hi everyone! enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 7 - Sweater Weather

"What did you get?" A thirteen year old Bonnie asked eagerly. She and Stefan were meeting up at a picnic bench behind the middle school to discuss halloween candy.

Stefan sighed seriously as he sat down across from her. "I don't know if there's much I can do for you, Bons."

"Come on, Stefan, there has to be something!" She exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table.

He sighed again and took out a brown paper bag from his backpack. He dumped the contents out. "This is all I got. And I want to keep most of it."

"Stefan, that's not fair! You promised." Bonnie whined.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie. But I didn't get that much this year because Damon took me trick or treating and he had to get back early so he could go to some party." Stefan said, remembering how angry he was with his brother for cutting his halloween short. He wanted to yell at Damon but he knew from experience that his voice would crack and he wasn't up for that. Puberty sucked.

"Stef, if you're going to get a Kit Kat, I need a Reese's in return. That's just the way law works."

Stefan furrowed his brows in confusion. "Reese's? I thought you would want my Laffy Taffy." He remarked.

"I can't." She said somberly, "Braces."

He frowned when he saw her sad face. He didn't like it when Bonnie was sad.

He sighed. "You can have my Reese's. I don't need a Kit Kat in return." He said with a melancholic smile.

She sniffed. "Really?"

"Yeah. Anything to turn that frown upside down." He shrugged.

"Stefan, you're the best!" She jumped up and attacked him with a big hug.

Any sadness he felt about losing his candy evaporated when they embraced. He was the luckiest guy in the seventh grade.

•••

Bonnie smiled as she walked towards the Grill. It was fall. Her favorite season. The crisp October air made her cheeks feel all prickly.

She was on her way to have lunch with Katherine at the Grill. It was nice to have a break, she had been working at her Grams' shop all day. Stefan dropped by and Grams accepted his help, strangely. Bonnie didn't know why but it was great to have help around.

Her cheeks became even pricklier, but not because of the cold weather. This time, it was from thinking about Stefan.

Stefan, her boyfriend .

Woop woop!

Around a week had passed since that very eventful Founder's party. After Stefan and Bonnie shared a kiss, she walked inside her house feeling like she was floating on clouds. Around ten minutes afterwards, she heard a knock on the door and opened it to find a nervous looking Stefan. He asked her to be his girlfriend and the rest is history.

That moment replayed in her mind on loop.

She and Stefan were happier than ever, but she noticed that when Elena found out, she stopped her efforts to try to refriend Bonnie. They hadn't spoken or even made eye contact since the founder's event.

Bonnie didn't like to dwell on that fact, it made her feel sick. The thought of losing Elena, her best friend of fifteen years over a boy was nauseating. But she wasn't going to make the first move. She wasn't in the wrong.

"Bon Bon!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

"Kit Kat!" Bonnie responded with just as much energy. The girls ran to each other in the middle of the street, ignoring the beeping cars.

They interlocked hands and walked into the Grill.

Katherine and Bonnie had barely interacted since The Splash, which was like a hundred years before, and they wanted to remedy it immediately.

They sat in a booth across from each other. "Waiter! I'd like your finest liquor, please!" Katherine yelled loudly at poor Matt who was working the bar.

"Are you drunk?" Bonnie asked, amused.

"Believe it or not, no. I think it's the caffeine. I had coffee this morning." The brunette said.

"Wow. How unlike you. I've always pegged you as a tea typa gal."

"People change, Bon." She said, looking around hyperly. "I want more coffee."

"By the way you're shaking," She pointed to Katherine's jittery hand, "I'd say you've had enough."

Katherine sent Bonnie a sarcastic smile, which turned into a smirk when she noticed a smudge in Bonnie's lipstick.

"Bonnie…" She started playfully.

"Yes, Katherine?" Bonnie asked with her eyebrows raised.

"You're wearing lipstick for once."

"I am." Bonnie said, not knowing where her friend was going with this.

"It's smudged."

Bonnie quickly whipped out her phone and looked into the camera.

"Why is it smudged, Bon?" Katherine asked in a singsong voice.

Bonnie deadpanned. "If you're suggesting what I think you are, we were just kissing."

"Boo." Katherine pouted.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Well, I think you guys make a very cute couple. Especially since it makes Elena so mad." Katherine giggled.

"Elena's mad?" Bonnie asked, furrowing her brows.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "She seems pissed. Knowing her she probably thinks it's inconsiderate that you started dating Stefan knowing she likes him. Even though she gave you a pass. I swear I could kill that bitch sometimes."

Any remorse Bonnie felt for Elena flew away like a bird set free. How could Elena think something like that, knowing that Bonnie put her feelings for Stefan on hold for her for years ? And Elena said clearly that Bonnie could make a move on Stefan. Even if she didn't think Stefan would like her back, she still said what she said, and she couldn't blame Bonnie for dating him when she gave her permission.

"Oh no. Did I kill the mood?" Katherine asked warily, seeing the creepy ass twitch in Bonnie's left eye.

"No. No, it's fine. Let's talk about you. How's your dad?"

Katherine smiled widely. "Much better. He's walking, getting back to normal. We just can't have him eating junk food anymore. He's not happy about that."

"I bet." Bonnie muttered, thinking back to all the times she saw Mr. Pierce eating some sort of wildly unhealthy contraption he bought from his weird secretary, Mrs. Dawson. "But I'm happy he's getting better. He's a survivor, just like you."

Katherine smiled at her friend. Her face lit up when she remembered something else she was dying to share with Bon. "Also, I saw Damon practicing in his timberwolf costume yesterday after school." Katherine said.

"No way." Bonnie gasped.

"Yes way."

"Tell me everything!"

