Hold on, baby you're losing it
The water's high, you're jumping into it and
Letting go, and no one knows
that you cry but you don't tell anyone,
that you might not be the Golden one
And you're tied together with a smile but you're coming undone...
Taylor Swift - Tied together with a smile.
Katherine's POV
"Damn it, Pearl! Can you be useful just for once?! I need more eye-shadow, can't you tell?!" I complained to my make-up artist when I looked at myself in the mirror.
"But, you should have told me before, you're ready since half an hour ago and now there's no time-" Pearl started saying but I cut her off.
"Are you questioning me?! Should I remind you of who I am?!" I shouted at her.
"I'm sorry, Katherine." Pearl said, looking for the eye-shadow. "I'll fix it"
Pearl went back to doing her job as I rolled my eyes. I was surrounded by idiots twenty-four-seven, no one can blame me for snapping like that.
"Katherine, five minutes!" I heard Isobel -aka. my mom- shout from outside my dressing room.
I looked at myself in the mirror and thanked the magic of make-up for hiding my exhaustion at the moment.
Honestly, I just wanted to get this damn recital over with. I was fed up with this shit and all I was looking forward to was the crazy after-party.
Saying my life is crazy is staying short. Yeah, I'm seventeen, I'm a teenager, but I don't exactly live the most normal of teen-lives. It all started when I was eleven, and I finally got the part to play on some clichéd-yet-riddiculously-popular american sitcom. From that moment I had to move out from my hometown, and start being home-schooled. A month later I already had a dozen of paparazzis at my house's door. After that sitcom I started singing and I released my first album. I acted in a couple of movies, won some People's choise, two Emmys, a Grammy... you know, and all that stuff.
I'll be honest, I'm stunningly beautiful even at my young age. And as you can see I am very well aware of that -even though there's always something to improve...-. I am talented. I'm a composer, I have an amazing voice even though lately I've been singing just plastic pop songs written by record companies and my voice is so modified I don't even sound like myself. I'm a very talented actress too, even though my roles in both movie and TV are really basic. All the girls of my age look up to me and all the boys -and men- would give anything to spend a night with me. I also have a boyfriend who is an actor and has been chosen Hottest Man Alive. And apart from all that, I'm ridiculously rich. So yeah, you could say I'm a lucky girl...
However, lately I've been more named in the tabloids than in awards or anything. I'll admit it: I like calling the attention. I always have, it's like what makes me be me. But I don't do what I do just for attention. I just never played by the rules and if paparazzi are around every single time I break rules then it's not my damn problem. I have enough problems of my own.
Yeah, being a star takes its sacrifices. And I'm not talking just about the paparazzi -who I totally detest, by the way-. Let's just say, I don't have time to even breathe. Whether I am performing on stage, or in an interview, or participating on a movie, I'm always doing something. Another thing about my life? I don't have friends. Not a single one. Sure, once in a while Klaus -my manager- obliges me to pretend I'm besties with my co-stars and that we all hang out together. That's a big fat lie. I hate them all. And they hate me. Because they envy me for being beautiful, talented and succesful. Period.
"Katherine, three minutes!" Isobel shouted from outside my restroom.
"Pearl, could you hurry the fuck up?!" I complained, and I could see how nervous the poor thing was.
I didn't give a damn, if she didn't hurry I'd fire her because my make-up was supposed to be perfect and I had to be singing on that stage in exactly...
"Two minutes!" Isobel shouted.
"You're ready!" Pearl said, pulling away as I looked at myself on the mirror. "Do you like it now?"
"It's not bad" I admitted, looking at myself in the mirror. "Next time, you're fired" I said before standing up.
I walked out of my dressing room to find my crazy mother outside, talking to Klaus.
"Finally, Katerina!" Isobel said.
"Don't call me that" I snapped.
"You need to be out in two minutes" Klaus told me, putting a hand behind my back to drive me to the stage.
But I just went the opposite way.
"Just give me a minute" I said, going backstage.
"Katherine Pierce come back right no-" I didn't even finish to listen to what my mom was saying because I just walked away from her.
I wasn't gonna make it through the whole recital, plus the crazy after party without what I was going to look for.
I made my way through all my back-up dancers, the illumination guys and the rest of the people who worked backstage, looking for him everywhere.
Just when I was starting to freak out, I found him. He was standing at a corner where there was no other people around.
"There you are, you idiot! You were supposed to be on my dressing room twenty minutes ago!" I shouted-whispered to him once I was in front of him.
"I'm sorry, I got held-up" Lukah told me, secretly putting something into my pocket.
"Here you are" I said, handing him the money and he started counting it.
"Thanks" He said after he checked everything was there.
"Next time don't be late or I'll start looking for another dealer" I said before walking away from him and going to the nearest bathroom.
I put some powder on the back of my hand and then aspired it.
Suddenly I felt completely up.
I put the biggest smile on my face as I walked to the stage.
Time for the show.
The next day, in Mystic Falls...
Stefan's POV
"So, how is it?" Maria, my mother, asked everyone in the table, as we ate her tamollys.
"Delicious, honey" My dad told her, anything to make her happy.
"Fine, just next time... a little less salty" Damon told her and she rolled her eyes. He was never completely happy with anything.
