(Miss Mystic Falls Pageant)
- CHAPTER 10 -
TYLER POV
Well this day sucks.
I've had to watch all day as Klaus escorts Caroline around on his arm, and the worst part is he knows I'm watching. I look around and everywhere I go I see couples that have inexplicably ended up together. Everybody at the pageant is with someone that you wouldn't have thought they'd have come with. I brought Hayley instead of my girlfriend because Caroline had to go with Klaus, Stefan has actually just disappeared, Matt escorted April even though I'm pretty sure that was Jeremy's job, he's also disappeared. And then there's Damon and Elena.
I envy Damon this one thing - he knows what he wants and he goes for it. Its all, balls out, tell them right to their face that you want them and to hell with the consequences, just throw your whole life into it. And yes he's been smacked down hard for putting himself out there sometimes but I can't help but think he got things right. Things seem to have worked out for him. I watch as he hands Elena a flower and says goodbye, his eyes following after her as she leaves. Everything is falling into place for him it seems.
My problem is that things are starting to line up for me too, I'm just worried that Caroline doesn't seem to be one of them. She is the girl who risked her life to help me during my first full moon and she is the one that I broke every bone in my body for just to be free from Klaus so that I wouldn't hurt her. I think that part of the reason that I'm so mad at her for being here with him is that I know that some day I'll have to leave her behind and the thought that she might end up with him is more than I can take. On top of all this, dealing with the loss of a hybrid brother has put me out of the loop with everything that's been going on with my friends. I feel like I'm constantly being torn between the two. I can't explain it, it feels like a gut instinct to want to free the pack from Klaus and to protect them from being killed. We're like some kind of strange family now and I don't know how to help Caroline understand what being part of a pack is like, never mind what it means to me.
With the looks passing between Damon and Elena I'm guessing that communication doesn't seem to be much of an issue with them - love is in the air. I don't really know what I should say about it, I don't really have an opinion except for the fact that at least it's not Klaus Michelson.
I look up at Caroline, she looks gorgeous, and how could I not love her after everything we've been through but I know once the pack is free of Klaus it won't be safe to stay here. I'm going to have to go and I don't see Caroline looking to come with me. She's too loyal a friend to leave everyone here behind just for me. I haven't even told her that I've already decided that I won't be going to collage next year. I've got no idea how to break it to her.
Keeping my eyes on them I watch as Caroline and Klaus move away from their vantage point. It frustrates me that he has had her this whole day and she has just gone along with it. I decide that instead of tracking them the best option for me is to follow Damon and Mr Saltzman back to the bar.
By the time I arrive Damon has already poured Alaric's drink and is fixing his own no doubt having compelled the bartender to leave the bottle with them. Without even acknowledging my presence he even pours me one too. I guess someone is in a good mood.
Alaric Is smiling and watching Damon over the lip of his glass until finally Damon caves and looks up at him meeting his smug face with one of attempted indifference. Ric's smile grows as he watches the alcohol swirl in his glass before he eventually speaks and lets Damon in on what he's thinking.
"I thought you'd be running after her, after all the goo goo eyes you were throwing her way."
Damon shrugs and plays along, "Hey, I got my vampire pride to think about."
He downs his drink and pours another, "Plus I already offered her a lift but the littlest Gilbert has had a hunter overload and needs to cool off. He doesn't think I'm so hot right now."
"What does his sister think?"
Damon smiles at him for trying to pry information out of him about Elena but his face soon turns unsure, becoming serious for a moment.
"That I'm not completely sure of but when I find out… I still won't tell you."
His smirk stretches across his face and Alaric holds out his glass for another round.
"Oh Please, once you're drunk you'd tell me anything. That's how I found out about what you did for Rose remember? And just so you know, the term 'over share' is a real issue with you when you're like that so I don't need to hear any over zealous details about you and Elena."
I hear Damon make a Pfft sound, "A gentleman never tells."
"Yeah right." I air my thought out loud and it turns out to be a mistake as Damon lifts the unfinished drink out of my hand and drinks it himself before going back to pretending like I'm not there. This doesn't seem to phase Alaric in the slightest and they go back to their conversation, Damon leading the way.
