"And it's a fresh start fever.
Who wouldn't want to be here?
Welcome to the future.
Dream a little bigger.
As for now, I reserve judgments."
"So I know this is probably pretty sudden, and I don't really know the proper way to ask this, but would you allow me the honor of taking you out, Darcy Gilbert?"
One day, I was telling myself that it was best if I distanced myself from Kol, if I let the attraction and whatever seemed to be pulling me towards him fizzle out, and the next, I found myself going on a date with him.
How did I end up here, staring at my closet full of clothes as if it was completely barren? There was no shortage of dresses in there, or upstairs in the attic stored away for any formal events that we might go to, but I had seen them all. They were either too plain or too flashy.
Without the slightest idea what we might be doing, or even where we might be going, it was like trying to take a test without going to class or studying at all.
Of course, I had help, as Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena weren't going to let the supernatural world stop us from making the most this momentous occasion, my first real date. I hadn't mentioned it to Kol yesterday, when he brought up what time he'd be picking me up tonight, but of course Caroline had to say, "This is her first date, so you better make it extra special."
Why did everyone have to point that out? It made me feel incredibly lame. Yes, I was eighteen years old and had never been taken on a proper date, and the only person I had kissed or slept with was a vampire completely in love with my sister, but it wasn't by my own personal choice—the lack of date that is. It had been completely consensual, that night with Damon.
"This one would look good," Caroline murmured, and she turned away from my closet holding a maroon bandage dress, with short cap sleeves that barely went to the edge of my shoulder.
"Yeah, except for the fact that I don't have any shoes I can wear with it that I can walk in," I said, and my body fell back onto the pile of dresses laid out on my bed, a loud groan rumbling out of my chest. "This is hopeless. I should just tell him I changed my mind."
"Yeah, no," Elena snorted. "Just because you're nervous doesn't mean you can just bail. He looked really excited. Did you see the way his eyes were practically shining when he got in his car, after you said you would see him tonight?"
She wasn't wrong about that; when I said goodbye to Kol by reminding him about our date—as if all the times he talked about it throughout the day weren't reminder enough for him—even the sun couldn't compare to the way his eyes lit up.
"What about this one?" Bonnie suggested, pulling out a strapless dark teal bandeau lace dress. "You have plenty of cute boots you could wear with this one."
"Bonnie, you've seen his car," Caroline said, and her eyebrows rose. "Wherever they're going, I'm sure it's stunning, and Darcy is probably the queen of looking cute all the time, but she has to look more than cute tonight."
Bonnie nodded her head to the side in agreement while Elena continued watching me, her dark eyes smug as her lips curled into a smirk. "Just try and make him work for it?"
My eyes widened. "What the—come on, guys, I'm not some sex-crazed girl who jumps on every dick that gets hard around me."
"Why do we ever make the mistake of talking about sex with you?" Caroline groaned, her voice echoing out of the almost emptiness of my closet. "I swear, it's like talking to a guy."
"Guys, move out of the way," Elena said, and she stood up from my bed to go into my closet. "I know exactly what she needs to wear."
Caroline and Bonnie were quick to do what she said, both wearing eager smiles as they stepped out of my closet. All the shirts and jeans had been removed to make it easier to look for the perfect dress, along with any "casual" dresses that Caroline immediately declared to be too cute.
The purple bandeau dress she pulled out got immediate unanimous agreements, from both Bonnie and Caroline. They had been opposing sides all day, with Caroline declaring that I had to look beyond stunning and sexy and Bonnie insisting that showing off too much on a first date was just not my style. Elena agreed with both sides, insisting there had to be a perfect medium, and I just sat around feeling completely hopeless about it all.
This was the perfect medium Elena had been trying to think about, the one she knew was in there. It was made of chiffon, with sequins on the top and two layers of chiffon crossed over to give it a bit more elegance and less flair. I had loved it for its beauty and simplicity, the way it both stood out and blended in. It was my "perfect for just about anything" dress.
Perfect for anything, yet I hadn't found a reason to wear it yet.
Until now.
The three left my room while I slid it on, pulling it up from the ground up to not mess up the hair they had spent a good deal of time on. They had come over at noon, to make sure we had at least six and a half hours to get me ready to go, and they used every minute of it.
The bun they had put my hair in, with all the twisting and styling it just so, resembled a rose, with two strands of hairs falling down the side of my face in beautiful curls.
It worked out that we picked out a purple dress. Caroline had done purple smoky eye makeup, blended with both dark and light purples to make it look good with whatever I planned to wear.
Elena came back in, after I had the dress pulled up, wearing a soft but proud smile. She walked across the room without a word, coming over to zip up the back of my dress without having to be asked.
