Disclaimer: I do not own PLL or any of the characters. I also have nothing against slimming teas and Cheetos.
Unbelievable. That girl is unbelievable.
Emily starts creating a checklist of every social blunder Spencer did by her book.
And it all starts with...
Interrupting her noble attempt on breaking a high score? Check.
Especially something that involves Fruit Ninja. That's simply is a very serious issue for Emily. No one messes with her Fruit Ninja.
Casually mentions masturbation on their first conversation in after a long time? Check.
Gives her number to someone practically a stranger to without batting an eyelash? Check.
Saunters back into her life that Miley Cyrus' wrecking ball would be put to shame? Check.
So much Emily counts the ways Spencer Hastings could be trouble in the making that she even gets an invite just like that to her house just to hang out? I mean who does that? Emily is suspicious, after all this new Spencer looks unpredictable. This wasn't how she pictured her from before to ten years later.
But as much as she tells herself no, keeping in caution away from bad news, bad news like this Spencer Hastings...She'd give her a chance, or so she tries to tell herself. When reality is, she finds Spencer intriguing in ways she tries to pinpoint the difference between this Spencer to the girl from before.
Emily stands from under the tree to where she sits, the second bell has wrung and she knows she'd be late for her last subject just thinking about this...this thing with Spencer Hastings. She's got it all in her head that she was left unaware from the minutes that has passed by since the brunette has walked out from her.
She tries to shake her out of her head as she dashes to her last class, undoubtedly she knows that it will piss one Mrs. Grunwald off from her tardiness. Surprisingly, Emily doesn't seem to be bothered at all about an angry teacher this time as she apologizes for her offence.
Emily slides next to the sit Aria reserved for her. She smiles gratefully and the tiny girl was just about a little bit puzzled because there's something up with her friend. And she's going to have to find out about it sooner or later. She mentally shrugs and proceeds to focus on the lesson being discussed.
-x-
Aria hasn't heard from Emily ever since the last bell rang, signaling that the school day is over. They walk towards the crowded hallway where people were sort of giving them as much space as they can walk through. A product of Ali's dominance over her peers and that is as much as her friends are benefiting to.
They reach Emily's locker as she absentmindedly tosses the wrong books in and gets the wrong books out.
Aria needs to step in, and step in she does.
Time for her friend to snap out of it.
She grabs Emily's backpack and the raven-haired girl gasps at the intrusion. She sharply looks down at Aria, the tiny girl looking up to her with a mildly perplexed expression on her face.
"You're putting the wrong books, Em."
Emily then scans her locker and confirms that her friend was right.
"Oh right, thanks!"
Aria gives her a small smile as Emily collects the right books and replaces the wrong ones to take home. She then clears her throat and then turns her attention back to Aria.
"Is there anything you'd like to ask me?" Emily starts.
"Well you seem out of it. You've been quiet the whole time and you have your 'holding a poo' face since then, which by the way I've finally accepted as your thinking deeply face. So spill!"
"I just...I'm thinking of... if I should go to someone's house to hang out," Emily casually says as they start to make their way to Aria's locker. Aria's just about a tad curious on who this someone is. But she's not going to pry further, she's going to take what Emily gives her, for now. She'll tell who that person is if she wants to. Now obviously wasn't the time.
"And what's the problem here?" Aria asks.
"It's kinda weird... I mean the relationship that we have and uhh... She didn't exactly gave me a choice if I should go or not. She just outright invited me."
"Is that all?" Aria asks, now definitely perplexed this time. "I mean – Em, are you worried she's going to murder you or something?"
Emily's eyes widen, "What?! No!"
"You're thinking too much about it." Aria gives out a small laugh.
"Either you go or you don't."
"She's sort of peculiar, Aria." Emily says.
"And she confuses me."
Aria looks sympathetically at her friend. She knows Emily is nervous about it. The one who invited her is one hell out of a girl to be able to have this effect on their sweet Emily.
"If I didn't know better, you like this girl? Or at least she got you all bothered up if I have the pleasure to quote our dear Paige... She got you all bothered up down to your lady bits. To what extent does this weird relationship you have with her is weird, I don't know Em. But you clearly are thinking way too much about it."
Emily slightly squirms next to Aria. Clearly a sign that she's breaking through that thick skull of hers.
"And if anything, Em. Just remember we are all human beings, just like you. It is normal to invite someone to hang out at their house."
"I know that! Don't tease me! It's just I didn't expect that from her. That's the least thing I've expected."
"She's got some balls, I'll give her that!" Aria says. "Now, come and help me get my books out of this locker."
Emily helps her sort through her books and she notices that her friend has already artistically decorated her locker on her first day. She chuckles despite herself, her anxiety regarding the matter of one Spencer Hastings telling her to hang out slowly fading away.
