i was about to say, yeah, definitely #2, because it's not like he's going to fall in love with spencer. it's any port in a storm, y'know? they become close but it's early on so at this point he's still deeply in love with brendon, still has this hope that maybe he'll see him someday. spencer is just bff with benefits.

and i don't want them going anywhere else after brendon gets captured by the epic brothel (yeah, i'd be tempted to do gsf lol, and, dnw for this). i want them to start turning him into what ryan is, i want that angst of them trying to break him down, and just before it gets unbearable, they finally escape. y/n?