As long as I could remember, I'd always hated founding events. Or, actually, anything with any sort of connection to the so called 'founding families' of Mystic Falls. More like 'leading families' really. The whole thing was just a power game. Event after event filled with speeches honoring the Founders and the town's history. Aka: blah, blah, blah! However, the worst part of it all was probably the numerous grown-ups constantly sneaking around, preventing me from actually enjoying myself and having a good time. But I went anyway, because as a Gilbert in this town I bloody well had to.
Which was why I was currently standing in front of the wardrobe in my walk-in-closet, dragging my fingers over my few dresses. I wavered at a dark blue one, closely fitted with broad shoulder-straps, as it was an old favorite of mine. Pulling it out, I held it in front of me to survey my reflection in the tall mirror to the right. Perfect. But as I was about to put it back, something caught my eye; a spot of something dark-red – nearly brown – which looked an awful lot like dried blood, on the right strap. On top of that, there were also some bad efforts at sewing a tear back together in the same place.
Right! Now I remembered. My fingers stroking across the mark left from a bullet on the back of my right shoulder, the memory of the pain made me flinch slightly, and I sighed as I viewed my dress once more. I couldn't wear an old bloodstained dress, now could I? When I thought about it, the majority of my dresses had actually been either bloodstained or ripped in some way. Most of them so much that they were beyond saving, which had left me with limited options. Those few remaining, hanging in my closet now, were not fit for a nice event like the Founder's Party; too tight, too little fabric, or just in general too revealing. At least for Carol Lockwood. She would have me escorted off the premises the very second she saw me in one of them. Which, thinking about it, might not be such a bad thing…
Now way! Elena would kill me. Speaking of which, perhaps she had some dress laying around I could wear. We should be about the same size now, although she might be a little smaller than me.
With that in the back of my head, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door, sending my still falling apart apartment a disregarding look.
During my brief time back in town, I had come to realize that not having a car sucked.
The commute out here in the middle of nowhere was about as nonexistent as it could get, and if I were to take one of the few busses that drove past every other hour, I would end up nearly as far away from the Gilbert house as I where now. This left walking as my sole option.
But the thing about Mystic Falls was that no matter where you were going, you had to go through the woods to get there. When I was a kid, I had thought this to be both scary and a little exciting, but now it was just plain annoying. Especially at night when you could barely see where you stepped. The animal attacks that filled the news didn't exactly make the situation better. But I definitely didn't believe them, not with the knowledge of this town's history and the founding families' methods of covering certain things up. Without a doubt, something fishy was going on around here; another thing for me to add to my list of finding out.
However, I didn't have anymore time to curse at the bad commute or ponder over the media's or the town's cover-ups, since I made a final turn to walk onto the pavement of my childhood street.
Once I'd reached my old house, thankfully with less emotions in my heart than last time, I didn't bother knocking before entering. With the front door closed behind me, I caught the faint sound of Elena and Bonnie getting ready upstairs. Thus, I simply walked right up and into my sister's room to throw myself onto her bed.
"Parks, what are you doing here?" Elena exclaimed in surprise as she spotted me through the mirror over her dresser. She lowered her hand from her ear, leaving a small, sparkling earring twinkling in the afternoon sun that seeped in through an ajar window.
"I need a dress," I declared. "Don't have any and I'm wayyy to lazy to go shopping." I stretched out on my sister's comfortable bed and finished off by flashing her my sweetest smile possible. Bonnie, fiddling with her hair as she fought the brunette for the mirror, rolled her eyes at me before giving up to head for the one in the bathroom instead. Elena tried to hide the small smile that crept onto her face by shaking her head in a supposedly resigned way.
"Fine, I'll see what I have." She moved to start digging through her closet. From my place propped up on my elbows, I saw clothes flying all across the room, until eventually the flow of fabrics stopped and Elena turned around with a black dress held in front of her. It was sleeveless thing with a skirt that seemed to end right above the knee, the area between the chest and up to the neck covered with black lace. "Well?" Elena inquired expectantly.
"Looks fine." I shrugged. "But it might be a little small…"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" she exclaimed and threw the dress at me. "You're all muscles! Of course it'll fit. Come on, try it on!"
An encouraging nod later, I slipped into it – making sure to keep my back turned away from her – and had to admit defeat; the dress fit perfectly.
