Bonnie hated this.
She could be at home right now watching reruns of Boy Meets World, but instead she's at this party of a classmate she barely even knows watching Stefan flirt with Elena Gilbert from a corner she really hoped kept her hidden.
She doubted anyone would spot her though. She wasn't exactly the type of person to attract attention, but she wore the hoodie she stole from Stefan a few years ago just in case and leaned further into the wall kinda hoping it would swallow her up.
She was giving him five minutes and then she would leave with or without him. They weren't supposed to be here, but he snuck into her room and begged her to go with him, "We'll stay for two hours tops, Bon".
They've been here for two and a half hours and between her grams and his parents, she was certain they'd be in a shitload of trouble when they got home.
"Are you talking to yourself?" a voice said next to her and her glasses must've been foggy and her hearing bad because this person couldn't be talking to her, could they?
"You". She turned her head then and adjusted her glasses to get a better look at the person now standing next to her.
"Are you talking to me?"
Matt Donovan. He was one of Stefan's friends. She never really hung out with any of Stefan's friends other than the occasional forced lunches at the cafeteria where they barely noticed her except when Stefan was talking about what they'd gotten up to that week like it was hot news.
They all knew her as one thing though.
"You're Stefan's friend right?", and she swore anyone who didn't know her thought that was her name.
"Bonnie".
"Right, hey I'm Matt" he said and extended his hand for her to shake. And she swore if she had to shake one more of Stefan's friend's hands from them repeatedly introducing themselves she would cut her own hand off.
"I know who you are. I have lunch with you guys on Mondays and Tuesdays" she said looking at the outstretched hand that Matt finally dropped to his side.
"Right" he said.
"And I wasn't...talking to myself, I mean" she said. Just contemplating how to kill my best friend and make it look like an accident.
He nodded. But he didn't believe her.
"So...are you having a good time?" He asked and she wondered why he was still standing there trying to make awkward conversation with her.
She didn't exactly have a welcoming look, or personality to be honest. She had exactly one friend she made when she was a baby, back when life was easy and puking on a kid meant you wanted to be friends.
That wasn't the case these days though and she didn't have it in her to try and make another friend.
It was too late anyway, but she might as well make small talk before making her graceful exit.
"No. I wanna leave, but that thing is my ride so I'm kinda stuck" she said and Matt choked on his drink from the laugh that slipped through. She actually smiled at that, but only a little bit. She wasn't about to get crazy.
"If you really want to leave I could give you a ride home" he offered. She rose a skeptical eyebrow at that and just looked at him suspiciously.
"What?"
"I'm still trying to figure out why you're even talking to me let alone offering me a ride home" she said and he shrugged.
They heard Elena giggle from across the room and playfully shove Stefan away from her with her left hand only to have him grab onto it and keep it in place against his chest.
Bonnie rolled her eyes and decided not to question Matt anymore.
"Sooo...let's go" she said and pulled out her phone to send out a text.
I'm going home. Gonna leave my window open.
She followed Matt to his car while her phone buzzed in her hand moments later.
Why are you leaving?
"This son of a..." She bit her tongue. She wasn't gonna go there, she loved Mama Lily way too much to call her the B word.
WHY?! Because you ditched me for a girl you barely even like.
I like her.
Whatever Stefan.
He didn't.
He wanted to like her because she was hot and popular and it made sense for the quarterback and lead chearleader to be dating because high school. But he didn't.
She turned her phone off and got in the car.
"So, you and Stefan have been friends for a long time, huh?"
So they were continuing with the awkward conversation then. Good to know.
"Our whole lives" she said with a ghost of a smile as she gave him directions to her house.
"Were your parents friends?"
"No. We met at daycare when we were one, after I puked on him".
"Gross" Matt said and she shrugged. Everyone says gross at that story, but it was their story so she really didn't care and also, because of her family situation, Stefan was technically her longest relationship.
They drove up her street a minute later and she pointed out her house to him.
"Thanks for the ride" she said once he parked and she opened the door to leave.
"You said before you didn't know why I was talking to you" he said and she stopped with her body halfway out the car. She didn't turn around though. She just wanted to listen to what he had to say.
"I was curious. I see you all the time at school with Stefan, but I've never really talked to you and I was curious about what you were like" he said and she could feel his eyes burning holes on the back of her head. "And I think you're pretty cool, Bonnie".
She got out then and finally turned around to face him. She wasn't surprised. She was a mystery to them and the reason why Stefan was friends with her was like a puzzle they couldn't solve.
