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Author's Chapter Notes:
only three more chaps left...and therefore I decided I would post who all of my characters are....though many are obvious and many I've revealed who they are...but just in case here they all are...

James- Spike
Juliet- Drusilla
Julie- Darla
David- Angel
Vince- Conner
Ally- Willow
Amber- Tara
Michelle- Dawn
Nick- Xander
Chris- Lindsey
Andy- Lorne (and yes I know Lorne was not a bad guy, and I liked him, but I had originally planned to use Wesley and Gunn somewhere else in the story and just never did)
Carrie- Cordelia
Robia- Jenny Calendar
Tony- Giles
Emma- Anya

Quiet obviously I’m sure you can all see how I came up with their names…I’m very creative…lol…not really…

All other characters (such as Julie’s parents) are made up and not based on any BTVS/ATS characters...

now on with the story...
Strange Happenings


It was August. Both Buffy and James would be starting their first semesters at CSU in a few weeks. Their affair had lasted weeks and still no one had a clue. Buffy had come to accept it though she still had her doubts. The bigger problem was that Nick had begun pursuing her more actively, and she had no choice but to go along with it. If she turned him down there was a chance that someone would get suspicious and they couldn’t have that happen. But the more time they spent together the guiltier she felt about the whole. She didn’t want to hurt him and knew that if she kept this up much longer that it would be inevitable. The last thing she needed was to have him fall in love with her or something.

But as much as she wanted to end it now in attempts to not hurt him, she couldn’t turn down his many offers to lunch. So here she was, for the third time this week, holding hands, walking through town with Nick. He was talking about something lawyerish and Buffy was having a hard time keeping up. He noticed her facial expressions when he started to talk about eminent domain.

“I’m boring you aren’t I?”

“No no…it’s very…educational.”

“I’m sure.”

“It is. I had no idea that evidence was ruled inadmissible in court if it violated the…tree of poisonous fruit…thingy.”

“Fruit of the Poisonous Tree.”

“That’s what I said.” He laughed and squeezed her hand. He wasn’t sure what it was about this girl, but she was unlike anyone he had ever met, and he wanted to get to know everything about her.

“So enough talking about me, let’s talk about you.”

“What do you wanna know?”

“Who is Buffy Summers?”

“Well she’s this amazing girl with blonde hair and green eyes, who loves to watch old movies and eat sushi,” she said with a smile.

“Well I already knew all of that. Except the sushi part. I’m not too crazy about that stuff myself.”

“Oh why not? It’s delicious.” He made a face.

“Raw fish? Doesn’t sound appetizing to me.”

“Well it so is, and have you ever even tried it? Don’t diss it until you’ve tasted it.” He shook his head no. “Well we’ll just have to go try it sometime won’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess we will.” The look on his face made her regret her words. Asking for more dates was definitely considered leading him on, and that was what she was supposed to be trying not to do. They walked and talked a few more minutes before they came upon the magic shop. Buffy glanced over and halted in front of it. Nick stopped when he noticed she was no longer beside him and backed up.

“What’s wrong Buffy?” She was staring at the sign on the building.

“The Magic Box? Didn’t it used to be called the Magic Shop?”

“No I don’t think so, but I’m not too sure. I don’t visit that place that much,” Nick replied. Buffy made a face at the sign. She was sure that it had been the Magic Shop before.

“Let’s go in there.”

“You wanna go in there?” Nick asked not sounding too thrilled about it.

“Yeah. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the store.

The red headed girl was standing behind the counter. She looked up when she heard the bell over the door ding.

“Welcome back,” she said to Buffy. Nick gave her a look.

“Back? You’ve been here before?”

“Just once with Julie.”

“If there’s anything I can help you find just let me know,” Ally said.

“Actually there is something,” Buffy said walking over to where the girl was standing. “When did you guys change your name?”

“Our name?”

“Yeah the name of your store.” The girl gave Buffy a weird look.

“Umm…we haven’t. At least not since I’ve been working here.”

“But, didn’t it used to be the Magic Shop?”

“Nope. Magic Box. I don’t really know why that name. I guess the owner just thought it would be different.”

“Yeah…I guess so.” Buffy still wasn’t convinced. “And you’re sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Buffy,” Nick said, “I think she’s right.”

“But I was sure it was the Magic Shop. I don’t know, maybe I’m losing my mind.” She tried to brush it off, but couldn’t. She would have remembered if it had been called the Magic Box because that had been what Giles called his shop. Though it would make sense if this place was the Magic Box and she had seen it before her coma.

“We should probably get going Buffy; I have some work I need to do before tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she agreed. They said their goodbyes to Ally and left the shop.

When they arrived back at her house he pulled into the driveway and put the car in park.

