4. End of the age of innocence

A few days have past and the hype has died down, well at least a bit. Let's put it in numbers shall we, her and Klaus, and her and Tyler, and her and Tyler and Hayley weren't on every second's channel anymore, now they were on approximately every fourth one. But still … It pained her to admit it, but she was, let's call it happier, hearing about her hot romance with Klaus than about Tyler and Hayley saving orphans in some third world country while picking out baby names. Of course she felt disgusted that she was even connected with that lowlife but in moments like these, one can not exactly be picky. So it was Saturday morning and she was enjoying herself by doing nothing. She just got up and was about to make some coffee when her phone started buzzing. The name on the screenplay made her smile instantly.

" So, now that we've become a famous journalist following big stories around the world we forgot our friends, did we now?"

" You know I was just using you to get ahead in my career. It's never bad to be friends with celebrities."

" I figured as much. So, what is Lexi up to?"

" Lexi is in … wait for it … LA … and she is waiting for your scrawny little ass to come to Canyon Road and join her in a little jogging session."

" Omg, you're in LA? When the hell did you get back, and why didn't you call me?"

"Ease the nerves babe; I just got back late last night. And I didn't want to bother you with all the hot sex you must be having with a certain Klaus Mikaelson."

" Lexi … You know that could never ever be true."

"Excuse me, I know nothing … So get your ass here and tell me everything. Now."

So Caroline had no choice but to put some leggings and an old t-shirt on, and get ready for some jogging. To be honest, she could use the workout, not because of her figure but because of her health, she has been neglecting it lately. Lexi was a sport freak, but it unfortunately never really rubbed on Caroline, she was always more of a yoga/dance person. Luckily the Canyon was only a fifteen minute drive from her home and it was too early so she didn't really have to be afraid of bumping into anyone, and paparazzi were still sleeping after an exhausting Friday night and morning following the new kids in town getting wasted and causing mayhem. When she got to the Canyon she saw Lexie's car but Lexi herself was nowhere in sight. And then she saw two people approaching her. And she instantly started screaming like a little girl.

"Booonie!" she didn't stop screaming her name while jumping up and down and hugging her best friend. She missed her so much.

"I found this one on the road and decided she could tag along for the ride."

"So the two of you planned this all along? How long have you been in town?" Caroline looked at Bonnie pretending she was mad.

"Actually I came with Lexi last night. We met in, you wouldn't believe, London of all places. And since Jeremy had only two more cities to tour before coming back to the US and I was kind of getting sick of all the travelling I decided to, like Lexi put it, tag along."

"Well I'm glad you did. I'm so glad you're here. The both of you. We can catch up a bit before you run of into the big world again." Caroline said with sad puppy eyes.

" O hush you, like you don't go to different parts of the world when you shoot. You're just bored because you have nothing to do at the moment, or to be honest, refuse to do anything." Lexi was blunt as always.

" Lexi …" Bonnie gave her the look and Caroline couldn't help but laugh.

" No, Bonnie, let her. I'm so glad you're here, I'm sick of people treating me like I might break any second. No one died, I just, lost a husband."

" See? I told you she was getting over it. Does the dashing Klaus have anything to do with it?"

" Let's just run shall we?" Caroline said trying not to talk about Klaus with her best friends, although they were insanely close, when it came to that man, she just couldn't share with anyone what exactly happened between them. She just felt too embarrassed.

" Fine, fine, but you're not getting off that easily missy. If you're having hot, over the roof, do me in every room in the house and some more sex with the baddest boy in town I want to here everything about it, aaall the glory details. And then some …" Lexi wasn't backing down.

"Seriously Lexi? How desperate are you? Get your own sex life." Bonnie was teasing her.

" Well excuse me if I'm not getting laid every night by the rock God himself like some of us …"

Bonnie blushed at first, but then Caroline saw the proud look on her face. Jeremy Gilbert has grown from a small town boy and a teen celebrity into a real A list musician and as Lexi nicely put it, a rock God. A rock God that had eyes for only one girl, his high school sweetheart Bonnie. Luckily Bonnie was one of those smart and strong women that were very much aware of that so jealousy was never an issue in their marriage no matter how many groupies made a pass at him on a daily basis. Caroline loved Bonnie to death but she had to admit she was sometimes a bit jealous of her. Bonnie was so confident and she never felt not good enough around Jeremy, as much as she loved Tyler, and at a certain point believed he loved her as well, she always felt she had to prove she was good enough for the big action star. To him, to the public, and to herself … So she promised herself, if she would ever do such a foolish thing like to fall in love again, it would be for someone she could 100 percent be herself with. Like that would ever happen … At this point she couldn't even think about it yet. Maybe one day … But not now …

" Nice move Bonnie, trying to talk about your sex life in order to forget Caroline's. But it won't work on me … I'm a journalist, remember? My job is to dig below the surface."

