Dew drives, rain falls

"Willow. Willow! Earth to Willow!!"

Willow jumped at the slayer's shouting. "Geez Buffy, does the slayer strength go to your lungs too?" She asked and turned from daydreaming by the window to face her friend.

Buffy smiled and bounced up and down on Willow's bed. "You wanna go have moccachinos?!"

"Eh, I would say no more caffeine for you for the next three months or so..." Willow teased, but was glad her friend was so happy.

"Oh, I'm just happy and I want everybody else to be happy too, hence moccachinos for Willow!" She watched Willow's dream clouded eyes more carefully, reaching out with her slayer senses. "Hm, or maybe a nice, handsome, new guy for Willow?" Buffy stopped bouncing and sat down.

"Yeah, dream on..." Willow sighed and flopped down on her bed.

"There is a guy who has raised your interest?!" Buffy asked both curious and excited. It wasn't so long since Oz left Willow with a broken heart or in more accurate words; a broken Willow who messed up her magic, so as much as it excited Buffy that her friend had noticed a new guy it also surprised her.

"Well, I don't know. You could say he has sparked my interest, but I wouldn't go any further right now. I don't wish to go down that road again anytime soon...been there, done that, got the T-shirt, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah...so, is he hot?"

Willow had to smile at the naughty look in Buffy's eyes and admitted: "He's good looking okay, as in tall dark and handsome, but he is so way out of my league... "

"Will, don't go there! You are beautiful, smart and funny not to mention kind and caring. What guy wouldn't want you?!" Buffy frowned at her friend's low self-esteem. Willow didn't know how wonderful she was and the slayer just wanted to grab her friend and punch the knowledge into her head, but that surely wouldn't help, so she just growled a little wishing there would soon be a guy around who noticed all the willowy qualities and who also was nice, normal and 100% human. *In Sunnydale? What are the odds of that happen?!* Buffy sighed inwards.

"Thank you. But he is constantly surrounded by pretty girls, the other two girls in my JAVA class flirt with him all the time and he seems to be smitten and I've seen him at parties with girls practically drooling all over him..."

"He's in your computer class?" Buffy asked confused.

"No, he's our TA."

"Oh. So he's older?"

"Well, probably. Aren't TAs usually seniors?"

"Yeah, Riley is...so what's the name of this guy?"

"Graham Miller and I'm not falling head over heals for him, and I really hope I won't ever do the literal version of that because that would be so horribly embarrassing, I just enjoy looking at him, okay?" Willow ended her mini-ramble with a sigh and sat up. "Are there going to be any moccachinos for Willow?"

"You bet it is!" Buffy smiled and pulled her friend up from the bed to take her to the 'Espresso Pump'.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Thank you for knocking." Graham said with irony evident in his voice and turned around from his desk to look at his two friends in the doorway.

"Eh, sorry?" Riley smiled goofily and went over to see what his friend was doing at his desk at 8 p.m. a Friday night. "Papers? You are grading papers on a Friday night?! That's a thing not even I would do!"

"Why are you here?" Graham asked now impatiently.

"We obviously came to save you from yourself." Forrest grinned. "And to take you for a beer at the pub."

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"Why? What could possibly be better than a night at the campus pub with a beer in your hand, surrounded by beautiful examples of the female population, freshman girls who would bend to your smallest wish..."

"Can't you ever think of anything else, Gates?" Graham was slightly annoyed.

Riley noticed how ill at ease his friend was and wondered why. Graham was one of his closest friends and since Riley knew he wasn't gay, his actions were even more difficult to understand. "You really don't like girls?" Riley asked puzzled.

"Not the ones who are all over you before you have said as much as 'hi'..."

"Damn, what's not to like about that?!" Forrest objected and the other two rolled their eyes at him.

Riley smiled. "I take it you are not joining us for a beer then?"

"Correct." Graham answered and returned to his papers before the other two had even left the room.

"Alright, come on Gates." Riley said and dragged a confused Forrest with him outside and shut the door.

Graham sighed relieved when his friends had left. They were his best friends all right and he loved them both, but sometimes he just felt the need to be alone. After locking his door he opened his wallet and pulled out a picture from behind his drivers license. It was a school photo of a very beautiful girl at about seventeen. She had long hair in the same colour as red gold, eyes blue as a cloud free sky and she looked happy.

"I miss you..." He whispered to the girl in the picture and felt a slight pain in his heart as he closed his eyes and remembered the day that picture was taken. It was the photo for the yearbook in senior year of high school. She had sparkled with happiness that day; just turned seventeen, a week into a relationship with her first real boyfriend and not a hint of suspicion that she had only two months left to live... "I'm lost without you, you know..." Graham looked at her a last time before putting the picture back in his wallet.

As usually after a painful journey down memory lane, Graham was too worked up to stay in his room. He looked at the alarm clock, 9.27 p.m. the sun was down...not a very safe time to be outside alone, ah, what the hell, he could use some action!