Chapter Ten: Aerosphere

"So you just want t N!" The way Caroline pronounced the last word made it clear she was implying something.

"Yes, because it is Sunday and we have to be doing our work somewhere. There is nothing else going on here." Bonnie glared at her friend through the webcam. Half an hour ago she had reached a Skype call from Caroline, who apparently just got home from some party her and Elena had attended. It was Sunday morning and Bonnie was in the middle of getting ready to start her day and Caroline was just ready to end hers. How different their lives have become.

"Keep telling yourself that. I'm telling you are already falling for the guy." Caroline said.

"Your drunk, Care, quit talking nonsense!"

"For real now, Bonnie, a few short weeks ago you couldn't stand the guy and were practically afraid of him and look at you now, feeling bad about your arrangement with your teacher because you begin to feel you've become somewhat friends. If you keep up this pace Jeremy will be single by the end of next week." Caroline told Bonnie what was on her mind, as always, not caring if she wanted to hear it or not.

"For the record, I still am afraid of him somehow and to my defense I just didn't know him and that was why I couldn't stand him. I judged him by what I heard about him and that is not the best basis to build an opinion on." She defended herself.

"Yes, and now that you get to know him, what makes you so sure that he isn't going to get under your skin?"

Bonnie was searching for her socks as Caroline said that. She was facing her with her back because she was searching her bed for them. She was pretty glad that she wasn't facing Care directly because she had to give it to her, she couldn't be sure about it. She turned around as she found her socks and put them on.

"You don't even know him and you are already pushing me in his direction. But news flash, Care, I do have a boyfriend that I love very much and I don't see that changing any time soon."

"Well, when we come visit I will most certainly check this Kai out and give you my full report afterwards." Caroline grinned.

"I have no need for that but do what you want. Maybe you'll realize you fancy him more than you would like."

"Not likely I have my eyes set on someone else." Caroline said casually, like it wasn't important.

"Come again?" Bonnie froze in her actions and went back to her desk to sit down and watch her friend intensely when she heard the doorbell ring and her mother's steps to go open the door. Shit, Kai was here and her mother was opening the door. She must hurry this conversation up if she wanted to keep Kai alive. She heard her mother's voice from downstairs.

"Be right there, Mom!" she called the she turned back to Caroline. "Tell me a name!"

Caroline only smiley dumbly which unsettle Bonnie, because she wasn't the typical girl who would be falling for a guy and then act like a 10 year old about it. This was serious.

"Caroline! Answers!" Bonnie demanded.

"Don't you have your own boy toy to deal with right now?" Caroline said and earned a death glare from her friend for the comment. "Fine but don't tell Elena about it. I haven't told her yet and I want her to think I am still in on the whole single ladies partying thing. She is still not over the breakup and I don't want her to feel so alone right now."

"I promise, now spill."

"Well, his name is Klaus Mikaelson. He is new in town, moved here with his family from England. All very handsome guys and two sisters. One of them, her name is Rebekah, she is a real slut. He's restarting college in spring."

"Wow, how did you get to know him?"

"I met him in the grill when I was looking after Matt. I practically bumped into him, very cliché, I know." Her cheeks got rosy as she told her about him.

"Wow, Care you are really into this guy, he?" Bonnie smiled at the happiness of her friend.

"Well, we'll see where it goes from here." Caroline said and Bonnie wanted to respond to that as she heard something break downstairs. Her eyes widened at the thought of her mom hitting Kai with the old vase in the living room and she was reminded of the impending threat her mom presented to her history partner.

"Care, I gotta go and check if my mom just killed my study buddy. But I will call you later and you will tell me all the details, alright?" She was already halfway off the chair and on her way down.

"Alright. Greed your mom from me and don't do anything I wouldn't do myself!" She twitched her eyebrows and Bonnie rolled her eyes in respond ending the call and rushing downstairs.

