30th October, 2017.
Another typical Monday. Or, as Spencer thinks to herself; another typical work day.
Some days, she considers that changing her career would be beneficial for her and questions why she even chose to become a lawyer to begin with. The answer to that question always goes back to the same underlying root: following in the foot steps of her parents. To pass on the Hasting's dream through her generation. When the cases are handed to her on her desk, she thrives from the challenges, putting in every strength of determination she could muster. On the quiet days - such as today, she's sat lost in her own thoughts, awaiting for any task to present to her.
As she waits, sitting at her office desk, twiddling her fingers after completing her duties for today, looking around the room full of other lawyers, as they converse with each other about mindless natter. None that concerns her or spikes an interest. Mainly the women discussing their weekends with their partners or the single women adding in their two pence worth of their detailed nights out.
Leaving Spencer to consume into her thoughts. If she hadn't of chosen this career path, if she hadn't of followed her parents dreams and expectations; she could see herself being a mental health advocate for young people and adults; to be the courage and the voice of those who are too scared to speak up or too scared to seek help. After all, she was once a terrified teenager who was too scared to speak up.
"What did you get up to this weekend, Hastings?" A familiar voice breaks her free from her thoughts. Kate, one of her co-workers, a middle aged woman with straight, blonde dyed hair had asked.
Spencer for once had something different to input to the conversation, aside from her normal routine. She had spend time with her best friend, made new friends (hopefully, if Raven considers their new relationship as friendship) and had new developments of a pretend romantic relationship. Not quite the same as responding with her usual, "I've spent time with my cat, went for a run, etc."
Spencer chooses not to mention the pretend relationship, not wanting to have set of questions fired her way when she doesn't even know the answers herself. To which, that irritates her in some aspect, she's always went out her way to have answers - from educational purposes or even finding out who A was. And now, she's sat in the dark. "A friend came over from Italy after her book tour and spent the weekend with me."
"Did you have fun?"
"It was interesting." Is all Spencer replies with, with an attempt of a shadowed smile. Hoping that her answers were enough to divert the attention and stares from her. Enough socialising with her co-workers for one day, right?
Lunch time soon rolled by and Spencer found herself back on the streets of London City, her feet marching throughout the crowds to find her usual spot; a small, hidden gem that she had found once when she first moved here. She had got lost, trying to follow the GPS system on her phone and found the all day sandwich bar. The sandwich bar was a small shop hidden in the back streets of London, run by a sweet older woman with white hair called Barbara. Barbara was warm and welcoming to each customer that walked through the shop door. If Spencer found herself having a stressful or boring day at work, she would always find herself more eager to meet that warmth smile that Barbara provides.
"Hello, Spencer." Barbara says, with the most genuine smile a human could gift as Spencer opens the shop door.
Spencer couldn't help but smile back. Barbara had already worked her magic on making her day better. "Hello, to you too."
"The usual?" Barbara asks, moving around behind the counter and Spencer nods in response as she removes her navy blazer jacket, hanging it behind the chair and takes a seat.
Spencer pulls out her phone, expecting to find no new notifications of messages but is surprised to find two new messages. A lot of things in her life are surprising lately and this is definitely one of them.
Raven:
Morning, legs.
Is today still on?
Clarke's leaving me for
the photograph gallery this
afternoon.
Raven:
That didn't mean to sound
so needy. You can say no,
if you want. No obligations.
Spencer Hastings:
I'm sorry that it took me
so long to reply, I don't usually
have my phone out at work.
Today is still on, I could leave
early as I don't have much on.
Do you mind if we spend time at
my place? I don't want to leave
my kitten on her own for too long.
I already feel bad for leaving her for work.
Same rule applies, though, no
obligations.
Barbara came out of the back of the shop, placing down a coffee in a mug to Spencer's table. Spencer flashed her a smile and said "thank you" before clicking onto the Facebook App to see what she's missed since eight am that morning. The news feed wasn't that active since she last checked and she had notifications from the picture that Emily had tagged her in and one from her mother asking for free moves for a game. If Facebook was any reflection of how her life is; it would sum up as dull.
