Part 14
“God dammit woman.” Angel recaptured Cordelia’s arm, spinning her around to face him. “I’m in love with you!”
The club was hushed as the vampire’s words vibrated off the walls, zinging back and forth until even the most uninterested of observers cast their eyes eagerly towards the scene. Most of the patrons had no idea who these two people were but they knew a good show when they saw it.
Those that did know Cordelia and had occasionally seen the intense man she was staring at with the blonde who was weirdly strong were gripped waiting for the brunettes response. Would she fall into his arms at his very public confession, sigh and smile, press her hands over her heart and announce her mutual affection? Maybe a passionate clinch is what they would all see, desperate hands grasping for purchase as they held each other as though they were finally home.
“Cordy, did you hear me?” Angel frowned, fidgeting nervously as moments ticked away with her silence.
“Huh?” Cordelia blinked dumbly.
“I said I love you.” He said softly, bridging the short distance between them. The vampire smiled at the brunette confused expression, her brow creased adorably as he ran his thumb over her cheek. “I’m in love with you.” Angel murmured wanting to take this wonderful woman in his arms and never let go of her.
The club held a collective breath, what would she say?
One second, two seconds, tick tock, four seconds, five.
Tell him you love him too! The crowd silently screamed at her, tell him you love him and walk off into the sunset!
“You…you….”
You what? They demanded with their eyes. You wonderful man, I love you too?…or maybe…You love me? Oh how I love you!
“You…bastard!” Cordelia yelled and thumped her hands hard against his solid chest. “You complete and utter bastard!” The brunette hissed and turned on her heel striding away from the man who had just declared his love to the world.
Huh?
***
Cordelia’s anger increased with every step she took as she walked across the club to its exit, she felt obtrusive stares following her but she didn’t care because they didn’t really know her, they only knew what she allowed them to know.
These people didn’t know what she knew, they didn’t know how battered her heart was, this wasn’t some Hollywood rom-com, she wasn’t Meg Ryan, this was her life they were watching, her godamned life that Angel had pushed his way into.
Cordelia was three strides away from the exit when Angel caught up with her, wearing her anger like an armour that no one, not even the vampire, could penetrate. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try.
“Cordelia-“
“No, I don’t wanna hear it Angel!” She dismissed him, didn’t trust herself to look at him and carried on walking out of the club away her private life on display. Cordelia walked with determination out of the Bronze and into the night, not even noticing that the rain soaked through her clothes and that the wind whipped her perfect hair around her face because who the hell did Angel think he was?!
“Please Cordy, just listen to me for a minute.” Angel begged her.
“Why?” Cordelia stopped abruptly and whirled around to face him in the pouring rain, her eyes blazing indignant fire into his soul. “So you can tell me you love me? HA!”
“I am.” Angel stepped forward only for Cordelia to take a step back.
“Stop lying to me Angel.”
“I’m not lying to you baby, I love you.” His word were thick with his desperation, he wasn’t accustomed to feeling so vulnerable to another and the demon inside mocked him for it.
Angel battened down it’s whispers, locked them away into the corner of his brain and concentrated on nothing but the disbelieving look Cordelia was giving him.
“You really need to stop saying that, and don’t call me baby. Or Cordy. My name is Cordelia.” She said coolly and crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to let his sincere words settle into her soul because she couldn’t afford to lose anymore of who she was expected to be.
“You’re my Cordy.” Angel said, stung by her rejection.
“Pfft! I’m really not.”
“Yes you are.”
“No I’m-“
“I’m in love with you!” Angel declared as though he were arguing that the world was indeed round and she was the only one who didn’t believe it.
“SHUT. UP.” Cordelia ground out through clenched teeth, her heart wanted to sing but her brain, who she had promised she would listen to from now on, told her to just keep on walking.
“Make me.”
“Oh that’s very mature.” Cordelia rolled her eyes in frustration.
