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The Bronze was especially festive looking that night. The curtains on stage were a faded red, and banners were hanging from the ceiling declaring that it was the "Valentine's Day Dance".
On the stage, Dingoes-ate-my-baby was getting ready to thrill all of the students who were arriving in record numbers. Stock music was piping in, and teens of all ages were already dancing.
Xander and Willow were sitting at a small table in the center of the crowded club, their diet cokes side-by-side. The boy was fidgeting with his box.
"How long does it take for someone to show up?" he asked Willow.
The redhead was swaying back and forth to the music. When Oz, her boyfriend, and his band started playing and singing, she rocked back and forth even more. Her smile grew by leaps and bounds.
Xander tapped Willow, querying in a loud voice, "Where the hell is she shopping for her dress, Kuwait?"
Willow regarded Xander, then joked, "No, not likely. This is Cordelia we're talking about. She probably shopped in Paris or Milan for her gown!"
Xander stared at Willow, but his best friend since kindergarten just slipped back into her hypnotized-by-Oz-and-his-great-music mode. "I think I'm a groupie," she declared proudly.
The dark haired boy went back to being nervous as he stared down at the box on the table.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, Buffy and her mother were staring at a romantic flick on the television. It wasn't the movie that made them look with glassy eyed expressions at the kiss starved lovers on the screen however. It was the Malomars, popcorn, chips with dip, and all other junk foods known to man that they'd stuffed themselves sick with that were making them look like drug addicts.
"Buffy," Joyce Summers, Buffy's mother, requested, "pass me some more Malomars."
Though she would feel gross by sunrise, Buffy was trying out for the "let's see how quickly I can get sick from overeating" contest. From the rumblings in her tummy, she knew she would be the winner. When her daughter groaned, Joyce grabbed the Malomars and placed one on her tongue.
They settled way down in the plush couch, touching and massaging their bellies. Just as they were drifting off to sleep, the doorbell rang. Buffy pushed herself off of the sofa.
The doorbell rang again as Buffy shouted, "I'm coming! Jeez, give a girl a chance to get there!"
She hobbled over to the front door and opened it. The Slayer was greeted only by the blowing wind. She poked her head outside the door, but saw no one.
Buffy frowned, muttering, "That's strange." She honed her superior senses, but could see no one. Backing up, Buffy bumped into her mother. The Chosen One instinctively moved into a fighting position, and crouched.
"Buffy," Joyce said. The Slayer turned around, relaxing when she saw that it was only her mother.
Joyce said, "I checked the back door. Someone sent some flowers. I put them in the kitchen on the table." They both walked into the kitchen. Buffy saw a white box with a black ribbon tied around it.
Her mother smiled, saying, "I think these are for you."
Buffy had to hand it to her mom. She was right on the money. The Killer of Vampires and Demons opened the box very cautiously. Both teen and older woman peered into the box. Inside were at least twelve red roses resting on top of green tissue paper. In the middle of the flowers was a card.
Joyce picked it up, looking for a sign of who could have sent the roses, but there was no signature on the back of the card.
Her mother shook her head, saying, "Maybe he forgot to identify himself." She went into the living room to call the florist, leaving her daughter and the creepy roses alone.
Buffy couldn't tear her eyes off of the box as she stared at the single word in the middle of the tiny, ivory colored card. "Soon," it said, written in her ex-boyfriend's handwriting.
**Oh, yeah,** she decided, **for scaring me and leaving something at my mother's home, he is going to pay big time!**
Joyce was finishing on the phone, reporting, "Oh, there you are, honey! I just called Patterson Florist. They said that the young man who left the card left his number. You want it?"
"Sure," Buffy said as happily as she could manage so that her mother wouldn't suspect anything.
When Joyce handed her a card that read, A. Gellus, and a phone number on it, Buffy accepted it and put it in her back pocket, saying, "A study partner of mine. Maybe we could dance at the Bronze later."
**We'll dance, Angelus** Buffy mentally promised, patting the stake in her jeans' pocket. **It's a Latin number called, el stake-o the vampire-o!**
"Mom," she said, "I think I know where he'll be tonight, and I would love to thank him for the flowers. Is it all right if I go to the Bronze as long as I don't stay too late?"
Joyce said, "Sure, honey. But I want you home by eleven tonight, Valentine's day celebration or no Valentine's day celebration."
