Chapter 17
She walked quickly around the various tables while pushing her pad back into the front pocket of her apron.
“Give me one iced coffee, with sugar and whole milk, two expressos and two medium cappuccinos skim milk.” She told the young man behind the counter picking up a tray and setting on a stool while she waited for her order.
Her gaze scanned the almost empty coffee shop. Usually, she would be grateful for the current situation. It gave her time to rest a bit, but not today. Free time equalled time to think and that lead to surfacing of bad, bad memories.
She had spent the entire week avoiding Harmony. Sneaking into bed at nine o’clock on Sunday so she wouldn’t have to talk to her when she came back home, waking up one hour earlier so she could leave the apartment before the ex-cheerleader was up and staying an extra hour after work was finished.
The new routine was killing her but she couldn’t face Harmony. The only time they had met had been on Wednesday night when Buffy came home. She entered the apartment to find her roommate lounging on the couch watching TV.
“Hey.” She had greeted her with extra peppiness. “Where have you been? Haven’t seen you all week.”
“Working. I’m tired, I better get some sleep. Night.” Buffy had muttered in one quick breath before locking herself in her room.
Now it was Friday, and there was no way she was going to be able to avoid her roommate during the entire weekend. Even if she did go home, she would still have to pass by the apartment to take some clothes with her.
Letting out another sigh she turned to find her order ready on the counter.
“Thanks.” She forced a smile as she picked up the cups and took them to the table.
Coming back with an empty tray she sat on the stool and cursed the fact that she didn’t have more customers.
“Kinda slow today, isn’t it?”
She jumped up at the familiar voice.
“Willow! What are you doing here?” Buffy asked with the first genuine smile all week.
“Got out of classes early, decided to come by and see how you’re doing.” The redhead replied taking a seat next to her friend.
“I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I-I know.” Willow stuttered. “I’m sorry. I’ve been kinda busy with classes and… um…”
“Partying hard?” Buffy finished the sentence for her, raising an eyebrow.
“P-partying? Me?”
“I know all about it.” Buffy replied with a smirk.
Willow turned bright red and stammered:
“Y-you know? H-how?”
“Xander and Anya told me.” She replied nonchalantly.
“X-Xander?”
“Yeah. He was at the Bronze last week and saw you.” Buffy explained.
Willow remained silent with large eyes.
“He told me you were there with your roommate. You guys were just leaving. I guess Tara is a big party person, huh?” Buffy continued, frowning when she noticed Willow visibly relax.
“T-Tara? A party person? No. Not really. We just wanted to celebrate the A I got in psych 101.” Willow explained. “I was the one who convinced her to go.”
“Oh!” Buffy nodded in agreement as suddenly a strange silence settled between them.
They tried to avoid each other’s gaze, scanning the coffee shop as the stillness dragged on.
‘I can’t believe it. I’m having an awkward silent moment with Willow. With Willow! We always have stuff to talk about. Xander’s constantly trying to shut us up. What’s going on?’
The minutes ticked at an agonizingly slow pace.
“Hey, kid? You still here?”
Her boss’ voice caused Buffy to jump up.
“Hey, Whistler.” She replied, exhaling.
“I thought I told you to take Friday off.” He short man continued, walking around the bar.
“I know. I just thought I’d lend a hand.”
“Yeah, seeing as the Expresso Pump is just bursting with clients.” He retorted.
“Well, it might get crowded, yet.” Buffy insisted with a pout.
“Right.” Whistler huffed as he stepped into the back room.
“My boss.” Buffy explained turning to Willow.
“I guessed that much.”
And yet again the silence filtered its way through the two friends. Eventually, as it became too much to bare Buffy spoke up:
“Is everything ok, Willow?” At her friend’s strange look, she added: “I mean… with us.”
“Sure.” She tried to sound nonchalant in her statement, but her voice came out feeble and insecure.
“Oh… ok.” Buffy dropped her shoulders and they drifted into silence again.
Buffy was carefully analysing the suddenly fascinating floor when she spotted out of the corner of her eye a flash of blonde.
“Oh, my God.” Buffy breathed, eyes widening.
“What?” Willow frowned as she watched her best friend frantically looking right and left until she settled for rushing behind the counter, in small, hurried steps and ducking. “Buffy?” The redhead asked looking over the smooth surface to find Buffy crouch next to a beer keg.
“Hey.” Buffy greeted the bartender, with a quick wave and a nervous smile.