“I guess I’m just an idiot in love.” Angel shrugged idly and attempted to close the space between them once again as heavy droplets of water slid down the back of his neck and soaked his cool skin, he didn’t feel the ache of the water infusing his bones though, the only ache he suffered was not having Cordelia Chase in his life.
And boy, didn’t his demon feel embarrassed about that.
“No, you’re just an idiot.” Cordelia arched an un-amused eyebrow in his direction then with an aggravated sigh continued to walk away from him.
“Where are you going?”
“Some place you’re not!”
“Nu uh. You’re going to listen to me.” The vampire slid stealthily in front of her, his arms folded across his chest, a perfect mirror of her defensive stance.
“You listen to me Angel ‘cos I’m only gonna say this once.” Cordelia pinned him with a gaze and said the words she needed to say. “You are in love with Buffy. I heard you tell her that not once, but twice. I watched you try to make things right with her, I saw you…I’m through being used because you two are going through a rocky patch. OK, so we had sex. Whatever. MISTAKE.”
“You were irritating me before but now you’re just plain pissing me off Chase.” Angel growled at her words and fought the urge to shake or kiss the truth into her.
“I-“
“Shut up. Stop telling me what I feel and just be quiet for five damn minutes. I’m in love with you, why can’t you just believe that? I. LOVE. YOU. I’m in love with every single annoying part of you. I-“
“Angel, have you ever considered that maybe I’m not in love with you?” The brunette cut off his declaration. She inwardly flinched at the pain that filtered across Angel’s dark eyes and for a heartbreaking moment she wondered if maybe he was telling her the truth.
Maybe Angel did love her, maybe the last week hadn’t been just about pity and sex. Maybe the man that she had given all of herself to, the man she had watched run after another woman, the man that had spent the last year consumed with Buffy Summers really did love her.
Yeah right!
“Cordy you don’t mean that.” Angel quashed the hurt that bubbled up through his silent heart because he knew how she felt even though she refused to admit it.
He knew because he saw it in her eyes.
“I mean it.” Cordelia trampled Angel’s hope and heart.
She turned around and walked away towards her car, refusing to look back at the lone figure standing in the rain.
***
Angel was letting Cordelia walk away from him again, her spoken rejection so much worse then the usual door being slammed in his face, it rooted him to the pavement as the rain flattened his hair and puddles formed around his heavy boots.
He watched her car pull out of the parking lot far faster than he liked but it wasn’t his place to scold her about her driving skills because she didn’t love him.
No, she said she didn’t love him.
That was completely different from not actually loving him.
He felt the need for liquor and violence, but that was Angelus whispering destruction in his ear and while it would be easy to listen to him it wouldn’t solve his problems.
It wouldn’t get the woman he loved back into his arms.
So instead of getting blisteringly drunk and starting a fight Angel did the other thing that came most natural to him.
He followed Cordelia home.
***
Joyce Summers didn’t know what was making her beautiful daughter look so sad, she watched from the door way as Buffy sat staring blindly out into the night, the tv was on but even the latest glitzy music video couldn’t snag her attention away from whatever thoughts caused the melancholy shadow over her daughters face.
Joyce had hoped that moving to Sunnydale would calm Buffy’s turbulent nature, after the incident at Hemery and the divorce she had thought a change of scenery was exactly what they both needed, but ever since moving to this strange little town Buffy’s behaviour had grown increasingly strange and worrying.
Her baby girl seemed so much older than her years, as though the weight of the world was settled on her shoulders and Joyce had no idea why. She didn’t know what had happened to the light hearted child that had once danced through the day with a giggle and smile, what happened the night of the fire when Buffy stopped being her baby.
“Honey, aren’t you meeting your friends at that club tonight?” Joyce asked her silent daughter gently.
“No, not tonight.” Buffy said, her gaze still lingering out into the night as though she were waiting for something.
“Buffy, please tell me what’s wrong.” Joyce sat down on the couch next to her.
