Murderer Too Young
Chapter 4- Switched Pain
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, it's really inspired me to continue with this. I had started a while ago and I lost my groove, and it's just really nice to get back to this.
"Angel, what are you doing here?" Spike asked, but was pushed back inside by Angel. "Hey! Watch it mate!"
"I'm not your mate. Not anymore," Angel replied. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Leaving evidence at the crime scene? Do you want to get caught?"
"Oh, you mean the knife? I figured it would look better as a suicide if we made it look like the wanker tried to bleed himself dry before resorting to the freezer," Spike explained, sitting on the couch.
"That's all fine and great, but you left your knife! The police are going to trace it back to you and we're going to get caught," Angel yelled. Spike threw on a t-shirt and stood up.
"How many bloody times do I have to tell you? Since they think it's a suicide, they're not going to give it a second thought. There will be a funeral, a wake, and people will grieve, but it will be forgotten in a month's time. Stop worrying so damn much."
"But it was still covered in his blood from two nights ago. You were supposed to clean the wound and get rid of the knife. Throw it in the river or something. But you left it there," Angel said angrily.
"Look, it's done, alright? The police think it was a suicide right?" Spike verified. Angel nodded. "Then end of story. Get on with your life. Go for the girl and forget about all this mess."
"But it's not that simple anymore. Buffy is devastated and it makes me feel even worse. I did all this to get her away from Riley but all it did was make her feel horrible. This was not supposed to go down like this. All I was supposed to do was make sure Riley didn't go out with her on Saturday," Angel said.
"And he didn't," Spike said. Angel shook his head.
"We killed him Spike!" Angel yelled. Spike set his jaw tight.
"Hold up there. 'We'? No, there is no 'we'. It's me and it's you, but there is no 'we'. Clear?" Spike explained. Angel frowned.
"What? No, you were a part of this too," he told Spike.
"It's over mate. Now go back to the school and see what's new, and then go home and enjoy yourself. Hell, throw a party," Spike instructed. Angel sighed.
"Fine, whatever. Just make an appearance at school. Your absence might raise some sort of suspicion," Angel told him. Spike nodded and walked Angel to the door.
"So, you say Buffy's feeling a bit down eh?" Spike asked. Angel nodded. "Right then, off you go. Send everyone my love then, yeah? Bye!" he said quickly and closed the door on Angel's face. Angel took a deep breath before walking down the walkway to his car.
The days went by quickly and soon a week had passed since the murder, or in the minds of everyone else but Angel and Spike, the suicide. Although Spike was not right about one thing, the funeral and wake had passed but Riley's death was still the most talked about thing in the halls of Sunnydale High.
Xander, Willow, Buffy, and Angel were sitting at a lunch table one day. Willow and Xander were sharing the story of them watching the police investigate the crime scene last week.
"So, we're just walking into the cafeteria to get some orange juice and there were like 30 cops. When we asked what happened, they made us leave," Willow said.
"But not before I got a glimpse of the body," Xander added. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Xander, stop talking about him like he was an 'it'. This was a guy that's gone to school with you since the age of five," she told him. Xander shrugged.
"Hey, not saying that I wished him dead, but 10 years of being picked on is something that I'm not gonna just forget just because he's dead," he said. Buffy shook her head at him.
"How are you dealing with it Angel? You haven't talked about it at all," Willow asked. Angel froze slightly, trying not to look guilty. He had this feeling that they would figure it all out soon and he'd be caught.
"Oh, well I'm ok. Didn't really like him anyways," he replied.
"Say, has anyone seen Spike? Hasn't been here in a few days," Willow asked. Angel frowned at the mention of Spike. He had told him to show up at school but Spike had only been here the day of the funeral. Since then, there was no word.
"Uh, probably just staying home, hanging out," Angel replied quickly. 'Gotta keep him and me away from any suspicion,' he thought.
"Well, I better go. See you guys later," Buffy said. She got up and walked toward the cafeteria door and into the hallway.
Angel so badly wanted to ask her out. He had wanted to since before the year began and it was also the reason he went after Riley the way he did. But every time he was about to, he saw the pain in her eyes and he just couldn't.
He knew Buffy still blamed herself for being mad at Riley the night he died and it made him feel even crummier because it was all his fault. 'No,' he reminded himself. 'Spike too. Gotta remember he was there too.'
The only thing he knew was that he needed all the Riley talk to just die down as quickly as possible. Until that happened, the dreams and thoughts and voices in his head would not die down either.
The bell rang and Xander, Willow, and Angel stood up. "Gotta go to class man. See you later? The mall tonight, right?" Xander said.
