Chapter 8
Her nose instinctively wrinkled up as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the shutters. Buffy tried to ignore them, curling up her body in the small corner of the bed that was still shielded in the shadows but soon it too was flooded with bright strings of light and she was forced to wake.
‘I hate Monday’s.’ She thought. ‘Thank God, I don’t have morning classes!’
She moved slowly under the covers, letting the soft fabric caress her legs and thighs while she stretched out the upper part of her body. Squinting a couple of times, she forced her eyes to open. Rolling her neck which, for the first time in a week, wasn’t sore, she stood up and slid her feet into her slippers making her way into the bathroom.
After going through her morning routine she stepped back into the hall and was surprised when she heard the TV.
‘Harmony is up at 10 am? That’s a first.’ She thought with a frown, dragging her feet across the corridor while her hand scratched her head through the thick and unruly bundle of hair.
She froze in place; hand still on her head when she met a man sprawled on the couch, the remote resting on his t-shirt-clad chest.
“Morning, luv.” He greeted, his eyes only leaving the TV screen for a second before returning.
‘Right. Boink-boy is here. Great!’ Her mind grumbled sarcastically while her lips mumbled her groggy: “Morning.”
“Like the look.” He half-mocked, pointing at her dishevelled hair.
Buffy felt the blood rush to her face, her hand instinctively dropping from her head as she quickly made her way across the room and behind the kitchenette counter.
“Though the towel look suits you better.” She heard him add.
She tried to think about a smart comeback but the instant odd combination of embarrassment and disgust interfered with the task. So, she simply ignored him and opened one of the cupboards, staring at its contents for a few seconds, searching for something in particular.
‘Where’s my cup-a-soup?’ Her mind wondered as she scanned the rest of the cabinets and found no trace of it. ‘I knew it. She ate it!’ She groaned inwardly. ‘We really gotta have a talk once she-‘ She stopped her train of thought when she saw the familiar cup open and laying on the coffee table – the coffee table where boink-boy had his army-boot-clad-feet propped up on. ‘He ate my cup-a-soup?!’ Her mind screamed.
She was about to say something, but swallowed it down and silently counted to ten. When she was done, she continued to search the kitchenette for food other than Harmony’s bags of chips and peanuts.
‘She eats all my food and leaves me with her half-eaten bags of chips. Perfect.’
After a few minutes she gave up on the frustrating search and sat down on one of the stools, reluctantly munching on some chips. The only sounds in the room came either from her mouth or the TV. Her eyes drifted towards the couch where all she could see of the stranger were his feet – still up on the table next to *her* cup-a-soup – and his right elbow peeking out.
She frowned when her attention was caught by the program showing on the TV.
‘Is that ‘Passions’?! Harmony’s bleached-wonder watches Passions? Oh, that’s priceless.’ She couldn’t help but giggle.
“You say something, luv?” A deep, hoarse voice came from couch.
“Nope. Nothing.” She shook her head, standing up and walking over to the couch.
She paused next to the armrest, hesitating on whether to sit down on the armchair of not.
‘Nah. Better not. The silence would just be too weird.’ She decided, starting back to her room.
~+~
Buffy killed time until her lunch appointment with Willow and Xander by lying on her bed, staring up at her ceiling as she waited for boink-boy to free up the living room or for Harmony to wake up. Neither of the options seemed to be bound to happen anytime soon.
“Bored… bored… bored.” She mumbled as she wondered what to do next.
She could always go those chapters Professor Adam had asked them to read.
‘Nah. I only have that class on Wednesday.’ She decided.
Ten more minutes passed and she was growing increasingly bored.
“I need some TV.” She said out loud, jumping off the bed and walking over to her door. Turning the knob she opened it and entered the hall. She moved closer to the living room, taking a quick peek before hiding back in the shadows.
‘Yep, freak-boy’s still there.’ She thought. ‘I can’t even watch TV in my own apartment. Life sucks.’ Resentfully she walked back into her bedroom.
~+~
“So I had to stay like two whole hours locked in my bedroom, because the bleached-wonder decided to slack on my couch while Harmony snoozed away.” Buffy complained yet again to her best friend. “Eventually, five minutes before I had to leave to meet you here, he finally got tired of watching TV and went back into her bedroom.” She drew a long breath before adding: “I hate my life. God, I wish I was living in the dorms with you.”
Willow tilted her head sideways and she gave her a sympathetic look.
“Speaking of dorms, how’s your roommate? Is she cool, or has she revealed herself to be Harmony-part-two?”
“No. Tara’s really cool.” Willow said excitedly.
“Lucky you.” Buffy moaned using her fork to shovel her food around in her plate.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m probably paying for doing something really awful in a past life.” Buffy reasoned unenthusiastically. “Maybe I was Jack, the Ripper.”
Willow couldn’t help but smile at that when someone in the distance caught her attention.
“Xander’s here.” She noted looking over Buffy’s shoulder.
“Hey, guys.” The young man greeted pulling out a chair to sit around the small table.
“You’re late.” Buffy grumbled.