“There’s nothing wrong Mom, really.” Buffy smiled weakly at her and swallowed the words that she desperately wanted to cry into her mothers shoulder. But if she told her about Angel and Cordelia that would bring up the fact that Buffy hadn’t told her mom that she was seeing Angel in the first place, which would bring up the keeping secrets issue which would only bring up even more issues, probably Slayer issues, that Buffy really didn’t want to talk about.
So she kept it to herself and went back to staring out of the window. Joyce sighed in defeat, she brushed her daughters blonde hair behind her ear and wished for the millionth time that she knew what was going on in Buffy’s head.
“Is it-” Joyce’s words were cut off by the loud ding of the front door bell sounding, she frowned slightly at the sparkle of hope that flashed then died in Buffy’s eyes. “I’ll get it.” She patted her daughters knee then headed towards the front door, relieved to find one of the two people that Buffy seemed to confide to about her life.
“Hey Mrs S, can Buffy come out and play?” Xander grinned at her, his hands in his pockets as he rocked back and forth on his heels. Joyce liked this boy, granted he was a little odd but he was sweet and kind to Buffy, for that he could eat all the food in the house with her permission.
“Come in Xander, although I’m not sure Buffy’s in the mood for much human interaction.” Joyce ushered him in and closed the door with a click.
“It’s just as well I brought ice cream and a slew of eighties movies then.” Xander shrugged the bag that was over his shoulder, he blushed slightly when Joyce squeezed his arm and smiled affectionately at him.
“She’s in the lounge.” Joyce nodded towards the room then decided to give them some privacy, maybe Xander would succeed where she seemed to be failing with her daughter.
“I come baring ice-cream and Molly Ringwald goodness.” Xander declared proudly as he dropped down next to Buffy on the couch.
“I’m not really in the mood for a pig out Xan.” Buffy sighed mournfully, all she wanted to do was watch the rain and think about her broken heart.
“But I went to the video store and rented Pretty in Pink, people saw me! My bad ass rep I got working for me in this town is in tatters and I did it for you!” Xander pouted theatrically at his friend, desperate to make her smile and laugh.
“Xan-“
“It’s got that song you like in it…and the end always makes you weepy…and Ducky! Who can refuse to watch Ducky?” Xander danced the video in front of her. “Please watch me Buffy, I was so lonely in the store surrounded by far superior films. Purleeeease….”
“You’re a fool you know that right?” Buffy could help but smile at her friends sweet theatrics, it was the first smile that had graced her lips in days.
“Yep, but if it get you to smile than it’s all good in my book.” Xander grinned and rooted through the bag he’d brought along with him. “I also have The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, the biggest bar of chocolate you’ve ever seen and enough popcorn to make you vomit for days.”
“Wow. You’re the best girlfriend ever.” Buffy chuckled.
“Well I figured as you and Willow aren’t really speaking I should don the bra and mascara for a night.”
“I’m not not speaking to Willow.” Buffy bristled still angry at her other best friend for keeping the truth from her.
“No, you’re just greeting her with a stony silence whenever she enters a room.”
“Xander-“
“Hey, I’m not judging, she should have told you what she knew. I’m on board with that.” Xander held his hands up in agreement for a moment. “But it’s Willow, Buffy. She would never intentionally hurt you, you know that. It’s killing her, you know how she gets when people are mad at her, guilt thy name is Rosenberg.”
“I know.” Buffy frowned.
“So maybe less growling at Wills tomorrow?” Xander asked hopefully, he wanted his two best friends back and talking because he really wasn’t very good at this being a girlfriend stuff.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Buffy said noncommittally and reached for the ice cream.
“Oh, I even brought spoons so we wouldn’t have to leave the couch.” Xander changed the subject and delved back into his seemingly bottomless bag.
“Clever boy.” The slayer nodded impressed.
“I’m not just a pretty face.” Xander grinned goofily at Buffy then leapt off the couch to put the movie on as his friend began to attack the ice cream he’d brought.