Raven:
Wow, you move quick don't you?
Inviting me to your home already
to meet your pet? I'm down.
What time should I be ready for?
And address please, so I don't get lost.
Spencer Hastings:
I could always pick you up, it's not
a problem. And you should feel grateful,
I don't usually allow anyone in my
apartment, never mind meeting my child.
I'll pick you up, if you wish, just send me
your address and I'll inform you when I'm
on my way to you.
A hint of a smile overcame Spencer's face, becoming a new habit of hers when reading Raven's texts messages. She would never admit it but the brunette certainly lit up a fire inside of her; like an old fire place being reused again for the first time in years.
Barbara placed down a freshly made BLT sandwich on the table in front of her, taking away the empty context of her mug to re-fill and Spencer replies, with an over enthused voice. "Thank you, Barbara."
"You're welcome, darling." Barbara says, before vanishing behind the counter again.
Raven:
I'm honoured and I can't wait to meet
your child! :P
Do you know where club quarter's
hotel is? It's right next to to the park
where you saw us yesterday.
That's where we're staying.
Spencer closes her eyes after swallowing the last bite of her sandwich, to mentally map out the streets that surround the Lincoln's fields park, she has a rough idea of which building it could be; one of the many old, white buildings. She would use her sat nav to guide her if she gets lost.
Spencer Hastings:
You should be.
And I have a rough idea of where
it is. I'll text you when I've finished
work as I'm going to walk back to
my building now. Enjoy the rest
of your afternoon. x
Spencer shakes her head, annoyed that yet again she's used the English signature to mark the end of her text. She dislikes the fact that her employees welcomed her into the world of using kisses to end a message. Another habit she's picked up and started using. Damn, the British.
Clarke exchanged the money in her hands to the cab driver and offered him to keep the spare change as a tip, even if the miserable looking driver had done nothing but provide a grunt since she got in the back of the black cab. Clarke thought if she tipped on top of her fare; it might just make a smile appear on his face.
Or maybe not.
He couldn't even be bothered to say a 'thank you.'
Clarke opened the car door, glaring at the driver and advised, with sarcasm poisoned on the tip of her tongue. "may I suggest working on your manners? A thank you would be suffice."
"Thank you." The driver repeated the words, like there wasn't a meaning behind them and rolled his eyes. Clarke pushed the car door open wide and slammed it shut, using more of her strength than she had intended, behind her and let out a huff. As she starts off into a walk, she tries to push away the mood that has taken over her. When she had left the hotel room, she was ecstatic, like a child on Christmas morning; as she had flied over to London in time just as her favourite artist had done his England launch of his old and new photography work.
Clarke wasn't going to allow the ignorance of the cab driver to dampen her spirits today.
London. If she could, Clarke would stand in the streets of London for hours, taking pictures of those around her as they commute to their everyday jobs or homes; capturing on camera the chaotic world around her and capturing the moments that other people wouldn't stand around to notice. Like a man, in his brown trench coat with his ear pressed against his phone as he takes another long, sip of his drink as he walks towards his next destination - other people wouldn't take a second glance at the man but her lenses would be zooming in to take that reality shot.
Clarke loved nothing than taking simple shots of the slightly mad but beautiful world around her. Capturing everything in it's easiest of forms.
Clarke's hands ached to bring out her camera as she walks down the path, behind a young couple who are in hand and hand, sharing sly smiles with each other when they glance over to each other. Clarke wanted capture their shy and happy profiles. She would have done if she could do it more discreetly. She doesn't have the confidence to pull out the camera with such a close proximity.
Seeing romance in the eyes of others only makes her own heart swell with happiness and love. She, too, wanted nothing but to give her heart away to someone, to share those shy glances which shout out the hidden words of 'I love you's' over to her love and smile like an idiot to herself. Oh, how her body ached badly for such sweet, innocent love.
Clarke has only had one relationship with a boy from her college years called Finn. Finn had only one idea in mind and that was revolved around sex. Their relationship didn't blossom into the love she's always desired. Into the love she's always dreamed of. And their relationship ended quickly during their first summer together.
One day it'll happen for her. Clarke knows it.
