A.N: Five chapters in and I'm already sick of flames by guest reviewers! I've deleted a bunch because unfortunately I'm not blessed with the thick skin of others, and rude comments often make me want to give up entirely. So, if you're a guest and you're planning on writing a review that is basically just a completely negative comment – don't bother wasting your time and energy, as your review will be deleted immediately.
I feel like I really ought to establish what a good review is. I haven't strayed from fandoms much other than the Harry Potter fandom (where everyone is appropriate and seems to be aware what a good review is). Basically, if you feel like pointing out something negative, you have the politeness and courtesy to offer a CONSTRUCTIVE REVIEW. A constructive review starts off with something good about the story, then points out anything that could be changed or improved, and then ends on a good point.
And if this needs to be said, I consider a flame to be anything that is a negative review without a single positive comment. Didn't your mother ever tell you that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all?
So, for those flamers – positive, negative, positive. Not that hard, is it? I'm not going to make any more like this because I'm getting seriously fed up. Please – have some common decency and politeness!
And I must thank all the lovely guest reviewers who have left me kind reviews! I'm glad some of you are genuine and not just hiding behind an anonymous façade! As much as I've wanted to shut this story down (already) for the negative reviews I've received, I'm going to stick myself to the people that are actually enjoying the story! Much love.
Chapter Five
When Klaus' car pulled up on Webster Avenue the next day, the rain had gotten worse. Caroline almost didn't believe her alarm when it rang at seven as the skies were still charcoal grey. Rain was pouring from the sky at an alarming rate, great heavy droplets that filled the curbs and flooded the grates. Caroline was briefly grateful that she didn't have to dress to impress an office full of people – she didn't care for making too much of an effort just to sit and work at Klaus' apartment. She dressed casually in a wool skirt and a knitted cardigan, wrapping a thick scarf around her shoulders, and waited patiently at the window.
She was dreading seeing Klaus again. It had been bad enough that she had to relay the whole incident to Elena, who had seen a portion of it – she didn't need a constant reminder of the event while sitting across from Klaus during her work hours. As she lingered by the rain-dashed window, Elena came up behind her, still in her pyjamas.
"This is what happens when you start a relationship with someone at work," she said in an I-told-you-so kind of way.
"We're not in a relationship," muttered Caroline, snatching Elena's coffee mug out of her hand and taking a sip. "It was just…a weird…kiss thing."
"Well, let's hope there's no more of those weird kiss things," Elena replied, grabbing her coffee back. She squinted through the windows, noticing a set of car lights through the rain. "I think your boyfriend is here."
Caroline gave Elena a deathly glare, and snatched up her handbag. "Remember I'm not coming home straight away tonight," she told her friend. After she had been unable to go to Lexi's drink-thing on Wednesday, she had promised her she would meet her tonight, despite her bandaged hand.
"Stay off the coke," Elena offered jokingly. "I might have to get Jeremy to come up and babysit you."
"What did we agree on?" hissed Caroline, giving Elena a meaningful stare.
Elena rolled her eyes expressively. "Okay, okay. No mention of Caroline the cokehead."
Caroline threw a feeble punch into Elena's shoulder, and sauntered out of the door. "I'll see you tonight!" she called back to her friend, as she pulled her scarf over her head and ran out to the car.
She was surprised to discover that Klaus had not come along for the ride, and to be honest, she felt a little disappointed. She climbed into the car alone, catching the eye of the driver in the rear-view mirror. Without greeting her, he started driving.
Less than thirty minutes later, they arrived outside Klaus' apartment block. Caroline awkwardly thanked the driver, and rushed inside. When she reached the elevator, the doors were already opening – Kol stepped out, looking tired, and sporting a sore looking black eye.
He blanched at the sight of Caroline, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Hey, Caroline…" he greeted, trying to avoid her eye contact.
"Kol," she replied. She knew that Klaus didn't want her to see Kol, but frankly, they hadn't quite managed to establish that – and what was she meant to do if she saw Kol in the middle of the foyer at his apartment block?
"Caroline, I'm really sorry about the other day," Kol started. "I know it got a little out of hand – I'm glad you didn't lose your job, though."
"Listen – it wasn't your fault," Caroline ushered. "For heaven's sake, Kol – I'm older than you! I knew what I was doing, honestly."
Kol peered at her through his eyelashes. "I know Klaus doesn't want us to be friends anymore," he muttered. Caroline gritted her teeth.
"I don't want to listen to him, Kol – but honestly, I need to do the best for my job," she replied. Kol sighed, but he nodded.
