A/N: Yay for sadness! Unrequited love from both sides.
you could love me if I knew how to lie – Panic! At The Disco, "She Had The World"
She dyes her hair for him. Dark autumn, like fall, as close to Elena's brown that her skin will allow her. Colored contacts. Spray-ons. The works. Because she's desperate for some sort of goddamn acknowledgement, and he's blind to anything but Elena.
It lasts for a week at most, and then she's back to blonde, regular skin tone, blue eyes, her singular clothing style.
She's Caroline Forbes, and she's never really learned how to lie properly. Maybe if she could, he'd love her for trying. Maybe he'd notice her, at the least.
She'd take anything she could get from him.
sick hearts do fine with wasting their time – The Used, "Sick Hearts"
It's quite possible that he is the stupidest, most clueless person alive (or undead). Wasting a hundred and fifty years over a lover who never returned, and then another few years over her doppelganger, who never admitted to herself that she had anything to return to. (At least Katherine could recognize that she gave a damn about him at some point in their past.)
But never has he truly spent any time at all on Caroline Forbes. (It would never be a waste.)
"You're a dumbass," is all that Stefan says when he moans and bitches.
"She wouldn't have said no," Bonnie points out when she guesses with her witchy powers or whatever. "She's a very forgiving person. Too late, Salvatore. Your fault."
Elena just stares at him, shocked. "You like Caroline?" Very slowly, very disbelievingly.
Caroline herself never knows. She never guesses or finds out or even suspects that he might, just maybe, regret his actions. That he could, quite possibly, be inclined to get down on his knees and beg her forgiveness and maybe a second chance—every time he sees her.
Maybe it's for the best, because she deserves better than a sick, stupid heart like his.