The hen party was a success, at least that what Caroline thought. Granted, Caroline lives in her own little fairytale in which nothing bad happens.
The only thing she deemed wrong about the hen party wasn't the fact that her fiancé and his friends crashed or the fact that the Damon is an ass, but the fact that Hayley, Tyler's girlfriend, was invited to her party.
Caroline just wanted one last night as a, sort of single, woman with her best friends before Elena packed her bags and left, again. The thought brought a tinge of sadness to Caroline; knowing that she probably won't see Elena for god knows how long.
There was an overall feeling of panic from the maid of honour as she watched her best friend and the bride pace in front of the mirror, muttering obscurities under her breath. Bonnie, trying to stop the bride from tugging her hair out of its elegant up-do.
"I can't do this...I can't..." Elena repeated to herself, catching a quick glance in the mirror of herself before picking up her pace
Bonnie grabbed her friend's wrists, "'Lena. Look at me."
Elena didn't listen so her friend tightened her grip on Elena's wrists causing Elena to snap her gaze to Bonnie's.
"What?" Elena almost sighed. The stress of the wedding was finally getting to her.
"You are Elena Gilbert, soon to be Salvatore, and one half of the Gilbert twins. You are compassionate, caring, kind, beautiful and maybe a bit pushy-"
"Not helping!"
"You love Damon and he loves you! It's all going to work out and you're going to look back at this day one day and laugh at it. So sit your ass down so I can fix your hair. Caroline won't like it if your hair's a mess"
Elena followed her friend's orders, taking deep breaths as she calmed herself down. Bonnie quickly readjusted the clip holding her hair back since Elena's pacing and the running of her hands through her hand did no good whatsoever.
"I can do this," Elena told herself as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, "I love him and he loves me. Nothing can go wrong"
Just as Elena was ready to leave the room, a slightly frazzled Caroline came running through the doors and spoke two words Elena never wanted to hear, "Damon's gone"
There was a reason for her hatred towards Hayley; reasons unknown to her friends.
It was the summer before junior year when the self-proclaimed 'lone wolf' moved to the small desolate town of Mystic Falls. She moved down the street from Caroline; about three or four doors down.
Throughout the summer, Hayley maintained a summer job of being the assistant to the mayor himself, Mr Lockwood. Due to her job, she spent an awful lot of time with the Lockwood family and consequently Tyler who just so happened to be Caroline's boyfriend at the time.
"Sorry Care, I'm going to be late. There's so much traffic on the road," Tyler's deep voice sounded from her Nokia phone. Her old phone was broke, again, due to the fact it was an iPhone and she had a tendency to drop it almost every day.
"That's okay, just come as fast as you can," she reassured him, tucking a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear.
"See you later"
"Yeah, see you. Love you," she replied back but sighed when she realised that he'd already hung up on her.
Normally, this would be cause for worry but lately this seemed to be a common occurrence for Tyler in which he'd ring or text claiming he's running late and he'd always hang up on her before she finished talking. They barely spent any time together lately but he didn't seem to care as he constantly made up excuses for why they couldn't hang out, some of them were quite pathetic too.
The most bizarre one she heard lately he told her that he couldn't come to school because he had to help him mother with the gardening. Tyler could barely remember to water his mother's plants when she went out of town, what would he know about gardening?
The excuse sounded quite sketchy so Caroline decided to check up on it. She drove by his home to see if he was there and offer her help but his vintage 1971 Buick GS car wasn't in the driveway in the spot it'd normally be. She shook it off thinking that maybe he just went to the store.
Nevertheless, she pulled into the driveway and parked in Tyler's spot. Shutting off the engine, she took her keys and phone in her hand as she clambered out of her car.
On her rather short journey to the front door, she peeked into the windows hoping to see some movement of sort. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be any. Still, she lifted her rather dainty hand and knocked on the solid wooden door.
After a few moments, there still didn't appear to be any sign of life so she turned to head back to her car. Just as she turned, Mrs Lockwood opened the door with a cup of hot liquid, presumably tea, in her hand.
"Caroline?"
At the mention of her name, she whipped her body around to face the mayor's wife.
"I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?" She didn't want to come across as rude to her boyfriend's mother especially given the fact that she was also the mayor's wife.
"It's okay, dear. What can I help you with?"
"I'm just looking for Tyler. Is he in?"
"No, dear. I thought he was with you. He told me he had to go somewhere"
"Oh, I forgot. I was supposed to meet him in town," she lied to the mayor's wife.
Caroline drove home all while wondering why he'd lied to her. She spotted his car a few doors down outside the new girl's house. This can't be good.
The night before was still a bit hazy for Caroline but she vaguely remembers doing a few rounds of shots (she'd lost count after four or was it five?) and Hayley holding her hair back while she puked out her guts.
Had she judged Hayley too soon? Or was she imagining things?
She awoke abruptly from her dream due to the sound of a phone ringing. She could hear him mumble a few words under his breath as he threw the covers off him and moved about the room to locate the phone.
Her head was pounding. She'd swore that she'd never felt this bad before. She tried to open her eyes but she felt as if something was keeping them shut. After a lot of resistance, she could finally open her eyes. Although she shut her eyes the moment she opened them and rolled over face down because of the sunlight filtering through the blinds.
