A shiver rippled down her spine as a soft breeze grazed her bare shoulders. Why was that guy such an incredible pain in the behind? He constantly questioned everything she said, like he knew every little subliminal meaning to everything. Truth was, she wasn’t even all that mad at him. More at herself. She didn’t do anything to stop Hank. She acted so tough around people but the truth was she wasn’t that strong, and then she went and covered up what he did the next morning.
“You ok?”
She looked up to see someone she would have never expected, standing outside with her.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” She said in a soft voice.
Buffy turned her eyes and looked at Cordelia, trying to decide weather she was being sincere or planning something especially nasty in return. “Why now?”
The brunette shrugged. “I’ve come to realize some things lately, they’ve made me,” She paused for a brief second. “grow up a little.”
“Cordy.”
She turned her eyes to the blonde with a hint of nervousness. “Like the hair cut.”
Cordelia smiled running the tips of her fingers through her recently cut chin length hair. A darkish blonde streak falling in front of her face. “I know it’s my party and all, but want to get out of here?”
“I’d love to.”
***
Buffy lifted the spicy noodles to her mouth with the chopsticks looking thoughtfully at Cordelia. “So what happened?”
It was something she herself couldn’t explain, but that whole evening, since they had walked to Cordelia’s house she had felt completely at ease. Not the same way she did with Willow or Spike but like there was a connection and whatever she said or did, there wasn’t going to be judgment from the other end. How ironic. And there hadn’t been. The brunette hadn’t asked her a single question about why she had been outside upset or about the now fading mark on her face. Just a silent understanding that it wasn’t the time to talk about it.
“I found out one of the truths in life. When you’re rich, not everyone of your friends is truly your friend. Or in my case, no one.”
Buffy nodded lightly. She knew what that was like.
“I can’t really describe how it happened very well, but I was talking to Harm and some of the other girls and a girl, maybe a year younger, walked by and we made our usual remarks.” She poked lightly at her sushi frowning. “Usually I didn’t care how the other person reacted, cast a blind eye to it more or less. But I went into the bathroom ten minutes later to fix my make up and I heard crying. It was the girl we had made fun of. Then later I accidentally overheard Harmony talking to the other girls about me.”
She leaned back on her elbows and looked blankly at the wide screen, some random song was playing on mtv.
“Some of the things they said were really nasty, you know? I don’t know really what did it, or which combination of things did it, but I don’t want to be that girl anymore.”
“Parents getting a divorce huh.”
She turned to look at her with a mixture of curiosity and surprise in her brown eyes. “How’d you know that?”
Buffy smiled. “You said combination of things, as in more then what you said happened at school. So I assumed. It happened to me too you know. We’re very alike.”
“Well, except for me being prettier, more popular, interesting...”
The blonde laughed and threw a noodle. “Bite me!”
“Hey!” A comfortable silence settled over the room. “Well, not popular for long anyways, after Harm gets through with what’s going to be left of my reputation.”
“Popularity is overrated anyways. Been there done that.” She smiled. “When I went to Emry I was popular, money, cars, friends in high places, the works. The whole school was basically under my thumb. It took Joyce getting hit by a drunk driver for me to realize that going to parties and getting drunk, telling people all those nasty things, wasn’t so glamorous or fun after all. Then I came here.”
“Joyce?”
Buffy sighed. “My mom.”
She leaned over and put her hand lightly on Buffy’s knee. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, so am I.”
The two of them continued to eat their take out in silence.
***
“Want to see something?” The grin that was directed at her made her smile.
“Sure.”
She followed Cordelia up the stairs to her room and watched as the other girl opened the window, sat on the edge and turned to look back at her. “Come on.”
“Cordelia what are you…” She stopped, watching in fear as she jumped off the third story ledge. Was she absolutely crazy? There was no tree there and she hadn’t see the roof top.
“Are you coming or what?”
Buffy stared at the window in shock, she slowly made her way to it and looked down.
“What are you looking down for I’m up here!” Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she laughed, Buffy’s face a mask of confusion. “Jump down the flat roof of the room below us and climb up the ivy, it’ll hold.”
She rolled her eyes. Why the hell was everyone here so damn into this kind of stuff. “ Why the hell am I climbing up there? What if I’m scared of heights?” That was a lie.
“Well, the view is gorgeous from up here and it’s very comfy, I have it set up from all the other times I come up here.”
Once she reached the top she saw that the view of the whole city, it was depressing how small Sunnyhell really was. It was pretty through, all the lights were on, and she had blankets set up for more comfort, the roof was completely flat.
“I’ve slept up here before, when my parents fight or when I just want some alone time, it’s peaceful.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty.” Her mind wandered off to other places as she sat there looking out over the peaceful city.
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A/N:Wow haven't updated in a while but I'm back now. If anyone's willing to beta the story I would be *extremely*grateful!