Chapter 19
Buffy dropped her bag on the sand, took out the towels, lay them down. She took off her sunglasses and kicked off her flip-flops, and then she slipped off her tee shirt and jeans. William just sat in his cut offs and tee shirt.
“Do my back?” Buffy handed William the sun lotion. She lay down and William put the cream on her back. She then sat up, put some on her legs and front.
“Want me to do your back?”
“No thanks, I’m not taking my tee shirt off”
“Oh. You ok?”
“Uh huh” She knew by his tone that he wasn’t. William lay down, rolled over, and opened his book, began to read, first draping a towel over the back of his legs so they wouldn’t burn.
“Fair’s fair, you lost the bet, you ask her!” The taller of the two males sighed and said,
“I bet she won’t go for it”
“Why not? – Anyway, you don’t know until you ask, do you?”
They hadn’t been lying down ten minutes, when a shadow fell over William’s book.
“Hi, Buffy!” She raised her head, flipped her glasses down from the top of her head.
“Oh, um, hi Gibson…Anthony” the two tanned beach bums set their towels next to her. They’d introduced themselves on the Monday, Buffy was friendly, William his usual quiet self, he couldn’t define it, he just didn’t like them.
“Reading again Billy-boy?” William didn’t say anything, just turned the page. Buffy gave her brother an anxious look, then smiled nervously at the two men.
“Oh, look what I can see…a Frisbee!” Gibson pulled it out of her bag, accidentally pulling her thong out with it.
“Oh, woo! Lookee here!” Gibson snagged up the little bit of elastic and lace and went to ‘twang’ it at his mate, but Buffy grabbed it and shoved it deep into the bag, going red.
“Do you mind!” Anthony took in the flame of her cheeks and grinned
“So, we gonna play?” Gibson whirled the Frisbee round on his finger, spinning it very fast.
“William?” Buffy asked.
“I’m reading” he said flatly, without looking up.
“Um, you two carry on, you can borrow it, if you want, I’ll just sit if you don’t mind” Buffy glanced at her brother and then she lay down. The two stood, began to throw.
“They’re only trying to be friendly” Buffy said. William ignored her, this was very unusual.
“What’s wrong?” Buffy asked, rolling onto her side and propping herself up on one elbow. She was biting her bottom lip.
“Gods” William let his head drop on the book, then raised it again a few seconds later.
“I’m TRYING to read!” he said testily.
“But Will, you can read anytime”
“Yes, and we can bloody sunbathe anytime too, we DO live in California, not bloody Alaska!” William said annoyed. Buffy blinked. That was the first time he’d EVER been cross with her. She had made him come to the beach everyday too. Thinking he’d be in a better mood if she gave him some space, she stood and went over to the two guys, leaping up and catching the Frisbee mid throw…
After the Frisbee landed on him a second time, William sat up.
“Sorry!” Buffy grinned
William said nothing. She dropped onto his towel.
“So, what’s the…Will…William!” Buffy began, but William stood, totally ignoring her, and walked off. Buffy was so shocked, he’d never ignored her before.
“Gods, is he always such a miserable git?” Anthony asked.
“What, no, he’s usually the life and soul, something’s wrong, I wish he’d tell me what” She watched as he went into the toilets, when he came out, he went and got a drink from the juice hut, sat on the wall in the shade. Buffy stood, put on her tee shirt and jeans, folded the towels.
“Can I have the Frisbee please?”
“Ah, you’re not going, are you? - - We um…we wanted to show you a special beach!” Anthony said, grinning at his mate,
“Special?” Buffy raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah…you um, you can go, er ‘au naturelle’…” Buffy might be thick, but she knew what they meant.
“No, um, no way, I wouldn’t g-go to a place like that!” She shook her head and began stuffing the towels into her beach bag.
“Why not…got a reasonable figure on you…nice tits, you’re not shy, not the way you’ve been parading round here all week, or are you REALLY just a little prick tease?” Anthony said, giving her a cold stare.
“OH!” Buffy snatched the Frisbee off Gibson and stomped up the beach.
“Big mouth – I said ask her, not fuckin’ insult her!” Gibson said giving his mate a dirty look.
