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"Hey, Buffy, looks like Cecily showed up after all," Willow said, nudging the blonde as they walked together towards their lunch table. "Guess she was just running late today and not actually the victim of a freak animal attack."

"Joy of joys," Buffy muttered. "And I was so hoping for those rabid bunnies." She sat down at the table, Willow taking a seat across from her. Buffy had just started to examine the day's lunch when she noticed Cecily heading towards them. "Oh fuck, she's coming over here," Buffy swore, a sour expression on her face. "The bile that's rising up at the thought of talking to her is just what I needed to make this food even tastier."

Cecily stopped at the table, the smile she wore smug. "Hello, Buffy."

"Hello, Cecily. We missed you in first period today. I was really hoping nothing bad had happened to you," Buffy replied with obvious mock-sincerity.

"Oh, I was quite fine, I assure you," Cecily said. "I simply went to have a little chat with a mutual acquaintance of ours."

"A mutual…" Buffy's eyes grew wide as she realized who Cecily was talking about. "What the hell did you say to William?"

"Oh, I didn't really have to say anything. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. And those that I stumbled across, well, they're practically War and Peace." She cocked her head to the side, frowning a little. "Or at least the extremely slutty version. And then of course everything that with them… The newspaper articles, the police reports… My, my, Buffy, you were one busy little bee back in Los Angeles."

Buffy paled, her stomach turning. "What did you do?"

"I hired a private investigator to look into your record," Cecily replied with a shrug. "Though I think a lot of that stuff I could've found on my own, since it appears that your father has just enough money and clout for your exploits to make the tabloids. I couldn't have found the police records without the detective, however. Oh, you should've seen the look on William's face when he read those. It was just priceless."

Buffy fought back tears, refusing to give Cecily the satisfaction of seeing her cry. "Why did you do this to me? You didn't even want him!"

"I was merely looking out for William's best interests," Cecily said. "A man of his social stature can't start gallivanting around with some two-bit trollop."

"His what?" Buffy asked, her brow wrinkling.

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know," Cecily said, rolling her eyes. "As if you could be interested in poor, confused William for any other reason."

"Cecily, I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"He's part of the peerage, Buffy," Cecily said, talking to Buffy as if she were a small child. "William's a baron. And no matter how much of a media darling you were back home, you will never be good enough for him. You're nothing but trash."

Buffy couldn't hide her shock. Never once had William mentioned being a baron. Was Cecily even telling the truth? He certainly didn't seem like a baron… Or at least how she would have pictured one anyway. Shouldn't a baron live in a dark, sprawling estate with big stone walls? And shouldn't one dress more…baron-y? If William was a baron, then romance novels and movies had definitely been leading her astray. "He never told me anything about it…" she said to Cecily.

"Really? Never? Huh. Well, I guess he really was just using you then. I suppose he saw that he'd finally found someone slutty enough to give even him a decent shag, and he leapt at the chance. Although now that he's seen the damage that can cause, I'm sure he's ready to go back to a woman more…on his level." Cecily patted her curls.

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "You stay away from him, bitch. You already told him he was beneath you…"

"Yes, well, that was before you somehow managed to work wonders on him." Cecily smiled coolly. "I really should thank you for that, Buffy."

"He doesn't want you," Buffy ground out, barely able to rein herself in. The thought of William with Cecily together made her want to rip the other woman to shreds with her bare hands.

"Oh yes, I think he does," Cecily replied haughtily. "I was the one he loved—remember? The one he pined for, the one he called his muse." She looked at Buffy in disgust. "You were just his whore."

The last of Buffy's control snapped then. She lunged at Cecily, grabbing her by her hair and slamming her head down on the table. "You stay the hell away from him, you fucking bitch. I swear to god, I will make you hurt…"

"Miss Summers! Unhand Miss Underwood at once!"

Buffy swore under her breath as she saw one of her teachers approaching them. More trouble…just what she freaking needed.

"She…she just attacked me!" Cecily exclaimed as Buffy let her up. "It was completely unprovoked!"

"Miss Summers, please gather your things and come with me."

Buffy sighed, grabbing her book bag. "See you later, Wills," she said, following the teacher towards the office.

*** *** ***

Buffy stood outside of William's door, fighting back tears. Her outburst with Cecily had cost her a suspension for the rest of the week, though if her parents found out it could be much worse than that. This had been her last chance, and if she screwed up… Well, she wasn't quite sure what they'd do to her, but she knew it wouldn't be good.

She had to see William. He had to tell her that what Cecily was saying wasn't true—or even if it was that he didn't care about those things she did in the past. "I need to talk to William," she said as the family's butler opened the door to her.

"I'm afraid he is unable to accept company at this time, Miss Summers. He is engaged in his studies."

"I know, but it's really important," Buffy said. "Please. It won't be long."

