Author's Note: I tend to write chapters in the notes on my phone before I move them into an MS document, so oop this one is, like, twice as long as my usual updates. Thanks for the reviews, as always, loves.
x.
"It's you and me, Bennett!" Liv announces, yanking Bonnie by the arm as she's exiting her lecture hall.
The Expression within her has been roiling more and more lately. Literally everything is a perceived threat and sometimes she can't control it. Yesterday a classmate slammed down his stack of books on a table and scared Bonnie so badly every light bulb in the room exploded. So when Liv grabs her with a tone like that, it's a masterful effort for her magic to not lash out at the other witch.
Extricating her arm from the vise grip on it, she falls in step with Liv as they move down the busy corridor. "What now?" she asks as if she being accused of something. And maybe she's been waiting for this, this confrontation.
Things have been surprising not-weird between the girls since her date with Kai – even now she shudders to think of it as that. Liv wasn't gung-ho to dissect every word said or glance made, like Caroline would, nor was she quick to quell Bonnie's self-conscious anxiety like Elena might. She was clinical, thorough enough to know Bonnie's got Kai exactly where they want him.
"He's hooked, you just need to reel that magic sucker in."
But Bonnie isn't so convinced. There is still some power dynamic at play, an invisible push and pull, but the boundary lines aren't so clear anymore. Not when he pulls a stunt like he did with the cheesecake, assaulting her with his close proximity. Those eyes like atmospheres, the warmth of him so near to her, his refusal to make skin to skin contact. Not to mention his newest albeit secret obsession and her growing suspicion that it may just center on her. He wants friendship, and who knows what else, and she wants answers. They are made to orbit the other.
It's obvious enough that even Rodney notices. One night during her shift, she saddled up on a stool beside him by the bar, her attention on his arms. His tattoos. Salient black veins. "What's it supposed to mean?"
He gave a lopsided grin and appraised her out of the corner of his eye. "If I tell you..." he drawled, hints of a Tennessean accent slipping.
"You'd have to kill me?"
"Nah, just wipe your memory. Men In Black style." He rubbed his hand over his forearm, ruffling soft, blond hair. "What would you say if I told you it's not a tattoo?"
"I'd say you must wake up very early in the morning to sharpie that on every day."
His eyebrow rose in secret amusement, his gaze on the folder of paperwork in front of them. It's cheaper to be one's own accountant. "How about I tell you they're a reminder of some old shit I'll never dabble in again and we leave it at that?"
"I've got a few of those kind of reminders myself," she remarked, her hand absentmindedly resting on her stomach, thumb grazing the puckered scar over her shirt. Her eyes floated towards the front windows where she spied Kai ascending the staircase to his apartment, arms full of groceries.
Rodney clocked this shift in attention. "I know you said he's the one with a crush, but - are you sure it's just him?"
"What makes you say that?"
"You two are like cat and mouse, Bonnie. Only I can never tell who's Tom and who's Jerry."
Bonnie thinks now is the time for Liv say her peace. It is weird, this dance Kai and Bonnie are doing and how Liv seems to be playing chaperone. But that is not what this is about.
"I have it on good authority," Liv links her arm with Bonnie's and leans down so prying ears can't hear. "That your besties are throwing my sister a bachelorette party. I take offense because I wasn't invited - and that's my sister."
Bonnie's stomach loosens. She really is wound tight. She exhales a breath of relief, "You want to hijack the party."
"Yes, yes, I do. And you're going to help me."
That ill-fated dream of hers creeps back into her mind. Elena and Bonnie surprising Jo at the hospital with not one but two male strippers. Fries and party hats at the same diner her not-lunch date with Kai took place before their not-hop into the non-existent 1903 prison world. Her bleeding from the neck, held in the arms of a very concerned Jo Parker. The Jo here never looks at Bonnie that way. Smiles are cordial and greetings, short and sweet.
"Your sister is a pregnant doctor. What would she even want to do? Laser tag is probably out of the question."
Liv stops, and Bonnie is forced to halt with her. Her eyes skip to their interlocked arms and she's a little perplexed at the physical contact. Liv notices this too and slips her arm back to her side. "Elena got strippers."
Well, at least this Elena is true to form. "Really? Who told you?"
