"A beast by nature is human; a beast by beauty is us." - Anonymous

Caroline had one of the suckiest weekends of her life.

That's an understatement.

Tyler hated her and refused to even look at her much less take her calls.

Do you want another tissue?

The pack was clearly trying to remain neutral in all of this but even they had to pick a side during certain moments.

Like lunch, who to sit with, who?

Matt took their 'date' during Date&Aid as encouragement and had been pursuing her since.

As if she needed anymore confusion!

Conor and River were still mourning their bleeding broken hearts.

The three of them were officially called the Broken-hearted Fools Foundation or BFF. Yeah, she knew, cheesy.

Aiden didn't seem to care about anything.

What else is new?

Riley was avoiding them all.

Smart girl.

Elena and Bonnie did God knew what with the Salvatore brothers.

Same old, same old.

And Reina invited them all to her sixteenth birthday party.

Huh.

She just knew something terrible was going to happen. A blind person could see it, it didn't take a genius to figure it out and the smart thing to do was to avoid the party altogether and spend the night watching Noah and Allie shout at each other and kiss in the rain.

The Notebook had always been one of her favorite films. Tyler's was Underworld because like all red-blooded American males he liked the action. They once had a movie night together watching said movie which ended up with her wincing at all the gore and him convincing her to reenact with him the love scene post kissing in the rain moment.

God, she missed him. Really, seriously, honest to Christ missed him.

Who knew she'd miss that arrogant, possessive bawdy comment throwing, snoring, steal-the-fucking-sheets, horny dick?

Not her that's for sure.

But everyone seemed to be expecting it because most of the wolves in town had heard about their little quarrel and had been giving her looks of pity and sympathy the past few days.

Such gossips those damn wolves!

And to really put the salt on the wound, Aimee-freaking-Bradley had been trying to put the moves on Tyler the first second she heard about their 'break-up'.

That skank!

Was nothing sacred anymore? Couldn't the world be sane for two seconds again?

Of course not.

And here she was in Conor's car with River, off to go to the clearing near the falls for Reina's birthday party for a night of more pain and heartbreak.

Why, Good Lord, why?

"Cheer up, Caroline." Conor told her as they were near. "It's not going to be all that bad."

Caroline looked at him in complete disbelief. "Has my tirade from my house all the way here not sunk in?"

"No, I tuned you out after you mentioned Riley."

Typical.

Rolling her eyes, she laid back in her seat and waited impatiently as Conor parked the car. When he finally turned the engine did she speak again. "I'm not going out there."

"Of course you are." Conor countered, looking at River at the backseat for back-up.

"Don't make us carry you all the way there, Caroline." River came to his rescue, the traitor. "You know we'll do it and it'd be easy because you fight like a girl."

She pouted stubbornly. "I am a girl. One whose had her heart smashed to bits and wants to be left alone to wallow by herself instead of having to see…see him flirting with that slut who only a few months ago discovered the wonders of a treadmill."

Conor didn't miss a bit. "And I'm a teenage werewolf whose mate rejected him and is still madly pining over her like an idiot. River?"

"I'm an orphaned shewolf who's been on the road since she was fourteen and is now in love with a boy who would rather think she didn't exist."

Conor looked pleased and was smiling smugly as if to say 'so there'. They all had pretty terrible lives right now and she just had to suck it up and get out of the car. They were here too, weren't they? They had to face that person they love and couldn't have, weren't they?

She was being selfish and silly and she couldn't be, not anymore, not before all this.

With a sigh and a prayer, she exited the car, the two werewolves following suite.

The party was already booming when they arrived at the scene, beers being passed around, couples making out in dark corners, people flirting and talking with each other, and jocks doing stupid, crazy dares.

Locating the birthday girl was easy enough. Caroline found Reina glaring at much to her surprise, Jeremy Gilbert who was cuddling comfortably with that Asian brunette, Anna.

Well, that's an interesting development.

"Hey, Reina." She greeted the surly brunette, her electric blue eyes were like daggers, she had no idea how Jeremy and his girlfriend couldn't have noticed her glaring at them. "Happy birthday."

She was taught that coming to a party without a gift was rude and she forced Conor to drive them into town for a last minute shopping spree before coming there. The best she could get at the last notice were a pair of pink wool mittens with Hello fucking Kitty on them with a painstaking amount of Godforsaken glitter.

