The Story So Far

Chapter 13

Spike stormed out of the fire exit at the back of the club, cursing under his breath, fighting back the tears. It had been so long, so much had happened. There was just too much emotion between them, that was clear now. Nothing would be the same again. "Fucking bitch!" He slammed his fist into the corrugated iron fence, pulling it back as he felt the pain course down his arm. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He kicked the dumpster, before picking up a crate of empty glass bottles and slamming them into the floor. Glass shattered all around.

Xander appeared at the exit and ran towards the distraught blonde man in front of him.

"Spike man, relax!" he said as he approached.

Spike simply turned and looked at his old friend with contempt. "Sod off Xander, unless you want me to start punching your face instead of this fence."

"She didn't mean that shit about your parents, she wouldn't say something like that and mean it." He began to speak softly. "I mean what did you expect dude? She was hardly going to welcome you with open arms, you broke her heart."

Spike sat down on the curb and put his head into his hands. Xander continued. "She fell apart man, and then her Mom died, it was a rough time for her. She needed you!"

The blonde man couldn't speak, even if he could he didn't know what he could possibly say. Xander seemed to understand this. Spike and Xander had quickly become close friends in the year he was dating Buffy. The group were pretty much inseparable, they had no secrets from each other, and they always thought they would be friends forever.

Xander sat down beside Spike on the curb, putting a hand on his shoulder in a supportive gesture. "You didn't just leave her, you left us all!" he continued with a subtle hint of bitterness in his voice. "We were friends, we were supposed to be moving into that apartment share, you left me in the shit with that. Then there was Dawn, she adored you man, and you just disappeared!" Spike nodded.

"Its not just Buffy that's going to have a hard time forgiving, you screwed us all over, for what?"

Spike shoulders began to shake as the tears flowed down his cheeks. He couldn't hold it in, couldn't pretend to be the tough guy.

"Why Spike? And 'I had no choice' will cut no ice with me either!"

Spike sat up and pulled out his wallet, throwing it into Xander's lap. "I really didn't Xander," he began. "Go on, open it up."Xander picked up the wallet and undid the brass stud holding it closed. Inside was a selection of credit cards, business cards and cash. He looked at the Englishman confused.

"In the pocket you bloody idiot!" Spike snapped.

Xander opened the little pouch in the side of the leather wallet, a handful of small photos fell into his lap. He began to flick through the slowly. There was a picture of Spike and Buffy at prom, one of them all in Spikes car, one of the whole gang sat around a table at The Bronze. Xander continued to look through he photos till he came to the most recent picture. He held it in front of him, trying to make sense of what he saw.

"That's why you had to leave?" He asked quietly. "You really had no choice did you."? The two men sat in silently on the curb staring into the night.