hi, everyone! there was a little glitch in the last chapter (i think it doubled so that the same thing was posted twice in one chapter..?), but i fixed it now so if you want to go back and read it again there won't be any trouble. this one's kind of short because the chapter next is a big one. enjoy!

Chapter 5 - Confrontation Station

For once, Bonnie woke up in a good mood. She had pep in her step and a smile on her face. She was extra active in all of her classes (Mr. Saltzman said she was being phenomenal), she wasn't pointing out negatives in everything; she was a whole new bitch.

It wasn't just because of Stefan - well, he did play a big part in it, but it was more because of the confidence that Stefan asking her to the founders event gave her.

Speaking of, there he was.

"Hey, Bons."

"Hi, Stef." She replied. They embraced in a short hug, smiling at each other when they pulled away.

"You're walking on sunshine today, huh?" He teased, nudging Bonnie's shoulder.

"Oh, yeah. I'm feeling invincible!" She started to punch and kick the air. It looked like some mix of Karate and boxing.

"I like that you're happy." He didn't mean to say that out loud, but seeing the way she blushed he didn't regret it.

Before she could respond, Tyler and Matt approached them.

"Hate to break this up, but we need Stefan." Tyler said. "Come on, lover boy."

Stefan waved goodbye to her as Matt and Tyler dragged him down the hall.

She chuckled and waved to him as she turned to put her books in her locker.

"Bonnie." Elena said.

Bonnie jumped. "Wah, you scared me!"

"Sorry." She chuckled.

"What's up, Lena?" Bonnie asked. She could tell Elena wanted to ask her something by the look on her face. Knowing somebody your whole life cuts back on a lot of beating around the bush.

"I- uh, I just wanted to ask you how it's going with Stefan." Elena hoped her voice was even when she spoke.

She had seen Bonnie and Stefan today, they looked close. And Bonnie was in a weirdly good mood. So, it was natural for her to suspect things. She knew she told Bonnie to go for Stefan, she just didn't think they would jump into each other's arms so quickly.

"Um, pretty good." Bonnie replied. Suddenly, she was nervous. She didn't know how much she should tell Elena. She didn't want her to be sad or uncomfortable. Or even worse, angry. Angry Elena was hard to heal. She decided that honesty was the best policy. "He, uh, asked me to the founders party."

Elena audibly gasped. "Really?" She asked before she could stop herself.

"Yeah." Bonnie answered. Too late to back down now.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"I'm just a little shocked." Elena said.

Bonnie didn't want to ask why, she knew she wouldn't like the answer, but she did anyway. "Why?"

"I don't know." She said tightly.

Bonnie panicked. She could hear the crabbiness in Elena's voice. She really didn't want conflict, her day was going so well. "Um, if you're not okay with us going together-"

"No, Bonnie, it's fine that you and Stefan are so close all the sudden. It's not like I told you it wasn't okay to make a move on him. I just didn't think…" She stopped herself and took a deep breath in an unsuccessful attempt to calm her rage.

Bonnie swallowed. "You didn't think he would like me back." She finished quietly.

Bonnie begged, pleaded with her eyes for Elena to disagree. But she just stood there, looking at her childhood friend guiltily. Her silence gave Bonnie all the confirmation she needed.

It's funny how your day can be ruined in an instant.

Katherine and Rebekah sat on a picnic bench at lunch. It was weird, there was a tension there that had never been present before. They were both being strangely quiet.

"So…" Katherine started.

They both wished Bonnie would show up to break the awkward tension, but the Bennett girl told them that she would be in the library at lunch rather aggressively. She was in such a good mood that morning - it was crazy how quickly that girl's emotions changed.

"So…" Rebekah echoed. "Um, what's going on with you and Caroline?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're friends all the sudden." Rebekah clarified.

"Oh." Katherine grew a smile on her face that made Rebekah's stomach churn with jealousy. "We're friends, yeah. She's pretty cool."

"Yep." Rebekah agreed with a half-hearted laugh. "Caroline's great."

It was quiet again.

"Uh, who are you going to the founders' event with?" Rebekah asked.

"I don't know." Katherine shrugged. "Bonnie's going with Stefan," They both grinned. "Caroline's going with Matt, I think Elena's going with Tyler, Jeremy's going with some girl in his grade - everybody's taken."

"Would you…" She cleared her throat. "Do you want to go with me?"

Why did Katherine's stomach do a flip right then?

"Yeah. That would be fun. Uh, as friends, right?"

"Yeah." Rebekah said quietly. "As friends."

Katherine nodded and smiled and they continued to eat their lunch in silence.

Bonnie angrily scribbled the answers to her Calculus homework while she sat in the library at lunch. She chowed down two PB&J's and was still hungry, but decided not to get back into the habit of eating her feelings.

She was an extremist. When she was happy, she was ecstatic, when she was sad she was miserable, and when she was in the middle, you can bet she was in the most mundane, dull mood you've ever seen.

