Love's Spiral

~234

AUGUST

Tuesday, July 17 at 4:54 p.m. from Stiles. “Hey, Spence. I haven’t heard from you in a while. Just wondering where you are. And how you are. And really if you’re even alive. Captain America comes to theaters next week and I know he’s your favorite. I thought you might want to go. Call me.”

Friday, July 22 at 9:32 p.m. from Stiles. “So I was going to call you during the movie to rub it in, but I don’t want to be one of those people. I’m currently sitting in the theater with Scott about to see Captain America. You’re no longer my comic book movie date. Suck on that.”

Saturday, July 28 at 2:15 p.m. from Stiles. “God, Spencer. Does your phone even work? Are you even getting these voicemails? It’s getting really friggin’ ridiculous. I feel like I have to call in the national guard or something. I can’t do that though because of certain wolfy reasons we don’t want anyone finding out about. Can you call me back please? Text me? Email me? Send me a freaking letter. I don’t even care. Where are you?”

Saturday, July 28 at 4:37 p.m. from Scotty. “Pence, I’m not sure why, but Stiles is freaking out. He seems to think you’re dead. Can you call one of us? Please. We kinda miss you. It’s summer and we’re not all here to be lazy and veg out on the couch. Call Stiles. Or me. Uh, yeah. Bye.”

Friday, August 10 at 10:20 a.m. from Lyds. “Listen, Little Red. Everyone here is severely upset with the fact that you have dropped off the face of the Earth. Including me. We are your friends and we miss you. I don’t care if you’ve got a big, bad werewolf of a boyfriend. Your friends still matter. You and Allison both being gone at the same time is not helping me cope. Pick up your phone. Call me.”

Tuesday, August 14 at 9:49 p.m. from Stiles. “Spencer! God, I need - I need your help. It’s an emergency. Please call me ASAP. Okay? That’s as soon as possible.”

Tuesday, August 14 at 10:10 p.m. from Stiles. “Okay, so there’s no emergency. I just wanted to see if you at least were listening to my voicemails. And I also feel really terrible, extremely awful for saying there was an emergency when there wasn’t. Yeah, I’m going to hell. I’m gonna go to bed now. But if you call me, I’ll pick up.”

Thursday, August 16 at 12:01 a.m. from Stiles. “Happy birthday! And even though you’ve been a really, really bad friend, I got you a present. So can you call me so I know where you are so I can give it to you? Spoiler alert, it’s a Captain America hoodie. Happy birthday! Again. I already said that. Okay. Well, night Spence.”

Thursday, August 16 at 11:45 a.m. from Scotty. “Happy birthday, Pence! How’s it feel to be seventeen? If you wanna go to dinner or something, Stiles and I are down. Just give us a call.” ~ “Yeah, today!” Stiles’ voice came through the phone. “You have to call us today!” ~ “Stiles, shut up. Anyway, happy birthday. Talk to you soon.”

Thursday, August 16, at 12:16 p.m. from Pops. “Hi, Spencer. It’s your Pops, uh, Stiles’ dad. I was just on my lunch, saw my calendar, and remembered that it was your birthday. Happy birthday. You know you’re welcome back here anytime. I could use a spaghetti night with your special sauce. Have a good day.”

Thursday, August 16 at 3:25 p.m. from Lyds. “Since we’ve been such good friends lately, I almost threw you a birthday party. But then I remembered how fantastic my last one turned out and changed my mind. Happy birthday. You wanna come over for a few drinks? We can go up to the lake house this weekend. Call me.”

Thursday, August 16 at 5:36 p.m. from Melissa. “Hey, Spencer. Thought I could catch you between shifts at the hospital, but I guess not. Happy birthday. Come on by soon. I’ll treat you to a coffee….or something. I don’t know. Do you like coffee? Ice cream. You’ve got to like ice cream. One birthday ice cream on me. Love you, sweetie.”

Thursday, August 16 at 11:16 p.m. from Wolfboy. “Hey, so I know I’ve told you a million times today, but I figured one more wouldn’t matter. Besides you’re sound asleep next to me and I won’t be able to actually say it to you anymore today. Happy birthday, Spen. You’re beautiful and I lo - I really like you.”

Thursday, August 16 at 11:54 p.m. from Drama Wolf. “Happy birthday, Red. Stay safe.”

Saturday, August 18 at 12:38 p.m. from Stiles. “Hey, Spence. Dad wanted to know if you were coming to our normal ‘last free weekend before hell starts again jamboree’. I can’t believe I just said jamboree. I convinced him not to argue with you about the school thing just so you’d come. Anyway call me. Let me know.”

Saturday, August 18 at 9:27 p.m. from Stiles. “You know, it’s one thing to blow me off, but to blow off my dad is a whole other ball game. It’s tradition, Spencer. Long fulfilled tradition for as long as I can remember. And you’ve squashed it. Thanks for that.”


