Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Bebop High ❯ Chapter Seven Revised ( Chapter 7 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Setryochi 
Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 10.13.2003 | Updated On: 07.21.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 334 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 10.13.2003 | Updated On: 07.21.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.8K | Visits: 334 | Status: Completed
“Bebop High”
By: Setryochi
* * *
It was soft and warm. The scent was so familiar…
Faye rolled over on the comfortable bed and groaned not wanting to wake up because once she woke up she’d have to get out of the wonderful bed…
Bed?
Faye’s eyes snapped open. She looked around the almost vacant room and panicked. Last night had been horrible. She looked around and pulled the covers over her shoulders. She looked around and slowly started to realized where she was…
‘Spike’s room? How’d I get here? What happened last night?’ She wondered totally confused as to what was going on. She felt like crying, all she remembered was Vicious stripping her and then a loud crash, then some blurry figures and then sleep… She put her hand to her head and leaned forward placing her head, cradled in her hand, on her knees. She felt sick, she wondered if Vicious had achieved his goal. She gulped down the lump in her throat and would have started crying if Spike hadn’t come into the room just then. She looked up as he shut the door behind him. He turned around to face her; he looked like he hadn’t slept. He looked more like the living dead then Spike. His hair was even more disheveled than usual, if that were possible and the bags under his blood shot eyes made him resemble a crack addict.
“G’morning,” he mumbled groggily.
She didn’t respond with a good morning, she just nodded and watched him silently. She eyed him as he pulled out the desk chair and plopped down on it.
“What happened?” she asked softly wary of his answer.
“What do you mean?”
“Why am I here? What happened last night?” she asked, she was so afraid of what he might say to her.
“Oh…” he looked around as if trying to figure out how to word it.
She gripped the blanket so tightly her knuckles turned white. She stared at him wanting to know so badly that it hurt.
“I went looking for Vicious and found you guys together. Vicious left and you were sleeping, I couldn’t leave you there so I brought you here.” He closed his eyes and leaned back on the desk.
Faye sighed and relaxed looking down at the blanket crinkled in her hands. She kept her eyes downcast as she spoke, “Did anything else happen?”
Spike opened his eye tiredly and looked at her. He frowned slightly and answered, “Not really.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” He said lamely.
“Thanks,” she whispered not able to find her voice. Something did happen, she remembered but everything was so blurry she couldn’t see it, but she could still hear and feel it. Spike was lying to her, she gripped the blanket tightly again gritting her teeth. “What all did you see..?” she asked as tears weld up in her eyes.
His head lulled tiredly. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Liar…”
“What?”
“You’re a liar.”
“How so?”
“More happened than what you said.” She blinked back tears and refused to lift her head.
“If you know what happened than why are you asking me?”
“Because I got the gist of it… But what was the loud crash I heard? And… How much… of me… did you really see?” She asked her last question slowly.
Spike coughed uncomfortably, “That loud crash… um… I kicked in the door.”
She waited for the rest but it never came. “Were you ‘saving’ me or something?” She asked coldly. She was angry that she had let it happen. She was angry that Spike had actually helped her when she always said that she didn’t need any help.
“I wasn’t there to save you. It just came out to be like that.” He looked at her with tired eyes.
“I didn’t need your help you know…” She looked to the side and pretended to be interested in a Bruce Lee poster.
“Of course you didn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had fucked you ‘cause you’ve probably been with a billion other guys!” He was tired and he didn’t need some bitch giving him crap right now.
Her head shot back facing him. Her lips were parted and her eyes were wide with anger and surprise. But something she hadn’t expected to feel was sadness. Other guys have said things similar to this, it never fazed her than so why should she care now? She threw the blanket off and stood up, marching over to him she stood before him in the same thing she had been wearing the night before. Reaching back she brought her hand down and slapped him as hard as she could. “How dare you say that about me!” she yelled at him.
Spike looked at her with the most surprised look his tired features would allow. He looked up at her face and noticed she looked like she might crumble like a rock being pounded by a sledgehammer. He gritted his teeth and decided he didn’t need to feel sorry for anyone, “Why’d ya do that?!” he stood up, the chair falling backwards behind him.
“You have no idea who, or how many people I’ve been with! Quite frankly it’s none of your business! But just to set the records straight!” She pointed her finger at him. “I’m a virgin!” She turned around, grabbed her shoes from by the bed and stormed out of his room.
Spike watched as she left the room in a dizzy rage. He shook his head and slowly closed his eyes. Women were all evil. They can deceive even the devil himself. He sighed and walked over to his bed crashing down on it. He fell asleep thinking of how the pillows smelt like her; surprisingly it was a happy thought.
* *
Faye walked home her arms crossed over her chest in an angry huff. Her eyebrows were knitted together making her forehead wrinkly. ‘That asshole! How could he say that about me?! He doesn’t know anything about me! That bastard! And VICIOUS! I’ll kill him for tricking me like that! I’ll kill him for thinking he could get a way with it! I’ll kill him just because he’s HIM! ARGH!’ Faye was so angry, guys were so stupid. All they wanted was sex, sex, and more sex! If a door or wall had been near she would have put her fist through it. Luckily she wouldn’t be breaking anything.
She walked along and had gotten pretty far down the road from Spike’s house when she realized she wasn’t wearing a bra. As soon as she realized that she wondered what Vicious had done with the bag she had thrown in the back of the car. She didn’t put enough in to actually stay the night anywhere but she still had some of her clothes in it. She grumbled, “How am I supposed to get all that back? And where’s my bra?” She sighed and continued to walk home.
* *
Spike rolled over and opened his blurry eyes. Something was very itchy on his hand. Using his other hand he itched the spot and found something tangled up between his fingers. He held up his hand and examined it.
Sigh…
Faye had left her bra on his bed and now it was tangled around his hand in a lacy black mess. ‘How do girl wear these things?’ he untangled it and itched his hand one last time before sitting up. He grabbed the phone near his bed and dialed a number into it.
* *
Ring..!
Ring..!
Ring..!
“Hell-ooooo!” Ed spoke into the phone.
“H… Hello?” Spike asked. He hadn’t spoken to Edward in over a week and had almost forgotten she lived with Faye.
“Yes?” she said in a snobby accent, as if she were the butler of the house.
“Is Faye home?” he asked.
“Yes,” She said in a more cheerful, snobby voice.
“Can I talk to her?”
“She’s sleeeeepiiiiing! OoooooOOooOOoo.”
“Um… ok… Well, can I come drop something off for her?”
Ed jumped around happily, “Yes! Spike-person can! Spike-person must stay for dinner, too!” Ed called after her mom while telling Spike bye. She hung up before he could protest.
“Mama-person! Spike-person is coming for dinner!” Ed waved her hands like rubber pencils.
“Oh really? Isn’t that Faye’s friend?” Her mother had been cooking dinner and was now wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
“Yes, yes and Spike-person is coming to see her! I like Spike-person, he’s the one that saved Edward’s scooter!” She squealed happily.
“Is that so?” her mother smiled, “Well then, since he’s so special I’ll make a cake for desert, how does that sound?”
“Oooh! That sounds great! Spike-person will like it! Ed likes it, too!” Ed ran to her room to go wake Faye to tell her the good news.
