❝ halloween's the worst. ❞

( tw: very brief mention of sexual
harassment )

SPENCER REID DOES like olivia griffins. he'd technically be contradicting himself from six months ago. he told himself that he wouldn't get attached to her, but he was already head over heels for the person who corrected him when first meeting. he tried so hard to not like olivia, but it's like she just has this charm that draws him to her. he sometimes finds himself being over the moon by the little things olivia does. the way she walks with confidence — even if she was feeling the complete opposite, how perfectly her hand fits in his, how excited she gets when something joyful happens, the way she says his name, among many other things. he hasn't felt this way about anyone since maeve, and it scared him, truthfully.

there wasn't a waking moment where spencer isn't thinking of maeve ever since she was murdered in front of him by diane turner. however, he hasn't been feeling that much upset about it lately. ever since he met olivia, it's like she gave him hope. she gave him the hope he needed to move on, and she doesn't even know it. maeve would've been so happy for spencer. she would've been happy that he's moving on and has now found someone who could make him feel like the luckiest guy.

spencer would be lying if he said he doesn't sometimes think about his favorite memories with liv. despite being awake in the latest hours of the night after a long case, he wasn't tired. but he knew that he needed to get at least the littlest amount of sleep, so he ended up remembering his favorite interactions with olivia in hopes of getting rest.

"boo!" spencer exclaimed, as he entered the bullpen with a halloween mask on, causing derek to jump in his seat. soft chuckles were heard from emily and olivia who were watching the whole thing happen.

"reid, you gotta stop doing that." derek scolded the younger BAU member. spencer removed his mask, "but it's halloween! you know, today it only rivals christmas in terms of popularity after being commercialized in the 1950s because of trick-or-treating."

"kid, i told you that i don't like halloween." derek reminded him.

"so?" he questioned. he looked at the two women in front of him, "you guys like halloween, right?" emily shrugged, "i really don't care for it, but sure."

"halloween's the worst." olivia commented, earning agreements from derek. "thank you! finally, someone who agrees with me on that!" he smiled, holding his hand up to olivia, giving her a high five.

"what? how could you possibly hate halloween? it's the best holiday. everyone gets candy, you could be whoever or whatever you want to be, and there's even a lot of cool history behind it, too!" spencer protested.

"i just don't have the best experience with it. therefore, in my opinion, halloween sucks." olivia shrugged.

"really? what happened to you on halloween that was so bad, you decided to hate the entire holiday as a whole?" emily asked her.

she shook her head, hesitant to tell them. she was really just mortified to see their reaction to her story. however, emily and derek encouraged her to talk about it, so that maybe she'd get over it. in fact, they kept insisting until she eventually just revealed the reason.

"in the 8th grade, there was a halloween school dance where everyone dressed up and i attended it because the guy i had a crush on asked me to go with him and he did some things that made me very uncomfortable and when i left, him and his friend thought it'd be funny if they played this stupid joke on me where they basically surrounded me in front of my locker and did some more weird and uncomfortable things to me and then the next day, i told the school and all they did was suspend them for a couple of days." olivia revealed in a quick way as it seems she didn't take any pauses in her explanation.

         afterwards, she nonchalantly took a sip of her coffee as the other three sat there, eyes widened at the escalation of her memory. they all felt bad that a horrible thing like that happened to her, but liv seemed unbothered. she's gone through that horrendous memory every day since it happened. it's basically like she's invulnerable to it now.

         emily was the first to break the silence, "liv, i am so sorry that happened to you. oh my god, i thought you were just gonna say that you hated the drunken messiness halloween enforces on teenagers or something."

         "yeah, that, too. especially, the teenagers part. god, they're so scary on halloween." olivia muttered.

         "wait, you're telling me the school barely gave those kids any consequences?" derek questioned, incredulously.

         "well, they were rich and athletic young boys. i should've expected nothing less. god, i can't believe i had a crush on one of them. wow, my standards were so incredibly low." olivia mumbled audibly.

spencer felt terrible about it of course. no one deserves to have something like that happened to them. he wished that the school did more about it. he wished that those two guys were rightfully punished for their actions. but he couldn't do anything about it. except he can attempt to change the way she thinks of the holiday. he can try to introduce better memories of halloween, so she wouldn't have to think of the awful one every year.

"what if i prove to you that halloween could be fun?" spencer asked her. "i bet i can make you like halloween this year."

"ooohh, a bet." derek chuckled, clearly amused at the upcoming events.

"okay, and what if i still hate halloween?" olivia asked spencer, interested in the bet.

"how about this, if i get you to enjoy halloween today, you have to accompany me to the reenactment of the 19th century phantasmagoria tonight." spencer spoke.

"okay, fine, but if i still think halloween is the worst, you have to listen to the entirety of taylor swift's discography with me." olivia told him.

         "sure." spencer responded. "wait, i'm not entirely sure who that is." he mumbled. a few snickers came from liv, emily, and derek at the cluelessness spencer has on pop culture.

luckily, they didn't have a case so spencer spent the entire day persuading olivia to like halloween as everyone was doing paperwork. he constantly left a handful of candy on her desk every time she wasn't looking and pretended it wasn't from him. he also played fun, harmless pranks on her such as putting a fake spider in her desk drawer. she wasn't scared when she opened the drawer since she expected spencer to play a prank on her. and also, it was very obvious he was the one who placed the rubber spider in her desk.

they were now nearing the end of the day. everyone started packing up their belongings as they just wanted to be in the comfort of their own homes. spencer went up to olivia as everyone was still packing up, "so, did you end up liking halloween?"

sure, olivia could lie and say she did have a good time for the sake of spencer's happiness, but she knew he would be able to tell. so, there was no use in lying. "in all honesty, i still don't like halloween. but because of you, i actually hate it a little less." which was true. olivia couldn't get the horrendous memory from 8th grade out of her head, but spencer was able to distract her from it.

it wasn't the answer he had hoped for, but he respected it. "oh, okay. well, um, i've actually done some research on the singer you were talking about earlier. did you know her recent album, titled red, has 16 songs and the entire album itself is approximately 64 minutes long, which i read is actually a very average duration time for albums." he smiled.

olivia grinned at him, "spencer, i want to go to the phantasmagoria with you." he stared at her in confusion, "but you won the bet. you said you didn't really enjoy halloween."

