A/N : Hey, no-one reviewed chapter 18! *cries* Are you bored with the story? Was it not good? Or did no-one notice the update? Well, here's the next chapter and I hope it gets read, enjoyed and reviewed.....please?

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 19 - Tell Me About It

"Buffy, is that you?" Joyce called too loudly for Buffy's head to handle just as she came through the front door.

"Hey Mom" she smiled, weakly, as her mother appeared in the hall.

"Did you have a nice time with Cordy? Actually, more importantly, did you get your studying done?" Mrs Summers checked.

"Yes and well, yes" Buffy lied all too well with another fake grin, wishing she could avoid the Spanish Inquisition or rather the Mom Inquisition which was actually probably worse. And just when Buffy thought she'd got away with it and made it to the stairs.

"Where are your books?"

"My books?" Buffy winced with her back to her mother "Well..."

"Mom!"

'Saved by the Dawn!' Buffy thought with a sigh, maybe she was useful sometimes. Of course with her out of the house no doubt little sister had wanted to help make lunch and by the tone of that scream Buffy estimated at least half the kitchen was aflame.

"Coming, honey" Joyce called to her youngest, moving quickly to the kitchen "Wash up for dinner, Buffy, we'll talk about it later, okay?"

"Sure" Buffy nodded, satisfied she'd got away with it, at least for a while.

The eldest Summers as glad to reach the sanctuary of her bedroom, but something was bugging her. There had to be more to last night than she could remember? She knew she'd got drunk and she knew why and how but everything else was very blurry, except for a very real-feeling dream just before she woke up.

She wondered, as she changed her clothes, why it was Spike who'd brought her home. Why not Willow since she was her best friend and a girl, surely that would've made more sense.

"Why can't I remember?" she asked her reflection in the mirror as she removed last nights makeup and brushed her hair. It was the only thing on her mind as she went down to eat and her thoughts, coupled with her hangover meant she really wasn't hungry.

"You've hardly touched your lunch baby, are you okay?" Joyce asked, reaching to feel Buffy's forehead and check her temperature.

"Yeah, I..I'm fine I just..." the girl tried to think of an excuse but her head hurt too much and her stomach was turning over and over.

"I hope you didn't eat too much junk at Cordy's last night" her mother asked and Buffy was glad to have been supplied with an excuse.

"You caught me" she lied "there was junk food, sorry"

"Well, I guess once in a while won't kill you" Joyce smiled a little "just don't make a habit of it"

"Mom, do you mind if I go lie down for a while" Buffy asked as the smell of the food and the whirling in her head became unbearable "I have a headache"

"Okay, honey" Joyce said kindly as Buffy left the room "I'll bring you some aspirin soon" she called after her.

"Thanks" came the reply as the Slayer hurried up the stairs as fast as her legs could manage in their present state.

Lying on her bed, Buffy tried once again to piece together what had happened last night.

'Will and Xan, and Spike and Cordy were dancing' she thought 'then I started drinking' that was where she hit some trouble. 'Spike said Cordy had to go home to look after her grandmother...well that's a blank, don't remember that at all. Then presumably we left the Bronze, me and Spike, still blank, and he brought me back to his house so that neither of us got in trouble...'

Things were getting clearer now, bits and pieces of dialogue and actions were popping up in her clouded brain.

"You feeling any better yet?" he asked as knelt beside the her.

"Maybe a little" she said quietly, her eyes closed already.

"I reckon someone's gonna have a killer hangover in the morning" Spike smiled as he dared to reach out his hand and push some stray hair from her face "Just try to get some sleep, Slayer"

"Spike?"

"Yes, Buffy?" he sighed

"Aren't you gonna kiss me goodnight?" she asked.

'Oh God did I really say that?' Buffy asked herself, covering her face with her hands despite the fact no-one was in the room to see her go red. But he'd done it she remembered now, one light kiss on her lips, she could feel it if she concentrated and she was glad too. After that though, she'd tried to kiss him back...he hadn't let her, why not? Supposedly he liked her...

'Why wouldn't he kiss me? Bastard!' she cursed. She'd wanted to be kissed, she remembered wanting it and he'd turned her down. Her manic thoughts were interrupted as she heard a knock on the front door and her mother go to open it. From the voice she knew it was him...

"Hey Joyce, is Buffy around?" Spike smiled to the woman he liked so much, she'd been such a friend to his mother and always treated him decently, unlike her daughter.

"Yes, but she's not feeling too well right now" Mrs Summers explained. Spike had to admit he'd expected that, she would still have the hangover from hell he knew, but he needed to talk to her about last night.

"Oh, well, could I see her, just for a while, it's important" he pleaded.

"Oh" Joyce smiled "is it about the big math test tomorrow?"

"Er...yeah, that's right" he hated to lie to her but the truth would get both him and Buffy into trouble, and he hated that more.

"Come on in" the woman agreed immediately and there was s satisfied smile on Spike's face as he entered the house. He didn't even notice Dawn as she emerged from the living room to see him, he was a man on a mission - half way up the Summer's stairs before Joyce had even closed the front door.

He tapped lightly once on the slightly ajar door of Buffy's room before going inside.

"Hey Slayer, how's the head?" he said, quietly.

"Go away Spike" she spat, laying on her side on the bed, trying to keep her back to him. He walked around the other side to see her face.

"Someone's back to their old self" he smirked.

"What part of 'go away' do you not understand?" she snapped, turning over to face the other way.

"Buffy" he sighed, sitting down on the bed by her back that she was determined to keep facing him "I just wanted to make sure you were okay" he told her "Besides you should be thanking me" he added quietly.

"Thanking you?" she half-yelled, turning and sitting up too fast "For what?" she demanded to know, her arms folded over her chest as she swallowed hard and bit back the nausea.

