Xander thrashed about his room. Anything within reach quickly shattering in his sorrow fueled rage. Hot salty tears burned down his face, the only sound he could make was a desperate, tired wail of sorrow as his anger burnt itself out.
Finally he just sunk onto his knees and let his head land on his bed, arms falling uselessly beside him.
Today had been the day. Today had been the day Jesses parents had finally asked.
Asked pleaded, bribed, demanded, and finally begged to know where Jesse was. He was his best friend, he had to know where he was, had to have some idea.
Today had been the day, he had to lie to Jesses mother. Such a kind lady as her never deserved to cry like she had today, never deserved to look so frail, so tired, so lost.
And he had to sit there and lie, to pretend that he had no idea that Jesse A sixteen year accumulation of there work, their lives, their love, had been swept up, by a filthy, illiterate and underpaid cleaner at the Bronze. He had to sit there and tell them that he didn't know that 20 people had probably kicked his ashes across the alcohol sticky floor.
Without a thought.
No, he hadn't heard a thing about how he had been the one to do him this injustice. The one to stake him. The one to wipe him from the face of the Earth.
Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust.
It had been the hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life. And he felt disgusted with himself. No mother deserved not to know, hell no mother deserved to outlive their son.
No one should have had to do what he'd had to do.
He'd told his mother he loved her on the way up to his room. She'd looked worried.
Emotions raged through his mind even though his body no longer had the strength to show them.
Sorrow. Easy.
Regret. Things he'd never get to tell him.
Anger. At himself, for doing it. At the vampire, for doing it. At Jesse, for letting it happen.
Self disgust. For even thinking it.
Fear.
One day he knew it would probably happen to him as well, and it would be either Willow or Buffy. Giving the talk, to his mother.
She didn't deserve that.
His fists clenched at his sides than slammed into the bed.
He sure as fuck wasn't gonna let it happen either.
It was ridiculously easy. Especially for him. He knew almost everybody in the school. There was just something in his nature, that was disarming. That let him get on with almost anybody.
So first he went and talked to the stoners. Nice guys. Really. Heck even offered him a spliff. He joined them in the toilets at lunch. They'd been helpful, pointed him in the right direction.
Xander knew a lot of the people, they'd pointed out. One quite well. Used to be good friends when they were younger, till they'd grown apart. So he approached him first.
No open hostilities. Fantastic.
A knife. Sure talk to this man here. No problem. His place after school? Sure. How much? Cool. See ya.
Dad kept a role of notes in an old jacket in his closet. Savings at one stage, but recently he'd seen it used for booze money. He'd never notice a few bills missing.
He knocked on the kids door at 6:00. He peered through the gap in the door before removing the security chain.
Yo man. Come on in. Wanna billy? Three friends of his were giggling stupidly at cartoons on the couch.
Sure. Why not?
Xander watched quietly as he began to spin the cone.
So what kind where you after?
Something sharp, small, damaging. A flick knife.
Sure. $60.
Done.
Yo. There's a party later on tonight at Cams', wanna come?
Don't mind if I do. Giggle.
The party had well and truly started when Xander arrived. Bourbon in one hand, bottle of coke in the other. Knife resting comfortably in his pants pocket. R n'b thumped away in the background, barely audible over the voices of the many people crowding the kitchen and back deck. He didn't know whose party it was, didn't really care.
Lazily, he snagged a plastic cup on the way out to the guys who had invited him were waiting. They were all crowded around the fire that was in the back yard. Pot and cigarette smoke hanging heavily around them. He said hi, accepted hugs from drunk big breasted girls who he barely knew, though they seemed so happy to see him. He poured himself a drink more than half bourbon, he had to catch up after all, and sat back and tuned into the conversation.
Topics flew by. Cars, girls, surf, skate, conversation skipped topics in the rapid fashion that only teenagers managed to follow. He bummed a couple of smokes off his friends as the warm glow of alcohol crept up on him.
