Title: Summer Dream
Author: S J Smith
Rating: K+
Summary: Buffy's spending the summer in L.A. (between season one and season two).
Disclaimer: If I had any part of this, I wouldn't wonder if I can pay my bills this month.
It's weird, sleeping. Buffy has gotten used to surviving on only a couple of hours of sleep each night and catching up by little cat naps here and there, during the day. Now, though, she os sleeping a whole night through, and getting up in the morning, and fixing a real breakfast…and she is sure she's going crazy.
Her dad smiles at her, and gives her kisses on her temple, and asks her about her day when he gets home from work. And she smiles back, and says that she's called some old friends (a lie), or she's sunned in the back yard (not quite a lie), or that she's caught a bus to the mall (totally the truth, especially when he gives her some money for a Dad-Sponsored Mall Trip).
Her mom calls, every three days, almost like clockwork, and asks the same questions:
How are you? – Fine.
Are you enjoying your time in Los Angeles? – Yeah, it's great.
Are you eating enough? Getting enough sleep? – Yes, Mom.
Well, you have a good time, and I'll talk to you in a few days! Love you!
Buffy doesn't call Giles. Or Will, or Xander. Angel doesn't even have a telephone, as far as she knows. She's still wearing his cross, though. Dad sees it and asks if she wants to go to church on Sunday. Buffy's not sure she does, but agrees, and they go. Once. And it's uncomfortable, and strange, and Buffy keeps wondering about the whole, 'drink this wine as my blood' thing, and why it sounds kinda vampire-ish. Especially the live forever part, and then she decides she doesn't really want to go to church any more. Maybe she should talk to Willow about becoming Jewish when she gets back to Sunnydale. Yeah.
She does see her old friends once. Buffy's waiting for a bus, and Sienna pulls up in a brand-new convertible, with Gillian and Monique in the car with her. They're laughing at something, and singing along with the radio at the tops of their lungs. And Buffy feels so…different than those girls, like she doesn't even know them any more.
She doesn't. And they don't know her, either.
No one knows her any more, except Giles. And Will, and Xander. And Angel.
But they're in Sunnydale, and she's here, living out the summer dream, and Buffy's sure she's never been so lonely in her life.
~ end ~