This summer, Caroline decided, had definitely been her favourite summer ever. Sure it had started off awfully, what with Matt and her mom conspiring against her and Stefan running away with Klaus, but sometime during the past few weeks she suddenly realised she was the happiest she'd ever been.

She finally felt like she wasn't the third wheel with Elena and Bonnie anymore. There were no secrets between them now and she actually felt like they respected her and didn't just think of her as 'silly, spoiled little Caroline who needs to be humoured'. And for the first time in what felt like forever Elena was actually relying on her for emotional support. Caroline had been devastated when she learned that Stefan had offered himself up to Klaus to save Damon, but she buried her feelings and kept up a cheerful front to help Elena deal with everything. It was exhausting at times, but she was determined to be the best possible friend she could be to Elena.

The only person Caroline had let see how upset she was about her vampire bestie just up and leaving was Tyler. Since he had come back to town they had been joined at the hip and hung out pretty much every day. Despite the fact that they were both supernatural creatures everything they did together was so normal and teenagerish. They went swimming, watched movies, cruised the mall, and when she was feeling generous she even agreed to play one of those Xbox games Tyler was crazy about. No matter how much she pouted though he still hadn't agreed to let her paint his nails.

"Caroline, if any of the guys saw me with painted nails they would beat the crap out of me!" he had said gruffly, shooting a scowl in her direction.

"Okay firstly you could take all of them Mr Werewolf, and secondly I was going to do something manly like black," she had pleaded in response. "It's not like I'm angling for pink!"

The death glare she received in response had been the end of that conversation.

If Caroline was truthful with herself she could admit that she was closer to Tyler than she was to Bonnie and Elena. The fact that he was different like her meant that she never had to be afraid of telling him about her blood lust or how she sometimes wanted to rip the heads off people who finally got to the front of the line at the coffee shop only to spend ten minutes agonizing over whether to have a caramel macchiato or a vanilla latte, while she waited impatiently behind them having settled on her order before she even walked into the shop.

Caroline could also admit that whilst she was sad that Matt and Tyler were still fighting, she secretly loved that she was unquestionably Tyler's favourite person. Everybody knew that if they invited him to a party he was going to show up with Caroline and spend all night talking to her and making fun of everyone else. She had felt second best her whole life; with Bonnie, with Elena, with Matt, that it was just so exhilarating to know that she was finally somebody's number one.

The situation with Matt and her mom had been a massive shock. Matt had yet to even glance in her direction, which sucked because she missed having him around as a friend. It had taken a while but she was proud of herself for getting over him though. Bonnie and Elena had been great, giving her the usual "he's crazy for dumping you, he'll never get another girl as awesome as you" spiel. Tyler had surprisingly been the most helpful, mainly because his version of the 'girlfriend speech' was just so hilariously wrong that she couldn't help but be cheered up.

"Let me get this straight, dude doesn't want to date you because he'd rather worry about bills?" Tyler had said incredulously.

"That's not exactly what he meant," she had protested.

"But since you're a vampire you could just compel people to give Matt money," he responded. "Then he'd have a girlfriend and dollars. Problem solved if he wasn't such a tool."

"Tyler, that's crazy. You know I couldn't do that, besides even if I did Matt is too ethical to take money like that."

"Then he's even more stupid than I realised," Tyler shrugged. "Personally, I'd rather have shady benjamins and sex with a hot girlfriend instead of having an honest job at the Grill and alone time with my hand."

"Tyler!" she had laughed, trying to sound horrified but failing miserably.

As silly as it sounds, her mom's recent actions had actually brought them closer together. Liz made an effort to be home to have dinner with her at least three times a week and they had even gone shopping together a few times. She still hadn't been able to convince her mom to buy a skirt, but she remained optimistic.

The only thing threatening to rain on her parade of summer awesomeness was, surprisingly, Tyler. Or rather, Elena's insistence that Tyler had a thing for her.

"How do you not see it?" Elena had asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "It's so obvious."

"I think you're seeing things that aren't there," she returned. "In fact just last week I caught him staring at Dana's ass and when I called him on it he laughed and said it was a crime not to appreciate an ass that fine."

"Just because he likes a good view doesn't mean he isn't spending his nights writing 'Caroline + Tyler 4 Eva' in his werewolf dream journal!"

"Elena, he would never write that about anyone," she laughed, the mental image too ridiculous to contemplate. "Besides, this is Tyler Lockwood we're talking about. If he wants something he takes it, he doesn't just sit back and pine."

"If you say so," Elena had said disbelievingly. "But I still say no friend would look at another friend the way he looks at you. It's like he can't believe he's allowed to be in the same room as someone so amazing."

