The words you say don't have a meaning. Cause I still don't have a reason. And you don't have the time. And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a fuck about you and I. And so this is goodbye.
JEREMY
I headed for the history room. I didn't really care how weird it looked. I wanted to let Alaric know that Damon was not only causing trouble, he'd seemed to have completely regressed. Not to mention the whole killing me thing. Wasn't entirely thrilled about that shit.
"Jeremy," Alaric said in greeting. I closed the door, glad to see the room was empty.
"Damon killed me yesterday," I said in way of greeting. The piece of chalk he was writing with snapped.
"What?" he asked, turning to me.
"He doesn't like Grace. She reminds him of Katherine."
"Fuck." He let out. I was going to be perfectly honest. Alaric dropping the f bomb scared me a little bit. "Has he said what he's going to do about this?"
"Quote 'whatever the hell I want.'"
"Have you talked to Stefan?"
"I was a bit busy." He nodded.
"Right, sorry."
"I gave her my bracelet and had tea this morning. I'm still worried though."
"With Damon, it pays to be worried." My jaw clenched.
"I know." I shifted, glancing to the door. "It gets worse. She doesn't like him."
"She didn't…make him angry, did she?"
"She called him a douche and told him to get lost."
"Fuck. Grace did?" he demanded in disbelief. I nodded.
"It's complicated. Something is going on with Tyler too. He was yelling at her or some shit. And no one's heard from him. I don't know what the hell is going on."
"I'll talk to Tyler. You handle Stefan. With Damon we'll wait and see." The door opened and two girls walked in before taking seats at the back. "Thanks for stopping by," Alaric said, using his teacher voice. I rolled my eyes. I went to the doorway, stopping when I saw Grace.
"Hey," I said, glad to see that she was wearing the bracelet. "How are you doing?" She shrugged, smiling. It looked at least partially genuine so I returned it.
"Just…kicking around. What about you?"
"I'm fine." We moved to the side as someone passed her. "We should hang out after school today," I said. The more I could keep her with me, the better. She nodded.
"Alright, sounds cool."
"I'll see you at lunch." She nodded agreement before half waving and taking her seat. I headed to class, hardly daring to feel optimistic.
I saw Tyler at the other end of the hallway and my breath caught tightly. He stared straight ahead, his face blank. I took a deep breath and shifted closer to him as I walked.
"Hey, Ty," I said, stopping. He brushed right by, not making a sound. I turned around to stare. He kept walking, turning into the history room. I tried to smother the hurt with the confusion. What the fuck? Something was going on. Something well beyond my knowledge. But it still hurt. I let out the air I'd been holding and forced myself to walk, heading for class. The morning passed slowly. Agonizingly if I was being perfectly honest. My mind couldn't stop swirling around Tyler. What was going on? Not to mention, Tyler led to Grace and Grace to Damon. Maybe it was just because it was a small town, but I had the feeling that it was all connected. Damon had arrived back in town around the same time that Tyler started acting strange. I shook my head slightly. Damon had come to talk to me, sure. But Damon and Tyler? Together? It didn't seem right. Then again…when had Damon ever done what any of us expected? I rubbed my hands over my face. God. This was just…a fucking mess. Lunch was a relief. Tyler sat with members of the football team for the first time in over a year. I could tell that everyone at the table was confused. But Tyler was the elephant in the room. None of us talked about it. Caroline blathered on about fashion again. Stefan and Elena held hands and had another of their hushed conversations as they stared into each other's eyes. Matt glanced at Tyler every so often and pretended admirably to listen to his girlfriend. Grace didn't speak at all, pushing the food around on her tray. I watched her for a few minutes before starting conversation. "So did Reese go back to school?"
"Yup," she said, "he had classes early so he left pretty soon after we split up. Course that was before Damon came to the door." It was another of those moments that were quickly becoming classic for our table. All conversation stopped and everyone, either discreetly or openly, stared at Grace. My blood ran cold.
"What was he doing there?" She shrugged.
"He said he was looking for his phone but I'm not buying it. He came in and told me he'd see me soon."
"He came in?" Caroline questioned. She nodded. Another moment of silence. "He's bad news Grace."
"Yeah. I picked up on that actually."
"If he bothers you," Elena said, "let us know."
"Just any of you? You guys have secret communicator rings?" No one laughed. "He's seriously dangerous huh?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," she murmured quietly. "I'll tell you."
"Well now that that's settled," Caroline said, fluffing her hair and standing. She began to cross the cafeteria, headed for Tyler like a heat seeking missile.
"Shit," I let out, rushing to follow her. Just where I wanted to be, smack between a werewolf and a vampire. Again. Caroline tapped a perfectly manicured finger on Tyler's shoulder.
"We need to talk Tyler." He snorted.
"Yeah, maybe later." She leaned down and whispered something in his ear. He tensed and after a moment stood, glaring at both of us. I followed them to one of the hallways branching off the cafeteria.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Caroline demanded, getting right in his face.
"That's none of your business," Tyler said, crossing his arms as his eyes flashed. I tried to pull Caroline back, which of course did no good. Then I slid between them. There was hardly any room and Caroline was pressed to my front, Tyler pressed to my back.
"You're turning back into Tyler big man on campus, who's really a douche and just doesn't know it. And I don't like it!" Caroline continued.
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Tyler yelled back, pressing forward as well. I could hardly breathe.
"You can't forget who your friends are," Caroline said.
"Monsters don't have friends." Caroline drew back a few steps, breath catching.
"So that's what you think of me," she murmured. The features of her face drew together. Tyler huffed out a breath but remained silent. Caroline dabbed at an eye before stalking down the hall, her heels echoing as they crashed against the tile. I took a step forward before pivoting on one foot.
"What is going on with you man?"
Tyler's eyes were still flashing. I stepped back unintentionally, forcing myself to stand my ground afterwards. "Tyler, what's happening?"
"Just, fuck off Gilbert."
"Tyler, I thought we were making progress, I thought we were frie-" He punched me suddenly, cutting off my words as my teeth dug into my tongue. Copper filled my mouth; I pressed a hand over it as I stared at him.
"Go," he said, pointing down the hallway. I swallowed, blood running down my throat.
"It doesn't have to be this way."
"It's sweet that you think that Gilbert." He didn't say anything else and in the end I made my way back to the table. Caroline was sitting in Matt's lap; he was stroking her hair and whispering in her ear.
"What happened?" Grace questioned. I just shook my head. Tyler didn't come back. I didn't speak for the rest of the period, partly because my jaw hurt, partly because I didn't want to have to deal with anyone's questions. When the bell rang I pulled Stefan aside. He followed with an arched eyebrow.
"I'm worried about Damon," I said without preamble.
"Why?"
"Because Grace doesn't like him and told him so."
"And he has an invitation to her house," Stefan filled in. I nodded.
"So what do we do?" I questioned when he didn't say anything further, his brow furrowing.
"We'll figure something out Jeremy," he said, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah well the sooner the better. I'm hanging out with Grace this afternoon. Can everyone meet up then and do something?" Stefan nodded after a moment. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. I sighed and went to class.
A/N: Yay! Jyler scene! It was angsty but I still loved it. Oh and I'm honestly not trying to stretch this out…it just keeps happening. Grace is a roadblock, but without her this story wouldn't exist. So…I suppose I'll forgive her. 2 more chapters until Ty. And no, I won't stop teasing you.
