Sassy.B93- Thank you for the review, they inspire me to write quicker!

Chapter 10: Old Friends

Buffy shouldn't have been surprised to see her three friends on the other side of the door, but she was. She hadn't seen Faith, Pike and Benny in weeks and hadn't talked to them in just as long, which is probably the exact reason they came to her house. She should have at least contacted Faith, if she had then Faith may have been able to come up with a reason for them not to bother her. Faith always had her back.

"Yo, B!" Faith laughed. "What are you wearing?"

Benny laughed, as he wrapped his arm around Faith's neck and looked the blonde up and down. "Yeah, Buff. I don't get it…" Buffy was never the type of girl to wear a flowery dress like that, not that he knew anyway.

"My girl playin' house?" Pike laughed as he walked into the Summers' house, reaching out for Buffy.

Buffy stepped out of the blondes reach, she didn't want him to touch her and that had very little to do with the fact that he smelled like alcohol, that just added to it. "What are you guys doing here?"

Pike laughed again, then looked at his other two friends. "We have been calling you for like two weeks, Buff. Where have you been?"

"My mom was out of town." She told him, still making sure to stay a safe distance from him. "I went to stay at a friend's house."

Faith scoffed. "Come on, B." The dark-haired beauty shrugged Benny's arm off her shoulders and reached for Buffy. "Let's get you changed out of that stuff."

"Then we will paint the town red!" Benny laughed throwing his hands in the air.

0o0o0

Buffy rolled her eyes as Benny and Pike walked a few feet ahead of her and Faith, the guys had already been drinking before they had gotten to her house, according to Faith. They were still drinking now, which annoyed Buffy. She knew that if they got caught then she would get into trouble all over again and that was the last thing she wanted. She shouldn't be here, she didn't want to be here, but she couldn't deny that she had missed Faith. Buffy sighed, looking down at her outfit, her tight black leather skirt, tight black tank top and her black leather jacket, it was an outfit that she had worn a hundred times before but now, she felt uncomfortable in it. It was strange to think that just two weeks before, this was what she wore on a regular basis. Before she got in the fight with Larry, before she got suspended, before she got assigned to do community service at Awaken Church and before Angel. This wasn't her anymore, she felt so uncomfortable with how tight her clothes were. Earlier today when she was wearing the sundress that Jenny had bought her, she was comfortable. Buffy zipped her leather jacket to cover up the amount of cleavage that was exposed in the lowcut tank top.

Buffy rolled her eyes again when Pike and Benny laughed obnoxiously loud over something that wasn't even funny unless you were drunk. "They are so stupid."

"Yeah, they are." Faith laughed, when she realized the blonde wasn't laughing, she turned to look at her friend. "Wait, are you serious? You used to… What changed? Like seriously, B. We come to town and you aren't happy to see us, you are dressed like you should be handing out copies of the Watchtower."

Buffy shrugged. "Maybe I should be."

Faith shook her head. "Come on, B. Talk to me."

"I got in trouble again." Buffy stopped walking, causing Faith to stop, the brunette look ahead of them to see the guys still staggering and laughing, but she turned back to Buffy. "I got in a fight at school, got suspended, got assigned community service and I JUST went back to school."

Faith made a disgusted face. "Community service? Like picking up trash on the side of the road?"

Buffy shook her head. "Like helping in the Kids Ministry at a church and I like it Faith, I really enjoy doing it."

Suddenly, Benny turned around in the middle of the road and shouted towards the girls. "Hey Buff! You still got that fake ID?" He held up an empty bottle, shaking it. "We gonna need more."

Pike laughed. "Our fake ID's got taken away."

Buffy shrugged. "I don't have one, I wouldn't use it for you even if I did."

"Oh, come on, Buffy!" Benny shouted. "You always get off easier than us, your old man lawyer made sure of that."

Buffy rolled her eyes and turned back to Faith. "Look, Faith… I really like the life I am building here. I'm happy. I don't want to ruin that."

Faith looked around the street they were on. "What's so great about this place?"

"I like my friends here, my relationship with my mom, my teachers, my church, my Pastor and his family and I even like the only coffee shop they have in this town!" Buffy exclaimed.

Faith smiled at her only real friend. "There's a guy."

Buffy shook her head and let out a short laugh. "And there is a guy."

"You better tell Pike about this guy before he gets down on one knee with a ring pop." Faith laughed, then offered Buffy a smile. "I'm happy for you, B. I am. All you had to do was tell me."

