"You're either a saint or stupid, Buffy," Harmony groused as the two girls followed Cordelia out of Belk's.

"Meaning?"

"Why," she began, her voice laden with exasperation. "Oh, why would you invite her to go dress shopping with us?"

Buffy thought back to lunch hour and how she'd found Cordelia huddled in the handicapped stall of the red hall bathroom. The cheerleader had been sobbing uncontrollably. Every once in awhile, she'd stop long enough to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet. And then she'd start sobbing again.

Buffy had decided to chance it.

"Cordy?" she called quietly.

Her voice still managed to echo in the large room.

"Go away," Cordelia hiccupped angrily.

"I'm not going away, Cordy," Buffy told her. "Come on out. We need to talk."

"I'm not talking to you!" she all but shouted. "I'm not talking to anyone! Just leave me alone and let me puke until I die."

Buffy closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. She would find a way to ignore Cordelia's ever-present melodrama just this one time.

"Listen, Cordy," she sighed. "I'm not even going to pretend to know how you feel or what you're thinking. It makes my stomach knot up just imagining how I would feel if I had found out that Will was marrying someone else."

And it did. It made Buffy want to sink to her knees and keen from the loss.

"Did… did you love him, Cordy?" she asked softly.

The sobbing subsided a bit and she heard the door unlatch on the stall. Cordelia walked out rubbing furiously at her red-rimmed eyes with angry fists.

"No."

Buffy stared into her eyes in challenge.

Cordelia sighed and shook her head.

"Yes."

Without thinking of the consequences, Buffy reached out for her childhood friend and pulled her into a hug. She realized her mistake when Cordelia immediately tensed in her embrace, but was surprised when the cheerleader just as suddenly relaxed and buried her face in Buffy's neck. She was shaking with sobs and soaking Buffy's skin with her flood of tears.

"I love him," she cried, inconsolably. "And he didn't believe me."

Buffy stroked her hair in understanding.

"He wasn't just my first, Buffy," Cordelia found herself admitting. "He was my only."

If Buffy was surprised, she didn't let on and for that, Cordelia was grateful. She didn't know what made her blurt out such personal information, but she appreciated Buffy's nod of understanding.

Buffy stepped away from her and smiled.

"I'll tell you what," she told her friend. "You pull yourself together, wash up, fix your mascara… I'll go call Will. What we need, Queen C, is a little retail therapy. We're going to find you the most to-die-for prom dress ever!"

Cordelia looked at Buffy like she'd just said the most inane thing she'd ever heard.

"Prom? Prom?" she shrieked. "How can you talk to me about prom!"

A fresh onslaught of tears followed.

"Cordy," Buffy said soothingly. "Breathe, Cordelia. You are so going to prom. You're Cordelia Chase! Are you going to let a little thing like no date keep you from your senior prom?"

She didn't wait for Cordy's response.

"Of course, you aren't! You're going to find a dress that will have the boys drooling with desire and the girls drooling with envy!" she told her forcefully before repeating "You're Cordelia fucking Chase!"

Cordy straightened her spine and her eyes took on a cast of pure determination as she growled softly: "I'm Cordelia fucking Chase!"

And now she and Harmony were tailing Cordelia Fucking Chase through the Paddock Mall as she snarked about this, that and the other.

Buffy spied Spike and Gunn leaning against the wall outside the food court. Spike raised his eyes in question. Buffy rolled hers in response. It was going to be a long afternoon.