"Told you so!" Elena joked from beside me.
"I mean, it's a little tight–" I tried, but received a pillow in the face that efficiently shut me up. The lace also just so happened to nicely cover the mark left from the bullet on my back shoulder, as well as a few other scars that stretched across my back as well; however, this was something I did not point out to my sister.
Instead, her focus turned to my hair, granting it a disapproving look. With a roll of my eyes, I allowed her to boss me around and sat down in a chair she so kindly pointed at. As soon as she began combing through my wavy mess, she faintly began humming, and it was frankly oddly relaxing to listen to. Still, I just had to tease her a little.
"Is this really necessary?"
"Yep." She responded shortly but lightly, tugging through an extra stubborn tangle with some added force.
"Do you really think it looks that bad?" I questioned, not even flinching or grimacing from the pain. Elena was too busy to notice it.
"Yep."
"You're mean," I stated, meeting my sister's gaze in the mirror with a frown, but soon broke into a chuckle. "When did this happen?"
"Right around the time Jeremy started acting like a typical pothead teenager," she informed me matter-of-factly.
"Huh," was my only comment, observing her tight face in the mirror. "And where does our baby bro happen to be now?"
"In his room. Sulking," Elena sighed, reaching for a bobby pin on the dresser.
"Yeah? About what?" I checked. I hadn't yet to reveal myself in person to our brother, but the more I knew beforehand about his changed behavior lately the easier it would be to feel him out.
"Some old heirloom pocket watch Carol wanted for the exhibit tonight, but Jeremy…" She paused with a sigh. "Well, being Jeremy, took it because according to him Dad once said it was supposed to be his and–" She shook her head, tiredly, but I'd caught on to something.
"Is it this golden old thing with Roman numbers?" I checked.
"Yeah…" Elena replied, deeply concentrated with some extra annoying piece of hair. "You know it?"
"You could say that," I mumbled, but had no chance to elaborate since Bonnie returned from the bathroom attached to Elena's bedroom.
"If you two are talking about Jeremy, you should know he isn't in his room anymore," Bonnie reported, smoothing her hair in place.
"You're kidding," Elena let out with a huff, raising her face to the ceiling. "Whatever," she sighed, shaking her head as she returned her attention to mine. "Wherever he decides to sulk during the event tonight…"
"An event Elena has a date to," Bonnie told me as she sat down on the windowsill, screwing off the top of a small bottle of white nail polish in her hand. "Unlike me, who is flying solo."
"Well, shame on you, Elena!" I jokingly accused my sister. "Being happy when there are miserable people present!" The mood from thinking of Jeremy gone, Elena couldn't even hide the smile I already recognized as one being caused by thinking of Stefan. "Well, screw it, Bonnie!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air to receive an admonishing look from my sister.
"Hold still," she ordered.
"No!" I retorted, before turning to Bonnie's reflection. "Not that I think you need a date to a party, just for the record. But do you wanna be mine, Bonnie Bennett?" I batted my eyelashes at her, earning a laugh.
"You're a little too old for me, but sure Parker Gilbert. It would be my pleasure."
"Great! Then it's settled," I stated with content.
"You might have a jealous and lonely Jenna on your hands," Elena informed, seeming to be pulling the last pieces of hair and pinning them in place.
"Eh, we'll deal." I waved off.
"There! Done!" Elena declared proudly, taking a step back to admire her work with pride whilst I did my own view of it in the mirror.
She had indeed outdone herself, taming my unruly, wavy shoulder-lengths by sweeping them back on one side into a french-twisty-sorta-thingy. The rest was out and now loosely let curled in the somewhat humid air. I had to admit, it looked damn good.
"Thanks." I stood up, stepping closer to the mirror to turn and watch it more thoroughly from the side.
"No problem." Instantly, Elena took my place. "Now." She fluffed up her hair. "Time to return the favor."
As I walked up the steps to the Lockwood mansion, I regarded the not so bad-looking half-updo I'd managed to pull Elena's hair into. At first, it had pretty much just wanted to fall apart, but after calling in both Bonnie and Jenna as my assistants, we'd made it work. Those two were for the record flanking my sides, chatting over my head as I surveyed Elena ahead of us, her arm looped with Stefan's and looking as happy as ever.
"Well, look at this place!" Jenna commented with an impressed whistle once we were inside, and I couldn't help but agree.
