Childish| Criminal Minds

9

In all honesty, Spencer spent a lot of his time the next few weeks getting drunk with JJ. He knows why she had to break up with him. He hadn't necessarily done anything wrong, yet he still feels like he failed her.

It's looking more and more like Bobby ran away from home every day. He hasn't been to school, and Maeve even managed to find the courage to go to his house, but his mom said she hadn't seen him.

Every trace of him has just.. vanished. Maeve still knows that's they can't be together, her and Spencer. Not until they're sure he isn't coming back.

At the moment, it may look that way, but until the day Bobby breathes his last breath, he could still come back to hurt them. Somehow this breakup ended up with both of them more broken than they could possibly imagine. He would have rather taken the beatings.

Spencer still has a hangover from the night before when he opens the front door to check the mail. He grabs a stack of bills and tosses them on the table, making a mental note to wake his mother up later to pay them. When he turns back to close the door, he notices a small, rat-like cat.

"What the fuck?" he mumbles to himself.  He's about to close the door on it when it makes a small meow and looks up at him with sad eyes. The poor thing is beyond dirty and it looks like it hasn't eaten in weeks.

After a moment of quiet contemplation, Spencer caves. He scoops the tiny kitten up in his arms and takes it inside with him.

He spends the next twenty minutes giving it a bath in the bathroom sink. When it's clean, Spencer might even say it looks sort of cute.

Spencer is laying down on his bed, reading a book, when he gets a text from JJ. It's her asking if she can come over.

Its a Saturday, and because he doesn't have anything better to do, he says yes. He takes a shower and changes into his normal clothes, leaving the unnamed kitten unattended in the living room.

He quickly realizes that was a mistake. The little brat has only been in his house for an hour, and it's already managed to knock over his backpack, spilling everything everywhere. Spencer sighs, but he doesn't have time to clean it up because he can hear the doorbell ring.

Spencer glares at the cat as his way of telling it to behave, then opens the door. JJ pulls Spencer in for a hug. "How are you?"

"Better," he says with a small smile. The cat can be heard meowing from the living room, and JJ gives him a confused look.

"Is there a cat here?"

"No, I hate cats," Spencer says too quickly. He grabs her hand and practically drags her to his room, closing the door behind him.

"..Okay?" JJ says with an awkward laugh.

Spencer sits down next to her on the side of his bed, and decides to get right to the point. "Why did you want to come over?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay... Are you?"

"I have a headache, but besides that I'm feeling alright."

"That's great," JJ says. "You know I'm here for you if you ever need to talk, right?"

"I- I know." Spencer takes a few breath. "I guess I just have this aching feeling that something is wrong."

"Like what?" JJ asks.

"I can't explain it. It just feels like at any moment, everything is going to crumble down around me."

"Spence," JJ says. She takes his hand and squeezes it. "You have nothing to worry about. Everything is going to be okay."

"The opening night is tomorrow and Cat doesn't know her lines. It's a disaster- oh! And Elle Greenaway apparently did something so bad that she can't tell me. Everything is a mess."

"She'll pull it together last minute. It's the only thing she's good at," JJ says with a shrug. "Or she'll find a way to cheat her way through the performance. Last year when we had math together she spent every day doing her makeup and texting, and somehow she was the only one that got an A on the final."

"Really? How does she even manage that."

JJ laughs. "I'm sure her parents paid off the teacher. Normally it's infuriating, but maybe she'll find a way not to embarrass the whole drama department."

"We can hope."

A/N: !! Hi!! Only three chapters left and an authors note!! And then this story is over!! Wow!!

Also, yes I gave spencer a cat. It was a suggestion on my instagram and I almost didn't do it but then my friend thought it would be funny sksk

Word count: 812