Spencer Hastings makes shockingly bad choices. (ctrl_a) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-18 22:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, spencer hastings, toby cavanaugh |
Who: Spencer Hastings and Toby Cavanaugh
When: Recently
Where: Outside Toby’s Parents’ House
What: Random Encounter
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Spencer was still sad about Emily’s dad. They’d been a really tightly knit group, the five of them, and whenever something happened to one, the rest felt the effects. Spencer hadn’t told her friends about why she was home from Stanford yet, but she would, eventually. Spencer couldn’t lie to Aria, Hanna, Emily or Ali. They were sure to see right through it, anyway.
Mrs. Hastings made a casserole for Emily and her mother, and instructed that Spencer deliver it. So Spencer drove it over to Emily’s house and dropped it off with Emily’s mother, refusing a few times to stay and have a cup of tea. Spencer had things to do to prepare for school, she said, and took her leave.
On the way down the front porch’s stairs, she saw someone standing by a car next door. The name came to her mind. Toby. He was Jenna’s brother. Step brother. She slowed her step, just in case he wanted to say hi. She hadn’t seen him since… it’d been a couple of years. Weird how some things changed, and others stayed the same.
Toby had been visiting his dad, something he did only when he was sure Jenna wouldn’t be there. Could he just go and let it be? Yes. He could. But did he want to? No, he did not. Of course his dad had told him about Emily’s dad and Toby felt an instant pull to check on her. They’d always been friends, even if she had eventually gotten friends who weren’t him. Only the girls were almost always over, which made things difficult. If only because he didn’t fit into that world, into that part of Emily’s life.
So when he saw Spencer go out of the door, he paused. Were the other girls there? Was it just Spencer? He could never be sure. He was going to text Emily when he noticed Spencer slowing down. Were they going to talk? He guessed it would be awkward to acknowledge each other and not talk at this point.
“Hey, Spencer. How’s...everyone? I guess not good.” Are the rest of the girls there? But he didn’t ask that. “I guess you’re all over to help Emily get through everything?” It was close enough to what he wanted to ask. “Dad just told me.”
Spencer wandered closer over to where Toby was standing. This was happening, huh? She didn’t mind catching up with Toby, really, he was just… someone she barely knew. A handsome someone she barely knew, but still “It’s been rough,” she replied, folding her arms across her chest and leaning a hip against her car. “They’re struggling, but… There really isn’t anyone in the world as strong as Emily’s mom, so I know they’ll get through it.” It was really a sad subject, wasn’t it?
“...how’re you?” She added, changing said subject. Because talking about Emily’s Dad was really sad. And Emily should be the one to talk about him, really. “It’s been… what, a couple years?”
He nodded. It was about what he expected. He felt awful for Emily and her mom. He felt shitty that he hadn’t spoken with Emily yet about it and that he hadn’t known earlier, but he didn’t say anything about that. She wasn’t really someone that he knew well enough to open up to at the moment and he was pretty sure she was only being polite by replying to him. “That sounds about right.”
The obligatory ‘how are you’. He tried to think about how to answer the question. “I’m...okay, I guess.” He shrugged. “Been busy with work and everything.” He felt like a robot, answering questions in the most vague way possible. “Yeah. With everyone going off to college, there’s not really be a reason to run into each other. That and I haven’t lived next door to Emily since I got my apartment.”
“Oh.” Spencer had no idea that he’d moved out into his own place, but that made sense, didn’t it? It wasn’t like everyone stayed at home with their parents. She’d gone off to college herself for a year and was only recently home with them, after… well, after a little lie from her past caught up with her. “You live nearby?” She asked, finding that she was actually curious about him. Jenna’s brother. Emily’s friend. Toby Cavanaugh.
Her surprise was surprising, in a way. Almost as surprising as the fact that she was asking him about where he lived now. It was like she actually wanted to know. He studied her face for a moment, looking for some hint of deceit, but he didn’t find any. “Yeah. Close enough that I can drive over without much trouble, but not so close that I could walk here, which is probably the ideal.” He listed off the simple details about how to get there. “It’s nothing impressive, but it’s out of the house.” And away from Jenna. He could actually lock the door and Jenna wouldn’t have a key to get in. “What about you? I thought you were in school out of state? At least Emily said something about it.”
