The Courtship of Buffy Summers

“Mom this so isn’t fair,” Buffy says and follows her mom from the living room into the kitchen. “It isn’t my fault Dawn’s not old enough to go by herself. Why do I have to play tour guide?” It’s been two days since the bubbly blonde, and her darker counterpart had their little chat in the back of Faith’s truck. Since the chat happened on a Friday, and it’s now Sunday the blonde hasn’t had a chance to talk with Faith. She’s afraid the slightly younger girl might withdraw and regret telling her all of that personal stuff.


But that also means it’s also been five days since Dawn moved into the house. She’s made a couple friends at school, and they made plans to go to downtown Sunnydale where all of the shops are. The problem is Janice’s mom had to cancel because of work related reasons. Joyce understood because in the past she’s had to cancel as a chaperone because of work. But when she saw how upset Dawn got when she heard the news she called Janice’s mom back and worked something else out.


“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you tell Dawn on Tuesday that you’d give her a tour of Sunnydale this weekend?” ‘Crap, she heard that? I wasn’t serious I was just trying to make her feel better. I swear you say one nice thing and it comes back to bite you in the ass.’ “So I suggest you suck it up and ‘play tour guide’, if you want me to rethink the length of your groundation.” ‘She’s going to rethink it? Yes!’


“Ok, Mom, I’ll play tour guide.” Then a thought comes to her mind that’s so brilliant she wants to sit back and admire herself for the genius idea. “Look, I’m not complaining or anything, but if I have to spend all afternoon with a couple of fifth graders, then can I have a friend there too so I won’t collapse from complete boredom?” ‘Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.’ She watches as her mom thinks about it and by how relaxed she looks Buffy can tell the answer is most likely going to be yes.


“I don’t see a problem with it.” Buffy squeals and gives her mom a big hug, and a somewhat sloppy kiss on the cheek. She starts to run out of the room so she can call Faith’s cell phone and tell the other girl about her brilliant plan. “But it can’t be Faith.” She stops dead in her tracks and turns around very slowly. She has a look of shock on her face that Joyce is finding very hard not to laugh at.


“Why not? You said I can take a friend. Faith’s a friend. Yeah, she’s my girlfriend but she’s also a friend.” ‘Damn, why is Mom being so stubborn about this whole ‘no seeing Faith’ thing. It’s like she doesn’t want me to have any fun at all.’ She takes a couple of steps closer to her mother as she waits for an answer.


“Buffy, I know this concept is hard for you to wrap your mind around, but I was once a teenager. And I know that if Faith comes along you two might sneak off together and leave your sister and her friend by themselves so you and Faith can have some fun of your own.” ‘What exactly is she implying? Because I don’t like it.’ Buffy tries to stay calm but it’s pretty hard. ‘It’s like she doesn’t trust me or something.’ Well, you have lied to her in the past, she has her reasons for being suspicious. ‘That is so totally different.’ How? ‘Well for one Dawn wasn’t anywhere near us so there was no chance of us getting caught.’


“So you’re saying you don’t trust me?” she asks laying down a guilt card. “I know I shouldn’t have let Faith in my room and I’m being punished for that now. But you can trust me, Mom. I’m not going to sneak off with her and leave Dawnie and her friend alone. Sunnydale is small but it has it’s fair share of weirdoes.” ‘That’s right, play at her fears. Child abduction is something every parent fears.’ “And Faith can help me keep an eye on them so they won’t try to ditch us. Dawn’s done that before.” She can see the wheels turning in her mother’s head and she tries not to smile.


“Will all four of you fit in Faith’s truck?” her mom asks and starts cleaning the potatoes she’s going to bake for dinner. Buffy thinks about it for a few seconds. Will they fit in Faith’s truck? If four teenagers can fit inside it to go to a dance then two teenagers and two fifth graders should be able to.


“Yeah, we can all fit. And if we don’t we can always tie Dawn to the hood of the truck like a deer.” Joyce gives her daughter a very disapproving look and Buffy puts her hands up in mock-surrender. “I’m just kidding. This way we can be home sooner. I can have Faith drop Janice off at her house first and then she can drop us off here.” Then she gets another idea in her mind. She wants to bring it up because it has been a few days since they last talked about it, and Joyce seems to have forgotten all about it. ‘But I could be asking for too much too soon. She could reconsider everything. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take.’