"He had to use the pom poms. That's all I saw."

Bonnie made a noise that was somewhere in between a Jurassic animal's screech and a laugh. "I have never been more excited for the next pep rally in my life."

"We need to bring a camera crew and everything. We should get Stefan in on this." Katherine suggested.

"Yeah… But Stef's been really weird about Damon lately." Bonnie admitted. She noticed how Stefan never wanted to be over at his house, and that he rarely ever talked to his brother anymore, even though they had always been as thick as thieves. She wondered if this had to do with his weirdness towards Damon at the founders event. She hadn't forgotten Stefan dragging her to the dance floor after they agreed not to dance, just to get rid of Damon.

"How so?"

"He's avoiding talking about him, seeing him, being in the same house as him - I'm worried about their relationship. I know it's none of my business but I'm still scared that they'll lose their bond or something."

"Bonnie," Katherine placed her hand on Bonnie's. "It's normal for siblings to fight. You and Beks fight all the time. Damon and Stefan have been through a lot together. Whatever it is between them won't break that."

"Thanks, Kat. Hopefully they'll get back together before the pep rally, though, because Stefan's rich and camera crews cost a lot."

•••

Elena sighed as she lay in bed, stopping herself from hopping over to her desktop and scrolling through Bonnie's social media. She was becoming kind of a stalker.

She underestimated how horrible being separated from her best friend would be.

She found herself questioning if Stefan was really worth it. Was he enough for her to lose Bonnie? Now that Stefan and Bonnie were official… she gritted her teeth, took a deep breath and started again… Now that Stefan and Bonnie were official , there would be no way for her to get with Stefan without breaking him and Bonnie up. She didn't want to be a homewrecking bitch, but she loved Stefan. She loved him. So, why didn't he choose her?

That was the question that echoed in her distressed mind day and night. Why wasn't she the one he picked?

She was everybody's first choice. Everybody except for the love of her life, apparently. It wasn't fair! Why did the one person who picked Bonnie have to be her person? Was it payback for something she did? Bad karma?

Elena had created this perfect vision in her head. Her and Stefan married with green eyed, brown haired babies, living in a suburban house with a white picket fence. Caroline happy with Matt or something, Katherine finally getting over herself, Rebekah and the rest of the Mikaelson's doing whatever they do, and Bonnie with genuinely anyone . Anyone except for Stefan . She'd even be happy if Bonnie dated Jeremy!

The thing about Elena's fantasies, such as that one, was that she put all of her faith into them. They were less of fantasies and more of goals. She did everything in her power to get them to happen.

So why did she tell Bonnie to go for it with Stefan, you ask?

Because she wasn't heartless, that's why! She saw the way Bonnie looked at Stefan ( what she missed is the way Stefan looked at Bonnie, she thought bitterly). She thought that if Bonnie was open about her feelings with Stefan, he would let her down easily. He would admit his feelings for Elena to her and the Gilbert girl and Salvatore boy would get together and live happily ever after. That way Bonnie would eventually move on with someone else because she would have closure from Stefan.

But imagine Elena's surprise when Bonnie and Stefan get flirty and flirty, and then they go to the founder's event together, and then they start dating !

Elena's fantasies - goals - were foiled and she didn't know what to do so she took her anger out on Bonnie. And here they were.

A part of her wanted to run over to Bonnie's and grovel for her forgiveness, but she couldn't do that until she was absolutely sure that it wouldn't work out with herself and Stefan. She needed to try a little harder to get her goal, and if it didn't work out she would beg for Bonnie to be her friend again.

After all, it never was hard to achieve Bonnie's forgiveness.

•••

When lunch with Katherine ended, Bonnie met Stefan to go on a walk. They stayed out for a while, practically covering the whole town while they were lost in conversation. After the couple reluctantly traded their goodbyes, Bonnie headed over to the Mikaelson's house for the evening.

Freya and Keelin had left, so had Hayley, Elijah, Finn and Sage. Klaus was visiting for the weekend (he realized how much he missed being home after his first arrival) and so was Kol.

Kol and Rebekah were in a heated game of chess, while Bonnie and Klaus were watching a show on the TV. Neither of them knew what was going on on the screen because Rebekah and Kol requested absolute silence around them. Esther, Grams and Mikael were all reading their respective books while sitting on the couch.

The fireplace was blazing and providing the only light in the room. Everybody was either bundled in a blanket or drinking tea. The mood was cozy and peaceful. A perfect ending to an October day, in Bonnie's opinion.

Ding dong.

The doorbell rang. The family looked at each other in confusion. Who would be knocking on their door at 10:30 PM?

"Not it." Klaus and Bonnie said in synch, tapping their noses.

"Bekah and I are chessing. We can't." Kol defended weakly.

"I'm elderly." Mikael motioned to himself without even looking up from his book.

"So am I." Grams said idly.

"Lazy. You're all lazy." Esther groaned, getting up from her place on the couch. She walked the short distance to the front door (they were in the downstairs living room so the commute really wasn't that far).

"Elijah?" Esther's voice rang after she flung the door open. Everybody's ears perked up. What was Elijah doing here? "What's wrong, darling?"

"Mother," There was obvious pain etched in his voice. "Hayley called off the engagement."

Everybody who was eavesdropping from the living room either dropped something or made an audible gasp. Nobody saw that coming. Nobody except for Klaus, whose face went pale and heart dropped with guilt.

thanks for reading! i know there was more talk of stefonnie than actual stefonnie, but we'll get to see the couple in action soon. as i said last chapter, i just started school and i'm being bombarded with work this early in the year, so update's may be a little inconsistent but im trying!

another chance is updating tonight as well!

thanks again for reading and i hope you have a good day/night!