(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

"Now I'll call you when it's time for you to come home" Joyce told her daughter as she leapt from the car before it had even fully stopped moving, "but you stay in the apartment til I come to collect you, okay?"

"Okay, Mom" Buffy grinned as she bounded away from the car and disappeared into the building, her mother watching until she was safely through the door. Joyce was already worrying, and regretting her decision to let her younger daughter visit her sister, Faith. The type of people who lived in this kind of neighbourhood, well, as far as Joyce was concerned they were simply not to be trusted. It saddened her that a child of her own had ended up living in such a place, though she had to admit her young man, Spike, didn't seem all bad.

Turning the radio up slighlty and taking a deep breath, she put the car in gear and turned it around to begin the drive back home. She had no need to worry about Buffy, everything would be just fine. Joyce already knew no matter how many times she told herself that she would still spend the next two hours thinking of her two little girls and what awful horrors might befall them.

Buffy was having a hard time wiping the grin from her face as she hurried up the stairs to the apartment that her sister shared with Spike. Though she was excited to see Faith, it was thoughts of seeing the older girl's boyfriend that had her so worked up. It was two weeks since she'd last laid eyes on her bleached blond Adonis, and since then she'd dreamt about him day and night, planning ways that they might one day be together. Of course, in Buffy's dreams, Faith wasn't a factor because she'd already dumped Spike, or they'd just broken up, or sometimes she even found out about her sister's feelings and handed the man over! Perhaps it was all just foolish fantasy on the part of the sixteen year old, but Buffy didn't care. She was convinced her feelings for Spike ran deep enough to last forever, and that with a little effort she could have him feel the same about her.

Straightening her hair and taking a deep breath she tapped on the door of the apartment and there was some slamming and yelling before Faith finally opened it.

"Hey" Buffy smiled at her sister, "Surprise!"

"Damn, B, what the hell you doin' here?" Faith grinned as she pulled the girl into the apartment and hugged her with one arm, the other engaged in holding up a towel around her body.

"Mom brought me over to visit" Buffy explained as she took in her sister's state of undress, "How come you're always in the shower when I come over?" she frowned slightly and Faith rolled her eyes.

"If I don't shower now then me and Spike will want the bathroom at the same time" she explained, "And as much as I don't object to saving water by sharin', he's been in a weird mood lately. I figured it was best to stay out of his way" she shrugged.

"Did you two have a fight?" Buffy asked innocently as she followed her sister to the bedroom door, standing outside and continung their conversation through the door which was left ajar as Faith finished drying herself off and getting dressed.

"Nah, not so much" her older sister told her, "Spike's just the mood swingin' kind. When he gets in a funk there's only two ways to get him out"

"What are they?" Buffy was interested to know and Faith smirked as she came out of the bedroom, fastening the ties at the back of a strappy top.

"One is ignore him til he gets over it" she explained, "and the other, well, you're too young to get it, kid" Faith said with a filthy expression as she ruffled Buffy's perfectly brushed hair.

"Faith!" she complained as she straightened out the mess he'd made, "How many times do I have to remind you, I am not a kid anymore!" she complained as the sisters sat down together on the couch, the older of the two propping her feet up on the coffee table.

"I guess you're not" she conceded, "It's your birthday sometime soon, right?" she checked as she fought to remember the exact date, but found it impossible.

"Yes, exactly one week on Saturday" Buffy smiled, glad that Faith at least had the right month in mind, "Actually I wanted to talk to you about my party. You're coming, right?" she asked, wondering what reaction she'd get. Faith had two sides, one nicer than the other, and Buffy was never quite sure which to expect.

"A bunch of sixteen year old losers, drinking punch, and playin' pass the parcel?" she snickered at the very idea, before realising she was being bitch and Buffy didn't deserve it, "Hey, there's nothin' I'd rather do" she back-pedalled and the blonde rolled her eyes knowing what crap that was, but still apreciating the gesture.

"You can bring Spike too, it you want" she suggested, glancing away and Faith frowned a little at the way her sister had said that.

"Maybe" she said at length, "I doubt he'll be psyched about the idea but, whatever" she said absently, watching her sisters face carefully.

If she didn't know better she'd say Buffy had a crush on Spike, but surely the little princess wouldn't have any interest in her guy. After all, he was a Brit-Punk badass, not at all like any of the boyband clones on the posters that once adorned the blonde's bedroom walls. Though that phase seemed to have passed, she was still too straight-laced to think a guy like Spike was cool, at least Faith thought so. She was about to make some comment on the subject when the front door swung open and her boyfriend entered the apartment, singing The Sex Pistols version of God Save the Queen.

"Oh, we've got compnay" said Spike when he looked up and saw Buffy on his couch with Faith sprawled in the armchair nearby.

The brunette glanced at her boyfriend and offered a smile before turning her attention back to her sister who by now was staring at the bleached blond, her eyes practically glazed over.

"Hey, Spike" Buffy grinned, "How was your day?"

"Fine, thanks for asking, pet" he said quickly, headed for the bathroom, "Gonna grab a shower"

"Hey, Spike!" Faith called him back before he had a chance to escape, "Buffy came here to invite us to a party"

"'S that right?" he checked, glancing at the blonde who continued to smile sweetly at him.

