Chapter 7
“Ah, beautiful, beautiful food,” Xander exclaimed, snatching up a plate of pizza from the cafeteria line, “how I dreamed of you all throughout The Lab That Wouldn’t End…”
“Hey!” Willow retorted defensively. “You’d be stuck in that lab until seven if Lee was your proctor!”
“We appreciate the getting out in time for dinner,” Elizabeth assured her, cautiously reaching for the vegetarian curry. ‘Vegetarian’ frequent meant ‘old leftovers’ in dinning hall speech.
“And no one spilled acid on themselves this year,” Willow said proudly, “’cause that was so not fun…” She shuddered.
“Ooh, violence in the bio lab!” Xander said excitedly. “Spill.”
Willow’s face turned slightly red. “I don’t wanna talk about someone who’s not here…”
“Spike,” Xander collapsed in the seat on one side of the peroxide blond, “Willow’s holding out on a secret of violence and mayhem.”
“Oi now, what’s that?” Spike’s piercing blue eyes immediately landed on Willow.
Willow sighed and sat down at the other side of the round table from them, leaving exactly one space open for Elizabeth… With a sigh, she resigned herself to sitting between Spike and Devon…although Faith and Devon might be a more accurate description since they were practically in each other’s laps. And they seemed to both be high on something.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, only to get one of those strange shy smiles that Spike seemed to reserve only for her. She managed a nervous smile back and turned to her food diligently.
“C’mon,” Xander persisted in a voice that miraculously managed to be halfway between a whine and a command.
“It’s not even that good a story!” Willow protested. “You’ve played it up to be this big, interesting thing now, and it’ll take me all of five seconds to tell, and then everyone will be let down, and then badness and anger and-and…”
“Breathe,” Oz reminded her with an amused little smile.
“Right,” Willow nodded, taking several deep breaths. The redness receded slightly from her face as she did so.
“This ‘bout Kevin last year?” Spike inquired.
“Ha!” Willow’s eyes lit up in delight. “Spike was there! Make him tell you!”
All eyes instantly turned to the blond at Elizabeth’s side. He shrugged. “Kevin decided it’d be a great idea not to dilute the sulfuric acid an’ then accidentally shatter the beaker. Only time in school ‘istory they’ve used those emergency showers in the lab rooms.”
“And it was really bad,” Willow added. “His arm was all red and swollen, and the skin burned off, and…” She shuddered again.
“And she tells us this after the lab,” Elizabeth commented wryly. “Would’ve been a nice warning…”
“I thought the acid label was pretty straightforward,” Willow defended herself.
“’Cept to Kevin,” Spike pointed out before wrinkling his nose at the bite of pasta he’d just eaten. “Are all the other entrees as foul as this one?” he felt obliged to ask.
Elizabeth tasted the vegetarian curry. “Oh yeah,” she agreed before shrugging and taking another bite.
“Although,” Xander had gone for the ever-popular greasy pizza option and thus escaped Elizabeth and Spike’s fate, “that lab didn’t drag on nearly as long as Renold’s lecture this morning…”
Spike chuckled at that. “’ow’d you like the part where he kept turnin’ over the slides, hopin’ that the graphs’d make sense then?”
Xander snickered at the memory. “And when he started quoting last week’s article?”
“You’re discussing a situation at which none of us were present in vague terms,” Anya stated, huffing slightly. “It’s rude.”
“Sorry,” Spike was still laughing. “So, we’ve got this guest lecturer in psych, right? An’ I swear he was drunk or somethin’…”
“There’s this one graph,” Xander picked up the story when the memory had Spike laughing too hard to talk anymore, “and it’s supposed to show one trait increasing while the population’s decreasing. But the graph’s just of this one straight line…”
“So Renold goes over to the slide projector an’ starts flippin’ the slide around every which way, tryin’ to get this straight line to turn into an X,” Spike was laughing slightly into his napkin. “It took ‘im at least five minutes to figure out it was impossible.”
“And then he keeps referring to the graph just like it’s what he said it was and gesturing to it with the laser pointer…”
“Which isn’t even turned on…”
“And then he forgets what he’s talking about halfway through the lecture, so he just starts rereading the article from last week…”
“On an’ entirely different topic…”
“The whole class was trying not to burst out in hysterics the entire time,” Xander laughed. “I swear he was stoned or something.”
“Drunk,” Spike stuck by his earlier assessment.
Faith stuck out her lower lip and pouted. “It’s not fair,” she insisted. “All the wacky stuff happens in that class. How come my professors never show up to class under the influence?”
Devon gave her hand a reassuring pat, and they both giggled simultaneously, their tones sounding a little bit loopy to the normal sober population of the table.
