A/N: Well hello my lovely little angels! It's time for yet another chapter of this story. You guys are super amazing; I love reading all of your beautiful reviews and in turn they inspire me to keep on trucking with this story! I'm really sorry for not updating; I've been screwed over with all of these end of the year entities that are in store, aka exams, and I've only got about 13 more days until freedom! I've got so much more planned and I'm glad that you all are so interested in this. So, all I can say is that things are about to get crazy. Enjoy :)
When we get into the foyer of the restaurant, Hanna's pacing anxiously the length of the entrance. Toby and I exchange looks, before merely shrugging. This isn't exactly new territory; Hanna has a bad history of working herself up beyond all belief if she's nervous over something. "I got this," I tell Toby, striding up to Hanna.
Hanna stops in front of me, her mouth twisting in some sort of frown that I've never seen on anyone's face before. "Oh god, Spence, that helmet has destroyed your hair, come here," she says, licking her fingers as she zones in, trying to fix my hair. I begin to bat her away. "Spencer!" Hanna shrieks persistently.
"Hanna!" I mimic her. "Will you just calm down? You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Exactly," I say, crossing my arms over my chest. "Hanna, you're panicking for no reason. What happened to the fact that you're Hanna Marin? Caleb's mom is going to love you—let's be honest, if my mom can find it in her heart to love you, I think anyone could." That seems to settle her in some way, but it doesn't take long before she's back on high alert.
"Spencer, I—" Hanna doesn't have any more time to tell me whatever it is she needs to say, because Aria and Ezra stroll into the foyer with us. Hanna groans, putting a fake smile on her face as she sinks down onto a bench. I roll my eyes as Aria makes her way over, Ezra in tow, to assess the problem.
"What's going on?" Aria asks, looking back and forth between Hanna and I. I stare down at our crazy blonde friend, who's now buried her face in her hands, trying to fight the urge to roll my eyes.
"She's still freaking out about meeting his mom. I told her, she's just overreacting. Everything is going to be fine, but she won't listen long enough to comprehend that," I say, mostly addressing Hanna in that statement. She looks up at me, a scowl now decorating her face.
"Just because you're not freaking out doesn't mean the rest of us aren't," Hanna protests. I feel my eyes grow wider as my head whips around the small room to look at everyone else.
"They're not," I state. "Hanna, time to put your big girl panties on and man up. This isn't the end of the world, I promise; she will love you." Aria nods, adding emphasis to my last few words. I take a quick glance out of the window behind Hanna, before facing her again. "And you don't have much time either, because they're already here," I say.
That sends some sort of signal racing through Hanna's mind, and she immediately jumps up and straightens out her dress. Aria and I exchange a glance, smiling rather proudly. There was no doubt in my mind that Hanna would be alright once we either shook her a bit. I wasn't up for physically doing so, so I'm thanking my lucky stars that the verbal approach worked out alright. I leave Hanna's side, as she's already ready to jump on Caleb once he walks in the door, and stand by Toby.
"God, I'd hate to see Hanna at family reunions," Toby mutters quietly, only loud enough for the two of us to hear. I smirk, letting out a soft laugh.
"Don't bring it up; I want to make it through the night without having to escort Hanna off because of a panic attack. So far, so good, and it better get to great." Toby beams in my direction as my eyes settle on Hanna, who's already got Caleb on her arm and talking nail polish with his mother. "Who would've thought," I mumble under my breath.
Hanna leads the parade into the actual restaurant rather eagerly, and to my own surprise, Toby offers his hand to me as we begin to walk inside. I look ahead at the other couples walking in and figure it couldn't hurt anything. I extend my hand down in the direction of his, and he laces his fingers with mine. For something that should feel extremely weird, foreign, alien, and overall wrong, it feels comfortable and relaxed. There's even the split second when the thought of it feeling right flashes across my mind, but I quickly shrug it off. I think the motorcycle ride numbed me a little. Even if Toby doesn't have the hidden agenda to completely write me off, I'm not going to give him the chance to do so if he wanted. I have to keep a guard up while putting on my little act.
Multitasking, great. That should be an adventure within itself.
. . .
The dinner turns out to be far more of a success than anyone thought. By the time dessert arrives, Hanna is animatedly telling everyone at the table a story about when she tripped and fell down a hill over summer vacation and adding a few twists that I know for a fact didn't happen and is able to laugh at herself with the rest of us. Occasionally, she'll shoot Aria and I glances or the rare thumbs up to let us know that she's actually enjoying herself. Later, I know that we're going to hear all about how she had such a good time and that nothing could have ever gone wrong. She'll forget the minute detail of her panicking over virtually nothing though.
