Chapter 12
Study Date For Eight?
To say that Toby was excited to see Spencer tonight was an understatement. He showered twice, changes his outfit three times, spent a lot of time fixing and re-fixing his hair, and brushing his teeth till all he could taste was the minty fresh toothpaste. He it was nearing closer and closer to eight, so he decided to get going. He had just grabbed his jacket when he got a text.
Can you bring over dinner?
-Spence
Toby didn't have to looked in the mirror to know he was smiling. It was strange how much a simple text could make him all giddy.
Yeah, I'll be there in twenty.
-Toby
Toby grabbed his keys and automatically went for his motorcycle helmet. He remember he hadn't been cleared to ride it, but no one was home and they wouldn't know if he took it. Then he thought about what Spencer told him about changing and doing something that would be stupid. So he set the helmet down and grabbed his jacket before heading to his truck.
A few minutes later he pulled his truck up to one of his favorite pizza joints. The place was a pure old fashioned Italian place and that's what Toby loved about. He loved coming into the place and smelling all the fresh ingredients and seeing all the friendly smiles. His father used to take him there all the time when he was little..
"Can I get a pepperoni pizza please?" Toby said to the cashier as he stood in front of the register.
"Yes, it'll be out in just a moment." The cashier said before going into the back to put in the order.
Toby decided he'd just lean up against the wall and wait. He thought to himself that he'd love to bring Spencer here, he knew she'd love this place. Toby was too busy daydreaming that he hadn't even noticed his two best friends stepped in front of him.
"Toby, why the hell are you smiling to yourself like a manic?" Toby looked up to see Caleb and Holden standing right in front of him.
"Shut up, Caleb." He grumbled and tried to hide his embarrassment, but he knew it would be shown on his cheeks.
"I mean seriously you're standing around smiling like the mouse from Chuck E Cheese." Holden teased and got a laugh out of Caleb, but only a groan came from Toby.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Well, we came to get pizza. The girls are waiting for us in the car. We all are going to chill at my house tonight. You should come, man." Caleb explained, but there was no way Toby was giving up this night.
"I can't. I'm getting dinner for me and Spencer because we are going to spend all night studying."
Holden smiled at him with a mischievous look in his eye."Studying? Is that what they call it these days? Can Spencer be my 'study' buddy too?"
Toby playfully rolled his eyes at his friends joke. Nothing was gonna happen tonight. At least he thought nothing was gonna happen, but he wasn't quite sure if Spencer really meant studying.
"No, you jerk. We really are just studying and having some dinner."
"Then tell me this, Toby." Caleb raised an eyebrow at his friend."Did you even bring any textbooks?"
Toby couldn't answer because he didn't bring any books, paper, or pencils. He didn't want to prove his friends wrong, so he just turned around to the counter, but could still hear them snickering. Thankfully, the cashier came back with the pizza and Toby paid and took the puzza before turning back to his friends.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." He said as he walked past his friends.
"Try not to drool while you're staring at her!" Holden yelled out to him.
Toby flipped him the bird, but had a smile on his face. His friends always knew how to make him smile. When he got outside, he saw Caleb's car up front. He walked over to the window and knocked. The girls turned towards him with smiles and he waved at them before heading to his truck.
Toby pulled into the Hastings driveway and took a moment to look at his surroundings. It was easy to tell that the people that lived here were loaded. Toby popped a few tic-tacs in his mouth and got out of the car with pizza in hand.
He walked over to the backdoor just like she told him to do and knocked. It only took her less than five seconds to open the door. When she opened the door, Toby liked what he saw. She was dressed simple in a tank top and some shorts with her hair down just how he liked it.
"Hi." Spencer greeted him and he felt like an idiot because he was staring at her for quite a while.
"Hey." He smiled at her and held up the pizza."I brought us dinner."
"Great, did you bring your books or anything?"
"Ummm...no, but I can go home and get them, then come back."
"No, it's fine. I really didn't want to study. I just wanted to spend time with you, watching old movies and eating pizza."
He smiled and walked into her house. He looked around and the place looked pretty empty.
"Where are your parents? Or Jason? Or Melissa?"
