RUNAWAY
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN...!

❝ PARTYING , SEASON
SIX ❞

"OH MY GOD, kill me. Literally, just end my life. Please, I'm begging you."

Jennie walked into her and Blair's dorm room, obviously stressed, beginning to pace back and forth. Blair sat in her bed, filing her nails, before looking up at the girl.

"Axe, knife, or fire?"

"It always scares me how prepared you are whenever I say that." Jennie told her dormmate, before going to sit at the edge of her own bed. She then sighed, before explaining her distraught state, "My professor was showing us pictures of his kids. Except it was kinda so ugly, that it scared me. And I accidentally blurted out as soon as he showed the picture."

"That's not that bad." Blair shrugged, "The room has like— a hundred other students in it. I doubt he even heard you."

"Yeah, yeah—" The girl began, "Except for the fact that I might've gasped so loud, that I'm pretty sure the professor in the next building may have heard me."

"Oh—" Jennie's roommate paused for a minute, looking up from her nails, "Oh, yeah, that's pretty bad."

Jennie groaned, burying her face in a pillow. When she lifted her head up, she turned back to Blair.

"Now, I can never build up that perfect mentor-to-mentee I dreamt of building with all my professors. I hate kids. Seriously. They ruin everything—"

Jennie began to rant, but before she could go any further, her eyes landed on her picture of Jack she had put in a frame on her nightstand. She huffed, facing the picture frame down onto the table top.

"Okay— I hate some kids."

"You know what we need?" Blair got up from her bed, walking across the room to meet Jennie at her bed, "A weekend road trip. Just the two of us."

The girl furrowed her eyebrows, "What's the catch?"

"There's no catch—" Blair began, but once seeing Jennie's knowing look, she sighed, "Okay— fine. There's a party down in Syracuse, and everyone's driving down there tonight."

Jennie shook her head.

"You know I don't party. I once went to this retirement cookout for my dad's coworker— ended up getting stitches two hours later, because his crusty white dog attacked me."

"Well, you can start again tonight." Blair suggested, only earning a look from the girl, "Come on, Jennie! We never go out."

"We went to the library last night!" Jennie tried to defend herself, but her roommate sent her a glare, "Fine, we'll go. But, the minute I see one of those crusty white dogs, I'm leaving."

Blair was quick to nod in agreement.

"Oh yeah, definitely. They smell terrible."

—

      JENNIE AND BLAIR had been on the road for about an hour, when they stopped to grab some food. They spotted a concession stand, that sold churros, so they bought some.

While walking back to their car, however, Jennie stopped in her tracks, noticing something on the ground. She picked it up, to see it was someone's ID card dropped on the ground.

"Someone dropped their ID here."

"Really?" Blair looked at the ID, pausing for a moment, before shrugging, not caring at all, "Tragic."

As Blair took another careless bite of her churro, beginning to walk, as Jennie stopped her.

"We should get this back to the police station. They can find whoever it belongs to."

Blair looked back at the girl, "Or we can just leave it back where you found it? Going to the police station is just going to slow us down. I've been in that hot car for three hours, Jennie. Three hours!"

"Okay, it's been one hour, with air conditioning—" Jennie corrected her, "And it won't take that long. We just need to turn it in. It's the right thing to do."

Blair groaned, "Why can't you ever rebel just a little? Didn't your brother die or something, can't you use that as an excuse to be a little rebellious?"

Jennie immediately furrowed her eyebrows, "What— my brother? Where'd you get that from?"

"Or— your mom, I don't know. Sometimes I'm like— half asleep when you tell me things."

"Look, we'll still get to Syracuse in time. Theres a police station just five minutes from here. Lets just help—" Jennie looked down to read the name on the ID card, "Paul Walten out a little, and get this returned."

Blair didn't say anything right away, but eventually gave in, rolling her eyes.

"Just so you know, I really hate your morals. " She began walking again, "They're all— automatically good, probably because your dad is, like, a cop or something."

Jennie furrowed her eyebrows, in confusion.

"He's not a cop— Are you ever fully awake when I tell you things?"

—

        JENNIE AND BLAIR sat in the police station's waiting area, waiting for the line towards the front desk to die down. That was before she could hear someone call out her name.

