"She strikes me as the kind of person who would turn her back to prevent you from seeing her tears, but only after making sure that you'd seen them in the mirror." -Marcel Proust

"I can't believe you let me worry about you all night," Olivia said barging into my room. I winched as she pulled back the curtains letting all the sunlight in.

I felt sore, my bones brittle with exhaustion, and I had slept till noon. If I hadn't been woken up, I would have probably slept even longer. I groaned, "go away," before curling under the covers. My side stung where the bruises had now darkened to an array of purple and blue patches. I winced.

"I thought you had died. I thought you had been kidnapped," Olivia yelled, ripping my blanket away. She was surprisingly strong for such a sweet and reserved girl.

I buried my face in my pillow, "fuck, let me live." I hated being woken up. I was always such a bitch in the mornings, my aunt hated when she had to wake me up. I yanked the sheets, using them as a blanket. I refused to get up, my bad was way too comfortable.

"Brett," she yelled voice cracking. Oh shit. It was way too earlier for me to deal with this. I turned over, aware that I probably looked like shit. Oh god, tears.

"Olivia," I sighed, "I totally forgot. I was tired."

"You look," she trailed off, trying to be nice, "what happened to you?"

I groan, "who let you in," before rolling over, before shutting my eyes, and drifting off to sleep again. Unfortunately Olivia still wasn't done.

"Brett, your thigh and and arm are all," she continued trailing off yet again. Remembering the bite on my neck, I arranged my hair to cover my neck. Hopefully it hadn't seemed to suspicious. But it would be weirder if she did see. I couldn't explain any of it. I just wanted to forget and move on.

I shrugged, "I fell. It was stupid." I sat up, stretching. "Could we not talk about it?"

She nodded, "okay, but next time I'm giving you a ride whether you like it or not. You have to be more careful Brett, there have been a lot of murders in Mystic Falls recently. I don't want anything to happen to you." She sat down on the edge of my bed, sighing, rubbing her eyes. She had stayed up, worried about me. Shame shot through me.

"I'm sorry," I told her, "let me make it up to you. Are you down for pancakes?"

"Are they any good," she asked, laying down.

I leaned down to grab the blanket off the floor. "We could just take a nap. Naps are good, " I said, yawning.

"Nope, you said pancakes," Olivia said, getting up, "now you better make me some pancakes." She went downstairs, where I could here the tv going on. I bet Junel had left some animal documentary on all morning.

I considered going back too sleep, but figured Olivia would just wake me up again. And I was awake now anyways, I might as well get up and not waste the whole day sleeping.

After changing into jeans and a t shirt, I went to the bathroom hoping that the bit on my neck had been some kind of crazy hallucination. It hadn't been. I closed my eyes groaning, as if the whole thing wasn't weird enough. And then Olivia had mentioned a bunch of murders happening in town. What the hell was thin? Sighing, I grabbed my foundation, carefully covering up the mark behind make up. It took longer than I would have liked, but I managed to make the skin on my neck look normal.

By the time I went downstairs, Olivia had already made pancakes, she smiled sheepishly, admitting "I like cooking, so I figure why not. " I grinned, serving myself cold coffee, then heating it in the microwave. Technology was such a blessing. After i had choked it full of creamer, I sat down with Olivia to eat.

"These pancakes are pretty good," I told her while sipping at my coffee, "and I'm not that much of a pancake person."

"Are you a waffle person?"

"Ew, no," I told her, "waffle's are alright I guess, but cereal is where its at." It often made up two of my meals a day because who gives a fuck. I didn't want to cook, and learning to seemed hard. I had burned myself badly once trying to fry something.

"Typical," she said shaking her head. "Why does no one ever bother to learn how to cook? I mean it's really nice when the entire place smells nice. Especially when baking, because some foods can be quite stinky to make," she continued having started going off on a tangent.

I smiled, happy to have met her. She was so worried she come to check up on me. It was too kind of her, really.

I insisted on cleaning up, a task I always procrastinate on as with most work, since she had cooked. She helped anyways, even though I kept telling her I was fine.

We watched bobs burgers for a while, which gave me a thousand different kinds of second hand embarrassment, but I couldn't help but love this show.

Olivia told me about a mysterious invitation, "it just showed up this morning, and it's fancy so I would expect this to be for a few feels from now because it has that while you have to R.S.V.P. for vibe, but no, it's for tonight. And it's a ball, like pride and prejudice type ball."

I snorted, it sounded really interesting, "so are you going? It could be fun." She shrugged. "Why Lizzy, or should I say, Liv, how many balls will you have the chance to go to in your life?"

"You wouldn't believe the amount of balls we have here in town, but your right. It could be fun. Will you come with me?"

Guilt flooded me as I told her "no, I'd love to go with you, but I feel like shit." It wasn't a complete lie, my body did ache, but I also didn't want to go.

