Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 12

Castiel spends most of the day checking the reviews for his movie. He knows it's unhealthy and any negative comment is going to be a bit against his self confidence, but he can't help it. This is the biggest role he's ever had. He's made a name for himself in other films, but starting alongside the Jo Harvelle is huge. A lot of people know him, but everyone knows Jo, and that's putting a lot of pressure on himself to hold up his end.

Scores drop throughout the day. Metacritic is at 92% when he first checks, and down to 85% by the end of the day. The average score seems to be in the mid 80s, which is comforting. He reads each new review as it comes out, dropping Twitter likes on links to the reviews in his favor.

IMDB is similar. The score starts out at a perfect 10/10, but drops to a 9/10 as the reviews are hit by real viewers instead of fans of the cast. It hits as low as 8/10 at one point, though the drop doesn't last long.

And, of course, there's Rotten Tomatoes. It seems to be everyone's go-to for checking out scores, but Castiel's always thought it sounded too informal for something so career-forming. Fortunately, this sure site is on his side, too, with the tomatometer coming in at 87% and an audience score of 96%.

For the most part, people are really nice about it. Some people seem to hate good things — looking at you, Judy Berman — but most disagree. Castiel reaches out to some people personally on Twitter to thank them, because he appreciates their kind words more than they could ever understand.

It's not until that night that he gets a text from Jo about all of it.

Jo: People seem to really like the movie

He's not quite sure what she wants him to say to that. He could easily figure that out himself. He has been checking all the sites, obviously. But he can't just ignore her, so he thinks of a response anyway.

Castiel: Yeah, the positive reviews are rolling in.

Jo: I know I'll see you in a few days anyway, but I wanna let you know that I really liked working with you. We make a great team.

Okay, now what does he say to that? He certainly has nothing against her, but she's no Meg Masters. He can't honestly say he loved working with her. This may be his most commercially successful movie, but it certainly wasn't his most fun one.

Fortunately, he's an actor, and that's just a fancy word for "professional liar."

Castiel: I loved working with you, too. I hope we get the chance to do it again :)

Smiley faces are always a good choice. People see smiley faces, and they automatically read the message with a happy, upbeat tone. No one overthinks it the way he did as he was writing it. Emojis work, too, of course, but the text face really sells it. It's so pure and innocent. No one ever suspects someone's lying when they use innocent text face smiles.

So, yeah, he really overthinks things like that.

Jo: I'd say we get to work together when we start "dating" in a few weeks, but that doesn't really sound like work at all ;)

Castiel, being the very socially-confident, never-flustered person he is, literally drops his phone. What the fuck? What the actual fuck? Is she flirting? She sent him a winky face. She has to be flirting. Why is she flirting? They're not going to actually start dating. This is just for publicity. There's no need to flirt in private with their relationship is just for the public.

She doesn't actually like him, right? She knows better than that. She and Dean have dated for years, and they're not really together. If she didn't fall for him, she sure as hell didn't fall for socially-awkward-as-fuck Castiel. Right?

Right?

But he happens to pick up his phone — after his existential crisis that felt like it lasted for far too long — just as Jo sends him another text.

Jo: The winky face is just like a playful wink

Jo: I just wanna make sure you knew that

Jo: It's not flirty

Jo: It's more like "yay, this will be fun! Can't wait to hang out with my friend!"

Jo: In case you misread it

Castiel breathes a sigh of relief. He definitely read too much into that, but honestly, when doesn't he read too much into things?

Castiel: I figured that was the case

He's lied to her twice in one conversation. Is that a bad thing? Is he just being nice and making things easier between them, or is he actually a pathological liar? Or is he just a normal person who is, once again, overthinking things? Probably the latter, knowing him.

Jo: I hoped so but you didn't respond at first and I was like ???

Castiel: Yeah, sorry, I was taking dinner out of the oven.

Maybe he really should make dinner. It's getting late, and he hasn't eaten yet. Did he even eat lunch? Waiting for reviews to come in was way more stressful than it needed to be, and he sometimes forgets that food is important when he gets stressed.

Jo: Ooh what are you making?

Ah shit.

Castiel wracks his brain for various dinner foods that he can cook in the oven. Pizza? Lasagna? Garlic bread?

Castiel: Cookies

And, now that he says it, that sounds really good. Maybe he should make cookies.

Jo: Celebrating a job well done?

Castiel: Celebrating the fact that I survived the premier :)

Again, the smiley face is very important here. In all honesty, he's thrilled that he survived the premier. He wasn't sure he was going to make it. He genuinely thinks the likelihood of landing another major movie role completely hinges on how well this one does, so waiting it out has been stressful.

But, obviously, you don't tell an already successful actress that you were deathly afraid that their movie would be awful and you were ruining your career, and that's where the smiley face comes in. It makes it seem like a joke, when he actually meant it with his whole heart.

Jo: Lol yeah I feel that

Jo: Also Dean wants me to ask if you'll bring him cookies at the US premier

Jo: You don't have to tho he's just being an ass

Jo: Look at this dude

It takes a few moments, but eventually, a video loads in the chat. He opens it without hesitation, and is greeted with a wonderful video of Dean whining the word, "Cookies!" like a demonic toddler.

Castiel chuckles. Dean fucking Winchester. How does he manage to be so annoying and so fucking adorable at the same time?

Castiel: Does he want three-day-old cookies?

Jo: Have you met the guy? He will eat any cookies

Castiel: Okay I can bring him cookies

Jo: I told Dean and he flopped on the couch and said he loves you

Castiel can't help but smile. He knows that the guy only said it because he likes cookies, but it's oddly heartwarming to hear. This is a nice way to end the day.

Except it's not really the end of the day, because he has to make cookies now.

Fuck.