So she wasn't surprised that he was curious. She wasn't even offended that he didn't talk to her just to get to know her. So she gave him a smile, just like he wanted.
"Thanks for the ride" she said again and closed the door. She turned around and walked up her driveway, praying to God that grams didn't notice she was gone.
The snoring woke her up the next morning and she groaned into her pillow before reluctantly opening her eyes.
Her room was already drenched in sunlight and she was scared to check the time. She was lucky though. Grams hadn't caught her sneaking back in last night, which was half the battle.
But unfortunately they weren't in the clear yet.
She put on her glasses and grabbed the pillow to toss it at the source of her current misery because she really didn't want to be awake right now.
And if she couldn't sleep, neither could he.
"Ow!" Stefan groaned from next to her bed when the pillow hit his head. He was sleeping on the blow up mattress she got him two summers ago after the first time they decided it would be a bright idea for them to sneak out to a concert and he had to sleep on the hard floor.
Looking down at him now Bonnie expected him to wake up, but instead the bastard used the pillow and turned on his side before resuming his snoring.
"Nope" she said and jumped on top of him, because apparently she wasn't above that and that woke him up.
"Ow! Fuck Bonnie that hurt!" He groaned as she sat up next to him and leaned against the bed.
"It was supposed to hurt since the pillow clearly didn't work. Plus you were snoring and I couldn't get back to sleep" she said and adjusted her glasses.
"So your solution was to jump on me" he said and she shrugged. Obviously.
"Woke you up didn't it?"
He groaned again and finally sat up too, accepting defeat.
"What time did you get in?" She asked and he tried to count back the hours in his head. "About an hour after you left, maybe at three. What time is it now?" He asked.
"I haven't checked" she said and recognised the look of fear in his eyes.
This was the moment that would determine whether or not they got away with it. It was a system they developed since that first time they snuck out and got caught. If they made it through the night and could wake up just early enough not to raise any suspicion, they were good. But if not...
"Maybe it's still early" he said hopefully and she pointed outside her window. "Have you seen the sun outside?"
They jumped then at the sound of a knock on the door.
"Are you two gonna hide in there forever or are you actually gonna come down for lunch?" Damon asked through the door and Bonnie turned to Stefan with frightened eyes.
"He didn't really say lunch, did he?" She asked.
"Yes. Yes I did. So you two might as well come out and face the music" He answered. Bonnie really hated that Damon still had two weeks of summer vacation left while they had to go back to school tomorrow.
Now they had to see that stupid satisfied smirk on his face for the next two weeks before he had to go back to college.
Another thing. Stefan clearly didn't account for family sunday while coming up with his diabolical plan to sneak out to a party in the middle of the night and now that it hit her she was giving him some serious side eye.
"Don't look at me like that when you forgot too" he said and got on his feet. "Now come on". He grabbed her hand and pulled her up too before they went to open the door.
And there Damon was just standing there with that stupid smirk on his face. She swore that thing was glued on.
"Welcome to your memorial" he said before Bonnie flipped him the bird as they brushed past him and walked down the hallway.
All too soon they were standing by the sliding door that led to Bonnie's backyard where they could see Grams, Mama Lily and Uncle Sep sitting on the picnic table just waiting for them.
"Oh, hey kids" Lily greeted them with a bright smile on her face when she spotted them just standing there and waved them over.
Bonnie dragged her feet forward while Stefan followed closely behind her. Hiding. Like a pussy.
Mama Lily looked way too happy to see them considering they knew that she knew that they snuck out last night. They all knew.
Damon had a big mouth. And honestly that should've been their first clue as to what was about to happen. The second should've been seeing all their favorite foods on the table once they sat down. Stefan between his mom and Grams and Bonnie between Damon and Uncle Sep who, bless his soul, was a man of very few words, but gave her a sympathetic smile all the same.
"So how'd you sleep babies?" Grams asked and Bonnie gulped nervously before staring pointedly at Stefan until he answered.
"We slept fine, Grams. Thanks" he said before digging into his food after grams insisted on dishing for them.
That's when the alarm bells went off in their heads. Sheila Bennett never dished food for them. She was more of a if you've got hands use 'em type of lady.
But still they didn't say anything except answer the random questions they were asked until lunch was over and the table was cleared.
"Okay. Now to hand out punishments" Lily said and clasped her hands on top of the table after making them sit back down when they tried to leave to go do the dishes.