* *
“Argh… Ed… I’ll kill the little-” he sighed and hunched over. ‘I guess I could go explain to Faye why I said what I said… It would be awkward to sit at the dinner table with her glaring at me the whole time. I’m quite sure her mom doesn’t know what’s been going on.’ Spike stood up and decided he might as well get a shower and dress up a little nicer than usual since Faye’s mom seemed like a nice lady who didn’t know much about Faye or her friends. He might as well give the woman the elusion that he, and some of her other friends were ok kind of people.
Spike took his shower and dried off. He tried to brush his hair but when the brush got stuck, he gave up and pulled it out cursing over and over about how hair was over rated. He got dressed and decided a yellow, long sleeved button up shirt was appropriate. He wore the sleeves rolled up and a pair of blue suit pants with it. He looked in the mirror and thought he might be over dressed, or maybe under dressed, realizing he couldn’t place it as either he figured it was fine.
* *
“WHAT??!!” Are you crazy?!” Faye shot up in bed.
Ed had tried over and over to get Faye to wake up but no matter what she said or did she’d just push her away and roll over. The last thing Ed had told Faye was that Spike was coming over for dinner. Faye shot up and almost had a heart attack.
Ed sat on the edge of the bed Indian style. “Doesn’t Faye-Faye want to see Spike-person?”
“I hate him!” Faye screeched.
Faye’s mother came in just then and stood at the doorway, “Faye, you should get ready. Dinner’s almost done and I’m sure your guest will be coming soon.” she walked out humming softly.
Faye hunched over, if he was going to come and stay for dinner she was going to act as if he was beneath her. She would show him that he didn’t bother her one bit. She would show him that she was worth more than what he seemed to have thought about her, she was going to make him beg for forgiveness.
Faye stood up and decided to make Edward clean the room while she began to get ready.
“Cleaning!” Ed popped up out of nowhere with a broom and cleaner. She scrambled around the room and cleaned random things and the room quickly went from teen girl’s room to a clean adults room. (Not all adults have “clean” rooms but… argh! Shut up!)
Faye finished with her lipstick and smacked her lips together. She backed away from the mirror and smirked. She looked around the room and blinked, “How did you do it, Ed?”
Ed opened the closet for the smallest fraction of a second and grinned. She closed it before anything could fall out of the pile of junk that touched the ceiling of the closet.
Faye shook her head but smiled at Ed for trying. Ed ran from the room without a word but not with out a sound. She flew around the room with her arms out and making propeller noises with her lips. She circled the room once, jumping over the beds, and continued her flight out of the room. Faye glanced into the mirror and smoothed her hair out before turning and leaving the room as well.
It was only a few minutes later that Spike showed up in his casual nice clothes. Faye looked him up and down but never gave him a hint of emotion. Right now she felt anger, sadness, and cockiness. She smirked slightly as he tried to give her a smile. “Come in,” she gestured for him to move forward into the trailer. He bowed his head slightly trying to be nice. He still felt a little angry with her for things she had done, but he knew he had been the one to screw up this time. He had been tired then and wasn’t even thinking about how she would feel; now he had rested and was able to think before he spoke.
“Oh its so nice to have you over for dinner!” Faye’s mother greeted him as the door was shut behind him. He smiled and replied, “Thank you for inviting me,” he didn’t quite know how to react to such nice treatment after what had happened that morning.
Faye was quiet; she hadn’t spoken much the whole night. Dinner had been served shortly after Spike had arrived; it was a delicious meal he had commented, and indeed it was. A scrumptious roast with carrots and potatoes and mouth-watering gravy made from the juices. Afterwards was a delightful cake, which Edward, in her own way, dedicated to Spike for saving her scooter. It was amazing the little girl even remembered him getting the scooter back for her; he wondered if that was why she liked him so much. He cursed himself for being so nice on the wrong day.
After dinner Spike asked Faye in the lowest whisper he could mutter, “Could we talk?”
Faye smirked and nodded her head not really seeming to care that he wanted to talk. She stood up and left the table to go into her room. Spike sat for a moment wondering what was going on. After a moment or two he figured Faye had gone to her room and expected him to follow her so they could talk. He stood up and with long strides made it to her room. He tapped on the door not realizing the door was cracked up, it swung like a snail across pavement, open just a tiny bit more. He looked in and slowly opened the door, he looked around the room and Faye was sitting on the bed in a bored fashion. She was definitely playing it cool, he felt aggravated that she didn’t care at all that he wanted to tell her something. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Listen, Faye…”he watched her eyes wonder around the room as if she wasn’t even listening. He shut the door, “Faye?”
“Yes?” she looked at him.
“I wanted to talk to you about last night and this morning…” He approached the bed and sat down with caution next to her.
“Haven’t you said enough?” she asked venom appearing in her voice just the tiniest bit.
He looked at her with indifferent eyes, “What I said about you, Faye, I never went to sleep last night at all!” he said in exasperation.
“Is that my fault?” her tone was spicy but nonchalant.
“No, I found out something and went to find Vicious, I was out for blood and came in when he was in the middle of…” he trailed off.
Faye’s eyes were averted from him to her lap. “When what?”
“When he was… What happened to you last night?” he asked not sure about what he had saw, after all, looks could be deceiving.
Instead of answering his question she asked him one, “What made you come in wanting to kill Vicious?”
He faltered; this was something he really didn’t want to talk about. “Its none of your business.”
“Why? What Vicious and…” she started to trail of, “And I were doing when you burst in was none of your business either!” she shot back.
Spike sighed, “What do you mean ‘What Vicious and I were doing?’ He was obviously…” he started to notice both of them were having a hard time talking about all this and neither would understand unless everything was told.
He watched from the corner of his eye as she fidgeted and bit her lower lip.
“What Vicious did was none of your business,” she corrected herself.
“But it was Faye… It was…” he looked down sadly remembering Julia’s swollen stomach and even sadder eyes, yet she never cried.
“How?” she whispered. He could hear the sadness in her voice now. She sounded like she might cry but was holding back.
“I found out my- I found out Julia came back last night.” he paused. “When I went to go see her I found out why she had left…” His fists balled up tightly and Faye noticed as she glanced over form looking at her lap to his hand that once lay relaxed at his side. “When I found out what Vicious had done to her I went find him and kill him for it.”
“What did he do?”
“Julia’s… Julia’s pregnant.” he said through gritted teeth desperately trying to stay in control. This wasn’t Spike at all, what happened with Julia and Vicious had affected him in a way that nothing else could have.
“Wouldn’t it be yours?” she asked.
“No…” was all he said. She figured she didn’t need to ask any more about that and let him continue.
“So I went to the party and found Vicious in an upstairs room, I burst in and that’s when I found the two of you. I beat Vicious until my hands were sore and covered in blood.” He sighed hanging his head.
Faye looked at him with sympathy; she now understood why he had been a wake all night. He had been up all night thinking about what he had learned. She felt bad that he had to go through such a thing, and also having to take her home.
“Vicious wanted sex the whole time, didn’t he?” she asked him.
“Yeah…”
“I guess his patience ran out with me, huh?” her voice wavered slightly, she didn’t know if he could hear it or not but she prayed he didn’t. “After drinking some of the juice he had gotten me, which I’m sure had some sort of drug in it, I began feeling ill. So he offered to take me upstairs where I could lay down and not worry about the pounding of music in my head.” She sucked in air sharply.
