28 • November 6th

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11/06/2010
The day it all started. Well sort of, it had been developing for a while. It actually started with a strong hatred, serious accusations, lies and a bad homecoming date. Spencer believed whole-heartedly that Toby had killed Alison for revenge.

He was a creep; he'd been spying on her and her friends for years and he had a reason to want to hurt Alison. He'd been sent to reform school in Maine for something he didn't even do. Anyone would be pissed, maybe not murder the person responsible pissed but no one could deny he had a motive.

Spencer had felt almost betrayed when Emily and Toby began to become friends. She couldn't understand why Emily trusted him or why she'd even waste her breath talking to someone who very clearly had things he was hiding and who had a reason to hurt or even kill their best friend.

That was until the afternoon where she saw him in town when she was running.

She watched as two children crossed the street to avoid him and watched as he cried alone in an alley. In that moment she saw something new in Toby Cavanaugh. Something that wasn't evil or violent as she expected from him but rather vulnerable and emotional.

She told herself a few weeks later that the only reason she'd decided to become his French tutor was because she wanted information and to tell him that she thought maybe he was being framed. That was a lot for Spencer. She hated being wrong and she knew deep down she'd been totally wrong about Toby.

So late one afternoon Spencer knocked at the door of the Cavanaugh house to tutor Toby. A few hours later and Spencer had found, much to her surprise, that after her French tutoring she no longer despised Toby Cavanaugh. In fact, she thought they could make great friends. He was sweet, thoughtful, tentative and was pretty much the only person (apart from her friends) who actually listened to her. They had a similar sense of humour and Toby was much smarter than Spencer expected him to be.

Then the 5th of November came. They staked out room 214 of the Edgewood Motor Court. They played scrabble, she drank far too much coffee and he offered her one half of his pyjamas.

The next morning was the 6th of November and Spencer woke up snuggling Toby but pretended it didn't happen. The stakeout was a set-up and a waste of time but it for some reason, she didn't really mind. She'd enjoyed being with Toby. She got ready to go then walked out to her car. Toby offered her to stay another night and she genuinely considered it. She apologised for wasting his time, he said it wasn't a total bust and teased her, saying "it was fun to kick her ass at scrabble". And they kissed.

Toby Cavanaugh gently pushed Spencer Hastings against a car and kissed her sweetly.

And Spencer couldn't be happier. Driving home, she knew that November 6th would always mean something to her.

11/06/2011
Exactly a year after that perfect moment was the worst day of Spencer's life.

She and Toby had been through so much since that kiss at the Edgewood Motor Court; fights, make-ups, breakups, "I love you"s, attempts to protect each other, endless games of scrabble, many kisses and even her giving her virginity to him. She'd never made it this far with a boyfriend before and she knew she was hopelessly in love.

She'd seen Toby in the morning when he'd come over to shower and lied about her plans for the day, even getting her Mom to help saying she had to go to a dinner honouring her dad.

In actual fact Spencer was going to surprise him. She had a key to his loft from Emily who'd also lied to him, making up an excuse to hang at the loft before Toby went to shower at Spencer's and promised she'd lock up after herself. Spencer was going to go over while he was at work to make her grandma's lasagne and set up a romantic dinner. She was so excited about the present she'd got him too, a scrabble board which she'd had engraved with:
"For T -
My safe place to land.
Always your girl,
S"
She'd also laid out the words "Glyceraldehyde" and "Goofball" as well as "I love you".

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