The Courtship of Buffy Summers

‘This has got to be the corniest thing I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I thought this kind of stuff only exists in B list teenage romantic comedies?’ our perky blonde girl thinks as Faith escorts her through the door of the gym. Tonight is the night of the big dance, and it took a lot of begging, and eventually some bribing in order to get the blonde’s mother to agree to let her go to the dance. After this though it’s three months no friends, no phone, no fun. ‘So I have to really enjoy this because it’s going to be my last night of freedom.’


Buffy is especially sad because she can no longer have her late night visits from Faith. Joyce went on a rampage the night after she caught them and she nailed Buffy’s windows shut. The blonde was furious when she saw it, but she forced herself not to argue because then she would have blown all chances of getting her mother to let her go to the dance. And there was no way she was going to miss that, even if she had to sneak out. What Buffy doesn’t know, is the nails are just for show. They’re too short to actually keep the window closed. Joyce would never intentionally put her daughter at risk, and nailing her bedroom windows shut is a big one. What if there’s a fire and the window is the only way out?


They step into the very large room. Cheesy decorations hang from the ceiling, and are stapled to the walls. There are round tables scattered throughout the room in tiny clusters for the students to sit at when they need a break from dancing to the very cheesy eighties and early nineties soft rock. There are long rectangular tables along one of the walls where the food and punch is kept for the thirsty and hungry dance goers. And then there’s the dance floor. It’s only ten minutes into the semiformal event and it’s already packed.


“I’ll get us a table, and will you get some drinks?” the nervous blonde asks and fidgets around. She’s never felt so nervous in her entire life. The drive here was somewhat awkward, neither girl knew what to say so the radio was turned on to get rid of the awkward silence. ‘She probably thinks I’m a freak,’ Buffy thinks as she finds a nice table near the back of the room and sits down. She puts her purse down and tries not to look nervous. ‘I don’t know why I’m nervous. I’m the one who wanted to come here.’


“Here,” Faith says and set a white paper cup down in front of her. “Better drink up while you can. In about an hour someone from the football team is gonna spike the punch. I didn’t know if you wanted something to eat or not so I got a little bit of everything.” The brunette girl puts down two plates full of different types of finger sandwiches.


“Uh, thanks. I guess I could eat a little.” Not wanting to be rude the blonde takes one of the tiny appetizers and takes a bite of what she thinks is chicken. Faith does the same and it’s completely obvious that the two are very uncomfortable. Even a blind person could see it. Buffy takes a drink of the sour punch to try and wash the taste of stale bread out of her mouth and it only works a little. “Wanna dance now?” Faith nods her head and looks a little relieved. The two get up and make their way out to the dance floor and join the other students from Sunnydale high.


They’re still a little awkward so the dancing isn’t as good as it could be. Buffy definitely doesn’t know exactly what she should be doing right now. ‘Does she want me to dace closer, or does she want to be more casual about this? She’s never been to a school dance before that I know of so maybe she wants to just take it slow. I wish I could ask her without it being totally awkward and weird. Yeah, ‘cause right now we’re totally relaxed and comfortable with each other. Come one, how much worst could it get.’ A lot, and that’s why the blonde is silent.


‘Why am I so fuckin nervous?’ Faith asks herself as she dances with the blonde beauty. ‘Ok, just pretend you’re at a party. A very boring non-alcoholic party, and Buffy is just another blonde you’re trying to sleep with. No, I can’t think that or I’ll try to sleep with her. Ok retard, just relax. That would be a lot easier if so many people weren’t looking at us.’ She glares at some of her peers who seem to have caught a case of the stares.


“It looks like we have an audience,” Buffy says and looks around at the people who are watching them. It seems like ever since she turned down Percy and Kennedy’s offers everyone at the school has been watching her. ‘I’m just being paranoid. I’ve been nervous about the dance ever since Faith said she’d take me and that nervous energy had to go somewhere so it turned into paranoia. Simple as that.’ The blonde looks even more nervous and unsure of what to do when a slow song starts to play.


