hello, faithful readers! thank you so much for your support! special thanks goes to lovelyMESS, StylishCandy, JunoLuv, kay, and Myalika! also, shout-outs to those who read and reviewed this over that the Groovy Smoothie on lj. it means the world to me. :)

enjoy chapter five!

Isolation

In all his years, Spencer has never once lived on his own—even in college he had a roommate—and the isolation gets to him. It's only natural that he finds something familiar to cling to, it just so happens that this thing has the strongest right hook he's ever seen… and the sootiest lashes as well.

Breakable

Sam was always the strongest out of all of them, and not just physically; she had to be strong to deal with the disaster that was her home life. But Spencer learned soon enough, that deep down she was just as fragile as any person, when he heard her weeping inconsolably on the phone to Carly; crying over a father who never wanted her and a mother who didn't know how.

Echo

It's like his worst fear come to life—he opens the front door to the loft to find the place empty (she's cleared out her drawer and taken her secret stash of fatcakes) and the only sound he hears is his voice echoing against his bedroom walls (it resonates against his chest and he feels so terribly empty).

Heat

She's scalded, branded by him; left immobilized as his fingertips trace her mouth and his eyes search hers (her whole body feels scorched). She doesn't have any idea what he's looking for, but if the heat in her own gaze matches what she sees in his, then she has a feeling he'll find it.

Difficult

Despite her rough exterior, Sam had always been an attentive and thoughtful girlfriend. Of course, a long string of bad relationships had left her jaded and more than reluctant to seriously commit to another person (did she have a sign on her back that said 'break my heart'?). But now she's with him and the look in his eyes is so achingly honest that she wants to turn away but can't, and she doesn't know whether to run away or freefall into it.

Nightmare

She has strange, horrible dreams growing up; dreams where Carly and Freddie get together and stop being friends with her, where a monster bursts into the kitchen and steals her soup, where she walks to the lobby at Bushwell only to find that Nevel has teamed up with Lewbert to throw her into juvie. But now, she's older and the nightmares are different—where she comes home to nothing but an empty loft and a half-hearted note, that the papers report an actual obituary, that she ends up in prison. When she wakes with a start in the night, what's different now is that she's quickly enveloped in a pair of familiar arms and lulled back to sleep by a warm voice against the curve of her shoulder.

Monster

He had a girlfriend; a smiling, bubbly, blonde girlfriend with a car and a job and cute middle name. She was so cool about everything (Sam's your roommate, Spencer? How nice!) and so friendly to everyone (Thanks for the gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free recipe book, Mrs. Benson!) and Sam hated her, despised and envied her in her green-eyed jealousy. It wasn't because Spencer was so happy with her (how could she begrudge him that stupid smile of his?), it was because she wanted to be the one to put that stupid smile on his face.

Fall

He watched her from the outside, aware of the partying and the drinking and the general poor teenage behavior. He was her one phone call, her free ride, her guilty conscience. They both were aware of the fact that she was quickly falling, spiraling out of control, but she was too proud to ask for help and he wasn't her friend enough to plead for her to stop breaking herself. It wasn't until she broke into his room in the middle of the night, shaking and strung out and crying "I don't want to end up like my mother" that he learned that maybe he was enough to save her.

Soothe

Sometimes she feels like she's holding him back, like he's on the verge of a creative breakthrough, an artistic epiphany, but just can't reach it because she's there, harshing the vibe or corrupting the zen or whatever. But Spencer, who's always been surprisingly attuned to her, soothes her fears with a smile and a flourish with a paintbrush, promising that she is in fact, his muse.

Contagious

Carly and Freddie don't know. They don't know that when their backs are turned, Sam's busy flashing Spencer a look that makes him blush crimson. They don't know that when they all sit together at the dinner table, Spencer's hand is tracing distracting circles on Sam's knee from underneath the tabletop. They don't know that while they've been off at their respective colleges, that Sam's been sleeping over at the loft just as much as she did when she was in high school. But what Carly and Freddie do know, is that whatever is going on, is apparently contagious, and they catch each other's eyes with a smile.

thanks for reading! drop me a line and let me know what you think!

x

fandrastic