The Proposal of Buffy Summers

Buffy Summers walks up the stairs leading towards her house. She’s nervous, and a little worried about what her mother is going to say. She was gone for a lot longer then she planned, and she knew her mother and sister would be up by now. ‘I’m probably going to be in so much trouble. But hey, I’m eighteen so she can’t ground me,’ she thinks as she walks up the stairs to the porch and pulls her key from her pocket. Something catches her eye and she looks down at her hand, and sees the ring still on her finger.


‘Hmm, better take this off,’ she thinks as she very carefully slips it off and puts it in her pocket. ‘I know I said I was never going to take it off, but Mom finding out now would ruin the plan.’ After another long silence under the tree they came up with a little plan of how they would tell their parents. ‘And if Mom finds out now it’ll ruin everything.’ She opens the door with a little sigh. She doesn’t even have enough time to close the door before her mother rushes in from the kitchen. At first the woman looks scared, but then relief washes over her face.


“Oh thank God.” ‘Well, at least she’s happy to see me. Oh wait, nevermind. Here comes the anger.’ “Where the hell have you been Buffy? Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?” ‘Apparently not,’ she thinks and shuts the door. She tries really hard not to sigh. She wants to tell her mother everything that happened, but she can’t. It’ll ruin absolutely everything if she lets anything slip now. ‘I’ve never been a good liar though. I hope I can make this convincing.’


“I’m sorry. I went for a little walk. I didn’t think I would be gone that long. I just needed to clear my head.” At the angry look her mother continues to give her, Buffy gets a little mad. “I’m eighteen years old Mom, I can go out for a walk if I want to.” Joyce takes a closer look at her daughter’s face, and she can see how tired and frustrated the young woman really is. She bites back her anger and her worry, and just focuses on the fact that Buffy is ok.


“I know dear, but next time, just leave a note, ok? Or at least leave your cell phone on. I didn’t buy you that thing so you could turn it off when you don’t want to be found.” Buffy nods her head and yawns a very wide and loud yawn. Joyce rubs her daughter on the back and gives her a little hug. “Why don’t you go on upstairs and get some rest? I’ll wake you up for lunch, ok?” Buffy nods her head and slowly walks up the stairs. She’s tired, and wants to curl up under the covers, but she’s happy.


She walks into her room, and she’s very happy to be back. ‘Not that being with Faith is bad, but I really want to curl up under the covers and sleep for a couple days,’ she thinks as she slips her shoes off. She collapses down onto the bed and looks up at the ceiling. She takes a minute to try and clear her mind, but she can’t. There are so many thoughts running around making it impossible to fall asleep. She smiles when she remembers the feel of Faith slipping the ring onto her finger. ‘I feel so bad that I have to take it off. But it’s for the best. If Mom sees it she’s going to know it’s more then a promise ring.’


‘Now, getting to the most important question of them all: am I going to take Faith’s last name? Traditionally the wife takes the husband’s last name, and Faith is the butcher of the two of us, but that doesn’t mean I have to take her last name. Maybe we could keep our last names but just add the Mrs. to them. Or maybe we can do the hyphen thing. Like she could be Mrs. Lane-Summers and I could be Mrs. Summers-Lehane. You know adults never tell you how much thinking is required when planning a wedding. All of these decisions are going to give me a migraine.’


She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the little ring. She gently holds it by the band between her index finger and thumb like it’s the most delicate thing on the planet. She lightly rocks it back and forth and watches as the light makes the diamond sparkle. She smiles a very soft smile, and looks at the ring, her ring, with admiration. She knows nothing about the quality of diamonds or rings. But to her this is the most precious jewel in the world, and priceless, and nothing is going to take it away from her.


“What’s this?” she hears her sister’s voice as the ring is snatched out of her hand. ‘Fuck! That scared me. I didn’t even know she was standing there. Dammit Dawn! She almost gave me a heart attack,’ she thinks and sits up in the bed. She watches as her sister inspects her ring like she’s trying to determine its value or something. “It’s pretty. Where did you get it? I’ve never seen you wear this before.” ‘Ok, I can either try as hard as I can to lie my way out of this and she’ll tell Mom about it because she’s a little snitch. Or I can let her know what’s going on and make her promise not to tell. She’s good about secrets when she’s in on them.’


“If I tell you, you have to swear on your life not to tell anyone,” she says in the most serious tone she can muster. “Close the door.” She watches as Dawn runs over to the door and closes it as quietly as she can. Then her little sister runs back over to the bed and sits down. Buffy sits up and gently takes the ring out of her sister’s hand. She holds it up so both of them can see it, and she smiles when the diamond sparkles in the morning light. “At like two in the morning Faith came in here-”


“Faith’s back? When did Faith get back?” Dawn interrupts in a very excited tone. It’s not secret that the younger brunette is completely infatuated with the older one. ‘Please tell me I wasn’t that annoying when I was a kid,’ she thinks and tries to be patient. She sighs and Dawn picks up on the frustrated vibe. “Sorry, I’ll be quiet.” Buffy relaxes, and forces herself to calm down. ‘You’re just tired. Don’t take it out on Dawn.’


