27th October, 2017.
London. On a post card it looks wonderful. The heart of the United Kingdom. In reality, it's freezing. Beyond it. And overbearingly annoying, especially with the crowds of street walkers and the jammed public transport. Does every single British citizen live here? Spencer's starting to think so. The tube was chaotic. As always. Times like this she misses Rosewood. She would rather have a psychopath gunning for her, instead of pressed against the train walls by an heavy man. How many stops now until she arrives back to her neighbourhood? Two. Just two more stops.
Two more stops until she's back home with her baby.
Spencer takes the crammed opportunity to be alone with her thoughts, thinking about what her baby has been up to today whilst she's been working hard in the office. Would she have missed her, too? No doubt about it. She will be excited as soon as she steps through the door.
She's experienced love in the past, but not to this extent. Not this intense fondness and attachment of another living being. Something that gives her a purpose in life. The joy of leaving work and going home. The only thing that keeps her sane from the loneliness. The one who understands her.
The over head speaker announces that it's only more stop. One more stop until Holborn tube station. Thank God.
Spencer takes the opportunity to take a look at her phone. No new messages - which is more or less than same as usual these days but a new notification on Facebook. The app opens and see she's one of her best friends name. Emily Fields has tagged you and four others in a picture.
The photo reveals - another picture of the twins with Alison. Alison is feeding them their breakfast. It's heart warming just seeing their faces. These were the memories that she was missing out on. She should be home to see her best friends happy.
"Holborn Tube Station." The announcement says, alerting her of her arrival. She fights out of her way through the crowded area of people and let's out a sigh - why did she ever bother moving to London?
Holborn reminded her of why she had moved here to begin with. Just taking that one step out of the station brings a smile to her face. Her house was situated in the middle of historic buildings, it's like breathing in history itself as she walks home. From Tudor styled houses to old looking coffee shops. It was a wonderful setting that she fell in love with. The new builds do not compare. But in comparison; her one bed apartment was expensive. Too expensive. The price of living in London, though.
Spencer takes a turn at the end of the street and pushes the front door of the apartment complex open, leading her to the set of stairs that she has to endure every time she comes home from a long, boring day at work. She doesn't understand why she chose to work in law, sometimes she wishes that she took another job interest instead; something more stimulating for her mind. The cases were the only thing from preventing her from leaving - only when there is no cases, she's stuck behind her computer, hitting keys. It was long and draining.
Spencer unlocks her front door and pushes it open, allowing her to take her first step back into her brightly lit home. She can hear the television in the back ground, no doubt her baby has had the joys of lounging around, lazily. She walks in to the living room and a smile appears on her face.
Her love is sitting there on the edge of the seat, waiting for her attention and affection, excitedly.
"Had a good day, pretty girl?" Spencer asks, as she walks over to the settee, watching the excitement grow even more with each step. She takes a seat next to her ginger and black spotted bengal kitten, allowing her to jump around on her body. "I've missed you, too."
Nala purrs with each stroke - she was a needy little ball of cuteness. Who needed human companionship when she could come home to this fluff ball?
"Did you enjoy the YouTube videos I had found for you?" Spencer asks, placing a kiss on Nala's head. Nala purrs with happiness at the attention. "I bet you did."
"Do you want some food?" Spencer asks as she stands up from the settee and walks over to her kitchen area which was joined on to the living room. Nala follows, intrigued, meowing as Spencer gets out the cat food from the cupboard and places it in her bowl. She smiles as Nala runs over to the bowl with such eager. "Enjoy, pretty one."
Spencer takes a seat on the settee, stretching out along the cushions, with a sigh of relief. It was Friday - meaning that she can stay in the comfort of her own home for two days with Nala.
Her phone vibrates in her blazer pocket. An incoming FaceTime from the one and only other half to her Team Sparia. The dwarf that she loved so much. Spencer stretched out her arm and pressed accept to the call. Aria appears on the screen with a frown on her face.
"Why am I looking at your ceiling?" Aria questions.
"My bad." Spencer replies, switching the camera round. This was an awkward position, which made her head look abnormally longer. "Hello, little one."
"Hey, S. I'm sorry to call in unannounced. I thought that you could be at work, so, I didn't know if I was interrupting. How're you?"
