CHAPTER 14

"Just breathe, okay?" Lizzie whispered as she paced around her room. "Everything is just fine," her whispering was becoming slightly more manic the longer she paced. Penelope was watching her nemesis pace like a mad woman.

The thunderclap had come not long after they arrived. Neither of them knew what to do, but Alaric had since sent a messenger to the dorms reassuring everyone holed up that the danger had passed for the moment. There were many minutes spent with Lizzie pacing, muttering assurances to herself and Penelope looking kind of out of it.

There were tear/mascara tracks running down Penelope's face reaching as far down as her jawline. "What the fuck was she thinking?" Lizzie said into the quite cloud that had long since settled over the two enemies.

"Are you alright?" Penelope asked. Her voice was raspy and guarded.

"No I'm fucking not…are you?" Lizzie responded. She managed to soften her tone at the end, not wanting to upset Penelope even more for reasons the blonde couldn't quite place.

"Not a chance," Penelope confessed. The sheer amount of terror Hope instilled in Josie's ex-girlfriend had clearly torn through some of her mean-girl walls. "Was she like that when she made you drink her blood?"

Lizzie considered for a moment before saying, "Well, she was a little more quietly psycho about it. Like, I didn't think she'd have gone ape shit like she did with you. But Josie seemed to see that kind of thing was just under the surface. We just drank. Well, Josie drank without hesitation. I…spilled my first glass of her blood, but drank the second one just before the Valkyrie and Black Jesus showed up."

Penelope let out a hollow snort, "Black Jesus? Really?"

"Did you see him? I mean, he might not have a beard or whatever, but fuck…I'd pray to him if you know what I mean. Tell me you've seen a better looking guy recently, or ever," Lizzie said matter-of-factly.

Penelope just shook her head. There were another few moments of quiet punctuated by somebody storming down the hall and slamming a door, which both girls chose to ignore.

"Thanks for saving me from Hope," Penelope said after a while of silence. "I didn't think she'd be so scary. Like, I've done some scary shit to enemies of mine in the past…but I'm her classmate. I haven't spoken more than ten minutes with her the whole time I've known her."

Lizzie nodded, "Neither have I or Josie, really. I think they bonded during our god-awful community service stint, but other than that she's secluded herself. She was way out of line. What she almost did. I've never seen her like that before, never seen the Mikaelson side of her so clearly. Like, She saved us from monsters sure, and she was violent as fuck about it. But this was different. You may be a bitch, but Hope was still wrong."

Penelope fixed Lizzie with a look that Lizzie wasn't quite sure what to do with, but then the dark-haired girl said, "Thanks. Seriously. You didn't have to help me. I mean, I was a bitch to you, and Josie, kinda. Even though she set me on fire without remorse…why did you save me?" the question just burst out. Penelope couldn't help herself, she had to know why everything was now suddenly different. The whole dynamic between everybody was different now.

It was Lizzie's turn to be quiet. "I didn't like seeing you scared."

"You didn't like seeing me scared? What's that supposed to mean?" Penelope scoffed despite herself. Tact was never really her forte anyway.

"Look, you're the cunning, skanky, A-plus-plus know-it-all who dated my sister, my twin. And she loved you, Park. She really did. And then you broke her fucking beautiful heart to pieces." Lizzie obviously got a little distracted going down this tangent.

Penelope looked ready to intercede on her own behalf, but Lizzie cut her off with a harsh gesture, "No, you did. And I'm not saying it didn't hurt you too, but you were visibly much better off post-break up. And–,"

Penelope wouldn't be stopped this time, "I'm much better at lying to people with my actions that Jo is. Especially when I'm dying inside. You think I wasn't–," Penelope rose to her feet in anger.

"Hurting?" Lizzie spat, staring her down, "I really didn't care at the time, but your actions after the break up really only solidified how I viewed you. And before you ask, fuck yeah I hated you. I still kind of do actually," Lizzie was breathing hard, she was towering over the other girl who was almost hissing mad.

"Big news Blondie, I already knew you hated me. Hell, I hated myself after for a while, but our relationship was always doomed when you were part of the equation. And I know that now."

It was Penelope who was on a roll now, pushing the blonde back a step with her sheer presence despite being nearly a head shorter, "You sucked up all the air around her, you sabotaged multiple dates of ours, you belittled me to her behind my back, AND to my face, in front of her no less; time and time again. What chance did we have when the person Josie loved most in the world didn't approve of me? I wasn't perfect Lizzie, but I tried so hard for her, and apparently it was never enough. Not for you." Penelope had a watery shine to her eyes now, the emotions were forcing new tears down her cheeks.

"You broke up with her!," Lizzie shot back.

"BECAUSE THE BOTH OF US WERE TEARING HER APART. I couldn't bring myself to make her choose. She'll always choose you." Penelope had new tears running down her face. The horror of being at Hope's mercy almost driven from her mind as her most painful romantic failure was brought back into sharp relief.

There was silence for a solid minute following Penelope's declaration. Both girls took heavy breaths before Penelope spoke up again, having remembered the question that sent them down this fucking rabbit hole. "You clearly wanted me gone, so why the hell didn't you let Hope destroy my magic huh? You would've gotten everything you've ever wanted. Josie would never have to see me again, because as a vampire, I'd leave this school and not come back, and I think you knew that. I'd never be able to face Hope again…or risk killing anybody here in a bloodrage."

"Because seeing you terrified like that was wrong!" Lizzie shouted back. "It was wrong." Lizzie didn't realise it, but Penelope's words hit deep, and Lizzie's eyes were just as watery as the other girl's.

"Why did you sabotage Josie's relationship with me?" Penelope asked softly. Her emotions were nearly spent.

Lizzie's emotions where not in fact spent, and before she knew it, she had bent down slightly, took Penelope's cheeks in her hands, and laid a very wet and emotionally charged kiss on Penelope's open mouth.

It was several moments before Lizzie pulled back.

There was a beat of mildly horrified silence.

Both of them were blushing like mad.

There were two pairs of very wide eyes and heavy breathing before Lizzie promptly turned on her heel and fled her room, not even bothering to close the door.