Chapter 14

Current Day

Bonnie

Bonnie didn't know why she was in there. She started to run down the street with so much adrenaline lashing through her it felt like her chest was going to explode. The rain was pouring down and all she could think about was getting as far away from Enzo's house as possible, but her mind caught up with her and she pulled herself back somehow.

Her clothes dripped on the bathroom floor, which was still stained red from her blood. She sat down and hug her knees to her chest, staring at the bathtub.

Something died in her when she found her mother, but she was not sure what. Maybe her soul. That night, she'd been so determined to go to that stupid party that she left her mom at the house alone, even though her dad had left her in charge of her mom.

There was one simple rule: keep an eye on mom. And she couldn't even follow it.

"Bonnie, what are you doing in here?" Enzo observed her from the doorway, his clothes and hair drenched with rain.

Bonnie cuddled her knees and squeezed her eyes shut. "I saw you go to your bedroom with Sarah."

"Okay…" he sounds confused. "Why do you sound upset, though?"

"It doesn't matter," she says. "None of this matters."

"Of course it matters." He sat down beside her and drapes his arm over his knees. "Otherwise you wouldn't be in here."

"You're right, it does matter." she ran her finger between the cracks in the tile. "I don't want you to be with Sarah."

"Wait a minute. Do you think I hooked up with her?"

"Isn't that what you normally do when you take a girl back to your room?"

"Sarah and I were just talking," he mutters quietly. "And I haven't taken a girl back to my room in months."

Hearing him say that made her feel better and she started to face the inevitable. She could run all she wanted and try to shut herself down, but her feelings for Enzo will always be there—they control her.

"You know, you scared the shit out of me that night," he says, staring at the bathtub. "The way you looked when I found you… I don't ever want to see that look in your eyes again—that emptiness."

"It was my fault." Bonnie let it fall off her chest and crash into the world. "I was supposed to watch her that night, but I was selfish and thought that stupid party was more important."

He turns her head toward him and looks her in the eyes, so she could see how much he means what he says. "You're not selfish. You were seventeen and you made a mistake just like every other seventeen-year-old out there does."

"She died because of my mistake." The words scratch at her throat. "If I would have just stayed home like I was supposed to then she wouldn't be dead."

"You have to let this go," he says, his voice strained. "You can't keep blaming yourself for something that was out of your hands."

"I wish I could have a redo." Tears sting the corners of her eyes. "I want to do it over again."

He covers her hand with his. "I think you might need to talk to someone about this. Otherwise it's going to haunt you forever."

Bonnie sucked the tears back and wiggle her hand away from his. "You think I'm going crazy."

He shifts in front of her onto his knees, takes her face in his hands, and forces her to look at him. "Look at me. No one thinks you're crazy. You're strong, but you've been through a lot of shit and you might need some help working through it."

"I think I'm more fucked up than you realize," Bonnie says. "I can't even look in a mirror anymore."

"That does sound crazy." He tucks her hair out of her face and takes a good look at her. "You're beautiful."

Bonnie shook her head slowly. "It's not that. It's something else. Like if I look in the mirror I have to see what's really inside."

"What's inside isn't bad."

"Yes, it is. If you knew the truth, you wouldn't want to be with me."

He evaluate her closely and then helps to her feet, pulling Bonnie up by the arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he steers her by the shoulders to the mirror on the medicine cabinet. She winced at the girl staring back at her; big green eyes, wet hair stuck to her head, and mascara running down her face. Bonnie begins to recoil, but he holds her in place and forces her to look at herself.

His hazel eyes lock on her reflection. "When I saw you that night, I felt completely helpless. I loved being able to help you, whether it's if you fell off the roof and needed to go to the hospital or you needed help climbing up a tree. It has always been my thing since we were kids and I loved every second of it, but that night there was absolutely nothing I could do to help you. I never want to feel that way again." He takes a deep breath and lets it out gradually. "I love you, Bonnie Bennett and nothing will ever change that. You can push me away—run away—and I will still love you."

Hot tears poured out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Bonnie's shoulders start to shake as she turns to him and buries her face into his chest. His arms circles around her waist and he lifts her up. Bonnie's arms and legs fasten around him like he was her lifeline, and maybe he was.

Enzo carried her into her room as she continued to sob and he lays down with her on the bed. It's dark and the music from next door drifts through the open window. Tears spill continuously to downpour from her eyes, and she places her hand over his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. Bonnie kept crying years of tears that had been bottled up until finally her eyes run dry.

Then she breathe again.

Enzo

He woke up early in morning in a state of panic. Bonnie was fast asleep in his arms, her eyes swollen from crying, and she's clinging onto him like he was everything to her. It's what he has always wanted, but something felt unresolved within him and he needed to fix it before he gets in too deep with her. She needs someone strong and until he faces the thing plaguing him, he can't be that for her.

