CHAPTER SIX - 'Broken Hearts & St. Valentines'

Buffy couldn't believe how what she thought was going to be a simple dinner with two new friend had turned out, she was sat with two people she didn't know all that well recounting the past four years of her life. And the really amazing thing was that they were enjoying listening to her.

"Yeah the Riley thing really didn't turn out all that well for him, or for me." Buffy explained.

~~~ FLASHBACK ~~~

Buffy had always had a hard time breaking up with people she just hated to see their face when she told them that it wasn't working out. So she had done what any other girl in her situation would have done; She wrote him a break up letter.

She ran to the door as she heard someone knocking and opened it to find Riley standing on the other side looking rather upset with scraps of paper clutched in his hand.

"Buffy you can have this back." He said as he pushed the violated letter towards her, "I wish you could have told me to my face."

Suddenly she felt very guilty she should have told him to his face so now was the time to sort it out. She stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

"Riley I'm really sorry I should have spoken to you, do you wanna talk about it now?" she asked.

"I like you Buffy, in fact I like you a lot but you obviously don't like me all that much." He said looking as if he was about to cry.

"No, no it's not like that at all. Your friends with Spike and you know what happened between us I'm just not ready to be with someone else not yet anyway." Buffy said sounding rather ashamed of herself.

Riley didn't say anything in reply he just looked at her, it had always been like this for him he always feel for the same girls as Spike and Spike always got the girl but then he messed them about and he ended up being the re-bound guy.

"Don't worry about it Buffy, I just wanted...." Riley was cut off by the sound of another male voice.

"Didn't think you had it in you Buffy to be such a bitch." Spike said as he crossed her front lawn not caring that he should have used the path.

It was the first time Buffy had seen Spike since she had gotten back from New York and as much as she'd spent the whole time to make herself believe that she didn't like him that much anyway her heart pounding betrayed her.

"I'm a bitch!" Buffy said her voice filled with shock that HE could conceive calling her that.

"Yeah you are, look at poor Riley here, he falls head over heels for you and you use him to get over your recent romantic trauma and then dump him. I'd say that makes you a bitch." Spike said pulling a packet of smokes out of his leather duster.

"What's your problem Spike?" Buffy asked all the time totally ignoring Riley who was trying to have a deep and meaningful with her.

"You've hurt my friend that's my problem." Spike replied as he threw her an angry glare.

Buffy was so caught up in the drama of seeing Spike again that she didn't even notice Riley standing up and leaving. Because no matter how much she wanted to hate the man before her she couldn't deny that her heart longed to just grab him and kiss him.

"And what about me? You hurt me! I fell for you and you just dumped me at least I had the decency to tell him it was over. You really, really screwed me up and now you turn up hear to preach to me!" Her voice was filled with angry but both her and Spike knew that it was taking all her energy to keep her composure.

"You know what Spike go to hell." Were her last words to him before going back inside her house and slamming the door.

~~~ END FLASHBACK ~~~

"Riley sounded like a nice guy Buff why didn't you give him more of a chance?" Xander asked as they left the restaurant and headed towards Willy's Bar across the road.

"He was a really nice guy but that wasn't what I was looking for at that time, I was just to caught up with Spike to even give it a chance. He's been a really good friend to me over the years."

"Yeah but Spike sounds like a jerk." Xander commented.

"He wasn't as bad as I've made him sound honestly, there's more to this story than meets the eye. We were just so caught up in each other and we didn't realize what was for the best."

"Did you get back together?" Willow asked predicting the conclusion.

"Eventually yeah we did." A smile formed on her face as she thought back.

~~~ FLASHBACK ~~~

Cordy, Angel, Riley, Lindsey and Buffy were all at the Bronze for St. Valentine's day just hanging together and dancing. Lindsey pulled a small bottle of vodka out of his pocket and offered it around the group. Buffy looked at the bottle knowing that she really shouldn't even consider drinking from it but hell it was Valentine's day and she was all alone so she threw a mouthful back.

"Shit." Cordy muttered as she looked across the room and then back to Buffy.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing." Cordy snapped.

"No something's the matter what is it?" Buffy asked with a little more force.

"Ok but you're not gonna like this."

"Just tell me!" Buffy shouted losing her temper and taking another mouthful of vodka.

"You know Anya? Well her little sister Harmony is here." Cordy answered hoping that Buffy would leave it at that.

"And?"

"Ok you are so not gonna like this but here goes, Spike's dating Harmony and there here together looking really hot and heavy."

Buffy let her eyes scan the crowd it was the last thing she wanted to see especially on Valentine's day but she couldn't help herself. Then there he was with his arms around a blonde, he lifted his head up and caught her eye. Buffy quickly looked away and pretended that she didn't care whilst taking yet another mouthful of vodka.

~~~ END FLASHBACK ~~~

TBC.