Beneath me, the soft cushions I rested upon shifted as someone seated themselves next to me, evoking a groan as they tried to rip the pillow I had covering my face to shield it from the blinding light. Succeeding with their task, I was momentarily blinded by the sunlight sneaking in through the badly angled blinds, before my sister's face came into my squinted view.

"I thought your alcohol persistence was better than this," Elena accused, but I heard both the worry and love in her voice, even in my current hungover state.

"It usually is. But anyone can have a bad night." Or a bad drink. Checking for effects after last night, I found that my mouth felt dry and my voice sounded hoarse. I tried clearing my throat in the hopes that it would feel better, but instead I got the feeling I was being stabbed by thousands of small daggers. In other words, not so pleasant. Elena held out a glass of water for me, and I took it without hesitating. As I carefully tried to sit up, my head only began to pound more obsessively. A futile thought had me considering fighting hangover with more booze, and I stretched in my seat to try to get a better view of the cabinet where I kept some of my liquor.

"I emptied it," Elena spoke, following my gaze, and my eyes snapped back to her.

"You WHAT?"

"You can't keep drowning your problems in alcohol." She rose up from the light gray couch and moved through my one-roomed apartment towards the windows, where she recklessly drew the blinds up completely. The light immediately filled the room, and I released a hissing sound, pinning my eyes shut as I desperately tried to find my previous pillow to bury my face in.

"I don't have a drinking problem, you crazy woman!" I shouted as Elena returned and once again attempted to pry the pillow from my grasp.

"You...need...a...job!" she grunted, finally managing to jerk the pillow away. We both stared at each other, equally out of breath. "You're hungover! How can you be so strong?" I only shrugged and put a hand over my eyes to avoid answering; it didn't prevent the sunlight from reaching me one bit.

When I finally removed it, Elena had magically managed to make me toast and a cup of tea.

"How very British of you," I joked, but a flash of pain in my head stopped me from seeing my sister's reaction. Although she probably rolled her eyes at me or something, as usual.

"I thought you might miss it." There was a bigger meaning behind those words than she let show. I knew how curious Elena was about my time away. I had basically given her absolutely no information about it whatsoever, but I wasn't going to change that now.

Instead, I sat up, with much effort, and began drinking my tea and nibbling on the toast. Rather than pushing the matter any further, Elena went back to her previous topic.

"So, I've looked for a few available positions around town…" Elena began. I grunted at this, and she sighed. "How are you otherwise suppose to pay the rent of this place?" The memory of my sketchy landlord's note, sitting on my door at my arrival, resurfaced.

"Fine," I muttered, and Elena's mood immediately rose considerately.

"Then it's settled! Here's what I found." She pulled out a file from her shoulder bag and placed it on the coffee table in front of me. "Flip it through and we can talk more about it when you're not so…" I raised an eyebrow at her eyeing my appearance with distaste. "We'll talk later," she settled on and rose to head for the door. "Jenna and I will be monitoring!" Elena called over her shoulder.

Before closing the door with unkind force, leaving me with a flash of pain caused by harsh sound. As well as a day full of work. How fun.

"I'd say I'm a solid eight when it comes to salesmanship."

"That is great, Miss Gilbert. But even if we want to be profitable, we don't want our customers getting alcohol poisoning from over consumption."

"Of course, of course! I'm just saying, I know my way around people."

The woman seated in front of me, around her late 40s and with a big halo of untameable hair in a deep red shade, gazed at me as if she didn't doubt that one bit. In the split of a second, I feared how much of my high school reputation still roamed around this town's gossip.

"We do need more people who have experience." She eyed through the quick résumé I'd thrown together in all haste, presumably liking what she saw. It wasn't much, but one or two bars with great recommendation was at least something I'd been able to out down. My other and main employment wouldn't look too good on paper. Too bloody. Roberta took off her glasses, quickly massaging a spot between her eyes before she looked at me again. "And I do remember how warmly your mother always spoke about you."

I swallowed. Getting hired out of pity? No thanks.

"You know what, as much as it warms for you to consider my mom's memory in this, I gotta–" I began to rise, reaching after my jacket thrown over the back of my chair. But Roberta setting her hand down firmly onto the table between us had me halting.