Spike looked up at her, her hair covered her eyes but he could tell she was holding back tears. He felt sorry for her having to go through what she did and knowing what she might have gone through. After a night like that he wondered how he could be so cruel and uncaring, even if he didn’t like her.
“I don’t know what happened after that but I’m sure you saw more of me in that night then you probably ever will see in our life times.” She had tried all day to not think about it, that’s why she slept almost the whole day away.
The conversation had stopped and the room was silent. Minutes had passed and the room was thick with discomfort. Spike cleared his throat and looked around at the room. He noticed it was clean and cluttered. On the walls were posters of random bands and mythical creatures. The beds were made and the one they sat one must have been Faye’s cause it had a floral print while the other had cartoon characters on it.
“Faye, what I meant to do was…” he pulled her wadded up bra out of his pocket, “give this back.” he handed it to her and she took it with a shaking hand. “And to say I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I said to you this morning. You were right, I don’t know anything about you.”
Faye took her bra and set in on the other side of her. She looked up at Spike and smiled weakly, “I’m kind of sorry too, I’ve done my share to make us hate each other.”
The room fell silent again; surely they hadn’t talked about everything…
“Spike..?”
“Yeah?”
&# 8220;Why’d you take me home?”
Shrug, “I dunno…”
“Oh…”
“Spike?”
Sigh, “yeah?”
“Are you sure you don’t know?”
Siiiigh, “I… I couldn’t leave you on the bed like you were. There was no telling who would stumble into that room.”
“Oh…” Her eyes wondered around the room. “What was I like?”
“What do you mean?” He looked at her.
“What did I look like?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe, I just want to know.”
“You were… Well, you weren’t dressed and you were laying sprawled out across half of the bed while part of your body hung off the bed.” He looked at her, he knew what he said must have seemed a little insensitive but he knew no other way to word it with out it being completely vulgar.
Faye blushed and put her head down. Her purple locks hung covering her face to hide her embarrassment. He hadn’t expected the shrew girl to blush; but then, he hadn’t expected Faye Valentine to be a virgin either. Looks WERE deceiving.
“So I looked like one of those whores you see in a detective movie where the prostitute is lying murdered in a hotel room, huh?” He thought he heard her sniffle but couldn’t tell.
“No, no you didn’t…”
“Are you ok, with the whole Julia thing?” she asked as if the other thing hadn’t fazed her.
“I… I don’t think I want to talk about it.”
“Oh, it always helps to talk about things. Especially when you’re one of those people who like to hold it in. Sometimes people like that hold it in so much that when they finally tell someone something they feel so good about it afterwards that they’re almost willing to tell anyone anything.”
“Really?” He looked at her again.
“Yeah, I’ve met someone like that.” she sighed, “Of course, the person went back to keeping it in after being hurt, she claims its because she let someone in and told them her problems.”
“Oh, some people should be careful, you can’t trust just anyone.” He chuckled, “Sometimes not even those you love.” Bitter humor was his way of dealing with the bad.
“Yeah. You can’t trust people for anything.” she looked up and smiled at him. “I haven’t trusted anyone in a long time, you?”
“Just Julia, just proves the “can’t trust anyone” theory.” he chuckled.
She laughed lightly with him, “Yeah, it does.”
Silence rained as the laughter settled, it was an awkward silence, but it was comfortable at the same time. Faye fell back against the bed her arms spread out to align with her shoulders. She sighed and turned her head to look at Spike, “You think we’ll hate each other again soon?”
He looked at her and smiled, “Sure, haven’t gotten away once with out a fight, why should it change?”
She grinned, “I dunno, we’ve never talked like this…”
“Nope, this is a first indeed.”
“You think we’ll be good friends after this?”
“Only if you want?” he asked.
“I guess I wouldn’t mind having a lunkhead for a friend.”
“Then I guess I wouldn’t mind having a shrew woman for a friend.”
“’Cause its fun,” Faye laughed.
He turned to look at her with squinted eyes, “’Fun’ is lying in bed watching old Bruce Lee movies in the dark with lots of junk food.” He looked back to the road.
“That’s not fun! That’s lazy!” If he wasn’t driving she would have slapped him, but today they didn’t need to die in a horrible car crash because they were going to the beach.
“Are we there yet?!” Edward popped out from the back seat.
“Ack!” Spike swerved slightly but gained control of the vehicle in a matter of seconds. “What happened to playing the quiet game, Ed?”
“Edward is tired of that game and wants to play a new one!” She grinned happily, “Are we there yet?”
“No, we aren’t there yet, we’ll tell you when we get to the beach.” Faye rolled her eyes.
“Why are we taking her anyways?” asked Spike.
“’Cause Ed said she was going and my mother unfortunately agreed that she go.” Faye sighed and rested her head in her right hand as she leaned against the door and looked out the window.
Spike continued to drive down the same road passing buildings of all sorts. They were mostly business buildings. Some of them looked run down while others looked brand new. Faye laughed inside at some of the buildings because they were painted a tint of pink. She watched as they passed people and occasionally they’d stop at a red light and she could watch as some people crossed the street. She looked on as a bum sat near the railroad tracks as they were going over them. He had a shopping cart full of clothes and other things found in the trash or on the ground. She wondered how they got like that and what a normal day for them was.
“Ed’s going to the beeeEaaach!” Ed bounced on the back seat of the car.
“Ed! Keep your seatbelt on!” Faye looked back and pointed to Ed’s seatbelt that lay forgotten on the seat. Ed saddened and put her seatbelt on, but as soon as it was on something outside the window caught her eye and she was looking out the window with a grin on her face.
Faye turned around and sighed leaning back in the seat. Her eyes drifted to the window and she spaced out again watching everything pass by.
Spike glanced over every once in a while at Faye from the corner of his eye. “What-cha-thinking-bout?” he finally asked.
Faye jumped a bit and looked at him, “What?”
“What are ya thinkin’ about?” he repeated.
“Oh, I’m just looking out the window really. I don’t come down this way too much, lots of stuff to look at,” she smiled. He accepted the answer for now and figured he’d ask again later when Ed was off playing in the water.
They drove along the same road in the direction of the beach, crossing over the bridge they came to another city and just three miles away was the hot, sandy beach. As soon as they crossed the bridge they stopped at a red light. The sun was high in the sky; it was only about noon. As soon as the light was green Spike sped up until he reached the speed limit, from there he continued at a steady pace until they reached the toll booth where they slowed to a complete stop.
“Tree fidy,” the plump beach patrol officer said around his cigarette, which hung from the corner of his lips.
Spike pulled a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and handed it to the man, he received the change back and the officer allowed him to drive his car onto the beach. Finding a clear spot he parked the car and they began to file out of the car. Ed bounced, “We’re here! We’re here! Let’s go in the water!”
Faye grabbed Ed’s hand before she ran off towards the water, “Don’t go in too far, and stay where it’s still shallow.” Ed nodded and ran off to go jump into the crashing waves. She didn’t have to stay and put sun block on because they had all put some on before they left for the beach. Faye sighed and reached into the car to pull out two towels as Spike went to the trunk of the car to get the lounge chairs. They kept a full cooler in the trunk for cold drinks.
