********
TITLE: College Confidential
WRITER: Laragh
CHAPTER RATING: R
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: The first part of the prequel to
Hacker Confidential and
Family Confidential - the college years!
SPOILERS: Perhaps minor references to the show or stealage of dialogue, but nothing that would spoil the series.
FEEDBACK: Yes please
Chapter 34 ********
Willow stepped over a maze of luggage and boxes to get through the front door of their building and down the hallway without spilling the smoothies she had in her hands for her and Tara.
There was a close call with a loose power cord, but she finally arrived back unscathed, and kicked the door closed behind her.
“I hate people moving back in. The summer people were a lot quieter!”
Tara took the smoothie offered to her.
“But Becky’s flight gets in, in a while. You must’ve missed her.”
“Yeah,” Willow agreed, then smiled, “She kept me pretty up-to-date with her goings-on but it’ll be nice to talk to her face-to-face.”
“Does she know who her new roommate is yet?” Tara asked, sitting on the bed with her shoes kicked off.
“I don’t think so,” Willow replied, joining her, “I hope she’s nice, Becky’ll never let me live it down if she’s not. Do you like your smoothie? I got you mango and passion fruit.”
“It’s delicious,” Tara replied, already more than half-way through it, “And nice and cold. It’s hot out today.”
“Uh huh,” Willow agreed, slowly sucking the liquid threw the straw as she noticed the thighs on display as Tara had changed into the shorts she often wore to bed.
She didn’t notice she was slurping just plastic, until the loud sound disturbed her gazing. She tossed the cup across the room into the trash can and gave herself an internal high-five when it landed, then turned back to Tara.
Unable to resist, she leaned over to press a kiss against Tara’s thigh, then grinned up at the surprised eyes cast down on her. She kissed Tara’s skin again, as high up as the fabric would allow, then moved right up so their faces were close.
“Wanna make it hotter?”
Tara didn’t need much convincing and left the last few sips of her smoothie to sit on the nightstand. She moved her hands to gently hold Willow’s face and pressed their lips together, then scooted down so she was lying with a warm body on top of her.
“Mmm,” Willow moaned, grabbing Tara’s hip and splaying her fingers out over her girlfriend’s thigh.
She slowly slid her hand up and under Tara’s shirt to caress her stomach, then bunched it up until it was flying over their heads. She dropped her head to kiss Tara’s exposed skin.
Tara took in a long breath as Willow kissed around her bra-encased breasts, then pulled her back up, lip to lip.
Willow responded enthusiastically to the kiss as she dropped her hand to the button on Tara’s shorts. She popped it open and slipped her hand under Tara’s panties, quickly wetting her fingers with the light arousal built up, then found the little bud.
She felt Tara’s breath quicken through the kiss and stated to move her fingers up and down, but only got a few strokes in before a loud knocking was heard against the door.
Tara’s gaze floated in that direction but Willow didn’t let up for a second, so she was quick to forget. The person outside, however, wasn’t.
“Oh for god sake,” Willow hissed, “Why are we always getting interrupted?!”
She started to sit up with a sigh.
“Probably some lost freshman. I’ll get rid of them.”
She pressed her lips against Tara’s quickly, then went over and opened the door just enough to peek out.
“Becky?” she asked in surprise upon seeing her former roommate on the other side.
Becky all but flung herself at Willow, pushing the door open and causing Tara to squeal and make a hasty reach for the sheet.
“Whoops, sorry!” Becky shouted out upon seeing her, seeming anything but as she laughed, “Do you guys just constantly bone?”
She continued to laugh but looked curious.
“Is it still boning if there’s no–”
Willow cut her off with a push against her shoulder and shot Tara a look of apology then looked back to Becky.
“What are you doing here?”
Becky bounced over to the bed and sat on the corner, still smiling ear-to-ear.
“Got an early flight!”
It was becoming obvious Becky had no intention of leaving, so Willow cast a glance to Tara, who nodded that it was okay. Willow couldn’t help but roll her eyes and sigh.
“I have to wash my hands.”
Tara turned a bright crimson and there was a few seconds of awkward lull.
“C-could you hand me my shirt, please?”
“Oh sure,” Becky replied, spotting the shirt and handing it up, realising then that maybe it wasn’t the best time, excitement or not, “I should really leave, huh?”
Tara buttoned her shirt behind the sheet, then took a long swig from the bottle of water to cool herself down.
“It’s okay. Willow missed you. I-I did too.”
Willow came back out from the bathroom then and Becky threw her arms around them both, on either side of her.
“I missed you two like crazy!” she exclaimed, kissing both of their cheeks, “Thank god I’m not in Kansas anymore, Toto!”
“Where’s your stuff?” Willow asked, sitting up near Tara.
“I just tossed it in the room, I’ll unpack later,” Becky dismissed with a wave as she sat Indian-style on the bed to face them, “Tell me things, give me gossip!”
Tara had to smile; Becky had interrupted a moment, maybe, but her joie de vivre and excitement of seeing them was both endearing and fun to watch.
“I don’t think we have much gossip,” Willow answered with a small shrug, “I got an A in my photography class.”
“Cool!” Becky enthused, “Was it easy? Arts electives are the worst; I’ll need a new one next semester.”
Willow nodded.
“Well, it wasn’t always super easy, but it was really fun. And we got to learn Photoshop and everything, which was good. You’d like it. Tell us about Kansas. ”
Becky prepared to launch her story of summer.
“Well, SD3–
“That’s step-dad 3,” Willow clarified for Tara, who nodded appreciatively.
“Anyway, he finally moved his ass out,” Becky continued, “So it was just me and Momma, it was good for the first few weeks, but then she told me she’d been seeing a new guy for a while. She brought him over; he doesn’t seem all bad, surprisingly. Kinda hunky in a salt-and-pepper kinda way.”
Willow and Tara shared clueless glances, but Becky didn’t seem to notice and continued to fill them in on what she’d been up to, which featured a lot of booze and boys.
“And Oh. My. God. The night the marine boys passed through? I had a good night. I had a
great night,” she finished a while later, then sighed when she saw the other two’s faces, “I really need friends that aren’t lesbians.”
“Sorry,” both Willow and Tara echoed each other, though neither was too apologetic.
“So…” Becky asked, “You two have a good summer?”
Willow smiled over at Tara.
“The best.”
She leaned over and pressed a lingering kiss against Tara’s cheek, who blushed.
“You guys are gross,” Becky commented, though was smiling.
“You’re just jealous,” Willow retorted, putting an arm around Tara.
“Yeah,” Becky admitted, then perked up, “If I buy you two some coffees will you help me unpack?”
Willow looked at Tara, who seemed willing to help.
“Throw in one of those big cookies and you’ve got a deal.”
“Alright!” Becky exclaimed enthusiastically, high-fiving Willow’s hand, “Come with?”
The other two nodded and Willow grabbed her keys, then they all headed to the coffee shop once Tara had slipped into some proper pants. Once well stocked with caffeine and sugar, they made their way back to Becky’s room, where two large suitcases were sitting on the floor, surrounded by boxes.
“I think I could fit all my possessions into the bottom half of one of those boxes,” Tara whispered to Willow, wide-eyed.
“She’s a hoarder,” Willow whispered back with a playful smile, “Okay, Becky, where do you want us to start?”
Becky gestured towards the boxes as she lugged a suitcase over to fill the closet. Willow led Tara over and looked through to see where to start but all the boxes were marked ‘college crap’.
“What a sophisticated sorting system,” Willow muttered, pulling the tape from the nearest one, “Baby, if you unpack, I’ll put things where they go.”
Tara nodded and started to unpack the contents of the boxes onto the bed. Willow put things where she remembered Becky having them before and left things she wasn’t sure of to come back to later.
They were close to finished an hour later, when they were joined by a girl about their age appearing through the door. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, perfectly-applied light make-up, and was wearing a white blouse with a light brown tennis skirt and a sweater with the sleeves folded over her neck. She looked more suited to a country club than a dorm room.
“I thought I was in a two-person room,” she said as soon as she saw them, disregarding any pleasantries.
Becky spun around and looked the girl up and down, internally groaning that this appeared to be her new roommate.
“You are,” she answered, stepping forward to at least give the illusion of being friendly, “These guys are just helping me out. I’m Becky, the roommate.”
She offered her hand and the other girl shook it weakly, slithering away like a snake.
“Chelsea,” she said, flipping her hair to one side.
Willow could tell Becky was not getting a good first impression.
“I’m Willow, and this is Tara,” she said, gesturing between them, “That used to be my side of the room actually.”
Chelsea glanced at the space that would become hers.
“I hope you didn’t have any men in this bed with you. I couldn’t sleep in a place that wasn’t pure.”
Becky snorted and had to turn away, pretending to get something caught in her eye.
“No, no men,” Willow answered eventually, deciding it best not to point out there were previous occupiers of the room of which she couldn’t vouch for ‘purity’.
“Good,” Chelsea replied, just as a group of moving men began to load in with luggage, “So. Have you all accepted Jesus as your saviour? Put that over there.”
She waved her hand at one of the men dismissively and looked back to the three for an answer.
Becky sighed. She’d need to find a boyfriend quick if she had any hope of getting through the year with any sanity.
“Yes, we have,” she answered, nudging Willow who was about to point out she was Jewish, “So, uh, no need to…convince us or anything.”
Chelsea watched and directed the unpacking of her things like a composer with just hand gestures here and there. The other three watched in disbelief as it all played out, right down to the light bulbs being replaced and the bed receiving a turn-down service with its new sheets.
“Finally,” Chelsea said, sitting down on her bed as all the hired help left, then started to squirt some perfume around, “It smells like something died in here.”
“So did you transfer here?” Becky asked, purposely shaking her blanket out in her new roommate’s direction just for spite.
“My parents moved their charity HQ here from New Jersey,” Chelsea answered, kicking invisible pockets of dust away, “I lived in our house back home but I decided I just had to try this dorm living. So quaint.”
Becky shot Willow a look as if to say ‘look what you’ve stuck me with’. Willow looked back helplessly.
“Are you guys’ roommates too?” Chelsea asked, looking at Willow.
Willow opened and closed her mouth a few times; getting a sense this girl wasn’t going to be yay-gay.
“We…”
“Live downstairs,” Tara answered for them.
“Yeah,” Willow nodded, grateful for the save, “We live downstairs.”
“Well, I think we’re going to need some ground rules,” Chelsea replied, eyes fixed on Becky this time, “Like no visitors after ten. I need my beauty sleep.”
“No kidding,” Becky sneered, though Chelsea was too engrossed in checking a nail to hear.
Willow could feel the tension in the air and couldn’t much bear it herself, never mind subject Tara to it.
“Well, we gotta go…do stuff.”
Becky rolled her eyes at Willow but couldn’t blame them for wanting to escape.
“Call first if you’re coming up,” Chelsea said as they left, barely acknowledging them.
“Yeah, right, okay,” Willow answered, pushing Tara through and shooting an apologetic look to Becky, “Bye.”
She pulled the door firmly shut, then exhaled a soft breath that they were free.
“Should we leave her alone?” Tara asked, looking worried.
“I don’t think accidentally revealing she’s best friends with a couple of lesbos is going to do her any favours right now,” Willow answered, taking Tara’s hand, “I’ll call her in a half-hour and pretend there’s an emergency so she can leave.”
“Okay,” Tara replied, trusting Willow to know her best friend.
“I’ll say one thing, Becky may be a little spoiled…” Willow said, shaking her head, “But at least she’s not
that.”
“We only met her for a few minutes,” Tara tried to reason, not one to judge, “Maybe she’s nervous about living with someone.”
Willow made a non-committal noise, her mind pretty much set, but decided Tara was right.
“Yeah, okay. But I still want to steer clear. I don’t want to call you my ‘roommate’. Or accept Jesus as my saviour. Hello, still Jewish.”
“Maybe you could join that Jews for Jesus group,” Tara replied, hiding a smile.
“What?!” Willow asked, doing a double-take, “No wa–”
Tara couldn’t help a giggle, clueing Willow into the joke.
“Verrrryyy funny, Maclay,” she said, bumping Tara’s shoulder, “Wanna go get some fro-yo or something?”
“Okay,” Tara agreed.
They strolled off-campus and got some frozen yogurt, then went to eat it in a nearby park.
“I’m gonna miss summer,” Willow said, leaning her head down against Tara’s shoulder, “I meant it…best summer I’ve ever had. Being with you and living with you and just…you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Tara replied softly.
Willow’s smile lit up her face.
“Good. ‘Cause I want fall with you and winter and spring and summer again, and then we can just repeat the whole cycle, ‘kay?”
“Deal,” Tara replied, smiling too, “I’m looking forward to having something warm to cuddle up to in the cold nights.”
She blushed then, and Willow lifted her head in time to catch it.
“Oh really?” she asked, then leaned in under the guise of kissing her cheek and lowered her voice to a whisper, “Why don’t I go warm you up now?”
She pulled away and grinned that she’d gotten the reaction she’d wanted – a bright red girlfriend – but was pleasantly surprised when Tara suddenly stood and started to pull her away.
“Oh, okay!”
She was happy to be rushed back to campus and had the key ready to open the door, but was finding herself distracted as her lips found Tara’s neck; pressing into her girlfriend from behind.
“Willow…” Tara warned playfully, “Open the door.”
“I’m trying,” Willow replied, her fingers slipping over the key as she tried to steady herself, “You’re much too kissable.”
Tara blushed and turned, intending to take over the key duties but was halted as Willow pressed a soft, chaste kiss against her lips
She lingered just a moment, then popped off with a smile and closed her hand over Willow’s so they could finally get inside. The lock clicked open and they both had one foot through the door, when there was the skidding sound of shoes near them and a voice they unfortunately recognised from before.
“WHAT the heck were you two doing?” Chelsea asked, red-faced with disgust at what she’d witnessed.
“Going into our room,” Willow replied with a roll of her eyes.
“I saw you!” Chelsea spat, fumbling over her words, “I… saw you!”
Willow put her hand on the small of Tara’s back.
“Just go inside, baby.”
Tara tried to step inside, but Chelsea made a grab for her, incensed. Willow caught her wrist and twisted it away.
“Get your hands off her!”
Chelsea yanked her hand back and stared at them agape for a moment, then scurried just a few doors down the hall, where the RA’s dorm was, and began knocking frantically.
The RA – whom Tara recognised from the years before, named Grace – a tired-looking brunette woman holding an open file in one hand opened the door, but barely looked up.
“Bathrooms are at the end of the hallway on the left,” she rattled off, unable to keep count of the amount of times the same question had been asked of her that day.
“I am here to report lewd behaviour!” Chelsea announced, crossing her arms over her chest.
Grace sighed and left her file down.
“What?”
“THEY,” Chelsea started, pointing a finger down towards Willow and Tara, “Were KISSING in the hallway. And she TWISTED my arm!”
“She grabbed my girlfriend,” Willow argued, taking the few steps down to them with Tara behind her.
“Both of you just keep your hands off each other,” Grace instructed, putting a hand up to halt Willow so there was some space between them, “What is the issue?”
“I TOLD you, they were KISSING,” Chelsea repeated, shuddering with disdain.
Grace sighed and looked to Willow, then noticed Tara behind her and offered a small smile.
“Hey Tara. Try and keep the PDA on the minimum, okay?”
“We were just going into our room,” Willow replied, keeping calm for Tara’s sake.
Grace clapped her hands together.
“Okay, then, great, issue resolved.”
She started to close her door but Chelsea inserted her foot in to stop it.
“Issue
not resolved. They are living IN SIN!”
Grace was feeling less and less inclined to keep impartial as Chelsea continued.
“Right on,” she said to Willow and Tara.
Chelsea looked like she’d been slapped and put her hands on her hips.
“I do not think the morals of Jesus and this school–”
Grace held up a hand to stop her.
“Don’t give all Christians a bad name. And don’t bother me again unless you have a
real issue.”
Chelsea all but barked.
“It’s Adam and Eve not Adam and–”
“Oh no. The only thing I hate more than unnecessary interruptions is
that phrase,” Grace replied, getting irked and looked to Willow and Tara, “Has this been on-going harassment?”
Willow shook her head.
“We just want to go back to our room.”
Grace nodded, then fixed her eyes on Chelsea.
“I’ll write you up if I see you giving anyone in this building trouble again.”
Chelsea was flabbergasted a moment, then harrumphed and turned on her heels to rush away. Grace shook her head, then smiled at Willow and Tara.
“There’s always one. Hopefully my only crazy of the day,” she said, putting her file under her arm again, “If she gives you any hassle, come tell me.”
“Thanks Grace,” Tara replied with a smile.
Grace offered a wave, then closed her door again.
“You know her?” Willow asked, turning to go back to their room.
“She helped me get the summer job,” Tara replied, “And I talked to her before you moved in to make sure it was all okay.”
“Oh,” Willow replied, opening the door for Tara, “Well, she seems nice. She resolved that pretty well.”
“Yeah,” Tara replied, though her voice had a hollow quality it hadn’t before as she went to stand by the window and look out.
Willow closed the door behind them and followed her over, putting a hand on Tara’s shoulder.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
Tara was silent for several long moments before speaking.
“Why do people hate us?”
Willow moved her chin where her hand was and wrapped her arms around Tara’s waist from behind.
“‘Cause they’re brainwashed and stupid and don’t know what real love feels like,” she replied, swaying them gently, “In case you were wondering, it feels like this.”
Tara couldn’t help a smile, which Willow caught in the reflection of the window.
“I’ll make sure you don’t have to see her again, okay?” she promised, “I’ll call Becky if we need to see her and ask her to come down, or I’ll go up by myself. If I see her in the hallways, I’ll turn us the other way.”
Tara sighed.
“We can’t just avoid the problem.”
“We can when it’s not ours,” Willow replied, giving Tara a squeeze, “We were having a nice day, don’t let her ruin it.”
Tara settled her hands over Willow’s.
“Okay.”
Willow turned her head in to press a kiss against Tara’s cheek.
“No one could ever stop me from doing that.”
She let her lips find Tara’s ear next.
“Or that.”
She dropped to Tara’s pulse point.
“Or that.”
She turned and nuzzled their noses together, then pecked Tara lovingly.
“Or that.”
The next morning, Willow held her phone to her ear as Tara finished getting ready in the bathroom and waited for Becky to answer on the other end.
“Hey, we wanted to see if you wanted to get breakfast…um, we don’t really need to come up, do we? Uh, alright, I’ll be up in a sec…Becky…I really don’t…I– Okay, okay, fine. We’ll be up in a minute.”
Tara came from the bathroom at that moment and Willow looked to her with a sigh.
“She wants to show us something. I swear if a single word is said…”
Tara inhaled softly and nodded, she didn’t want to be afraid to go up to the room. Willow took her hand and held it firm as they went upstairs and knocked on the door.
Becky greeted them with a wide smile.
“Come in.”
Willow was reluctant.
“Can’t you just tell us–”
“Come. In,” Becky insisted.
Willow sighed and stepped in first, intending to take the blow if one was given, but was utterly surprised to see the second half of the room stripped bare.
“Um…”
“Marched out, abrupt, aghast and appalled,” Becky replied with a laugh, obviously delighted at the turn of events, “She was just about ready to set herself on fire thinking about sitting on a bed you’d been in and was ranting about how we were all contributing to a delinquent community or some shit. I bitched her out for that one. She made a call and the room was empty an hour later.”
Tara blinked in surprise too, she felt momentarily guilty that Chelsea had felt the need to leave because of them, but quickly realised Willow was right, it wasn’t their problem.
“She just…left…before school even started?” Willow questioned.
“I think dorm living wasn’t as ‘quaint’ and ‘adorable’ as she imagined,” Becky scoffed, then put a hand on Willow’s upper arm, “Sorry she was such a bitch to you guys, but thank her precious lord she ran back to Mommy and Daddy.”
Willow could only laugh in agreement.
“So no roommate?”
“I’m sure they’ll replace her, but nobody can be as bad,” Becky replied with a shrug, “You guys having sex so loud last night really tipped her over the edge.”
Tara closed her eyes but attempting to control a blush was futile. Willow fixed Becky with a glare who held her hands up defensively.
“Sorry, Tara. I’ll buy you a doughnut,” she said, only for Willow to whisper something in her ear, “What? Ew. I mean, okay. I’ll buy you some grapefruit. Really, you'd choose a grapefruit over a doughnut?”
“I-I have a meal plan,” Tara replied, though offered a small smile to indicate she wasn’t annoyed.
Embarrassed, yes, but she knew Becky’s teasing was something she had to, and was, getting used to.
Willow took her hand to offer some comfort and Tara smiled again.
“So…celebratory bitch-free breakfast?” Willow asked and Becky nodded keenly.
“You know your mom’s cooking is bad when you’ve missed cafeteria food,” she said as they left.
“Sorry,” Willow whispered to Tara on the way.
“It’s okay,” Tara whispered back, “It’s part of her charm.”
“I heard that,” Becky said, suddenly moving between them to throw an arm around both of their shoulders, “You know what, I take back what I said yesterday. I wouldn’t change you two for anything. Not even a shirtless Jake Gyllenhal on a hot summer’s day. He’s got a new movie coming out about gay cowboys, you know. That should appeal to all of us.”
Willow shared a grin with Tara as Becky went off a tangent about pecs, lost on them. She sneakily reached for Tara’s hand behind Becky’s back and linked their fingers together.
Never had she been happier, or felt a school year start with more promise, than with Tara at her side, where she belonged. Always.
This ends 'Part 1' of this fic. I'm splitting each school-year into separate parts to keep the timeline clearer. They've just had the summer after sophomore year and are starting their junior year. Part 2 will run until the start of their senior year, and each part will likely be smaller than the last so I'm not repeating myself with certain holidays/occasions etc. Thanks to everyone who's still reading 
:dancing banana
.
)
once again Willow shows how easily her feet can fit into her mouth.
ame lol). 
to both Willow and Tara in beach wear too.
The touch, the feel, of kitten, the fabric of our lives. 
