Chapter 14 – Someplace Fun Tonight



Buffy could have kicked herself. This morning Spike asked her if she wanted to go to TanzGotik, the new club on Dantesco Street. Buffy, like a moron, said no because she’d agreed to go with Riley to the movies. She was miffed at herself and miffed at Spike for not asking her sooner and even more miffed that she agreed to go to the movies tonight with Riley. Again.

She didn’t like going to the movies all the time, but with Riley, the movies were perfect. She didn’t have to struggle to make conversation with him while they sat in the darkened theater and she didn’t have to pretend she was interested in anything he said about himself. Riley was only interested in talking about himself and he had exhausted everything he could say and was repeating himself. Or worse, repeating his father.

Nice and normal came with a downside.

She wasn’t going to stand for boring movies tonight, she told herself as she tugged on the zipper of her black leather mini-skirt for the third time. The skirt was too tight because Spike, Jr. was growing like a little pig. She got the skirt zipped by shimmying it up so the waist band was riding her rib cage. Her skirt was now micro short.

No, she was going to make Riley take her someplace fun tonight. That fun place was TanzGotik. She hoped Spike would show up. She could hardly wait to tell him the baby was a boy. She’d been too busy rolling on the bed and kissing Spike this morning to remember to tell him. Not to mention yakking and passing out like a ninny.

She snapped on her studded dog collar, pulled on her black lace-up ankle boots, stuck a half dozen silver earrings in her earlobes and put on her black eyeliner and platelet-red lipstick. Gotho-nuclear. Her cleavage, which was spilling out of her leather bustier, looked especially sexy, thanks to Baby Boy Spike.

She ran down the stairs to answer the doorbell. Her mother was away for a few days on an art-buying trip for the gallery, so Buffy could once again avoid introducing her to Riley. Her mother refused to have anything to do with Riley, and Buffy had kept him from coming to the house and creating a scene.

Riley’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw Buffy. “You look hot,” he said. “Aren’t we going to a movie tonight? Did I get my signals crossed?”

“Signals are uncrossed,” Buffy said. “I thought you’d like to take me to TanzGotik to dance, instead.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

She looked sluttier and plumper than before. He didn’t remember Buffy having such a great set of tits. He was going to get lucky. There was no way Buffy was going to put him off tonight, the way she looked in that outfit.

A tall, thin blonde woman stopped her mountain bike on the sidewalk and stared when Buffy and Riley walked out to the car. Buffy was busy checking her bag for stakes, lipstick and other important items and didn’t notice the woman. She jumped into Riley’s jeep and they drove away.

The woman got on the bicycle and pedaled after them.

***

TanzGotik was black as the pits of the Hellmouth, with only strobe lights, mirror balls and a few dim, icy-blue neon fluorescent tubes over the bar to light up the place. The fixtures were recycled from a 1980’s discotheque. The band was recycling too, tunes by Alien Sex Fiends, Deviltalia, Hypnodeath and Vampire Buzz Kill.

The club swarmed with humans dressed in leather and lace and Goth costumes, and from the way Buffy’s neck hairs were springing up, a fair share of vampires, too. She hoped nobody was stupid enough to take a trip out to the alley with their new vampire friend, because she wanted to enjoy herself tonight, not get dust all over her clothes.

While Riley pushed his way to the bar to buy her a Coke, she scanned the crowd for Spike, but didn’t see him. Damn. He was never around when she wanted to see him and always dogging her heels when she wanted to be left alone.

Buffy shoved her way to a table with a couple of empty chairs and sat down. A few feet away, a tall girl with shoulder-length, dishwater blonde hair and wearing a loose, grey dress sat down at the next table and stared at Buffy.

The girl turned her head away when Buffy stared back. The girl’s face was scrubbed clean, unlike the extreme makeup favored by the other female patrons. She looked out of place and appeared to be sitting alone. Buffy caught the girl looking at her again. The girl looked too healthy and pink to be a vampire, so Buffy put the girl out of her mind. She was probably admiring Buffy’s outfit.

When Riley returned, she swigged her coke and dragged him out to the dance floor. Riley was a bad dancer. He always looked self conscious and uncomfortable like he was afraid someone was looking at him, which no one, including Buffy was. Well, some of the other dancers were looking at him, because he was dressed like a total square.

I’m being unfair. I didn’t warn him I wanted to come here and Total Squareness is his major redeeming quality. I’m forgiving Riley for Total Squareness and concentrating on having a good time. Besides, I’m going to have to get used to Unconditional Cubeitude.

All during the dance, Riley kept putting his hands on her waist and pulling her close to his body. She shook free and danced further away, but he kept cornering her.

“Buffy, did I tell you how hot you look tonight? Sexy. How about a drive up to Lookout Point later?”

Lookout Point was the last place Buffy wanted to go with Riley, but she felt she ought to make an excuse. “I don’t want to go there, if you don’t mind. It’s a big vampire hangout and I’d like to take a night off.” She was going to have to show some romantic interest soon or he was going to get discouraged. She’d kiss him with some tongue tonight and let him feel up her boobs, in Spike wasn’t lurking around. French kissing and boob touchies should keep Riley happy for another few days.

