Chapter 10
“What do you mean she walked away with him?” Xander asked incredulous, staring wide eyed at the redhead who walked alongside him.
“I mean she just slid her arm around his and dragged him out of school .” Willow explained for the 100th time.
“And you haven’t spoken to her the whole weekend?” The teen continued to question.
“Nope. Tried to call her but no one answered.”
“But-“ Xander trailed off as the subject of their discussion came up from behind the duo.
“Hey, guys.” Buffy greeted with little enthusiasm.
“There you are! Where were all weekend?” Willow questioned as they continued to walk down the hall.
“Don’t ask. My mom’s maternal instinct decided to kick in full force this weekend. End result, some major mother/daughter bonding overload. Had to spend the whole time going through family photo albums, cooking and baking lessons. God! She even felt the need to chit-chat about those little fornicating birds and bees. If I have to her my mom say the word penis one more time I swear I’ll shoot myself.” Buffy cringed as she remembered a few gory details.
“Sorry to hear that.” Willow gave her best friend a sympathetic look and Buffy sighed.
Suddenly, looking more closely, she realised everyone in the hall was gawking at her.
“Oh God! Do I have like a giant pimple on my face?” Buffy asked in a panic, to which Xander and Willow both shook their heads. “Then why is everyone staring at me?”
“Maybe because of the weird Spike-loving event back on Friday afternoon?” Xander offered with a hint of sarcasm.
“Oh, that…”
“Yes, that! I thought we were back to “hating Brit boy’s boney ass” mode.”
“Well, we-“
Buffy wasn’t able to finish her sentence as two strong, long arms wormed their way over her shoulders to settle over her waist and a hard chest now pressed against her back. ‘A definite male chest!’ Buffy mentally noted. Before her brain had time to question who it belonged to, a low, whispering voice in her ears gave her the answer.
“Morning, luv.”
Buffy’s froze, her heart seemed to leap up to her throat, while Willow and Xander’s eyes were just about to pop out of their sockets.
“Hey…” she greeted back with much less enthusiasm.
She could feel herself blushing, her skin heating up. ‘God, this is just so strange. WRONG! WRONG! Go away! Don’t touch me! Yuck!’A squeaking voice screamed in her head, but she forced it into the background as she put on her best imitation of a smile.
“So, how are you?” She asked as she turned her head to face him, his arms still wrapped around her, her back still glued to his front.
“I’m fine.” The Brit answered.
Buffy was suprised to find a perfectly calm and cool Spike grinning back at her. For a second she seemed to zone out and when she was back to full attention the last thing she heard was:
“…do you have now?”
“Huh…? What?” The petite blond asked, shaking her head as she realised she was still staring up at the teen who was now idly playing with the edge of her shirt. ‘Stupid distracting smirk!’ She thought as she turned to face Xander while Spike repeated his question:
“What class to you have now, luv?”
“Hum…” Buffy struggled with her memory, but for some strange, disturbing reason, the feel of his chest and his legs pressing against her back seemed to block all her thinking abilities. Thankfully, a life-saving Willow intervened.
“We’ve got History.”
“Yes! History!” Buffy repeated as the bell rang.
“Well, see you in third period. We’ve got English together, right?” Spike enquired as his arms slid away from her and his body untangled itself from hers.
“Hum…” ‘Think stupid! Think!’ she ordered her brain. “Yes, I-I think we do.”
“See you later then.” He shouted as he made his way down the hall, leaving three dumbstruck teens behind.
“What. The Hell. Was that?” Xander tried to ask as calmly as he could manage.
“Uh… It’s… Hum…” Buffy struggled. “We better get going, don’t want Mrs. Finch on our cases. See you later, Xander.” She shouted as she quickly made her way to her next class, a confused Willow trailing behind her.
“But-“ Xander was left standing in the middle of an empty hall as the two girls sneaked into their class room.
~+~
Buffy stared at the small, crunched up piece of paper lying on her desk. Written in small black letters, she read:
“What was that all about?”
She looked up and to her right to find a wide eyed Willow staring back at her.
“Later.” The petite blond mouthed.