Spike set up both lounge chairs one in a bed like position and the other in a chair position. Faye threw him his towel and casually laid hers on the lounge chair made up to look like a bed. She pulled off her shirt revealing a strapless top, one side of it was black, the other was white, and the small pieces were held together buy a gold ring in the middle of her chest. Her breasts looked like they’d pop out of the tiny top at any moment. Next she stripped her shorts off, underneath she wore the bikini bottom, which was styled like the top, skimpy with one side black and the other white. Folding her clothes she sat them on the sandy ground next to her lounge chair and sat down, she leaned back until she was laying on it. “Do you still think about it?” She questioned out of nowhere.
Spike snapped awake from spacing out, “Huh? What?”
“Do you still think about what happened?” She repeated.
“Oh, I dunno. I guess sometimes.” He shrugged getting comfortable in the chair. His eyes wondered the beach looking for Ed. He found her easily because her bright orange hair and her bright green and yellow bathing suit stood out the most in front of a dark bluish green background.
“Oh, I think about it sometimes.” She looked at him; he seemed to be concentrating on something that was far off.
“Think about it how?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, how do you feel about it all?”
“I dunno, I guess its just kind of a memory now, I’d rather think about the present I guess. No use in looking back on the past, huh?” She smiled at him.
He grinned back, “True,” he brought his arms up and lazily folded them behind his head like a pillow and closed his eyes.
“Do you come to the beach often?”
He opened one eye and looked at her, “Not really, why?”
She shrugged, “Just wondering, cause you never took your shirt off. Guys normally go to the beach with swim trunks on, right?”
Spike looked down at his plain olive green shorts and T-shirt, “What’s wrong with this?” he asked.
“You could at least take your shirt off, you look like a crazy Bible beater who thinks it’s a sin to wear a bathing suit at the beach.” She laughed.
His face twisted into a scowl, “I do not!” He tossed his T-shirt off and sat back crossing his arms angrily over his chest, “It’s better than wearing a bathing suit three times too small.”
Her smile faded into a frown, “Its not three times to small! It’s the way it’s made!”
“You mean made for a small child to wear?” He smirked closing his eyes once again.
Growling she grabbed one of Ed’s toy buckets from a bag that had been laid between the chairs, she scooped up sand in it and stood over Spike. Spike opened one eye realizing there was something blocking the sun from him.
“ARGH!!!!” The seagulls stopped squawking, the children stopped playing, and the people on the beach just stared at the two.
Faye had dumped the bucket of sand on Spike making him yell out as the hot sand was poured onto his face, hair and chest. Faye smirked and laid back down pretending like nothing had happened. She closed her eyes and sunbathed.
The crowded beach went back to normal as the seagulls squawked again and the children played.
Spike stood up, he grabbed the bucket and went to the ocean to get rid of most of the sand on him. He stalked through the sand and trudged through the water as the waves crashed against him. He ducked under water and came back up gasping for air. He repeated this a few times until the muddy sand was washed away. He dunked the bucket into the water and pulled it out full of seawater. Grinning malevolently he made his way back to where the car was parked with Faye laying unsuspectingly. He grinned, his eyebrow twitching as he pulled the bucket up and splashed Faye with the freezing cold water!
“AAAHHCCKKK!!!!” She jumped up screaming.
He laughed so hard he fell to his knees holding his stomach. The look on her face, the way her hair drooped, dripping wet, the way she looked like an angry drowned rat. And the way she was coming towards him clenching her fists and grabbing a chair. He suddenly stopped laughing, Faye swung the folded up lounge chair and he fell to the ground dodging the chair barely.
“C’mon Faye! I was just getting you back!” He held his hands up trying to calm her down. “It was just a joke!”
“Whoa! Yeah! Take it ALL off!”
Faye’s eyebrow twitched as she looked around for the guys who were yelling out those degrading comments. Spike looked up at Faye while her attention was turned to the stupid boys. He looked up and noticed her top wasn’t there anymore. He blushed slightly and looked away.
Faye scowled, “What are you looking at pathetic losers!” she held up her fist and shook it.
“Uh, Faye…”
“What?!”
Spike pointed and Faye looked down. He face went pale and then red. Her swimsuit top had fallen clearly to her waist! She pulled it up and sat back down on her chair.
Spike could hear the boys laughing and talking about what they had just seen. He looked over at Faye but couldn’t see her face because her hair was draped over it like a curtain. He stood up and dusted himself off. He strolled over to the boys as they snickered and talked about “things they could do.”
He tapped the brown-haired one on the shoulder, when the guy turned around he met Spike’s fist, “It’s not nice to talk about people like that.” The brown-haired guy fell to the ground as the other three stood up.
“Why you over here tryin’ ta start stuff, man?” The dark skinned one of the four asked.
“I’m not, just showing you, you should think before you speak.”
The brown haired boy sat on the ground rubbing his nose. He pulled his hand away from his face to find it covered in blood; he immediately freaked out and almost started crying. He stood up and ran away saying something about paying Spike back.
Spike dusted his hands off and walked back over to Faye who was now lying silently on her lounge chair with her sunglasses to cover her eyes. He decided not to say anything and picked up his chair. He positioned it again and sat down without another word. It was silent for a while but Faye was the first to speak.
“Do you wonder how it happened?”
“What?”
“Do you think Vicious could have done to Julia what he wanted to do to me?”
He looked at Faye for a moment, “I dunno, I guess I never thought of that.”
“Vicious seems like he’d do something like that, ya know?” She said it more as a statement than a question.
“Yeah, you may be right. I’ll talk to her.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat to get comfortable.
“Ed wants a drink! Ed is SoooOoOOoo thirsty!” Ed popped up out of nowhere.
Spike pointed to the cooler in the open trunk, “Drinks are in the cooler.”
“Ah! Ed sees… Thank you kind sir!” She grabbed a random bottle out of the cooler and ran off to go play with some children she made friends with.
It grew silent again and as an attempt to start a conversation he asked, “So, how is it that you two are related? You said she wasn’t your sister, is she your cousin?”
Faye tilted her head and looked at him from behind her sunglasses, “We aren’t related.”
“Huh?”
Faye shrugged, “We aren’t related.”
“Hm…” Spike pondered this for a while until Faye asked him a question.
“Spike? Where’s your mother?”
“Huh?” he looked at her, “Oh, hm… She died a few years ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just wondering.”
“Its ok, its not that bad. Before she died I was a lot closer to both of my parents, but when she died my dad started working like crazy. I guess it was easier to not think about it.”
“Oh, What’s it like remembering her? Does it hurt?”
“Not much anymore. Why do you ask such a question? What about your family?”
“I don’t have a family.”
“Are you feeling ok?” He asked, he was totally confused as to what she was talking about.
Faye sighed, “The people I live with, Ed, and her family. They aren’t my family.”
Spike raised and eyebrow.
“They’re my foster home until I’m 18.” Faye took her glasses off, “Just a few years ago I was in an accident. From what the doctors said both my parents died in the crash and I was the only one left. I have some distant relative somewhere but they didn’t have the money to take me in. I don’t remember anything before the crash so I don’t know who my family is. The doctors wouldn’t tell me a whole lot about my family, they said that they couldn’t because then I might not gain my memory back.” Faye stared off into the glittering ocean.
“Oh… Well…” Spike didn’t know what to say. This girl just got more and more complex; he wondered what this friendship was going to bring him. For now he’d think about what Faye had said about Julia, she may have been on to something about that. It made him smile to think that he and Julia still had a chance. For now, he would enjoy the beach.
