The morning sunlight streamed through the windows, effectively waking Buffy up. She laid there for a few moments, eyes closed as the previous night’s disaster came back to her.
“Oh god,” she groaned under her breath and flipped over so her head was buried in her pillow. In the harsh light of day, her stupidity looked even…stupider.
How could he kiss her? How could she kiss him back?
It was so unexpected and yet at the same time…Buffy knew she had been slightly attracted to him. But being her idiotic self, she had to…god she was stupid.
Finally mustering the courage, Buffy opened one eye and glanced over at Spike’s bed to see it was thankfully empty. She sat up and sighed as she climbed out of bed to throw on clean clothes.
Quietly tip-toeing out of her room, she headed into the kitchen and grabbed a lone banana sitting on the counter.
“Morning, sweetie.”
Buffy jumped, her heart racing. She shut her eyes and opened them, exhaling loudly. “God, you scared me.”
“Sorry,” Joyce apologized and sat down at the island. “I didn’t mean to. How are you feeling? William told us you went back to bed when we got home.”
“I’m better,” Buffy answered, nibbling on the banana. “It was just some weird sleepy/cold thing. I’m back to 100% ‘Healthy Buffy’.”
Joyce smiled. “I’m glad.” She took a sip of her coffee. “You missed the movie last night. It was great, lots of action with various limbs torn off.”
Buffy’s nose scrunched up in distaste. “Sounds fabulous,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her words.
Joyce rolled her eyes. “Oh, it was. Unfortunately, it was William’s pick for the evening.”
Buffy cleared her throat, trying to look nonchalant. “Speaking of Spike, where is he?”
“Oh, he went for a run. I guess he wanted to get one in before we headed out.” Joyce paused, looking pensive. “You know, he was awfully quiet this morning, did he say anything to you?”
Buffy swallowed hard, feeling a little guilty. “Um, no why?” She asked quickly.
Joyce’s frown deepened and she tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I don’t know, I thought maybe something happened.”
“Nothing happened!” At Joyce’s puzzled look, Buffy quickly amended her words. “I mean, why would you think something happened?”
Joyce just shook her head. “It’s probably nothing, just teenage boys being teenage boys.”
Just not in the way you think, Buffy thought, but out loud she changed the subject. “So, what time are we leaving?”
****
Buffy had managed to repack all of her clothes and toiletries. It was a tight fit, make that extremely tight, but she zippered her bag shut and let out a ‘Ha!’ of triumph.
Quickly, she ran her brush through her hair and left it down before dragging her bag out onto the front porch where, of course, Spike was walking up the steps, his shirt sticking to his back, sweat trickling down his face.
Buffy averted her eyes. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Spike mumbled back and walked past her into the house without another word.
Buffy blinked, staring at the door. She had to admit, his attitude puzzled her. After what happened the night before, she was sure he was going to be pushy about it; constantly reminding her, giving her those smirks and making innuendo-y comments.
Instead he was…not Spike.
Biting her lip, Buffy pushed her concern away. She’d gotten what she wanted; it was like the incident had never happened. Both of them, she remembered, wincing at the thought of the lake.
Shaking her head slightly, she grabbed her bag and threw it in the car. Time for Long Car Ride Part 2.
*******
About halfway into the drive back, Buffy must have fallen asleep because she woke up again to see the “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign.
“Mmm,” she mumbled, stretching as best she could.
“Can you please move your hands?” Spike’s voice was monotone and after a second of sleep-induced stupidity, Buffy complied, feeling awkward.
“Sorry,” she said but Spike had already slipped his headphones on, his face buried in a book.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Buffy stared out her window. Everything was so weird and awkward. She wondered what Spike was thinking. Probably freaked out by her freak show last night. After all, she’d managed to sob in his arm, kiss him and shove him off in the span of fifteen minutes. Yep, freak show for sure.
Giles turned into the driveway and Buffy hopped out as soon as the car stopped. She opened the trunk and pulled out her bag, eager to do some thinking in her room. Spike obviously had the same idea since he reached around her, grabbed his duffle bag and walked into the house, slamming the door.
Giles glanced up with a frown at the front door. “I wonder what’s wrong with him?” He asked, half to himself.
Buffy shrugged. “Probably something lame like a bad score on a video game,” she suggested lamely. Actually, she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Spike playing video games since she’d met him.
“Perhaps,” Giles replied hesitantly and picked up his bag.
Joyce grabbed her small duffle and joined Giles. “Don’t worry, honey, he’s a teenage boy. They’re bound to be moody more than once and a while.”
Giles lips curled into a thin smile. “I feel certain I can agree with that.” He held the door open for Buffy and Joyce as they dragged, especially Buffy, their bags in.
“Thanks. I’m gonna go put my stuff away,” she announced.