Weird. Why would she call me to ask how I am? Oh, wait, it's not another moment of worrying about me, again, is it?
"I'm pretty exhausted, aside from that, I'm great." Spencer replies, adding a bit more enthusiasm in her voice than intended. "How're you?"
"I'm fine, thank you. Hey, listen, what are your plans for this weekend?"
"Actually, I have nothing planned. I may catch up with some reading and spend some time with Nala."
Aria rolls her eyes, "I don't know why I asked. What did we say the last time we spoke?"
A lot of things, mainly Aria threatening me to go out and speak to actual other human beings.
"To converse with others that aren't my cat?" Spencer asks, frowning at her. "There is nothing wrong with quality time with Nala. She is adorable."
"You can't just spend every day with your cat, S. You need to interact with others."
Spencer sighs, not wanting this conversation again. She does enough interaction with her co-workers, that should be enough. Hell, she should receive a medal for interacting with such boring people. She wasn't on their level - they knew it and she knew it. "I do, every day at work."
"Yeah, interacting with people who you despise isn't valid." Aria states. "My book tour has come to an end and I don't have to be home yet. I was thinking that I could fly over to spend some time with my favourite, crazy cat lady."
"I must detest that comment, thank you." Spencer grumpily replies, glaring at the grinning brunette. "Well, I have two days off. When can you make the flight?"
"There's one tomorrow morning at 8:30am, could you pick me up from Heathrow? Or are you still protesting against using your car in London?"
Spencer laughs at the comment. "I will pick you up. How long is the said flight?"
Aria peers her head over the phone, to what Spencer believes would be her laptop. "2 hours and 40 minutes, so let's settle it at around half 10?"
"They have a coffee shop in there, so I'll wait for you." Spencer responds, with a smile.
"Awesome!" Aria exclaims. "I'll leave you to your, uh, night in with Nala, then."
And on queue, Nala jumps on the settee, making a bed on Spencer's chest. "Nala is looking forward to finally meeting one of her aunts. Have a safe flight tomorrow, little one."
"Bye, S. Bye, Nala." Aria shouts, waving frantically down the phone.
The call ends and Spencer tosses her phone aside so she could pet Nala, who's sprawled out on her upper torso. The warmth of Nala's body pressed against her and the comfort of the settee that met her back was enough for the exhaustion to over take her.
28th October 2017.
"Do you think we'll see the Queen?" Clarke asks, wearing an union jack flag hat as she peers around the sight seeing experience, with an excited grin on her face.
"Probably not, no." Raven replies, looking around at the buildings and then back down at the map in her hands. "I think they'll have them guards, though."
"Not as interesting," Clarke whines, scrunching up her face in disinterest before looking again. "What about the Princes?"
Raven looked over at her friend, who is leaning over the open top bus, in awe of everything and anything. They both look like the true definition of tourists; with Clarke with her hat and a purple "I love London" hoodie. Looking like a complete nerd. It doesn't help that Raven was hiding behind union jack scarf and her hood up, anything to take the attention away from her. The paparazzi would have a field day with shit like this.
"I don't think the Princes would be there, either." Raven speaks, her words get muffled behind the scarf.
"Why did we come to England, again?" Clarke asks, with disappointment as she swings round to look at Raven.
"You know why." Raven responds, sourly, avoiding Clarke's stern gaze on her.
"Because the love of your life is getting engaged to another woman."
"She is not the love of my life." Raven protests, throwing her hands up in the air for extra added affects of dramatics.
"If that wasn't true - why are we here to begin with? What is your reason again for being here?"
"To show her what she's missing." Raven groans out the words, sounding pathetic. She was drunk when she made this plan after accepting the formal request. She couldn't go back on it now.
"Exactly." Clarke smirks. A smirk that is irritating Raven. "Have you thought about who you're calling in for your arm candy for the event?"
"I am not using an escort service for an engagement party. Besides, I have you. You can be my arm candy."
"No offence, I do not want to be all over the news as your new girlfriend, thank you." Clarke replies, staring straight at her. Her facial expression softens, almost into a shy smile. "Lexa is going to be there right? I don't want to give off the vibe that I'm taken by you."
By you? What's wrong with me?
"Oh, thanks, C. Just use my fame to your advantages but not help a girl out."
