Chapter 9: Discoveries and Confessions
Angel moaned and rolled over wrapping his arm around Buffy's waist, he buried his face in her neck, her hair covered his face.
Buffy snuggled closer to him. "This is nice."
"Waking up with you is nice." Angel smiled against her neck. "This headache is not."
Buffy laughed softly. They all drank to much last night, all the alcohol in the room was gone. She was surprised Angel wasn't throwing up right now. He surprised her last night when he didn't pass out as soon as they got in the bedroom either, instead they had a little fun of their own fun until the sun started to rise. Angel had definitely been more aggressive, she just didn't know if it was the alcohol or if he was becoming more comfortable in the sex department. Other then the quickie in his car the night before they hadn't been together since before he made the basketball team.
"Your not going to be sick are you?" Buffy asked. "Because my boyfriend's puke in my hair isn't exactly a turn on."
"No and that wasn't funny." He said against her neck.
"Close your eyes." She told him getting up from the bed and closed the blinds. "Okay, it's safe to open them but you still might not want to."
"Why?" He asked rolling over with his eyes still closed.
Buffy laughed. "Because your eyes are going to hurt."
Angel opened his eyes slightly then closed them again, rolling over to bury his face in the bed. "I'm rethinking this whole drinking thing."
Buffy jumped on the bed, hovering over Angel on her hands and knees. "Fine, we can still have fun with your eyes closed."
Angel laughed when he felt her kiss his chest.
"Mmm. I bet the guys are going to be passed out for a while." She mumbled. Buffy looked up at him and licked her lips. "Wanna have sex in the hot tub?"
Angel laughed. "I don't know... I will have to open my eyes for that one."
Jumping off the bed Buffy grabbed Angel's shirt throwing it on and ran towards the door of their room to go into the main living area of the suite. "Aspirin and coffee coming up!"
"I don't think this was a good idea." Angel said closing his eyes, leaning his head back against the side of the hot tub.
Buffy smiled taking his shirt off. "Why not?"
"It felt like the room was spinning when I had to walk in here." He told her looking over and her and smiled when she claimed into the hot tub.
Buffy sat on his lap, straddling him. "Good thing you wont be walking."
Angel smiled. "Yeah, I guess so."
Buffy wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Angel ran his hands down her bare back and under the water. "Best birthday every."
"Good, I'm glad." She smiled, sliding herself onto his manhood.
Angel moaned as Buffy rocked against him. "Best day after my birthday ever." He smiled kissing her neck.
"It's about to get better." She leaned her head back, giving him for access.
"You guys were so out of it Sunday." Angel laughed shutting his locker Monday morning. "We were up for hours before you came too."
"In our defense, we drank more then you." Doyle said looking at his textbook.
Gunn nodded. "You were making out with Buffy more then you were drinking."
Angel smiled. "Best birthday ever!"
"I need to go back to bed." Doyle said tiredly.
"Oh great." Gunn said defeated. Ms. French was walking down the hall towards them. Gunn slapped Angel on the back. "Try not to make out with her, okay?"
Gunn and Doyle walked down the hallway in the direction Ms. French was coming from. As they passed her Gunn looked at her casually. "Hey Home Wrecker."
Ms. French looked behind her at the two boys wondering what that was about.
After school Angel went home to do his homework but as soon as he walked in the door his mom started nagging him. She said he was never home anymore, he thought she was talking about the fact that he didn't go home Saturday night and was gone all day Sunday. She told him that she didn't expect him home on Saturday night because of his party, that she was talking about any other time. As soon as his mother gave him a little breathing room he grabbed his bag and ran out the door. Now he found himself walking into Buffy's house just to get away from his mother. He had a lot of homework to do and he really needed to study. He wanted to get a jump start on studying for midterms.
Buffy heard the door shut and peaked her head down the stairway to see who it was. When she saw Angel she hurried down. "Hey sexy." She jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist.
Angel kissed her placing his hands on her ass and backed her against the wall. "Mmm, I missed you."
"Me too." She whispered running her hands down his chest.
"As much as I would love to continue this..." He said smiling down at her. "can I study here? My mom is bugging me about never being home."
