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Chapter 35: Caller
I walked down the street with RJ, taking in the night. It had been about a week since the "Incident" and things had began to move again. RJ and I had gone out every night, which was hell on my academic life and then there was the rest of the gant, who found themselves finding jobs. Kelly worked her parents for money, Charity and Faith took up temporary employment at Club Silver as bartenders, Doug also worked his parents, and Oz and the band had begun turning a profit. I was pretty well off because the house was paid for.
"SO, how's your friend?" RJ asked.
"Doug? He's good." I said, walking beside him, " I mean, the whole 'drug' thing was pretty scary, but he's staying with me now."
"So, all of your friends live with you?" RJ smiled.
"It's fun on orgy night." I smiled, " Naw, it's temporary. They all have their own apartments and two of them are leaving soon, which leaves me and Doug and he's better."
"That's good." RJ smiled.
"Yeah." I chuckled as I looked over and saw two people go into the alley, " Umm, I'm craving coffee, can you go and get me some?" I asked.
"Sure, he said, going into Starbucks.
I sighed and pulle out my stake, walking into the alley. As I got there, the vampire's teeth were actually into the guy, " Hey guy." I shouted.
The vampire turned from the guy and revealed himself to be a guy too.
"Wow, two guys...ironic." I said.
"You're dead." the vampire growled.
"Oh, now I'm dead? Somebody needs a mirror." I sighed.
The vampire lunged at me.
"Guess we'll put a hold on that mirror." I said, ducking his punch and throwing him backwards into the wall and staking him, " Never get tired of seeing that...well..." I said, sticking my stake back into my coat and looking at the guy, " Hey, you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine." the guy said, vamping out. The guy was around 6'4, purple eyes, and super muscled. He was scary, but not menacing. Just a natural scary-ness.
"Right." I said, sighing and pulling out my stake, " Can we hurry this up? I'm on a date."
"Oh, we're not gonna fight. I just want to size up my opponent." he smiled.
"Don't think you have a choice, fangs." I said, moving closer.
"Austin?" RJ's voice said behind me.
I stuffed my stake in my coat and looked to RJ, who was holding two cups of coffee, " Umm, some guy was getting mugged." I said.
"What guy?" he asked, looking past me.
I looked back and the vampire was gone, " Oh, well, he...he..." I said, " Ready to go?" I asked, walking over and taking my coffee.
"Sure." he smiled as we walked away.
Doug stood at the stove, cooking omelettes. Kelly and Oz sat at the counter, talking about the philosophical ramifications of the 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Faith and Charity came in, all sweaty and looked at the scene.
"Hey," Faith said looking around, " Is he alright to cook?"
Doug looked at her testily, " I'm not a pyromaniac, I'm just..." he said, searching for the words.
"A total abuser?" Charity asked.
"Yeah." Doug said.
"He's not a total abuser! He's just...he has control issues." Kelly protested, " The lack thereof. Besides, he's better now."
"Of course he is." Charity said nervously, " I'm just glad we caught it before we had to stake him. And he's making omelettes, so he obviously better."
"Can we not talk about my mental status?" Doug asked, turning with the omelettes, " Who's hungry."
"I got a call from Connor, you know, before he was sucked into Hell." Oz said out of nowhere.
They all looked at him shocked.
"Wha...what? When?" Kelly asked.
"Ummm, before he got sucked into Hell." Oz replied.
"Oh...yeah." Kelly said.
"And you didn't tell us because?" Doug asked.
"Yeah, I think Austin would wanna know." Charity smiled.
"I don't think so." Faith said slowly, looking at Kelly and Oz, " What exactly happened between those two?"
No one said anything.
"What?" Faith asked.
"The whole thing is complicated. And we shouldn't say." Kelly said.
"So, I'm guessing it wasn't a nice, cuddly goodbye." Charity asked.
"Does duh ring a bell?" Doug said.
"So, what'd he say?" Kelly asked.
"He said..." Oz started, but at the same time I walked into the kitchen and everyone stared at me.
"What? Did I forget my pants again?" I asked, looking down.
"No, um, I'm going to bed." Charity said, walking past me.
"Me too." Faith said, " I'm crashin in Doug's room since he's up and all."
"Kay, later." I smiled as Faith and Charity walked by, " What's with them."
They all shrugged and I knew something was up.
"So, is there coffee?" I asked, sitting beside Oz.
"Um, yeah, it's brewing, want pancakes?" Doug smiled.
"What?" I asked, surprised, " so, what's with the whole 'bake what you can' thing?" I asked.
"It's thanks." Doug said.
"For?" I asked.
"For letting me stay here and for everyone helping me out." Doug said slowly.
