Chapter 2: Bad Day
Later that evening Buffy had changed into some normal clothes that Willow gave her and she called her parents to tell them where she went; the conversation wasn't going very well.
"Mom...mom listen to me!" Buffy paced with the phone in her hand. She was wearing a sweatshirt and blue jeans, and her hair was now dry and tied back in ponytail.
Buffy walked all over the open spaced living room in her bare feet. Spike sat on the ground against the wall near the windows were the rain was still pouring down. On his lap he had his laptop typing away, trying not to listen in on the conversation.
"Mom Riley isn't the one! He...he's nice and safe but...he just isn't the one..." she listened to other end, which made the apartment very quiet for a period of time.
"Look mom...I-I just need to be on my own for a while. Okay?" Buffy listened to the other end and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as if in pain. "Hi dad..." she listened to the other end in distress, her face said everything--she didn't like talking with her father very much.
"Yes...I know you're disappointed..." she continued to listen, "I'm going to talk to Riley and tell him..." she listened again as she was interrupted. "Daddy listen to me...please, dad..." she sounded desperate and then she heard a click on the other end.
Spike looked up from his laptop and saw Buffy look down and turn off the phone and stare at. He felt sorry for her, he wanted to give her some words of comfort but he really wasn't good with those types of situations.
Buffy took the phone and put it on the kitchen counter and slowly wondered over to the windows and looked out at the rain pouring down onto the streets of New York. Her breath fogged the part of the windows and made it unable to see outside but she didn't seem to notice.
Spike looked up at Buffy standing a few feet away from her. She didn't appear to notice that he was staring at her; she was memorized on the weather outside. Spike bended his head down and looked back at his computer screen.
"Why does your friend's call you 'Spike'?" Buffy asked without turning away from the window.
Spike lifted his head suddenly and looked at her, "What?"
Buffy turned and looked at him and backed away from the window, "Earlier your friend called you 'Spike'...so what you're not 'William' anymore?"
Spike smiled, "Uh...it's a nickname." He said.
"Oh..." then she looked at him and squinted her eyes, "What happened to your hair?"
Spike laughed and put his laptop to the side and got on his feet and traveled into the kitchen and she followed behind, "I changed it in college." Spike explained his hair, "You just finally noticing this?"
"Well I was always kind of slow." Buffy said and smiled.
"No argument there." Spike said took a beer out of his refrigerator.
"Hey!" She whined and moved closer and hit him lightly in the arm.
Spike turned and looked at Buffy and smiled and she did the same. They just stood there and smiled, and it felt like old times to them. It seemed like there were no problems in the world and they were back in high school.
Their moment was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Spike exited the kitchen and went an answered the door, leaving Buffy.
Spike opened the door to see Willow, Angel, and Xander again.
"Do the three of you now travel in a pack or something?" Spike asked as his friends entered.
"Oh look! It's Spike, making a joke!" Willow pointed to Spike and smiled, "That's improvement."
Buffy was standing by the windows and standing away from Spike and his friends, feeling like an outsider.
"I see that the clothes fit." Willow smiled at Buffy and walked over to her.
Buffy smiled, "Yeah. Thanks again."
"No problem. Any friend of Spike's is a friend of mine." Willow smiled at Buffy.
"So Buffy...tell us your story." Xander said, and then instantly got an elbow in the ribs by Spike, "Okay ow." Xander laughed and held his rib.
Buffy looked down at her feet in embarrassment, "Uhhh..."
"What Xander meant was...how do you and Spike know each other?" Angel said and smiled at Buffy and turned on some of his charm.
Buffy blushed a little, "Uh...we were friends in high school back in Sunnydale, California." She said and smiled at Spike.
"I thought you were going to college at UCLA." Spike said trying to also get some information from her.
"Well I was...then I met Riley..." she drifted off in sentence, "We moved to New York because he got a job and we were engaged at the time...I didn't get a job yet but he was mostly taking care of me and I was worried about the wedding and so..." Buffy sighed and stared at the ground.
"Yeah what's up with that?" Xander asked out of curiosity.
"Xander!" Willow, Angel, and Spike scolded Xander.
"Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it Xand..." Willow said to Xander.
"It's-It's okay...I just figured he wasn't the right guy...it was pretty bad timing." Buffy said.
"It happens." Willow said and gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah...I guess." Buffy said.
"Well, you can join Spike here in his sorrows of a bad day." Xander patted Spike on the back.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked and looked at Spike.
"Spike just got divorced." Willow whispered to Buffy.
"Hence the no furniture in the apartment." Xander said and looked around.
Buffy looked at Spike with sorrow, "Spike...I-I didn't—why didn't you tell me?" she walked a little closer to him.
"It's nothing...really..." he said, "Would you guy's like something to drink?" he walked into the kitchen, trying to avoid Buffy's feeling-sorry-for-Spike looks.
"No...we came over to help you fix your sitting on the cold floor problem." Angel said.