She's day dreamed of the day where she would just walk into a room, take one glance towards someone and she would know, just by that one glance into their eyes that they're the one. And then, just like in the movies, they would sweep the floor and the magic will happen.
She knows it. Dreams of it.
Only in her dreams, there is only one face that she visualises. And that face belongs to Lexa Woods.
If only. If only.
Clarke opens the gallery door and her blue eyes ignite with passionate excitement as she walks down the gallery hall, looking at the photographs that were hanging on the walls. This was another dream of hers; to have her art work and photographs cherished by others, who share the same passion as she does. Her career dreams haven't yet had the break through it's needed. Clarke only manages to attend low key events such as birthday parties, wedding events and sometimes even night club events. It's one step closer to doing what she loves, she just wishes that her paintings made the same income.
She could only hear her mother's words repeating in her head, over and over, like a chant: "you should have chosen a career that is suitable for your financial needs, Clarke."
It was a damn shame that she was a rebellious teenager, opting for her dreams instead of her mothers hopes and expectations of her. Not that she wasn't thankful for the line of work that her mother had chosen, in fact, the doctors and nurses needed more appraisal or a pay rise for their hard work and commitment.
It just wasn't her dream.
Clarke practically skipped through the halls, breathing in all the art that was hung up on the walls, happily in her element. She was on a search for one picture in particular, being already informed of some of the art that the photographer was showing in the gallery. It was her favourite piece and she's only ever saw it on the internet. Today, she'll be seeing it for the first time in real life.
She was feeling exhilarate at the thought.
Clarke found the black and white photograph in the middle of an open hall where the artist had displayed his old photographs. There was other people in the hall, but none looking at the one she was eager to see. Giving her the perfect opportunity to gaze upon it on her own.
The black and white filtered photograph was of a woman sitting on a chair, her body hunched forward as she buries her head in her hands, her long straight hair dangling forward, hiding her face. Around the sitting woman stood a circle of crowds of mixed women and men, pointing at her, as their eyebrows are furrowed with angry glares. Some of the people in the crowd, have their mouth gaped open to portray as shouting.
"What does this photo mean to you?" A woman voice broke Clarke's gaze, for some strange reason the voice sounded familiar, Clarke turned her head slightly to allow her blue eyes to meet the woman, she can't help but know this woman some how. Yet, she strikes no resemblance of no one she's met.
The woman had dark brown eyes with her brown hair pushed up in a messy bun, leaving loose strands to curl down towards her ears. Clarke's eyes fall, just to have a quick sneak at her outfit. The woman was wearing a blue knitted sweatshirt and casual, light blue jeans. The woman had dark freckles peppered around her cheeks, just above the shy smile displayed on her face.
Clarke scrunched her eyebrows, confused as to why the woman seems so familiar but can't pin point why or who this person is. So, instead, Clarke returned to the original question, pushing away her confusion and let her eyes focus on the photograph in front of them.
"To me it means the woman is exhausted from the pressure of others around her." Clarke simply replies, her eyes wanting to turn again to see the woman's face. She didn't dare, though. "What about you?"
"Along the same lines, only to me it represents my own personal hell. To have the pressure of others wanting me to conform to their expectations. Demanding me to be the person they wish me to be. And that woman, who is exhausted from all the pressure, is broken and torn from all the expectations, only wanting to be herself, not someone else."
Clarke's heart breaks at the words, she too, was under the same pressure when living back home with her mother. She, too, understood what it felt like to have others want a different lifestyle than the one she wished to pursue. Only, Clarke followed her heart in the end.
Clarke bites down on the inside of her cheeks, wanting to press on further with questions but unsure whether to cross a boundary of a stranger's life, instead she replies with a sincere apology. "I know how it feels, I'm really sorry you're having to go through that."
Clarke's daring eyes finally take that glance over to the woman beside her, the shy smile no longer exists, her face was displaying a frown, staring ahead at the photograph. "Thank you, I'll break free of it one day, hopefully."
"Why can't you break free now?" Clarke blurts out. Inside her own mind, she's cursing at herself for overstepping with such a question.