Buffy jumped down. "Of course but to get away from your moms bugging about never being home you decided to not be home?"
Angel nodded. "About sums it up." He took a few books out of his bag and put his book bag on the couch making his way to the kitchen where he always did his homework.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Buffy asked leaning against the door frame of the kitchen. "Not studying wise of course but.. maybe a snack?"
"No thanks." He said opening his book
Angel sighed scratching his head, in a few more minutes he thought he should try his text booklet. "Buffy!" He called jotting some notes down in his notebook.
Buffy walked into the kitchen, she had been sitting in the living room working on some new designs. "Yeah."
"Could you get me my test booklet?" He asked not looking up from his notes. "It's in my bag."
Buffy smiled. "Of course."
She made her way back to the living room and picked up his bag, she found the test booklet and pulled it out. She saw a square piece of paper fall to the floor, she went to pick it up to put it back in his bag when she saw the name Natalie in cursive writing with a phone number and address. She looked down at the floor biting her lip, she wasn't going to let herself cry. Maybe that was why he was acting different with her, she never even thought that maybe he was seeing someone else. Taking a deep breathe she put the piece of paper back in his bag, plastered a smile on her face and took him his test booklet.
Buffy started going to The Bronze every night, she didn't know why. Dingo's weren't playing every night. She thought of her talk with Oz about being a martyr but maybe she was a emotional masochist too. Every time she went to The Bronze she thought maybe she would see Angel there with this Natalie girl. She was sure Natalie was someone from school so part of her was happy that he found someone his own ago. He needed someone his own age, he shouldn't be with someone who was 22 when he was only 18. She should have known better then to get in to a relationship with him to begin with but she couldn't help it that the thought of him with someone else broke her heart.
Looking around she saw Angel at the bar, he was talking to someone but she couldn't see who because someone was standing in her view. She almost didn't want to see, okay so make that she really didn't want to see. It would only hurt more if she put a face to the name, so she turned and walked the other way.
Angel had been hanging out with Cordelia all night, she was venting to him about the car accident and everything that Percy was doing. He really didn't understand why she was still with him, he got that she loved him but what he didn't understand was why did she love him. All he did was hurt her, hell he almost killed her.
"...Percy totally checked out my mom in her leather pants!" Cordelia said dramatically. "Who the hell checks out their girlfriends mother in leather pants?"
Angel laughed. "Why would a mother wear leather pants would be a better question."
"You are so right!" Cordelia laughed putting her hand on his arm. "I actually think they were MY leather pants."
"That is just so much worse." Angel joked taking a drink of soda.
Cordelia took a drink too. "Your parents don't wear leather?"
Angel shrugged. "I have seen pictures of them wearing leather back when I was a baby but they were teenagers then."
"Your parents were teenagers when they had you?" Cordelia asked shocked.
Angel nodded. "My dad was 18 and my mom was only 16."
"Oh my god!" She said shocked. "How did they have a life of their own? How are you still alive?"
"What do you mean?" He said turning to look at her.
Cordelia raised her eyebrows at him. "A couple of teenagers raising a kid?"
Angel nodded. "They did their best. The way they saw it is they had sex they needed to live with the consequences. They didn't take help from anyone either. Everyone told them that they wouldn't make it. That they couldn't raise a kid when they were still kids themselves. People actually told my mom to abort me." Angel turned to look at Cordelia. "But she wouldn't, once her pregnancy was to the point where abortion isn't an option anymore she thought people would leave her alone but they just started talking about adoption after that."
"Can you really blame them?" Cordelia asked softly.
"No." Angel whispered. "I guess I can't. You know we were so poor when I was little we lived in this old ladies basement and my parents paid rent?"
"Really?" She asked him. "That is..."
"Sad." Angel finished for her. "Then my mom started her store and once it was up and running we had enough money to get our own house."
"What about your dad?" She asked.
Angel put his cup down. "My dad has his own business too. You know that occult shop on main?"
Cordelia nodded. "That is your dads?"
Angel nodded. "He has always been into magics. How they work and all that. So when he encouraged my mom to open a business that she loved, she encouraged him to do the same."
