Author's Note: Oh my god! It's the long awaited Chapter Thirteen! This is the one I've been stressing over! By the way, sorry for the wait, but I've been exhausted these last few days, and I have no idea why. I think it's that whole notion of not even having eight hours of sleep in my life that my dad was talking about. Oops. Bring on the coffee. And chocolate. Mmm.
Chapter Thirteen
Spencer sat up abruptly, startled by something in her mind. She looked over her shoulder to see Toby lying there, fast asleep. She touched his arm absentmindedly, smiling at his peaceful state as he slept.
She got up, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of water. She looked around the room, thinking about how much things had changed over a few months.
She looked at the dining room table, thinking of the first time she had been over his apartment after they started dating, about a month into their relationship.
Both of them were sitting at the dining room table in his apartment. Neither of them had said much since they had gotten to his apartment. Toby watched Spencer as she drew swirls on the table with her finger. He touched her wandering hand, making her shiver slightly at his touch.
"Toby?" she asked, her voice shaky.
He looked at her expectantly as he took her hand.
"What are you doing?"
He shrugged. "I just wanted to…touch you, I guess," he explained.
Something about that explanation made her grow a little weak. She kissed him softly on the lips and he continued to play with her hands.
Spencer walked over to the table, touching the spot where she was sitting. She looked over to the doorway. She recalled with a certain fondness another time that felt very significant in their relationship, which occurred around three months in.
Spencer felt a little saddened as her lips finally had to part from his. She glanced over at the clock, which reminded her it was time to go.
"I hate that I have to leave so soon," she said as she glanced at the clock for the fifth time in the last fifteen minutes.
He nuzzled into her neck and she laughed. "Stop it!" she scolded through her laughter.
"I don't like you leaving any more than you do," he told her. He looked at her lovingly for a few seconds. "Will you come back later?" he pleaded.
Looking at him, she couldn't even fathom saying no. "Of course, I will. I'll come back after my classes are out," she promised him.
He smiled at her. "I love you," he blurted out.
Spencer looked at him in confusion, registering what he said.
A red color set into his cheeks. "Spencer, I'm sorry if—"
"I love you, too."
He looked at her, surprised. Spencer just smiled at him before kissing him once more and leaving the apartment.
Spencer smiled as she traced her fingers absentmindedly through the little indentations and notches in the doorpost. There were so many good memories here.
Good memories. Their relationship was beautiful. Why, again, was she falling for what Chanel was whispering in her ear?
She abandoned the glass of water on the counter, going back into the bedroom, curing up against Toby.
"Spencer is unsuspecting, right?" Tiffany asked as she placed the bouquet of tuberoses on the counter in the kitchen.
"She shouldn't be. She said she was meeting up with Aria," Toby replied.
Tiffany nodded as she moved the tuberoses to get a better view of them. "How exactly are you planning on asking her?" she inquired.
"I don't know yet. I want to make it a big romantic gesture that she'll really appreciate, but I don't want it to be too cheesy. How did Shane propose to you?" he asked, hoping for some inspiration.
"Don't do what Shane did for me. It was a nice attempt, but he almost killed me."
Toby furrowed his eyebrows. "Killed you? How?"
"He thought it would be really cute and unique if he put the ring in our dessert that night. I almost choked on it and there was chocolate cheesecake stuck in the little tiny crevices of the ring for like, a week," she explained.
He nodded. "Well, I'd like for her to survive the proposal, so I'm pretty sure I won't be doing something like that," he commented.
She nodded. "That's probably a good choice," she replied.
A minute later, Emily walked through the front door of the apartment, still wearing her apron from her part-time job at the cupcake shop. She tossed her keys down on the counter.
"So have you decided how you're going to pop the question?" Emily asked suddenly.
"Nice to see you, too, Em," Toby answered.
"He hasn't decided. I gave him my proposal horror story and he doesn't have any good ideas," Tiffany replied.
Emily nodded, looking around the apartment. "Where did the future Mrs. Cavanaugh go?" she asked, teasing Toby.
"She went to hang out with Aria and Cassidy," Toby answered, trying to conceal the blush Emily brought to his cheeks. Tiffany let out a muffled laugh at his discomfort.
"No, she didn't. I saw Aria with Cassidy in Rosewood Town. They weren't with Spencer," Emily explained, ignoring Tiffany.
"What?"
"Why would she lie about where she was going?" Tiffany asked.
Spencer took a sip of water as she let out an anxious sigh. She had only been waiting for five minutes, but it felt like a lifetime.