So after Elena, her best friend, basically told her that she was undesirable, she wasn't just angry. She was boiling hot livid.

Or maybe you're just pretending to be mad to mask the heart brokenness that you're feeling, the stupid voice in the back of her head said stupidly.

"Shut up, stupid voice!" She whisper-shouted.

"Uh, Bon? You okay there?" Caroline asked cautiously as she approached her friend's table.

Bonnie's head snapped towards her. "Yep! Fine!" She said a little too enthusiastically.

"You were talking to yourself." The blonde mused.

"No, you were talking to yourself." Bonnie retorted like a three year old.

"I'm pretty sure I wasn't." Caroline smirked. "Come on, what's wrong?"

Caroline sat in the chair across from Bonnie.

"I don't want to say." Bonnie replied. She may be angry with Elena, but she didn't doubt that her friend felt guilty. Telling Caroline would just make Elena feel worse.

"Okay. But at least tell me what you're feeling so I can help with that."

"I'm feeling… not good."

"Can you be more specific?" Caroline pushed.

"I'm angry. Well, I'm more sad. Betrayed."

"Damn. Betrayed."

"Yeah." Bonnie nodded.

"What can I do to help?"

"Hug?"

Caroline chuckled and wrapped her friend up in her arms. They stayed like that until the bell rang.

Stefan opened the door to the Salvatore house. The door was unlocked and he heard voices coming from the living room, so he knew someone was home.

He followed the voices to the living room.

He heard his mom and brother talking, and he was going to enter the room and let them know he was home, but before he could, he heard a snippet of their conversation.

"…Come on, mom. He's doing something shady, I know it. I don't want to keep pretending everything's fine and I don't want to keep lying to Stefan!"

Stefan's eyebrows furrowed and he stepped into the room. "Lying to me about what?"

Damon and Lily's twin blue eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.

"Stefan, honey! I didn't know you were home!" Lily exclaimed.

"I am." He said dryly.

"Uh, we can explain." Damon said and looked to his mother.

"Stefan, come sit." Lily said.

He sat on the couch and looked suspiciously at his mother and brother who each had guilty looks on their faces.

"So, for the past few weeks, Damon and I have been… speculating your father."

"Speculating him how?" Stefan asked.

"Well, uh, we think he's hiding something from us. He could possibly be cheating." Damon replied.

"Do you have any evidence?"

"He takes late night phone calls to unknown numbers, he's never home, whenever I talk to him he acts suspicious, the list goes on." Lily said.

"Okay, why didn't you just tell me that?"

Stefan had always had a thing about lying. He hated it when people lied to him, it's the worst feeling ever knowing somebody you trust… isn't somebody you should trust.

"You're just kinda sensitive. We thought you might cry or something." Damon said. He had never been good at saying what he meant.

"I mean, yeah, maybe I would've cried, but I'm not a baby anymore, guys. You can tell me things." Stefan explained.

"We know you're not a baby, Stef. It's just that sometimes your reactions to things are really big and we didn't want to tell you anything until we were sure."

"We didn't want to have to deal with you throwing a fit until we were sure dad was actually guilty."

Stefan glared at his brother.

"Sorry, that's not what I meant-" Damon started.

"Nope, it's fine. I get it. Just please, no more lying, okay?"

That night, Stefan laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't help but still be frustrated with his mom and Damon.

He knew that he was only seventeen and it wasn't a good idea to tell him anything until they were sure about his dad, and it wasn't even the lying that made him upset this time, it's what they said about why they didn't tell him.

He knew that Damon was bad at getting his messages across, but some part of what he said had to be true right? Even his mom said his 'reactions were big sometimes'.

Maybe he did cry too much, maybe he was too sensitive and took things too personally.

The worst part isn't that they said it, it was that they were right.

He took a deep breath and decided that he should calm down. He wasn't going to go down a self hate spiral in the middle of the night.

He got up from his bed and paced around his room, thinking of happy things, like Bonnie. Think about Bonnie. She's gorgeous, and smart, and even though she wouldn't admit it, a really good person. And she was so happy today.

Great. He had calmed down a bit and was about to climb back into bed when he heard a creak at his window. He furrowed his brows and went to check it out.

When he looked out the window, he saw his best friend, Lexi Branson, struggling to sneak into his room.

Lexi was three years older than him, and his parents used to hire her to babysit him when Damon was out being irresponsible. When they got older they became besties. She was like the sister he never had.

Instead of helping her, he smirked and leaned against the wall, watching her wrestle her way up.

She opened the window and tumbled in, glaring at him.

"Thanks for the help, Stef." She smiled fakely at him.

"Anytime, Lex." He pulled her up and they hugged each other.

"I'm back!" She exclaimed.

thanks for reading! and thanks for all the support on my other story! a new chapter of that will be up today as well.