Chapter 3: You Don't Know Me

Buffy woke up slowly, starting to feel her hangover kick in. 'God, I feel like I got hit by a truck' she first thought as she kept still in the same position on someone's bed. However, when she opened her eyes and looked around and realized she wasn't in her room Buffy started to panic. She sat up quickly and looked around to see where she was, but even after examining the stuff in the room Buffy still had no clue where she was.

Buffy scooted over to the edge of the bed and stood up. She noticed someone had removed her shoes and placed them neatly by the foot of the bed. Buffy scrambled to get her shoes on, and started to breath heavily as she started to put on her right shoe. 'Got to get out of here…wherever here is' she thought as she tied the last knot on her left shoe.

Once Buffy had her shoes on she opened the door and peeked down the hallway. She started to travel down the hall slowly, noticing that all the bedroom doors were closed. 'Halfway out' she thought to herself as she reached the staircase, 'Now just got to make it down the stairs.'

Buffy quietly descended to the bottom level and looked around to see she was standing in a living room. She spotted on a table a photo of Rupert, Jenny, and Xander, and then she finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank god I'm just next door at Xander's….but wait…who brought me here?' she thought to herself.

Buffy glanced at the clock on the mantle of the fireplace and saw it was seven in the morning. 'Guess no ones awake.' She thought to herself and breathed another sigh of relief, 'Well at least I can sneak out.'

Buffy started towards the front door, but a voice behind her made her halt in place.

"You're up early luv." Spike said behind her.

Buffy gasped and turned around to see Spike in jeans and a red t-shirt; in his hand was a coffee mug.

"Oh…you scared me." Buffy said as she held her hand to her heart from Spike startling her.

"Sorry." Spike smirked and took a sip from his mug, "Didn't mean to."

"I thought everyone was asleep." Buffy said and took a step away from the door.

"They are…" Spike said, "I couldn't sleep is all. I can't get use to this bloody time difference."

"I see…" Buffy said. She gave a small smile and then let it fade away to a nervous look.

Buffy and Spike had an awkward silence overcome them. Buffy looked around, at the ceiling, the floor, the furniture, Spike's 'Kiss the Teacher' mug, she looked everywhere but at him. However, Spike didn't have a problem watching her squirm.

"I-I better get home…my parents must be worried…" Buffy said and started back towards the door. She grabbed the door handle when Spike stopped her again.

"Your parents know you drink that much?" he came straight out and asked her.

While still facing the door Buffy's face started to cringe. 'He makes it sound like I'm an alcoholic' she thought to herself. Buffy hoped it would have been easy to get away from him than an adult but she guessed wrong. She turned to him and took a moment to think what choice of words she would use.

"I don't always drink that much…" Buffy said, trying to stick up for herself.

"Why do I get the feeling you're lying?" Spike took a step towards her.

"Look, it was just a party…guess I didn't know what I was doing." She said, "It's no big deal…my friends usually—"

Spike interrupted, "Dump you in your driveway?"

Buffy stared at him a little embarrassed, 'So he was the one that brought me here last night' she thought to herself.

Instead of thanking him she started to sort of yell at him, "Look, you didn't have to bring me here…I'm not a kid…and-and besides you don't even know me. So, if I'm such a nuisance to you then next times don't help me!" Buffy turned around quickly and went out the door, and this time she didn't wait for Spike to stop her.

Spike stood there staring at the door Buffy left out of with an unreadable expression on his face for a moment. Then he turned around and went into the kitchen.

Buffy walked through her front door and slammed the door. She looked around her beautifully decorated home and waited for someone to say 'Buffy is that you?', but there was no sound coming from inside the big mansion. Buffy opened the front door again and slammed it harder, trying to see if that got anyone's attention but she still got no response.

"They don't even care if their own daughter was out all night." She mumbled to herself and shook her head in disgust. Buffy started to get a little upset; however, she kept a firm upper lip.

