Note: Editing isn't my vibe. Lafayette makes up for it though, promise. x
Music inspiration: Fade - Kanye West
(have you ever been drunk when this song comes on in a club? Good lord)
Pretty When You Cry
You're made of my rib or baby
You're made of my sin
Bonnie wasn't here to make friends, see them or be one.
She was here to dance and thank god for Pogue because he was the only one who seemed anywhere near the same frequency as her. They fit together like that somehow; defying all their squabbles, aversions and differences. When it came to a good time, when it came to movement and mayhem, he was there, head above water with her - grinning.
She pulled him by the hand, passing the bar, the lingering people and the questions of their friends they'd come with. He stuck a thumb up in the air as he followed after her to Lafayette and Stefan, Caleb's eyes glued to his phone as he sent Sarah a selfie. Bouncing on her heels as Love Galore started playing, she was twirled around and laughed as he pulled her back against his chest. He slipped his hands down the side of her body as she rested her head against his chest as they rocked side to side.
Why you bother me when you know you don't want me?
Why you bother me when you know you got a woman?
They sang along easily, both obsessed with SZA and Bonnie didn't think twice about adding friction to their dancing, and he didn't think twice of muttering into her ear to remind her of how hot they look together. With her hand hooked around the back of his neck she shut her eyes with a lazy smile as she slid down his body and wound her hips as she lifted herself back up.
"Are they always like that?" Stefan frowned from where he and Lafayette and Caleb stood at the bar.
"I could ask you the same thing about the lines on your forehead." Lafayette said with a cheeky smile over the mouth of his drink.
"So sassy," Stefan said with an indifferent smile, "But seriously, is Pogue -?"
"Bonnie's side-chick?" Caleb offered with a smirk over his shoulder, "Surprisingly, no. Bonnie's been pretty asexual since Damon."
"That's not even remotely true, stop projecting yourself onto her just because Sarah is sucking your soul clean off of your bones." Lafayette said dramatically before resting a hand on Caleb's shoulder, turning his eyes back onto Stefan, "Pogue was actually my side-chick for a while, I'm shitty like that."
"I doubt you can be shitty to someone with expectations as low as Pogue." Caleb offered to which Lafayette pursed his lips thoughtfully.
"That's true," he decided, eyes shining suddenly, "Maybe I'm not the devil after all."
"Okay now you're just fishing for compliments," Stefan said as he brought his drink to his mouth, "There's nothing evil about you." Caleb bugged his eyes out at their obvious chemistry, chuckling to himself.
"I don't know what's more insulting," Lafayette snorted, "The fact that you think there's so little to me that you can assume my moral code within a couple of hours of knowing me or that you think I'm nice." Stefan's mouth was pressed into an amused smile as he tried to hold in his laughter. Lafayette was ridiculous and charming and annoying and -
"Yes, he's always like that." Caleb grinned at Stefan before puckering his lips at Lafayette and settling his weight onto the bar behind them, surveying the club they were inside. "As far as small towns go, I'd say this is pretty legit."
"You say that about any place that stocks the beer you like." Lafayette waved him off. "I don't mean to startle you Stefan, but there's a solid wall that seems to have grown sentience and is headed your way." The youngest Salvatore had yet to take his eyes off of him.
"What are you -" Stefan's speech slipped off of his capabilities list as Tyler stepped into view.
How rude. He was even hotter than he was in high school. Those dark, glittering eyes lit up as they connected with Stefan's, Tyler's smile instant and wide as he came over with his arms already lifting for a hug.
"Stefan!" Lafayette faux-cheered behind their back and Caleb snickered into his hand before sobering his expression when the duo pulled apart.
You're so jealous he mouthed at Lafayette over Tyler's shoulder.
"This is Bonnie's bandmate, bandmate?" Stefan laughed a little, wondering why he couldn't speak, "Lafayette and another one, here, yeah, that's Caleb."
"Nice to meet you man." Caleb smiled sweetly as he shook Tyler's hand, eyes shifting subtly over to the syrupy expression on Lafayette's face belying his true feelings. "This is Lafayette." he said, forcing the two two lock eyes again.
"Tyler." The Lockwood boy said with a wholesome smile and an extended a hand. Lafayette didn't shake it, but didn't sneer either. That was a good sign.
"Sup, playa." Lafayette grinned, "Stefan tells me you two went to school together?"
"We did, yeah." Tyler nodded, shooting a quick smile toward the man in question. "We go way back."