"I wouldn't base any hiring out of old friendship bonds," she told me, firmly holding my gaze. "This looks good, Gilbert." She raised the paper making up my résumé. "And this place could use some fresh out of the city blood." Give the locals something to gossip about. "Plus," she sighed, as if reading my thoughts in my eyes. "You remind me of myself. My younger self," she added when I couldn't hide my snort. "Determined. I like it. The job's yours if you want it, Gilbert," she finished, getting up from her chair to extend her hand to me.

I stared at it for a moment, then let my gaze drift to the face starting to show small signs of aging. My mom would have been around her age, by now. Dad too. And they would both have flipped tables if I'd turned such a generous position down. That was almost enough for me to almost decline the kind offer, but I decided to not be foolish.

"Thank you." I took her hand, and we shook once. Firmly.

"I can set up an introduction tomorrow, around noon. We'll talk contract later."

"I'll be here." I nodded.

"Great to have you onboard." And with that, Roberta turned to with striding steps return to her office after a sweep of the place with her keen eyes. I stood, blinking after her. That had almost been too easy.

Letting myself feel a bit up triumphant, knowing it wouldn't last when I'd ultimately have to tell my sister of this position, I moved to make my way for the exit. Only, a seated pair caught my eye. Or, I rather caught theirs.

"Well, well, well," Jenna began with a grin. "Is that Parker I see? Chatting with–" She stretched to catch the back of the red hair. "–Roberta? Hm, what could be going on here."

"Save it," I sighed, nearing her seated at a booth opposite from my little brother. I greeted the latter by digging my fingers into his long hair and messing up the already messy style. With a scowl, he jerked away from my hand to smooth the hairs back into place.

"Can we expect a happy announcement soon?" Jenna went on to tease.

"We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" I cut her a sharp glare, but she only chuckled. "What is up with her?" I asked Jeremy, coming to seat myself next to him.

"Someone's got a crush," Jer stated, smiling smugly. Jenna kicked him beneath the table.

"I do not!" she said, firmly. Too firmly. And too angrily.

"Ooh! Who is he?" I inquired, looking back and forth between the visibly amused Jeremy and the huffing Jenna.

"Kinda tall," Jer began. Jenna took on a scowl, but this time Jeremy was fast enough to dodge her kicking foot. He placed his legs on my lap for protection. "Brown hair, dreamy eyes, charming…"

"Who really has a crush here?" Jenna tried, but I wasn't inclined to jump onto the gay train. Not when she looked so deliciously bothered by Jer's antics.

"He's the new history professor," Jeremy turned to tell me, ignoring Jenna completely. "Cool guy. Gave me a chance to make up for my lacking attendance and not too fabulous grades. All I gotta do is write a paper about something local. So way nicer than Tanner."

"Not that hard to be," I scoffed.

"Aaaaaaand he's coming right this way," Jeremy finished, looking over our aunt's head as he swung his legs down from my lap. "Hey, Mr Saltzman," my brother greeted the approaching man, who was indeed tall and handsome down to my brother's description.

"Jeremy, what's up?" the man replied with, joining my brother's complicated handshake. Unlike me, who'd Jeremy had several times tried to get to respond to his hands weird and wiggly motions, the teacher nailed it on the first try.

"It's all good." Jeremy made a gesture towards me. "This is my sister, Parker."

"Hi. Alaric Saltzman. Nice to meet." Alaric leaned over the table to shake my hand with a firm grip. When he noticed me squeezing his hand back, he made sure to not press any harder. Good guy.

"Likewise." I leaned back, catching Jenna eyeing the professor up and down in an undressing way. "I hear you beat the old teacher with ease."

"Oh, just trying to make a good first impression." He smiled, and I mirrored it politely. When Alaric turned to say something to my brother about the local library seeming to have a broad supply about the local history, I cast Jenna an approving glance. Her cheeks flushed.

Leaving us with a good luck to Jeremy and a little more polite conversation with me, Alaric stole a glance I knew all too well at Jenna. Once he was at the bar, out of the range of hearing, I leaned over the table in a conspiratory manner.

