Rosewood, April 2011
"You know, when you invited me over I thought you had something else on your mind…" Toby teasingly said to his girlfriend.
They were all alone hanging out in Spencer's bedroom and, truth to be told, the boy really had thought they were going to occupy their time doing… more interesting things. Instead, the brunette was reading her geometry book. On a Friday night. For personal pleasure. It was weird even for a Hastings.
"I know, but this is so interesting! Sorry Tobes" Spencer smiled sweetly, her eyes glued to the pages of the book in her hands. "I promise I will make it up to you later".
"You're such a freak" her boyfriend affectionately smiled back. "But I love you" he declared softly.
"It's fascinating" Spencer murmured in amazement; she was so absorbed in her reading that she didn't hear Toby. Not that it bothered him too much: he was a nice guy and he knew her girlfriend and how passionate she was about… everything, really. It was endearing.
"What has you so hooked up?" he decided to humor the smartest brunette he knew. If you can't beat 'em…
"Parallel lines. In ordinary Euclidean space parallel lines cannot meet as by definition, they remain the same distance apart; no matter what part of the lines are compared, they cannot intersect. But Euclidean geometry can be extended by adding a point at infinity, where all lines meet"
"Even parallel lines?" Toby asked a little perplexed. "Sounds absurd" he muttered.
"If you see things from a traditional point of view, yes. But this is exactly the thing: we're talking about how things works at infinity, we necessarily have to work beyond the traditional. Some rule has to be broken to build a theory, something new; the trick is breaking the right rule in the correct way. See why this is so riveting?" Spencer asked excitedly at the end of her explanation.
"Honestly? No. Can we watch a movie and cuddle now?" Toby pleaded, making his best puppy dog eyes.
"Fine" she grunted. "Ignorance is bliss, they say"
Toby rolled his eyes and threw himself on the bed while Spencer went to pick up her laptop. She kissed his pout away and snuggled up to him, putting on the movie.
"So what are we watching?" her boyfriend asked.
"A beautiful mind" Spencer smirked.
"You've got to be kidding me" he huffed, but eventually abided.
It was some time later when Spencer's phone buzzed with an incoming text. She had the feeling – a bad one – she knew the sender, and of course she was right. What she didn't expect, however, was the content of the message. Her eyes widened at the sight of the attached file displayed on the screen, and without thinking or giving so much as an explanation to her shocked boyfriend she bolted out of her bedroom and ran to her car. She was a woman on a mission.
She was halfway to Philly when she grabbed her phone and called Toby back, explaining briefly why she had to run away so suddenly and reassuring him everything was going to be alright once she had found Hanna. She apologized again with the boy before hanging up.
Hanna. She glanced angrily for the umpteenth time at the picture –A sent her earlier. Hanna was in some club in the city getting wasted and dancing wildly, a bunch of horny guys and men all over her. And she didn't seem to care in the slightest. 'What the hell are you doing?' Spencer sped up her car even more, she couldn't get there fast enough.
For the first time since when all this madness with –A started, she was grateful to their cyber-stalker. They even provided her with the blonde's whereabouts. She didn't know why she was the one alerted about Hanna's current situation, but she found that she didn't care that much; in the end, all that mattered was to take her friend home, safe and sound.
She strode with purpose inside the building, flashing her fake ID to the bodyguard at the entrance. She only stopped in her tracks when she saw this… butchy lady doing body shots off of her best friend's naked stomach. The scene was suggestive, to say the least, and Spencer felt a pang of something that she didn't have the time to figure out, because now she was just too pissed to think clearly. So she rushed off towards the two unsuspecting girls, her fists clenched tightly, and shoved the tall, muscular girl off of Hanna with all might.
"Get off of her, she's taken!" the brunette snarled, referring to Caleb.
Hanna needed a moment to understand what was going on, but when she realized that Spencer was there she got up from the leather couch she was on and threw her arms around the brunette's neck.
"My hero!" she whispered softly in the taller girl's ear.
Spencer's own arms wrapped around her waist and Hanna felt like she was going to swoon. But the angry tone of the brunette brought her back to reality.
"What the hell Hanna! You've got some explaining to do later" she said glaring at the blonde. "But first, let's get you home" she detached herself from her friend and started to walk away when she felt a hand grabbing her wrist, effectively halting her. She turned around and was met with a pair of blue, ocean eyes that held so much emotions in their gaze she was left speechless. And staring.
"Ooor, we could stay here and dance" Hanna slurred and flashed her a dazzling smile.
The blonde once again closed the distance between them and started to sway her hips in a very enticing way. Spencer was so enthralled by this erotic sight that she didn't notice the fist approaching her face until it connected with her jaw, right at the corner of her mouth.