“You’re a good friend Xander. Thank you.” Buffy said sincerely, truly touched by his attempt to cheer her up.
“Yep, I’m a keeper.” Xander shrugged with self-deprecation. The pair fell into a comfortable quiet as the movie began, Buffy watched half-heartedly as she idly consumed too much Cherry Garcia as though it could heal the ache in her chest.
She loved Angel and he had loved her, but that wasn’t enough to keep them together apparently. Buffy couldn’t help but think that it all came down to who they were, Slayer and Vampire, mortal enemies that were never meant to hold hands and have a future together. That just wasn’t how it worked. But that didn’t make the pain any easier to bare.
It was over. No more Buffy and Angel.
It was Cordelia and Angel now.
Angel and Cordelia.
Angel and Cordy.
Buffy still couldn’t erase the way the vampire had said his new lovers name, the affection, devotion and love all wrapped up into the simple cadence of one word. Cordy. The slayer sighed again and dug her spoon into the quickly melting dessert suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
“You OK?” Xander asked her quietly.
“Not really.” Buffy smiled weakly at him and felt the hot prick of tears behind her eyes and at the back of her throat.
“Should I start the vitriolic threats about severing Angel’s man parts from his body now or wait until the sugar high’s really kicked in?” Xander hit pause on the remote control and turned to give Buffy his full attention.
“Now would be fine.” The blonde nodded enthusiastically as the damn of her emotions broke and tears began to fall heavily down her face. Xander wrapped an arm around her slight shoulders and let Buffy cry on his shoulder, just as he always did. He’d loved this girl from the moment he’d laid eyes on her that sunny day when Buffy had literally knocked him on his butt and changing his life forever.
If she weren’t nursing a broken heart and sobbing into his shirt Xander would have cherished having Buffy so close to him…but she was nursing a broken heart and sobbing into his shirt so the young man with a lions heart trampled down his desires and was simply there for his best friend.
“He’s not worth crying over.” Xander murmured, cursing the already cursed vampire.
“That’s easy for you to say, you weren’t in love with him.” Buffy sniffed loudly.
“Ours is a forbidden love.” Xander sighed wistfully making Buffy snort with laughter against her own will but soon the betrayal seeped back in and the quick laughter turned to tears once again.
Xander simply let her cry, his experience with comforting his Mom after the regular blazing rows that occurred between his parents had quickly taught him that when a woman cries, as heartbreaking as it is to watch it, it’s usually just best to keep a quiet tongue as few words could bring any comfort.
“He’s in love with Cordelia.” Buffy whispered once she managed to gather herself together a little. “The way he spoke about her…the way he said her name…he never said my name like that.”
Xander knew she wasn’t expecting a reply from him, not that he really knew what to say anyway. So he sat and listened to Buffy’s quiet words as the ice cream melted on the table.
That’s what good friends were for after all.
***
Cordelia lifted the heavy suitcase from the bed with a grunt, wishing for the millionth time that her stupid father hadn’t messed everything up. That way she wouldn’t be living in a motel, she wouldn’t be packing and repacking a suitcase for a hasty and ill planned getaway in the morning, Angel would never have followed her home, they would never have become friends, they would never have become lovers.
Cordelia would never have fallen in love with Angel.
No, scratch that, Cordelia would never have fallen in love with a vampire that was currently sitting outside her motel room like a guard dog.
“Go away Angel, I’m not letting you in.” The brunette muttered knowing he could easily hear her. Stupid vampire super senses.
“I’m not leaving until you listen to me.” Angel said casually through the locked and bolted door, his legs crossed at the ankle, his arms folded over his chest. A very real sense of deja vue was settling in, possibly because it wasn’t the first time he’d spent the night outside Cordelia’s room. “And I’ll be back every night until you come to your senses.”
“Until I…? Oh you are getting on my last nerve vampire.”
“Well the feelings mutual.”
“Go away.”
“No.”