The woman's frown transforms, now her face is blank and stoic, her hard stare remaining at the picture. "My job requires me to portray a person that I am not. At first, I thought I could go along with it. I was younger and naive, a young girl too excited to follow something that she loves. My job required me changing my personality and my looks - the world having too much of a demand over me. I did it though, only now it's been too many years that I've been living a lie that sometimes I forget who I am."
"You know what you need to do?" Clarke speaks, resisting the urge to pull the stranger into an embrace.
The brunette turns, her brown eyes meeting Clarke's blue, silently awaiting her suggestion.
"You need to say a massive fuck you to the expectations and be yourself. It's your life. Fuck the rules of other people." Clarke suggests, with a wild grin appearing.
The brunette curls her lips, every so slightly into a small smile to Clarke's suggestion. "Fuck the rules of other people? I like that."
Clarke's eyes roam to the brunette's lips, hands eager to bring out her camera just to capture this moment. A moment of seeing the scarce smile of the brunette. Again, she doesn't, not wanting to overstep privacy boundaries. "Fuck the rules." Clarke echos.
"Thank you for this conversation. You are one of little people to see this side of me. The real me." The brunette replies, with sadness in her eyes but allowing the smile to remain.
"Well, thank you for showing me." Clarke says, playfully bowing down.
The brunette let's out a loud laugh, which only makes the wild grin on Clarke's face grow wider. "Wow, I've never had anyone bow to me before."
Clarke places her hand up, playfully hiding her mouth with her hand, like she has a secret and gestures for the brunette to come near. The brunette does as follow, shaking her head and laughs as she does so and Clarke presses her lips near her ear. "I'll let you in a little secret. I've never bowed to anyone before, consider yourself privileged."
The brunette's body vibrates as she laughs at the words and playfully shoves the blonde away. "You are an idiot."
"Made your day though." Clarke quickly shoots back with a wink.
"If I reply with a yes, will your head grow?"
"Only if you mean it."
The brunette rolls her eyes, smiling freely. "We can't have that, can we? How ever will you walk out the building if your head expands?"
Clarke shrugs, nonchalantly, matching the brunettes smile."Guess they'll have to guide me through the doors sideways."
The brunette shakes her head again, laughing. "I would love to see that-" there's vibrations interrupting her sentence, the brunette reaches out for her jeans pocket and pulls out her phone and frowns down at the device before looking back up at the blonde, "-guess I'll have to see that happen another day. It was nice meeting you. What was your name?"
"Clarke." The blonde smiles, ignoring the disappointing feeling over clouding her as she thinks about the brunette having to leave.
"Clarke." The brunette nods, adding her own kick to the 'k'. "I have to go back to my reality now. May we meet again, Clarke."
Clarke has heard her name being said by hundreds of people throughout her life time and she's never felt the effect of butterflies erupting in her stomach over her own name before.
Clarke has already decided that the brunettes version of her name is her favourite. Without a doubt.
The brunette frowns as there was more incoming vibrations from her phone and begins to walk away in a hurry, her attention was focused on the phone the whole time. "Wait!"
The brunette stops in her tracks, turning her head to glance over her shoulder at Clarke.
"I didn't get your name." Clarke shouts, ignoring the new attention being focused on her from the other viewers in the gallery.
"Alexandria." Is all the brunette says, with one more smile before disappearing down a hallway, out of Clarke's sight.
"Alexandria." Clarke repeats the name in a whisper, smiling wildly to no one but herself.
Spencer Hastings:
I think I'm outside. Parked
up in the grey Mercedes on
the road.
Spencer placed her phone down in her lap and straightened down the creases in her navy suit. The hotel wasn't far away from her apartment, just a few streets away. It would have been easier to walk to the hotel than driving in her car. Mind you, it was raining heavily. Despite the long haul of rush hour traffic, she was thankful for opting to use the car to shield herself from the rain.
Spencer rubbed the temples in her head, trying to soothe the headache that was pounding. She knew it was from the lack of sleep and staring mindlessly at a computer screen all day. Lately, she's been having nightmares about a variety of things; some nights her mind likes to repeat and play the same images. Her nightmares were making her restless yet exhausted.