Clarke chuckles, slumping against the seat next to Raven. "Just hire a prostitute, it's fine. Least, you'll have a chance of getting laid by the end of the night."
"You are the worst." Raven groans, flopping her head back against her shoulders, looking directly up at the cloudy overcast. "What am I gonna do?"
"Rae. You're a hot, well known soccer player. It shouldn't be hard for you to find someone, just ask one of your fan girls to step in."
Raven dismisses the idea, not liking the fact of using her fame for such advantages, she's built up a great relationship with her fan base. "Nah, I can't do that."
"Well, looks like you've got a week to find a hot, British girl to take with you. Good luck, Romeo." Clarke winks at her, before turning her attention to the sight seeing again. "Oh, look, it's Buckingham Palace!"
Spencer was awaiting in Star Bucks, sitting in the corner of the busy air port coffee shop, a grande black coffee on the wooden table and a hot chocolate for Aria and her worn down copy of 'The Notebook' in her hands - she had time to waste after all, she ended up driving to the airport earlier than expected to try and avoid the traffic jams.
London was too chaotic when it came to driving, which irritated her to no ends. Even worse than the public transports.
Spencer had half hour to kill before Aria arrives to the extremely cold country.
Half hour to enjoy the peace and somewhat quiet - apart from the crowded coffee shop and the crowds of chatter. Enough time to indulge in this book, for maybe the millionth time in her life.
And that's what she does, losing track of time as she flickers through the pages with complete interest, forgetting the world that was carrying on around her. It wasn't until a small brunette came waltzing over to her table brought Spencer back to reality. Spencer's eyes darted from the pages in her hands, looking up to her smiling best friend.
"Aria." Spencer says, with a smile as she steps up from the wooden chair and pulls Aria in for a long over due hug. "Well, you haven't changed one bit, have you?" Spencer inspects Aria's clothing as she pulls away from the embrace. Aria looks more mature than she's ever seen her, sporting a flowery knee length dress and black tights. Her hair was less eccentric, with one tone color of dark brown, in a shoulder length bob.
"I would say the same about you, did you not grow out of the geeky attire?" Aria teased, eyes flickering to inspect Spencer's outfit. Spencer was wearing a red and blue plaid suspend skirt with a black thin jumper underneath the skirt and with knee length black tights.
Spencer blushed at the comment and grunted her response, "I like my outfit choices, thank you."
"I can tell," Aria winked as she pulled her taller best friend in for another hug. "I've missed you, S."
"I've missed you, too, little one." Spencer softly replied, tightening the hold until Aria broke free, taking a seat in the vacant seat. "I've brought you a hot chocolate. Tell me about your book tour."
"It went really well, I'm exhausted though." Aria replies, taking a swig from her coffee. "I've signed my name that much on books that it felt began to feel strange seeing my own name, like it wasn't even mine any more."
"Semantic satiation." Spencer responds after taking a swig of her own drink. Aria looks directly at her, with a confused expression. "It's when you repeat a word a lot then it loses it's meaning temporarily."
"Kinda," Aria replies, her expression softening now understanding the conversation. "I figured now the book tour is over, me and Ezra can settle down when I go back to the states. He's desperate for wanting to have children."
"That sounds great," Spencer replies, with a forced smile. It's not like she was unhappy for her best friend, far from it, it was just that everyone of her friends were finally settling down and starting their own families. It was more envy. Envious of their happiness and stability. "I'm happy for you, Ar."
Aria gave her a look, of perching her eyebrow up. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Spencer replies, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
"Are you ever going to meet someone again?" Aria asks, smoothly.
Spencer sighs, slumping down the chair and looks everywhere but at the curious brunette. "I've not met anyone, no. I'm really okay on my own, besides I have Nala."
"Spence." Aria challenged, frowning at her.
"Aria."
"I thought you were on the dating websites. What was that one called?" Aria asks, bringing her hand to her chin. "Plenty of Fish?"
Spencer frowned, thinking of her experience with the dating sites. Hanna and Aria had convinced her to join them, just to have a one night stand. It didn't have to be full commitment, just to get "herself out there."
Only, her dating website experience were profoundly awful. Half hour after signing up and putting in all her details and she made a great effort to ensure her profile was perfect. Only, to have cringe-worthy men asking her if she would like a threesome with their wife, or the top of the cringe board was a guy asking if he could have a collection of her soiled underwear.