Caroline had of course put Elena's ludicrous theory completely out of her mind. Tyler wasn't in love with her; he couldn't be in love with her. There was absolutely no way they could ever date. For starters she used to date his best friend, not to mention the whole thing where one bite from him could kill her. There's bad sex where one person doesn't get off and then there's bad sex where one person gets offed! Talk about a killer orgasm.

Besides, given how the whole dating a friend thing had turned out with Matt she was definitely not going down that road again. No siree. She would not think about Elena and her crazy theories anymore, she was just going to focus on the fantastic, platonic friendship her and Tyler shared. The friendship that would never be ruined by stupid teenage hormones.

The first kink in that plan appeared when Caroline and Tyler were helping set up for Elena's birthday party and he confessed that he was horny pretty much all day every day, just like she was. It was the first time she had actually thought about the fact that he was super strong like her, and that she could do anything to him and he could take it and give it back to her in kind. That thought excited her in a decidedly non-friendly way and gave her tingles in places that should not be getting tingly by thoughts of Tyler.

The second kink materialised when she found herself Tyler-less for most of Elena's party. It's not like he was ignoring her, in fact he made a point to drag Slutty Sophie over to her for quick chats throughout the night but it wasn't the same. When Sarah Conroy showed up with a horrible platinum dye job she found herself wanting to gossip about it with Tyler like she normally would, only she couldn't because he was off getting a beer for Slutty Sophie. Caroline did not like the fact that she wasn't his number one for the night. Not one bit.

The third and final kink arose when she saw Tyler and Slutty Sophie dancing together later on. Dancing was actually probably too generous a term to describe what they were doing; Caroline thought dry-humping was a more appropriate description. She could tell Tyler was definitely getting lucky later, although she supposed there was never really any doubt given Slutty Sophie's well-deserved moniker. That thought made her grind her teeth together in irritation. Honestly, Tyler was being completely irresponsible, he could end up accidentally hurting her during sex with his super strength. Not to mention, Slutty Sophie's dress was a major fashion faux pas. Who under the age of forty wears satin for goodness sakes? And she certainly wasn't leaving much to the imagination, Caroline though snottily. Poor Slutty Sophie had obviously never heard of the old adage about things being sexier when they weren't so obvious.

Her fight with Matt darkened Caroline's mood even more so when Tyler came up (with Slutty Sophie in tow, of course – couldn't he leave her side for five fricking minutes?), she was not in the mood for pleasantries. Slutty Sophie's comment about the party made Caroline even more annoyed, it might have been great for Sophie but she hadn't had that much fun herself. She didn't even feel the tiniest bit of remorse when she compelled Slutty Sophie to leave, in fact she felt a rush of satisfaction that Tyler wouldn't be having sex with her later.

When Tyler found Caroline later and confronted her about her actions she didn't know how to explain her behaviour or the weird new feelings she was having, so she did the only thing she could think of and grabbed him and shoved her tongue in his mouth. Luckily, he seemed on board with her plan and when he suggested they leave the party and go back to his house she was quick to agree. Caroline was tired of thinking about everything so much, for once she just wanted to do what she felt like. And right then the only thing she wanted to do was Tyler.

Caroline had never been this aggressive during sex before and she found her vampire side got off on it. Hard. When she threw Tyler on the bed and jumped on top of him she got a thrill she normally only got when she caught a bunny she had been chasing in the woods. She liked it even more when Tyler fought her for dominance and rolled her underneath him. He seemed to have a thing for her neck which Caroline found amusing since she was the vampire, but she found herself both terrified and excited by the danger invoked in his teeth being anywhere near her skin.

She wasn't sure if vampire orgasms were better than human orgasms or whether Tyler just had mad skills, but Caroline thought she might actually not be able to walk again by the time they were finished.

However her bliss was short-lived when he drifted off to sleep while hugging her closer and she had a massive "holy shit, what the hell have I done" realisation. She could no longer deny that Tyler had feelings for her; he flat out told her at the party that he wouldn't date anyone else if she gave the word, he kept calling her baby during sex and he'd whispered that he'd been dreaming of making her come for months. No, denial was no longer an option.

Unfortunately, Caroline honestly didn't know what her feelings were for Tyler. He was her best friend, the person she could tell everything to, but was she in love with him? She just didn't know; it seemed too easy. Relationships were supposed to be more difficult than this and she was supposed to work much harder to get a guy to fall for her. She needed to get away and try and sort out her feelings.

Caroline slipped out of bed quietly and pulled on her clothes. "So much for not complicating this friendship with stupid teenage hormones," she thought wryly as she eased the bedroom door shut.

Oh well, things couldn't any worse right? Tomorrow is always a new day.