Just a College Girl (girlxgirl) (Book 2)

Staying Behind

She lays out all her cards on the table.

"Gin..."

Damn it...

I throw my cards down on the table and let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding in.

I'm not concentrating on what I'm doing. I can't. How can I when the two people who mean everything to me, are out there scouting a big bad ass demon? Maybe even fighting it if they aren't careful. This demon is supposed to be really fast, strong, and willing to kill anything that gets in its way. And my sister and girlfriend are planning on getting in its way. At least eventually they are. They're out there right now looking for it to try and figure out what its next move is going to be. That would distract even the most focused of card players.

I just feel so useless sometimes. I know I shouldn't be going up against something like this. It's way out of my league. Hell, Buffy took twenty four other slayers with her for scouting purposes. That's every slayer in the city on an information gathering mission. This thing must be a real dangerous force to be reckoned with if she's being THAT careful with it. How many slayers are they going to need when they actually go out and fight this demon? And all I'm doing is sitting around playing Gin Rummy with Tess. This really isn't fair.

"You okay Dawn?"

Tess and I look at each other from across the little table in the dojo.

"Hmm?"

"I asked if you were okay."

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine, I just... my mind isn't exactly on cards tonight."

She smiles.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I kinda feel useless sitting around playing cards while everyone else is out finding some big beastie."

I guess she knows what I'm going through.

"Totally, right?"

One of my best friends nods at me.

"We could be doing some sort of research or something. But instead, all the research has been pretty much done for us and we have to sit around, waiting for them to come home safe and sound."

Leaning forward, I stare down at the scattered cards on the table.

"IF they come back safe and sound."

"Well why wouldn't they? I mean, they're slayers right? Super strength, super speed, etc. The whole package pretty much except for the flying. With twenty five of them out there working together. What could go wrong?"

That makes me chuckle.

"You're lucky you didn't live on the Hellmouth back in Sunnydale for seven years. When you do that, you learn pretty quickly that things don't always work out the way you want them to. In fact, most of the time they don't."

"Oh..."

"There was this one time, Buffy actually died."

"She did?"

"Yeah... okay, I guess it wasn't only one time. More like three times."

"Uh, wow... well... then it's probably a good thing that we don't live on a hellmouth."

Again I have to chuckle.

"No kidding..."

There's a long silence in the room as neither of us knows what to say. After a while, Tess decides to break it.