The Price of Happiness || Spencer Reid

Five

Four whole days had passed since your outing with Spencer and you still couldn't believe everything that had happened that day. He'd dropped you off at your apartment like he said he would. The car ride had been awkward, to say the least, and you hated yourself for causing it, all you could do was bounce between thanking him and apologising and whilst he answered with several variations of "it's fine" you could tell he was feeling a small amount of discomfort. You weren't entirely sure why you didn't fill him in on what was happening, but you were slightly apprehensive of what he might say. You telling him about the leak and the events of that morning had been met with an offer to refill your entire wardrobe. If you had told him about your being ousted from your apartment, would he have bought you a whole new one? Okay looking back, that was slightly overdramatic but at the time, you were so full of a plethora of emotions there was no way you were thinking straight.

Luckily for you, traffic had been light on the way home so you made it back with a few minutes to spare, however, this meant Spencer had ample time to try and coax an explanation for your strange behaviour out of you. You'd been able to brush him quite easily and you guessed it was because he didn't want to seem pushy, so after you declined to answer him for a second time he gave up asking. He did, however, remind you that you had his number and that if you needed him, for anything, you could call or text him. He reminded you that if he didn't answer right away it was probably because he was working or didn't have a signal but assured you he would get back to you as soon as he could. You thought that would be it, that he would drop you off outside and leave but he didn't, he stayed with you until your landlord showed up. He had offered to help you take your things up to your apartment but you declined, you weren't sure what state it was in and you also weren't ready to cross the boundary of allowing him into your personal space yet, if something was happening between the two of you then it would happen correctly, in the correct way at the correct speed. You'd jumped out of the car the moment you saw your landlord, one reason being that you didn't want to make him more irritated than he no doubt already was and also because you just had to get out of the car, the longer you were in that enclosed space with Spencer the more likely you were to say something stupid. He once again did not leave the moment you got out, he waited until you were in the building and it wasn't until you were inside and didn't feel the rush of cold air from the broken air conditioning hit you that you realised, you were still wearing his cardigan.

Iris had shown up shortly after to help you collect your things and also to lend a tad bit of moral support, it sounds ridiculous but saying goodbye to your apartment was difficult. Even if it was an absolute craphole, it was your home. It wasn't that you didn't love Iris or appreciate her generosity of allowing you to stay with her for the week, but there was nothing that could compare to the comfort of your own home. You had quickly managed to gather everything you needed, some shoes and underwear which thankfully had been untouched by the leak, a few books and your laptop, everything you would need for your short time away. You hadn't had time to unpack the clothes you had bought just a few hours prior, and you panicked for a moment when you noticed the way Iris looked at it, the name plastered across the front slightly gave away the contents inside, but thankfully she didn't mention it. You were not in the mood to explain anything or worse, have to lie.

Not much else had happened in the past 4 days though, your attempts at returning Spencer's cardigan had been futile, he hadn't been in class or his office when you'd been to seek him out and you could only assume he had been called away for a case. You were tempted to text him and ask, to see if he would like you to perhaps leave his cardigan somewhere that he could easily retrieve it without having to meet you but after sitting by the phone, text message written out and ready to send, you decided against it. If he was desperate for it he would've asked right? Sure he'd told you to text him if you needed anything but surely he was just saying that to be polite, you didn't want to seem too clingy and sending him a text might send the wrong idea. So you hit the back key to delete the text and shut off your phone, pushing it to the side and walking into your next class with a promise to not think of him for at least the rest of the day.