Xander's Fall

Chapter 2
Sunnydale High school
September 1st 1998
7:45 a.m

Willow sat on the front steps of the high school waiting for Buffy to get there. She saw Buffy walking up right then with Cordelia from the left as Xander came from the right. She had been trying to talk to him all summer, but he wouldn’t talk to her.

“Hey Willow, happy that school is started, this is our last year.” said Buffy as she stopped right beside her.

“Yeah. Just a sec.” said Willow as she nodded to Buffy and Cordelia then went over to where Xander was talking to some other boy’s, boy’s that were known to be very bad guy’s.

“Hey Xander, I’ve been trying to talk to you all summer, can we talk later?” said Willow in a rush, Xander just snared at her.

“I’m sorry do I know you? Oh yeah, you us to be my former best friend. Sorry, I don’t hang out with geeks and freaks anymore. Come on guys the people around here are getting boring to look at.” said Xander as he turned away from Willow, who was shocked and hurt by what Xander had said to her. She was also surprised by what he was wearing; he had on a pair of black jeans, a white muscle shirt with a dark red button up shirt over it unbuttoned, and a black leather jacket and had a silver hoop earring in his right ear. She turned around as Buffy and Cordelia walked up to her, Buffy putting her arm around Willow as she started to cry.

“Willow, it’s ok. Xander Harris is just a jerk, an he doesn’t deserver your crying over him.” said Cordelia as she patted Willow on the back.

“It’s not that, I…I…I could see that… the spark in his eyes that made Xander, Xander was no longer there. He is totally different, uncaring, Xander has never been uncaring in his life.” said Willow, as she looked at where her former best friend, the one that she had thought was going to be there for the rest of her life had walked to.

The bell rang an they all went inside, all thru that day whenever Xander would catch sight of Willow he would get a very hard expression on his face and turn around. Willow would get very down each time this happened, cause it hurt to have your oldest friend since kindergarten not talking to you and really hating you. Buffy and Cordelia didn’t care if Xander turned around when he saw them, they preferred it that he wasn’t in there presents. An when they had a class together they would make fun of him and say some of the most hateful things were only he could hear them. Xander would say things back to them, but they didn’t seem to care what he said to them. Over the next few days Giles watched as them as they ignored each other, and how it hurt Willow and Xander, Buffy and Cordelia didn’t seem to be affected by any of it. Giles sees Xander the next morning staggering into school. Giles grabs him before Snyder catches him; he puts him in his office.

“Xander, what are you thinking? Coming to school drunk, and if I’m not mistaking high? Do you want to get expelled from school? This is your last year, you have worked real hard.” said Giles as he hand him a cup of tea and had him drink it.

“Who cares, like Buffy and them say; I’m nothing. Thanks for the tea, G-man but I got to get to class.” said Xander as he got up from the couch, just as Snyder walked in to the library.

“Mr. Harris, what a surprise. And just were is your pass?” asked Snyder with a smirk on his face. Xander opened his mouth to say something but Giles started talk first.

“Mr. Harris was not feeling well, I gave him some tea and had him lay down for a few minutes, I have all ready called an talked to his first period teacher.” said Giles, who just looked down at Snyder, daring him to say something to him. Snyder just snared at him a turned around.

“Oh, there is a teachers meeting this afternoon, be there Mr. Giles. Four o’clock.” said Snyder as he walked out of the library. Xander just stood there, looking at Giles.

“Xander, the girls maybe mad at you. But your not nothing, you happen to be a very bright young man. Xander, you can always come a talk to me if you need to. Your not alone.” said Giles, but Xander just shrugged his shoulders, and turned to walk away, but Giles stopped him.

“Xander, getting drunk and high is not going to solve any of your problems it’d just going to cause you more problems in the long run. Take it from some one who has seen it time and again, a number of my friends from when I was at school went that road. And a couple of them never made it off, one was a boy that I had known since we were four years old, by the time that we were twenty-six he was dead, overdose of PCP. Xander, please don’t let that happen to you.” said Giles, Xander just looked away.

“Don’t worry G-man, I’m not doing anything. I just got a little drunk last night, I’m fine. But thanks for being worried.” said Xander as he walked out of the library, he turned when he heard Giles sigh and go back in his office.

“Cause no one else ever has.” whispers Xander, as he walks to class. Over the next few days Xander got into a number of yelling matches with a number of the kids at the school. Buffy and Cordelia kept taunting him and Willow tried to talk to him a few times, but finally she stopped trying. About a week after school started Buffy, Cordelia and Willow were in the library researching the latest big bad when Cordelia brought up Xander.

“Buffy, you will never guess what I heard to day?” said Cordelia as she tried to read thru a book on demons, that was in Latin.

“What?” asked Buffy who was also trying to read a book this time on myths that was in German.

“I hear from one of the guy’s on the football team that Xander has been doing drugs, even right here at school.” said Cordelia as she shut the book that she had been reading.

“No way?! Wow, how pathetic can you get? It’s a good thing that we stopped hanging out with him when we did then.” said Buffy as she too closed her book; she looked up as someone slammed their book closed.

“Buffy, do you not think that just maybe that it was your tossing Xander out of the group that pushed him to do drugs?” asked Giles as he looked down at her, his book that he had been reading closed and pushed back from him.

“No, I mean come on, so where not his friends no more, like get over it. That is just an excuse Giles, him just trying to blame me.” said Buffy as she looked at Cordelia, who was nodding her head in agreement. Then over at Willow, who just shrugged her shoulders at Buffy.