XXXXXXXXX
By the time Buffy reached the Bronze, Willow and Oz were dancing while he took a quick music break, and Xander and Cordelia were talking intimately at a table.
"Hey, Buffy," one boy said.
"Hey," Buffy greeted, waving.
"You okay?" he asked. "I heard about your break up. Some guy who was a history tutor?"
Buffy stared at the boy before asking, "Where did you hear that?"
Before she could receive an answer, another teen, this one a girl was looking at her.
"Say, aren't you the girl who was dating that tall hunk about two weeks ago, you know, the one with the pronounced forehead?" a girl wanted to know.
Buffy didn't answer as she made her way through the night club. Somehow, somewhere, she had to find out who was spreading these horrible rumors...well, non-rumors about her and Angel.
She saw Xander and Cordelia fighting, and, despite herself, heard her male friend say, "News flash: a good day to break up with someone is any other day but Valentine's day!!"
Cordelia was trying to apologize. "I know, this is terrible to do to someone. I really didn't mean to do it like this, especially since you look so good and you gave me such a great gift..." the leader of the Cordettes said sheepishly.
Xander walked off in a huff, saying, "Go to hell!" Cordelia was getting angry.
"Not before you!" she bit back.
"Xander!" Buffy cried as he stalked past her.
"Not now!" he shouted, leaving the Bronze.
Buffy wanted to follow to say something, anything to her hurt friend, but she sensed something in the club. She moved throughout the club toward the back. It wasn't until she reached there that she saw the vampire who was handing out small programs. Buffy took one and looked at it.
Resembling a headline in a newspaper, the program read, "Buffy Summers has been dumped before Valentine's day and has NO ONE!! How will she deal?"
A picture of her was on the program; not a grainy one, but one in perfect, glaring detail. There was, of course, no picture of Angel on it. She wondered if vampires even photographed. Probably, they didn't.
Grabbing the vamp before he could pass out any more poisonous literature, Buffy jerked him into the alley at the back of the Bronze. She slammed him into the wall, channeling all of her anger and frustration to beating the vampire to a pulp before dusting him.
"Where did you get these?" she roared. The vampire, though bloodied, smiled maliciously.
"Got them yesterday from Angelus!" he said proudly. "He told me to pass them out at the Bronze, but only on Valentine's day!" Her hands felt for her stake inside her pants' pocket.
"Yeah?" Buffy said, her stake concealed behind her back. "Well...here's a Valentine's day gift for you!"
She let the stake fly and slew the revenant with it.
The Slayer's cell phone rang. Buffy answered it. "Who is this?" she snapped.
"Aww, is that any way to greet your former boyfriend?" Angelus' mocking voice came over the line. "Didn't you like my Valentine's day gift? You know, it's always nice to clear the air and tell the truth, don't you think?" He laughed.
"Truth is: I've got a present in my pocket that's just your size," she said, gripping the stake so tightly in her clenched fist that she thought it would snap.
"Why don't you come down here and try it on?" she asked.
"No can do, Buff," Angel said over the receiver.
XXXXXXXXXXX
At the mansion, he lay on top of his black sheets with Drusilla nuzzling his ear. "I have other matters to attend to," he said formally. "But don't worry; we'll get together soon. You have my sincerest promise!" He hung up before Buffy could say anything and kissed Dru.
In his room, Spike pulled his headphones over his head. He'd tried to play the Sex Pistols at the loudest possible level to drown out the sounds of his grand poofy sire and Dru shagging each other, but try as he might, he couldn't keep from hearing them completely.
He reached over to his nightstand for his pack of cigarettes and lit up. Maybe, if he was lucky, the room would catch fire, and Angelus would run inside and as payment for his stupidity, the git would burn.
And maybe the Hellmouth would be destroyed in the next 30 seconds.
Deciding that he couldn't take much more, Spike struggled, pulling himself up in his specially made bed by using the silver handlebars. The vampire decided that tonight was the night he would get out of bed and leave that sodding metal prison behind him. He gingerly tugged and pulled until he managed to swing his legs over the side of the bed. The revenant concentrated and, with a great effort, stood on his own two feet.