“Well, gods, think they’re joined at the hip, and he’s her BROTHER, too close man, far too close!”
“You think?”
“He never took his eyes off us playing Frisbee!”
“I thought he was reading…hey, perhaps he fancied you”
“No, it’s not that”
“Don’t suppose we will see her again”
“Well YOU’VE blown it if we don’t...anyway, I don’t care…how’s your French?”
“French, why?”
“See those two over there…when we first passed them this morning, I heard the one say something in French…”
“What, the one just taking her…oh…oh…oh Yes! Whoops! The one whose bikini top just slipped up with her top!” Gibson said, grinning they picked up their towels.
“Come on”
“Will, what’s wrong?” Buffy asked. On getting no answer, she ventured,
“I’m sorry” Buffy sat on the wall by her brother, she continued,
“You were right, they were a couple of perverts, they wanted me to go to a nude beach with them”
William closed his book.
“Huh, and you said Holly was obvious!” Will said without looking at her.
“Want lunch, my treat?” Buffy asked.
“No, want to get out of this sun…I hate it”
“Well, ok, let’s go back, we can always laze by the pool – you can lie in the shade there”
Without saying anything, William stood up. They walked on in silence to the car. When they got back home, William went straight to his room, locked the door. That was some thing he’d never done before, they’d never locked the door to each other. After a couple of hours, Hank and Joyce came home.
“Oh, you’re back early” Joyce was surprised to see her daughter.
“Yeah…mom, I think…well, I don’t know…I think that I’ve really upset William”
“You think? How, what have you done?” Joyce asked.
Buffy went on to explain about Gibson and Anthony, how from the beginning of the week William hadn’t liked them, and telling her mom about the nude beach, but leaving the ‘prick-tease’ detail out, and how William had suddenly said how he wanted to get out of the sun. Joyce said nothing. She went upstairs, knocked on his door, got no answer. She thought he must be asleep, so didn’t even try to enter, she went to her own room to change and then went back down stairs.
“Want some?” Hank asked holding up the jug of chilled juice to Joyce.
“Hmm, please”
“William, want juice?” Hank asked, even though he couldn’t see him, he automatically assumed that he’d come down with Joyce.
“I think he’s asleep” Joyce said.
“Oh” They went out and joined Buffy on the sun loungers. She looked up hopefully to see William, felt sad when he didn’t appear.
“Will not coming down?” Buffy asked.
“I knocked…I think he must be asleep” Joyce said.
William wasn’t asleep; he was very much awake and thinking, lying on his bed. He wondered if it was going to work, Buffy living with him in Mass. She wasn’t very street wise, and he was sure that she was going to get ‘hit on’ with unfailing regularity, and he needed to study, not baby sit her…or perhaps he should just let her get on with it…he sighed. He drifted off asleep, and after about an hour, he woke to hear Buffy screaming and giggling.
“NO, dad, NO! Ah, DON’T YOU DARE, no…mom tell him…dad, no DAD! AHHHHHGGGGGGGGG!” There was a huge splash, and a shriek from Buffy. William guessed correctly that Hank had thrown her in the pool. He turned on his side. A couple of minutes later, Buffy came upstairs. He heard her go into her room, and the shower running. Ten minutes later, there was a soft knock at the door.
“Will, William are you…oh!” She tried to turn the knob. It was locked! He NEVER locked the door!
“William…William!” she began to panic, and knock loudly.
Joyce heard the panic in her voice, and the loud knocking and immediately worried, came running up the stairs.
“What, Buffy, what is it, what’s the matter?”
“He’s locked the door, he never locks the…” She looked worriedly at her mother. Joyce came up the last few stairs frowning. William opened the door wide, sounding and looking REALLY fed up.
“What’s the problem…where’s the fire?” William yawned and stretched in his doorway.
“Everything ok?” Hank stood poised at the bottom of the stairs.
“Yes” Joyce nodded.
“It’s ok, Buffy panicked because William’s door was locked.” Joyce said over the banister to Hank.
“But you never lock your door!” Buffy said, frightened. She’d followed him into his room; William sat with his back to her. He really wanted to shut her out! Buffy thought.
