Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 80

Castiel takes Jo "on a date" to a nearby restaurant, and it's actually kind of fun if he ignores her lovesick puppy dog eyes. He's not sure how, but their Christmas vacation somehow made him both like and hate their relationship more at the same time. He feels like he knows her better now; it doesn't feel like he's talking to a stranger. The fact that she wants something more than what they have constantly nags on it, but he's able to put it aside and enjoy himself.

Eventually, they head back to his place. She'd already been there — she had to put her suitcases down somewhere — but they'd left not long after she pulled up. As CastieI heads for his — and now their — room, Jo takes some time to look around. If she's going to be visiting every now and then, she might as well get acquainted with the place.

Castiel sits down on the edge of his bed (that will soon be Jo's bed; he's going to sleep on the floor while she's here) and takes out his phone. Usually it's Jo who defaults to social media, but he's interested in the reactions he's gotten with the proposed watchathon.

The first place he checks is the girls' twitter accounts. He'd assumed it would take a while for them to see that he'd tweeted, but Alex had quote-retweeted his announcement within minutes of him posting it. "I wouldn't miss it for the world! Who else is gonna watch #WaywardSisters with us?"

Patience did the same a few minutes later, saying, "I haven't watched the pilot since it aired, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone has to say about it after all these years. See you then?"

Next, he checks Kaia's account. She just retweeted his tweet, then Jo's response to it. Very simple and to-the-point. He can respect it.

And, last but not least, Claire's account. He doesn't expect to see anything from her, especially when he sees that she still doesn't follow him, but sure enough, she's tweeted about the watchathon, too. She quote-retweeted Castiel's tweet and said, "I can't wait! Thank you so much for organizing this for all of us! I was so excited when you asked :) #WaywardSisters"

Castiel snorts. Everyone else is going to look at this and think she's actually excited and grateful, when in reality, he knows damn well she said it to call him out for not telling her about it, as if she would have shut up long enough to listen.

It's only been a few days since he joined the cast of this show and he's already decided that Claire is the most obnoxious person he's ever had the misfortune of working with. He's dealt with a lot of annoying actors, but usually they're annoying in a "selfish prick" kind of way. Claire seems to want to annoy him, which is somehow even worse.

Jo pokes her head in the room when she hears that. "What's up?"

"Nothing," CastieI says, waving a dismissive hand. "I'm just really fed up with one of my costars."

"Claire again?" Jo guesses.

"As always," Castiel deadpans. He's barely complained about Claire to her, but he's probably spent hours complaining to Charlie and Dean. Did Dean tell her about his ever-increasing impatience with her, or did she just pick up on it really quickly?

Jo sits down next to him on the bed, peering over his shoulder at his phone. "What'd she do this time?"

"She's just being shady on Twitter," Castiel says vaguely. He doesn't really want to dwell on it.

"You should shade her back," Jo says.

Castiel shakes his head. "I don't really want to feud with an 18-year-old."

"It doesn't have to be mean shade," Jo says. "Just, you know, acknowledge that it's shade."

"That's really not going to help anything," CastieI says.

"From what little I've heard," Jo says, "I don't think anything can help, so you might as well have some fun."

CastieI hesitates, then shrugs. "You know what? Why not?"

Castiel taps the little reply bubble on the bottom of her tweet and his keyboard pops up. Now what does he say? If her method of antagonism was a cheery passive-aggressive tweet, he should probably stick with the same thing, right? He'll just play it off like Claire was being sincere. It will make them look like friends to outsiders and it will probably annoy her at the same time. What's not to like?

"Of course! I knew it wouldn't be a party without you!"

"That's your idea of shade?" Jo says, amused. "No wonder Dean's doing all the heavy-lifting in your feud."

"Okay, in my defense," Castiel says, "I don't really have a reason to shade Dean. I came out on top with that 'feud.' And it's not like I want people to know that Claire and I don't get along and that she's single-handedly ruining Wayward Sisters for me both as a job and a show." His response starts out fairly neutral; by the end, even he realizes he's being a little too bitter — or, at least, a little too openly bitter. Nothing short of a complete attitude change from Claire is going to convince him to like working with her, but he doesn't have to complain about it like this.

Fortunately, Jo doesn't seem annoyed; she seems sympathetic. Frowning, she pats him on the back, moving a little too close to him for his comfort. "I'm sorry. I know you were really excited about that role. I'm sorry it turned out to be such a disappointment."

Castiel shifts his weight to subtly lean away from her touch. "I mean, I like it. I like Patience and Alex and I like my characters and I really like my hours. It hasn't been a complete disappointment; it just..."

"I know," she says. "But it's still not what you'd hoped it would be and that sucks and I'm sorry."

Castiel gives her a small smile for her efforts. "Thanks. I appreciate it." He really does. He'd almost rather talk to Charlie or Dean about this because he's much closer with them, but they're also far more invested. Their method of dealing with his daily Claire updates consists of either disbelief or mutual Claire-bashing. It's kind of nice that Jo can just sympathize with him instead.

But then she ruins it. "C'mere." She wraps her arms around him in an awkward side-hug that he feels morally obligated to return. "Just look on the bright side: you only have a few more months of this, and then you might get lucky and they'll renew the show without you. Best of both worlds, right?"

CastieI sighs. "I guess." But at this point, he's not sure anything can make this job worth it. He could have waited for another role to come around — one closer to home and one that pays five or six figures. He never would have realized Claire was actually bitch, he wouldn't be living in some tiny apartment in Toronto, and he could probably be on a California bed having sex with Dean Winchester instead of one in Canada being hugged by his pseudo-girlfriend.

Yeah, taking this role was not worth it.