"It's okay. We're all here to help each other." Kelly smiled.
"Yeah, and you'd do the same for us." Oz added.
Kelly stood and grabbed her bag, " I should get going to school." she smiled.
"Yeah, me too." Doug said, " Umm, I should..." he raised his hand, but stopped, " Clean this."
"Don't worry, I'll get it." I said quickly.
"But what about class?" Doug asked.
"I'm sure I can just..." I started.
"Go, I can get them." Oz said.
I looked at him, " You sure?" I asked.
"Yeah." he smiled, " I'm working with the band and I don't have class until later today."
I smiled and stood up, " Alright, thanks." I smiled, hugging him.
"You should...uhh, go." he said nervously.
"Alright." I said, walking to the door, " Oz, really. Thanks." I said, walking out of the door.
At around eleven o'clock a.m., Charity and Faith strolled downstairs to a very clean kitchen. They chuckled as they read the note which read: Thanks for the help, Oz.
" Nobody told me the kitchen was gettin a good ole fashion scrub down." Charity said, searching the fridge.
Faith found chips in the cabinet, " Yeah, it's kinda cute. The whole 'college' thing. I couldn't do it, but I'm all for them doin' it." she said, turning to Charity, " Why didn't you go? You seem smart."
"Street smart." Charity said, pulling out leftovers from breakfast, " I hated school."
"Ok, pop quiz, System of the Down or Lindsey Lohan?" Faith asked.
"Oh, that's real tough, umm, System of the Down." Charity said, " Linkin Park or Lifehouse?"
"Linkin Park, duh." Faith said, " For all the money, Kelly Clarkson or Three Doors Down?"
"Kelly." Charity said, " So, is Scotland fun?"
"Dunno. That's Buffy's thing. I'm headed to Cleveland." Faiths said, hopping on the counter.
Charity smirked, " I wanna go." she said, " When I was at Wolfram and Hart, they said it was a hotspot."
"Yeah, hotspot," Faith chuckled, " More like Hell on Earth."
"So, major fun?" Charity asked.
"I'd say yeah, but Giles and the gang think it's 'life changing'. So, there's a chance I could die." Faith chortled, " That's always fun."
Charity chuckled and jumped off the counter, " We'd better get more sleep. It's our last night at Silver." she said.
"I'm going to miss this place. Sunnydale Revisited." Faith said, looking around, " I just hope Willow got there in time to stop the other Mega-Witch."
"Yeah. All this witchcraft is...What are they going to do with the guy?" Charity asked.
"Doug?" Faith asked, " What do you mean?"
"It can be good, chicken noodle-soupy good for the soul that he's abusing. And, no offense, but I really don't think they're helping." Charity said.
Faith looked at her seriously, " I get what you're saying but they can handle it. They're pretty tight knit." she said.
"so, whatever happened to that Wood Guy?" Charity asked.
Faith looked at Charity and chuckled, " That's a whole different story." she said, hopping off the counter, " Let's go." she said as they walked away.
"Kelly!" Mr. Collinson said, running behind her, " Ms. Chase."
Kelly turned to him, " Oh, hey, Mr. Collinson, what's up?" she asked.
"I just wanted to be the one to tell you that you're on the Honor Roll." Mr. Collinson said.
"Honor Roll? We still have that?" she asked.
"Yes." Mr. Collinson said, " Congratulations!" he said, walking away.
Doug walked up and looked back at Collinson, " What happened? Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. Mr. Collinson just told me that I'm on the Honor Roll." Kelly said, still shocked.
"That's fuckin awesome!" Doug said, hugging her, " This deserves major partying."
"Yeah, Club Silver, here we come!" Kelly smirked, " I should tell mom. Maybe she'll buy me Prince Harry or the hottie little brother. I've always wanted one of them since I was fourteen."
"Really?" Doug asked.
"Yeah. Do you know what this means?" Kelly asked.
"You spend too much time thinking about London." Doug said.
"NO! That maybe I could be something more than bait or a secretary." Kelly said, " Maybe I can show Austin that I'm helpful."
"Austin thinks you're helpful." Doug said.
"Sure you can say that. You're a witch, but I don't have a special talent. Nothing powerful about me." Kelly said sadly.
"Oz is...a werewolf. Sorry, forgot." Doug said, " look, you're an asset to any team and I'm sure you're going to show everyone soon."
"Thanks." Kelly said, hugging him, " I'm glad we're still friends. I mean, not that I could ever see us not being friends, but..."
"I get it." Doug smiled, " Let's go home."
Oz found himself at home with Austin, who had been trying to get a hold of Buffy at Command Central, but there was no answer. Austin got frustrated and slammed the phone down, breaking it to pieces.
