Author's Note: So this is my birthday present to AL, and you can thank her for this chapter. Without it being her birthday, I probably wouldn't have updated until tomorrow. Of course, by the time she sees it, it will be November 1st near her...eh...I tried here, people! Kaysons do not get sentimental very easily!

Lies.

Chapter Fifteen

Spencer looked out of the window and into the rain. The heavy, melancholia and gray which colored the outdoors expressed her mood perfectly.

She sighed and turned back to the room. Things were the same as how she left them, but things were still very different.

There was no going back now.

She gulped as she looked around their apartment, some bittersweet memories returning to her quickly.

She looked around one final time, the only noise being the pounding of blood in her ears and the rain tapping loudly outside. She got a good look before she turned back into the bedroom.

Hanna examined her baby pink nails as she waited for other girls to arrive. Aria was meeting with the consultant in the changing room, so as of now, she was by herself. Tiffany, Emily, and Spencer should've been arriving sometime soon.

While she was sitting in the waiting room, she looked around, thinking of her beloved Spencer and Toby—Spoby, as she liked to call them. She looked around at the several dresses, thinking of the one Spencer might wear.

She was immediately drawn to this beautiful ivory-colored mermaid gown. It was covered in a simple lace. Hanna thought it would look gorgeous on Spencer, especially with the heavenly silky champagne cinching her waist and breaking up her long frame. Hanna could see Spencer walking down the aisle now.

Hanna frowned as she stepped away, pulling her fingers from the celestial fabric. It was a shame that nobody would ever see Spencer looking that beautiful.

Hanna knew Spencer, almost all too well. She knew that if Spencer wasn't ready to get married now, she likely never would be. She had known Spencer for such a long time. She was always one to play it safe. She didn't feel safe anymore.

And it was all because of that ass, Andrew.

Hanna scowled as she sat down on the couch. She wondered if Andrew ever realized just how selfish he was being right now. Not only had he destroyed Spencer's heart, impregnated her, but now he had the audacity to come back and ask for such a selfish, rude, and utterly disgusting favor from her. It made Hanna's skin crawl. If she got the opportunity to see him now…she didn't know what she'd do, and that thought honestly scared her. In the end, she was Spencer's best friend, and nobody's feelings mattered any more than hers in this equation; her heart was the most valuable thing on the line.

At that moment, Hanna's reverie was broken, because in sauntered Tiffany, Emily, and Spencer.

"Where is the bride-to-be?" Tiffany asked.

"She's getting dressed now," Hanna answered flatly. Uncharacteristically, her voice was devoid of any indicator of her normally bubbly persona. This was picked up by Spencer and Emily, who didn't bring it up.

Across the waiting room, they could both hear a door open. Out walked Aria, who seemed to be blushing slightly. The girls looked at her expectantly. She was wearing a pure white dress with a sweetheart neckline, a purple ribbon with organza flowers on it, and the skirt was composed of tulle ruffles. It was pretty but…not really Aria.

"Do you like it?" Spencer asked her as Aria turned and looked in the mirror.

Aria gave a half smile as she thought it over. "It's really pretty but…it's not amazing. What do you think?"

"It doesn't look like you really love this dress," Tiffany said.

"Can you really see yourself getting married in this?" Emily asked.

Aria thought of it for a minute as she bit her lip. Finally, she shook her head. "No."

They waited for another ten minutes as Aria selected and got dressed in the next gown. This one was an all-lace cap-sleeved, A-line dress. Hanna frowned as soon as she saw it on Aria.

"This one makes you look frumpy and does not flatter," she commented immediately.

Tiffany made a face at this one, while Emily bit her lip. Aria had to agree with the general consensus.

It wasn't until Aria had left to try on the third dress that Spencer had finally opened up.

"I need to tell you guys something," Spencer began softly.

"Are you pregnant?" Tiffany asked, hoping to lighten the mood, though she knew that all three of them knew what Spencer was about to say. Suddenly, pregnancy didn't seem so undesirable.

Spencer gave a small laugh before shaking her head "no." She took a deep breath before she continued. "Toby proposed to me," she announced.

Hanna, Emily, and Tiffany feigned surprise as best as they could, with Tiffany and Hanna being generally more believable than Emily (Spencer had asked Hanna to act surprised, so none of the girls would feel as though she were keeping things from them).