"What do you want?" he spoke into the phone, his voice still laced with sleep
"What about her?" she could hear the change in his voice as he turned serious
"What do you mean?" he snapped at whoever was on the phone. She thought to herself how lucky she was not to be on the other end of the call.
"I'll be right there," he informed the caller, hanging up and throwing the phone to the floor in frustration.
Finally deciding to get up, she opened her eyes and sat up in bed.
At around nine in the morning, Caroline stormed into the Gilbert House without knocking since she had a key made. She readjusted the notebook in her arms so she could close the door behind her. The house was quiet. Too quiet especially given its residents.
"Where is everybody?" she shouted
She was met with various moans and groans coming from the living room which was just on her right.
There lay about five guys passed out amongst the patterned carpet. Around them lay a multitude of empty beer cans and various food wrappers.
Mason was the first one to acknowledge her presence, stretching his arms behind his hand as he winked at her. All of a sudden, he made a loud clapping noise awakening the other boys surrounding him. Tyler turned to glare at his uncle since he was supposed to be the mature one.
Matt seeming to be the only one able to converse, smiled brightly as he spoke a cheery greeting to Caroline.
"How the hell are you so chipper?" Jeremy muttered, moving from his uncomfortable sleeping position of leaning against the couch and heading towards the kitchen, Kol following behind.
"Someone had a fun night (!)" Caroline commented, earning a glare from the remaining boys in the room.
"Don't even mention it," Tyler warned
"You guys better perk up! There's a problem with the caterers; their van broke down outside Chicago so one of you guys need to pick it up"
"That's over eleven hours away, Care!"
"That's exactly why you guys need to leave now. You'd be missing the rehearsal dinner but you won't miss much since I'll give you a detailed itinerary of the night and you should be back early tomorrow morning provided there's not a load of stops"
"I'll do it! Since I am the best driver of course," Mason bragged
"That's settled then so Tyler can go with you," she planned, jotting something down in her notebook
"Why do I have to go?" Tyler complained
"We don't need your uncle getting sidetracked by some busty brunette"
"Plus two idiots is better than one," Jeremy shouted, from the kitchen
"I won't mind a blonde either, I'm not picky," Mason winked at Caroline
"Tell me something I don't know," she spoke opening the door signalling them to get a move on.
Just then, Klaus came thundering down the stairs with a determined look on his face almost bumping into Tyler who was leaning against the barrister on the stairs.
"And where are you off to?" Caroline questioned him
"My sister has gone missing," he grumbled
Damon chose that moment to arrive at the front door, "Cute. Blonde bombshell. Psycho. Shouldn't be too hard to find"
"Damon will give you a lift into town since you don't have a car," Caroline ordered
The two boys didn't seemed pleased with this, both offering other alternatives.
"I don't want to hear it! Go find her and bring her back as soon as possible. There are plenty of things to do"
Klaus pushed past Damon in a haste to find his sister. Damon remained at the door as Caroline shouted at him.
"And what time do you call this? I rang you an hour ago!" Caroline gave off to Damon
"I got your bazillion voice messages. Just for further reference one message is just as effective"
"I don't need your help anymore since these two Lockwoods so kindly offered to do your job for you"
"And here I thought you just wanted to see me"
"Could your ego get any bigger?"
She turned to the two Lockwoods, "What are you waiting for? We're on a schedule remember?" They nodded their heads to her as they set off on their journey.
"You too! We don't need him burning holes in the driveway with all that pacing!" she barked at Damon.
It only took a few minutes before they left the town of Mystic Falls. It was then they realised they forget a crucial piece of information.
"Do you have any idea where we're supposed to be going?" Tyler asked his uncle
"Not a clue," Mason didn't take his eyes off the road to respond
Damon pulled up outside the Mystic Grill, barely stopping before Klaus opened the door.
"Don't ruin my car!" Damon barked
Klaus ignored him as he clambered out of the vehicle.
"Am I really that bad company?" Damon teased
"Let's just get a move on. I'd like to be away from you as quick as possible"
The doors to the bar were unlocked so they had no trouble getting in. Robert, the owner, was the only one inside the building still cleaning up after the night before.
"Isn't it a bit early to start drinking? Even for you, Damon," Robert asked
"Were looking for my sister," Klaus butted in
"She's British and blonde. Kind of hot," Damon elaborated
"Not sure about British but there's a blonde girl passed out in one of the booths"
Klaus quickly wandered off to look for his little sister.
He quickly spotted a blonde head in one of the booths and walked over. Squatting down, he gently shook her, "Bex? Wake up"
She awoke abruptly hitting her head off the table.
"Ouch," she mumbled
"Come on! Let's get you back to the house!" Klaus gently dragged her out of the booth, allowing her to lean on him for support.
"I'll be fine, Nik. Stop worrying. How'd you find me anyway?"
Damon choose that moment to come over, "I thought it'd be best to look the last place you were"
"Impressive. You're like Sherlock Holmes with Brain Damage!" She commented.
It's almost Christmas!