Playing with my Heart | A Spencer Reid story

Pink Grapefruit

Spencer told himself to stay away. Keep it professional. But the more he tried to distance himself the more he noticed about her. Just like that first he saw her. It's not that he liked her or anything. He was just intrigued by her. He needed to know more about her.

There she sat in the same seat day after day.

"How'd you feel about a little game," Charley winked at Sophia in the middle of the class.

Sophia unconsciously held her pencil on her lip. She could see the devil in Charley's eyes. "No." Then she looked deeper into Charley's eyes. "No," she whined. "Seriously no."

Charley smirked "Come on. It will be fun."

"For who?" Sophia had to use all her energy to keep her voice quite.

"He likes you. Let's test him." Charley's eyelashes batted.

"NO," Sophia boldly enunciated.

Charley clicked her tongue. "Pink grapefruit."

Sophia's eyes were wide. "Seriously. This is what you want to use that on."

Charley nodded vigorously.

The two of them had a pact. Once a year they could convince the other one to go along with them if they used the code word. Sophia was regretting every word of that pact in that moment. She ended up pondering this idea for the rest of the class.

"So?" Charley asked again once the class had ended.

Sophia looked towards Spencer as her pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose his finger running over the pages that he was reading of a student's assignment. This is such a bad idea she thought. He was so gentle.

"You know you want to." Charley goaded.

"No," Sophia sighed. Spencer's eyes flicker up from the page and he catches Sophia looking at him. Normally this would make him happy, but she didn't look too happy, and in turn that made his heart sink. Sophia dropped her gaze and sharply exhaled. "But know I have to."

Charley screamed, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands.

"Please don't do that," Sophia groaned, apologising to the scared kid that cowered away from them.

The rules were simple. See who could get in Spencer's head first. That's it.

Both Sophia and Charley were worlds apart in their approaches. Sophia was the friendly face, she subtle that you barely noticed that she was flirting with you at all. That made guys crazy. They were always second guessing their every move. Charley, on the other hand, was bold and suggestive from the first breath. That was just the way they played this game. Sophia has thought. It was funny at first, but she had grown tired of it. Especially know that she kind of liked Spencer. And she knows how cliché it is to crush on your professor, but in her defence, she didn't know that the first few times she saw him.

Charley reached into Sophia back pocket. Slowly. Deliberately. Making as much eye contact with Spencer. "Flip a coin," She whispered into Sophia's ear. Her teeth tugged at her bottom lip as she giggled.

Sophia watched as Charley's games had already started.

"Heads you go first. Tails I go first."

Sophia glanced at Spencer one more time. He was trying so hard not to look at them. To focus elsewhere but he couldn't. She nodded.

The coin spun through the air. Sophia leaned against the bench. Charley snatched the coin out of the air and slammed it down on the table. They both peered over the desk. Eyes locking as the saw the answer.

Charley drummed fingers on the table in triumph. "So what are we playing for?"

Sophia frowned, "I don't know," she mumbled. Everything about this felt different. She slung her bag over her shoulder. "I have to go. I'll see you later." She darted out of the lecture hall as fast as she could gasping for air.

There it was. What she had been hiding from for years. She was anxious again. It was all consuming. She clambered for a surface. Any surface to support her. Her back hit the wall, the cold brick prickling the bare skin on her arms. She filled her lungs as much as she could with the cold morning air but it wasn't enough. She was panting and the fact she couldn't slow her breath was irritating her even more. Why was this happening now. Her head was pounding. Her heart was racing.

Shit, shit, shit. Tears pricked to her eyes. She caught them with her back of her hand. She couldn't stay here. That's all she knew. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself. Her walk towards her research lab was a daze. The room was spinning. The halls were echoing. She bumped into countless shoulders. She was in so much of a trance that she didn't clock that one of those shoulders belonged to Spencer. Her head down she darted down the hall.

But her behaviour worried Spencer. Admittedly he didn't know her that well. But he knew something was a miss.