" True, but I think Caroline has had enough of journalists for a lifetime, she needs a friend. She'll tell us if there's something happening. Riiight?" Bonnie gave her a curious look alright.

"You guys, for the laast time, there is absolutely nothing happening between Klaus and I."

"So why did you even have lunch with him? I thought you hated his guts, you don't even ever want to talk about him when we gossip about his trashy lifestyle."

"Because I'm not interested in his trashy lifestyle …" Caroline said, and sat to rest a bit. The girls sat next to her. They were just sitting there in silence for a few moments, enjoying the view and catching their breath. Blabbering and running at the same time is never a good idea, especially if you're so out of shape as she was. She laid on the ground and closed her eyes trying to block all of her thoughts. It was a nice day, the Sun was just beginning to shine, she had her two friends with her, and there was no reason why she couldn't block all the thoughts about Tyler, and about Klaus. Except … Her sometimes truly pesky friends didn't let her …

"What happened all of those years ago Care?" Bonnie asked her for the millionth time, and for the millionth time Caroline couldn't tell her. She just couldn't get it out of her mouth and over her lips.

"Seriously Bonnie? Why do you always have to look for things that don't exist? I told you a gazillion times that nothing ever really happened. I was young and stupid and had a crush on him, and he didn't feel the same about me. He thought I was a boring little pest and didn't even like being in the same room with me. It bruised my ego, that's all. End of story."

She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. But in reality, it wasn't the end of the story, it was just the beginning …

It all started when she was sixteen years old and got the role that every young actress in Hollywood wanted. It was a new upcoming sitcom that was rumoured to be the next American favourite show. She was playing the role of Scooter Brown an orphan girl that falls in love with Skip, the youngest son of the Dover's, the family on which farm she was hiding after she escaped the orphanage. The role of Skip was given to an 18 year old British heartthrob Niklaus Mikaelson. He won over all of them American boys because there was just something about him everyone wanted a peace of, he was to be the new James Dean and Tom Cruise, in the early days, all wrapped up in one. The world was to fall for his blue eyes, the tabloids screamed when he got the part. And so did her heart when she first met him. His beauty left her completely dumbstruck; she was smitten like never before. Well, she was too busy playing every child role there was in Hollywood since the age of 8 to pay much attention to boys anyways. She had gone out on a few dates before, mostly arranged by her father, public dates with other teenage stars but she was held on a very short leash so she never before formed an actual crush. Until she met the unnerving eyes of one Niklaus Mikaleson, called Klaus. Unfortunately Klaus wasn't so smitten with her. He ignored her entire first season; unless they were actually filming he barely spoke a word to her. She had her big blue eyes and cute blonde hair even then, but she knew to him she was just a skinny kid. But despite of knowing that, she just couldn't shake her crush. She did all the wrong things, just didn't know it back then. She laughed too loud to get his attention, she bought him presents, tried to talk to him about the latest CD's or that new actor that was hitting it big in Hollywood, she just did everything to make him like her. But when the camera's stopped rolling she might have been very well as invisible to him. She turned seventeen when the second season began filming and nothing has changed much between the two, Skip and Scooter were getting closer and closer, becoming one of America's sweetest couples but Caroline and Klaus were as far as ever. And Caroline just couldn't take it anymore, she needed to show him she wasn't a kid anymore and that she could be cool and relaxed and carefree as him. Sure even then the rumours started buzzing he was drinking and driving, doing drugs and God knows what and God knows who, but his managers somehow managed to keep it under wraps, the show was just too precious to taint it in any way, it was brining in the big bucks at the time. So she never actually believed the rumours, she thought they were just jealous exaggerations and she was determined more than ever to catch his eye.

One weekend she overheard a friend of his from set mentioning he was throwing a party at a rented yacht in the harbour. Of course she wasn't invited but … A miracle happened, at least she thought it was a miracle back then, her father was called for a business meeting in New York, and she was left alone. Her father knew she wasn't a party person and trusted her. But that night she decided to crash Klaus's party and show him that she could be a party person. She wanted to look older and wiser. So she wore a tight black dress that rode up her thighs and higher heels than she had ever worn before. When she stepped on the boat she saw gorgeous 20 girls in only bikinis but she decided not to feel self- conscious that night. It was her big night and she looked good, she had to. And then after a half an hour he emerged from the cabin below. He had a hot redhead in his one arm and a drink in the other, while a cigarette was dangling from his mouth. She should have been repulsed by that scene but strangely she wanted him more than ever. She wanted him so much it was actually causing her physical pain, or at least that is what her stupid young heart perceived it to be. As the night progressed the party became wilder and wilder. Girls started taking their tops off, making out with each other while the boys were cheering and throwing obscene amounts of liquor inside of themselves. She went into the salon, stupidly she had such high hopes about that night but Klaus didn't even look at her. Then suddenly the door opened and Klaus came down the stairs.

