Chapter Four
Buffy slowly walked up her front steps left devoid of any feeling. It was like she was outside her body yet her body still knew how to move and function. Her hand turned the doorknob and she went inside. Her feet led her to the couch where she plopped down. It was the most uncomfortable she ever remembered the couch being but she had no urge to stand up and move.
"Buffy?" Joyce called. "Is that you?" Joyce descended the stairs and saw her daughter sprawled on their living room sofa. "Sweetie, are you okay?" She sat next to Buffy and brushed her blonde hair from her face.
"No. My dreams of being the lead and starting a romantic relationship with Angel are now dashed into a million little pieces."
"What happened?"
"Angel broke his leg at a football game so now he can't do the play. That means that his understudy gets to take over the role of Romeo and that would be Spike."
"The boy who lives next door?"
"We're still waiting for the test results to come in to confer that." Joyce gave her daughter a puzzling look. "That's the expression I've had on all day."
"Buffy," Joyce said in her motherly voice, "you do know that plays are for entertainment purposes and for building new social ties, not for hooking up with boys."
"Since when?" she asked in an are-you-kidding-me tone.
Joyce exhaled. "Sweetheart, I know this may seem like the world is ending but that's just because you're a teenager."
"Mom, I've seen the end of the world ploys and this is nothing like that. At least when the world was going to end I got to kick some demon ass."
"When was there an end of the world thing?" Joyce asked, her fearful motherly instincts kicking in.
"What?" Buffy asked, playing dumb.
"What end of the world thing are you talking about? I didn't hear anything about this."
"I…" Just then the phone rang and Buffy sprang to the task of answering it. "It's probably Giles." She picked up the receiver and said, "Hello?… Hi Giles… No I can be there in five minutes… Okay bye." Buffy hung up the phone and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek. "I gotta go to Giles'."
"Is it an end of the world thing?" Joyce asked.
"No, I gotta go." Buffy shut the door behind her and ran down the sidewalk. When she was out of view of her house she slowed down her pace. The sun was beginning to set so she could start checking out graveyards and working out her aggression.
The next thing Buffy knew it was Tuesday and time for another rehearsal. Willow and Oz were lip locking backstage as Xander and Cordelia argued about his breathing too loud and her talking too much.
Buffy approached Giles who was frantically flipping through pages on his clipboard. "Hello Mr. Efficient."
Giles looked up and saw his Slayer giving him a cheerful smile. "Hello Buffy. If you're here to ask me for a rewrite I will guarantee disappointment now."
"No, no rewrites. Just recasting."
"I would like to point out to you that you seem to be the only one who doesn't care for the casting of this play. If you'd like I'll make Cordelia Juliet and you can be the mother. You'll have fewer lines to learn and therefore more time for training." He returned his gaze to his clipboard and started scribbling on the paper with his black pen.
"I love how you always look out for my well being Giles," Buffy sarcastically commented.
"I'm going to need you onstage for the death scene between the two of you."
"Can we at least not start with a kissing scene? Maybe a part where Juliet punches Romeo or stabs him in the heart."
Giles' clipboard dropped to his side and he removed his glasses. "Buffy, I have exactly two months to put on a play that I didn't care to be responsible for in the first place. I need to check and make sure there are costumes and then size them only to hear students complaining about how they look and were a 'size four yesterday' when all I want is to sit down, read a book on Demonology and drink some tea. So please, go play dead on stage," he yelled.
Buffy's eyes widened and she followed his orders. Scary Giles. Like Jeckyl Giles. Or is it Hyde? Buffy laid down on the supplied table, undoubtedly from the cafeteria, that was in the center of the stage.
Spike walked out and started reading from the script:
"For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss."
As Spike went in for the kiss Buffy turned her head so he kissed her cheek. "Buffy!" Giles exclaimed. "You're dead."
"I don't want him to kiss me."
"Like I want to kiss you," Spike said matter of factly.
"Well you aren't exactly holding back from the fact."
"I'm following the play. It says 'Romeo kisses Juliet,' which means I kiss you. It has nothing to do with my personal choice. If I had it my way, I'd be the one to kill you." Spike turned his back to her and walked to the other side of the stage.
"I can handle a kissing scene," Cordelia chimed in.
Giles looked at her and then to Buffy. Buffy rolled her eyes and then lied back down on the table. "All right. Fine. I'll let him kiss me."
"Don't make it
sound like you're doin' me a favor."
"Just come over here
and read the stupid lines."
"Don't tell me what to do," Spike objected.
"Stop being a jerk."
"Stop being a brat."
Buffy sat up and yelled, "I am not being a brat!"
"No, you're just being ungrateful, annoyin' and a pain in my ass."
Giles went to head for the stage but Xander held him back. "What're you doing?"
"I'm going to stop this?"
"Why? I'm ready to bust out the popcorn."
Buffy was now off the table and about two feet from Spike. "Oh please, like you're God's gift."
"No, that's you. You think the bleedin' sun rises and falls on you."
"Just because I decide to pay a James Dean wannabe no attention, does not mean I am self-centered. If anyone fits under that category it would be you. You think you're so special with your leather coat and peroxide hairdo but all you are is pathetic."
"And you're the picture of perfection?" Spike walked right up to her, his face bent down so they were practically touching noses. "Listen here Bimbo Barbie, I would love to have nothin' more to do with you but seein' as I'm the new Romeo and you're still Juliet, I guess that's not gonna happen now is it?"
"Which you were pretty happy about by the way."
Spike threw his arms up in frustration with her higher than all attitude. He turned to face her, now five feet away from her. "Do you think that everyone wants to be with you? Last I checked Angel wasn't exactly jumpin' at the fact of havin' to kiss you."
"Shut up Spike!"
"Oh. I struck a nerve did I?" he said in a sexy undertone as he staggered towards her.
"You're hitting every one. Just shut up."
"What're ya gonna do? Hit me?"
"Now we can pull an intermission," Xander said as he and Giles rose from their seats.
"All right that's enough," Giles intervened.
Xander stood in front of Buffy. "Buffy, you know that if you punch him he'll end up flying across the stage. As much joy as that would bring into my life, it would start too many rumors."
"You saw what a jerk he was being."
"I see what a jerk he always is but settling your fight in front of half the Senior class is no way to go about resolving it."
"Let's move on to the final scene now. Buffy and Spike if you would please sit on opposite sides of the auditorium that would be great."
Soon rehearsal was over and everyone had pretty much left. Buffy stayed a little after to see what Giles had planned for her for the day. "I thought we might do some training and then you can patrol."
"And this would differ from any other day how?"
After a couple of hours of training Buffy suited up for slaying. With a stake in hand and one up the sleeve of her light brown pleather coat she pursued the graveyards.
Buffy walked past the black iron gate and looked from side to side. "We're gonna go with left today," she told herself as she faced the direction. Her feet took her past grassy graves and ceased at the fresh dirt surface of a Mr. Thomas Farling.
"Perfect timing," she heard someone say. Buffy turned around and was met with a punch to the face. "I am starving."
Buffy faced him with her stake held tightly in her hand. "So is Mr. Pointy."
"Mr. who?"
"Mr. Pointy."
"You named that toothpick?" he asked in disbelief.
"It's a stake," Buffy said in defense.
"Named Mr.Pointy."
"What else would you call it? Mr. Cuddly?"
"I wouldn't name a piece of wood."
"Stake," Buffy said angrily. Buffy did a roundhouse kick to his abdomen and punched him in the jaw. "And don't you know that drinking this late before bedtime is not good for you." The vampire tried to lunge at her but Buffy used his moment to slam him into the wall of the graveyard. He turned around for another attack. "You could get heartburn," Buffy said as she jabbed it into his chest. "Get it? Heart burn?" The vampire turned to dust before acknowledging her joke. "Why don't they ever get my jokes?"
Suddenly Buffy's head turned to the sound of someone grunting. She rushed towards it, hoping she wasn't too late to save whoever it was. Or just dust the two Fight Club vamps. Buffy's face contorted into one of confusion at the sight before her. Who would be stupid enough to fight a vampire. Then she inhaled deeply once she realized who it was. "Spike?"
Author's Note: I am so sorry it has taken so long for the next chapter but my Microsoft Word program wasn't working and it wouldn't upload from the other program I've been using and then my internet wasn't working and I couldn't even send it to someone to put it on and it was just… GRRRR!