"People talk," she smirks, making Bonnie wonder who Liv's been talking to. Elena hadn't mentioned it, not that they've spoken. Nor has Caroline. Or Damon. It's radio silence from the lot of them. Matt checks in every now and then, but Liv was right. Life is moving on – without her. Might as well move with it.
A conspiratorial grin spreads across Bonnie's face, and Liv brightens. "Tell me."
"I see Elena's strippers and raise her – crashing the boys' bachelor party."
"Wicked. I mean, it's not like it'll be a total sausage fest there anyway. I love it!" She pumps her fist and maybe for the first time gives Bonnie a genuine smile.
x
It's easy and devious and forgive her, but Bonnie never got to be this petty in high school.
Liv calls Jo in a panic, makes up some story about not being able to get a hold of their father. She's trying to get him to make the wedding but he's been unreachable for a while. His trail went cold not long after the failed-merge, actually. Even Kai hasn't heard from him.
Or so she says.
Jo talks her little sister down from a ledge, and Bonnie wonders if it's really that simple. Eighteen years apart but they fall right back into that familial camaraderie. Things hadn't been like that with Abby, try as they might.
"Maybe if we did a locator spell – together – we can find him."
"Liv, you know I don't have magic anymore," the voice sighs, the sound reverberating softly over speakerphone. Bonnie shrugs, her lips pursed, not sure how to help.
"But... Jo, you're Dad's favorite. He let you go, let you live your life outside of the coven. You think Luke and I could've ever done that? No chance. If anyone can help me, magic or no magic, it's you."
Bonnie's impressed. Liv's been brushing up on her tools of manipulation. If she wasn't in on the lie, she'd believe it were truth.
"Okay, I'll get someone to cover my shift. Where are you?"
"Pulling into the hospital parking lot right now." She smirks at Bonnie in the passenger seat. They've been sitting there for at least twenty minutes. Over at the main entrance, they watch Elena and Caroline blush as they talk to two police officers before slipping inside. Jo will leave from the far left exit, from the office side of the building.
Oops.
"Okay, give me two minutes."
They hang up, and Bonnie scrambles into the backseat of Liv's car. Tucked back, she waits. Liv hums idly along with the radio but gets keyed up when she sees Jo stamping along the sidewalk to the car.
"Showtime," she mutters before her face melts into the distress of a worried daughter. The passenger side door opens and Liv bends her body over the center console to envelope Jo in a hug. The girl is all limbs and maybe that's a part of her act. "Oh, thank you, thank you!"
Jo shushes her as she pets her wild yellow hair down. "Hey, we'll find him. It's Dad. He's never far away, whether we want him to be or not."
As they separate Liv sniffs, though no tears promise to appear. "You're right. Besides, I talked to Kai and I think I have a lead."
This is when Jo tenses, her seatbelt snug across her middle. "I am not dealing with him right now. And you should stop, too. Who's to say he won't help us find Dad just so he can kill him his own damn self?"
Liv is suddenly at a loss, so Bonnie strikes. She leans forward from where she sits – Jo never even noticed her – and places her hands at either side of the headrest. She mutters a sleeping spell, and the eldest Parker sibling slumps in the seat. Without hesitation, Liv peels out of the parking lot before Bonnie's friends realize they've been thwarted.
x
The yard is packed with cars and really, Bonnie isn't the least bit shocked. The Salvatores know how to throw a rager, even if ninety percent of the guests are strangers and way too young for the company they keep.
Liv parks behind Matt's pickup truck and kills the engine. She nods to Bonnie, who then lifts the spell. Within moments, Jo blinks awake, disoriented but fine. Bonnie used a light spell, nothing that would hurt Jo or her growing womb, but it's all she can do to calm the beast. Each time she uses Expression, it seeks out a foothold, something to anchor itself to become a never ceasing flow of power.
As Jo gets her bearings and turns her suspicions on her baby sister, Bonnie leans back into the seat and breathes deeply for long moments.
The sisters bicker back and forth about Liv's lie. Is our father even really missing? Actually, yes, but who cares? The point of bachelor and bachelorette parties is the separation. You're already pregnant, it's a little too late for that. I can't even drink! Then I'll do it double for you. Bonnie can be the DD.
