Chapter 7

After the whole Rachel debacle I rushed to my locker to get my books, and am now faced with the dynamic duo, otherwise known as Willow and Kennedy.

"Where were you?" Willow questions, sometimes I think she tries to act like a mother figure to me since mine is such a train wreck.

"Library?" I try.

"Really, cuz you're sporting some really intense just been fucked hair right now," Ken always has to throw something in. I know I'll probably end up telling them about the Rachel thing eventually, but it's just a bit too fresh right now. I feel, well... I feel kinda bad about it. I just smirk at them, "I gotta get to class,"

"Faith," they both whine out at the same time.

I have English now, which I share with Buffy. You'd think I'd be happy about that. Not when Cordelia is in the same class though. The room is pretty much empty, meaning me and a couple of geeks who have nowhere better to be. Yes, I know, I'm here too.

I sit in the far left corner, it's nice to be able to lean against the wall, I might also like the fact that I could see Buffy from this spot. She sits off to the right about mid-way, meaning I get a clear view of my girl.

English is probably the worse class I have, the teacher is fine and everything, it's just so fucking boring. Read, respond, read, respond, read, respond, oral presentation, read and respond some more. I swear it hasn't changed since I was in grade 6. The class is slowly filling in, everyone usually shows up about ten seconds before the bell. There's all of about fifteen seconds left. As I predicted, everyone starts walking in. Cordy struts in with her bitch face on, which is basically her normal face. Right after her is Buffy, looking delectable in one of her summer dresses, her hair is down, I love it when it's down. She shoots me a smile before taking her usual seat next to the Queen Bitch.

The final bell goes and silent reading starts up. I can't actually read in class, too many distractions, so I just stare at the wall. The wall that is right next to Buffy's head. Well, that's what I'll say if anybody catches me looking.

The wall happens to be the same wall that the door is on, I notice when Rachel walks in. She looks like hell or more specifically like a girl who's just gotten her heart broken. Buffy seems to have noticed because she looks back at me with a questioning gaze.

"You must be Rachel Roberge," Mr. Dalzell greets her with a disapproving glare, "Your first class with me and already late?"

"I'm sorry sir. I was at the counsellor," she whispers the last part, hoping no one will catch on but I'm at the back and I heard her loud and clear.

"She wrote me a note to give to you. This is a very unusual occurrence for me and I assure you that it will not be happening again," now the whole class has picked up on the discussion. I can tell that absolutely everybody is listening when I see Cordy roll her eyes at Rachel's sucking up. Buffy just looks immensely curious and I know she's going to ask Willow about this if I don't tell her. She's curious like that.

"We always start the class with fifteen to twenty minutes of silent reading, have a seat at the back of the class, you can read your own materials," Rachel glances to the back of the class and realizes that she's going to be sitting right next to me. Our desks are even pushed side by side. Just fucking great.

Rachel slowly walks up the aisle and puts her books down as she takes her seat, "Sorry, I didn't pl-"

"No talking. I said silent reading, not talking with your friends time," Pretty much the whole class giggles at that, including me. It's funny because he's usually a cool dude but he just does not seem to like Rachel very much. Judging by the look on her face, she is not too happy about it. I bet she's the type that wants absolutely everyone to like her.

When silent reading's up, he asks us to get into groups of two or three to discuss what we've read about in "A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah, to prepare for our guess what? No seriously guess. You got it, our response. I'm sure as hell not pairing up with any of these losers, so I start writing up my response, not like he'll notice if I'm not discussing.

"Faith," Rachel addresses me.

"Yeah?" I hope she doesn't want have a heart to heart right now. I know I hurt her and all, but I hardly even know the girl, and I am so not in the mood right now.

"Do you mind explaining a bit of the book to me? I've never read it," That I could do.

I start telling her the gist of the story and about the civil war that happened in Sierra Leone when I hear a throat being cleared.

"Do you mind if I join you guys? I actually want to discuss the book and not nail polish," she jerks her head you the group of girls talking obnoxiously loud at the other end of the class.

I go to respond but Rachel beats me to the punch, "Actually, we were kind of in the middle of something," Uh, no we weren't.

"Really, because you guys seem to be talking about the book, which is all I want to do," Buffy shoots back.

"Yes well, I don't think we need a slutty cheerleader's opinion on sophisticated literature. Sorry," Uh oh.

"Excuse me," Buffy is basically telling me to defend her with her eyes, while Rachel is looking expectantly at me. She probably wants me to tell Buffy to leave. That will definitely not be happening any time soon.

"Hah… She's just playing, you can sit with us," Rachel lets out an exaggerated huff at my words. I'm sorry I was a douche but that ain't about to stop me from having another interaction with Buffy, one that she initiated on top of everything.

Buffy looks pleased with herself as she pulls out a chair from the unoccupied desk that's next to her and sits herself down right in front of me. There's kind of an awkward silence happening right now and I don't know what to say.

"Are you new here?" Buffy is directing the question at Rachel obviously.

"I've lived in Sunnydale my whole life. I've attended the same school as you since the first grade when you first got here and have been in nearly all of your classes since. Not to mention we were forced to be lab partners in grade seven," Ouch. Buffy got burned. Although, seeing as I've also been in nearly all of Buffy's classes, I'm not much better than her. Buffy can't even say anything back before Rachel continues, "Not to be rude, but Faith has always been in our classes and not once have I ever seen you two girls talk to one another. May I ask what has changed?" I think Rach might have caught on to who I'm in love with because my eyes nearly bulge out of my head at that. Rachel keeps looking expectantly at Buffy, guess we won't be discussing the book anytime soon.

