The girl smiled and batted her long eyelashes at him, gesturing to the empty bar stool next to him. “Is this seat taken?”
He fought the urge to roll his eyes; the stool was empty, wasn’t it pretty obvious that it wasn’t taken? Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. “Not that I can see.” He turned his attention back to his beer, but the girl didn’t seem to take the hint.
Instead she sat down next to him, her smile widening. “Hi, I’m Harmony. Harmony Kendall.” She reached out her hand in greeting.
Spike gave her a brief look, then took another sip of his beer. “Right.”
Her face fell a little, but she was obviously not ready to give up just yet. “You wanna buy me a drink?”
He finished the beer, then put the empty bottle down on the bar disk. “Don’t think so, pet.” Maybe if he ignored her, she would leave him alone.
Harmony was quiet for a moment, then her smile was back. “Wanna dance then?”
“Oh, for the love of…!” Spike closed his eyes for a moment, then glared at her. “No, I don’t wanna dance and I don’t wanna buy you a soddin’ drink. In fact, I don’t even wanna talk to you, so could you please just sod off?!”
She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, her eyes narrowing. “If that’s the way you want it, fine! You’ll be sorry for turning me down.” She turned around and spotted another good-looking man, just about to walk past her, and she grabbed his arm to stop him. “Parker! Dance with me!”
Spike was relieved when she finally left, although he felt a little sorry for that Parker guy. Then he shrugged and waved at the bartender to get his attention. “Another beer, mate.” Suddenly he got the feeling that someone was watching him. Frowning, he glanced around the room until he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. Buffy was sitting at a table at the other side of the room with a red-haired girl and some guy. When she realized that he had seen her, she quickly looked away.
Buffy was happily munching on some french fries and smiled at her best friend, Willow Rosenberg. “Come on, Will, why don’t you just go over there and talk to him? I’m sure Oz will be happy, he’s been looking at you all night.”
“Really?” Willow blushed. “No, I can’t do that. Maybe he’s been looking at someone behind me, that would be really embarrassing.”
Sighing, Buffy shook her head in amusement. “Willow, you’ve been sitting at the same spot since you got here. There’s no one behind you.”
Willow was just about to say something when a guy with brown hair and a very colorful shirt came up to their table and sat down next to her, letting out a loud sigh. Relieved for getting a reason to change the subject, she smiled at him. “Look, it’s Xander! Hi Xander. Didn’t think you’d show up tonight.”
Xander reached for her glass and took a sip of her coke before she got the chance to object. “I’ve been out there for a while.” He gestured towards the dance floor. “Saw that hot girl who works at the magic shop, what’s her name again?”
“Anya?” Willow made a grimace. “She’s weird.”
“She’s not weird!” Xander reached over the table to steal a couple of fries from Buffy’s plate. “She’s just… blunt. It’s refreshing.”
Buffy gave him a sympathetic smile. “She turned you down, huh?”
“Oh yeah, big time.” Xander slumped back on the chair. “Seriously, I’m a nice guy, right? Not too bad looking?”
Buffy looked at Willow, trying to stay serious, before turning back to Xander. “Sure, Xander. You’re a great guy, any girl should be happy to have you.”
“Then why am I sitting here with you guys?” Xander let out a nervous laugh when he saw the looks the girls gave him. “Come on, you know I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I’m tired of being single. I want…” He looked towards the bar. “Hey, I got it! I should start acting like a total asshole and be rude to everybody who dare talking to me, then if I don’t like what they have to say, I’ll just kick their head in. That should make me popular with the ladies.”
Willow gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”
Xander pointed towards where he had been looking. “It obviously works for some people, maybe I should give it a try.”
Buffy stared at him for a moment, then looked towards the bar as well. She swallowed as she realized who Xander was talking about, having spotted Spike's bleach blond head immediately. And who was that skanky ho-bag, being all over him?! For reasons she didn’t quite understand, she was relieved when the blond girl who had been talking to Spike got up and left with another guy, heading towards the dance floor. For some reason, Spike chose that exact moment to look in her direction, and their eyes met. She looked away, turning her attention back to Xander. “You don’t know him, I’m sure he’s not that bad.”
Staring at her like she had suddenly grown a second head, Xander let out a bitter laugh. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, you do know who he is? It’s Spike! He’s a jerk, everybody knows that.”
“Xander…” Willow hesitated, choosing her words carefully; “Um, you should know that last week…”
“Willow!” Buffy gave her best friend a warning look. She had told Willow about what happened that night, but she didn’t want Xander to know. Even though she knew perfectly well that it hadn’t been her fault at all, it was still humiliating. She had almost been raped, in an alley. For some reason, the mere thought still made her feel dirty and disgusted. As the memories came rushing back, she quickly jumped up from the chair. “I’ll be right back, just gotta go to the bathroom.”
Willow gave her a look of concern. “Want me to go with you?”
Shaking her head, firmly, Buffy put on a strained smile. “No, it’s okay.” Then she hurried away before they could stop her.
Deciding that he’d had enough of The Bronze for one night, Spike emptied his bottle and got up. He considered going somewhere else; the night was still young and he wasn’t even drunk yet. The more drunk he was, the deeper he would sleep, especially after taking the pills as well, and hopefully, even though he knew it wasn’t likely, he’d pass out and get at least a couple of hours sleep before the nightmares would begin.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t watch where he was going and bumped right into someone. He was just about to yell at the person for getting in his way when he realized who it was. “Buffy?”
TBC