"There it is." Rebekah announced, blue eyes skimming across the old dusty page slowly a grin forming on her glossy lips, "Isobel Gilbert's marriage to Markus Flemming, and the house becoming her nephews, she sold it two weeks before the Gilbert's massacre."
Caroline looked up from her phone, her blue eyes clouding with tears that she hurriedly blinked away, "Good. Now that that's settled can we leave? I'm on break from college so I don't have to be in some stuffy room surrounded by books." Caroline scowled; she could care less if Elena had been telling the truth about her heritage. She was doing her job, so what did it matter?
"Don't be so whiny." Rebekah muttered, closing the book and sliding it back on the shelf. The pair had managed to slip Elena that morning, though they both knew it wouldn't be for long. Caroline nodded and stood up eagerly; sliding her phone into her back pocket and following Rebekah out of Town Hall, "tell Tyler I said thanks, by the way."
Caroline nodded her head, locking the door with the key Tyler had given her, sliding it into her pocket before skipping down the stairs with Rebekah, stopping short when she spotted Elena standing at the curb beside a motorcycle.
She looked angry, her brown eyes narrowed and her lips in a thin line as she glared up at Damon with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, the wind blowing her red and white patterned dress around her knees failed to make her look less terrifying, if anything it made her more terrifying.
Damon was mocking her stance, looking down at her like she was a petulant child but he was slightly nervous and kept a space between them while his blue eyes narrowed down at her as they argued in hushed tones, she watched his jaw tick in anger while Elena's nostrils flared. They looked like they could kill each other at any second.
Caroline grabbed her arm and tugged her silently away from the scene and over to her car, sliding into the driver's seat and pulling slowly away from the curb, they both caught a glimpse of Elena suddenly punching Damon hard across the face, knocking him down before she turned, got on the motorcycle and sped off in the other direction, nearly running over Damon in the process.
He caught up with the blondes at the mall, following them leisurely from shop to shop, and standing outside stores watching them buy and browse. Rebekah found it more annoying to have Damon around than she did Elena, at least the girl blended in, but Damon drew attention everywhere he went, and Rebekah noticed everyone noticing him.
After paying for her latest purchase she stormed out of Forever 21 and stopped in front of him, waiting for Caroline to finish before going to Victoria Secret, "why are you following us? Where's Elena?" she hissed.
"I don't know. I'm certainly not her keeper." Damon replied with a sarcastic bite to his voice, "She asked me to watch you two, so here I am." He forced a smile on his face that was as sarcastic as his words.
Rebekah had never liked Damon, he was too dry and sarcastic, and down right rude most of the time, talking to her like she was a piece of meat instead of a person, "I'd rather Stefan be watching me."
"You and me both." Damon jeered the smile fall off his face, "Blondie lets go." He called over Rebekah's head. Caroline pointedly ignored him and continued to chat with the cashier for another five minutes before sauntering out of the store with her bags.
"You look too serious. Hold this, you'll look more like a reluctant boyfriend than some creepy attractive stalker." She shoved her bags into his chest, which he took with a silent glare, and dragged Rebekah behind her off to Victoria Secret. Rebekah browsed through things, her eyes constantly flickering to Damon who was standing outside, leaning against a pillar with their bags, one foot on the pillar while his eyes focused on his phone.
"He's about as useful as Elena is." Rebekah muttered, Caroline glanced up at him and then at Rebekah, sighing.
"He's doing the best, Beks, cut him some slack. He's not so bad." Caroline assured her, "It's not like this is even his job."
"Since when are you team Damon?" Rebekah asked, spinning around to follow Caroline's path across the store.
"I'm not team anyone; I'm just saying he's not that bad." Caroline replied, "I've got everything I want. I need to get you home so I can go pick up Tyler." So they finished their quick browsing, checked out and walked with Damon out to Caroline's car.
"I can drive her home, Blondie." Damon offered, "It's a long way up to Tyler's."
Caroline glanced at Rebekah hopefully, biting her lip, "That's fine. I know you need to go pick him up." Rebekah grabbed her bags from the trunk, gave Caroline a quick hug and followed Damon over to his car slowly, tossing her bags into the backseat of his SUV before pulling herself into the passenger seat.
After five minutes of silence Rebekah couldn't take it anymore, "What were you two fighting about this morning?" Rebekah asked, staring at the cars in front of them.
"Old history stuff." Damon replied, resting his arm on the door and his head on his hand, glaring at the car in front of him.
"You fuck her and dump her too?"
"You knew I wasn't looking for a relationship, Barbie," Damon pointed out, using the nickname he knew she hated, "and don't pretend you weren't using me just to get back at Stefan. The relationship between Elena and me is a lot more complicated than that, and it's been around a lot longer than you."
"You guys aren't that old." Rebekah countered, "I've known you for four years, what kind of serious relationship can a fifteen year old have?"
"I'm not explaining it to you. But we've all been friends," the way he said it made it seem like he wasn't so sure that was the right way to word it, "for years, longer than we've known you, and she's a very complicated and terrifying person."