"Just tell you?" Buffy asked. Now why didn't she think of that sooner?

Faith nodded. "You are the only person I really trust, B, the only one I really care about and the only person who ever really showed they care about me. If you had said to leave you out of our drama then I would have made sure it was done. You know I got your back."

"Yeah." Buffy nodded. "You do."

"So…" Faith smiled wider. "Who is this guy?"

Buffy laughed, linked arms with Faith and walked down the sidewalk while the two guys walked clumsily in the middle of the road. She really had missed Faith, the other two, she could live without.

0o0o0o

Buffy and Faith leaned against the brick building on main street, as they sipped on their drinks from the movie theater. While Buffy had actually wanted to see the movie, Pike and Benny were so loud that she couldn't even hear what was going on, so they decided to leave early. Originally, the guys wanted to get into some trouble but Faith had recommended seeing a movie. Now, Buffy and Faith were talking about Buffy's new life, while Benny and Pike were trying to leap frog over the parking meters.

Pike wondered over to the girls, leaving Benny to try to jump over the meter alone. "Where can we get some good food around here?" He asked rubbing his stomach.

Buffy raised her eyebrows at him. What had she ever seen in him? "We are on Main Street, pretty much everything food wise this town has to offer, is right here."

Pike walked over, throwing his back against the brick wall and draping his arm around Buffy's shoulder. "Or we could go back to your house and you could cook me something."

Buffy rolled her eyes, like that would ever happen! She didn't know how to cook. "I would poison you."

Pike looked confused but then laughed.

"Hey, B." Faith pushed off the wall, turning to face Buffy. "Don't look now but there is a guy across the street, he's been staring at you for a couple minutes."

"What?" Buffy scanned the area across the street, despite Faith telling her not to. She stopped when she locked eyes with Angel Giles from across the street in The Espresso Pump. "Angel."

"Angel?" Faith asked. "That the guy you like?"

"Like?" Buffy laughed. "Kind of more like love."

Faith smiled brightly. "You never told me who he is."

"He's the Pastors son." Buffy told her.

Faith laughed. "Oh my GOD! You fell for a Pastors kid!"

Buffy smiled and nodded. "He wants to be a Youth Pastor too."

"As I live and breathe." Faith jumped up and down. "I can't even right now!"

Buffy looked around Faith when she heard a familiar sound, Pike yelling at someone and Benny egging him on. The blonde gasped when she saw Pike was heading straight for Angel.

"Oh my…" Buffy looked both ways down the street before running as fast as she could in her tight skirt, with Faith on her heels.

"You lookin' at my girl?" Pike drunkenly shouted at Angel.

Angel look around him to see who the young man was yelling at but everyone around him was just as clueless as he was.

"What?" Pike shouted again, this time closer to Angel. "Your girl not good enough? You gotta check out mine?" He pointed to the blonde girl sitting beside Angel.

"I'm sorry, I don't know wh…" Angel trailed off. "Who are you?"

Things escalated quickly because Pike had been drinking most of the night, he grabbed Angel by the front of his shirt right as Buffy reached them. Buffy put herself between Angel and Pike, grabbing the blonde-haired boy's arm and knocking his grip away from Angel's shirt. "Back off, Pike!"

"You defending this guy?" Pike shouted at Buffy and tried to move past her to get to Angel.

"Pike, you are drunk and acting extremely stupid right now." Buffy paused and shrugged. "Although the stupidity thing, gotta say, not a far jump from sober you."

"Seriously, Buff?!" Benny shouted. "Just let him do it! Hit 'im, Pike!"

"Pike, I am only going to give you two options." Buffy raised her eyebrows at the young man that she used to call her boyfriend. "You either back off or this is going to end in two hits. Me hit you, you hit the ground."

Faith let out a soft laugh, she knew Buffy would do exactly what she was threatening to do because she had done it before. There were times when Buffy wasn't amused by the behavior of her friends and she would still go along with it, but there were those rare times when Buffy refused to go along with what they were doing and she made that known, normally to Pike because Benny was Faith's boyfriend. If anyone was to knock Benny down a peg, it would be Faith. Faith looked between Buffy, Pike and this guy she now knew was Angel. There was a big change in Buffy, she was completely uninterested in everything they used to do, she was pretty sure the Pastors son had something to do with that.

Pike glared at Angel before taking a step away from Buffy, he pointed at Angel. "You been touched by an angel."

