Spencer was laughing.

                Toby, who felt like he had just fallen asleep, grumbled something angrily into her chest that just made it start to rise and fall with every chuckle. She could practically fill him crinkle his nose as he reached around to find a pillow to throw at her. After all, it wasn’t the perfect time to be laughing.

                Finally, he raised his head shot her a death-glare to make him stop.

                She still couldn’t wipe away her amused grin, and that seemed to only aggravate him more. “No, baby…it’s not you,” she promised with another chuckle. Toby only raised an eyebrow at her and she couldn’t help but think of how adorable he looked; his chestnut, usually sleek was matted from sleep while his normally relaxed eyes were filled with tired annoyance of not being let in on a secret. “I was just thinking about how bad we are at keeping this a secret. Anybody who walked by us on the street would know we’re together. I mean, the hospital visits, the house visits, even the way we were at the party.”

                When Spencer’s eyes widened, he had once again bury his face in her chest and laugh. “We do suck at keeping this a secret.”

                Letting her hand fall back on the pillow, Spencer looked up at the ceiling.

                He bit his bottom lip. “People are going to find out in a few days anyway.” She tried to make her relaxed enough so she wouldn’t get made over the news she was about hear.

                But she knew what she was doing. “Why would people find out in a few days…?” She rested his cheek against the top of his head gently.

                “Well, you see,” he started nervously, “the show ended. Well…I got an email. They wanted us to come back and do a ‘Stars Tell All’ episode, which is in a few days. I RSVP’d and said we’d be there. It would be really nice if you decided to join me. I was thinking, you know, since it’s over and no matter what we can’t get back on it, we can tell people we got back together.”

                “Oh.” Spencer shrugged her shoulders simply, and Toby glanced up at her confusedly.

                “Oh?”

                “That’s it?” she asked pleasantly, making him laugh and move closer to her.

                “That’s it.” Shaking his head, he placed a slow kiss on her neck. He almost swore she was going to flip out and say something about how they should stay out of the public eye. Huh. “Will you be my date?” he questioned playfully.

                “With pleasure,” she responded just as lightly. “I’ll be glad to stop the insanity.”

                “We’re going to miss the plane! If we miss the plane I swear…”

                Emily was running through the airport, her curled brown hair bobbing up and down as she did so.”

                “Em, calm down!” Toby laughed. “It won’t leave without us. Promise.”

                “You don’t know that! What if the pilot thinks we’re there and we’re not! You have no idea how much I want to be in a private jet, Toby, and I will not let your slowness kill it!”

                “Oh yes,” Spencer teased. “Don’t take into consideration that I wasn’t able to walk a week ago!”

                Emily giggled, rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to face them, waiting for everyone to catch up with her. “Fine. But next time we have something really, really important exciting to do and you’re all better, I’m not giving any slack! Am I clear, Spence?”

                “Crystal,” she snickered.

                Toby smiled at her friend’s excitement, stepping closer to Spencer and tangling his fingers through hers. Almost right away, with just a little unintentional unwillingness, she did the same as him and gave it a squeeze. That made Toby smile to himself; her reflexes were getting much better, and almost absently, he rested his head on her shoulder. In public.

                It felt wonderful, especially when he leaned forward to kiss her forehead a second later.

                “I’m still a little baffled,” Aria commented, her voice pleasant. “The last time I saw you, you guys were as awkward as you’ve ever been, no offense, then you came back and you’re, like, so in love it’s insane.” She laughed amusedly to herself.

                Yes, Aria was there too, and Melissa, though she was a little silent. After figuring she’d have more fun on the mini vacation with her best girlfriends, her sister, and boyfriend, Spencer decided to invite Emily and Aria to California too. Hanna was going on a camping trip with Caleb and Alison was visiting her grandmother. Toby was all for it. Melissa, on the other hand, pretty much invited herself, saying that if Spencer ended up with some, very unlikely, post-surgery issues and was back in the hospital, she needed to sign the papers, considering Spencer’s bad hand and all.

                “Well, Aria,” Emily piped in. “We all knew Spoby was going to happen. It was love at first sight…or bite, considering that they had their first conversation when he asked her for some of her popcorn.”

                “The first day of fifth grade; we were all in Mrs. Roe’s homeroom. Toby, you came up to us practically screaming. You said, ‘Is your friend that hottie over there? I just gave her all of my popcorn!” Emily and Aria exchanged glances at the young memory, bursting out in a fit of giggles. Even Melissa, who was looking oddly tense, smirked.

                Spencer was sure that her face was a bright shade of red, and she didn’t dare take at glance at Toby, who was obviously looking down at her amusedly. “I did not call her a hottie. I was in the fifth grade, guys!” he demanded.

                “You did!” Emily said. “I remember it vividly!”

                Aria nodded. “You did.”

                Uncomfortable beyond belief at this point, Spencer buried her face in Toby’s shoulder and grumbled, “Oh look! There’s our plane.”

                “Well, come on everybody: Emily, Aria, Toby…hottie.”

                Although she glared, she couldn’t hide the way her lips curled up in a little smile. “Shut up.”