Spencer couldn’t believe it had taken her sixteen voicemails to finally listen to them. It probably would have been more had her phone not yelled at her about the available storage. Spencer had been avoiding it.

The redhead groaned and threw her phone down onto Isaac’s bed. She then threw herself down onto it and rolled herself into the comforter. She did miss her friends. Lydia, Scott, and especially Stiles. The two hadn’t ever been separated for this long without talking to each other. Spencer wanted to talk to him. She wanted to call him. Spencer felt bad for ignoring him all summer. Problem was, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to lie to him about the alphas. Spencer hated lying to him. She was afraid that somehow he would find out that she was lying and would guilt her into telling the truth.

Isaac came into the room a few minutes later from a shower, wearing just a pair of sweatpants and drying his hair with a towel.

Spencer sat up, wrapping the comforter around her. “Hey.”

Isaac dropped the towel into the corner and looked to her. “What’s up?”

“C’mere.” She said, beckoning him with her finger.

Isaac took a few steps to the foot of his bed. He leaned down.

Spencer placed a soft hand on the side of his face and kissed him.

Isaac kissed back and then slowly pulled away. He furrowed a brow. “What was that for?”

“The voicemail you left me a couple days ago. On my birthday.”

Isaac smirked. “You just now listened to that?” He recalled the voicemail he left and then instantly tensed up when he remembered what he almost said to her.

“I haven’t listened to any voicemails since July. I thought they were all from Stiles, trying to get me to talk to him.”

Isaac sighed, realizing Spencer hadn't noticed him stumbling over his words in the recording. “Were they?” He went to his dresser to pull out a shirt.

Spencer shook her head. “I had a couple from Lydia and Scott. Then for my birthday, just about everyone I know called.

“Everyone being?”

“Stiles and Scott, obviously.” Spencer said. “Their parents. Lydia. And Derek.”

Isaac raised a brow at the last one.

Spencer scoffed. “Yeah, he called me. It’s a little unnerving that Derek calls me, but my own mother didn’t.”

“Maybe she meant to. Or is meaning to. She just hasn’t gotten around to it.”

Spencer smiled at him. “It’s sweet that you’re trying to defend her, but I don’t think she likes the idea of having a werewolf as a daughter. I know you didn’t see her that night, but you heard how scared she was when I shifted in front of her.”

“Just as scared as any normal person would be when finding out werewolves actually exist.”

“She knew werewolves were a thing though. She knew my dad was one.” Spencer paused. “Look, I guess it doesn’t really matter since I told her to leave without me, but it still woulda been nice.”

Isaac nodded. He moved around his bed to lay on his side of it. “So, how mad is Stiles since you’ve been blowing him off?” Isaac asked, wanting to get Spencer off the subject of her mom.

“Pretty mad.” She responded. “Our back to school ‘celebration’ was tonight.”

“You guys celebrate going back to school?” He laughed.

“It wasn’t so much a celebration for us as it was for our parents.” Spencer laid back, putting her head on his stomach as a pillow. “We’d go to dinner and then we’d do something fun. Mostly it was the batting cages. Pops would take Scott, Stiles and me because Melissa had to work and my parents acted like I wasn’t their daughter.” She closed her eyes when she felt Isaac run his fingers through her hair. “But we’d have so much fun. I normally did with Stiles and his family. Especially when his mom was still alive.”

“Oh yeah?”

Spencer laughed quietly at the memories of Claudia. “You know, she wasn’t that different from Stiles. She knew it was bad for me at home. It was like she could read my mind or something. Because every time something bad happened with my dad, Claudia was there. She’d come over with Stiles and tell my mom that I was sleeping at her house. We’d go out for ice cream and go to the park.” Spencer rolled over leaning up on her elbows to look at Isaac while she spoke. “And you know, sometimes it’d be the middle of the night. And we’d still do it. We’d go to some gross 24-hour gas station and get a few pints of ice cream. Then we’d go to the park. Claudia would pick Stiles and I up and put us over the fence and then jump it herself. We’d sit on the swings or the merry-go-round, or something. It was different every time. She’d tell us a story. Stiles and I would help her make it up but she was always good at making the story come alive.”

“She’s sounds great.” Isaac said softly. “Like the perfect mom.”

“God, she was.” Spencer sighed. “She was perfect and beautiful.” Spencer looked at her hands, tied in a knot. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying. “Sometimes I feel like she’s still here. Is that crazy?”

“I don’t think so.” Isaac said. “I feel the same with my brother. Sometimes when I’m about to make a stupid decision, I get this bad feeling like someone’s punching me in the stomach.”

Spencer laughed. “Yeah, it’s called your gut.”

