Part Two: "Anger"
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, with the exception of Madison and all characters related to her. Everything else belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. Basically, please don't sue or steal my stuff. Thank you.
*****
Xander strutted down the hall the next day on his way to the library. < Ah! End to another boring day. > he thought. But, his thoughts were soon interrupted by his seeing Madison. He was confused by what he should call her. "Mad... Brit... Hey!" She flipped around and addressed him warmly with a smile. "Hi Xander." He grinned goofily, "I'm looking forward to tonight." A puzzled look entered her face. "Tonight?"
"The Bronze, seven o' clock?" he informed her, hoping that she hadn't changed her mind. She was slightly taken aback, but smiled once more and accepted. "OK. See you there." He smiled and started to address her, but still had no clue what to call her. He asked, "What should I call you?" She peered at him and asked, "My name?" He hesitated again and had to inquire. "Which is..." She began to look at him strangely. "Madison. Like it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that..." He was worried that she didn't want him anymore, but he stumbled through the rest of the conversation. "Umm... All right. Are we?…"
"Tonight, the Bronze, seven o'clock." She rattled off.
"Really!" he exclaimed. She smirked slightly. "Really. See you there; bye." Still in shock he answered, "Bye." She walked off, passing Cordelia on her way. Xander snapped out of it and remembered that he needed to talk to her. He shouted as she passed by, "Cordelia!" Cordelia turned and stepped as far away from him as she could. "Down boy!" He licked his lips, incredibly nervous, in light of their problems lately. "Can I talk to you?" She looked around. "Not now. I have practice. Will you be at the Bronze?" He couldn't believe he was saying it but, "Yeah. But, I have a date." Cordy was slightly shocked, but she held her composesure. "Oh... well, you can talk to me anyway, your girlfriend won't mind, will she?"
"She's not my girlfriend," he told her. She looked at him skeptically and responded slyly with, "Could have fooled me! She had her hand so far up your leg, I thought you two were going to get down on the floor right then and start something." He gazed at her and inquired, "Are you jealous?"
"I don't get jealous," she shot back.
"Sure," he said sarcastically. She glared at him, "Don't contradict me. I'm leaving!"
"Fine!" he exclaimed. She stalked off he rolled his eyes and headed home to get ready for his date.
*****
Later, at the Bronze, Madison shyly inhabited a table and waited for Xander. He finally showed up and left Buffy at the door. He bounced over to her, smiled, and said , "Hi Madison!" She looked up, slightly startled and asked him politely to call her Allison. He narrowed his eyebrows, comtemplating the situation and calmly asked her why. She shyed away from him and attempted to explain. "Umm, my middle name is Allison." < Huh? > he thought, < I thought she told me to call her Madison. I double checked and everything. Girls. Can never make up their minds… > He put his thoughts aside and asked her to dance.
"I don't dance," she stated. He reached for her hands and said, "Come on! It's easy! Anyone can dance!" She jerked away from him and said sharply, "I don't dance! Please leave me alone." He was shocked at her reaction and request, but chose to leave anyway. Just as he turned away, Cordelia approached them. "Hi! I'm Cordelia! And you are?" Allison averted Cordelia's icy stare and said sheepishly, "Umm… Allison." Cordelia extended her arm and said, "Pleased to meet you, I would have said something at the game, but you looked busy." Allison looked puzzled. Cordy continued. "Last night? I was cheerleading?"
"I don't remember," Allison said. Cordelia smirked, "Well, I guess you were busy." Xander flashed her a look. She ignored him and continued. "So, you're dating Xander?" Allison suddenly became alert and exclaimed, "No! I don't date." Cordelia gave Xander a look and forged on, "Well then, you won't mind if I steel him away for a moment!" She took him by the arm and led him to the dance floor. Buffy noticed that it was time to take date patrol and headed over. "Hi! How have you been?" Allison changed in demeanor slightly and eased out of her shell. "Great, everyone's been really nice." The Welcome Wagon known as Buffy continued. "I understand. Being new can be tough, but as long as you've got a guy like Xander around, you'll be fine." Allison shifted her attitude once more and erupted with the statement, "But, we're not dating! I don't date! Guys… they say they love you, but they don't really care. One minute you're their whole world and the next they want to kill you."
"I understand what you mean," Buffy thought about Angel and their encounter earlier. She wished things were different… Willow came up and joined them and began a conversation with Allison.