But he will be.

Carefully, he raises her head from his shoulder and slip out of her room. Her dad's snoring on the couch, there's a broken bottle on the kitchen floor, and the back door is wide open. He locked up and then jump the fence. His yard was trashed with beer bottles and cigarette butts and his mom's car is parked in the driveway.

The inside looks just as bad and he felt like a dick for leaving it for his mom to clean up, but if he didn't go right now, he'd chicken out. So he hurried to his room, where Damon's passed out on his bed with his arms and legs hanging over the side. Damon still has on the clothes from last night and the whole room stinks of stale booze and cigarettes.

Enzo stuffed some clothes into a bag and collect his keys from the dresser.

"Are you going somewhere?" Damon sat up from the bed, rubbing his eyes.

Enzo swung the bag over his shoulder. "I'm going on a little road trip. I'll be back in a few days."

He gapes at Enzo. "By yourself?"

"Yeah, this is something I have to do by myself."

He considers something. "You're going to see your father, aren't you?"

Enzo let out a loud breath. "Yeah man, but don't say anything, okay?"

Damon nods. "Alright, if that's what you want me to do."

"It is." Enzo opened the door. "And hey, help my mom clean up… and keep an eye on Bonnie."

He falls back into the bed. "Alright man, will do."

Enzo grabbed his wallet and leave the room, wondering who he was going to be when he came back.

Bonnie

Bonnie was waking up to an empty bed, but tried to stay calm. She texted Enzo and asked him where he was because she was sure there's an explanation.

"I'm sure it's nothing bad," she says, but there's an unsettling feeling squeezing inside her.

Bonnie slipped on a pair of shorts and a tank top and go downstairs to head to his house, but Jamie and Beka, and an Asian girl with short black hair were sitting at the kitchen table with coffee mugs in front of them. There's a box of doughnuts on the counter and someone's taken out the garbage and cleaned the dishes.

"Oh my God, it's so nice to finally meet you." The girl with black hair stood up and meets her in the middle of the kitchen.

"Likewise, I guess…" Bonnie shook her extended hand, glancing at Rebekah and Jamie.

Jamie gets up and brushes crumbs off the front of his button down shirt. "Bonnie, this is my fiancé, Anna."

Bonnie's mouth forms an "O." She's not how Bonnie pictured her; short and slender, with pale skin and shoulder length wavy hair. She has a vest on over a t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. There's a butterfly tattoo on her wrist and her ears have multiple piercings. Bonnie pictured her more prim and proper, by the way her brother showed up looking.

"Jamie's told me so much about you," she says with a genuine smile. "And I'm finally glad to have a face to attach to the stories he's been telling me."

Bonnie's eyes wander to Jamie and her eyebrows arch up. "Stories, huh? I'd love to hear these stories."

She doesn't miss a beat. "Like how you like to draw and how you love cars. He also said you attend UNLV, which is so cool because that's where I went."

"I thought you said you didn't know where I was," Bonnie says to Jamie.

He shifts uneasily. "Dad told me once during like a five minute conversation. But anyway, it's not a big deal, Bonnie, for me to tell my fiancé about my little sister."

"It kind of is." Bonnie's voice carries an underlying meaning that only he would understand. "All things considering."

Jamie hisses through clenched teeth. "Bonnie, can you not start this shit. It's too early in the morning."

Anna glances from Jamie to Bonnie, then back to Jamie. "You weren't lying. You guys' relationship is a little intense."

Removing herself from the conversation, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and pours herself a cup of coffee. Breathing in the aroma, Bonnie stares out the window, noting that Enzo's car wasn't next door.

"Where the hell is he?" she mutters to herself.

Suddenly, she's being yanked by the arm out of the room.

"Hey," Bonnie protest as hot coffee spills onto her foot. "What is your problem?"

"Look." Jamie says once they're in the living room. "I didn't invite her here. She just showed up to surprise me."

"So you don't want her here?" Bonnie takes a sip of her coffee, hiding her amusement.

He rubs the back of his neck tensely. "There's just stuff she doesn't know about me yet and I don't think I'm ready to tell her."

"You told her about me."

"But not dad. And not mom either."

Bonnie sets the cup down on the table and wipes up the coffee from her foot with a towel. "Okay, so what do you want to do about it?"

"Could you hang out with her for the day, while I pack up the rest of my room?" he asks. "And then I can get her out of here by tomorrow morning."

"You should just tell her the truth." Bonnie tosses the towel on the couch. "Avoiding the problem will only catch up with you."

He pulls an annoyed face. "You're one to talk."

"I know and I'm working on it." Her voices shakes a little and she cleared it.

His face was turning red. "Would you please just keep her busy?"

"I guess." Bonnie shrugged. "But where do you want me to take her?"

"For a drive around the lake or something," he says. "I don't care just as long as you keep her away from here."