"If you'd have come home the state you were in last night, Joyce would've killed you" Spike hissed with annoyance at her attitude "I saved your arse"

"So you say" Buffy said grumpily, looking away.

"Yeah, I do say" he retorted. They were, he realised, both being very childish.

"And after that?" Buffy asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"After what?" he countered with a tilt of his head.

"What happened when you took me to your house?" she elaborated, awaiting his answer with interest - a lie or a truth? Which would he offer?

"I already told you" he sighed in annoyance again "you slept on the bed, I slept in the chair"

"And?" she prompted.

He didn't answer as he got up from the edge of the bed and wandered over to look out of the window.

"And nothing" he said eventually, his back to her. Buffy knew avoidance all too well. If he couldn't look her in the eye, he was lying, not that she needed to work it out that way, she remembered last night all too clearly now, well, at least the parts with her and Spike and the kissing or lack thereof.

"Nothing happened that I should know about?" she asked him, no hint in her voice to show she knew he was lying "I didn't say anything, do anything embarrassing, that I should be told about?"

"No" he answered too fast.

"Liar!" she shouted causing him to spin around and look he straight in the eye.

"You remember..." he realised all too suddenly.

"Of course I remember!" she yelled, getting off the bed in one move and standing before him, "I came on to you, twice, and both times you turned me down" she said, angrily, but there was hurt in her eyes, "I thought you liked me"

"I do, but..." he began to protest but she turned away, she didn't want to hear it.

"But nothing, if you did you wouldn't have run away"

"I didn't run" he argued "I just...moved quickly" he explained somewhat lamely. Buffy sighed as she turned back to face him. Glancing between his face and the floor, she spoke much more quietly now.

"Look, Spike, I thought you liked me and you don't, and don't worry about it because...I don't like you either"

"So what was last night about?" he asked, incredulously.

"I was drunk" she shrugged, as if it were obvious "you were there - call it convenience" she felt bad when she saw the pain on his face, the brightness in his blue eyes fading to dull blue-grey.

"You can be an unfeeling chit sometimes, y'know that, Slayer?" he said in a tone that should have been angry, but it just came out pained.

"Oh just get out Spike!" she shot at him, turning her back so he wouldn't see her tears. She didn't want to hurt him, but he'd hurt her, and yes, she kind of understood why but she didn't want to lose face.

"I'll go, gladly..." the bleach blond almost growled as he left "ungrateful, pain in the..."

Buffy tried to block out the sound of him stomping down the stairs and out of the front door. Tears streamed down her face as she realised how awful she'd really been to him. Why did she push him away? Why couldn't she just let him into her life, her heart? Why did it have to be so hard?

The Next Day...

Monday morning and, as usual, the Slayer had called next door for Spike so they could walk to school together, but he'd already left without her. Half of her felt bad and wanted to apologise for what she'd said and done before, the other half was still mad at him for one thing and another and didn't care that he'd ditched her.

Deep in thought, the girl almost didn't here Willow calling her name.

"Hey Buffy" the red-head beamed as she hurried to walk through the school grounds with her best friend "we lost you the other night. Where'd you go?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" Buffy half-smiled at her friend as they walked.

"Well, try me" Willow pressed, intrigued.

"I got kind of drunk" the blonde admitted and the witch's mouth dropped wide open.

"Drunk?" she echoed, loudly.

"Geez Will, foghorn much?" Buffy almost laughed.

"Sorry, but..wow, what happened?" her friend was eager to know. Buffy was way more 'adventurous' than her, but to go and get drunk, that wasn't Buffy's style - something was wrong.

"Spike found me, took me home" Buffy shrugged "to his home" she amended "I was so out of it it took me hours to even remember what happened"

"You and Spike, together, in his room..." Willow put together to and two and got the usual five "what did happen?"

"Nothing like that" her friend said quickly, immediately on the offensive. She knew that look on Willow's face all too well "well, not really anyway" she amended "but I don't want to talk about it please, I just want to concentrate on this math test, God knows I didn't study much, I should at least concentrate now" she pleaded, in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

"Okay..." Willow conceded, before adding "but you would tell me if something happened, wouldn't you?"

"Of course" Buffy nodded to her best friend "but it didn't" she said, somewhat sadly and Willow couldn't help but notice the disappointment in her look and tone. "If anything had of happened" the Slayer quickly covered "you would know, what with Spike being dead and all for daring to touch me"

"Okay..." Willow smiled slightly, knowing that was an out and out lie and one she would do something about...

"Hey Xan" she said to her other best friend at lunch, before Buffy arrived in the cafeteria, "We meeting at the Bronze tonight?"

"Sure thing, Will" the brunette nodded, stuffing too much food into his mouth as usual.

"Seven thirty, okay?" she checked.

"Sounds good" Xander replied, showing off the contents of his mouth, much to Willow's disgust.

"Hey guys" Buffy greeted them as she joined them at the table, she smiled but her heart wasn't in it.

"Something wrong, Buff?" Xander checked.

"No, just the math test was way hard, especially when I didn't do much studying" she sighed.

"Is that all that's wrong?" Willow asked, knowing that Buffy wouldn't be this down over just one test. But Buffy said that was all it was and the red-head pretended to agree with her. What really gave it away was when Xander asked 'Where's Captain Peroxide today?' and Buffy got even quieter and more weird.

Willow knew, even if Xander was too oblivious to notice, that Buffy and Spike should be together and that if they both just came out and said it, that they really liked each other, they could be so great together.

'And they will be great together' Willow thought to herself with a satisfied smile, 'If everything goes according to plan, I'll have them together before the night is out'

To Be Continued...