A/N: Ahh, I'm so sorry it's taken me awhile to update! I got really tied up with school stuff last weekend and I was going to update yesterday but I had to go to a hospital since one of my mom's best friend's daughters gave birth three months early. BUT, I'm here, and since I'm late I'll even give you a little chat session. ;) Thank you for being patient with me! If I have time tomorrow, I'll do my best to try and add another chapter. You guys are the best. So here's chapter four!
The next day, walking into school, I'm thanking the good lord that it's finally Friday. Last night's tutoring session with Emily and the devil—I mean, Toby, was awkward beyond all belief after mine and Toby's little unbeknownst fight to Emily. She still thinks that he wants to be all calm and civilized and happy go lucky about the two of us being friends. But I know that I know that there was a double meaning to every word that came out of his mouth last night. Emily's just dense.
Hanna skips up to me, although I can see her a mile away with her freshly painted, shocking green nail polish. "You like?" she asks, flaunting her hands in front of me. "It's called Loco-Crazy Lime, but a more appropriate name should be something like 'Slice of Lime and A Grain of Salt', because who doesn't love a good tequila-referenced nail polish title?" I can't help but to laugh a little to myself as we make our way up the stairs of the front entrance.
"So where were you last night? I called you at least seventy times but all I got was your annoying ass voicemail that you've had since sixth grade," she continues, trying to keep up with my pace in her extremely painful to look at five inch heels. I don't know how she can clomp around in those all day and not break something. I look over at her, my face in a grim line.
"Okay, for the record, I've changed my voicemail three times since then, so your argument is invalid," I counter. Hanna rolls her eyes, groaning.
"That doesn't change the fact that you never picked up the phone last night! I was going through a serious crisis!" Hanna whines. I stop dead in the middle of the hallway, turning around to face her.
"I was tutoring last night. Emily needed some help in French and so her and Toby met me at the Grille and I helped them out. I'm sorry for not being there during your…crisis, but I was trying not to rip my own head off last night," I explain, before turning to walk on in the direction of my locker. Hanna doesn't let that happen, and grabs my arm.
"Did you just say you were with Toby?" she asks giddily, and I know exactly where this is going. I'm going to hear another great lecture about how Toby and I should just shove each other's tongues down the other's throat and have some really amazing, hot-and-angry sex, which has seemed to be Hanna's favorite point of conversation these days.
"You misheard me. I said I was with Emily, and she brought Toby along for a tutoring session."
"But you were with Toby!" Hanna squeals. "Oh god, how did it go? Did you two talk to each other? Get in a fight? Did you both tell Em you had to go to the bathroom, and then hooked up in a stall? How was it?" she whispers the last part, and in turn I elbow her in the arm as hard as I can.
"This is why I only tell Aria these things," I mumble under my breath as I reach my locker, turning the combination like I've been doing it since I was in preschool. Hanna's eyes go around in another circle, a huff escaping her lips.
"I'm sorry Spence; you know how we all feel about this fight. We just want you to be happy."
"With Toby?" I ask, whipping my hair around to give Hanna a look. She slouches back, knowing she's reached testy waters.
"Not exactly with him, but you can't deny that he'd be a good match for you. I mean, when was the last time you dated someone? Junior year with Wren? And if I remember correctly, Wren was nothing but a British scumbag," Hanna protests.
"Just because it didn't work out with Wren doesn't mean that it's going to work with Toby. Last night didn't change my feelings towards Toby, okay? Don't be such an Emily. I still can't stand Toby, and he still can't stand me. The whole him wanting to end things is a bunch of bullshit. There will not be a Spencer and Toby, a…Spencer and Toby—"
"You mean like a Spoby?" Hanna interjects, her eyebrows raising as her quizzical expression throws me off guard.
"A what?"
"Spoby! You know, Spencer plus Toby…it's one of those cute couple names that they give celebrity couples!" I shake my head at Hanna's making-up words.
"Whatever. This…Spoby thing won't happen, Han. I'm sorry, but we're enemies. That's all we'll ever be; end of discussion."
Hanna opens her mouth, but the bell rings and cuts her off. "See you at lunch?" I try, and a small smile spreads across her lips as she nods. The two of us wordlessly walk away from each other to our first class, and I try to eradicate the idea of me and Toby actually being a couple from my mind.
. . .
My classes drag on, and I find myself in study hall once more. I pull my laptop out, ready to work on yet another paper that I don't want to have to do over the weekend. My email notifications are going off softly, and I click on the icon to see what's residing in the inbox. There are at least 5 new emails, three of them just emails from stores I shop at. One's from Hanna, sent about fifteen minutes ago, who's probably got a question about math. The other one however is from last night, and I've yet to reply to it. I smile to myself because I know exactly who the sender is.
SUBJECT: re: re: re: re: Shopaholic_Grll1105?
Someone's figured out the ways of talking a chat room stranger, I see. ;) Well, as much as Shakespeare screams romance, I guess you could say I'm Romeo. But I'd rather you call me something that doesn't make you think of Leonardo Dicaprio because believe me, I'm no Leo. You could always call me Darcy, and you could be my Elizabeth. Or we could take a completely more normal teenage route and I could be Edward and you Bella, but you don't seem like a Twilight kind of girl.
I chuckle to myself. Clearly, this guy knows what's up. I go to type a response, but I'm cut off by the signs of a flashing little green light in the corner. Right. IM comes with email, I almost forgot. Whoever my mystery guy is, they're on and they're typing away to me. Almost instantly, his message is displayed.
Hello there my fictional-character-to-be-determined-chat-buddy. ;)
I smile, my fingers arched over the keyboard as I type out my response.