"It's okay, just calm down. I'm sure they're okay." Oz said.
"I don't know. I mean, Oz, I'm seriously stressing over this." I said angrily.
"I promise. If it was really bad, they'd have called. Or giles would have called or someone." Oz said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
"You're right." I said, " But they have most of the slayers in the world and if they go down, that leaves us."
"Then we'll deal with it as it comes." Oz said, comforting me.
I smiled and looked up at Oz, who was concentrating on my face. Before either one of us could think, we were kissing, but I broke it quickly, " What are we doing?" I asked.
"I don't know." Oz said, " I just...I thought..."
"I know we...there's something there, but we can't go there now." I stammered.
"I know." he said.
"I want to...so bad." I sighed, " But RJ. I made a big deal about him being a lying, cheating whore and that would make me worse...are you mad?"
"At you?" Oz asked, surprised, " Because you want to stay faithful to someone, no. I'm just...I've wanted to do that for a long time."
"Me too." I said.
The door knob jingled and we scooted away from each other. And looked them as they walked in.
"Hey guys, did you get through to Scotland?" Doug asked.
"No. That sounds so weird." I chuckled.
"What happened to the freakin phone?!" Kelly asked, " Nevermind, guess what!"
"What?" OZ and I asked.
"I'm on the Honor Roll!" she said excitedly.
"Really?" I asked, " That's freakin awesome!!!" I said, hugging her.
"So, I say we all go out tonight." Doug said.
"We're already going out, remember, Faith and Charity leaving tonight." I said.
"Great...but why are they leaving tonight?" Doug asked.
"They're wanted by demons..." Oz said.
"And the police." I added.
"That's what I meant." Oz smirked.
"We should get dressed, we're gonna be late." I said, getting up.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go home, I just bought these boots and..." Kelly stopped, " You don't care, but you'll love 'em. See you guys there." she said, leaving.
"I'll drop you off." Oz said, staring me in the eye, " See ya guys." he said, leaving with Kelly.
"Come on, Doug. We've got some showering to do." I said without thinking, " That sounded way worse than it was meant to be."
"Yeah." Doug chuckled as we went upstairs.
Faith and Charity were working when they noticed that they'd worked their shift. They clocked out and joined us at the booth.
"Hey, kids, what's up?" Faith smiled.
"Happy going-away-to-save-another-part-of-the-world!" I said alone.
They all looked at me.
"Oh, and you too Kelly." I said quickly.
"Really? I mean, yay convicts!" Faith said, sitting down.
"So, what's the first step after this?" Doug asked.
"Well, there's this thing where we go and do something heroic and very dumb, and we save the world." Charity said, " Faith explained it to me."
We all laughed when a guy walked up to the table.
"Hey, I wanna buy you a drink." he said, smiling at Faith.
"Sure." Faith smiled, " Knock yourself out."
"So, how about we go out sometime?" he smirked.
"Sorry, sparky, but I'm leaving tonight, so no." Faith smirked.
"Really?" he asked dejectedly.
"Yeah, but if you could hurry with that drink, that'd be nice." Faith smiled.
The guy nodded and left.
"Ok, that was...a helluva thing." I said nervously, " Anybody else feel anything soulless about him?" I asked.
"No, if anything I felt too much soul." Doug said.
"True. The boy takes rejection too hard." Faith said.
"So, what's on the agenda for the next mission?" Charity asked.
Everyone looked at me.
I looked at all of them nervously, " Well, ummm, there's...then there's...I don't know. I mean I get the evil feel from here, but no big evils yet." I replied.
"I think it's the fact that there's a lot of evil here." Doug said.
"That could be it." I shrugged, " As long as the world's not ending. I'm good."
"Amen to that." Kelly said, taking a sip of her drink.
"So, where's the blonde kid?" Faith asked, " The hot one with the big..."
"Muscles?" Kelly chuckled.
"Yeah, that's the one." Faith smirked, sipping a drink.
"He's off doing what normal guys do." I said.
"Well, you're here os..." Charity started.
"I stree the word normal." I said, " He's seriously unaware that I'm chosen."
"Really, cause you're last relationship ended so well." Charity chuckled.
Everyone looked at her.
"What? I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, then who can? Plus he called, right?" Charity slipped.
I looked at her, " What?" I asked.
"Uh oh." Charity said.
"He called? Connor's in hell..." I said slowly.
"Before...he went to hell." Oz said.
"And no one told me?" I asked, looking around. I got up from the table and left without saying another word.
Thank you for reading. If you want another chapter, I'm really going to need more feedback.