Waking with a start, Willow Rosenburg looked around in fear. "Xander!" she
  called aloud to her empty room.

  After a few moments, she realized that it was just a dream. But what a
  horrible dream it was. She could remember the feeling she had when she saw

  Xander—her best friend—being overtaken by hungry vampires. Buffy was
  nowhere to be seen, and she couldn’t help Xander herself. Even if she tried, she felt
  as if she couldn’t move. She could remember the fear and hope in Xander’s
  voice when he called her name. When he called her to save him…but she
  couldn’t.

  And that’s when the vampires decided to feed. And then she had woken up.

  <What a nightmare> Willow thought. Still shaking a little, she got up to get
  some water.

  she thought, frowing as she remembered the time her nightmare about being
  on
  stage came true. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. It read 1:05
  AM. She hadn’t been asleep for long, only a few hours. The dream wouldn’t
  escape her memory, and she couldn’t forget the look of terror in Xander’s
  eyes.

  Willow drank her water and then climbed back into bed. She couldn’t go back

  to sleep, her mind was racing. Willow wondered how she would react if it
  wasn’t just a dream, if it had actually happened. How would she cope
  afterwards? Could she really live without Xander in her life?

  And she knew the answer right away: no. There was no way she could
  continue
  to live her life without her best friend around.

  Without the guy she had secretly loved for most of her 16 years. Even though
  she had Oz now, Xander was still on her mind. She knew she would always
  love  him, no matter who he went out with, no matter who she went out with
  herself.
  Her love for him went further than just adolescent puppy love. Willow loved
  him because he was who he was, because she had known from the first time
  they met as children that they would be together forever.

  As Willow sat there thinking about her childhood with Xander and her love for
  him, she came to a conclusion.

  She would tell Xander how she felt, and how she feels now. Even if he
  rejected or denied it, she would feel good telling him. Before something
  really did happen, to him or to her.

  She was pretty sure that he wouldn’t really react to it, like he has always
  done to the implications of her love in the past. But she had to let him
  know. Willow decided tomorrow at school she would tell him. Smiling to
  herself, she pictured different scenarios in her head.

  And then she fell asleep.