Author's Note: Hey! I know that I haven't updated this in what feels like forever, but I'm back! Please forgive me. Pretty pretty please with whipped cream and cocoa on top.

Day Twenty-Three: Mine by Taylor Swift

He sat, reading a book in the corner booth of a tiny little run-down diner.

He kept reading the same sentence over and over, kind of like when people try to read to distract themselves, but it doesn't work out. Their eyes just gloss over the same page over and over, trying to make sense of everything that's happened, but never quite focusing on one idea from the story. It's probably because everything, even some of the greatest English novels, reminds them of their problems. Then the problem consumes the mind and people remember why they hated reading in the first place.

He sighed, shaking his head slightly and trying to focus again.

He barely noticed the waitress come up to the table. When he noticed her, he looked up.

She was so beautiful. She had dark hair, fair skin, and almond-shaped, deep brown eyes.

"Can I help you?" she asked softly.

She sat, completing some of her homework. Yes, it seemed like they were moving along in their relationship too quickly, having moved in with each other after dating for only five months, but it didn't feel fast.

He looked over at her, entranced with her beauty, still. He wondered why he was falling so hopelessly when he already knew how he felt about love—it only ended in heartbreak. And he was a little scared of falling and breaking his own heart.

"Toby?" she called out, breaking his trance. As he looked up, she quickly slid her books aside and got up to sit next to him.

He didn't say anything, but they both knew he didn't need to. Their actions spoke more than a million words could ever say.

She was so comfortable just sitting next to him, relaxing.

"Can you believe it?" she asked absentmindedly. "It's been seven months," she added. "I didn't think relationships could even last that long. At least, not my relationships," she said.

He kissed her on the forehead. "Spence, we'll be fine. We're not going to be like your parents," he said, knowing it was why she was stressing out.

She looked over at him, realizing how different he was from anyone she'd ever met before, especially her father. He was faithful and wise and selfless. She couldn't use any of those words for her father.

She began to think about what her father was doing in her tiny hometown. She started to think longingly of her friends and her mother, even her sister. More she thought about it, she hadn't been home in years.

She looked into his sparkling blue eyes.

"We're going to get into so much trouble!" she said quietly, but she was laughing.

"With who, Spencer? Nobody comes here anyway."

He just led her over to the shore of the beach, which was contained by the rusted gates around the townhouses. They found a space where a few bars had been knocked out and climbed through to the beach.

He quickly stripped down to his underwear before running into the salty blue water. When he was waist-deep in the water, he turned back to see Spencer standing there, staring at him.

"Are you coming or not?" he asked. "Come on. I've already seen all of you, Spencer."

"Yeah, but what if there's somebody else on this beach?" she asked.

"Nobody's watching. And nobody really lives here anymore, right?"

After hesitating for a minute more, she peeled off her t-shirt and slid off her jeans, abandoning them on the beach. She ran into the water, yelping when she found it to be colder than she expected.

"I'm going to get you back for this," she said through chattering teeth.

"I know you will, but just enjoy it while this lasts."

She took a deep breath and let the water rise up to her neck, before it went up to her chin, and finally, covering her head.

She felt freedom.

She began to laugh uncontrollably. "Have you ever done this before?"

He shook his head. "No, never."

And they stayed there for a while, swimming and splashing around for a while, until the salt began to irritate their skin.

They swam over to the sandbar only a fair fifty feet from the shore. Toby got out of the water first before helping Spencer up.

The water looked gorgeous. Tiny ripples formed in the water's reflection of the sky, illuminated with the moonlight.

He put his arm around her. She shivered, but not because she was cold.

"Look," she said quietly as she looked up at the sky. Across the bay, fireworks were being set off by some wealthy kids in the expensive mansions on the water.

Before she could add anything else, he kissed her. She was taken aback, but didn't hesitate to kiss him back.

"What was that for?"

He shrugged. "I just really wanted to kiss you," he replied. She could feel the color rise to her cheeks.

She slammed the door, walking out into the driveway. There was nobody left on the block; everyone who came to vacation for the summer had long left.

"Spencer!"

"Just go away. I don't want to talk right now," she replied stubbornly.

"But I don't even know what I did wrong," he answered.

She sighed. "You didn't do anything wrong. But…" she trailed off. "I don't know where we're going and…I'm scared. I'm scared that one day, this won't be enough for you and you'll leave," she murmured self-consciously. She pulled her sweater closer to her small frame.

She was met with…silence. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tight. She was trying to keep the tears from overcoming her now, as she figured she knew what would be next.

"I'm never going to leave you."

She took a moment to decide whether or not she was dreaming or hallucinating. As she opened her teary eyes, she realized he had just said it and that he was serious.

"What?" she croaked wearily.

"I'm never going to leave you," he repeated, more confidently this time. "You are the best thing that's ever been mine. Why would I ever want to leave you?"

She only took a moment to think about it. "I'm a control freak and an anal-retentive and…there's a lot of bad things about me," she said finally.

"That might be true, but…there are so many things about you that I love, too," he replied. "There's…the fact that when I first saw you…I started to believe in love again."

She was glad that there was barely any light outside so he couldn't see her blush. "You know I don't believe that," she answered evenly.

He didn't even flinch. "You don't have to believe it, but it's true."

AL3110: Yes, I know. You just went like beast mode on them. It was kind of scary. But I was still laughing.

eveningshades1107: Usually, I'm pretty angsty, but I like to keep it fluffy with the one-shots. Ugh, the timeline drives me insane! I have to bring it up whenever someone asks me what I don't like about PLL. It just drives me insane. Good luck! Hope you finish for my birthday!

Okay, so for like the last hour and a half, I've been distracting my rumbling stomach by doing my homework on filmmaking, and boy, does it sound complicated.

On the upside, I hope you're all happy for me when I announce that my house is pretty much going to win this year's house cup. Out of like three or four competitions this year, I think the only one we haven't taken first place in was the house decorating contest, and we're leading the pack by like a hundred and thirty points. There's only like three competitions left, and as far as I know, there isn't that one kid in my house who gets like a detention every day, so we should be good when it comes to GPA points getting calculated into this all.

So that being said, my next one-shot will be Girlfriend by Marie Digby (that's not how you spell her name, but I can't get the accented e right now).

Please tag your reviews with #MerrickFTW, #KaysonDoesHerHomework, #KaysonisFreakingOut, #Girlfriend, and #Hungry. Because I am.

Okay, bye! -Kayson

And also, if anybody who reads this and I mean ANYBODY, even if you've never commented before, please PM me or leave me a review if you have any tips on filmmaking/editing/recording! Please! I really, really need all the help I can get! This is a very, very important project to me! Thank you so much if you do know anything (or thanks anyway, even if you're just thinking and you're like, "IDK anything about this, sorry Kayson").