Chapter 25:
The Many Sides of Hanna Marin
"Oh. My. God." Spencer clapped her hands in glee as she beheld the shocked expression on her roommate's face as she tore open the wrapping paper. "Spencer. Jill. Hastings. Is this what I think it is?"
"It is indeed." Spencer grinned broadly and gave Bree a knowing look.
Bree looked up at her and all at once went into full fangirl-mode. She flapped her hands hysterically and got to her feet, jumping up and down, all while clutching her prize in her hands, holding it up for all to see. "Look at it close, ladies and gentleman, because as of now, Brielle Mason is the owner of the entire series of – hang onto your hats people – Grey's freaking Anatomy!"
Laughing, Toby, Aria, Hanna, and Emily applauded. Spencer sat back with a huge smile plastered to her face and Bree – after jumping up and down a few more times – leapt back onto the couch and buried Spencer in a bear hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you sooooo much!" She said over and over, squeezing her roommate so hard she could barely get air.
"Aye! Easy, easy! Newly-unstitched, remember?!" She laughed and tried to disentangle herself from Bree. When Bree finally retreated and fell back onto the sofa, clutching her DVD to her chest like a teddy bear, Spencer reached over and picked up the final gift she had wrapped, handing it across the coffee table to Hardy and Vienna.
The Christmas party was set for two days later, Saturday, and as an annual tradition, the group of friends met a few days before at Toby's apartment in order to give their yearly gifts to Hardy and Vienna and Bree, who spent every Christmas at their families' houses and didn't get to attend the party.
This year, Spencer decided to treat her loyal roommate to the full series of seasons of her all-time favorite show. She knew that the gift would be a hit, and Hanna patted her shoulder in congratulations, "Wow, Spence, nice! Whoever said you can't give good gifts?"
"I don't know, Hanna, who does say that?" Spencer asked, arching her eyebrow and trapping Hanna with her words. The now-panicked fashionista hastily shoved a frosted sugar cookie in her mouth and sat back in her armchair silently.
"Aw, thank you, Spencer!" Vienna smiled brightly as she opened the decorative wrapping paper, revealing a scrapbook full of pictures of Hardy and her over the years. "That's so sweet!"
"I thought it would be a nice gift – at least before the wedding." Spencer winked and took another sip of her eggnog. In the seat next to her, Toby reached out and readjusted the crooked Santa hat that Aria had so merrily plopped on her head upon arriving.
Now, the little raven-haired fairy – dressed in her own festive hat and a rather abstract pair of ornament-print pants – clapped her hands and bounced up and down in her seat, "That's so sweet, Spence! You're so romantic!"
"Well, I try." Spencer batted her hand at her as if to sat 'eh, it's nothing.' She grinned over at Toby, "I learned from the best."
Toby smiled back and leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips and she took his hand in hers.
"This has been great, guys." Emily said from beside Bree, who was still marveling and "oohing" and "aahhing" over her new DVD. "Really, it was so much fun. And dinner was great Ezra – who knew you could cook?"
"Well, certainly not me." Aria replied, arching an accusatory eyebrow at her fiancée, "Where was all this Betty Crocker stuff when I was slaving over hot dinners for, oh, I don't know, the past five years?!"
"It was building up and saving itself for this very day." Ezra replied evenly, taking a drink of his hot chocolate.
Aria narrowed her eyes and stuck out her bottom lip, continuing to stare him down.
"So, anyway, thanks for having this again, Spencer. And Toby." Vienna smiled warmly and tucked the scrapbook away in her beaded purse.
"Our pleasure. We love having you guys. I hope all three of you have a great time at your families' house." Toby replied.
"I can't believe the year's nearly over. It went by like that!" Aria said, snapping her finger for effect.
"I know. It's almost Christmas and then New Years." Emily said.
"Oh yeah, New Years…that'll be a fun holiday…" Hanna said coyly, a huge smile on her face. She winked at Spencer and Spencer shot her a warning look in response. Hanna bit her thumb and bowed her head to hide her grin.
"Anyway." Spencer cleared her throat, readjusting her Santa hat, "Merry Christmas to all!" She proclaimed, holding her glass of eggnog in the air.
"And may the odds be ever in your favor!" Aria joined in.
