Chapter Ten: Have You Ever
Have you ever walked through a room
But it was more like the room passed around you
Like there was a leash around your neck that pulled you through
Have you ever been at someplace, recognizing everybody's face
Until you realized that there was no one there you knew. Well I know
~The Offspring
Nilin was left with some alone time to prepare herself, once Elena and Stefan went their separate ways. She was procrastinating. Nilly really didn't want to go to the dance. No, like, she really really did not want to go. She'd rather have donated blood than go, but she didn't see a way out.
She'd already stupidly said yes to Elena, so she was screwed. Groaning and grunting, she flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling of the guest bedroom. She was in of a pep-talk. You know, someone to tell her that it's just a normal high school dance, she's been to one of those before. It would be fun!
Her pep-talk wasn't working.
She turned over so she was lying on her stomach. "Why can't I just be a recluse?" she wined into the mattress.
Finally she sat up, still grumbling, and went to shower. She stood under the hot water longer than she needed to. By the time she came out her fingers and toes were all pruney. She wrapped a towel around herself and, reluctantly, began the task of getting ready. Nilly pulled a comb through her hair, and straightened her bangs so they hung perfectly on her forehead. Spraying a bottle of hairspray to make sure her waves stayed wavy and her frizz stayed unfirzzy, she was finished with her hair.
She lined her eyes with a dark charcoal eyeliner, coated her lashed in a thin layer of massacre, and, adding a shimmering soft red eye shadow she stole from Elena's room, Nilly managed to make her gold flecked eyes pop. A touch of red lip stick and she was ready to get dressed. Only one problem, she didn't have any dresses. Nilly had only packed the essentials when she came here and a dress wasn't on that list.
What am I supposed to wear? she pondered, starring at the closet which was mostly barren other than some shirts and jeans Elena had hung for her. Nilly tapped her fingers on her chin and thought, Maybe if I focus hard enough, a dress will appear.
That's when she saw it, hanging on a metal hook in the back on the closet. A black slip cover, something you would put over a fancy suit so it wouldn't get wrinkled and ruined. Nilly took it out of the closet and laid it on the bed. She unzipped the cover and pulled out a beautiful black dress. She slipped it on quickly and looked in the mirror.
It was form-fitting, highlighting Nilly's curves, and stopped right above her knees. The black fabric was layered, creating a cascading effect down her body. It had a low neckline, and was strapless. Nilly twirled in front of the mirror a few times, stunned. Even though Mystic Falls was a small town, it was a rich town and people dressed to impress, even if they were going to a school dance. Nilly was sure her dress wouldn't be the fanciest, but she didn't care. This was the best she looked in a long time, she smiled at her reflection.
Thank you, Elena, Nilly thought with a smile, still looking in the mirror. Her smile drooped a little into a slight frown. Something on her window sill caught her attention. She walked over and lifted the red rose that Damon had given her yesterday. Nilin examined it, twirling it with her fingers again. Yesterday had seemed so far away, she had almost forgotten about it. Well… almost.
The rose was still perfect, though. No signs of decay or browning petals. Nilly clipped the rose's stem off, being careful not to bruise the flower and then she gently pinned it in her hair.
"That's gonna have to do," she said, fusing with it a bit.
Maybe her night was going to turn better than she originally thought. It was about time for things to just go ordinary. That's when she realized that maybe that fluttering feeling in her stomach was possibly excitement and not anxious. With that feeling still rolling again, she pulled on a pair of black heels Jenna let her borrow and left for the Mystic Fall's End of the Year School Dance.
Caroline held her hand, palm down, in front of her, admiring her freshly manicured nails. The blue delicate design on her thumb nail matched her dress perfectly. The dress hung to the floor, hugging her body until it flared out at her hips. It had shimmering blues corresponding with light streaks of green, making her green eyes shine. She even curled her hair especially for tonight.
It was safe to say that she looked dazzling. Caroline stood, one hand on her hip, looking around the dance that she semi-single handedly put together… well, sort of. It was held in the high school's gymnasium. But you couldn't tell it was a gym after Caroline had gotten done with it. Twinkling lights hung everywhere, lining the entrance and strung around every pole. Streamers lined each wall and white balloons covered the high ceiling and littered the floor.
Overall, it was stunning and all the credit went to her. Caroline lifted her head higher as she descended the stairs of the small stage she had set up for the live band she had hired.
She smiled and waved to people as she walked through the filling gym, greeting them and hoping they had a good time. Most smiled back and told her how awesome the dance looked and how great her dress was.
The music was humming in the background as couples began to dance. A crowd had formed at the refreshment table, guys getting drinks for their dates, the small group of chaperons nibbling on the snacks. Then she spotted someone, he had his back turned to her but she was sure of who it was.