Suddenly she was on the ground. Someone was yelling, the people around them were staring but her vision was slightly blurred and her senses momentarily clouded. 'Bitch can hit', she thought.
She regained her faculties just in time to stop Hanna, whom was throwing herself at the short-haired girl from earlier, intent on murdering her.
"YOU'RE DEAD BITCH" the blonde yelled furiously. "I'M GONNA KILL YA!"
"Yeah? I wanna see you try" butchy girl replied all cocky.
Hanna was about to throw her blow when she felt a hand on her waist, holding her back. She turned her head and saw Spencer.
"She's not worth it. Come on, let's go home" the brunette said through gritted teeth.
She then pulled Hanna away by her arm, walking fast towards the exit. She was starting to feel her temper rising up and she didn't really want any problem, so she made the wise decision to simply walk away from unnecessary troubles. After all, her rescue mission was accomplished. They ignored the commotion behind their backs and finally got out of that place.
Once they were on the street, Spencer stopped them and leaned her body against the wall of the building. Hanna crossed her arms over her chest and bowed her head, refusing to meet her gaze. Spencer sighed.
"Want to tell me what all that was about?" she asked calmly. Her intensions was not to scold her friend, she only wanted to understand what prompted Hanna to behave that way and help her friend with whatever was upsetting her.
"How did you know where I was?" Hanna avoided her question with one of her own.
"I received this" she replied, handing the blonde her phone.
"My my, looks like our dear Hanna can't take loneliness. Poor baby." she read aloud the text –A sent and frowned.
"So now –A cares about me? Wow, I'm honored" she laughed humorlessly.
"Hanna, you're avoiding my question" Spencer pushed.
"Caleb left, ok? His mother showed up after years of neglection and he went with her. Not that I'm not happy for him, I am, but why am I never enough? Why nobody ever chooses me in the end?" 'Not even you', she finished in her mind.At this point she had her eyes full of unshed tears and she was shaking.
"Oh Han, why didn't you tell me? C'mere" Spencer spread her arms and moved to hug her but Hanna pushed her away.
"No Spencer, for Christ's sake I don't need your pity, I don't want your pity!" the blonde yelled, her eyes closed and her head still down.
"Hanna…" Spencer murmured. She didn't know what to do.
"Why you came, uh? What do you care? We're not ten anymore Spence, I don't need you going all 'knight in shining blazer' for me! Stop pretending that you give a shit about me and go back to your boyfriend" Hanna spat out without thinking. She was still drunk and in so much pain. All her insecurities, her abandonment issues, her frustration towards Spencer and her obliviousness to how she felt; all came to the surface in the worst way, at the worst time.
Suddenly she felt her body slamming against the wall. Spencer had her pinned in place, her hands gripped her shoulder tightly. She opened her eyes and for the first time she noticed two things: one, Spencer's lip was cut and bleeding. Two, the brunette had tears streaming down her face.
They stayed like that for a while, staring intensely at each other. Hanna brought her thumb over Spencer's lip and swiped off the blood that was pooling at the corner of her mouth. Then, on an impulse, she leaned up and kissed the same spot tenderly. Time seemed to have frozen, until Spencer spoke again as if nothing happened.
"How dare you? How could you say that I don't care about you, Hanna? You're one of the most important people in my life, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. I'll go all knight in shining whatever anytime I please for you" the tall brunette declared. It sounded so much like a promise, one Hanna wanted to believe with all herself.
"Why?" Hanna managed to choke out. The blonde girl's heart was rapidly beating in her ribcage, hope bursting in her soul. 'Maybe… just maybe now she will…'
"Because I love you, idiot!" Spencer stated and Hanna lost her breath. "You're my best friend, Hanna" she added. "You should know better by now".
"Yeah…" it was all the smaller girl could muster. 'Hope is a bitch, I really should know better'. "Of course. And… I love you too, you know?" 'More than you will ever know'.
"I know" Spencer smiled and kissed her temple softly. Hanna felt like she was going to fall apart any minute now. That was just too much.
"Take me home, Spence. Please" she whispered.
The young Hastings took her hand and guided her towards her car. She helped Hanna inside before settling herself on the driver seat. She started the car and began to drive back to Rosewood.
"Hey Spence, about that kiss…" Hanna broke the silence after a while, when she had gathered enough strength to speak.
"Don't worry. You were drunk and, uhm, heartbroken" Spencer said gently. "I get it"
"Yeah. Yeah, you're right" Hanna soughed.
An uncomfortable silence engulfed them once more, and while she was staring at the street in front of them Spencer thought that that was one of the rare moments in her life when she wanted to be wrong. For some reason, her mind went back to geometry and parallel lines and that point at infinity where all lines converged and met, at the very end.