Why hello, mystery man chat buddy. Still haven't decided on a name for me?
No, I surely haven't. Ladies choice, of course.
Well the fact that you knew Pride & Prejudice was a seller for me. But the fact someone's read Romeo and Juliet more times than I have is impressive, so I don't know.
Since you're so easily conflicted by which character you'd like to go by, just give me your middle name. I'll call you that.
Jill. What are you?
I'm James, nice to meet you Jill. Answer me this; are you in Rosewood as we speak?
Try study hall in the middle of Rosewood. I'm about to kill someone out of boredom. It's not like study hall's a big party or anything; it's usually me working on a paper while the other immature human beings I have to share this class with do whatever the hell first comes to their almost nonexistent brains.
Sounds like someone's not a fan of study hall; then again, I can't name a person who is. So if you're in study hall at the moment, then that must mean you're a senior.
If you're replying back, you're either a senior also or a true badass. Which would it be?
Just leave that up to your imagination, dear. And speaking of study hall, it's about to end. Maybe I'll see you around, Jill.
We'll see, James. See you.
Almost with the most impeccable timing, the bell rings right as I sign off. I guess James was right. I close my laptop, stuffing it into my bag as I make a beeline for the door. Hanna's leaned up against the lockers, waiting for me just like I know she would be. Hanna and study hall aren't the best of friends, and she spends most of her time in the bathroom doing her makeup.
"Hey, did you read my email?" she asks, linking elbows with me as we make our way outside to our usual table. I furrow my eyebrows together, looking over at her.
"No, I figured it was something about math so I thought it could wait. Why?" Hanna's mouth drops open and she stops dead in the hallway. "What? Hanna, breathe!" I begin snapping and waving my hands in front of her face as she stares straight at me.
"Spencer!" she screeches.
"Hanna!" I mimic her, completely confused as to why she's getting all worked up over this.
Hanna lets out a long sigh. "Spencer, that email was what I had to tell you last night, aka crucial information! Look, Caleb's mom is in town and she wants to have dinner with him and a bunch of his friends!"
"So? That's awesome! What does it have to do with me?"
"Aren't you and Caleb friends or am I blind? I need you to come with me! Emily's already bailed because she has to work or something stupid like that, and Aria's still trying to convince Ezra to come! The way it's looking, it's just going to be me and Caleb and his mother, and it cannot just be us three, you understand? It just can't!"
I sigh. "Han—"
"Please Spencer? Please please please? I swear, I will never bring up Spoby or sex with Toby for a full three months if you say you'll go with me. Anything to make it a little less awkward, and besides, Caleb's really counting on me to round up the troops." She then proceeds to stick her lower lip out and bat her eyes, trying to get her annoying puppy-dog face to work on me. I sigh compliantly, just to get her to wipe that ridiculous look off of her face.
"Fine, I'll go with you."
"Yay!" she squeals, wrapping her arms around me. "It's a restaurant in Philly, but you're more than welcome to ride with me and Caleb. Anything for my hero best friend."
"Yeah yeah," I say, laughing as the two of us continue walking forwards to our table outside. "What else do I need to know about this dinner?"
Hanna sits down on the bench beside of mine, clasping her hands together as she thinks things through. I sit down, brushing my hair out of my face. "Um, well, I told you Aria's trying to get Fitzy to come, so you might want to find yourself a date unless you want to be Caleb's mom's date."
Aria skips up, Emily in tow with a cheerful smile on her face. "Han, I just got off the phone with Ezra. He says that he'll be able to come." She then looks in my direction. "Are you going to be coming with?" she asks. I give her a thumbs up as she and Emily take their seats.
"Awesome! Thank god." Hanna lets out a sigh of relief. "We're trying to figure out who Spencer could take as a date, but things are proving harder than possible. I don't know who Caleb is and isn't friends with aside from you guys," she ponders.
Emily snaps. "Isn't he friends with Toby?" Those are the last five words I wanted to come out of her mouth, because I think I'd rather die than have Toby as my date. I bite down on my tongue hard, chanting silently to myself. Please say no Han, please say no, please; for the love of God just say no….
Hanna's face brightens. "Oh my god! I totally spaced on that one!" She turns to face me, a serious look on her face. "Look, Spence, I know that you probably don't want to, but Toby won't have a date since Em's not going. Would you mind just at least saying that he was your date?"
Aria looks over at Hanna, then me, nodding. "Yeah Spence, I'll even sit between you two and everything." Aria's offer is very tempting, but I can see the look on Emily's face. She still thinks that I'm going along with this whole 'try to bury the hatchet' thing with Toby. And hell will freeze over before I accept defeat to Toby Cavanaugh. I swallow the last little bit of sanity that I have and force a smile on my face.
"No guys, it's okay. That's fine. I'll just…uh, I'll just ask him after school. It'll be fun." Emily looks thrilled by my saying that, and I internally smirk. Take that Toby.
Hanna shrugs. "Alright, then it's settled! You can just ride with Toby then! Ugh, you guys are lifesavers," she says. I don't hear the rest of whatever it is she says, because I'm too busy forming a game plan in my head. Emily thinks things are going to be better with us now? Shit; little naïve Em is going to be in for a big shock when innocent Toby isn't all he's made out to be in her mind.
I'm going to have to go home and charge my phone so I can record my moment of victory later.
Well, if the tutoring session wasn't bad enough for poor Spence, now she's got to spend a night calling him her date. What do you think is going to happen; without Emily there, is Toby going to show off his true colors or is he really what he says? Be sure to keep your reviews coming or Hanna will sneak into your house overnight and change all the titles on your nail polish to something alcohol related. xo