Chapter 2:
"You know mate, I really didn' expect you to act like this," Spike started, sitting down across from Wood in his new office on Wednesday morning. "You were all for starting a relationship with a conversation." He observed his surroundings before meeting Wood's gaze. "And now….You're completely gung ho about getting Faith back in the sack."
"I don't know what happened," Wood fiddled with an arrangement of pens on his desktop, not meeting Spike's eyes. "She was-"
"Really don' want to know the intimate details, mate. I got enough to deal with as it is." Spike held up his hands, stopping Wood mid sentence.
"Buffy." Wood leaned back in his chair, observing Spike as he said her name. Spike tensed and raised his head slowly.
"She's driving me insane." Spike groaned, his remark making Wood sputter.
"But you haven't said two words to her since you saw her on Monday!"
"You don' understand!" Spike let out a frustrated laugh. "She's everywhere I go. Every bloody classroom, every time Jenny drags us around the school, she's there. Taunting me. Driving me bloody bonkers, it is." He ran a hand through his bleached locks.
"Why don't you just talk to her, figure out what's going to happen between the two of yo-"
"Nothing, that's what!" Spike exclaimed sitting up straighter in his chair. "She's 18 for Christ sake. I'm 25 years old. There will be no getting together to figure anything out. I'll just tell her it was a mistake and it's not gonna happen again."
"I'm obviously not going to help your decision, so I'll let you deal with Buffy if you let me deal with Faith."
Spike merely nodded his head in agreement, thoughts of Buffy running through his mind, thoughts of what he was going to say, when he was going to say it and more importantly how he was going to say it to her.
………………………………....
"How was your mother last night?" Faith asked Buffy as they pulled into the school car park.
Buffy shrugged in response, not wanting to talk to Faith about it.
"C'mon B. You can't stay quiet about it all day. What's going on in that head of yours?" Faith opened her door and stepped out, readjusting her leather mini skirt and singlet before she slipped her bag onto her shoulder.
"My parents had another massive fight last night," Buffy whispered, slipping her own bag on to her shoulder.
"Oh. Your dad didn't…."
"I don't want to talk about it," Buffy said wiping her eyes as they walked up the stairs to the school's entrance.
Faith couldn't ever remember a time when her own parents had been happy together. In fact, Faith could scarcely recall her father at all as he had left just after she was born. But judging from the photos her mother had shown her, her parent's relationship hadn't been a happy one.
Buffy's parents had been fighting a lot lately and Buffy blamed herself.
"Don't worry, B, you'll talk when you want to." Faith smiled, wrapping her arm around Buffy's shoulder and pulling her in for a hug. "I'm here when you need me."
"Thanks." Buffy smiled, hugging Faith back, as the girls reached their lockers.
"Here's to hoping we don't see Wood or Spike today," Faith said, clicking her locker code into her padlock before opening the door.
"I'm really not in the mood for that, right now. It was all a big mistake and it's never going to happen again," Buffy said, gathering her first session books from her locker, her tone of voice sounding like she was trying to convince herself that she and Spike were a mistake.
"Speak for yourself, B!" Faith laughed. "I wouldn't mind another go at that sexual chocolate. Not sure Wood feels the same from the sounds of our phone call yesterday, but- you and Spike? Eh, who knows?" She raised her eyebrows suggestively just as the bell chimed, marking the beginning of their school day.
"It was a mistake, Faith," Buffy pressed, walking in front of her friend.
"So you wouldn't jump his bones again, given the chance?"
"No."
"So you don't like him?" Faith was smiling as she came to walk beside Buffy.
"No, Faith, I don't."
"Then why do you have a dreamy look on your face and why are your cheeks turning red?" Faith asked, not giving Buffy the opportunity to answer before she walked into her first period classroom.
"It was a mistake and it's never happening again. No matter how much I want it not to be, " Buffy whispered to herself as she continued down the hall to her first class of the day, science with Tara.
"What's a m-mistake?" Tara asked walking along side Buffy as they entered their class.
"Don't worry." Buffy sighed, smiling softly at Tara. Buffy had known Tara ever since Tara had transferred from LA and they'd become friends almost instantaneously. Buffy had introduced her to Willow, another one of her best friends and the two had hit it off straight away. Not too long after that, Willow and Tara had announced that they were in love and dating and Buffy couldn't be happier for them.
"You're l-looking a little bit off today. A-are you okay?" Tara asked, taking her seat. She had spent the majority of her school years as an outsider and a loner, spending most of her time people watching. That made her very observant and she was easily able to detect when something was wrong with one of her friends. It was like Tara had an ability to read people's auras.
"I…I'm fine," Buffy sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Just got a lot of things running through my mind at the moment."
Their teacher laid a textbook on his desk and told the class to turn to page 57.
"Y-you're sure?" Tara asked, reading Buffy's facial features for any signs that she was lying. "I'm here if you ever n-need to talk about it."
Buffy smiled softly, sending Tara a grateful look.
"Thank you."
"If you girls have quite finished talking…"
"Sorry sir," Buffy and Tara both said simultaneously, dropping their gaze to the book laid open in font of them.
……………………………….............................................
i "I could ride you at a gallop until your legs buckled and your eyes rolled up. I could squeeze you until you popped like warm champagne," Buffy let out with a throaty moan as she slipped his jeans to his ankles and slowly crawled back up his body, lifting her hips and grinding down against his straining member. "And you'd beg me to hurt you just a little bit more." /i
Spike shook his head, ridding his mind of the thoughts of a writhing, naked Buffy. All day he'd been having flashes from that night. Buffy had been amazing, a creature he wanted to sink himself into every chance he got. True to his word, they had danced all night and now he couldn't get thoughts of her out of his head.