“Okay, throw anything you want washed outside your room and I’ll pick it up. I have a feeling it’s gonna be a big load this time,” Joyce told her as she walked to her room.
“Okay, mom,” Buffy answered.
“Oh and Buffy?” Joyce called out.
Buffy stopped. “Yeah?”
“Don’t forget to do your homework.”
******
“Stupid Algebra 2.”
Buffy, for the fifth time, erased her answer with a sigh. She’d been working on her math homework for about twenty minutes and she still wasn’t finished.
She was about to throw her notebook across the room in frustration when someone knocked on the door.
“Yeah?”
Joyce poked her head in. “It’s me. Willow and a girl named…Fred called a couple times. Willow’s sounded pretty urgent.”
Buffy jumped up and took the phone from her hand. “Thanks mom, I’ll get right on that.”
Joyce gave her a look. “Just make sure you’re homework is all done.”
Buffy nodded. “Yep, no problem.” As soon as her mother shut the door, she belly-flopped onto her bed and dialed Willow’s number. The phone rang a couple of times before Willow’s chipper voice greeted her.
“Rosenberg residence, Willow speaking,” she said professionally.
Buffy giggled. “It’s me, Buffy.”
Instantly Willow’s tone changed. “Oh hey! Did you get my messages?”
“I haven’t heard them, but my mom said you called. What’s up?” Buffy questioned, twirling a chunk of her hair in her fingers. It was like a flashback to her cheerleader days, sitting on her bed mindlessly talking to a friend.
“Oh!” Willow gave a short laugh almost nervous. “Nothing much. I was just calling to see how you were. Soooo…how was the trip?”
Buffy made a face. “Don’t ask,” she mumbled darkly. She’d been debating whether to Willow about the kiss, but now, talking to her, the answer was a definite no. “So…why’d you call? Something wrong?”
“No, no!” Willow said quickly, her voice high. “It’s nothing I just wanted to know how the beach house was, but I guess it wasn’t that great, huh?” She gave another nervous laugh.
“Um…not really,” Buffy said cautiously. Willow wasn’t a very good liar, she noted. Something was up. “Okay, well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. You’ll have to tell me any juicy stuff that happened while I was gone.”
This time Willow’s laugh sounded normal. “Promise.”
They each said their good byes and Buffy hung up with a small frown. She couldn’t help but wonder why Willow had been so strange. If it wasn’t that big of a deal, she’d have told her on the phone, but it was almost like Willow knew something and couldn’t or wouldn’t tell.
The phone rang in Buffy’s hand, startling her. She pushed the TALK button. “Hello?”
“Hi, Buffy? It’s me, Fred.”
“Hey,” Buffy said, genuinely happy to hear from the brunette. “My mom said you’d called and I was just about to call you back.”
“Great minds think alike,” Fred joked. “So, you heard about the meet next weekend?”
Buffy vaguely remembered Coach Adler talking about it. “I think so, is that the one in Carmel?” She asked, naming the nearby town.
“Yep,” Fred confirmed, “some of the best runners will be there, so Coach is scheduling an extra practice on Friday and I said I’d call you because she didn’t have your e-mail address.”
“Thanks,” Buffy said, grateful. “I don’t actually have an e-mail address, but I’ll get one set up and tell her.”
“Good idea, Coach likes to do e-mails instead of calling, takes less time,” Fred told her. “So…how was your weekend?”
Buffy groaned and Fred laughed at her reaction. “That bad, huh?”
“Not really,” Buffy admitted. Except for the whole naked in the lake and kissing thing, she mentally added. “But let’s just say me and Spike forced in the same room, not a good thing.”
“The same room?” Fred repeated, sounding puzzled.
“We had to share a room,” Buffy mumbled.
Immediately, Fred gasped and tried to stifle her laughter. “Oh no, you poor thing.”
“Definitely not planning on reliving that,” Buffy agreed dryly.
“You’ll have to tell me all about it tomorrow,” Fred told the blonde.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I will,” she paused. “Hey have you talked to Willow this weekend? I just talked to her and she sounded weird.”
“Actually, I tried calling her and so did Xander, but she wasn’t there all weekend. Do you think something’s wrong?” Fred asked, worry creeping into her voice.
“No, I’m sure she’s fine, probably just freaking out over a 99 on a test.” Even to her own ears, Buffy’s answer sounded lame.
“Yeah,” Fred agreed, sounding doubtful as well.
“Okay, I’ve got to go now,” Buffy announced apologetically, “Algebra 2 is slowly killing me. Plus I haven’t even started my other homework.”
Fred giggled. “Meet me by the fountain before school; I’ll help you with the problems you don’t get.”
“Oh my god, thank you!” Buffy gushed. “I thought I was gonna have to resort to blaming my imaginary dog that ate my Algebra book.”