Safe to say; her "online dating" experience came to an end after that message. Spencer had deleted her profile and stayed the hell away from any sites like it.
"Plenty of nut cases." Spencer corrects her with a frown. "I had a guy ask me if he could have my dirty underwear."
"That's... gross." Aria replied, with a face of disgust. "What about blind dating?"
Spencer finished drinking the rest of her coffee before placing it on the table and rolled her eyes at Aria's request. "I'm perfectly fine, Ar. Putting my dating life aside-"
"-Lack of it." Aria reminded her.
Spencer glared at the brunette and grunted, "Yes, lack of it. Where would you like to go?"
"You can't come to London without going to see where the Royal family live, right?" Aria says, with a beam of an excited smile.
"Let's go then." Spencer replies, standing up from the chair and wrapping her brown long winter coat around her.
Whilst Clarke was off taking photographs of anything and absolute everything, Raven excused herself to go check out the small coffee shop down the street. Clarke had mentioned she was freezing and hungry, Raven thought of the idea of going for a food run and for some hot drinks, leaving the blonde in her element to take more snaps of the palace.
Raven enjoyed London, apart from the crowds of people all walking in the same direction on the sidewalks or the fact she just this second got attacked by a woman ramming a buggy into her. The best part was, when Raven snapped her head around, the mother had been glaring at her. Raven put her hands up in protest, not wanting to annoy anyone further.
Everything else about London was nothing short of beautiful, she liked the quirky details of the buildings and not to mention the accents. It's unfair how the British could sound so incredible. Maybe she could follow Clarke's words and find some gorgeous girl to woo over whilst she's here. It's not like she lacks the confidence to go out of her way to approach a girl.
Raven couldn't. No matter how much she wanted to.
The only thing holding her back was the fact her heart belong to someone already.
And she was waiting for that said someone to change their mind, cancel their engagement and come running back to her. If only life works like that. Anya was nothing but in love with the other girl. She must be if she's choosing to settle down and commit to her fiancee. And Raven was definitely jealous that she wasn't the woman that Anya hadn't chose to commit to. It should be her.
Raven growled to herself as she moved through the crowds; growling at herself in particular for being so strung up on someone. She hated it, hated the fact that Anya still clung on to her heart even though she's moved on from Raven so easily.
Raven wished she had the same power; wished she could move on, too. It wasn't like she didn't have girls falling at her feet - quite the opposite. But, she doesn't want to meet anyone else. She wanted Anya, only. Pathetic enough, she had flown all the way to England to attend her ex girlfriend's engagement, in hope to impress her all over again. Pathetic, really, wasn't it?
Especially when it's already been two years since Anya ran off to follow her dreams without her.
Get a grip of yourself, woman. Raven tried to tell herself.
Or in the words of Clarke and Octavia: Get yourself a fuck buddy and get the fuck over Anya.
Why was she even attending this stupid party any way? It's not like they stayed in contact over the years. Oh, yeah, their families were still close with each other. Her mother had insisted that Raven went to show Anya of their family "support" - little did they know that Raven was a great support for Anya once. Supporting her legs around her waist, as she pinned the blonde against a wall.
Raven was so lost in her own thoughts as she passed through the crowds edging towards the small coffee shop that she had bumped into someone. As Raven came out of her own daze, she looked at the person ready to apologise for her clumsy actions.
What she wasn't expecting was her.
Anya, standing tall and breathtakingly gorgeous, in her stupidly tight leather jeans and her ripped tank top, with a gothic top hat placed on top of her braided back hair.
Anya and her new fiancée, who's standing in a long, black dress, sporting the same kind of braided back hair.
Shit.
"Fucking hell." Raven says first, voicing out the shit coincidence of these events. Especially when she's walking around London with a tourist scarf on and she hasn't made herself look immaculate. Raven looked up to find Anya's stern eyes glaring at her. "I'm really sorry."
"Raven?" Anya replies, the glare transforming into a sincere smile. It dawns on Raven that her hood is still intact, over her head. Raven pushes down the hood and gives a weak smile in return. "It is you."
