Chapter 6
She’d raced him to the golf course on a bicycle. In a dress and heels. He let her win, just to see that triumphant grin on her face. She still wore that grin on the eighth hole since she was currently kicking his ass at miniature golf. And being a bit competitive about the whole thing.
“Beat that, Curly!” She’d given him a nickname, apparently.
He brushed past her, sighing in mirth. “You’re awfully cocky.”
“Do I need to show you the score card? Remind you who’s completely awesome and who sucks beyond belief?” She bit her lip, smiling smugly at him as he moved into position for his turn.
He set up his ball and lowered his club, readying his shot. “Three times wasn’t enough for you, was it?” He swung. The ball went down a green pathway through a tiny village, over a mound, hit a barricade, and stopped inches from the hole. “Lookie, lookie. I make this shot and I’ll be creeping up on your score.”
“Don’t get excited,” she said, walking over the obstacle course without a care, and coming to stand right over the hole.
“What are you doing? I have to make my shot and you’re in the way.”
“I’m not in the way.” She folded her arms and cocked her hip out.
“You’re standing right over the bleeding hole!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her heeled foot inched closer to the hole’s edge.
He shifted his bodyweight into the club he had perched on the ground, leaning forward a bit as he spoke to her. “I’m onto you, woman. Duplicitous little con artist.”
“I don’t need to cheat. Score card. Read it.” Now her right foot was completely over the hole. She gave him a challenging glare. “You gonna do something about it, tough guy?”
He snorted a laugh, shaking his head. He still wasn’t sure what had changed, what exactly had shifted inside him, but he thought maybe that beautiful smirk on her face had something to do with it. As soon as they had decided to ride their bikes here, his nerves had vanished and he found himself having fun. Laughing. Faking her out with his handlebars as if he was going to run her off the road, only to slam on the brakes and let her pass him. His stomach hurt from the laughter. And now she was teasing him, goading him, and trying to make him lose by distracting him with her sexy as hell legs. Letting her win at a bike race was one thing. Putt-putt was another game entirely and he was going to take her down.
She started making chicken noises. Rooster calls. Flapping her arms up and down in a rather unladylike fashion. He’d have been pissed if she weren’t so fucking cute.
Then he leapt over the barricade and into the 8th hole’s tiny town display, running towards her, and she squealed, hurrying to hide from him behind a tiny windmill.
“Cowardess!” He stomped over a village on his way towards her, careful not to smash anything, smiling when he heard her giggling.
“The tower of power will protect me,” she shouted, peeking at him from around the putt-putt display, catching him right as he kicked his ball into the hole. She leapt out and gasped. “Cheater!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He shrugged casually as he continued to tease her. He hadn’t noticed right away that she was no longer looking in his direction. “I’m only following the master. Since you’re so good at cheating and all.”
He tilted his head and took a step forward, finally realizing that she’d grown board-stiff.
“Buffy?”
She blinked, and it seemed to shake her out of it, but he could tell she was forcing a smile and that the moment was gone. She walked out of the course and passed him, going to sit on a bench that was only a few feet from the barricade. His eyes followed her movements and he lowered his club, chewing on his lip in confusion. Had he said something wrong? He looked around, spotting a few couples playing and having a good time, unsure what had caught her attention and made her so sullen.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded, shooting a bright smile his way before she lowered her head and rubbed her arms. He came beside her and sat down, shrugging off his suit coat and wrapping it around her shoulders. He tucked his club beneath his arm and watched as his own hand began rubbing her back, trying to warm her, as if he’d done it a hundred times before. She looked just as surprised and the smile she gave him then was genuine, mixed with a twinge of red on her cheeks.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“You looked cold.” She also had a hair stuck to her bottom lip when the wind blew and he wondered if he had the courage to pluck it off. He didn’t. His hands wedged between his knees, gripping the golf club, and he tapped it on the ground, unsure of what to say.
* * *
Buffy needed to get over it. She didn’t even like Parker that way any more, but it was the principle of how he’d ended things that bothered her so immensely. Was this how it was always going to be? Was she doomed to like men that only wanted to use her for her body?
She’d called Cordelia earlier that day to tell her about William and what an idiot she was for throwing herself into another situation with a guy that didn’t really like her. He was forced to take her out that night, he thought she was an idiot, and she wasn’t sure she could go through with it. Because she found that she really, really liked him. That she had fun with him and his friends the night before, and didn’t think her heart could take another rejection so soon after Parker.
William was completely different than any guy she’d ever dated before. He was mysterious, to her. Secretive. She wanted to know those secrets. She wanted him to want to tell them to her.