Spencer blushed and took the pizza from his hands to put it on the counter in the kitchen."My parents are out of town until Wednesday. Melissa is in Philly with her boyfriend Wren. And Jason is at his girlfriend CeCe's apartment. So it's just us."
"Just us." Toby muttered to himself because he liked the way that sounded.
"You can go ahead and pick us out a movie over by the t.v. and I'll bring us food."
Toby watched her for a minutes as she moved around the kitchen like a natural. He would love to see her in his kitchen at his home everyday. He reluctantly looked away to search her families movie collection. The had different genres of movies like documentaries, comedies, dramas, action, and etc. But Toby secretly favorite genres, his favorite genre is romance. That's why he decided to pick 'A Walk To Remember' for the evening.
He took the movie and popped it into the DVD player before he sat down on the couch. Spencer made it back just in time to see the main menu screen come up.
"You choose this movie?" Spencer smirked at him as she passed him a plate with pizza on it and a soda."I don't know you were such a..."
"Romantic?"
"No, a sap. I'm a girl and I don't even watch romance movies a lot." She said and laugh, but he was starting to feel embarrassed.
"I'll take it out and pick something else."
"No," Spencer stopped him as he tried to stand up."it's fine, Toby. I want to watch this movie with you because it's what you like."
"Thanks." He settled back on the couch as Spencer pressed play. He kicked his feet up on the table and relaxed his arm onto the back of the couch. Spencer tucked her legs under her and leaned her head back, so that it was touching Toby's arm. He thought about moving it, but didn't when Spencer moved closer to his body making him get hot.
He pushed the bad thoughts out of his head and began to eat his pizza. His arm, on the other hand, disagreed with him by fully wrapping his arm around her shoulders. His arm was only on her shoulders for a about two seconds before their was a knock at her back door.
"I'll get it." Spencer said and Toby internally groaned when Spencer moved away from him to get the door.
"It's all right. I have to use the bathroom anyways." He said as he paused the movie and stood."Where is the bathroom?"
"It's down the hall and it's the second door on your right."
Toby nodded his head, then took off for the bathroom. He walked into the bathroom and let out a deep breath. His body was starting to betray his mind by coming in contact with Spencer's body. He splashed some cold water in his face in attempt to cool him down a little.
He wiped his face with one of the towels before leaving the bathroom and going back into the living room. When he got back, Spencer wasn't the only one sitting on the couch. Caleb, Hanna, Holden, Aria, and Emily were all squeezed up on the couch. When he looked at Caleb and Holden, they had smirks on their face to let Toby know that they just ruined any other plans he had.
"Hey, guys." Toby said through clenched teeth, but has smile on his face to not give away that he was upset they were here."What are you guys doing here?"
"Caleb said that you and Spence were hanging out and that you invited us here, so we can all hang out together." Hanna explained.
"Oh really?" Toby glared at Caleb who was on the verge of tearing up from his laughter.
"It's cool right, Toby?" Emily asked and he could never resist his best friend Em." We brought more more pizza and ice cream for desert."
"It's fine with me, Em, but it's not my house. You have to ask, Spence." He said and was silently praying that she would say that she wanted them to be alone.
"No, it's okay." Spencer said."They can stay if you invited them and I like having them here too."
"But I didn't invite-" Toby was going to explain he didn't invite them, but knew he'd have to explain why he wanted them all to leave. He sighed in defeat before saying."Fine, let's just watch the movie."
Since his friends decided to get comfortable on the couch, Toby had to sit on one end of the couch while Spencer was on the other end of the couch with their friends in between them.
"Toby, I didn't know you were such a sap for romantic movies." Holden commented, but Toby didn't say anything because he knew his friends would embarrass him even more.
"Aren't you just as much as a sap like him because you're sitting here watching the same thing?" Spencer spoke up to defend Toby and Holden didn't have any rebuttal to that, so he just slouched down on the couch.
Toby leaned forward to smiled at Spencer and mouth thanks to her. She smiled back and he could see the hint of a blush on her face. Everyone settled in and watched the movie. Toby felt a little bad that he couldn't make a move on Spencer, but he knew his friends had to go home sometime. And when his friends left, then he would make a move. Two was a party, but seven was a crowd.
