over to him. "I made a practice test for you, all the same types of problems. There' are only 25 questions on mine, though. So if you do mine, which is probably the harder one, it'll seem easy when you do the longer one."

He put down the tests. "So how about for every question I get right, we kiss once."

She just blushed. "Whatever will make you get through this." She pretended she wasn't anxious or excited to be kissing him again. She wanted to act like this wasn't a big deal. Like she knew what she was doing and was maybe even good at it.

After every question or so that he got right, they would lean in and share a short, brief kiss. But as they got through more and more questions, he would kiss her a little longer each time.

They kissed about 50 or so times that day, out of the 75 he had to do between his homework and her pre-test. Her lips felt raw by the end of it.

"See, that wasn't so bad." He smirked, wiping his lips. "I'm only going to get better from here. This is really working out. It's like a nice little reward every time I get a question right." He had his hand on her thigh, and he squeezed lightly at her leg in encouragement.

"Yeah…" she trailed off, her cheeks pink.

"So, do you have to go, or do you want to stay for lunch? I really only know how to make grilled cheese or cereal, but kissing and math make me hungry." His stomach growled.

"I could do lunch…" she nodded with a small smile, following him upstairs to the kitchen.

xx

Over the next few weeks, they studied at least two or three times a week, sometimes more. That was a lot of kissing. He would suggest new rules every time they studied. One day, it would be a kiss for every right question. The next would be however many right questions he got, they would make out for that many minutes, etc. He was very, very patient with her, and though he never asked her about her past experiences, he was always slow and always made sure that she felt respected and was enjoying herself.

And she was. She thought it was exciting and wonderful and hated to admit she thought he was…kinda okay. He even started to talk to her in class, and to tell his friends to buzz off if they called her Freak Hastings. She was starting to like him.

Often after they'd study, he'd ask her to stay for a meal, or to watch TV, or to just hang out. She thought she was reading into it and often brushed off the thoughts quickly and forgetting them, but he was very touchy with her. Not in a sexual way, either. He would stroke her arm while they talked, seemingly absentmindedly; he would put an arm around her when they watched TV and sometimes he would tangle his fingers in her long hair when his arm was around her shoulder.

They had just finished studying, and he shut his books and moved them off of his bed, leaning on top of her. "I'm setting our alarm for 23 minutes." He grinned. The longest they'd ever done this was only about seven minutes; he was getting much better at math.

She was a bit nervous, but he never seemed to complain that she wasn't doing it right. They kissed and wrestled tongues until his alarm went off, and he rolled off of her. She followed suit this time, and rolled into him. It was late, since he had had practice prior to their session leading to them starting late, and she was exhausted. She was so tired that she didn't realize that she had inadvertently snuggled into him, letting out a soft, tired sigh when she settled.

He laughed a little and tousselled her hair. "I wore ya out, did I?" He smirked, his eyes telling jokes. "I've still got it," he joked as he put his hands under his head in a lounging position, letting her stay rested on his chest.

When she realized that she'd snuggled up and moaned like a weirdo, she wanted to jump up and leave, feeling silly, but he pulled her in a little closer when he shifted and surprised her with a kiss on top of her head.

This was now the third kiss he'd given her, albeit not on her lips, when it was not called for in terms of their agreement: the first time, her first kiss, when he proposed the deal, the second when he'd brought home his first B+, and just now, for no reason at all.

Don't be an idiot. Try to be a normal person. Stop over-thinking. Stop thinking this is anything more than a game. Spencer reprimanded herself silently.

He sat up a bit, and she sat up a bit too to match his movements, feeling as if she could breathe wrong or move too suddenly and make everything crash to the ground. She felt content and safe here. So, she matched his movements carefully.

"I'm having some people over after the game tomorrow." He announced as he sat up. "Just down here in the basement, some beers and some music… you should come. It's a lot of fun."

"I, uh.. I don't think so." She sat up.

"What? Why not? Come on, you can't still hate me. I've been nothing but a perfect student." He smirked. "And I think I've been a pretty good boyfriend," the word left his voice with a chuckle, squeezing her shoulder.

"I never hated you." She murmured quietly.

"So then what's the problem?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Are you still afraid of my friends? Come on, they've almost completely stopped calling you names… I've really been trying to get them to stop being such dicks. It's not going to do them any good when they're back on the bottom next Fall as freshmen all over again. And I've been trying to tell them you're not—" he stopped when she stood up, escaping his arms.

"I'm not afraid." She shot back. Hastings weren't supposed to be afraid. "It just isn't my scene. I don't really drink."