“We can just go sit down,” Faith says and Buffy can feel her soft breath on her face. The air conditioner blows a gentle breeze and Buffy picks up on Faith’s perfume. It’s the exact same perfume she wore at the fair. And suddenly, just like in a cheesy romantic comedy marketed towards a teenage audience, she remembers how much fun they had that day, and how relaxed they were with each other. It causes her to gently smile and wrap her arms around Faith’s back, so that her hands on gently resting on the slightly taller girl’s shoulder blades. This also causes them to move a lot closer to each other.


“No, it’s ok. I actually like this song,” she says softly and rests her head on the brunette’s shoulder. ‘Ok, Buffy, don’t push it too much. She’s totally tense right now. If you seem to eager she might run off. She may be a ‘woman of the world’ but right now she’s as skittish as Bambi, and just as cute.’ The brunette surprised Buffy very much by showing up at the house in a nice dress. Sure it’s black, but it’s elegant and makes the brunette look very sophisticated.


The blonde is dressed in a nice white dress that she spent hours picking out at the mall. This is a semiformal after all so she wanted to keep it pretty casual, but not too casual just in case Faith stepped it up a little. And the blonde is very thankful she decided to follow her own advice on that one. ‘I would look like a total freak if I picked that blue dress.’ Yes, yes you would have. ‘Why do you have to be so mean all the time? It’s not my fault you’re just a narrator.’


The now very relaxed blonde can’t help but smile very wide when she feels the brunette rest her hands on her lower back as they continue to gently sway together to the soft music. To be honest neither one of them is listening to the lyrics. All they can concentrate on is each other. Sappy, I know. Very sappy. But they seem to be enjoying themselves, and that’s the important thing, right? As the song comes to an end and the two girls start to separate Buffy gets hit with a moment of girliness and one thought runs rapidly through her mind. ‘Oh God, did I smudge my make up on her shoulder?’ She forces herself to calm down and stop herself from panicking and looks up into Faith’s eyes.


“Can you refill my punch while I use the bathroom?” she asks and Faith nods her head. ‘God, I waited ten minutes in the living room with her mom while she was in the bathroom, why didn’t she go then?’ the brunette thinks, but all she does is go back to the table, retrieve Buffy’s cup and refills it. ‘Looks like the football team got to it earlier then I thought. Should I warn her about it or just let her drink it so I can see the funny look she’ll make? Choices, choices. Nah, I better tell her or she might kill me.’ She leaves the table that’s gathering a small crowd and she sits down at their table and waits.


‘Oh man, I hope I don’t ruin this even more,’ Buffy thinks to herself as she touches up her eyeliner. ‘I want to look perfect for Faith because she obviously put a lot of effort into tonight.’ She smiles to herself, and she fills with giggly joy when she thinks about her brunette counterpart. But the smiling soon goes away when the door opens and three girls walk in. One is Kennedy and the other two Buffy has never seen before in her entire life. The busty redhead walks into one of the stalls while the other two wait for her to finish up.


“Having fun tonight, Buffy?” Kennedy asks with a little bit of a sneer. ‘Why is she being so mean to me? There’s no way in hell she wanted to go with me that bad. She even said it was going to be a no strings attached night. And she has two girls with her. Two! And both of them are a lot more…curvy then I am. So she’s obviously better off with them because there’s no way I would have let her feel my goodies.’ The blonde puts her make up back in her little purse, and offers the miffed brunette a small smile. Killing her with kindness is what our little blonde plans on doing. This way Kennedy can be as pissy as she wants, and Buffy’s attitude will just make her look like a bigger bitch.


“Very much. What about you?” ‘Yeah, are you having fun with your call girl wannabes?’ The toilet flushes from the stall the redhead went into and a second later the door opens. The girl walks over and washes her hands a little too well. ‘Ok, does she have OCD or something? I just want to get out of here and back to Faith. She’s probably wondering what the hell is taking me so long. God, she’s so great. I’m so happy I said yes when she asked me out. She never answered when I asked if she knew Kennedy or not. I really hope they’re not friends because I don’t want be the kind of girlfriend who tells her significant other who they can and can’t hang out with.’


