Lovebirds

BIGGER PROBLEMS

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Edith bristles as Hugo sits beside her at the lunch table; Dion next to Spencer, quiet as ever. Felicity peeks at him from beneath her gentle eyelids as she picks her plastic fork across her plate.

Brows knit, Spencer wonders what Hugo could be talking about. And when she'd forgotten they shared the same lunch period.

"What are you talking about?" Edith spits at him, "She's eating."

Hugo ignores her; "please tell me he knows, at least."

Spencer takes another bite of salad, looking at Dion to see if perhaps a clue will be delt. But the hockey captain has his game face on: focused and analyzing. He merely looks Spence right in the eye, raising a single brow to further push Hugo's question.

"Could someone please give me some context?" Edith waves her hands around, ceramic-handled fork still woven between her fingers. Spencer looks down at her phone, an Instagram notification having brought the screen to life. All blood seems to drain from her face as her hand quietly grips the table's edge. 

New message from Instagram:

Thank you for reaching out about...

"I'm talking about the fact that Miss Sofia, over there, is going to the senior night basketball game with someone who isn't Vincent!"

"Is that it?" The ceramic fork falls incredulous into the glass container with a clank.

Swallowing, Spencer clicks the DM notification. Still watching her, Dion's interest seems to shift. He wonders, with a lowering brow, what has shaken her so.

"They're together, Edith. You don't just go off on a date with someone else when you're in a relationship! It's, like, the first rule in the book."

"Actually, they're not in an exclusive relationship," Felicity offers carefully. Hugo seems taken aback.

"What the hell does that mean?" His cheeks are beginning to get a little red. The tips of his ears taking on a rosy tint, and as he begins to debate the state of Spencer and Vincent's relationship, Spencer herself, and an increasingly concerned Dion, stare at the message from Instagram:

Nothing's wrong with the picture. Nothing's wrong with the page. No action to be taken. 

Spencer stifles tears as she stares, once again, at the vinceandspence account, eyes fixed on the picture in her bedroom. A feeling of floundering overtakes her, hopeless loss of direction bringing her down in the whirlpool of questions that slowly begin to crowd her already crowded brain— who will help her now? What is she supposed to do? Does she go to the dean? Will Freddie get in trouble? Who's doing this to her— to she and Vincent, both?

Spencer feels a hand gently brush her wrist. When she looks up, she finds Dion's deep brown eyes staring intently back at her. Edith and Hugo continue to argue the merits of her relationship in the background.

"Is everything alright?" Dion asks. She shakes her head then hands him the phone. "I don't understand, didn't you give Freddie permission to make this account?"

"Freddie didn't take the last three pictures," she whispers at the same moment that Hugo stands on his seat, making the whole table shift beneath his weight.

"How many people in this room follow the vinceandspence Instagram account?" He yells across the cafeteria.

Mortified, Spencer looks over her shoulders with wide eyes, hugging her jacket further over her shoulders. Her friends yell at Hugo to sit down. Dion grabs his ankle to draw his attention. But by then, nearly everyone in the cafeteria is awkwardly raising their hand.

"See!" Hugo argues with Edith as he sits down again, "everyone loves them! Everyone thinks they're great—heck Vincent think's they're great, which is why he's going to be devastated when I tell him—"

"No," Spencer interjects. The whole argument comes to a halt. "I'll tell him later." She needs to talk with Vincent anyway. "By the way, Hugo, his name is Ambrose. And it isn't an official date."

Before he can pick apart Spencer's use of the word 'official,' Dion puts his hand out to cut Hugo off.

"I'm going to come with you," Dion insists.