Raven knocked on the car window, making Spencer's head snap up to meet the woman as she runs around the car and opens up the passenger seat, looking drenched from the English weather.
"Jesus, I was only outside for two seconds!" Raven grunts, wrapping the seat belt around her.
"Do you not own a coat?" Spencer asks, examining Raven's lack of appropriate clothing again. At least this time, she's not wearing shorts or a t-shirt, she's opted for skinny jeans and a long, thin red jumper with a logo on that Spencer doesn't recognise.
Raven snaps her head around, staring fiercely at Spencer. "I didn't get the memo where you became my mother?"
Spencer rolled her eyes and turned her attention onto starting up the engine again, "it probably got mixed up with the memo informing you of today's weather forecast."
"Touché." Raven replied, her words hinted with humour. "It wasn't raining when I left my room."
"You don't live here do you?" Spencer asks, switching on the car's heating and then steers the car to turn down a back street.
"What gave that away? My american accent or the fact that I'm staying in a hotel?" Raven replies, with a bite of snark.
Spencer bit down on her lip, trying to refrain from smiling. "The fact you don't understand how unpredictable the English weather is."
Raven leans back into the passenger seat, frowning. "What's with that anyway? Yesterday was crazy, first it was cold but dry and the next it was like summers day."
"Welcome to England." Spencer playfully enthuses before dropping her voice to be serious again. "What part of America are you from? I can't place your accent, which bugs me considering I chose Geography as an extra credit."
"I move around the states a lot, depending on my work. I'm currently living in Washington D.C and playing for Ton DC FC."
That explains her skills with a football then, Spencer thinks to herself.
"You're a professional soccer player then?" Spencer asks, as she looks over at Raven for a brief moment. Raven nods her response and Spencer blows out a whistle to imply she's impressed. "Is it a professional team?"
"Yup. The team was founded only last year though and we've been in the National Women's soccer league for one season."
"I'm impressed," Spencer informs her with a smile. "Is the season over for this year? I haven't kept up with american soccer for years."
"It finished not so long ago, now I'm on vacay for a few weeks, I've got television commercials to do in my free time and the team are doing nude shoots for a Christmas calendar."
Spencer wasn't expecting that last part of the sentence, her grip on the steering wheel had tightened and Spencer fought back at the flash backs, trying not to think of the woman she barely knows naked. Tried being the key word, the images just shot up like an office presentation behind her eyes.
"I think you need to veer the car over before we hit a parked car." Raven suggests, quickly leaning over to pry the steering wheel, in horror.
Spencer snaps out of the thoughts, re-focusing herself at the road ahead, swerving the car before any impact. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I got lost in my thoughts there. My work is crazy, lately."
Nothing but lies. Her work was far from crazy.
Raven leans back over to her seat, feeling comfortable again now Spencer's paying attention and not killing them. "What do you work as?" before Spencer could reply, Raven had put her hand up to pause her. "Let me guess actually."
Raven hums, as she inspects Spencer, making a judgement by Spencer's clothing. Spencer tried to flush away the heat burning up her neck as she feels Raven's eyes bore in to her.
"A lawyer." Raven nods, with a victory smile.
"I want to hear the reason behind your answer." Spencer asks, glancing over quickly at Raven.
"Your clothes are a dead give-away, nothing screams out 'I'm a lawyer' than a women's suit and her brown brief case." Raven explains. "Besides, you have the attitude of one, too, your whole stoic demeanour shouts 'I will take anyone down who crosses my way' and 'my idea of fun is grilling an opponent in a court room'. You even text formally. Who even does that?"
"There isn't anything wrong with using the correct grammar and punctuation." Spencer says, proud of the fact that her text messages can look smartly conducted just like any of her emails. Ignoring the offensive comments about her attitude. Spencer knows how to have fun, she just doesn't do the fun that every other human being does. Besides, what was wrong with 'grilling' her opponents in a court room? She thrives off it.
"You even signed your name on one of the text messages." Raven shoots at her.
"Your point is?" Spencer bites back.
"My point is that: if I looked up in a dictionary for the word formal, then you would be the definition of it."
