Next Door

“Since hanging out with two twenty year olds somehow this kinda thing has lost its appeal huh?” Cordelia grimaced staring down at the drunk football player who had just spewed his guts up right in front of her.
“Well Spike and Angel do seem a tad more…mature I guess.” Buffy sighed stepping over the fallen jock and heading straight for the kitchen. She was gunna need a strong drink if she was gunna survive this party.

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“I cant believe this is how we chose to spend our evening when there are two beautiful ladies out there partying somewhere that we could be with.” Angel sighed in disgust as he dropped onto Spike’s leather sofa with beer in hand.
“Yeah I know…on the bright side at least football is on.” Spike grinned watching the TV avidly.
They had only been watching the game for ten minutes when Spike noticed Angel casting quick looks his way as if about to say something but chickening out. He laughed inwardly when Angel got as far as opening his mouth but still didn’t say anything.
“Spike….”
“What is it?” Spike asked finally taking pity on his brother and turning to look at him.
“Have you had sex with Buffy yet?” He asked and Spike almost chuckled at the pained sound in Angel’s voice.
“No. Not fully anyway why?” Spike asked with a grin.
“Man its killing me! Do you realise i’ve been with Cordelia for 7 months now! Seven months Spike! And not one orgasm!” He whined pathetically.
“What? You aint done anything!?” Spike laughed his eyes widening in surprise.
“No nothing! My hands allowed under her shirt and that’s it! Do you have any idea what its like to be with someone like Cordelia and not be allowed to do anything!?”
Spike couldn’t help but laugh at the absolutely tortured look on Angels face and received a nasty scowl for doing so.
“I feel for you Angel I really do but you’ve got another couple of months before you can do anything about it…you must really like her to stay with her without doing anything with your past I thought sex was all you cared about.” Spike said truly surprised by Angel’s sudden change in attitude.
“I love her.”
The response didn’t surprise Spike and he smiled warmly at him.
“Good for you mate.”
“You love Buffy too don’t you?”
Spike didn’t answer. He didn’t know how to.


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“Cordelia?” Buffy looked around trying to find her friend who had just disappeared.
“Buffy!”
“Oh great.” Buffy groaned when she turned to see Parker grinning down at her.
“Nice to see you to.” He grinned handing her a drink.
“Have you seen Cordelia?” She asked in frustration ignoring the drink he had shoved into her hand.
“Urm yeah I think I saw her go somewhere with that red head couple.” He shrugged watching with a sly grin as Buffy knocked back the drink before heading back off into the party to find her friends.
“There you are!” Buffy said in exasperation finally spotting Cordelia, Willow and Oz in the corner of the living room.
“Sorry Buff I thought you were getting a drink.” Cordelia said apologetically giving her a sheepish smile before turning back to listen to the story Willow was telling. Buffy focused in on the red head too listening to the story but not really getting it. She blinked slowly trying to clear her vision but for some reason her eyes didn’t seem to be working with her and she could barely make out her friends instead seeing blurs of colour. She put a hand to her head hitting it to try and empty it of the weight it seemed to have gained suddenly.
“Im gunna go to the bathroom.” She said sluggishly as she stumbled away and up the stairs.
“How much has she had to drink?” Willow said with a frown watching as Buffy made her way slowly upstairs.
“I dunno…I don’t think she had that much. Maybe I should follow her.” Cordelia said in concern.
“She’ll be fine. We’re at Riley’s what’s the worst that could happen?” Willow shrugged taking another sip of her coke.

“Hey Buff. You okay?”
Buffy looked up from where she sat on the floor and stared up at the shadow standing over her. She squinted before finally seeing who it was.
“Parker?”
“yeah its me…lets get you up off that floor huh?” He said with a leer which she didn’t notice. He put an arm around her waist and half carried half dragged her to the nearest bedroom.
“Where we going?” She mumbled before falling onto something soft and warm. She was so disoriented she didn’t even notice she was in a dark empty room with a guy she hated.
“Nowhere. Why don’t you just lay down and I’ll get you comfortable.” Parked smiled as he pulled off the heels she was wearing. He looked back up to see if she was about to fight him and he grinned when he realised she had passed out. This made everything so much easier.
Her jeans were unbuttoned and where about to be pulled down when the door behind them opened and Parker turned around to see Riley standing there the shock on his face obvious.
“Parker? Buffy? What the hells going on?” Riley asked in shock.
“Nothing buddy. We just having a good time. I know she’s your ex but sorry man.” Parker said hoping that Riley hadn’t noticed that Buffy was asleep.
Riley continued to stare at Buffy on the bed and at Parker who was smiling at him charmingly and knew something was wrong. Sure Buffy and he wasn’t an item anymore but he still knew her and there was no way in hell she’d touch the likes of Parker. He finally noticed Buffy’s closed eyes and her completely lax body and something in his brain snapped into place. His face went bright red and he stared at Parker in pure rage.
“You fucking prick!!!”

