Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 66

Jess is the first person to post Christmas pictures on Instagram, and there's a mutual agreement that Sam will do the same in a few minutes. They don't want to sync their posting times: they want people to look at Jess's pictures, give that time to simmer, and then let Sam really nail it in that they're engaged.

Jess posts one picture from in front of the wreath with the Winchesters, and then the picture of her flaunting her engagement ring under the mistletoe in the next slide. She double checks with everyone that her caption — a Christmas tree in between two hearts — is good enough before she hits post.

After that, everyone heads to the kitchen to eat way too many cookies in the way you can only do on Christmas. Castiel leans against the wall, Jo on one side and Charlie on the other. Dean sits at the kitchen table in front of them, his chair turned around to face them. He's not sure why he's facing them because everyone is just on their phones — welcome to the 21st century — but he's too lazy to turn back around.

"Oh, hey, look!" Jess says suddenly, and everyone looks up from their phones. "'Winchester' is trending on Twitter!"

"Just 'Winchester'?" Sam asks.

"I think so," she says. "Hang on, lemme check..."

"I mean, it'd make sense," Dean says. "Some people are saying 'Sam Winchester,' some people are saying 'Dean Winchester's brother Sam,' and I'd be surprised if there's no one talking about our future Miss Jessica Winchester, too."

Jess beams at that. "I like the sound of that." She takes a moment to scroll through what Dean assumes is Twitter. "Oh, hey, 'Sam' is trending, too!"

"But 'Jess' isn't?" Dean asks, faking his outrage. "This is not okay. Quick, everyone spam-tweet 'Jess' until we get it trending."

"Because that wouldn't be weird," Jo says sarcastically.

"There are so many articles already," Jess says. "Entertainment Weekly, People, Billboard..."

"I would've thought someone tipped them off ahead of time if we hadn't just told everyone yesterday," Sam says.

"Are they being nice to you?" Dean asks. He could check himself, but he's already on Instagram and he doesn't feel like switching apps.

"It's mostly speculation right now," Jess says. "But people seem pretty excited."

"You have two things trending on Christmas," Jo reminds her. "That alone proves that they're excited."

"You have a point there," Jess agrees. "Sam, do you want to post now?"

"Great, now I gotta think of a caption," Sam says with a groan. "You already took the emoji idea, so I have to use actual words."

"Haha!" She sticks her tongue out at him.

Dean has absolutely no idea whether his brother is posting anything at the moment, and, honestly, he doesn't really care. He hasn't been online in a couple of days, so he has a lot of Instagram posts to catch up on. He basically leaves a like on every celebrity's post and skips over every page like Billboard and Apple Music that he only follows out of moral obligation.

"I'm just going to say 'Merry Christmas, y'all' and call it a day," Sam decides.

"Does that mean I'll have to think of a sappy, sentimental caption?" Dean asks.

"You're gonna need something more than a "Merry Christmas,'" Jo says, "but it doesn't have to be sappy and sentimental."

Dean groans. "Why can't my publicist write my captions for me? I don't have the brainpower for this."