Finally, cool blue eyes land on the Bennett witch. "That sleeping spell? Not. Cool."
So much for first impressions. Bonnie shrugs sheepishly, but she's not really sorry. "Liv is the brains of this operation. I'm just the secret weapon."
"C'mon, Jo. Like you really wanted to spend your night with male strippers."
"Who got me strippers?"
"...no one. Forget I said anything. Look, you're already picking and choosing which traditions you want to keep and which to break from. How about make a new one? Dual bachelor-bachelorette parties. You know you want to see your future hubby..."
Jo rolls her eyes but she can't argue. Instead, she grumbles something about this not becoming a tradition because she intends this to be her only marriage. She throws a glimpse at Bonnie again. "My mom and your grandmother were just as sneaky. I don't know how they'd feel about this next generation." Then she winks, and Bonnie relaxes.
"Party time?"
x
The yard does not compare to the pandemonium inside the boarding house. It's as if each vehicle was used to carpool everyone in the tri-county area here. There are strangers and then strangers to the strangers. Dancing on tables, playing beer pong on the patio, and there is even the den for those who'd rather stay "mellow".
I guess you never really leave high school, Bonnie thinks. Jo and Liv stay close to her side, trying to keep upright from the rocking of the crowd. Music blares from unseen speakers and this mess will take weeks to clean up. In the midst of the heat of sweaty bodies and furious gyrations, a wind whips through the foyer and a tall form appears.
"Do I need to explain the concept for gender-specific parties to you three?"
Bonnie sends a lazy gaze over his shoulder at a girl in front of the fireplace, wearing not much of anything while guys and girls alike tuck dollar bills into the scant amount of clothing she has on. The Parkers make the same discovery.
"Do I?" is Jo's cold reply. "Where's my fiancé? I really doubt he's having as much fun as you think he is."
Damon sneers but paints a tight smile on his lips all the same. "Library." Jo slips away and he turns his attention on the two witches. "Party crashers, huh? I think I'd like you to leave now."
"I think I'd like you to bite me." Liv starts to move deeper into the house, but Damon throws his arm in her way.
"I wouldn't tempt me if I were you."
Her eyebrow quirks upwards. "Oh, I'd like to see you do your worst." She narrows her eyes and his brows start to knit in agony. "No offense to Bonnie, but don't forget I've been at this magic thing a lot longer than her. Aneurysms are coloring books compared to my arsenal."
She strides away and Bonnie stays behind, watches cautiously as Damon recuperates. His eyes are daggers at Liv's retreating body. "I'm really starting to hate that family." He exhales sharply through his nose before turning his attention to Bonnie.
"What is this, Three Billy Goats Gruff?"
"And I'm the troll in this scenario? Ouch, I'm hurt, Bonbon." A grin overtakes his face and it's actually really nice to see him again. There's a place in her chest he's carved himself into and most times she doesn't mind. "You hang around with riff-raff and suddenly forget how to work a phone?"
"I could say the same for you." She starts to walk off, but he's hot on her heels. "Texting works both ways, you know."
"Elena said space. I was giving you space."
"You're giving me the Atlantic, Damon. You all are." They squeeze through to the kitchen, and Bonnie reaches for a bottle of water in a cooler. Of course she'd be at a party of this magnitude and have to be sober. "If I'd known this would be my welcome home brigade, I might have stuck it out in ninety-four."
"I saw the highlights reel. I doubt that."
She glares up at him. Of all the things he could scoff at, she never imagined her lowest of low moments would be in that number.
"Have another bourbon, Damon. You're not surly enough yet."
She goes to walk off but his hand latches onto her arm. She can't help it and she wouldn't if she could. A sharp vine of magic escapes from where they touch, wrapping itself around Damon's forearm. A rapidly spreading necrosis forms on his skin, blistered and scarred. The pink, pickled flesh grows angry and he snatches his arm to his chest, his accelerated healing taking over. He glares at Bonnie with astonishment in his eyes. "You just Wade Wilson'd me."
"You heard Liv. Aneurysms are child's play."
She slinks away before he can react and finds herself in the hallway. A blond ducks out of a room and they approach each other. Matt gazes down at her, a smile that's both warm and concerned. "You made it."