"Uhm, wrong movie, Aria…" Emily said.
"Oops." Aria giggled, but nevertheless joined the rest of the group in raising their glasses and tapping them against one another. "And to all a good night!"
"Merry Christmas!" The friends all chorused, and chugged back a gulp of the drink in their hands.
In the midst of all of their cheering, Bree's voice shouted, "Whoa, and there's deleted scenes too?!"
It was dark by the time Hanna got back to her apartment. The heavy blanket of snow was well set over Rosewood, covering the town in a frosty sheet of white. Normally, Hanna found it beautiful, but when she was trying to kick it off of her $500 Chloe boots, she looked down on it like it was a bullying kid that was just set on ruining her day.
"Ugh!" She mumbled under her breath as she stood in the outdoor stairwell of her apartment, outside her door, and tried to de-snow her shoes enough so that they wouldn't be wrecked forever. "Dammit!" She cursed softly.
"Hey, keep it PG, I heard that you have some young neighbors." A familiar, jocular voice rang out from somewhere down the staircase, and Hanna nearly jumped a foot in the air.
"Will?" She asked into the night, furrowing her eyebrows. Her breath nearly froze in front of her. "What are you doing here? Where are you?"
Suddenly, he appeared at the top of the stairs, a few feet in front of her. "I wanted to come by and say goodbye."
"Goodbye?" Hanna asked, confused, "Are you…leaving?" Her stomach clenched with an overwhelming fear, and she mentally kicked herself for feeling in such a way.
"Well, just for a week. I'm going to my folks' house for Christmas. They don't like being alone for the holidays. Not since Gracie…" He trailed off and shrugged.
Hanna nodded, relieved. "Oh, oh yeah." She cleared her throat, "Are you leaving now?"
"Yeah, yeah, late flight. Always cheaper." He shrugged again. Hanna couldn't help notice how…cute he looked in a beanie. A navy beanie, at that. It brought out the color in his eyes.
The only person she ever thought could look good in a beanie was Caleb.
Caleb in his gray beanie.
If she looked hard enough, she bet that she could unearth one from somewhere along her apartment, where it had surely been thrown across the room in a haste as the two of them had ambled into the bedroom and collapsed on her bed…
Hanna closed her eyes tight and chased away the erotic memory. She wasn't willing to go down that road again.
"End of the year, huh?" Hanna started lamely, searching for a topic of discussion to fill the awkward silence.
"Yeah. Guess I won't see you until the new year." Will nodded. "Which is why I wanted to give you this." Will slipped his gloved hand out of his pocket, revealing a little silver box, tied with a light blue ribbon. He held it out to her and she carefully took it between her numb, freezing fingers. "Merry Christmas."
"You didn't have to get me anything." She said quietly, her eyes locked on the package in her hands.
"Nah, I wanted to." Will brushed it off like it was nothing, "Go ahead, open it."
Hanna hesitantly obeyed, immediately feeling guilty.
But for what, exactly?
Because she hadn't been courteous enough to buy him something as well?
Or because she hadn't received a gift from anyone but a friend since her breakup?
She swallowed the thought and undid the little ribbon, tucking it into her coat pocket and lifting the top off of the box.
Nestled within a pillow of red velvet was an oval-shaped silver locket with a large elegant H scripted on the face. Around the circumference, a row of tiny diamonds was nestled into the surface, and Hanna could nearly see the reflection of her own blue eyes in the exterior.
"I saw that in the window of the jewelers down the street and thought…it was just so you." Will said, and Hanna's eyes flickered up to see the huge smile on his face.
"Will…I…" She shook her head, trying to find the words. "It's beautiful, but…it's too much, you can't possibly spend this much on me." She thrust out the box towards him.
Will shook his head. "No, no, I want you to have it. That's why I bought it." He said, taking the box from her and lifting the locket out of it by the chain. He tucked the box away in his pocket. "I wanted to thank you for being so welcoming to me when I moved back. It's so easy to look at someone like me and just think of me as that one guy whose sister killed herself that one summer." He continued, walking towards her and undoing the clasp. Hanna stood rooted to the spot, peering up at him with her lips parted. "But you saw me for who I was. You talked to me and listened to me and you were just…a good friend to me. So, I wanted to thank you." He reached his arms around her neck, fastening the catch and letting the locket hang from her neck. He ran his fingers down along the chain to where it lay below her collarbone, before letting his hands drop back by his sides. Hanna could feel his cool breath on her face. "And now, when you wear it, right over your heart, it'll remind you that you have one – a heart. And that you are whole. And not broken.