"yeah, and the winner says that she'll still go to the ghost show with you." olivia retorted.

spencer thought he hid it well, but his face very noticeably lit up. he thought he'd be going alone this year — per usual, but having olivia there to accompany him brought him more joy than he ever could've thought.

after the show, olivia couldn't deny the fact she had fun. actually spending time with spencer, led to her genuinely liking halloween. although, she wouldn't admit that to him personally. ever since that night, olivia had erased all the bad memories from past halloweens and replaced them with the new memory of her and spencer at the phantasmagoria.

spencer felt a smile creep upon his lips thinking of him and liv on halloween. it's one of his favorite memories because that was the first time in a very long time, where he didn't spend his favorite holiday alone. as he remembered all these pleasant times spent with olivia, he made a decision solely based on impulse. he was going to personally tell olivia his feelings.

         he even drove to her apartment in the middle of the night because he couldn't handle keeping his feelings towards her a secret any longer. though, it was fairly obvious to derek since the beginning. that's the real reason why he encouraged him to talk to her during the dinner party. spencer entered olivia's apartment complex, still in his home clothes as he didn't take the time to fixate on his appearance.

his knuckles pressed on the wooden door a couple times, but there was no answer. once he pressed on the doorbell, he was greeted by the door swinging open, his eyes meeting with olivia's. a clear expression of surprise formed on her face, "hey, spencer."

"hi." he greeted back in a breathy voice, seeing as he basically rushed over to her apartment.

"is everything okay?" she asked. it wasn't like spencer to show up at someone's apartment unannounced, unless it was for an important reason.

"uh, yeah. everything's fine, i just. . ." he trailed off, realizing what he's doing. he regretted acting on his impulse right away, but he couldn't just leave. he's already went too far to turn around now.

he thought she looked beautiful. the luminescence of the moon shining from the windows around her being the only light source from where they were standing. the light came from such perfect angles, it illuminated olivia's gorgeous facial features. spencer's eyes wandered from one feature to another. his eyes trailed from her's all the way to her pink, plump lips. the same ones that were on his almost two months ago.

         olivia had noticed the short period of time where spencer had paused his original train of thought, "do you wanna come in?" she pointed to the entrance of her living room.

         as she was about to leave her spot near the door to turn on a light switch, a sudden wave of compulsion and impulsivity coursed through spencer once again. he grabbed her arm, his lips crashing into hers.

olivia was taken aback by his sudden actions, so was he. but liv didn't even try to pull away, and neither did he. they felt as their lips moved in sync — as if they couldn't be any more cliché, but it was the truth. then, the two adults did depart their lips from one another's. spencer cleared his throat before apologizing, "i'm really sorry. i don't know what got into me. it won't happen again. i just. . . i just really like you and it's been driving me a little insane, and i really didn't mean to just kiss you like that out of the blue. i shouldn't have done that without knowing how you feel. i—"

          olivia nudged him on the arm to cut him off, "spence." olivia has never been good with sharing her feelings aloud. the mere thought of confessing her feelings to someone is enough to irk her. however, she wants to assure spencer that she does in fact like him. and for the second time that night — and fourth time in both their lives — olivia pressed her lips on spencer's, kissing him. it wasn't as long as the first one that night, but it was long enough for spencer to understand that she really likes him too.

the two were slightly smiling into the kiss before pulling away. "oh." spencer softly remarked. mostly to himself about not needing to worry. a warm, beaming smile was formed on olivia's face, "do you wanna come in, or is that all you wanted to say?"

spencer nodded. as he looked around her apartment, he noticed a room that he's never acknowledged despite being over at her place practically every other week. "hey, um, has that room always been there?" he asked, pointing to the direction of the room.

"yeah." she answered. "it's just basically a bookshelf full of books in there." she opened the door of the room, revealing many bookshelves, with stacks of books in each one.

a certain book caught his eye when examining the area. the illustrated man. one of spencer's favorites. he pointed it out as olivia chuckled at how ecstatic he was. she later revealed to him that she never actually got around to reading it. he was shocked to say the least. he rambled for a few minutes as to why it's such an amazing book and the impact it had on him when he first read it. afterwards, the couple were on olivia's couch, her head resting where his chest and shoulder met as one arm was wrapped around her, the other stretched outward to give both him and olivia a view of the book. he read the pages to her, and since it was now almost 4 in the morning, she fell asleep halfway through.

spencer did notice her unconsciousness as her light snores gave her away. he found it quite charming. mainly because it was olivia natalia griffins. how could he not find her extremely captivating? he grinned to himself, not entirely sure what he ever did to make olivia like him the way he likes her, but she was here, asleep in his arms. he put the book down, grabbing a throw-blanket that was behind him on the couch, and draped the soft material on the both of them. with that being, he then ended up falling asleep.

ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
hey i like sitcoms, if you couldn't already
tell 😀
also, felt like it was kinda cringe. idk i suck
at writing things like this, which should
be alarming bc i write things like this
as a side hobby 🤨
anyways, HAVE A GREAT DAY BESTIES😁
(one last thing, look at this amazing,
beautiful, wonderful masterpiece created by
HENRYSREID-  I LOVE YOU BAE <3
it's so good, i can't believe she took the time
to make this. i love it)