Xander was strolling down the sidewalk towards Willow
and Buffy's dorm,
enjoying the nice sunny day.  He'd had a nice,
uneventful shift at work last
night, had slept in all morning, then had skipped his
Algebra class.

He was skipping all his classes, and was going to ask
Willow to un-enroll
him in the university, since their objective had now
been met.  Had been met
quite nicely, and quite often, over the last three
weeks.  Lovely as it was
to learn things he didn't need to know (and he
wouldn't be making the
mistaking of saying that around Giles, again), he
would be happy to get a
small portion of his life back.  Besides, if she
didn't un-enroll him, he'd
have to take his mid-terms.

"Hey, Xander!"

"Ah! Speak of the cute devil."  Xander grinned at
Willow, who had just
walked out the front door of her dormitory.  She had
books in her arms, but
Xander knew that didn't mean she was on her way to
class.  Willow tended to
carry books with her, everywhere.

"What are you up to?" she asked, a hint of accusation
in her voice.

"Me?  Why would I be up to anything?"

"Because you're smiling.  You only smile when you're
happy.  And someone of
a suspicious nature would think there was a *reason*
you were happy."

Xander tried to look offended, but he couldn't manage
to stop grinning.
Willow laughed at him, then linked her arm in his, and
headed down the
sidewalk with him.

"So, tell me everything!"

"Willow, I told you everything last night!"

"No, you didn't.  You only told me everything up until
last night -- and, I
might add, without lots of details. You think I can't
read between the
lines?  I know what you two are up to on those three
other 'dates' per week
you don't tell me about!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Xander
protested.  He looked
around at the warm, sunny day.  It really was gorgeous
out here.

"Uh-huh.  There!  I knew it."

"Huh?"  Xander looked over and found her pointing at
him.  "Where? What?"

"That smile.  That sappy, all is right with the world
smile."

Sheepishly, Xander...smiled wider.  "Um, can I plead
the fifth?"

"No!  I want details.  Um, not *details* details, mind
you.  But I deserve
to know more than you two went to the movies on
Sunday, and played miniature
golf on Thursday, and watched basketball on Saturday."

"We ate pepperoni pizza while watching the basketball
game," Xander offered.

Willow whapped him on the arm.  "Since last night!
And you told me that
part, already.  Sometimes I think you two have G-rated
dates just so you
have something you can tell me about."

"Us? What?  Me? Not tell?"  Xander tried again to look
offended.  Or maybe
innocent. He wasn't sure, but since it obviously
wasn't working, he didn't
worry about it.

Especially since she was right.  The first 'safe' date
they'd gone on had
been the first Sunday.  They'd gone to dinner at
Burger Fiesta: burgers,
tacos, and conversation about football and cars and
other manly stuff.
They'd both known they were acting for the benefit of
the
to-be-relayed-to-Willow report, and the "date" had
lasted exactly
thirty-three minutes.

Then Xander had declared it over, and they'd gone back
to Xander's place and
had their fourth date.  That one he hadn't even
alluded to, though Willow
had somehow guessed.

"Xander...."  Willow was giving him her resolve face.

"Um, yes, Willow?  Best friend for life, smartest
person I know, prettiest
girl I've seen, reddest hair and meanest growl?"

She giggled, then went right back into her resolve
face.  "Tell!"

"No."

"Xander, I went to a lot of trouble to get the two of
you together.  You owe
me!"

"Oh, speaking of which, you can get me out of school
now."

"What?  Out of... Xander, don't you *want* to go to
college?"

Xander blinked at her.  "Is this a trick question?
Willow, please, I'm
dying here -- you put me in *algebra*.  I have tests
every three weeks!  And
history -- they expect you to write a *paper*!  I
don't need college, and
now that Graham answers my phone calls, I don't need
to be enrolled."

She frowned, then looked a little hurt.  It was for
real, Xander knew.
"But...I thought you were enjoying yourself.  Learning
all kinda of cool,
collegey stuff."