Isaac shrugged. “It works better for me if I think it’s my brother. He was always stopping me from doing stupid stuff.”

Spencer sighed and turned back over, using him as a pillow again. “I wish I could talk to Stiles.”

“You can talk to me.”

“It’s not the same.”

Isaac hesitated before speaking. “Oh.”

“I don’t mean because I don’t want to talk to you about stuff. I just mean that Stiles and I… We’ve been - ”

“I know. I get it. He’s been around you forever. And I’m just Isa - ”

“Don’t do that.” Spencer said, forcefully. She sat up and faced him. “Don’t say you’re just Isaac because you’re not just Isaac. The same thing you said to me a while back.” Spencer recalled. “Stiles and I have been friends my whole life. I have never really not been around him. And these past few months are hard on me because of that.”

“Spencer, I know that.”

“And you know, I’m a little low on friends nowadays. I mean, it’s not like we’re gonna find Erica and Boyd. More than likely, they’re probably dead by now.”

Isaac furrowed his brow at her and sat up against his headboard. “How could you say that?”

“It’s been months, Isaac. The whole summer and we haven’t even heard a peep.”

“But don’t you think we would have felt something? Don’t you think we would somehow know that they were dead?”

“That’s just not possible.” Spencer stressed. “You can’t feel death. It just happens. It could happen to anyone and you wouldn’t know it until you never saw them again. Which is what’s happening with Erica and Boyd.”

“Spencer, stop it.”

Spencer got up from the bed. “They’re dead, Isaac. You should get yourself comfortable with the idea before we actually find them and we were too late.” Spencer quickly left the room.

“Spencer!” Isaac called to her.

Spencer shook her head, forcing her legs to keep going. She didn’t want to fight with Isaac, even though she already was. She didn’t want to fight more with him. He was all she had left. So she got out of the loft as fast as she could without looking back.

!@#$#@!

Spencer found herself at the playground. It was around 10:30 at night so the park was empty and barren of children. She grabbed a swing.

Spencer thought of being a kid and playing on this playground with Scott and Stiles. She remembered being that small. Other kids her age usually said that they never could. But Spencer remembered every moment of it.

The playdates and sleepovers with Stiles.

Meeting Scott on the first day of kindergarten. After kindergarten, the school administrators got smart and separated the three of them into different classes.

Being picked up from school one day because her father had his accident. She’d first met Derek that day.

All the outbursts from her father. She remembered being scared of him. Brian towered over her and started to smash things around the house. It was all Spencer could do to get out of the house as fast as possible. Her mother made sure to stop buying breakable decor after that first outburst.

The night Stiles’ mom died. That probably had to be the worst night for her. Out of all the bad nights she ever experienced, that night was the icing on the cake.

Spencer had never experienced death before. Not a major one anyway. A few hamsters and an old dog of Scott’s. But no one as important as Claudia Stilinski. And to experience it alone. Pops had been out on a call; there was a major crash that night. Spencer and Stiles had sat by his mother all night. Until the last second.

Scott’s random visits from his father or him having to leave for a few weekends. Scott would always complain about them.

Pops’ rough patch.

Walking over to the Stilinski House all alone after her father’s explosions. Spencer remembered her and Stiles sitting in the middle of his floor with ice cream sandwiches, trying to make up their own stories. It was never the same.

Spencer sighed. She knew what she had to do. It was what her gut was telling to to do. So Spencer went for a small drive, stopped at a 24-hour gas station, and drove again. She climbed the side of the house, holding a container under her arm. Spencer knocked on the window.

It took a moment for the boy inside to register what he heard, but when he did, he turned sharply to face the girl. Stiles stood and walked to stand in front of the window.

Spencer took in his appearance. In the four months not seeing her friend, he certainly looked older. She noticed that she had let his hair grow out. And he was wider, broader.

“Spencer?” Stiles asked, getting back her attention. “What are you doing here?”

Spencer held up the ice cream container in her hand. She bit her lip and shrugged.

Stiles looked to the ice cream and then met her eyes. In them, he saw something that made him upset. In Spencer’s eyes, Stiles could see that she was sad.

“Are you gonna let me in?!” She shouted so Stiles could hear her through the glass.

Stiles fumbled, stepping forward to unlock the window. “Yeah, sorry.”

Spencer shook her head and climbed in. “I, uh…” She held up the ice cream container. “I brought ice cream.”

Stiles nodded. “I see that.”

“Do you wanna share? I mean, that’s normally what happens, right?”

Stiles nodded again. He could hardly comprehend that she was in his room again.

Spencer stood awkwardly by the window for another several seconds before speaking. “Do...you have any spoons?”

“Yes. Spoons!” Stiles went over to his desk and starts pulling out drawers.

Spencer raised her brows at her friend. “Stiles?”

Stiles turned to face her. “Yeah.” He said, nearly tripping over his own feet in his spin.

“Spoons normally live in the kitchen.”

“Normally. But I’d sometimes keep some here for occasions such as this. You know what?” He pointed towards the door. “I’ll be right back.” Stiles hurried from the room, taking wild steps and rushed down the stairs.

Spencer took this time to herself to look around. Nothing had changed in the room. Spencer knew that, but it looked different. Maybe that was what happened when you’ve been away from a certain place for so long. Things start to look different.

Spencer took a seat on the edge of Stiles’ bed, holding the cold container with her sleeves pulled down over her palms.

Stiles bounded up the stairs and came back into the room, holding two spoons.

Spencer smiled and pushed herself more onto the bed. She sat cross-legged on it.

Stiles sat facing her so they could put the ice cream between them and share it. He held out her spoon. “Here you go.”

Spencer smiled at him, taking her utensil. The two ate a few spoonfuls in silence, hardly sure what to say to one another.

Stiles couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Somehow, he thought maybe he was dreaming the whole thing and when he looked away from her, Spencer would disappear.

Spencer, on the other hand, kept her eyes down. She was either focused on the carton or the what was on her spoon.

“Hey, Spence?”

Spencer looked up at him, swallowing her bite. “Yeah?”

“What are you doing here?” Stiles asked.

Spencer tilted her head to the side and sucked her lips into her mouth.

“I mean, I don’t wanna complain, ‘cause, you know, you’re here, and it seems like it’s been easier for me to talk to the dead than to talk to you lately.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

“Yeah, it is fair.” Stiles jabbed his spoon deep into the ice cream. “Spence, I couldn’t get you on the phone for anything. Four months of - of nothing, but radio silence from you. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”

“I’m sorry.” She said, softly. “I just - ” Spencer looked back to the ice cream, sticking her spoon in it, copying Stiles. “I’m sorry. But I just - ” She groaned, frustrated. Spencer threw her head into her hands.

Stiles sighed. “Spence?”

Spencer pushed herself out of the bed. “This was a mistake.”

Stiles copied her actions, getting out of bed. He grabbed the ice cream and moved it to his desk. “What’s a mistake?”

“Coming here. Showing up in the middle of the night. I thought you’d treat it like a normal night.” Spencer pushed her hair out of her face. “I thought you would just be here and tell me stories and help me forget.”

Stiles furrowed his brow. “Forget? What do you need to forget?”

Spencer hesitated. “If I told you, I wouldn’t be forgetting it, would I?” She made her way to the door, deciding to leave the conventional way.

“Okay! Okay.” Stiles stepped after her and grabbed her arm before she could leave the room.

Spencer stopped and looked to him.

“What kind of story do you want?”

Spencer felt a large lump form in her throat. She felt her lip quiver slightly. “I’m so sorry.”

Stiles’ shoulders dropped. “Ah, Spence.” He sighed.

Spencer willed herself forward and wrapped her arms around Stiles. “I’m sorry. For ignoring you.”

Stiles hesitated, but wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry for everything.”

“It’s okay.” Stiles told her. “It’s all okay.”

Spencer continued to cling tightly to her best friend. She sniffled. “Can I have my birthday present now?”

“Can you - ” Stiles pulled her away at an arm’s length. His eyes were narrowed at her.

Spencer smiled at him. “You missed me.” She reminded him.

Stiles licked his lips, nodding slowly. “I did.” He went to the closet and dug to the bottom of it for a wrapped box. “You already know what it is, if you listened to the voicemail I left.”

“I did.” She took the box from him.

“I’m not sure why I wrapped it if I was going to tell you anyway. Probably told you just to entice you into coming home.”

Spencer blushed. “I missed you, too. And I wanted to call you every second. But - ” She stopped herself.

“But?”

Spencer shook her head. “The ‘but’ is part of what I’m trying to forget.”

“Okay. You’ll tell me though, right? Later? Or eventually?”

Spencer thought for a moment. “Yeah. I’ll tell you. Eventually.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Okay, so this is the last “2~~” chapter!!!! Next chapter starts “3~~” chapters and we’re in the friggin’ third season! Tell me you’re excited! Because I’m friggin’ excited. I can’t stop saying friggin’. Okay, so onward.

Thanks to avenged angel for commenting! I can agree with you about Isaac to a point. Mostly because I really like Isaac. There’s something about the two of them together that’s insanely cute.

Thanks shelbyvengeance for commenting! We’ll have to see how Derek feels! I’m sure he does. Especially since they were so close and now Spencer is turning to Isaac for her stresses. Well, sorta.

Thanks kasey_n_landon. Sorry about the Isaac fluff. And sorry again about what’s in this chapter! Thanks for commenting!

Thanks everyone for reading! Thanks to all those who are following my story and those who comment! <3