"Duh? Who else would it be?" Raven replies, with a forced fake goofy grin. Hating the fact that Anya's lips are twitching with a smile - hating the fact she was still in awe of that stupid smile. "I did say I was coming to your engagement party. Congratulations, by the way." The last part of the sentence came out strained, way too forced.
"Thank you, let me introduce you to my wife to be.." Anya replies, her lips forming into a full smile. Raven's eyes flicker to the taller woman standing next to her as Anya takes a grip on her waist. Raven didn't need an introduction; she knew who this blonde woman was in front of her. It's hard not to know them when they're popular in the America music charts. It's hard not to notice the girlfriend stealer.
Raven rolled her eyes at herself, play nice Reyes.
"This is Niylah. Niylah, this is Raven, we went to college together." Anya introduces them, with a smile.
And I'm your ex girlfriend, but whatever, ignore that vital information.
Niylah takes a step forward from Anya's hold, offering her hand out in a polite exchange as a smile appears on her face. "It's nice to meet you. Anya here hasn't let me have the pleasure yet of meeting her old friends."
"I'm just as surprised as you are, really, considering she got up and ran from us all." Raven responds, shaking Niylah's hand. Anya froze on the spot and rolled her eyes. One point to Raven claw.
"Any way, we can catch up another time. Are you bringing a date with you?" Anya asks, trying to change the conversation as quickly as possible as she takes a stand next to Niylah again and linking their hands together.
Raven tried the ignore the ache of her heart just watching them.
And now she was under pressure, she didn't want to turn up to their engagement party without an actual date. She wanted to make Anya think she's missing out, that was her plan after all. "Actually, yeah, I'm bringing someone."
"Oh? Where are they?" Anya asks with a tilt of her head.
Shit. Fucking shit. Raven looks around for a sign, becoming nervous under pressure. She spots the coffee shop sign and goes with it, hoping it's enough. "They're, uh, in the coffee shop, getting us coffee."
"Awesome! We have time to go meet them, right, darling?" Niylah asks Anya, her British accent boring annoyance into Raven.
Please say no.
Anya looks down at her watch, with a thoughtful expression. "I mean we have to go arrange the food for our party," Anya replies and Raven let's out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. Thank fucking God. "But, we can spare five minutes."
Fuck.
"You two should definitely get going." Raven replies, nervously.
"No, no, it's fine. I insist, after you." Niylah responds, gesturing out her arm.
I must assure you now, girlfriend stealer, that this is anything but fine.
Raven tries to come up with a quick plan for her bullshit lie that she's made up; anything other than letting them go in that shop to meet her none existent girlfriend. The two blondes are waiting, watching her with intent stares, waiting for her next move.
Raven feels like she should be looking round for a shovel to dig her own grave and hide herself forever.
A brunette comes walking out of the coffee shop holding two cups in her hands, attempting to walk through their put together group to the outdoor sitting area and Raven doesn't think her plan through when she reaches out to grab the hold of the woman and squeaks out "Hey babe!"
The woman startles under Raven's hold, looking up from the cups and meets Raven's eyes. The first thing that Raven thinks of how grateful she was to grab hold of a woman that was attractive because the brunette certainly was. The second thing that Raven thinks of; how the hell was she going to play this out? The woman was frowning at her - clearly not happy with the fact she's just got grabbed by a stranger.
"Hello?" The brunette speaks, finally, eyes flickering from Raven to the other two strangers, who are watching them with intent stares.
"Hey, you." Raven squeaks out, a blush creeping up on her face. Never before has she felt this embarrassed. "Thank you for bringing out our drinks, aren't you sweet?" Raven says, placing a ghostly kiss on the brunette's cheek and takes the nearest cup.
The brunette looks horrified, standing tall and stiff but doesn't question anything, her eyes are too busy flickering in between, with confusion. "No problem?"
Anya clears her throat with a fake cough, which startles Raven. Her nerves seriously on edge. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Oh, yes. Anya, Niylah, this is -" Raven pauses, hoping for a sign. Any sign. Could she make a name up? "This is, uh.."
"Spencer!" A smaller brunette shouts, waltzing over to the group.
"This is Spencer." Raven confirms, confidently. Thank you, little person for saving the day.
Anya nods, clearly not convinced on the little act happening in front of them, as her eyes are narrowed looking at Raven. "Nice to meet you, Spencer. I look forward to seeing more of you at the party. We really have to go now."
