hello, everyone! i'm sorry it took so long to post! but i'm back with a tres cool chapter. at least i think it is lol. enjoy and have a good day! 3
Chapter 10 - Unwanted
Lexi decided that she would have to add looking for a chiropractor to her to-do list, because sleeping on that couch did a number to her back. Seriously, aren't sofas supposed to be comfortable? She felt like she slept on cardboard.
She moved like the tin man to go check on Bonnie and Stefan.
The night before, after the happy couple cried for twenty minutes in each other's arms, Lexi decided to be the adult of the group and tell them to go to bed since they had school in the morning.
Grams was called, so she knew that Bonnie was safe and sound. Lily already knew Stefan was there, but she expected him to be home after school. She allowed him one night away from his family, but she wouldn't let him hide forever.
The reason Lexi was sleeping on the couch was because she, being the martyr she was, let Stefan and Bonnie sleep in her bed for the night. Stef had had a rough day and he didn't deserve to sleep on the couch from hell. And Bon refused to leave his side, so they were kind of a package deal.
Lexi, of course, didn't know how uncomfortable the linen couch from Pottery Barn would be to sleep on, but she sucked it up. She was happy to provide a nice sleep for her best friend and his girlfriend. Unless they had sex on her bed. Then she would kill them.
She knocked on the door to the bedroom. "Stef, Bon? You guys awake?"
When they didn't answer, she crossed her fingers, praying they were fully clothed, and opened the door.
She sighed a breath of relief when she saw them cuddled up, fast asleep, wearing enough clothes not to allude to something. Thank god she wouldn't have to burn her sheets.
She smiled at the way they were snuggling. Bonnie's head was buried in Stefan's chest and his arms were gripping her tightly. Bonnie's arms were wrapped around his torso and her legs were wrapped around his waist. They looked like they were squeezing the hell out of each other - probably scared that the other would get up and go in the middle of the night. Lexi wondered if they always slept like that or if it was because of the previous night's happenings.
Maybe she was staring too loudly, because the lovebirds began to stir and they finally woke up.
"Guys, I'm going to start making some breakfast. You have a couple hours until you have to leave for school so you have time to get ready." She smiled at them one last time and closed the door behind her.
Bonnie and Stefan looked at each other and grinned fondly. The weight of the previous day came crashing down on them and their smiles dimmed but only a bit.
Bonnie was sure she had horrendous morning breath when Stefan kissed her passionately but he didn't seem to care, so she didn't either.
"Let's get up." He whispered in her ear and left another kiss to her cheek.
She bit her lip and fought the urge to touch the burning spot on her cheek that he had kissed.
He got dressed in a few things he left there last time he stayed and she was forced into a dress that belonged to Lexi. ("You look so cute!" Lexi cooed, making the scowling Bonnie do another 360 turn).
The dress itself was very cute, but it was really low cut which was causing Bonnie all kinds of trouble that morning. Stefan accidentally poured hot coffee on himself when he saw her boobs in that dress.
The trio ate breakfast together at Lexi's round kitchen table, the mood lightening a bit. Stefan was in a surprisingly good place - they spent breakfast engaging in light and happy conversation.
The sun filtering in from the kitchen window was beautiful and the sound of birds chirping could be heard from outside. It was a peaceful and lovely morning.
Until there was a knock at the door.
"Who could that be?" Bonnie asked with a mouthful of pancake.
"Probably my mom. Or Damon." Stefan said, a tick settling in his jaw. He knew his family wouldn't be able to leave him alone - his day just had to be ruined before it even started.
Lexi got up to answer it, and to everyone's surprise it wasn't Damon or Lily. It was Elena.
"Hey, Lexi. Um, can I come in?" Elena asked hopefully, her brown doe eyes settling into her infamous puppy dog stare.
Lexi saw right through Elena's pout, but she let her in anyway. Albeit reluctantly.
"Is Stefan here?" The brunette questioned as soon as Lexi let her in.
Lexi raised a brow. "He is." Elena's face lit up. "So is Bonnie." Elena's expression fell. "They're in the kitchen. Keep up, Bambi."
Lexi led Elena to the kitchen where Bonnie and Stefan were sitting at the table, waiting to see their visitor.
"Guys, Elena's here." Lexi pointed out the obvious. She kept her eyes trained on Elena. She used to be indifferent to the brunette, but she easily sensed the crush she had in Stefan and now that Stefan and Bonnie were together she didn't want Elena ruining that.
Even if she and Bonnie were best friends, Elena definitely seemed like the type to throw her friendship in the trash for a boy.
