Not anymore, though. This time for sure, he wouldn't let himself get pulled into the painful, self-doubting world of relationships.
He pulled up to the Bronze, looking for a place to escape for a bit. He knew that if he went back to the dorm, Xander would be there to bug him about how the 'date' had gone. That was if Cordy hadn't already called to tell him how Buffy had shot him down, which was very likely. He didn't want to be ridiculed anymore tonight, so the Bronze it was.
Walking directly to the bar, he ordered himself a beer and drank it before ordering a new one to take with him up to the balcony. Away from other people. Where it was dark and he could brood by himself.
He sat down on one of the blue lounge chairs and sighed. “Why do that hot ones have to be so shallow?” he asked himself, not realizing he was being watched.
“Someone said no to you?” a female voice asked, slowly walking towards him from the dark corner. “If you aren’t hot enough for her, I wonder who she does consider hot.”
William chuckled then took a sip of his beer before shaking his head. “Not about my devilishly handsome looks, luv. She doesn’t like who I am. My personality.”
“And why not? What about you is so unattractive?” she inquired, sitting down beside him and taking a sip of her beer.
William looked at her, really looked at her for the first time since she had come from the corner. She was pretty, dark flowing hair, big full breasts and a flat stomach. She exuded confidence and sexual prowess, she knew what she wanted and knew how to get it. She wasn’t his usual type, and she was far from Buffy. He knew she was the ‘no strings attached’ kind of girl, and he was in the right mood for a one night stand. Take his mind off what’s-her-face. “How about we skip that conversation and move on to much better things?” he said, channeling his inner Spike to get what he wanted.
The girl laughed and held out her hand. “Well, all right! Name’s Faith.”
William stood up and took her hand, pulling her up to her feet, the flush against his body. “Glad to make your acquaintance, Faith. Name’s Spike.”
And then he kissed her, putting all of the passion he held for Buffy into it, knowing he was making a bad choice, but not caring in the least.
"You called him a nerd?" Cordy asked, incredulous. "William may be the poetry reading, honour roll student, 'I do my parents proud' type, but he isn't really a nerd. People can have layers, you know?"
"I didn't say he couldn't have layers, Cordy! I didn't even mean what I said. I just said that so Spike wouldn't think I wasn't interested in him*. If you’d have told me that Spike was William, I would be out with him right now, having fun. Lots of fun!" Buffy hollered, growing angrier with the situation, even more angry with herself. Deciding being angry wouldn’t help anything, she calmed down and whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt him."
Cordy sighed and walked over to her cousin, wrapping her arm around her. "I know you didn't. But this could be an easy fix. I will call Xander, tell him to keep William busy. You can go over there and explain, tell him that you..."
"No! No way!" Buffy said, standing up to pace the floor in front of Cordy. "I just made fun of him, he probably hates me! He won’t want anything to do with me, not anymore. I screwed it up, I might as well just go back home, continue to be the shallowest bitch that ever lived."
"Now, now. That title is mine, and I wear it proudly." Cordy laughed, happy that she had gotten a small smile from Buffy. "You aren't shallow, and you aren't a bitch. You made a little mistake, I'm sure William will realize that and forgive you. Believe me, I know him better than you do."
Buffy nodded her head hesitantly. She wasn't sure Cordy was right, but she was more than ready to give it a try. If she could get William to see that she had made a huge mistake, then maybe they could start over. Buffy took a deep breath. "Okay, you call Xander. I'm taking your car."
Cordy smiled and nodded her affirmation. "Sure. And Buffy? Make sure you take the 'nerdy' insult back. He hates being called that."
"Don't worry, Cordy," Buffy said as she grabbed a sweater from her cousin’s closet. "I'm gonna make him feel real good about himself."
"Oh, Xaaander..." Anya said, stepping out of her bathroom in a nurse uniform, brandishing a plastic stethoscope. "I think it’s time for your check up."
Xander put down the comic he was reading, and looked at his girlfriend, instantly throwing said comic to the side when he saw her. "Oh, hell yes it is!" he said and moved over to make room for her on the bed.
She walked over to the bed, but instead of getting onto it, she put her hands on her hips, giving Xander a stern look. “Not so fast, mister. I think you need to remove your clothes. Just to make sure all your…” she scanned her eyes down his body, lingering on his groin before looking back up to his eyes., “…vitals are in working condition.”
Xander chuckled and shook his head, loving how his girlfriend was so amazing at role play. He started to take his shirt off, feeling Anya’s eyes boring into him with every movement. Just as he threw the shirt to the side and went to remove his pants, his cell phone started to ring.
