“Just get away from me! Please- why can’t you ever just- read the room?“

The words, coming from Spencer, were like a dagger to your heart. He never talked to you that way.

From the moment you met Spencer, he had been the sweetest, most loving person you’d ever known. Awkward, shy, and completely enamoured by you — you were his everything and he treated you as such.

He never raised his voice at you. When you two argued, you’d both promised to talk it out and not hurt the other. And that always worked, it was what you always did. Neither of you handled confrontation or yelling well and the two of you understood that about one another.

So you weren’t sure what it was about right now. Well… maybe you did. You saw it when he came home — the way his clothes and hair looked messier than usual, eye bags darker and more exhausted.

Every time he came home, you hugged him. And he usually took comfort in it. But you felt the stiffness in his hug, the way he subtly pushed you away when he’d hugged you for what he deemed the right amount of time to not hurt your feelings. He’d gone straight to the shower after, and you made a small dinner. You hadn’t seen him all day and you had hoped to spend some time with him, because he’d be right back at work tomorrow morning. He could be pulled for a case any moment so you took every chance to be with him.

When he came out of the shower, dressed in his pyjamas, you should’ve realized the way he pulled the collar of his tshirt away from his neck and wore shorts instead of sweatpants. But you’d been too focused on holding him, taking care of him, being with him.

You’d taken his hand, pulling him to the couch and handing him his food just before he sat… and then he yelled, pulling his hand from your grasp, plate clattering down onto the coffee table, one hand tangled in his hair.

Silence filled the room, his breathing ragged, your eyes already filling with tears. You didn’t mean to be so emotional — but hearing him yell at you like that hurt.