-
Oh, you wouldn't want an angel watching over
Surprise, surprise
They wouldn't wannna watch
Another uninnocent, elegant fall
Into the unmagnificent lives of adults
-

Jet was no longer answering her calls. Fine by her. This wasn't a movie and she wasn't a child trying to get her separated parents back together. She was trying to do something nice for the decrepit old crank because she figured he'd be worried. After all, he was the one who was always whining about not knowing what the hell she and Spike were up to.

She grabbed her leather bomber jacket and threw it about her shoulders, glaring out the window. The sun was setting and soon she would have to leave when visiting hours were over. She didn't want to go back to the same bar again so she thought she might try a pastry shop or café. Something different. She knew that it wasn't good to have a price on your head and a regular hang- out. People could find you that way. She hadn't been thinking about that.

"You know, you're a pretty lucky son-of-a-bitch having someone to keep you company and all," Faye said, aiming her words in Spike's general direction. She watched for a twitch but it never came. It was no fun picking a fight with someone who couldn't pick back. She got up from the windowsill to leave but paused on reaching the door.

She turned and glanced over at Spike who might as well have been made from wax. She tossed her head of mauve and black feathers and walked back to his bedside. She rearranged the sheets, pulling them up around his shoulders the way she imagined he'd done for her those countless times she'd fallen asleep in the armchair back on the ship. She reached across his chest to turn off the lamp on the nightstand, joining him momentarily in his darkness.

"See you tomorrow," she sang quietly.

She actually made it all the way to the coffee shop across the street on a Friday night without getting her ass felt up. That was a pleasant change. She supposed it was her own fault for stubbornly refusing to dress more sensibly. Once she had the money to spend on clothes she'd buy herself something nice. A nice pair of cigarette pants perhaps.

A cigarette. That would be nice.

She reached into the pocket of her jacket but came up with nothing.

"Crap..." she muttered to herself. For a second she thought about running back to Spike's room and rummaging through his trenchcoat for cigarettes but something about that just seemed pathetic. She threw herself into a booth and stared out the plate-glass window. She watched crowds of people walk by, probably having just seen a movie at the theatre down the street. Teenage girls linked arms with their boyfriends, children with their parents. She turned away.

When she went to stare back at the menu over the counter she noticed an older man in the doorway winking at her. She scowled at him, but he jutted his chin out, gesturing back towards her booth. Her eyes quickly scanned the table and a cigarette was lying there. She looked back up at him and smiled, waving weakly, feeling ashamed for the thinking the worst of the older gentleman. He nodded, pulled up his jacket collar, and disappeared through the door.

"Always depended on the kindness of strangers," Faye whispered, feeling as though the words might not have been her own. Like maybe she'd heard that line before, maybe read it in a book, or saw it in a movie long ago. She reached across the table, took the cigarette up in her fingers and put it to her lips. She felt against herself for her lighter when the young woman behind the counter said, "I'm sorry, miss, but you can't smoke in here," pointing at the big non-smoking sign over her head. Faye nodded, chuckling to herself. Of course.

"In that case, I'll have a medium coffee, black, to go."

Outside, Faye rested her coffee on the shop's windowsill and struggled to get her lighter working. The wind had started blowing so she had her work cut out for her. She turned herself every which way to get the flame going.

"Mmm-mm-mm," a voice behind her chuckled.

"Yeah, nice outfit," a second voice chimed in.

All I wanted was a smoke. Faye laughed to herself, her eyes turned skyward. She turned around slowly and smiled coyly at the five boys, who couldn't have been older than seventeen, as they slowly formed a circle around her. One kid had the audacity to run his fingers up her thigh. She grabbed the trespassing appendages and gave them a wrench.

"Okay, I'll give you a couple of seconds to collect yourselves and go elsewhere. I'm very tired and just frankly not in the mood right now," she said patiently.

"Hmm...I don't know, lady. You don't look like you're not in the mood. You look like you're dressed to party," the runt of the pack grinned. A skinny kid, not even as tall as she was, heavily freckled with acne. Faye let out a sigh. Alright, then.

The first kick she landed jerked the runt's head to one side. The other boys backed up a few steps. One of them looked as though they were ready to make a run for it. But, as for the others, what the hell were they thinking? Had their brains been touched by the sun god? Instead of attacking her all at once they were actually going to wait their turns like in those old kung-fu flicks. Morons. She sunk her fist into the second boy's stomach and came across with another kick, hitting the coward trying to sneak up on her from behind – it wasn't a rib-cracker, but it was hard enough to knock the wind out of the boy. They were still just kids after all. The last boy – a tall, hefty kid in a black leather jacket -- got it in the jaw. In a matter of minutes, she'd chased them all away.

"What a fucking waste of my time," Faye muttered. One of those damn kids had knocked her coffee over and she wasn't sure what had happened to her cigarette. She looked down and turned the point of her boot to the side. Her cigarette lay crumpled beneath it.

Shit.

-
Lyrics quoted from The National's Mistaken For Strangers. Don't sue, please.