Title: Dirty Little Secret
Chapter: 4
Summary: Caroline Forbes is a lot of things. Neurotic, controlling and insecure being top of the list, but one thing she is not is stupid. So she knows that something is seriously up with childhood friend (and occasional enemy) Tyler Lockwood. She's determine to figure out why all the sudden he's acting as if he's seen a ghost and why he looks at her all the time with a heat she doesn't understand. As she digs deeper, she finds out about a whole new world she didn't know existed and- despite her lack of knowledge- how she's part of it. Mostly AU.
Author's Note: So was last night's episode amazing or was it amazing? And did Tyler look even more heartbreakingly sexy than he usually does, or was it just me? *sigh* I loved the tomb moment with Tyler and Caroline. It totally made my day(: Well, the new events of VD have planted so many new twists for this story in my head, that I have no idea which to do): The possibilities are endless! Life would be so much easier if I didn't have to sleep.
School the next day was horrible. There was this sad, morbid, scary blanket of air in the atmosphere and it was so thick Caroline felt like she was choking on it. Everyone was worried sick for Cody, who was in critical condition but still alive, and scared for their own lives. Nothing official had been released yet about exactly how Cody was attacked or by what, but everyone was making assumptions, all of which were equally frightening. One theory, the one that she agreed with most, was that an animal had attacked him. He had been drunk so he wouldn't of been able to fight back as well as he would of if he had been sober. Those people thought that maybe it had been a bear or a wolf, though a wolf was more likely. A bear left behind a lot less than a wolf. The second theory was that there was a killer loose in Mystic Falls. Cody was just his first, random victim. The third theory scared her so much more than the first two. The third theory was that someone here in Mystic Falls had a grudge against Cody and tried to kill him. It was so scary because Caroline felt herself watching people all day, in her mind thinking, "Has Cody ever done anything to you?"
What was even worse was she was being treated like a hero. She didn't feel like a hero at all. She felt like a small, fragile, scared little girl who just wanted to hide underneath her covers from the big bad monsters. She, Stefan and Tyler all day had been getting attention, praise from teachers (who seemed to overlook the fact that they had been at a party drinking) about how brave they were and students saying they're so glad they stepped up and helped save his life. Tyler was getting it the most because he was the one who had actually gotten Cody out of the woods and carried him to safety. Caroline saw how uncomfortable the attention made Tyler and she just wanted to scream at everyone to leave them all alone.
On the up side, the weather was thankfully cooperating so the car wash was still scheduled for Saturday. It was unseasonably warm for October, at least during the day when the sun was shining and for that she was grateful. Maybe they'd all die from Global Warming in a few years, but at least she could look back and think, "Hey, at least we raised enough money to buy new books for the school." Yeah, right. Even her own jokes weren't amusing her today. Tiki was not being her normal, bitching, demanding self and instead was actually helping instead of complaining. Stefan had gotten Damon to agree with promises that their would be tons of girls there to hit on, as long as he stayed in the reasonable ages. That meant no hitting on the freshman because he would probably go to jail. Everything for that was falling into place, but she was miserable.
She dreamed about Tyler again last night. It was a lot like the first dream, only this time, she wasn't really in it. It was like she was there watching everything that was happening, but she wasn't able to interact with anyone or really do anything. It was like only her mind was there and her body was somewhere else. She was still in the woods, wandering around when she saw Tyler. He was just walking silently. His hands were in his pockets and he was looking down at the ground at nothing in particular, at least not that she saw. And then something changed. He looked up at the sky and a worried expression came on his face. He looked around before picking up his pace. He steadily got quicker until he was running, all the while looking up at the night sky. And then she woke up.
The whole situation was scaring the hell out of her. And the worst part was she didn't know who to talk to. She supposed she could talk to Bonnie or Elena about it, but they would probably think she finally lost it. She sure as hell wasn't talking to Matt about. Look, I'm starting to have really, really weird dreams about your best friend and I'm totally starting to get freaked out. No, she wasn't going to do that. She didn't feel comfortable talking to her mom about it and she barely talked to her dad. Why would she call him just for this? Who she really wanted to talk to was Tyler, but that would be extremely weird and awkward. Hey, Ty, I just wanted to talk to you. I've been having these weird dreams about you and I'm beginning to suspect you of dream stalking me. Please stop? Yeah, that one would go over well. He'd probably accuse her of being crazy, because hello, you can't dream stalk people.
Caroline felt gray hairs grow amidst the curly blonde and she was sure she would have wrinkles by the end of the day. Shaking her head, she trudged off to lunch, wishing this freaking day was over so she could go home and sleep. These dreams were draining and they left her feeling exhausted and not satisfied. If she could just survive two more blocks, she'd be okay. And one was study hall so she could just sit there, doing nothing or homework.
