The Proposal of Buffy Summers

“Buffy?” the slightly confused voice barely makes a blip on the blonde’s radar. She’s too stunned, and too shocked to see anything other then that little ring in the little black box. She can’t breathe, she can’t talk, and she can’t hear anything. All she can do is stare with wide eyes. “Buffy can you hear me?” There’s another pause and when Faith lightly shakes Buffy’s shoulder it snaps the blonde out of her trace.


She looks up at the brunette, tears are flowing down her cheeks, and her lips are trembling very hard. She has to take a few minutes to compose herself. ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ she thinks. But these aren’t the normal types of ‘oh my God’s’ she usually does. These aren’t the passionate mumbles of their love making. These are the frantic space fillers of a person who doesn’t even know what to think, let alone verbally communicate with someone else. Illinois


“You don’t have to answer me right away. I know this is huge and you need to think about it,” Faith says and Buffy watches as she closes the box and sets it down on the nightstand. “So just take a couple of days and when you have your answer we’ll talk, ok?” She doesn’t wait for Buffy to say anything. She leans forward and leaves a small peck on the still trembling pink lips, and then she climbs back out the window, and the only trace of her being here is the little black box mocking Buffy’s existence.


‘Oh my God,’ she thinks and with a trembling hand she reaches out and carefully picks up the little black box. ‘It’s so small and light, but at the same time it’s huge.’ She opens up the lid and there’s a small snap sound that seems to echo in her room. She just stares at the ring inside and everything else around her seems to melt away. She thinks about Faith’s speech, and that look in her eyes when she said those four words. Four words that on their own don’t mean much, but when put together create a life changing event.


‘Yeah you can say that again.’ Four words that on their- ‘I didn’t mean it literally. Are you trying to make me mad?’ No. ‘Well you are. This is a huge thing that I need to think about and I can’t do that with you being an annoying jackass.’ She closes the box and starts to put it back on the nightstand, but then she decides against it. Curiosity wins and she opens up the box and very slowly takes the ring out. She uses her index finger and thumb to hold it by the band, and she swishes it back and forth so that the diamond sparkles in the light. ‘It’s so beautiful, even if it isn’t very big. I wonder what it would look like if….’


She very slowly slips the ring onto her left ring finger, and then holds her hand out flat to get a better look. She gets a small smile on her face at the sight of the ring on her hand. She stands up and rushes over to her full length mirror. She holds her hand up so she can see the reflection of her ring and she likes it even better. It just…fits her. ‘The look is just right, the size is just right. She got me the perfect ring,’ she thinks and then takes it off. She walks back over to her bed and sits down on the edge.


‘But what am I going to do? What are we going to do? I thought we were broken up and then she disappears for three days and comes back to propose. How completely insane is that? I love her so much but I’m only eighteen. I didn’t think I would get married until my late twenties, maybe even my early thirties. I’m still a teenager, with school to worry about, and a whole life to plan. Bringing my grades home to my wife so she can be proud of me just doesn’t sound right.’ She puts the ring back in the box and closes it. She turns off her lamp and lays down in her bed, but all she can do is stare at the little black box.


‘Ok, so lets just think about this rationally. Just because she proposed it doesn’t mean we have to have a wedding right away. We could wait until after we graduate college. Is she even going to college? Has she given any of this any thought at all or did she just give into some impulse that said the only way to save our relationship is to propose to me? I wish she were here so we can talk about all of this. She didn’t give me enough time to recover from the shock. This is just like her. She comes in and makes a big mess and leaves so she can avoid the clean up.’


‘Alright, Buffy just calm down. There’s no need to talk about her like that. You’re just upset because you feel so lost. And why am I talking to myself in third person?’ She can’t make up her mind. There are just too many questions that she doesn’t have the answers to. The only person who can give them to her is Faith. She throws the covers off her body and jumps out of bed. She flicks the lamp on and quietly rushes over to her dresser. She strips of her nightclothes and pulls on some jeans, and socks. Then she puts on a bra, and a shirt, and her sneakers.


There’s no time to worry about make-up as she grabs the box off the nightstand, puts her house key, and cell phone in her pocket, and turns out the light. She waits for her eyes to adjust to the darkness so she won’t trip over anything. Then she very quietly walks out of her room and looks over at her mother’s bedroom door. ‘The lights off, that’s good. It’ll make this whole sneaking out thing much easier.’ She tiptoes down the stairs and by the time she reaches the front door her adrenaline is pumping, and her heart is beating wildly. ‘I’m just leaving for a little while. I don’t understand why I’m acting this way.’


She unlocks the door and opens it up. The air is warm, and there’s a gentle breeze lightly moving through the trees, and flowers in front of her house. She doesn’t waste any time because she doesn’t know where Faith is and she’ll have to track her down. ‘Or I can just live in this century and use the technology. Track her down? Who do you think I am Sherlock Holmes?’ She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket as she walks down the pathway towards the sidewalk. She dials a number she knows by heart and puts the tiny phone up to her ear and listens to the ringing.


