Chapter Text
She hustled through the door, coming in to shelter from the sun beating down outside. The dark blue jeans she’d paired with a ribbed white wifebeater singlet might still have been a bit too much considering the temperature, let alone the leather jacket and heavy black boots. She removed the latter and set them beside the multitude of other shoes surrounding the doorway; sandals in almost every colour, a couple pairs of flats, a set of men’s dress shoes, and one pair of shiny silver heels.
Proceeding through to what she guessed would normally be the lounge, but had apparently been transformed into party central, Faith glanced around to find a familiar face. She only actually knew Sammy well, and had met a couple of her friends once or twice; barely enough to remember their names, though. The woman in question was not forthcoming, she noted with dismay.
Sam had originally planned to come with her girlfriend, but as she was now of the ex- variety, had begged Faith instead. She’d only agreed to come because of those damn puppy dog eyes, and now she couldn’t even see her anywhere.
Granted, she was like half an hour late, but who really showed up to engagement parties on time?
Everyone else, apparently. They were currently in full swing of some party game that involved pinning a penis to the picture of a man on the wall that Faith absolutely did not want to partake in, and thankfully wouldn’t have to. See, benefits to being late.
She slipped around the mass of animated women into the kitchen, which called to her through its cheerfully displayed drink options. She chose a beer (they only had one on offer, and it was light, but what the hell), gave an awkward half-smile and raised eyebrows to the couple milling in there chatting with hands in interesting places, and then slipped back out into the lounge just in time to see a woman crowned the victor of the game; her little cartoon penis was tacked smack bang over where the family jewels should be on the overly muscular paper dude.
Her ashy blonde hair was a little scrunched up where she had obviously just taken off the blindfold, but was otherwise in a cute little updo. Her smile radiated pure joy, and combined with her eyes, lit up her whole face. It made her look like a goddamn warrior princess, and Faith couldn’t drag her eyes away.
As princess looked around at the crowd clapping for her and did a mock bow, she caught Faith’s eye and stayed locked there for a moment… two… three. Faith could have sworn her face lit up even more, even though she didn’t know this chick.
Then it was broken off, and the woman re-took her seat.
Faith maintained her position in the corner, leaning against the wall and taking the odd sip of beer. She tried to notice everyone else in the room, who were all dressed much nicer than her own casual outfit, but her eyes kept being inevitably drawn back to the back of princess’ head. They were now moving onto the next game apparently, which was dubbed “bridal bingo”.
Jesus, who organised this thing.
Little printed cards and sparkly pens were being passed around. The red-headed chick who’d announced the game offered her a set as she passed by, and despite her inclination to automatically say no to any type of group activity, she was so surprised she just took it. Fuck. Draining the rest of her beer, she set it on the ground beside her and braced for the worst.
She eyed the five-by-five grid which was adorned with marital stuff; rings, flowers, doves, a bride, a groom. She couldn’t help the small sigh that escaped her lips, and she wished she were anywhere else. Where the hell was Sammy, anyway?
She knew they should have come together, but Sammy had promised to be part of the setup crew, and there was no way Faith was that susceptible to puppy eyes.
The first object was called out by the red-head – champagne. Faith crossed off the little green bottle picture on her card. Balloons – Heart – Camera. Now she had a row of three and a diagonal of two. Gifts – a row of four. Proposal – that one didn’t help, but she crossed it off in the bottom corner anyway. Cake – no dice. Bride. Holy shit. She looked around, slightly panicked. No-one else seemed to be having success yet. “Uh… bingo?” she called, her voice a little husky from a combination of disuse and nerves. Almost as one, all the women turned in their seats to look at her. Princess smiled warmly at her and clapped, and Faith felt like she’d won the fucking lottery.
Her mouth dry, she quickly wet her lips and smiled a little awkwardly. She wasn’t typically someone who blushed; she usually made other women blush instead. But hey, apparently it’s Wacky Wednesday. Okay, Saturday, but whatever. Because there it was, a small flush creeping up her neck to her cheeks.
Fucking finally, Sammy appeared at the entryway opposite, emerging from deeper in the house. She had short-cut, pixie-like brunette hair, deep brown eyes, and killer olive skin. They’d been friends since their first year of university, of which Faith had quickly realised was emphatically not for her.
Sammy smiled and made her way over to the reigning bingo winner. “Wow, way to integrate with the population, Lehane,” she said.
“Fuck off, Sam,” Faith fired back quietly, but the quirked lip indicated there was no malice in it.
“Okay ladies – and Xander – “ the over-chirpy red-headed chick began, indicating the guy that had just emerged from the kitchen with his previously very handsy girl. “We’re going to move on to lunch, if everyone wants to make their way outside! Remember to write down a note to the happy couple in the wish book as well!” she announced, pointing to a fancy setup by the entryway.
“Oh, shoot, come help me,” Sammy said, pulling on Faith’s arm and dragging her over to the stand with said book. The tabletop was complete with a scrapbook, different pens, even stickers and shit. Who the hell needed glitter for this?
“What could you possibly want my help with? I don’t even know your friends, Sam.” Faith muttered, disgruntled.
“You’ve met Tara before!” Sam argued.
“Is she the one getting married?”
“Well, no. She’s dating Willow,” she clarified, indicating back over to the red-headed woman leading today’s events, who Faith guessed was the maid of honour.
Faith sighed. ”You’re better with words than I am anyway. I dropped out of that English lit. paper so fast I was barely there.” She watched as Sam flicked to the front of the book, which displayed in fancy gold italics ‘Buffy & Riley’. Underneath it was a date a couple weeks away in the same matching font. Faith couldn’t help but snort. “Buffy? What kinda name is that?” she said, careful to be extra quiet given where they were.
Sam sent her a withering look as she picked up a light blue pen and began scratching out a message on the next available free page. It looked pretty generic, but nice at the same time, if you were into that kind of thing. There were a lot of ‘wishes’ and ‘love’ and ‘happiness’ in all the messages she could see, and little hearts drawn. A couple mentioned they were looking forward to babies, which Faith thought was a bit extreme when the couple were only just getting married.
“Come on, let’s get some chow,” Faith said once Sammy had signed off her message.
Sam nodded and led the way outside, stopping by the kitchen quickly to grab a soda for herself and another beer for Faith.
Faith was happy to have something to do with her hands again; the refreshing condensation dripping down the bottle didn’t hurt either.