Childish| Criminal Minds

10

With only an hour until they're supposed to preform, Spencer and Cat are cramming in one last rehearsal. In the empty auditorium, their arguing echoes loudly. "Why did you even sign up if you didn't plan on reading the fucking script?" Spencer yells.

"I'm great with my lines! It's you that-"

"Cat, I'm literally not capable of forgetting them!" Cat elbows him as hard as she can in the stomach, and Spencer grabs her arm and twists it behind her back.

"What the hell is going on?" Rossi yells. Spencer lets go of Cat's arm and clears his throat.

"We're just practicing!" he says. Rossi sighs.

"Get it together."

Cat rolls her eyes. "Sure thing, old man."

Rossi glares at Cat and turns around to leave. When he closes the door to the theatre, Cat and Spencer are left in almost complete darkness besides the stage lights. Spencer quickly walks to the other side of the stage, flipping a switch that turns on all of the lights in the whole theatre.

"Look, I know we have unresolved issues, but we really need to pull it together, Cat." Cat bites her lip and flips her script to the first page.

"Can you please help me?"

"Fine."

-

Emily, JJ, Aaron, and Penelope carpool to their school just after the sun sets. They're a few minutes early.

After it starts, the play seems to goes by smoothly, to everyone's surprise. Cat is actually reciting her lines perfectly down to the last word, and her acting isn't half-bad, either.

They're almost waiting for the moment that the pin drops; for the moment it all comes crashing down, but it doesn't come. It's a wonderful performance with no hiccups.

It's perfect to the actors, at least, but JJ can feel her heart drop when Spencer and Cat kiss. She knows it isn't them; it's their characters. It's all an act, but it still brings back something buried deep inside of her that she thought she had repressed- her feelings for her best friend.

She cringes whenever she thinks of the truth or dare game that brought it up to begin with. It was over a year ago, now. JJ and Spencer never really had time to process it because of Roslyn's death. Months passed, and they never spoke of it again.

Is now really a good time? With all of the chaos that's been happening, would there ever be a good time?

She zones out for the rest of the performance; she can't help it. She's finally snapped out of her thoughts and anxiety when she hears the audience clapping. The curtains are closed. It's over.

JJ gets up from her seat and leaves the auditorium. "JJ? Are you alright?" Emily asks, but JJ is already gone.

She walks straight to the stage doors, where she sees Spencer. "Spencer, can I talk to you for a sec? Privately?"

"Uh- yeah, sure," Spencer says. He and JJ walk outside to the parking lot, where there aren't any people yet.

"Truth or dare?" she asks. It's too late to turn back, now.

"Dare," Spencer says.

"Kiss me."

A/N: I hope this didn't come off as forced because the entire story has been build up 🤷🏼‍♀️ if it did then I'm just a shitty writer, but hey! I tried!

Word count: 555