Buffy stared at Riley in disbelief. Then she let out a bitter laugh. “I’ve known for a while now that you’re a jerk, Riley. But I just never realized how pathetic you are.”
Not getting the reaction he’d been hoping for, Riley clearly started to get annoyed. “Buffy…”
She raised a hand to stop him. “I don’t wanna hear another word of this. How can you do this, Riley? How can you come up with such a ridiculous lie and expect me to just fall for it? Have you no decency at all?”
“Buffy…”
“No!” She felt anger building up inside her. “What the hell is your problem, Riley?! Why are you doing this? We’re not together anymore. You gave up the right to interfere with my life the moment you dumped me. Why can’t you just leave me alone? Leave us alone!”
Riley sighed. “Buffy, I’m sorry. I made a mistake, I admit it. But I realize now…” She slapped him across the face and his hand flew up to his burning cheek as he stared at her in shock. “Why did you do that?!”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Okay, that was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Damn right you shouldn’t.” Riley glared at her.
She glared back at him. “You deserve much more than a slap in the face. I should’ve knocked you unconscious!” Buffy was furious now, and didn’t even think about hiding it.
Realizing that things were starting to get out of hand, Riley quickly pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “All right, listen. I know you don’t wanna believe what I just told you, but I’m not lying. I can prove it.”
“Get out of my way.” She gave him a warning look.
Riley lost the last of his temper. “Dammit Buffy, stop being so stubborn! I’m telling you this for your own good, whether you wanna believe it or not. Just look at this – it says right here…”
She refused to accept the paper he held out in front of her. “Riley, I’m only going to say this once so you better listen. Go back to LA. Don’t try to contact me again, just stay the hell away from me!” With those final words, Buffy pushed her way past him and stormed away before he got the chance to stop her.
Spike didn’t want to doubt her, but he really wished that Buffy would have told him the whole story about her relationship with Riley before she rushed off to meet him. She’d said she was going to, but then she just took off. To tell Riley – once and for all – to stay away from her, she’d said, and Spike believed her. She’d made it perfectly clear that it was him and not Riley she wanted to be with. But at the same time, he couldn’t help but to worry.
Of course, Buffy had been nothing but honest with him; she’d told him right away that Riley wanted to talk to her and that she’d agreed to meet him. She had also pointed out that if he didn’t want her to, she wouldn’t go. He knew she really meant it, and that was why he’d told her that he was okay with it. She had kissed him then, and promised to be back within an hour.
That was almost two hours ago. He knew he was being silly; she was probably on her way back right now, but a part of him couldn’t help but fear that she wouldn’t come back to him. Spike was fully convinced that what Riley wanted to talk about was that he wanted Buffy back. Of course, that didn’t mean that he would actually get her back. After all, Buffy had told him she wasn’t like the other girls he’d been with, he just needed to remember that. But where the bloody hell was she?
Buffy had just been wandering around town for the past hour. She felt a little guilty, knowing that Spike was probably worried, but she just couldn’t go back yet. The minute she would step through the door, Spike would want to know what happened. Not that she could blame him. But what was she supposed to tell him?
She was still furious. Not only had Riley hired someone to check up on Spike, which was downright insulting, but when he couldn’t find anything bad enough to break them up, he’d made up this horrible lie, hoping for what? That she would just leave Spike? That was crazy, it didn’t make any sense at all. Was Riley really stupid enough to think that he could actually get her back? And why would he even want her back, he was the one who had dumped her in the first place, not the other way around.
He could prove it, he’d said. Bullshit! Buffy was fuming. She may not have known Spike for that long yet, but at least she knew that he could never have done something as horrible as trying to rape someone. If Riley had been smart, he would at least try to come up with a somewhat believable story. But this, it was so absurd, she would almost have laughed at Riley’s stupidity if she hadn’t been so royally pissed off.
Oh well, she couldn’t stay away forever, she might as well go back and tell Spike everything. She didn’t look forward to it, though, he wouldn’t be happy at all about being falsely accused for something like that. If Riley knew what was good for him, he’d get the hell away from Sunnydale as soon as possible.
Sighing, Buffy started to head back.
Spike was just about to call Buffy on her cell phone when the door suddenly opened and she stepped through, a grim look on her face. Beyond relieved to see her, he walked up to her to give her a hug, but hesitated after seeing her expression. “Buffy? What’s wrong, luv? What happened?”
For some reason, Buffy wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You really don’t wanna know,” she mumbled. Then she finally looked up. “Spike, we need to talk.” She started towards him, only to stop with a frown when he quickly took a step back before she could touch him. “Spike?”
“So, this is it then? You’re going back to him?” Spike swallowed, certain that his worst fear had come true. That Buffy had somehow realized that he wasn’t the one she wanted after all.
“What?” Buffy just stared at him as his words started to sink in. Then she exploded. “Are you kidding me?! How can you think, even for a minute…?” Tears started welling up in her eyes. “I thought you trusted me. You really don’t believe in me at all, do you? You actually think that I would just…” She failed to hold back a choked sob, not able to get the rest of the sentence out.
Spike’s eyes widened in surprise and he immediately realized that he had screwed up big time. He reached out towards her in a desperate attempt to keep her from leaving and just hear him out. “Buffy, I…” She pushed him away and ran into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
TBC