He made several trips to the over crowded kitchen to find the table that seemed to be covered in munchies, talk to other friends, acquaintances, and good-looking girls. And many trips to the bathroom after he broke the seal.
At around eleven, a few jocks rocked up. Not the most liked people on his new friends lists. He was sure the feeling was mutual. But he had to say he saw the reason why. The jocks were loud and brash, full of confidence, not a little of which was alcohol induced. They were asses, or they were to him. Nothing but the stupidest things to talk about. Just football football and cheerleaders.
Xander and his friends cast dark looks in their direction and muttered curses and some rather creative insults. The jocks threw them dark looks when they saw them and some much louder but less creative insults before taking up a spot a short distance away.
Xander kept a quiet eye on them as he and his friends returned to their mellow but enjoyable conversation. Casting his eyes about he quietly scanned the party, glossing over the usual scenes of snogging, drinking and dancing. It surprised him that he knew nearly all of them, but than again he had gone to school with all of them since the start. So it was really surprising when he saw a kid about their age he didn't know.
He frowned at that. There hadn't been any new kids at school. Hell that was big news at Sunnydale.
The boy was dark haired, tall and had a kind of confident smile that seemed to be his only attractive feature, other than that he was kind of plain. Currently he was chatting up one of the girls from Xanders history class, he thought her name was Michelle.
He bumped Nick next to him with his elbow.
"Hey, whose that guy with Michelle?"
"Huh? Oh, don't know him" he said not caring.
Xanders worry grew.
Pulling his small cross of from around his neck he wrapped the chain around his hand and held the crucifix in his palm before lazily making his way over.
"Hey Michelle, have you seen Candice?" he asked happily as he approached them.
"Oh, hey Xander, yeah I think I saw her inside."
"Cool, hey whose the new kid?" he asked not impolitely, grabbing a small grin, from her.
"Xander, Steve. Steve, Xander" She introduced them quickly with a wave of their hands.
Xander held out his hand.
"Hey what's doin?" Steves' hand fell in his and he winced quickly.
"Not much." Xander grinned at his discomfort, before holding up the chain and cross.
"Sorry, dropped this thing once tonight and don't want to drop it again. Hey Craig!" Xander quickly explained away the pain before departing quickly. He had doubted the vampire would respond with violence if he played dumb.
He watched the vamp chat Michelle up most of the night before leading her up to a dark corner of the back yard and start making out with her.
Playing with his food.
He didn't have long.
Unobtrusively he slid away from his group of friends, and quickly made his way up the back yard. He slipped his into his pocket and pulled out his knife and discreetly locked into place, keeping an eye on the couple all the time. He was only about 10 feet away when the vamp struck. No one would have picked it if they weren't paying as close attention as Xander was. The only movement was Michelle's' hand slapping against the fence a couple of times.
Xanders blood boiled as he saw another of his friends get attacked. No, not again. Not on his fucking watch.
Xander covered the few remaining feet with quick large strides. His left hand reaching out and grasping the vamp by the top of the head he yanked back hard even as the knife came forward. There was only light resistance as Xander thrust the knife into the base of the vamps skull, angled up. The vamp didn't even maker a sound as he dropped bonelessly to the ground. Xander left the knife in.
Michelle was left staring in horror. Face pale from shock and blood loss. Blood dribbled down her neck instead of spurting out. Xander quickly pulled her down to her knees before ripping a shred from his shirt, bundling it up and pressing it to her neck.
"Hold it there" He told her as he began to rip a much longer strip of shirt. When she didn't move to hold it up, He grabbed her hand harshly and slapped it on top of the material. Michelle blinked at the sudden act; eye's focusing as if she hadn't been paying attention before.
"Hold it there!" He snapped at her. Anger at the vamp, the situation, adrenalin and alcohol weren't helping Xanders temper. He finished ripping the strip off his shirt and tied it over the piece of wadded up cloth than put her hand back on it.
"Do you know what this is?" He asked her pointing to the downed vamp.
"Hey!" he snapped her out of her daze again. "Do you know what this is?" She shook her head ever so slightly, eye's full of fear as she glanced down at the game faced vamp.
