Something Madness This Way Comes
“I cannot believe I agreed to this. I’m insane. Don’t you think I’m insane?” Buffy was pacing back and forth across her room.
“No I do not think you’re insane. I think you’re nervous.”
“I am so not nervous.” But even as the words left her mouth she did not believe them. In truth she was very nervous. And not just because she was going on a date with someone who was once her friend. She had no idea how this night would turn out.
“Right,” Julie replied. She had come over to help Buffy move some of her old things out.
“So tell me again why you and Chris aren’t going.”
“Because I have other plans. I already promised my time to someone else. I can’t very well break that promise just to barge in on your date now can I?”
“No,” Buffy said defeated, “I suppose not.”
“And besides…James and Juliet will be there. I’m sure if things start to go downhill one of them will save you.” ‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ she thought.
“Yeah but they won’t be there the whole time. I just don’t know if I can do this. I mean technically I haven’t been on a date in like six years. What if I screw up totally?”
“You won’t. And it’s not like it’s really you’re first date with him. I mean you’ve been out with him several times.”
“When there were other people around. But at least for part of the night it will be just the two of us. What are we going to talk about?” It wasn’t like she could tell him how in another life he had been her funny friend Xander whom could always lighten the mood and make a situation easier.
“I’m sure you’ll find something to talk about.”
“But what if…”
“Can I ask you something?” Julie was looking at her seriously. Buffy nodded. “If you’re really having so many doubts about this then why did you agree to go out with him in the first place?”
‘Well because James came over all talking about going out with his girlfriend and I got a little jealous and therefore wanted to make him jealous and then he invited us to hang out with them and I couldn’t very well say no to that now could I?’ That’s what she wanted to say. Instead…
“I don’t know. Because he’s a nice guy.” Julie shook her head.
“Buffy Buffy Buffy. That’s one thing that you should never do. Don’t go out with someone because they’re a nice guy. Go out with them because you like them. Because you really think you would be good together.”
“Well I do like him. Just maybe not the way he wants me to.”
“So tell him that. For Heaven’s sake don’t lead him on. That’s the worst thing you can do to a guy.” She thought of Spike then. She had done that same thing to him. Although technically she had done more than simply led him on. And that had turned out disastrous. She could not do that to poor Nick. She would tell him tonight. Tell him that she just wanted to be friends before she hurt him too much. ‘Yes,’ she thought. ‘That is exactly what I’ll do.’
“You’re right. I’ll do that.”
“Good.” Buffy grabbed a necklace off of her desk and started to put it on. “Hey Buffy. I hope you don’t mind but the person I have plans with…I kinda told them to meet me here. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well they might not be here by the time you leave. But it shouldn’t be too long after that. Probably about eight.”
“That’s fine. Mom will be here, and I’m sure she won’t care if you stick around.”
“Great.”
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The doorbell rang at 7:30 p.m. Buffy made her way to the door. She had a plan. A good plan. A flawless plan. Everything would be okay. She would tell him she just wanted to be friends and say she hoped that he felt the same. Even if he said he had been expecting more surely he would nod and agree. The bad thing was that he might decide that he didn’t want to see her at all anymore. She didn’t want to lose him completely. After all in another world they had been best friends. But surely that would never happen. The plan would work. She had decided to wear the new red dress that she had recently purchased. It was fancy enough to where she would blend in if they went to a nice restaurant, but still not too formal if they went to the club.
She opened the door and saw Nick standing there in dark jeans and a nice button-up shirt.
“Why Ms. Summers you look absolutely amazing.” She smiled at the compliment.
“Thank you.”
“Are you ready to venture out on our night of fun?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Well then let us go.” She laughed at his words. It seemed Nick was more like Xander than she had originally thought he would be. They walked to his car and got in.
“So I hope you don’t mind, but I kinda told James that we would meet him and Juliet at Freddie’s later.”
“That’s cool. I was actually going to suggest we go there after dinner. I heard there’s a really awesome band playing there tonight. Ghost of the…something…”
“Sounds entertaining.”
The rest of the ride to the restaurant was spent chatting about what had happened during the day and all such as that. Apparently Nick’s brother and his brother’s wife were staying with him for the week and were about to drive him up the wall. Buffy wondered about that. Xander after all hadn’t had any siblings.
