A summer apart
A couple was formed
While another was left
Where walls could melt
Where two couples felt
One - a repeatable mistake
The other - Friends to make

 “Angel, I’m sorry..... I didn’t know.... I was confused....,” Buffy pleaded to him.

Angel turned around and looked at her, daring her to say what he knew she would.

“.....It only happened once.”

“And that makes it all right? Just because you did it once?” Angel asked her back.

Buffy didn’t know what to say. Tears streaked down her face as she tried to think of a way to make this all go away.

“..I didn’t know what was happening..” she tried to explain.

“Do you honestly think I’m going to believe that?” Angel asked her infuriated, trying to control the demon that was battling against his soul to kill her.

“It was a mistake, I admit that.... but after all that had happened and... we were swept up in the moment again..,” Buffy explained.

Angel was about to leave his apartment but her last word caught his attention.

“Again?”

Buffy turned pale as she realized her mistake. She turned a shade whiter as she began to inch back.

“I...”

Angel’s eyes flashed yellow as he caught a scent in the air - Fear.

“This wasn’t the first time...”

“Well... I... we....”

“How dare you lie to me. This happened in Los Angeles, didn’t it? When you both went on vacation....”

“Angel...”

“Didn’t it? Answer the fucken question Buffy!”

Buffy cringed at the sound of his voice.

“It did.... I’m sorry, Angel.....I didn’t know... I was scared... and lonely.. and he was there... then after what happened last night, he helped me out again......I didn’t know what to do.... But he did..”

“Get out.”

“Angel, I’m...” Buffy began to say between sobs.

“Get the hell out!” he screamed.

“But I love.....”

“Don’t you dare say it! You should have thought about that before you did it.”

And that was it.

That was the last night, Angel ever felt anything for Buffy Summers.
 

“Thought you might be here,” Angel said as he joined her on the building’s roof, their usual meeting spot they created during the summer.

“I still can’t believe it,” she said sadly.

“Neither can I.”

“That really wasn’t what I expected to see tonight,” her voice still raw, images of Buffy and Xander on the bed still fresh in her mind

“It was a surprise. Never thought we would walk into that.”

“Have you spoken to her?” Willow asked cautiously.

“Yeah... she was at the apartment when I got there.....”
 
“What did she say?”

Angel wasn’t sure if he should tell her, but he knew she would find out one way or another.

“It wasn’t their first time, Willow.”

Willow looked at him in complete surprise.

“It seemed it happened while they were both in Los Angeles......”

“..... this summer. No wonder they acted so different around me. How would they....?”

They remained silent, looking up into the stars above.

“I’m sorry, Angel. I know what Buffy meant to you.”
 
“Yeah....I guess it just wasn’t enough,” he simply replied.

“No, don’t ever think that...,” Willow quickly expressed as she turned to look at him. “This isn’t your fault. She threw away what you both had which means she didn’t deserve it.... she never will.”

“Neither does he,” he told her as he took her hand in his.

She gave him a brief smile as a tear fell.

They looked back up at the sky their hearts finally letting go.
 

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