If the black leather jacket didn't give it way it was the cockiness that radiated off him. Caroline ground her teeth, glaring at Damon Salvatore. As if he could hear her thoughts he turned around towards her, a smile on his face, and winked.
She clenched her fist. How dare he act like that after the way he treated her. She wanted to tell someone about him, but he told her not to. Now whenever she tried there was a barrier around her words that stop them from coming out. She wished she could…
Damon took his attention off Caroline as he turned back around. He was talking to someone, another chaperon.
It was the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman. Caroline knew all about him, she was quite good at sticking her nose where it shouldn't be. She quietly got closer, trying to hear what they were saying. Neither of them seemed to notice her, which was frustrating but helpful at the moment.
Damon was introducing himself, "Damon Salvatore," he said shaking Mr. Saltzman's hand. The music got louder, making it harder for Caroline to hear. "... little brother. I'm his legal guardian, hence the chaperoning..." She got enough of it to know that they were talking about Stefan. It seemed like a standard conversation.
"I hear he's very bright," Mr. Saltzman was saying, "Not that I've had a chance to see for myself."
"Well, his attendance records a little spotty." Damon explained. "Family drama." Caroline almost laughed, she knew the real reason. Damon had told her, but for some reason now she couldn't remember. Her memory seemed so screwy nowadays. Probably something she should be worried about but at the moment, Caroline was too busy focusing on the conversation.
"No parents?" Mr. Saltzman asked.
From what Caroline could see it looked like Damon smirked a little, "No, it's just the two of us now." Caroline knew she knew the reason for that too, but her memory kept slipping. Alaric was still asking Damon questions, and by the looks of it Damon was getting annoyed.
Be careful Mr. Saltzman, you won't like Damon when he's annoyed, Caroline thought with a smile. She couldn't hear what he asked but whatever it was caused Damon to give him a suspicious, somewhat dirty, look.
Alaric laughed a little, his voice rising enough for Caroline to hear. "... nosey. Enjoy the rest of the dance." And then Alaric was gone, Damon eyeing his back as he left. A strange ending to their little chat. It peeked Caroline's curiosity and by the way Damon was watching Alaric, it must have peeked his as well.
Now it was Caroline's chance to confront Damon. Maybe then she could explain to him why she couldn't get the necklace or, or something. Wait, why did she even care? Damon was cruel to her, and she was pretty sure he was the reason why her memory was so screwed up. She started to walk over to him, hands on her hips and chin high. Then she stopped, Damon was gone. He vanished.
"H-How?" she stuttered, spinning around, searching for him. He had been right in front of her and now he was gone. With a sound of annoyance, Caroline stomped her foot and stalked off. Forget him, she'd just have to find someone to flirt with. It was Caroline's way of distracting herself and brushing Damon off her shoulder.
She headed for the entrance again, seeing if she can catch up with Bonnie. Not that she needed a wingman to get a guy but one didn't hurt. Caroline thought she saw Bonnie's curly brown hair. So she walked towards her, but stopped dead, her heels scrapping on they gym floor.
Her jaw dropped as she watched Nilin Gilbert walked in behind Elena and Stefan. She wasn't the only who had caught sight of the black sheep of the Gilbert family. Practically everyone knew Nilin's story, so her just moseying into a school dance was going to turn a couple heads.
She's not even supposed to be here, let alone look better than me, Caroline thought, her fist and jaw clenched tight.
Nilin was wearing a black strapless dress that made her look like a runway model.
Gothic bitch, Caroline internally mused. She had to admit, the rose was a nice touch. Why couldn't she just stay gone? She always has to ruin everything for Caroline. And now she was ruining tonight, Caroline's dance.
Caroline was clenching her jaw so tight now it hurt. This wasn't how the night was going to go. Nilin Gilbert was going to steal this away from her too.
Even though her cheeks were crimson, Nilly lifted her head up and plastered a toothless grin onto her face. She could feel the eyes on her as she walked into the dance. She kind of expected this. It was weird. This whole situation was weird. She didn't belong here. That thought was squeezing Nilin, pushing back out the doors of the high school. This was definitely a mistake.
She forgot how small of a town Mystic Falls was. And in small towns one little event can seem huge, one small rumor was headlined in the news by morning, and secrets were seemingly impossible to hide. That was the problem here. When your family is a major talk of the town like hers was, you're bound to make any social gathering a bit awkward.
Nilin was determining whether she should side with her pride and stick a round or if she should just tuck her tail between her legs and make a run for it. She swore that some people were staring at her like she was going to explode or something. It caused her to keep glancing down at herself subconsciously.
She caught people eyeing her, heard whispering as she passed, and saw the quick glances in her direction. Was she really that big of a deal? Who knew that being that once little awkward girl with the dead mother and drunk father was enough to cause such a commotion?
The thought made her chuckle a little as she kept cutting through the mob of people at the dance. The entire school had shown up. Girls were in gorgeous gowns, guys in stylish suits. Neither Elena nor she was over dressed.
