Chapter 9
July 4, 2013
XXX
It was a sunny day in Los Angeles, California. Birds were chirping, children were playing in their yards, while their parents grilled hamburgers on the grill. Everyone was enjoying the nice relaxing holiday with friends and family. Everyone except Caroline. She knew she shouldn't be complaining, I mean a lot of people would dream of attending an exclusive 4th of July party like this! But for Caroline it was business, just another event full of producers, and casting directors trying to schmooze her so she would be in their movies, journalists who would be pouncing on every word she said trying to get an exclusive, and of course fellow actors, some of which were her friends, but most of which were so vain they never put down a mirror let alone stopped talking about themselves. So you see right now she would rather be anywhere else but at David O'Russel's 4th of July party.
David was known in the business for throwing big events that tended to be packed with many A-list actors, since David knew many of them personally. This one was no exception. The party was being held outside David's mansion under a big white canopy tent, and of course with it being Independence Day, the theme was red, white, and blue. As Caroline walked into the party she saw many familiar faces. As she scanned across the floor she saw one of her co-stars in the movie, Bonnie Bennet standing next to a man with a notepad who was jotting down notes. Bonnie had a smile on her face but her eyes were telling another story. Caroline immediately understood, it was a private party, but David always invited a couple journalists just to get a little bit of publicity for his upcoming projects. It seemed that Bonnie had fallen prey to one of such journalists.
Caroline headed over to Bonnie with a spring in her step determined to save her friend. As she approached she could see Bonnie fidgeting, trying to get away, but the journalist either unaware or uncaring (she suspected the latter) just kept firing away with questions. Caroline walked up to the pair, and placing a hand on Bonnie's shoulder said,
"Hi sorry to interrupt, but Bonnie, David needs you ASAP in the kitchen."
Bonnie's eyes lit up with relief, but being the actress that she is she sculpted her face into a rather convincing look of disappointment.
"Oh no, I apologize but I better go, thank you so much for your time."
The reporter, rather annoyed tried to fit in one more question but before he could the girls were already gone and walking towards the house, their high heels clicking as they went.
"Oh my god, you are my savior." Bonnie said with relief, as her and Caroline walked in the kitchen.
Caroline laughed, "Hey I know how it feels, plus us ladies have to stick together!"
Bonnie smiled in agreement as they walked up to the indoor bar.
"So, are you flying solo today?" Bonnie said as she ordered an apple martini.
Caroline shook her head as she ordered a drink, "No, not today, Tyler's coming later he just had a meeting so he'll be a little late."
Bonnie nodded in understanding, before getting a determined look in her eyes and exclaiming excitedly, "So Caroline, we've been working on this movie for a couple weeks now, I'd say we've become friends, wouldn't you?"
Caroline laughed at the other girls bubbly energy, "Yeah we're friends Bonnie, what's your point?" she asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"My point is, friends talk! And I am dying to know the truth!"
"The truth about what?" Caroline asked confused
"The truth about you and Tyler of course! What's your real story? How'd you meet? All that boring stuff! I mean a girl needs her gossip, and let's face it, it's not like I can rely on the tabloids for accurate information." Bonnie finished taking a drink of her martini.
Caroline smiled; it had been a long time since she had had some girl talk. Since a lot of her friends were also in the business, that meant their schedules rarely coincided, and rarely allowed for anytime to hang out. Truth be told, although Bonnie was being a tad forward, Caroline was glad, she needed to talk to someone, and she liked her earnestness, something about Bonnie told Caroline she could trust her.
Caroline took a sip of her drink, "Well, where do I begin… I met Tyler when I was like 19, and we started dating not shortly after that. I fell for him pretty quickly, I mean he was so handsome, and such a gentlemen, and he treated me like a princess," Caroline said wistfully, getting a little lost in all her memories,
"Anyway, we moved in together a couple years ago, and we've been together ever since, it's all pretty boring, really," she finished, snapping out of her memories and looking back up at Bonnie.
