In pretty much no time at all, Bekah and I somehow became friends. I have no idea how it happened, we just ended up hanging out every day at school, then we'd go do stuff after school and before I knew it, we were texting and calling each other pretty much all the time. Rebekah was excited about homecoming after I'd told her all about it, describing it as a modern day ball without the big poufy dresses, full orchestra and banquet, rather it was a dance hall filled with hormonal teenagers dancing all night to the latest music. I guess Rebekah was a social loving person.

Since I'd agreed to go with her for her first homecoming, I arranged dates for the both of us, promising that they were both hot and that she wouldn't be disappointed, I actually found myself looking forward to going. We had arranged to pick out our dresses together, but then she'd called and told me that Elena was coming over because she wanted to know the story of how her family became vampires, so we'd have to put our shopping trip on hold. I as cool with it, though slightly annoyed at Elena for ruining a day I had actually been looking forward to, so we rearranged to do it tomorrow even though we only had two days before the dance. I figured I probably wouldn't hear from Rebekah for the rest of the day, but then I got a call from her late in the evening. "Hey, what's up?"

"Would you be open to joining me in a drink? Telling Elena my family history has left me feeling shallow and empty in a way that only drink can fix it." Hearing that she was already a couple of drinks in, I promised that I would be over there soon to pick up the pieces of whatever was left of her and have a girl's night. Only thing was, by the time I got there, Elena seemed to have come back for something, and as I walked in I saw her laying out photos onto the table whilst talking.

"The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols, the story of your family, how your parents arrived, how they made peace, the spell that turned them into vampires, and this. This is the symbol for hybrid." Elena lay down each photo as I came closer, craning my neck to see.

"What's going on?" Elena practically jumped out of her skin when she heard my voice, whirling around as Rebekah clicked her tongue.

"Elena has brought something for show and tell. Here. Take a look." She invited me so I went over and began to study the pictures, reading them carefully and matching them to the parts of the story that Rebekah had already told me about as Elena recovered from her surprise and pointed to one of the symbols, the one that she said represented hybrid.

"This is the combination of the werewolf and the vampire symbol, and this is the one for your mother." That symbol looked familiar, and it was only when Rebekah mentioned her mother's necklace did I remember that Elena used to wear a necklace that looked exactly like this drawing. "And this is the story of her death." Wait, what? Frowning, Rebekah and I both looked closely at the drawing, seeing it tell us the truth of the story. "The hybrid killed the original witch. Not Mikael, Klaus."

"No. No, he wouldn't." Shaking her head in denial, Rebekah moved away from the drawings as I took a closer look, seeing the symbol for hybrid as well as the image of a witch with her heart ripped out of her chest, making it pretty clear how it had actually played out.

"She put the curse on him, made it so that he would be the only one of his kind and then she rejected him." Elena persisted, following Rebekah as she insisted on pursuing the fact that she was right and that Rebekah had actually been lied to all this time. "With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence. When he turned, all of that was heightened. He killed her, Rebekah,
and then he made up this entire lie about your father so that he wouldn't lose you." Wow Elena, that was real subtle.

"These mean nothing." Visibly upset, Rebekah stormed over to the photographs in order to grab them all, and brought them over to the fire as she struggled not to cry from the weight of the truth as it crashed against her. "They're just stupid drawings done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was!"

"Then why are you so upset?" Elena continued to press, making the entire situation so much worse.

"Drop it Elena. You've made your point." I said to her before saying that she should probably leave as Rebekah breathed heavily, shaking her head.

"Why are you doing this to me? I've done nothing to you." Completely ignoring me, Elena continued to move closer to Rebekah, wanting her to realise exactly the kind of guy her brother was.

"Klaus killed your mother. He has a hold on you, on me, on everyone. He has for a thousand years.
We have to make it stop." I don't know what Elena's game was here, all I knew was that she'd made Rebekah cry and for what? To ruin her brother's image in her eyes after spending a thousand years running with him? It made me sick, and when Rebekah rushed at Elena with black veins spreading from her eyes, I did nothing to stop her from possibly attacking Elena as she screamed.