She was prepared for everything as she over jumped a few steps on her way down but not what she was actually running into. As she reached the last step of the stairs she couldn't see either her mother or Kai but she heard sounds out of the kitchen and headed that way. She found Kai sitting at the kitchen table looking pretty much okay. More than okay, Bonnie noticed because there was something like a smile appearing on his face. She couldn't see her mother though as she stepped into the kitchen to greed him.

"Ah, I have such a lack of fine motor skills. Good thing I decided against going to med school back in the day, I would have killed more people than I would have healed. Oh, hey honey I was just making some fresh lemonade, do you want some too?" Her mother rose from behind the counters with a dustpan full of glass splinters in one hand. So she didn't try to kill Kai but had only been her clumsy self.

Kai looked in her direction as she hesitantly stepped further into the room. Her mom making lemonade on a Sunday seemed a little off. She reluctantly nodded to her mother's offering and placing herself next to Kai.

"Hey there!" he said to greet her.

"Hi!" She was still watching her mother being busy with all sorts of kitchen stuff as she greeted him back. She leaned in closer so that she could whisper to him. "What the hell was going on the five minutes that I was up in my room? What did you do to my mother?"

"I heard that, sweety!" her mother stated as she left for the storage room.

Bonnie turned to Kai and looked at him. He was wearing his usual black hoody and some cool t-shirt underneath. His hair looked nice today but his face seemed like he didn't get much sleep last night. She leaned in to whisper. "Now, seriously. What did you do? I mean, I thought she was attacking you when I heard the smash. How is she so cheerful now and nice? And she is making lemonade? She hasn't done that since I was 12."

"What can I say, I have this impact on people!" he said cockily.

"She actually wasn't your biggest fan before and now she is kissing your ass with lemonade? I mean, it was only five minutes how charming could you have been?"

"I had her won over in just one minute. I can be very nice if I want to." He whispered to her and a huge mocking smirk was crossing over his face. In that moment her mother came back into the room, paused in her actions for a second and went to the counter.

Bonnie drew back from Kai as she realized how their close heads must have appeared to her. It was okay that her mother was playing nice but she didn't want to give her any false impressions.

"So how far have the two of you come so far? Is there still much to do?" Abby asked them.

"We can start the presentation today and probably be finished with is next week. We're good in our time table." Bonnie answered for the both of them.

"YOUR time table!" Kai corrected her. "I have nothing to do with your bossy way of planning every single breath that we take until we are done with this crappy assignment."

"Yeah, Bonnie does like to be a little control freak when it comes to school stuff. Have told her so often to ease up a little. But I should not complain, she does a good job." Abby stated and Bonnie's eyes wanted to drop out of their sockets. Was that really her mother? A week ago she was sitting in her spot telling her to be careful around "that kid" and now she was agreeing with him on something that she certainly never said to Bonnie before.

Bonnie realized her mouth has dropped open and she quickly closed it. Looking to her side she saw Kai watching her. He had supported his head with his arm and smiled knowingly in her direction. She glared at him so that he would lose that freaking smile which only fueled it more. He had really pulled one on her mother and she wished she knew what had happened down here when she was pressing Caroline into spilling the beans.

Her mother brought a tray to the table with a can of lemonade and two glasses. She even put a few cookies on there, like they were 10 year olds that were about to play tea time with their teddy bears. Kai smiled at her mother and this smile, Bonnie couldn't believe it, was genuine. So he was seriously liking her mom.

"Here you go. I hope this will fuel up your brains and make you all productive!" Abby tried to pep talk them.

"Yeah, hopefully." Bonnie said cynically.

"Well, before I let you drag me to the hell of Russia 1943 I need to use the bathroom." Kai got up from the table.

"It's down the hall to the left." Her mother navigated him and he left. Bonnie waited for a few seconds to make sure he was out of reach before she turned to her mother.

"Really, mom?"

"What?" she shrugged.

Bonnie gave her a knowing look. "You should be careful around that kid. He is the devil!" She mimicked her mother's voice in sarcasm. Her mother pushed her lightly onto the arm.

