Hello, my lovely and loyal readers. 300 reviews this morning. That was a great thing to wake up to! Thank you all so very, very much. Let's see how quickly you can get to 400! :) Without further ado…
Chapter 23: Road Trip a la Damon Style
To say that I was petrified when we had boarded the local bus would be a great understatement. Although it was not the people on the bus that frightened me (there was a rather large man with many tattoos that accomplished that) it was that I thought we would become lost. Damon acted as if this was not something to worry about. "We should go back," I whispered to Damon as he sat down and I took a seat beside him.
"Relax, Nik. It will be fine," Damon told me. I could not relax, peering around at the tired looking people who were on the bus. It was after dark. We should not be out here by ourselves. This was the stupidest idea that Damon had ever come up with.
"You agreed to the dare," Damon reminded me, rolling his eyes as people got on and off the bus.
"Do you even know where we are going?" I hissed at him, causing the other passengers to look at us.
Damon smiled at them cheerfully. "Sorry, this is my brother's first time on the bus and he's a little nervous. Right, brother?" He gave me a pointed look and I flopped back in my seat.
"Yes, I am a nervous person. And you are a crazy person." I shook my head as Damon looked out the window.
"Mind if I take a nap?" Damon asked me, yawning widely.
"Go right ahead," I snapped, folding my arms over my chest. When I turned my head to look at him, Damon was snoring, his mouth hanging open. He had gone to sleep, the little wanker. I should leave him on this bus and go home. Sighing, I wriggled in my seat. No, I couldn't leave him here. Not with the creepy man with the body art.
I wondered where we were going. 'Did Damon have Caroline's letters somewhere in the bags?' I wondered. Reaching for his bag, I gently tugged it away from him. "The letters are in the front pouch," he told me, curling up in the seat, speaking with his eyes closed.
I grinned before unzipping it. Pulling out a handful of letters, I began to read the words of my Caroline. I had been so angry at her during the year that I had little time to consider how very much I missed her. Her writing had improved. It was becoming lovely curlicues and I delighted at the shapes that her hand had made.
Sitting back and relaxing I began to peruse the letters.
Dear, Lena.
I miss you. I always say that and I always mean it. Today Daddy took me out for ice cream and I forced myself to eat it. I didn't talk to him and it makes him sad. I just don't like it here. I want to be at home with you and Bonnie. Is Damon still being mean to you? Dare him to jump off Whickery Bridge.
Nik hasn't written me. Not even one time. I thought he would. He's mean. I don't like him anymore. That's not true. I like him a lot. I don't know, Lena. I miss all of you.
Love,
Caroline
The next letter sounded much like the first. They all sounded similar until I got to the last couple of letters in the pack.
Hi, Lena.
Miss you. I have new friends now. I miss you though. Things are better. I'm still angry at Dad and Stephen but I don't care. They're just stupid so I don't talk to them.
Bye,
Care
New friends? I pulled the next letter out of its envelope and began to read. Ali said this. Christy got a new haircut and it looks so cute. I was watching Cinderella with Tiffany and Pascal. Pascal is from France and he speaks French really well. He's teaching me how to speak it, too. Bonjour, ma amie! I'm giggling right now. He he.
Miss you,
Care
"What the hell?" I mutter. Opening the next letter there is more about these other friends and this French wanker. I will find him and beat him to a pulp if he touches my Caroline. Stupid, sodding wanker.
"What's wrong?" Damon asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He looked out the window. "We're almost there. About another block… Okay," Damon pulled the cord and grabbed his bag. "Come on, Nik."
I got up, feeling miserable and I scrunched the letter in my balled fist. I haven't been this angry since I found out Caroline left me without saying a word. "Did you know about Pascal?" I asked Damon, when we got off the bus onto the sidewalk. It's pitch black and I forget to be scared. I'm just too angry to care about the fact that we shouldn't be out here.
"Who?" Damon asks as he begins to walk ahead of me.
I follow him, moving quickly to catch up. "The French kid Caroline is playing with. Did you know about him?"
Damon doesn't look at me. "No," he says too quickly as he keeps walking.
