Caroline led Klaus by the hand until they reached a table that she thought was far enough away from where her friends were sitting waiting for her.

Once they were seated, she seemed to have lost her nerve a little as she tried to figure out how to say what she wanted to. She stared down at the top of the table as though the little scratches and dents in its surface somehow held whatever answer she was looking for.

"You're making me nervous, Sweetheart," Klaus commented.

"No, it's not anything that's-" She cut herself off so that she could start over as her eyes flicked up from the table to meet his. "You're not the only one here with walls, but you are the only one that's really ever taken them down and that's not fair. So I want to tell you about something."

She hesitated, suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea or not, as he remained silently waiting for her to continue.

"The reason that I'm so… I don't know…. Afraid, I guess?" She struggled to try and find the right word. "The reason that I'm so afraid of people leaving is because a few months ago my dad just disappeared overnight. He was too afraid to even admit that he was leaving or see our reactions, so he just snuck out in the middle of the night.

"And he didn't even leave a note or anything; he just left and didn't come back. And the worst part is that he didn't even make the slightest effort to try and fix things with my mom, he just ran away," Caroline continued. "And apparently I'm not enough to even consider trying to stay for… I'm barely even enough for a two month late 'sorry I missed your birthday' card. And I know that this all must sound really stupid compared to everything that you went through-"

Klaus had to cut her off there as he very seriously told her, "It doesn't sound stupid, Love. And what happened to me doesn't change anything about what happened to you and how much it affects you."

Caroline smiled a little and playfully hit him in the chest.

"What was that for?" He asked, pretending to be offended, although he was fairly sure that the grin on his lips was giving away that he wasn't.

"Why are you such a jerk sometimes and then so sweet other times?" She asked in response.

"I like to keep things interesting," Klaus told her with a smirk.

Meanwhile, Tyler was glaring over at the pair from where he stood talking with Matt. For someone that Caroline was just pretending to be friends with, she sure seemed to be laughing awfully hard at whatever douchey thing Klaus had just said.

Kol walked into the Grill on his way to meet his brother, only to see that Klaus was already a little pre-occupied with Caroline. The next thing that he noticed was the table where Elena, Bonnie, and the guy who had made the stoner comment, who Kol had heard Elena calling him 'Jer' afterwards, were sitting. There was an empty chair, so the youngest Mikaelson brother decided to invite himself to join them.

He sat down in the chair and shot the others as dazzling of a smile as he could manage.

"…Hi Kol?" Bonnie said, seeming more than a little confused by his presence.

"You have an attitude… I like it," Kol told her before he turned his attention towards Elena. "And you have gorgeous eyes to match your laugh."

Jeremy groaned from where he was sitting next to Kol as he let his head drop to the table, clearly not enjoying listening to this guy hit on both his sister and Bonnie in the same breath.

"Don't worry, Jer," Kol said with a smirk. "You have pretty eyes too."

Jeremy picked his head up from the table to give the other man a confused glare. When had this guy figured out his name and why was he calling him Jer?

"Wait, you two know each other?" Elena asked.

"Not really," Kol responded with a casual shrug. "I mean there was the one druggie conversation, but…"

"The one what?" Elena asked through gritted teeth as she glared over at Jeremy, who was currently glaring at Kol. "Are you using again?"

Jeremy groaned dramatically once again before he turned to Kol and sarcastically said, "Thanks for that."

The youngest Gilbert really did not need Elena babying him and bringing that stuff up in front of Bonnie and some random stranger.

"Jer, answer the question," Elena said sternly.

"No, I'm not using again," He said, annoyed that she was even asking him.

"Then why were you having druggie talk?" Elena challenged. "Don't lie to me."

Kol sat there completely stunned by how much his words had blown up in his face. He hadn't been expecting Jeremy to have had a past drug problem, and he definitely was not expecting to find out that Elena was his over-protective sister.

"He wasn't-" Kol tried weakly, but was instantly drowned out by Jeremy's voice.

"I'm not lying to you," The other man said. "But thanks for believing me, Elena… I'll see you at home."

With that, Jeremy got up from the table and headed towards the exit. Not only did he not want to be there anymore, but he had also lost his appetite.

A/N: Please read and review! I hope that you guys enjoyed the update and I'll try to have the next one up sooner. Thanks for reading! :)

Also if you're ever waiting for an update on one of my stories and you want me to get it up faster, please send me a PM because I promise that it will help motivate me. I promise that for every PM that I get telling me to write or work on any of the stories that I'm currently updating, I will go work on the next chapter and make sure that I at least get some more written.

Another extra special thanks goes out to the incredible reviewers of the last chapter: Klaroline-teenwolf, Draco-Harry-Lover-1, EmmaRedVelvet, karensevani, klaroline4everlove, Mystery Girl3, ferrylis, layaboo, Jwakeel, romanticpacifist69, MyloveforKlaroline, jessnicole, oneindigorose, Iansarmy, NikMik, Adriana, yourloved, and LitLover 101