“Take Psychology and Society sometime,” Xander suggested. “It’s hilarious.”
“Loved Walters’ lecture,” Spike agreed. “Jus’ go watch the telly since there’s no society anymore anyway.”
Xander laughed. “It was cruel and unusual punishment making us listen to a whole hour and a half lecture after that,” he commented.
Anya yawned, bored of the topic. “Are we having movie night tonight?” she asked Willow. “I need a break from developing valuable money-making skills.”
Willow smiled at Anya’s typical unique view of everything. “Yup,” she agreed, “the common room at eight.”
“What is it tonight?” Oz asked curiously.
Willow shrugged before turning to all the freshmen. “Standard procedure,” she informed them. “I get a cheesy romance, a comedy, and an action/horror movie. Then we vote on which one to watch when we see who shows up. If anyone sees Jonathan, let him know.”
“Where is Jonathan anyway?” Xander asked curiously. “His door’s always closed, and I haven’t seen him since orientation…”
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a new House Ghost,” Anya commented.
“House Ghost?”
“Someone who lives in the house but you never see,” Oz explained. “There’s one every year.”
“’ad that Korean girl last year,” Spike agreed before turning back to Willow. “So you’re not even givin’ us the potential movies for tonight?” He raised one scarred eyebrow.
“You’ll just have to show up to find out,” Willow said with an evil little grin.
Spike shrugged. “’ll be late,” he informed her. “Dojo. But ‘ll watch whatever you’ve got…”
“Because Spike’s a movie whore,” Anya announced proudly.
Spike groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Yes, thank you for bringin’ up that lovely conversation, Anyanka,” he said sarcastically.
“A ‘movie whore’?” Elizabeth couldn’t help but tease.
“He’ll watch anything you leave in the lounge,” Anya provided helpfully. “Last year, we caught him watching Bamb—”
“Finish that sentence an’ your money meets with a painful death,” Spike practically growled.
Elizabeth had heard enough, though. “Bambi?” she giggled slightly at the image of Spike, in full black leather ensemble, weeping when Bambi’s mom got shot.
Spike shifted in his seat uncomfortably. His Big Bad image was shot for the moment, and he knew it. Anya gave him a smug, victorious smile from across the table. His eyes narrowed in anticipated retaliation.
“I quote,” he began calmly, “ ‘well, maybe Communism was a good idea…’”
“I was drunk!” Anya exclaimed in horror. “I made up to my money later that night.” The quirky little smile on the edges of her lips indicated to Elizabeth for the first time that Anya played up the money thing to sometimes-ridiculous levels as a joke.
“Anyway,” Spike turned his attention back to Elizabeth, “you comin’ tonight? Wes, Kendra, an’ I are gettin’ in some extra practice before Regionals…”
Elizabeth was torn. Kicking the crap out of Spike was exactly what she felt like doing tonight. Unfortunately… Well, it had been almost a week since her major freak-out during the Tri Xi rush now, and she’d been a bit neglectful of the entire organization ever since. Kathy had just finished moving all her stuff over to Tri Xi House yesterday, and Elizabeth felt herself spurred onward by the other girl’s success. And, if she wanted a chance in hell, she absolutely had to attend…
“Football game tonight,” she said truly apologetically. “I’ll be at practice on Friday, though,” she quickly assured him.
“Guess ‘ll just have to mop the mats with your lovely li’l ass then,” Spike taunted.
“Overconfident much?” Elizabeth retorted in disbelief.
He gave her that cocky smirk of his. Hell, he knew she was a better fighter than he was. He had a bit faster reflexes, but only that allowed him to keep up with her at all. Still, she was the most fun opponent he’d had in ages, and he wasn’t about to throw in the towel yet.
“C’mon over tonight an’ try me,” he persisted. “Who needs American football anyway? ‘S like rugby for poofters.”
“Ever heard of school spirit?” Elizabeth retorted.
“Heard ‘f it, avoid it whenever possible,” he said dismissively.
“Ugh!” Elizabeth exclaimed in annoyance. “You are so obnoxious!”
He stood up to leave, taking his empty tray with him. “An’ that’s why you love me, Summers,” he said with a little wink.
She watched his leather-clad back as he walked away before turning to the table to discover that everyone had caught her ogling. “What?” she demanded defensively, turning studiously to her plate, her face flaming bright red.
* * *
“Goooo Wildcats!” the cheerleaders screamed out.
Elizabeth was not impressed. They were still down, twenty-one to zilch, and things didn’t look like they were going to turn in their favor anytime soon. Plus, ‘Wildcats’? Her sarcastic inner voice added. Couldn’t spend five minutes to come up with an ORIGINAL name? For the first time since her extensive studying for Steinberg’s pop quizzes made her miss cheerleading tryouts, she didn’t regret it.