And so the stand off between vampire and cheerleader continued. Cordelia refused to let him back into her heart and Angel refused to let her push him away. Two hearts were aching, one from a self induced misunderstanding and the other with the niggling thought that maybe it wasn’t loved in return. For two people that had spent so much of the last week talking they really needed to work on their communication skills.
Cordelia padded around the small room, muttering under her breath even as small bubble of hope began to bloom inside her chest. Angel hadn’t returned to Buffy like Cordelia thought he would when she’d left him in the parking lot of the Bronze. He’d announced his arrival an hour ago with a loud and booming What is it about ‘I love you’ that you don’t understand? and had refused to leave.
It was raining and the Motel manager had asked him to please leave three times, the third being the last time Sid the manager would ever leave the office after dark to talk to glowering men dressed in black because what the hell was up with this guys teeth? So Sid the manager had left the snarling stranger and returned to his office and Angel had been sitting stubbornly there ever since.
“My life use to be simple.” Cordelia grumbled as she threw back the bed sheets and sat down to moisturise her legs as she did every night. “There was school, cheerleading, faux friends and a credit card that never ran dry. I was happy, things were simple. I had no idea we were all sitting on the mouth of hell, Sunnydale was just weird one Starbucks town. Vampires? Pfft.” Cordelia screwed the cap on her lotion with more vigour than was needed. “You hear that Angel? I was happy!”
“I know you were baby.” Angel said softly, he wished she’d just open the door and let him be with her.
“Again with the pet names.” She rolled her eyes trying to focus on her quickly dissipating anger and not the warm comforting feeling that bloomed inside her whenever the vampire called her that. So instead of succumbing to the hope she continued to mutter as she hit her pillows into shape.
“Ever since Buffy Summers came to town I’ve been attacked, kidnapped and scared out of my mind on a regular basis. And now the strongest girl in the world wants to kill me slowly for sleeping with her boyfriend. I miss my old life.” Cordelia sighed and turned off the bedside lamp enveloping the room in to a crimson darkness.
“I love you.” Angel’s voice drifted in through the door once again. Cordelia grunted with annoyance and covered her head with a pillow.
It was going to be a long night.
***
Which is exactly what it was…and rather predictably a long night was turning into a long hellish day for Cordelia. What had been whispered rumour yesterday was now shouted truth and the brunette cursed the fact that she hadn’t left town like she’d planned to. Her bag was packed, the vampire had finally, grudgingly, left just before the sun slipped over the horizon, she was all set to go, run away from her problems as fast as she could.
Except that she didn’t. Instead she showered and dressed, brushed her hair and slipped on her shoes then walked into Sunnydale High school with her head held high because she was Cordelia Chase and she didn’t give a damn what people thought about her.
She was fine when Harmony oh so casually asked her what the maid service was like at the Sunnydale Motel in front of the entire class, she didn’t bat an eyelash when Larry and the rest of the jocks offered to put her up for a night or two, winking with every word. They weren’t the reason Cordelia was sitting alone on a bench in the front of the school. Nope. No siree Bob.
She was Cordelia Chase and she didn’t need anyone.
She was Cordelia Chase and she was severely deluding herself.
The brunette brushed the crumbs from her sandwich off her skirt and closed her eyes in the mid afternoon sun, the scent of last nights rain still filled the air and she breathed it in deeply, her thoughts too loud to ignore anymore. Angel had sat outside her room all night. He said he loved her. He refused to leave.
Angel said he loved her.
Was it a lie? Would Angel lie to her about something so big? Had she made the single biggest mistake in her young life so far when she walked away from him…again? Had she over thought things so much that she no longer knew which way was up and which way was down? Was she slowly going to drive herself insane with all these silent questions?
Most probably.
“Is this a private pity party or can anyone join?” A voice broke through her thoughts and forced her eyes to squint open into the sunlight.