Meanwhile… Paranoid Android wafted through the Bronze as Cordelia and Xander danced. They really didn't really touch, but kind of swayed. Cordelia cocked her hip to one side, glanced at Allison; who was being approached by Buffy, and made her own personal commentary of her replacement. "She's less horny today." Xander shot her a disaproving look, but the freight train rolled on. "So, you wanted to talk to me?" He licked his lips. "Yea. Things have been really uncomfortable between us."
"What do you expect? When you cheat on me, you can't exactly expect me to smile and go on like nothing happened. You should be uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable!" He looked at her in a concerned manner. "We shouldn't be fighting." She said smugly, "We're not fighting." He got closer to her and touched her arm. "Don't weave your way around this by pretending you're a bitch. You know as well as I do that you're not the ice princess to portray yourself to be."
Back at the table Willow and Buffy talked about a movie they had seen while Allison sipped her drink. As Xander and Cordy got into their heated conversation, she slowly changed in demeanor.
"Xander," she answered, "Don't tell me what I am or am not. You gave up the right to care the second you rolled in the hay with Willow!" He searched her eyes for some form of compassion. "Cordelia; just because we're not together anymore doesn't mean I don't still care!"
Allison perked up and watched Cordelia inch closer to Xander. She whipped around towards Buffy and Willow and demanded, "What is he doing?"
"Dancing?" Willow answered. Allison flashed her an evil look and sprung up from the table.
At the same instance, Cordelia let her protective shield down and practically whispered, "Don't you understand? I still l…" All of a sudden, Allison grabbed Cordelia's arm and yanked her away from Xander. Full bitch mode: "Stay away from him, bitch!" Cordelia looked at her disaprovingly and muttered, "Psycho much?"
"Excuse me?" Allison asked and Xander took a step to intervene. "Madison…."
"Shut up Xander!" she snapped and went towards Cordelia, "I mean, what were you thinking? Getting you slutty cheerleader paws all over my boyfriend?"
"Who do you think you're talking to? Because it couldn't be me! No one speaks to me like this!" Cordelia started getting really upset. Allison didn't care how angry she got. "Well, maybe it's about time someone should!" By this time, Buffy and Willow were over there listening and just as Allison took a step a little too close to Cordelia, she interceded.
"I'm leaving!" Cordelia informed them and stalked off. Allison attempted to follow her, but Buffy caught her and held her firmly.
About a half hour later, all was well at the Bronze. Allison was getting a latte and Xander, Willow, and Buffy chatted at the table.
"She's acting like nothing happened," Buffy said. Xander thought of a way to compensate. "She's… cooling off." Buffy didn't buy it. "Sure. She dropped the bitch routine pretty fast… if you ask me."
"I didn't."
Willow recognized the uncomfortable silence and tried to resolve it. She turned to Xander. "She seems like two completely different people." He grinned. " I think she has charisma!" Buffy wasn't too pleased. "I don't. I think I should get Giles on it." Xander turned towards her. "There's nothing wrong!" Willow looked on sheepishly. "Maybe it's that time of the month?" This time, Xander snapped at Willow. " Willow, you're not helping!" Buffy defended her. " Don't snap at her!"
"That's right, I'm mad at you. How come you assume that every girl that has a vague interest in me has to have something wrong with her?" Xander demanded.
"She doesn't, but they always seem to. I think I know what I'm talking about on this one. Even though you have a pretty bad track record, I've given her a fair chance, and she's given me the wiggins'."
Xander answered, "This has nothing to do with wiggins'. This has to do with you being jealous because I found someone and am no longer lusting after you." Buffy heard that one! "Excuse me? Jealous?" Xander became possessed of a look of self satisfaction. "Oh, yea! Ever since last year when Angel went psycho, you've been glaring at me with a twinkle in your eye. You practically undress me with your eyes and you just love the idea that I want you, so you keep me on a shelf and dust me off when your hormones start raging!"
Buffy just couldn't take that. In a quick moment, she slapped him. He became enraged, but before he could do or say anything, Allison joined them. All he could do is turn to her and inform them that they were leaving. He stood up and began to drag her out by the arm, a puzzled look on her face all the while.
Buffy looked a Willow and explained. "I didn't mean too. It just happened." Willow tried to remove the shocked and worried look on her face, but to no avail. She attempted to say something comforting. "It's OK, you're all just upset. It'll be all right tomorrow." Buffy got up and said something about going home. She left Willow wondering what would become of their friendships.