"Yeah, thanks for the invite but I don't think the host is too thrilled."
"When is Damon ever?"
She smiles back. "You know any of these people?" Their eyes watch the ebbing masses, stumbling upstairs and clogging the hallway just to suck face with someone they probably just met. They aren't people she recognizes from Whitmore nor are they old classmates from high school, or those in the classes after them.
"Not. A. One."
"Where do the Salvatores find them?"
"Facebook?" His grin is crooked when she glances back up at him, and her anxiety settles. At least there's one person here who's happy to see her. His grin is short lived, though, as his eyes flicker over her shoulder. "Incoming."
She turns just in time to have her arms wretched by an angry Caroline and equally irritated yet mute Elena. They drag her away from Matt, up the stairs, and deposit her in Damon's bedroom. His happens to be the only room where debauchery isn't currently taking place. Yet.
"Seriously, Bonnie?"
She's not so gently thrown onto the king size mattress and braces herself against the silky comforter. Caroline is pissed. Royally. "What?"
"I can forgive you moving out. I can forgive you becoming best friends forever with Rapunzel's wicked step sister. I can even forgive you becoming all buddy-buddy with Malachai Parker. Me and least of all Elena are in no position to judge. But sabotaging our bachelorette party for Jo? Low. Blow. You know you still have to pay dancers even if they don't take their clothes off?"
"You could've still had them dance," she murmurs before hiccuping a giggle.
"You think this is funny?"
"Hilarious," and now she can't help herself. Her giggles become laughs until tears slip down her face and she tries to catch her breath. Elena's a sentry, brooding by the door while Caroline's arched eyebrows furrow in further irritation.
"Care to share with the class?"
"I knew something was wrong. I knew it! You two have never known when to leave well enough alone – except when it comes to me. I mean, I get it. You're respecting my need for space, something I cannot, for the life of me, ever remember asking. But that's fine. Thank you.
"But wow! This is has been an ice age of biblical proportions. For weeks, I was convinced I did something horribly wrong. Unforgivable. And I racked my brain. Had we fought? Attempted to kill one another? Did I kiss someone I wasn't supposed to?"
The other girls flinch, their minds soaring to their respective Salvatores and how Bonnie is the one girl who hasn't been a notch on those belts. That they know of.
"I didn't." Bonnie shrugs. "I know I would remember something like that. So why are the girls I would've died for, and kind of already have, fridging me?"
She crosses her legs into herself and plasters on the widest grin she possibly can. "And then I realized it's not me! Of course it's not me. All I did was die. Twice. What's your excuse?"
"My mom just died, Bonnie."
"The whole becoming a human thing?"
She nods solemnly. "Yeah, those are pretty good reasons. If this was the first time you've treated me like this." The girls blanch, but she presses on. "When I died, the first time just so we're being specific, you guys didn't care."
"Bonnie, we didn't know." Elena steps forward, clearly hurt by the accusation.
"True, and part of that is my bad. Jeremy was very convincing in those emails. But when I didn't show up for orientation? Or registration? My father's funeral? You took it at face value and that was it."
"Bon, we-"
"I saw you! I was there!"
Caroline can't argue and neither does Elena. They didn't bother to really research Bonnie's whereabouts until they needed her – no, her magic. Would they have ever worried had Jeremy never spilled the beans?
She juts her chin in Elena's direction. "You didn't even tell her about what happened in the cellar."
"What happened?"
"Bonnie's new bestie was a pain in my ass is what happened. Ever locate your magic, Bon Bon?"
"Oh, I've got magic." She thinks to let a little leak out, show them what for, but these are still her friends and threats amongst them would be a new low.
Caroline seethes, "Since when does Bonnie Bennett hold a grudge?"
"Dunno. But you're welcome to ask Silas."
You know, you're more likely to die at the hands of your gal pal Caroline. You make some snippy comment and she snips off your tongue...
Her brows go up and her eyes, wide. "Oh. My. God." Her friends make questioning looks at her. "Kai was right," she says breathlessly, as the revelation takes all the air out of the room. "Just my luck a sociopath would teach me a lesson on friendship."