“And the day just gets better and better.” Cordelia muttered at the dark silhouette in front of her. There was only one person in this school who managed to dress as though his clothes were fighting with each other. “What do you want Harris?”
“Well I noticed your welcoming aura and just couldn’t resist the pull of your magnetic personality.” Xander ignored her icy tone and sat down next to her.
“Coming from a loser like you that means…pretty much nothing to me. Now if you don’t mind I’m busy.” Cordelia gestured for the boy to leave with her hands to no avail.
“I see that, busy with the sitting on your own and staring into space. How’s that working out for ya?” Cordelia’s only response was to arch an unamused eyebrow at him.
“So…is it true?” Xander leaned back on the bench letting her know he wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon, what was it with the men in this town and not leaving her to her melancholy thoughts?
“Is what true?” The cheerleader scowled at him half-heartedly, she was too tired from the mostly sleepless night and an exhausting morning to unleash hell on the boy right now.
“That you’re living in the Sunnydale Motel?”
“Remind me why it’s any of your business?”
“Because you’re my arch enemy and such juicy taunting materiel should not be kept from me.”
“Well you can take that material and shove it up your-“
“Are you OK?” Xander cut off the beginning of Cordelia wrath before she had the chance to get into it. He was here for a reason and for once it wasn’t to swap barbs with the head cheerleader.
“I’ve been better.” Cordelia said, Xander was the first and only person to ask her that all day and it her caught off guard.
“You look tired.” There was no sarcasm or maliciousness in his tone and he was looking at her with friendly understanding, all of which was kinda weird and off putting for Cordelia but she decided to see where this was going anyway, it was the first almost civil conversation she’d had all day after all.
“It’s been a hell of a week.” Cordelia chuckled humorlessly.
“You should have come to one of us.” Xander frowned.
“You are joking, right?” She snorted in disbelief, he was talking to her as though were confidants, friends, not two people that barely tolerated each other.
“Disturbingly, no. Don’t get me wrong, I hate you with the fire of a thousand blazing unholy suns…but you me and Willow, we’ve know each other since we were all in short pants. Sure we bitch and bicker and make each others lives hell but the big stuff, the monsters and real life troubles…we’re there for one another for that.” Xander finished a little embarrassed by his little speech.
“That was almost poetic.” Cordelia smiled softly at his flushed pink face.
“Yeah well don’t go telling people I have depth.” Xander muttered and fiddled with the hem of his shirt.
“Like anyone would believe me.”
“True, your current status as school leper does kinda negate any credibility you had.”
“I prefer pariah to leper.”
“If you need anything, a place to stay…lunch money…the occasional push off your crumbling pedestal, you have people you can rely on.”
“I doubt Buffy shares your concern.” Cordelia scoffed trying to hide the guilt she felt over what she and Angel had done behind the Slayers back.
“Oh she wants to pull out your rib cage and wear it as a hat, no doubt about it.” Xander nodded in agreement.
“So why are you here talking to me, wouldn’t little Miss Hellmouth blow a vein if she knew you were conversing with the enemy?” Cordelia asked the question that had popped into her head as soon as Xander had first starting speaking.
“Probably…Look, whatever is going on between you and Angel…I really don’t want to know about it. It’s none of my business, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t secretly pleased that dead boy isn’t hanging around Buffy anymore but that’s my shallow little dreams and the less we talk about that the better. Buffy pretty much hates you, Willow’s mostly scared of you, you give Giles a permanent headache and my day isn’t complete unless I’ve called you a bitch at least once…but whatever crap is going on with the great love triangle of 1998 can be pushed aside if you need help. I just thought you should know that.”
“Oh.” Cordelia blinked. The pair fell into a thoughtful silence, both well aware of the strange looks they were receiving from the students that passed by. Cordelia Chase and Xander Harris did not sit together and chat in the sun, it just wasn’t done. They hated each other, everyone knew that.
Sunnydale High was beginning to realise that not everything was what it seemed.
