Caroline walked into the Grille and stopped. She looked around for a moment and noticed something, that had she noticed a year ago, would have sent her into a fit of tears. Her eyes glanced over the table as she picked out the familiar heartbeats of her friends. She quickly found Tyler, sitting at a table with Jeremy, having a couple beers and talking about unknown topics. Matt was behind the bar, taking drink orders. Mostly from Damon who was at the bar, ordering bourbon... and then there was Klaus. Klaus had come as a surprise to Caroline when she had first seen him in the small, family restaurant. But each of these men had one thing in common. All of them were staring at Elena. Maybe they weren't obvious about it, but there it was. The flicker of the eyes, the lingering glance. All of them were drawn to the brown haired beauty with unfortunate bloodline who was playing a game of pool with Bonnie.
She was thin, and sweet, and charming; all the things that Caroline would never consider herself. Caroline knew she couldn't compare. But as those chocolate eyes lifted to meet hers, and that secret smile crossed her face that only they shared, she realized she was okay with that. Elena put the cue down, said something to Bonnie, and started over towards her. Reaching her, Elena gave her that smile again, the responding one spread across her face. Grabbing her hand and kissing the back of it as they walked, making the fire spread through her body in a way only Elena could, Caroline realized a couple things. One, is that she felt sorry for all of the guys that would never get to have the Goddess that is Elena Gilbert. 2, is that she wasn't even jealous of the stares Elena got. And 3, she was perfectly okay with the knowledge that she was always second best. Because she may never be anybody else's first choice, but she knew, as Elena brought her petal soft lips up to meet hers, that she would always be Elena's.