She had no appetite for the greasy, unhealthy, fat inducing food sold in Mystic Falls High School's cafeteria or any other food for that matter, so she went directly outside to the table she usually sat at when it was still warm enough to eat outside. Matt, Stefan and Tyler had a different lunch because they had Advanced P.E. (gross) so it was always herself, Bonnie and Elena at lunch. People would occasionally join them but Caroline would make sure it was just the three of them. Despite her discomfort with the whole situation, she might just tell them after all. They were her best friends and she knew that if anyone would believe the weirdness about the situation, it would be them.
She spotted them as soon as she stepped outside of the door. They were sitting down at the picnic table, untouched food in front of them. Their heads were bent close together and they seemed to be absorbed in a serious conversation. Bonnie looked almost frightened and Elena looked like she was comforting her. What was going on?
"Hey," Caroline said, her eyebrows raised as she sat down, folding her dress underneath her butt as to not flash anyone. She did not feel like having to hear people talk about the fact that she wore pink polka dotted panties.
They jumped, not having noticed her approached and quickly pulled away from each other.
"What's going on?" Caroline asked, a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.
They exchanged a look and Bonnie nodded.
"Bonnie's freaking out," Elena explained and both girls glanced at the small, dark girl. And she did look freaked out. She had dark circles underneath her eyes and looked like she had seen a ghost.
Caroline raised an eyebrow and Bonnie nodded. "I'm freaking out," she confirmed.
"Why?" Caroline asked, already knowing she didn't want to know the answer.
Bonnie bit her lip, looking shy all the sudden, like she was afraid Caroline would laugh at her or something. She was almost insulted, before she remembered that she did do that sometimes, even though she wasn't trying to be mean. But Caroline was just as freaked out, whether they were freaked out about the same thing she didn't know. Either way, she'd be a little more understanding than she usually was.
"Okay, so last night," Bonnie began, "when we were at the party… I- I felt something."
Caroline stared at her, uncomprehendingly. "Felt what?"
"I don't know how to explain it, Care," Bonnie said, brown eyes wide. "It was like… do you know that feeling you get when you're in the movie theater's watching a scary movie?"
Caroline nodded. She hated scary movie. Hated. Them. Her idea of a fun Friday/Saturday night was not getting ready for an hour to pay ten dollars to sit in a crowded movie theater watching a group of people get picked off one by one in equally fucked up, gruesome ways. And usually the cute, perky blonde died first. Not to mention while you sit there watching it, you feel like you're choking because you just know something bad is going to happen. Maybe that was the feeling she was talking about?
"It was like that," Bonnie said, rubbing her arms where goose bumps were forming, even though it was warm outside. "I know it sound crazy! Believe me, I do! But I felt it right after you and Tyler left to go talk about whatever you guys were talking about!"
"Wait, you and Tyler?" Elena asked, her dark brown eyebrows knitting together over he equally dark eyes in confusion. If Caroline wasn't so freaked out she would have rolled her eyes. She was probably too engrossed in making out with Stefan to notice that Caroline went off with Tyler. "You and Tyler were together last night?"
"For like five minutes," Caroline said, quietly. Yeah, that's all she needed. Having some gossip crazed punk overhear Elena saying that she and Tyler were together last night. The words were harmless but this was high school and being together with someone at night does not mean being together with someone. It would easily be misinterpreted as sex, which certainly did not happen.
"What were you two talking about?" Elena asked, momentarily forgetting Bonnie's weird "feeling" about last night with the news that Caroline had willingly talked to Tyler.
Caroline hesitated just for a second. Elena and Bonnie watched her closely, faces open and concerned. "Okay," Caroline said, leaning forward a little bit. "Ever since the Masquerade Ball, Tyler has been… like, looking at me."
They both stared at her, uncomprehendingly and Caroline almost said "never mind" but then Elena raised an eyebrow and Bonnie's eyebrows furrowed. "Like… 'I want to rip off your clothes' staring or 'I'm watching you change through your window at night' staring?" Elena asked.
Caroline shook her blonde curls, eyebrows furrowed. "Definitely not the second one," she said. "Maybe a little bit of the first? Its like this heated gaze. Its like he's reading me or something."
"Maybe he has a crush on you?" Bonnie said, it coming out more of a question than a statement.
Before Caroline could respond, Elena shook her head and said, "No. I don't think that's it."
"Then what could it be?" Bonnie asked and Caroline listened too, just as curious.
"Maybe," Elena said, drawing out the word and her eyebrows furrowing in deep thought. "Maybe he trusts you."
Caroline and Bonnie both stared at her blankly, confused. Why would him trusting her have anything to do with him staring at her? "I don't get it," Caroline said and Bonnie nodded in agreement, throwing in a, "Yeah me either."