"I'm happy for you," she informed me. "You deserve something like this. I know you two barely know one another, but he's insanely attracted to you. Not just the way you look either. You deserve that in your life, and he just so happens to be insanely gorgeous and rich as hell to boot."
"He calls it luck, as it's just his parents' way of fighting for his favoritism."
She let out a breath that resembled a laugh. "Yeah, that would be luck, as lucky as someone can be when their parents are divorcing. What I'm getting at, though, is that even if the timing of all of this is horrible, I'm happy for you."
I turned back around to face her, to throw my arms around her, and she met the gesture almost immediately. This was probably one of the most comfortable places I had left in the world, in the embrace of my sister. We were the exact same height, exact same shape, though some of my genetic disorders gave me a bit more meat in some places. Her hugs were just comfortable.
"Thank you, Elena," I murmured.
For tonight, I decided to let the guilt of what I was doing disappear. What was done was done; I couldn't go back and change the moment that I decided to take the daggers out. I couldn't change the fact that I had already lied to them about who he was. There was no reason to tell them now.
Above all else, Kol had been really nice to me, and extremely genuine. He hadn't held back anything, even when the questions I asked might lead me away from him if the answers weren't what I wanted to hear. They weren't, yet he still gave them to me.
Somehow, instead of pushing me away, those answers brought me to a place where I said yes when he asked me out. I said yes to the Original vampire who wanted to go out with me.
Caroline and Bonnie came in the room, wearing different degrees of the same eager smile, and they both scurried over to join in on the hug. Caroline was extremely careful not to get close to my hair, since she ended up the closest to it, and my heart hadn't felt so full and warm as it had in that moment.
These girls would go to the end of the earth and back for me, and I would always do the same for them.
The doorbell rang downstairs, and all good feelings were gone. The three around me let me go and took off, each of them declaring that they would be the one to open it, but everything inside of me grew rigid.
Kol had mentioned that he found me beautiful, so why was I so nervous about this? Of course we had spent the entire seven hours making sure I looked as perfect as possible, but would I really look good to him?
This was more than worrying about how I looked. What did I really expect to get out of this night? He was an Original vampire, the worst of them all, and I was just going on a date with him? For what? To have a magical evening and then wake up in the morning and remind myself that none of it mattered? That his brother could, at any time, find out he isn't in the coffin and kill me for letting him out?
There was no way to know how Klaus would react if he found out, but it didn't really make much difference. Kol and I couldn't be together. My friends and family finding out who he really is was inevitable. One day, they would know, and how much would they hate me?
Downstairs, I could faintly hear Elena say, "Hey, Kol! Come on in. She'll be right down."
At least that part was out of the way. I hadn't thought much about what would happen if I wasn't down there to open the door and invite him in, but without knowing he was a vampire, of course they didn't hesitate to invite him in.
There was a knock on my doorway to pull me out of my thoughts, and standing in it was none other than Jeremy himself, wearing a soft smile as he leaned against it, folding his arms over his chest.
"You gonna hide out here forever?" he asked.
I shook my head and turned back for my closet, remembering that I stood barefoot on the floor in my bedroom. There were a couple different pairs of shoes I could've worn with this dress, but boots weren't really an option. There was one particular pair of heels I had that I had worn for long periods of time that hadn't hurt my feet even a little bit.
They looked perfect with this dress even, the white Mary Jane heels embellished with silver designs that kinda threw back to the flappers in the twenties. I didn't know if Kol even knew anything about the twenties, but I had always loved the more vintage styles, or floral patterns. Caroline always joked that I was born in the wrong decade, and maybe I was. For one of the decade dances, I got to dress how I would've already dressed, though my hair and makeup had to be done differently.
I slipped into the heels and buckled them, my eyes moving back up to find Jeremy, whose arrogance had only grown brighter the longer he stood there. "What?"
"I guess I should've said I give it 'til the end of the week."
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my jacket off the nook on the other side of my room, as it was the only place safe from all the clothes that had been taken out of my closet. "Speaking of the other night, what about what we talked about?"
He tilted his head back, towards his bedroom. "Got it covered. Now I'm just waiting for Caroline to leave. Wouldn't want her, you know, being Caroline."
Though I laughed, that was an unfortunate truth he would have to deal with. Caroline wanted nothing less than the absolute best for each of us, as we wanted for her, but if someone hurt her friend in any way, she held onto that for way longer than normal.
It was why she couldn't understand why Elena was developing feelings for Damon, in the middle of all the stuff happening with Stefan. Damon had hurt a lot of people in different ways.