“Miss Summers!” Mrs Finch’s voice hovered over the class and everyone turned to gawk at the offending teen.
“Sorry, Mrs. Finch.”
The elderly woman nodded slightly and returned to her dull rambling about the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the social structure of the British society. When she realised she was off the hook, Buffy turned to whisper:
“I’ll tell you later, I promise.”
~+~
The bell rang and, in a flash, Willow was standing next to Buffy, books pressed against her chest, eyes staring widely at her friend, anxiously waiting for an explanation.
“What’s happening, Buffy?” The redhead asked as her patience ran out.
The petite blonde paused for a moment when she finished packing her books and looked up at her best friend. She really didn’t want to lie, but she had promised. The teen swallowed hard and, in one low and quickly breath, worded:
“Spikesmyboyfriend.”
With that she quickly made her way to the door.
“What?!” A stunned Willow shouted after her.
Buffy never had a chance to answer as she entered the hall she bumped into someone, her books tumbling to the floor.
“I’m sor-“ She stopped in mid sentence as she finished gathering her books and looked up to find a black clad Dru staring arrogantly down at her.
“Watch where you’re going!” She snapped.
“I said I was sorry.” Buffy apologized as she stood up straight.
With a chesty turn of her head, the black clad teen walked away, leaving the two best friends alone to talk.
“Explain.” Willow said simply.
“Spike and I are going out.” Buffy tried to sound as nonchalant about it as possible.
“Since when?”
“Since… Last Friday.”
“How?”
“We figured out that we have a lot in common.”
“Like what?!” Willow promptly asked.
“Like… I don’t know… A lot of stuff. Like…”
“An intense reciprocated loathing for one another?” Willow offered with a hint of sarcasm.
Buffy shook her head as she opened her locker.
“I can’t explain it to you. We’re together now. Things changed.”
Willow opened her mouth to say something, but Buffy cut her off.
“Just trust me, Willow. I know what I’m doing.”
And with that the bell rang and the two teens headed their separate ways.
~+~
Buffy nervously tapped her pencil on her desk as she heard the teacher read the same poem for the second time. Every once in a while she dared to throw a glance in the bleached teen’s general direction and almost every time she found him scribbling something on his notebook. What did he write in that damned thing. Every Monday morning was the same thing. He’d come into class, sit in his place and just scribbled away the whole time. Could he be taking notes? In English class? Buffy shook her head as the ringing of the bell snapped her out of her thoughts. She was putting her books into her backpack when she saw someone approaching her from the corner of her eyes.
“Ready to work on your acting skills, pet? Cause you sure as hell are long way from an award winning performance. What was all that staring about back in the halls, by the way?” He asked.
“What staring? I don’t stare.” Buffy said simply as she continued to stuff her things into the bag, before turning to leave the classroom.
“Whatever.” The teen sighed as he snaked his arm around her waist.
“Hey!” she instinctively slapped his hand away from her.
“You better get used to it, luv. Our overnight passion won’t look very believable if you keep jumping up every time I come near you, now will it?” He asked tilting his head.
Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed, taking his hand in hers she dragged him out of the classroom and into the hall where everyone turned to look at the odd couple.
“They’re staring. They’ll never believe this.” Buffy said between clenched.
“They’ll believe it. Trust me, pet.” He answered her in the same fashion.
“This is a stupid plan. It’ll never work.” She grunted stopping in front of her locker and opening it.
“Will you stop being so- Your palls are coming our way.” He warned her as he watched Willow, Oz and Xander coming down the hall.
“Oh, great! More questions. God, I hate my life!” She grumbled as she closed the locker and turned to smile at her friends. “Hey, guys!”
“Hey!” Xander greeted back, eyeing Spike as the bleached teen once again wormed his hands around Buffy’s waist.
“How was Math?” Buffy asked as she tried to break the odd silence that began to form between the group.
“Painfull.” Was Xander’s short answer.
“Oh…”
Silence. Incredibly uncomfortable silence. Oz was the only one who didn’t seem affected by the strange situation. He idly played with one of Willow’s auburn strands as he scanned the hall. It wasn’t hard to realise everyone was staring at the small group, especially the blond couple that was now holding hands.
