Chapter 19
Juiced
Faith murmurs something vaguely dismissive as I tell her that I have to go to work. I leave supplies beside the bed, and check her temperature with the thermometer I grabbed along with some extra groceries. It's a high fever, technically, but I adjust that in mind for Slayers- Buffy always ran way hot- so I bite my lip and call it safe.
This is like paddling someone else's life around the deep end, but I don't know who I can turn to take the oar.
Okay. Fine. Go Lexi. Out the door. She will be okay. Stop staring at her, fretting, like a freak and just go to work. She will be okay for a few hours.
Shit.
Okay.
Out the door I go.
Shit.
Maggie Mott is sitting at the bar counting out the float for the tills when I arrive. I drop my satchel in its usual spot and wash my hands.
"You're late." She says, not looking up.
"I'm five minutes early." I say.
"Precisely. You usually show that ridiculously pretty yet eternally scowling face at least half an hour ahead of time. Not that I mind free labour. I am just marking the change." She says. Then she looks up at me and tips her glasses down. "So?"
"So what?"
"Darling girl, this is the part where you either tell me your woes, or, you blush and I have to wring out of you the hopefully scandalous tale of your new lover. I do hope it's the latter, and it is juicy."
"No…. No juice." I say, a little quickly. "No juices involved whatsoever."
(Glare)
"What? What? I am single. A single, free girl just enjoying the giddy life of singledom."
"It's your complete lack of enjoying your singledom that concerns me."
"I'm fine. I am good."
"Alex, I watched you carefully and painstakingly peel the entire label off a bottle on Sunday."
"Ahhh, good times." I reminisce, then set to work prepping the limes.
But of course my mind wanders back to girl in my bed. And that meanders into the night before, of a warm, strong arm around me and, okay, maybe it side steps into thoughts about the smoosh of boobs against my back and that sneaks over into the tussled hair Faith looking all adorable territory.
"There!" Maggie declares, jabbing a roll of coins towards me like some capitalist wand "I see that smile, Alexandra Hart. So? Spill. Who is the lucky girl?"
"Nobody. Also, excuse you. It could be a boy. You don't know."
"The way you dress?" She says. Glares are shared, but mine is half assed.
"Okay. Fair. But I am not seeing anyone. Girl or otherwise."
"It's that pretty blonde who always comes in here, the one you pretend you don't give free drinks to." She says, as she fills the tills.
"A world of no. And those are not free drinks. She sorts out our "wild dogs" problem now and again. Ask Big Carl. And you're wrong." Maggie looks unconvinced. I start hacking into a fresh lemon. "Besides, we had a falling out. I doubt we will be seeing her again any time soon."
At least, I hoped we wouldn't be seeing her any time soon.
Sandy blasts through the doors, bolt upright, fists clenched at her sides, tears streaming down her face.
"All men are bastards!" She wails dramatically, then heads straight for the toilets and disappears inside. Maggie's face lights up. She gets up and gives me a wink.
"Ah, some juice, at last!" She exclaims and goes to see what all the fuss is about.
It's close to midnight and the bar is busy as hell. The Dandy Warhols have brought in quite the crowd, somehow lots of out of towners got word of the unadvertised gig and we all have been struggling to keep up. I was so worried about Faith that I rushed getting ready and completely forgot my ear plugs. The PA is cranked and all the cacophony has thumped me into lipreading orders only.
But as I pour a row of five, Sandy pulls me in and yells something into my ear that I don't quite catch. She thumps me when I ignore her, and points to the alley door. She looks happy and excited, but I can't see what she is pointing to. So I assume she needs a break and just nod and go back to what I am doing.
"Twenty" I yell to the guy and take his money, glancing over to the door I see Sandy embracing a girl and jumping up and down. I roll the jumble of sounds she yelled at me over in my head as I till the cash and somewhere deep a bell sounds.
An alarm bell.
She said something that sounded like Casey K.
When I snap my eyes back to the door, she is being led outside and I just explode with goosebumps. She said Casey K. She said…
I don't think, I scramble over the bar, and half jump, half surf down the cheering guys who catch me, it's not gracious but it gets me closer.
"Outta the way!" I scream, weaving hard and pushing harder. I slam full bodied into the door bar and ram through.
After that, I am not quite sure of the details. I remember advancing on the two figures grabbing a terrified Sandy. The flash of vampiric faces, and the hiss as one turned to me.
He was big, but I seized his hair and with both feet off the ground I sent his face smashing so hard down into the trash can it crumpled. A roar and a blur, and dull thuds.
When I trained at Gile's I saw Spike's face in every punchbag. I saw his eyes behind each and every strike. It is his dark smile I see when my muscles burn and beg me to stop, and that smile makes me punch on and on all the harder.
I hit hard, I hit fast and I hit like someone else's life depended on it.
And there I am, in an alley, legs spread wide in a fighting stance, my stake tight in my fist, breathing hard and dripping crimson from my nose.
And Sandy lays beneath me on her back where she fell, wide eyed and open mouthed, as plumes of screaming dust whirl about her and rain down like grim snow.
I hardly believe it is over. I dart my eyes about, expecting the blow that knocks me down, that shatters my arm, that reminds me that I am just some joke to them. My muscles quiver with adrenaline.
There is a crowd, probably 10 or so people, ripped from smoking and joking by the drama. Some are looking around trying to figure out what just happened, some slack jawed, one… just one is shying away, trying to blend into the crowd.
The thing with Casey K's face realises she has been busted and sprints. But I am fit, and I don't care that my leg is burning or my ribs hurt, I give chase and run her down before the alley ends and the street begins. I bodily drag her behind the dumpster out of view and down into the gutter.