"He likes you," I stated for Jenna. She seemed ready to protest, but to my surprise Jeremy joined in, his elbows braced on the table next to mine.

"C'mon! Did you not see that look? You had to see it!"

"You guys…" Jenna shook her head. "Would you stay out of my lovelife!"

My brother and I shared a look. "Never," we spoke in unison. Jenna sighed, rolling her eyes, and had them ending up landing on Alaric at the bar.

"Go talk to him," I instructed. If life was ever going to be normal again, starting with getting my aunt a date seemed to be the way to achieve it. Jeremy nodded in agreement.

"You gotta!" he insisted.

With both of our big, brown eyes urging Jenna, she gave in with a sigh.

"Fine!" She began sliding out of the booth. "But I need an excuse. So you two need to skedaddle." She waved us off. Jeremy was quick to pull me to my feet. "Walk him home, will ya?" Jenna requested when Jer was too busy putting on his jacket in excitement to hear.

"Don't you worry about anything other than getting some." I placed my hand on her arm, winking.

"Let's go!" Jeremy pulled me towards the exit before Jenna could either laugh or hit me.

"Look at us!" I bumped my hip with Jer's once we were outside. "Total matchmakers!" His previous excitement seemed completely blow away when I raised my hand for a triumphant high five. Like the teenager he truly was, Jeremy lowered his head, pretending not to know me as I took his wrist and forced our palms to collide. "Yeah!"

Who would have thought that I'd have the time to both get a job and get in some good old embarrassment for my baby bro during the same day!

"YOU DID WHAT?" Elena exclaimed and stood up, knocking the chair she'd been sitting on over in the process.

"I applied for a job at the Grill," I repeated, calmly.

She stared at me, panting. Her eyes were shooting out of her head, her nostrils flared out. I was partly amused by her reaction, as well as a little frightened, truth be told. She looked straight up insane.

At first, I hadn't planned on breaking the news of my job so soon, especially not before the introduction course, but with Jenna and Jeremy catching me at the Grill yesterday I didn't have much of a choice than to have the dreaded conversation with my sister.

Quickly, I'd decided that the best time to go over to her house was a morning before school, hoping that she would be too tired to get upset with me then. However, she'd instead instantly began filling me in on everything that had happened since we last spoke, without any hint of being the slightest bit dozy. Dammit.

To summarize it: Stefan wanted to stay away from Elena after Lexi's death; Bonnie had been haunted by a witch, which had later ended with said witch possessing her to destroy some crystal that Damon wanted, after which he had tried to kill her, nearly succeeding hadn't Stefan and his blood been there to heal the injured Bonnie; and after this Stefan saw all the more reasons to not want to be near Elena, fearing that his presence would put her in danger. Thus, he was planning on leaving town.

In other words, everyone had been busy.

Truthfully, I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about Stefan going away. He had a point with his whole 'Look what's happened, I can't be near you, it's too dangerous', but also, what a wimp! If my sister was okay with putting her life in danger for him, then why not? Clearly, my feelings were a bit conflicted about that.

"PARKER! How could you?" Elena called me back to the present situation.

"It's a job, isn't it? What's the problem?"

"The problem?" She started pacing around, throwing me furious glares as she desperately tried to find the right words to express her anger. "It's at a bar! You're supposed to be avoiding them, not working in them!" Her voice became so high-pitched that it nearly cracked, and I responded by clearly uttering the absolute worst thing you could possibly say in a situation like this.

"Would you calm down, Elena."

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?" Her face was beginning to take on the color of a tomato.

"What's going on down here?" Jenna asked as she emerged from stairs and through the hallway. Elena swung towards our aunt.

"PARKER HAS–" she began, but I instantly shot up from my chair and jumped to put my hand over my her mouth, muffling her words. Jenna suspecting my new job was one thing, hearing it shouted from the top of my sister's lungs was another. But Elena began yelling against my palm and tried to whirl her way out of my grip. Without thinking I responded by holding her pinned against my chest, putting my foot out to bring her down into the wooden floor with me. Quickly and fueled by reflexes, I moved so that she instead of laying on top of me, was under me, with the entire weight of my body keeping her down.