"You know, your parents seem pretty great together." She smiled. "Did you know that if parents have kids at a young age then that child had a higher risk of becoming a young parent too?"
Angel looked down at the bar, Buffy popped into his mind and the fact that they never once used protection when they had sex. He never thought about it before, he never cared. She had never mentioned it so he didn't even think anything of it. Was he going to become a young parent too? "No." He whispered. "I didn't know that."
"You and Buffy are careful right?" She asked. When she didn't get a response she kept talking. "Look, Angel I know what you are going through or at least I kind of do."
Angel closed his eyes and took a deep breath then turned to look at her. What did she know about panicking at the thought of becoming a young dad? His dad did it and he was raised by him so maybe Angel could pull it off too. "I will be right back... I just have to go to the bathroom real fast."
Cordelia watched as Angel walked away. He must have thought she was talking about becoming a young parent but she was actually talking about what was going on with Ms. French. She had seen them together a few times, she was just waiting on him to tell her about it. She didn't exactly know why she was waiting on him to tell her, he should really tell Buffy.
Cordelia rolled her eyes when she saw a dark haired man, that wasn't Angel lean onto the bar next to her. "Can I buy you a drink?"
"No thanks. My date already did that." Cordelia lied. She knew exactly who this guy was, Parker Abrams and she wanted nothing to do with him. It was bad enough that Percy worshiped the ground this guy walked on. She could barely stand her own boyfriend, why would she want to deal with the loser that might as well be her boyfriend idol?
"How about a dance?" Parker asked about to sit down when Angel slid on to the bar stool that Parker was about to sit on.
"Hope your not going to try sitting on my lap." Angel told him, not to go all elementary school on him but Angel was sitting there first. He recognized the guy, he was the one that was talking to Buffy at the mall.
Parker looked at Angel, sizing him up. "Hey man, I'm just looking for someone to dance with."
"No thanks." Angel shook his head. "Your not my type."
Cordelia laughed when Parker walked away. "I have never seen you jealous!"
"You still haven't." Angel said looking out into the crowd and taking a drink.
Buffy looked around The Bronze, it wasn't as much fun without Oz... or any fun at all really. She got up off the couch, as soon as she got up a couple jumped in her spot. She started to walk towards the door when she felt someone grab her ass. She spun around quickly about to give then a piece of her mind, she saw that it was Parker Abrams. She really hated that guy, before she could say anything she heard someone yell.
"Hey! How about you keep your hands off my girlfriend!" Angel shouted pushing Parker backwards into a few people who were standing around with their friends.
"Angel!" Buffy said trying to push Angel away from Parker. "Just walk away!"
Parker smiled. "Yeah, listen to your old lady."
"Excuse me?" Buffy asked slightly annoyed. Did Parker just call her old?
"Your lucky." Angel told Parker taking a step back before lunging at him. "But not that lucky!"
Buffy jumped back when she saw Angel punch Parker in the face.
Parker wiped a small amount of blood off his nose and stood up. "I don't get it. You pissed that I'm hitting on your old lady or you pissed about that hot girl from earlier?"
Hot girl from earlier? Buffy looked at Angel on the verge of tears but she couldn't let him see that. Angel turned to look at Buffy but she ran out of the Club, weaving in and out of the other people.
Cordelia smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. That must be Angel's jealous side.
Buffy stayed very still while she sat on Oz' couch. She had been sitting there for a good 10 minutes with Oz just staring at her from his spot in the chair a few feet away. She loved his apartment, she had only been there a few times. It was full of guitars, music paper and the rest of the Dingo's instruments. Everyone else in the band either lived in the dorms on campus or with other people and didn't have room for their instruments but Oz lived alone.
"You found a girls name, number and address in his bag and you didn't say anything." Oz recapped what she had just told him.
"Does this fall under it getting worse?" Buffy questioned. "I really don't know what to do, Oz.. I really like him... and I have already done the whole sharing a guy with another girl thing and I don't want to do it again. Not with Angel. Maybe I would have before.. the old me wouldn't have cared if he was with someone else too but now..."
"You care. Angel started acting different when you started feeling like you wanted to be domesticated?" He asked her.
"I don't know." She told him. "I didn't really realize that I was changing until it was already happening. You think he doesn't want or need this type of relationship?"
