[Reviews - 41]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2425 times

- Text Size +




Buffy was pretty sure that Spike wouldn’t follow her.

He was too cool to follow a geek who just ran out of the school, right?

“Bloody hell! Hold on!”

Wrong.

Sighing, Buffy stopped walking but didn’t turn around. When Spike finally caught up with her, he stood in front of her with a confused expression. Without warning, he lightly took her arm and rolled the sleeve up to reveal a few handprint-shaped bruises. “What is this?”

Buffy yanked her arm away, trying to pull something out of her brain. “I…um…”

“Don’t lie to me.” He sounded so firm and…caring? This just made Buffy even angrier.

“Why the hell do you care!” Spike was taken aback as he stared at the small blond that had just gotten the attention of half the students that were walking outside. “You don’t even know me! You’ve known me, what? Two days now? You think that gives you insight? You don’t. Even. Like. Me! So stop with the 'I care' act…and just…leave me alone!” When she’d finished with her little rant, she immediately walked away, thinking Spike would drop it.

Wrong again.

“Buffy,” he started, more softly this time.

“Stop it.” Her voice was low, but still demanding.

“Stop what?”

“Acting like you want to help, or that you care I’m hurting.”

“Are you hurting?” He questioned, trying to be clever in the way he got her to tell him what was going on.

But Buffy realized her slip up and didn’t even show emotion. “No.”

“Buffy…” After a sigh, he motioned for her to sit on the bench and he sat beside her. “I don’t know you…and if I was anything like my soddin’ ‘friends’, you’re right: I wouldn’t care. But I’m not them. You may not think highly of me, Princess, but I’m still the only one who’s sitting here trying to help you.”

Buffy realized he was right and gazed downward at her knees.

When she didn’t say anything, Spike continued. “I don’t know you,” he repeated. “But I don’t just stand by and watch people get hurt just because they aren’t as high on the popularity scale as I am.”

This earned a small smile from Buffy, which he returned.

“So, why do you?”

Spike was really confused. “Why do I what?”

“Hang out with those dorks you call friends?” She expected Spike to get mad and yell, but he didn’t. In fact, he laughed a little.

Buffy heard the tardy bell ring and realized they were the only students outside now.

“I don’t know,” he answered with a sigh. “They weren’t always like that. Gunn’s nice, though.”

“And hot,” Buffy added.

“Hey!” Spike tried to look offended, but couldn’t help but smile.

Buffy just shrugged with a smirk and sighed deeply. “We’re late.”

“Absent,” he corrected her.

“No, we can still-”

“Go out. You and me. Right now. Go get something for lunch.”

“We just had lunch.”

Spike raised his eyes at her. “Yeah, and you didn’t eat.”

“And how long have you been keeping tabs on me?”

“Since I saw that bruise on your cheek this morning.”

Buffy looked down to her feet at the seriousness of his tone. “I’m guessing that you’re not taking me out because you want to fill me up then,” she guessed, knowing he wanted to talk to her about her bruises.

“Well, that and…other things.” He looked down at her still uncovered arm and gave her a pointed look.

“Only if you can get me home on time. Angel and Darla don’t like it when I’m late.”

Spike just stared at her for a second and took a deep breath. “So, that’s the guy’s name? Angel?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Just wanted to know the name of the guy I’m going to have to kill,” he answered, only half joking.

He didn’t know why he cared so much.

Here he was chatting with a girl who he’d just met a day or so ago…and asking about her personal life.

He’d always been the type of person to care. When people needed help, he didn’t pass them by just because of their bad fashion sense or their social status. That had never been something to worry him.

But the friends he’d had since elementary school had suddenly become popular, so he found himself going with them.


---Later at lunch---

“So,” Spike said in-between mouthfuls. “Who are Angel and Darla?”

“You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“Nope.”

Sighing, Buffy chewed on a fry and then wiped her mouth. “My aunt and Uncle.”

“How long have you lived with them.”

“Not long. A couple weeks. Just since…what happened in LA.”

Spike eyed her for a second before continuing. “And what did happen in LA?”

Buffy nervously took a bite of her burger and shrugged. “N-nothing. Just…ya know, my mom and sister died is all.”

“Is all? Buffy…you say it like it’s not a big deal.”

“It is…a big deal. But it hurts to dwell, ya know?”

“So you’re not going to tell me what happened then?” When she shook her head ‘no’, he sighed and thought for a second. “Does he hit you?”

Buffy knew exactly what he was talking about. She didn’t want to open up like this to someone who was practically a stranger. But he did seem sincere about all this.

“No…not regularly. He only hit me once. But, I did something stupid, so I was pretty much asking for it.”

Spike looked a combination of pissed off and confused. “What could you possibly do that would make him hit you?”

“I…um, talked back…did the eye roll thing.”

“So, you acted like a normal teenage girl, so he backhanded you into a wall?” Buffy looked around to make sure no one heard his raised voice.

“No…I didn’t go into the wall.”

“Bloody hell, like that makes it any better!”

“Spike…”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Buffy.”

Sighing, Buffy leaned back. “Can I tell you something without your short temper getting in the way?” At his nod, she continued. “I don’t want you to worry. This isn’t your problem; it’s mine. So, just forget-”

“Are you completely daft?”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t lose your temper.”

“That’s before I knew what you were going to say. You need to tell someone.”

“I did tell someone. I told you.”

Sighing, Spike glared at her. “Someone who can stop the bas-”

“No…” Buffy’s almost inaudible whisper caused him to stop and turn to see what she was looking at. A young couple had just walked in the door, stumbling a little bit. The woman was blond and her male companion was a brunette.

“Is that-”

“Yes.” Spike had to ball his fists up to keep from going and pounding Angel’s head in now.

“Come on,” Spike took her hand, trying to walk them out without alerting her aunt and uncle.

Once outside, Spike felt Buffy’s hand trembling in his, so he turned her to face him. Tears were uncontrollably falling from her eyes in silent sobs. Without hesitation, he brought his arms around the upper part of her back holding her close.

“Oh, God…”

“It’s okay, luv, he didn’t see you.”

Buffy didn’t realize exactly how scared Angel made her.

“I want you to tell my dad,” Spike told her, pulling away slightly.

“I-I…”

“He doesn’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want him to. You can trust him, Buffy. But you need to let someone know.”

At Buffy’s nod, he took her hand and started walking her to her house. She’d have to tell Giles at school.

If it was this hard for her to go out to eat with a friend…she had no idea how she’d get out to the Bronze.

As they approached her house, Buffy stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the man waiting on the porch.

(I know, I’m evil. Lol. Shouldn’t be too incredibly hard to figure out who it is. Story will be getting better. The Bronze scene is going to change Buffy a lot…her attitude and behavior.)





You must login (register) to review.