She finally heard a bag being tossed onto the booth across from her. She looked up and saw the dirty blonde whose words had been echoing in her mind for days.
"I have to admit, I was kind of surprised to hear from you, Spencer," she said, the words rolling off her perfect pink cupid-bow lips easily.
Spencer tried not to let her guard down too much around Chanel. "What you said made me pretty concerned."
"You still remember?" she asked, genuinely surprised.
Spencer felt the slightest bit of color rise to her cheeks. "Drunk or not, things you said gave me thoughts I won't forget," she insisted.
Chanel became a little tense. "Like what?" she inquired cautiously.
Spencer shrugged nonchalantly, trying to hide how genuinely scared she was for the status of her relationship right then. "I just think it's really weird. One minute you tell him you love him, and the next you're trying to convince me of how unhealthy this relationship must be," she said.
Chanel sighed. "Spencer, I was dating Toby for a lot longer than you have. I think I know him a little better," she said.
"But you were never serious!" Spencer interjected.
"It was…more serious than I let on. I thought I told you. He wanted to propose to me," she said, a tone in her voice conveying that she was truly saddened he never got the chance to.
"You did. But you said you weren't serious enough in this relationship."
Chanel was silent. Spencer sat, waiting for a response.
Finally, her perfect lips parted to give a reply. "That may have been a lie."
Spencer knitted her eyebrows together. "What do you mean?" she inquired suspiciously.
Chanel bit her lip, looking down at her hands. "I may not have told you about how serious I was about Toby. I didn't see us as just a casual thing, like I told you and your friends."
Spencer waited for more. She wished she hadn't heard it when Chanel finally got out with it.
"I may have been trying to get pregnant."
Spencer walked in, feeling very dizzy from her meeting with Chanel. She made a beeline for the kitchen and immediately poured a glass of water for herself, taking it quickly. She felt very nauseous all of a sudden.
She hadn't even noticed whether or not anyone else was home. She didn't even take notice of whether or not Toby's keys were on the counter. She just gulped another glass of water.
A moment after she set the glass down in the sink, Toby walked out into the room. Spencer looked up and saw him.
"Hey. Are you okay? You look kind of out of it, Spence," he said, touching her hand.
She took her hand back quickly. "I'm fine," she answered shortly.
He looked at her for a moment before letting go of it. He shook his head, shaking it off. "So do you want to do something tonight?" he asked sweetly.
She sighed, thinking about it. Finally, she came up with a verdict. "I would love to."
He let out a small sigh of relief. He was counting on her to say yes.
"Tonight was great," Toby said as they walked back into their apartment.
She nodded in agreement. It was almost too great.
Before she could get too caught up in her thoughts, Spencer's phone rang. She dug into her bag, fishing out her phone and she saw a new message from Andrew.
Her stomach did a somersault as she thought about what he probably wanted.
Oh, God, she was about to be sick again.
"Toby?" she said, calling his attention.
"Yes?"
"Um…I'll be right back. Can you just give me a minute?" she asked.
He nodded with a small smile before pecking her on the lips. "Sure. But I'll be waiting," he told her playfully.
She let a small smile lay on her lips before she walked into their bedroom. She made her way into the closet, turning on the light. She dialed a number quickly on her phone.
"Listen to me. You need to back off. The answer is no. I'm not changing my mind, and you can't convince me otherwise. Stop calling, stop texting, and stop trying to be in my life anymore. I want nothing to do with you," she said fiercely into the phone before hanging up. She had had it with him. This secret was taking such a toll on her mentally.
After taking off her heels and letting her hair down, Spencer walked back into the room, where Toby was waiting for her. She took notice of the flowers sitting on the table.
"Were those always there?" she asked wearily.
"Yeah. You didn't notice them?" he inquired.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry. My head has just been bothering me lately." Understatement of the century.
He nodded before taking her hands. "Spencer, we really need to talk about something."
There was a small knot of nervousness growing in her stomach. She felt sick to her stomach once more. "What is it?" she asked nervously.
He pushed some hair back behind her ear very carefully. "We need to talk about us. I had been thinking about asking you, but these last few weeks have really…solidified my ideas."
She raised an eyebrow in question. "Solidified?"
He nodded. "I just wanted to know…what are you doing for the rest of your life?" he asked.
Spencer furrowed her eyebrows.
Before she knew it, her boyfriend was down on one knee before her. Her mouth just hung open. She couldn't believe this was actually happening.
"So I wanted to know…will you marry me?" he asked.
