Getting Off The Griefmobile
By Annakovsky
See part 1 for all relevant info and disclaimer.
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CHAPTER THREE
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Dawn knew Andrew was kind of lame, but he was the only one of the group who didn't act like they were too old, sad and/or (ew) mature to have a good time. Except Faith, but her good times were usually a little *too* mature. Plus, being under 21 really keeps you out of everywhere cool.
So while everybody else was doing work-related activities – locating Slayers, finding occult books on e-Bay, turning the ballroom into a training room – Dawn and Andrew would take the crappiest of the used cars that the Council's money had purchased and go down to Bardstown Road to go to thrift stores or Ear X-Tacy, the independent music store, or to Baxter to see that "Whale Rider" movie. Or the comic book store, if Andrew whined about it too much.
It was actually turning into a pretty decent summer. Maybe Dawn's best yet, though that wasn't really much of a contest. I mean, hmm, out of the two summers that she'd actually existed, which one sucked the worst? She'd spent the first one either crying 'cause her mom and sister had both just died or else hanging out with an angry and depressed vampire, and sometimes both at once. The second summer had been better, but she was grounded for June and half of July over the shoplifting thing, and for the rest of the summer Buffy was obsessed with taking her out to the graveyard to "train" her, which mostly meant "give her tedious lectures on 'power' and how slaying was 'real'". Yeah, party on, Wayne.
But this summer, she was thoroughly enjoying her freedom, her new learner's permit (thanks for the training in the Kroger parking lot, Giles!), and, well, Andrew. Sort of. If she saw X2 one more time she was going to scream, but he was up for anything and he appreciated the fun value of going to Walgreen's and trying on all the sunglasses (especially the kid ones - he got Spiderman; she got Blue's Clues). You had to value that in a person.
This meant she didn't mind the hand-holding incident. It was okay, actually.
It happened when they were pranking Papa John, the owner of the pizza chain, whom they'd just found out lived down the street from them. It was a pretty lame prank – they just went up to his closed gate, pressed the talk button and tried to order a pizza, which probably happened to the guy all the time – but it seemed funny when they were talking about it, so what the heck. Someone started walking out towards the gate though, so they panicked and started to run away, laughing uncontrollably. Andrew grabbed Dawn's hand as they booked it down the street and around the corner for a good ways before they slowed to a walk, breathing hard and giggling. They laughed about it for awhile before deciding that maybe they'd walk over to the Sav-a-Step and get Blow Pops to turn their lips blue to cap off the afternoon. The thing was, they hadn't let go of each other's hands once the fake danger had passed, and they kept holding them the whole way over to the convenience store.
Andrew's hand was kind of sweaty, but it wasn't bad to be holding a boy's hand and walking down the road on a summer afternoon. Kind of normal, actually. Kind of nice. When they walked back, they were sucking on the Blow Pops and occasionally showing each other their tongues to ask how blue they were yet.
This of course was what led up to the other incident. Which was Dawn's fault. And which wasn't that bad, either.
"So is my tongue blue yet?" Andrew asked, opening his mouth wide. Dawn stopped walking to look.
"I can't quite see...," she said, getting closer and pretending to peer at it. Then, with his mouth all close and an unnatural shade of bluey-purple... well. She leaned in and kissed him.
He was surprised, but after a second kissed back. It was okay. Sugary. Maybe every kiss would be better if it tasted like artificial blue raspberry.
After a minute they stopped kissing and starting walking down the road again. Andrew was bright red, but after a second took her hand as they walked. His was shaking a little bit.
"So... um... are you, like, my girlfriend now?" he asked finally. His voice was all squeaky on the first part.
"I guess," said Dawn. "If you want."
"Yeah, okay," he said.
Which led to a week of making out in the back row of most of the Tinseltown cineplex's theaters. In the back row the armrests folded up, of course. So they paid Buffy's good money to not watch "2 Fast 2 Furious", "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle", "Dumb and Dumberer", "Terminator 3", and "The Matrix Reloaded". It's not like you really need to watch sequels to get the plot, anyway. When Buffy would ask how the movie was, they'd just be like, "The car chase sequences were awesome! Jim Carrey was hilarious! Charlie's Angels was a delightful romp!" or whatever and she wouldn't suspect a thing.
They broke up two weeks later, on a Tuesday afternoon.
"Andrew! I swear, if you mention Rogue one more time, I am breaking up with you! Is that what you want?"
"No, ma'am," he said sheepishly, and was quiet for about 30 seconds.
"But if you'd just *read* the comic book, you'd..."
"That's it! We are *so* broken up." Dawn stalked off.
They got back together on Thursday when he brought her a bouquet of lollipops. She needed a licensed driver to go to the mall anyway.
****************
TBC
Note: All those places really exist in Louisville, except that the Sav-a-Step I'm thinking of closed back when I was in high school. Oh well. Also, John Schnotter (aka Papa John) really does live right down the street from the big white house on the hill that I'm pretending the Council owns. Weird, huh?