"And I said no," she added.

Tiffany's heart dropped. It was one thing to hear about it from Caleb; it was an entirely different sensation hearing it from Spencer, herself. "Why?"

Spencer sighed. "I wish I could say why, but…all I know is it doesn't feel right. And I don't want to drag him into a one-sided marriage."

"But you guys are staying together, right?" Hanna inquired optimistically.

Spencer sighed once more. "I hope so. I moved back today, but…I haven't seen him since he asked me and I turned him down," she explained.

Emily opened her mouth to make a comment, but at that moment, Aria stepped out in the next dress. It was an open-back, sleeveless white dress with lace and a mermaid silhouette. This one was quite flattering. Hanna smiled as soon as she saw this one.

"This one is amazing, Aria," she commented.

Aria smiled. She turned and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She seemed to like it. Tiffany also thought that it was pretty. Emily smiled. Spencer, however, was indifferent.

"Spence?" Aria called out, searching for something from the stoic brunette behind her. "What do you make of this one?"

Spencer shrugged. "It's pretty but…it looks off on you. Like, it's nothing I ever pictured you wearing on your wedding day. And you don't like it. You're not driven to tears," she said.

"Spence!" Emily hissed.

"No, no. She's right. But what if I never find the right one?"

"Aria, Jason isn't going to care what you're wearing. You could wear a potato sack for a dress and he'd still find you gorgeous in that hideous piece of burlap," Hanna informed her, shuddering at the thought of the brown, drab fabric.

Aria let a small, enthusiastic smile cross her face. "Really?" she inquired sweetly.

Hanna nodded, pacifying her.

"I'm going to try on another dress, but I do like this one," Aria told them.

They all nodded, watching as Aria went off.

Emily finally turned to Spencer. "Please don't shut Toby out. I know it's hard to deal with something like this when you have so much going on, but he wants nothing more than to help you, Spencer," she reminded her.

Tiffany piped up. "Emily is right, Spence. Toby is a wonderful listener. He's not going to judge you because of what that asshole suggested you do. He'll defend you if Andrew ever comes back."

Spencer sighed. "It's not just that. It's just…I'm scared. I'm scared of marriage. I've finally gotten over my fear with love, but marriage? It's…harrowing to just think about. It always ends so badly," she explained.

"But it won't end badly, because Toby actually loves—"

She stopped mid-sentence upon seeing Aria walk out.

This next dress was it. It was the one.

It was a strapless pearl-colored dress. It was a moderately full skirt. The neckline was embellished with beautiful silver detailing. The same detailing was on the hem of the dress, following even through the train. The whole look was pulled together by a matching silver sash, which sat right on Aria's waist.

Spencer bit her lip to keep from squealing as she saw Aria. She forgot about what they were just talking about, and focused all her envy on how beautiful Aria looked.

"This is it, Aria. I swear," Spencer announced.

Aria turned around and looked into the mirror. Even without the makeup and the hair and everything, she had to admit, the scene was like something out of a fairytale little girls dreamed about as soon as they could grasp the concept of a princess. Her consultant quickly went to go get an artificial bouquet of roses and a veil for Aria to try on.

"Now, that's a dress."

The girls were all sitting around, having lunch, when the topic of Toby came up again. More specifically, the marriage proposal which Aria was still not aware about.

"Are you nervous about seeing Toby?" Hanna asked as the girls' plates were being taken away.

"Why would she be nervous?" asked an aloof Aria.

Hanna looked at Spencer, willing her to tell Aria. Spencer sighed. She didn't want to have to go through this again. Still, she explained it. "Toby proposed to me. I turned him down. Can we stop talking about this?"

Aria's jaw hung open, but all four other girls decided it would be best if they all just did as Spencer wished and dropped it.

Spencer walked in the door, breathing in the scent of pine needles. Being the Christmas spirit that he was, Toby had gone out and gotten a Christmas tree recently. It still wasn't decorated, but its mere presence made Spencer smile. She was hoping to decorate it soon.

Spencer slipped into something more comfortable and made some tea with honey. She sat on the couch, watching TV absentmindedly until she heard the door open.

Her tea was practically drained, so it didn't matter when she placed the cup haphazardly on her lap. She turned to look at Toby.

