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Author's Chapter Notes:
There's a bit of a time lapse.. hope that doesn't throw anyone off.

and sorry if the past/present annoys anybody, but i think it really boosts the effect of things. especially in the chapter that's about to come.
Chapter 5 – Effulgent.

Flashback

Buffy sat in English class, chewing on her blonde hair of two months - she still wasn’t used to it - and gazing out the window. Often times, she found that if she didn’t stare out the window, her eyes would always land on Spike and would stay there until he looked up and caught her gaze. Ever since the afternoon on Giles’s porch, he would send her little half-smiles whenever their eyes met, causing her to blush and turn away. So, to be safe, she stared out the window at the football team running and going through their everyday drills.

“Poetry,” Ms. Calendar announced. The entire class groaned in unison at the one word. She eyed her students with a smile. “Poetry, first and foremost, speaks the heart and the mind. It is an art form. In this new unit, we will all be writing an original poem. Yes Mr. Finn?”

The tall and bulky Riley Finn had his hands raised and was now asking a question. “Like a rhyming poem?”

“It doesn’t have to rhyme. You kids are really going to have to separate poetry from rhyme in your vocabulary,” she seemed annoyed and turned to Spike. “William, your father told me that you’re quite the poet. Do you care to share any of your works to the class?”

Spike looked horrified at the idea and vigorously shook his head. “Bugger that. What I write is my own business.”

“Come on, don’t be shy!” Ms. Calendar grinned, unrelenting and insistent. “What if I told you that your grade depended on it?”

“I’d say sod it all and go to hell.”

“Dude, come on!” a guy shouted from the back. A couple of girls giggled and soon the class was full of hooting laughter as the students cheered Spike on. His face contorted in annoyance, frustration, and a trace of nervous fear.

“Grow up,” he growled, looking around the classroom until his eyes suddenly latched onto a pair of impassive, green ones. The second they made contact, Buffy’s eyes lit up and smiled encouragement. After a long moment, he finally sighed in defeat. “All right, all right, shut your blubbering traps already. I’ll read something and I don’t want a word from any of you afterwards, got it?”

The class shut up and leaned forward, eager to hear his poetry. Buffy was slightly irritated when she noticed that the girls in the class paid extra attention to him. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a black, tattered notebook and recited the first page.

“Soul resplendent,
My body responds,
My heart expands,
‘tis grown a bulge in it,
inspired by your beauty,
effulgent”

When he was done, the room was dead silent. He put the book away without even sparing the class a glance and stood, facing the wall. The girls were trying to muffle their giggle in their hands and the jocks in the back of the room were on the verge of keeling over in laughter. Buffy’s heart soared out to him and she longed to hold him until the embarrassing moment passed.

Ms. Calendar stood stock still with her hand rubbing her temple. She cleared her throat and nodded towards Spike.

“Thank you, William, that was… “ she paused “… very inspirational. Now, class please turn to page three hundred and …” The rest of the class period passed by in a blur and before Buffy knew it, the bell had rung and she was getting ready to leave. She approached the door and paused when she was just a few feet from Spike. He turned around as if he knew she was standing there and looked at her with a strange expression in his eyes.

“Effulgent, huh?” she smiled softly, teasing him gently out of his closed off mood. He gave her his usual half smile and shrugged.

“Yeah… that’s what she thought, too.” he replied, thinking back to a certain beautiful brunette named Cecily’s earth shattering rejection that now seemed like ages ago.

………………

Present Day

Willow was nervous as she paced the length of Buffy’s porch. She stuffed the two tickets that she was holding into her back pockets and took a deep breath. It had been almost three months since she talked to Oz and when he sent her the tickets to his band’s concert, she had jumped around in glee, planning to ask Buffy to go along with her. That was until she remembered the man who had broken her friend’s heart. She had smacked herself on the head for not remembering this and immediately started to look for another person to go with her.

Xander didn’t want to have anything to do with the band because of Spike’s treatment to Buffy and nobody else had the time to go. The more Willow thought about it, the more she thought that Buffy should be the one going with her. In the three months since Spike had broken up with her, she had been more depressed than anything Willow could have imagined. What she needed was a closure, and the tickets to L.A. were the key.

The green van pulled up onto the driveway and Willow braced herself. Buffy jumped out of the vehicle and waved to her, smiling a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Joyce called out a hello and entered the house, leaving the two girls standing on the porch.

“Hey, Willow…” Buffy started, then frowned, “what’s wrong?”

“Oh! Nothing! No wrong, whatsoever. There is no wrong that is being done here,” Willow babbled on, eyes wide. Buffy squinted.

“I know that look on your face. Spill.”

“Okay, um…” Willow stammered, “willyougotoLAwithmethisweekendtoseedingoesatemybaby? ”

“What?! NO!”

Willow took a deep breath, ready to put up a fight.

“Come on, Buffy… it’s been so long…”

“Absolutely not, Will. You know what it will do to me if I see Spike! Every time I hear him in the radio, I feel like tearing my inside out, what do you think will happen if I –“

“But that’s exactly the point, Buffy!” Willow pleaded, “this will be good for you. It’ll be like .. a closure thingy.”

“No.”

“Please…. Buffy.”

……………..

It had taken Willow a lot of begging and eventually a lot of money, but she finally managed to convince Buffy that going to the concert would be the best for her. Though she was happy and relieved at first, after half an hour of Buffy’s incessant grumbling and complaints, she was quickly wondering if going alone would have been a better idea.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Buffy glared at her best friend before hauling her overnight bag onto the Greyhound bus.

“We’ve been over this already!”

“Yeah, but still.”

They settled in a seat close to the back and Buffy noticed a group of girls who were obviously going to the same concert. They were clad in “Dingoes ate my Baby” shirts and had written messages to the band members all over their bodies. She narrowed her eyes when she saw one girl who had written ‘Spike loves me! ’ up her arm.

“Idiots, ” she growled. Willow looked over and caught a ‘Oz is my boyfriend! ’ on another one of the girls.

“Yeah,” she fervently agreed.


The bus moved forward and Buffy found herself with her forehead pressed up against the glass window. In a few hours… I’ll be in the same room with him… she silently thought, staring out at the buildings that flew by her in a blur.





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