"Deep down," he continued, still preaching away. "You always wanted Buffy to accept you, to love you even. Why do you think that is?"
That pissed me off. "You a shrink now?" I inquired maliciously. I had only barely come to terms with my feelings for Buffy and here this asshole was trying to tell me the way he knew I felt all along. I had to fight the urge to deck him right there.
He began to walk the floor. "You keep looking for love and acceptance from these people; these 'friends' of yours, but you're never gonna find it. The truth is, nobody will ever love you …."
That was enough to break my heart. I didn't let a single emotion show, but inside I felt even more empty and ill at ease with myself than I had in years. See, I'd known that I was incapable of being loved, but to have this man, the one I'd once considered my surrogate father, confirm what my low self-esteem had already convinced me was true … well, that was almost unbearable.
"Not the way I love you."
Fuck off. "Get out." Much better choice, the former would have definitely let him know that what he was saying was getting to me. This was not the Mayor I had known and almost loved - this was the thing that created the evil he turned out to be.
"They'll forever see you as a killer," he stated blatantly. It was obvious that my lack of reaction was beginning to vex him, his argument was getting weaker and more rushed.
"I said 'get out'." But it was still getting harder to appear unruffled.
"I'll always be with you, Firecracker," he stated more calmly, "in everything you do." Then he departed in a much too showy fashion for my taste, leaving behind only a faint green glow and my growing inner turmoil.