No expenses had been spared on the party. Everywhere there were waiters serving people, offering them drinks. Flowers decorated every room I popped my head into, and no matter where one turned people in fancy clothes were parading around with a sparkling drink in hand. Eyeing those glasses with envy, I caught Jenna following them with her gaze as well.
Due to some paper or assignment at school, she'd arrived back at the house late – still just in time to help with Elena's hair – and quickly thrown on her current gorgeous dress and jumped into a pair of uncomfortable-looking heels. As she caught me eyeing her shoes with a frown, she made a snorting remark about my own heels, and we both broke into a chuckle with Bonnie staring on in confusion.
"You guys are weird," Bonnie claimed.
"Oh, you young thing." I patted the dark-haired head gently. "You'll understand better when you get older." Jenna agreed with a laugh.
But speaking of which.
As we headed further into the grand and beautifully decorated mansion, I caught sight of Sheriff Forbes stiffly talking with Caroline, and made a mental note to be on the lookout for Damon.
"Will you guys excuse me for a moment," I directed towards my dates with my eyes set on Liz sighing as her daughter walked away from her with confident steps. "I gotta say hi to an old friend."
Without waiting for a reply, but still catching a faint, "Sure," from somewhere behind me, I slipped through the already thick crowd – still, after all these years and events, surprised at how many people lived in the little town, and how many of them actually showed up to something like this out of their own free will – towards the uniform-clad woman.
"Sup, Liz?" I greeted, a quick nod at her brown eyes widening.
"Well, well," Elizabeth chuckled. "If it isn't little Parker Gilbert." She surveyed me with a frown before rephrasing. "Or, maybe not so little anymore."
"Nope," I confirmed with a small chuckle of my own. "All grown-up and back to paint the town red." She mirrored my smile, though a bit stiffly.
"So, how you've been? All over the world, I've heard," Liz chuckled. Now, it was my smile's turn to grow strained on my lips.
"Oh, you know." I shrugged. "I've been alright." The action made my back strain and ache.
"England was good?" The little time I spent there, I suppose. But depends on what you classified as good; the time there, or the results from it.
"Marvelous," I replied, with feeling. She swallowed the lie whole. "And yourself?"
"Well," Liz sighed. "Things could be better."
"Personally or townwise?" I checked, my eyes sharpened to every little tell in the lines of her face.
"Both," she admitted. "But neither is really none of your concern," she told me with a gentle pat on my bare upper arm. "It's good to have you back. Even with circumstances–"
"That was months ago," I cut her off, more firm than I'd expected. Quickly, I tried to smooth it over. "There's no need to talk of that." No need to bring up the accident I was already sure I'd be hearing of from every person who shook my hand in this place; both to my face and behind my back.
"Sure," the Sheriff acknowledged with a nod. "The important thing is that your back."
"Yeah," I agreed. "All for family." At that, she smiled, but I felt what I was about to say would swing that mood rather drastically. "And–" I lowered my voice. "–back to find out what is painting the town red." Her kind face immediately closed up. Told you so.
"That's nothing you need to concern yourself with," the Sheriff stated firmly.
"Really? 'Cause that's not what it sounded like last time I was home," I reminded. "And since then, the 'animal attacks'," I mocked, "only seems to have grown in numbers."
"If I remember correctly, you cleared yourself from that involvement pretty firmly," Liz recalled with a narrowing gaze. "To your uncle's great dismay." My jaw tightened. "But he isn't here to vow for your case now. I'm sorry, Parker. It's better if you stay out of it," she made her tone a bit lighter, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "At least for now."
As if I was an incompetent child, I was shunned and shot down by the Sheriff leaving me with a final squeeze of my shoulder. It took a lot to prevent me from squeezing her back. Hard.
"There you are!" Jenna exclaimed and linked arms with me the moment the uniform was out of sight, ripping me from my daze. "I think I might have seen the Fell," she hissed into my ear, though still smiling as Bonnie joined us.
"The Scumfell?" I felt my brows furrowing, shaking off my previous conversation to direct my anger towards this new figure. "Where? Let me kick his ass."
"Oh, no!" Jenna protested, hauling me back in, but barely succeeding in doing so. Noting my strength with surprise, she gawked at me from beneath a creasing frown. I stripped my face from showing any signs of my cursings within for that sloppy mistake.