Spike shifted his eyes away, not wanting to meet her gaze too much, but finding that looking down only made things worse. She had a body to die for it seemed, and whilst he'd noticed before that she had a decent figure it seemed she was dressed just perfectly to show off what she had without being slutty in any way. Shifting his eyes to his girlfriend, Spike realised that was not a skill Faith had ever mastered. She was either in sweats or other baggy clothes, looking like something from the laundry basket, or she was showing everything she had to anybody who cared to look. He liked her for being a woman of extremes, but somehow he liked Buffy better for being just the opposite. He forced his mind to cease wandering then and instead listened to what the blonde on the couch was saying.

"...so it'd be pretty cool if you could both make it" she smiled and Spike glanced at Faith who, out of sight of her half-sister, rolled her eyes.

"Er, 'm sure we can work somethin' out, luv" he told Buffy, "Right now though I ought to get cleaned up" he offered her half a smile before slamming into the bathroom, glad to escape from the horrible situation of standing between two sisters, both of which he wanted, no matter how wrong it was.

Willow sighed with disappintment as she checked the clock again and realised it was unlikely that Bikin' Boy was going to show up online tonight. For days they'd talked each evening, sometimes longer than others, but every day without fail. Since it was way past ten already, Willow was almost certain he wasn't going to be there and she hated how much that hurt. Buffy and Xander had both warned her about getting mixed up with a guy on the Internet. They thought that Bikin' Boy was probably not the person he pretended to be. She was fairly certain they believed he'd stopped communicating with her because he found an easier target, some girl who would wilingly give her real name, address, and so forth, and offer to meet up sometime, something Willow was not going to do any time soon.

On the other hand of course, Bikin' Boy might be who he said he was, a boy her age who had originally had a genine interest in her, but had just become bored later. Willow couldn't blame her looks, since they'd never exchanged photographs, so her personality and conversation skills must be at fault. The problem with that was, why did it take all this time for the guy to decide she wasn't worth talking to?

As she thought over and over it, Willow found her sadness tunring to anger. A part of her really wanted to give this guy a piece of her mind for treating her the way he had, for cutting her off when they'd just started to become good friends. Of course, it wasn't impossible for her to yell at him, albeit by email. She had his address, just because he hadn't turned up on the Instant Message service, didn't mean she couldn't send him an email telling him exactly what she thought of him. There was no more harm in that than there had been in talking to him before, no matter who he was.

After a further few moments thought, Willow opened up a new email, added Bikin' Boy's address at the top and began writing.

"Dear Bikin' Boy" she read outloud softly to herself, "I'm not really sure where to start with what I want to say, but I think I should warn you that I'm not happy right now" she began, "My friends kept telling me you probably weren't who I thought you were, that you're probably just some pervert or loser playing games with me. I didn't believe that before, and I don't think I believe it now either, but you're still not the person I thought you were" she explained, "If you were the nice person I thought I was talking to then you would be here now talking to me, and yes, I know there might be a perfectly legitimate excuse for you not talking to me for the past couple of weeks. Maybe your grandmother's sick or you have a lot of studying to do or you had to go on vacation suddenly, but would it be so hard for you to tell me that instead of leaving me here wondeirng if I'm not good enough to talk to anymore!" she said, realising how loud she was getting in her reading aloud and quietening herself down again as she continued, "I guess what I really want to say is, I liked you a lot, and I thought you liked me too. Maybe I was wrong, but it would be nice to be told either way. Have the decency I thought you had and tell me what the problem is, then at least you'll be half the person I thought you were"

With a sigh, Willow ended her email, signed it off as NetGirl, and then pressed Send. Switching off her computer, she changed into her pyjamas and got into bed, knowing that no matter how mad she got at her mystery friend on the Internet, she would still dream of him tonight. He was always just a figure though, no face, no defining features, after all she'd never seen him.

"Wesley, sweetheart, it's time you were asleep!" his mother called to him, having spotted the light coming from under his door.

"Yes, mother" he called back, desperately trying to get to the bottom of the page in his book before he closed it for the night. Putting 'Motorcyle Maintenance for Beginners' on the nightstand he reached to turn out the light, stopping short when a sound emitted from his computer. Quickly and quietly he padded across the room and sat down at his desk, finding he had just now received an email. His eyes went wide when he looked and saw who it was from.

"Willow" he breathed as he opened up the message and read it. He was stunned by the contents of the email, both by how mad she seemed to be at him given her quiet nature, and by the fact she actually seemed to genuinely like him.

Hearing the floorboards creak beyond the door, Wes knew he was about to get a good telling off if his light wasn't out in the next ten seconds. Diving across the room he flipped off the lamp and then hurried back to his desk. The glow from the monitor illuminated his face as he hit Reply and began to type his response to Willow. Though he wasn't ready yet to reveal who he was, he must make her understand that he never meant to abandon her or make her feel unwanted. Stupid jealousy had got in his way, and apparently there was no good reason for it.

By the time he was done explaining and sent the email off it was nearing midnight, and he crawled into his bed with a smile on his face, knowing that tonight he would dream only of Willow, and how wonderful it might be when one day he plucked up the courage to tell her who he really was.

To Be Continued...