Bonnie collects her coffee and proceed for the kitchen, while he heads for the stairs to finish packing.

"And Bonnie," he calls out from the stairway "You look different today—happier."

She gave him a small smile, and then she turns away, wondering what looks different.

Enzo

He called his dad from the road and got his address. He tried to talk to Enzo a little bit, but he hung up on him. Confronting him for bailing is not something Enzo was going to do over the phone.

His father lives about two hours away, which pisses Enzo off. Two hours away and he hasn't stopped by once. When he pulled up to his house, his hands nearly choke the life out of the steering wheel. He lives in a two-story white-brick mansion. The neighborhood was nice with gigantic houses and people walking their dogs along the sidewalk. There's no drug dealings going on, no fights, no junky cars parked in the front yard.

Enzo sat in his car staring at the red door with a big "Welcome" sign hanging on it. There were flowers around the front of the yard and the grass was green and cut. Is this why he left them? Because he wanted a fancier life. Why the fuck couldn't he do that with them?

His phone beeps in his pocket and he turned it off. It's Bonnie and he couldn't talk to her right now.

The front door opens and a man in his mid-forties steps out onto the porch. His hair is the same color of dark brown as Enzo's, but thinner. He's wearing a black suit and looked like an arrogant prick.

He scoops up the newspaper from the ground and squints at his car as he trots off the porch. Enzo counted to five in his head, force his hands away from the steering wheel, and got out of the car. He recognizes Enzo immediately and his face drains of color.

"Lorenzo?" He tucks the newspaper under his arm. "Is that you?"

Enzo took another deep breath and walked across the front lawn. "I don't even know why I'm here."

"Why don't you come inside so we can talk?" his father suggests. Enzo followed him into the house that's even nicer on the inside; hardwood floors, a massive chandelier, and freshly painted walls with family pictures on them. "You have a family?"

He tosses the newspaper onto a table and motions for him to have a seat in the living room. "Yeah, a daughter that's twelve and a son that's eight."

Feeling awkward, Enzo sat down in a chair that's decorated with frilly pillows. He seats himself across from Enzo, seeming like he has no idea what to do or say next. "So how have you been?"

"Super." There's a large portrait on the wall taken in a church of him and his wife on their wedding day and Enzo stares at it, doing the math. "How long have you been remarried?"

His father fidgets uncomfortably as he leans back in the chair and stations his foot onto his knee. "Lorenzo, look I'd rather not get into this."

"What did you do? Like run out on us and marry the first person you came across?" Anger burns in his voice. His father looked away toward the window and Enzo gets it. "You were seeing her while you were still with mom, weren't you?"

He makes eye contact with Enzo again, with eyes exactly like his son's. "Look Enzo, there were things going on between your mother and I that you don't understand… I wasn't happy."

"There were things going on between you and me, too," he snaps. "So what's your excuse for that one?"

His father rubs a hand across his face and lets out an exhausted sigh. "I'm sorry."

Enzo clenches his hands into fists, fighting the urge to jump off the couch and strangle him. "You're sorry? Great answer, asshole."

His father snatches a manila folder out of the drawer of the end table and slams it down on the coffee table between them. "Your grandfather left you some money in his will."

Enzo's eyes flash from the folder to his father. "Is that why you brought me here?"

He opens the folder and takes a small stack of papers out. "I thought maybe you could use it to go to college or something. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Shaking his head, Enzo got to his feet. "I'm not going to college and you'd understand that if you knew me past the age of six."

His father just slides the papers across the table and sets a pen next to them. "Please just take the money, Lorenzo. I want to know that you're taken care of otherwise it'll haunt me."

Enzo pauses. "Are you planning on ever seeing me again?" His silence gives the only answer Enzo needed. "I don't want your goddamn money." He throws the papers at him and storm for the front door. "Give it to one of your real kids."

He doesn't call after him when Enzo stomps out the door and he doesn't chase him down. Enzo march straight for his car, getting more furious with each step, and he slam his fist into the driver's side window. It doesn't break, but a couple of his knuckles pop.

"Fuck!" he shouts, clutching his hand and the old lady across the street, who's working in her garden, scurries inside her mansion.

Enzo jumps in his car and speed off down the road with no idea where the hell he was going.

The Vampire Diaries are over. I already miss Enzo and Bonnie. I wish we had more of them from their lovely hate sparks in season 5. I wish they had kept Beremy apart and allowed Bonnie to have a new romance instead. Then we'd have 4 seasons of Bonenzo is instead of the not even a solid 2 seasons. Oh well.

I will complete this story hopefully by next month. 3 more chapters to go guys.

And anyways how did you all feel about the series finale?

I wish episode 15 wasn't the Bonenzo goodbye, we definitely didn't get enough of them. But the scene with Enzo and Grams was amazing.