Chapter 4:
“Buffy?”
The petite blonde, who was sitting on the ground surrounded by senior poll ballots, looked up at Giles with a small innocent smile. She looked miserable but she still formed a smile to try to get out of trouble for her being there.
“Hey Giles…”
”Have you been here the entire afternoon?”
”Ummm…no…”
Giles lets out a sigh, “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. You missed all your classes.”
”Ya…I guess I did didn’t I?”
”That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
Buffy shrugged and gave a small nod, “Pretty much…so assign me detention so I continue to sit here alone in despair.”
Giles had two options here, handle the matter as a teacher or handle it as a friendly parent. The school board probably preferred the first one, but being a softy that he was, he sat down on the ground next to Buffy.
“This is still the poll right?”
It was a stupid question to ask but Giles needed his facts straight—teenage girls today could be crying over one thing one minute and worried about something different the next.
“Yes…” Buffy muttered as she raised her legs up so she could loosely hug her knees.
“I figured…” Giles nodded, “You know your not the only one upset about this, William is too.”
”He is?”
”Well, I’m not saying he reacted as dramatically as you did but yes, he was a bit speechless.”
”At least I know now that he didn’t mess with these stupid polls.” Buffy said as she kicked a few of the ballots to the side.
“I told you he wouldn’t have done this to you. William knows his limits; he would never pull a stunt like this. You know how I know?”
Buffy looked up at Giles.
“Because he knows you well enough to know it would upset you.” Giles explained.
“Careful Giles, you’re making it sound like Spike cares about me…if you did that I may have to punch you.”
Giles chuckled, they both knew her threat was harmless just by the way she said it.
“Despite what either one of you say, I believe you do care for one another.”
“Giles…” she growled.
“Now hear me out. Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it you that took time off from cheerleading practice one week to help plan William’s 16th birthday party?”
”Well…”
‘I had to let Cordelia borrow my leather jacket for a whole week to get out of those practices…’ she reminded herself.
“And didn’t he beg me to teach you how to drive after your mother refuse to get in a car with you after you hit a mailbox on your first lesson?”
“Ya but…”
“I also believe there was one rainy weekend 3 summers ago where the two of you made camp in my basement after Cecily broke William’s heart. The two of you watched Sci-Fi movie after Sci-Fi movie until you two practically looked like aliens.”
”Giles, please…I was just—we were just…”
”Being friends to one another? Yes.”
”Ya!” Buffy agreed, ‘Friends…nothing more…’ she thought to herself.
“Yes, I agree…but I don’t remember your other friends nearby during these memorable moments.”
“So we hang out together, big deal, it doesn’t automatically mean marriage and white picket fence with a dog!” Buffy got to her feet and turned to stand in front of Giles, who was still sitting on the ground in front of a bookcase.
“Doesn’t mean you hate each other either…which the two of you claim you do every bloody day” he pointed out.
”I’m with Angel...he’s with Dru…”
“Yes…and?”
”And that’s the way it is…why would over 200 kids think I would shack up with Spike in the future?”
”Well, why don’t’ you ask them?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Spike thought he’d feel more pain than this. Was his heart not plugged in properly? Drusilla dumped him and he felt hardly anything for her. No longing, no dread about living without her, no desire to go begging to her to take him back.
“Didn’t I love her at all?” he whispered to himself as he sat in his car in the school parking lot. He had been there for the better part of the day; smoking cigarette after cigarette and watching the students change classes through a few of the windows that he could see into the high school.
As the last bell rang to dismiss school, kids started pouring out into the parking lot and onto buses. Spike started his car and waited. Waited for what, he wasn’t sure. Normally he gave Buffy a lift home, but today he didn’t think that would be the case
‘She ran away screaming when she last saw you mate’ he reminded himself. ‘She’s probably hiding around Captain Forehead for protection.’
‘Angel…such a stupid name’
The thought was so random that Spike stopped to wonder why he even thought of it in the first place. Angel was never a problem before. Now all of sudden his friend had a poofter name?
Spike looked up toward the school entrance and saw Willow coming out of the building with Buffy tagging along right behind her. He tilted his head to the side to get a good look at the little blonde.
‘Has she always done her hair up like that…? Doesn’t look good, it should be put down like it was the other day…’
Spike nodded in agreement with his thoughts before stopping and widening his eyes, “I did not just think that. I did not just think about her hair and what way it should be styled...”
He shook his head and looked back up at her. ‘See…you can look at her and not think about her hair…or that little skirt that she wore last Thursday and how perfect her legs looked in it…’
“Damn it!” Spike yelled and hit his steering wheel.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“I can’t believe you skipped class Buffy.” Willow said as she walked beside her friend outside the main entrance of the school.
“Well I can’t believe you voted for me and Spike!”
Willow flinched, “What?”
“Anya gave me the ballots Willow…”
”Ya…so…doesn’t mean that I—“
”Best Smile…Oz…” Buffy stated, “You were the only one out of the entire class to vote for him for Best Smile.”
”Well, well…how do you know I even turned my ballot in…that could be someone else’s ballot!”
”Willow, voting for to you is like ten orgasms.”
”I-I-I I have the right to an attorney right? I demand that I have him present before…before…” Willow frowned and her voice rambled off, “Before you ultimately kill me and no longer be my friend.”
”If I do that to you then I’ll have to make an exception for Xander too…he also voted for me and Spike.”
Willow’s gasped and her mouth hung open, “He did?! That little weasel said he wasn’t going to do it!”
”What?”