"It's nice meeting you all." Niylah says, with a gleam of a smile before walking away with hand in hand with Anya.
Raven let's out a groan, watching the sickly loved up couple walk away hand in hand. Raven soon comes back to her new reality when Spencer tries to break free of her hold. Raven let's go of her tight hold and takes a step back. Inside of her own mind she's now panicking, mainly for her career, thinking that the tall brunette would press charges for her random assault on her arm. Raven brings her hand up to her nape, nervously. "Listen, I'm so fucking sorry."
"Would you care to explain to me what's happening?" Spencer asks, staring directly at her, clearly not amused or impressed.
Fuck. "Well, uh, I kind-of-told-her-you-are-my-girlfriend." Raven quickly confesses, the heat building up in her neck.
"Wait, what?" Spencer replies, her mouth gaped wide open, horrified yet again."Why would you do such a thing?"
Because I'm an idiot? "I'm sorry! I panicked, that was my ex girlfriend and she wanted to know if I was bringing a date to their engagement party. I picked you because you was the first woman I saw."
"You know, that's not a great way to charm a woman, especially your girlfriend." The smaller brunette adds in, smirking from ear to ear.
Spencer's glare diverted to her friend, the smaller brunette threw up her hands in protest. "This isn't funny."
"It kinda is." The smaller one shot back with a laugh. "I leave you for two seconds and you're in a relationship."
Spencer's body stiffened at the words and shook her head. "I am not in a relationship."
Raven zoned out of the conversation, well, argument and tried to re-focus on her thoughts: she really has put herself in a shit situation, why didn't she just tell the truth to Anya and not make up a lie about being in a relationship with a stranger? What the fuck was she going to do? This Spencer woman wasn't going to go along with the ride.
Not unless she convinces her.
"I know this is fucked up," Raven speaks up, inhaling a deep breath before carrying on. "I kind of need you to be my girlfriend."
Spencer shakes her head in a protest, "No thank you."
Spencer tries to walk away from the conversation but the smaller brunette steps in to prevent her. Spencer shoots her with another glare. "It might do you some good, getting out of the house and actually socialising."
"Aria." Spencer says, sternly, glaring into her. "No, how many times do I need to say this? I'm quite content with Nala."
"You can't always to be a crazy cat lady, S." Aria mutters underneath her breath.
Raven watches the exchange, tilting back and forth on her heels, nervously. She quickly makes a first judgement about the taller brunette with Aria's words; clearly Spencer is an introvert and this Nala must be a cat. Great job on choosing someone who's nothing like you, Rae. You've just made your fake relationship even more harder to convince others.
Well, it's not even a relationship if Spencer doesn't want it.
Maybe she should have hired an escort after all.
Maybe she could offer Spencer the money?
"What about if I paid you?" Raven quickly shouts out.
"Paid me to be your girlfriend?" Spencer shots back, raising both eyebrows in shock. "This gets even better: now you want me to be, what, an escort?"
Fucking hell, that didn't go in her favour. Maybe she should of kept her mouth shut.
"You need to work on your game." Aria jokingly advises.
With that comment, Raven gets offended. She's always had game; she's had the privilege of being smoother than butter itself. "I have game!" Raven argues back, irritated with the comment.
Aria throws up her hands in a protest, looking away from the glare.
"Clearly." Spencer scoffs as rolls her eyes. "Does this game of yours normally consist of bribing random women with money to be in a relationship with you?"
"You know what? This relationship is over. It was nice meeting you both." Raven glares at them, pushing the cup that was in her hands into Spencer's before walking off in the opposite direction, hot on her heals, boiling up with irritation.
Spencer watched as the tanned stranger power walked down the path, watching the pony tail bob side to side. Spencer felt a sprang of guilt for that last comment; thinking she may have over stepped the mark.
"Well, that was the shortest relationship ever to exist." Aria comments after taking a swig of her drink. "I stand incorrect; I think it's you that needs to work on your game. That last comment was uncalled for."
"I know." Spencer groans, running her hand through her hair.
Spencer sighs, watching the tanned woman go out of view. Her tall legs becoming restless, wanting to run in the same direction to find the brunette and apologise. Only, the brunette was no where to be seen any more - she had swarmed into the crowds of London tourists.