"See, the funny thing about lockets is that they're beautiful on the outside, but there's a mystery inside. And once you open it, you see what's inside…and you see that there's so much more than just the face of it." He smiled, letting his fingertip tap the front of the locket. "There's no one side to it. Just like there's no one side to Hanna Marin." He grinned down at her softly. "She can be anything she wants to be. She's strong. And smart. And beautiful. Inside and out. Just like the locket."
Hanna was speechless. It was all so much, so much…kindness and honesty so fast. Hanna had been through enough pain in her life to learn not to trust anyone at face value, and that people were naturally liars and cruel until proven benevolent.
But Will…he was different. He connected with her in a way no one else had. They didn't have any pretences, any conditions. They just were.
"Hanna." Will smiled softly. "Now would be the time to say something."
Before she could think of a reason not to, Hanna rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Will's, letting her hands rest on the side of his face. After a moment, Will's hands came to rest on the small of her back, drawing her in to his warmth in the cold night air. She sighed and breathed him in, the mint of his breath, the feel of his stubble beneath her numb fingertips…
A fresh sprinkle of snow began to fall from the black sky, but they continued to kiss out on the stairwell, in front of her apartment, in the dark of night.
The kiss was soft, sweet, untouched by any urgency or desperation. It was so calm, so comforting, but yet it arose something within her – something she hadn't felt in a long whole.
The start of something new. Something beautiful.
And the many phases of Hanna Marin met at the surface and joined Will Lovat, on the other side of the horizon, where things were just a little bit brighter.
"I'm going out." Spencer called down the hall, tossing her jacket over her arm.
"What? Now?" Toby called back from the bathroom. He stumbled out into the hallway, dressed in a pair of sweats and a black t-shirt. His face was swathed in a blanket of shaving cream, and one of his razors was pinched between his fingers.
"Oh, good, you're shaving. Not so sure how much of the caveman look I could take…"
"Hey, don't pretend you don't find it sexy." Toby teased, approaching her and loosely wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I don't have to pretend. I think it looks unkempt."
"If sexy is unkempt…"
"No, unkempt as in the homeless-guy-down-the-street-living-in-a-Sears-television-box-and-eating-soup-out-of-a-violin-unkempt." Spencer replied, batting at his arm, "Now get off me, of you're going to get shaving cream in my hair again."
Toby chuckled and retreated, letting his arms drop to his sides. "Anyway, where're you going?"
"Out. I have to get some dark chocolate for the part on Saturday." Spencer lied.
"Spence, it's 11:30 at night."
"So?"
"So, the last time you had this late of a chocolate run, it was when you were, how did you so lovingly put it? Oh yeah – 'Knee deep in the hellish 'gift' Mother Nature cursed on you every month and if you didn't shove a bar of Hershey's down your throat within the next hour, you would spontaneously combust.'"
"I most certainly did not say that."
"Yes you did. And then you called me while I was at the store and told me to pick up Titanic, The Lake House, and A Walk to Remember. Which you then made me watch until three in the morning."
"Okay, so maybe I get desperate for sweets and corny movies when it's 'that time of the month!'" Spencer replied, exasperated. "At least I don't have a special lucky jersey that I wear whenever the Steelers play and – oh yeah never wash it because it'll 'lose it's magic.'"
"Don't question the jersey. It brought me home gold that one super bowl."
"Yeah, and they've lost every one since then. I think that some of the nacho cheese and beer Ezra's spilt on it has suffocated some of the 'magic.'" Spencer confirmed.
"Alright, just go get your chocolate!" Toby gave in, batting his hand at her. "Let me de-caveman myself in peace!"
She was already halfway out the door, "Love you too, Romeo!"
Spencer lifted up the mat in front of Aria and Ezra's apartment, feeling around for the key and wrapping it in her fingers. Shoving it into the lock, she turned the door and took a step inside, closing the door carefully behind her.
