Going to college was something you were always afraid of — leaving the life you’d lived for eighteen years, going from relying on your parents to only relying on yourself.

You’d moved far for college, all the way to California. Miles away from your family, your home, your friends… it was sure to be a difficult adjustment, but you took the risk.

And that was where you met Spencer Reid.

He was… everything. Your past partners had never treated you the way he treated you, and yet you weren’t dating Spencer. Maybe it was because you were afraid of losing him, or maybe it was because you truly thought he was too good for you… or maybe a mix of both.

The most devastating moment of your life was probably when he met her.

You hadn’t seen it coming. One second, he was seeking your presence as long as it didn’t feel like he was being too overbearing. But the next? The next he was hanging out with this new girl.

You almost felt sick to your stomach the day you saw them together — him laying on one of the benches outside of the dorms, head in her lap while she played with his hair. God he looked so blissful.

That was when your friendship changed. Its slow progression towards more than friends was stopped, and he was taken from you.

You still hung out, though. It was less often. You’d study, meet up in the library, check up on each other when you passed the other on campus, but… it wasn’t the same.

The library is practically empty as you and Spencer study across from each other, both of your faces buried in books although your mind is elsewhere — her. them. And you weren’t gonna bring it up, cause what could you do about it? Until—

“Is it true that people cheat at least once during a relationship and… that it means nothing?”

His question makes your heart drop, eyes shifting up to his. “What? Cheat? What the hell are you-“

“Becca kissed some… frat guy. While she was drunk,” he says, slowly closing his book and adjusting his glasses. “She said it happens eventually but…”