She could picture the two of them lounging on his bed as he read a book, her head curled up on his chest and his hand idly stroking her hair. He’d read aloud, and she’d hang on every word, and he’d toss the book aside to say, “Enough of Proust. You’re far more interesting.” And then they’d kiss for hours and he’d murmur four and five syllable words into her pussy and she’d come over and over.
But he was more than just a smart guy in her Sociology class, she knew now. He was playful and funny and a complete nerd and he drank sugary sweet sodas and had gorgeous forearms. She couldn’t stare at them for too long because she really was invested in the television show the four of them were watching but she’d caught a glimpse of them when he passed her the popcorn bowl.
But he wasn’t interested in her. She’d simply made a new friend.
To make matters worse, she’d run into Parker that morning on her way to her Creative Writing class. He was making out with some girl in the hallway, sullying her virtue with his lying lips, no doubt. Buffy’s body had stood still, a part of her crumbling at the sight. While she knew now that he was a jerk, it didn’t change the fact that only a day ago, she’d professed her love and gave her body over to him. She meant those words, or thought she had. It stung. It made her feel like nothing. And he didn’t care about her at all and probably never had. Her esteem had taken a beating and Cordelia was making all kinds of sense.
“You need a rebound, Buffy. That’s all,” she’d said as Buffy curled her hair, preparing for her date.
“William isn’t a rebound. He’d have to be interested for it to be a rebound.”
“You really think he doesn’t like you?” Cordy raised an eyebrow and sat on the edge of the vanity next to Buffy. She picked up a tube of lipstick and opened it to see the color.
“He barely said anything to me all night. He talked to his friends and…I don’t know. When Wesley suggested that he take me out to dinner, William looked horrified, like that was the last thing on earth he ever wanted to do. I’m telling you, he’s not interested.”
Cordy sighed as she colored her lips with Buffy’s lipstick. “Well, then he’s the idiot, not you. If you’re so sure he’s not into you, why are you going on this date?”
Buffy lowered her hand from the roller in her hair and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.” And then she started sobbing.
“Oh, Buffy,” Cordy said, groaning. She rubbed her friend’s back and tried to console her when Buffy’s shoulders bobbed up and down with her heavy cries. “Why do you do this to yourself? Take a break, you know? You don’t have to date someone.”
“I,” sniffle, “know,” hiccup, “but…I want to.” Her lip trembled and she hiccupped again, breaking down once more when she caught her reflection in the mirror. She’d ruined her makeup, her hair was only half rolled, and she was making a mistake. She was punishing herself with this date and she just wanted William to like her. For someone to like her for who she was and the possibility seemed so far out of reach now. “I’m going to be fat and alone and have a million cats,” she said loudly as she wailed a sob and collapsed onto her folded arms on the vanity.
“No friend of mine will ever, ever be a crazy cat lady,” Cordy said with conviction. When Buffy had yet to calm down, she stood up and said, “That’s it. I’m canceling this date for you.”
“No!” Buffy whirled around to face her, the movement knocking out one of her rollers and it tumbled out of her hair and onto the carpet. “Don’t do that!”
“Buffy! Look at yourself! If he doesn’t like you, then you’re not going on this date! You’re a wreck!”
“I can’t stay in this room tonight, Cordy. I’ll go crazy!”
“So a date with someone who doesn’t even like you is your alternative? Someone who was forced to take you out? Buffy, this is crazy.”
“Fine! Cancel it!” She slammed her hair brush down on the vanity and folded her arms. “He lives in the Quad. Room 325.”
Cordelia sighed and walked to the door, opening it right as William had raised his hand to knock. Buffy watched her shut the door, heard her whispering, and her heart slammed in her chest. She didn’t know what they were saying, but the lump in her throat was threatening to choke her as she waited impatiently for her to return. When Cordy came back inside, she was smiling. Smiling and running over to her, reaching for a hot roller.
“You have five minutes to get ready.”
“What?” She winced when Cordy grabbed a lump of hair and started rolling it.
“You’re going on this date.” Cordy looked determined. When Cordy was determined about something, Buffy was hard pressed to defy her. The two of them started rolling up her hair and Buffy found herself smiling a little.
“What changed your mind?”
Cordy smiled at Buffy’s reflection in the mirror. “Trust me.”
* * *
So, why was she sitting on a bench in a miniature golf course when seconds before she was having a fantastic time? Good question.
The answer to that was standing fifteen feet away. Parker had his tongue lodged in another girl’s throat, a different girl from the one she’d seen him with that morning, and he was wearing the jacket that Buffy had purchased for him in an attempt to garner his attention. She simply needed to sit down.
What if he’d been with different girls the entire time they were together? Was she really that stupid? Had she really been played that easily? Was she the type of girl who was so gullible she could be taken advantage of that effortlessly? Why the fuck did Parker have to show up everywhere she went?