"Well next time someone could help me" Maria complained.
"I'd do that if I had a break but you know I don't, ma" I told my mother.
Anyone would be exhausted if they had to work with Giuseppe Salvatore -my father- from early in the morning and then go to a university which was two hours away from home in the afternoon. That was one of the consequences of living in a one-horse town.
I was so glad summer was coming soon...
"I know sweetheart, you're a saint" Maria said and Damon rolled his eyes.
My family consisted on me, my parents and my older brother Damon. We lived in a small town called Mystic Falls, in Virginia. It's the typical town in which everybody knows everybody, and in which the only entertainment for young people is the Grill, which is in the 'center' of town. Both my brother and I were born here so we were used to the small-town life. Even though some people might say it's boring, I wouldn't wish to live anywhere else. Actually, I don't think I could survive in a big city for more than a few days. I was brought up as a small-town boy, so big cities aren't exactly my thing.
Last year I finished High School here so I'm studying law right now in a college which is two hours away from Mystic Falls. It's a petty long journey but It's worth the sacrifice.
My father had his own little law firm here in Mystic Falls. As he's the only lawyer in the entire town, you can guess we do well with the business. We're not wealthy, but we have enough money to live and a little more. As my twenty-two-year-old brother Damon is far from becoming a lawyer -he wants to be a chef, just like my mom is- I am the only one to follow the family tradition. Not that I'm complaining, I've always wanted to be a lawyer.
Now the four of us and my girlfriend Rebekah were sitting at the table, enjoying my mom's tamollys.
"So, remember tomorrow there's a barbecue at the Gilbert's'" Giuseppe said, as he served himself another tamolly. "Don't make any arrangement"
Grayson Gilbert had been a friend of my dad since... well, always. They were like brothers now because they'd been best friends since kindergarten. My mother ended up being best friends with Miranda, Grayson's wife, Damon and I had a great relationship with Grayson and Miranda's children, so we were all like a family.
"Rebekah, you can come if you want to" Maria said. She was always kind and gentle with anyone, it didn't matter if she liked them or not. She wasn't fake, she was actually always polite and had a great patience, something I believe I inherited from her.
Nobody in my family liked Rebekah, somehow. She was actually rather shallow and controlling, and sometimes she was just annoying. However, she'd been my girlfriend since high school and it wasn't easy to just leave her. Not that I was interested in anyone else...
"Sure!" Rebekah said excitedly and my brother and my dad sighed in frustration. "Isn't that great?" She asked me.
"Yeah, I guess..." I said.
"Hey let's see what's on TV" Damon said, surely not wanting to hear Rebekah any longer. "Look who's there" Damon said, pointing at the TV where I saw her.
Katherine Gilbert. Or how people called her now, 'Katherine Pierce'. Some years ago I was always checking on her. Like kind of obsessively, but I guess it was because I'd always been overprotective with my best friend, and I wanted to see how she was doing. However, lately I didn't want to see her anywhere. She wasn't the same she used to be. When she talked in an interview I didn't even know who she was. She stopped singing the songs she actually wrote and which were very good and had great messages, to start singing all these loads of crap that she doesn't even write. She was now always on the tabloids getting in some trouble, and she looked skinnier every day. It was too sad to see what they'd done to her, even more when I thought about the little talented girl who wanted to be on Broadway and ended up like this. So every time they showed her on TV I changed the channel. But it was like she was everywhere, and it was just impossible not to see her or hear from her.
She was at a concert singing a song. It might have been last night's concert, because it wasn't on live. She didn't look like herself at all. She was in ecstasy. Actually, let's face it, she was high. Maybe someone who didn't know her couldn't tell that, but I completely could. Her smile was fake. She was always smiling, but it never reached her eyes. Of course not anyone noticed this.
"Change that thing" I snapped.
"No, wait a moment look at that!" Rebekah said, staring at the screen.
Then he saw the title under the image: SHOCKING NEWS. HARD-PARTYING TEEN CELEBRITY KATHERINE PIERCE ENTERS REHAB TO TREAT COCAINE ADDICTION.
Even though it wasn't a surprise, I felt relief when hearing that. I knew she needed a stop because she couldn't continue having that lifestyle.
"Oh my god..." Maria said, covering her mouth with her hands in surprise. She'd known Katherine since she was a baby so she was like a daughter to her"
"It was time..." Damon said sadly.
Rebekah scoffed. "Oh, please. Shocking news? Really? Everyone knew she was a junkie slut"
"Could you shut up?!" I snapped all of a sudden, punching the table and taking everyone aback. I just couldn't take people talking about her anymore. "Do you even know her?!"
Nobody dared talk after that, and Damon was about to turn the TV off but then turned off the TV.
There was a big silence until of course, Rebekah spoke.
"Well, I'm sorry. I had forgotten Katherine Pierce is kind of a goddess for you..." Rebekah said and I sighed deeply as I buried my face in my hands. "But you should know, she's always done drugs-"
"Rebekah, that's enough" Giuseppe cut her off. Katherine wasn't just like a daughter to Maria, but also to him. But I knew he did it especially for me because I used to be the closest to her.
"Okay, okay, I was just saying..." Rebekah said, rolling her eyes. "Gosh..."