Buffy danced with her back to Riley so she wouldn’t see the look of frustration - or was it irritation? – on his face. Okay, so putting off the inevitable wasn’t going to work. She was going to have to show romantic interest now. The band switched to a slow, romantic song – Vampire Bit My Heart - so she used the opportunity to snuggle into Riley’s arms. He did have nice arms and he was warmer than room temperature. Both good points. If only he wasn’t so boring. She stretched herself up on tiptoe and kissed Riley’s cheek. He smiled and kissed her mouth, shoving his tongue halfway down her throat in a very gagging manner.

Maybe it was a good thing Spike wasn’t here.

She whirled around so Riley couldn’t choke her anymore with his tongue and saw Spike standing at the bar, smoking a cigarette and handing a drink to a slim, pretty girl with dark eyes and hair. Buffy stopped dancing. Spike? With a date? Spike leaned over to whisper to the girl and smiled. She put her hand on Spike’s chest.

“Riley, I need to go to the Ladies’ Room. Would you get me another Coke?” She pointed to a bartender half way across the room from where Spike was standing, hoping Riley would head in the direction she was pointing and not notice Spike.

As Riley headed toward the bartender, Buffy marched over to where Spike was standing.

“I see you showed up after all, Spike,” Buffy said, forgetting she’d refused a date with Spike and come here with Riley. She eyed the girl. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Carmelita,” Spike said. “I mentioned her the other day.”

“Did you? Slipped my mind.” This was the girl he’d been bragging about. She was a vampire, too. Carmelita would never do anything inconvenient like get herself knocked up.

How dare Spike flaunt this ho-bag in front of her?

Buffy reached around to the back of her skirt to pull out a stake and send this little Carmelita tramp to vampire heaven. She blanched when she realized she didn’t have a stake with her. She hadn’t been able to shove a stake in her waistband because her skirt was too tight, and she’d left her patrol bag with her pointy sticks and other implements of destruction back in Riley’s truck.

Spike saw her searching for her stake and smirked.

“None of that, luv,” Spike said. “You and Carmelita have an acquaintance in common. She’s great friends with your Soldier …”

Spike was interrupted by Carmelita, who was smiling at something behind Buffy’s back.

“Riley. I didn’t think you liked this place,” Carmelita said.

Buffy spun around, surprise plastered on her face. Riley stood behind her, holding a drink in each hand. He stared at Carmelita and his face colored bright red.

“You two know each other?” Buffy asked.

“I can explain,” Riley said.

Buffy looked from Riley to the vampire girl, who was giving Buffy a nasty grin. The girl put her arm around Spike and leaned against him in an entirely unnecessary way.

Carmelita was one of those vampires Giles told her about. She got paid for sucking blood and for sex. She’d stolen Riley away and now she was trying to steal Spike away, too. Or, was Spike orchestrating this whole thing?

“Buffy,” Riley said. “It’s not like you think.”

“How is it?” Like she couldn’t figure out what he was up to.

Riley, Mr. Nice and Normal, was Carmelita’s customer. While Riley was pretending to be interested in Buffy and feeding her stupid fantasy they might have a romantic relationship, he was trotting down to Dantesco Street to visit his real girlfriend. Now, he was standing here, red-faced, attempting to think up some lie to cover up what he’d been doing.

Buffy smacked Riley’s face hard. She loosened one of his teeth and sent the drinks in his hands flying.

A hard hand with pointed, maroon nails gripped Buffy’s shoulder and whipped her around.

“Don’t touch him,” Carmelita said. She slapped Buffy in the face and yanked a fistful of blonde hair.

Buffy screeched with fury and slugged Carmelita back. “Stay away from my Spike!”

They launched to the floor, kicking, scratching, pulling hair and biting.

Spike and Riley sat down at the bar. They each drank a beer while Buffy and Carmelita wrestled and rolled around on the wet, sticky floor. Riley shoved his loose tooth back in his gums.

Riley drank down half his bottle of beer. “What do you think of Man U’s new wingback, Seventeen?”

“Who, Brian Lerkie? He’s not half bad. He’s not Bobbie Charlton, but hell, who is? They could do with some better midfielders.”

Carmelita screamed and punched Buffy in the ribs. Buffy growled and ripped out a hank of Carmelita’s hair. Buffy kicked her in the shin and got a slug in the gut in return. She rolled on top of Carmelita and bitch slapped her a couple of times. It wasn’t really a good fighting technique, but it was a lot of fun. Carmelita flipped Buffy over her head and tackled her as she slid across the floor.

Over the loud pulse of the music, Spike heard the faint sound of an approaching police siren.

“I think the girls have had enough fun,” Spike said. He finished off his bottle of beer and signaled the bartender. “Hey, Kevin, give us a pitcher of water.”

He sloshed the water on the two girls. He lifted Buffy off Carmelita, catching her fist in time to prevent her from doing any further damage, and set her on her feet.

“I’m not done beating the crap out of that little vamp ho!” Buffy shouted and stamped her foot.

“Time to go, kitten. The police are on their way.” He wiped her nose blood off her face and licked his fingers. Mmmm.

Buffy remembered she’d stashed her weapons in Riley’s truck and ran out of the bar to get them. Spike hurried after her.

A moment later, the blond with the dishwater hair left the bar.