Chapter 4

Cordelia pulled up to the Bronze in her silver BMW M3, she had wanted a Porsche but apparently, her parents had stock in BMW and chose to buy that for her instead. Harmony had tried to antagonize her over her car, but Cordelia's fellow cheerleader was too much of a follower to make it stick. Whenever Harm tried to bring up Cordelia slumming by dating Xander, Cordelia just gave Harm an uninterested look and walked off with her hand around Xander's arm. In all honesty, Cordelia didn't drop too much in social status after she started dating Xander, especially since he joined the swim club.

Getting out of her car, Cordelia smoothed down her skirt and checked her makeup before straightening up and making her way into The Bronze. After she paid her entrance fee Cordelia scanned the crowd and started to make her way over to where her boyfriend was sitting.

Xander had been waiting for his girlfriend for only a few minutes and their drinks had just arrived when he saw Cordelia making her way towards him. Getting up Xander walked forward and met Cordy on the dance floor, after they greeted each other with a kiss that almost got too much for public before they remembered to reign in their hormones, the two walked towards the table that Xander had saved for them.

Sitting down, Cordelia smiled at Xander due to his thoughtfulness in ordering her something to drink before she got there. As she took a sip of her drink, Cordelia noticed that Xander seemed uncharacteristically nervous about something. Thinking about what they had going on in the next couple of weeks, Cordelia remembers that Xander was getting his fitting for Homecoming earlier that day. Sitting up, Cordelia put down her drink and addressed her boyfriend.

"So, how did it go getting fitted for Homecoming?" seeing Xander wince, Cordelia took a deep breath and opened her mouth to impart, again, on the importance of homecoming and their social status in school, when Xander started speaking. Shooting her boyfriend a slight glare, Cordelia closed her mouth and sat back to listen.

"I was worried about whether or not my tux was up to whatever designer dress you were probably getting for Homecoming and after I had gotten home from my fitting Willow called asking for my opinion of her dress. Not really having anyone else to ask, I took my tux with me and headed over to Will's" Xander started to explain.

Hearing that Xander went to Willow's house to get an opinion of his tux made Cordelia roll her eyes. Xander was almost painfully naive when it came to women, especially Willow, who he only saw as the same girl he knew as a school girl and not the jealous covetous teen she became. Realizing that Xander was still talking, Cordelia quieted her internal monolog and returned her attention to her boyfriend, what he said next had her wanting to kill the smaller redhead.

"Anyway we agreed to get dressed and show each other how we looked, Wills went into her ensuite bathroom to change, while I changed in her bedroom." Cordelia frown at this point in the story, surely Xander could have excused himself to a guest bathroom to get changed, but she reminded herself how Xander saw Willow as one of the guys and tried to tamp down her irritation and be a supportive girlfriend and listen to Xander.

"While I was waiting for Wills to come out of the bathroom, something weird happened; the amulet that you gave me after we got back together, started to get really warm till it felt like it was about to scorch my skin at one point. I was about to pull it out and deal with it, when Willow came out of her bathroom, looking at me like she expected me to do something. Considering what you had told me about feelings you thought Willow had for me, I got up and walked towards her, acting as if her spell had worked; when I was within touching distance I leaned down and informed her, that I was aware she had tried to use some spell on me to bind my will to her and that I considered that if she could do that to me, she was no longer the girl I had befriended in kindergarten and we were no longer friends. I then turned and walked out of the store after paying for my suit. I don't know what happened to Willow, but if I were to guess I'd guess she went to Buffy and let her know that her plan at 'wooing' me had failed and I will soon be getting an earful from our other friend" Xander finished his summary of what had happened that day.

As Cordelia was getting her thoughts in order to reply to what she'd been told; she noticed, with a scowl, that Buffy had just stormed through the doors with that bitch Willow meekly following behind her. Cordelia was able to pinpoint the moment that Buffy noticed them as the Slayer's whole body seem to vibrate with murderous intent, to the extent that people were actively keeping their distance from Buffy and Willow as they made their way over to her and Xander. Cordelia was about to say something to Xander when, as if by some sixth sense, Xander slid around the curved booth they were sitting in so that he was at her side and they were both facing Buffy and Willow as they came up to them. Right before it appeared that Buffy would get to their booth, Xander spoke.

"Good evening Summers, Rosenberg", Cordelia watched in amazement at how Xander addressing the redhead by her surname caused Willow to curl in on herself worse than anything she, Cordelia, had ever said during their relative youth and scurry off to where she and Buffy were apparently sitting tonight, they obviously weren't sitting with them. Unsurprisingly, Xander standing up to Buffy set the Slayer off.

"Xander, I don't know exactly what you think Willow did for you to treat her so horribly, but you need to forgive her, and accept her as your friend." With that, Buffy nodded her head, as if just by her proclamation, everything was taken care of. As she walked off to get something to drink, in order to give Willow and Xander space to patch up their friendship, Buffy commented over her shoulder. "If you want to stay friends with me, you might want to dump that bitch you're dating, she's obviously not right for you, if you're treating your friends so bad." Having said what she needed to say, Buffy put the matter out of her mind as she opened her mouth to tell the bartender her drink order. She was frozen in her steps as Xander started talking, ice in his voice.