“You stupid piece of filthy shit!”

Everyone in the party abruptly stopped talking and they all turned to stare at the stairs where the howl of rage had sounded from and all of them gasped when they saw Parker being thrown down it. A few people went forward to lift him until they saw Riley follow behind and they all backed away when they saw the absolute hatred on his face. Parker tried to scramble to his feet but his back was in agony and he ended up trying to crawl away. He wasn’t fast enough though and Riley grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him.
“You ever….ever go near another girl in our school again and I swear I’ll rip your fucking dick off!” Riley screamed giving the boy one last punch to his already battered face before throwing him outside.
Riley turned around and scanned the room quickly before his eyes landed on Cordelia.
“Cordy you need to call someone. Buffy’s upstairs I think Parker drugged her.” Riley said his tone deadly serious. Everyone in the room gasped at the implications of what Riley said and they all watched with shocked eyes as Cordelia, Willow and Oz all ran upstairs.
“Riley dude! Is Summers all right?” Gunn asked nervously.
“Yeah she’s okay I think. He didn’t get that far.”

“Oh my god!” Cordelia gasped as she rushed in to button Buffy’s shirt back up and redo the buttons on her jeans. Oz stood in the doorway keeping his eyes averted out for respect before finally entering the room to check on Buffy.
“Is she okay?” Willow asked in worry.
“I think so….I need to phone Spike. He can come and pick us up.” Cordelia rushed dialling his number on her cell.
“Don’t you think we should call her mom?” Oz asked calmly.
“She’s out of town with Giles.” Cordelia sighed.
“Hello?”
“Spike!”
“Cordelia what’s up?” Spike asked in confusion wondering why she was phoning him instead of Buffy.
“Spike can you come pick us up? Buffy…she…I think someone put something in her drink.” She said nervously. The silence on the end of the phone sent shivers down her spine and she waited patiently for Spike to come back on the phone.
“Where are you?”
“1672 Lake Road.”
The line went dead as soon as she said the address and she quickly pocketed her phone and went back to kneel next to her still sleeping friend.
“Buffy! Come on wake up! Please wake up.” She groaned slapping her face.
Buffy’s eyelids fluttered open and she stared at the three faces looking down at her with a frown.
“Guys? What’s going on?” She asked dazedly trying to sit up but failing.
“We think Parker put something in your drink.” Cordelia revealed biting her lip as tears filled her eyes. She was so stupid she should have stayed with her.
“That bastard! Where is he?” Buffy managed to growl trying to sit up once again and this time succeeding somewhat.
“Riley kicked his ass and threw him out.” Willow grinned.
“Good…I’ll kill him when I see him.” Buffy grumbled raising a hand to her head as she tried to clear the dizziness away.

The party downstairs had come to a screeching halt and most people had already left, gossiping about what had happened while the most nosy of the school stayed behind to see what happened next and they weren’t disappointed when an older guy who looked like he stepped out of the pages of a punk magazine flew into the house looking around with panicked eyes. The few guys in the house all stared at him in fear while all the girls started drooling. Spike spotted Riley and turned his angry eyes towards him.
“Where is she?”
“Upstairs…second door on the right.” Riley answered with a scared gulp wondering who this guy was. Before he could ask though he was halfway upstairs.
Spike strode straight to the door where he could hear voices coming from and his eyes filled with tears when he spotted Buffy sitting on the end of a bed with her friends surrounding her. She was clearly still disoriented and when he entered she looked up at him with such happiness he almost cried. He went straight to her dropping to his knees and wrapping her up in a tight hug as he peppered her face with soft kisses.
“God pet I was so worried! Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Oh god I should have been here.” He murmured in between kisses.
“Spike. Im fine honestly. Riley stopped him before he could do anything.” Buffy replied shyly. He was treating her like she was glass and she loved the attention but her friends were all looking at them like they were the sweetest thing in the world and she hated being under such scrutiny.
“Riley stopped him? Bloody hell and here I was thinking he was an ass.” Spike chuckled kissing her once again. He had never been more terrified in his life when he had gotten the phone call from Cordelia and the thought that someone could hurt her made him sick and he once again buried his face in her neck for the reassurance she was okay.
“Hey everything okay?”
They all turned to see Angel standing in the doorway and he grinned when Cordelia squealed and jumped at him.
“Yeah everything’s good. Come on lest get out of here.” Spike mumbled lifting Buffy and carrying her easily from the room with Cordelia and Angel and the two red heads he didn’t know bringing up the rear. Everyone downstairs watched the group make its way down stairs with interested looks on their faces all of them knowing they would have a lot to talk about on Monday.
Spike gave a brief nod to Riley as he walked out. His way of saying thank you and Riley nodded back before watching them disappear out of the house.