Angel nodded and watched his best friends walk out of the cafeteria together. He was going to meet Xander and Willow at the mall that night to go shopping for a present for Buffy. Her 18th birthday was this Saturday and he needed to still pick out a gift.
He decided at that moment that on Saturday, he would ask her to go out with him. What better day than then?
The Sunnydale Mall was packed for a weeknight.
Willow had stopped in Victoria's Secret to get a couple of Buffy's favorite scents in bottles of lotion and body spray. Xander had found a couple CDs that Buffy wanted for some time now and he decided to get her those. Angel took the most time deciding what to get her. He wanted to get something nice and original. Not something that someone else might get her.
He finally decided on a Claddaugh Ring. The guy in the jewelry shop said it was a symbol of friendship. And that was sometime he always wanted to have with Buffy. No matter what happened between them and who ever else they met in life, he wanted to always be her friend.
"Well, that was exhausting. I don't know how you girls do this on a weekly basis," Xander said to Willow. They had all found seats in the food court and were resting from their long night of shopping. Long for Angel and Xander anyways.
"It's a gift," Willow replied, smiling at her boyfriend. Xander thought of something.
"You still think I'm a manly man right?" he asked her. Willow smirked and laughed.
"Yes, full of manliness." Xander breathed a sigh of relief and continued eating his plate of nachos.
"Hey, look. There's Buffy," Angel told them. He pointed to the line at the Taco Bell stand. She was standing in line waiting for her turn at the counter. "Quick, hide the-"
Bags was what he was going to say. That is until he saw Spike walk over to her. He felt his stomach fall out of its place when he saw Spike lean down to give her a kiss.
"Whoa! Who would have guessed that? Spike and Buffy?" Xander exclaimed.
Willow saw Angel's face and immediately felt for him. She had always thought that Buffy and Angel were a perfect match. She had tried tell her friend this for years now and she knew that Buffy liked him as well, but neither of them had ever made any attempt to get together.
She watched as Angel close his eyes and sigh deeply. He opened them and she saw the slight glimmer of wetness in them. "Angel? You ok?" she quietly asked him and put a hand on his arm. He shook it off immediately and nodded.
"Yeah. Hey, I gotta go. I'll see you guys tomorrow," he said and almost ran the opposite way. Xander turned around and saw Angel leaving.
"Where's he going?" he asked Willow. Turning to Xander, she looked at him and sighed almost as sadly as Angel did.
"He had to leave," she said. "Something came up."
'That son of a bitch,' Angel thought to himself. Seeing the girl he loved kissing the guy who was supposed to be his friend was bad enough. But what was worse was that Spike knew that he wanted Buffy. That was the whole point of going after Riley.
He heard the footsteps, and without even looking he knew who it was.
"Angel?" Buffy said. Angel didn't look up at first, but didn't want her to think he was mad at her, so her silently looked at her. "What's wrong? I was walking by and I saw you were in total brood mode. Something happen?"
Oh that was great. She saw him pouting on his front porch. That was the last thing he needed.
"No, I'm fine," he lied. Now he was lying to her. Perfect.
"You sure?" she asked. "You can always tell me anything."
"Saw you at the mall tonight," he said. "Spike huh?" He watched as her eyes gazed down to her shoes and she played with the shoe string.
"Yeah. Spike. Don't really know how that happened. He started calling me this week, asking if I was doing ok. We started to really talk, like for hours. Then a couple nights ago, he kissed me," she told him. Then looking at Angel, she smiled. "It's nice. He's been a real comfort this last week. The whole thing with Riley really tore me up inside but Spike listened and helped me through it."
"Imagine that," Angel said bitterly. Buffy didn't fail to notice.
"What's wrong?" she asked him. Angel put his face in his hands and sighed.
"Really hurt seeing you kiss him," he said. Buffy closed her eyes and sighed as well.
"Why haven't you said anything?" she asked. There was a brief pause. "How long?"
"Long enough."
"You could have said something sooner, you know. What was the wait for?"
"I don't know. I really can't say why I've waited all these years," Angel started. Buffy shook her head.
"Years? Well, I really don't know why you waited either," she said. "All these years of dancing, driving me to school, watching movies at each other's house, laughing at stupid things. All this time."
"Look, I know how stupid and chicken I was, and I really regret being like that. But I was afraid of you saying no. I didn't think I could stand it if our friendship ended all because my feelings for you were only one way," Angel explained.
"You wouldn't have had to worry about that. I would have said yes," she told him. Standing up, she started to walk away from his house and down the street.
Angel just looked on after her and sighed. He picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it as far as he could throw it.
A/N: Ok, next chappie is where the real damage starts. Promise I'll have it out sooner than this chapter came out. I'll try to alternate as much as I can between this one and Desert Tales. Oh, and reviews make me smile.