Born From Just One Single Glance
The sun was bright and hot, shining down on the turf and making it scalding to the touch. There were only a few weeks until the school year started and every sports team was out practicing in the hot August sun.
“Break! Go hydrate and we’ll come back for more drills.”
JJ groaned, jogging off to her bag and grabbing her water bottle and downing a few sips. She mustered up enough energy to wave at Aaron and call him over to her bag.
“Hotch! Over here!”
He jogged over, dopey smile on his face as sweat cascaded down his face in rivulets. JJ made a face, snatching the towel in his hands and using it to wipe her face off. She flopped down in the grass beside her bag, throwing a water bottle at Aaron and giggling when he fumbled it.
“It’s so hot and Coach Rossi wants us to practice another hour.”
“Lucky. Coach Gideon said at least two more for us. Got a bunch of freshman on the team this year.”
They sat in silence for a moment, JJ laying on her back, tanned stomach peeking through her shirt. Hotch pinched her and she yelped, smacking at his hand, but her annoyance turned to a small smile at the way he laughed.
They had been friends since they were born, practically, having lived two houses apart their entire lives. Aaron was still the only boy who could make JJ smile, the only boy who ever cared about her in return. When he got his license before her, he would pick her up for school and wait on her after soccer. The thought brought a small smile to her face, then a frown when she thought about the fact that this was it - the last year they were carefree kids enjoying high school and sports and parties.
The last year they were kids without worrying too much about the future.
The thought of schools and classes made JJ groan, earning herself a confused look from Aaron - it was typical, he was always a little bit confused. JJ blamed it on all the concussions from football. It always made her glad she chose a safer sport than oiled up boys in padding beating the fire out of each other.
“What’re you thinking about?”
“Hm?” JJ pushed up to her forearms, looking over at Aaron. “Oh. I have French this year and I’m totally going to fail. I need a tutor.”
“I’ll ask Em for you!” His dopey grin was enough to have JJ say yes to anything and he knew it - used it to his advantage. “She’s super smart at all of that foreign stuff because of her mom. I don’t know why you don’t hang out with me when I’m with her.”
The tiny frown on Hotch’s face was enough to make JJ feel bad, but not bad enough. She always felt like she was overstepping when she hung out with them together, and she was a little scared of Emily anyways. Her friends were the worst, the kinds of girls that made fun of Penny for being into theater and Spence for being weird, whatever that meant.
“I don’t know, Hotch.”
“She’s not an asshole. I swear she’s really being nice to you - she’s trying to be your friend.”
The sharp pierce of a whistle in the air made them jump, heads snapping in the direction of the field. Their coaches were staring at them, both wearing similar expressions of annoyance.
“Hotchner! Jareau! Social hour is over. Get on the field!” Coach Gideon bellowed, eyes squinting in the sun.
As JJ jogged off, she had never been more thankful for Coach Rossi’s bad timing.
———————
It felt like hours later when they were finally done with their drills for the day, the sun setting and casting a gorgeous pink orange glow on the field. JJ and Hotch packed their bags up side by side, taking off their equipment and cleats and moaning about how hot it had been.
“Hi guys! JJ, are you riding home with us?”
Emily. She was everything JJ wanted to be in a purely social sense, the perfect cheerleader with the perfect ponytail and perfect boyfriend.
Her face was flushed, a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead and pink bag slung over her shoulder. Her bangs were stuck to her forehead, the rest of her hair pulled back into a ponytail. JJ wanted to scoff at her outfit - a sports bra and tiny shorts - but she didn’t want to create problems with Aaron.
“Uh, I was going to. Or I could walk…”
“No!” Hotch cleared his throat, grabbing his and JJ’s bags before starting the walk to the parking lot. “I mean no, you’re riding with us. Why do you get so weird?”
“Why do you insist I’m the third wheel?” JJ’s retort lacked the annoyance she truly felt, too tired and sweaty to fight with him.
“Hey.” Emily placed a hand on JJ’s shoulder and bless her, tried her best to hide her grimace at the amount of sweat on JJ and Aaron both. “You can ride with us, you can hang out with us. It’s not weird.”
JJ felt the familiar pull of guilt in her stomach as she walked behind Aaron towards his car. She hated that he could make her do just about anything with the way he shot her a dopey smile and shook out his shaggy, dark hair.
“So Emily, JJ needs a French tutor.”
“Oh, I was just mentioning it, you really don’t —“
Emily stopped, turning to look at JJ with a hard, steely look in her eyes. Her gaze was captivating and JJ wanted to fall in, to believe anything she was about to say but she couldn’t - it was too dangerous to tread this with her best friend’s pretty girlfriend.
“I will. You’re practically Aaron’s sister, I don’t get why you’re so scared of me.”
They climbed into the car, JJ shaking her head and chuckling out a laugh under her breath. It made her laugh to think that Emily thought about her that much, in between her busy schedule of being popular and making fun of all the losers like her.
“I’m not scared of you.” She paused, puffing up her cheeks and exhaled slowly. Why did Emily always challenge her like this? “But if I was scared of you, it would probably be the way you carry yourself like a badass and that your friends make fun of my friends.”
Shit. Why did she just say that?
“I’m not like them.”
There was something unspoken about Emily’s tone, turning her face and staring out the window of the car. It confused JJ, the subtext that she didn’t quite understand because god, didn’t everyone want to be as popular and pretty and rich as her?
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Jayje, do you mind if I drop you first?”
She shook her head, already buried in her phone and trying to escape the awkward exchange with Emily. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her - they just had nothing in common besides Aaron.
The car was quiet for the rest of their drive, Emily staring out the window with her hands folded in her lap. JJ glanced up at her every few seconds, perplexed by the fact that she wasn’t immersed in her phone and what was probably twenty different group chats with the popular kids. She looked tired, but not in a physical sense, and it made JJ furrow her brow at the split second thought that Emily was anything but happy with her perfect life.
They pulled up to her house and JJ nearly jumped out, thankful for the exit from the awkward silence and constantly switching stations of the radio, Emily’s deft fingers spinning the dial their entire ride but never settling on anything. She was halfway to her front door, soccer bag slung over her shoulder when she heard Emily’s voice call out to her, head peeking out the passenger window.
“Jennifer, wait!”
JJ turned around, ignoring the formality of her full name. Emily was waving at her with a ridiculous half smile and an energy JJ had never seen from her. She jogged back to the car, nearly groaning at the pain in her thighs and calves, stopping outside the window.
“My number… so you can take me up on that tutoring.”
She had a lopsided little half smile that brought a flush to JJ’s cheeks for some weird reason, face burning and heart flopping at the way she signed her name with a little heart, the way she scrawled her name and number out in a sparkly purple gel pen.
“Ms Callahan has us practicing at the gym until school starts, so I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to tell you… anyways, text me? We can set something up.”
JJ nodded dumbly, she was sure the expression on her face was priceless - slack jaw and blushing because holy shit, Emily was serious about tutoring her? She didn’t fear the inevitable social suicide?
Maybe Emily was right, she wasn’t like her friends.
“Thanks! I’ll um, I’ll catch you later.” She walked backwards up her driveway, unable to tear her eyes away from the goofy smile on both Emily and Aaron’s lips. “Bye, guys! Have a good evening!”
She jogged up the front steps and into her house, only allowing herself to exhale when Aaron’s car pulled away because shit, what was that stupid giddy feeling in her chest? JJ sunk down, back sliding down the door as she sat and stared at the paper in her hands.
Oh shit.
She couldn’t have a crush on Hotch’s girlfriend just because she was nice to her one time.