"You think my brother is dating your friend?" Elijah questioned his companion who nodded once with a small frown.

"Mmm," Elena glanced down at the phone in her hand again before raising her dark eyes to his. "What's your brother's name?"

"Niklaus," Elijah raised his eyebrow.

"Niklaus," Elena echoed. She glanced around the room with a small smile. She paused when she saw the door open to admit two new people. She slid her gaze back to Elijah. "Niklaus," she repeated. "Let me guess: he's tall with curly blond hair, and a classic 'bad-boy' smirk?"

"That is a very accurate description," Elijah chuckled with narrowed eyes. "You got all of that from his name."

"Yes," Elena snickered leaning forward on the table again; she smiled when Elijah mirrored her motion. "Also … he just walked in with Caroline."

Elijah spun around in his seat nearly knocking over his glass. Only Elena's quick hands caught it.

"Never took you for the clumsy type Elijah," she teased.

"Elijah can be a tad uncoordinated at times," the blond man chuckled as he held out Caroline's chair. He sat took the chair beside the man in question. "Are you going to introduce us brother?"

"Elena," Elijah cleared his throat. "This is my brother Niklaus. Niklaus this is Elena Gilbert." Elijah smiled at her before turning his gaze to look between Niklaus and Caroline.

"And this is my lovely girlfriend: Caroline Forbes."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Caroline," Elijah smiled. "My brother has told me a lot about you. He's talked of nothing else for months."

Strange, Elena thought.

"All good things I hope," Caroline laughed. "I see you and Elena know each other. Hopefully she hasn't told you too much about me yet. We've been best friends since high school, so she could tell you a lot of stories…" She trailed off in the middle of her babbling and waved her hand between the pair. "How do you two know each other?"

"I work with the lovely Elena at the high school," Caroline didn't miss the colour that flooded Elena's cheeks at the use of the nickname.

Oh she's got it bad, Caroline thought. "You're a teacher too then? What do you teach Elijah?"

"History," Elijah smiled gently at her. What did Niklaus tell her? "I teach history."

"That's interesting," Caroline sputtered. "I was never very good in history. Couldn't remember the dates," she was babbling again. "Test's always made me anxious." Elena could see Caroline's hand gripping the edge of her skirt under the table.

"You wouldn't have liked having Elijah then," Elena offered trying to put her friend at ease. "He gave his students a test today."

"Really?" Nik questioned. "After two weeks? They must all hate you."

"You gave a test on a Friday," Caroline burst picking up the menu Vicky had handed her. "Your right Elena, I would not have liked him."

"Glad I'm not your teacher then," Elijah smirked.

Caroline laughed feeling the tension leave her body.


Elena yawned over her coffee cup. She had hardly been able to keep her eyes open when she woke up that morning. It was only now that she was midway through her second cup of coffee that she started to wake up.

Elena glared over her mug at the phone sitting on the table. Caroline has some explaining to do.

The previous evening Elena had learned from Nik that he and Caroline had started dating when they met at his art opening Caroline had organized; an art opening that had taken place in June.

Peering at the oven clock Elena picked up her phone and dialed. It took a few minutes before Caroline picked up.

"Whaisit," Caroline mumbled causing Elena to snicker. She loved Caroline, but she was not a morning person.

"Hey Care," Elena chirped down the phone line. "I just wanted to invite you to breakfast. And discuss why it took four months for you to mention the fact that you have a boyfriend."