A general sigh of relief was heard as the bell rang.
“Well, see you at lunch.” Buffy said as she tried to walk away from the Brit but he held onto her hand:
“I’ll walk you to your class.”
Xander threw the Brit a look. This was just… Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! And it was making him extremely nauseous. He swallowed hard as he watched the duo walk away.
~+~
They sat in silence, the entire cafeteria stared at their table.
“So…” Cordelia was the one to break the stillness. She had been waiting the entire day to ask a question, ever since Xander had told her the news it had become an itch she was just dying to scratch. So, being Cordelia, she did: “Since when are you and Buffy here going steady?”
The food that had been in Xander’s mouth was suddenly splattered all over his tray. The boy practically coughed out a lung as he heard his girlfriend’s blunt question. “I didn’t think the food here could look more disgusting than it already did. I was wrong.” Oz stated monotonically as he looked at the mess displayed in front of Xander.
Spike frowned watching the teen sitting oposite to him, who continued to have a coughing fit. With the most serious tone in the world the Brit asked:
“Are you sure he’s house broken?”
Buffy couldn’t help a smile as a bright red Xander looked up to shoot daggers at the bleached teen. After a few moments, after drinking about a gallon of water, the brunette was able to sit up straight and actually breathe. He stood up, picking up his tray and handed it to one of the cafeteria ladies before coming back to take his place between Cordy and Willow. The growingly familiar silence was back, until:
“You and Buffy are an item, huh?” Cordelia’s voice hovered over the table, closely followed by a loud thud.
Everyone turned to see Xander repeatedly bang his head against the table, muttering something unintelligeble between clenched teeth. But this time the distraction wasn’t enough and Buffy was forced to answer:
“Yes.”
“Why?” Cordelia promptly continued her interrogation.
“Why?!” Now that was a smart question. Everyone who had dared to enquire about her choice of ‘boyfriend’ had asked something along the lines of – How, not why. “Well… He and I… and…” Buffy struggled for an explanation.
“It’s physical!” Spike aka Night in Shining Armour stepped in. “She just couldn’t resist my darn sinister attraction.” He said with the most serious tone in the world. “I think she fell for me when I saved her.”
“From being mugged?” Cordelia asked as she recalled her conversation with Xander on the subject.
“Yep.”
Buffy just sat in her place, trying hard not to roll her eyes. ‘God! The nerve of some people!’ In her mind a string of curses was directed at the Brit, who now stretched his arm across the back her chair.
Cordelia frowned a little but decided to accept the explanation, especially since her boyfriend was currently kicking her in the shin under the table and the resulting ache was starting to make itself known. They continued their lunch and this time the stillness between the group didn’t seem as dreadful or as uncomfortable as before.
Suddenly, extreme silence took over the entire room as all the kids gawked at the entrance to the cafeteria. Buffy and Spike turned around to find the object of everyone’s attention and the two blondes couldn’t help but gulp as they watched Dru and Angel walk into the room. The two couples exchanged electrically charged glances as they remained perfectly still for a second. Everyone watched as the quarterback crossed the room towards the blond duo, his heavy arms draped over Dru’s shoulders. He came to a halt and looked down at the sitting couple.
“Buffy.” He greeted dryly. Turning to look at the bleached teen sitting next to the petite blond he practically spat: “Spike.”
“Angel. Dru.” The Brit greeted back with a plastic smile as he possessively put his arm around Buffy.
Silence. Everyone waited and watched.
“Buffy, I have some of your notes back home.” Angel started. “When do you want them back.”
“Keep them.” Buffy answered dryly as she felt her stomach turn at the sight of Dru pressing herself against the quarterback’s large chest. Her hands traced suggestive patterns on his stomach as she shot Buffy a dirty look. “I don’t need them.”
The teen was taken by surprise by her cold and distant tone, but soon recovered. He stood up straight and mumbled:
“Fine. Suit yourself.”
And with that he turned on his heels and left, dragging Dru with him.