"Stop lying," I shout at him. Looking around, I'm satisfied that no one is paying attention to us like they had on the bus. Actually, there is no one out here. I should be afraid. I should call home and get someone to come and get us. But I can't because my Caroline is playing with a French boy and my heart is breaking.
"I'm not lying," Damon tells me as we continue to walk and he begins to turn corners. I have to pay close attention to where he's going.
"Do you know where we are?" I hiss as Damon rolls his eyes. He then points to a sign that says Greyhound. "Oh," I feel bad but I can't help it. "How do you know they'll sell us tickets?"
Damon shrugs. "I know someone who works here."
"What? How?" I feel like there are so many things that my so-called best friend has been keeping from me.
"My dad was dating this lady who works here. She sold me tickets before. I get tired of Dad's crap so I just leave," Damon tells me.
"But you are nine," I exclaim. "Adults shouldn't help kids run away."
"I always call her and tell her where I went. So, someone always knows where I am." Damon told me like it was no big deal to just run away for a little while.
Walking up to the door, Damon begins to tug at the handle. He then sighs. "They're closed. I guess."
"Yes, they open at six am." I inform him as Damon stares at the schedule blinking and then frowning slightly before turning away.
"What time is it now?" Damon asks me and I stare at him.
"Its eleven pm," I reply, looking around us. "What do we do now?"
Damon begins to pace. "I guess we're going to have to find somewhere to sleep."
"Really?" I snap sarcastically. "What do you suggest? Do you have another friend of your Father's who can get us a room at a hotel?"
Damon shakes his head slowly. "Nope. We're going to have to sleep in the park or something."
"What?" I shouted. "I am not sleeping in a bloody park. Are you insane?"
"We can sleep in a graveyard," Damon snapped at me before he began to walk away. "The cops will be less likely to find us there."
I felt like murdering Damon as we walked along the streets quickly. We found one of the gates open to the closest graveyard and I felt odd as we entered the deserted area. "What if there are more vampires?"
"Oh, Nik, stop being a scaredy cat," Damon snapped as he went over to a tomb and sat down on the steps. Pulling his bag open, he pulled out a snack bar and then looked up at me. Pulling out a second snack bar, he handed it to me.
I sat down beside him and unwrapped the bar. "Why does she need new friends for?" I asked him as I ate.
"Don't know. Maybe it was because you told her to get lost," Damon replied, pulling out more snack bars. We sat eating the bars and my eyelids began to droop as I looked at my watch. It was midnight and I was tired. "Go to sleep, Nik. I'll make sure the vampires don't bite you."
"Whatever," I muttered, laying Stefan's bag down, I closed my eyes. It felt like it had only been a minute when Damon was shaking me awake. "Nik, get up, man. We have to go."
"Huh?" I replied, groggily.
"The bakery is open across from the bus station. Aren't you hungry?" Damon asked as I nodded. "Good. We're going to go get some doughnuts and bagels and croissants." My mouth began to water as Damon talked.
We walked out of the graveyard, dusting our clothes off. Walking into the bakery, I was happy to note that we just looked like a couple of kids who were going to school but decided to grab food first. Damon ordered for us and we walked out with our doughnuts and cartons of chocolate milk.
Damon led the way into the Greyhound station and walked up to the counter to speak with a woman, who leaned over the counter with a wide smile like she saw Damon every day. For all I knew she saw him once a month. He acted like he did this all the time. I wondered about the stories he must be telling her.
Coming over to me with the tickets, Damon smirked. "LA, here we come."
I shook my head. "You are crazy. Stark raving mad. A bloody genius." I felt myself beginning to grin as I took my ticket. I would be seeing Caroline soon and that was all that really mattered at the moment.
"That's your birthday present for this year," Damon told me.
"Of course," I replied as we sat down to wait. "How does this work?" I had too many questions. I had decided to stop asking Damon about Caroline and her little friends in sunny California. It didn't matter now. I would come and bring her home. Then it would not be necessary to think about that.