Spencer shrugs, not even finding any offence by it. "It's a family trait."
"God, are all your family like you?" Raven mutters under her breath.
Spencer rolls her eyes and smiles. "More or less the same."
"I'm eager to know what your family do for fun at family get together's." Raven asks, smiling as she stares intently at Spencer who had brought the vehicle to a halt, parked up in her allocated parking zone.
"First, let's go upstairs and meet my child."
Spencer opened the door, pushing it aside to be friendly and polite, allowing the newcomer into her apartment first. She watches as Raven walks into her living room area, looking around to examine the wood looking wall paper she had chosen and how the living room is decorated, nodding her approval as she does so.
Spencer wanders into the kitchen, giving Raven space to wander around the living room as Spencer flicks on the kettle to brew them both a drink. Nala, who was overly excited, was running back and forth between the two; not quite making her mind up who she wishes to get her next fuss from. Nala settles for Raven, who had now took a seat on the settee and brought Nala into her arms to fuss her and Spencer tries to fight back the smile that was trying to surface at the adorable sight.
"Would you like a coffee?" Spencer asks, bringing out two mugs from her kitchen cupboard.
"What makes you assume that I like coffee?" Raven asks, glancing up from the kitten in her hold.
"Well, you stole my coffee the first time we met." Spencer replies back, with a smug smile.
Two can play the 'let me guess' what kind of person you are.
"Looks like you already know my answer then." Raven shoots back, with a hint of an eyebrow arch before lowering her head to look at the kitten wiggling excitedly in her hold.
Looks like I'm right, again.
"I can see why you're a crazy cat lady." Raven says, cooing at the ball of fluff in her arms, pressing kisses over Nala's head.
Spencer looks up at the ceiling, shaking her head and grumbles, "I'm not a crazy cat lady. Aria needs to stop saying that."
"Still, I can see why. You're so fucking cute." Raven says, stroking through Nala's fur. "Can I keep her?"
"You want to keep my only child?" Spencer asks, walking into the living room and placing down the two mugs onto the set coasters on the coffee table. "I don't think my mother would be impressed about this."
"Guess you'll have to take me to court then for parental rights," Raven replies, looking up from Nala and winks. "I bet you would get a kick out of it, too."
Spencer shudders at the words and closed her eyes, attempting to re-composure herself. "I would win the case considering I adopted her to begin with."
"And the fact you could probably recite the laws of this country in your sleep."
"And that." Spencer smiles, bringing her mug to her lips.
Nala curled up on Raven's lap, her excitement dying down and closing her eyes to sleep. Spencer looked up to meet Raven's eyes, for the first time during their meetings, they were both looking directly into each other's eyes. Raven seemed nervous, judging by the fact she was shifting around on the seat and the biting of her bottom lip.
"Are you okay?" Spencer asks, eyebrows furrowed, unsure whether she's missed something to make Raven behave this way.
"I have a confession to make." Raven blurts out, avoiding Spencer's gaze. Spencer didn't speak, she waited patiently for Raven to continue. "The reason why I knew you was a lawyer is because I stalked you."
"You stalked me?" Spencer asks, the words tainted with humour as she leans back against her settee. "I need you to define stalking; as in followed me to work? Camping outside my office?"
If this conversation happened a few years ago, she would be paranoid that Raven would be in A's master plans and had became a black hooded stalker.
Raven shakes her head before continuing, her cheeks tinted with a pink shade of a blush. "Nope, I mean stalked you via the internet. I wanted to know what kind of person you are."
"I'm intrigued to know what you found out about me."
Raven picked up Nala so she could shuffle back against the cushions behind her, legs crossed and her body facing Spencer, putting Nala back down to let her get comfortable again. Raven couldn't bring herself to meet Spencer's eyes, settling to look at the kitten instead. "First I found out about your background, including your family. I know you were born and raised in Rosewood. Your parents are attorneys and you have an older sister called Melissa.."
"I bet you know about my family traditions after all then." Spencer replies, with a smile. "No need to fill you in on the boring details of visiting the country club."
