Author's Note: I have the longest author's note at the end, but I figured you guys would want to read the chapter first...

By the way, today sucked, if anyone was wondering.

Chapter Six

Andrew sighed as he sat at the bar. He was in a bar he had sat at a hundred times, only this time was much different.

Instead of trying to erase thoughts of his fiancé (or his ex-fiancé), he was trying to forget all about what Spencer had told him about their son.

He threw back another shot, the alcohol burning as it slid down his throat.

"Whoa. You'd better slow down. Soon enough, you won't even be able to see your hand in front of your face," chirped a voice to Andrew's left.

He turned slightly to see a girl with dirty blond hair and blue eyes smiling.

He shrugged. "I've been through a lot today; cut me a break," he pleaded with a slight slur.

She laughed a little bit. "Alright, just this once. And that's only because I had a tough week, too," she said.

He shook his head. "It couldn't have been worse than my day today," he insisted.

"You're probably right. I came all the way here to see if my college boyfriend would take me back. I came here to find that he has a girlfriend. And she's really pretty," she said with a sigh. "What about you?"

"I found out that I have a son. And he's dead," he said bitterly, taking another shot to dull the pain.

The girl sighed. "I'm sorry. I must sound like a whining bitch in comparison to what you've been through. That's horrible," she soothed, putting her hand on his arm.

He looked at her hand, trying to decide whether or not this was real.

"Getting drunk isn't going to do anything, though," she reminded him.

He sighed and nodded. "I know."

The girl smiled. "I think I should get you out of here, before you finish another bottle of tequila."

He looked at the girl in amusement. He offered no resistance when she took him by the hand and dragged him out of the bar.

Spencer sat, waiting in hers and Toby's apartment. Ever since Andrew had paid her an unexpected visit, she had anticipated his arrival even more.

She was growing more and more anxious as the minutes and seconds passed. She just craved human comfort like nothing else.

When she finally heard the door open, she was so excited. She turned, breaking into a smile immediately. She got up and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"You have no idea how much I missed you," she said as she gave him a hug.

He laughed. "I missed you, too. Did you get your gifts?"

She let go of him, nodding. "I got all of them. Why did you send me so many flowers while you were away?" she asked, referencing his gift of irises, which preceded purple hyacinths she had gotten two days later. "And are you really that infatuated with the color purple? I mean, all the flowers you get me are purple. You gave me purple hibiscuses when we started dating, and now you're giving me purple irises and hyacinths. Is there a pattern here?" she interrogated.

"Why? Do you have something against the color purple?"

"No, it's a lovely color in between blue and red on the color wheel. But I'm wondering if it means something."

He thought about it, glancing at the hyacinths which were positioned perfectly on the table. "It means good judgment. And I think I have really good judgment in one way or another because I have you."

She raised an eyebrow. She thought about it, glancing at the hyacinths which were positioned perfectly on the table. "So you chose me? If I'm not mistaken, I think that you waited a while before you actually said something to me about your feelings," she reminded him.

"Um…well…purple symbolizes magic, and being with you is a euphoria I can only compare to magic," he amended.

She nodded, biting her lip and suppressing a laugh at his expense. "That's a good one, Jack Frost. Maybe you should write that down…it's very poetic. Actually, I think that you can start a website by now of romantic sayings for people who aren't as good of boyfriends as you are," she teased. "They could go there and get some quotes that are so romantic, their girlfriends will fall head-over-heels for them. You know—kind of like how I am with you."

Toby smiled. "Kind of?" he inquired? "I thought you were devastatingly in love with me."

Spencer rolled her eyes with a smile. "Fine. I'm devastatingly in love with you. And I'm the only girl who will ever be this lucky to have you, right?"

"Of course," he answered without thinking.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, something much different was happening.

Chanel sat across from Andrew in her apartment, offering him coffee. He took it, silently offering a thank you.

"Do you want to talk some more?"