**Crimey, I did it!!** He thought triumphantly.
His legs felt weak, but he was standing! The first part of his plan to pay all of them back was proceeding rapidly. Now, if he could make it to Buffy's house, or the chit's school without buckling, then, he could beat her down until she was a bloody mess six feet under the ground. Once that was done, Angelus would be next. After that, Spike would take Dru somewhere else that was worthy of both of them: some faraway place like Prague, or something.
Spike went to the gym to build up his strength and to plan. He couldn't take a chance on the Slayer and Peaches finding out that he could walk just yet, and he had to be absolutely in tip top shape to pound them into the next century.
As he worked out on the equipment, he thought, **at least I can't hear their moanin' down here!**
Valentine's day was definitely looking up.
XXXXXXXX
The next morning, Xander walked through the halls toward his first class. Had the halls seemed as large as they were the morning after Valentine's day? He supposed they were. All it took was a break up like the one he'd suffered to make the halls of Sunnydale High so big that they were the size of Brazil.
"Hey, Harris!" a jock called out to him.
Xander pointed to himself; the guy must have been talking about another Alexander Harris, although Xander couldn't think of one.
"Me?" he asked the jock.
The tall, ruggedly good looking, football player sized teen said, "Yeah, you! Come here."
Xander walked over, and the jock said in a loud voice, "I heard about you and the Chasester! Way to get dumped, dude!" He snickered and moved on.
The dark haired boy could see many of his fellow classmates staring at him in either sympathy, or as though he was the stupidest being alive to: 1) fall for Cordelia in the first place; and, 2) break up with Cordelia in the second place. He saw Buffy walking at top speed toward the library.
"Buffy!" Xander said, hurrying to catch up to her. "I didn't see a program about you but whoever did that is high on my shit list. Do you want me to tell, uh, someone about...?"
"Not now Xander!" Buffy said. She lowered her voice, adding, "Angel." She kept on walking.
Before she reached the library, Buffy heard someone calling "dumpee!" out to her.
She locked her jaw with determined fury and entered Giles' domain away from his flat. The Watcher looked up from a tome he was reading about Angelus and waited expectantly for her to say something.
Buffy whipped out Angel's card with the flowers and said, "Look!" She pointed to the word on it.
"He sent it with flowers!" Buffy shouted. "Not only that, but everyone in the school knows about the S. S. Titanic of my relationship with Angel! I want to know what to do about him!"
"Well, Buffy, I'm doing the best I can concerning his transgressions," Giles defended himself. Beyond the British man, Buffy could see several huge tomes that had been open and discarded. A notebook was also on the table with many scribblings.
"He has done many, horrible things in the past two hundred and twenty years, and we must be diligent in researching him!" Giles advised. "Give me a few more minutes, and we shall have a talk about him."
Buffy left the library to go to her first class: English. When she got there, Amy was sitting in her chair.
"Hello, Amy," Buffy greeted, a calculating look in her eyes. Amy turned toward Buffy.
"Buffy," she greeted, then she caught the look on Buffy's face.
"What?" Amy wanted to know.
"You're a witch!" Buffy told her. "I remember last year."
"But," Amy protested, "that was my mom, not me!"
"Yeah, well, it looks like it runs in your family," Buffy responded. "Of course, I could tell Miss Beekman what I saw. You know: the invisible term paper."
Amy's eyes grew wide. "What do you know about it?" she asked, afraid.
"Like I said: you worked some magic on Miss Beekman so that she'd think you had a paper when you didn't," Buffy said, staring at her with all of her patented Slayer lookage.
"You'll never be able to prove anything," Amy tried one last attempt at bravado.
"Well, suppose she goes through her stash of papers and finds nothing with your name on it? That should be proof enough," Buffy said. "In any case, I'm sure Principal Snyder...". Amy shot up from her seat.
"Stop!" she cried desperately. Then, in a lower voice, she asked, "What do you want?"
Buffy thought about how Angel just then, and how humiliated she'd felt that news about her failed relationship was all over the school.
"I want a little respect," she said. "I want justice! He did this to me, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! I want whatever forces are out there to serve me for once! I deserve it, and I'm gonna collect."
Her look determined, Buffy told Amy, "You're gonna cast a spell."
Amy fought back her rising fear as she saw the almost feral look in her fellow classmate's green eyes.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A/N: Buffy gets in over her head when she decides to avail herself of Amy's magic; Xander and Cordelia say "good bye" to each other. After that, this goes AU. I was playing for laughs, since the ep. is supposed to be funny. Please read and review.