"Yeah I bet," Lafayette winked. "If you trousers will excuse me, I'm going to find a pair of disco pants."
"Hey come on, we just got here." Caleb called, grabbing his arm.
"I said disco pants, not skinny jeans Caleb, get your relationshippy paws off of me so that I can go live my best life."
"Do one shot of tequila with me." Caleb bugged his eyes out the way he'd seen Bonnie do a thousand times to get her way.
"Stop pulling your face like that, it's making me want to donate to charity." Lafayette clucked. "Fine. Tequila. Then sluttiness."
"Do you two want in?" Caleb offered with a triumphant grin.
"Oh, I don't drink," Tyler said with a hand raised, "I actually just wanted to introduce Stefan to someone."
"Yeah, I'll have one." Stefan nodded, "so where is everyone?"
"Caroline's here somewhere with Elena." Tyler explained, "April, Jeremy, Anna, etc." He actually said, e-t-c.
"And they didn't want to come over?" Stefan frowned. Lafayette ran a quick palm across his forehead and chuckled when Stefan wiggled his face free of the perturbed lines. Shooting Lafayette a glare he looked back to Tyler with a brow ticked up.
"It's not that, it's just, you're with Bonnie and they didn't know -"
"What, how highly she thinks of herself?" Stefan said with an even, assessing look. Now, Lafayette and Caleb were alert.
"Look, I just wanted to introduce you to my boyfriend, not delve into the shitty small-town politics, especially not at Elena's word."
"Cause it isn't worth shit," Stefan pointed out seriously, "And you of all people know that."
"Ooh, tension!" Lafayette sang in perfect falsetto. Ignoring him, Stefan straightened his shoulders and looked Tyler square in the eye.
"And if you think introducing me to your boyfriend after you fucked me and fled from your sexuality, is going to make up for the hell you put me through as a kid you can think again, have a nice night and tell those sycophants I say I'll see them in hell." With that he turned around and flagged down a bartender, ordering six tequila shots.
"Sorry guy." Caleb shrugged at Tyler.
"See ya," Lafayette called as Tyler turned to leave, "Wouldn't wanna be ya!"
"Listen Petty Labelle," Caleb cut in, "If I remember correctly, you had manners once."
"Look at me," Lafayette popped out his hip, "Manners don't stand a chance." Turning serious he sidled over to Stefan. "If you want to pretend that didn't happen that's cool and everything, but I just wanna say that I was pleasantly surprised by that exchange."
"Mostly because he was frothing at the mouth with potential jealousy." Caleb cut in.
"Hush now," Lafayette drawled, "The gays are talking."
"Wait, you were jealous?" Stefan stilled.
"Of your jawline." Lafayette said in a knee-jerk reaction.
"He's deflecting." Caleb breathed, dolling out his umpteenth eye-roll.
"Caleb, so help me, I'll kill you, then use your body as a weapon to murder your girlfriend." Lafayette said, far too breezily.
"Why were you jealous?" Stefan pressed.
"I don't know, why do I still watch re-runs of Gossip Girl, which by the way, is the worst thing that's happened to me since Passions." Lafayette shrugged loosely, "I follow my feelings."
"You rarely make sense, did you know that?" Stefan asked. Before Lafayette could snark in response, Stefan pulled him in for a kiss, punctuated by the elated cheering of Caleb, which promptly fizzled out as he remembered how lonely he was and turned to down all their tequila shots.
All Lafayette could really comprehend was the ease with which their mouths moved together and the shrill squealing of his inner voice doing a victory lap.
When no one ain't around
I feel it's fadin'
I think I think too much
"Fuck," Lafayette muttered.
"I know," Stefan hissed against his lips, "This song is gold."
"Platinum."
"Dance with me?" Stefan still had his hands at the back of Lafayette's neck.
"Don't worry about me or anything," Caleb called after them as they sauntered off, "I'll just sit here alone scrolling through instagram until my battery dies." He sighed. "Then I'll just start crying."
"Please don't," a voice called over to him and he lifted his gaze to the bar-tender that'd been serving them. She was frowning through her amusement, "I'm literally one sad boy crying at my bar away from a nervous breakdown."
"What if I don't contort my face in an ugly way?" He wondered, eyes crinkling at the corners as she swatted at him with her towel. Leaning across the bar she quirked a brow as her long hair curtained her face.