Buffy walked up the stairs and marched down the hallway. On her way to her room she saw that her parents were in their room, they were getting all dressed up for some event. Buffy noticed that both her dad and stepmother didn't realize she was standing at the doorway. Mr. Summers was wrapped up on a phone call on his cell phone, and Mrs. Summers was sitting in front her vanity table putting on earrings.

"Going somewhere?" Buffy asked.

Mrs. Summers turned and saw her stepdaughter and gave her a fake smile, "Oh Buffy…I thought you were asleep…you usually get up around ten o'clock. You DO know its still summer right?"

"Yeah…" Buffy glanced down at her shoes and then looked up back her stepmother, "So…where you going?"

Mrs. Summers got up from her seat, showing off her new maroon colored dress, "You like? Your father and I are going to LA for a charity dinner."

"Oh…" Buffy said.

Mr. Hank Summers is a big time business man in the management division. He owns three country clubs in California and a few hotels in Los Angeles.

"Ohhh…what's the long face?" Mrs. Summers asked, "Thought you'd be happy that were getting out of your hair." Mrs. Summers tone in her voice was neither playful nor nice she was cruel and cold.

"Buffy…" Mr. Summers finally addressed his daughter once he got off the phone, "You stay home tonight or going out with your friends?"

"Not sure dad…maybe I'll just stay in…catch up on my reading or something." Buffy said.

Buffy's father, unlike her step-mom, was not cruel or cold. He loved his daughter but the only problem was he never had time for her; he always had to fly out on business and leave Buffy in the care of her halfhearted stepmother, Darla.

"Well if you need anything just call the cell alright?" Mr. Summers smiled at Buffy.

Buffy gave a small smile and a nod as Mr. Summers came down and kissed her forehead.

"Ready darling?" Darla asked Mr. Summers.

"Let's go." Mr. Summers laced arms with Darla and they went out the stairs and out the door.

Buffy walked over to the window and looked out onto the street to watch Darla and her dad ride away in a limo to LA.

'Alone again' Buffy thought to herself.

The pool was practically begging for someone to come over in jump in, but Spike and Xander kept their bodies indoors on the beautiful day. Both boys decided it would cool to play a game of pool in the basement game room instead.

"So…what do you want to do later?" Xander asked as he leaned on his pool stick and continue to watch Spike beat him at the game.

"Not sure…I could continue to just keep whipping your ass." Spike said as he lined up his shot.

"As MUCH fun as that sounds…how about we do something else? You haven't seen rest of Sunny-D…we could head to the pier." Xander suggested as he watched Spike sink the eight ball into the corner pocket which made him win the game.

"I guess…sure whatever." Spike said shrugged.

"Do you ever get happy?" Xander asked.

Spike glanced at Xander and raised his eyebrow at the boy.

Xander shook his head and laughed, "I mean…you seem like the kind of guy that isn't big with emotions…you seem to just keep yourself on one volume set on 'expressionless.'"

Spike shook his head and chuckled a little.

"There you go!" Xander said with a smile seeing Spike laugh, "Now that you probably think I'm a weirdo…let's head to the pier."

Buffy was laid out on her bed listen to the radio and reading a magazine. When her phone started to ring she turned the radio down and simply just stared at the phone, debating whether she wanted to pick it up or not. In the end she let her answer machine get it; she really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment anyway.

The machine beeped and started to record the message, "Hey Buffy, where are you?" the voice of Angel came on, "Well call me back when you get home so we can make some plans...I was thinking you…me…nice ocean at nighttime. Call me."

Buffy thought for a minute before hopping off her bed and grabbing her cordless phone. She walked outside onto her balcony that overlooked other nice homes and the beach. Buffy started to dial Angel's number but then when she looked down off the balcony and saw Spike and Xander walking down the path heading towards town she instantly hung up.

'Change of plans…' she thought to herself as she watched Spike walk around the corner. Buffy grabbed her purse, put on her shoes and headed out the door.

TBC...