Pieces

Chapter 6

It's been two weeks since I kissed Spencer. And she still hadn't talked to me.

I was hurt, because I put myself out there and she.. well, I don't know what she did. She didn't accept or reject me. She just sat there.

Spencer did kiss me back, a deep, passionate kiss that made my skin tingle. But then she pulled away suddenly and just looked at me, her hand pulling away from mine.

She didn't leave though, she just scooted to the other end of the couch and laid down, he feet facing me and remains silent for the rest of the night.

Spencer spent a week at her aunts before she came back to school. When I approached her to say hello and ask where she had been, she turned away from me and walked to class alone.

Jake and Liz had noticed my mood change and Spencer's lack of being with us, and they were both worried.

"Chandler, dude. You need to stop this." Jake sat across from me at the lunch table. For the third time this week, my lunch sat unopened on the table. "It's unhealthy. And I don't even know what's wrong, which is even worse."

"I'm fine, Jake. Really."

"Oh yeah? then where's Spencer?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

Jake handed me an apple from his lunch. His mom packed them every day but he never ate them. I took the red orb from his hand and rolled it back and forth between my hands on the table.

"Will you tell me what happened between you two?"

I had told Jake that she had stayed over but I didn't tell him that was the last time she talked to me. I shook my head, and Jake sighed.

"Whatever, CJ."

A flash of red hair caught my eye. Spencer carried her blue lunch tray across the cafeteria, her eyes scanning the groups of students for someone to sit with. Her eyes met mine and my heart stopped, hoping she would finally approach and talk to me.

Instead, she blushed, turned, and walked to the other side of the lunch room and sat down at an empty table in the corner.

Jake turned around to follow my gaze. He shook his head and turned around to face me.

"You're amazing."

I looked at him. "What?"

"Just go fucking talk to her." He stood up and grabbed his lunch. "I'm not going to hang around you in this pissy mood until you do."

He left, leaving me sitting alone with my paper bag and now bruised apple.

I weighed my options in my head. On the one hand, if I approached her, she may finally talk to me. And we'd be fine, and we'd be friends again. On the other, less favorable hand, she could completely ignore me.

Not like that would really be much of a change.

I ran a thumb over the bruise of the apple and sighed. "Now or never, I guess," I mumbled to myself.

I quickly stood up, starling my neighbor to my left. I left the apple rolling on the table and quickly crossed the cafeteria until I was standing in front of her.

She sat with her hair draping over her book, creating an unbroken curtain of red between us. Spencer's body tensed, although she pretended she didn't know I was there. Her body had the same raised shoulders and rigid posture she had when I kissed her. I slowly sat pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Hey."

Spencer looked up and closed her book. Her freckled face showed no emotion and her darkly lined eyes were bloodshot and red. She wiped a smudge of eyeliner off the corner of her eye.

"Hey."

I smiled a little. It was so good to hear her voice. She didn't offer anything else up for conversation, and I decided it was best to just rip the bandaid off in one swift motion. "Why have you been intentionally ignoring me?"

"I haven't been."

"Yes, you have. In class, in the halls, and you've all of a sudden started walking to school instead of letting me give you a ride. What's going on, Spencer?"

Spencer traced an invisible pattern on the table on front of her. She shrugged, which seemed like an impossible task, considering she hadn't relaxed a single muscle since I sat down.

"Spencer.." She looked up at me. "Is it something I did?"

Spencer shook her head and looked back down. "I don't feel like talking right now."

"Are you okay?"

Spencer glanced up and gave a half hearted smile. "Yeah. I just don't want to talk here." She stood up and grabbed her lunch tray in one hand and her books in the other. "I'm sorry."

She turned quickly and walked away, throwing her trash in the garbage and tossing her tray into the pile on top of the can. Spencer said something to the lunch monitor, who nodded and let her leave the cafeteria.

I groaned and threw my head down on the table. I was going to get here to talk to me if it killed me.

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"Chandler, where are you going?"

My mom stood in the kitchen in her bathrobe, holding a cup of steaming tea in one hand, and the other hand was placed on her hip. I was dressed in my running clothes, tying my sneakers, a bag of jellybean resting next to my shoes.

"For a run."

She raised an eyebrow. "With a bag of candy?"

"It's uh. To feed the fish in the creek."

"You are not going to the creek, Chandler. Do you realize it's almost nine thirty? And you are not feeding any damn jelly beans to any fish."

"Mom, please. I'll be home in a half an hour. I have my reflective jacket on, and my cell phone is in my pocket." Mom sighed. "Please? I haven't run in almost three days."

My father, with his constant perfect timing waltzed into the kitchen, still in his work clothes. "Just let him go, honey. He's responsible."

"Tom.." my mom began to protest, but instead shook her head and left to go back to her room.

"Oh, C.J, before you go.." Dad crossed the kitchen and stole a handful of colorful beans from my bag, throwing me a wink over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner to his office.

As I ran down the driveway, jellybeans bouncing in my pocket, I silently reassured myself this was a good idea and ran across the street.

A single light was on in the house across the street. The brown walls and band posters were enough to convince me this was indeed Spencer's room.

I reached into my pocket, fumbling around to grab a handful of candy withy already numb fingers and took a deep breath.

The first thrown missed the window by a good three feet too low. The next few, too high. Cursing, a grabbed more and within a few more tires, had hit the window successfully.

I chose jelly beans instead of rocks because I didn't want to break any windows, but the tiny candy wasn't making enough noise as they pathetically clacked against the window and fell to their death in the bushes below.

"What the actual fuck." I groaned and pulled the bulk bag out of my pocket and tied a knot at the opening and tossed the entire bag against the window.

The bag hit the window, creating a sound that slightly resembled a paintball gun, and a few seconds later, a mess of red hair was at the window, looking left and right to search for the cause of the noise. Frustrated, Spencer threw the window open and then she noticed me.

"What the actual fuck, Chandler."

I had to laugh at her reaction, and I saw her smile too.

"Can you come out here and talk to me?"

Spencer shook her head. "No. It's much too cold." I felt my heart sink. "But, I suppose, you can come in here."