"No." Buffy whispered. "I was." She turned to look back at Angel as Pike backed away, acting as though he was a tough guy and he didn't just get threatened by a small blonde girl. Buffy's eyes went from Angel to the blonde girl beside him and back to Angel, then she mouthed 'I'm sorry'.

Faith pushed Benny away from Angel and the now crowd of people that had formed around what they thought was going to be a fight.

Buffy looked back at the couple in The Espresso Pump again. Was Angel on a date? Xander had said that Angel had other plans, those plans included a pretty blonde girl. After everything that Pike and Benny had done tonight and the fact that Pike thought he was going to drunkenly fight Angel, the thing that really got to her was that Angel was with a girl.

0o0o0

Pike and Benny were laughing and talking about how badly Pike could have beat up that guy. Buffy couldn't deal with it anymore, shoving her hands in the pocket of her leather jacket she shrugged. "I'm out."

The two boys turned to Buffy, shock written all over their face. "What?"

"You heard me." Buffy looked at Pike. "I'm over it."

Benny shook his head. "Is this about that guy back there?"

Pike widened his eyes in shock. "Are you having sex with him?!"

Buffy looked at both of the guys and then to Faith. "Are you kidding me?"

Faith shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"No!" Buffy shouted at the blonde. "I am NOT having sex with him."

Pike shrugged. "What's a man supposed to think? We have been together for two years, Buffy, and we haven't had sex!"

"God, Pike!" Buffy exclaimed. "Why is everything always about sex? You know what? You aren't a man! That guy back there… he is sweet, kind, caring, genuine and he makes me smile. He makes me laugh when all I want to do is cry because my life has monumentally sucked! He is a real man. I'm not going down the rabbit hole with you, not anymore. I'm done."

Faith watched Buffy turn around to walk away, turning towards her boyfriend and his best friend, the brunette pointed over her shoulder at the blonde. "Yo, my girls out…" Faith shrugged. "Me too."

The two guys turned to each other. "What the hell just happened?" Benny shouted.

"Yo, B!" Faith called out, jogging up to her friend. "Wait up."

Buffy smiled at Faith as the brunette threw her arm over her shoulder.

0o0o0o

Joyce heard girls laughing as she walked into the house, carrying her luggage, the flight back from New York had been really tiring. She didn't think that Buffy would have friends over this late but at least it wasn't a school night. Setting her bags by the door, Joyce walked through the foyer and into the living room, she was surprised to see Buffy and Faith sitting on the couch, Chinese takeout containers laying all over the coffee table with a black book in Buffy's lap as she pointed out something on the page.

"Hi, girls." Joyce called out to them before looking around the living room and then behind her.

Buffy smiled at her mom. "If you are looking for Pike and Benny, they aren't here."

"Oh!" Joyce smiled at her daughter and her friend. "What are you girls doing?"

"B showed me this cool book." Faith picked up the book from Buffy's lap. "It's a little confusing but Buffy's got these nifty notes written in it."

Buffy laughed. "How was your trip, mom?"

Joyce sighed, her trip had gone better than she expected and she couldn't wait to meet with Mr. Nabbit the next day. "It was good."

"Have you eaten, Mrs. S?" Faith asked pointing towards the food on the coffee table. "We have a lot left over."

Buffy nodded at her mom. "Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomachs."

"Sure." Joyce smiled, walking into the living room and taking a look at the food the girls had been eating. Joyce picked up a container with Kung Pao Chicken in it then sat in the chair across from the girls. "So, Faith, how long are you staying?"

Faith shrugged. "I'm gonna need a way back to LA, I'm currently not talking to my ride."

Joyce nodded. "Are you back in school now?"

Faith scrunched up her face, she had dropped out of school a couple years before but Joyce Summers always made it seem like she would be going back anytime now. "Nah, it's not really my thing."

"Well, why don't you stay here for a little while?" Joyce smiled at the brunette, she had always liked Faith even though she was a little rough around the edges. She didn't have the easiest life.

"Well…" Faith pretended to think for a moment. "I would have to ask my mom but…. Oh, who am I joking..." She shrugged. "She's probably still passed out drunk. Sure, why not!"

Joyce shook her head, the poor girl didn't have any time of adult guidance at all. Her mother was either drunk or on drugs and her father had left before Faith was even born. "So, what book were you reading?"

"The Bible." Buffy smiled at her mom.