After all that with Klaus was over, I allowed myself to finally put everything else behind me, focusing on school and getting this year over with so that we could go into senior year. Only thing was, it seemed that now it was out that I was part of the supernatural world, Caroline seemed to make it her mission to get me more involved with the rest of them. Don't get me wrong, I liked her and Bonnie well enough and whenever our paths crossed I'd talk to them, but that didn't mean I wanted to be in the inner circle. It was bad enough still trying to figure out stuff on my own and getting plagued with visions and dreams more and more with each passing day.
Most of the time none of them made sense, but I could feel a strong sense of trepidation for what was coming, though for the moment I couldn't understand it. Still, Caroline was not one to give up and clearly she wasn't going to anytime soon, so occasionally I just went along with things just to make her happy and get her off my case, like when she invited me to Elena's birthday party. To be fair it was a great party and there was plenty of alcohol to get myself wasted which was always a plus. Also Matt was here too, so all in all, I was great. Unexpectedly I found him in the stoner den with Jeremy Gilbert so I wandered over with a drink in my hand.
"So what are we dealing today?" I asked as I dropped myself down next to Matt who immediately blinked but then smiled, saying hey to me as I wriggled to get comfortable, his arm draped over the back of the sofa behind me. "Ooh, the good stuff." I noted, seeing what Jeremy had in his hand as he looked at me in surprise. "Mind if I join?"
"Jeremy this is Lia, she's a close friend of mine." Pleased that Mattie would refer to me as a 'great' friend, I grinned at him before snuggling in close, downing the last of my drink and putting the cup down as his arm moved to curl over my shoulder instead of the back of the seat. "So, what's got you on your spiral downward?" He questioned as Jeremy also said hi to me as we officially met for the first time. "I'm sure it's a lot more interesting than mine." Seems like Matt was still struggling to come to terms with the whole supernatural deal.
"You do not want to know." Jeremey answered a little cryptically, clearly indicating that there actually was something wrong.
"How bad can it be? I already know everything else. Go for it." Pausing for a moment, Jeremy glanced at me with a questioning look so I just lifted a hand as I assured him that I was also in on everything.
"Hey I'm cool, you know I'm technically a part of all this since I'm a descendent of magical tree huggers." I'll admit, that was one of my favourite ways of explaining myself as a druid to people, as usually it actually made them smile at my dry sarcasm and it worked here with Jeremy, who accepted that it should be fine to come clean.
"You know I died right, and Bonnie used magic to bring me back to life?" He asked us both and I nodded my head. Caroline had filled me in on pretty much everything else that I had missed, whether I had wanted to hear it or not. Guess part of it was owing to the fact that she just wanted to unload at someone, especially when her relationship with Matt was ended because he wanted time to try and figure out how he felt about all the vampire stuff. I felt sorry for her in that respect, so I let he talk as much as she wanted whilst I listened and maybe occasionally commented or made a suggestion. "The thing is, ever since I came back, I've been seeing...things." This didn't sound good.
"What kind of things?"
"Just…things I shouldn't be seeing."
"We're going to need a little more to go on than that Jer." I pointed out bluntly as I scanned him closely, letting me see if there was anything up with his aura or if there was any magic acting upon him. "Otherwise we might not be able to help."
"What's Bonnie say about it?"
"No, I haven't told her. I haven't told anybody, it's just messing with my head, is all." He shook his head, making me frown a little further. There was something definitely up with him, I could see and feel a weird energy about him, like a shadow lingering where it shouldn't be. I had no idea what it meant, but it was enough to cause concern. "You know, I just need to chill out, so…this." Lifting up his intended outlet for all the crazy reality, Matt agreed that chilling out was definitely a good idea so Jeremy searched for his lighter to get this party rolling. Seeing Elena and Caroline, Matt got up to wish Elena a happy birthday so I scooted closer up the sofa before holding out my hand.
"Here, check this." Snapping my fingers, a flame appeared on my fingertip, making Jeremy blink before he lighted up the smoke and took the first inhale.