"Well, he's obviously going through some things and we all know that he's not close with his mom," Elena pointed it. This was true. Tyler's parents were never the real touchy-feely, hugging kind, who were genuinely interested in their child's life. Especially his dad. Actually, his dad had always kind of a huge dick to Tyler and you could tell Tyler couldn't stand him, though he obeyed him. She was sure Tyler wasn't glad his dad was dead, but she didn't think he was exactly overcome with grief by it either. Caroline always had a suspicion that Tyler's dad was abusive- whether physically or verbally she wasn't sure- but she had never wanted to go up to Tyler and ask. Tyler wasn't open and especially not with something that would make him look weak. And as for his mom, she was always kind of… distant. She obviously cared about Tyler but she didn't ever show it very well. So if Tyler was going through something, he'd probably choose to keep it in rather than tell his mom about it.
"Go on," Caroline said.
"So maybe in some weird way, he trusts you and maybe he wants to talk to someone but won't admit it," Elena finished, shrugging. Hmm. Caroline couldn't help but think that maybe Elena should want to be a therapist rather than a writer. She was so good at reading people, it was almost a shame she didn't want to make a career out of it.
It was like the light bulb went off it Caroline's head at Elena's words. "You're right," she said. "That totally makes sense. Its like, a cry for help or something!"
Elena shrugged casually, though she looked satisfied. "Maybe," she said. "So what are we going to do?"
Caroline sat up a little straighter, feeling just a little bit better. She found comfort in the way Elena had said "we" instead of "you" when asking her what was to be done. "I'm going to talk to him," she declared.
"But you've tried that," Bonnie pointed out. "And it hasn't helped or gotten you anywhere."
True, very true. She'd just have to change her tactics, which wouldn't be hard. She was Caroline Forbes for God's sake! Not to mention her two best friends were Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett. Between the three of them, they'd come up with something. While this realization did make her feel a little bit better, she was still freaked out somewhat.
"We'll think of something," she said and turned back to Bonnie. "Now, finish telling us."
Bonnie squirmed underneath Elena's and Caroline's gaze, clearly not happy that the attention was turned back on her. "Look, it was probably nothing," she said, though her voice suggested that it was so obviously something. "After school, I'm going to go to Gram's house. Maybe she can help."
Bonnie's Grams was a whole world of crazy and everyone knew it. She taught Occult Arts at the local college and claimed that she (and the entire Bennett family) was descended from witches. More specially, Salem witches who traveled to Mystic Falls hundreds of years ago to escape the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, everyone knew Sheila was completely off her rocker but she was an intelligent woman and Caroline liked her. She was nice like any cliché grandma but she also had fire in her, suggesting she wouldn't deal with any crap. She and Bonnie had always had a close bond and Sheila had always played a huge role in Bonnie's life. Bonnie's mom left when she was little and her dad traveled a lot, so Sheila stepped in and helped raise Bonnie. When Bonnie had a problem that the three of them couldn't fix, she'd go to Sheila.
Caroline nodded and offered Bonnie a genuine smile. "She'll know what's up," she said, though she wasn't one hundred percent sure of this. "Now, what exactly am I going to do about Tyler?"
At the end of lunch, they had come up with somewhat of a plan. Okay, so it wasn't the best plan they'd ever come up with but damn it, they usually didn't deal with dick head boys with serious emotional problems. Well, sometimes they had but not in the level of Tyler Lockwood. After what felt like hours of debate and planning, they'd come up with this: leave no room for debate. That meant that she was going to push Tyler until he either cracked and told her, or killed her. She was hoping for the first one obviously. Okay, so maybe it wasn't an award worthy plan, but Tyler wasn't exactly the most patient person in the world- or patient at all really- so he'd only be able to take it so long.
She was sitting in the library in her study hall period alone at a table, making an action plan. She couldn't decide when or where to instruct Tyler of her newly decided mission to crack him. She supposed she could just walk up to him in the halls, but he was usually surrounded by his douche bag friends or Matt (and she certainly didn't want Matt involved in her plan), so that wouldn't be the ideal place. She could try after school, but no, that wouldn't work. He did after school workouts every day he didn't have practice. Who did that anyways? Was it really necessary to work out every day? She guessed that could be his way of escaping. Her's was shopping.
Even with knowing this, she still felt impatient to talk to him.
She glanced around the library. All the students were sitting at tables, nose practically pressed against their textbooks. Others were sitting at the computer, trying not to be obvious about the fact that they weren't working on school related anything. She easily spotted Ms. Van Buren, her teacher, sitting on her butt reading some Nicholas Sparks book, probably wishing that she was the troubled teenage girl or the privileged hottie with the boys chasing after her. Okay, so maybe Caroline had read the books but honestly, who hadn't? It was like Green Eggs and Ham. You had to read it. Anyways, she looked engrossed enough that Caroline could easily slip out the side door and head to oh say, lunch? Attendance had already been taken so it wasn't like anyone was really going to miss her. She'd just slip out, go find Tyler (and of course say she was looking for Matt), tell him what she had concluded and slip right back in, unnoticed. No harm done.
