Stay Here By My Side

By the time Ryan pulled up in front of the orphanage to drop Spencer off, it was almost two in the morning. Getting out of Times Square was a nightmare, and took way longer than expected. But Spencer and Ryan, however, were perfectly fine with the grueling amount of traffic, because that meant they got to spend more time together. It sounded incredibly cheesy and cliche, but what they both have been wanting to happen for awhile, finally did. Nothing was official, of course, but as of right now, both of them were perfectly happy with where they stood.

"I had a lot of fun tonight, thank you. Especially for the whole ice skating - that meant a lot to me and brought back a lot of happy memories." Spencer said, unbuckling her seat belt.

"I'm glad, and I did too," He replied with a smile. "And like I said before, it was no problem."

Spencer returned his smile, realizing how they were both inching closer with each sentence. Before she realized it, yet again, their lips were pressed together. It was a short, but sweet kiss, only lasting for a few seconds, but it didn't matter; they were both overjoyed.

"I'll call you tomorrow," He said, his cheeks pinker than they were a minute ago.

"Okay, bye" She replied, shooting him a smile and climbing out of the car. She shut the car door and made her way up the stone steps, momentarily pausing to give Ryan a quick wave before he drove off.

Spencer leaned against the cool stone wall, taking a deep breath of the cold December - well technically January - air. It felt good, and cooled down her still flushed face. She checked her phone and saw Emily had text her a few times. All of the messages were the same thing - suggestive comments about her and Ryan. Rolling her eyes and letting out a small laugh, she shoved her phone back into her pocket and went inside.

The front enterance was dark and uncomfortably quiet. Hopefully that meant Mary was in her room because she was not in the mood for a lecture or an extra cleaning duty added to her already long list of chores. The rules in the orphanage were pretty lax, but if you get back after curfew, then you're sure to get some kind of punishment.

If you were under 13, you'd get a privilege taken away; and if you were over 13, then you'd get more chores, and of course they were the shitty ones that no one ever wanted to do. It was as simple as that. Spencer didn't absolutely love the system, but she didn't hate it either. It was fair, and because of that she didn't complain. She definitely was thankful that she lived here, and not a group home or other orphanages outside of the city. Spencer has heard plenty of stories about them and they sounded like hell; so all in all this place wasn't that bad.

Luckily for her, Mary was in bed, fast asleep. Letting out a sigh of relief, she made her way down the hall to her room, throwing some sweatpants and a sweatshirt on. For some reason, she wasn't very tired, so she decided to see if Emily was still awake. She softly knocked on her door, but didn't get a response, meaning she was also sleeping.

Spencer sighed in defeat and retreated back to her room, unsure what to do. She sat down at her desk and drummed her fingers on the surface of it, becoming lost in thought.

Her birthday was already a little less than two months away - which meant she only had two more months of having a roof over her head. Unfortunately, she had little next to nothing saved up for an apartment - let alone college. It was a known fact that unless you inherited a lot of money - you'd either be homeless, or if you're lucky, living in some shitty motel.

She bit her lip in frustration. Spencer used to believe that everything happened for a reason, but after the accident, her views began to gradually change. She didn't understand why her entire family had to be taken away from her, along with her future. Wasn't one of those things plenty to take away from a fifteen year old girl? Sure, it did made her stronger and more independent, but come on, that could've happened without her losing everyone that she loved. But now, here she was, at seventeen, with no idea what she was going to do, or where she was going in life. Yes, right now she was beyond happy, but two months from now, she knew it'd be a whole different story.

Spencer put her head in her hands; a headache was already beginning to form thanks to her stressful thoughts. The saying "life isn't fair" couldn't be any more accurate.