* * *
Set-chan
By: Setryochi
* * *
It was soft and warm. The scent was so familiar…
Faye rolled over on the comfortable bed and groaned not wanting to wake up because once she woke up she’d have to get out of the wonderful bed…
Bed?
Faye’s eyes snapped open. She looked around the almost vacant room and panicked. Last night had been horrible. She looked around and pulled the covers over her shoulders. She looked around and slowly started to realized where she was…
‘Spike’s room? How’d I get here? What happened last night?’ She wondered totally confused as to what was going on. She felt like crying, all she remembered was Vicious stripping her and then a loud crash, then some blurry figures and then sleep… She put her hand to her head and leaned forward placing her head, cradled in her hand, on her knees. She felt sick, she wondered if Vicious had achieved his goal. She gulped down the lump in her throat and would have started crying if Spike hadn’t come into the room just then. She looked up as he shut the door behind him. He turned around to face her; he looked like he hadn’t slept. He looked more like the living dead then Spike. His hair was even more disheveled than usual, if that were possible and the bags under his blood shot eyes made him resemble a crack addict.
“G’morning,” he mumbled groggily.
She didn’t respond with a good morning, she just nodded and watched him silently. She eyed him as he pulled out the desk chair and plopped down on it.
“What happened?” she asked softly wary of his answer.
“What do you mean?”
“Why am I here? What happened last night?” she asked, she was so afraid of what he might say to her.
“Oh…” he looked around as if trying to figure out how to word it.
She gripped the blanket so tightly her knuckles turned white. She stared at him wanting to know so badly that it hurt.
“I went looking for Vicious and found you guys together. Vicious left and you were sleeping, I couldn’t leave you there so I brought you here.” He closed his eyes and leaned back on the desk.
Faye sighed and relaxed looking down at the blanket crinkled in her hands. She kept her eyes downcast as she spoke, “Did anything else happen?”
Spike opened his eye tiredly and looked at her. He frowned slightly and answered, “Not really.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” He said lamely.
“Thanks,” she whispered not able to find her voice. Something did happen, she remembered but everything was so blurry she couldn’t see it, but she could still hear and feel it. Spike was lying to her, she gripped the blanket tightly again gritting her teeth. “What all did you see..?” she asked as tears weld up in her eyes.
His head lulled tiredly. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Liar…”
“What?”
“You’re a liar.”
“How so?”
“More happened than what you said.” She blinked back tears and refused to lift her head.
“If you know what happened than why are you asking me?”
“Because I got the gist of it… But what was the loud crash I heard? And… How much… of me… did you really see?” She asked her last question slowly.
Spike coughed uncomfortably, “That loud crash… um… I kicked in the door.”
She waited for the rest but it never came. “Were you ‘saving’ me or something?” She asked coldly. She was angry that she had let it happen. She was angry that Spike had actually helped her when she always said that she didn’t need any help.
“I wasn’t there to save you. It just came out to be like that.” He looked at her with tired eyes.
“I didn’t need your help you know…” She looked to the side and pretended to be interested in a Bruce Lee poster.
“Of course you didn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had fucked you ‘cause you’ve probably been with a billion other guys!” He was tired and he didn’t need some bitch giving him crap right now.
Her head shot back facing him. Her lips were parted and her eyes were wide with anger and surprise. But something she hadn’t expected to feel was sadness. Other guys have said things similar to this, it never fazed her than so why should she care now? She threw the blanket off and stood up, marching over to him she stood before him in the same thing she had been wearing the night before. Reaching back she brought her hand down and slapped him as hard as she could. “How dare you say that about me!” she yelled at him.
Spike looked at her with the most surprised look his tired features would allow. He looked up at her face and noticed she looked like she might crumble like a rock being pounded by a sledgehammer. He gritted his teeth and decided he didn’t need to feel sorry for anyone, “Why’d ya do that?!” he stood up, the chair falling backwards behind him.
“You have no idea who, or how many people I’ve been with! Quite frankly it’s none of your business! But just to set the records straight!” She pointed her finger at him. “I’m a virgin!” She turned around, grabbed her shoes from by the bed and stormed out of his room.
Spike watched as she left the room in a dizzy rage. He shook his head and slowly closed his eyes. Women were all evil. They can deceive even the devil himself. He sighed and walked over to his bed crashing down on it. He fell asleep thinking of how the pillows smelt like her; surprisingly it was a happy thought.
* *
Faye walked home her arms crossed over her chest in an angry huff. Her eyebrows were knitted together making her forehead wrinkly. ‘That asshole! How could he say that about me?! He doesn’t know anything about me! That bastard! And VICIOUS! I’ll kill him for tricking me like that! I’ll kill him for thinking he could get a way with it! I’ll kill him just because he’s HIM! ARGH!’ Faye was so angry, guys were so stupid. All they wanted was sex, sex, and more sex! If a door or wall had been near she would have put her fist through it. Luckily she wouldn’t be breaking anything.
She walked along and had gotten pretty far down the road from Spike’s house when she realized she wasn’t wearing a bra. As soon as she realized that she wondered what Vicious had done with the bag she had thrown in the back of the car. She didn’t put enough in to actually stay the night anywhere but she still had some of her clothes in it. She grumbled, “How am I supposed to get all that back? And where’s my bra?” She sighed and continued to walk home.
* *
Spike rolled over and opened his blurry eyes. Something was very itchy on his hand. Using his other hand he itched the spot and found something tangled up between his fingers. He held up his hand and examined it.
Sigh…
Faye had left her bra on his bed and now it was tangled around his hand in a lacy black mess. ‘How do girl wear these things?’ he untangled it and itched his hand one last time before sitting up. He grabbed the phone near his bed and dialed a number into it.
* *
Ring..!
Ring..!
Ring..!
“Hell-ooooo!” Ed spoke into the phone.
“H… Hello?” Spike asked. He hadn’t spoken to Edward in over a week and had almost forgotten she lived with Faye.
“Yes?” she said in a snobby accent, as if she were the butler of the house.
“Is Faye home?” he asked.
“Yes,” She said in a more cheerful, snobby voice.
“Can I talk to her?”
“She’s sleeeeepiiiiing! OoooooOOooOOoo.”
“Um… ok… Well, can I come drop something off for her?”
Ed jumped around happily, “Yes! Spike-person can! Spike-person must stay for dinner, too!” Ed called after her mom while telling Spike bye. She hung up before he could protest.
“Mama-person! Spike-person is coming for dinner!” Ed waved her hands like rubber pencils.
“Oh really? Isn’t that Faye’s friend?” Her mother had been cooking dinner and was now wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
“Yes, yes and Spike-person is coming to see her! I like Spike-person, he’s the one that saved Edward’s scooter!” She squealed happily.
“Is that so?” her mother smiled, “Well then, since he’s so special I’ll make a cake for desert, how does that sound?”
“Oooh! That sounds great! Spike-person will like it! Ed likes it, too!” Ed ran to her room to go wake Faye to tell her the good news.
* *
“Argh… Ed… I’ll kill the little-” he sighed and hunched over. ‘I guess I could go explain to Faye why I said what I said… It would be awkward to sit at the dinner table with her glaring at me the whole time. I’m quite sure her mom doesn’t know what’s been going on.’ Spike stood up and decided he might as well get a shower and dress up a little nicer than usual since Faye’s mom seemed like a nice lady who didn’t know much about Faye or her friends. He might as well give the woman the elusion that he, and some of her other friends were ok kind of people.
