✓ ❘ 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐈𝐈: 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 ─ 𝐁. 𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄

ᴘᴀʀᴛ ɪɪɪ - ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғᴏᴜʀ: ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴇs ᴀɴᴅ ᴀғғᴇᴄᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴs

"What the hell?"

Sighing tiredly, I forced myself to tear my gaze away from her retreating frame and focus on my hopefully still best friend. "Spence-"

I was forced to swallow the rest of my words, as his right fist collided with my cheek in a solid punch. My vision clouded with pain, the damage from his strike came off twice as bad since he'd hit me right where she had only minutes ago.

Lovely. Now I had two temperamental girls to deal with.

I raised a hand to my jaw, flexing it to try and aid the dull sting in my face. I didn't make any move to retaliate – not even with words – because how could I?

Fuck, if the roles had been reversed and one of the two of them had pulled a stunt like the one I had, I would've flipped my shit much sooner, much worse.

Hence, I relented.

"Deserved that," I mumbled, nodding before clearing my throat and facing forward again.

I knew that it would be miles easier to get Spencer to forgive me – and thank fuck for that; the last thing I needed was for him to write me out of his life. See, unlike with (Y/N), I could be totally honest with him about what I'd been doing all this time, and I knew he would understand. But it was far more complicated when it came to her.

"No shit," Spencer spat, blue eyes wide, "You're a fucking dick, you know that? Do you have any idea what the past year has been like? The hell that (Y/N) and I have been going through?"

I don't want to think about it.

"I know-"

"No, you don't!" he yelled, letting his anger spill over, "You couldn't possibly know what it was like to lose-"

Hold the fuck up.

"Really?" I interjected with a frown, narrowing my eyes infinitesimally, "I don't know what it's like?"

That shut him up. He knew that that wasn't true. I've lost far more than was every necessary.

He stared at me for a long while, eventually looking away and shaking his head, exhaling shakily.

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't need to, Spence."

"That doesn't make it any better."

"I know."

I did know. But there wasn't anything I could do about it, now.

Spencer ran his hands through his hair in frustration and began pacing up and down the length of the hallway.

"What the fuck were you doing, anyway?" he scoffed, clearly confused as to why the hell I had decided to fuck off for almost an entire year.

I held my tongue against the inside of my cheek for a couple seconds before taking a deep breath and answering. This was bound to get a wonderful reaction. "I went looking for Mason."

Spencer stopped dead in his tracks, and turned to stare at me in blatant disbelief. "Mason?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Glancing out in the direction that she'd hurried off in, I clenched my jaw as my mind churned out possible locations of where she'd headed. I really didn't have the time or patience for 'storytime with Brendon' right now.

I wanted to tell Spencer everything and, again, I would, but not right now. She was my first priority. Finding her and getting her to somehow trust me again – regardless of how fucking long it would take – was the only thing on my mind at present.