She slipped her bag securely over her shoulder-watching Ms. Van Buren the whole time- and tip toed to the exit door. She opened it silently and slipped out. With a large, satisfied smile on her face, she marched off to lunch. Tyler, Matt, Stefan and some of their other friends usually sat outside, tossing the football or just hanging out, so she'd just go up, grab Tyler for a quick second, instruct him of her new plan and be gone, back to class before anyone even knew she was gone.
She spotted them easily, sitting at one of the tables. She walked over, plastering on a smile. Tyler spotted her before anyone else did and the look he gave her did not go unnoticed. It was curious and way too… gosh, she didn't even have the word that would explain it! It was like this mixture of wonder, heat and something, tying together in one stare that left her feeling itchy and uncomfortable.
"Hey, Care!" Caroline heard his familiar voice and she smiled more genuinely, though it still wasn't as bright and warm as usual. Matt was giving her a big, warm smile. "What are you doing here?"
She shrugged and sat down on the edge of the bench beside him and across from Tyler. Everyone was looking at her, but she ignored them. They weren't even factors in her mission. "Study Hall got boring," she explained, feeling the warm weight of his arm go around her should. Was she delusional or did she just see something very close to anger flash through Tyler's brown eyes? Surely, she was just seeing things. "So I thought I'd come here and hang out with you," she said, her words directed towards Matt but her eyes on Tyler's.
"Sweet," Matt said, and she could practically hear the smile on his face.
His friends slowly pulled him back into the conversation they had been in, something about football- she honestly didn't care. She was too busy watching an uncharacteristically silent Tyler play around on his phone underneath the table. He must have sensed her staring at him because he looked up.
"What?" he asked, lowly.
Matt seemed to notice the awkwardness between his best friend and girlfriend. She felt him I'm watching them.
"Actually, Tyler can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked, politely.
He looked at her evenly and his eyes flickered to Matt for just a second, almost like he was expecting Matt to say "hell no."
He didn't though. "We're about to leave so I'll see you later?" Matt asked, looking down at Caroline. She smiled and nodded. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips. After pulling back, she stood up, gave a wave to Stefan, who was watching the three of them with his eyebrows raised, and looked at Tyler. For a second, she didn't think he was going to get up, but finally he did, though was clearly reluctant about it.
She more so felt him following her than hearing or seeing him. When she was a safe distance away from Matt and his friends, and everyone else for that matter, she stopped and turned around. Tyler was standing a foot or two away from her, his hands in his pockets and an almost blank expression on his face.
"What, Caroline?" he asked, sounding tired and almost defeated, like he was losing some battle by talking to her.
"I don't get you, you know that?" she asked, plan momentarily forgotten. She was staring at him incredulously, wishing she could use a stick and beat some sense into him with it.
He pursued his lips before finally he said, "And how is that?"
"Because!" she exclaimed. She saw a few heads turn and she swallowed, heat rising to her cheeks. She swallowed again, trying to get a hold of herself, very aware that Matt was watching them. "Because," she said, her voice more steady, more leveled. "Its like you can't allow people to care about you."
He cocked his head to the side in the most infuriating manner, like he found her amusing, or cute even. "Why do you care about me, Caroline?"
She froze again. There that damn question was again. "Because I've known you my entire life," she lied.
He shook his head, inching closer to her. "Try again."
"Because you're my boyfriend's best friend," she tried, though this lie was worst than the first.
He shook his head and took a step closer. "You and I both know you're lying," he said, slowly. She couldn't help the small shiver that ran through her body at his words.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Okay? I have no idea why I care so much, but I do!"
Just as suddenly as he had stepped forward, he stepped back. "You shouldn't," he said, seriously
"Why?" she asked and this time she took the step forward, her eyes never leaving his. "Why shouldn't I care?"
He laughed bitterly and looked down at the ground. Finally, after a few seconds he looked up and there was something very close to sadness in his eyes. "Because its not good for you."
His words made no sense but she easily heard the warning, like he was actually saying he was dangerous to her. It didn't make sense but she didn't ignore it. "I don't know what's going on with you, Tyler," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "But I'm going to find out."
At first she didn't think he'd be able to hear her. They weren't far apart but her words had been low. His expression suggested he had though. He took a small step forward and leaned down so his mouth was a few inches from his ear.
"I really wish you wouldn't try," he whispered, his hot breath tickling her ear.
Before she had time to respond, the bell had wrung and he was walking away, leaving her open mouthed and not satisfied in the least.
So, I know you guys are probably still confused about what's going on because I am being quite vague and I do apologize for that! Some of next chapter will be in Tyler's POV (though mostly still Caroline's) so some things will be revealed! And the foundations for Fowood will also begin being set next chapter!
Review! (: