Chapter Eight

Buffy backhand punched the vampire and then landed a kick to his stomach. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him onto the stake.

"Well that was record timing," Xander voiced. Buffy stood still, looking at the ash the vamp left behind. "Buff?" She didn't react. "Just to let you know, in case you missed it, they always do that- the whole turning into dust thing. I know you haven't been in the biz too long but-"

"Did he say what I think I heard him say?" Buffy exhaled.

"That he's an asshole?"

"That he loves you?" Willow said in her low voice.

"Why would he say that? Why would he act like that? How does he expect me to know these things if he doesn't tell me?" Buffy asked Willow and Xander as if they could actually answer her questions. But they couldn't. She rolled her eyes and said, "I'm just gonna patrol alone okay? You guys go home and I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"We can come with you if you want?" Willow offered.

"Yea Buffy. Don't be too quick to assume that we have lives."

Buffy gave them a stern yet solemn look. "I want to patrol alone."

"Sure," Willow replied.

"See you in school," Xander said.

As they left the graveyard Buffy welcomed the darkness as she walked further past the graves.

An hour later she found herself promenading on the sidewalk to her house. As chance would have it she ran into a familiar platinum blonde haired teenager. "Well how's this for perfect timing?" Buffy asked, not expecting an answer.

Spike shook his head and walked towards his house. Buffy quickly found herself stepping in his way. "What are ya doin'?"

"I don't know."

He stepped to the side to go around her but she shadowed him. "What's your deal Summers? Haven't you had enough fun with me tonight?"

"Did you mean that?"

"Mean what?"

"What you said in the graveyard?"

"What?" Spike asked, knowing what she meant.

"You know! About the… what you said…" Buffy found it hard to say even though it wasn't her own personal feelings.

"What?"

"When you said you loved me?" She looked deeply into his eyes to see if he would give her some sort of hint to his intentions with those words. "Did you mean it?"

"You'd like me to say 'no' wouldn't ya?"

"This isn't about what I want to hear, this is about the truth."

Spike exhaled and confirmed, "Yeah. I did."

"Then why would you do that? We were friends and you purposely ignored me because you loved me?"

"Seemed easier. Figured not having you around me all the time, remindin' me what I can't have… seemed easier," Spike said, mostly keeping his gaze on the ground.

"And not once you thought of telling me this?"

"Of course I did, but telling you would give you the chance to say 'no' and I couldn't bare that."

"So you just ignore me?"

"Yes."

"Well how the hell does that make sense?" Buffy questioned. Spike inhaled deeply and exhaled a scream. "What?"

"I hate this. I hate arguing with you because we always argue like we're bloody children. No matter what the argument we sound like we're five. And I know we can't help that and that's who we are but I would like to act less childish for once."

"Then act like it!"

"I can't! You make me so frustrated and crazy that I can't think straight!" Both of them started shifting around more as the aggression increased.

"Well you frustrate me too!" Buffy screamed.

"Here we go again."

"The only thing that's childish is you not telling me how you feel!"

"Can ya blame me?"

"I am blaming you! We used to have something special and you ruined it!" Spike's face was one of complete anger, but it slowly fell to pieces when he saw tears forming in Buffy's eyes.

Spike clenched his teeth to hold back any emotion that would possibly show on his face. "I'm going inside."

Buffy let him walk right past her as she looked in the other direction. She didn't even want to look at him. What an ass! She walked across the grass and up her steps. She took one last look at his house and went inside. She curled up in her bed and spent hours trying to fall asleep.

The next day, during third period, Buffy, Xander, Willow and Oz went to the auditorium so they could rehearse and work on sets. As they were entering the auditorium someone yelled, "Buffy" down the hall. She turned her head to the left and saw Angel wheeling his way down the hall.

"Angel. What are you doing here?"

"I'm seeing how well I can make it through these halls when I come back. Or in this case how incapable I am of doing it." They shared a laugh at his expense before he asked, "So you breaking into the auditorium to destroy things?"

"No. I'm rehearsing with Xander."

"I thought Spike was my under study."

Spike? "Uh, yeah, he is but…"

"But he's Spike?" Angel said, clearly remembering how she hated him before his absence.

"Cliff notes version." Buffy ran her hand through her hair and ask, "Do you wanna join us? I mean, you're not gonna be late to anything right?"

"Yeah, that'd be great."

Buffy held the door open for Angel as he wheeled himself in. "Here, take mine. Let's see how much I can remember," she said with a smile.

"Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

"It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die," Angel read.

"Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that…uh… don't tell me…oh, the sun exhales. Right?"

"You're right," Angel said with a smile.

"Yes! Okay…To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone."

"Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is't, my soul? let's talk; it is not day."

"It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division-" Buffy was cut short when she tripped

over her own feet and fell into Angel's lap.

"You all right?" he asked seriously.

"Yeah." Buffy looked in his eyes and noticed he was looking from her eyes to her lips. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of Spike. Buffy quickly rose from Angel's lap and followed Spike out of the auditorium. "Spike!" He started to head down the hall. "Spike, stop!" Spike took a breath as he stopped moving and turned to face her. "Nothing happened."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing happened."

"Why are you telling me this?" he questioned.

"Because I don't' want you to get the wrong idea."

"Why?"

Buffy's mouth was open for awhile, unsure of why he was asking these questions. Why can't he just leave it at the fact that she and Angel did nothing? "I don't know why. Why does it matter?"

"Why do you care if I happen to see you kissing Angel?"

"We weren't kissing."

"Whatever."

"What is it with you? Why are you acting like a…" Buffy stopped, finally realizing what he was talking about last night.

"Child?" he finished.

"Yeah."

"Look, I see you're very busy right now so I'll rehearse somewhere else."

"Don't make me sound like the Queen of Slutdom."

"It's all right. Just go back to rehearsal."

Back in the auditorium everyone was curious what happened to Buffy. "Maybe she killed him?" Xander said. Everyone gave him a be-serious look. "Maybe not."

"Maybe we should go check it out," Oz suggested. Everyone concurred and went out into the hallway. There was no one in sight.

"Where'd they go?" Xander said, expressing his puzzlement.

"I'm sure she'll come back… right?" Willow asked, a little worried. Oz put his arms around her for comfort and kissed her on the forehead.

"Let's get back in the auditorium before we're spotted by the hallway police." They headed back but when Xander pulled on the door it didn't open. "Uh oh. That's not good. He started jerking it but still it wouldn't open.

"I'll be right back." Willow went around the corner to check the other door but stopped in her tracks. Two people were making out in the shadows of the hallway. Willow moved on and checked the door. Nope, it was locked too. Her gaze fell back on the two lovers and then, after closer observation, her mouth fell open. Buffy and Spike!