"Sorry.  I just don't think I'm cut out to be
college-guy."  He stopped
walking, and reached out and put his hand on her
shoulder.  "I really
appreciate it, though.  Not because of Graham --
though happy about that,
make no mistake.  But I know how much it meant to you.
I...I know you were
trying to make me part of the group, again, by getting
me into college with
you two."  From the way Willow was making her eyes go
wide, he knew she was
gonna deny anything of the sort.  He kept talking, to
forestall her.  "You
were right, I was, and being here...helped. A lot.
But it also showed me
I'm *not* college-guy.  I'm good with dating
college-guy, and being a
hanger-on in the world of academia."

"But..but Xander, you can't work at the gas station
all your life!  This is
your chance to get a degree, and make something of
yourself!"

"Will, you don't need a degree to make something of
yourself.  That's one
reason I'm ready to get out of school.  I'm not
getting anything out of it,
except Graham, and I've *got* him, so I don't have
to-- what?"

Willow was grinning.  "You've got him?  You've *got*
him!  Oh, Xander!"
Then she was hugging him, tightly, around the neck.

"Willow? Hey, Will? Ack?"  He tried to peel her off
him, and failed.
"Hello?  Willow?"

She finally let go -- still beaming at him and
bouncing, but now he could
breathe.  "Oh, Xander, this is wonderful!  Hey!  You
and me and Buffy, we
should all go out on a triple date!"

"Won't Riley, Tara, and Graham object?"

Willow whapped his arm, again.  "I meant *with* them.
Silly.  But you're
not off the hook yet, buster.  What's this about not
being college-guy?
You're as smart as any of us, Xander.  And you said
you were doing well
enough in class."

"That's not the point."  Xander shook his head, then
looked around at the
campus.  How could he explain that it just didn't feel
right?  He didn't
care about his classes, didn't have any interest in
finding others he would
care about, and, frankly, was more interested in
spending his
former-class-time doing anything else, but going to
class.

"So what *are* you going to do, if you aren't staying
in school?"

"I've got a couple jobs in mind," he admitted.  One
he'd heard about from a
friend of Graham's, at Lowell House.  It didn't sound
like much, working as
a copy boy at a local magazine house, but it was a day
shift, and had some
chance of turning into something more than gas station
manager, or just head
flunkee.  The other one sounded more promising.  He'd
gotten a call from the
construction boss he'd worked for the previous fall,
the same one who'd
fired him for being sick for a week after being on the
job for five days.
He needed experienced workers, and figured Xander was
at least more
experienced than the kids just out of high school and
migrants just out of
the truck.

"Well, that's good."  Willow was obviously trying to
sound happier than she
felt.

Xander gave her hand a squeeze.  "I'll still be
around, Wills.  You know
me -- like a bad nickel.  I'll always turn up."

She sighed, then smiled, and returned the
hand-squeeze.  They resumed
walking, though Xander still had no idea where they
were going.  They walked
in silence for awhile, and Xander found himself
thinking how cool it would
be if he got the job he wanted.  It was a temporary
job, which he hadn't and
wasn't going to tell Willow.  But it was a real job,
real wages, and a
chance to do something more interesting than make
change for insomniacs and
night-dwelling demons who drove BMWs.

"So, you're happy, then?"  Willow's voice intruded on
his thoughts of
celebrating his successful job-getting, or
commiserating his
job-not-getting.

"Huh?  What?  Oh.. yeah.  Yeah, I am."  He felt like
smiling, again, and
tried to keep it under control.

"Yeah," Willow matched his dreamy smile with one of
her own.  "It's
like...floating on air, isn't it?"

"I would have said riding a roller coaster, the part
where you go flying
down the slope, screaming your head off, but you love
every second of it."

She gave him a knowing look.  "At that part already,
huh?"

"What part?"

"The oh my god, do I really love him? part."

Xander blinked.  "I was talking about the sex!"

"Uh-huh."  Then she grinned.  "Really?  It's *that*
good?  Tell me!"

Xander groaned.

end chapter eight