"Uh, hi, guys." Elena looked at Bonnie and Stefan.
Bonnie looked angry and Stefan looked confused. Why was Elena here? He thought. She and Lexi weren't that close.
"Uh, I wanted to see how you were, Stef. My mom told me what happened with your parents. I asked your mom where you were and she said you were here. You have my complete sympathy." She said, taking a seat at the table and placing her hand on top of his.
Lexi scoffed. Bonnie's brows shot up. Elena looked over at Bonnie and gave her a passive smile. Stefan looked between the women with furrowed brows.
"Thanks for stopping by, Elena." Bonnie dismissed. "Do you want me to walk you to the door?"
"Oh, well since we have school soon and I'm already here, I was hoping I could ride with you guys to school. I walked here." Elena suggested.
Stefan, being the oblivious gentleman he was, replied with an affirmative, "Yeah, of course! Do you want some breakfast?"
"I would love some, Stefan. You're such a sweetie pie." Elena grinned.
Bonnie let out a sharp breath. "Be right back." She huffed and grabbed Lexi, who was watching the interaction from the doorway, into the living room.
"She's trying to steal your man." Lexi said with a disgusted shake of her head.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Bonnie wheezed. She looked like she was going to explode.
After being best friends - almost sisters - with Elena for some fifteen years, Bonnie began to notice a pattern. What Elena wants, Elena gets. And Elena most definitely wanted Stefan. Caroline always complained that out of Bonnie, Elena and herself, she was always the second choice. Well Bonnie was never even classified as a choice! Nobody really ever showed interest in her except for Stefan, and she didn't want to lose that. She didn't really blame anyone for not liking her - she could admit that she was moody and sassy and honestly a challenge to be around sometimes, as opposed to Elena who was agreeable and charming, but for once, somebody saw her for the person underneath all the bravado, and she thought that her best friend would be happy for her, but apparently not.
And now Elena would seduce Stefan with her innocent little smile and he'd dump Bonnie so he could date Elena and they'd become doctors together and get married and have kids, probably a boy and a girl - Stefan Jr. and Stella - they'd grow old and be buried next to each other and-
"Bonnie, I know what you're thinking. But give Stef a little more credit. He's just being nice." Lexi said. They tilted their heads to look at Stefan and Elena who were engaged in what looked like polite conversation at the table.
"You're right. I'm just being dramatic." Bonnie sighed. Stefan wouldn't leave her for Elena. Those thoughts were just her pesky abandonment issues talking. Damn you for those, mom, Bonnie thought.
"So what are you going to do?" Lexi asked.
"I don't know. But… I trust Stefan. Whatever Elena's trying to do… it won't work out for her."
Lexi nodded and they trailed back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Lexi's eyes were calculating, she never took them off of Elena. Bonnie was determined to keep her poker face on.
Bonnie looked at the clock. Exactly sixty minutes until they had to get to school.
It was going to be a long hour.
•••
Katherine got a call from Caroline around an hour before school started. She was making a healthy breakfast for her father when she got the call.
"Good morning, Katherine!" Caroline chirped.
"Good morning, Caroline!" The brunette mocked in the same falsetto tone.
"Are you up to play hooky today?" Care asked, ignoring Katherine's snarkiness.
"Depends. What's the plan?"
"Well, there's a new shop opening in town square, and I want to be one of the first ones there. You in?"
Katherine thought for a second. They were seniors (and delinquents at that) so skipping wasn't really a big deal. The only dilemma would be Rebekah. She and Rebekah started hanging out… platonically. She promised Bex that they would eat lunch together in the library, and with what Caroline was suggesting, they wouldn't be in school at that time of day.
"Can we bring Rebekah along?" Katherine inquired.
Caroline thought. "Hmm. Sure. Ring her up and see if she wants to come."
"I will. Later, Caroline."
"Bye bye."
Caroline hung up and Katherine sighed. She knew Rebekah wouldn't want to ditch, she was too much of a goodie two shoes. But she didn't want to leave her hanging, so if Bex didn't want to ditch, she'd just tell Caroline that she wouldn't either.
Time for another call.
But first, she turned the stove off and flipped the omelet she was making for her dad.
Dialing Rebekah's number, Katherine sighed.
Rebekah picked up. "Hello?"
"Hey, Bex."
"Morning, Kat. What can I do for you?" Rebekah smiled. She felt giddy that Katherine would call her this early in the morning.
"Hey, Bex. So… I was thinking. There's a new shop opening up in town square and Caroline wants to go. Uh, do you want to come with?" She tried to keep her voice as casual as she could.