“I’m having lots of fun,” the brunette says and wraps her arm around the waist of the curvy blonde standing next to her. The blonde smiles, and then giggles when Kennedy starts to kiss her neck. “It isn’t too late, ya know. Feel free to join us anytime.” ‘In your dreams, skank.’ Is what our tiny blonde thinks. But her mother didn’t raise her to say anything like that to someone she barely knows. So what she says is way more on the polite side, despite the fact she really wants to tear this tramp a new one. ‘Figuratively speaking.’


“No thank you. I’m here with Faith and that would be totally rude.” The redhead gives Buffy a strange look. ‘Why can’t they just leave? I was here first.’ Her childish manner is going to get her out of this one as the redhead opens her mouth to speak.


“If you think Faith has a problem with being with more then one girl at a time then you know absolutely nothing about her.” The skanky redhead, and the skanky blonde both smile as does Kennedy, and they make their way out of the bathroom. ‘I’m just going to ignore it. They might have slept with Faith, they might not have, but I don’t need to know. It was all before she asked me out, hopefully, so I don’t need to know about it. At least not yet.’


She puts some finishing touches on her make up before she leaves the bathroom. She stops when she sees Percy West standing outside the door, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. ‘What it is, ‘Ambush Buffy Night’? Is my ex-boyfriend going to show up and give me some grief too?’ she thinks and tries not to make an irritated noise. ‘Ok, Buffy, just calm down. He might not be looking for you. He probably thinks his date is in here after she said she was going to the bathroom and then ran away from the sheer boredom.’


“Hey Percy,” she says in a friendly tone. “If you’re looking for someone I don’t think anyone is in there. I can look for you if you want.” ‘Why did I just offer that? Oh right, because I’m nice. Why do I have to be nice all the time?’ She watches as Percy actually stands up straight and looks down at her. She suddenly feels very small compared to the boy who’s height is a whole eight inches taller then she is, and he seems to be using every inch to his advantage.


“No, I’m not looking for anyone else,” he says and takes a step closer. The blonde starts to get a little nervous for a completely different reason. This nervousness isn’t about ‘should I hold her hand or not?’ This is about ‘why is he acting so weird?’ “You cost me a lot tonight. Do you know that?” ‘What the heck is he talking about?’ I could tell you but I think I’ll just let him do it for me. ‘You are so lazy. What if he tries to hurt me.’ Hey, I’m just a narrator, remember?


“You owe me five hundred bucks, Summers,” he says and looks her dead in the eye. He walks closer to her and Buffy focuses on getting around him subtly so she can make a run for it back to the gym. ‘I may be in heels but I can still run pretty fast.’ “If you don’t have it...” He eyes her body up and down and she tries not to shiver under the gaze. “...we can always work something out.” He gets into her personal space and she takes a couple steps back.


“I don’t owe you anything,” she says and tries not to sound like a scared little bunny or something. “Now if you’ll excuse someone is waiting for me.” She tries to walk around him but he blocks her path. “Percy I’m not joking around, now move.” She tires to pass him again, but again he blocks her. The situation is heating up, getting more intense, and Buffy doesn’t like any of it. She just wants to be back at the gym with Faith, where she’s safe.


“Oh you owe me. I lost five hundred bucks because of you. I wouldn’t be so pissed but I lost it because of that fucking skank. Do you want to get syphilis? Don’t you think it would be easier to lick the pole at a strip club?” ‘Gross. Does Faith really have syphilis or is he just being a jackass? I’ll have to ask her about it later. Ok, Buffy an obviously insane boy won’t let you leave and your biggest concern at the moment is whether or not Faith has syphilis? Get real.’


“Don’t talk about Faith like that. You don’t know anything about her,” the now very angry blonde says and takes a step back. ‘Oh yeah, that’s how you show him you aren’t scared.’ Percy grabs onto her arm and squeezes really hard, hard enough to instantly leave a bruise. “Ow, let go!” She scratches at his face. He yells and lets go of her. But he recovers from the assault before she can get away.


“You stupid bitch!” he yells and back hands her. She falls to the ground and he’s at her side in a second. He grabs onto her arm again, and pulls her off the ground. ‘God, he almost ripped my shoulder out of the socket,’ she thinks as she winces. “This isn’t even about the money anymore. You’re gonna pay for that instead.” He slams her up against the nearest row of lockers and starts tugging at the skirt of her dress.