"You know, you probably shouldn't be doing magic stuff in here." He noted to me as he leaned back against the back of his chair before exhaling, immediately relaxing as the drugs did their work.
"No one's watching." I waved off, totally chill about it all before accepting the smoke off Jeremy to breathe it in myself. "So what things are you seeing Jer? Maybe I can help. I'm not a witch like Bonnie, but I know a thing or two that maybe she doesn't. I mean, your energy is all totally messed up. To be honest, I would have been more surprised if you came back to life and weren't a little messed up somehow." Taking another inhale I then passed the thing back to Jeremy as I felt myself begin to relax, enjoying the sensation of pure relaxation.
"It's nothing, I don't want to talk about it."
"Well if you change your mind, you know where to find me." I grinned, giving Jeremy a wink as Matt returned so I shifted away so that he could have his spot back before the three of us all enjoyed smoking all of Jeremy's pot and were left with a pleasant buzz. "Mattie come dance with me." I giggled, totally spaced out and forced Matt to come with me to dance, grabbing us both a shot before we joined the rave. My senses were all over the place, totally buzzed from the alcohol and then the smoke I'd shared with Jeremy and Matt, which had been a kind of weird bonding experience, but I guess the little Gilbert was cool.
Anyway, soon enough my heels were starting to kill me so I went off in search of somewhere to just rest for a second and maybe take them off, grabbing a bottle of expensive looking bourbon on my way in order to swig directly from the bottle, heading upstairs until I found a room where I heard Caroline and Elena inside, the latter calling out that the room was off limits. Great, off limits, that means no one else will bother me except those two, I can take a break. "Ugh, these shoes are a nightmare." I announced as I sauntered inside, kicking the door shut behind me as I then went over to the bed and flopped down to take the weight off my feet as Elena and Caroline blinked at me. "Oh sorry, were you having a snack Car? Don't mind me, I'll just be in the background."
"No it's…fine I guess." She recovered, shaking her head and putting her half finished blood bag down as Elena watched me take off my heels so that I could free them from the stilettos. "Are you hiding?"
"I was just looking for Damon." Blinking herself back to focus, Elena turned back to Caroline as I rolled more comfortably onto whoever's bed this was, laying out flat on my stomach and resting my chin upon my laced fingers.
"Well, he'd better be here somewhere, because we haven't even done the cake yet."
"I think I'm going to pass on the whole cake thing." Elena admitted, making me groan inwardly. Here we go. I thought this was supposed to be just a regular party, not a pity party.
"No! No way, no! It's your birthday." Caroline immediately strode over to Elena in order to try and talk some sense into her as I snorted quietly to myself and rolled onto my back, straightening my legs into the air in order to wiggle my toes as it was literally way more interesting than listening to those two. "No, it's the dawn of a new day and you can't get on with your life until you've made a wish and blown out the candles."
"Is that what you all want me to do, just get on with my life?" God Elena sounded so sorry for herself, like her life was so hard just because her boyfriend ran off with some hybrid and left her behind. Maybe she should take a hint.
"No!" Caroline protested before begrudgingly coming clean. "Maybe. I just don't think anyone wants to see you like this."
"I'm not going to give up on finding Stefan, Caroline." Ugh, can they just leave already? My head is still buzzing and they really are not helping me keep my cheerful mood. In fact it was pretty much entirely gone now and I was not happy about it.
"Of course not, and you shouldn't, but you have to admit that you're kind of just letting your life pass you by and isn't Stefan the one who wanted to make sure that you lived it?" In my personal opinion, Caroline was right on the money with everything she was saying, and I felt bad for her that Elena wasn't even bothering to listen, caring only about how she was feeling and what she wanted to do despite it being a total waste of time. I knew she and Damon had been searching for Stefan all summer without any luck since Caroline had been keeping me up to date even though I literally couldn't care less. You think they would take the hint that Stefan didn't want to be found.