William sat silently beside her, unaware of her plight. He’d finally opened up to her and Parker had to ruin it. She ruined it. She ruined everything. Maybe this date was too soon. Maybe she needed time to think before she jumped into something new.
Or maybe she could cover all her bases now to find out if jumping wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Can I ask you something?”
William turned his head to face her. “Of course.”
She snuggled into the coat around her shoulders, holding it tightly around her. “If we were to go out again, where would we go?”
William’s eyes grew wide and he blushed. “Um. W-well. You would…um…you w-would want to go out with me again?”
She couldn’t help but smile when he looked at her that way. She nodded shyly. “Yeah.”
She didn’t know he had dimples in his cheeks until right then. He shrugged. “Dunno, really. Wherever you wanted, I guess.”
She needed more. She wanted to know if William would let her in. If he’d treat her like a child and pat her on the head and tell her how pretty she was while he went off to fuck some other girl. Would he respect her? Would he talk to her about things that were important to him? Was he after one thing and one thing only? She couldn’t have all the answers now, she knew, but she could have some.
“Do you write poetry? You mentioned that you liked reading it but I wondered if you liked to write it as well.”
He swallowed hard, obviously curious about this rapid-fire interrogation she was putting him through. “I have. It’s not very good, though.”
“Would you read it to me sometime?”
He blinked. Looked at the ground. “S-sure. If you’d like. Only if you promise not to laugh at them.”
She scooted a bit closer to him. “When we go back to your place, would you tell me what you did to win those ribbons?”
She almost laughed at the expression on his face. The color had drained from his cheeks, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and he started breathing heavily. “M-my place?”
“Well, yeah. Amanda will be done with her night classes and we can’t really talk if she’s there. Do you not want to hang out after this?”
She finally saw what Cordelia was talking about, that dazed, LSD-induced stare of absolute bliss and awe. He just nodded dumbly.
“Ok then. So, when we get there, you’ll tell me?”
“Tell you…what?”
“How you won those ribbons.”
He inhaled and said softly, “I’ll tell you anything and everything you want to know.”
She smiled sweetly at him. “Good.”
He took her by surprise when he reached over to hold her hand. She was pretty sure her expression matched his now.
* * *
William’s hand was trembling as he slid the key into the lock of his door. His other was trembling, too, because his fingers were pleasantly laced with Buffy’s. Since he’d bravely taken her hand in his the first time, they’d grown comfortable with the gesture, finding that they were holding hands as often as possible; save the times they needed separation to make their shot or to ride their bikes back to campus. But as soon as they locked up their transports at the bike racks, their hands immediately sought the other out once more and they strolled back to the Quad in comfortable silence.
Until they opened the double doors leading to the hallway of William’s dorm room and it suddenly hit him that he would have a girl in his room and he had no idea what to do. Did she simply want to hang out or was that code for something more? He was both thrilled and horrified at the idea. What if she wanted to have sex with him? He didn’t have any condoms and he didn’t have any fucking clue how to compose himself. He’d read so many women’s magazines in his youth that his mother often wondered about his sexual orientation. But he was reading about women. What they liked. What they hated. Women’s magazines were a wealth of knowledge for an ignorant boy like William. He never had the opportunity to test the waters, though. Not until now.
His mind was scrolling through the mental files he’d logged away over the years, hoping that he could land on just one of them, just one that told him how to please her. But what if he was misreading it? What if he’d go too far and she thought him a letch and god fucking dammit women were confusing!
“You’re so lucky to have a single,” she said as they walked inside. “I mean, Amanda is nice but I don’t like sharing living quarters.”
“Yeah…lucky me,” he said quietly as he walked in behind her. She removed the jacket he’d loaned her and she laid it on his desk chair. Then she lifted her arms over her head and stretched. Motherfucker, he was already starting to get hard. He had to calm down.
“I’ll be right back,” he said suddenly.
“Oh, ok.” She frowned at him.
“Bathroom.” He backed away towards the door. “I’ll just be a minute. Um…make yourself c-com…make yourself…just sit down.”
She giggled. “Ok.”
He practically bolted down the hallway to Wesley’s room, knocking frantically on the door. “Open up! Wesley! Wesley!”
Wesley flung the door open, his eyes wide in panic. “What happened?”
William was panting, his eyebrows arched in worry. “Buffy. She’s…she’s in my dorm room!”
“Well what are you doing here, man? I’m certainly not going to make out with you!”
“I know, I know…it’s…she likes me. I think, anyway. And we rode bikes and she held my hand and I beat her at golf and now she’s wearing a dress and I don’t know what the fuck to do!”
“Get it together!”
William closed his eyes and nodded, taking a deep breath. When he opened them, he saw that Andrew had come to the door as well.
“Hey, William,” Andrew said, holding up a deck of cards. “We’re playing Magic. I made a red and green deck and I’m currently mopping the floor with Wesley’s ass.”