By Annakovsky
See part 1 for all relevant info and disclaimer.
**************
CHAPTER THREE
**************
Dawn knew Andrew was kind of lame, but he was the only one of the group who didn't act like they were too old, sad and/or (ew) mature to have a good time. Except Faith, but her good times were usually a little *too* mature. Plus, being under 21 really keeps you out of everywhere cool.
So while everybody else was doing work-related activities – locating Slayers, finding occult books on e-Bay, turning the ballroom into a training room – Dawn and Andrew would take the crappiest of the used cars that the Council's money had purchased and go down to Bardstown Road to go to thrift stores or Ear X-Tacy, the independent music store, or to Baxter to see that "Whale Rider" movie. Or the comic book store, if Andrew whined about it too much.
It was actually turning into a pretty decent summer. Maybe Dawn's best yet, though that wasn't really much of a contest. I mean, hmm, out of the two summers that she'd actually existed, which one sucked the worst? She'd spent the first one either crying 'cause her mom and sister had both just died or else hanging out with an angry and depressed vampire, and sometimes both at once. The second summer had been better, but she was grounded for June and half of July over the shoplifting thing, and for the rest of the summer Buffy was obsessed with taking her out to the graveyard to "train" her, which mostly meant "give her tedious lectures on 'power' and how slaying was 'real'". Yeah, party on, Wayne.
But this summer, she was thoroughly enjoying her freedom, her new learner's permit (thanks for the training in the Kroger parking lot, Giles!), and, well, Andrew. Sort of. If she saw X2 one more time she was going to scream, but he was up for anything and he appreciated the fun value of going to Walgreen's and trying on all the sunglasses (especially the kid ones - he got Spiderman; she got Blue's Clues). You had to value that in a person.
This meant she didn't mind the hand-holding incident. It was okay, actually.
It happened when they were pranking Papa John, the owner of the pizza chain, whom they'd just found out lived down the street from them. It was a pretty lame prank – they just went up to his closed gate, pressed the talk button and tried to order a pizza, which probably happened to the guy all the time – but it seemed funny when they were talking about it, so what the heck. Someone started walking out towards the gate though, so they panicked and started to run away, laughing uncontrollably. Andrew grabbed Dawn's hand as they booked it down the street and around the corner for a good ways before they slowed to a walk, breathing hard and giggling. They laughed about it for awhile before deciding that maybe they'd walk over to the Sav-a-Step and get Blow Pops to turn their lips blue to cap off the afternoon. The thing was, they hadn't let go of each other's hands once the fake danger had passed, and they kept holding them the whole way over to the convenience store.
Andrew's hand was kind of sweaty, but it wasn't bad to be holding a boy's hand and walking down the road on a summer afternoon. Kind of normal, actually. Kind of nice. When they walked back, they were sucking on the Blow Pops and occasionally showing each other their tongues to ask how blue they were yet.
This of course was what led up to the other incident. Which was Dawn's fault. And which wasn't that bad, either.
"So is my tongue blue yet?" Andrew asked, opening his mouth wide. Dawn stopped walking to look.
"I can't quite see...," she said, getting closer and pretending to peer at it. Then, with his mouth all close and an unnatural shade of bluey-purple... well. She leaned in and kissed him.
He was surprised, but after a second kissed back. It was okay. Sugary. Maybe every kiss would be better if it tasted like artificial blue raspberry.
After a minute they stopped kissing and starting walking down the road again. Andrew was bright red, but after a second took her hand as they walked. His was shaking a little bit.
"So... um... are you, like, my girlfriend now?" he asked finally. His voice was all squeaky on the first part.
"I guess," said Dawn. "If you want."
"Yeah, okay," he said.
Which led to a week of making out in the back row of most of the Tinseltown cineplex's theaters. In the back row the armrests folded up, of course. So they paid Buffy's good money to not watch "2 Fast 2 Furious", "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle", "Dumb and Dumberer", "Terminator 3", and "The Matrix Reloaded". It's not like you really need to watch sequels to get the plot, anyway. When Buffy would ask how the movie was, they'd just be like, "The car chase sequences were awesome! Jim Carrey was hilarious! Charlie's Angels was a delightful romp!" or whatever and she wouldn't suspect a thing.
They broke up two weeks later, on a Tuesday afternoon.
"Andrew! I swear, if you mention Rogue one more time, I am breaking up with you! Is that what you want?"
"No, ma'am," he said sheepishly, and was quiet for about 30 seconds.
"But if you'd just *read* the comic book, you'd..."
"That's it! We are *so* broken up." Dawn stalked off.
They got back together on Thursday when he brought her a bouquet of lollipops. She needed a licensed driver to go to the mall anyway.
****************
TBC
Note: All those places really exist in Louisville, except that the Sav-a-Step I'm thinking of closed back when I was in high school. Oh well. Also, John Schnotter (aka Papa John) really does live right down the street from the big white house on the hill that I'm pretending the Council owns. Weird, huh?