"Come on, I wasn't serious when I said that."

"Oh no? Then I must have a wrong memory because I recall a lot of moments when you ramped about him and his family. And now you spent like five minutes with him and you change your mind?"

"We both know that my opinions weren't based on facts. I was obsessing myself about this. Why can't you be happy that I like your new friend?"

"Oh, I am not against that in any way I just think it is strange that you changed your mind so fast. What did he do to make you change it?" Bonnie was pressing her mother into a confession.

"Nothing special really. He was just very polite and funny and charming. I have always misjudged him. Even though I still think his dad is a dick."

Bonnie let herself fall back into the chair as she let her mother's words sink in. After a few moments Kai came back into the room and she noticed her mother started to gleam at him. She was really liking him.

"Alright, ready to enter the entertaining sides of the Second World War?" Bonnie asked as she got out of her chair and picked up the tray.

"I can't wait." His voice laced with irony but Bonnie chose to ignore that an guided him upstairs to her room. When they arrived he placed the tray next to her laptop onto the desk and took a seat at her chair. Kai claimed the chair next to her, that she had put there this morning as Caroline had called. He was looking around her room for just a second and focused his gaze back to her.

"What?" Bonnie asked. She expected him to have a snarky comment about her girly room up his throat.

"Nothing!" he said honestly.

"Really? Can't imagine you having nothing to say about my furnishings and how this is so not me or blablabla."

"I don't, I actually kind of like it. And it is way less girlish than I imagined it." He leaned back and crossed on leg over the other. Bonnie watched him for another moment to find out whether he was telling the truth. But there was no sign of dishonesty in his eyes so she turned back to the burning matter in front of them.

"Alright, most important thing first!" She opened up a new PowerPoint presentation. "What design?" she turned to him and looked at him with a knowing smile. He reacted just the way she supposed he would by rolling his eyes on her and she let out a laugh.
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"And that is how the German troupes were defeated. Done, we only have to do the aftermath now and impact it had on the overall course of the war and then we're done. But I think it is enough for today." Bonnie stated, saving the progress they had made and turning around to face Kai.

"God, finally. I thought you were never gonna let this go." Kai said and sighed heavily. He had been lying crossed in her bed, his head on the long bedside and his legs resting against the wall from time to time, for the past hour. He was facing the ceiling and form what Bonnie could see he really looked relieved. He must be so bored, because from her experience he always lost interest after 2 hours tops and they have been at this for the whole afternoon.

"If you didn't want to go on with this you could have said something." Bonnie stated.

"Like you would have accepted that Kim Jong Un!" he turned his head and reached for the teddy bear sitting next to her pillow.

"Hey, leave Ms. Cuddles out of this!" Bonnie warned him laughing.

"Ms. what?" Kai chuckled and took in the bears looks.

"Ms. Cuddles. I named her when I was three so don't judge." She said and moved to sit next to him on the bed and took the bear right out of his hands.

"I'm not judging I'm sympathizing with her. I know how hard it can be to be stuck with an awful name." He was looking at Bonnie from where he lay.

Bonnie looked down at him. "What Malachai isn't such a bad name to be having for the rest of your life." She said.

"That easy for you to say, you don't have to live with it and hear it every time your parents are mad at you." He had a point. Malachai was the perfect name to be called by an angry parent. But Bonnie thought he had made up a good nickname for himself.

"So where does you nickname come from? Who called you that the first time?" she asked him, curious.

"Jo fist called me like that. Hard to believe but she had some problems to speak when she was little and Malachai isn't the easiest name to pronounce so she shortened it. I guess it kind of stuck."