“You know, Mom, if Faith is going to be playing chauffeur and babysitter then maybe we should invite her over for dinner as a nice way of saying thank you.” Joyce stops what she’s doing and gives her daughter a sidelong glance. “She’ll do it just to be nice, she doesn’t need any motivation or anything but it would be nice to show her how much we appreciate her help.” Buffy watches as her mom sighs and goes back to cleaning the potatoes.


“I guess.” Buffy squeals and starts jumping up and down in a very girly way. “But I have a few rules for you.” ‘Fuck, I knew there’d be a catch.’ “You two are not allowed to go upstairs together.” ‘Understandable.’ “And you will be on your best behavior, and that means no making out.” ‘A little less understandable.’ “And if Dawn wants to hang out with you, you won’t complain, or call her names, or tell her to leave.” ‘Ok, that’s going too far.’ “If you argue with me I’ll call Janice’s mom and cancel the entire trip, and neither of you will be going to the mall.” ‘And if she does that and Dawn finds out it was because of me she’ll freak out.’


“You drive a hard bargain, but ok. We won’t act like delinquents, and we’ll let Dawn hang out with us if she wants to. Thanks Mom, you’re the best.” She feels like she has to add that even though she doesn’t believe it’s true. She gives her mom another kiss on the cheek and scampers off to call Faith. The phone isn’t in it’s cradle, however. She searches the entire downstairs before she heads upstairs thinking maybe she left it in her room. It’s not in there though. It’s in Dawn’s room, and the ten-year-old is on it talking to Janice and they’re going on and on about how much fun tomorrow is going to be.


“Alright runt I need the phone. Say goodbye to your little friend.” Buffy can tell that Dawn is going to argue with her, but her mother’s words from earlier come floating into her mind. ‘She won’t be able to say no once I tell her what mom said.’ “Look, Mom said if I don’t behave then she won’t let me go out tomorrow, and if I can’t go out then your little shopping trip gets cancelled. So say goodbye to whoever you’re talking to, and hand over the phone because if Mom hears us arguing then we’re both screwed.” The ten-year-old preteen thinks about it for a few seconds but knows she doesn’t have any other options.


“Janice I have to go. My sister’s about to throw a fit. I’ll see you tomorrow at school. Bye.” She hangs up and hands the phone to Buffy. “You have a cell phone, you know. Why didn’t you just use that?” Buffy rolls her eyes and starts dialing the number, and walking away from the younger girl at the same time. “And haven’t you ever heard of knocking? You always freak out whenever I go in your room without asking first.” Buffy has to bite her tongue to stop herself from fighting back.


“Hello?” Buffy hears when Faith finally answers her phone. ‘Wait, that’s not Faith’s voice. Who the hell is answering Faith’s phone?’ “Hello anyone there?” The girl pauses and waits and Buffy tries to recognize the voice, but she can’t. She has no idea who has answered her girlfriend’s cell phone. “I’m hanging up if you don’t say anything in the next three seconds.” That snaps Buffy out of her little shock.


“Sorry, is Faith there? This is Buffy.” ‘Why did I tell this chick my name? Oh well, doesn’t really matter now.’ The blonde has never felt this kind of panic before. It’s an odd mix of fear, anger, and denial. Fear that Faith might be cheating on her, anger that Faith might be cheating on her, and denial because Buffy doesn’t want to believe that Faith might be cheating on her. ‘Don’t jump to any conclusions. Just wait until you talk to her about it.’


“No, she isn’t. But I’ll tell her you called.” Before Buffy can say anything the girl hangs up. Buffy presses the end button and stares at the phone for a few seconds. ‘Did that really just happen? Did someone else really just answer Faith’s phone and then hang up on me? And she sounded a little breathless. What was she doing?’ Even though she keeps telling herself not to jump to conclusions, they jump to her. Images of Faith doing things with other girls that would cause them to be breathless start popping into her mind. And these aren’t the harmless fantasies she sometimes has when she’s bored.


Buffy wants to call Willow and rant to her about it just to get it off her chest, and hopefully get some best friend reassurance, but she can’t do that for two reasons. One, if her mom catches her talking on the phone and she isn’t asking Faith if she’ll give the girls a ride, then she’ll be grounded for even longer. Two, if she calls Willow and tells the redhead that she thinks Faith is cheating on her then she’ll get a fat ‘I told you so’. And having this rubbed in her face is the last thing she needs right now.


