Chapter 5
Buffy stared at the door, dreading the thought of opening it to another night of Kathy, the roommate from hell. Well, maybe more metaphorically than actually, but she really, really grated on her nerves.
Starting college hadn’t worked out like she’d expected. Her roommate was driving her nuts, her mom was already turned her bedroom into a storage closet, effectively booting her out of her safety net, and she couldn’t retreat to Giles’ place because he had a woman in his apartment, which in and of itself gave her the wiggins.
Then there was the overwhelming round of classes, huge amounts of reading, and recruitment for this group and that organization every time she crossed the campus. Top that off with the usual slayer stuff, like the showdown with Sunday, and she was fairly certain higher education was not all it was cracked up to be.
Was it only a few weeks ago she’d fantasized during her little pep talk with Willow about the carefree college existence? Finding a new uber-cool boyfriend that would wipe all thoughts of Angel from her mind, floating from mixer to social to an occasional class? Wasn’t that the way things happened in the movies?
She inserted the key in the lock and entered the room, silently nodding and beaming a fake smile for Kathy’s benefit as she grabbed her shower stuff to prepare for bed. Maybe it was just a period of adjustment. Maybe the first week was the hardest.
~*~*~*~*~
Spike entered the lounge at the Tropicana. He’d found a vamp named Brian, highly recommended, with some knowledge of excavation, apparently a graduate student in engineering before being turned. For the right price and sufficiently vague information on what they were really after, he’d cinched the deal. His car was in good shape; he was ready to return to Sunnyhell.
Plans finalized, he was set to indulge in one more night of intoxication to forget the look on Dru’s face as she’d walked away from him. He pulled up a stool and ordered a double. Several hours and many drinks later, he suddenly became aware of a presence beside him. He inhaled the less than subtle perfume and turned blearily to stare at the blonde next to him.
“Hi handsome, what’s your name?” She flipped her long pale tresses over her shoulder as she batted her eyes and Spike squinted, trying to focus on her face through his alcohol induced haze. Not human, he could tell that. He patted the hand she’d laid on his knee, yep, a lady vamp, nice, cool . . . Dru. Oh bugger, he could feel the tears welling up again.
“Oh, what’s wrong? Tell Harmony all about it.” The nice lady vamp patted him on the back and he found himself crying out the whole story as she urged him closer and laid his head on her shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~
Spike stretched as he slowly shook off the dullness of his drunken slumber. He had to stop hitting the bottle like that. Wasn’t going to bring her back, and wasn’t really helping him forget. He suddenly became aware of movement beside him and turned sharply to behold a shapely female figure just barely concealed by satin sheets. She slowly sat up, letting the covers fall away as she moved towards him. “Did my Blondy-bear sleep good? You were so amazing last night! And I know when we get to France it’ll be even better. ‘Cause Paris is the City of Lovers, right?”
Spike groaned as bits and pieces of the previous night after leaving the bar trickled back. Harmony, that was her name, he thought, had prattled on and on, but she’d also done a very appealing strip-tease and given him quite a good seeing to. The combination of her cool skin and blonde California girl looks as she’d deep-throated him had totally done him in as he vacillated between fantasies of Dru and the Slayer and he distinctly recalled more than one round of shagging before he’d finally collapsed. He wasn’t entirely sure why she was babbling on about France, though. He began slowly moving towards the edge of the bed.
“Oh Spikey, is it time to leave? I’m almost packed. Just think, after we find that treasure in Sunnydale, we can go to France, and I can shop all I want! Do you think French food will agree with me?” She giggled, “You get it? French people are like French food!”
Spike shuddered and began rapidly searching for his pants. What had he told her last night? He had to get away. “Searching for these, Blondy-bear?” He turned to find Harmony holding his pants.
“Exactly, luv, thanks so much.” He leaned in for the garment just as she tossed them over her shoulder and instead reached for a certain part of his anatomy which sadly refused to listen to his brain and began to respond avidly to her touch. She suddenly dangled a pair of handcuffs in front of his nose. “Oh, I think maybe there’s another way you could thank me Spikey.”
He considered briefly swatting her aside, grabbing the pants and leaving. But Sunnydale wasn’t that far and a few more hours wouldn’t hurt. He growled and launched them both back onto the bed. They’d still make it before daybreak, and he was a sucker for a pair of cuffs.
Harmony smirked as he fastened the frail bracelets to her wrists. Men were so easy sometimes. She’d picked up on the gossip when Spike had breezed into town a few days ago. He clearly had something big he was sitting on and she was tired of Vegas. She needed a sugar daddy and she was pretty sure she’d found one.
Besides it didn’t hurt any that he was incredibly hot and quite, oh, oh, oh yes . . . She was momentarily distracted from her plans as he shifted angles and continued to pound into her with enthusiasm . . . very good in bed. Now if he’d just shut up about Dorcas or whatever her name was, things would be great. Well Dorcas and that one time she’d have sworn he called out Buffy last night. What was up with that? Didn’t matter, he was her Blondy-bear now.
~*~*~*~*~
Buffy stared at the doorknob. She was so much happier with Willow as her roommate now that Kathy the Wonder Demon had moved out, but a roomie with a boyfriend had certain, well, down sides. The prearranged signal was hung on the door and she remembered now that a slightly blushing Willow had mentioned that Oz would be coming over after rehearsal and might stay for a bit. She turned and meandered down the hall. Where to go, where to go . . .
Library? It was too big, all cavernous and official looking. She felt lost in there. Kinda made her nostalgic for the old Sunnydale High library, even if it was smack over the Hellmouth. Who really needed all those books anyway?
Maybe she could stop by and see Giles? Ick, who knew what she’d find him doing this time. She was pretty sure Olivia had left town, but Giles really seemed to be having one of those mid-life crisis thingies.
Xander? No wait, Xander was working some night job now, delivering pizzas.
Mom? Buffy decided a parental visit wouldn’t hurt things, maybe she could get some spare cash and a good meal out of it. She made her way across town to Revello, doing a sweep or two of the more neglected cemeteries on that side of town now that she had relocated, and finally made it to her house.
The lights were all out and she remembered as she unlocked the door that her mom had mentioned something about an extended buying trip that she’d put off until Buffy started college. She went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets until she found the makings for a P, B & J sandwich and then retreated to her room, happy to see her mom had cleared out the boxes that had been there the last time she’d dropped by.
It wasn’t that late. Should she call Parker? Aside from that weirdness with Kathy, who had obviously been as interested in stealing Buffy’s potential boyfriend as her soul, he’d seemed like a nice guy the few times she’d bumped into him. Quite the cutie as Willow would say, helpful and clearly interested.
Okay, she was falling into that same old, looks kinda like Angel trap, but Parker was nothing like Angel. She snorted to herself. Please. He was, well, he was human. And he liked to talk – Angel was always a little on the quiet side. A little broody. And Parker was serious, but in a good way, he wasn’t all crazy party all the time frat boy, but he seemed to be interested in having fun.
Yep, she definitely had felt some sparkage. Willow had been right, she just needed to get into college girl mode, break the cycle. And if the moment came, maybe she would just carpe diem with Parker. Who needed a one-night stand? This could definitely be the real thing. And with that thought, Buffy drifted off into a pleasant dream land of a world with her new boyfriend, Parker Abrhams.