Oz nodded. "I cant say that. Next time you see him, TALK to him."
"You know for someone who hardly talks you sure want other people to talk a lot." She said with a half smile.
"Its my thing." He shrugged.
Buffy smiled, those were the same words he said to her the first day they met.
Oz leaned forward resting his arms on his knees. "Did you at least check out the address or call the number?"
"Would that have been a good idea?" Buffy asked shrugged.
"Probably not." Oz nodded, then smiled. "But I would have done it."
Buffy let out a small laugh. "Wanna play detective?"
Oz turned his head and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "You remember the address?"
Buffy nodded.
"This is it." Oz whispered to Buffy.
Buffy looked at the two story house. "Are you sure?"
Oz nodded even though Buffy couldn't see him very clearly in the dark. "Yeah, this is the address. Now I'm thinking it's kind of pervy to be tracking down a high school girls house in the middle of the night."
Buffy checked the house out. "Pretty nice."
"Yours is better." Oz told her softly.
"You think so?" She asked her friend. "Thank you."
Oz smiled at her in the dark.
"Oh!" Buffy said perking up when she saw two cars in the driveway. She went straight to the silver Toyota Land Cruiser, it was the newest car Toyota had. She didn't even know it was for sale yet. "Pretty."
Oz walked up behind her. "This could be Natalie's car. Still think it's pretty?"
Buffy frowned. "I don't think a teenager would have this nice of a car." She pointed to a older looking Nissan parked in front of the Land Cruiser. "I bet that is her's."
"Wanna go now? Because again, this is kind of pervy." Oz told her looking around to make sure no one could see them.
"Right." Buffy said walking towards the house. "Then let's not get caught being pervy while we look into a teenage girls window."
"Oh, god." Oz whispered ducking down as he followed Buffy to the window on the side of the house. "Whoa! Not something I wanted to see."
"I just saw WAY to much of a high school boy." Buffy said turning away from a boy sitting on the couch naked.
"This coming from a girl who is shacking up with a high school boy?" Oz whispered.
Buffy looked to Oz annoyed. "I don't want to see any other high school boy naked! Does this girl not have an parents? Why would her parents let her have boys naked in their living room?"
Oz raised his eyebrow at Buffy. She had told him stories about what she was like when she was in LA. Having someone naked in her living room seemed like nothing compared to what Buffy had done before. "That's not Angel though... right?"
Buffy shook her head. "No, he is hotter then that."
"You ever seen him before?" Oz asked her.
Buffy shrugged. "I can't see his face well enough."
Oz looked behind him and saw a car drive by. "Buffy we should get going."
"Right." She sighed following Oz out of the yard.
She was a little disappointed that she didn't get to see who this Natalie person was but Oz was right, they shouldn't have been looking through someone's window. A teenagers window, she was all sorts of a perv.
Buffy walked into Main Street Cafe and sat at the first booth she found. She loved Cafes, they were so cute and normally had the best food. When the waitress come with some ice water and to take her order Buffy asked for a coffee and pancakes. She sipped on her water and started to text Xander.
She felt someone sit down on the bench next to her, she was about to look up when she heard. "Your boyfriend really has some issues."
Buffy rolled her eyes when she looked up and saw Parker. That guy was like a gnat that just wouldn't die. "Don't you have an else where to be?"
Parker smiled. "No, I don't."
"I thought you couldn't come out in the day light?" Buffy glared at him.
Parked leaned in closer to her. "Those are vampires."
"Oh, I'm sorry...your not a vampire, your a douche bag." Buffy smiled sarcastically.
Parker leaned back against the back of the booth. "Whatever turns you on baby."
"I think I just threw up in my mouth." Buffy thought for a second. "Who where you talking about last night? The hot girl you were talking about."
Parker shrugged. "Tall, sexy, dark hair, dark eyes. Always hangs out with that Percy West guy."
Buffy nodded. "Oh. Cordelia Chase."
"You know her?" Parker asked.
"My boyfriend is in love with her." Buffy said sadly. Pushing Parker out of the way she got up from her seat, leaving before her food was even brought out. So he was hooking up with Cordelia on top of this Natalie person.