"God Elena, can you just get over yourself already?" I finally spoke up as I rolled back onto my front, blowing hair out of my face. "You can't just stop living your life just because of some dumb boy, I mean, that's just totally pathetic and a little desperate too. It's your birthday, you're supposed to be celebrating and letting go for just one night, and you can't even appreciate all the effort Car has made in order to celebrate you. That's just cold. You know, today may be your birthday and all and it's supposed to be about you, but that doesn't mean that the entire universe revolves around you and all your stupid problems, Elena." Caroline's jaw visibly dropped at my sudden outburst as Elena turned on me with flaring defensiveness.
"I am not pathetic. I love Stefan and I am not going to give up until I find him and bring him home."
"Well if he wanted to be home with you, then don't you think that's where he'd be right now? Maybe he's over you Elena, time to face the music. Give up, move on, you'll save yourself a lot of hurt and pain that way." Drawling without a care in the world, I stretched out lazily like a contented cat as Elena started to storm over to me but Caroline smartly grabbed hold of her arm to keep her from trying to do something rash. Smirking, I couldn't help but admit to myself that I enjoyed messing with Elena, she made it way too easy. She should really take my advice, seeing this was the exact reason I didn't let myself care about anyone, because eventually they would leave like Stefan did, and I didn't want to be in the same miserable state as Elena was right now.
"She didn't mean it Elena, she's just drunk and doesn't know what she's saying." Caroline was saying to Elena, trying to get her to calm down. "Look, why don't we just go downstairs, do the whole candles and cake thing then we can call it a night?"
"You want me to make a wish?" Elena demanded hotly, still on her 'woe is me' tirade which was getting real old really fast. There's nothing I hated more than a femme fatale, the one in all the books that had the entire world eating out of her hand whilst everyone worshipped her at her feet. All the male leads would fall in love with her, she was physically flawless and totally incorruptible, the kind of innocence that made people want to protect her and so morally upright that it was just nauseating. A real princess type character. I hated them the most, and that's exactly what Elena was, which was why I chose to dislike her on principle. "I just want to know that he's alive. That's it. That's my wish." I groaned, feeling like I was going to vomit.
"Enough with the pity party, Elena. Your life isn't over just because your vampire boyfriend chose to go on a bloody rampage, and by bloody I do mean that literally." She chose to ignore me, which was probably for the best. I was too drunk and high to really care about what I was saying and I had absolutely no filter on tonight. She started to leave, Caroline beginning to apologise for even bringing this up, saying that she was being dumb and drunk. Like I said, everybody fell over their feet for the heroine, who seemed to only care about her own feelings in this entire scenario. Caroline really didn't get enough credit, and since she became a vampire I actually came to like her a lot more than I had done before, which I hadn't expected.
Before Elena could storm off in a huff, however, she stopped when she saw something within the closet, paper clippings and sticky notes stuck onto the inside of the door which drew her in closer in order to take a look, Caroline following and asking what it was. "It's Klaus. Damon's been tracking him without me."
"Why wouldn't he just tell you?"
"I…don't know." Ugh, so much drama. Well since this is officially boring, I grabbed my shoes and decided to leave the room that I clearly wasn't going to get to myself anytime soon and joined the party again, finding some more alcohol to drown myself in and dance until I was fit to drop. There was cake, there was singing, a lot of people telling Elena happy birthday when she clearly couldn't care less and not even appreciate the fact that everyone was here to have a good time on her behalf, then people started to leave in the early hours of the morning.
Having forewarned my parents that I probably wouldn't be home that night, I ended up going home with some totally hot guy and spent the night at his place, getting a good deal of stress out of my system before waking up with a hangover the next day. Aside from the Elena drama, it had been a pretty good now, though I was suffering for it now. Guess that'll serve me right, towards the end I don't really remember much of what happened, so I slipped away before my one night stand could wake up and disappeared, going in search of the perfect hangover cure before I could throw up my insides because frankly, that's exactly what I felt like I was going to do.