Next to her, Riley shook his head at the next play. “They need to hold their line and move the ball!” he exclaimed as if this was some kind of great strategic analysis.
“’Cause the whole line-collapsing-followed-by-speedy-turnover thing just isn’t working for them,” Elizabeth retorted in a voice slightly more sarcastic than she had meant it to be.
Riley seemed oblivious to all sarcasm, however. Fortunately, he’d bought her I-had-the-stomach-flu excuse for her odd behavior last week hook, line, and sinker. “No, see,” he explained patiently, “the line needs to hold so the quarterback has time to make good passes.”
“Uh-huh,” Elizabeth tried to force a pleasant smile onto her face. Every once in a while Riley would treat her as if she were some dumb, vapid blond, and it really grated on her nerves…
The final minutes of the game wound down before them, and Elizabeth stood up to cheer when Riley did at the Wild Cat’s first completed long pass of the game. The receiver was tackled shortly thereafter, of course, but the crowd’s enthusiasm remained high.
All for naught, too. The clock ran out, and the College of New York picked up another spectacular loss.
“Fun game,” Riley commented as they exited the stands. “Too bad we lost, though.”
“Maybe next time,” Elizabeth sounded unconvinced. She’d discovered over the past couple of weeks that the more jockish, wealthy elements of the college were a very small minority of the student body. This didn’t stop Delta Phi and Tri Xi from thinking they owned the campus because basically all the real academics didn’t pay them much attention, let alone bother trying to shatter their illusions. Anyway, as a result, the sports teams kind of…sucked…
“We lost a couple good players last year,” Riley commented. “It’ll take the team a while to recover from that. Best receiver we had just upped and quit at the beginning of last year,” he said a bit bitterly.
“Dropped out?” Elizabeth guessed, only half interested.
“Decided he’d rather play in Osborne’s band,” Riley corrected her.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at that.
“Devon Stanton,” Riley practically spit out the name. “I mean, who ditches the football team to hang around with pot-smoking freaks?”
“Oz doesn’t smoke pot,” Elizabeth felt obliged to point out.
Riley snorted. “Same difference,” he retorted. “Devon had a real future ahead of him…until he met Osborne.”
“He seems pretty happy now,” Elizabeth countered.
“And our team has to suffer for it,” Riley sulked. “Luckily, the basketball team didn’t suffer the same misfortune…”
Elizabeth sighed inwardly and half tuned out for yet another of Riley’s tales of basketball victory. They’d drifted over the Delta Phi in the meantime, and Elizabeth settled herself against one of the porch posts while Riley replayed every second of the Bates game last season for her in excruciatingly slow motion. Even she let out a little sigh of relief when Riley finally scored the winning basket, not so much because she cared about the game but rather because the story was finally over.
“So, yeah,” Riley said with a goofy grin on his face, convinced that he’d just impressed his future wife with his sports prowess.
“Yeah,” Elizabeth agreed, fingering the sleeve of her blouse self-consciously. “I finally heard from my dad about you,” she tried a slightly less boring topic.
“Really? Did he say all sorts of nasty things about me?” Riley teased lightly.
“No, actually, he said you were a great guy from a great family,” she laughed slightly. “He was excited that we’d met.”
“Pretty much what I heard from my dad,” Riley agreed, “except…not the guy part, a girl part instead.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You’re graduating a year early, I heard…and then going to West Point.”
“Yup,” Riley said, “get myself well-established while I’m still young.”
“My dad’s philosophy,” Elizabeth commented, whether as a compliment or a critique, not even she fully knew.
Riley took it as a compliment. “Can I ask you a question?” he suddenly asked curiously.
“Sure,” Elizabeth agreed with a small smile.
“Why ‘Elizabeth’?” he asked. “Why not…?”
Elizabeth’s face visibly paled. “You know about…?”
“Buffy.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment, and even Riley picked up on the tension in her. “I’m sorry if I…” he was puzzled for a minute, “said something wrong?”
“No,” Elizabeth shook her head, quickly reassuring. “No,” she repeated more confidently, “I just kind of wanted to make a fresh start at college, and ditching the childhood name…”
“I totally get it,” Riley said with a smile. “Get out from your father’s thumb a bit…”
“Exactly,” Elizabeth agreed with a little smile. “He still refuses to call me ‘Elizabeth’,” she rolled her eyes slightly.
“At least your dad doesn’t make you call him ‘general’ and ‘sir’ all the time,” Riley countered.
“Dads,” Elizabeth sighed, “can’t live with ‘em…”
“Can’t escape ‘em,” Riley finished the slightly modified saying.