"Jennie?"

Jennie looked up, her eyes landing on her father, Spencer, and JJ walking up to her. Her eyes widened slightly, not expecting them to be here.

"Oh—" Jennie gave them a soft smile, standing up from her seat, "Hey guys."

"Honey, what are you doing here?" Aaron asked his daughter, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, well, we found this ID on the sidewalk, we were just turning it in." Jennie showed it to them.

"What are you doing in town?" JJ furrowed her eyebrows, genuinely curious, "Syracuse is a little far from the city."

"We're heading to a party." Blair answered, finally standing from her seat, "—Which we'll be late to if we don't get out of here."

With that, Blair took the ID from Jennie's hand, and went up to the front desk (skipping the slightly lengthy line).

Once Jennie's roommate left the area the group was standing in, Aaron turned towards his daughter.

"A party?"

"Psh, party. Who even calls it that anymore. I'd say it's more of a gathering." Jennie nodded with her words, as she was quick to defend herself, "A very calm, rule-following gathering."

Although, she really didn't have any idea about any specifics of the party. Maybe not her smartest choice to not ask Blair for details.

"You know, I heard just last month in Syracuse, four teenagers were arrested for underraged drinking." Spencer informed the group, unknowingly not being in Jennie's benefit.

Jennie let out a longer breath than usual, before nodding her head as she cleared her throat.

"Thank you, Spencer. That was very helpful." The teen forced a smile towards the man, before looking back at the other two, "Anyways, you guys here for a case, or something?"

"Yeah. Missing girl, serial killer." JJ informed the girl.

"Sadistic?" Jennie automatically guessed.

"As always."

"Damn, is this what a normal conversation sounds like between you guys?" Blair walked back up to the group, with a slightly feared expression, but managed to take a bite of her churro as well.

Jennie chuckled, "Uh, guys, this is my roommate Blair."

The BAU team had given Blair soft smiles, with nods, as the roommate waved to them. As she took another bite of her churro, her phone had gone off.

"Awh, man." Blair groaned, reading the notification on her phone, "The party's off. The host got caught by the cops for possession of cannabis."

Jennie could feel her father's eyes immediately point to her. A tight-lipped smile formed on her mouth.

She already knew he was worried about her living alone in New York, and this was definitely not helping.

"Of course they did."

—

     LATER THAT EVENING, Blair had ended up staying at a condo with a few friends in the area, and Jennie was planning to join them after the team left New York.

Jennie sat in the briefing room, waiting for the BAU team to get back to the police station. She was in the middle of her third chapter of a new book she was reading, when she could sense someone enter the room.

She looked back to see Emily walk in, her eyes immediately brightening, "Hey, Em."

"Oh, Jen-Jen— you're still here?"

"Yeah, I was just waiting for you guys to get back." The teen told her, placing her bookmark inside her book, before she closed it, "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. Just—" Emily began, but was cut off when she could hear her phone notify her of a text message.

The woman fell silent, and Jennie could visibly see her face falter at the message.

"Emily? Are you okay?" She asked, after an extended silence.

The woman only stayed quiet for another moment, still processing her text message, before snapping back into reality.

"Yeah, sorry— just zoned out." Emily began swiftly grabbing her things, in some sort of hurry, "Um, I just remembered there's something I have to do. Do you mind telling your dad I'll meet up with him and the team later?"

Jennie's heart grew with slight worry, seeing the woman's sudden change in behavior, but nodded nonetheless.

"Yeah, of course."

"Thanks JenJen." Emily told the girl, beginning to leave the room, "Drive safe. Remember to visit us soon."

"I will. Bye—" Jennie tried to say her goodbyes to the agent, but she had already left the room before she could get her third word out.

The teen stared at the door that the woman walked out of just a few moments prior, her mind repeating the strange interaction that just occurred.

Not too long after, the team made it back to the station. Her mind was occupied by their presence for a moment, but it always seemed to go back to a rather bittersweet question that was built after seeing the woman's odd state.

What the hell was going on with Emily Prentiss?

-

AUTHOR'S NOTE |

thomas gibson is so cute bro

also i just saw a tiktok of wp recommendations and this book was in it— mom i made it 🥲

word count.
1664.