Based on the (immensely frustrating) promo pictures released.
She's organizing the final touches to Elena's eighteenth birthday party in typical Caroline fashion: rushed and meticulate. On one hand, she's hoping that keeping her hands busy will keep her mind from wandering as well. On the other, well. Whoever was in charge of refreshments obviously didn't bother to do a good job. Is it really that hard to buy a few bags of chips and order a pizza?
There's still a lot to be done - she needs to lay out the food in some pretty design and buy a few more drinks cause they're totally going to run low - and she's wondering how exactly she's going to do it all when she hears movement behind her. She whips around, strands of hair sticking to her lip gloss as her vampire speed kicks in.
"Whoa there, Care, it's just me." The familiar tenor voice of one Tyler Lockwood calms her jumping heart for a second as she recognizes ally, but then it starts beating in double-time again for a whole 'nother reason.
"Oh. Yeah, hi. What's up?" She pushes her curls out of her face and inwardly curses her makeup choice for the day.
"Bonnie sent me up here to help you out. Do you... need me to do anything?" He looks at her, brow furrowing. "Here, wait." Reaching out, he pulls one remaining strand of hair from her lips. She swears she can feel the heat from his fingers caress her cheek. "I, um. I have my car, so if you need me to go out and get something - "
"I - yeah. Um, actually, help me out with the food first?" She gestures to the pizza boxes and various snack bags scattered on the table. "I have a few bowls for the chips but I'm not sure what to do with the pizza or drinks or anything..."
"Well, you have those big plates back there." His gaze shifts from her face to what's behind her and she steps aside, thanking her lucky stars that vampires can't blush. "Just take the pizza out of the boxes and put it on those. And the drinks can just line up behind everything else, but I don't think we have enough."
"Yeah, I'll have to ask you to get some more later." She shoots an easy smile over at him, calming herself down. "Help me out with the food though, come on."
They work in companionable silence together for a few minutes, the only sound coming from the pizza as it rasps against the cardboard box and onto the white ceramic platters Jeremy had dug out from some cabinet in the long-forgotten kitchen.
"I wish Stefan and Jenna were here," Caroline whispers. He remains silent, giving her an understanding look instead. "Elena needs them."
"Where is Stefan?" Tyler asks tentatively, lining the soda bottles up behind the chip bowls. "Does anyone know?"
"I think Damon's keeping a very loose record, but no one's certain. The... the wreckage is pretty obvious when you know what to look for." She takes a deep breath. "We really shouldn't mention this all to Elena tonight. She's having a hard enough time as it is."
"Yeah, of course. Where is she now?"
"I think Damon's keeping her occupied. This is a surprise, so we needed her out of the boarding house. It's hard enough keeping her out of here, but we needed the massive space with the amount of people coming. But hey, who's on the invite list?"
"I'm not really sure," he says slowly. If she didn't know better, she'd say that his voice was nervous. But what could he possibly be nervous about? "I know that the usual people are coming: Damon, Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie, and you and me of course. I'm sure people from school are coming too."
"And as soon as there's a party, all of Mystic Falls finds their way there, right?" Caroline laughs, trying to dispel the heavy mood. He grins, shoulders still tense. "So, you bringing anyone tonight?" she jokes, bumping her hips against his.
She doesn't expect his reaction.
"Actually..." He bites his lip and lets go of the soda bottles. Moving a little away from her, he shoves his hands in his pockets. "I kind of am."
She turns to face him, expression frozen. "What do you mean, 'kind of?'"
"I mean we're not going out or anything, it's just that we're kind of going to the thing together and - "
"Okay." She picks up a stack of plastic cups, keeping her appearance together even though she feels like screaming on the inside. She's Caroline Forbes. She's the queen of facades and masks. "Have fun."
"I - " His mouth parts disbelievingly. "Wait, what?"
"Have fun," she repeats. "That's what friends say to each other when one of them is going on a date, right? Or do guys say stuff like 'get it in?'"
"No, that's not what's going on. Caroline - "
Her head is pounding and she really needs him to leave, now. "You have your car, right? Can you pick up some more soda or something for us? Like you said, we're low."
"Caroline."
"Tyler, please. I want this party to go perfectly."
He gives her another piercing look, words obviously resting on the tip of his tongue. She avoids his gaze and instead stares at a point right above his shoulder. He takes a breath, shakes his head, then walks out of the room.
She falls to the floor, crosses her legs, and keeps her eyes wide open. She will not cry.