"Don't be so dramatic Ric, me drunk-talking about Rose was a one time thing, I am perfectly capable of keeping any sordid details locked down." He mimes a locked key in front of his mouth and Ric laughs disbelievingly before covering it with a cough and then launching into what I presume is an imitation of a drunk Damon Salvatore…
"Ric, She's so beautiful, man I love her, I can't leave her…" Damon rolls his eyes and Ric continues only getting more dramatic, "But she chose Stefan… How the hell does the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"
Getting exasperated Damon steals Ric's glass and finishes his drink too. "I'm cutting you off… and I think you've been watching die-hard to much buddy cause I did not say anything remotely resembling that, ever."
Un-phased at losing his drink Ric replies, "It was Die Hard 2 and we watched it before you left." Still hamming up his dramatic performance he goes on further, "It was right before Christmas, there was snow, I'd never known it so cold before, and when you left? I'd never felt so alone."
This time I laugh out loud and end up on the receiving end of a glare that normally would have seen the end of my life but I hold my hands up and back up a seat so that Damon at least gets the illusion of a private conversation with Ric. When he rounds the same glare on his friend it doesn't have quite the same effect and the two wind up sharing another drink together. How do you even explain that?
Alaric is the first to start a different conversation back up.
"I know you've been helping Jeremy out." Damon moves to interrupt but Alaric stops him, "I'm not going to give you a hard time for hiding it from Elena I'm just looking to warn you that there are others who know what you're up to" Alaric's eyes slide over to my direction and I know immediately who he is talking about.
"You mean Klaus."
Ric nods his head at me. "There's more to Jeremy's mark than the hunter clued him in on and according to Klaus it's really more of a map than some macho tribal tattoo."
"Oh yeah? A map to where?" Damon sounds ominous, and I am with him, nothing good ever came after Klaus Mickelson shared information freely.
Not looking us in the eye Ric goes back to watching his drink, "According to Klaus its a map to the cure… The cure to vampirism." Letting that sink in Ric sets his drink back on the bar without touching it and turns round to meet Damon's gaze.
"Look I don't know whether to buy into this or not, it's Klaus after all but if there is a cure then I'll go for it. It's not exactly a shocker that being a vampire hasn't exactly been the best turn of events for me. I don't think it's going to work out in the long run."
Damon nods his head understanding, "Whatever you need buddy, we'll get you the cure. But you know that our Original forefather probably has an ulterior motive behind all this."
"I do… And I can take a guess as to what it is. He wants me to take the cure in case my sadistic vampire hunting urges come back and I try to wipe him out along with all his family."
"Including his sire-line."
"Including you, yes. It is a possibility, we don't know for sure if Bonnie's magic is going to hold forever or if once she's… gone, I'll be back to that monster. I don't want that." He sighs and lifts his glass again contemplating it.
"No doubt if I get the cure he'll probably kill me when I'm human just to make sure I'm not coming back."
"Well lets say we stop that from happening." Damon lifts his drink up and Alaric meets it with his own glass. I share a private toast of my own with them in the background, here's to beating Klaus at his own game.
I'm still not included in the conversation and I'm happy to be left out, but aware that I am still there Damon refills my drink. His good mood has returned I guess.
Things slip into silence for moment before Damon looks up, his face shifting between optimism and trying to keep things business as usual.
"What. A. Day. I came back, I got to see Elena, there's a cure for you so we just need to help Jeremy figure out the rest of his happy hunter trail… Elena might not be too pleased about that but she'll come around when its all to help you and… What?" Damon pauses as Alaric is once again smirking at him.
Instead of answering though, Ric just laughs and takes a sip of his scotch. He turns in his seat at the bar to watch the rest of the people making their way home and Damon who is still focused on the bar area, allows a crooked grin to spread out on his face. I laugh to myself because that has got Elena Gilbert pistol whipped all over it.
Alaric captures the end of this grin before Damon can hide it away again and just shakes his head chuckling to himself.
"You got the girl, man."
In a moment of pleased disbelief, Damon relaxes and meets Ric's eye.
"I got the girl."
"Now what are you gonna do about it?"
I've interrupted again and Damon's glare once more tries to dissolve me. I think it's about time I leave the pageant and go check on the pack's progress. I notice that when I walk back that way again with Hayley, Damon is already gone and Alaric is left alone at the bar, he raises his glass at me with a knowing grin then goes back to his crowd watching and no doubt his contemplation of entering the human ranks once more. Clearly Damon figured out exactly what he was going to do.
Just to keep you up to speed there are now 3 chapters left of the story - Elena, Damon and ...