She just remembers something quite important as Aria closes the door of her locker. Emily leans in conspiratorially as she tells her not to tell any of their friends about this. Aria easily agrees as long as she'll tell them soon about it.
After all, there's barely any matter left private for too long in their friendship. No one keeps secrets, that's what keeps their friendship strong.
-x-
Emily finds herself parked in front of the Hastings residence. She surveys the house from where she sits. The mansion doesn't look like someone's inside but she can't tell for sure so she decides to text Spencer that she's outside. It wasn't long until she receives a reply.
Ok. :) I'll come downstairs to let you in.
Emily comes out of her car but not before she gives herself one good look in the rear view mirror to check if her hair is all in the right places.
She walks down towards the Porch when she hears her name called out from afar. She spots Spencer waving her down towards the loft, a huge grin plastered on her face. Emily gives a small wave back and then she starts walking towards Spencer's direction.
"You came!" She heard Spencer greet her when she reaches her.
She then playfully shots back. "Well, it doesn't look like I have a choice."
Spencer rolls her eyes.
"Come on, let's do our homework!"
"I – I don't have..." Emily starts, a bit flabbergasted. "It's in the car. I'll go get it." and she swiftly turns around but not before Spencer grabs a hold of her.
"I was just kidding!"
"Oh you got me there!" Emily says in strained relief. For a moment she thought Spencer was serious. She was utterly convinced that hanging out in Spencer's vocabulary includes an open book, a pen and a paper. That was how convincing she was and perhaps it didn't take any act of convincing in Spencer's part. Perhaps Emily thought whatever Spencer says, she thinks she's willing to believe her. Well that was just ridiculous.
Spencer once again grins, her biggest grin and she exclaims, "You did! You should have seen your face!"
"You're kind of an asshole, you do know that right?" Emily cajoles.
"Well that I am dear," Spencer says as she motions for Emily to get inside.
Emily follows suit as she looks around the loft or what looks like a renovated one. It wasn't your typical place, it's one of those places every teenagers want their room to be, Emily concludes. From where she's standing she could see that the place was a two story structure. Though the second floor only takes almost half of the space leaving a high top ceiling on it's wake. It gives the whole thing an enormous vibe.
"This place looks cool."
"Yeah, I share this place with my siblings," Spencer points at her far left, "That one is my space on this lot. Everything in there is my possession, the rest are Jason and Melissa's."
"What would you like to drink?" Spencer says as she heads through what looks like the loft's mini kitchen. There's a fridge, a small set of high stools paired with a high table top and a wall lined cupboard.
"We have coconut water, some orange juice, beer, milk, some soda's..." Spencer says while holding a carafe of dark liquid, inspecting it from a widely open fridge. She brings it tentatively to her mouth to inspect what it is. Emily watches her as she recoils and grimaces from the taste. "And that was Melissa's Chinese slimming tea."
"Orange juice sounds perfect, thank you."
Spencer grabs the box of orange juice and sets two glasses on the table. She the tosses a pack of Cheetos in Emily's direction. Thankfully the athletic person that she is, blessed with a good eye and body coordination that rival's her friend Paige, Emily catches it. Spencer perches herself up the stool as she watches Emily slide opposite hers.
It wasn't long until they set into an almost awkward silence. Only the sounds of Spencer munching on her Cheetos and gulping down on her orange juice can be heard. She raises one perfectly sculpted brow at Emily, wondering why she barely touched her snack.
The taller girl smiles gently, "Orange juice and Cheetos?" she questions Spencer's taste. "Doesn't look appetizing to me."
"Have you tried it already?"
"No. Does it taste weird?"
"Not really. It tastes good in my mouth. Do you like donuts? You can have some on the fridge."
"Orange juice is alright. I'm not hungry anyway."
And once again they're settled back into quiet. This time, Emily doesn't mind as she drinks most of her juice. She pours another refill when she hears smacking sounds coming from her companion. She glances back at Spencer sucking the cheese powder residues on each individual finger. "Uhmmm..."
"That scrumptious?"
"Very!" and to Emily's delight, Spencer wiggles her brows. They both share a small laugh.
Afterwards Spencer exclaims, "Let's give you a tour around here after this, shall we?"
-x-
The two girls reached the second part of the house. It definitely is Jason's space in the loft. Emily can see located on one corner various comic books, action figures, basketball memorabilia's, you name the lot. There's also an Xbox propped next to a life size cardboard cut out of the Green Archer. Emily is eyeing it inscrutably.
"You should see this huge action figure he has of the Man of Steel." Spencer says.
"Where is it?" Emily asks looking at Spencer.