"Fine, I'll ask Bonnie to go with me then," she said, clamming up. She was hurt, I felt bad. But I didn't want to go. "I should probably go and find something to wear then."

"Yeah," I agreed, not really feeling in the mood for anything.

She scurried out, grabbing her things and making me promise to be careful. I nodded but was just wanting to go lay down again.

I was still tired enough to go back to bed. And after forcing myself to throw all the clothes in the washing machine, I did just that.

The sun was much lower the second time I woke up. I hurried to go throw the clothes in the dryer, stubbing my toe against the door in my sleep addled state.

It wouldn't be much longer til my aunt came home from work, and I still had a ton of chores to do.

I worked in a frantic rush, wanting to look like I hadn't just spent the day sleeping. I haphazardly tied my hair into a bun, before running around dusting and vacuuming.

When it came to cleaning, I missed our old apartment. It's small size made it easier to clean, even if it had been cramped.

Somehow I managed to finish before Junel got home, just in time to set down and watch some reruns on tv as she pulled up into the driveway. I could be quick when I wanted to be.

"Hey," she said walking in, "I brought some burgers for dinner." She tossed her bag on a table and sat down in the couch. She passed me a burger and drink.

"I love you," I told her, biting into the burger.

"Well I didn't want to cook anything and I'd rather not have a redo of you almost exploding the microwave. Again, who doesn't know not to put aluminum foil into the microwave," she told me raising an eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes, "when will you let that go."

"Never," she said with a wide smirk, before flipping through the channels to find something to watch.

We talked for most of the evening. She complained about her job, her boss was nice but one of her co workers was a complete dick. I told her about Olivia dropping by. "That was so sweet of her. Brett stop ignoring your phone all the time." I asked if she had heard about the Mikaelson's ball.

She had, but had shrugged it off as some old families event thing. Just a thing for all the families who have been here forever to go to.

Junel was probably right.

I went up to my room, not really feeling like watching telenovelas. After sleeping all day, I wasn't ready to go to bed, but I still changed into some pyjama shorts, before grabbing a book, Dune. The pages were worn from use, and the pages full of writing in the margins.

It was late, when something tapped on my window. Startled, I jumped, falling off my window seat. A guy laughed from outside my window. He was wearing a suit.

He motioned for me to open my window. Like an idiot, I shook my head. My phone was on my bed. If I went for it, I could call the police.

I made a run for my bed.

Glass shattered behind me. Shit. I fumbled with unlocking my phone. Junel called from downstairs, worried about the noise he'd made.

"Brett," the guy called, annoyed.

How did he know my name? I hadn't seen him before in my life. I made the mistake of turning around.

"Invite me inside darling," he said, "and tell the lady from downstairs that everything's fine."

It was like something had possessed me. I was aware of my actions, but I had no control over them. I called out to my aunt, "I'm fine, something fell." Then to my horror I invited him in.

"There's a good girl, now," he said settling himself inside, "why don't we head out. I've had a dreadful night and mother forbid me from making a mess in this town." He grinned conspiratorially, "but there are other places to go."

I went downstairs, told my aunt that Olivia was having a rough night and needed me, then took the car. The guy was already waiting, leaning by the car and looking devilishly handsome. He hadn't even let me change, the dick.

"Start talking now, or I'll scream," I threatened. We both knew I was bluffing. I didn't know what he could do, and I wouldn't risk my aunt's life.

"Get in the car darling," he said harshly opening the door and shoving me inside. My arm hurt where he hand grabbed me. I gripped the steering wheel, hard. "Now drive," he said once he had slob into the passenger seat.

I wanted to crash this car and kill us both. If we were going fast enough, I might not feel it.

"Oh and I almost forgot," he said roughly grabbing my chin, "you can remember now Brett."

It was a good thing the road was empty or I would have crashed as the memories from last night flooded in. A terrible understanding filled my mind. I was in the car with a vampire. He shouldn't even be real. I swallowed the blinding panic, and focus on the road.

"Did you miss me," Kol said, clearly amused, "I missed you."

I rolled my eyes, choosing to ignore him. If attention was what he wanted, then I wouldn't give him any. I gritted my teeth.

He fiddled around with the radio as we drove on into the night. I though back, trying to remember a bar somewhere. I was playing chauffeur to a fucking vampire. Hysteria was crawling up my throat. This would be the worst time to laugh.

"Here, stop here Brett," he said motioning to some seedy bar in the middle of nowhere. I parked the car and let him leave. Maybe I could just stay here. Going to a bar in pyjama shorts was not something I wanted to do.

Kol pulled me out of the car anyways, and pulled me along with him. I wanted to fall over and die.

It was just cool enough outside to be bearable.