"They'll announce when it's time to get on the bus. But we should go over when the line starts forming. Don't make eye contact. Or people will ask you stuff. Act like you're with an adult. Don't stand too close to the front of the line. Don't go into the bathroom. Ever. We're going to have to switch buses, too," Damon told me in a rush and I tried to keep up with all his rules.
We sat on the uncomfortable chairs, eating more doughnuts until the line started to form and Damon jerked me out of my seat. We stood somewhere toward the middle of the line. Damon looked at me with a grin. "I dare you to -"
I slammed my hand over his mouth. "Not right now. Unless you want to get caught."
Rolling his eyes, Damon looked around us and then the line began to move. After we handed our tickets over we got onto the bus and sat in the middle. "I dare you to steal something," Damon whispered.
Looking at him, I groaned, trying to find something to steal that I could put back before we got off the bus. Getting up, I began to head for the bathroom with the intention of stealing the toilet paper when Damon came after me. "What did I say?" He hissed. "Stay out of the bathrooms." Turning me around, he started to walk back up the aisle.
Staring at a woman, who had bent over to pick something up off the floor, I noticed a light blue scarf dangling from the arm rest. It would look pretty on Caroline. Without a second thought, I slid the scarf off the armrest, peering around to make sure no one noticed and pocketed it.
When we returned to our seats, I pulled the scarf out and tucked it into Stefan's bag as Damon smiled. "I dare you to not dare me to do anything for the rest of the ride," I told him and he scowled.
"Nik, you're getting so boring in your old age." Damon told me before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a well-worn photo. My jaw dropped as I looked at it. It was a photo of me, Damon and Caroline. Somehow I had never seen it before. It was taken during my birthday two years ago. We were wearing Elijah's suits and had our arms wrapped around each other.
Damon handed the photo to me. On the back he had written. "Me and my best friends for life."
"Have you been carrying this around with you all this time?" I questioned him, staring at Caroline's happy grin. She was very pretty. I had almost forgotten that fact.
"Yeah, I do. It's like you two are always with me. So, no matter how much things suck I pull out our photo and its okay." Damon told me, leaning into the seat that made him look short.
"I'm sorry about what a jerk I am sometimes," I mutter to him, staring at the floor of the bus.
"I'm a jerk, too," Damon replied with a huge grin. "But I enjoy it. I love to make Lena cry. You know that she cries about so many things. I don't why but it's fun. But she's going to start really hating me soon. So, then I'll stop. I think." For a moment he looked serious and then he grinned. "You know I stole one of Rose's bras."
"No!" I exclaimed. Damon opened his bag and pulled it out.
"Yup, I carry it around, too. I don't get why girls wear these things. They look painful," Damon stared at the bra and then shrugged before putting it away.
My thoughts began to wonder back to my home. I wondered if Finn had told anyone that I had run off. I wondered how Lijah's date with Kat went and if my Mother had the baby yet. "Do you think your Mom had the baby yet?" Damon asked me like he could read my mind.
"Probably. It didn't take too long before Bekah was born and then she cried all the time," I told him.
"She doesn't cry that much anymore. I like Bekah. She's a tough cookie," Damon told me. "Sometimes she's mean and I don't like it when girls cling. It's annoying."
"I know," I replied although I missed Caroline clinging to me. I wished she had never left. Then we would not be on this trip. We're probably doing something truly stupid. We're going to be grounded and have to make up school work. Looking down at the picture, I had to remind myself that I was going to get Caroline so nothing else mattered.
"We'll get there soon," Damon told me and I looked out the window. Personally, I was not so sure as I looked at my watch. It was eight am. I wondered how many buses we'd have to switch to and whether someone would force us to go back before I got to Caroline. Reaching into Stefan's bag, I pulled out a baseball cap and pulled it down over my head. There was no turning back now.
Redbudrose: Klaus does need to grovel a bit and it is all about the growing pains. They are at an age in which they will have ups and downs due to the trying to not get too close too soon.
NiklausxKaterina: You're welcome. I am happy you're better. The chickenpox sucks. And I am a ma'am. Or better yet Miss. ;)
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Love,
LL