“Let go!” she screams and pushes at him, and tries to scratch at his face again but he hits her and it puts her in too much of a daze to concentrate on fighting back. Eyes blurry, and her senses out of whack all she can think about is getting away. “Help! Someone help me!” But the music is too loud for anyone to hear. Her only chance is if one of the many girls inside the gym needs to use the bathroom. He gets her skirt pulled up and starts tugging at her underwear. She starts squirming around, and fighting with all the might in her little body. But it wasn’t enough.


“Keep movin, girly,” he says and rips her underwear off her body and tosses it aside. “I like it when they squirm.” ‘I really don’t think he’ll go away if I sit still. I need to get out of here. I need help! Why is he doing this to me? What the fuck is the matter with him?’ She hears him unzip his pants and hear heart seems to jump into her ears, and all she can hear is the pounding of her blood. Tears start streaming down her eyes at the thought of what’s about to happen. This is so not how she pictured she would lose her virginity. She wants the cliché, with candles, and flower peddles, and soft music. Not this.


“You mother fucker!” Buffy hears someone scream, and suddenly she’s pulled to the ground. Whoever hit Percy didn’t take into account that he was still holding onto the blonde’s arm. She hits her head on the floor but not hard enough to knock her out. She looks up just in time to see Faith kick Percy West right in the stomach. “You fucking son of a bitch!” She kicks him again, this time in the face and blood flies out of his mouth much like in the movies.


Buffy winces when she hears a tooth clatter on the floor. The very enraged brunette just keeps kicking. ‘God, she’s going to kill him.’ The disoriented blonde gets up to her feet with a lot of difficulty. She stumbles and hits her shoulder on the lockers. She uses them to steady herself, and she slowly makes her way over to her date, who is currently stomping on Percy’s back with her heeled shoe. Buffy grabs onto her arm and tries to pull her away.


“Faith stop!” she yells and tugs some more. “Faith stop before you break his spine!” She tugs as hard as she can and she’s very surprised when the brunette pushes her back. She stumbles and falls to the ground, but luckily lands on her butt. “Ow, Faith!” That seems to snap the darker haired girl out of her trance like state. She turns around, her face pale, and she runs to the fallen blonde’s side.


“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Here,” she offers her hand to Buffy and the blonde takes it. Faith takes that as a good sign. ‘Means, she isn’t too pissed off at me.’ “We need to call the cops. Come on, Cordelia has a cell phone that she’ll let us use.” Faith holds onto Buffy’s hand and starts to walk towards the gym, but she’s stopped when Buffy doesn’t move.


“I just want to go home. He didn’t, I mean he tried obviously, but he didn’t. So lets just drop it, ok?” she asks, and she sounds scared. ‘I just want to go home.’ Faith nods her head a little bit, and leaves the blonde’s side for a moment. ‘Fuckin scumbag,’ she think as she passes Percy. ‘I should fuckin kick his brains in, maybe knock some sense into him.’ She picks up Buffy’s torn and discarded underwear and returns to her side.


“Here,” she says and hands them to the blushing blonde. ‘She almost got raped and she’s blushing because I touched her underwear? She’s a little one the weird side. Then again it looks like he hit her pretty hard. Fuckin mother fucker.’ They leave and Faith has to help Buffy walk because she’s still too dizzy to do it on her own. “We should get you to the hospital, B. You Could have a concussion or something.” Faith starts the truck and it rumbles to life.


“No. I just want to go home.” Faith sighs and reluctantly turn her truck to the right instead of the left. The drive back to the Summers’ household is a short one, but for the blonde it seems to go on forever. ‘I just want to go home and get into my pajamas, and go to bed.’ But when Faith parks her truck next to the curb Buffy hesitates. ‘Oh God, what am I going to tell Mom?’ She has a little mini-panic attack while she tries to decide what to do. She doesn’t even notice when Faith gets out of the truck and opens the passenger door.


“Come on, I’ll help you inside,” she says and gently puts her hand on Buffy’s arm, and she’s very careful to avoid the giant bruises. But the blonde is reluctant to leave the safety, and security the truck is bringing her. “Don’t worry, we’ll explain everything to her, and I won’t leave until you want me to, ok?” She put more emphasis on the word ‘you’ and Buffy finally gets out of the truck. “Alright, just wrap your arm around my neck.” ‘I’m not completely helpless, but ok.’ She does what the brunette says and she’s lead to the front door.