He shrugged. "It's just…I was engaged to this girl. She never told me she was pregnant and she kind of just…left me. I hadn't seen her, but someone told me about her being pregnant. When I finally talked to her about it, she told me that the baby died."

Chanel bit her lip. She eventually put her hand on his arm, trying to provide some kind of comfort to him as some tears came to his eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I can't believe she wouldn't tell you something like that."

He was silent for a moment. Finally, he said, "I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I deserved it. I mean, I never told her so many things…"

She looked at him for a moment, observing him. "You keep giving these vague clues to something. What do you want to say? You don't have to tiptoe around anything," she insisted.

"I'm a bad person," he continued vaguely.

"So am I. We all have our faults. You don't have to feel bad about it," she persuaded.

"Really bad. I cheated so much on her. And it was so stupid, but…it was like an itch I had to scratch. It was just sex. I didn't think that it would ruin our relationship. If I could go back and not do it…I would," he told Chanel.

Chanel nodded. "I feel the same way about my ex. I never took things seriously with him. But I was scared. I never realized it, but I was with him longer than I had been with anyone. I never realized the extent of my feelings for him. Not until he was already gone," she said.

"What happened?" he inquired, drinking some coffee. The bitter taste reminded him of Spencer. He couldn't have set it down quicker after that.

She sighed, recalling past events with uneasiness. "Really, we were both young. I knew I was his first everything, but I wasn't mature enough to realize what that meant. I didn't know how much faith and how much of his heart he put into our relationship, and in the end, I just destroyed it," she explained softly.

"And how did that happen?"

Chanel gulped thinking it over.

"Toby, this is ridiculous. What could you possibly be doing?" Spencer complained again as she messed with the tie of his he had placed over her eyes.

"Spencer, relax. I haven't done anything, have I?" he inquired innocently.

"No, but I still didn't feel okay with you feeding me while I'm blindfolded," she added bitterly.

He laughed. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Your mind always seems to be in the gutter."

She scoffed. "I have a loose imagination, thank you very much," she retorted.

He simply laughed. He opened the door. He sighed, looking around at the room he hadn't really been in for a while. "This is either going to be extremely creepy or touching for you," he commented.

"Can I take this stupid tie off now?" she asked.

"I thought you liked that tie! Emily gave me that tie. I'm telling her that you insulted it," he answered childishly. He moved behind her, shutting the door behind them, and proceeding to untie the makeshift blindfold.

"Well Emily can bite me then," she replied jokingly as she allowed Toby to take his tie off her face.

Spencer opened her eyes and was greeted by a whirlwind of colors. Most noticeably were the red hues which were splashed throughout the room. Many of the red paintings were just abstract blendings of different shades of red. There were also several paintings of flowers, ranging from hyacinths to orchids to irises.

"What is this?" she inquired, her brown eyes filling with wonder as they studied the room.

"This is where you'll either find it amusing or creepy, and I honestly wouldn't blame you if you broke up with me over this."

She furrowed her eyebrows, but didn't peel her eyes away from the paintings and drawings.

"This room is where I go, sometimes, when I want to draw something outside of work, and ever since I met you, this is what I've come up with," he explained, looking over his own work.

"Is that why you were so touchy about this room?" she asked, recalling the several times she had come over his apartment and he firmly said not to enter that room.

"I was worried you'd think I was painting with blood or something morbid like that," he explained.

She looked at it all in amazement. She saw the tiny, subtle, careful brush strokes throughout the paintings. "I don't know what to feel."

Suddenly, a thought popped up in her mind. "Hey, if you're so inspired by me, and I'm your 'muse' or whatever, why aren't there any pictures of me?" she teased.

He answered simply and without hesitation. "No matter how hard I try, my drawings could never be half as beautiful as you are."

She was about to say something very sweet as she looked at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but her attention was called by a painting behind him. Her eyes became wide as she walked over to examine one painting in particular.

She picked it up, showing Toby as his eyes followed her.

"Is this—?"

She trailed off, and Toby picked it up.

