Caught
Trust works two ways - and sometimes it’s the little things that hurt.
“‘Lo, Dawn.” He let her in his door, the way he did most days after school.
The teenager smiled at the sight of her friend. It had taken some work, but she and Spike were finally back on a good footing. When she looked at him more closely, her heart sank. “What’s wrong?”
“Thought you were over the stealin’.”
“I am. I totally am. I’ve taken everything I could back to the stores, and I’ve paid back where I couldn’t.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why? What have you heard?”
Spike sat in a chair in his basement apartment. He picked up a pack of cigarettes of his coffee table and lit one. “Buffy showed me your assignment. Right proud she was. You got an A.” He pulled the air into his lungs, then forced it out. “Glad your teacher likes my work.”
“Oh, Spike. I didn’t...I mean...”
“Now, I’d be a hypocrite to condemn you, wouldn’t I? Most a what I had I’d taken from others. But I don’t do that anymore. Thought you weren’t gonna either. For your sake.” He snubbed the cigarette, barely smoken, into an ashtray. “Found it in my crypt, did you? Went through my things. Granted, you changed a word here or there, but I know my own poetry.”
“You were gone. I didn’t think it would matter.” A nerve twitched on the side of her face. “Besides, it was really good. I’m glad someone read it, aren’t you?”
“Not the point.” He stood up and placed his hands on her now squirming shoulders. “I won’t tell Big Sis. Whether you fess up or not is up to you. But Niblet...”
“I don’t think I can.” Tears stung her eyes.
“Then you see if you can live with it.” He turned his back on her. “That’s what souls are for.”