A flood of emotions came to Spencer in that very instant. Did she say yes? Did she say no? Could she really say yes with this secret weighing heavy on her conscience? If she said no, would this be the end of things as they knew them?
And then, something else came. That same sickening, menacing feeling twisting in her stomach. She ran to the bathroom, before spilling out her guts.
The proverbial butterflies in the stomach had turned into birds, flapping their wings until the pressure turned out to be too much.
Okay, I need to clarify something very quickly before I proceed in responding to reviewers. When Chanel says that she was trying to get pregnant, she was doing this WITHOUT Toby's knowledge and WITHOUT his consent. She was doing it sneakily. Like, have you ever heard of women who basically trick their boyfriends into getting them pregnant by sabotaging their own means of birth control, like not taking birth control pills and blah blah blah? Yeah, that was what Chanel was basically doing. Moving on.
You all hate me. I know it. This hate will only be further fueled when I tell you (right now) that I think I might need like a week to compose myself, because I have a lot to do. I have to update my other story, write for my other project and a bunch of school work and practice for orchestra and oh my, this already seems like a lot.
mickeymack16: Did everyone honestly think that Spoby would get engaged that simply? Lol, no. You're going to have to wait until I come back with Chapter Fourteen to find out. It's not that simple. Maybe one day, I'll be nice to you guys and give you a solid answer. Maybe. I make no promises. I've been screwed over too many times by the human race to be that nice. :) And the next part will be a lot of Jaria wedding planning. Does that appease you? I'm writing Chapter 15 now, and we're going dress shopping.
eveningshades1107: That small nagging voice in your head might just be right! But it might be wrong! So vague...anyway, I think Tiffany should honestly join the show. She could be like another comic relief...she would be, like, best friends with Emily and Hanna (and Toby, of course). She would be so cool. Start that campaign! And I really hope to do that year-long one-shot collection. So far, there are 191 songs (one-shots) in that collection, and I've written four so far (and I can tell you what they are: "How" by Maroon 5, "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada, "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston, and "Don't You Want Me?" by The Human League. Up next: "Red" by Taylor Swift). Unfortunately, I did as much Marina as I could, but there wasn't a lot to work with. I don't know if you know Marina like I do (since I'm kind of obsessed with her), but a lot of her songs have nothing to do with love, and they're really sick and twisted. I guess that's why I love her, but right now, I only have five songs by her on there, but I might add a few covers she did.
Spobyforever259: YES, it was Hanna! Good job for figuring it out! It was supposed to be someone that everyone could recognize by y description of her, but it wasn't really a secret. It was just left vague on purpose. And it's not the same ring. Toby doesn't reuse rings. If you noticed, Chanel said she found a Tiffany box, and the ring Toby was planning on giving Spencer was in a red velvet box. One is new, store-bought, while the other is antique, and formerly Toby's mother's. And yes, oh, Tiffany. So oblivious. And oh my God, I cried more in that one hour of Glee than I ever have (and I ever want to again) in my life. The saddest was probably when Kurt, Kurt's dad, and Finn's mom were looking through all of his things. That was so sad. I also loved Santana and Rachel in that episode. And Mr. Schue. Him, too. And I know right! I remember being uncertain with whether or not I even wanted to continue with Begin Again, and now look at where I am! It's like...omg.
AL3110: I know I'm awful and wonderful. I think it's because I'm cute. And little.
Sylviecake231: I've revealed what state I live in and what city, so like the last thing I have to cling onto is my name, but maybe one day, someone will put the pieces together and figure out my first name. And I hope you do read it, because I really like having you (and all my other readers) as readers! I hope to do it, and I think I will.
all-those-pretty-lights-PLL: Thank you so much! And when you say you read my first story, do you mean Begin Again or Forget Me Not?
Girlz-Rule: Oh no! All these bad feelings! All these feels are just like GAH!
LynnLayne18: He was talking to Hanna (as Spobyforever259 noted). He was basically at the bank, showing her the ring (he kept it in a safety deposit box, since it's pretty valuable). And he'll be back sometime, continuing to creep you out, but I think that the person trying to interfere with Spoby the most in Part II is Chanel. But he'll get his time to shine. And Cassidy will be THE most precious little thing ever!
SpobyTreegan: I'm fangirling just thinking about it.
Also, before I go, I just wanted to know (because I'm really curious): what do you guys think I look like? I'm just wondering if my personality matches my appearance. That's weird. But...yeah.
So I'll update...when I get the chance. And I'd love 10 more reviews ;) -Kayson