Rebekah was silent for a moment. "Uh, didn't you and I have something else planned for today?" Her voice seemed to go up an octave.
A pang of guilt stabbed through Katherine. "Yeah, but this way we could spend more than just lunchtime together."
"Together…" Rebekah said the word clumsily, as if it were the first time she said it. "With Caroline."
Katherine sucked in a breath. "Yeah. With Caroline."
Rebekah wasn't one to skip school - she was privileged enough to have an education and she valued that - but she had been looking forward to this lunch with Katherine for ages. Well, they had only planned it three days before, but all three of those days were consumed with excitement for that one forty five minute lunch period. They could have just rescheduled the lunch, but then came up the idea of Katherine spending the entire day alone with Caroline.
Rebekah couldn't have that.
So, she replied in her cheeriest voice, "Of course I'll come!"
Katherine obviously noticed the ingenuity in Rebekah's voice, but chose to ignore it. "Great. We'll come pick you up."
Rebekah sighed. "Okay. I'll see you then, Kat."
"See ya then. Bye, Bex." Katherine hung up the phone.
She looked down at the burnt omelet she was making for her father. Today will definitely be interesting, she thought with a sigh.
•••
Have you ever done anything to spare someone's feelings but you just end up causing more problems? And then in the end you're left hating yourself because you thought you were doing something nice but now everyone else is unhappy?
Stefan was in that position.
When he let Elena stay and catch a ride to school with them, all he was thinking about was how it would suck if Elena had to walk all the way to school in the cold just because she came to check on him. He completely forgot that Bonnie and Elena were currently on the outs and that Bonnie was avoiding her brunette (ex) friend like the plague.
He really could be so stupid.
Now, he was sitting on the couch with Bonnie and Elena, drowning in awkwardness. They'd spent a half an hour finishing up breakfast and cleaning, and that was awkward as well, but at least Lexi was there to keep some semblance of normalcy flowing. The second Stefan realized that Bonnie didn't want Elena here, he stopped trying to make conversation and just sat quietly.
The group moved to the living room to sit down until it was time to leave for school.
Lexi left for the bathroom, so now they were left with a horrible silence.
Elena kept trying to make conversation with Stefan, but he only replied with short, clipped responses. He was trying to make eye contact with Bonnie who was staring at the wall with a clenched jaw.
Meanwhile, Lexi was hiding out in the bathroom.
She did feel bad for leaving them out there, but she needed a break from carrying that conversation, damn it! She couldn't do everything.
She peeked her head out of the bathroom to look at the clock on the wall. Only twenty-eight minutes until it would be an appropriate time to drop all the teen drama that had somehow infiltrated her life off at school.
She lived a little outside of town so the drive to the highschool was like fifteen minutes away. If they left now and drove slow, the kiddos would only be thirteen minutes early. She could work with that. Lexi sighed and peaked her head out the door again, only this time to watch the teenagers on the couch in the living room.
She saw Elena scoot closer to Stefan causing Stefan to scoot closer to Bonnie.
How could Stefan be so clueless? He genuinely didn't realize that Elena was trying to make a move on him. He didn't realize Bonnie liked him either until she agreed to going to the founders party. Lexi knew he had low self esteem, but could he really not take a hint? Her boy needed a confidence booster.
It's time to wrap this up, she thought determinedly.
"Babies! Why don't we get a head start on school?" She suggested, sauntering into the living room.
"Yes! Yes, that." Bonnie jumped up from the couch and zoomed like a vampire over to her shoes. Finally she would be saved from this madness.
"What's the rush? We don't want to be too early." Elena tried to reason.
"Oh, but we won't. There's so much traffic lately." Bonnie said, rushing over to her backpack. She crammed her binders and books into it, threw it on her back and smiled a kool aid grin. "Ready to go!"
Stefan wanted to let her know how cute she was, but decided that he would leave that for later and get ready for school right now.
Once everybody was ready to roll (although Elena made a point of taking a long time with a pout on her face), they got into Lexi's Volvo. Lexi driving, Stefan in the passenger seat and Elena and Bonnie in the back.
In order to ease the uncomfortableness, Lexi put on music. Nirvana to be specific.
The silence was still deafening. Lexi turned up Kurt Cobain's screaming voice to try to overpower it.
"I love this song!" The blonde who was driving the car almost shouted.
"Yeah, it's a great one!" Stefan agreed.
"Our next hit from the 90s is a spicy one!" The voice blasted from the radio.
And on came Wannabe by the Spice Girls. Bonnie and Elena both squealed and looked at each other excitedly. In eight grade, they, along with Caroline, Katherine and Rebekah sang this song for the school talent show and got first place.