"Parker!" Jenna exclaimed from the doorframe. I snapped out of my daze, having forgotten she was standing there. And who was under me. Whoops. Rolling off my sister I hopped to my feet, pulling her up with me. Elena stared at me with her mouth dropped open and her eyes big and round. "What are you doing?" Jenna questioned.

"More importantly: where did you learn that?" Elena added, out of breath from my wrestling.

"Self-defense class," I quickly covered. It wasn't entirely a lie.

Both of the women were still staring at me with their mouths gaping. I pushed Elena's chin up, closing her mouth, and she flinched a little at my touch. Even though I simply rolled my eyes at her, a very different feeling was occurring inside of me. My sister was afraid of me. It tore, but I locked it away before my facial features twisting by the sting could betray me.

"Why did you do that?" Jenna asked and crossed her arms. "Why were you two fighting? I heard screaming." I gave Elena a warning look, but clearly her fear of me wasn't enough to stop her from opening her mouth again.

"Parker has taken a job at the Grill. As a bartender!" The anger was still there, but she also sounded a little triumphing, ratting me out to Jenna.

"I never said that!" I protested. Elena's head snapped back to me.

"Oh, it was obvious!" she hissed.

"Really?" Jenna checked, eyeing me. Elena's posture grew taller as she continued to look at me with a smug expression on her face. "Does that mean I can get free drinks?"

"Jenna!" Elena belted and her head snapped back to our aunt, accusingly.

"What?" Jenna defended. "It wouldn't be a bad thing… Besides, it's a job, isn't it?"

"Thank you!" I called, leaning against the dining table.

"You." Elena pointed at me. "Shush!" She spun back around to face Jenna. "How can you say that?"

"Okay, Elena. Let's crack it down a notch," Jenna spoke calmingly, pushing down her niece's shoulders all the way up by her ears. "You have school, go get dressed." Elena opened her mouth to protest, but Jenna held a strict hand up, diverting her. "We'll continue this later." Elena's eyes flew between us furiously, before she dramatically stormed out of the room and upstairs, her every step in the stair echoing with a bang.

"Love you too, sis!" I called after her. Her bedroom door was slammed shut hard enough to make the house rattle.

"Don't push it," Jenna warned. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You don't make it easy, do you?"

"What's the fun in that?" I smirked. My aunt chuckled a little, but the deep frown on her forehead remained. "I'm sorry, Jenna. But it's a job."

"Yeah, I know. It's just…" She turned her head, listening after Elena's steps. "You know how she can get," Jenna finished, having decided that there was no risk that Elena would hear her. Not after that door slam.

"Oh, yeah. I noticed," I scoffed.

"Give her a little time and I'm sure she'll come around. If not…" Jenna tapped her finger against her chin. "Maybe cut down on the drinking a little?" she suggested, although not so convincingly.

"Maybe…" I answered, in an equally vague tone.

Before Jenna could go on, Elena returned downstairs, all dressed up with a green scarf in her hand.

"Jeremy's got his sketch pad out," she informed contently, although her words seemed to only be directed towards Jenna, as if I wasn't even standing there.

"You're kidding," my aunt chuckled.

"Nope, but don't say a word. The minute we encourage him, he'll put it away." Elena stuffed the scarf into her bag on the dresser by the front door.

"Psychology major." Jenna pointed at herself. "Check that." Her amused expression disappeared when she turned around and saw me, still standing by the dining table with my arms crossed. She shrugged apologetically, hoisted up her own bag on her shoulder and grabbed her jacket. Elena looked at her phone sadly, and Jenna moved closer.

"And you and Stefan?" Update?" Here we go again, I rolled my eyes behind them. Elena kept ignoring me.

"He knows how I feel and where I stand. And I know where he stands, but it doesn't matter. He's leaving, moving away." Good riddance! Like she deserved happiness after brutally assaulting me! Wait, it was the other way around… Well, she still yelled at me! So.

"Where's he going?" Jenna asked.

"I've stopped asking questions." Elena opened the front door. "The answers get scary."