"It could change everything. Good face time with all the popular kids? Come on. You could just drink soda if you wanted. No one has to see what's in your cup. They'll see that you're funny and sarcastic and smart and they'll be nicer to you."

"I'll think about it." She said, wanting to drop the subject.

He just nodded before letting her go upstairs to leave.

xx

The next night after the game, he still hadn't heard from her. But he didn't want her to miss this party. He had actually grown to consider her a good friend, and wanted his other friends to see that side of her. He thought he could make life better for her. Easier. He saw her face when she spoke, and he could tell that there was pain behind her eyes. It looked like the pain he remembered in his mother's eyes before she had gone for treatment in Radley. He hated seeing those eyes. He never asked her what it was that was hurting her, because he assumed it was the obvious bullying and exclusion she felt at school. But she didn't care about that as much as she did her parents. He never really asked her why he had to pretend to be her boyfriend, anyway. He never really asked about her family, or her situation. He didn't like to talk about his, so he let others do their own thing, too.

Toby had sent his friends out to go buy some snacks and some sodas to mix with the hard liquors, buying him some time. He drove up to the Hastings house and decided that he was going to get her to come whether she liked it or not. He figured she just had social anxiety about it, and that once she got there and he showed her it would be fun, she could loosen up. He had already talked to all of his friends and told them that she would be there, and that he wasn't afraid to kick some ass if he heard even one utterance of Freak Hastings. He even lectured Ali, which never went well, but he felt that he needed to.

He came to her house and schmoozed with her mother, telling Veronica he was there to pick her up. He knew full well that if he came to the door her parents would send her out, and she wouldn't be able to deny him in front of them. Veronica called Spencer and told her that Toby was here to pick her up, and she fumed, throwing her book aside. She should have known he was going to be rotten about this. "You can send him up," she announced. "I'm almost done getting ready." She grunted; she didn't want him alone with her mother too long. Who knows what one of them might say.

"I can't believe you trapped me," she furrowed her eyebrows as he walked into her bedroom. "I need to change. I don't have party clothes! Ugh" She was wearing leggings and a loose v-neck. He just laughed, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Just put something on. It doesn't matter."

She rolled her eyes and begrudgingly stomped over to her closet, pulling out a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans, a lacy pink crop top, and a maroon sweater that had studs on the shoulders. She faced her closet while she changed with the door cracked, and he could just make out the outline of her curves and her bare back when she lifted her shirt above her head to change, and again as she reached around her back to clasp what looked like a sexy nude bra.

Toby hadn't realized he had been staring until she was in front of him, fully dressed, barking at him that if they didn't leave now she was going to change her mind. Wow, who knew she had that body underneath her clothes? She's kind of… really… hot. How have I been touching and kissing her this whole time without realizing this? Toby was still kind of lost in his thoughts when he finally processed her words.

"Toby!" She yelled again, stomping his foot with her Converse.

"Hey! Ooouch!" He playfully pushed her a little. "Are you ready?" He asked, forgetting that she had just said that nine times.

She crossed her arms over her chest, not sure if he had been ignoring her or if he meant she needed to do something else. She leaned over to see her reflection in her vanity and shook out her loose curls and wiped the corner of her eye where a bit of mascara, the only makeup she was wearing, was smudged.

"This is as good as it's gonna get, so we really have to go."

"You look good." He reassured her. As he led her out of her house and said goodbye to her parents, he slipped his arm around her as they walked to his truck.

"You really do look hot." He whispered in her ear, and she just gulped, unsure what to do or say.

They pulled up to his house and Noel, Caleb, Sean, and Holden were already there, along with Hanna, Aria and Ali. Noel was helping Hanna do a keg-stand, and the others sat around with red solo cups filled with various alcoholic beverages. Toby pulled her downstairs, his hand glued to her hip.

"Everyone knows Spencer, right? Spencer, this is…everybody." He laughed, hopping over to the table where they'd set up all the drinks. The music was loud and Spencer tried to adjust quickly, following Toby and trying not to make eye contact with anybody.

"Soda, right?" He said after he'd poured himself a vodka soda.

"I'll have what you're having," she said softly, pushing some hair behind her ear.

"I thought you didn't—"

She cut him off by taking the bottle of vodka from him and pouring it into one of the small plastic shot glasses on the table, and quickly shooting it back, putting the shot glass back onto the table loudly. "It could change everything," she mimicked his argument from earlier when he'd invited her to come with a sly smile.