"Better to not cause a scene," Bonnie put in. Jenna, snapping out of it, agreed with a nod.
"Let's avoid the happy couple and get something to drink," my aunt declared, her head inclined in the opposite direction of Elena and Stefan striding alongside each other, hands connected, and so I allowed her to drag me with her.
Eventually, as the night passed, Jenna grew a bit tired of me and Bonnie and no alcohol, deciding to venture some exploring all by herself in the crowd. Allowing her as much, but with a warning to beware of her former dick of a boyfriend the Scumfell, I stuck by Bonnie's side.
She was a bit shaken up about the numbers and whole witch-thing from the dinner, and had apparently seen those exact numbers after coach and teacher Tanner had been found dead a few nights ago. Was I sad about Tanner? No! The guy was a total dickhead. But also the victim of an animal attack, might I add. As if there weren't any other inventive cover-up stories for them to use…
Since Bonnie was pretty freaked out about it, I kept myself from following Jenna's lead and – after an uninterested stroll through the room with the display of old artifacts and heirlooms from the founding families – sat by her side, patiently listening to the drama that had occurred at the football game with my since long empty glass in hand. Whilst hearing the details of my brother getting into a fight with none other than the Mayor's prick of a son Tyler Lockwood, I couldn't help but note the curious glances thrown my way by the passing crowd.
The Gilbert's oldest daughter, the rebellious and criminal one, back in town? Their murmurs of gossip weren't hard to miss, as discretion was something the people in this town needed to learn a thing or two about.
Finally, after having endured this combination for several hours, I realized there was only so much teenage drama I could take and excused myself to Bonnie to go get a drink containing something a bit stronger than what had been handed to me by a passing waiter earlier, leaving her in a room filled with unlit candles.
Reaching the bar without kicking anyone down for the whispers I caught, I easily recognized the bartender and charmed myself a drink from the easily swayed soul. But as I was finally about to take my first sip and taste that alcoholic goodness, I felt someone approach to stop at my side.
"You know, I had to pay your tab after you stormed out last time," a drawling voice spoke, and with a muted grunt I turned in its direction.
"Oh, yeah? I'm sure it must have hurt your wallet," I snorted sarcastically, grabbing my drink to move away from Damon and his intense eyes. Only, he followed me. "You know, in such a small town word travels fast, and the Salvatore Boarding House and its massiveness isn't really a secret," I directed over my shoulder, halting on the threshold of one of the open glass doors that lead to the equally fancy decorated patio and garden.
"Of course," Damon replied, stopping to lean against the other side of the doorway. With a glance downwards at his feet very much inside, a frown settled on my face. "But it almost sounds like you've been keeping tabs on me." At the amused voice, my gaze snapped up to meet his smirk.
"Dreaming big, huh?" I huffed, but his grin only grew. "Just like you've dreamed yourself a date, I assume." My surveying of the room showed me no blonde or other female heading towards us.
"Oh, I'm here with someone. We can't all be modern and go solo," Damon said with a knowing, undressing smile.
"Who here has been keeping tabs on who, hm?" I shot back, raising a brow. Oh, now I had him; the smirk wavering for a second.
"She's just in the bathroom," Damon collected himself to reply with, a nod in the direction of a fancy decorated corridor across the room; golden garlands strapped against the ceiling leading the way to a sign reading 'ladies room' in cursive.
"Right…" I mumbled, looking back at him as I considered how to best scare the guy away from my sister's friend; a new technique needed after how our last encounter ended. But those musings were stirred away by him still eyeing me, his head slightly tilted to the side. "Did you want something, or…?" I checked, cocking a brow up.
"No," Damon responded easily. "I was just curious."
"About what?" I questioned, my brows now instantly furrowed at the wry, smug smirk growing on his face.
"If Elena told you what happened the night of the football game," Damon spoke, a spark of mischievousness hard to miss.
"What about it?" I interrogated, crossing my arms whilst being sure not to crush or pour out the content of my glass. Whatever threatening abilities I knew I had to put on display, this guy seemed to be immune to every one of them. Instead, Damon merely seemed amused as he shrugged and chuckled slightly.
"I tried to kiss her," he informed. Immediately, I froze, and stared him down.
"You what?" My voice was instantly cold and collected, an occurrence always happening whenever I felt anger start to pound through my body and being.