"Who the hell do you think you are to telling me how to live my life, at least I'm not a necrophiliac who wants to get with an animated corpse! If you're so curious as to why I'm being so cold to Willow I'll tell you. Earlier this week, while Willow and I were getting fitted for Homecoming, Willow attempted to cast some sort of spell on me. Luckily I've taken to using a form of protection against magical attacks, given the situations we regularly get into and was able to resist whatever it was that Willow had cast, which seem to have something to do with making me a puppet to her will. When Willow came out I acted as if her plan had worked and walked over to where she was. When we were standing in front of each other, I bent down and informed her that I was aware of her attempt to cast something on me, that it hadn't work and that while I was letting her off with a warning now; if she did it again to me or more importantly; if she tried anything against Cordy I would ruin her.

"Now, it appears you think I've acted in the wrong, to that I have to say 'I truly don't care'. Willow apparently was trying to use magic to affect my relationship with Cordelia. I view what she's done as a betrayal as much as I believe you would if I tried to eliminate Angel, given my stated belief that we really have no way of detecting a soul, to begin with. I don't see why you're yelling at me, you should be talking to Willow, in my opinion.

"So, if there's nothing else we need to talk about I'm going back to my girlfriend. Don't speak to me again, unless it's about slaying or to offer me and Cordelia an apology. In case you and Rosenburg are confused, as of right now, unless you and Rosenburg apologize to Cordy and me, we're through with each other!" Having said what he needed to, Xander turned on his heel and headed back to Cordy, leaving a frustrated slayer in his wake.

As a steaming Buffy made her way to the table that Willow seemed to be holding for her, the Slayer was coming to realize that trying to get Xander's head on straight probably wouldn't go over to well at the moment, she was soon interrupted by her babbling best friend. Willow, from where she was seated, had a perfect vantage point to see Buffy and Xander's altercation and wanted to know whether her best male friend/crush was still angry with her. As Buffy sat down, she snatched out and grabbed the Diet Coke that was sitting before her and took a long swallow, before she replied to Willow.

"Sorry, Wils, Xander is still being a big idiot, and doesn't seem to see what he is throwing away, being mad at you." Upon hearing the opposite of what she'd hoped to hear, Willow burst into mostly silent tears. With an alarmed look on her face (more due to not wanting to be seen with the weepy girl than anything) Buffy did her best to calm Willow down. Looking around for something to distract her friend, Buffy noticed the Dingo's setting up.

"Wils, look, it looks like Oz and his band will be starting soon, you don't want him to worry do you?" The Slayer asked her friend, luckily this worked and Willow managed to get her tears under control and took a deep breath and pasted a happy looking smile on her face as she started to clap with the rest of the teenagers gather in the club as she watches her boyfriend and his band take the stage and start their set. As the Dingos got into their groove, Willow forced herself to keep her eyes on the stage, trying to ignore Xander and Cordelia, who were dancing closely on the floor of the club. However, the slayer's eyes continually glanced over in the direction of the pair on the dance floor, who was wrapped up in themselves, not even appearing to give her, or anybody else, a second thought.

After they had danced for a while, Xander and Cordelia, hand in hand left the Bronze and Xander walked Cordelia to her car. After some heavy making out, Cordelia pulled back slightly and look up at Xander.

"While I'm happy with what's happened, I still don't trust the bitch or Buffy. We need to talk later, maybe tomorrow, as to what to do to protect ourselves from Willow powers. Buffy should be fairly easy to deal with, we should have to worry too much about her." Seeing that Xander seem to want to say something, Cordelia gently placed her palm on Xander's chest and he closed his mouth.

"I understand that while this has been quite a bit for me to deal with it's been quite a bit more for you. I can see that you're hurting somewhat from what's happened between you, Buffy and the bitch. I won't play down your feelings by trying to get you to believe that I understand what you're going through, but I want you to know that I'm here for you if you need to talk. Regardless if you want to talk about what happened between the three of you, you will still be going to school with them and will need to think about how you'll want to present yourself to our classmates when we go back to school on Monday. Call me if you need someone to talk to about all of this, actually call me anywise, if I don't see you later this weekend I'll see you on Monday at school." Finishing her short speech, Cordelia looked up to gauge how Xander was doing; seeing a light in his eyes and a slight smile on his face filled Cordelia up with hope. As she opened her mouth to speak again, Xander quickly leaned down and captured her in a kiss which Cordelia happily returned.

After they came up for air, Xander took a step back so he wasn't pressing to two of them into the side of her car. While she wanted to keep kissing Xander (actually she wanted to throw him into her car, drive them both home and have her way with her boyfriend), Cordelia realized that I was close to her curfew and she needs to get home or her parent might do something stupid like blame Xander for her being out so late and try to forbid her from seeing him. After Xander help her into her car, Cordelia drove off, watching her boyfriend in the mirror for as long as she could. When Xander winked out of site, Cordelia made a mental note that she wasn't going to let anyone mess with her relationship with Xander; not Willow, not Buffy, not her former Cordettes, not the teacher at school, not her parent; nobody. Feeling pleased with her decision, Cordelia turn up the radio and sang along with it as she got closer to her house.