                The hotel lobby was beautiful. White sandstone floors covered every inch of the first floor, and in the dead center, leading up to some fancy-looking room and an elevator was a white sandstone staircase. “Wow,” Spencer muttered, staring around in awe. “The people of this show really know how to out-do themselves, don’t they?”

                Melissa didn’t seem as pleased, eyes scanning the lobby. “Are all the contestants from the show staying in the same place?”

                “I’d think,” Spencer replied, still too caught up in the amazing lobby, her green eyes wide.

                “I need a drink,” she said flatly, quickly leaving the group. No one noticed too much though.

                Soon, Toby, Spencer, Aria and Emily were situated in a large suite they’d been given. It was nothing short of incredible, with a huge flat screen TV in every room, velvet carpets, and silk white sheets.

                Spencer sat down on the white leather couch to relax, when her gaze fell on something across the room: a light, acoustic guitar that was resting on the wall

                Standing up, she made her way over to it, picking it up with the stiff, mostly, obliging fingers. When she got back to the couch, she swung the strap over her shoulder and looked down; it had been a while since she played. Her right hand, the one that was most cooperative with her brain, ran up the six strings until it rested on the frets. Spencer raised her right hand to the guitar reluctantly after grabbing the pick that was lodged between the strings, and began to “’G” repeatedly. The pick missed the first few times she tried, and though it frustrated her, she refused to lose her concentration by letting it get the best of her. So, she tried again.

                 This time, she dropped it.

                But she didn’t want to give up; she wasn’t the type of person to accept failure, so she continued to hit the string, this time using her finger. It worked much better, and within a few minutes she was able to play that note without missing, so she tried hitting another, and another. Then she started putting her fingers over the frets. After much attentiveness, Spencer was able to play a few notes after one another, until the familiar tune of a song she knew flooded to her ears, making her grin.

                Her fingers slowly but surely got into the rhythm. “Looking up from underneath, fractured moonlight on the sea. Reflections still look the same to me as before I went under…” The overwhelming sense of strength for a quick moment as she sung the unrelated song to herself; she’d done it. She’d used her fingers and put them to use without a doctor standing over her shoulder, without anyone standing over her shoulder. She did it herself. “And it’s peaceful in the deep. Cathedral where you cannot breathe. No need to pray, no speak, now I am under.”

                She didn’t even notice Toby standing behind her until he leaned over and hugged her from behind, pressing his forehead against her temple. His nose brushed her cheek, and his kissed the side of her face softly, slowly. “Keep going…,” he whispered, his voice low so only she could hear.

                “And it’s breaking over me. A thousand miles down to the sea bed. Found the place to rest my head. Never let me go. Never let me go. Never let me go. Never let me go…” The lyrics that came from her lips shook a bit now; Toby’s warm, loving touches had that spectacular effect on her.

                He pressed his soft lips to her face again, only this time, they lingered there. This action made Spencer’s fingers stop, made her eyes close halfway from the intense rush of her pulse and flood of warmth that suddenly overwhelmed her body.

                “What did you do to me?” she asked, no, she breathed. Was it even possible to feel this way about someone? She loved him so much, it was almost freighting. Almost.

                Toby didn’t respond; he didn’t have an answer. Because, honestly, what did Spencer do to him? The sight of her was enough to make his stomach flutter, enough to make his body ignite. “I’m proud of you,” he said, smiling lovingly at her when she turned to his to look at him. “Using your fingers. Playing guitar again.”

                “It’s just three notes,” she commented casually, but Toby wouldn’t have it. He knew she was exploding on the inside.

                “It’s progress. You playing guitar.”

                She began to smirk. Spencer’s eyes, now half filled with desire and half filled with amusement, bore into his emerald ones, making Toby laugh.

                After placing a kiss on the lips that had her aching for more, that was the point, Toby strolled away until he was at the room’s big white door. “I’m going to go down to the lobby to grab some ice cream for everyone. You want vanilla?”

                “No,” she sighed intensely, letting her head fall against the back of the couch. “I want you.”

                He bit his lip. “Vanilla it is.”

                She playfully glared as he shut the door. Toby couldn’t contain his grin as he walked down the hallway; Spencer made him feel silly and crazy and so intensely in love…it all felt so cliché, like everything was coming out of a bad movie he’d never watch, but it was true. Young love wasn’t made just for Romeo and Juliet. It was real. It was so real.

                Skipping through the lobby, Toby made his way out on the pool deck, past the lunch stand, past the bar, headed to the ice cream stand.

                Wait.

                As soon as he headed to the other side of the bar, Toby froze when a blur of people he had just walked by settled into his brain. Brows furrowed and body suddenly tense, he slowly and hesitantly turned around. He had a bad, bad feeling.

                 No, his eyes hadn’t been deceiving him. Sharing was barstool was a dark haired, long legged girl, Melissa was there. Not only was this girl sitting in her lap, but she was kissing her hungrily, selfishly, as if they were two reunited lovers. Normally the sight of Melissa and some random girl wouldn’t have phased him at all, but this girl, Toby knew her.

                The girl kissing Melissa was Jenna Marshall.

                Toby’s ex-girlfriend.