She rubs her hands down her face and hops off the bed. "Jo is here, if you can find her, and I'm sure you'll find plenty of people to strip for her. Free of charge." Her path to the door is unopposed and her fingers pause at the doorknob.
"I'm glad we had this talk."
x
The night has shifted, but Bonnie blames the alcohol. Partygoers move sluggishly about the boarding house, the music has grown melancholy, and she can't find a single soul she knows. She thinks to call Liv when her cell phone vibrates in her pocket. Kai.
"You are the king of bad timing."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"You shouldn't." She rolls her eyes and leans against the banister at the bottom of the staircase. A charged look goes between her and her friends as they move to leave, but she shakes it off. "What do you want?"
"How's the party?"
"How'd you know?"
"It's like you're standing inside a Bose speaker. Your response should've been 'which party?'"
She sucks her teeth. "You're the one who said your sister was foregoing tradition. It's the rager of the century here at the boarding house."
"And I didn't warrant an invite?"
"If it makes you feel better, I've got enough homicidal urge for the both of us right now."
There's a throaty groan on his end on the line. "Say that again but slower..."
She coughs a laugh then clears her throat. "You know, I wouldn't consider us friends just yet, so was there a real reason you called me?"
"Yeah, but I forgot. Kind of hard to focus when Bonnie Bennett's talking about murder. Are you trying to make me hot under the collar? Because it's working."
"Well, if that's all..." She goes to pull the phone away and hang up when she hears his "wait!" "Yes?"
"I wanted to know... What color is your dress?"
She freezes, looks down to remember what she's wearing. Jeans, boots, off the shoulder sweater - Liv approved. Her vendetta against Bonnie's clothes is now a bone she won't bury. What dress is he talking about?
"Tomorrow," he prompts. "The wedding. I didn't want us to clash."
"Oh. Um..." To be honest, she hadn't thought that far ahead and now her thoughts are cloudy with all the possible images of Kai - in a tuxedo. How suave he could look, how terrifying and bloody he did look. Didn't. "Uh."
He waits. "You have a dress, don't you?"
"Of course," she lies, but somehow he can tell.
"Do I need to take you shopping before the ceremony tomorrow, Bonnie?" his deep voice rumbling and mocking in the shell of her ear. She can almost imagine his warm breath on the side of her face. Like when he stood beside her and chided her about expensive wine. His broad chest heaving with each breath as she held her own.
She shakes the phantom away. "No. My dress is red."
His laugh is like thunder. "Red to a wedding? Hope that's not a bad omen."
"You're a bad omen," she bites back and hangs up before they both get too comfortable. Tyler hurries past with Matt frowning apologetically behind him. On cue, Liv appears and pulls her through the throng of people and out of the boarding house. "What's wrong?"
"What isn't?"
They stumble down the driveway. They're almost to the car when Bonnie yanks Liv into stopping. Frankly, she's been manhandled enough for one day. "What - is going on?"
Harried, frustrated, and her hair smelling of beer, Liv squints around the yard. They both can see Tyler and Matt arguing in the cab of his truck. "Is it me or is everyone acting very strange lately?"
Bonnie folds her arms, beating back the chance to say I told you so. "You mean like I've been saying for weeks?"
"Yeah." Recognition dawns on her face. "Yeah, exactly like you've been saying. Getting a straight answer out of someone shouldn't be harder than pulling nails."
"Who?"
"Tyler. He's...wooden – and not in the euphemistic sense," she scoffs humorlessly. "It's like he's not even there, just some mirror image of him."
"So you did finally talk to him?"
"I tried. He wouldn't listen to me. At first I thought I really hurt his feelings, ya know because of my whole suicidal-vengeance plan, but this is different. He's distracted."
"Maybe he's seeing someone else?"
Her eyes go dark. "Not that kind of distracted." She huffs. "Can we go? I'm not in the mood to party anymore."
Their attention crawls to the boarding house, a beast of its own design. How can a place she once called home seem like such a haunted house? Shaking her head, Bonnie pulls out her phone to check the time. "Yeah, but one stop before we head back to campus."
Liv unlocks the car and opens her door. "Where?"
"I need a dress. And someone to bribe the shop owner to open this late."
"Bonnie," she whines, eyes like rolling marbles. "We're witches. We don't need bribes when we've got magic."