Distastefully In Love

Chapter 26: Making Everything Go Askew

She glowers at him.

"He's just—he doesn't know what's going to happen between you two!"

She rolls her eyes, "And I do? That doesn't give him the right to ignore me."

"Look, I know. I know. I just, the last relationship Toby was in screwed him over. He's just...scared. It's not his fault. Try to cut him some slack."

Spencer grits her teeth together, moving her hard, copper eyes over to the screen. "Why can't he just tell me that though? Why can't he just talk to me about it?"

"Toby probably thinks that you'll be offended, or something. I don't know. Don't put me in the middle of this, Spencer."

"What did he say to you?" she glares at him.

"Just that he doesn't know what to do!" he throws his hands up in defense. "I'm just telling you what I know about Toby," he claims. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he is just busy. Look, Spencer, don't...this wasn't supposed to make you feel bad."

"I don't feel bad. I'm just... annoyed."

"Well, it wasn't supposed to do that either."

She huffs out a breath. "How am I supposed to feel, Caleb?" she deadpans.

"Just...try to give him some understanding. I don't think it's cool that he's avoiding you—if he's even avoiding you, that is—but you know, he's just..." Caleb shrugs, trying to find the right word, "been through this before. And it didn't work out the first time."

"I know that, okay. I just... why does he assume that I even want to do the long distance thing? It never works out. Everyone knows that."

Caleb's eyebrows furrow a little, "so...are...are you saying that you're going to cut ties with him?"

"I don't know what I'm doing. I just want to talk to him," she states breathily, not looking at Caleb. "Is that too much to ask?" she flicks her eyes up at the baffled Caleb.

"No, it's not," he offers.

"Thank you."

Spencer doesn't really enjoy the movie. She can't shut her brain off. She laughs at some parts, and follows the plot, but she isn't fully engulfed in it like usual. She doesn't see things ahead of time like usual. She's too distracted.

After the movie she decides to just try Toby's loft. It's kind of out of the way, but she doesn't really mind. It's not that late and gas isn't really an issue. She doesn't know if he's home. She doesn't want to ask because if he is avoiding her, then he'll either lie or tell her he's too busy working on new music for her to visit. Maybe that's true. Maybe she is just being really crazy. But it just doesn't seem right that she has gone three days without hearing his voice—without having an actual conversation with him. Even if it was just ten seconds, that would be better than nothing.

Her knuckles rap at the door for a few seconds before it's being pulled open. Toby stands there, looking baffled.

"Hey," he greets after moment, opening the door wider for her to come in. She precedes forward, Toby closing the door behind her.

She puts her hands in her pockets. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" she puts forth, trying to keep her voice level.

"Uh, no. I just—no," he offers. "It's fine."

She nods, staring at her feet. She doesn't know if she's being crazy. She feels like she is. But if he's not doing anything right now, why couldn't he call her? She sighs a little.

"Spencer...?" he takes a step closer to her.

She looks up at him, stifling a breath. She didn't realize how close he was.