Distastefully In Love

Chapter 13: The Bound Touch

"Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex." ― Hunter S. Thompson

He is going to tell her how he feels. He is just going to say it. He likes her, and he has a feeling she feels the same (hopefully, anyways.) He doesn't just want to continue being her friend. He wants more, because it feels like there is more between them than just plain ol' friendship. He doesn't look at her like he looks like other girls. With Aria, it is completely different. Spencer is different than Aria. She is more...hard-headed, and stubborn, and strong-willed. And at first, these qualities put him off. But that was before he saw her more in depth. Truly, those qualities made her amazing. They make her strong. She has to behave that way to survive in the world her family made for her. She lives that way because she has to. But when she doesn't feel a need to be perfect, and strong, she lets her walls down. She reveals so many beautiful things about her, that he hasn't found in anyone else. She is so different than anyone else he has ever known, and he has always liked unique things.

So, he is going to tell her. Just tell her, "Spencer, I want to be more than friends." And maybe she won't feel the same way. Maybe she will laugh in his face, but he figures it is now or never. They graduate in a few months, and then she'll be gone—off to some ivy league college, meeting new friends and guys, constructing a new life for herself. If he doesn't tell her now, he may never have a chance to.

He finds her after school. He asked Caleb where she was (he didn't question why he wanted to know.) She is in the science lab, he told her, probably perfecting her project.

"Hey," he greets her. "Perfecting your project for the sixtieth time?" he questions, teasingly.

It takes her a second to look up, and when she does, he wishes she didn't pick her head up. Her eyes appear to be black. They are piercing into him, the desire to kill wavering in them.

"Did you come here to laugh?" her words come out like poison.

"Laugh at what...?" he questions, slowly moving towards her.

"Don't play dumb," she states calmly, but venomously, crossing her arms. "I know what you did. You think you're so clever. But guess what? Someone saw you."

"What are you talking about?" he asks, baffled.

"Oh give it up," her head rolls around, along with her eyes. "I know you did it, and I'm going to make you pay."

"I didn't do anything!"

"Really?" she questions, but he knows it is rhetorical. "Then can you explain what happened to my project? How it just got destroyed?"

"What? Spencer, that's horrible...I didn't..."

"Cut the crap, Toby," she shakes her head, staring back at the papers in front of her. "Just leave me alone."

"Spencer, whoever your witness is—they are lying!"

"She wouldn't lie to me! She's my best friend...basically," she adds the last part in a whisper.

"Aria?"

And then it makes sense. Only one person would do this.

"Alison?" the word sags off his tongue.

She glares up at him, "don't you dare try blaming her. I know it was you. You've just been messing with me—this whole time." She looks away for a second, "well, don't think you won. I'm going to make these next few months hell for you."