“And you’re in a such a lovely mood today.” Xander remarked sarcastically. “What’s up with the Buffster?” He asked turning to look at Willow.
“Harmony.” Was her short reply.
“Oh. You’re excused then.” Xander reconsidered. “Sorry I’m late. I got held up at the construction site.”
“You’re really going through with the whole construction business. Aren’t you?” Buffy wondered.
“Yep. No turning back now. I’m going to be a responsible, money-earning adult from now on. No more slacking.” He announced, raising his chin proudly and filling his chest with air only to deflate it seconds later as he added: “I have to. I can’t live in my parents’ basement anymore. Anya says she needs a strong, independent man. Plus, she hates the fact that she can’t make any noise while my parents are home, which basically equals no sex.” He explained.
“Well, good luck.”
“Thanks.” He smiled signalling the waiter who quickly came over. “I’ll have the day’s special and a coke.”
With a nod the waiter parted.
“So, how’s Harmony making your life miserable now?” He questioned.
“By existing in the near vicinity of me?” Buffy offered with a forced smile that crumbled a second later.
“Good one.”
“Thanks.” Buffy mumbled. “Problem is she brought back-up.”
“Huh?” Xander frowned.
“She’s got a…” Buffy paused wondering what word to use next and settled for: “boyfriend now and she keeps bringing him over. I mean, he practically sleeps there. No! Correction, he doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” She grumbled, dropping her fork and giving up on eating the food as she leaned back on the chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
Confused, Xander turned to Willow for an explanation.
“They have sex.” As the boy continued to frown she added: “Very loud sex.”
“Oh.” He finally realised.
“Yeah. And if that’s not enough, now I have another freeloader gobbling up *my* food. Willow, he ate my cup-a-soup!”
“The one I brought you?”
“Yes.” She pouted.
“Don’t worry; I’ll buy you a new one.” Willow replied earning a half smile from the blonde sitting across from her.
“Let’s just change the subject, please.” Buffy asked, rubbing her temples.
“So, are you going out with Parker again?”
“Who’s Parker?” Xander questioned but was promptly ignored by the two girls as they seemed to enter total-girly mode.
“Yes. He asked me to go with him to a frat party.” She replied a bit shy.
“The one on Friday?” Willow wondered.
“Who’s Parker?” Xander repeated.
“Yeah. You going?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask Tara if she wants to tag along.”
“Cool.” Buffy smiled widely.
“Ok. I’ll try this one more time… Who’s Parker?”
“Oh! Xander, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.” Buffy apologized. “He’s this nice guy I met at the library.”
“Library, huh?” He wondered.
“She already went out on a date with him. Coffee. On Friday.” Willow added.
“Coffee, on Friday. You’re back in the dating game, Buffster?” Xander questioned a bit concerned, remembering how painfully Buffy’s last experience had ended.
“I guess so.” She replied hesitantly.
“Well, good for you!”
“Thanks, Xander. Are you and Anya coming to the party?”
“Doubt it. My parents are going to be out for the weekend. I’m pretty sure Anya and I are gonna wanna enjoy the parent free zone back home.” He explained.
“You’re parents are going out for the weekend?” Willow frowned, knowing the Harris’s well enough.
“Aunt Vivian is sick, my mom wants to visit her and she’s dragging my father along because she doesn’t want to take the bus to San Francisco.”
“Oh. Too bad then. I hear that the party is going to be amazing.” Willow tried to convince her friend.
“Well, I’ll just have to settle for hot-monkey sex with my girlfriend and having lots of orgasms.” He said before frowning and adding: “I’m spending too much time with Anya, aren’t I?”
“Yes!” The two girls replied in unison.
~+~
Buffy frowned when she opened the door to her apartment and the scent of paint assaulted her nose.
“Harmony?” She called out.
“In here.” The reply came from the bedroom.
There were newspapers spread all over the floor going from the kitchen to hall an into Harmony’s room.
“What are you doing?” Buffy asked, cautiously walking over the old paper.
“Painting my room.” Was Harmony’s ever cheerful reply.
Buffy gasped when she reached the bedroom door and the pink practically jumped off the walls to attack her, forcing her to blink a couple of times. When that didn’t seem to dull the ache, she rubbed her eyelids and once again opened them to be assaulted by the colour.
“Do you like it?”
‘No! Get it off! Get it off!’ The unrefined part of Buffy’s brain shouted, but as it filtered through the rest of her socially groomed mind the sentence came out of her lips in one short and uncertain mumble: “It’s bright!”
“I know! Isn’t it the coolest?” Harmony asked giddily as she continued to roll the paint on one of the walls.
“I-It’s really… bright.” It was the only socially acceptable adjective that came to mind even though the ones at the top of her list were ‘God awful’, ‘nauseating’, ‘revolting’, ‘hideous’ and ‘painful’. Yes, painful was definitely number one on that list. She was starting to develop a headache just from looking at the colour.
“You said that already.” Harmony rolled her eyes as she gingerly continued to paint the rest of the wall.
“Well… it is…” She paused. ‘God, this is horrible. Well, on the bright side it might scare boink-boy away. Yay! I’ll actually be able to sleep in peace.’
