maniac. | spencer reid

| fifteen |

SPENCER.
—

THAT morning, spencer basically skipped his way into work. he had a good sleep last night—without any nightmares—which was surprising because he had been getting them for the past few months almost every single night.

"hey, you guys notice that reid's being weird today?" rossi whispered to jj and morgan, who were all huddled around a desk.

jj looked at boy genius, who was smiling at his fat stack of paperwork to do, while humming to himself. "yeah, something definitely happened."

"never seen that kid more excited to do work." morgan said. his bushy dark eyebrows furrowed. "you don't think..."

jj and rossi both looked at him and each other in disbelief. they were all thinking the same thing.

"...that hotch may have given him a pay raise??" morgan asked, his mouth forming an "o" as he voiced his realization. the man proceeded to shrug. "well, either that or reid got a girlfriend."

"pay-raise." rossi said, nodding to himself like it was a rhetorical question.

"agreed." jj followed. "but what about us? why wouldn't he give us one too?" she asked, suddenly feeling betrayed.

"listen, listen. i swear—hotch basically babies reid. i mean—i wouldn't be surprised if big boy boss gave it to him and not us." morgan explained.

"ridiculous." rossi said, clicking his tongue. "if only i was young, smart, and a know-it-all—"

"guys, i don't have to have a hyperacusis disorder to hear that you guys are talking crap about me right now—" reid interrupted from the other side of the room, squinting his eyes at the three gossip girls.

"he did give you a pay raise!" morgan pointed against reid accusingly.

"we all knew reid was the favorite—" jj started, but was cut off by a daunting hotch who was passing by.

"round table in 5. we have a case." the dark haired man said in his usual serious tone. hotch paused, turning around. "also, what's this about favorites? i don't play favorites."

rossi, morgan, and jj glanced at each other, all mouthing liar. reid rolled his eyes.

—

while spencer reid was skipping around at work all day, gracen jones had felt like she was gonna throw up from the moment she walked into quantico.

on the positive side—she had a good sleep last night, an amazing one, in fact—but her anxiety was off the roof—and especially today. the girl was jittery, bouncing her leg up and down and picking at her cuticles constantly. gracen jones knew exactly what was going on.

her conscience was swallowing her whole.

excusing herself, gracen attempted to casually walk to the women's restroom without looking like she was going to pee her pants on the way.

the restroom door slammed closed behind her, and gracen made her way to the sink, resting her palms on the counter and looking at herself in the mirror.