"The receipt's in there in case you want to get it exchanged." She said, handing over the gift bag.

Reina just quirked a smile at her, blue eyes gleaming in mischief and it both strangely unnerved her and put her at ease.

"Happy birthday, Rei-Rei!" Conor swept the lithe brunette in his arms in a bearhug, causing Caroline's gift to fall from her grip and conveniently land on the nearby bonfire. Some jocks nearby hooted.

"Or you could just burn it." Caroline muttered to herself, wincing as the Hello Kitty mittens met their demise.

River swept Reina in another hug, tamer than Conor's before the three members of the BFF went off to fix one of their problems which at the moment meant being sober.

She heard Sarah talk about there being patron and bacardi but Caroline doubted it. The good stuff only made an appearance during eighteenth birthdays and funerals.

Huh.

So far, so good, the BFF crew hadn't seen their significant heartbreakers yet. While Caroline went to go get drinks, Conor and River had gone to talk to some older wolves in their pack mostly the ones who decided to stay and attend state colleges.

She knew there were other packs out there but they were pretty much hidden deeper than she could imagine because they hadn't heard of any yet save River's old one and she hoped all the others didn't suffer the same fate.

River originally came from Maryland where she grew up in her entire life until word got out to the other citizens about the pack and…well, you've seen the movies right? River was barely fourteen at the time and had escaped by stealing one of the neighbor's cars and had been by herself since. She didn't know if there were other survivors only that…"there was nothing but blood, fire and hate".

The view of the icebox was obscured by a couple sticking their tongues down each other's throats. Caroline had rolled her eyes and sidestepped them to get to the beer.

As she was about to get one of the bottles though a hand shot up and grabbed it before she could and she blinked in surprise at her best friend. "Bonnie? Oh hey!" She enveloped the darker girl in a hug that was returned albeit a bit awkwardly.

"When did you get here?" She asked when they parted, smiling more cheerily then she had in days. "When did you get here?"

The brunette responded, smiling. "Just a few minutes ago actually with Elena and Stefan."

"And now they're off rendezvousing?" She wagered a guess and at Bonnie's imperceptible nod, she was right.

An awkward silence overcame then suddenly, both parties having no idea what to say next. Caroline was usually good at coming up with inane topics to talk about but at the moment her mind was a blank sheet.

Awkward…

"So…" She let out but it just seemed to emphasis the awkwardness of the situation. "How are you?"

"Good." Awkward nod, awkward smile. "And you?"

Awkward lip biting, awkward head shake. "I've been better."

"Yeah, I heard about you and Tyler...did you guys talked to each other yet?"

And there it was again, the pity, the sympathy and she was so sick of it. Caroline was a lot of things but her mother had raised her to have enough dignity and pride not to be such a hopeless bumbling mess around others. She would give the world her most convincing smile and then lick her wounds in private.

"No, but…it's fine, really."

She obviously didn't have Bonnie convinced. But hey, she wasn't the best liar in the world but at least she tried.

Bonnie's dark eyes stared at her curiously, trying to gauge what she was thinking. Caroline made Lady Gaga proud and put on her best poker face.

"Here, I thought you wanted this." Bonnie handed over the beer bottle she had in hand and warily but surely, Caroline accepted it.

Her fingers were barely on the bottle's neck when Bonnie closed her eyes as if pulled into some kind of trance and started muttering things that made no sense.

"Bullets…pain…running…blood…wolves…."

Caroline yanked the bottle away from Bonnie's hand in surprise and when the brunette opened her eyes, what she saw in them made her heart almost stop - shock, fear and an omen of terrible things to come.

Caroline ran.

My computer broke down, I went on a holiday out of town and my cousins were over effectively hindering me from updating. Besides, I lost my notes for this story and I had to remember what was in the timeline by memory.

But anyway, happy new year guys! I spent New Year's at my aunt's party, watching the intense yearly family poker game (I was Uncle Ron's lucky charm and he won!), it was funny because the players were drunk. They let me taste patron (10,000 peso per bottle, what?) and that stuff is potent I tell you.

I have a lot planned now that I'm back, I plan to finish both TSTS and Carcinogen Crush. I'm writing both a prequel (The Missing Frame) and a sequel (Now the World) to TSTS and another fic called Miseria Cantare which features Caroline with another what if? storyline.