“Only because of your damn regeneration cards! Don’t worry, I’ll be hitting you in the next move,” Wesley said conceitedly.
“Guys! There are more important matters than Magic the Gathering,” William said, his nerves on the brink. “Namely, the hot girl I have in my room!”
Andrew gasped appreciatively. “Buffy came back to your room with you?”
“Yes! And I’m losing my fucking mind. What do I do?”
Wesley and Andrew looked at one another and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” William paled. “But what about all the women you’ve been with, Wesley? Surely you know something!”
Wesley blushed and uncharacteristically stammered. “I-I-I…w-well, the truth is…I have n-never, actually…it was a dare, all right? Truth or Dare. And I dared them to allow me to touch their breasts. I’ve never actually had a girlfriend or…done anything with a woman.” His shoulders sagged and Andrew’s chin quivered.
“Sensei?” Andrew said in quiet horror.
“Great. Just great!” William was going to have a panic attack. “I’m going to ruin everything.”
“No you aren’t. Just…be yourself,” Wesley said helpfully, lightly punching William in the arm.
“Thanks very much,” he said sarcastically. “Excuse me while I go hang myself.” He turned away from his friends and walked down the hallway. He heard them cheering him on.
“Go get her, tiger!”
“Aim high and shoot low!”
He rolled his eyes and turned the corner, taking a moment to collect himself before he opened his bedroom door. When he did, when he spotted her sitting on his trundle bed, her shoes off and her legs curled up beneath her and her eyes trained to the television, he was never more grateful for sci-fi than he was at that moment.
“Sorry,” she said ashamedly, reaching for the remote, “I’ve been dying to watch the next episode since last night.”
“Don’t turn it off,” he said, making his way over to her. He sat down beside her. “We can watch it if you want.”
“Are you sure it’s all right?”
He nodded and leaned back against the brass frame, almost choking when she curled up beside him and rested her head on his chest. “I’m sure.” In fact, he was positive.
He’d seen this episode a million times already, so he was perfectly content memorizing everything about her, smelling her hair, feeling her body against his, and wondering just how long it would last before he had to do something. He was so nervous yet grateful for this moment to calm down and simply be with her. Then she started speaking to him, breaking him out of his reverie.
“It’s so beautiful there,” she said quietly. “I’ve only ever been to Nevada and that’s as far as my travels have gone.”
“You’ve never traveled?” He smiled when she paused the screen. She didn’t want to miss any of the show, but she still wanted to speak to him. It was fairly easy to recruit people over to the dark side of Lost. You really couldn’t miss a second of it.
“Nope. I always wanted to. I want to see springs and waterfalls and caves.”
“You need to go spelunking, then.” He didn’t know why she’d suddenly sat upright and stared at him curiously. “What is it?”
“Have you been before?”
“I go every year with my family. We’re nature buffs.” He shrugged. “We should go sometime. It’s a bit of a drive but I’m sure we could get Wes to go if we pay for his gas. Did you know that gold miners found those caverns in the late 1800s? Wonder if they appreciated a good zip-line like I do,” he said, chuckling to himself, completely unaware of the glassy-eyed expression of the girl next to him. “Have enough gear for you if you want to go. It’s at Mum’s but that’s on the way to the caverns. Could go next weekend if you—”
She was kissing him. Oh fuck, she was kissing him! He didn’t know what he’d said to make her do it, but he didn’t care because her hands were on his cheeks and her perfect, warm, wet lips were on his. Then she was straddling his waist and he grabbed her hips and parted her lips with his tongue. God and his heavenly creatures and all their beauty could not compare to this. The taste of her, the feel of her straddling his erection, her soft skin beneath his fingers as he touched her back and her warm tongue massaging his…it was bliss. He had no idea a kiss could be this amazing.
She moaned. She was moaning! He’d made her do that!
“William.” And whispering his name while he kissed her neck! What was he doing? His mouth and hands were on autopilot and he couldn’t get enough of her mouth so he kissed her once more, swallowing the little squeal she emitted as he rolled her onto her back.
A little too hard, because they both came crashing onto the floor.
“Ow!” But she was giggling so he wasn’t too mortified even as he hovered over her.
“You all right?”
She nodded, running her hands up his chest and around his neck, smiling. Her hair fanned out around her head and her cheeks were rosy and he was positively done for.
“You’re the most…” He closed his eyes when her nails raked in his hair and her legs came up around his sides, cradling him between her thighs.
“What?”
“You’re the most resplendent, pulchritudinous, gloriously sumptuous woman I’ve ever seen.”
Her eyelashes fluttered and she moaned. He wasn’t even touching her. “Oh, God, kiss me right now.”
Well, he certainly couldn’t argue with that.