Toby and I are actually able to find tons of things that we can talk about and keep the conversation going, which I think came as a bit of a surprise to the both of us. I once heard that people who were alike never got along because they thought the same way and were more persistent, and therefore the dynamic usually created some kind of friction. That's probably the deal with Toby and I.
When we're all leaving, Hanna pulls me aside and I can tell that she's absolutely glowing. "Thanks Spence, for not letting me make a break for it. I actually had fun tonight, and I know you really didn't want to have to come with Toby—"
"No, no, it's fine," I insist, dismissing it with the wave of my hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad you actually managed to enjoy yourself." Hanna smiles, reaching over to give me a hug. I return it, before pulling away and turning. "I've got to get going; apparently, the bike waits for no one."
Hanna laughs. "You go then. I'll see you on Monday," she says, waving as I make my way back over to where Toby's parked our ride.
"You mind taking a little detour?" he asks as he hands me the other helmet. One of my eyebrows lifts up and he smiles. "There's this really great place downtown, they have the most amazing ice cream you've ever tasted in your entire life. I promise it won't disappoint, and if it does, then you can decide what you'd like to do to get even," Toby teases, throwing a leg over the bike and mounting it.
"I'm taking your word for that one, Cavanaugh," I snort, clambering onto the bike and wrapping my arms around Toby's waist. He doesn't say anything, but instead revs the bike before pulling out of the parking lot and whisking us off onto the road.
That familiar adrenaline rush and sensation of being on the bike that might mirror gliding on air comes back, and I throw my head back. The fear I had initially when getting on the motorcycle isn't even present anymore, and I feel a joyous shout escape my lips. Toby laughs from in front of me, mirroring my actions and yelling out as well.
We finally make it to the little ice cream parlor, which isn't that far from where we'd just left eating. Toby climbs off the bike first, and graciously helps me off of it. I take my helmet off, tossing my hair back behind me to at least somewhat fix it. Toby extends his hand out and I don't hesitate to take it this time. The two of us walk inside the little shop, a bell over the door jingling softly to acknowledge our presence.
The music playing overhead is some mainstream song that I'm pretty sure I've heard Hanna scream-singing once or twice, and the shop is fairly empty with the occasional family or young couple occupying the tables. Toby walks directly up to the register, seeing as how there's no line, and begins rattling off his order from memory. He then looks over at me, his eyes shining and an expectant smile on his face. "Oh, I'll just have vanilla—"
"Nonsense," Toby cuts me off. "She'll have the same as me." He then pulls out his wallet, paying for the ice cream before moving to the side where the woman is scooping some rainbow concoction into two cones. I glare at Toby.
"What the hell is that?"
"That, my dear Spencer, is what one would call birthday cake ice cream. You'll love it," he insists. My jaw drops, my eyes widening as I stare at him as though he's lost his mind. The woman hands him the two ice cream cones, and he turns around to hand one to me. "Why are you making that face?" Toby asks as he leads the way out of the shop.
"Are you kidding me?"
"No, Spence, I'm not," Toby says as he begins to walk down the sidewalk. I take it that we're going on a walk, so I follow behind him making the exact same face. "Come on, live a little. Be a little kid for what, once in your life?" I can tell that that was a crack, but I try to shrug it off because I'm too hung up over the fact he ordered me an ice cream cone that's twice the size of me.
"Whatever," I pout, before succumbing and taking a small lick of my ice cream. It's surprisingly good, and I continue licking away. Toby laughs as he sees me literally devouring my ice cream.
"Damn Spencer, slow down, or you're going to get—"
"Brain freeze," I groan, cutting him off as one of my hands flies up to my head to massage my temples. "Why must everything bad come from something so good?"
"Because there's a downside to everything," Toby says, rather darkly. My head snaps in his direction and my eyes study him. Toby hasn't made any sort of comment like that tonight, and even though I used to strongly believe he spent his time sacrificing and pulling the heads off of innocent squirrels, I can tell that there was so much more meaning with that one sentence. And a strong one; one that didn't have anything to do with squirrels for sure.
Ew, this was such a filler chapter, but things will get better. Spencer's finally beginning to trust Toby (or so we think) and it looks like he just might be letting her in. What do you think is going to happen there? And what about James? Don't worry, he'll be back next chapter to definitely shake up Spencer's world, that's a promise. Be sure to review! It makes me want to update faster. It also means I'll give you a giant hug and extra large cone of birthday cake ice cream, if that pushes you any farther. xo