“You’re coming tonight right?” he asked.

“Yeah. Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Great.” He was looking at her and she knew what he was going to do. He leaned over and kissed her. She did her best to respond, but was happy when he pulled away.

“I’ll see you tonight.”

K,” she replied giving him a slight smile as she got out of the car. She waved a goodbye to him as he drove off. Dating him was becoming increasingly harder. He wasn’t really pressuring her or anything, but she could tell he wanted more from her than she was currently willing to give. She couldn’t give him what she was already giving James. James. She looked towards his house, and wondered if he was home. She really needed to see him right now.
----------------------------

She hadn’t seen him in days and all she wanted to do was have sex. But for some reason the Magic Box thing was still bothering her, and she was all tensed up. This did not go unnoticed by James.

“Relax pet,” he said against her throat. Buffy’s eyes widened and she put her hands on his chest pushing him.

“What did you just call me?” James pulled back and looked at her confused.

“Uhh…Buffy?”

“No you didn’t. You called me pet.”

“And why would I do that?” That was a good question.

“Well I…I don’t know.” He was looking at her strangely. “Never mind. It was probably just me.”

“Are you sure?” She shook her head yes and he returned his lips to hers. But it wasn’t just her and she was almost positive of that. To be honest though, that was not the only reason she was tense. When she’d arrived at his house almost an hour earlier, Juliet had been there. She and James were watching a movie on TV. Buffy had made up some lame excuse as to why she was there, but thankfully Juliet had bought it. Buffy had sat with them while they finished the movie, silently hating the fact that she had to watch them snuggling on the couch. As soon as it was over, Juliet had left, never suspecting what would happen when she did. It made Buffy cringe. How could they do this to her? What kind of people were they anyway?

James could tell after a moment that she wasn’t into it and rolled off of her sitting up and running a hand through his hair.

“If you’re not in the mood just say so,” he told her.

“Who says I’m not.”

“Your body says. And you were barely kissing me back.”

“I’m sorry,” she said sitting up beside him, “my minds just all over the place right now.”

“Does this have something to do with what happened earlier?” He knew she was referring to the Juliet incident.

“No, it’s not that. At least not totally that.”

“Buffy, I told you not to feel guilty.”

“Well I can’t help it. She’s my friend and I feel like I’m stabbing her in the back. It’s hard for me to even look at her without thinking about what we’re doing behind her back, behind all of their backs.” James sighed. He was tired of talking about this. He wanted her to just be okay with the situation. But he knew that she couldn’t, and he knew that all of her guilt and his own was his fault. If he could just break up with Juliet then none of this would be happening. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Every time he got ready to tell her it was over she would tell him how much she loved him, and that she didn’t know what she would do without him. How was he supposed to follow that with ‘I wanna break up so I can openly be with Buffy’?

“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to do this. You shouldn’t have to settle for secret.”

“And neither should you.” He didn’t know what to say to that. When he didn’t respond she shook her head slightly and got up off of the bed. His unwillingness to break up with Juliet was really starting to irritate her. Not to mention his constant frustration with her guilt.

“I should go. I have some things I need to do before tonight.” They wanted to go to the club tonight for Chris’s birthday. Buffy wasn’t really in the mood for a group outing, but she had promised Nick she would go.

“Right then.” Buffy picked up her over shirt off of the floor and put it on heading for the door. Before she left she offered him a ‘see you later’, which got no response. This relationship was becoming more and more stressful and Buffy didn’t know how much more of it she could take.
------------------------------

Nick arrived to pick her up around 7. When she got in the car, he told her how great she looked and she attempted her best smile. They drove in silence for most of the way.

“So I was thinking about what you said earlier,” Nick said suddenly.

“Yeah?”

“About getting sushi sometime. I think we should. You were right; I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Besides, then I would get to spend more time with you.”

“And nothing could be better than that,” she said even though on the inside she was still wishing she’d never said anything.

They pulled into the parking lot and saw all of their friends standing by their cars. They parked the car and got out making their way to where they were all standing.

“Nice of you two to show up,” Chris said jokingly.

“Sorry, but beauty like this takes time,” Buffy told him making all of the girls laugh.

“Touché.” Buffy looked at James who was smiling as well. She forced herself to look away before anyone noticed.

“Well why don’t we head inside?” Juliet said. They all made their way to the front of the club.

“I can’t wait to get in there and bust some moves,” Chris said sliding sideways.

“Just don’t hurt yourself honey,” Julie told him with a laugh. The group rounded the corner of the club and started to go in when Buffy looked up at the sign. No longer was there a blue sign that with Freddy’s written on it. In its place was a large silver sign that read…

The Bronze.





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