"He left it back in San Francisco," she continues, "He wanted to bring it here but it couldn't fit any of the moving trucks that we had unless we remove half of our things."
"Where is it now?" Emily inquires, making conversation. though this time her attention is on the basketball posters on the wall.
"At his friends house. He couldn't shut up about it, he's planning to ship it here once he gets the money." From the tone of her voice, Spencer doesn't approve of his brother's choices, then she adds, "I don't even know why he would want it here, he's going to move back to San Francisco after a few months anyway."
"Yeah, so this is my all Jason's stuff," She continues dawling out, "Where would you like to hang out?"
"Downstairs," Emily says smiling, "I'd rather hang in there."
At this point, Spencer is smiling widely at her. "And here I thought you would want to hangout here, so I saved it last for our little tour. What's the problem, you aren't much of a gamer?" she gestures towards the Xbox.
"That's more of like my friend Paige and Hanna's thing." she shrugs.
"Come on then!" Spencer says, bouncing on her toes.
Emily chuckles and she follows Spencer back downstairs. They pass by Melissa's corner of the house, though it is much more a 'dump' as Spencer calls it, a dump of her medical textbooks and a few interesting things. It looks like she isn't much of a fan of her sister, Emily concludes.
-x-
Emily is propped on one of the many bean bags scattered on the loft, Spencer is sitting in another opposite her. They are currently playing snakes and ladders, one of the many amenities on 'the SS' (short for Spencer's space) as Spencer dubs it. Already on their sixth round with Spencer on the loosing streak, the score is on 3-2.
"Damn this dice! Did you do something to this, Emily?"
"This is the last round," Emily teases. "I can feel it. It's four on two!" and she tosses the dice, moves her pawn and ladders up to the next line. She can feel Spencer's aggravation. For something as silly as Snakes and Ladders, her companion is pretty competitive about it.
Spencer grunts and gets a hold of the dice, rolling it in her hand. She releases the dice but before that she kisses it, for good luck. And damn it, it worked! Spencer's pawn lands on the highest ladder and she's ahead four paces after Emily's. She smirks, "Looks like I'm catching up, Fields!"
"Bring it Hastings!"
And apparently for something as silly as this game, Emily's competitive about it too. For Emily, it goes down to pure luck. Skills are not attributed to this game. For Spencer, it's entirely a different case. Spencer relies on physics. "It's how you roll the dice on your palm, and the angle on how you release it!"
Not too soon after, the game ends. Emily's teasing intuition came true. She fists pumps the air and looks at Spencer's direction. The brunette is smiling at her, sharing the simple pleasure of her winning. It's a miracle she isn't a sore looser, what with how she acted during the game. Spencer Hastings lets her loss slide very quickly.
"So what do we do next?" Emily asks her.
"Hmmm..." Spencer eyes Emily curiously, "Well...I was wondering if you can help me unpack a few boxes in my room?" Spencer says. "Or we can do something totally unproductive in this loft."
-x-
Emily was greeted by stacks and stacks of boxes littering half of Spencer's room. It wasn't much unpacking left considering Spencer already got started on decorating the walls of her room. The room was dark but Emily could see various posters taped to her wall, a cork board, calendars in varying formats and sizes. There are trophies, medals and pictures haphazardly scattered next to her vanity. From where she's standing she could also see that Spencer's room has a balcony accompanied to it too. Then before the entry way to the balcony, Spencer's computer operates on standby. Emily can spot Spencer's school bag wrapped around the neck of her pristine gadget. The sight almost makes Emily double over in laughter.
She contains the urge to do so.
As her eyes continue to scan the vastness of the room, her eyes land right where music instruments can be seen at Spencer's bedroom, mostly obscured from the first view of an adjacent wall blocking most of it. A beat box, an acoustic guitar, an iPod speaker dock, vintage gramophone record, beside it are stacks of vinyl records lay hiding from the view.
"Those still work?" Emily motioned through the gramophone. Spencer merely quirked a challenging eyebrow in response and continued helping Emily rifle through her stuff.
Overall, Spencer's room gives Emily a glimpse of this 'new' Spencer; Emily is newly acquainted to. The dark colors covering every spot of the room, the awards, the music instruments give Spencer a whole cacophony of clashing traits. For simply, Spencer Hastings is not your typical girl next door. Spencer Hastings is a paradox, an anomaly...
And perhaps, on the days to come, Emily Fields may come to know more of Spencer Hastings and Spencer Hastings may come to know more of her childhood friend - and the trouble she'd bring. And maybe, just maybe - she would take delight on that.
Just had to leave this here. See you on the next update.
Comments are always welcome! What do you think of Spencer and Emily so far?