Dinner went pretty well. They ate at a nice, slightly fancy, restaurant. Buffy was glad that she had decided to wear the dress. The evening was filled with small talk, and the ex-slayer found herself having a wonderful time. She never knew that going out with him could be so much fun. In her mind they had hung out as friends, but had never been on a date date. ‘Why,’ she wondered had she never considered dating him. ‘Because you were too busy dating dead guys,’ her mind told her. They talked about his job and about his life. She found out that he lived in an apartment downtown, had a good relationship with his parents, and had only ever been in one serious romantic relationship. She wondered if the girl whom he had had this relationship with would be someone that she knew. It was very possible.
“So off to Freddie’s then?” he asked her as they walked out the doors of the restaurant.
“I suppose so.” James entered her mind. He would be there with Juliet, and they would be dancing and having a good time. But she would be doing the same thing with Nick. She was still curious as to why James had asked her to come in the first place. Before she had told him that she had a date he must have just assumed that it would be just her…alone…with the two of them. Third wheel much? But maybe that hadn’t been his intention. It was possible that he assumed that she would invite Nick to come along since he had been her ‘date’ to almost every event the group attended together. She wasn’t sure.
“So Buffy. We’ve talked a lot about me, but not a lot about you.”
“There’s not much to tell.”
“Well there must be something.”
“Not really.” She wondered if Chris had told him that she had been institutionalized until recently. It was unlikely seeing as how he still wanted to date her. Though it seemed that that fact didn’t really matter to these people. It seemed almost as if they had forgotten about it. She decided not to mention it.
“Oh come on. You haven’t had at least one bad past relationship that you wanna talk about?”
“Nope. My record is spot free.” She wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not.
“Okay. If you say so.” They drove in silence for a few minutes before he decided to try something else.
“Did James say anything about this band that’s playing tonight?”
“Nope. All he said was that he and Juliet were going.”
“Oh. They like to go there a lot don’t they?”
“Kinda seems like it. You would think they would get tired of it.” She would have also thought that her and her friends would have gotten tired of The Bronze too, but they hadn’t.
“Yeah you would. But I hear they have lots of different bands that play all the time. Maybe that’s what keeps drawing the crowds in.”
“Maybe.” They pulled into the parking lot.
“We’re here.”
“So we are.” They got out and headed inside. She looked around to see if she could see James and Juliet.
Nick elbowed her gently. “Hey look, there’s an empty table.” She nodded and they went and sat down.
“Seems crowded.”
“Yeah,” she said absently still looking around for the couple.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Huh...oh sure.” He waved down a waitress who took their drink orders.
“Buffy are you okay?”
“Yeah why?”
“You seem distracted is all.”
“I’m fine. I was just looking for…” she was cut off by the sound of a voice from the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for Ghost of the Robot.”
“Oh looks like the bands ready to perform,” Nick said. Their eyes went to the stage where they saw some men take their places. None of them looked familiar. Except the lead singer who at that moment began to sing.
Got an old Smiths' record
and I put it on endlessly.
To mourn a lethal fascination
of a girl named Valerie.
Buffy’s mouth dropped open. James was in the band. She had only ever heard him sing a few times, but never had he seemed to show any interest in doing it as a profession. If vampires had professions that is. Seemed he was more different than Spike then she had originally thought.
She got a XXX rating
and maybe someday she'd have married me.
But, she was born to keep me waiting.
Her name was Valerie.
With a little more time, I was thinking
we could've worked my hooks into you.
“That’s James isn’t it? I didn’t know he was in a band” Nick said.
“Me neither.” For some reason Buffy was mesmerized by him. James looked at her, or at least she thought he was looking at her.
Over a recent complication
I came to find that she'd tired of me.
She wrote the book of Revelations.
Her name was Valerie.
With a little more time, I was thinking
we could've worked my life around you.
With a little more time... WOO!
James’ eyes were locked on hers. He wondered if she knew it was her who he was looking at. Surely she must have realized it. He’s spotted her the second she had come in…with him. Though that was to be expected. They were on a date after all.
Her name was Valerie (Valerie)
Her name was Valerie (Valerie)
Her name was Valerie (Valerie)
Her name was Valerie
He broke eye contact and looked around the room at the now applauding audience.
“Thank you. How are all of you doing this evening?” he asked. There was an array of screams.
Buffy still couldn’t believe it. How weird was this? And what was with him looking at her? Was he trying to say something? She was pulled out of her thoughts by Nick.