“Anyway, Faith climbed through my window a little after I went to bed. She gave this big speech about how she was sorry for just taking off, and for fighting with me. She told me she was just scared she was going to lose me. Then she said that she isn’t going to ask me to stay here in Sunnydale. That Northwestern is a great school and I should go.” Dawn’s facial expression goes from excited to sad at that. The thought of her sister and someone else having sex, and having to see it on a couple of occasions is gross, but she thinks Buffy and Faith make great couple and the thought of them breaking up is a sad one.


“So she got down on one knee,” Buffy’s smile gets bigger as she remembers everything that Faith did. “She opened up this little black box, and it had this ring inside.” She looks at the ring and moves it back and forth, and it sparkles even more. “Then she asked me if she could be apart of my future, and she said ‘Buffy Ann Summers will you marry me?’” She’s quiet as she watches her sister digest the news. She isn’t too sure what to expect, and she’s happy, and a little relieved to see her sister excited again. Not to mention sitting on the edge of her seat wanting to hear the rest of the story.


“What happened then? What did you say? What did she say? Come on, don’t hold out on me now.” ‘Wow, I didn’t thin she would care so much.’ Buffy smiles and tries to hold back the big yawn but it’s useless. She watches as her sister shows a lot of patience and she realizes right here and now that Dawnie isn’t the little five-year-old pest that follows her around and tattles on her whenever she can. ‘Now she’s a twelve-year-old little pest who’s stating to like boys. When did this happen?’


“Then she told me to take a couple of days to think about it, she kissed me, and she left.” Dawn gets this look on her face like ‘are you kidding me? That’s it?’ Buffy can’t help but laugh and she sets the little ring down on her bedside table. “I laid here for a while, but I couldn’t sleep. I just couldn’t stop thinking about everything. So I got up, got dressed, and called her on her phone. We met at the park, and for a while we just held each other. I missed her so much I just wanted to sit there, and have her hold me.”


“Awww, you’re so cheesy,” the pre-teen says with a mischievous smile on her face. Buffy takes the extra pillow she keeps on her bed and throws it at her sister. Dawn catches it and laughs a little bit. “Ok, ok, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Ok, so what happened then?” Buffy laughs a little at the girl’s impatience, and she sighs. Her eyelids feel like they’re going to drop, and she isn’t sure if she can keep going with the story. ‘But I have to try or she’ll keep bugging me until I tell her.’


“We talked about some things. Whether or not she’s going to go with me to Northwestern, and if she’s going to go school, when we’re going to married if I said yes, and things like that. I thought getting her to talk about it was going to be hard because she was so…stubborn about talking before, but she’s grown up a lot in the last couple of days. Anyway, we talked about a few of the details, I don’t want to explain it all now, but I said yes.” Dawn lets out a very high pitched squeal and Buffy swears her ears are bleeding. The pre-teen throws herself onto her older sister and hugs her for all she’s worth.


“This is so cool! Faith’s going to be my sister-in-law!” ‘Yes, we’re all thrilled about that. No, ‘hey this is so cool because my big sister has found someone to love for the rest of her life’. No it’s none of that. It’s always about Faith with her. Wait a minute, am I jealous? Oh my God, I’m jealous of Faith. Ok, I need to calm down before this gets completely out of hand. How long have I been jealous of Faith? Ok, don’t obsess or you’ll drive yourself insane.’ “So when’s the wedding? Did you talk about any of the details? Can I be a bride’s maid?” She unlocks her death grip and sits back on the bed. ‘Jeez, who slipped the crack into her Coco Puffs this morning?’


“We haven’t talked about the details yet. We’re not sure exactly when it’s going to be, but we’re going to wait a couple of years after I’m done with school. That way we’ll be able to pay for it ourselves.” She gets a sad look on her face and watches as Dawn’s eyebrows furrow with curiosity. “Traditionally the father of the bride is supposed to pay for the wedding, but I’ll be lucky if Dad walks me down the isle. You know he doesn’t think my relationship with Faith is serious.” Dawn nods her head and tries not to think back to the couple of arguments the blonde and their father had gotten into the summer they spent with him in L.A.


“And yes, Dawnie, you can be one of my bride’s maids. But you can’t complain about the dress.” She gets an evil smirk on her face but Dawn just rolls her big blue eyes. Buffy yawns a very wide yawn and her eyes close for a few seconds. She starts to drift off but Dawn moving on the bed startles her away. “I’m really tired, Dawn, I need to get some sleep.” The young brunette just nods her head and stands up from the bed. She starts to walk towards the door but the blonde stops her by speaking. “Remember, you can’t tell anyone. Promise?”


“Yeah, I promise. I’ll see you later.” She leaves the room and quietly closes the door behind her. The blond takes off her bra- ‘Because who actually enjoys sleeping in a bra?’- and then curls up under the covers. ‘Let’s see, what is my dress going to look like? It’s going to be white of course. Or maybe an off white because white isn’t exactly true. Hell no it isn’t’, she thinks as she reaches over and puts the ring inside of her bedside table just in case her mother walks in the room while she’s sleeping. It doesn’t take her long to fall into a heavy sleep with nothing in her dreams but Faith.