Bonnie was watching her with caring eyes, Caroline almost felt like she was looking right through her,
"Sounds like a fairytale" she commented
"Yeah," Caroline said quietly, looking down at her drink, "I guess it does."
She looked back up at Bonnie, whose eyebrows were raised a little in questioning,
"I mean it is" she quickly corrected herself, "It is a fairytale," she smiled meekly
Bonnie smiled reassuringly, before leaning in and nudging Caroline, "I bet the sex isn't too shabby either."
Caroline let out an embarrassed laugh; she could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks,
"You know to be honest, I feel like the more and more successful we get the less time we have to spend any time together, let alone do that," she replied truthfully.
Man, it felt good to get that off her chest.
"Hey I feel you!" Bonnie replied laughing, "My last boyfriend and I broke up for the same reason, but, I mean the way I see it, if you really want to be with someone you'll make time for it."
Caroline's eyes widen a little as she stopped laughing, she tried to smile a little to lighten the mood, but she found she couldn't, Bonnie's words had really hit home.
Noticing the implication of what she had said Bonnie hurriedly tried to correct herself,
"I mean I'm not saying that that's the case for you and Tyler! You guys are different, you're so in love! You know I was never like that with my old boyfriend, that electric love where you just can't keep your eyes off one another, where the mere sight of the other person made your heart race a little faster."
Caroline nodded, smiling along as Bonnie continued talking. Did she feel that way about Tyler? Of course she did! I mean she definitely used to…How could you be in a relationship with someone for 6 years and not be in love with someone? You couldn't she told herself. She loved Tyler, it's just the love that Bonnie was talking about was movie love; it was an exaggerated description of the real thing. She knew Tyler so well, it would be a little ridiculous if her heart still skipped a beat when he walked in the room…wouldn't it? Yes. The love that she and Tyler shared was a comfortable thing, and she was totally okay with that.
Bonnie was still going on and on about love, and all that, Caroline couldn't help it, she had kind of tuned her out. She was taking a sip of her drink, looking around the room as she agreed with something Bonnie had just said when somewhere behind Bonnie she noticed another familiar face, her hand froze, with her drink halfway to her mouth, and her heart started beating a little faster. It was Klaus.
After yesterday she had so many different feelings concerning Klaus that she literally didn't know how she actually felt, and as a result she didn't know how to act. So they shared one moment together the other night? And maybe her heart had melted a little at his admission the other day on set. But she also knew that he was still a jack-ass. That had been made all too clear yesterday during their lunch together. For some reason he had made it his mission to be very friendly with Tyler, and Caroline knew it wasn't because he was enthralled with her boyfriend's charming personality. He was trying to get to her by getting to her boyfriend, she just didn't know why.
However, despite his evident jack-assness, she had to give it to him, the man cleaned up nice. He was wearing khakis, a nice white dress shirt, and a light blue blazer with a matching tie that hugged his muscles well, while also bringing out the color of his eyes. His face was scruffy, which she usually didn't find attractive on men, but for some reason looked really good on him, it was sort of like a small imperfection in his otherwise perfect appearance, which Caroline found a little endearing. She was still staring at Klaus when Bonnie piped in again.
"Caroline…Caroline?" she said, waving her hand in front of her face to get her attention.
"I'm sorry I zoned out a little, what were you saying?" Caroline asked, trying to focus on her friend instead of the British eye candy across the room.
"I was just saying that Tyler must be pretty special to have captured your attention for so many years…"
"Oh yeah…he's pretty special," she said, as her gaze drifted back over to Klaus.
At this point Bonnie had noticed that she no longer held Caroline's attention, so she glanced over her shoulder to see who had. She turned back to Caroline, a look of realization on her face, then, with her eyebrows raised she casually said, "You know who else is pretty special? Klaus."
Finally this caught Caroline's attention and her eyes immediately snapped back to look at Bonnie.
"Klaus!?," she exclaimed in shock, "The only thing that Klaus specializes in is being a first class asshole."
Bonnie laughed, "You know I'm not surprised you'd say that, you two always seem to be arguing."