“Oh my God Buffy, what happened?” Joyce asks and comes rushing to her daughter’s side. Buffy instantly clutches onto her mother like a baby Kola bear. ‘Kola’s aren’t bears, they’re marsupials, jeez. They have a little pouch on their tummy where the baby lives until it’s big enough to come out,’ the dazed and confused blonde thinks as her mother leads her over to the couch. Joyce looks at the bruises on her daughter’s face, and then the dried blood on Faith’s knuckles and draws her own conclusions. “You get out of here right now!” The two teens are confused by the older woman’s outburst. “I mean it you. You stay away from my daughter.”


“No, Mom, Faith didn’t hurt me,” the weakened girl says from the couch. ‘Could she be anymore wrong about that?’ “She saved me.” Joyce sits down next to her daughter and gently moves her hair out of her face to get a better look at the damage that was done. “I just want to go to bed. Can I go to bed, Mom, please?” The older of the Summers women looks at her daughter’s eyes and doesn’t see any dilation of the pupils.


“Yes, sweetheart, but lets get you cleaned up first, ok?” She helps her wounded daughter off the couch and up the stairs. ‘And I thought Sunnydale would be safer then L.A. I guess I was wrong,’ she thinks as the fruit of her loins puts the toilet lid down and takes a seat. She studies her daughter for a second and tears spring to her eyes. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have let her go to that dance. I should have made her stay home. She was supposed to be on groundation.’ She gets a wash cloth from underneath the sink and wets it with warm water.


“Can Faith spend the night?” Buffy asks sounding completely spent. After everything that’s happened, all of the adrenaline that was jumped through her system, and the minor head trauma she feels like she’s about ready to drop right here and sleep for at least a week. The blonde winces when her mother starts to press the warm cloth against the cut on her cheek.


“I don’t know, sweetie. I’m sure Faith will have to call her parents to ask. But if it’s ok with them then I don’t have a problem with it.” Buffy nods her head and looks at the bathroom door and sees Faith standing there, watching her mother clean her up. Her eyes instantly well with tears and her bottom lip starts shaking more then a Chihuahua in the middle of January. Joyce puts the cloth in the sink and wraps her arms around her daughter. “It’s ok, sweetheart, no one can hurt you here. You’re safe now.” Buffy hugs her mother back as tight as she can, and she revels in the comforting feeling.


After the two teenagers clean their battle wounds, and Faith fakes a phone call home, and pretends to talk with a parent when really it’s just the dial tone, they get ready for bed. Despite having walked in on them during a very steamy make out session not too many nights ago, Joyce decides to let Faith and Buffy sleep in the same bed. The blonde desperately wants the brunette girl’s comfort, and she reassured her mother many times that she’s too tired, an shell shocked to fool around. The brunette promised the blonde mom that she wouldn’t try anything, and Joyce finally agreed to it.


Both teens dress in a different pair of Buffy’s childish pajamas. ‘They are not childish. They’re cute, and very comfortable.’ They crawl under the covers and Buffy doesn’t even wait for any type of signal before she snuggles up against her brunette savior. She doesn’t say anything, she just rests her head on Faith’s shoulder, rests a leg over the other girl’s, and wraps an arm around Faith’s stomach. The other girl lets her do it, and holds onto her very protectively. Buffy may have nothing to say, but the brunette can’t keep her silence any longer.


“I swear to God I won’t let him get away with it, Buffy. I promise he’ll pay,” she whispers in the dark and isn’t sure if the blonde is still awake to hear it. She silent promise is answered by the break down of the other girl. She starts sobbing harder then she’s ever sobbed before. Harder then when their father left them, and harder when they moved away from L.A. Faith does her best to bring comfort, and some peace to the very upset girl, but she knows that Buffy just needs to let it all out. And when the crying girl finally drifts off the sleep the brunette makes one final promise. “Even if it kills me I’ll make him pay, I swear it.” And she too drifts off into a restless sleep.