Spike took his shower and dried off. He tried to brush his hair but when the brush got stuck, he gave up and pulled it out cursing over and over about how hair was over rated. He got dressed and decided a yellow, long sleeved button up shirt was appropriate. He wore the sleeves rolled up and a pair of blue suit pants with it. He looked in the mirror and thought he might be over dressed, or maybe under dressed, realizing he couldn’t place it as either he figured it was fine.
* *
“WHAT??!!” Are you crazy?!” Faye shot up in bed.
Ed had tried over and over to get Faye to wake up but no matter what she said or did she’d just push her away and roll over. The last thing Ed had told Faye was that Spike was coming over for dinner. Faye shot up and almost had a heart attack.
Ed sat on the edge of the bed Indian style. “Doesn’t Faye-Faye want to see Spike-person?”
“I hate him!” Faye screeched.
Faye’s mother came in just then and stood at the doorway, “Faye, you should get ready. Dinner’s almost done and I’m sure your guest will be coming soon.” she walked out humming softly.
Faye hunched over, if he was going to come and stay for dinner she was going to act as if he was beneath her. She would show him that he didn’t bother her one bit. She would show him that she was worth more than what he seemed to have thought about her, she was going to make him beg for forgiveness.
Faye stood up and decided to make Edward clean the room while she began to get ready.
“Cleaning!” Ed popped up out of nowhere with a broom and cleaner. She scrambled around the room and cleaned random things and the room quickly went from teen girl’s room to a clean adults room. (Not all adults have “clean” rooms but… argh! Shut up!)
Faye finished with her lipstick and smacked her lips together. She backed away from the mirror and smirked. She looked around the room and blinked, “How did you do it, Ed?”
Ed opened the closet for the smallest fraction of a second and grinned. She closed it before anything could fall out of the pile of junk that touched the ceiling of the closet.
Faye shook her head but smiled at Ed for trying. Ed ran from the room without a word but not with out a sound. She flew around the room with her arms out and making propeller noises with her lips. She circled the room once, jumping over the beds, and continued her flight out of the room. Faye glanced into the mirror and smoothed her hair out before turning and leaving the room as well.
It was only a few minutes later that Spike showed up in his casual nice clothes. Faye looked him up and down but never gave him a hint of emotion. Right now she felt anger, sadness, and cockiness. She smirked slightly as he tried to give her a smile. “Come in,” she gestured for him to move forward into the trailer. He bowed his head slightly trying to be nice. He still felt a little angry with her for things she had done, but he knew he had been the one to screw up this time. He had been tired then and wasn’t even thinking about how she would feel; now he had rested and was able to think before he spoke.
“Oh its so nice to have you over for dinner!” Faye’s mother greeted him as the door was shut behind him. He smiled and replied, “Thank you for inviting me,” he didn’t quite know how to react to such nice treatment after what had happened that morning.
Faye was quiet; she hadn’t spoken much the whole night. Dinner had been served shortly after Spike had arrived; it was a delicious meal he had commented, and indeed it was. A scrumptious roast with carrots and potatoes and mouth-watering gravy made from the juices. Afterwards was a delightful cake, which Edward, in her own way, dedicated to Spike for saving her scooter. It was amazing the little girl even remembered him getting the scooter back for her; he wondered if that was why she liked him so much. He cursed himself for being so nice on the wrong day.
After dinner Spike asked Faye in the lowest whisper he could mutter, “Could we talk?”
Faye smirked and nodded her head not really seeming to care that he wanted to talk. She stood up and left the table to go into her room. Spike sat for a moment wondering what was going on. After a moment or two he figured Faye had gone to her room and expected him to follow her so they could talk. He stood up and with long strides made it to her room. He tapped on the door not realizing the door was cracked up, it swung like a snail across pavement, open just a tiny bit more. He looked in and slowly opened the door, he looked around the room and Faye was sitting on the bed in a bored fashion. She was definitely playing it cool, he felt aggravated that she didn’t care at all that he wanted to tell her something. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Listen, Faye…”he watched her eyes wonder around the room as if she wasn’t even listening. He shut the door, “Faye?”
“Yes?” she looked at him.
“I wanted to talk to you about last night and this morning…” He approached the bed and sat down with caution next to her.
“Haven’t you said enough?” she asked venom appearing in her voice just the tiniest bit.
He looked at her with indifferent eyes, “What I said about you, Faye, I never went to sleep last night at all!” he said in exasperation.
“Is that my fault?” her tone was spicy but nonchalant.
“No, I found out something and went to find Vicious, I was out for blood and came in when he was in the middle of…” he trailed off.
Faye’s eyes were averted from him to her lap. “When what?”
“When he was… What happened to you last night?” he asked not sure about what he had saw, after all, looks could be deceiving.
Instead of answering his question she asked him one, “What made you come in wanting to kill Vicious?”
He faltered; this was something he really didn’t want to talk about. “Its none of your business.”
“Why? What Vicious and…” she started to trail of, “And I were doing when you burst in was none of your business either!” she shot back.
Spike sighed, “What do you mean ‘What Vicious and I were doing?’ He was obviously…” he started to notice both of them were having a hard time talking about all this and neither would understand unless everything was told.
He watched from the corner of his eye as she fidgeted and bit her lower lip.
“What Vicious did was none of your business,” she corrected herself.
“But it was Faye… It was…” he looked down sadly remembering Julia’s swollen stomach and even sadder eyes, yet she never cried.
“How?” she whispered. He could hear the sadness in her voice now. She sounded like she might cry but was holding back.
“I found out my- I found out Julia came back last night.” he paused. “When I went to go see her I found out why she had left…” His fists balled up tightly and Faye noticed as she glanced over form looking at her lap to his hand that once lay relaxed at his side. “When I found out what Vicious had done to her I went find him and kill him for it.”
“What did he do?”
“Julia’s… Julia’s pregnant.” he said through gritted teeth desperately trying to stay in control. This wasn’t Spike at all, what happened with Julia and Vicious had affected him in a way that nothing else could have.
“Wouldn’t it be yours?” she asked.
“No…” was all he said. She figured she didn’t need to ask any more about that and let him continue.
“So I went to the party and found Vicious in an upstairs room, I burst in and that’s when I found the two of you. I beat Vicious until my hands were sore and covered in blood.” He sighed hanging his head.
Faye looked at him with sympathy; she now understood why he had been a wake all night. He had been up all night thinking about what he had learned. She felt bad that he had to go through such a thing, and also having to take her home.
“Vicious wanted sex the whole time, didn’t he?” she asked him.
“Yeah…”
“I guess his patience ran out with me, huh?” her voice wavered slightly, she didn’t know if he could hear it or not but she prayed he didn’t. “After drinking some of the juice he had gotten me, which I’m sure had some sort of drug in it, I began feeling ill. So he offered to take me upstairs where I could lay down and not worry about the pounding of music in my head.” She sucked in air sharply.
Spike looked up at her, her hair covered her eyes but he could tell she was holding back tears. He felt sorry for her having to go through what she did and knowing what she might have gone through. After a night like that he wondered how he could be so cruel and uncaring, even if he didn’t like her.
