"Faith, I don't know how you feel, but –"
"NO, B!" She shouted. I jumped, surprised, but she continued anyway, "Just…Don't, ok? Everybody…" she was quieter, but her voice was still solid, despite the fact that she was tearing up. "Everybody that I care about either leaves or dies, so I realized that it's just easier if you hate me, Buffy. This was…it should stop."
"What?" I was incredulous. "Faith, I'm not – I don't hate you. And don't tell me that I should because I can't!"
"Buffy, you don't understand! EVERYONE I LOVE DIES. It doesn't matter who they are – my mom, my watcher, everyone. You can't be one of those people. Don't you get it? I need you!" she was crying now.
I was near shouting by this time, "Faith, you think you need me? I need you! You'll always have admirers and guys and freedom and I'm stuck in this stupid little town. There's nothing that stops you from leaving and that scares me to death. What I should do is kind of irrelevant by this time. It's too late. Angel's gone and you said yourself that he wanted me to be happy here, and I can't be without you."
She looked at me, surprised. She didn't believe me.
"Fai, come on baby. Let's just go home and talk about this, ok?" I asked more gently, trying not to feed her disbelief or make her run. She didn't respond, instead, she looked like she was going to fall over. I stood closer to her and wrapped my arms around her. She didn't tense up, but she didn't hug me back; she just leaned into me. I figured that it was probably pretty normal, given the situation. I kept one arm around her waist and she leaned against me as we walked away from The Bronze.
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I know, I know, this chapter's really short. I had to split up the last one so I had a bit of suspense because there won't be much of that for a while. Don't worry though! I'm updating two chapters at a time, so don't get your panties in a twist. haha. Thank you all for reading, your reviews are so encouraging.