"If you can cry and still look like you belong on the cover of Vogue the rest of your drinks are on me."
A slow smirk wove across Caleb's features.
Bonnie cheered as Stefan and Lafayette neared them on the dance floor.
The thrumming bass cut through all the formalities and the four of them turned inside out trying to keep pace with the adrenaline coursing through them.
Stefan felt hands on him and before he'd closed his eyes, the trio around him had surrounded him and somehow they all managed to move as one. All he knew was that they weren't Bonnie's.
"How does it feel?" Lafayette's voice was in his ear, sharking through the loud music, bright lights and pendemonium.
"Look at him, he's in bliss." Pogue said, laughter in his voice.
"It's been too long." Bonnie's voice came from a distance as a hard chest pressed into Stefan's back.
It really has been too long. He thought to himself.
All Stefan could understand was skin and proximity and noise, and a pleasant vibration coursing through everything around him. Turning around, he found himself facing Lafayette and his smile widened. Without holding his gaze for too long Stefan pulled him in for another kiss; wondering where the urgency had come from.
It's been far too long.
He'd burrowed himself a nice little hole in Mystic Falls, pacifying himself with his hermit-inducing career of writing. Writers didn't live rock star lives; they wrote about them, he'd reasoned after turning Bonnie's offer to live with her down again.
The odds of ever meeting someone like Lafayette was so slim that he knew he had to make the most of it before they went back on tour. Ships in the night, he reasoned, but he'd been lucky enough to slow time, just for tonight.
"Are those your friends?" Lana asked, nodding her head across the room to Pogue, Bonnie, Lafayette and Stefan in the midst of what had to be some kind of orgy.
"Family more like," he got a faraway look on his face as she placed another glass in front of him. They were in the smallest bar that only stocked his beer and ciders that no one seemed to be fond of, if the lack of foot traffic said anything. "We're in a band." He tipped the glass back with a glimmer in his eye, gauging her reaction.
"Anything I might have heard?"
"What do you usually listen to?" He asked.
"My dad's record collection," she shrugged with a laugh, "Perks of living in a small town, no one thinks anything of you not listening to the radio or knowing what Taylor Swift looks like."
"I like that," he smiled, "But they'll tell you it's because I have a thing about familiarity."
"Everyone does," she offered with a here and gone smile, "Familiarity is home. But, I'm more convinced my life is in retrograde and I might never stop living in the past."
"You didn't mean to say that did you?" He asked and she nodded, ducking her head as she ruffled her fringe. He looked at her properly as the twirling lights above shot in her direction. She was nothing like Sarah. Her skin was a smooth caramel colour, her hair, long dark ribbons and her frame somewhere on par with his, save for her curvaceousness that he could see even from where he sat. She also happened to actually listen to music and not just berate his taste on a whim the way his girlfriend did.
"Don't tell me you thought you were the only one capable of crying with a straight face." She teased, still a little flushed. "...Sorry, I always end up with my foot in my mouth."
"Don't apologise," he said easily, "This is easily the most interesting conversation I've had since I've gotten here. Well, unless you count me having to explain to the teller at the thrift store that Pogue only thinks he's allergic to anything but mesh fabric."
"Why does Pogue sound like my drunken alter ego?" Lana laughed.
"Right?" Caleb sighed, "he's the best, actually." his eyes averted for a beat, "way braver than me."
"I wouldn't say brave, outgoing is more like it," they both looked to the dance floor where the man in question had started twerking in front of Bonnie. "I think you're brave." Caleb turned back to face her with a frown. "You clearly have some form of social anxiety and your friends dragged you out here and left you for dead, but you made a friend instead of a scene, so...congrats."
He held her gaze for a long moment and felt the flicker of something he hadn't felt in years thrum on the edges of his chest.
She was beautiful and familiar-feeling and didn't think anything about telling someone how she felt, and didn't use that as a scapegoat for meanness the way people usually did as a coping mechanism. She used the truth to connect. It was refreshing.
"You're nice." Caleb observed and balked when a look of outrage flitted over her features.
"I am not nice," Lana said holding up a finger, "I just understand anxiety."
and accommodate accordingly.
"Semantics." He shrugged, taking a sip as she smiled over at him. Her face fell again. "Oh shit."
"Wh-" he turned around and saw that a fight had broken out on the dancefloor. "For fuck sakes."
Note: Stefayette is a go!
Also - BAR FIGHT unfolds in the next episode ;)