“I don’t know what happened after that but I’m sure you saw more of me in that night then you probably ever will see in our life times.” She had tried all day to not think about it, that’s why she slept almost the whole day away.
The conversation had stopped and the room was silent. Minutes had passed and the room was thick with discomfort. Spike cleared his throat and looked around at the room. He noticed it was clean and cluttered. On the walls were posters of random bands and mythical creatures. The beds were made and the one they sat one must have been Faye’s cause it had a floral print while the other had cartoon characters on it.
“Faye, what I meant to do was…” he pulled her wadded up bra out of his pocket, “give this back.” he handed it to her and she took it with a shaking hand. “And to say I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I said to you this morning. You were right, I don’t know anything about you.”
Faye took her bra and set in on the other side of her. She looked up at Spike and smiled weakly, “I’m kind of sorry too, I’ve done my share to make us hate each other.”
The room fell silent again; surely they hadn’t talked about everything…
“Spike..?”
“Yeah?”
&# 8220;Why’d you take me home?”
Shrug, “I dunno…”
“Oh…”
“Spike?”
Sigh, “yeah?”
“Are you sure you don’t know?”
Siiiigh, “I… I couldn’t leave you on the bed like you were. There was no telling who would stumble into that room.”
“Oh…” Her eyes wondered around the room. “What was I like?”
“What do you mean?” He looked at her.
“What did I look like?”
“Does it matter?”
“Maybe, I just want to know.”
“You were… Well, you weren’t dressed and you were laying sprawled out across half of the bed while part of your body hung off the bed.” He looked at her, he knew what he said must have seemed a little insensitive but he knew no other way to word it with out it being completely vulgar.
Faye blushed and put her head down. Her purple locks hung covering her face to hide her embarrassment. He hadn’t expected the shrew girl to blush; but then, he hadn’t expected Faye Valentine to be a virgin either. Looks WERE deceiving.
“So I looked like one of those whores you see in a detective movie where the prostitute is lying murdered in a hotel room, huh?” He thought he heard her sniffle but couldn’t tell.
“No, no you didn’t…”
“Are you ok, with the whole Julia thing?” she asked as if the other thing hadn’t fazed her.
“I… I don’t think I want to talk about it.”
“Oh, it always helps to talk about things. Especially when you’re one of those people who like to hold it in. Sometimes people like that hold it in so much that when they finally tell someone something they feel so good about it afterwards that they’re almost willing to tell anyone anything.”
“Really?” He looked at her again.
“Yeah, I’ve met someone like that.” she sighed, “Of course, the person went back to keeping it in after being hurt, she claims its because she let someone in and told them her problems.”
“Oh, some people should be careful, you can’t trust just anyone.” He chuckled, “Sometimes not even those you love.” Bitter humor was his way of dealing with the bad.
“Yeah. You can’t trust people for anything.” she looked up and smiled at him. “I haven’t trusted anyone in a long time, you?”
“Just Julia, just proves the “can’t trust anyone” theory.” he chuckled.
She laughed lightly with him, “Yeah, it does.”
Silence rained as the laughter settled, it was an awkward silence, but it was comfortable at the same time. Faye fell back against the bed her arms spread out to align with her shoulders. She sighed and turned her head to look at Spike, “You think we’ll hate each other again soon?”
He looked at her and smiled, “Sure, haven’t gotten away once with out a fight, why should it change?”
She grinned, “I dunno, we’ve never talked like this…”
“Nope, this is a first indeed.”
“You think we’ll be good friends after this?”
“Only if you want?” he asked.
“I guess I wouldn’t mind having a lunkhead for a friend.”
“Then I guess I wouldn’t mind having a shrew woman for a friend.”
* * *
“Why are we going to the beach again?” Spike asked in a monotonous voice.“’Cause its fun,” Faye laughed.
He turned to look at her with squinted eyes, “’Fun’ is lying in bed watching old Bruce Lee movies in the dark with lots of junk food.” He looked back to the road.
“That’s not fun! That’s lazy!” If he wasn’t driving she would have slapped him, but today they didn’t need to die in a horrible car crash because they were going to the beach.
“Are we there yet?!” Edward popped out from the back seat.
“Ack!” Spike swerved slightly but gained control of the vehicle in a matter of seconds. “What happened to playing the quiet game, Ed?”
“Edward is tired of that game and wants to play a new one!” She grinned happily, “Are we there yet?”
“No, we aren’t there yet, we’ll tell you when we get to the beach.” Faye rolled her eyes.
“Why are we taking her anyways?” asked Spike.
“’Cause Ed said she was going and my mother unfortunately agreed that she go.” Faye sighed and rested her head in her right hand as she leaned against the door and looked out the window.
Spike continued to drive down the same road passing buildings of all sorts. They were mostly business buildings. Some of them looked run down while others looked brand new. Faye laughed inside at some of the buildings because they were painted a tint of pink. She watched as they passed people and occasionally they’d stop at a red light and she could watch as some people crossed the street. She looked on as a bum sat near the railroad tracks as they were going over them. He had a shopping cart full of clothes and other things found in the trash or on the ground. She wondered how they got like that and what a normal day for them was.
“Ed’s going to the beeeEaaach!” Ed bounced on the back seat of the car.
“Ed! Keep your seatbelt on!” Faye looked back and pointed to Ed’s seatbelt that lay forgotten on the seat. Ed saddened and put her seatbelt on, but as soon as it was on something outside the window caught her eye and she was looking out the window with a grin on her face.
Faye turned around and sighed leaning back in the seat. Her eyes drifted to the window and she spaced out again watching everything pass by.
Spike glanced over every once in a while at Faye from the corner of his eye. “What-cha-thinking-bout?” he finally asked.
Faye jumped a bit and looked at him, “What?”
“What are ya thinkin’ about?” he repeated.
“Oh, I’m just looking out the window really. I don’t come down this way too much, lots of stuff to look at,” she smiled. He accepted the answer for now and figured he’d ask again later when Ed was off playing in the water.
They drove along the same road in the direction of the beach, crossing over the bridge they came to another city and just three miles away was the hot, sandy beach. As soon as they crossed the bridge they stopped at a red light. The sun was high in the sky; it was only about noon. As soon as the light was green Spike sped up until he reached the speed limit, from there he continued at a steady pace until they reached the toll booth where they slowed to a complete stop.
“Tree fidy,” the plump beach patrol officer said around his cigarette, which hung from the corner of his lips.
Spike pulled a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and handed it to the man, he received the change back and the officer allowed him to drive his car onto the beach. Finding a clear spot he parked the car and they began to file out of the car. Ed bounced, “We’re here! We’re here! Let’s go in the water!”
Faye grabbed Ed’s hand before she ran off towards the water, “Don’t go in too far, and stay where it’s still shallow.” Ed nodded and ran off to go jump into the crashing waves. She didn’t have to stay and put sun block on because they had all put some on before they left for the beach. Faye sighed and reached into the car to pull out two towels as Spike went to the trunk of the car to get the lounge chairs. They kept a full cooler in the trunk for cold drinks.