Bonnie smiled at the imagination of kid Kai and Jo, how they must have resembled each other so much, even back then. Her thoughts drifted to her own childhood and she was reminded of the people she had left behind in Mystic Falls missing them horribly this second. She took a look at her phone to see if Jeremy had written her. When she got her phone back she had quickly charged it and sends him a message that she retrieved it. After that she had only heard from Jeremy twice. Once saying he was busy learning and once asking her if she knew where he put his gaming controller the last time she was there. Not to her surprise her phone didn't show a notification. She sighed and put her phone away. Her mood suddenly down.

"Waiting for a call?" Kai's voice brought her back to reality. He was looking at her with slight concern over her changed mood and she felt thankful for him paying attention.

She turned around on the bed and mirrored his position, lying right next to him, facing the ceiling with her legs straightened against the wall.
"No, I was just checking if my boyfriend texted me but he didn't." she confessed.

"Hm, sounds like there is some trouble in paradise?" he asked, his voice soft to comfort her.

"No, actually not. I mean I don't think so. I mean, I don't know. He is just behaving weird lately." She didn't know why but she felt comfortable enough to tell Kai the truth. What would he do with this information? And if she wanted him to open up to her she couldn't be a closed book herself.

"Let me tell you one thing, no matter what boy you are dealing with, they will always be weird because that's just how we are. I'm positive it is just phase or something, everything will be back to normal in no time!" she made a hissing sound to underline his statement and Bonnie was surprised at his nice words. She was even more surprised at the effect they had on her. They were comforting her in a way that even Caroline's words couldn't.

She turned her face to look at him and gave him an honest smile. "Thanks!" she said.

He also turned his head and returned her smile but staying quiet.

"You know what, I hate to admit this but I think I like you!" she admitted, knowing she was getting onto unsafe territory.

He snickered and turned his head back to the ceiling. "You know what; I hate to admit it but I think you're pretty tolerable too." He answered.

"Tolerable?" She giggled and looked at him, a smile rising on his face.

"Well, you have to be satisfied with that. It is more than I usually give people credit for. Waaay more." He said with irony in his voice.

"So I have to be thankful for that little appreciation?"

"Take it or leave it. It is my final offer!" He turned his head back to her and looked into her eyes. She had spend enough time with him to become pretty good at reading his hidden meanings. He may not have said it but she knew he was actually meaning the same as her. They were on common ground here.

After a while of silence he started to suppress a laugh and when he couldn't any more she had to laugh herself from the weird conversation they just had. They lay there for quite some time laughing out loud. Bonnie held her belly because it was starting to hurt form all the laughter. She tried to catch her breath but couldn't because of the sight of Kai rolling around in mere amusement. She has never seen him so relaxed before.

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The doorbell rang again. She went to the door and as she passed the stairs she took a quick glance to the upstairs floor, well knowing that she wouldn't be seeing anything. But it has been pretty silent up there for a while now. During the afternoon Abby heart laughter and bickering by turns.

She opened the door and saw Jeffrey her boyfriend standing behind it. A wide smile started to form on her face and she opened the door wider for him to get in.

"Hello darling!" Jeffrey gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and went to put off his coat. Abby quickly closed the door for a cold breeze had been reaching inside and she started to shiver.

"I'm going to cook something, are you hungry?" she asked.

"Very, work was so busy today that I hadn't had the chance to eat properly." He followed Abby to the living room and abruptly stopped. "Oh, wait I forgot something in the car. I'll be right back." He went to grab his coat and the keys to the house so Abby wouldn't have to get back up and open the door once more.

She made her way back into the kitchen and started to look through her cook books. After a while she heard the door open and close and just a moment later, Jeffrey put his arms around her waist from behind and offered her a bouquet of flowers over her shoulder. Abby smiled brightly.

"You remembered!" she stated cheerfully.

"Of course I remembered the day I first met you, darling. Can you believe you have lived here for more than seven years now?" he let her turn around in his embrace .

