The Case of You and Me

Chapter 29 - The Great Before

Aria's POV

I woke up before him, which is unusual because of my tendency to sleep in, but I guess that proves how bad a night he had. I manage to escape his grasp without waking him. He looks so at peace when he's asleep.

That was a lot to take in. So he relapsed,..that happens. The only question is how long had he kept that secret? How long had he been taking drugs again? And why suddenly decide to go completely cold turkey? Maybe it has to do with the fact that he's relapsed, still it's not smart. It's not the safest option.

Part of me wants to call Liz and ask for her advice, but this seems too personal, and the last thing I want to do is remind her of how bad she used to be. I guess I could theoretically ask someone on his team for help, but there's a good chance they'd be obligated to report it and he's always been so territorial about his job and so insistent on not associating me with it that I feel like contacting anyone there would do more harm than good. Even Morgan, who had initially asked me to keep an eye on Spencer when we first met. 

So that leaves no one but me. And I'm not known for good decision making. I guess I could technically secretly administer reduced doses to keep him to do it the normal way but 1. He would know and 2. Drugging him would make me psycho. Like beyond psycho. 

I take the wooden box and shove it to the bottom of my bag filled with clothes, the one thing he never really looks at. I'd find a better place for it, if he needs to think that I got rid of it then fine, but I'm not about to not have any around just in case. It sounds awful, but that's how it works, I remember the mistakes I made when helping Liz get clean.

I remember her running away at two in the morning offering strangers sex in exchange for the drugs we'd washed down the sink together. The memory makes me shudder as I stand in Spencer's room, watching his chest rise and fall. 

The sound of his phone ringing makes me jump. Part of me wants to decline the call, but it could be work or his mom's hospital or something and I don't want to risk him thinking I don't trust him by picking up his phone and checking. With my luck he'd wake up with me holding his phone. Still, leaning over and glancing at caller ID isn't creepy, right? It could be an emergency and the caller ID would let me know to wake him up.

BLOCKED ID. 

That's weird. I take a deep breath, trying not to let my imagination get ahead of me. There's no reason for me to assume that it's Cat, right? He said that was over. Then again that's an easy thing to say to someone when you're being held hostage by a serial killer that will kill you if she doesn't think her sister likes you. 

He'd sounded so sure and honest when talking about it, though. And honestly Spencer probably has a long list of people that probably hate him, how hard could it be for a random serial killer to get his number and call him enough to make him block it? Or maybe it's the person he's been getting drugs from. That's way more likely than it being Cat. Right?

"Little girl, what's with the pouting face?"

I guess Spencer's awake. And he's grinning at me. "Last night didn't exactly put me in a good mood."