The moment Buffy stepped through the doors leading into the school building, she felt like everybody was staring at her. For a moment, she was convinced that the whole school for some reason had found out about the cruel joke Riley had played on her a couple of days ago. Although she realized that was probably not the case, she still couldn’t quite shake the feeling that everybody was laughing at her behind her back, and wished that she could just crawl under some rock and hide there for the rest of the day. Or possibly for the rest of the school year.
Suddenly, she remembered that she had planned to talk to William, but decided that it could wait until after lunch. She still wasn’t quite sure where she was standing with him, and right now, she just wanted to find Willow and Xander before class. Grabbing a couple of books from her locker, she slammed the door closed and turned around to go look for her friends. Too late, she noticed the two girls who had walked up behind her, just waiting for her to turn around, and bumped right into one of them. She gasped as she lost her balance and managed to drop all of her books on the floor. Embarrassed beyond words, she immediately dropped to her knees, trying to gather her belongings before anyone would accidentally step on them.
The two girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes, neither making the slightest move to help her. One of them; a long blonde with a lot of make-up and expensive looking clothes, crossed her arms over her chest. “So, you think you can steal my boyfriend?”
Finally scrambling to her feet, Buffy stared at her in confusion. “What? I don’t know what you…”
“Excuse me; did I say you could speak?” The girl glared at her, and Buffy closed her mouth, abruptly. She went on; “Let me tell you something, bitch! You’re nothing. My sweetie-bear wouldn’t look at you if you so were the last girl on the planet!”
Despite her anger and humiliation, Buffy had to cough to keep from laughing. “Your sweetie…?”
“Riley!” The girl looked furious. Buffy vaguely recognized her as one of Cordelia’s friends, and desperately tried to remember her name. Melody? No, Harmony. Her eyes widened as realization hit her. This was Riley’s girlfriend? Buffy couldn’t help but thinking that the two of them really deserved each other.
Now she took a deep breath. “Listen, I don’t know why you’d think I was, but I’m so not interested in Riley. Believe me.” She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah? You’re lying! I was there when you called him. Did you really think he would ever go out with you?” Harmony turned to her friend. “Talk about pathetic!” The other girl nodded.
Buffy swallowed. “Look, he was the one who told me to call in the first place. I didn’t know he was seeing someone. And I didn’t even…” She stopped, deciding that she didn’t owe this girl any further explanations. That was clearly Riley’s job.
Harmony snorted. “Yeah, right! Why would he do something like that?” Buffy opened her mouth, but she went on; “Face it, geek! You’re just a big loser and Riley doesn’t want anything to do with you. Stay away from him!” Before Buffy could say anything else, Harmony pushed past her, deliberately knocking the books out of her hands again. The other girl burst out laughing, then hurried after her friend without a word.
Buffy just stared after them as they left, tears of humiliation welling up in her eyes. Once again, she dropped to the floor to pick up her books. Both students and teachers were passing in the hallway on their way to their classes, but after a quick glance in her direction, they all simply ignored her. She kept her eyes on the floor, not wanting to see them laughing.
“Buffy?”
She froze in her tracks when she heard a familiar voice. Oh God, she thought, please not this! Was there just no end to her humiliation? Swallowing hard, she finally looked up, right into a couple of beautiful, blue eyes. “William?”
“Hey.” He had a concerned look on his face as he slowly walked over to her. “You okay, pet?”
She just stared at him for a moment, and that was when everything just snapped. Furiously grabbing her books, she quickly got to her feet, glaring at him. “Do I look okay to you?!”
He looked taken aback by her outburst, taking a step back. “Sorry, I just…”
“I’m late for class. Excuse me.” Too embarrassed to even look at him, Buffy simply stepped past him without another word. In her eagerness to get away, she accidentally stumbled, and managed to break the heel of one of her shoes. Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she let out a furious cry. “Dammit!” Then, much to her horror, she simply burst into tears. This was just too much.
“Buffy? Are you…?” William hesitated, suddenly not sure of what to do. Buffy had made it perfectly clear that she didn’t want to talk to him, but now she was crying and he didn’t have the heart to just walk away. Finally, he walked over to her and awkwardly patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. Don’t cry.” He paused. “Here, let me help you.” He gently took the books from her arms, relieved when she gave him a grateful look through the tears. “Um, you were heading for class? I’ll walk you.”
“No.” He gave her a somewhat hurt look, and she hurried on; “I mean, thanks, but I think I’ll just skip it. I’m late, anyway, and…” She wiped at her eyes and finished with a shrug; “Don’t want anyone to see me like this.” She rolled her eyes at his confused expression and gestured to her face. “Hello? Raccoon eyes, here!”
He couldn’t help but chuckle, but when he noticed the death glare she gave him, he hurried to apologize. “Sorry, luv. But really, you don’t need to worry. You’ll always look beautiful.” As soon as the words had left his mouth, he blushed and silently cursed himself for being such a fool. He did not just say that! Not that he didn’t mean it because she really did, but still.
Buffy stared at him, trying to figure out if he was just messing with her. But he looked sincere. She gave him a small smile. “Right. Sorry for yelling at you before. I just…” Then she stopped, not sure of how to explain.
But William gave her an assuring smile. “I get it. Bad day, eh?”
She let out a deep sigh. “You could say that.”
He nodded. “Know what that’s like. Had a few of them myself.”
Buffy gave him a curious look, but he didn’t say more so she decided to let it go. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah?” William looked a little surprised.
She nodded. “Yeah. I tried to talk to you when we ran into each other the other day, but…” Her voice trailed off as she wasn’t sure of how to go on.
“Oh.” Remembering their last encounter, William had the decency to look ashamed. “Look, I’m really sorry ‘bout that. I, um…” He hesitated.
“Let me guess? Bad day?” Buffy smiled a little.
He found himself smiling back and nodded. “Something like that.”
“Well, then I guess we’re even.” Buffy suddenly felt much better. Maybe this day wouldn’t be so bad after all.
TBC