The following week went by quickly, Buffy and William being almost inseparable, and before they knew it, it was Friday again. They had been working together on the History project every day after school, either at William’s house or at Buffy’s, and last night, they were finally finished. Buffy had never thought she would enjoy working on a school project that much, remembering how reluctant she had been when Mrs. French had first told her about it. Of course, back then, she didn’t know she would be working with William.
Her mother had been impressed as well, happy that Buffy finally seemed to take a school project so seriously. Of course, Buffy didn’t tell her that she and William didn’t just study during all the hours they spent together; sometimes there were some serious smooches involved as well. But as Joyce went on, Buffy just smiled and nodded, agreeing that working hard and doing well in school was most important.
Buffy had been kissing and making out with guys before, back in LA, but she could never compare those so-called relationships with what she now had with William. For one thing, she had never really enjoyed being too close with those guys, even though she had to admit that kissing was kinda nice. But she hadn’t wanted to take things further than that, simply because it didn’t feel right. And she had never before met a guy she felt so comfortable with that she would even consider going all the way and sleep with him. Her old friends used to talk about sex all the time, but Buffy had never understood what was so amazing about it. Of course, she never said that out loud.
But being with William was different. For some reason, she just couldn’t get enough of snuggling with him, and when they finally kissed for the first time – on her bed, surrounded by their text books and all her stuffed animals – Buffy felt like she had somehow died and ended up in Heaven. It was such a cliché, sure, but she couldn’t help but feeling like she was bouncing around on little pink clouds. And whenever she was around William, she just couldn’t stop smiling. Fortunately, William clearly felt the same way.
Tonight, they would first have dinner with William’s mother and then meet up with Willow and Xander at the popular night club; The Bronze. They had spent some time together, all four of them, at school during the last week, and it had turned out that William and Xander actually seemed to get along quite well. Willow had told Buffy over the phone one night that Xander apparently had started dating a girl from his Algebra class, called Anya Jenkins, and although Buffy was happy for him, she was also incredibly grateful. She got the feeling that Xander used to have a crush on her, which made her feel very uncomfortable. So naturally, him dating someone else was a huge relief.
Now she rang the doorbell, waiting for William to open. It had only been a couple of hours since she saw him in school, but she already missed him. She had never felt like that with any other guy before, either. Smiling to herself as the door swung open, she figured that was how it was supposed to be when you were in love with someone.
William couldn’t help but feel like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop; things had just seemed to be a little too good to be true lately. He supposed he just wasn’t used to good things happening to him and suspected that it would take some time before he would really dare to believe that his new-found happiness would last, that all the wonderful things that had happened lately might just not be temporary after all.
Surprisingly enough, Liam and his friends had actually stayed out of his way after the confrontation outside of school a week ago. William had never expected them to completely leave him alone after that day, but when he mentioned that to Buffy, she hadn’t seemed surprised at all. Instead she had just smiled, saying something like ‘See, I told you! You totally showed him!’ He hadn’t been that convinced, but maybe she was right after all.
Speaking of Buffy; the two of them had spent practically every day together for the last week. At first, things had been completely innocent, both of them being almost too shy and insecure for their own good, but as the time went by, they both became braver around each other. He had put his arm around her shoulders when they had decided to take a break from studying and watch a movie, and she had given him a soft peck on the cheek when he had offered to go get her a soda, but it took another three whole days until their first real kiss.
However, after that first fumbling attempt of taking their relationship to the next level, everything had changed. Suddenly, they just couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other. William’s mother, who had gotten much better during the last week, had mentioned something about going away to visit her sister the following weekend, leaving William alone in the house. But after seeing her son and the pretty blonde girl only grow closer and closer, Anne had jokingly threatened to send William’s uncle – Rupert – over to check on them, claiming she was still way too young to become a grandmother.
As he had blushed, furiously, William suspected that she was only half joking and assured his mother that she had nothing to worry about. Still, the idea of spending the whole night alone with Buffy made him more excited than he could remember ever being before. And judging by the huge smile on Buffy’s face when he had told her, she felt exactly the same way.
The relationship between William and his mother had also gotten better lately; he had made an effort of actually talking to her, and for the first time, he felt like Anne was genuinely interested in listening to what he had to say. Of course, he hadn’t told her everything that had been going on at school over the years, but at least he had given her some hints. The relief of finding out that her son was not the troublemaker she had thought quickly got replaced with guilt as Anne started to realize how horribly wrong she had been.
So, needless to say, William’s life had definitely changed for the better over the last few weeks. It had all happened so fast; one day he had been an outcast, feeling practically isolated from the rest of the world, and the next, Buffy Summers had entered his life. And from that moment, nothing was the same. He also knew that she felt the same way; they had both saved each other. Their relationship was still new, but William didn’t doubt for a moment that the love he already felt for her was real.
The shrill sound of the doorbell finally snapped him out of his thoughts, and he hurried towards the door. Even though Liam and the other bullies finally seemed to leave him alone, he knew that he would always be considered a loser by most of the kids in school. But that thought didn’t bother him much anymore. Buffy had insisted on him getting to know her friends, and he found, much to his surprise that Willow and Xander were really nice. And what was even more surprising, they seemed to genuinely like him as well.
Although he knew that Buffy’s life had changed drastically since she had moved to Sunnydale, it was obvious that she was happy here. And he felt oddly proud, knowing that he was one of the reasons behind her happiness. Buffy had clearly accepted the fact that her days as ‘miss popular’ were over; they would both probably be known as ‘the high school outcasts’ until the day they would graduate. But they couldn’t care less. Because they had each other.
TBC