Spencer awoke groggily to the sound of her alarm beeping insistently in her ear. At first she was confused, it had been a bloody long time since the thing had gone off, but eventually she managed to rouse herself long enough to figure out what it was. She hit the snooze button grumpily and rolled over. She hadn’t slept into her alarm for so long, but then again she hadn’t been this exhausted before. Despite previous efforts with jogging, cleaning, and work, it had apparently taken the emotional turmoil that had been the last few days to really drive Spencer close to the edge.

“Oh well”, she said to herself as she stumbled out of bed, “At least I’m heading to the right place if I fall OFF the edge”

She had factored in enough time that she should have been ready well in advance but her general lethargy meant that she was still putting on her shoes when Clay rang the doorbell. She swore, and made it to the door with her shoelaces untied.

Clay raised an eyebrow as Spencer nearly tripped over letting him in.

“I think your shoelaces are untied”, he was holding back a laugh.

“Thank you Captain Obvious”. Spencer stuck her tongue out at him.

It took them awhile to get out on the open road. Spencer stared out the window as the grimy city suburbs made way for the open suburban sprawl and finally the cool green grass and trees of the countryside. Clay let the silence sit between them until they were past the city limits, and then he started. Spencer had known he would.

“Are you going to tell me what’s up?”, he began, gently.

“Nothing’s up” Spencer tried, knowing full well he wouldn’t believe her. Since their conversation the night she argued with Ashley, Clay had somehow found time in his life to call her every night. Which meant that every night she had to make up an excuse for why she sounded upset. Or lie. She was running out of excuses.

For a moment she considered telling him everything. Of anyone in her family Clay was the most likely to listen and make no judgment. She would never think of burdening her father with this, he had enough on his plate and, well, that pretty much left Clay. That would mean she would actually have to process what had happened and what was going to happen. Since Spencer had been doing everything in her power to avoid doing just THAT she couldn’t find it in her to talk to Clay about it.