Chapter 2

Caroline woke up with a large grin stretched across her face. She rolled over in bed and ran her fingers along the bare, smooth grooves of her lover's back.

"Tyler, wake up. I have to get to school early! Come on," Caroline urged, and then laughed at his resistance.

"Why early? Can't we just enjoy one school-free weekend? Just me and you?" Tyler pleaded, his voice husky with sleep.

"As tempting as that is..." Caroline leaned over and kissed him lightly. "Tyler, I'm head of the dance committee. I'm in charge of tonight's dance."

"Oh crap, that's tonight?"

"Yes it is. And guess who's wearing a super sexy tux?" She grinned and planted another soft kiss on his lips.

"Alright, hurry up and get dressed." He grinned and flung himself out of bed.

Tyler and Caroline arrived at the school to be greeted by none other than the youngest of the Mikaelson siblings.

"Well, look who it is, Little Miss Perfect and her hybrid boyfriend. You two can go on home. I've got this," Rebekah hissed, and gestured towards the door.

"Oh, no. You were probably too busy flirting with Matt to realize, but I was put in charge of this dance."

"Well, I was under the impression that people wanted this dance to be fun. My honest mistake. Tyler, come and give me a hand with this will you?" Rebekah said, beckoning for Tyler to follow her towards some of the props. He rolled his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, and turned to help her.

"Ugh, I just can't stand some people," Caroline complained to herself out loud.

The words were barely out of her mouth when Klaus appeared.

"Speaking of," Caroline rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

"Ah, Caroline. You look ravishing as always," Klaus smiled sweetly at Caroline, or at least as sweetly as he could possibly muster.

"What do you want?" She said, obviously pestered by his intimidating presence.

"Well, I was just in the process of asking you if you would like to accompany me to the dance. I don't like high school dances myself, but as you can see, my sister's persistent complaints have left me with no alternative. But if you are willing, I have a feeling the circumstances would be much more in my favor," Klaus grinned a dimpled smile at Caroline.

She couldn't help but think to herself that if he hadn't been so malicious, she might actually have found him to be attractive. Only slightly, she reasoned with herself internally.

"I'll pass. In case you haven't noticed, Tyler happens to be my boyfriend," Caroline added bitterly, "And I wouldn't be caught dead with you. Hopefully that won't give you any spiteful ideas."

"Come on, Caroline, at least one dance?" Klaus leaned in ever so slightly, eyes sparkling with anticipation."What have you got to lose?"

Caroline considered his proposal briefly, weighing her options. It was, after all, just one dance. The rest of her day would be spent with Tyler forgetting that meaningless dance. Besides, no one deserves to be completely alone all the time, even Klaus.

"Just one dance. But you'll forget it happened as soon as it does. And don't get used to it."

"All right then, all is well. I'll be looking forward to it, love." Klaus smiled at Caroline one last time, and disappeared as fast as he came.

After nearly ten minutes of aimlessly roaming around the room, Tyler finally found his way to Caroline.

"I saw you talking to Klaus. What did he want?" Tyler asked impatiently.

"Actually it was more of him talking to me. I just stood and pretended to care," Caroline joked, but after seeing Tyler's steely expression, sobered again.

"I'm serious."

Something about his tone didn't make that hard to believe.

"Tyler, it's okay, really. He just asked to dance with me tonight. Just one dance."

"And you said...?"

"I said okay…"

She saw his emotions shift from confused to fuming with rage in an instant. The effect her words had on him made his face turn bright red with anger, and the next thing she saw was her boyfriend's fists banging on the wall.

"Tyler, stop...people are looking."

"I don't want him to touch you, Caroline!" Tyler fumed, his face conveying his rage.

"Tyler, it's alright! It's just one dance!"

His anger seemed to die down, but only slightly. She started to coax him soothingly with words like "sweetie, it's okay" and "please just calm down, okay? For me?"

"I don't care that I'm going to dance with him, Tyler. I don't care that he wants to dance with me."

"I know, I'm just pissed that he always gets what he wants."

"But he doesn't. I love you..." She said, and burying her face in his chest.

"I love you too. And I'm sorry," Tyler tightened his arms around her waist and drew her in closer to him.

He wore a guilty expression that he couldn't allow her to see, a different side of him that, surprisingly, had gone unexplored. But he wasn't feeling guilty about losing control or making a scene. It was much deeper than that. He wasn't apologizing for yelling at her in public, but for keeping a dark secret from the girl he was once sure he loved, and was now growing more and more confused about his affections towards her day by day.