Staying for one more hour at The Bronze was definitely a bad idea, the next day Eris had woken up with a dry mouth, pounding headache and an incredibly nauseous stomach. It didn't help that her roommate – which she had later found out her name was Alana - deliberately got up at 4 in the morning and stomped around loudly to wake Eris up, sadly the uptight prude had yet to get a transfer out of the room much to Eris' annoyance. Though with the laxatives she had mixed in to Alana's coffee grounds she was sure the want to move out would be as urgent as the girl's bowl movements.
After sitting up for a while and sipping on a glass of water to ease her stomach as food was not going to be an option right now, Eris finally dragged her way to Psych class to meet up with her cousin and Willow, and hopefully that Graham guy. "You look horrible Eris" Buffy said to her cousin as she approached.
Eris had still put on her makeup and made her hair pretty, but it did little to hide the expressions of tiredness and nausea on the woman's face. That and the slightly red eyes, "I stayed up late and got woken up super early by my roommate, I feel as horrible as I look."
"I know you have a bad sleep schedule but why did you stay up late knowing we had classes today?"
"Because my dear cousin, I am an idiot who wanted to go party at The Bronze, which I now regret" She took a seat next to Buffy just as Willow and Oz entered the class, "but I got to meet knew people and got to flirt with a guy so I'm not too regretful."
"Another guy Eris?" Willow said with a shake of her head as she took her seat, "don't you want to focus on just one?"
"I will if the right guy comes along, I just like to keep my options open" Eris replied as she noticed Graham walk in. She gave him a smile and a wave which he happily returned. "Plus the guy in The Bronze had a British accent, I couldn't turn that down."
"Well, I can't fault you for that, British guys do sound yummy" Buffy nudged her cousins shoulder in jest, "though not Giles, he's more like disappointed and exhausted Father British."
"I dig his voice" Oz said from the side of the group, "its real calming and reminds me of my Grandad."
Eris snorted, "I guess everyone's got a preference"
The conversation slowed to a stop once they noticed Professor Walsh walk in, which meant no more talking or you would be ashamed. For the remainder of the class, they all focused on the teacher, well at least Eris attempted whilst dealing with the headache. Buffy had been keeping a confused look on her face the entire lesson, even when it finished. Which caught the attention of the others. "You looking for someone?" Oz asked the Slayer who kept looking around at everyone who was leaving.
She replied with an absent minded "yeah…" but did not stop her searching.
"You made a friend? Good for you" Willow said chipperly as Eris came around to the other side of Buffy.
"Where are they?" she asked, "I'm surprised you didn't point them out during class"
"He was meant to be in this class, but I didn't see him come in" Buffy's frowned deepened, concern had started to creep in, "maybe I should go to his dorm, maybe he got sick."
"I can come with you?" Eris offered helpfully, she didn't like the dejected and worried face her cousin had been sporting. Which to be honest, has been her expression the entire time they had been in college, and no matter how much Eris tried to get her to open up, Buffy just wouldn't speak about it. The years of being apart seemed to have made the trust and comfortability between them lessen, which deeply saddened Eris, "I'm sure there is a reason he didn't come in today."
"Yea, maybe" Buffy said offhandedly before fully focusing on her cousin, "we can head there now before our next classes."
They quickly said goodbye to Oz and Willow and made a hasty move to Buffy's new friend's dorm. Sadly, upon asking the dorm rooms leader about him, they had not received a good response, "Yeah. Eddie just took off. Packed his stuff, left a note" the two girls walked into the room, seeing it completely empty, as if no had ever lived there. "There's always a few kids who lost it early in the first semester and just bail. Weak ones, I guess."
Eris shot her head up to look at the man with a harsh glare, showing her displeasure for the weak comment. The man turned sheepish and hastily left the room to spare himself from her gaze. She took a few more moments to wait for the man to go down the hall before looking back to her cousin sitting on the bed, her expression now of concern. "What does it say?" she asked softly, motioning to the letter.
"It says, this is too much to handle. I can't take it anymore. No time to say goodbye…Eddie," the Slayer read it out in a soft, dejected tone, almost like she was holding back tears. "He seemed fine yesterday, just lost, like me…" she trailed off when she noticed something peeking out from the draw. Sliding it open, she saw a small book titled 'Of Human Bondage'.
Leaning over slightly to look at the book, Eris scrunched her face up, "that's a weird book, was he into bdsm or something?"
"I don't know, but if he was packing up to leave, why would he leave this behind?"