Caroline looked down at her drink, for some reason she felt the need to defend herself,
"Well, I mean we're not always arguing, sometimes we get along…"
Bonnie narrowed her eyes in response, and Caroline immediately began backtracking,
"And by sometimes I mean barely ever, most of the time when I'm around him I can barely restrain myself from strangling him" she finished with a scoff.
Bonnie chuckled, "so that must have made it a pretty big shock when that magazine came out claiming you guys were having an affair!"
Caroline took a long sip from her drink before looking Bonnie in the eye,
"You have no idea" she said, slowly pronouncing every syllable, "Klaus found it hilarious, but unfortunately Tyler didn't find any humor in the story" she grimaced.
Bonnie looked at Caroline sympathetically, as she put her hand on Caroline's arm, "Oh my god, it hadn't even crossed my mind that Tyler would have taken the story seriously."
Caroline scoffed, "Yeah you and me both, he was pretty mad" she laughed, even though the situation had obviously not been funny, "But I mean once I explained to him that absolutely nothing was, going on between me and Klaus, and nothing would ever happen, he realized how ridiculous he had been believing something he read in the tabloids."
"I mean can you imagine me…and Klaus?" Caroline exclaimed, starting to laugh hysterically, Bonnie watched Caroline a small smile on her face, "How ridiculous would that be!" she spoke through her laughter.
"What's ridiculous?" a third voice cut into the conversation.
Turning around Caroline noticed that Klaus had somehow snuck up on them, and was now standing right next to Caroline. She took a deep breath to try to calm her heart, which was for some reason beating wildly, as she breathed in she couldn't help but detect a strong mix of aftershave and cologne, god he smelled good. Ok, focus Caroline; she mentally shook herself as she looked up at Klaus.
"What's ridiculous?" he repeated curiously
"You" Caroline replied
"Ridiculously what? Good looking?" Klaus replied with a smirk.
"Well definitely not ridiculously modest, that's for sure." Caroline replied with an eye roll, as she ordered another drink.
Klaus laughed in amusement, before leaning on the bar, "Well love, I think we both know that when you've got dimples like these modesty is overrated."
Caroline scoffed, taking a long draught from her glass, before turning to face Klaus head on. Their eyes were locked in like lasers, his twinkling with laughter, hers steely with challenge. Bonnie sat back, afraid to interrupt for fear of being shocked by some of the electricity surging between the pair. Fortunately she didn't have to, for at that moment, someone else called out across the room.
"Caroline Forbes, get your blonde ass over here!"
XXX
Caroline looked up, startled from the interruption, but her face quickly broke into a grin. She hastily put her drink down, before hurrying across the room and into the arms of none other than Katherine Pierce. A bunch of people stopped to watch the interaction; it wasn't every day you saw two of the world's most famous people acting so candid.
"Kat!" Caroline yelled excitedly, "What are you doing here? I thought you were in New York filming a movie?"
Katherine shrugged, "It wrapped early, so I immediately flew out here to see you, stranger! God how long has it been?"
"Too long" Caroline laughed throwing her arms around Katherine again, as the people who were staring seemed to go back to their previous conversations, apparently deeming their reunion no longer worth their time.
Katherine pulled back, "Too long indeed, which is why I came bearing gifts" she said with a mysterious grin.
Caroline narrowed her eyes at her friend, "Kat, what did you do?
Katherine threw her head to the side sending her brown curls cascading over her shoulder, "Not what but who"
Caroline scrunched up her face in confusion,
"And not in that way either!" she joked, "but before I present my gift I would just like to relish in being the center of attention for just a minute longer."
Crossing her arms, Caroline rolled her eyes, "Kat, what are you talking about?"
Katherine laughed again, "I told you already…not what but whom…"
Suddenly, Caroline felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned around, and her mouth fell open, because she was looking right up at her best and oldest friend Stefan Salvatore.
XXX
After she finished squealing and hugging Stefan, she finally asked the question that was filling her mind,
"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Germany working on that movie with Johnny Depp?"