"This is the exact scene from Paris. I remembered it vividly. It'd funny, the things you remember when you miss someone," he answered.

Her jaw hung open, taking in what this all was. "Now I'm sure how I feel. Toby…this is beautiful," she said.

"Still…not as beautiful as you. And I finally wanted to share it with you now that you know how I feel about flowers and things like that."

Spencer smiled, walking over towards him. She placed her hands on his face. "You are about as sappy as a Hallmark card, and I love you for it. Now I understand, all the flowers. They all mean something. Irises are inspiration. Purple hyacinths are passion," she said.

"Orchids and hibiscus flowers are delicate beauty, which you were from the moment I met you," he told her, referencing the flowers he had brought her on their first dates. She smiled fondly at the memory.

Toby walked over to the far corner of the room, where there was an easel covered in a tarp.

"And then there's one I've been thinking of a lot lately. Now, we've gotten to a new phase in our relationship, when it comes to being more intimate and living together," he said, putting his hand on the cover.

She smiled. Finally, she commented, "Wow. You used the word intimate. I don't think I've ever heard a guy use that word before."

He chose to ignore the comment. Taking a deep breath, he pulled it off.

Spencer gasped at the realism in the picture. It looked like a perfect photo of tuberoses.

"Tuberoses mean pleasure, and white means purity. Spencer, being with you is the best experience I've ever had, in my entire life," he claimed, taking both of her hands.

She stared at the picture in awe. "You're so amazing. I could tell you that, along with how much I love you, every second of every day, but it could never be enough," she said quietly. "But I love you so much, and this is amazing. You're amazing," she repeated, her smile growing wider with each word.

Toby pulled her closer, an identical wide smile on his face. He kissed her sweetly, and Spencer reciprocated his actions.

"So are we keeping that picture in here?" Spencer asked as she leaned her head on his chest.

"We can keep it wherever you want it," he answered softly.

"I want it in here, along with all the other beautiful things you've made," she responded.

He nodded, smiling. Spencer pecked him on the lips once more.

And now to address some lovely viewers...

But before I start, I'd like to rant. It's kind of like a Jenna Marbles-like rant, but less cursing. Please listen, kind viewers, because letting you all know the details of my messed up life relaxes me, and I really need that.

*Whoosh*

Okay, so most of the really messed up stuff that happened to me today has to do with this freaking History test. I think it was the first test I've ever officially failed (and I'm a straight A student; my past history average was a 95.6 or something like that). I won't be surprised if I failed; I'll be surprised if I passed.

So these two girls just like collided into each other, and this one girl was drinking some kind of dragonfruit vitamin water or some crap like that. It goes everywhere. Like, freaking EVERWHERE. It even gets on this stupid test that we have to take.

My history teacher just got so pissed. I'm not even mad at the girls at this point. I'm mad at my history teacher. He was WELL AWARE that his test was more like a freaking final, okay? He actually said to us, you don't have to make the answers really long, because it's going to take the whole period to finish this. But he just wants to torture us, and basically, he throws this hissy fit because apparently (insert feigned surprise here) it got ALL over the tests we were taking and his exam book. By the way, I got handed some of the tests at the top of the pile; there was no trace of fruity drink on it. So he takes like ten freaking minutes out of class (he showed up late, by the way), and he makes us clean his desk and the floor and all this crap, and basically...we got like thirty five minutes to finish this stupid test, which is about a bunch of Greeks. I mean, Greeks are awesome, but when you talk about this stuff in class, you don't know who the hell you're taking about! I mean, the Greeks all have names that look totally different from how you pronounce them. I mean, Sophicles is pronounced like Sof-ick-leees. Like, what? No excuses, I epically failed that test, but my hand has carpel tunnel. We had to do this stupid matching section, then multiple choice (thank you, PARC teacher, for showing us how to basically cheat for multiple choice), true or false, and then like these five freaking essays. Five. I had to finish all of them in about twenty minutes. My time management sucked. I don't know when the next time I'll update is, because if I got a really suckish grade, I'm gonna try to achieve studying-Nirvana. Like, this needs to be fixed. I'm going inhale that freaking World History textbook, because this will not be happening again...I want to go to Columbia (2nd choice: NYU), so I need to be like the top of my class. I need to be smarter than Trip and Wesley, who are like two young William James Sidises. Like really, it's ridiculous. I need some of their smartness.