“Hello?” ‘Wow she sounds tired. I wonder how much sleep she’s gotten in the last couple of days,’ she thinks as she tries to think of something to say. “B I know it’s you, I have caller I.D.” ‘Ok, so what am I supposed to say? Why didn’t I think this through? I need to start coming up with plans before I act, maybe that would help.’ She sighs a deep sigh and keeps walking down the sidewalk.


“Faith,” she says in a whisper. She can practically feel the other girl tense up on the other line. ‘She probably thinks I’m going to tell her no. Well what am I going to tell her?’ She doesn’t really pay attention as she passes house after house as she heads towards her destination. “Meet me at the park, ok? I need to talk to you, but I don’t want to do it over the phone.” She can hear shuffling in the background. ‘She’s probably getting dressed already.’


“Ok, B. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Are you gonna be at the tree or the bench?” There are two spots that they always go to whenever they go to the park. There’s a certain bench that they would hang out at. It isn’t as dirty as the others in the park, and it’s a little more secluded then the rest of the benches in the park. The other place they sit and just spend some quiet time together is under the very large oak tree.


“The tree,” she says with a little smile on her face. There are many good memories that they made under that tree, and just thinking about them makes her feel a lot less stressed. They say their goodbyes and hang out. Buffy continues to walk down the sidewalks of Sunnydale towards the park. It won’t take long to get their and she really can’t wait. Even if Faith hurt her, and put her through hell by taking off she really wants to see her again. She wants to be held by the other girl, and feel safe even if it’s only for a few minutes.


She rushes over to the park, and when she gets to the tree Faith is already there. A wave of excitement falls over the little blonde. She wants to squeal with joy and run over to the brunette and wrap her up in a big hug, but she can’t. She doesn’t want to look like a dork, and she isn’t too sure if Faith was completely serious about the marriage proposal. ‘Sure she said it, but does she really want to marry me?’ She walks up to the brunette and she can tell just by looking that Faith is on the verge of a nervous break down. ‘Excuse me, they’re called major depressive episodes. We’ve been over this.’


“Hey,” she says and tries to sound as casual as possible. Faith nods a little, but she doesn’t say anything. ‘Wow, she must be really, really nervous.’ She fights the urge for as long as possible but eventually it wins. She throws herself at Faith and wraps her arms around the other girl’s neck. She presses her body against the brunette’s as much as possible. She won’t admit how much she’s missed feeling the brunette girl’s body, but she’s willing to let her actions speak the words she won’t say.


“Miss me B?” Faith asks with a little chuckle in her voice. She wraps her arms around the blonde’s back, and smiles when she feels the other girl nod her head. They share a moment of silence. Both of them forget about all of the problems they’ve had over the last couple of months. For the moment they’re both content to just hold each other, and not say anything at all. It isn’t long before the moment passes and Faith starts to get nervous again. She thought Buffy would take a couple days at least to think about what she said. She hadn’t been gone for more then an hour before she got that call.


“So what did she wanna talk about?” she asks and it rips the blonde out of the moment. Buffy pulls back from the hug and looks into Faith’s dark brown eyes. She wants so badly to get lost in them like she’s done a million times before, but she knows that they have more important things to do right now. She takes a step back and suddenly has no idea what she wants to say. ‘But I can’t just leave her hanging. She looks like she’s about to break down or something.’


“I just wanted to see you. You took off and I thought I’d never see you again,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. She looks up at the night sky and is surprised at how large the moon looks. She can see perfectly in the pale light, and she’s a little sad that this meeting isn’t of the romantic kind. “Do you think we can just forget about all the pressure, and fighting, and decisions, and all the other bullshit, and just be us? I missed you like crazy and I just want to sit with you for a while. Can we do that?”


She watches the other girl mull that over for a minute or two. The silence is definitely getting to her but she isn’t letting it show. She isn’t going to act impatient because she doesn’t want to scare the other girl off. She smiles a very small happy smile when she sees Faith nod her head. She reaches out and holds onto the other girl’s very soft hand, and feels relief that the weight of the world is finally off her shoulders. ‘It’s like I can finally breathe again. I don’t want this feeling to go away.’


They sit down under their tree, their backs resting on the cool bark, and their hands are still intertwined. Buffy rests her head on Faith’s shoulder, and smiles when Faith starts to gently caress the back of her hand with her thumb. The blonde breathes the other girl in, and opens up her senses to their surroundings. She can hear crickets chirping, and a frog croaking, and a soft breeze dancing with the tree branches. Everything about this moment is perfect, and Buffy more then happy to wallow in the now. It’s the future that she’s uncertain about, so for tonight that’s going to be ignored as she focuses all of her attention on her girl.