Stefan grimaced, "That movie fell through after the first week, apparently the studio wanted to go a different way."
"Oh no, that's terrible," Caroline frowned, immediately feeling bad for being so cheerful earlier.
He smiled reassuringly, "Hey its fine, that just meant I was able to hop a plane with Katherine, and come see my long lost best friend."
Caroline smiled between Katherine and Stefan. Her day had just gone from disastrous to amazing all within 5 minutes. She already felt better with her two best friends by her side. So much better that she had completely forgotten what she had been talking about before they showed up, or more importantly, with whom. That is until he made himself present.
"What a cute little reunion" Klaus chipped in, a sarcastic smile on his face as he walked over from the bar to join the threesome.
Caroline was about to reply with a fresh comment that definitely would have gotten her beeped on public television when Stefan did something that surprised her.
Reaching out his hand he said, "Klaus Mikaelson, what's up man?"
Klaus smirked at the shocked look on Caroline's face before, reaching out and taking Stefan's hand, "Stefan Salvatore, nice to see you again."
Caroline watched the whole scene in horror, "Wait a minute!" she cut in, "you two know each other?" she said, pointing at the two of them in confusion.
"Of course, sweetheart, me and Stefan go way back, we met on a movie set in London about 5 or so years ago." Klaus said, a little too sweetly for her taste, he was clearly enjoying Caroline's obvious discomfort with the situation.
But now it was Stefan's turn to be confused, "Wait another minute" he joked, "you two know each other…too?" he added as an afterthought.
"No" Caroline said, at the exact same time Klaus said "yes."
Stefan and Katherine looked at the two of them confused, while Caroline rolled her eyes at Klaus,
"I mean yes we do know each other, but not well, we just met a couple weeks ago for a movie we're doing." Caroline said almost reluctantly as Katherine looked at her with amused eyes.
"Oh I'd beg to differ, love" Klaus cut in, "Caroline are great friends…well…at least according to the tabloids," he finished his eyes twinkling as he laughed at his own comment.
"Oh yeah" Katherine exclaimed, "that's right I remember reading that story about your alleged affair" she said, putting air quotes around the word, "alleged".
Klaus smirked at Caroline, obviously delighted his little remark was having some sort of effect
"Which was of course ludicrous, I mean Caroline would never cheat on Tyler," Katherine said, laughing as if it really were the craziest idea in the world.
Klaus's face fell a little at her comment, as he looked down for a second no longer able to meet Caroline's eyes. However, Klaus being Klaus made a quick recovery, and when he looked up again a second later he was grinning from ear to ear.
"Say, why don't the four of us sit down for a drink?" he suggested with a wink towards Caroline, "I'd love to pick your brains on the finer details of Ms. Forbes" he joked, earning laughs from both Katherine and Stefan who seemed to be just eating up Klaus and all his charm.
"Sounds great, you know I could tell you a great story about Caroline's first date." Stefan said with a laugh, nudging Caroline who was trying to subtly incinerate Klaus on the spot.
The three of them started to walk off towards a table, already deep in conversation, Caroline narrowed her eyes at that little brat, before marching after them. He wanted to play that game. She could play that game. It was on.
AN: Update one week later? That's got to be a record lol. Ok I would first like to start by thanking klaroline-fantasies on tumblr for creating this awesome cover art for Hollywood Heartbreak! Sidenote, I have just made a tumblr, so if you want you can go follow me on tumblr at klarolove-love, where I will post all updates for this story as well. Now onto the chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! We got to see a lot more characters, some of which will most likely be largely reoccurring. In the next chapter we will have part 2 of the party so stay tuned! I know some of you might be wondering where I'm going with this but don't worry I have a plan! That being said if you guys have any comments/advice/ or suggestions for things or people you might like to see in this fic let me know! And to all my new followers/reviewers thank you so much! Your support is what motivates me to update every week, so thank you!
Also, to the guest reviewer NikMik thanks so much for your amazing review! I highly suggest getting a fanfiction account so I can message you directly about your reviews!