Spike set up both lounge chairs one in a bed like position and the other in a chair position. Faye threw him his towel and casually laid hers on the lounge chair made up to look like a bed. She pulled off her shirt revealing a strapless top, one side of it was black, the other was white, and the small pieces were held together buy a gold ring in the middle of her chest. Her breasts looked like they’d pop out of the tiny top at any moment. Next she stripped her shorts off, underneath she wore the bikini bottom, which was styled like the top, skimpy with one side black and the other white. Folding her clothes she sat them on the sandy ground next to her lounge chair and sat down, she leaned back until she was laying on it. “Do you still think about it?” She questioned out of nowhere.
Spike snapped awake from spacing out, “Huh? What?”
“Do you still think about what happened?” She repeated.
“Oh, I dunno. I guess sometimes.” He shrugged getting comfortable in the chair. His eyes wondered the beach looking for Ed. He found her easily because her bright orange hair and her bright green and yellow bathing suit stood out the most in front of a dark bluish green background.
“Oh, I think about it sometimes.” She looked at him; he seemed to be concentrating on something that was far off.
“Think about it how?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, how do you feel about it all?”
“I dunno, I guess its just kind of a memory now, I’d rather think about the present I guess. No use in looking back on the past, huh?” She smiled at him.
He grinned back, “True,” he brought his arms up and lazily folded them behind his head like a pillow and closed his eyes.
“Do you come to the beach often?”
He opened one eye and looked at her, “Not really, why?”
She shrugged, “Just wondering, cause you never took your shirt off. Guys normally go to the beach with swim trunks on, right?”
Spike looked down at his plain olive green shorts and T-shirt, “What’s wrong with this?” he asked.
“You could at least take your shirt off, you look like a crazy Bible beater who thinks it’s a sin to wear a bathing suit at the beach.” She laughed.
His face twisted into a scowl, “I do not!” He tossed his T-shirt off and sat back crossing his arms angrily over his chest, “It’s better than wearing a bathing suit three times too small.”
Her smile faded into a frown, “Its not three times to small! It’s the way it’s made!”
“You mean made for a small child to wear?” He smirked closing his eyes once again.
Growling she grabbed one of Ed’s toy buckets from a bag that had been laid between the chairs, she scooped up sand in it and stood over Spike. Spike opened one eye realizing there was something blocking the sun from him.
“ARGH!!!!” The seagulls stopped squawking, the children stopped playing, and the people on the beach just stared at the two.
Faye had dumped the bucket of sand on Spike making him yell out as the hot sand was poured onto his face, hair and chest. Faye smirked and laid back down pretending like nothing had happened. She closed her eyes and sunbathed.
The crowded beach went back to normal as the seagulls squawked again and the children played.
Spike stood up, he grabbed the bucket and went to the ocean to get rid of most of the sand on him. He stalked through the sand and trudged through the water as the waves crashed against him. He ducked under water and came back up gasping for air. He repeated this a few times until the muddy sand was washed away. He dunked the bucket into the water and pulled it out full of seawater. Grinning malevolently he made his way back to where the car was parked with Faye laying unsuspectingly. He grinned, his eyebrow twitching as he pulled the bucket up and splashed Faye with the freezing cold water!
“AAAHHCCKKK!!!!” She jumped up screaming.
He laughed so hard he fell to his knees holding his stomach. The look on her face, the way her hair drooped, dripping wet, the way she looked like an angry drowned rat. And the way she was coming towards him clenching her fists and grabbing a chair. He suddenly stopped laughing, Faye swung the folded up lounge chair and he fell to the ground dodging the chair barely.
“C’mon Faye! I was just getting you back!” He held his hands up trying to calm her down. “It was just a joke!”
“Whoa! Yeah! Take it ALL off!”
Faye’s eyebrow twitched as she looked around for the guys who were yelling out those degrading comments. Spike looked up at Faye while her attention was turned to the stupid boys. He looked up and noticed her top wasn’t there anymore. He blushed slightly and looked away.
Faye scowled, “What are you looking at pathetic losers!” she held up her fist and shook it.
“Uh, Faye…”
“What?!”
Spike pointed and Faye looked down. He face went pale and then red. Her swimsuit top had fallen clearly to her waist! She pulled it up and sat back down on her chair.
Spike could hear the boys laughing and talking about what they had just seen. He looked over at Faye but couldn’t see her face because her hair was draped over it like a curtain. He stood up and dusted himself off. He strolled over to the boys as they snickered and talked about “things they could do.”
He tapped the brown-haired one on the shoulder, when the guy turned around he met Spike’s fist, “It’s not nice to talk about people like that.” The brown-haired guy fell to the ground as the other three stood up.
“Why you over here tryin’ ta start stuff, man?” The dark skinned one of the four asked.
“I’m not, just showing you, you should think before you speak.”
The brown haired boy sat on the ground rubbing his nose. He pulled his hand away from his face to find it covered in blood; he immediately freaked out and almost started crying. He stood up and ran away saying something about paying Spike back.
Spike dusted his hands off and walked back over to Faye who was now lying silently on her lounge chair with her sunglasses to cover her eyes. He decided not to say anything and picked up his chair. He positioned it again and sat down without another word. It was silent for a while but Faye was the first to speak.
“Do you wonder how it happened?”
“What?”
“Do you think Vicious could have done to Julia what he wanted to do to me?”
He looked at Faye for a moment, “I dunno, I guess I never thought of that.”
“Vicious seems like he’d do something like that, ya know?” She said it more as a statement than a question.
“Yeah, you may be right. I’ll talk to her.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat to get comfortable.
“Ed wants a drink! Ed is SoooOoOOoo thirsty!” Ed popped up out of nowhere.
Spike pointed to the cooler in the open trunk, “Drinks are in the cooler.”
“Ah! Ed sees… Thank you kind sir!” She grabbed a random bottle out of the cooler and ran off to go play with some children she made friends with.
It grew silent again and as an attempt to start a conversation he asked, “So, how is it that you two are related? You said she wasn’t your sister, is she your cousin?”
Faye tilted her head and looked at him from behind her sunglasses, “We aren’t related.”
“Huh?”
Faye shrugged, “We aren’t related.”
“Hm…” Spike pondered this for a while until Faye asked him a question.
“Spike? Where’s your mother?”
“Huh?” he looked at her, “Oh, hm… She died a few years ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just wondering.”
“Its ok, its not that bad. Before she died I was a lot closer to both of my parents, but when she died my dad started working like crazy. I guess it was easier to not think about it.”
“Oh, What’s it like remembering her? Does it hurt?”
“Not much anymore. Why do you ask such a question? What about your family?”
“I don’t have a family.”
“Are you feeling ok?” He asked, he was totally confused as to what she was talking about.
Faye sighed, “The people I live with, Ed, and her family. They aren’t my family.”
Spike raised and eyebrow.
“They’re my foster home until I’m 18.” Faye took her glasses off, “Just a few years ago I was in an accident. From what the doctors said both my parents died in the crash and I was the only one left. I have some distant relative somewhere but they didn’t have the money to take me in. I don’t remember anything before the crash so I don’t know who my family is. The doctors wouldn’t tell me a whole lot about my family, they said that they couldn’t because then I might not gain my memory back.” Faye stared off into the glittering ocean.
“Oh… Well…” Spike didn’t know what to say. This girl just got more and more complex; he wondered what this friendship was going to bring him. For now he’d think about what Faye had said about Julia, she may have been on to something about that. It made him smile to think that he and Julia still had a chance. For now, he would enjoy the beach.
* * *
Set-chan