The Devil Has Abs

Chapter 269

Chapter 269: Spencer's POV

"Toby, are you not hungry? You've barely touched your casserole," Mom said and I looked at Toby's plate. Sure enough, he was just poking his fork at it. 

"I'm sorry, but I had a heavy lunch," Toby replied kindly and forced a bite.

"Toby, if you're not hungry, it's ok," Dad said, but Toby started eating.

"So what plans do you guys have for tomorrow?" Mom asked.

"Maybe we can just stay home and open graduation gifts."

"Sounds reasonable," Mom said. "You two can do that when Dad and I are at work."

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"This one is from someone named Michelle," Toby said and handed me an envelope.

I opened the envelope quickly and gasped to see $100 in it.

"Damn! People do not cheap out on graduation gifts!" Toby said as I put the money back in the envelope and placed it next to the millions of other gifts I had opened so far.

"Do you want me to throw you a graduation party?" I teased and Toby tossed me another gift.

"Yes, please. Wow, that's a nice bag."

"Yes, it is," I replied and admired my present from Gary Adams. "Didn't know Gary had such a good fashion sense."

"Guys can have good fashion senses, Spencer," Toby said and I put my new bag away.

"I know, I know. Are there any more gifts?"

"Well, there is one last gift," Toby said and pulled out a shabby, wrapped gift. "It's probably shitty since the wrapping is horrible so why don't we just save this for later."

"Hand it over, Tobes."

"You could just open it when I leave."

"It's yours!" I screamed and grabbed it out of Toby's hands. He got off the couch and sat next to me. "What is it?"

"Guess."

"Clothes?"

"Spencer, when I said that guys can have good fashion senses, I wasn't talking about myself," Toby said and shook his head. "Just open it, but please don't expect it to be as good as the amount of cash you've received or the dresses or the gift cards or the purses..."

I smiled and carefully unwrapped the shitty wrapping...and behold!

"It's cheesy, I know," Toby said and I stared at him in awe. "I knew it."

I couldn't stop staring at him and Toby raised his eyebrows. 

"Okay, Spence. Now you're scaring me."

I looked back at the gift and glanced at the light blue scrap book's cover: Spencer + Toby, written in Toby's own handwriting, and decorated with pictures of us, taken over the past five years.

"This is so amazing," I said and shed a tear. "How long did it take you to make this?"

"I'm not going to lie, it took months to gather all those pictures and decide where to put each one."

"There are so many pages!" I said and flipped through the scrap book. There were a lot of pictures, but more importantly, there was a lot of writing.

"Yeah, I ordered the pictures chronologically and wrote about them. You know, like, what I was thinking when I met you, where the pictures were taken, every little detail I could remember."

I flipped to the first page, where there was a picture of a French book...I looked more closely at it. It was my high school French book!

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"You tutored me in French, remember? Yeah, I didn't have a picture of us for the first page, but I did have a picture of your book," Toby replied and then I read the long passage that accompanied the picture.

Let's go back to the first time we talked to each other. I had all these horrible perceptions and opinions of you, mostly from what you and your friends did to me. There I was, sitting in my living room, when I hear a knock. I open the door to see the last person I wanted to see: you. We sat on the porch and as much as I tried telling myself that I hated you, I couldn't help but admire your patience, dedication, and interest in teaching someone like me. A so-called criminal, hated by everyone, a nobody. Yet you took up that job. From that moment on, I knew that you weren't the uptight bitch I thought you were. You didn't care about what people thought about you and despite your high social status, you wanted to help a loser like me. I'm sorry for running out after five minutes of the tutor session, but I'll be willing to have you tutor me in anything now...and I'm not just talking about French...I mean, we could do French stuff, if you know what I'm saying.

"Too cheesy?" Toby asked and I laughed.

"I can't wait to read the rest," I said and stared into his eyes. "Best present I've gotten. Wait, actually second best."

"After the new car your parents bought for you?" he asked.

"No. The best present I've ever gotten was when you came into my life."