11th March, 2004, 7:00 a.m. (Present Day)
"See you soon." Stefan ends the call, and looks at the time in his phone.
"There is your coffee." He turns around to look at his friend, and take the cup from her hand.
"Thanks. I should run now." He put the lab coat on the wall hook, and took his backpack.
"Stefan?" she calls him, and he dreads before looking at her, because he knows what is the question coming next.
"Are you seriously not going to face me now?" arms crossed, she looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
He sighs and finally looks at her. "What do you want me to say Lexi?"
"I want you to decide what you want."
"The thought is scary." The words comes out absent-mindedly.
"Why is it scary?"
"Because she is my best friend."
"And here I thought, I was your best friend." Stefan chuckles on her. Lexi was his childhood friend, his buddy, the one with whom he opens up so easily. And then there is Caroline Forbes. The girl, who never so important to him, who he thought would be kind of a passerby in his life. He laughs at himself for being so wrong.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing." He mumbled, and when she eyed him, the deep sigh leaves his mouth. "I don't know Lexi. I am still figuring it out. I don't want to mess up things. The place where we are right now, what if it didn't work? I will lose her. And I can't afford that."
"Why do you think it won't work? You think she isn't good enough for you?"
"No, I didn't say that." The answer is instant, like this is how he should react to anyone saying negative about Caroline.
"Then what Stefan? What is holding you back?" she encounters him. Looks like Lexi doesn't want to back off without convincing him.
"She is too good to fall for me." He turns his head down, as if trying to escape Lexi's presence. Her looks has started to feel heavy to him. "You know, I thought Elena was the one for me. What if-"
"But Caroline isn't Elena, Stefan. The situation isn't like the one you and Elena had. That love was different."
"I don't think she looks at me in that way."
"Stefan, you both are being idiots."
"Lexi…" Stefan decides to stop her from anymore discussions, he can do this any other time, but right now he is getting late. "Can we talk about this anytime later? I gotta go."
"Fine… Don't talk. But figure it out soon. Life is way too short Stefan, don't waste it on just in thinking out stuffs."
"By the way, where are you going?"
"Um…"
"Are you going back to home?"
"I don't have a class today, and I have already noted all the observations from my part of the experiment."
"Okay." Lexi smiles widely and adds, "say my hello to Caroline." She isn't his best friend for nothing.
"Is it that obvious?" he asks, a shy smile on his face.
"Look into the mirror, and say it yourself!"
He walks faster, because he has to take the bus and reach the station within half an hour.
April, 2003
Stefan was sitting at the same spot, when she entered the train. She was still thinking if she should go towards him and sit with him, when he raised his head and motioned his hand to call her.
The grey shirt he was wearing was bringing out his chest perfectly fine, and she thought her heart couldn't jump any more than that. Slowly she walked towards him, and gave him a wide smile.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"You are still reading this?" She questioned him.
"Uh, actually I am re-reading this. Fourth time."
Her eyes widened on the information, and he chuckled. "You are looking at me like, I am some kind of a freak."
"No… I didn't… I mean, I just wondered that, this must be a really good book, I should give it a try." She was almost talking to herself, when he closed the book and waved it in front of her eyes. She turned to look at him, who was smiling at her.
"What?"
"Take it."
"Oh, I wasn't asking you to give me."
"I know. If you want to give it a try, you can read it."
"But you are already half way through."
"It's fine. It's not like I am reading it for the first time."
"I am a slow reader when it comes to novels… I might take time, in returning the book." Stefan laughed lightly at her.
"I am a patient guy… I can wait." There were goosebumps on her skin, not because she was talking to Stefan, but because there was some magic in the way he talked with her.
The days passed by, and they both used to see each other on the daily basis. Caroline still took the long route. Like not taking that train wasn't her choice anymore.
Stefan as usual, took the train, talked with Caroline on the way, and then headed towards his university. He had to take a lot of experimental observations that day for the microbial replication he was studying. Putting the safety gloves, and his lab coat, he went straight towards his lab partner. Lexi had decided to take the same university, and being the childhood friends, he can talk about anything and everything to her.
"You know I met Caroline Forbes." He said casually.
Lexie eyed him, teasing a smile on her lips.
"Now, we have to adjust the time frame." Lexie was standing on his left side.
"Hmm, yeah I am keeping it for two hours in the incubation chamber."
"Is that the cute one from your high school?" she asked. They didn't go to the same high school, since she got transferred to other city, but when they used to meet in between their summer holidays, she made it sure that they catch up on everything.
Stefan chuckled on the description of Caroline, but he didn't deny.
"It's just been a month. But it's nice to see a known face here."
"Looks like I am getting replaced by another blonde." She nudged him with her elbow.
"Lexi, no one is replacing you."
"But, she is making a new place in your heart isn't she?"
Stefan smiled at her. "Do not start!" He sighed and looked at Lexi. "She is a… friend."
"Damon and Elena…. Wow." Caroline was still processing the information. After a few weeks or so, he told her about how his girlfriend fell for his own brother.
"Yeah."
"She is an idiot." Stefan looked at her with confusion. "Elena! I mean, Damon is just ew… and you are… you, and that girl has surely lost her mind if she chose HIM."
Stefan chuckled lightly, blushing a little. Caroline realized at that moment that she was being super blunt.
"You hate him. I get that."
"It's not that…. I just don't get it." She laughed softly. "I don't get it, that… how can anyone leave… someone like you." The admiration was all over her face, and there were no words Stefan could think of saying after that.
"Well, I don't why we choose the wrong things in life, you choosing Elena, Elena choosing Damon, and Me choosing Tyler, and-"
"Tyler?" The name sounded familiar to him.
"Yeah, Tyler. Our school soccer player. Remember?" Stefan nodded, and frowned on the information. Now he got why he felt like he had heard the name before.
"Isn't he a little aggressive? I mean he had some anger issues."
"He is fine. I mean all players have that kind of anger problems, and they need to vent."
"But he is… fine with you, right?"
"Yeah... I mean, he was fine with me." Caroline was confuse with the sudden concern Stefan was showing to her.
"Was?" His mind was racing in some other direction, and so his muscles started were tensed.
"Yeah, well, I don't know if things are fine or not now, because we broke up." Caroline thought he might say something to console her, but he didn't. Instead she saw his muscles getting relaxed a bit.
"What happened?" he didn't know what to ask other than this question.
"He chose something else over me. I asked him to choose love over hate, to be the love of my life, and he did exactly the opposite of that. Like I wasn't worthy enough for him." There was a sad smile on her face, but it was there just for a moment. She was back to being the perky one.
"Enough about my life's drama. Because I can write a book on that." She stood up, to get out on the station. She was about to walk past him, when he called her back.
"Caroline" The name was called with sincerity. And when she turned around, he was lost for the words. "Take care." He wanted to say more than that. But for some reason, he couldn't.
A/N: Hey I just want to say thank you to all the lovely readers, who are following this fic. I really love to hear your thoughts for the story. Happy reading :D