"Relax, it was before you told me to back off." Damon waved off, as if it would make everything better. "No hard feelings."
"Then why are you telling me now, hm?" I checked, keeping back the seething occurring behind my clenched jaws.
Not bothering to provide me with a good answer, Damon only kept watching me with his content smirk. Really, it was answer enough; clearly he found amusement in pissing off the older sister – aka me – to see what she'd do. Well, I certainly didn't.
"Was that it?" I pressed, feeling my anger coming out to show itself as I hugged the glass in my hand tighter. "Has your need for attention been fulfilled?" Still, Damon only kept smirking with amusement written as clear as day on his face. The frustration of not getting to him was beginning to eat away at me. "Or do you need some therapeutic advice about you and your brother's flawed relationship? That problematic history that just keeps getting in the way?" I bit off. "For so long now that you can't move on, so you have to keep destroying his life instead."
That seemed to get to him. The smug smile wavered as he – for but a moment – looked at me in pure astonishment. Then, his eyes darkened.
"Well, aren't you a clever one," Damon stated, his voice fuming with poorly hidden anger. He couldn't have scared me less if he so grew fangs to flash at me, I was too content with finally having hit something. A sore spot revealed for me to focus my energy on.
"I wasn't a psychology major for nothing." I shrugged with a grin. But Damon didn't seem so amused anymore. Now, why did that make me feel better? "The only question is…" I began, moving to circle him a bit where he in return had pushed himself off the doorframe in anger, ultimately stopping to stare; genuinely curious as I spoke, "What happened between you two?"
For a second or two, Damon looked ready to push me out of the house with a growl, but composed himself; the flash of danger in his eyes gone as quickly as it had appeared.
"If you insist on knowing…" Damon muttered, and a new spark in his blue eyes ignited. "A long time ago, there was a girl," he opened with, a small shake of his head as if to claim 'isn't it always?' I couldn't help but agree. "Her name was Katherine, and Stefan and I were both in love with her." At that, his jaw twitched, and I found myself tightening my grip on my drink again out of pure instinct. "She never chose between us, and ultimately Stefan was the one responsible for her death." His bitterness splashed onto my smugness as he spat the last part. And now – it seemed – it was my turn to look at him in surprise; I had not expected those beans to be spilled so easily. But then again, my gut had told me anger was Damon's weakness, and apparently the hunch had been correct. Boy, did I know that feeling.
"I see…" Closely, I surveyed his features whilst weighing my following words. "Well," I began, "clearly I'm not the only one with some troubled history involving my family here." To that, Damon gave me a slight smile, the mood changing quickly, and this time I actually returned it.
"Seems we've both been a bit exposed," Damon stated, then reached out his hand for me. "Truce?" he asked in a charming voice, gazing at me suddenly innocently.
At first, my own gaze narrowed. This was a guy I'd threatened to stay away from my sister and her friend just a few mere days ago, and he had not only refused to do that, but also in a way sent a warning of his own back. And now, he was flirting vigorously, even despite my attempts at evoking a row. But at the same time…
Scouting the room, every member of this petty, godforsaken community tried to outmatch everyone else – and probably Carol Lockwood's decorations as well – with their fancy clothes. It was all so shallow and boring. Utterly boring! So could you blame me for thinking that it was kind of nice and fun to have the opportunity to play around with someone frankly hot and flirt a bit? Even if he was also a dick I'd made sure to watch my step around.
"Truce," I ultimately spoke, and so we shook hands on it; Damon – of course – holding onto my hand a little longer than necessary as he also stepped closer. I gave him a glare to watch it, and received a chuckle in return. Still, the male obeyed, eyeing my drink once I was satisfied with the space between us.
"I'm sure that's delicious..." He nodded at the since long forgotten alcohol in my hand. "But there's champagne outside." How could I pass up on such a thing?
"Then lead the way." I smirked back at him, and he held out his arm for me to take. In honor of this brief truce for him to prove himself to be able to behave, I accepted it – but not without a roll of my eyes, which I made sure he noted.
A few glasses of champagne later, as well as a lot more teasing and flirty exchanges of words, Elena appeared in the doorframe we'd been conversing in not long ago. After surveying the crowd, spotting us just as I was in the middle of a chuckle, she stormed down the stone steps and out onto the cobbled patio with twinkling lights hanging from the overhead marquees, heading right towards us.