“Yeah,” Elizabeth agreed somewhat wistfully.
“Look,” Riley said after a brief pause, studying her intently the whole time, “I…really like you, Elizabeth,” he began slightly bashfully.
“I like you, too,” she quickly reassured him.
He gave her a broad smile at that. “I take it I’ve got a shot then?” he asked hopefully.
“You’re the only one even in the running,” she informed him with a bright smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Great!” he said enthusiastically. “So, about this Friday evening…”
She flinched. “Tae Kwon-Do practice,” she said apologetically.
“You do martial arts?” he said in disbelief, looking her up and down. “No offense, but…I doubt you could take down anyone.” He made a little gesture to indicate how short she was.
She managed a false laugh. “Yeah, well, it’s great exercise and…exercise…” She’d dealt with this reaction dozens of times before, but it never ceased to irk her. Didn’t anyone know that with the proper training, you could actually use an opponent’s size against them? You’d think that if all those lame karate movies had served any purpose, it would have been this basic education…
“Saturday then,” Riley decided.
“Saturday,” Elizabeth agreed.
“I’ll see you in history tomorrow.” Riley leaned in slowly.
“Yeah,” she agreed with a small smile.
His lips met hers and… Well, she responded because she knew that was what she was supposed to do. She rested her hands on his shoulders and let his tongue into her mouth and… It wasn’t exactly unpleasant, it was just…not really all that enjoyable, either.
The kiss lingered a while, and Elizabeth reopened her eyes and looked around, waiting for Riley to be done. She studied the board patterns of the roof of the porch and even casually managed to check her watch, all while Riley’s eyes remained closed and oblivious.
With nothing much else to do, her thoughts turned to the man she was with and what their future together would be like… She almost got a queasy feeling in her stomach at what it would be like to sleep with him. She knew his body type was the ideal for men, yet for some reason she had absolutely no desire to see Riley naked. And the feel of him on top of her, smothering her with his weight… She shuddered. She felt halfway suffocated just by his kiss.
Stop it! Her mind scolded her. You’re being mean! Riley’s a good, decent guy, and so what if the physical thing isn’t there yet? Just keeping working at it, and eventually you’ll feel something. Just try harder.
A nagging little voice in the back of her head that she rarely listened to told her that if the magic wasn’t there with Riley now, it wasn’t going to come. She bit it down as usual.
“Wow,” Riley said with a smile, finally pulling away.
“Wow,” Elizabeth agreed, trying to sound breathless.
“Tomorrow then,” Riley moved to go inside.
“Tomorrow,” she agreed brightly. That’s it; try harder. And then she set off back home.
* * *
“Missed a great show,” Spike announced the minute she entered the lounge. “Kendra kickin’ my ass, followed by ‘The Princess Bride’.”
“ ‘The Princess Bride’?” Elizabeth scrunched up her nose at the title.
Everyone in the room’s jaws simultaneously dropped. “You’ve never seen it?!” Xander exclaimed in complete and utter horror.
“Should I?” Elizabeth didn’t look convinced.
“Oh, you poor thing!” Tara said teasingly. “How have you possibly survived this long?”
“Quick, play it again,” Spike announced.
“I need sleep,” Elizabeth shook him off. “Some of us actually attend class in the morning…”
He gave her a sheepish grin at the past two history classes he’d slept through. “It should be around for the weekend,” he informed her. “An’ you’d better watch it.”
“You gonna make me?” she teased lightly, getting right in his face. “If Kendra kicked your ass, do you honestly think you’ve got a chance in hell of beating me?”
His eyes flicked down to where her lips were mere inches from his, and her entire body burned slightly in anticipation. He didn’t make any move, however. “Only reason she beat me is ‘cause ‘f that back-kick move you taught her. One ‘f these days ‘ll figure it out an’…”
“Then I’ll start using my good moves on you,” she teased mercilessly, giving him a quick little pat on the head. “When you’re ready to play in the big leagues…”
“Bitch,” he accused, but in a strangely affectionate way.
“Asshole,” she retorted in the same manner before moving away from him and yawning. “I’ve got to be awake to see how badly Steinberg fucked me over on that quiz on Monday,” she announced to everyone present, “so good-night.”
“Good luck,” Spike gave her a wistful little smile as she closed the door behind her.
Once inside, Elizabeth felt her heart racing in her chest and desperately tried to calm it down. OK, what in the hell had that been? Was she some kind of sadomasochist, leading Spike on like that? Why on earth had she done it?
Or did the farce occur earlier tonight with someone else? The nagging thought wouldn’t leave her alone. She tried to ignore it; really, she did. But, nevertheless, she tossed and turned all night and, by morning, she was completely exhausted.