Back to Me

The Hill

"Have you been up here since you got back?" I asked as we hiked up the hill.

"No, I haven't gotten a chance since I'm forced to help Jenna around. Plus, this place isn't the same if you're not here." Toby replied as he grabbed my hand. "Be careful where you place your feet, the tree roots are pretty big."

"Thanks for the warning." I said gripping his hand tighter. "I haven't been up here since the night before. You know, I'm glad we're coming here together so that you can't scare me like last time."

"I didn't want to scare you on purpose, it was an accident. You heard me trip over something, which is what I'm trying to help prevent you from doing." He defended himself.

"Well, it was over a year ago and you are helping me now, so I guess I can forgive and forget."

"You guess?" He asked and I could hear the fake astonishment in his voice.

"Hey, you know full well that I'm stubborn so be glad that you got what you did." I laughed as he pulled me down so that I was sitting beside him on 'our' rock.

"I do know that you're stubborn and I'm glad that you've finally forgiven me for accidently scaring you." He said laughing as well, a sound that I had missed a lot.

"Is the view still the same?" I asked quietly once we stopped laughing.

"Yeah, it's still the same, nothing in Rosewood ever changes. It's really dark out so all the lights are on. The street light by the mechanic still flickers, the letter 'R' on the movie theater sign and it looks like the 'O' is starting to go too, and of course the 'open' sign in the coffee shop window goes on and off every couple of minutes."

"When is someone going to fix that place up? The place is an eyesore and the coffee tastes like mud. I know I drink really strong coffee, but even people who drink normal coffee wouldn't drink that stuff on a dare."

"Now that is one place in Rosewood that has changed. It's gotten worse, and if I were you, I'd be glad that I couldn't see it. Hopefully enough people get tired of the place and force the owner to fix it up or sell."

"It would be nice for the place to be fixed up because the only other place to get coffee is at a restaurant."

"I agree it would be nice to have a place that served good coffee." He said and then comfortable silence fell between us.

"Hey, Spence, you don't have to answer if you don't want to but what happened? You sounded upset on the phone when you asked if we could hang out because you needed to get away from your family." Toby asked a few minutes later.

"Tonight my parents, Melissa, her fiancé, and I had dinner at the club. When we got home I excused myself saying that I had homework and I went upstairs." I started to answer.

"Spencer, you always have homework."

"I know, I like to be ahead in school and it makes a really good and believable excuse. Anyway, about twenty minutes later Wren, Melissa's fiancé, knocked on my door and came in. He started to flirt but I just thought that it was his personality and that he didn't realize he was doing it. He even said 'up yours' to me in Latin. Then he sat down next to me on my bed. Before I realized what his intentions were, he lifted my chin with his right hand and I could tell that he was leaning in to kiss me."

"He was going to what? I thought you said he was Melissa's fiancé."

"He is. And both fortunately and unfortunately, Melissa saw us before he could actually kiss me. But she thought that I was the one initiating it but I wasn't. She started yelling at me and then I heard my parents come in. Of course they took her side and she ended up looking like a victim while I was the offender."