tamingthemuse | Prompt 155 - Lip Sync -Another Life (1/1) (BtVS)

Title: Another Life
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing/Characters: Buffy
Warnings: none
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I feel like Buffy's mine - but of course she isn't. I just play with her, and Joss said that was fine.
Summary: Set post Buffy The Movie, and pre the series. Buffy's adjusting to finding herself out of favour with the popular crew and in the middle of a mini-war between her parents. Angsty.
Prompt #155: Lip Sync
Word Count: ~747
Thanks: As always, to

seductivembrace who made Buffy seem American rather than the northern British girl I tend to make her. Hey, you write what you know...

ANOTHER LIFE

It had been hard, lately, living in this house. Home was supposed to be where you felt safe and loved, not in the way and having to tip-toe around so you wouldn’t provoke another fight. They'd said it wasn't her fault, of course. They both said that they would always love her and that things would be better soon.

It couldn't get any worse.

Buffy sat on her bed and stared at the posters on her walls. Boy bands and cute baby animals. Everything a fifteen-year old girl should have. But then she scooted over to her hope chest and lifted the lid to look at her steadily growing cache of weapons: stakes, a dagger, an old axe that she'd found in the shed and sharpened to a deadly edge, a bottle of holy water – or, at least, she thought it was holy water. She'd bought it from a street-seller, so she supposed she could have been duped. Maybe she should get a priest to bless it or something.

Since meeting Merrick and finding out that she was the Chosen One, the Slayer, her life was full of complications. She'd been expelled from school after the slaughter in the school gym – which totally wasn't her fault! But nobody listened, not least of all her mom and dad. That had been one hell of a scolding, the day she got called into the Principal's office and her parents were already there, glowering.

Buffy heard the front door slam and rushed to the window to see who was walking out this time. Her dad. Well, it had been her mom the day before so it was his turn. She heard footsteps on the stairs so raced back to close the lid on her hope chest, just in case her mom came in, but the steps went past her room and she heard her mom sobbing quietly as she went by.

It was breaking her up inside, this little war between her parents. She didn't even know what they were fighting about. She had an awful feeling that it was about her, despite their reassurances. Before the bombshell news that she was the one girl in all the world who could beat back the forces of evil the only thing she did that caused her parents any concern was max out her credit card and occasionally breaking curfew. But now, she was sneaking out after dark and coming home in the early hours with blood on her clothes, with no explanation for her mom as to why she was covered in bruises. She'd expected lectures about hanging with the wrong sort and being banned from seeing Pike, and she could live with that. Pike understood at least and was standing by her. Her parents grounding her didn't stop her clambering out of the window the minute it went dark; it couldn't – it wasn't like she could just leave a note for the vampires that she couldn't slay them today because her mom had grounded her.

She cried herself to sleep, sometimes. Every bit of her life seemed full of angst. She even missed school now that she couldn't go, not that she had friends there any more. The friends had all disappeared with the happy-go-lucky Buffy and the expulsion from classes. Apparently, it wasn't fashionable to hang with a vampire slayer. She couldn't even tell them about that, although if they hadn't noticed the fangs and the bodies piling up around her at the gym, then they were more stupid than she'd thought. Selective eyesight appeared to be catching in her town; people only saw what they wanted to. And they didn't want to see her.

Swallowing hard to stave off another sob-fest, Buffy flopped down on her bed and reached out her hand to cut on her cd player. She hadn't listened to it in months, had no idea what disc was cued up to play. Turned out to be 'Hangin' Tough' by New Kids On The Block. It used to be her favourite song. She'd listened to it for hours at a time, lip syncing in front of the mirror, copying the moves she saw on the TV.

A lifetime ago. A different Buffy. A different world.

She gave in to the urge to curl up into a foetal position, grabbing hold of Mr Gordo and squeezing tight as the silent tears ran down her face and seeped into his pink fur.