"How complicated can it be?" Rebekah scowled. She was feeling left out, with Caroline and Damon on good terms-which they hadn't been since the pair split four years ago- Elena and the Salvatore brothers having some huge secret, Elena slipping off when she felt like it and dumping her with Damon, of all people, and even down to Elena knowing Bonnie it was just aggravating.
She felt like everyone was in on something she wasn't apart of.
"Maybe you can get it out of her tightly sealed lips, but it's not my story to tell." Damon replied, "It'd make a good one for one of your novels, though."
A few minutes later when she didn't speak Damon nudged her shoulder playfully, "Everything is going to be okay again, this will all go away soon."
"Did she tell you about the guys in the alley?" Rebekah asked she wasn't sure why she wanted to or what made her spit the words out but they filled the car before she could stop them.
"Yeah, she did. I'm trying to look into it." Damon answered, "Do you remember what they said? Anything weird that didn't make any sense to you?"
"They just said they didn't know why he was after me, whoever that would be, because I'm nothing special and then they said they didn't care and they'd just kill me and they made me shut up, but then Elena showed up and I can only vaguely remember anything after that until I ran into Bonnie."
Damon's eyes lingered on her neck for a moment, a frown on his lips, "where's your necklace?"
"I don't know, I didn't notice it was gone until I got home." Rebekah replied, sinking against the back of the seat, reaching for her necklace even though she knew it wasn't there.
"We'll get this sorted out, Barbie, don't worry." He smiled at her, reaching over and giving her hand a squeeze before pulling away again. His eyes focused on the road. They were silent until they got to the house; Damon carried her bags up with her and made sure she was safely locked inside before he left.
"Anyone here?" she called, glancing through the living room and kitchen, but she was alone, not even Elena was around. Sighing she set her bags in her room, changed into a pair of shorts and curled up on her bed with her notebook, scribbling away until her random stream of words morphed into a story.
She was so lost in what she was doing that she nearly screamed when Elena sat down on the foot of her bed, "Damon and I went back to the alley, he found this. Said it was important to you." She dropped the necklace down on the book.
"Yeah." Rebekah murmured, quickly putting it on, "It was a gift from my mother."
"It's very pretty." Elena murmured, standing up, "Your brothers should be home soon." With that she slipped into her room and closed the door. Rebekah could hear the sound of another brown paper bag opening, and a few moments later, it was crumpled up. Elena stayed in her room the rest of the night, and like she guessed, Klaus, Kol and Elijah showed up twenty minutes later. Rebekah went downstairs, happy to spend time watching mindless TV sandwiched between Klaus and Kol while Elijah sat regally in the recliner beside them.
Rebekah was nervous; no scratch that, terrified, as she pulled up in the dorm parking space assigned to her with Elena occupying the seat beside her calm as a clam. She wasn't sure what she was nervous about, aside from the obvious, and with Elena around she hadn't been attacked since the night at the club, but staring up at the building, being able to see the curb where she'd been attacked just a few weeks ago, her stomach twisted into a web of tight knots.
"You'll be fine Rebekah, I swear." Elena told her, resting her hand awkwardly on Rebekah's shoulder, trying to calm her nerves, "all we're doing today is taking this stuff upstairs, and with two of us it'll be one trip and I'll be with you the entire way."
Rebekah nodded her head, cheeks flushing in embarrassment, and pushed out of the car. Elena followed her, her heels clicking on the ground as she rounded by the trunk and grabbed her two bags, slinging them across her body so they sat against her back, and one of Rebekah's following the girl while her eyes scanned the crowds behind dark sunglasses.
Once they were safely inside the dorm they'd be sharing with Caroline Rebekah visibly relaxed, dropping her bags at the foot of her bed. Elena had no trouble figuring out which bed was hers, seeing that the one at the farthest end of the room was void of sheets and pillows. A neat little zippered back with sheets and two pillows sat on them. Rebekah glanced at a note taped on them, but only caught the swirling handwriting she knew belonged to one of the Salvatore brothers.
"How long have you known the Salvatore brothers?" Rebekah asked casually, pulling her clothes out of her suitcase and tucking them into her dresser while Elena tossed the orange and white sheets across the bed, scowling the entire time.
"For a long time." Elena replied vaguely, "I hate them, but I needed the cash and this is possibly the easiest thing I've had to do to get it."
Rebekah frowned; sure she knew Elena was being paid but to have it thrown in her face was kind of painful, "so if someone had paid you to kidnap me?"
"You'd be tied up lying at their feet while I walked with my money." Elena replied, her harsh brown eyes meeting Rebekah's blue ones firmly, "I'm not here to be your new girl pal, which I'm sure you're aware of, so quit looking at me like I kicked your puppy."
"I'm not comfortable knowing that if someone pays you higher I could be on my way to whoever's feet in seconds." Rebekah hissed.
"I'm being paid to protect you, and I don't care if someone offered me more money to take you to them-I'm already on this job and I'm a girl of my word, so I will not be harming a hair on your blonde little head or handing you over to anyone." Elena snapped, tossing the comforter with a snap of her wrist stiffly across the bed, it laid down perfectly and angered Rebekah as the girl dragged the pillow cases onto the pillows and tossed them near the headboard.