How could she have ever been stupid enough to think that Tyler had the smallest bit of feelings toward her? It's so obvious now as she leans against a wooden archway, watching Tyler 'get it in' with Sofie something-or-other from school.
(Okay, so they aren't making out or anything, but still. Watching them talk in that stupid flirty way is bad enough.)
She's totally out of it, feeling awkward like only a creeper can as she continues to look at Tyler, so she doesn't notice Matt's standing next to her until Tyler goes for the kill with Sofie and she feels the need to rip her eyes away.
"Care? God, Caroline, where are you looking?"
"Oh, um, Matt. Hi, how are you?"
"Good, I guess. How have you been? I know things aren't really easy on you - "
"I'm fine." It's her standard answer, the two words that spill out from her mouth as soon as she reaches that emotional barrier. "So what's been going on in your life?"
He's not stupid, he knows she's deflecting. But, being Matt, he leaves that alone. Any other girl would've been grateful for his tact. Caroline wishes he'd pry, get her to open up so she can vent, cry on his shoulder, rant, curse, scream, whatever. Of course Matt wouldn't do that. Tyler would, but who cares about him?
Oh yeah.
"The job at the Grill's been good to me, and the bills aren't as bad as before. Hey, school's starting up soon. Did you get all the summer homework done?"
"Of course," she replies, distracted. "I always do, right?"
He chuckles. "Yeah, that's true. You are Caroline Forbes."
I'm Caroline Forbes.
Somehow, that means a lot more than it should. Caroline's perfect, Caroline has a mask on, Caroline's always too good but never good enough, Caroline never gets the guy she wants.
"It was nice catching up, Matt." She sends a perfunctory smile over to him and walks away, heading towards the back doors.
Maybe Damon's willing to share that bourbon.
Turns out Damon needs all the alcohol he can get, so he refused to share with Caroline. That's okay though, because she doesn't really feel like getting buzzed tonight. She just wants to forget everything for a while, and who says she needs alcohol for that? So for the next few hours she mingles and small-talks and laughs and plans and lives in the moment. Bonnie and Elena notice something off, know that the hyperactivity is because there's something Caroline doesn't want to talk about, but they leave it alone. Everyone knows you can't push Caroline into something she doesn't want.
The music's getting slower and quieter, matching the mood of the party as it winds down. A few people have trickled out of the boarding house already, but the atmosphere still carries that party hum. She's wandering around the room, admiring the twinkle lights that Jeremy and Damon put up, when a familiar werewolf crosses her line of vision.
A spurt of nerves and excitement bubbles in her stomach - something she's gotten used to in the past month or so - but this time it's different. This time, she's different. This time, she's not Caroline Forbes, the girl who loses the guy.
"Tyler." He turns to look at her, their eyes level with each other's due to her heels. His shoulders drop as his hands go into his pockets again, tension obviously leaving to be replaced by nervousness.
"Caroline."
"Why did you ask Sofie to come with you?" She cuts straight to the point, like she's only done once before when they were chained in a dungeon together right after Tyler got back from wherever he'd been with Jules.
He's silent, mind working as he tries to formulate an answer. He slowly begins: "I didn't know if... if you were even thinking about the possibility of - well, after Matt, I just assumed..." He takes a deep breath, centering himself again. "I didn't want to take advantage of you. I didn't want to ruin this friendship we have."
"Take advantage of me?" she echoes. "Tyler. How could you possibly take advantage of me?"
"I kissed you!" His voice is taut, not loud enough to be overheard but crystal clear to her. "I kissed you, and - and then right after you were abducted and tortured, and I never got to apologize or explain or even talk to you about it, and then I just jump to liking you without even regarding your feelings on anything! How the hell am I supposed to act? I just dumped everything on you, Caroline, and now I wish I could go back and erase everything. I wish I didn't feel this way. I can't... I just... I just can't."
He can't.
"I see." This time, she can't stop the tears that spring to her eyes. "I'll leave you alone then."
His wide eyes tell her that he's just processed what he said. "Wait, Caroline, that's not what I meant."
"Yeah, okay." Oh God, her voice is getting thick. She turns away, brushing the first tear off her face with the heel of her hand. "I'll see you around, Tyler."
"Care - "
She's gone.
If this is the way the actual episode goes, I'm going to scream.
I'm sorry about the angsty ending, but it's 1:40AM and I can't think of any other ending based on the promo photos and not my happy imagination. So... yes.