“Well it must have locked by accident, I don’t know, what’s the panic, no thunder storm, is there?” William lay down on the bed.
“No” Buffy said sadly.
“You ok baby?” No answer from either of them.
“William?” Joyce asked coming into the room.
“Oh, um, yeah mom fine…I’m just a bit tired” William said
“You have a rest before we go to the barbecue.” Joyce said from her bedroom opposite, then came back into William’s room.
“Hank and I will go round, do you two want to follow on later?”
Buffy shrugged, I don’t mind, what do you want to do, William?”
“Oh, asking me what I want to do, now the holiday’s nearly over…I’m not hungry yet, do what you want, I’m not going…” William shrugged.
Buffy felt tears prick her eyes. Joyce looked at her daughter and then at her son. William was lying down, his back to her and Buffy, and Buffy looked near to tears.
“Ok, what’s wrong?” Neither of them spoke.
“Buffy?” Buffy shrugged, said nothing, but looked thoroughly miserable.
“William?”
“Nothing mom…”
Buffy stood and went into her bedroom and slammed the door. A few seconds later, Hank stood in the doorway.
“What’s going on, what’s up with Buffy?” Hank asked from the hallway
“You tell me…are you sure you’re alright William?” Joyce asked, her hand on his shoulder.
William sighed, turned over to face her.
“I’m sorry mom, yes, I’m ok…want me to check on Buffy?”
“Only if you want to…have you two had a row?”
“No, I’ve been a bit of a pig to her, I got a bit pissed off at having to go to the beach everyday, I hate the sun! I wanted to do other things…still, doesn’t matter now, does it, I mean the holiday’s over. And I hated the two sex hungry morons that have followed her around all week, tripping over their tongues, she couldn’t see them for what they were, they’d got her clocked as some rich little valley brat they could hit on…and she wouldn’t listen to me, then yesterday she has a right go at me over Holly, a girl she saw for all of about ten seconds – I mean, I don’t even know the girl!”
“Who’s Holly?”
“Bill’s daughter” Hank said, grinning. Joyce smiled.
“Bless you…always looking after her!” Joyce kissed his shoulder, rubbed his arm. William sat up.
“I’ll go see her, say I’m sorry”
“Make sure she say’s sorry too. Anyway, there’s a good hour to go before we go round yet,have a rest and see how you fell then, okay!” Joyce said standing. Hank smiled, moved out of the doorway, and watched as William lightly tapped her door and went into Buffy’s room.
Joyce joined Hank in the hall.
“They’ll be ok, he’s just trying to protect her, that’s all…come on, let’s leave them to it shall we, they’ll be alright, she’ll absolutely HATE falling out with him, I know this spat won’t last long – come on, the coffee should be made by now, let’s leave them to it!” Hank said.
William sat on her bed. Buffy thought it was her mother, but as soon as she saw it was William she quickly sat up and cuddled him up.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she buried her head in his neck, sniffing deeply.
“Shh…it’s ok…I’m sorry too!” His arms automatically went around her, and he kissed the top of her head.
“You hate me!” Buffy sniffed.
“Don’t be ridiculous…you know better than that, I could never hate you, I’d die first” William said. Buffy squeezed him even tighter.
I love you, I’m sorry!”
“I just got a bit pissed off at having to go to the beach everyday…I’m a Brit by birth you know…we don’t really like too much sun!”
“I was SO selfish…and I should have listened to you about those two creeps!”
“And I should let you choose your own friends” William said with a sigh.
“And where would I be? – Loads of trouble, or in a situation I couldn’t handle”
“Well, that’s what I was worried about…I know you’re not stupid, far from it, but you’ve got to get a little more… I don’t know, streetwise…you’re very pretty, and loads of guys are going to be hitting on you when you start at the café.”
“I promise you…I’m going to knuckle down, get some study done, I’m not going to date” Buffy said, William relaxed his hug a little.
“I love you Will…you scared me with the locked door, I panicked, thought you hated me, didn’t love me any more”
“Oh Buffy…that’s half the problem…”
“What, you don’t lo-“ Buffy looked at him round-eyed and worried again.
