18
977 Words
She left for coffee and never came back. That sounds like a dateline special. Spencer was going out of his mind with worry and he'd already visited the cafe; she wasn't there.
She didn't call or text. So when it started getting dark, he called her. She picked up, said she'd be home and hung up.
On him.
What the f**k is she doing?
Just as he was about call again, he heard voices coming up the stairs.
"I don't think I'm going to sleep."
"Wouldn't advise it. I had nightmares for weeks."
He frowned. That was man. Not a boy a man about their age.
He jaw clenched.
"How do you find out these things anyway?"
"Research, I'm a curious person I wanna know why I wanna how I wanna know who I wanna know when and I wanna know now."
She sounded so...
So... Happy.
"Well this is me. Thanks for walking me home Carter. I'll text you later."
"Do that. See you tomorrow at 12?"
"If I don't see you first."
Spencer frowned deeply.
Was she...flirting?
He didn't want scare the boy away just yet, she seemed very happy. He knocked and she let him in.
"I was worried, Treasure."
She grinned at him. "I'm sorry I didn't notice the time. We were talking about books, Austen, Tolstoy. I was telling him about-"
She looked at his blank face. He wasn't stupid, but math had always been more his area then lit.
"Am I boring you?
He shook his head.
"Yes I am. See, now I have three friends, You, an overall intellectual with street smarts, and my muscle man. Vince whose hilarious and caring and Carter, he's nerdy and bookish just like me. I mean I write for a living."
Spencer did not like how this was sounding. Other than him.
"Sounded like a date to me?"
She shrugged. "Who knows?"
Spencer wanted to know.
$
Turns out that was a date. And they had many more. Weeks went by, Bailey made sure not to neglect her other friends, but her mind was on Carter.
Spencer was not pleased to say the least.
He yanked his fridge open getting a soda.
"It's always Carter this, and Carter that. I liked it better when we were her only friends."
Vince sighed. "I will not allow you to hurt my Bailey."
Spencer banefully glared at him "She's not your anything."
Bailey burst into his apartment.
"Guess what guess what guess what?!"
"What?!"
"I have a boyfriend."
"What?" Spencer said quietly.
"When will I meet him?"
Bailey grinned. "If I have it my way, never. I know how you are Spence. You'll threaten him until leaves, and you two are my only friends."
Spencer snorted indignantly.
"That's not true!"
"That's so true!"
Spencer glared at Vince venomously.
"I don't like this, Bailey. He's changing you already!"
Bailey sighed, smiling at him sadly.
"Spencer, it's not like we're getting married. Besides, he'll break up with me soon. Then everything will go back to how it was."
With that, she left, her heart crushed. She barely made a sound, even when Spencer called out to her.
She kept walking, and locked her apartment door.
Spencer looked at the door in regret. He did it again. He always managed to make her unhappy.
Sighing, he slinked back to his own apartment, knowing she wouldn't speak to him for a while.
Vince waited for him, his arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently.
"You asshole!"
Spencer just sighed.
Vince took in pitiful sad sack of regret, and uncrossed his arms.
"She was so happy, Spencer. If you truly care about her, you should want her to be happy."
Spencer frowned, anger bubbling up from his stomach, boiling over.
"I do want her to be happy! Just not with him!"
Vince shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, Spence. Either you want her happy or you want her to yourself," Vince shrugged. "It can't be both."
"Why not?" Spencer pleaded, slumping on the hard wood floors like a sad sack of flour.
"Because you're choking her. You're suffocating her, Spencer. She needs more friends, whether you consider them a threat or not."
Spencer knew he was telling the truth, but spitefully refused to acknowledge it.
"She's alone with this man, she just met!"
"She just met you!"
"It's not the same!" Spencer's roared, his frustration coming to a head.
Then exhaustion took over. "It's not the same," He repeated, his head slumping with lack of energy.
His fight was drained.
Abruptly, he heard Bailey's door open and close. Frowning he got up, and went to the halls, to see Bailey, dressed up on her way out.
"Hey, Bailey. I wanted to-"
Bailey shook her head. "It's fine Spencer. I just don't understand why you feel threatened. He's not gonna stay with me long anyway."
Spencer frowned. He hated when she said things like that.
"Now that's-"
"It's fine. I already know that he'll leave soon. I'll be all yours again."
She smiled, scoffing. "Although, according to you, I'm not yours, and you don't want me either."
She tugged on her flats. "Make up your mind Spencer."
She left him standing there like an i***t in her dust.
"But I-" the hall was empty. She'd left having said all she needed to say.
He didn't mean to make it worse. He didn't mean for her to feel like no one wanted her, he just...
Wanted her for himself. He didn't want other men to want her. But still, he knew she didn't believe he wanted her either.
He laughed scornfully. He'd told her we much.
What right did he have to decided now he wanted her exclusively to himself? No, he would get back out there, and learn to...
To...
He didn't know what he'd been doing before her. He genuinely couldn't remember.
- Writer