“Sounds really nice, actually.” Getting out of the house was pretty important. Especially the getting-away-from-siblings part. She wished she could get away from Melissa. But now that she was going to school only a half hour’s drive from her house? She was back at home. At least Melissa wasn’t around all that often. “No, I was up at Stanford last year.” Spencer didn’t really want to talk about it. She hadn’t told most people about the reason she’d been kicked out of school. “I transferred to UC Irvine for this year, though.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty happy with it.” He didn’t know that much about where she was in school, just that it was out of state. But Stanford sounded about right. Spencer had always been very smart. At least that was what he heard from Emily and Jenna. It was also something that he noticed when he was still in school with the rest of them. She was always doing something for some club or another. What he wasn’t clear on was why she’d transfer from Stanford to UCI. But he didn’t ask about it. “Oh. I guess that works out. It’s probably cheaper to stay at home and commute. If that was something you had to worry about.” He didn’t think the Hastings family ever had to worry about money. He was quiet for a long moment before he asked, “What are you studying?”
“Yeah, it’s definitely easier,” Spencer had her old room. All her things were there--she didn’t have to pack and unpack anything, didn’t have to worry about roommates in the dorms. It was both freeing and binding at the same time--now her parents wanted to know where she was at all times, which made her feel like a prisoner once more. After a year of freedom? Wandering around Palo Alto and doing whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted to? It was weird being back under Mommy and Daddy’s roof.
“I’m not sure yet. Right now I’m a liberal arts major.” It didn’t sound like much. Spencer was sure it was going to change at least once before she ended up where she was going. “I know my mom and dad want me to study law, but I’m not sure I want to follow in their footsteps.”
“I take it you’re staying at home?” It honestly wasn’t that surprising to him. Plenty of people stayed at home while going to school. Especially if they were living close to school. It saved money. He’d saved money by not going to college. It had been pretty effective.
“Ah. I guess it’s something.” He’d always thought and heard that Spencer was the smart one. He honestly had no idea what that meant in terms of what someone studied in college. He just figured she’d end up in a job where she made a lot of money. “Well, I’d say do what you want to do. It’s kind of a pain in the ass letting other people decide what you’re going to do.”
“So far,” Spencer agreed. She really wanted to move out into her own place, but so far she’d been scrambling to do all the things she needed to do to get ready for school. Her parents weren’t happy with her, and though she had a trust fund if she absolutely had to get out from under their roof, she didn’t have time to go looking for a place. “I figure I’ll move out when I’ve got a little more time to go apartment hunting.”
She paused and considered him for a moment. Those words were really wise. She hadn’t expected him to say anything so profound. “Yeah. What about you, Toby? What did you end up doing?”
Toby almost offered to help her find a place, but that would probably seem weird, so he resisted the urge. She could probably find her own place and she definitely knew what she was looking for more than he was. He’d at least know where the most structurally sound places were and which places wouldn’t charge you too much, but then she probably didn’t need to worry about that. She was Spencer Hastings. “That’s always the tough part. Finding a place. But once you do, it’s not so bad.”
It was definitely an odd feeling having Spencer’s attention on him. At least her focused attention, like she was studying him. “Oh. I...um...I’m a carpenter. I do a lot of heavy labor, but I think it’s important to focus on the end result instead of everything else.” He didn’t mention that he had a fondness for making furniture. He wasn’t sure it was something he could make money off of. He just made it for people he was close to. He’d made his dad a chair once. He was going to plan something good for Emily’s next birthday. Maybe Christmas. Maybe something for her mom, too. He wanted to give them something that they could take comfort from. Even if it was only a little. It was probably a stupid idea, but he didn’t know what else to do.
“Yeah, I have a feeling it’ll be good in the long run. I just have to… y’know… get there.” Spencer was willing to put in the hard work. She wasn’t afraid of research. Wasn’t afraid of fighting for what she believed in. Right now she just had to figure out what she believed in.
The end result may have been that Toby was fit. Spencer noticed. Of course Spencer noticed. He’d changed quite a bit since they were in high school together. He was much more noticeable now. “Well, whatever it is, you should keep it up,” Spencer gave him a little smile. Almost a flirtatious one. “Because you look good.”
And then her phone rang. Spencer turned to dig into her purse and pull the thing out. “Shit, it’s my mom. I should go. But it was nice bumping into you, Toby.” She gave him one last smile, then turned to head toward her car, answering the phone along the way.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He decidedly did not point out that she was Spencer Hastings. That was the way people talked about the Hastings family. They could do anything. He had a feeling it was true.
Toby had been talking about the house or whatever it was they were working on coming together in the end, but the way she responded to his comment gave him a moment of pause and he stared at her for a moment too long. Was Spencer Hastings hitting on him? No. That was probably just him reading too much into it. “Oh. Yeah. Thanks. You too.”
You too? Was he being fucking serious right now? He was going to have to have a serious talk with himself about this later.
Of course, as things usually went, he was jerked out of his thoughts by the sound of Spencer’s phone going off. “Yeah. See you.” He turned around to walk back to his truck, letting out a really long sigh the moment he got into the car. “Smooth, Toby. Real smooth.”