"Feels like yesterday that I was sitting on the floor with Bonnie watching crappy shows because we were still waiting for our couch to arrive. How much has changed from that. I know I was always worried that she wasn't going to forgive me for dragging her out of Mystic Falls. Let me put these in a vase real quick." Abby turned out of Jeffrey's embrace and searched for a fitting vase to dunk the flowers into. When she found one, she filled it with water and sniffed on them once more before placing them on the kitchen table.

Jeffrey was waiting for her to come back into his arms and when she did the two shared a long kiss. After a while they heard loud laughter out of Bonnie's room. Jeffrey backed out of the kiss and looked to the ceiling skeptically.

"Is Jeremy here to visit?" he asked Abby because of the definite male laugh he just heard.

"No, it is Bonnie's friend from school. The new history partner, they are preparing something for school."

"Ah, who is it. Do I know him?" Jeffrey knew Bonnie wasn't his child but he had known her for what felt like forever and had grown really fond of her. He always felt protective towards his little girl.

"It's Kai Parker." Abby said and Jeffrey gave her a surprised look.

"That Kai Parker? The kid whose father you hate and that you never left a good hair on?" he asked her. "I am surprised that you would even let him near your daughter."

"Trust me, I wasn't too happy about this news either at first."

"But…?"

"I don't say this often but I think I might have been wrong about him. He is quite a nice boy and I know that Bonnie get along with him very well. So I thought I might give him a chance. For Bonnie's sake, of course!" She assured her boyfriend. He only smirked at her knowingly. He knew she didn't like to admit to a mistake she had made, so she would bring up Bonnie's happiness as the reason for her change of mind. But Jeffrey knew that she probably just liked the boy.

The laughter from above was reignited and the two adults shared a happy look.

"I like hearing that sound. She hasn't been too cheerful in the past few weeks." Jeffrey stated.

"I know, she hasn't admitted anything to me but I think Jeremy and her are going through some rough times. Maybe it won't hold much longer." She turned to the counter and placed a bowl on it to start her cooking.

"Finally." Jeffrey stated and earned a warning glare from his girlfriend. "What? You know I was never the biggest fan of that relationship. I mean, he has never even been here in all this time they are together. I think he isn't appreciating her enough and I think she deserves something better." He paused. "Someone that can make her happy. Like this!" He pointed to the ceiling to show Abby what he meant.

She understood. Jeremy had indeed never visited Bonnie in Portland and the times she had seen the two together she had never heart Bonnie laugh like this. She and Jeremy have always seemed to be a little bit apart. Maybe Jeffrey was right and it was time for Bonnie to move on. She just wasn't looking forward to the hours and hours of breakup songs playing in the house.

"Maybe you're right about the whole Jeremy thing. But you don't have to be the one listening to all the sobbing and looking into that sad face of hers when this ends. Teenage breakups are always so dramatic." Abby said.

"Well, maybe if she found someone else to give her comfort it wouldn't be too hard." He smirked.

Abby looked up to the ceiling and imagined what the two of them were laughing about so hard.
"Hm, they did seem kind of cute together. The chemistry was definitely there. But I doubt it would lead anywhere but in heartbreak. No matter how much I change my view over the kid, I don't take him as a one-girl kind of boy."

"Well, if it fits it fits." Was Jeffrey's comment. Abby had to smile on his vise statement. She remembered a scene from earlier as she was walking back into the kitchen with lemons in her and the caught the two of them, huddling their heads together and whispering. She had to stop for a second to take that in. While she prepared the lemonade she had wondered if the sight of them like this bothered her or not and came to the conclusion that it didn't.

All this was solely hypothetical thinking, but if Bonnie ever decided that Jeremy wasn't the right one for her and would set her sights on Kai, she wouldn't even mind. Maybe she would even embrace it.

Author's note: Here is another update I got ready before going back to university. Hope you like it. I realized that the way I planned for this story to turn out will end up making it soooo long. I am sorry for the slow build but the story is so concrete in my head already that I just have to get through with this like that. But on the positive note, you'll have so much more time with this fanfiction. Love that you stuck around this long. Until next time, LiLaAir.