The boy simply raised his eyebrow and returned his attention to the cappuccino machine. There was no need to get alarmed. In the two weeks she’d been working here, this was definitely one of Buffy’s less eccentric moves.
“Buffy, what are you doing there?” Willow asked.
“Harmony and boink-boy. They’re here.” She hissed her answer.
Willow looked up and scanned the room to find Harmony walking across the coffee shop; an ever black-clad Spike reluctantly trailing behind her.
“Oh, yeah. They’re coming this way.”
“Oh, my God. Don’t tell them I’m here.”
“Why?” Willow’s brow furrowed again.
“Please!” Buffy pleaded from her cocoon.
“Hey, Willow.” Harmony’s peppy voice caused Willow to snap her neck towards her.
“H-Hey.” The redhead stuttered.
She didn’t really know if it was because of the fright or because of the fact that Harmony had actually gotten her name right.
“Is Buffy here?”
“Er…” She hesitated before uttering: “No?”
Buffy cringed at Willow’s response. It was incredible just how bad of a liar she was.
“No.” She repeated with a little more conviction. In the meantime, her eyes moved from the blonde in front of her to the man standing behind her, tapping his foot impatiently as he stared at the floor.
“Well, isn’t she supposed to be working here or something?” Harmony asked.
“Um… yes. She… um…” Willow struggled with an excuse as her attention returned to Harmony. “She got the day off!” She finally blurted.
“Oh! So she’s not here, then?”
Willow frowned.
“Yeah, that’s normally what happens when you get the day off.” She paused. “You tend to try and spend your time somewhere other than your workplace.” She rationalized.
“Right.” Harmony nodded.
“Yeah.” Willow agreed trying to prevent any chance of silence settling in between the three of them. It would just be too awkward.
“Well, if you see her can you tell her I *really* need to speak to her.”
“Sure.”
“It’s cause I want to have sex with Spike this weekend and-“
“Harm!” Spike finally spoke up at the same time as Willow and Buffy cringed.
“Oh, sorry blondie bear!” She apologized in a babyish tone, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before turning around and whispering: “Spike says he can’t if Buffy’s there. Apparently it’s rude or something. Go figure!”
“Go figure.” Willow agreed dumbstruck by the blonde’s complete lack of social skills.
“So, I just wanted to know if she’s gonna spend the weekend at her mom’s.” She asked cheerfully.
“I-I really don’t know.” Willow replied still a bit a stunned.
“Oh, that’s ok. Just tell her if you see her ok?”
“O-Ok.”
And with that Willow was left sitting at the bar as the two blondes parted.
“Are they gone?” Buffy whispered from her hiding place.
“No. They’re sitting down at a table.”
Buffy exhaled sharply before crawling her way towards the backdoor when suddenly it opened.
“Summers? What are you doing?” Whistler asked when he found Buffy on all fours in front of him.
“Hey, Whistler!” She greeted with a plastic smile that showed almost all her teeth. “I’m taking your advice. I think I’m gonna take the day off.”
“O-k.” He nodded with a frown as he watched her crawl away from him, stand up and run out of the establishment. Willow trailed quickly behind her. “You should consider getting some therapy too.” He shouted at her departing form.
~+~
“God, the audacity!” Willow exclaimed as the two walked through campus. “She’s practically kicking you out of the apartment for the weekend so she can boink loverboy.” She paused for a second then cocked an eyebrow adding: “Actually, in a weird way, that’s an improvement considering that before she didn’t even care if you were in the apartment and could hear their grunting marathon. It’s just scary what can be regarded as an improvement with Harmony.”
Buffy simply nodded and continued to walk.
“Are you ok?”
“Fine.”
“Oh, God! It’s worst than I thought!”
“What?” Buffy frowned turning to look at her best friend.
“Every time you say ‘fine’ it means everything’s a mess and you’re nearing an emotional meltdown.” Willow explained.
“I’m not having a meltdown.” Buffy assured her. “I’m just… having a slight emotional crisis.”
“What’s wrong?” Willow asked.
Buffy walked a few more steps in silence before she spoke.
“I went to a party with Parker… last Saturday. Some pre-Halloween thing.”
“Oh, I heard about that one. A girl from the dorm went to it and got completely trashed.”
“Well, I got kinda tipsy myself and decided to get back home. So we get home and start watching a movie and-“
“Oh, my God! You and Parker did the nasty!” Willow exclaimed loudly, causing the couple that was walking past them to turn and look.
“A little louder, please.” Buffy whispered sardonically.