“Buffy you do not understand what I’m saying. Xander before he was tossed out of the group, and the three of you stopped talking to him, he was… he was a happy young man. He was doing well in school, now not more then three months later he is a angry young man, his grades have slipped. Do you not think that what you did might have had the slightest effect on him?” asked Giles as he walked towards Buffy. Buffy just looked at Giles.

“No. Giles, he is just a pathetic loser who needs to learn to grow up.” said Buffy as she stood up along with Cordelia.

“Well, I hope that he doesn’t go the road of a couple of friends of mine from Eton did. I once knew a boy; he had everything going for him. He was the heir to a very large fortune; he was one day to become a Earl. But like so many of our peers, he was an only child, and had been trained from birth to be a Earl. He felt like there was no one that understood him, so when he was thirteen he started drinking and by the time that he died when he was twenty-six he had done a number of different drugs. He left his mother, father, two sons, and a wife. And yet Ethan, me and two other people were the only ones that were at his funeral. And do you want to know why, because he was an embarrassment to his family, the same family that had never taken the time to find out why he did what he did. Do you know what it feels like to see someone who holds such promise crash and burn like that? I have; I have a number of times. This time it was my cousin David, we had grown up together. He had wanted to be rock musician but his father told him that he was to be Earl and that was all that he needed to be, that he didn’t have time to play at something. Now Xander and David might not have that much in common, but they have a few things in common I think. I believe that Xander feels that helping you Buffy was something that he had to do, that it was maybe the one thing that he was good at. Then you told him that he wasn’t and that he was useless, you destroyed his self esteem. And you told him that the world would be better off with out him. What do you think that his response to that should be.” said Giles as he turned and went into his office leaving the girls gapping at his retreating back. They looked at one another, then at the closed office door and then back at each other.

“Do you think that he’s right? Could our being mean to Xander have caused him to start acting the way that he has been acting?” asked Willow as she thought about what she had seen the other night.

{FLASHBACK}

Willow was up getting a glass of water, she looked out the kitchen window. She saw Xander staggering up to his house; he looked like he had been drinking. He turned to look at Willow’s house, oh how she missed the days when he would come over an visit. His front door was opened before he could open it, Willow saw Xander’s dad standing there. Willow got worried at that; she knew that Mr. Harris was a very mean man most of the time. Xander looked like he said something, and then pushed his way into the house. A few minutes later Willow heard yelling coming from Xander’s house. She went to the door; she was going to make sure that Xander was alright, even if he hated her. But there was no more yelling an she knew that Xander was ok. She missed her friend, she missed her Xander.

{END FLASHBACK}

Willow looked at the other two girls, but they just shook their heads.

“No, Willow, of course not. Xander is just doing what a pathetic loser would have done, Giles is just trying to guilt trip us into being nice to Xander, Xander has probable been bothering him is all.” said Cordelia as she got up from the table, she grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair and put it on.

“Yeah, Willow. Xander’s not having any problems, if anything I think that he is just showing the rest of us what he has been doing for a long time now, that’s all. Now come on, were going to the Bronze, want to come along?” asked Buffy as she got up from the table and grabbed her bag from the floor. Willow just shook her head.

“No, I’m going to work a bit more then I’m going to go home. See you guy’s tomorrow.” said Willow as they left, then she closed her book and went to Giles’s office; she knocked and wait for him to tell her to come in. She walked in, Giles was reading a book, and she couldn’t see the title.

“Giles, how sure are you that Xander is acting this way because of what we did?” asked Willow as she set down on the couch in his office. Giles sat his book down and turned towards her.

“I think that I’m a hundred percent right. Why?” asked Giles as he studied Willow, she was very smart, had she picked up on something that he had not.

“Is it true that Xander is doing drugs?” asked Willow instead of answer Giles questions. Giles could see the hope in her eyes wishing that he was wrong, but knowing that he was right.

“Yes it’s true that he is doing drugs. Willow, you didn’t answer my question, why? You, Buffy and Cordelia have all been taking turns hurting him, why the concern about him?” asked Giles as he studied Willow’s face, what he saw there confuse him. She was scared an concerned but she was also puzzled, he could see it all in the way that she held her body and her eyes.

“Giles, Xander has been my best friend since I was five. This is the first time that we have had a fight, a big fight you know, did you know that. Twelve years, that’s how long we have been friends, twelve years with out a big fight. You know that this is the longest that I have ever gone with out talking to him, Giles, I miss my Xander.” cried Willow as she put her head in her hands, Giles got up and went over to her, he knelt down in front of her. Taking her shin in his hand he tilted it up.

“Willow, you don’t need to tell me this, you need to tell Xander this.” said Giles as he looked into her eyes, he could see the pain in them.

“I’ve tried, he wont talk to me, I’ve been trying all summer.” said Willow as she wiped her eyes and sniffled. Giles nodded as he got up and went back to his seat.

“Well then you will just have to keep trying, won’t you.” said Giles with a smile as Willow nodded and got up.

“Thanks Giles, your right. If I want to show Xander that I’m sorry for what I’ve done then I need to work for it, I’ll just keep at it till he sees that I’m sorry. See tomorrow Giles.” said Willow as she walked out of his office and the library, Giles just smiled. Maybe Xander wouldn’t fall after all, just maybe Willow will be there when he stumbles and will catch him.