"Okay, you're gonna take a step forward, throw a kick, and duck. Let's try it. Step, kick, duck. Again... no, Jenn, you need to kick higher. The point of this is to excercise."
Buffy sighed as she went over to help her student. "Up, like this... see?" She kicked high as a demonstration.
Jenn tried again, her leg not going higher than a foot and Buffy sighed.
"Yeah, okay, that was better."
Buffy was about to turn around again to help some others when she spotted someone at the door.
"Keep working on that, I'll be right back."
She jogged over to find her husband leaning sexily against the door frame. "Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself," she answered as she kissed him lightly. "Whatcha doing here?"
"I can't want to see you?" he asked innocently.
"No..."
Angel smiled. "Seriously, I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"You mean to check up on your pregnant wife and make sure she doesn't kill the baby?"
"Buffy..."
"Sorry... hormones."
******
Lynn turned the corner just in time to find herself face to face with Matt. As she started to turn around, he grabbed her arm and pushed her against a nearby wall, holding her arm against her tightly.
"Matt, what do you think you're..."
"You've been avoiding me."
Lynn tried to free herself from his grasp, without having to hurt him. "Matt, you're hurting me," she lied.
He quickly let go of her arm. "Why have you been avoiding me? Is there something I should know?"
Lynn ducked her head and brushed some of her black hair behind her ear. "It's nothing, really."
"Except you have that something face of yours," he countered.
"Yeah, maybe I do," she muttered. "Look, we really do have to talk, but we can do that later. I have to get to class." She tried to moved past him but he blocked the way.
"You have study hall, now," he said. "We can talk."
"Let me put it this way," Lynn said. "I don't feel like talking right now."
"I do."
"I don't."
"Look..."
Matt didn't get a chance to finish; Lynn took his arm and twisted around him. "I said, I don't wanna talk," she said forcefully, punctuating every word with a tug on his arm. "Got it?"
"Yeah."
"Good," she said. She grabbed her books and started back to where she had been going originally.
The minute she got out of the crowded hallways of Sunnydale High and into the bathroom, she collapsed against the wall and sobbed. She gathered her knees under her and let the tears flow. For several minutes, they were the only sounds heard in the bathroom. And suddenly, the door swung open.
It was Jade.
"Oh, my God," she said as she dropped to her knees beside her friend. "Lynn, what's wrong?"
No, 'are you okay?'s or 'is everything alright?'s. Lynn was glad that her friend knew better than to ask her if she was fine while she was having a sobbing fit in the middle of the bathroom floor.
Lynn took a deep breath and tried to speak, but a sob took over before she could.
"Matt?" Jade asked, already knowing the answer.
Lynn sobbed again and nodded.
Jade sighed and sat down down next to her friend. She cradled Lynn's head in her lap, trying to sooth her. "What did he do this time?"
At first, Lynn said nothing and Jade didn't pressure her friend to say anything. After several moments, Lynn's sobs died down and she sat up again, wiping at her eyes.
"Nothing," Lynn said. "He tried to talk to me and I wouldn't let him. But he grabbed my arm tightly. If I was anyone else, he could've hurt me!"
Abruptly, Lynn stood and made her way to the bathroom mirror, taking out her purse and the make-up supplies. She examined her appearance in the mirror and began to fix it.
"Not to defend Matt or anything, but I think you're overreacting," Jade said. "So what if he wants to sleep with you? Talk to him. If he does, and you don't, tell him. If he doesn't care that you don't, break it off. It doesn't take a rocket sciencetist to do that. What are you so afraid of?"