"Shut up! Just shut up! Don't talk anymore!" Despite her fury and hurt, Rebekah refrained from harming Elena, letting her go after a few moments and stepping back as the tears began to fall. Finally through with my last straw of patience, I thrust out my hand. Elena cried out as she was lifted up into the air and I flung her across the room, letting her skid over the smooth wooden floor towards the front door as I followed her, hand directed towards her as she gasped in alarm, staring up at me as she came to a halt.

"If you don't get out of here Elena, then I will probably do something that will hurt. A lot. Go." Still gaping at me, Elena then looked past me at Rebekah, either looking for help or for her to interfere, but Rebekah pointedly ignored her, turning her back to signify that Elena was on her own. Why did she say those things? Sure Rebekah should know the truth, but did Elena have to come out with it so bluntly? Was she that desperate to turn Bekah against Klaus that she didn't care who she hurt in the process? God, everything was just all about her, wasn't it? She literally made me want to throw up.

Teary eyed and trembling, Elena quickly got out of the house which allowed me to go back to Bekah who was now on the floor kneeling, crying with despair as everything seemingly shattered around her. Silently I knelt down and put my arms around her, sitting down on the floor so that Rebekah could lean against me and sob, my arms curled around her as I comforted her the best I could. "It's okay, you're gonna be okay."

"He killed her, Lia. Nik killed my mother."

"I know, I'm so sorry Bekah." Unable to think of what else to say, I asked if she wanted to come and stay at my place tonight, which made her stop crying for a moment, enough so to look at me quizzically.

"You would invite me into your home?"

"Hey, my parents would be thrilled if I finally brought home a friend, they'll be all over you so basically I'm inviting you into a death trap." I warned her jokingly, earning a weak laugh and a smile as she began to dab at her eyes to remove the excess of tears. "Do you want to? I figured you probably don't want to be alone right now, and I trust you not to make a midnight snack out of my parents." Nodding her head, I helped Bekah up onto her feet before then packing her a bag whilst being as cheerful and bright as possible. "Is this your first slumber party? Oh my god we're going to have an awesome time. I'll order pizza and if the delivery guy is cute maybe you can snack on him for a top up, then we can cover a lifetime's worth of sleepovers that you've missed out on in one night. Sound good?"

"Are you certain you wish to invite me into your home? You don't have to do this just because I had a minor meltdown, you know." Rebekah said to me but I could tell that she was still hugely upset, and she needed girl talk pronto, so I promised her that everything would be okay and that we were friends, and there was no way I was going to leave her alone right now. So I brought her back home and rather ceremoniously invited her into my house before shouting out to my parents to announce that I'd brought a friend home.

Just like I'd warned her, my parents were both immediately up out of their chairs and hurrying to come see, astonished that I actually brought someone back to meet them. My mom was thrilled, and my dad slightly confused as he had been convinced that I was a total loner which he teased me about so I complained about him having no faith in me. My mom smothered Rebekah, noticing that she had been crying and silently sent me a look which I returned, telling her everything she needed to know before she just swept Rebekah up under her wing.

My parents were such loving people, and before she knew it Rebekah was being welcomed warmly into our home and provided with everything she could possibly need. She joined us for pizza at the dinner table, all of us sitting down together for a family meal and for a while, she seemed completely stunned. "Everything okay honey? Can I get you some water or something?" Mom offered as the box was pushed down the line for us all to take a slice or two.

"No, thank you Mrs Jones. I was just thinking how long it has been since my family all sat down together for a meal like this." She answered and I quirked an eyebrow at her, knowing that by a long time, she literally meant a thousand years.

"Now that's a shame, family meal time is one of the most important parts of the day. It gives us all a chance to just sit back and take a breather from whatever's been going on. Right dear?" Smiling at my dad, mom leaned in towards him as he smiled back, the two of them holding hands together and nuzzling cutely until I rolled my eyes.