"Knock, knock." Elena's back visibly stiffed as her nostrils flared and she tucked her hand behind her back, a confused but innocent look quickly adorning her face in seconds. Rebekah was stunned by how fast the girl reacted, she'd barely had time to look at the door before Elena was changed from rude body guard to college girl, "may I come in?"
"I'm not in the mood, Alexander." Rebekah sighed, running her hand across her bed to straighten out her sheets, "I've had a rough few weeks."
"My apologies, I'll come back later." She didn't miss the way his brown eyes hardened seeing Elena who was standing there, looking like a lost little freshman, before he turned and stormed away.
"Whose he?" she asked when he was gone, returning to unpacking.
"Alexander, a son of an ex partner of my dads." Rebekah replied with a shrug of her shoulder, putting her last shirt into her dresser, "wont leave me alone."
"How annoying." Elena muttered.
"Good afternoon ladies." Caroline beamed stepping into the room, Tyler at her heels.
"Hey Care, hey Tyler." Rebekah greeted with a polite smile in his direction. He gave her a charming half smile and turned his eyes to Elena, and Rebekah noted his eyes also turned into a cold hard stare when they landed on her. Elena smiled at him, taking a few slow steps and extending her hand.
"Hi, I'm Elena, its nice to meet you." Tyler looked at Caroline who narrowed her eyes in silent threat and he took Elena's hand and shook it. Rebekah shook her head, completely baffled by his attitude.
"I'm Tyler, Caroline's boyfriend, nice to meet you too." He glanced at Rebekah and then back at Elena, "So you're the body guard?"
"That's what the pay check says." Elena replied, turning back to her normal self now that she knew Tyler was in on everything. He whispered something that made Caroline smack his chest and Elena growl, but Rebekah missed seeing the exchange as she tucked her notebooks into the cubby in her night stand.
"So we were going to do a movie night over at their place." Caroline ventured, "just us and the guys." She looked over at Rebekah who looked like she'd rather not.
"Stefan one of them?"
"He's their roommate, Beks, you gotta get over that." Caroline replied, "Besides, Matt will be there to keep your mind off Stefan." Rebekah rolled her eyes and Caroline turned to Elena who shrugged one shoulder and tossed her bag underneath her bed. An hour later the trio was heading across the campus to the boys dorm room for the movie marathon, Rebekah and Caroline walking at a brisk pace, arms linked chatting a mile a minute while Elena trailed behind them, texting on her phone.
Rebekah tried to ignore how completely careless that seemed and wondered how much this paycheck really meant to Elena, she kept glancing back but the brunette never so much as glanced up, until they reached the boys room and the door swung open. Rebekah settled on the floor by Matt while Caroline crawled into Tyler's lap. Elena perched on a chair near the door angled at the TV, phone now gone.
So she can pay attention to the movie but not me, Rebekah thought angrily. Dragging her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on top of them, staring at the movie with a serious lack of interest. When it was over she followed Matt and Stefan out, avoiding tripping over Caroline and Tyler who were locked at the lips, she hardly looked back to see if Elena was following but soon spotted her out of the corner of her eye walking parallel to them eyes scanning across the grounds twice before she tucked her hands in her jacket pocket and slowly fell in behind them.
Once the girls were in their dorm the boys walked back across campus, likely to go sit in the hallway and wait for Caroline and Tyler to finish what they were doing. Rebekah wasted no time stepping behind the changed screen and pulling on her pajamas and when she came out Elena had disappeared.
Frowning she walked to the door, about to open it when she heard whispering. She pressed her ear against the door, hoping the pair were in too deep of a fight to hear her.
"If you didn't trust me you shouldn't have called me, Stefan." Elena hissed, "I know what I'm talking about and something just doesn't sit right with that."
"I've known him for years, he's not that stupid."
"Yes he is. He thinks your uncle is your father, he is that stupid." Elena hissed again.
Rebekah's brows knitted together. Though she'd been in a relationship with Stefan for nearly two years she'd never met his father. She just assumed that, like her father, he was just always working and never present for anything family related-though her father usually sat down to dinner with them every night he was home. But now she's saying he's not real?
"Please, Elena, you thought-."
Elena laughed harshly, cutting off his words, "I thought nothing. I knew Giuseppe Salvatore. Before Katherine showed up. I am not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, dumb. I've been around a lot longer than you, and you need to stop forgetting that." Rebekah was no very confused, who the hell was Katherine? And how had she been around a lot longer than Stefan? There was no way Elena was a year older than he was, let alone 'a lot'.
Silently she backed away from the door, having heard enough to confuse her to no end for now, and crawled into her bed, burying her face in the sheets. Ten minutes later the door opened, "Good bye Stefan." Caroline's voice rang out, and peeking out from under her covers she could see the blonde pushing Elena into the room. The brunette shook her head at Caroline and inclined her head toward Rebekah who hastily shut her eyes, listening to the other girls crawl into their beds.
Sorry this is so short and took so long. I'm just trying to make this flow correctly and come out the way I want it. Thanks for reading, hope you like it!