This never really happens you can take my word, I won’t apologize that’s just absurd…
Anya sighed, throwing her hands up in the air and shaking her head. “Every time! Can we ever have sex without someone calling to interrupt?”
Xander scrambled to get out of the bed, reaching for his cell phone to shut it off.
Mainly your fault for the way that you dance, and now I jizz in my pants…
“Shit, it’s Cordy,” Xander said, when he saw her name flashing on the caller I.D. He looked over at Anya, a sheepish expression on his face. “Sorry, hon. I have to answer it.”
She scoffed as he answered, then proceeded to look at her nails, picking at the cuticles.
“I so hate you right now.” Xander said into the phone, annoyance evident in his voice. “What do you want, and can it wait?”
"Someone's testy," Cordy scoffed. "I just wanted to update you on the latest 'William and Buffy' news, but since you are oh-so-busy I will just call back later. Even if it’s really important..."
Xander sighed, pushing back his annoyance for a minute. He was kind of curious, anyway. "What happened?" he sighed.
“Xander,” Anya whined. “It’s not enough that the ringtone almost ruined the moment, don’t let Cordy ruin it too…”
“What ringtone was it?” Cordy laughed. “It wasn’t the ‘Why Rabbits are Great’ one, was it? That would be hilarious!”
“No, it wasn’t. It was ‘Jizz in my Pants’.” He answered, rolling his eyes at Cordelia’s amusement.
“Yeah, and you aren’t going to ‘jizz’ anywhere if you don’t get off the phone right now!” Anya said, trying to resist the urge to stomp her foot.
Cordy explained what had happened, and the talk that she had with Buffy afterwards. Xander knew right away that it was a mistake, and Buffy was just being a girl, trying to show 'Spike' that he didn’t have any competition, or some wacky girl logic like that. He knew it would be hard to get William to realize that, but he was going to make sure that by the end of the night (after he finished his... time with Anya), Buffy and William would be back together.
He hoped.
“All right, let me finish up here, then I’ll head over to the dorm,” he said and hung up the phone. He turned towards his girlfriend and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “So, where were we?”
William smiled as Faith led him off the dance floor, knowing that he was about to have his world rocked by this sexy brunette, but he couldn’t help the nagging feeling he got in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t sure if he could go through with this, but he knew that he needed to. He needed to rebuild the confidence that Buffy had smacked out of him with her words. He’d never had a huge amount of confidence in himself, but enough to know that he was desirable to women. Buffy had depleted that, and he wanted it back.
He smiled down at Faith, and he responded when she pulled him into a lusty kiss. “Gonna head to the ladies room for a minute, meet you outside?” she asked, a saucy grin on her face.
“I’ll be there,” he replied, then leaned down to nip at her lips.
She laughed and pushed him up against a wooden pole then continued to devour his mouth in a kiss. “I’ll be five minutes, big boy,” she whispered, then cupped his denim clad erection. He chuckled and grabbed her butt, pulling her against his body and pushing his erection against her, eliciting a breathy moan from her. “Make that two minutes.”
William chuckled as she walked away, giving him a lusty look from over her shoulder before disappearing into the women’s bathroom. He walked out of the building with a smile on his face and pulled out his cell phone. He had to make a quick phone call.
Buffy made it to the dorm quickly, following the directions to William and Xander’s room that Cordy had given her. When she reached the door, she took a deep breath, readying herself for rejection, but hoping for the best. She knocked.
No answer.
She knocked again, and no answer. Deciding she would wait, she backed up to the wall opposite the wooden door and slid down and into a sitting position.
“Where are you, William?”
Buffy lost herself in her thoughts, playing different scenes in her mind of how the apology would go. Some were happy, some were angry and some were… kinky. She desperately wanted the first or the last option, but wasn’t going to get her hopes up. Some men could be pretty thick-skulled, but that didn’t mean she was going to give up easily either. She knew that she had something with William, something that had the potential to become truly amazing, and she wasn’t going to let that go without a fight.
A sudden ringing from inside of the boy’s room pulled her out of her reverie. Curious as to who it could be, she stood up and cupped her ear against the door, hoping the caller would leave a message, and hoping they had a machine that played the messages out loud.
She smiled when she heard the beep, and Xander’s voice telling the caller to leave a message. Buffy knew as soon as she heard the voice that is was William, but frowned when she heard the faint club music in the backround.
“Hey, Xan. It’s me. Gonna be coming home with a girl tonight, so don’t be there when I get there. And if Cordy told you about what happened with Buffy, don’t worry about it. I’m over it, and moving on. I’ll call your cell when it’s safe to come in. Okay, she’s here, make yourself scarce, mate. Bye.”
Beeeeeeeep.
TBC