”Umm…nothing…”
“Did…did you guys like discuss this or something?”
”No….yes…well sort of” Willow hung her head down in shame.
“I knew it, I knew it! You guys planned this out!”
”No, honest Buffy, no…” Willow pleaded and shook her head, “It was just a conversation between me, Xander, and Anya—a private conversation.”
Buffy narrowed her eyes at her friend and pondered how well Willow could lie, “Go on…”
”It was---we just, we just got to thinking about all the couples in the school and we couldn’t pick out who would be good for ‘Most Likely to Marry…’ It started off as a joke, really, but the more we talked about it the more we sort of convinced ourselves that it wasn’t that crazy…”
”Not that crazy?!” Buffy burst, “Willow, me good….” She pointed to herself, “Him bad…” Buffy pointed off indicating that the ‘him’ was Spike somewhere else.
“Buffy you know he’s not bad. He can be really sweet at times. Remember how he gave you and me a rose, along with Dru, on Valentine’s Day this year?”
Buffy sighed, she forgot about those little things. It was so easy to remember all the teasing and jokes that he did and forget when he did things like take her to the dance, teach her to drive, and give her a rose with a tiny note saying ‘I know this isn’t from Peaches, but hopefully it will make you smile.’
What was wrong with her?! How could she be so dense to not read into these little hints that he cared for her.
“I know you’re with Angel and I know Spike’s with Drusilla…but I don’t know, we—we just thought at the time it was not so far fetched…I mean you guys knew each other forever.”
“You and Xander have known each other forever…” Buffy pointed out.
“Ya…and I thought he was goofy and cute when he ate yellow crayons in kindergarten.” Willow smiled, “I care about him and he cares about me…but not so much that he would know to drive all the way out to Los Angelus just to find me…”
‘Oh…right…THAT summer’ Buffy thought to herself.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Two years ago…July…
Buffy looked down at her dead cell phone cradled in her hand. It had been dead for nearly 5 hours; just about the same time everyone would notice that she was no longer in her room and had runaway. It seemed convenient for her—she didn’t want to talk to anyone or be found at the moment.
The shock that her parents were getting divorced had not yet settled in her mind. On the three hour bus ride all she did was cry, she was surprised someone even bothered to sell her a ticket because of her unstable state.
As Buffy glanced up from her phone she went back to looking at the setting sun across the ocean. Ever since she arrived at the beached and parked herself in the sand she felt relaxed. She could remember countless summers with her mother and father at this beach, playing in the water and building sandcastles. Their summer evening would always end with a trip to the boardwalk where a merry-go-round lit up the shoreline.
“Thank god!” the sound of a very pissed off Brit said from behind her.
Buffy didn’t turn around to acknowledge his presences, she knew it was Spike. She was just waiting for the sounds of the rest of her rescue crew to follow the sound of his voice. However, they never did.
“Summers, I swear to god this time I’m going to beat you to a bloody pulp!”
He appeared right in front of her, blocking her view of the beautiful ocean. Buffy calmly looked up at him, gazing at him as if he were a dream or an illusion.
“Why the hell didn’t you answer your phone?!” he yelled as he reached down and grabbed her cell phone out of her hand to look at it.
“It’s dead…been dead for a few hours.” She muttered.
He growled in frustration, “I left probably about a million messages on here and it’s been dead the whole time?!”
“You did?”
”My phone is practically down to its last bar because I kept trying to call you on the ride out here.” He argued.
“Why?” she asked quietly.
“What?!” he snapped.
”Why were you calling me?”
He stared at her for a minute, “Are you kidding?! Everyone is looking all over for you in Sunnydale! Your mother is hysterical, your dad is checking every ditch from your house to Vegas, and my parents are hopping from hospital to hospital, bus stop to bus stop.”
“Where did you look?”
“What?”
”How many places did you search…?”
”…well…here and the mall…”
“How’d you know where I was?”
Spike sighed, he’s heart was still racing from earlier when he found out she was missing, “I remembered you liked it here…”
“You remembered but my mom and dad didn’t?”
”Cut them some slack…everyone is crazy with worry” he said as he moved to sit next to her in the sand. He handed over her dead cell phone and looked around the beach.
“Of all the people to find me…” she muttered.
“You could do worse Summers…” he pointed out, “Could have been a rapist or some lunatic beach bum that only comes out at night.”
“Ya, guess I could do worse.”
”What were you thinking anyway?” he snapped, “Or were you thinking at all? I swear Summers, sometimes I think your head is screwed on upside because you--“ he stopped when noticed her face was all scrunched up and tears were trailing down her cheeks.
“Sorry…” she whispered as she let out a sniffle.
Spike sighed; he forgot that sometimes his mouth was more of a liability than an asset when it came to expressing his concern for others. It was just that he got so scared a few hours ago when everyone reported back from their first searching spot with no Buffy. Worst case scenarios kept popping in his head while he made the drive from Sunnydale to Los Angelus. He was deathly afraid that he never would see his friend again.
“No love, I’m sorry…” he whispered as he placed a hand on her arm without hesitation. Spike rubbed a few circles on her shivering goose bumped arm. When he noticed her tears weren’t stopping he leaned in closer and placed his entire arm around her back to hold her close.
“Just promise me one thing?”
”Hmmm?” she asked while continuing to cry her eyes out.
“Charge your phone every bloody day from now on…” he whispered in her ear.
Buffy sniffled once more before letting out a hiccup of a laugh.
“Okay…” she whispered.
TBC…