NO! - god’s…just the opposite…I love you TOO much, I’ve got to…you must be allowed to make your own mistakes…I won’t always be there for you…”
“Wuh-what, what do you mean?” Buffy looked up sharply, she knelt up and looked at him round-eyed, she could feel the panic well up inside her again, her stomach in knots. She grabbed his arm
“What, I mean how will you not be there?” William closed his eyes, tried to choose his words carefully
“Well, one day, you’ll meet someone, I mean, I’ll always BE there for you…but well…I might choose to work in England say…or Japan…it’s where the technology is…what I’m saying is…you’ve got to learn to stand on your own two feet, as much as I want to protect you…it isn’t fair to you”
“But…” her bottom lip trembled, and he could see tears dripping onto the bed cover, he couldn’t bear it, so he stood.
“I’ll um…I’ll see you later” He went back to his own room, closed the door, but this time, he didn’t lock it.
Joyce knocked on William’s door
“We’re of now baby, you will come round, won’t you?”
“I might, see how I feel…actually, I’m not all that hungry to tell you the truth”
“Well, you know where we are, see you later”
Joyce knocked and then went into Buffy’s room, sat on the edge of her bed.
“You know Buffy, Will was only trying to protect you, from those two lads”
“I know, and I’m very grateful, I was SO stupid…but he said…he said…” She started to cry again. Joyce frowned and sat down on the edge of the bed, she smoothed the hair out of her daughter’s eyes.
“Shh, now baby…don’t cry…what did he say?”
“He said he won’t always be there for me, and he should let me make my own mistakes, choose my own friends………he said he might leave for England or Japan”
“What! When?” Joyce asked alarmed, holding Buffy by the shoulders.
“When he graduates”
“Oh!” Joyce relaxed, she thought for one horrible moment that Buffy meant soon.
“Mom…what will I do when he’s gone?”
“You might have somebody of your own by then love, it’ll be four years yet” Buffy didn’t say anything, but she knew she’d never love anybody as much as she loved William.
You’re just a bit frightened of growing up…that’s all” Joyce reassured her daughter.
“I’m frightened of loosing my William, and that scares me most in the world.” Buffy said calmly.
Joyce patted her arm and stood up saying,
“Well honey, we’re off now, you know where we are, see you later”
“Yeah…bye mom, have fun” Buffy said on ‘autopilot’, she was staring off into space, trying not to imagine how awful things would be without her William…………
Roughly an hour later, Buffy heard William’s door open, and there was a soft knock on her door.
“You coming then?” William asked when she opened it – he stood there in his black trousers and tight white tee
“WHAT- But you said…I thought you weren’t hungry!”
“That was hours ago…I missed lunch don’t forget, and now I’m starving…got the smell of the barbecue coming in through my window”
“But it’ll take me an hour to get ready!”
“What- why? You’ve only got to get dressed!”
“And DO something with my hair, it’s gone like straw, even after practically a WHOLE bottle of stuff that’s turned out to be neither creamy, nor rincey! AND I’ve got to put make-up on – honestly, if I’d have known we were going!” Buffy grumbled
“I’ll see you round there then!”
“OH NO YOU WON’T, you’ll wait for me!”
“Not for a bloody hour I won’t, told you, I’m STARVING, all the food’ll go!”
“Why are you wearing your good trousers, what’s wrong with your jeans?” Buffy asked
William shrugged
“I only bought one pair of jeans and my cut-off shorts, they’re wet from the pool, and I’ve lived in those jeans all week”
Buffy tipped the contents of her make-up bag onto he bed, and bounce-sat.
She began to put on mascara
“My eyes are all puffed up – gods I look a sight…I could have done something about it IF I’d have known we were going out!”
William rolled his eyes and leant against the door-jamb. Buffy caught the look and stopped, mascara brush mid air.
“What was THAT look for?”
“What look?”
“That, that eye-rolling wish I’d shut up look!”
“Maybe it was just that – look, I’ll see you round there!” William stood up straight and ran downstairs. Buffy felt the tears stinging her eyes, and blinked rapidly. She looked in the mirror and could see little tiny black spidery lines above her cheeks from the wet mascara
“FUCK IT!” Angrily she threw the mascara wand down and marched off to the bathroom, the tears falling this time making her panda-eyed.
“WILLIAM!”
Holly’s face lit up when she saw the tall hunky guy standing in front of her
“Hi Holly!”
“Hungry?”
“Starving…what do you suggest?”
“Well…we have steak, or”
“Hold it right there, sounds good to me!”
Holly giggled
“Okay steak it is then, they won’t be a few minutes now…grab a plate, there’s bread and salad and that on the table over there…how do you like it done?”
“Well done for me, no blood”
“Me too – I remember once, we went to this restaurant in…oh I forget where, but I asked for my steak to be well done, and when it came the plate was swimming in blood, made me feel sick!”
“I bet…oh hi mom!”
“Where’s Buffy?”
“Oh, I left her getting ready, I was starving!”
Joyce smiled and nodded, and went back to Hank and the people they’d been talking to.
******************
Buffy tipped cleanser onto a cotton swab and savagely wiped under her eyes until the black smudges had gone. It was pathetic the way William was trying to get his own back on her for Gibson and Anthony, by flirting with Holly she thought.
She grabbed the mascara off the bed, along with her bronzer and lipgloss and re-did her makeup.
As her hair wouldn’t do anything she wanted it to do, like be straight and smooth or curl, Buffy tied it back into a ponytail and shoved a baseball cap on her head. She sniffed the underarms of a yellow tee she’d worn once this week, decided it was clean enough and slipped it on, along with her hipster jeans.
**********************
“Barbecue sauce?”
“Er...no thanks, I’d rather…” William picked up the bottle of Ranch Blue Cheese dressing and poured a liberal amount over his steak and salad.
“Ew, how COULD you – stinky stuff!” Holly wrinkled her nose. William smiled and said,
“Might be stinky, but it tastes great!” They sat at one of the tables
Holly wasn’t convinced, and poured the red barbecue sauce over food
“That’s one thing I remember about my dad – he used to drown everything in tomato sauce”
Holly looked across to Hank, William saw this and said
“Not him, he’s my dad yeah – but I was adopted when I was 6 years old, English by birth, my parents got killed in a car crash. I came to America and was very briefly looked after by an aunt, she was the only living relative see, but she got Multiple Sclerosis and she was in a wheelchair – could hardly look after herself, let alone a lively five year old like me!”
Holly looked at William wide-eyed and said,
“Oh god you poor thing, how terrible………so you’re English! I was trying to place your accent!”
“Yeah…you’d have thought I’d have lost it by now, growing up in California!”
“California! Do you know just how lucky you are?” William was chewing a large piece of steak
“What makes you say that?” he asked eventually
“WHAT! Oh come ON! Hello – CALIFORNIA!”
“So – I still don’t see what’s so special about it?”
“Well I suppose you wouldn’t living there…we USED to live there…till dad got it into his head that he was in a rut at Vernon and Henshall’s, and left to start his own company…now we live in Iowa of all places”
“Really, Iowa? Do you have electricity out there, running water? Or do you have to rub two sticks together to get fire, send smoke signals instead of telephone calls?” William asked grinning
Holly grinned too
“Cheeky!”
“There you are! Why didn’t you wait for me!” Buffy plonked her self down next to William
“We don’t send smoke signals, we use jungle drums instead!” Holly said
“Oh, I see…boom-buddy-boom-buddy-boom-boom-boom!” William said Buffy thought the pair of them had gone mad and she gave Holly a withering look
“Ooh, you don’t know what you’ve just said in jungle drum language!” Holly said, continuing the joke and ignoring Buffy
William chewed the last of his steak and sat back, patting his abs
“That hit the spot! – Anyway, Buffy, this is Holly, Holly, this is my sister Buffy” Both girls gave each other a false smile
“There’s food over there – (Holly waved in the vague direction of the barbecue) go help yourself, bread and salad on the table there”
“Thanks…want anything Will?”
“No ta”
“We have cheesecake – or gateau…that’s in the kitchen”
“Ah now cheesecake…” William said with his brows high and a grin
“Come on!” Holly grabbed William by the hand and raced into the house with him. Buffy saw this and nearly dropped her burger. She squirted barbecue sauce on it and slapped the bun top back on, and shoved it in her mouth, picked up her plate with one hand, and her drink with the other, she turned and made for they table Will and Holly had been sitting at,
“Buffy! – That’s not very lady-like…where are your manners?!” Joyce took the burger out of Buffy’s mouth
“Sorry…I ran out of hands!”
“You could have left the burger on the plate!” Joyce hissed
“Don’t start on me mom…I’m not in the mood”
“Have you seen William?”
“Yes, he’s gone in there with the skanky one” Buffy pointed a sauce-laden finger towards the kitchen.
“Who?”
“That girl, his daughter, what’s-her-face”
“You mean Holly”
“That’s it, knew it was some stupid name or other”
Joyce didn’t know whether to laugh or chastise her daughter, talk about the green-eyed monster of jealousy………
“Don’t be like that Buffy, she’s a nice girl”
“Take your word for it” Buffy bit the burger and chewed
“Mom…chocolate gateau in here!” William called out, pointing into the kitchen
“Oh William………you shouldn’t have told me!” Joyce grinned and made to go towards him
“Get me some will you – no, on second thoughts, I want to know what those two are talking about, I’ll go myself?” While still chewing, Buffy shoved the last piece of burger and bun into her mouth.
Joyce frowned and said,
“Serve you right if you get indigestion, eating that so quickly!” She followed Buffy into the kitchen
“Right then…did you say gateau Will?” Buffy asked
“There you go, plates and forks behind you”
“Did you tell Holly about the coffee shop I’m going to work in when we live in Mass?”
Holly looked expectantly at William
“Mass?”
“I’m going to Harvard next month, Buffy’ll be coming with me. We went there just before we came here, found somewhere to live and Buffy was lucky and got herself a job”
“Nice” Holly smiled and nodded once. She didn’t know why, but she felt disappointed. She knew that there was no chance of a relationship with Will, he lived in California, but going to Mass, going to Harvard put him so much more out of her reach…
“Holly………Holly?”
“S’cuse me…dad’s calling…Yes dad?”
“Ah, there you are, Larry’s come, he’s staying the night could you be a love and open the garage doors for him?”
“Okay” She smiled and left the three in the kitchen. Buffy put her plate down with the gateau half eaten
“Not a patch on the one we sell”
“Buffy!” Joyce admonished
“True! How’s the cheesecake?”
“Great!” William said, forking up the last mouthful
“But not as good as…”
“Well…possibly not, no!”
“I was thinking, tomorrow why don’t we have a picnic, we could ask Holly to come with us”
Buffy was just about to voice a protest, when Holly reappeared slipping the garage keys onto a hook by the refrigerator
“Ask me what?”
Despite Buffy having her back to Holly and making big eyed gestures to her mother not to ask, Joyce pointedly ignored Buffy and said
“Just a thought, we were thinking of going on a picnic tomorrow, we haven’t decided on a venue yet, would you like to come with us?”
Holly smiled and said
“That would have been great…but my mom’s coming tomorrow for the last week of the vacation bringing my brat brother, I’ve got to be here to help her”
“Oh never mind…it was just a thought, I bet these two will just want to go to the beach as usual!”
“Not me!” William said
“No…nor me” Buffy said quietly. It was Joyce’s turn to roll her eyes
“Holly…will you get some more burgers and sausages out please honey” her father called out
“Sure dad…”
Holly opened the fridge and took out a tray
“Here, let me help you with that” William, ever the gentleman carried the tray outside for her and helped put more on the barbecue.
“Can’t you try and be nice for once?”
“Me – what have I done?” Buffy asked
“Joyce…Buffy have you seen your mother any-oh THERE you are – I’ve been looking for you, come and meet Larry” Hank whisked his wife away and Buffy was left to ponder on what her mother had said about being ‘nice’ for a change.
It was true, if a girl had an interest in William, in Buffy’s eyes, she was never good enough for him, so she felt it was okay to bitch and call them names………
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