Cordelia’s gaze latched on to a pitiful looking red head walking towards the school entrance, even from a distance she could see the frown on her face and the dejected slump of her shoulders.
“What’s with the lone wolf act?” She asked Xander who was also watching Willow’s mournful walk.
“Will’s second on Buffy’s people she wants to hurt with a blunt object list.” Xander said running a hand through his messy hair with distraction.
“Why?”
“‘Cos she knew about you and Angel and didn’t tell Buffy.”
“Well, I didn’t think I could actually feel any guiltier but I’ve been proved wrong.” She sighed wishing desperately that she had the compulsion to be Queen C right now.
“You? Feel guilty? Surely not!” Xander said theatrically.
“Bite me Harris.” Cordelia rolled her eyes and chuckled.
“Naw, I’ll leave that to dead boy. So you and Angel huh?”
“I thought you said that was none of your business?” The brunette bristled but didn’t smack him down like she would have done a week ago.
“Yeah, I changed my mind.” He shrugged.
“There is no me and Angel.” Cordelia declared with as much force as she could muster.
“Huh, well that was a lot of fuss over nothing then wasn’t it?”
“It was a mistake and I don’t want to talk about it.”
“A mistake huh? It was a mistake that had one of my best friends crying over ice cream last night? A mistake that caused Angel to tell his girlfriend that he loved another woman? A mistake that, as current rumour would have it, dead man walking made a complete fool of himself over last night at the Bronze, I would have paid money to see that by the way.”
“He told Buffy he loved me?” Cordelia said with surprise, this went against everything she’d convinced herself of but confirmed what her heart had been screaming at her all night.
“Aparently. Well, this was more than enough nice time for the two of us, don’tcha think?” Xander stood up, his work here done.
“Huh?” Lost in her own thoughts she hadn’t even noticed him move.
“Yep, there’s that thousand yard I’m in love with a vampire stare. What’s with you girls and the undead? Does a guy have to not have a pulse to get a little action round here?”
“Xander you’re gonna have to lose more than your pulse to get any action.” Cordelia snorted with derision.
“There’s the snark! Ah, all is well again.” Xander thanked the heavens.
“You and I aren’t going to be friends now are we Harris?”
“Over my broken and bloody body Chase, not a chance in hell….moron.”
“Good, cos I’d rather have all my skin peeled off and be rolled in salt than have to suffer the mental pain of being within ten meters of you for any stretch of time….loser.”
“Glad that’s understood.” Xander grinned at her comeback.
“Thank you Xander.” Cordelia said sincerely.
“Any time Cor.” Xander nodded, a genuine smile gracing his lips. The boy turned on his heel and with his hands in his pockets strolled away. He was SuperXan, able to mend broken hearts and scale tall buildings in a single bound…and yet he was still single for some reason.
There was something very wrong about that.
***
Willow cleared her throat for the fourth time and made her way across the common room with more confidence than she actually felt. She hated Buffy not speaking to her, they were best friends and it was cutting Willow up inside that the blonde was angry and hurt and she couldn’t be there for her.
Well, that ended now.
“I bought you a soda.” Willow said as soon as she reached where her friend was sitting making Buffy jolt with surprise because she hadn’t even seen the wily red head coming.
“Oh.” The Slayer blinked.
“It’s a I’m sorry I kept the truth from you Buffy-I didn’t know what to do-please don’t hate me-I love you and never wanted to lie to you soda.” Willow rambled desperately.
“I didn’t know they did those in the cafeteria.”
“You have to order them in.”
“Do you want half my candy bar?” Buffy offered as Willow sat down hesitantly next to her.
“What kind is it?”
“It’s a I’m still upset but I need my Willow because my now ex boyfriend was a big cheating butt crack and every time I think about it I want to cry and break things at the same time bar of chocolatey goodness.” Buffy snapped off a sizeable chunk.
“I’ve never had one of those before.” Willow accepted the peace offer.
It wasn’t much but it was a start.