Sometime during the middle of the movie, Spencer went upstairs. She hadn't come back in over fifteen minutes and Toby was getting worried. He slowly stood up so everyone else wouldn't notice and quietly tip-toed up the stairs to Spencer's room. Her bedroom door was cracked, so Toby peeked in to make sure she was decent before he went in. She was just sitting on her bed, so he went in and closed the door behind him.
"Hey, what are you doing up here all by yourself?" Toby asked as he took a seat next to Spencer.
"Sorry, I was talking a friend and it's just...never mind. What are you doing up here?"
"I came up here to check on you." He looked into her eyes and felt his heart flutter."I wanted to know if you were alright."
"I'm fine. You didn't have to leave the movie to check on me."
"Yeah, I did." He used his fingers to brush back a few loose strands of hair behind her ears Then moved his hand lower to stroke his thumb over her cheek."Ever since the first time I've kissed you, your lips have been stuck in my head. It's been way too long since I've kissed you. I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, Spence."
He slowly placed his lips upon hers. At first she didn't kiss back, but after a second she started to kiss him back. He felt that same burst of passion he felt the first. He know realized that the alcohol had nothing to do with his feelings for her, but that he truly had real feelings for her.
The kiss didn't last long because the doorbell rang and Spencer jumped up like her hair was on fire.
"I need to get that." She said as she scurried out of her bed room, leaving him alone.
"You have got to be kidding me." Toby grumbled as he pushed himself off the bed to go back down stairs.
When he walked back into the living room, he got a few questioning looks from his friends, but didn't feel like answering questions. He was about to sit back down on the couch until he heard a different male voice coming from in the foyer at the front door. So, he went to go investigate. He walked down the hall until he found the foyer where Spencer was talking to some guy. She looked to be having a good time because she was smiling.
Spencer finally noticed he was standing there and her smiled fell."Toby, hey. I thought you were upstairs?"
Toby walked closer to Spencer, but never took his eyes off the guy in front of her."I was, but I was wondering where you went. Who is this?"
"Oh, this is Andrew." She nervously glanced between Andrew and Toby."Andrew and I have been friends for years and he used to live in Rosewood a few years ago. He just came to surprise me with the fact that he's back."
There was an uncomfortable silence when Toby didn't say anything. Andrew stepped in front of Toby and extended his hand for a handshake.
"It's nice to meet you, Toby." Andrew said and momentarily winced when Toby squeezed his hand a little too hard."Hope you don't mind me crashing the party, but Spence said I could stay."
"Why not. Everyone else did you, so you might as well be the eighth one."
"Okay, Andrew, you can go into the living room with everyone else and I'll see you in a minute." Spencer said and Andrew did like she asked and left leaving her and Toby alone.
The two looked at each other for a before Spencer decided she didn't have anything to say, so she decided to walk away. But, Toby gently grabbed her arm to stop her before she got too far.
"Do I need to know something?" He asked.
"We can just leave it only for talk and talk about it later, Toby."
"But I want the truth."
She sighed deeply before looking at him seriously in the eye."The truth is that me and Andrew used to date."
Toby was too shocked to say anything or do anything. That's why her arm slipped from his hand and she slipped away from him to go back into the living room. He couldn't believe it. He didn't need for her to explain what was going on because he knee what it meant. This wasn't the first time she'd slipped away from him and he took that as a hint that she didn't want him to keep chase her. So, he did the only thing he knew how to do. He left out the front door without saying goodbye.
He didn't know where he was going, but didn't care. He always did everything she wanted. He stopped being a jerk like his old friends, started doing well in school, and stopped drinking, but no that apparently wasn't enough for Spencer. Andrew, on the other hand, was the perfect guy for her and Toby knew it when he first saw him.
Toby pulled into a driveway and don't even know where he parked until he walked up someone's porch. He knocked on the door and waited for it to be opened. When it opened up he saw who he needed to see.
"Hey, what are you doing here I thought you were busy tonight?" The girls asked and Toby just shrugged.
"I needed to see you. Can I come in?"
"Sure." Toby stepped inside of the house when she moved back to let him in.