He shrugged and poured her a drink and squeezed her butt as she started to walk away. She just looked back and stuck out her tongue at him before settling in the corner.

Damn, she's sexy as hell. Toby thought watching her walk away, still shocked at how she'd done the shot so easily.

He went over to the guys. "You can't tell me you still think she's a freak… did you see how she looks in that top? Her hair down makes her pretty sexy." He sipped slow, watching her slowly starting to engage in conversation with Aria. He was happy for her.

"I'd hit it," Noel raised his eyebrows. "But she'd probably start talking about the scientific parts of our bodies and it would ruin it. But she's hot, you're right. Nice work, whatever you did to her."

"I didn't. She's just… hot. And she's cool, don't peg her for being only a brain until you talk to her. But don't touch her." Toby warned. "You'd only make a mess and she isn't that type of girl."

Noel just rolled his eyes. "You know i've got Aria anyway. I'm just sayin', if she were interested I wouldn't kick her out of bed." He goofily grinned as teenage boys do, especially when they've had a beer or four.

Across the room, Spencer and Aria had been making small talk. Aria asked Spencer where she got her kickass sweater, and they tipsily bonded as they walked over to refill their drinks together. Spencer was a bit less nervous now.

Ali came over after a bit, sitting in between Spencer and Aria and giving Aria a look that told her to make herself disappear for a moment. Aria went to go snuggle up to Holden instead.

"So, you've been hanging out with Cavanaugh…" Ali said. "He's a catch, isn't he?" She gazed over at Toby, watching Spencer carefully as she did the same, watching the fireworks go off over her head.

"I'm just tutoring him. We hang out sometimes." Spencer swallowed hard, taking a long gulp and wishing Ali would leave her alone.

"They always do downgrade," Ali said under her breath, but Spencer was pretty sure she heard it. Her grip tightened on her cup. "I can make this easier for you." Ali offered.

"What are you talking about?" Spencer glared.

"Don't play dumb," Ali flipped her hair over her shoulder. "We both know that I can make your life even more meaningless than it already is; I could ruin you, and your little friend Toby, too. You wouldn't want that, would you? I saw how you were looking at him… poor little Spencer's got a crush…"

"I do not!" She snapped back, a bit louder than she'd meant to.

"You can spin whatever story you want, but I know you wouldn't want anything bad to happen…I can also make things much easier for you." She sat back, observing the whole party: Caleb and Hanna making out in the corner, random kids that had shown up later on dancing and gossiping, the guys helping girls do keg stands, and everyone laughing and looking beautiful. The American dream. "This could all be yours." Alison smiled.

"What do you want, Ali?" Spencer was not amused. She knew how Ali operated.

"You see, I've just got too many social obligations to worry about all of the term papers I've got coming up..."

"You want me to write your papers?" Spencer posed it as a question, but was more processing because she already knew the answer.

"It's a small price to pay, Spencer. It's only a few research papers… plus a Calculus project… and a Visual Arts project… but you're Brainy Hastings, right? Toby only said I couldn't call you a freak…but Brainy is like, a compliment to you, right?" Alison finished her beer and put the bottle on the table.

She looked over at Toby, and back at Spencer. "You have the power to change everything, Spencer. The choice is yours." Alison got up after a pregnant pause; Spencer was trying to figure out how her life could possibly get any worse. If Ali would really hurt Toby. But she realized she was vindictive, of course she would hurt Toby.

"I'll do it." She said, as Ali started to turn away to leave.

"I knew you were smart." Ali smiled. "I'll email you the assignments tomorrow." She said before finally leaving her alone. Spencer exhaled loudly, exasperated, and joined Toby near the keg.

"Help me up," she nudged him.

"You want to do this?" He laughed. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Spence."

"Come on, don't you want me to have fun?" She whined.

Noel came up behind her close enough that she felt his breath on her neck. "Is Toby giving you a hard time?" He raised his eyebrows. "Come on, I'll help you have a good time," he winked, and lifted her with Sean's help so she could to a keg kind of just stood back in awe of her. She was challenging every conception he had previously had of her. And he hated to admit it, but he was extremely attracted to her right now.

They were really impressed with how much she drank. Afterwards, she retreated to her position next to Toby, sloppily throwing her arms around his neck.

"You're drunk, aren't you?" He laughed. He never imagined he'd see Spencer Hastings, the picture of proper, a sloppy mess.

She pushed her lips into his, feeling daring with her new boozy mindset. "I want to change everything…" she said softly, pulling him away from his friends towards his room.