"There are no exceptions, Miss Summers. You may call again when his tutor has gone for the day."

"Please. I need…"

"No exceptions," the butler repeated. "Good day, Miss Summers." He shut the door in her face, the sound of the lock clicking making a shudder go through Buffy's body.

She couldn't wait for William to be done with his lessons for the day. She needed to see him now, to have him tell her he still wanted her, no matter what Cecily had shown him. With her mouth set in a grim line of determination, she turned around, heading towards the back of the house and William's bedroom.

She climbed up the tree into his window, muttering under her breath as her uniform skirt made that more difficult than usual. Finally, she managed to make her way in, coming to a halt when she saw William sitting on his bed, a myriad of papers spread in front of him.

"Your butler said you were with your tutor," Buffy said.

William looked up sharply at her. "What are you doing here? It's not polite to come sneaking in through people's windows."

"I didn't sneak. I was pretty loud, actually. And you never minded it before," Buffy snapped.

William's jaw was tight. "Now's really not a good time, Buffy."

"Why did the butler tell me your tutor was here?" Buffy asked. "Did you tell him to lie to me?"

William sighed. "I just need some time alone right now, Buffy. Please…"

Buffy's heart clenched. "Cecily was over here. She…" Buffy stopped, marching over to the bed and grabbing a handful of papers, bile rising to her throat as she saw them. Pictures of her drunkenly clinging to men, more than one of whom she barely remembered….detailed accounts of many of her less shining moments…everything she wanted to escape. She threw them back to the bed.

"Is this how you see me? You're going to look at this crap printed by people who don't even know me, and give it value over what you already know about me?" she yelled.

"Buffy…I…"

Buffy didn't let William finish as a new thought came down on her like a black cloud. "Oh god, this is already what you thought of me. Cecily was right. You… Fuck." Buffy felt tears pricking her eyes again, and this time she couldn't keep them back. "This is why your mother was too sick to meet me but well enough to go visit relatives. You didn't want me to meet her. I wasn't good enough to be around your mother—I was just your whore!"

"What?" William stood up, making a move towards her, but stopping with Buffy backed away. "Buffy, I don't think of you as a…like that. If that's what Cecily said, then she was lying. I never said that…never thought that."

"No? Then why did you even keep those?" she asked, jabbing her hand towards the papers still spread out on the bed. "Why were you up here reading them? Why didn't you tell Cecily to get out and take her 'information' with her? It's like you're spying on me, William. If you wanted to know these things, you could've asked. I'm not proud of them, but I wouldn't lie to you."

"Bloody hell, Buffy, what did you expect out of me? Can you tell me if someone handed you a stack of papers that said things like this about me you could just ignore them?"

"Yes!"

"You could look at dozens of pictures of me hanging all over other women, read reports of nights I had that were so wild the bloody police had to be called in—not to mention the arson—and you could just brush it off?" Buffy's only response was a soft sob, her hand going up over her mouth. "It's a bit to process, Buffy," William said.

"You knew I had a past," Buffy said, her hand dropping to her side again. "You knew there had been other men. You knew."

"Knowing in a vague sense and seeing it right in front of me are too different things."

"So what, this is it? You can't handle who I was before I met you, so you're just going to bail?"

"I never said that," William replied quickly.

"You might as well have! It's obvious you can't deal with it."

William sighed. "I'm trying, Buffy, but it's a lot to deal with."

Buffy looked down—looking at his face only made it all hurt more. "Is it because of your title?"

"What?"

"Cecily—she told me you're a baron. Is that true?"

William was silent for a moment before he replied. "Yes."

"So that's what it is? I'm not good enough to be with a baron?"

"I never said that either!" William snapped, making Buffy look up. "Bloody hell, you can make things so sodding difficult! This has nothing to do with my title. I don't give a damn about the title! It's about the shock of seeing my girlfriend like this!" He grabbed a handful of pictures off the bed, throwing them one after the other to the floor in front of Buffy's feet.

Buffy began to cry harder, looking down at the grainy tabloid images. She'd regretted some of her past decisions before, but she'd never truly felt ashamed of them—not until right then. Maybe William was right to look down on her. Maybe Cecily was right and she was nothing but trash… "Just…just tell me one thing."

"All right."

"Did…did you purposely keep me from meeting your mother."

William stepped back, his shoulders slumping. "Yes. But…"

Buffy held up her hand. "No. Stop. That's all I needed to know."

"Buffy…"

"No. I…I need to go…" She turned, walking towards the door.

"Buffy, wait."

"I'm sorry, William," she said softly as she kept walking out, tears streaming down her cheeks.

William slumped down to the floor, letting her go. After all, he'd known it would end sooner or later anyway…

*** *** ***

I know that one was pretty harsh, but please hang in there with me, okay?

Please review!





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