"Maybe he left it due to rushing?"
"He just didn't seem like the type" Buffy had let her sadness stay on her face for a little longer before she sobered up and put back on her hiding emotions face, "maybe I can find him in an address book or something, maybe Giles has one lying around."
Eris took a moment to look at her cousin silently before replying, "alright, do you want me to go with?"
"It's ok, I can go by myself, gives me some time to think" Buffy shrugged, acting apathetic to everything, "plus you have a class soon, don't want you to miss that."
"Ok, if you're sure" she got a nod in response, "I'll talk to you later Buff" she once again got a nod in response. As she watched Buffy leave the room she let her shoulders slump, if Buffy kept being like this she was going to break down, her cousin was very obviously keeping everything bottled up but wouldn't share it. Perhaps Giles could help, she seemed to see him as the replacement to her actual Father. She just wished she'd speak to her cousin about it. "Is bottling up emotions a family thing?"
It was late when Eris heard a soft but frantic knock on the door. She had been having trouble getting to sleep, which her roommate seemed to have no issue with, so it was why she was able to hear the knock. Slowly heading to the door, she creaked it opened to see Buffy standing there, covered in wounds and looking scared. "Buffy, what the fuck?" she whispered harshly as she opened the door completely. "What happened to you, are you ok?"
"I got jumped by vampires" Buffy sounded scared as she looked at either side of the hallway, as if looking for threats.
Noticing her cousin's franticness, she stepped away from the door and ushered her inside. "Go sit on the bed, I'll get my first aid."
After she spoke, her roommate grumbled and sat up from the bed, "would you shut up, it's super late."
"I'm not in the mood Alana, my cousin got jumped" Eris shot back in a nasty tone, not wanting to deal with her roommate's attitude.
The roommate turned to look at Buffy's injuries and snorted, "who did you piss off?"
"Now is not the time for you to be a bitch Alana, just go have a shower or something" Alana took a moment to look at the pissed off expression on Eris' face before sighing loudly.
"Fine, I'll leave" she got up from her bed and grabbed a towel, "so glad I am getting moved into another room by the end of the week," was the last thing she said before leaving.
Eris turned back to her cousin and brought her first aid bag to the bed, "sorry Buff, she's horrible."
"It's ok…" Buffy replied softly before sniffling, she was trying to hold back tears as she cradled her injured fist to her chest.
"Can you tell me what happened now?" Eris asked softly as she began using disinfectant on all the cuts she could see.
"I saw Eddie, he was turned into a vampire" Buffy winced at the pain from Eris cleaning her injured fist, "he lured me away from everyone, I had to stake him. But it was a trap, a group of college vampires showed up and attacked me."
Eris moved away from the injured fist, not wanting to cause more pain to her cousin, and instead started lightly dabbing at the wounds on her face, "you should have been able to take them on easily."
"I know but…" Buffy sighed and moved her head away from Eris' hands, "I've felt so lost since coming here. I don't feel like I belong like Willow and Oz is, even you look so comfortable around here" she sniffled and let some tears fall, "I wish I never left home…"
"Oh Buffy, I wish you would have told me about this earlier" Eris put her first aid stuff away to the side of the bed, "college is going to be scary and daunting, but you didn't need to do this alone."
"I didn't want to bother you; you've been doing so well, and I didn't want to ruin it."
"You're never going to ruin anything for me Buffy, you're my cousin, as close to a sister as I'm ever going to get" Eris placed a gentle hand on Buffy's shoulder, "don't shut yourself off from me, I'm always going to support you."
"I know…I'm sorry…" Buffy didn't want to go further into everything she had been feeling, she was the Slayer, it was her job to make sure everyone was ok, not the other way around. However, she was still human, and all she wanted was to feel safe, even just for one night. "Can I, stay here for the night?"
"Of course, Buff, the bed's a little small but we can share" Eris moved all the first aid supplies off the bed and let Buffy get under the covers. "I'll make sure no one is coming to get you."
"Thank you, Eris," Buff said softly, feeling like a little kid again who was being protected by her cousin from the big bad bullies.
Eris shuffled in behind Buffy, trying to stay near the edge of the bed but not close enough that she would fall off. "Get some rest, we can talk more tomorrow."
Buffy nodded and said nothing else, she just wanted to sleep. If she was anywhere else, she would have stayed awake all night, from both her own roommates snoring and the potential of a second attack by the college Vampires. But with Eris right next to her, maybe she could get to sleep, even if for a few hours.