"Oh." Jenna looked back at me and waved for me to follow. I rolled my eyes again; Elena was clearly going all in on ignoring me. What was the use? She even tried shutting the door in my face, and would have hadn't I caught it and been able to keep it open, being stronger and all. We stared at each other for a moment, both scowling, before Jenna looped her arm in mine and led me away with them. Two could play the freezing out game! Let Elena get a taste of her own medicine.

"Yours leaves, mine returns." Jenna sighed as she dragged me with her. Although I had no idea who she was talking to, there was just the two of us there. Nothing but air on the left side of me.

"Logan?" asked the air. Which I couldn't hear!

"He's back." Jenna stated.

"Ugh," said the air. How odd.

"I didn't let him pass the front door."

"Did you at least slam it in his face?" I asked Jenna hopefully. I'd never supported her relationship to that cheating dickhead; not back during high school and certainly not recently.

"I hope you slammed it in his face," the air beside me said, clearly it was hearing me just as much as I was hearing it.

"Ah, medium slam," Jenna admitted.

"Three-strike rule, Jenna," the air continued. "You're not even allowed to watch the news. Ignore him completely."

"'Cause that's really mature!" I muttered, to no one in particular.

"Exactly," Jenna spoke. Had she began ignoring me too? Or was she referring to something else… I didn't dare look at her to confirm it. "No more Logan 'Scum' Fell."

"Amen to that!" I said and bumped my hip into hers, causing her to let out a laugh. And I did not see the air rolling its eyes at me!

As soon as I'd jumped into Jenna's car, I saw Elena's vehicle quickly drive off.

"You're both equally mature." Jenna sighed as she got in, but I could hear that she was finding this a tad bit amusing.

"I don't know what or who you are talking about," I claimed and fastened my seatbelt. Jenna shook her head.

"So, where are you going?" she asked, turning in her seat as she backed us out from the driveway.

"The Grill, please," I replied. Jenna huffed, but smiled as we drove down the street lined with perfect white, picket fences.

"First day today?"

"No, I gotta get through an introduction on how everything works first. It'll take all day, but I won't even get paid for it!" My sigh may have been a little overdramatic, but guess whose sister was the queen of drama and over-the-top reactions.

"Well, you could swing by the school tonight," Jenna suggested. "If you wanna clear things out with Elena."

"You mean 'the air'?" I corrected. Jenna laughed. "I'll think about it," I gave her and let my gaze wander over the huge houses that flashed past the moving car.

"And all you have to do is turn this tap, and–"

"I know how to work that." I smiled superiorly. I figured out how to get alcohol from the tap behind a bar a long time ago. It was the first thing I recognized or understood since priorly during this entire introduction.

The platina blonde girl who had guided me around the Grill all day, Bella, looked at me smugly. Her expression said 'Oh! So THAT you know. Why am I not surprised…' I grinded my teeth, but continued smiling the sweetest smile I could possibly muster for her.

"Well, that would conclude the tour, then!" Bella's shrieking voice stated; it didn't match the rest of her appearance at all. Tall, tanned, her platinum hair in a bob and a big black tattoo of a dragon whirling its way over her right upper arm. A little bitchy and a bit of a know it all too, but I could learn to live with that. The voice on the other hand… It chilled my very bones.

A nod from me had Bella continuing, her shriek echoing through the large room. Honestly, I was surprised that it didn't cause the glasses lined up behind the bar to explode in a rain of shards.

"Now that you know how everything works, you can begin your first day… let's see..." She flipped through the notepad in her hand. "The day after tomorrow. I'll hand you your working schedule then." She smiled and flashed her teeth, which matched her hair color perfectly. "How do you feel about working nights?"

"I'm perfectly fine with it. I actually prefer it."

"Perfect!" Bella exclaimed, her shrieking voice somehow managing to reach an even higher note. Was I imagining things, or did the window behind her shake a little? "You'll need some work clothes as well." Her brown gaze eyed me up and down. "Medium?"

"Probably." I shrugged. It always varied on the model of the clothing anyway.

"Plain purple t-shirt coming up!" She turned around and disappeared into the room behind the bar, while I rubbed my aching ears. Boy, this was going to be a challenge.