“Are you done on the phone yet? I need to call Maggie,” she hears Dawn say from her bedroom door. ‘Crap, I forgot to shut the door.’ “What’s wrong?” Buffy didn’t even realize that she had tears in her eyes or that her face was getting a little blotchy. She also has the whole Rudolph thing going on. Buffy sniffles and wipes at her eyes. Then she hands the phone to Dawn and lays down on her bed.


“I’m fine. I just don’t feel so good right now.” It isn’t a lie, she doesn’t feel good. If Faith is cheating on her then everyone at school is going to find out about it. Which means Willow and Xander are both going to be singing the ‘I told you so’ song. Being wrong is a horrible feeling. Being wrong about trusting someone is even worst, especially when you were warned. “Will you tell Mom I’m not hungry and I don’t want to come down for dinner?” Dawn is about to leave when the Summers’ stubbornness starts to kick in.


“Come on, Buffy you can tell me. I’m sure it’s not that horrible anyway.” ‘She probably just can’t decide what outfit to wear tomorrow, and she wants to look special for Faith.’ Dawn sits down on the edge of the bed and is surprised that her older sister hasn’t yelled at her to get out, or called her runt and said that she won’t understand because she’s too young. ‘Everybody thinks I’m too young. But I’m not stupid, I get stuff.’ To her surprise Buffy actually rolls over on the bed and faces her. More tears have appeared in her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall.


“Close the door,” the blonde says and sits up a little bit. She leans against her headboard and watches as Dawn jumps off the bed and quietly closes the door. Then the adolescent runs back over, and sits back down on the bed, this time closer to the blonde instead of being right on the edge. ‘I need to talk to someone just to vent, and if Dawn thinks I’m letting her in on a big secret and only trusting her with it then she won’t tell anyone.’ The blonde sighs a little and wipes at her eyes again. ‘My makeup is so screwed.’


“You can’t tell anyone about this, ok? Not even Mom.” Dawn nods her head and swears on the life of her hamster that she won’t tell anyone. And she does love that hamster. “I called Faith’s cell phone to ask if she’ll give us a ride tomorrow so we won’t have to walk to the mall.” ‘I can’t believe Mom said she could do that. This is such crap.’ “And someone else answered her phone. I don’t know who she was, but she said she’d have Faith call me back and then she hung up. She sounded like she was in a hurry to get off the phone.” Being only ten Dawn doesn’t fully understand why her sister is so upset.


“Maybe she was just busy.” Buffy can’t help but laugh a little bit at Dawn’s naivety. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of. That she was busy having sex with my girlfriend.’ Buffy sees that Dawn looks a little frustrated and she knows it’s because she laughed.


“I’m sorry, Dawn, I didn’t mean to laugh.” The younger girl knows that Buffy is serious because she actually said her name. She didn’t call her Dawnie, or brat, or runt. “It’s just, her being busy is what I’m afraid of.” She knows she needs to explain it better because her ten-year-old sister isn’t going to get it. “She sounded a little breathless, so I think she was busy, and by busy I mean I think she was doing something with Faith. Like making out, or having sex.” She watches as Dawn’s big blue eyes get even bigger.


“What are you going to do about it?” she asks and Buffy just shrugs her shoulders. Infidelity is what broke her family apart and she’ll be damned before she lets her sister do nothing when she thinks her girlfriend might be cheating on her. “Buffy you can’t let her get away with it. If she’s cheating on you then you have to break up with her.” Buffy looks into her little sister’s eyes and really looks at her. ‘When did she get so grown up and knowledgeable? I guess I was too into myself to really pay attention.’


“I’m not going to let her get away with it. But that girl could have been anyone, doing anything. Just because she sounded breathless and answered Faith’s phone it doesn’t mean she was cheating on me. I’m just overreacting because Faith doesn’t have a very clean past, and I know that her being faithful to me has got to be hard for her.” Dawn wants to know exactly what Buffy is talking she has a feeling that her sister won’t tell her even if she asks nicely. “I’ll talk to her about it tomorrow. And you can’t be mean to her. If you treat her like a criminal then she’s going to suspect something. So be nice, ok?” Dawn nods her head and sighs a little. ‘I hope Faith isn’t cheating. I don’t really like Buffy, but I want her to be happy. And so far Faith has made her happy. If she’s cheating then Buffy will never be happy again.'