“What the hell are you doing here?” His voice sounded hard and serious.
“I could ask you the same question.” Buffy looked to see another guy standing in front of her.
“I’m on a date,” Nick told him putting his arm around Buffy.
“A date huh? And with a girl? That’s a change.”
“Just leave us alone Andy.”
“Oooo. He wants me to leave him alone,” he told the two guys standing behind him. They laughed in response.
“Kiss my ass.” He stood up and started to walk away. “Let’s go,” he told Buffy. She started to follow him when the guy yelled.
“That’s right. Walk away like the pansy you are.” Nick stopped abruptly and spun around. In one quick motion he walked back over to Andy and punched him in the face. The guy fell to the ground. Before the others had a chance to react Nick grabbed Buffy’s hand and pulled her away from the group of men. When they were outside he stopped walking.
“What was that about?” Buffy asked him.
“Sorry. There’s just something about him. He knows just how to push my buttons, you know?”
“Yeah. I’ve known people like that,” she said thinking of Spike. “Who was that anyway?”
“Nobody important.” She knew he didn’t want to talk about it so decided to drop it. Honestly she was shocked that he had done that. Xander had never spontaneously punched anyone.
“You wanna just go?” she asked him. “We could get ice cream or something.”
“Sounds good.”
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“Thanks. I had a really good time tonight.”
“Me too.”
“I’m sorry about the whole fight thing. I just really hate that guy.”
She smiled. “It’s okay. I understand.” Silence overtook them for a few seconds.
“Well I guess I’ll be going now.”
“Okay.” He hesitated not knowing whether he should kiss her or not. He opted for a kiss on the cheek. She waved goodbye to him and stood by the door as he walked down the driveway to his car. He was sweet. She closed the door and smiled to herself. Maybe dating him wouldn’t be so bad after all. He seemed to at least know how kick some ass, and that was always a plus.
She stated walking up the stairs when she heard a knock on the door. ‘He must have forgotten something,’ she thought.
She opened the door expecting of course to see Nick standing there.
It was not Nick however, who she saw standing there.
No, not Nick at all.
“Hi. I’m looking for Julie Johansson.”
“Wha…huh…” Buffy found herself unable to respond.
“Julie…Johansson? Am I at the right house?” He stepped back and looked at the numbers on the side of the house. Before Buffy could say anything she heard Julie’s voice behind her.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry,” he said. Buffy looked back and forth between them still unsure that this was happening.
“Right.”
“Mommy!” came a small voice from behind the man in the doorway. Buffy noticed the child for the first time. He was small, probably about four or five. He came running in the house and grabbed Julie around the legs.
“Hey sweetheart,” she said hugging the child.
“Mommy mommy guess what me and daddy did today. We went to the truck show and the big trucks were so cool. They were really big and they crushed the cars and it was loud and people were screaming and it was sooooo cool.” She smiled at him.
“Sounds like it. Hey why don’t you go watch some TV huh?” He nodded and headed into the living room.
“Wait,” Buffy said confused. “I don’t understand.” Julie looked guiltily at Buffy.
“I’m sorry. He was supposed to be here sooner. We were going to be gone before you got home.” She cast a look at the man. He held up his hands.
“Sorry. We got caught up having such a good time. And there was traffic.”
“Uhuh.”
“Sorry Julie. But I don’t get to see him a lot, and I just wanted this day to be special.”
“And it was from the sound of him.”
“I really am sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Buffy was still gaping at him and he was starting to give her a funny look. Julie seemed to notice the strange way they were looking at each other. “Oh I’m sorry. Buffy this is David. David this is my friend Buffy.”
“It’s nice to meet you Buffy.” He reached for her hand. What was it with all of these people and shaking hands? She took it hesitantly.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” she managed. She didn’t know why she was acting like this. After all she had expected it to happen. Just not tonight…the night that had been crazy enough already.
“Well I guess I’d better go.” He turned to leave.
“I’ll see you next weekend.”
“Okay.” And with that…he was gone. Buffy stared at the closed door still unsure of what just happened. Finally after what seemed like forever she found her voice again.
“Who was that?” Julie bit her lip.
“My….ex.”
“Ex?” Well that made sense. But what about the little boy?
“And him?” Buffy asked pointing at the child in the living room.
“That,” she said, “is my son.”
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