Chapter 5

Cambridge, MA, near Boston

2002

Harvard University

North Campus

An abrupt sound awoke him from his sleep. He pulled off the sheets, rubbed his eyes, and reluctantly walked across the small dorm room to open the door. A tall man stood in front of him. His face fell seeing the man at the door.

"Adriano." he acknowledged.

"My apologies if I woke you up." the man said.

"Could you not have called instead?"

"Angelo, this is important. Someone needed to see you in person." he replied. "Can I come in?"

Angel moved aside to let him in. He gently shook his roommate, who was buried under the covers.

"Hmm. Just one more minute." the boy mumbled to no one in particular.

"Come on man! Get up you lazy shit!" Angel snapped, as his roommate stirred.

"What the fuck man! I was having the best dream ever! There were two blondes with like the roundest tits ever! And one of them was your super hot fuck buddy...what's her name? Starts with a B..."

Angel pulled him out if bed and whispered threateningly to him, "What did I tell you about mentioning her in front of people?" Then he turned his head to face the other man.

"Meet Johnny Bertini, my pathetic excuse of a roommate. Johnny, this is my cousin Adrian." he introduced.

"Nice to meet you. What brings you here?" Johnny innocently asked.

"I came to discuss some family matters with Angel." Adrian answered, turning to his cousin, who ushered him away from his roommate to a more concealed space.

"People are talking, Angelo. They're questioning your loyalty and your authority," he said quietly.

"Well you know what cugino? They can talk all they want because I know my authority and I know my loyalty. Right now, my only job is to keep up my studies, finish school, and stay out of trouble." Angel stated.

"Not anymore." Adrian said simply.

Angel looked up at him with a shocked and pained expression. For a while he just stared, with no words to say, until he shed a single tear. He ran a hand through his messy brown hair, sniffling.

"No! It-it can't! I can't..." he couldn't complete his sentence. "My father can't..."

"He's gone, Angelo. You have to."

"But I'm not ready! Adriano, I can't do this, not now!" he panicked.

"Pull it together. You're gonna need all the strength you can get. For now, I'm told that all you have to do is finish school, get your degree, and when the time comes, you will eventually have to run the family," Adrian explained.

"Then who's in charge now?" Angel wondered.

"Uncle Tony's running things, but you will have to approve of every decision he makes," he replied.

Taking a deep breath, the young college boy wondered, "And what about Spike? How's my little brother?"

"As far as I'm concerned, he know nothing of this, but you will have to inform him of the latest. That shouldn't be a problem for you, since he's on campus too." With that, he left, adjusting his hat.

"I had a great evening with you, Angel! Thank you for taking me out today," Buffy said lovingly, as they sat in his car alone.

"Anything for my baby," Angel said kindly. He sighed, and finally got the courage to speak again.

"Buffy we need to talk."

"About what?" she asked naively.

"About us," he answered hesitantly. Buffy grew nervous at the last word.

"Wha-what about us?" she stuttered.

"Baby I love you so much, but we're from two different worlds. I come from the house of Vitale, and you are a Marciano. We're supposed to hate each other and eventually, when I'm Don and you're Dona, we will have to go against each other. This thing between us, it can't go on. We have to end it." He stated.

"Are you saying that you're breaking up with me because you're... ashamed of being with me?" she tried to let it sink in, tears starting to form.

"No! Buffy I'm not ashamed of you it's just that..." he took a deep breath, thinking of the harshest words possible.

"Actually I am ashamed of being with you. I mean who wants a future leader that fucks the enemy's daughter, while hating her at the same time? That's just pure mutiny! The only reason I stayed with you was for the sex, even though I already have a few other fuck buddies. And just now I realized how stupid this all was!" he claimed coldly.

Buffy's heart sank. She finally let all the tears she was holding in stream freely down her cheeks. It was all just a lie! The bastard! She sniffled. God how it hurt her to hear those words! Little did she know, he wasn't fairing much better.

"Oh come on, baby! Did you actually believe that I really loved you and that I would stay faithful?" he taunted, trying so very hard to hide his own pain. As he reached out to stroke her cheek, she pushed his hand away.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled. She instantly got out of his car and ran into her dorm room to cry on her lonely bed.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled. Suddenly she came back to realization. She was buried in her plush down sheets in her large bed. It was only a dream. Just then Willow, Dawn, and a few other members of the household came rushing into her room, obviously disheveled from having just woken up.

"Buffy what's the matter? Are you alright?" Willow asked.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. No need to be worried about me. I'm just fine and dandy, so why don't you guys just go back to sleep, okay?" Buffy insisted.

"You don't look so fine to me, Bella. Why are you crying?" her mother said warmly. At that very moment, a very sleepy-looking Angelo walked in with difficulty from the bullet he'd taken, cursing in Italian under his breath. Everyone turned to stare at his shirtless state.

"What's goin' on here? Is it worth being woken up for?" he questioned groggily, slight discontent evident in his voice. He slowly turned to Buffy's teary form and wondered what happened.

The moment Buffy made eye contact with him, another tear slid down her cheek. Quickly turning away, she noticed her best friend give her a disapproving look. Willow then signaled everyone else to leave the room.

"Buff-y!" Willow whined. "You've been dreaming about him again, haven't you?"

"It's not like I can help it! Since he came back I've been having these dreams about... us and the things that happened when we were together. It's like I'm reliving our whole history again!" Buffy now started crying again.

"I hate it Will! I just hate how he can affect me so much!"

God! She NEEDS a guy in her life! She's been moping about him for years now! Willow thought to herself.

"Willow what should I do?" Buffy asked her Consigliera.

"I'm sorry, Buff, I'm out of ideas. What do you wanna' do?"

"I dunno'."

Before Willow responded, she blurted out something very unexpected.

"I still love him."