Darkness (Book Two, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

chapter 15 - Phases

At school, in the hall by the trophy case, Oz was hunched over inspecting Catherine Madison's cheerleading trophy. He stared at its eyes as he moves his head from one side to the other.

I walked toward him, smiling. "Hi."

Oz stood. "Oh, that's what I was gonna say."

"What are you looking at?" I asked rhetorically, looking into the case.

Oz pointed at the trophy. "This cheerleading trophy." He moved and watched. "It's like its eyes follow you wherever you go. I like it." I raised my eyebrows, nodding, looking at the statue. It seemed to glare at me. "I don't think it likes you very much."

I gasped in realization. "Oh, my God! Catherine."

I remembered when Catherine had tried to put me somewhere dark and where I couldn't cause anymore trouble. Buffy had used a mirror to stop the spell and reflect it back to her.

Now I knew where she was.

"Yeah," Oz said, not getting it, walking down the hall.

I followed. "So did you like the movie last night?"

"I don't know," Oz told me. "T-today's movies are kind of like popcorn. You know, you forget about them as soon as they're done. I do remember I liked the popcorn, though."

Oz stopped walking.

I smiled. "Yeah, it was good." Larry and his groupies walked into the hall. Oh, great. I looked past Oz and saw Buffy and Willow down the hall. "Oh, there." I pointed at them. "I have my friends. So I will go to them."

"I'll see you then," Oz told me. "Uh, later."

I smiled, starting to walk away, not wanting to be near Larry.

Larry looked after me, Willow and Buffy, biting his fist and walking over to Oz. "Man! Oz, I would love to get me some of that Buffy, Willow and Zoey action, if you know what I mean."

Larry laughed.

I turned back to him. "That's great, Larry, not like I can't hear you. You've really mastered the single entendre."

Larry looked at me with a little shock at the insult.

Oz laughed, pointing at me. "Intimidating."

I smiled, rolling my eyes, turning around and following Buffy and Willow outside.

~~

We were walking along the colonnade.

"We've gotten nowhere," I told them. "I mean, he said he was gonna wait until I was ready, but I'm ready. Honest. I'm good to go here."

"Well, I think it's nice that he's not just being an animal," Willow told me.

"It is nice," I told them. "He's great. We have a lot of fun. It's certainly a lot different than some of my relationships."

"But you want smoochies?" Willow asked.

"Maybe not in those exact words, but that pretty much sums it up," I answered. "You know, my puppy Snowy kisses me more than he does."

"Ooh, little angel puppy Snowy," Willow said.

Buffy smiled. "Have you dropped any hints?"

"Ah, he'll come around," I told them. "Not worried about it."

"I mean, why should you be worried about it?" Buffy asked. "What guy could resist your daring Zoey charms?"

We sat down on a bench.