We Gamble With Desire

Spencer's POV

As was promised, Isobel did love to feed us. And she was good at it; her food could easily beat out any gourmet restaurant. I'm pretty sure she mistook us for an army, she just kept bringing in food. It was enjoyable though; we all sat around and talked and laughed. It was actually pretty amazing.

"So Spencer, what do you do when the boys are away?" His dad questioned me at some point during the meal. "We already know what Kara does."

"I'm going to an art school near our house." I admitted shyly.

"That's fascinating, and what are you going to be, dear?" Isobel asked me, causing my cheeks to blush slightly.

"Well, I'm double majoring in both interior design and graphic design and then I'm minoring in business." I said as everyone around us became quiet.

"Yeah, you're going to have to come see the house soon!" Kara gushed excitedly. "Since Spence moved out, it's completely changed! And it looks gorgeous." She added, complimenting me.

"Maybe we'll come out soon, we haven't really been spending much time in Baltimore lately…" Peter said thoughtfully, trailing off his sentence.

"Oh that'd be so nice!" Isobel exclaimed excitedly. "We'll have to talk more later and plan everything out." We agreed and then the conversation took a turn to reminiscing about the past.

After a long break in conversation, with everyone sitting back agains their chairs relaxing as the food settled, Isobel stood up. "Is everyone done." A collective yes followed as she chuckled. "Alright, well you kids head downstairs…or outside or whatever Peter and I will clean up in here.

"Gee thanks for signing me up for the job." Peter joked helping her collect plates. I followed as everyone started the journey downstairs.

Kara and Rian left to wonder around outside, Zack and Melissa were off on the other queen sized bed that was positioned behind the smaller couch in the middle of the room. Jack was messing around with his guitar. "Spencer." Alex called from my right as he saw me look around confused. I hadn't been downstairs yet and didn't know where he was let alone where we were sleeping or where my luggage.

I jumped and turned towards him. He was standing by a large bed, though it was smaller than ours at home. Surrounding the bed was a makeshift wall of sheets. "You scared me."I said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"I saw that." He muttered quietly. "You're stuff's already down here by the way."

"Oh, good. Thank you." I said pulling away from him and lying down on the bed.

"You okay?" He questioned following suit.

I nodded my head. "I'm fine."

"Spencer, I do know you better than that." He called me out on the obvious lie.

My cheeks blushed, I didn't want to admit to what was wrong because it was slightly pathetic, completely my fault, and nothing to be too upset about in the first place! I shook my head. "Please don't, Lex."

"Spencer, come on I'm going to be worried now. Did I do something?"

"No you're perfect." I said kissing his nose.

He laughed. "You finally see things my way, I like this." I gave him an are-you-kidding-me sort of look and he laughed, making me laugh with him. "Okay, but in all seriousness; are you sure nothing happened when you went on a walk with mom?"

"Lex, she was so nice it made me feel like such a terrible person for being so afraid to meet her." I admitted, that was part of the reason I was upset so I wasn't completely lying anymore.

He gave me a look like he was going to ask why I'd been so paranoid in the first place again, but thought better of it. "I told you she'd love you." He settled on as I smiled and leaned my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "Now what's bothering you?"

I sighed, knowing I wasn't going to get out of this one, especially if I wanted to avoid being asked other questions. "I just feel slightly out of place out here for one. I mean everyone's so close and I know all you guys, I know that, it's just so different up here. It's like when I first met everyone and I was completely out of the loop, not because you wanted to, but because I just didn't know all of your inside jokes and old stories. Which, I love to hear by the way." I smiled thinking back to some of the embarrassing and funny stories that had been told tonight. "And I know it's my fault for one, I should've met them so long ago. And then this would be so much easier. And I know that no one's trying to make me feel like this, at any rate everyone's been so sweet trying to avoid it…I just, I'm sorry I feel just a little out of place."

He pulled me close and kissed my head. "Well you've completely covered everything I had to say in their defense. I understand what you mean though, and well I'll try to help make things less uncomfortable; just because we're up here doesn't mean all we have to talk about is old times and stuff from here, we can talk about stuff you know about too. It's just the first night kind of thing, it'll get better. Plus you'll get more comfortable as the week goes by and it'll be easier for you once you at least see all the places we tell you about."

"Yeah you're right." I whispered snuggling into his chest. "Thanks for not thinking I was being a bitch or something like that…"

"You're too small and innocent to be a bitch, babe." He joked looking down at me devilishly.

I laughed with him, "Okay if you say so."

"I do. But Spence, don't worry about it. This trip is going to be amazing because we'll get to show you all the places we've gone to and it wont just be the same old thing because you've never been there!" He talked animatedly, physically showing how excited he was.

I giggled and nodded my head as he talked. "You're really cute, Lex." He gave me a crooked grin "I love you."

"Love you too, Spencer Leigh." He placed a sloppy kiss on my cheek.