Raven's leaned her elbow against the back of the settee, tilting her head to lay it against her knuckles and smirked. "Boring details, huh? Did you not enjoy the posh life that you were introduced to?"
"Would you enjoy listening to rich, old men talking about their wealth?" Spencer directed the question back at her.
"I see your point, anyway. This is the part where I'm actually sorry for.." Raven carries on with her point, her smile had disappeared and she looks guilty, like a child who's been caught misbehaving. "I stumbled on to some news article which were based around you and your friends and the years of suffering.."
Spencer bit down on her lip, averting her eyes away from Raven. "Oh."
"I'm sorry, I saw your face on the picture that belonged to the article and read it. Fuck, I shouldn't of invaded your private life like that. It's not my place. Maybe I should go? Yeah, I should go." Raven nervously rambled, picking up Nala to put her on the empty seat in the middle of them and stepped away from the settee, Raven continued to ramble on with apologies as she walked over to the front door.
"Raven." Spencer called out, getting up from the settee and running over to the tanned woman, grabbing hold of her hand. "Hey, it's fine. It just caught me off guard, that's all."
Raven was persistent on not looking up to find Spencer's eyes, looking everywhere but at her. "I shouldn't have done it, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, honestly. It just gives me a free pass to stalk you back, too." Spencer responds, rubbing circles against the back of Raven's hand with her thumb. A friendly gesture to reassure her, hopefully. Which was definitely not another lie. At all. It wasn't like Spencer was enjoying feeling the warmth of Raven's soft hand. Definitely not.
Maybe a little.
Raven exhales a deep breath, finally looking up to meet Spencer's brown eyes and flashes a weak attempt of a smile. "You can stalk me all you wish, just don't type my name in any porn sites, I'll warn you now."
"Are you worried that I'll find you involved in dwarf porn?" Spencer winks at her, leading them back over to the settee.
"That's one of my prouder achievements." Raven smirks at her, leaning against the settee, with her mug in her hands.
Spencer missed the contact of their hands touching immediately.
Spencer rolled her eyes, laying against the cushion behind her and stretching out her legs, letting them hang off the settee. The exhaustion from her lack of sleep from the previous night was creeping over her. "I would hate to imagine what else is on there."
Nala decided to move from her position, to lay on top of Spencer's chest and sprawled out, mimicking her owner's actions. Raven picked up Spencer's legs and pulled them over her lap. Spencer had to bite back from smiling at the small gesture.
Trying not to think too much of it.
"Is this comfortable?" Raven gestured, pointing out her hand to Spencer's legs on her lap. Spencer nodded her reply. "Good because your previous position didn't look comfortable at all. Is there anything you want to ask me?"
"I mean, if we're going to be in a pretend relationship, we need to get to know each other right? First, I want to know why you stalked me to begin with." Spencer asks, running her hand through Nala's fur.
Raven sighed, slumping her head back against her shoulders. "I'm like the poster child for trust issues. I'm really sorry, invading someone else's privacy like that is a shitty thing to do."
"Hey," Spencer softly replies, reaching out her hand for Raven to take if needed. "It's okay, I'm not mad at you. Besides, is it really leaking into my private life if it's already all over the media?"
Raven rolled her head back forward, looking down at Spencer's hand and places her hand on top. "No, but that's beside the point. I should have just asked you."
"If anything, you've done me a favour. Now I don't have to explain about my life. You've saved me a job." Spencer smiles, stroking Raven's wrist with her thumb.
Raven smiled, looking down at the empty mug in her hand. "True that. Can you just stalk me instead? To save me the job?"
"Hell, no." Spencer laughs, breaking their hand contact and puts Nala to her side so she could gain access to her coffee. "I'm going to punish you by making you tell me instead. So, when you're ready, I want every detail of your life. Including your bank details and social security number."
Raven rolled her eyes and smirks, playfully. "You know, I'll make you regret saying that. Be prepared to be bored to death."
"I'm exhausted anyway, I could do with a boring story to lull me to sleep." Spencer winked at her before taking a swig of her coffee.
Raven playfully shoved Spencer's legs away that were laying over her lap and glared at her. "Now you're really in for it."