"Guys stop, Bekah doesn't want to see all that, and neither do I if I'm honest." Mom laughed it off casually before regular talk then ensued. She asked a lot about Rebekah and her background, to which Bekah always answered honestly but also cryptically, not telling my parents the entire truth but enough to satisfy them that she was just a regular human teenager like me. After dinner we went up to my room where Rebekah inspected every square inch of it, admiring my drawings and how I'd decorated everything before I set us up with popcorn and a movie, where we then painted our nails and talked about everything that had happened today.

She was still upset about the revelation that Klaus had actually been the one to kill her mother, which was completely understandable, so we talked about it for a while. Mostly she just couldn't understand how Klaus could have lied to her all this time, and to that I didn't really have much to say other than that he was a real dick. "You're right. He is a dick. He's the world's crappiest brother and I hate him!" Angrily throwing my pillow at a wall, it struck with a thud before falling down. I'm just glad she didn't throw something heavier, otherwise it might have broken my house.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Confront him, I suppose. He's lucky I don't know where he is otherwise I would be hunting him down right now and forcing him to tell me the truth. Part of me wants to kill him, and yet at the same time, he is still my brother. He's been there for me for so long, protecting me and giving me the best life he could possibly give even whilst on the run, now I wonder if it was all just a lie so that I wouldn't abandon him." Tilting my head slowly, I paused for thought before speaking next.

"He's lonely, just like you." Rebekah's eyes flickered across to me as I shrugged. "He's so desperate not to be alone that he'll do anything to keep you close, even if it means lying to you. If a guy like that was your boyfriend, I'd be telling you to get as far away from him as possible, but since Klaus is your brother…I don't know. I guess you're going to just see how you feel after you confront him. Don't worry, I'll make sure to protect you. Your brother might be an indestructible hybrid, but I can still knock him down a peg or two I'll bet." Allowing herself to smile slightly, Rebekah began to inspect her nails to make sure that they were dry.

"You're a good friend, Lia. Elena and the others really missed out."

"Well that's their loss and I can't be dealing with all their drama twenty four seven. You're way more chill, so I think I'll just stick with you." I waved off before deciding that it was time for pyjamas and some sleep. Rebekah and I shared my huge bed between us, laying side by side together after I'd turned off all the lights so that it was completely dark until the streetlights from outside began to filter in. For a while neither of us talked, comfortably lying next to one another in order to sleep before Rebekah softly spoke.

"Lia?"

"Hm?"

"Your parents. Are they always like that?" Asking her what she meant, I felt Rebekah turn over to face me so I did the same, the both of us facing one another. "So kind and loving." I frowned at her in confusion.

"Well…yeah. They're good people, I mean, they adopted me even though I came along with a whole load of emotional baggage, but they never backed down from it. They love me like their own, and I love them just like I loved my real parents." I told her as she looked down thoughtfully, shifting a little to push her arm underneath the pillow her head was resting against before looking at me again.

"I like them. I wish my family could be as close as yours is."

"That's the thing, Bekah, you're not just stuck with the family you were born with. The whole point of making friends and bonding with people is to make a family of your own." I said to her, giving a sleepy smile as I struggled to keep my eyes open. "All the same, I know that Elijah loves you a lot. The entire reason he wanted to kill Klaus was because he thought you guys were lost forever."

"Elijah was always the warmest of all my brothers. Perhaps I should have followed him instead of Nik." Sounding despondent and more than a little heartbroken, I saw Rebekah press her eyes shut as a tear fell. Feeling sympathetic to her woes, I reached out my hand in order to entwine our fingers between us, giving her an encouraging smile.

"You can live your own life now Bekah, there's nothing holding you back. There's a whole world out there waiting for you, and I think you're going to love it."

"Will you come with me?"

"To see the world? Hell yeah, I'd be down for a girl's only trip. We can tear up every casino in Vegas, tour the eastern seaboard, cross country through every state to the west before then heading across to Europe to see everything there is to see. It'll be awesome, and if we run out of money, you can just compel some gross, perverted rich guy to give us money. Easy as pie." Rebekah hummed sleepily, the both of us beginning to drift off with thoughts of travelling the world together and experiencing the richness of culture that we would never find here in the small town of Mystic Falls.