"Do you two have anything to say for yourselves?" Grams asked and they shook our heads, no, too scared to actually say anything since Grams wasn't above giving them an ass whooping for talking back.
"Okay, so you two know the drill. No TV, no cellphones, no laptops, basically no piece of technology of any kind other than the one you'll be using at school or at the library to do your school work for the next two weeks" Lily said.
"No detours after school, no friends and since this is your third offense we've decided to add a bonus punishment. So for the next two weeks, except for at school...No Stefan" Grams said and Bonnie just sat there in a state of shock.
"No Bonnie" Lily said.
"But mom-"
"No Bonnie!" She snapped this time and Bonnie knew they were serious. "Your punishments come into effect tomorrow morning so make what's left of this day count kids".
They laid on her bed side by side, staring at the ceiling.
The walls were really thin and she could hear her parents yelling again. That was the first time Stefan could hear them too and she wondered if they forgot that he came over for a play date.
"Does that happened a lot?" He asked. His sports car was just laying there now forgotten and she hadn't noticed that hers was too until he asked that question.
Her parents were really good at keeping up appearances when there were people around so she often wondered if the yelling was all in her head, but now he could hear it too, which told her two things.
Either they really did forget, or you didn't really count as a person at five years old.
When she didn't answer Stefan took her hand and pulled her onto the bed. They just layed there side by side for a moment and she didn't realise she was mumbling until she felt him squeeze her hand and say it wasn't her fault.
"You don't know that" she whispered. Her parents used to be happy, she knew that from all the stories their friends would tell her whenever they came to visit, but ever since she was born all she knew was the fighting behind closed doors and it just got worse over the years.
Stefan said it wasn't her fault that they were fighting, but she wasn't so sure.
"You wanna play a game?" he asked and sat up suddenly.
"I don't know, Stefan".
"Come on, please" he said and pulled her arm so she could sit up too. "Okay so my mom always says that whenever I'm feeling scared, you know because of all the monsters under my bed..."
She nodded. Monsters were no joke. She had them too, but hasn't figured out how to chase them away yet.
"...anyway she said that as long as I stayed on the bed I was safe and they couldn't hurt me".
"This doesn't really sound like a game" she said, skeptical and he sighed because she was apparently missing the point.
"Okay it's not, but as long as you're on this bed the monsters can't hurt you" he said and squeezed her hand again.
"Will you be here too? I think it's better when there's two of us" she said. She realised that she couldn't hear her parents as clearly when Stefan talked to her and he nodded.
"Yeah, I won't leave you alone" he reassured her with a smile before they laid back on the bed.
"Do you still remember the first time we did this?" he asked and she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, wondering if he was having the same memory.
Her parents had moved out a few months later and asked Grams to stay with her so she didn't have to move around a lot. They said it would give her some stability, which was a load of crap because that ship had already left the harbor, sailed the ocean and sank like the Titanic.
But who needed stability right?
She felt Stefan squeeze her hand and actually turned her head to smile at him. "I didn't know you were that smart at five years old" she said, which made him laugh.
"I'm gonna try and not feel offended by how surprised you sounded just now" he said and she shrugged, but her smile got bigger.
"So how was the party? Was flirting with Elena Gilbert worth the punishment?" she asked and fully turned on her side so she was facing him. He did the same.
"No" he said and she waited for him to elaborate. He didn't. "Matt said he drove you home last night".
"He did" she replied and didn't elaborate either. Two could play this game.
They didn't say anything for a while after that and went back to staring at the ceiling. Bonnie actually forgot that he was even holding her hand until he tugged on it to get her attention again.
"So what do you want to do with our last few hours of freedom?" He asked and she shrugged. She didn't want to do anything, except maybe eventually go and watch reruns of Boy meets World.
But for now..."I just wanna stay here".
He nodded and they were quiet again.
"Do you think it's safe to go and get some ice cream from the kitchen?" She whispered after a moment scared that if she spoke any louder they might hear her.
"You should check".
"Why me?"
"Because you're the one who wants ice cream".
That wasn't the point. The point was he was gonna eat it too.
But she crawled out of bed anyway and walked to the door. She was about to open it when she heard footsteps and voices in the hallway and ran back to the bed.
Stefan was suddenly sitting up straight on the bed so she knew he heard them too, but when the door didn't open moments later she figured they were just passing through, probably heading for the bathroom or something.
She wasn't taking any chances though as she climbed on the bed again.
"On second thought, I think it's best to just keep the monsters away".