I could also use some of Trip's athleticism, because tomorrow is SAC day, and I better win that damn tug-o-war. Merrick for the win. You're looking at a member of the best house on SIA. It's like no contest. Don't even try to argue. We're the best.

Sarah (Yup, you're just Sarah now; mi casa es su casa): And hooray. I did something right. Yes, I was trying to fix the horrible job I did at his characterization in his last story. There will be vulnerability in him now. I can't say for sure whether or not he will interact with Toby, but he's not through with interacting with Spencer. And Andrew will pull...something. He's not really that good of a person (I'm trying to make him multi-faceted, not actually extremely likeable), but I want everyone to understand that he's hurting like Spencer is. Maybe he's even hurting more because he never got to meet his son (wink, wink).

Girlz-Rule: Thank you!

Spobyforever259: YES! This was exactly what I was going for! You can see how Andrew would accuse Spencer of this, right? He's really uncertain. I also love how you got me on where he's coming from in his pain. Him and Spencer can just relate. And ha, dream on. That was a really wet dream Toby had one morning. Tsk, tsk. Sorry, but she wasn't actually there. He untucked the sheets somehow, but it's cute that he thinks of her :D

Sunset13: You might need to worry a little about Andrew, but trust me, the real drama has not begun yet. I am being very kind in not showing you all the angst I can put in this story just yet. You will all hate me once Part One is through. HATE me. I promise. I will have crushed you and left you on a major cliffhanger. Oops! Spilled the beans. Still, no more hints. I've already been giving AL wayyyy too many. You can ask her for some spoilers, but...

Guest: I totally failed at this request.

vondydora: I really would not say they are growing apart right now. Naturally, they're exiting the Honeymoon phase...the honeymoon is over. Right now, they're settling into being extremely comfortable and domestic around one another. I really don't think the question is how they'll fall apart at the first obstacle that comes their way, but how they're going to overcome it. And yes, Andrew has to come back right now. Timing is a bitch. This is where I really start to disagree with you, though it's not a bad thing. Agreeing to disagree is good. I really don't believe that someone could ever understand what it's like to lose a child unless they've gone through it before, as a mother or a father. You could argue that he didn't even know, but really, he did. His son was on his mind a lot. He knew he was a father, but he didn't know how to confront Spencer. I think that the pain may be hitting him just as hard. The same guilt that Spencer feels for all those things she did that could've helped Brandon get SIDs, Andrew feels for not being around while he was alive. And I strongly disagree that Toby could understand anything Spencer went through. He was never a father (or was he? Bad joke), and the only pain he knows is the pain Spencer went through (which she barely showed him) involving the death of her son. He can't empathize with her at all; he can't even begin to imagine. He's never been in her shoes. He can only pity her. He can never understand, unless Spencer goes through something similar with him, and even then, it'll still be different. I really don't think that Spencer wants to prove herself, but she actually just wants to abandon the past in her relationship. But she can't let go. I actually don't mind the criticism. It's better than writing a thousand thank you, thank you, thank yous.

SpobyTreegan: Thank you!

Okay, please, kind, beautiful, sweet, awesome readers leave a review. I might review once I get 70 reviews, but I can't guarantee (because I'd really like not to fail this Quarter and I think I already bombed the first few things I had to take, sans English [even though that was French...ugh! I'm such a failure!]), so yup, please review!

And also, tag your review with #Don'tFailKayson if you would like for me to pass this quarter. Tag your review with #MerrickFTW if you would like my house (which is still the best) to win with an overwhelming lead tomorrow. Tag your review with #FreakingUpdateKayson if you want quicker updates.

I think I know which one you want. -Kayson