Raven wasted no time going into full detail about her family life. Raven was originally born in Spain, her parents had moved to California when she was around four years old, after her father's family business came crashing down. Raven's parents had decided to live with her mother's parents to get them back on their feet. Her family weren't rich but they lived comfortably and happy. The way that Raven had described her childhood when she was growing up made Spencer envious of her; she was happy child with her parents and grandparents around her, showing her love and providing her support.
Not that Spencer wasn't grateful for her upbringing, her parents were hard workers and had built up their own legacy. It's just that with the hard work comes with the lack of feeling the same love from her parents. They were always working long days into late nights. They would focus more on their work life than home life.
Raven continued to tell Spencer her story; explaining how she was always an overachiever at school and played sports for as long as she remembers, becoming the captain of the Polis High School soccer team. After High school, she had earned high enough grades to go to Stanford to continue her studies in engineering physics, completing her degree with honours, whilst also playing for Stanford's soccer team.
Which made Spencer's head swim in thoughts, in front of her sat a woman with an incredible, gifted mind.
Spencer knew that Raven was no doubt intelligent, her quick wit and remarks were enough evidence. She couldn't help but find it attractive hearing the words "I completed my honours degree for engineering physics."
"And then this is the part why I tell you why I'm here to begin with, attending my ex girlfriend's engagement party, because, who the fuck even does that?" Raven says, bringing Spencer back to reality.
Because, right, she was intrigued to know why she's travelled from Washington D.C to attend her ex girlfriend's engagement party.
"You don't have to." Spencer responds before Raven could explain herself. Even if she was intrigued, it was her private life. "I don't need to know the reason you are attending it, it's your life."
"Yeah, I know but I want to." Raven gifts her with a sincere smile. "I dated Anya in college, she was my first girlfriend. We grew up together in California and grew closer when we left for college. She was studying music, had a massive dream of becoming a rock star and was working so hard for it. I was her fan girl, in love with every single part of her. We were only together for a year before she took an opportunity and ran away to New York to pursue her dreams. Just left me behind like I wasn't even worth the fight." Raven pauses, biting down on her trembling bottom lip.
Spencer pulled herself up from her laying position and scoots over to Raven, offering out an arm for Raven to sink into for a hug. Raven shook her head and smiled weakly. "I'm sorry, I should be over it now and it infuriates me that I'm not. I want to get over her. And the reason why I'm here? Is to make her jealous and realise what she's left behind."
"That shouldn't be a problem at all." Spencer replies, retreating her arm and nudges Raven's shoulder. "From what I know of you already, you're pretty incredible. And don't take that compliment as a light one, if I'm giving out compliments, you should feel grateful."
"Well, consider me honoured, your honour." Raven laughs, wiping away at the tears that have gathered in her eyes.
"I'll take that compliment back if you even think about giving me snark, lady." Spencer warns her, shooting her a look of a 'I-dare-you-to.'
"Whatever." Raven argues back, rolling her eyes and hides her shy smirk by looking down at her vibrating phone.
Griffin:
I'm back at the hotel now.
what time are you back, so we can
order food? P.S, met this girl today.
Fill you in when you're home.
P.s, p.s, hurry back home so we can eat.
Loveeee youuuuuu.
"I'm sorry to ruin the night, is there any chance you can drop me back? Clarke's hungry and I know what she gets like if she waits too long." Raven asks, holding the phone in her hands to await Spencer's reply.
"You know, if you're lucky, I might even take you to a takeaway shop of your choice first to pick the food up." Spencer replies, smiling at her.
Rae Rae:
Kinda don't want to come back.
Damn you for wanting food.
P.s, I met with Spencer today. (I
know you already know that)
and I'll fill you in with the details
of how sweet she is soon.
P.s, what do you want to eat?
she's going to take me to pick it up.
Love you, too.
"We better get going then before my best friend turns into the hulk," Raven replies, standing up from the settee. "Hey, Spence?"
Spencer followed her actions, grabbing her car keys from the coffee table and then looks up to find the smiling, brunette. "Yeah?"
"Thank you for today. I'm glad it's you who's going to be my fake girlfriend."