She hardly took a step into the living room before Aria's panicked, loud voice rang out from the end of the dark hallway. "Halt! Who goes there?!" She exclaimed, "I'm armed! I've got a candlestick and I sure as hell am not scared to use it!"
"I – " Spencer tried, desperately seeking out the light switch on the wall but unable to locate it successfully. Aria cut her off.
"I should warn you that I'm trained in martial arts! And I'm like really tall, too!"
"Ar – "
"I swear to God, I'm like six-foot-two! And I'll beat your ass! I have a pair of Chloe heels in my hand right now and I know for a fact that they'll scratch your eyes out!"
"Aria!" Spencer shouted, finally finding the light switch and flicking it on. "It's me!"
"Oh." The unfortunately not six-foot-two pixie stood at the end of the now illuminated hallway, indeed holding a candlestick and a pair of her Chloe heels. She set them down on the hallway table and ambled over to Spencer, dragging her slipper-clad feet along the floor. "What the hell are you doing here this late? Scaring me shitless?"
"Well, you told me that Ezra left for Pittsburg after the party for an early meeting tomorrow and that he wouldn't be coming home until tomorrow afternoon. So I thought that I'd come over and ask you something."
"And calling me and saying, "Hey Aria, I have to ask you something" wouldn't do? Breaking into my apartment in the dead of night was the only logical way?"
"You have the key under the mat!"
"Well, it doesn't mean it's an invite to sneak in like a psycho killer!"
"Fine, I'll call next time!" Spencer gave up, rolling her eyes. "Now will you just shut up and let me ask you something?"
"Fine. Just let me make tea first." Aria replied, rounding the side of the couch and into the kitchen.
"We don't have time for that. We need to go now if we're going to go."
"Go? Where the hell would we go this late at night? Spencer, there's no way in this universe that I'm driving to Vegas for the weekend again."
"It was only one time! And all Hanna's idea, might I add!"
"Yeah well, I still can't get Hanna's puke out of my pink tube top, thank you very much."
"Please, you were enjoying the entire weekend – way more than I was."
"I was hammered the entire time! And so were you! Neither of us can remember a good chunk of it! Although I do seem to recall a tall drag queen named B-Rad…"
"Aria, focus." Spencer grasped both of her friend's wrists. "Listen to me: I came over here because I want you to come and see Jenna with me."
"What?!" Aria looked at Spencer like she had just dropped from the sky. "Go see that crazy bitch?! No way, Jose, hmm-mm. Not gonna happen."
"Please?! I want to talk to her about the gang!"
"Why the hell would you want to talk about that?! You know, normal people would want to forget something traumatic like that…"
"Yeah well, I want to know why they are after her. And I don't think that she'll be honest with me if Toby's in the room."
Aria narrowed her eyes, biting her lip.
"Please."
Aria let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll do it." She groaned. She grabbed her winter coat off of the back of the kitchen chair and shoved her arms into it. "But you so owe me. My wedding better be like freaking perfect. It better look like the one Helen threw Lillian in Bridesmaids."
"Don't worry, it will be!" Spencer promised, following her out the door, smiling the whole way.
"And I want an amazing wedding gift."
"Done and done." Spencer closed the apartment door behind her.
Aria continued walking down the dark hall, towards the stairway. She shot her pointed finger in the air, "And I want a pony for my birthday!"
so how are you guys feeling about hanna and will? ;) what would their couple name be? wilna? hall?
haha so i;m so sorry i didnt update thurs! i did a formal apology on my tumblr (idk if any of you follow me there but) and i explained how my classes really got in the way. the work load is overwhelming.
so hats off to my fellow spobettes who went thru with the first spoby mission! it was a success! yayy! im so excited! if you havent done it yet and still want to help with the missions, we need all the help we can get! go to fortheluvofspoby at tumblr dot com and read the second mission! im almost done with mine ;)
AND DO NOT DROP HINTS TO THE WRITERS/ACTORS/DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS! haha we want it to be a surprise! ;)
Alright, if i get up to 230 reviews, i swear on the face of God and the love of Spoby that I'll update by this thursday at the latest - hopefully before then.
thanks so much for all your wonderful reviews! theyre so appreciated! ;)
verus diligo victum totus (true love conquers all)
AJ ;)