The bar tender raised her eyebrows but said nothing as Kol ordered drinks. I gave her a hard look. We must have looked ridiculous. He was wearing a suit in some random bar. I suppressed the urge to laugh.

This whole situation was crazy. I let out mangled cry, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. I forced myself to calm down, drowning the glass of whiskey. If I started now, I wouldn't be able to stop.

Kol kept glancing at me, clearly amused. "Another drink?"

"Oh go to hell," I muttered. "Why did you drag me out here?"

"I already told you," he said, glancing around, "I'm hungry."

I scowled, liking whatever this was less and less. The bartender easily handed me another glass of whiskey. It burned my throat as I drowned it.

Kol grinned, running the back of his hand over my cheek. I blushed. He was hot, even if he was irritating. "Don't get in my way," was all he told me, then he was gone.

I had barely started to register his words before I heard a scream. My throat tightened, and I finished my drink, gripping the glass. So that's what he had meant.

My hands were shaking, the glass fell and shattered. No one cared. They were all too busy screaming. I turned around.

It was chaos. It was all happening so fast. The blood. The people on the floor. The people clawing over each other, trying to get away. Once I started watching, I couldn't stop. It was like watching a car crash. I couldn't move. I didn't react. I just watched as the screams ended and Kol made his way towards me, lips coated in blood.

There was a maniac gleam to his eyes as he smirked.

I backed away from him, aware of how much I was shaking. My fingertips were cold.

"Come here darling," he said softly, holding out his arm.

I swallowed, reluctantly walking over to him, all too aware of the blood and glass littering the floor. "Can we go now," I asked him, making him laugh.

"You continue to surprise me," he said, before kissing me.

I squirmed, hyper aware of the the blood staining his lips. His grip was iron, keeping me in place. So I slapped the bastard.

Caught off guard, he let me go.

I quickly wiped the blood off my lips, disgusted. My eyes widened as I realized how stupid that had been. "I'm going home," I said, heading towards the door.

Suddenly Kol was in front of my, I jumped unable to react before he slammed me against the door. I yelped as he smiled cruelly. "Brett," he tsk'ed, "you wouldn't want to anger me."

"Then stop being an ass," I retorted. If I was going to die, then I wasn't just going to die crying.

He shook his head, amused, "you are lucky I find you so amusing, or I would have torn out your tongue by now."

I rolled my eyes, surprised he let me push him out of the way. "Clean up, Junel will murder me if I get the car all dirty."

Taking a napkin, he wiped the blood off his lips and dabbed at the stains on his suit, making a show of taking his time. I wanted to strangle him. It was even more infuriating how much my irritation amused him.

I poured myself a drink, pointedly ignoring the bodies. I wasn't drunk enough for this.

Kol led me outside, and made me drive back. Which led me to wonder, "can you not drive or something," I asked him.

He sulked.

"Oh my god," I said slapping the steering wheel, "you can't." I laughed, that was too much. "I mean I didn't learn to drive for the longest time but like- how busy could you have been to not bother learning how to drive?"

Kol scowled, "I was busy rotting in a coffin for the last century."

He had lost me. I bit my lip, trying to figure it out, "so how does it work? The whole vampire thing?" It hit me he hadn't read Anne Rice. "Dude you have to watch the interview with the vampire, it's the greatest thing ever."

He chuckled. It was easy to forget that he was a monster. That I had just stood there as he had killed a bar full of people, who probably had loved ones. I shook my head. I doubted anyone at a seedy bar was that much of a loss.

The drive back to Mystic Falls seemed shorter. I drive back home, not sure where he lived.

To top off the night, Kol tipped my head back and sank his teeth into my neck. It was just as painful as before, but he didn't drink as much. He wiped my blood off his lips, giving me a soft smile.

"Please don't make me forget," I pleaded. I wanted to avoid the holes in my memory.

He nodded, pushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, "only because you asked nicely darling. Now Brett, you must avoid Elena Gilbert and all her little friends. I'd hate for you to get caught up in my brother's latest war. Tell no one that I was here, or what happened."

I nodded, knowing that he had done that thing again. And that I would have no choice but to go along with it. I started to head inside, but almost fell over instead.

Kol caught me, steadying me. "Here," he said, slicing his wrist, and offering it to me.

I turned my head away, protesting, but he had already pressed his wrist to my lips, flooding my mouth with blood. It was metallic, but slightly off. It warmed my insides like soup did when I had a cold. I swallowed eagerly.

Kol ripped his wrist from me, "go home Brett."

I nodded, going red with shame. It had been wrong, to want to drink his blood. To have talked easily with Kol, who took glee in the slaughter of people. Who could just as easily killed me.

But he hadn't.

Exhausted, I went to sleep, not bothering to do much else but kick off my shoes.

Tomorrow I'd figure this mess out.

idk how well my characterization of kol is, but i tried...thoughts