Harmony covered the last inch of white on the wall and stood back to admire her handiwork.
She was definitely not meant to be a painter. Buffy could discern the uneven coats of paint which caused the various walls to have different tonalities of the same colour. Plus, she could identify a series of erratic strokes spread over the surface. Some were diagonal, others vertical and some horizontal. If you added the small spots in the corners where there was still a bit of white peeking out, the room was a painter’s nightmare.
“Isn’t it great?” Harmony asked with a huge grin.
“It’s… um… original.” She hesitated.
“Spike’s gonna love this.” She giggled.
“Yeah, I’m sure he will…” She trailed off. ‘Thank God! I’m going to get rid of boink-boy.’
For some strange reason, maybe because of the thrill of knowing she wasn’t going to have anymore sleepless nights over Harmony’s sex life, she started to actually come to like the new look of the ex-cheerleader’s room, scanning it with still squinting eyes.
Only then did she notice that every single piece of furniture was covered in newspaper.
‘At least she was smart enough to cover the furniture.’ Buffy wondered mentally as she stepped into the room.
She walked around, finding even more jagged strokes on the wall. She frowned when she saw a bit of white peeking out from behind her bed.
“Um… Harmony?”
“Yeah?” She replied with a big smile as she stared up at the walls.
“Did you move the bed so you could paint behind the headboard?”
“Of course not, silly.” Harmony replied absentmindedly.
“Huh?” Buffy frowned confused.
“Why would I? I’m not planning on moving the bed, or the desk, so there is no need to paint the walls behind them. What did you think? That I was stupid or something?” Harmony rolled her eyes at Buffy and looked up. “Now I just have to figure out how I’m gonna paint the ceiling.”
Buffy was still a bit stunned by the blonde’s logic as she watched her roommate crawl up onto her desk. The material screeched a little under the sudden burden.
“Harmony…? I don’t think the desk can hold you.”
“Of course it can. Now pass me the paint roller.”
Reluctantly, Buffy bent down and picked up the roller and the can of paint, passing them to Harmony.
She watched as the ex-cheerleader rose on the tip of her toes, her tongue jutting out the corner of her mouth at the effort to reach for the ceiling and roll on the paint on the surface.
“See, it’s easy. Now all I have to do is move the desk around and paint the whole thing.” Harmony rationalized just as a drop of paint fell on her face. “Ah!” She screamed. “I can’t see. Buffy, I can’t-“
“Stop, moving you’re going to fall off-” Just as Buffy was warning her, Harmony stumbled and came tumbling down.
Reacting on pure instinct, Buffy ran across the room, just in time to have Harmony fall on top her and bring them both plummeting down to the floor.
“Ouch!” Harmony protested, still holding the paint roller in her right hand.
“Harmony…” It came out as a weak whisper. A gasp, really.
“Buffy?” She questioned when she opened her eyes and saw her roommate crushed under her.
“I can’t breathe.” Buffy managed to exhale.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Harmony quickly rolled off the smaller blonde and in the process managed to splatter paint over Buffy’s sweater, but the cheerleader seemed completely unaware of it as she knelt down next to her. “Are you ok? Oh, my God! You just like… saved me! I can’t believe it.” She half-shouted hysterically while Buffy’s painful attempt to prop herself up on her elbows brought on a coughing fit as her lungs were suddenly refilled with air. “Oh, my God! Thank you so much!”
“You’re… *cough, cough*… wel…*cough*” Buffy tried to speak as she sat up but a piercing pain cause her to freeze. “Ah!” She mewled holding onto the side of her ribcage.
“Are you ok?” Harmony asked worried.
“I’m…*cough*…fine.”
“Are you sure? We better get you to a hospital or something. Come on.” As she spoke Harmony wrapped her arm around Buffy’s and was pulling her up. “I can ask Spike to drive-“
“No!” Buffy immediately halted her, still sitting on the floor while Harmony was halfway up onto her feet.
“Huh?”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine.”
“But you could have a broken rib. We have to know, come on.” Harmony insisted, pulling at her arm once more.
“No!” Buffy repeated, this time with more emphasis causing the ex-cheerleader to drop her arm.
“Why not?”
“I told you. I’m fine.” Buffy insisted, stumbling to her feet and biting back a moan in the process.
“You sure don’t look fine to me.”
“Well, I am.” Buffy snapped back.
“Fine. It’s your rib.” Harmony shrugged.
The two stood in the middle of the room, with Harmony eyeing the shorter blonde and Buffy nursing her sore ribcage.
“Are you sure?” Harmony insisted one last time.
Buffy looked up at her. She was genuinely worried. Who would have thought, Harmony could care for anyone other than herself.
“I’m fine.” Buffy replied calmly.
Harmony’s eyes narrowed at her and she tilted her head.
“What?” Buffy asked.
“You’re afraid to go to the hospital.”
“No, I’m not!” Buffy’s answer came all too quickly.
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not. Now can we just go back to painting your room? And try not to fall on me again.”
“Whatever.” Harmony huffed giving up.