Elena, who insisted on driving them to the dance, saying it was fine with Stefan meeting them there. Elena, who Nilly knew only did that because she didn't want Nilly to feel left out. And Elena, who looked so gorgeous in her white gown, that the moment Stefan had seen her in it, was attached to her. And she was attached to him, leaving Nilly to awkwardly trail behind them.
She tried to keep up with them as they walked into the dance, feeling like she needed some type of barrier from all the stares she was getting. But the task of worrying about the people looking at her and making sure she didn't have lipstick in her teeth caused her to kept separated. When she lifted her head to look up, Elena and Stefan were gone. They had been right in front of her a second ago, but the room suddenly seemed extremely packed.
Nilin had lost them and found herself standing in a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Not the ideal situation of someone who's nerves were already frayed to max and was already experiencing heart palpitations. As she looked for a way out, Nilin started to feel jittery as if she truly was about to explode.
The room was dimmed, due to the only light coming from the many strings of white bulbs everywhere and she kept stepping on popped balloons that got caught on her heels. It caused her anxiousness to only skyrocket. Somehow, she managed to break out from the mob of high schoolers and pressed herself against the gymnasium wall.
She was still getting weird glances and glares thrown in her direction, but she realized why. Not only was she not supposed to be here, she was now standing alone awkwardly against a wall. She was giving them a reason to gawk at her, and not a very good one at that. Nilly desperately searched from a familiar face.
Then somebody came up next to her.
"Wanna dance?" he asked.
Nilin let out a breath of relief as she grabbed Tyler 's arm, "Yes, please." She let him lead her out on to the floor again, into the swarm of people. "What ever you do, don't let go of me," she whispered to him as they squirmed their way through.
"Don't worry, I won't," he promised, tightening his grip on her. They had made their way to an open spot on the floor. She took Tyler 's hand and laid her other one on his shoulder as he placed his other hand on her waist. The standard school dance position. He obnoxiously spun her around a few times, being the idiot it that he was. She just laughed and purposely stepped on his feet. It was as if they were ten years old again and were just told to go somewhere else so they didn't get on their mothers' nerves. He was a good reminder that not everything about her life was awkward and terrible.
Tyler slowed their pace down to match everyone else's around them, swaying her back and forth. "You look amazing," he told her, smiling.
"Thanks, but I don't feel it." Nilly confessed, looking down at the ground.
"Hey, don't let people get to you, Nilly," he advised. "Ignore them, enjoy your night. You know their just jealous of you."
"Ha," Nilly laughed, looking up, "Jealous of what?"
"Well, you are dancing with me." Tyler said cockily.
Nilin rolled her eyes and preceded to step on his foot again, hard. "Hey! Watch it, these are new shoes." he complained, but started to laugh.
Nilly looked at Tyler now that he drew her attention to his wardrobe. He was actually dressed pretty sharp. He had on dark grey dress pants, a dark navy blue collared shirt all ironed and tucked properly with a matching grey tie that was now crooked. Overall he looked pretty handsome.
She straightened out his tie for him and said, "You clean up nicely too, I might add."
He smiled at her, recapturing her hands and spinning her in a big circle, "Why, thank you."
"You're very welcome," she smiled.
Just then the song ended, and she heard someone call his name. He looked up to see who it was a grin appearing on his face as he called back to whoever it was. "I'll be right back, okay," he said, starting to turn away from her.
"No wait, Ty—"
"Stay right here," he said, and then he disappeared into the sea of people.
"Great, just great." Nilly murmured as she looked around the dance. Now she was ditched and stranded in the crowd for the second time tonight. The music had started up again, an unfamiliar song began to play.
My eyes open to the sound of a song I've heard,
Don't know the name but I know all the words
Sun came up, crawled into the front seat
Memories leaving me, was it all a dream I had?
Time for us to wake up
Nilly looked around once more, searching for Tyler, or Elena, or someone. But she only saw the blur of faces. Her heart beat kick up a bit and her breathing became a little shaky. She tried to concentrate on the song playing around her as couples twirled and rocked back and forth with each other.
I'll save my words to make the most of it
I never meant to be gone so long
She needed to get out of her, now. If Tyler really needed her, he was just going to have to find her. She turned attempting to blast out of the crowd like a mad woman, but ran into someone's back instead.
Author's Notes:
Chapter Ten up like I promised! Hope you guys liked it, next chapter will be published on Wednesday. Thank you for reading!
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RLS
Featured Song:
Gone So Long by Breathe Carolina
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Nilin: /chapter_seven_nilin/set?id=90377372
Elena: /chapter_seven_elena/set?id=90379171
Caroline: /chapter_seven_caroline/set?id=90379985
Bonnie: /chapter_eight_bonnie/set?id=90416508