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Chapter 19: Reptile Boy (Part 1 of 3)

A loud, obnoxious and obviously fake laugh rang down the halls of Sunnydale High.

"See?" Cordelia told her friend. "Dr. Debi says when a man is speaking you make serious eye contact, and you really, really listen, and you laugh at everything he says." She forced herself to laugh again.

Just then, Willow and Buffy came down the stairs and passed her.

"You dreamed about Spike again?" Willow asked.

"Third night in a row," Buffy confirmed.

"What did he do in the dream?"

"Stuff," Buffy answered coyly.

Willow smiled widely. "Oh! Stuff!" Buffy smiled back. "Was it one of those vivid dreams where you could feel his lips and smell his hair?"

"It had surround sound. I'm just thinking about him so much lately. We've been keeping kind of formal, since my run in with Robin."

"I guess it must be weird for him, but you two are so right for each other. Except for the, uh. . ."

"Vampire thing," Buffy volunteered.

"That doesn't make him a bad person. Necessarily."

"It just makes things confusing."

"What's confusing?" Xander asked them as he exited his class and saw them.

"My life, but what else is new?" Buffy said.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

School had just ended for the day, and Buffy was sitting on the railing of the stairs next to the street. Xander and Willow walked toward her talking.

"Boy, what a long day," Xander said.

"And you skipped three classes," Willow pointed out.

"Yeah, and of course, THEY flew by. Buffy!" he greeted her.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework in the library?" Willow asked.

"I'm dawdling," she said as she took Xander's arm. "With my friends."

"Works for me," Xander said.

Cordelia walked by and bumped into Willow. She continued down the stairs without so much as an acknowledgment.

"You okay?" Buffy asked Willow.

"Jeez," was all Willow said.

They all watched Cordelia as she approached a black BMW with tinted windows that had pulled up. Deciding as one that worrying about Cordelia's lack of manners was a waste of time, they went about with their dawdling.

"Okay, so tonight," Xander continued. "Channel fifty-nine, Indian TV, sex, lies, incomprehensible story lines. I'll bring the betel nuts."

Suddenly Cordelia came back toward them, and reached for Buffy's arm. "Come on. Richard and his fraternity brother wanna meet you."

"Well, I don't really wanna meet any fraternity boys," Buffy said looking at the two college-age guys that Cordelia had been talking to.

Cordelia pulled her toward them, "And if there was a God, don't you think he'd keep it that way?"

"Uh, I-I believe we were dawdling here!" Xander said annoyed by the interruption.

Cordelia continued to pull Buffy up toward the car.

"Hi, sweetheart," the driver said. "I'm Richard. And you are?"

"SO not interested," Buffy said as she tried to leave.

Cordelia grabbed Buffy's hand. "Heh, she's such a little comedienne."

"What, she likes to play hard to get?" asked the driver.

"No, Richard. I think you're playing easy to resist," his friend said.

Buffy started to leave again, but Richard's friend headed her off. "Ah, feel free to ignore him. I do all the time." Buffy stopped to let him speak. "I'm Tom Warner. I'm a senior at Crestwood College, and I. . . and I just feel like a complete dolt meeting you this way, so. . ." He crossed his arms. "Here I stand in all my doltishness."

"I'm Buffy Summers," she introduced. It couldn't hurt to be nice to him, since he didn't seem to be as much a jerk as his friend Richard. Besides, he was kind of cute.

"Oh, nice to meet you. Are you a senior here?"

"Junior."

"Oh, me, too. Except that I'm a senior and I'm in college. So we have that in common, and. . . I major in history."

"Mm. History stumps me. I have a hard enough time remembering what happened last week."

"No, nothin' happened last week, don't worry, I was there. So, uh, my friend invited your friend to a party we're having this weekend."

Behind them they could hear Cordelia doing her fake laugh loudly for Richard.

"You know," Tom said, looking over at Richard and Cordelia. "Actually he's not even really my friend. I only joined the fraternity because my father and grandpa were in it before me. Y'know, it meant a lot to them. Oh, I know, I talk too much anyway. They're really dull parties full of really dull people, so. . . would you like to come and save me from a really dull fate?"

"Oh, I wish I could, but I'm sort of involved."

He really was kind of charming. But he wasn't Spike.

"Well, sure, of course you are. Well, thanks for letting me ramble," Tom said.

"Y'know, people underestimate the value of a good ramble."

Out of no where Giles suddenly called her name. "Buffy!"

She turned to look and saw him pointing at his watch and walk off to the library.

"Oh, I gotta go," Buffy reluctantly said. "It was nice to meet you."

"Oh. Same here," he said as she grabbed her bag and ran off to the library.

He really was a nice guy. Not to mention normal. For a moment Buffy wished she wasn't involved with Spike, so that she could be a little more normal. But only a moment. The thought of Spike kissing and touching her drove those thoughts away. Besides, Tom wasn't half the hottie that Spike was.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Buffy was strolling through the cemetery, keeping a careful watch. She spotted a bracelet on the ground and bent down to pick it up. Spike suddenly appeared behind her.

"There's blood on it," he said matter of factly.

Startled she got up and faced him.

"Hi. It's nice to. . . Blood?"

"I can smell it."

"Oh." She examined it more closely. "It's pretty thin. It probably belonged to a girl."

"Probably."

"So anyway, I'm really sorry about the other night," Buffy said, changing the subject away from blood and death.

"It's not your fault, Robin's just been. . ." Spike paused, searching for a way to explain the relationship between him and his son. "It didn't used to be like this. We always got along, we were close. Even when he was a . . . until he went to college."

"But now he's got a major independant streak?"

Spike snorted as if he didn't quite agree, but couldn't quite figure out how to refute her statement.

"Look, I know why you don't want him out hunting vampires, but. . . it must be hard. Knowing the thing that killed your mom is still out there, still killing."

"He's going to get himself killed."

"No, he's not. Cause I'm going to get this Angelus guy first. If only he'd I don't know, show up for his staking."

"Angelus is patient. He'll show when he's ready, and not a moment before."

"Patient bad guys. Where's the fun in that?" Buffy sighed.





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