"You're back," he said, not containing his smile.

She gave a slight smile and nodded. "I'm back," she repeated.

"So…does this mean…?" he began, not wanting to insinuate too much, for fear of making her run again.

"I want to make things work. But I'm not entirely sure I'll ever be ready to be that serious, Toby," she said gently.

No matter how softly, how quietly, how sweetly she said it, it would always break his heart into a thousand pieces. "So you never see anything more than us just being boyfriend and girlfriend?" he inquired.

She sighed. "Toby…I…I don't know. I just have so much going on right now with the wedding and Chanel and—"

"What about her?"

Spencer bit her lip. Toby caught onto her worry and sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her small frame and hoping to comfort her. "Spencer, has she talked to you recently?"

She didn't know how to respond. Yes, and she wanted to carry your adorable, blue-eyed babies. No, perhaps Yes, and I'm pretty sure she'd like it very much if I dropped dead so she can claim you as hers, and maybe this time, she'll actually succeed in deceiving you and conceiving your adorable, blue-eyed babies.

Ugh, Spencer! What is with you and these Toby-Chanel babies? It's almost like you want it to happen.

"Spencer?" Toby inquired, seeing that there was something clearly very off about her.

"I can't lie, she has, and she's told me a lot about your relationship, and it makes me uncomfortable. I know about you getting very close to proposing, and that, on top of my last failed engagement, and just my pragmatic, pessimistic view on love all equates to me not being ready to do this," Spencer explained.

Toby laughed, finding her in this frazzled state to be adorable. "Can you please just come here? I've missed you. And you know what? If that's all you ever want to be, I'm fine with it. I'll take as much of you as I can get. I can't imagine my life without Spencer anymore," he insisted.

Spencer smiled before kissing him on the lips.

HFrischmon: You really feel as though they've never been happy? For real, for real? That makes me kind of sad. And I believe you, it's just...I'm sad.

Spobyforever259: And no, Chanel is not taking advantage of Toby just yet. Hanna is probably one of my favorite characters to write for because I feel as though she has a lot of naïveté and a lot of knowledge about things. I just see her as this perfect foil to Spencer, which I love so much. And Shane has actually never appeared in the story, he's just been mentioned. I mean, I suppose he was there during the wedding scene in the epilogue of Begin Again, but he hasn't been in a scene with only a few characters. And there are only a few days until I post the first one! The first one will be "Runaway" by Maroon 5. It's a nice song, the one-shot is written in Toby's POV, and I think it's okay. And like I've said many times, I love long reviews :)

AL3110: :P Happy birthday, you.

eveningshades1107: What do we call Tiffany and Caleb's friendship? They need an awesome friendship name and matching shirts. I'll get on it. And okay, I promise. I didn't do anything corrupt to Toby. Tempting, tempting, but I didn't. I decided to let you off this time, and I even gave you a cute Spoby scene there at the end (you know, unless I get accused of not being pro-Spoby again *cough* Amanda *cough*).

Guest (Crazy Chick): *insert shocked reaction here*

mickeymack16: Weeeeell...Spencer has some kind of strategy here. What exactly she's trying to accomplish by doing all of this, I'm not quite certain, but she's certainly trying here. And I love Toby. Don't you love him, too? He's such a loyal golden retriever puppy, sometimes. So cute.

spoby equals awesomeness: Well, I can't guarantee that the characters will be devoid of stupidity while they're here, but I will try to make things as painless as possible. Except for when I don't and I don't feel like it. :P

SpobyTreegan: I'm kind of amused by how much everyone hates Chanel. Like the song Primadonna, she really appeals to that side of me that most girls don't want to admit they have. But it's probably just me being weird again. Then again, I feel like Chanel and Primadonna have a lot in common...

Girlz-Rule: I don't know? This seems to be quite the golden question. Well, it seems like you have run into quite a debacle.

So, yay Chapter 15! I'd like reviews, reviews, reviews, but I feel like I've hit some kind of a writing rut which really makes me mad. It's like I'm not motivated to write anything! Not LAL, not my own Electra Heart series, not Fabrastings, and *gasp!* not even Spoby. This is HORRID. I just cannot deal with this.

So while I'm freaking out, have a nice night/morning/whatever time of day it is near you! -Kayson

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AL!