When a closed fist gently knocked on his car window, he started, jumping slightly in his seat, and put the window down before he could even think about it, feeling dazed, as though he had been shaken awake in the middle of a deep sleep.
As soon as he turned his head, that sunlight, grim and sharp as a blade, shot towards him and stung his eyes, blinding him. He could only raise his head so high before that grey light sliced through him and he had to squeeze one eye shut, creating a shield with his hand against his forehead. There was a sudden throbbing pain between his temples that hadn't been there before and the intrusion made him feel nauseous. The knocking on the window was jarring enough and his head felt as though it was starting to spin. He had a strong sensation of shame, as though he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been, and his body became unpleasantly warm.
The face he was trying to look at was burned out by the light. "Are you heading home?"
"Yeah," Hadley replied, struggling to raise his gaze. His straining concentration worsened the dull ache in his head. He didn't completely recognise his own voice, but he recognised Spencer's. 
Humming, he looked away and the halo of light obscuring his face shifted. He was biting the edge of his thumb. The lines of his face, the bridge of his nose and the shape of his cheekbones, were sharp against the glum light of the white sky. "Are you okay?" 
"Yeah," he nodded, pressing the back of cool hand to his hot forehead. The air was humid. The rain was still waiting to fall. "Are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Spencer murmured. "I was on the way to my car and I saw you sitting here. I guess I was just asking for the sake of it."
A thick, silent moment struck them. Hadley tried to organise his thoughts.
The back of his neck burned and his hands were beginning to feel clammy. The moisture in the air felt suffocating and he had the sudden, overwhelming desire to go to the ocean where the air was sharp and crisp, and he could plunge into freezing water, just to bring himself back to reality, just to feel alive again in a way that mattered.
"Hey," Spencer said suddenly, brightly. The white everything was too much to bear. "I meant to tell you, I watched the movie."
Hadley's head throbbed again. The burning light was like a needle. "Lebowski?" 
"Lebowsi," he nodded, his voice was light with mirth. "It was ridiculous. I loved it." He paused. "Hadley, are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah," he nodded, turning his head away. "Look, why don't you get in the car?"
"What?" 
"Get in the car," he echoed. "I want to talk to you, but the sun is burning through my eyes."
"Shit," Spencer laughed and the smooth, clear sound of it was like a temporary balm. "I'm sorry." And he walked around the car, opened the passenger seat door and clambered inside, pulling the door shut behind him.
Angling himself so that his back was to the sun and he was half-facing towards Spencer, Hadley studied him, free from the glow of bleak sunlight: that dimple, the raised corner of his lip, the little chip in the front tooth and the wrinkles at the corner of those Derain green eyes, those full cheekbones and a little dimple in the right one that Hadley had never noticed before. Even the discolouration of his jaw couldn't quite mar the rest of him.
"There you are," he said. The tension between his temples relaxed and the dull ache began to subside. 
Spencer softened and shrugged, "Here I am. You can see me now. Sorry."
"Keep talking to me about the movie," Hadley told him, finally able to relax his face out of that stiffened wince and pressing the back of his hand against his forehead.