Buffy sat in her car in the parking lot at the park watching Angel practicing on the basketball court. When she got home there was a message on her answering machine from Angel asking her to meet him at the basketball court. She didn't know if she should go or not but she ended up going anyway. She was nervous about seeing him so she didn't want to get out of her car. She was confused about why Angel reacted the way he did at The Bronze the night before if he was with Natalie or Cordelia... maybe he was even with both. She felt like she didn't know what was going on anymore, maybe she didn't actually know Angel. She felt like coming here tonight was going to change everything. She took a deep breath and got out of her car.
Angel was about to throw his basketball in to the hoop when he saw Buffy. "Hey, I wasn't sure if you were going to come."
Buffy looked down at the concrete. "I didn't know if I was going to either."
"I'm glad you did." He smiled.
"You know I've been thinking... I know you have a lot going on right now so... we don't have to spend as much time with each other." She said trying not to sound sad. Not that they had spent all that much time together lately anyway, his birthday party was the most time they spend together in a while. That Sunday was the best day she had, had in a while.
"Why?" He asked her.
"I just think its a good idea." Still not willing to make eye contact with him.
"What would make you think that?" He wanted to know.
Buffy shrugged. "Angel, if you don't want to be in this relationship then you don't have to be."
"What? Where is this coming from?" Angel asked confused. "If I didn't want to be in this relationship then I wouldn't be."
"Who's Natalie? And what is going on with Cordelia?" She asked.
"What?" He asked shocked.
"I found a piece of paper in your..." She started to say.
Angel cut her off. "You went through my stuff?"
"Okay I can see your upset about this but its not like I set out to go through your stuff. YOU asked me to get you your test book." She pointed out.
"That was a week ago!" He said. "Your just now saying something?"
Buffy shrugged. "I was giving you space but I was curious if.. maybe.." She took a deep breath. "Maybe you had another girlfriend."
"Do I look like the kind of guy that would have two girlfriends?" Angel asked her, giving her a reassuring smile.
"Or three."Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and whispered. "I don't know." Buffy looked up towards the leaves on a tree. "You know. I try to act like everything is normal and give you space... but it still hurts. Even for a girl like me."
"A girl like you?" He asked not understanding what she meant.
"I'm not exactly girlfriend material for a guy like you. Your better then me, I know that." Buffy wiped a tear from her check. "So if your going to break my heart I would rather you did it soon and not later."
"I'm not going to break your heart." Angel took a deep breath. "Natalie is my teacher, Ms. French. I have been working on the Science Fair with her."
"Oh..." Buffy said suddenly feeling stupid for jumping to conclusions, she dropped her arms to her sides. "So its totally innocent."
Angel looked down at the ground then back up to Buffy. "Buffy, she... There has been moments when it's been... not so innocent." Then added quickly. "Not on my part though! She's my teacher for Gods sake."
"What do you mean... not so innocent?" Buffy whispered crossing her arms over her chest again.
"She..." He really didn't want to tell her this. He thought he could handle it. "She has come on to me.. even kissed me."
Buffy turned away from Angel, placing a hand over her mouth as the tears started to flow again. "Oh God." She whispered to her self. "Did you like it?"
He gave Buffy a sad look.
"Of course you did." She whispered.
Angel dropped the basketball and walked to his girlfriend. "I don't want to hurt you. I just want it to stop. I don't know how to make it stop."
"Has it gone beyond the kissing?" She asked wiping her tears again.
Angel shook his head. "Not from her lack of trying. That's why my Science Fair project is taking so long. I thought I could depend on her to help me, she is my teacher but every time we meet to talk about my project she ends up coming on to me in some way and I leave."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" She asked not looking at his face.
"I didn't want to hurt you." He said tilting her face up to look at him. He whipped a tear from her check. "But I did anyway."
Buffy gave him a sad smile. "I'm a tough cookie."
"Yeah, you are." He leaned his forehead against hers. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault." She whispered, standing on her tip toes to give him a kiss but stopped right before their lips met. "Tell her to stop because you have a girlfriend who will beat her ass."
Angel smiled nodding his head. "Okay." Then hissed her.