(act one, chapter sixteen: there goes the neighborhood)

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⚠️TW! sexual assault! Please do NOT read from the ❗to the other ❗  if you get triggered by it.  And if anyone wants to talk, I'm always here <3

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"Damon hasn't said a word to me. Every time I try to talk to him he shuts me down." Stefan said to the two sisters as they stood in front of Elena Gilbert's locker, talking about the fact that Katherine had not been in the tomb and how Damon had been trying to act as everything was fine with him, but the three knew better.

"Do you think he's still trying to find Katherine?"

"I don't know. He waited a hundred and forty five years only to find out that Katherine could not care less. And he's got hurt right?"

"And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." Elena said.

"You have every reason to be upset of him." Stefan said and Elena hummed. 

"Have you thought any more about what you're going to do?" Stefan asked her. Buffy did feel bad about Damon not finding Katherine, because he really seemed to love her, but she completely stood on her sisters side for being mad at him for killing Isobel. 

If Damon had killed Jenna, Buffy would've already put a stake through his heart.

"About what? Isobel, my vampire birth mother, who's related to my vampire ancestor Katherine, who screwed over your vampire brother? Nah, I haven't thought about it at all." Elena said, sarcastically. 

"I'm sorry I brought it up." Stefan apologized. 

"It'd just be nice if we could get through one day without having to deal with any of it. No vampire mother or brother."

"No vampires at all?" Stefan questioned.

"No vampire but you." Elena said, smiling at him.  "I just want to get us back to normal stuff like school and homework and here the thought: fun."

Stefan let out a fake gasp. "Ooh, that sounds good to me, when do we start?" 

Elena started giggling.

"Oh, damn it." Buffy said as she looked a bit ahead of them from the hallway to find a stumbling James. 

"Is he drunk?" Elena asked, surprised.

"I guess so." Buffy said as she watched James going into the boys bathroom. "I'm just gonna see if he's okay." She said, walking away from the couple. 

"He's kind of an asshole, isn't he?" Stefan asked Elena as the two watched Buffy with worry. He didn't understand why she was with him anyway. Elena had told him James had been acting very strange the last amount of time.

"James wasn't like that when we were younger. He was so in love with Buffy, but now- I don't know. Something isn't right with him at the moment. But the least he could do is tell my sister cause he's really hurting her." Elena said with a sigh, feeling felt like something was wrong or was going to happen.

And how right she was...

❗ The thing that Buffy Sommers didn't expect when she walked into the bathroom was to find James sitting on the floor with a bottle of Whiskey in his hands. A half empty bottle whiskey and just now she could smell the alcohol coming from him.

He hadn't noticed her standing there until she spoke up. He thought he had been alone.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Buffy asked, worriedly as she stood a few steps away from him. Something was clearly bothering him and she wanted to help him. Yes, he had been ignoring her for the past few days but day drinking meant that there was definitely something wrong.

"Go away, Buffy." James replied as he took another pull of his bottle of Whiskey.

"No! I'm done." Buffy said, louder. "You have been ignoring me for weeks, acting like a huge moron and now your day drinking!" 

This time it was Buffy stumbling back, away from him as he stood up, not even being able to stand right on his feet straight as he walked over to Buffy, who's back touched the wall behind her. "James, stop."

The wall she was against with her back was not next to the door, so she had no way of getting away from him.

"James. Stop it." She said as James moved even closer, the smell of liqueur found the way to her nostrils since he put his hands on both side of her face, the bottle of whiskey still in his right hand. 

Buffy tried to move away from him but she didn't succeed. 

"Buffy." James said as he kissed her. Meanwhile the bell rang outside the boys toilet, so any chance of anyone stepping in was lost.

"Stop, James." Buffy breathed out, shaking,  but he did not make any intention that he was going to stop.

Instead, he started kissing her neck and by now Buffy was crying, trying to push him off her but he was to strong to do so. 

"Please, just stop, James." Buffy begged as he started to go lower and back up to her mouth. When she didn't open her mouth, he moved his left hand and grabbed her throat forcefully, keeping the girl from air so that she had no choice to open her mouth. The tears were rolling over her face now more than ever.

James let the bottle of whiskey drop out of his hand, making it shatter on the bathroom floor.

Since he wasn't holding the bottle up anymore his hand moved to her shoulder over to her breast. The blonde started shaking even worse than before and tried once more to get him off her.

Luckily the bathroom door opened. A few seconds later than the bottle had shattered on the ground. It had been Stefan and not long after him, Alaric Saltzman also walked into the room.

Stefan was the first to do anything, since he was the fastest and strongest. He sped James away from the Sommers and knocked him out as Alaric went over to his daughter, who had started to slide down to the wall from being tired from trying to get away from James and from all the crying.

"I'm gonna take her home." Alaric said. He wanted to get his daughter away from James as fast as possible. He pulled Buffy back to her feet and led her slowly to the exit of the school.❗

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While being in Mr. Saltzman's car, Buffy had finally snapped back to reality.  And the only thing she wanted right now was a shower. And her mom. But mostly first that shower. 

But when the two stood in front of the door, it wasn't Jenna who opened it, but Jeremy.

"Jeremy, where's Jenna?" Alaric immediately asked but Jeremy was looking at his cousin worriedly. 

"B, what happened?" He asked her. Her eyes were all puffy and she looked like she could have a breakdown any second now. 

The girl passed him and went up the stairs, towards the bathroom, closing the door behind her, not even bothering to pull her clothes off as she just sat down in the shower.

"What happened?" Jeremy asked again, this time to Alaric, who was staring worriedly at the place Buffy had made her way up the stairs less than a minute ago.

"Where's Jenna, Jeremy?" Alaric repeated his question again. 

"She's showing dad's old law office to someone, why?"

Alaric was already calling Jenna on his phone, who immediately told Anna and Pearl that she had to leave from the moment Alaric had told her something had happened with Buffy.

Not even five minutes later Jenna's car came to a stop at the Gilbert house, the car door was barely closed as she made her way inside the house, to find Jeremy firing question at Alaric, who didn't answer any of them. He didn't want to tell the story twice. He didn't even want to think back about it. He was full of worry for Buffy and he couldn't even imagine the pain Buffy was in right now.

Jenna had also heard the shower running upstairs, which was covering Buffy's loud sobs.

"What happened? Where is she?" Jenna asked and finally the two noticed the worried mother.

"Sit down." Alaric told her, which Jenna did hesitatingly before Alaric told them both at the same time what had happened at school.

"Where is he?" Jenna asked, he meaning James.

"At school. I brought her here immediately I found her. I don't want him anywhere near my daughter again." Alaric said to her, not being careful with the words, just hoping that Stefan had beat the shit out of James. 

"Daughter?" Jeremy asked, but neither of the two parents was paying attention.

"I'm gonna kill him." Jenna muttered before going upstairs. She had never expected James to do something like that. She just knew he would never get in 50 miles from her daughter again. "Sweetheart." Jenna said as she knocked on the bathroom door, barely keeping control of her own tears. 

When Buffy didn't answer, Jenna opened the door softly, not wanting to do anything that could scare her little girl. "Sweetheart." She repeated as she looked inside, to find Buffy still sitting underneath the shower, arms wrapped around her knees, shaking as she cried once more.

The mother didn't hesitate to sit down next to her daughter and wrap her arms around her poor daughter, who started crying even louder as she leaned against her mother.

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Istg I hate James with my whole heart. my poor Buffy :(

Sorry for the long wait for the chapter. This was not an easy one to write for obvious reasons.

Words: 1595

Posted: May 5, 2024