Wandering through the halls towards her first period she passed Spike's class just to catch a glimpse of him. The entire school had gone into a flurry for some reason that morning. Everyone seemed super hyped up, but she hadn't stopped to get the scoop, expecting it to come around sometime that day. Reaching the classroom she turned her head and stopped dead in her tracks. An older woman, one of the usual school distract substitutes stood in his place, writing on the white board. Buffy's breath caught. Then she suddenly walked quickly, and left for the outside of the school. Looking over the faculty parking she saw no sign of his car.
He never missed a day of work. Never. Taking out her phone she called Spike, but was sent straight to voice mail. Her foot began a nervous tap as she hung up and called Holly. Twice it rang, and Buffy almost hung up with the impatience. "Hello?"
Buffy sighed, feeling some comfort in the familiar voice. "Holly? Is William okay?" There was silence and the sound of shuffling. obviously she was still in bed. Buffy heard a creak of the stairs, and a crack of his door as it opened.
"He's not here?" Holly questioned. Spike not being the type to going missing since his routine life had begun. "He didn't stay with you?"
Buffy started to tear up a bit, "No... He's not at school. I'm assuming he's been a no show today."
Holly's end of the line started up with a flurry of noise, "Shitshitshitshitshitshit...WAKE UP!"
Buffy giggled as Holly went about getting the boys up, "What should I do?" She asked, wondering if Holly still knew she was on the phone.
"Nothing, you just go to school hun. We'll go find him. Was everything okay last night?"
Buffy nodded even though Holly couldn't see her, "Yeah, great in fact... better than we had hoped."
"Right right..." Holly was only half listening, "I'll text you. bye."
With that Buffy's only connecting to Spike's world was cut. Holding out the phone she stared blankly at it. She sniffed and realised she had been crying. She slipped her phone back into her pocket, and lightly patted her face with the end of her sleeve. Gathering herself, Buffy wondered how she would make it through third period.
Third period turned out to be bearable. It was the substitutes usual routine. It was having her phone on silent that drove her crazy. Lunch came about and she finally took the time to check it. Nothing though. She frowned as her eyes stayed glued to the screen, almost waiting for Holly to tell her something, anything.
"Hello beautiful." Buffy flipped her head up at the remark, but smiled as she saw it had only come from Lorne as he took a seat beside her. They weren't the best of friends but did often end up eating together if both were having lunch on campus.
"Hey there yourself." She play flirted as she set her phone down.
Lorne giggle and pulled out his phone, immediately cruising to the Facebooks. "Did you here the latest gossip about Falling Down To Summerset?"
Buffy's brow rose, Lorne and her used to giggle lunch away talking FDTS last year. That was before Buffy learned the real stories. "You know its my favourite gossip..." She leaned in trying to milk as much from him as possible.
"Well..." He started, meaning there was quite a story to be told, "My sister's boyfriend's cousin, She works at the hospital." Buffy's heart dropped, "She's one of those grave yard nurses. So she doesn't get off work until about 7am. Weird hours, Right?" Buffy didn't care. "Well, I'm friends with her on facebook. She added me one day and I was like, who the fuck is this bitch? But I won't deny a potential fan my future music career, would i?"
Buffy stared in disbelief before she spoke, "About Falling Down To Summerset?"
"Oh right. Well..." Again he started, "She posted this picture of this guy, and bloody and gross, with tube's running in and out of him. But he was picked up somewhere, and as he was like knocked out, and couldn't talk, and someone had jacked all his shit, even his phone. Which is like totally pointless, cause once you report a phone stolen, They, the companies, like completely shut down that phone and it basically becomes a paperweight...
Buffy had to interrupt him once more, "Yeah but that guy..."
"Well, anyway, they started going into his wallet, and like looking him up in the system. Turns out it was Spike from FDTS. Like wow. Why the fuck would he be here, freaky right?"
Suddenly a lump formed in her throat the size of California and Lorne was still babbling on, "But yeah, so now he's all up in the news, no one knows where the rest of the band is, the press is saying that he's like all drug over dosed or getting into some crazy gang shit. I Dunno. But sister's boyfriends cousin said it looked like the average mug-" Lorne was cut short as Buffy suddenly got up and left, not listening to the remained of his story.
Once outside and away from other people, Buffy stopped and leaned back against a wall, Gasping for air, tears running their course down her face. Her shaking fingers made it nearly impossible to find Holly's number in her phone, but she managed. She relayed the information with some issue, but the message was made.
Holly's cursing became even more fervent. "IT'S ON THE NEWS!" She freaked out at the boys, and whoever had been driving yelped. Buffy giggled a bit. They always had such an amazing dynamic she was usually left with a giggle. "Okay Buffy We'll take care of it, don't worry." There was a click on the line and Buffy was alone yet again. Her tears were flowing more steadily. She had to call her mom. Looking through the phone she began to dial her mom, as Giles rounded the corner and stopped dead at a distraught Buffy.
One hand went to his mouth as he gathered his own emotions having just heard the news on the TV that the teachers break room had. Digging in his pocket for his keys he put a supportive arm around Buffy, and they walked to his car as she finished calling her mom.