We had all done our share of hurting and killing. Damon just didn't hold onto it the same as the rest of us.
That was one thing I could say at least. I had never killed anyone, not even a vampire. The people around me made sure I didn't get put in the situation where I had to, even a vampire. We didn't know if that would trigger the curse or not, and that was a risk we weren't going to take.
The heels were far too loud as I made my way down the cornered staircase, moving faster than I probably should have. The longer I took, the longer my friends would have to make this unbearably embarrassing, and there was no telling what they had said or done while I was upstairs with Jeremy.
At the sight of Kol, the perfection in front of me made my body jolt, almost falling down the remaining steps, but instead, my steps slowed down, one hand gripping the sturdy banister beside me.
Kol always showed up to school well dressed, and I imagined the time that he had been daggered, the clothes he wore would've been considered nice and fashionable. It didn't take him any time at all to seamlessly work himself into the modern culture, clothes included, but tonight, he was just stunning.
Dressed in a fitted black blazer, with a dark blue button-up that clung to him perfectly, he wore a pair of black slim dress pants and black lace-up boots, to accent the dark and absolutely sexy look well. It was as if each article of clothing had been handmade for him specifically, though there wasn't time for that at all.
Kol must've noticed all of my friends and sister eyeing him the way they were, but it didn't seem to faze him. It probably had a lot to do with the thousand years he had been alive; surely women eyed him like that more than once over the centuries.
Instead, he was eyeing me like that, with less deviousness and dark desires splashed underneath it all. Right now, all he seemed to have on his mind was how I looked, and though he didn't expressly state it, the glow in his eyes was the polar opposite of disappointment.
My heart began racing in my chest, pounding so hard against my ribcage that it made it hard to breathe, but I pushed forward, reminding myself that there was an incredible night ahead of me that I might miss if I just stood here like this.
I had all night to look at him, as he had all night to look at me.
"So, I have absolutely no idea what you have planned," I said, but as I did, my feet began moving down the remaining stairs, my four inch heels putting me around the same level as I had been the day we met. "But I hope I'm dressed appropriately."
He nodded, but the movement was very subtle, as his eyes were still glued on me, moving away from my face to study everything about what I wore. "I don't think you could've dressed more perfectly, darling." He held his hand out for me to take, and after one final deep breath, that was what I did. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes." With my jacket hung over my arm, I had to let him go so I could slide into it, and out of the corner of my eye, the silver bag in Elena's hand caught my attention. "Yes, right. Thanks."
She handed me the silver clutch and gave me a wry smile. "Have fun you two. Remember what we told you."
The reminder of what they had said, "At least make him work for it," had me rolling my eyes all the way out the door, with Kol following behind me without hesitation. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of squealing on the other side of the door stopped him.
The brisk fall air stung as the blood began pooling underneath the skin of my face, turning the pale skin a bright red surely. "Holy shit. Please ignore them."
A breath of a laugh pushed out of his lips, which were curled into a rather large smile that had a strange absence of arrogance, but he didn't say anything, only took my hand and led me to the end of the driveway, towards the curb where his BMW i8 was waiting.
After seeing him get in it the other day, I had to figure out what kind it was, the curiosity getting the better of me once again.
I really needed to work on that.
Over the course of the few days we had spent in school, Kol openly mentioned that he wasn't a gentleman, that he didn't know the first thing about how to act properly or treat a person without seeming rude or arrogant.
Yet as we approached the car, he pulled open the butterfly door and held my hand up, to help me get inside, and he waited there until every piece of me was nestled inside the warmth of the soft leather seats so he could close the door back.
If that wasn't a proper gentleman, what exactly was?
Somehow, Kol seemed to remember that my sister and her friends were probably watching us leave out the window, so he walked around to the other side at a completely human pace.
His eyes found me the moment he got inside and closed the door, and they were absolutely shining again, similar to how they had when we said goodbye at school yesterday. "Actually, I think I'm going to enjoy their love for me while it lasts. They're sure to hate me when they find out who I am."
"Maybe not."
Deep down, despite the optimist in me trying to stay positive, I knew he was right. There was no way I'd ever be able to get them to see things my way.
They wouldn't remember those good qualities they saw in Kol. They would only see them as lies told to make me fall for him.
Unless I told them the truth—that I knew who he was because I was the one who let him out of the coffin.
A/N: So I got a couple more subscribers to this story, so I decided to go ahead and post another chapter. Although I would love to hear from you guys! I'd like to hear what you think about Kol and Darcy. :)
The lyrics at the beginning of the chapter are from the song Fresh Start Fever by You Me at Six.
Read, review, and enjoy. :)