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Fred was woken by not-so-gentle knocking at her door.
"Who is it?" She called out, almost expecting it to be her mother, begging her to come home. For a moment she hoped it was.
"I'm Cordelia!" A voice yelled back. "I'm here to- Oh, would you just let me in already?"
Fred sighed, then slowly got up and out of bed. She looked down at her clothes, she'd slept in yesterday's outfit, and considered changing. The sound of impatient fidgeting outside stopped that line of thought. She walked over to open the door.
A brunette girl greeted her, obviously fake smile plastered on her face. "Hi, Fred, is it?" She walked in without being invited. "Angel said you needed someone to show you around, since you're new in town."
"Who's Angel?" Fred asked. The girl was all dressed up and pretty, which made Fred feel like underdressed and filthy in her rumpled, almost child-like clothes. Pair it with the cat-eye glasses she'd had since she was a teenager, and it just completed her whole "twenty two year old kid" look. For that reason, she left her glasses on her bedside table. She only needed them for reading anyway.
"Angel!" Cordelia said, looking stunned that Fred didn't know. "The guy that runs this whole place?"
"Oh, you mean Mr. Angelus."
"No one calls him that." Cordelia laughed. "Next you'll be calling Spike by whatever his actual name is."
"Who's Spike?"
Cordelia sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Oh god, why me?" She asked the ceiling. "Spike is Angel's husband. He helps out around here, surely you've seen him around?"
Fred shrugged. She'd only been out of her room once. "Its okay, I don't need you to show me around." She said, ignoring how the conversation had derailed. "I had a look around yesterday."
Cordelia's answering smile was more of a grimace. "Its not optional, sorry." She said. "Angel's worried about you moping around all alone up here."
Fred found that she liked Cordelia. She said things like they were, without any tact whatsoever. It was a weird kind of refreshing.
"Come on then." Cordelia said, realising she had won the argument. "Get dressed, I'll wait in the lobby."
Fred had a quick shower, cold so she could wake up a bit, and hurriedly got dressed into yet another classic Fred Burkle outfit. Jeans and a yellow tank top, complete with a pale pink cardigan.
Cordelia took one look at her and announced that they were going shopping. "If you want to wear cardigans all the time, at least pick ones that don't make you look so... young."
"I thought it was a good thing to look young."
Cordelia scoffed. "If you look underage when you're not, thats not a good thing."
Fred supposed that was fair enough.
So she bought some more cardigans, some new jeans, a few pretty tops. All Cordelia approved. Fred didn't quite hate them herself.
Then they went out for coffee and Cordelia ranted about a guy called Doyle, who apparently worked at the hotel with her.
"He used to ask me out all the time." Cordelia said. "It was like, get a life, yknow? Like, yes, it makes sense and all that he'd be obsessed with me, but he was such a loser. There was no way I would have said yes. Now he's stopped though, and I think I kind of miss the attention?"
"I think you like him." Fred teased, sipping her coffee to hide her smile.
"Ugh. Why do I always fall for the idiots?" Cordelia groaned.
Fred laughed.
Cordelia grinned smugly. "Ha! I got you to laugh."
Fred blushed, and looked down at her coffee cup, which she was cradling in both hands.
"Its okay." Cordelia said. "It'll be our little secret. If Angel knows I helped, then he'll make me take you out more often." She winked.
Though she knew Cordelia was half-joking, Fred felt a tug of sadness remembering that this was a forced hangout, and was unlikely to be repeated. It was the first time she'd laughed in a long time, and at such a stupid thing too. Maybe this town was good for her. Or maybe just Cordelia.
"So tell me a bit about yourself." Cordelia finally said, the majority of the conversation having been about her. "You're from Texas, right? I can tell from the accent."
Fred nodded slowly. "Yeah. I moved to L.A. for school though." She searched frantically for a change in topic, anything to get away from the slippery slope that was her time in L.A. Finding nothing, she just stopped talking.
Cordelia didn't sense the awkwardness. "What were you studying?"
"Physics."
"Oh gross." Cordelia said. "You studied that by choice?"
Fred giggled. This she could handle. "Yep."
"Nerd." Cordelia said, with no real venom.
And the conversation went on.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