"Wait, Alex wait. It's me, your friend."
"Yeah. Casey K. That's why I am doing this."
I watch the body crumble to dust, taking my stake with it. I stagger back, acutely aware of the pain now.
The small gathering parts as I limp to the door. Watching me with a mix of confusion and uncertainty.
"Don't do… yunno… drugs or whatever." I read the room. "Aw forget it, we all know you will."
A concerned Maggie Mott is waiting for me at the door, a weeping Sandra pressed to her chest.
"So, about that pay rise." I say as I limp past.
I sneak into the apartment on tip toe, like some burglar in a silent movie. But Faith is out cold, so dead to the world I panic and rush to check her pulse.
She's hanging in there, her pulse is so strong it could accompany a band. I flop back on my knees and catch up on some good old breathing.
I was so high on adrenaline that I finished the night without Sandy and kept up. Maggie took her to the hospital to get her shock treated. Of course, the next time I see Sandy she will be older and wiser, or that will be the last I see of her once she knows Sunnydale is where what goes bump in the night likes to party.
Soooo everything now takes the opportunity to catch up with me as I slide the med kid out and begin assessing the damage.
Nose isn't broken, but it's packed with clotted black blood. My elbow is scraped up pretty bad and my knuckles raw on both hands. So it's painkillers and ointment and a pretty row of little round band aids for me. Much hissing and sucking of breath was had.
"Jesus, rowdy crowd tonight?" Faith says, her voice raspier than usual. She is propped up on the doorframe, clearly using it as a crutch. She still looks awful, the bathroom light making her seem a sickly ghost with pink, bruised eyes.
"Something like that." I grumble, failing terribly at applying antiseptic to my elbow. "Bunch of fangs tried to eat my college."
"How many?"
"Three."
"Where?" She pushes off the wall.
"Dust bin." I said. "And even if I hadn't taken care of it, you think I would let you out of here this weak to fight vamps?"
"You think you could stop me?" She said, folding her arms. A memory twinges hard in the back of my head, and I clamp my jaw shut. Faith lets a huge sigh go, and then comes to my aid. Taking the yellow stained rag and daubing it on my wound. "Dressing?" I hand it to her. "No, bigger, you scraped up the back real good too."
I rummage around and she takes the offered dressing. She isn't gentle, but she is quick.
"Tape." She says. And a few moments later I am flexing my arm, testing her work.
"That's… huh." I said. "Great work."
"Yeah, well, got the living shit kicked out of me a lot as a kid. Got a lot of practice. But I suspect you know that song too."
"I do indeed. But I will spare you my singing voice, I have no idea how to patch up bleeding ears." I smile. She smiles with me.
"Well, we both got to the end of that particular song, so I have no interest in singin' it again anyways." She says, and coughs.
"Amen to that." I wince as I swing myself down from the counter top. The med kit clean up is a problem for future Lexi.
"Why are you not in bed?" I say, softly.
"I gotta fucking pee." She says. "I mean, I can do it here or back in-"
"Do not pee in my bed." I say, stepping out of the bathroom. "Life saving deal is off if you are not housebroken."
I can hear her chuckling as I close the door.
"So you bagged three vamps?" She says, as the sound of gushing happens.
I blink and shake myself. Guys, well, it's a hard rule you do NOT talk to each other in bathrooms. Unless, you know, you are very, very and I must stress, very drunk and being funny. I am still freaked by girls opening up dialogue whilst copping a squat in the stall next to me. But that little culture shock is on me. I gotta deal, and Faith gotta pee.
"Yeah, it was… I have no idea how I managed it actually. I mean, I have been training my ass off."
"Vamp bite got you freaked? Understandable." I hear tissue and a flush. "All at once?"
"Two and then one. Though she didn't put up a fight." Taps. Thank god she washes her hands, I held that hand last night. So
Speaking of.
"Hey, uh, Faith, you take the bed tonight. I will take the couch."
The door slides back a little juddery, clearly she still really weak. She is using the wall to support her, and she looks a little dizzy. She also looks confused.
"Okay." She says. I offer my arm to give her support and she bats it away. She reaches the bed by hand-over-handing on the walls. Clumsy as hell, but she gets there.
I settle in on the couch. It's not designed to double as a bed, to be honest, but it's the best couch I could find by the side of the road that required minimal fumigation. I punch the pillow to get it into shape and swear loudly as my skinned knuckles remind me that I am a fucking idiot.
"You okay up there?"
"Yes."
"Sure?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
I do my best to nestle in. If I keep still and don't turn, I may have a fighting chance at sleep.
"Lex?" She says, after a few minutes of silence. Her voice is weak and has a quality I haven't heard before in Faith's voice. Uncertainty.
"Yeah."
"My name's Abigail." She says.
I digest this for a minute, uncertain what to say. It's a lie, of course, but I didn't know what I expected. Honesty? From Faith? The girl who played us all for fools over what, exactly? I really am an idiot. I swallow back a shaky breath.
"Hey." I say. "Hard rule. No lies between us. But secrets are fine. Okay?"
"Works for me." She says. Then silence for a while.
"Good night Abigail."
Silence.
"Did I… I mean… last night. Did I make you uncomfortable or some shit?"
"No." I say. "Not at all."
"S'just… it was nice. Didn't ya think it was nice?"
"I did."
"It's a big bed." She says.
"It's a shit couch."
And I can't help myself, because as much as her lie stung me, snuggling into her welcoming arms just made my already bizarre night. But the lie kept that little crack of distance between her and I. And maybe that was the wake up call I needed as I fell asleep curled into her warmth.
"Nite Lex."
"Nite."
