Excerpt: Define Apocalypse

He walked in, paying the cover, and then looked around. He soon spotted Buffy, Willow, and Xander at a table with... an older guy he didn't know. Not, like Mr. Giles old. Like a college guy old. A college guy? At the Bronze. And not a bar? Why on...

Oh. One look at the man's face looking at Buffy, and he knew. Buffy had a college boyfriend. He absently wondered if that was why she skipped so many classes.

Willow saw him, and waved him over. "John!"

He smiled. OK, a friendly invitation then.

"What's up?" Willow asked.

"Not much," John said, cheerfully. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Angel," Buffy said.

John squirmed under the darker man's penetrating gaze. He looked like he was trying to either read John's mind or determine his threat level.

Angel smiled awkwardly. "Hi, you go to school with Buffy?"

"Yeah," John said. Older, penetrating, and no social skills. What did Buffy see in this guy? "Do you go to UC Sunnydale?"

"Oh, I um... finished school," Angel said, looking very uncomfortable. "A long time ago."

"Angel's older than he looks," Willow said. "A lot old--ow... Um, drinks? I'm buying, who wants soda?"

Willow'd just almost spilled something the others didn't want her to again. What was up with that?

"Coke, please," Buffy said.

"Make that two," Xander said.

"Um..." John looked uncomfortable.

"Really, it's OK, John, my mom keeps pressing extra money into my hands, it's like she's glad I'm hanging out with people or something," Willow said.

"Um, Coke's good."

Willow raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Ok, root beer," John said, smiling shyly.

Willow flounced over to the bar.

"So Buffy says Snyder has you pegged as a troublemaker?" Angel asked.

Buffy elbowed him sharply.

"He's got her pegged as a trouble maker too, and I don't think either of us is as bad as Shelia," John said. "Have you guys seen Shelia at all since parent/teacher night?"

"I think Snyder made good on his promise to expel one of us," Buffy said quickly. But for the first time that night she didn't meet his eyes.

"Oh," John said.

"There was a lot of excitement on parent/teacher night," Angel said.

"Yeah, some weirdos broke into the school, they were making lots of trouble," John said.

"Weirdos?" Angel said.

"Yeah, Snyder claimed they were gang members on PCP, but I couldn't find any symptoms of PCP that describes what their faces looked like," John said. "Not even in the DEA databas...." He trailed off. Angel was pumping him for information. And he was falling for it.

"The DEA database is open to the public?" Angel asked.

"Er, the parents' guides," John corrected smoothley.

"You were looking at drug enforcement parent guides?" Angel said. "Don't they give you guys anything better to do in school? Find anything interesting."

John rolled his eyes. He'd had it with this amateur. "Look, I know those guys weren't on PCP and something was wrong with their faces. I know Buffy kept a level head, but a lot of people don't. And I know that she and Willow and Xander seem to know Ms. Calendar and Mr. Giles a lot better than maybe they should. Look, if you were gonna just pump me for info, couldn't you have just done it during school?" John reached into his pocket, peeled off three ones, and threw them on the table. "For the root beer I'm not going to drink." He stalked off, nearly bumping into Cordelia.

"Watch it loser," Cordelia said.

"I hope you're first against the wall when the machines come," John muttered, making a beeline for the door.