She had lied to him.
Spike heavily plonked himself into his office chair. His uncle had been sick for the last couple of months and it was obvious he hadn't had the time to clean anything. The mess in his office gave Spike something to focus on.
Thoughts of Buffy were pushed to the back of his mind as he began sorting his uncle's papers and dusting the shelves. He smiled, finding a framed picture of his uncle and himself under a bunch of books. The glass covering the picture was dusty and he wiped it clean with and old rag. He had been a lot younger when the photo had been taken, at a time when he was wearing tweed suits and studying all the time. Right before he had met Drusilla.
Yet another woman who had screwed with his mind.
i 'Bloody women,' /i Spike thought with a grumble.
………………………………...............................
Buffy let out a deep sigh of relief when a knock sounded on the classroom door. Her science teacher, Mr. Perryman, had been giving another one of his long boring lectures that ensured all the students tune out and fall asleep.
Not seeing who was at the door, she glanced around the room. Riley was snoring softly with his head on his folded arms; his book lay open in front of him, completely blank.
Tara was drawing small scribbles on her page, hers and Willow's initials with love hearts surrounding it.
She rand a hand through her hair and was jostled from her daydream upon hearing her name being called. She glanced up and met her teacher's gaze.
"You have a visitor."
Following his pointed hand, Buffy met the eyes of the man who had disrupted the lecture.
Her father gestured for her to follow him and she did, slowly rising from her chair and walking out the door.
"What are you doing here, Dad? Is something wrong with mom?…Is she-"
"She's fine. I just… I need to talk to you."
Buffy wrapped her arms around her waist, her stomach doing flip-flops at the thought of what her father was going to say. Her parents had had a massive fight the night before; her father had almost hit her mother and she had witnessed the whole thing.
The fight had started over her grades. All the extra practice she had put into her gymnastics was taking its toll on her grades. Hank had raised his voice, telling Joyce she wasn't being supportive of his side and that Buffy should give up gymnastics and concentrate on her grades.
"Ok."
"Privately." Hank sighed, glancing down the hall and at the open classroom doors.
"Right, well the…" Buffy's voice faltered as her father made a beeline for the end of the hall towards the library's doors.
As soon as they entered the library and the doors swung closed behind them, Buffy surveyed her surroundings, searching for Spike and coming up empty, let out a sigh of relief.
"I wanted to talk to you about your mother and me."
"Is everything alright? I don't und-" Buffy stopped, her heart speeding up when she saw the look on her father's face. Clearly things weren't alright.
Spike had been about to leave his office when Buffy and an older man, who he assumed must be her father, entered the library. Buffy looked nervous as she stopped opposite her father. With his back pressed to the wall and out of sight, Spike listened in on their conversation.
"We're getting a divorce."
Buffy felt her eyes well with tears at hearing her father state it to her like a fact, void of any emotion.
"Why? You guys haven't been fighting as much lately. Why would you want-"
Hank let out a bitter laugh.
"You have absolutely no idea, do you, Buffy?"
"Is there someone else?" Buffy asked, running a shaky hand through her hair.
Spike felt his heart sink when he heard the sadness in Buffy's voice. The once confident and happy teenager was having her emotional walls stripped bare.
"No. There's no one else." Hank stepped forward. "Look, why don't we sit down?"
"If there's no one else then why are you getting divorced?" Buffy asked taking a seat opposite her father.
"This is really hard to say."
"Just tell me," Buffy whispered, a lone tear slipping down her cheek.
"Joyce and I have been growing apart for a long time now. But another big reason is you."
"M-me?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Having you. Raising you. Seeing you everyday. I mean, do you have any idea what that's like?"
"Pillock," Spike growled softly, his fists tensing.
"W-what?"
"I never wanted kids, you know, they're just trouble but Joyce was adamant about having you, so we did." Hank laughed, shaking his head. "You keep getting in trouble. Faith is a bad influence on you. You embarrass us with all the crazy stunts you pull. Where are gymnastics going to get you in life? Nowhere that's where."
Buffy's gaze was focused on the floor as her tears fell.
"You're rude, and sullen… And nowhere nearly as bright as I thought you were going to be."
"Please stop," Buffy whispered, her heart shattering as her father kept going.
"You think I don't know that you go out and act like a common whore when you're with Faith? Could you stand to live in the same house as a daughter like that? Joyce doesn't help either. Always arguing what a good girl you are and how far you'll go. I know the truth." Hank stood, shoving the chair back under the desk.
"Why are you saying these things?" Buffy whispered, her voice strained.
Spike felt like running out there and punching Buffy's father square in the face for making her cry.
Hank started walking backwards towards the door.
"I was sure you'd turn out differently," he shrugged. "See you around, kiddo."
As soon as Spike was sure Buffy's father had gone, he stepped out from his office and his heart sank when he saw her body shake with her silent tears.
Her hands were covering her mouth as she cried, muffling the sound. Spike knelt down beside her and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart."
Buffy jumped when she heard his voice and felt the hand rubbing slow circles on her back. She knew he had heard the whole conversation and her tears only fell faster.
"Me too."
"Buffy, I…" Spike wiped the tears from her cheeks, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ears.
"I didn't mean it," Buffy cried. "I didn't mean to lie to you…I've never done that before…I don't-"
"I know, sweetheart." Spike met her tear-filled eyes and knew in that moment he wasn't going to be able to stay away from her. She had just had her heart crushed and he couldn't bear the thought of ever hurting her like that himself.
She was in his system now. He was addicted to her and no matter how wrong or immoral their relationship might be, Spike couldn't help but bring his lips down upon hers in a gentle and comforting kiss.