Shrinking, in shame, the redhead muttered: “Sorry. Go on.”
“Parker and I didn’t do the nasty. We were about to, when boink-boy interrupted.”
“He saw you naked.”
“No!” Buffy denied immediately. “He didn’t see me naked. I heard him coming into the apartment and went to check who it was. I thought it was Harmony, coming back from her parents. Turned out to be *it*. And *it* was going through my clothes.”
“He went into your room?” Willow asked confused.
“What? No. My clothes were on the couch, in the living room. Mine and Parker’s.” Buffy explained.
“How did boink-boy get in the apartment in the first place?”
“Harmony probably gave him the key. She doesn’t even know him all that well. She’s known him for two months and already he has the key. I mean, just because he’s Mr. Orgasm doesn’t mean he can’t be a total psycho.” Buffy let out a sigh after her mini-rant. “Anyway, he was rude and hateful, as always. Saying Parker had tricked me into sleeping with him by getting me drunk. Which is a total lie, I wasn’t drunk anymore! A-and he said I was desperate.”
“What did you do?”
“I told him to leave. Told him Harmony had left to spend the weekend with her parents so he could just leave. I was all noble and determined not to sink to his level. But he just kept on pushing with his stupid eyes and that disgustingly annoying smirk. You know the one that guys do, pulling their mouth to the side like this.” Buffy exemplified and Willow nodded. “Next thing I know we’re screaming at the top of our lungs, calling each other names.” She paused. “He called me an obnoxious little brat.” She pouted.
“And Parker didn’t do anything?” Willow questioned with a frown.
“Parker wasn’t even there. He was in my room.” Buffy explained kicking a rock off the pavement as she remembered the small details of the evening.
“Alright, but didn’t he come out when he heard you guys?”
“Maybe he didn’t hear.”
“You said you were shouting off the top of your lungs.” Willow pointed out.
“That’s right.” Buffy frowned, stopping in her tracks. “He should have heard us. I mean, the apartment has terrible sound isolation. I should know.”
“Maybe he heard but didn’t want to interfere.” Willow offered.
“No. I talked to him afterwards and he didn’t mention anything. Why would he lie?” Buffy paused for a few seconds before she resumed walking. “That’s odd.” She noted and Willow nodded.
She gave it another few seconds of consideration but, when she failed to come up with an answer, she simply made a note to herself to ask Parker about it and continued:
“Anyway, we’re screaming and insulting each other. I said I hated him, he said it was mutual and then…” She looked at her best friend as she continued: “He kissed me.”
“He what?!” Willow stopped dead in her tracks.
“He kissed me. He pinned me against the door and kissed me.”
“You kissed boink-boy?”
“I said he kissed me.” Buffy pouted in protest.
“You pushed him away?” Willow offered.
“No.” Buffy responded bowing her head in shame.
“So you just stood there frozen in panic and did nothing.”
“Not exactly.” She whispered.
“What did you do?”
“I sorta responded.”
“What does *sorta* mean?” Willow frowned.
“I kinda kissed back.” Buffy’s gaze was buried on the floor.
“Kinda?”
“Alright!” She gave in. “So I kissed him. I was drunk!”
“You said you weren’t drunk anymore. That’s why Parker didn’t trick you into bed.” Willow pointed out.
Buffy paused before muttering:
“I hate you… Why do you actually listen to everything I say?” She grumbled as she began walking again.
“Did you like it?” Willow asked.
“Willow! Of course not! He’s Harmony’s boyfriend. And even if he wasn’t he’s… disgusting.”
“I don’t know. He looked kinda cute.”
“I’m sticking with disgusting.” Buffy insisted.
“So you didn’t like it?”
“No.”
“Then why did you kiss him back?”
“Willow! You’re supposed to be ‘supportive-girlfriend’ here. Stop rationalizing so much. I’ve got my conscience doing that for me 24/7 since Saturday. God! I can’t even look at Harmony.” She sighed.
“Sorry.” Willow said apologetically.
“It’s ok. I just hate this whole situation…” She mumbled.
They walked in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes before Willow spoke:
“So that’s boink-boy, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s cute.”
“Willow! He’s disgusting.” She corrected.
“Right. Disgusting.” Willow agreed. “And he’s really pale. Looks like a thin snowman wrapped up in evil, black leather.”
“Yeah. I’m surprised he was actually out during the day. I thought he’d disintegrate under direct sunlight, or something.” She mocked and the two girls laughed as they continued to make their way through campus.