"We started talking recently, and I've realized that Faith is really cool person," my heart just stopped, she thinks I'm cool. Yay!

"Really, so all the torment you've inflicted on her with your friends since you've known her was just a way of showing her how cool she is?" I think Rachel is asking for it, besides Buffy never did anything to me. It was always Cordy, Harmony and the others that did anything possible to get me into trouble.

"I nev-" Buffy starts defending herself when Rachel cuts her off.

"Really? So you weren't the one who told the principal that Faith was holding drugs last year? She got her locker searched and I'm guessing her parents were notified," That sucked, my mom got pissed and started crying. She thought I was turning into her or something. But, "That was Cordy," it was, she confessed. She didn't even get a freaking detention. Rich bitch.

"Is that so? I happened to be in the office that day to discuss my numerous absences due to talent competitions. I clearly remember one Buffy Summers stepping out of the principal's office with a tear stained face, claiming she had seen Faith selling drugs to poor little kids," Rachel is way more delusional than I thought. I look to Buffy for her denial, but all she's doing is staring at the floor. I can't fucking believe it.

"She's lying right, why would Cordelia confess to saying it if you were the one in the office? The principal would already know who did it. That's just ridiculous Rachel," how did she even come up with this stuff? I tilt my head to look at Rachel; she's looking at Buffy who's still looking at her toes.

"Buffy," I start.

"I'm sorry," I don't get it.

"Cordy's boyfriend at the time was selling drugs. Some kid must have tipped the school off, because thy started snooping around on him. Cordelia asked me to do it; she really liked him for some reason. I don't know why I agreed to it, but you have to remember I didn't know you at all at the time. It's not like you got into any serious trouble. When they realized that I had lied, they were going to expel me, so Cordelia took the blame, she told them she forced me to do it. She knew that because she has a lot more power in the school, no one would look twice at what we did. She was right; she didn't even get in trouble. I'm really sorry Faith," She rests her hand on top of mine; I have no idea what to say. I look over to Rachel, she seems ecstatic.

"Nah, it's cool. It was a long time ago, I had practically forgotten about it," I hadn't, but Buffy is smiling at me, and that beats how shitty I feel about what she did.

"How about you come to the movies with me and the others tonight, its half price Monday through Thursday," was that a dig at my financial situation? More importantly, DID SHE JUST ASK ME OUT?

"Are you serious? You're forgiving her? Just like that, I can't believe this," Rachel takes her books and stomps out of class. Mr. Dalzell is really not going to come around to liking her anytime soon. Now everyone is looking at us funny.

"Does she realize there's still like fifteen minutes of class left?" Buffy asks me. I just laugh.

"So are you two… you know," I raise my eyebrows at her. I'm not use to anybody inquiring about my social life, even Willow and Kennedy tend to let everything slide unless it's about Buffy, "dating," she whispers and I bust out laughing.

"No, no we are definitely not,"

"Good," huh? "I mean, she seems like a bitch," oh, obviously.

"It isn't really her fault; I kind of did some stuff. Some awful stuff," Buffy is waiting for me to continue, but that's all I'm saying.

"You mean at lunch," Unless she asks.

"I mean in general," she still waiting. Ah fuck it, she told me about all the Angel crap, might as well tell her about the real me. That's what friends do, and I'm pretty sure that's what she's aiming for because there's no way she wants more than that.

"I kind of slept with her a while back,"

"Kind of?" she raises her eyebrows.

"Okay so I slept with her a while back and I kinda lied about my feelings and stuff just to get her to come home with me. I figured she's just forget about it since she was leaving for like a month," I'm not going to look up until I'm done because I know that she's going to be super disappointed. Don't ask me how I know that.

"Today was her first day back and she came up to me,"

"Let me guess, you didn't remember her," I wince at the memory.

"Pretty much," I decide to look up to see that Buffy's got her arms crossed in front of her sporting Willows' favourite I'm disappointed in you look.

"She looked like she was about to cry, I tried to comfort her, and well, she kissed me," I check to see how she's taking it. It's one thing to know I'm gay, another to actually hear about my female conquests.

"Go on," she says sternly.

I clear my throat; it feels like I'm being interrogated. "I tried to push her away, but she was just not letting go, so I brought her into the girls restrooms, it was empty so we umm," I clear my throat, "had sex."

"Eww Faith!" knew I shouldn't have told her the sex part.

"In a bathroom. Really?" so she's grossed out by that part. I guess that's better. Who are you kidding Faith, what would be better would be if she was jealous, but that's just wishful thinking.

"So basically she's mad because you didn't defend her against me because she thinks you guys are dating?"

"No, she's mad because I told her I'm in love with someone else right after we did it," I can tell that Buffy is trying to find the perfect adjective to describe me with. I decide to help her out, "I know, I'm a jerk,"

"You're telling me that after using her, than forgetting about her a month later, you use her again, and then lie about being in love with someone just to get rid of her?" she doesn't look to happy. I should have just agreed when she said that Rachel was a bitch.

"I'm about to tell her that I didn't technically lie about being in love with someone, when the bell goes off. For once I'm glad that our conversation is over.