"Great party."

"A party you weren't invited to …" he said uninterested.

" Well, decided to come anyway."

"So what, your daddy is out of town?"

" I don't do everything he tells me to." She said trying to sound confident.

"Really? Not how it looks to me …" he replied poring himself a millionth drink that night.

"You don't know me as well as you think you do." she said going on with her little confident Caroline, trying to tease him, to get a reaction, to finally make him pay some attention to her.

" Oh really? I bet you're still a virgin." he said without even blinking.

" Please, I'm seventeen and a half." she said while she could only hope he didn't hear her heart pounding as crazy and discover her little lie.

He started laughing and just said: " If you say so princess…"

" He was an older man, and … I don't have to be telling you this … It's none of your business who I sleep with." she said while shaking, stupidly hoping he'd say it was his business because he was secretly in love with her as well, and that he didn't want her to sleep with anyone else but him. Stupid, stupid girl …

" Ok, let's go then …"

" Go where?" she asked innocently.

" In there …" he showed the door to one of the cabins.

She looked at him in surprise: " I, I …"

" Nah, forget it …" he said shrugging it off like she was some annoying fly he was trying to get rid off. Back then she didn't realize that was exactly what she was to him.

"No, no … I'll go." She blurted out without thinking.

She was scared shitless, but this is what she wanted more than anything in the world, him, right?

Soon as the entered the cabin he violently pressed her against the wall. He kissed her with the same violence, and she was trying to mistake it for passion, knowing all along this felt so wrong, while she was tasting the smoke and the booze from his mouth. Still she gave the kiss all that she got. He took hold of her dress and pushed it up. She was now standing in front of him in only her black panties and a matching bra, she did come prepared although she in her wildest dreams didn't think this would be happening so soon. He pushed her onto the bed and started unzipping his pants. He was going too fast for her; she wanted to tell him to slow down, but couldn't find the words, she didn't want him to think she really was a stupid little girl, a virgin. If it was anyone else she would have pushed him away but this was Klaus, the guy she was dreaming about for the last year and a half. Before she could count to two he zipped his fingers under her panties and got rid of them. She felt so vulnerable and well, naked, but she was still hoping he'd show some sign of gentleness, some sign he did care for her at least a bit, just a tiny fragment of how she felt for him.

Instead he just said: "Lie down." and she stupidly did what he asked of her.

He opened the night stand near the bed and pulled out a condom. This was actually going to happen, she just realized that, and was about to say she didn't want it, not like this but … Then everything he ever said about her would be true and she still, after everything, didn't want to lose him. Like she ever had him in the first place, what a joke she was.

He hooked his hand under her knees, splayed her legs and stepped between them. His vision was blurry, like he was there but not really there. His fingers dug into her bottom as he positioned himself and entered her. She felt a sting of pain and winced trying not to scream, hoping it would past soon. He ground into her. Again and again. She looked at the ceiling all that time trying not to cry. Biting her lip, trying to keep the tears away. Finally, he began to shudder. Just moments later he pulled out and rolled off of her. He got up and started getting dressed, while she was laying there like a hopeless fool. He didn't even look at her when he got up and said: "Later" before slamming the door and going back to the party. Shame spread all over her body as she was gathering her clothes and getting dresses, she realized that up until that night she knew nothing about people and real life. She didn't cry though, she had to give herself credit for that. She decided as long as she will live and breathe there will not be one single tear shed from her eyes for that bastard.

From that moment on all of her love for him was replaced with hatred. They kept filming together for two more seasons, before the sex tape incident accrued and tipped over an already very full glass of Klaus shit the studio was enduring, but she never spoke to him off screen again. Luckily, he pretended that night never happened as well. Honestly she didn't even know if he remembered who he was with or doing anything at all, it or if he was too drunk or high to remember. But with the slamming of that door in that cabin on that yacht her childhood was officially over. And although a lot of time has passed, and although a very big part of it was her fault as well, she never truly forgave him for that …

So, here's the next chapter ... Now you'll finally know what happened in the past, but don't hate Klaus too much just yet, remember he's not the same person anymore, and I'm sure he'll make it up to her somehow ;). I hope you enjoy this ... Thank you so much for all your reviews and support ... I'm going through a rough patch in my life at the moment so your reviews truly are a ray of sunshine in my days, so thank you once more and don't forget to review ;) ...