Chapter 2
Buffy headed to her locker later that day. She wasn’t watching where she was going and crashed into someone, causing her to drop all of the books that she was carrying.
“God, could you be anymore of a klutz?”
Buffy cringed at the voice and glanced up to see Megan Walsh, the head cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school. She just looked away and went to grab her books, only to have Megan kick them further away from her.
“Oops,” she said with a fake smile.
Buffy told herself that she was not going to cry. She wouldn’t give any of them the satisfaction.
“Maybe that will teach you to stay out of my way, loser.” Megan flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and walked away.
Buffy noticed that a crowd gathered around after that, all of them pointing and laughing at her. She felt herself tearing up and wanted to get out of there. She grabbed all of her books in a hurry and headed to the nearest restroom, closing the door and leaning her head against it. She was glad that it seemed to be empty and went over to the sink to splash some water on her face. Buffy couldn’t keep the tears in any longer and gazed into the mirror to see that she looked like a mess. She was once again very relieved to be a senior, it wouldn’t be much longer for her to finally get out of that school and put everything behind her. Graduation couldn’t come soon enough.
* * * * *
Spike rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day. He was sitting in the cafeteria with most of the cheerleaders, who were talking about boys and the latest fashions. It was times like this that he wished for more male friends. They constantly followed him wherever he went, no matter how many times he said that he wasn’t in the mood for company. He all of a sudden looked up just as Buffy entered the cafeteria. He watched as she sat by herself at her usual table. Spike would have given anything to just go and join her. He was positive that she would hold an intelligent conversation, but he didn’t dare go up to her. He felt like a nervous schoolboy whenever he was near Buffy. His palms were sweaty and he felt butterflies in his stomach just by looking at her. She was so bloody gorgeous, and what made her even more beautiful to him was that she didn’t even try to be. It just came naturally to her. He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of her by not being able to get out a complete sentence, so he stayed where he was. Buffy was a mystery to him. She always kept to herself and probably wouldn’t want anything to do with him, anyway. Knowing his luck, she probably had some boyfriend in college. She never paid attention to any of the blokes in school, so that lead him to believe that she wasn’t interested in anyone.
“Spike, are you even listening?”
He lost focus on Buffy at the sound of someone calling him and was relieved to see that it was his mate Xander Harris, not another cheerleader. It was then that he noticed the girls seemed to have left. “When did you show up?”
Xander raised his eyebrows. “I’ve been here for the last five minutes trying to get your attention.” He looked off into the distance and noticed what had Spike so enraptured, rolling his eyes and turning back to his friend. “I should have known. Dude, you have some weird obsession with that chick.”
Spike glared at him. “It’s not an obsession. What do you care, anyway? You would rather I get involved with one of those twits?”
“Of course not, you can do better than that. It’s just not healthy for you to keep watching her like this. She’s not put on display, just go talk to her already.”
Spike’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “I can’t, I’m not ready yet. I don’t even know what I would say.” Xander was the only one that Spike told about his feelings for Buffy. They’ve been best friends ever since the start of high school and Spike didn’t trust telling anyone else. Those other sheep weren’t even really his friends; they just chose to hang around him because he had money. He sometimes hated that his father was the most admired and wealthy attorney in California.
Xander looked away from Spike at the sound of a commotion, noticing a pretty brunette enter the cafeteria. Most of the jocks instantly got up to greet her, offering to buy her lunch and just wanting to be around her. It was now Xander’s turn to get nervous at the sight of his crush.
Spike was seething when he saw the men flock over to the girl, wanting to rip their heads off. He shot out of his seat and marched over to them, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the chaos. He felt even more steamed when he got a look at the skimpy outfit she was wearing. “What the bloody hell is that? You weren’t wearing that this morning.”
She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I took a change of clothes with me. It’s not like you’ve never done it.”
“That’s not the point, Dawn. It’s barely covering anything; there is a dress code here.”
She shrugged. “Dad donates a lot of money to this school. I doubt the principal would tell me what to wear.”
Spike felt a migraine coming on. “You shouldn’t be taking advantage of that.”
Dawn patted him on the arm. “You worry too much. I just like all of the attention. You can’t tell me that you don’t love having all of the cheerleaders practically throw themselves at you. That’s every teenage boy’s fantasy.”
Spike shook his head and thought about Buffy. The pretty blonde that made his heart swell and one that he could never have. “It’s not my fantasy. I haven’t told them to bugger off yet because I don’t want to be rude, but you’re better than those wankers in there and you know it.”
She groaned. “I hate it when you make sense, it ruins my fun. Okay, I’ll go change. Dad doesn’t need to know about this.”
Spike agreed and graced her with a smile. “Now, that’s my good little sister.”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “You’re only three minutes older than me,” she said, then headed away from the cafeteria.
Spike turned around to go back inside, but ended up bumping into someone instead. His eyes bulged at the sight of Buffy; luckily he had good reflexes and stopped her from falling. He then quickly pulled away from her. “Sorry,” he mumbled before heading in the other direction.
Buffy felt hurt when she watched Spike walk away. He couldn’t get away from her fast enough; it was like just being around her was disgusting. She wiped at her eyes and didn’t even realize that she was crying again. Buffy couldn’t wait for the day to be over.