"It's a vampire. Now take this" He handed her his cross "You hold onto this tight. Don't you dare let it go. As long as you keep a hold of it you'll be all right. I'll be back"
"Don't…"
He ignored her. She needed medical attention now more than coddling.
Walking quickly back to his friends, he grabbed nick kind of roughly and dragged him away.
"Hey what are you…"
"I need a lift to the hospital nick." Xander told him seriously.
"Huh why?"
"Come on" He dragged Nick back over to Michelle. She was shivering sitting against the fence
"Fuck!" Xander swore quickly shucking his jacket and placing it over the girl.
"What the hell happened to her?" Xander just pointed the vamp lying on the ground a short distance away.
"Isn't that…. Holy shit! What the fuck is wrong with his face?" Nick exclaimed as he took a closer look.
"It's a vampire." Xander told him still not looking as he ripped up the last of his shirt and wrapped it around Michelle's wound.
"Man how much pot have you been smoking tonight? How much pot have I been smokin' tonight?" He added as he took another look at the deformed face.
"You want proof? Here" Xander stood up and kicked at a loose fence paling splintering it. Grabbing his makeshift stake he walked over and slammed it as hard as he could in the vamps chest. It burst into dust quickly.
"Now help me get her to the hospital"
Nick just stared at the spot the vamp had been.
"Fuck me!" He quickly crossed himself.
"Nick!" He quickly turned around to find Xand hoisting Michelle to her feet. He'd put his jacket over her, collar up to hide the wound.
Nick quickly grabbed her other side and started helping him.
"Shouldn't we call an ambulance or something?" Nick asked as they made their way to the side gate and out to the front yard.
"They don't come out for injuries like this. Not at night anyway."
"Fuck"
"Yeah" They made their way to nicks car, an old Mazda mx6 that had seen better days.
"Give me your keys Nick. You've had about six times more to drink than me" Xander demanded holding Nick at the passenger door.
Nick held out his keys reluctantly and climbed into the back with Michelle. Xander slid across the bonnet and hurried into the drivers seat. Starting her quickly eh revved it once chucked a U turn than floored it.
"Man what are you doing? Preld drive is the fastest way to the hospital"
"No it's not, Mason is. Believe me I know." Xander said taking a corner much faster than he should in his current state. He hit the long straight stretch of Mason rd. and glanced back in the rear view mirror at Michelle.
"Michelle. Michelle! When we get to the hospital do not mention anything about vampires. Absolutely nothing. You don't remember how you got hurt, alright? I'll cover for you. Got that?"
He got a weak nod from her.
"Okay, how did you get hurt?"
"I don't remember"
"Good. Okay Nick, find her mobile and ring her parents. Tell them she got hurt, you don't know how; we're on our way to the hospital. "
"Gotcha"
Xander quickly swerved into the emergency parking in front of emergency. He left the car going as he jumped out and helped Nick carry an almost unconscious Michelle into the emergency room.
"Help!" An orderly quickly rushed over to them.
"What happened?" he asked before shouting for the doctor and a bed.
"There were gang members. A fight. I didn't see her get hurt"
"Alright" She started shouting some emergency medical crap and Xander handed her over to 2 big orderlies who put her on a bed. He grabbed her before she rushed away.
"Here's her gear. Her parents are on the way."
"Thanks" She said as she rushed away. Xand quickly turned to Nick.
"Lets go."
"Aren't we gonna stay and see how she winds up?" He asked as Xander led him towards the door.
"We can't do anything else for her. And the cops will be here soon and you do not want to be answering their questions." Xander told him before climbing back into the drivers seat.
"Good point"
Xander drove off at a slightly more subdued state than before.
"Thanks for your help tonight Nick. You did good man," Xander told him as they drove on.
"Hey man no prob. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?" Nick looked out the window. "Hey are we heading back to the party?"
"Yeah, If I'm gonna explain all the shit that happened tonight and the deal with town, I'm gonna need a drink. And I left all my booze at the party."