"Hey, come with us Buffy! Take your mind off everything." Willow suggested to Buffy.
"Yeah...the more the merrier." Angel smiled at Buffy.
"Must we do this today?" Spike groaned and came back into the living room.
"Okay forget furniture, we can all sit around on pillows every time we come over here." Willow said sarcastically.
"Fine." Spike groaned and turned to Buffy, "You want to come with and save me from these three?"
Buffy laughed, "Uh...sure...I'll come."
The walk to the furniture store downtown was quiet between Spike and Buffy. They just listened to Xander and Willow's conversation about why he couldn't pick up girls on the way to the store.
"Now you got to remember Spike, furniture makes the man...what you buy today tells what type of person you are." Willow said as they walked into the store.
"That's Willow for you...must analyze everything." Spike whispered to Buffy in her ear, which made Buffy laugh.
"Are you two making fun of me?" Willow turned around to Buffy and Spike.
"No." Buffy and Spike both said at the same time.
"Hey! How about this set?!" Xander called out from a distance as he sat down on a green couch.
"I don't know." Spike said and walked over and sat down next to Xander, "It's comfortable."
"Well if were getting furniture that expresses Spike's personality I think we should get a hard thick board." Angel said with a smile, "Means your uptight."
"Ha-ha Peaches...very funny." Spike said.
"Yes I thought so..." Angel smirked looked over to see Buffy walking around the furniture store in the back with Willow.
"So...tell me...about Buffy." Angel sat next to Spike on the green couch.
"What about her?" Spike looked at Angel.
"Oh come on! You have been a closed book about her all day. You send us off to get her some clothes and then hardly tell us anything about her...expect that you were high school buddies...there's more your not telling us." Angel said.
"I'm agreeing with hair gel guy over there...who really is Buffy Summers?" Xander said with mystery.
"She was my best friend." Spike said.
"Best friend? As in more than a friend, a best friend." Angel said.
"Yes...she and I were really close...she lived down the street from me back in Sunnydale." Spike said.
"How come I'm getting the feeling there was more to that story." Xander said.
"Did you guys date?" Angel asked.
"No..." Spike said and leaned forward and stared at his hands.
"Ohhh..." Xander said by looking at Spike.
"Shut up Xander." Spike didn't let Xander get a word in and got up off the couch and traveled to the back of the store to check on Willow and Buffy.
"Hey Spike, we found the perfect kitchen set for you." Willow said.
"Yes...I think it screams...'Eat off me'." Buffy said and smiled and so did Spike.
Spike took a quick look at the table, "I like." He said.
Angel and Xander walked up behind them.
"Oh so you like the girls taste and not mine?" Xander said offended.
"That's right." Spike said.
Later in the store everyone was looking for the right living room set. Willow, Angel, and Xander looked around the left side of the store while Spike and Buffy traveled the other side of the store.
"Do you hate me?" Buffy asked.
Spike instantly turned to look at Buffy, "What?" he breathed out.
"Do you?" Buffy asked and stopped walking.
"No." he honestly said.
"Oh..." she said and started walking.
"Why would you think I would?" Spike asked.
"I don't know..." she said and sat down on the nearness piece of furniture. Spike joined her on the couch, "I mean...I think you should." Buffy said.
"Why?" Spike laughed out.
"Because of what happened to you...and your wife..." Buffy explained.
"Why would that make me hate you?" Spike asked.
"Well she left you...and I left my fiancée...I thought maybe you would think I'm scum because I'm doing the same thing your wife did." Buffy said.
"No luv...I don't hate you for what you did...me and my ex-wife..." Spike stared into a distance as he spoke, "We...I guess...I mean...I think we had what you and Riley had..." Spike turned to look at Buffy, "We didn't really know each other..." Spike said and there was a long pause, "I admire that you got out before you woke up one day, like me, and all your furniture was missing." Spike laughed.
Buffy smiled at Spike laughing at his own troubles. She was happy to see he was starting to loosen up and make lemons into lemonade.
Spike turned and looked at Buffy and saw she was smiling at him, "What?" he asked.
"I missed you William." She said, "I missed being your friend." She said softly.
"Me too." He said and stared at her until he heard the loud sound of his friends wondering over.
"Hey, you found something?" Xander said and sat next to Buffy in the couch Buffy and Spike were sitting in.
"Huh?" Spike asked and looked at the couch that both Spike and Buffy were sitting in; he didn't even notice what it looked like.
"I like this design." Willow said and sat on the arm of the couch next to Spike. "I like leather." Willow smiled.
"Black leather couch? Seems to fit you Blondie Bear." Angel said.
"Blondie Bear?" Buffy asked Spike with a smile.
"Don't ask." Spike said.
"Oh please do ask...we love hearing that story." Willow said.
"Shut up Red or I'll tell everyone the time you went to a Halloween party as a ghost sheet that only said 'Boo' on it." Spike smirked.
The sound of laughter echoed through the furniture store as the new group of friends talked and tried out Spike's new furniture set.
tbc...