Hearing the song always sent them down memory lane, but before they could start singing it together like they always did, they realized what they were doing and shut themselves up.
The rest of the car ride was even more awkward than before.
•••
Rebekah stood at the front of her house eagerly, waiting for Katherine to arrive. She had packed a bag for the day. Three PB&Js in case all the class skipping made the girls hungry, and of course three packs of baby carrots. Sunscreen, water bottles, a first aid kit, lotion and bug spray… wait did she forget the bug spray?
She had to go get that.
Right as she was about to leave the spot in front of her front door that she had been standing at for the past fifteen minutes, the doorbell rang.
All thoughts of bug spray left her mind when she heard the familiar 'ding, dong' . Katherine was on the other side of that door, and no insect repellent meant as much to her as that.
She flung the door open and tried not to show her disappointment when she saw Caroline standing on her front porch instead of Katherine.
"Hey, Rebekah!" Caroline smiled, "Kat's in the car."
They walked down to the car together.
"Hey, Bexy." Katherine, who was sitting in the driver's seat grinned. "Are you wearing a sunhat? It's October. It's like 50 degrees outside."
"I like to be prepared." Rebekah shrugged, tossing her backpack into the backseat next to her.
Caroline, who was in the passenger seat chuckled. "And what's in that backpack? You know that when you skip school you don't have to bring a school bag."
"This is just stuff that we might need for our escapades. Criminal's need to be put together." She replied.
Katherine and Caroline just exchanged an amused look, before Katherine drove off.
•••
Two hours later, Katherine, Caroline and Rebekah were pooped.
They went to the new store, but it turns out they weren't the only people who had the idea of skipping school to be there at the opening.
Mystic Falls was a small town, and they didn't have very many clothes stores that kept up with the teenage trends. Normally, teens had to go out of town to buy clothes that satisfied them, but finally, a clothing store that was opening up in town square seemed promising, and the high schoolers of Mystic Falls weren't taking that for granted.
They should've known better.
Waves of teenagers weaved through the store, taking everything in sight. It was like black Friday.
The trio only got a few things, they were scared that if they went for anything else they'd be bitten or scratched by someone a little too eager for new clothes.
After they got out of there, Caroline suggested they go get something to eat.
"Oh, no need, I brought sandwiches!" Rebekah smiled, happy to be helpful.
"After that store, I think maybe we need some real food." Care said.
"Yeah." Katherine agreed, "But thanks for packing those, Bex. It was really helpful."
Rebekah frowned. "Uh, yeah. Of course."
They hopped in the car again to head to the grill.
•••
Finally school had ended.
As soon as the bell rang, Bonnie felt 100 pounds lighter. She shared a good chunk of her classes with Elena, which was awkward enough as it is, but Caroline, Katherine and Rebekah were nowhere to be found, and they were her buffers.
She sighed and got up from her seat, quickly packing her things and speed walking outside to wait for Stefan.
She wasn't upset with him for inviting Elena to stay with them, he didn't know any better. But she couldn't help but be a little annoyed.
"Hey, Bon." Stefan beamed when he saw her.
He pulled her in for a big hug and kissed the top of her head.
"How are you feeling?" She asked as they embraced. She knew he had to go back to his own home tonight and he was still angry with his family.
"I'm okay. I'm better." He kissed the top of her head again and pulled away. "Bon, I'm so sorry about today. I completely forgot that you two weren't speaking and if I-"
"Stef, it's okay. You did it because you didn't want Elena to have to walk all the way to school. You care about other people's feelings. Which is part of why you're so amazing."
"I care about other people's feelings, yes, but you're my top priority, Bon. If you're uncomfortable with someone then I don't want them around."
"I know." She pressed a chaste kiss to his soft lips. They looked into each other's eyes.
"Bonnie, if you don't mind me asking… What happened between you and Elena?"
He did find it kind of weird how Bonnie refused to tell him. They told each other everything. But if she didn't want to say anything, he wouldn't push her. He knew she wouldn't keep something from him if it wasn't important.
She expected this question sooner or later.
"I'll tell you," She promised, "But not right now."
Bonnie didn't want to cause Stefan any more stress. He was already going through his parents divorce and Damon being an ass, she knew how guilty he would feel if he knew that he was the cause of Elena and Bonnie's falling out.
He was disappointed, but nodded.
"Thanks for being so understanding." She said.
He kissed her again.
They walked to the car in silence, the words 'I love you' on the tip of both of their tongues.
whatcha think? they looovve each other. thanks for reading! stay cool!