Chapter 14

One month later…

Buffy walked through the halls of Sunnydale High with a brilliant smile placed on her cherry red lips as she was in the arms of her boyfriend of one month, Ford. She really enjoyed spending time with Ford. He made her laugh, he made her feel safe and secure, and most of all, he didn't make her cry. She was still maintaining a friendship with her on-line buddy Sexy_badass, but the two still hadn't exchanged names and Buffy was actually happier that way. They chatted almost every night before Buffy went to bed. At the end of every conversation when Buffy would go to bed, she always had a smile on her face. She truly hadn't been this happy in a LONG time. Since that night a month prior, Buffy hadn't had a dream about *him. With Ford in her life, her thoughts were no longer occupied about her past relationship, they were solely focused on the present and Ford.

As they held hands, Buffy mindlessly chattered away with Willow and Ford and Oz exchanged pleasantries and ironically musical equipment. Xander came up behind them hand in hand with his own girlfriend Cordelia.

"So are you guys going to the Winter formal?" Cordelia asked Buffy and Willow eagerly.

Buffy looked up at her a bit confused, it was still a few weeks away from the event, though she realized that girls had been planning to go since the end of Homecoming. She mentally shrugged, she and Ford hadn't talked about it, but she wanted to go.

"Oz and I are!" Willow announced proudly. "We're going to The Firehouse Grill, though we might want to consider somewhere else, 'cause that name could kind of put a hex on the whole night, and then there would be fires and ash and-"

"Will!" Buffy said as she put her hand over Willow's mouth to prevent sound from coming out. Buffy leaned over to Cordelia and whispered, "She's a little nervous, she and Oz are planning on consummating their relationship that night,"

Recognition shined in Cordelia's eyes before she went "Oh! Well good luck!" Cordelia cheered her on kind of lamely and patter her on her shoulder.

Willow shot Buffy a glare that said, "Did you HAVE to tell her?" Buffy just shrugged off the look and fell back into her own world. She placed her chin on Ford's shoulder and grinned stupidly as Willow came into view taking Oz's hand in hers.

Xander chimed in, "What's the plan gang? Bronzin' it? Are we stayin in? I have Charlie's Angels at home, Cameron Diaz anyone?"

"Hormone check Xander," Cordelia warned him.

Buffy looked at her watch and saw that it was about three thirty. Her parents were actually going to be home this evening and she needed to be home to make sure everything was well taken care of.

"Guys, I gotta split. I'll catch up with you later," she told Ford before she kissed him on his lips as he looked a little confused.

She ran down the hallway and tried to make it the doors, but Ford caught up with her before she could exit.

"What's going on Buffy?" he asked her extremely puzzled about why she had to leave so suddenly.

She sighed, realizing that she hadn't explained her sudden departure. "I'm sorry Ford, my parents are home tonight and I need to make sure the house is spick and span. If there is even one little thing out of place or disorganized, I'm dead. I will call you later when I'm done and maybe if you're not doing anything later, we can get together?"

He smiled at that idea and placed a chaste kiss on her lips, always leaving her wanting more, before he patted her on the ass and told her, "You better get a move on baby,"

She winked at him and ran down the street to her house.

At four thirty, an hour after she'd left the school, Buffy was just finishing vacuuming the living room when the telephone rang. She huffed, being interrupted by her work, but still sounded pleasant answering the ringing annoyance.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Buffy?" a female voice asked her to make sure it was her.

Buffy's eyes grew to the size of a baseball. Immediately she hung up the phone. She breathed heavily for a few minutes. Thousands of questions running through her mind: What did she want? How did she find her? What in the fuck was she trying to pull?

Quickly she dried her eyes and continued to work like a robot. Cleaning would her mind of almost anything. She just hoped this qualified as anything. She cranked up her music to try and drown her thoughts.

/You're the kind of friend who always bens when I'm broken, like remember when, you took my heart and put it back together again

I've been wasting time with clueless guys but now it's over let me tell you why I'm through, I've met someone new, just like you/

It was during the third verse of "Sweet Home Alabama" that the telephone rang again. Prepared this time, Buffy answered the phone in an intimidating voice. If she was going to be forced to confront this bitch then she better be in the mood for it. Ever so gradually she was getting to that place of "over the edge".

"Yes?" she answered.

"Hi honey," Joyce Summers' silky voice lingered in Buffy's ear. Buffy took a big sigh, grateful to not have a confrontation with the one person she hated most in this world. Well, the second person she hated most in the world if she was being honest with herself.

"Hi mom," Buffy relaxed.

She could hear the hesitation in her mother's voice before she even spoke. She knew what was coming. She nodded her head on the other line just waiting for the words to fall out of her mother's mouth.

"Bad news honey,"

"Let me take a WILD guess, you're not coming home," Buffy said unemotionally. She had gotten so used to her parents calling and having something come up that it didn't even faze her anymore. She wondered what it would be like when her parents actually did come home.

"We can't sweetie, I'm so sorry and your dad is too," Joyce tried to sooth things over with their only daughter.

"Yeah I bet," she muttered to herself and then hung up the phone.

Making sure that there were some lights on in the house, she grabbed her jacket, locked the door and ran out of her house. There was only one place that she wanted to be right now and no one was going to stop her.