"There is something seriously wrong with you," my sister exclaimed, pushing Damon backwards. His recent smile instantly faltered. "You stay away from Caroline or I will go straight to her mother, the Sheriff. You got it? Stay away from her." As soon as he furious speech was done, Elena stormed past him, giving me an angry look on the go mixed with some kind of hurt.
With a sigh, I realized I had to follow her to figure out what the hell that had been about. As I turned from my sister's back heading out from the lights and down towards the lake beyond a green bit of lawn, to Damon, I caught him clenching his jaw and looking over at me. I simply shook my head.
"And here I was actually beginning to like you," I sighed. He avoided my gaze, instead directing it down into the cobbled ground. Where there was a thousand things for me to choose to do or say, I only just walked away. Elena had stood for the angry outburst tonight, I had no energy left to provide the same thing again. A first, actually.
Following the path she had taken down a grander stair made of stones, I soon reached her standing in front of Stefan by the side of the pond with a squirting fountain in the middle. Apparently, she was quarreling with him as well.
Just in time, I managed to catch her say, "Trust is earned. I can't just magically hand it over," before Stefan looked up, his gaze stopping on something behind me.
"I'm so sorry. I have to go," he spoke, a hint of guilt in his voice detectable to my ears as I had almost reached them completely. Hastily, Stefan walked past Elena, flashing me a quick but equally apologetic look in the process. Oh yeah, he better be sorry.
After briefly gazing after him to see him melting together with the shadows the trees on the grounds cast, I turned back to my sister to spot her shoulders start to tremble. The slight quiver in them grew as I walked around to face her, the tears in her eyes becoming visible to me. She bore a look of being beaten, hurt and dejected. No words were needed, she simply shook her head and I embraced her.
But after a moment in that position, when I deemed her trembling to have ceased, I withdrew.
"Hey." As odd as it still felt, I reached a hand to wipe across her damp cheeks. "We should probably find Caroline, okay?" Elena agreed with a nod, and so we began walking over the green grounds with my arm still around her shoulder.
As we looked for the blonde in question, Elena filled me in on how she had seen bruises and bitemarks all over Caroline's body. She also described how confused Caroline had acted. The more she told me, the deeper my frown became. Bite marks? Animal attacks? Strange brothers with deep history? I hoped Elena was just mistaking them for something else, because the list against the Salvatores was just growing and growing.
Soon enough, I spotted a figure standing alone out on one of the green lawns lit from the lamps a level above on the patio adjacent to the grand house, her back turned to us. Immediately, I recognized the blonde hair and the blue dress as the one Caroline had been wearing this evening, even as she was mostly hidden in the shadows. Gently, I stuck my arm into Elena's side and pointed towards her friend, and my sister simply nodded before walking up to the blonde.
Even from my place so far away, I recognized Caroline's stiff posture soon beginning to shake as my sister reached her to place a hand on the blonde's shoulder. As Elena drew her into an embrace, I left them to deal on their own; I didn't think Caroline would have wanted me there anyway.
On my way back towards the house, I met Stefan standing and watching the scene a few steps above in the bricked staircase I was heading up for.
"You promised me you wouldn't hurt her," I reminded him, too tired to get back at him for that; at least right now. With guilt written all over his brooding features, Stefan looked away, kind of like his brother had earlier. I simply sighed and brushed past him.
"I've taken care of Damon," he spoke up behind me, and I stopped. "He won't hurt Caroline again." I cast a glance over my shoulder. Stefan was hesitating, as if trying to find the right words. "Look, I don't know what he said to you–"
"It doesn't matter," I cut off. "He didn't have to say anything, I already know what I'm dealing with," I stated, and suspicion lit within Stefan's green eyes. "I can handle it, and him, on my own."
As I began walking away again, I halted and turned around for one last thing with my sister's heartbroken expression dancing in the back of my mind.
"No matter what happens now or in the future, you should still tell Elena the truth," I spoke, my gaze drifting to the lawn where my sister had stood moments ago, now having moved away with her arm around her sobbing friend. "She doesn't like to be lied to. Believe me, I know." And I was playing a dangerous game with my own lies, maybe even more so than Stefan.
Stefan, who must have noticed how tired I sounded, simply nodded, watching me leave without asking any further questions I was sure raced around his mind.