"I get it. But take my number, okay? In case you ever need anything…" as Kol started to scribble his number on a scrap of paper, Caroline wanted to tell him that it really wasn't necessary, but she also didn't want to hurt his feelings. So she politely took the number from him and folded it up, tucking it into the pocket of her cardigan. She said a quick goodbye to Kol, and waited for the elevator. As she stood there, she watched Kol wander out of the foyer, and couldn't help but notice how sad he looked. His bouncy step had lagged, and he wasn't dressed as brightly as she was used to seeing him.
But she wasn't here to deal with Kol. So, when the elevator doors opened, she stepped inside without giving him a second look.
Klaus was spectacularly hard to work with that day. Caroline had worried that he would be his usual cocky self, probably making comments about the kiss they had shared last night – but instead, he seemed completely vacant, not paying much attention to anything they were discussing. Caroline was trying to organise a set of scrabbled minutes from one of the meetings that Elijah had taken Klaus' place in, and Klaus was just not offering her any help whatsoever. She had no idea what the meeting had been about, which only made the task she had to do a hell of a lot harder.
Finally, when three hours had passed and she was still not getting anywhere, she threw her pen down and looked over at Klaus. He wasn't sitting at the table with her; he was choosing to pace the apartment instead, occasionally looking out of the window. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts to pay attention to her, and Caroline decided she was wasting her time.
"Is there anything else you want me to do, Klaus?" she asked, trying not to let her frustration pour into her voice.
"Yes," Klaus muttered in response, but he wasn't looking at her. "I have some suits that need to go for dry cleaning, as soon as possible. They're in the closet, in a garment bag." Caroline nodded, and made to head for his bedroom, but she slowed as she passed him.
"Are you alright?" she asked. She wasn't sure why she even asked, because she was trying to maintain some emotional distance from him, but the vacant look in his eye concerned her a little bit. She hadn't seen him like this in the whole time she'd known him.
He locked eyes with her quickly enough, but he wasn't wearing his usual flirtatious expression. "No Caroline, I'm not," he replied. He folded his arms, and looked out of the window. "It seems Elijah and I are having a disagreement about the placement of Kol. Elijah has always been a little bit too soft when it comes to our little brother."
Caroline didn't really want to involve herself, but the mention of Kol had sparked her interest. She didn't comment, but Klaus kept talking anyway.
"I don't think that Kol deserves to have an internship at our company. Not only did he act the way he did with you on Wednesday, but he was given the opportunity to work with Finn and Sage when he was given his section of the fortune, but instead he decided to be reckless and rush off on his world tour. He managed to keep it quiet from mother and father that he had run out of money and that's why he returned to New York, but they found out pretty quickly. It was Elijah's idea to give him the internship, and I was the one who fired him when…well, you know when. But now Elijah wants him to come back." Klaus waved a hand absent-mindedly. "It's not really a big deal; I just don't want him in the office with me."
Caroline still didn't comment. Personally, she thought that Klaus had been far too hard on Kol, but it really wasn't her place to comment. So she gave him a sympathetic look, and quietly sidestepped him so that she could get to his bedroom.
As much as she did want to still chat to Kol and be friends with him, she really couldn't risk her job. She needed to get paid, so that she and Elena could get the hell out of the Bronx. Maybe once she had earned enough money and gotten herself another job, she would see if they could still be friends. But there was absolutely, definitely no way that she would make the same reckless decision that she had on that day.
As she wandered into the closet, she thought back to Elena asking her just why the hell she had acted so impulsively. The truth was, she didn't really know. Caroline had spent her life in Mystic Falls doing everything by the books. She was a clever student, she didn't get into trouble. She always studied hard and got good grades throughout high school and college. Caroline made the effort to be the perfect teenager; she was captain of the cheerleading team, head of the prom committee, Miss Mystic Falls and most importantly, she managed to become the girlfriend of the captain of the football team. She had a great life in Mystic Falls, but it was also a very basic life. She led the life that hundreds of other girls had before.
When she came to New York, she and Elena promised that they would live their early twenties to the fullest. They would go to all the hotspots, get invited to all the parties, and gain as many experiences as they could, no matter how good or bad they happened to be. So, when Kol had held out that bag of white powder, of course her initial reaction had been to gasp and reject him. Warning bells had rung in her head, but then she remembered – she was just twenty two years old and she was supposed to be living her life and gaining experiences.
Yes, it had been a mixed experience. She knew that taking hard drugs was a ridiculous pastime, but she had gained the experience. And she knew now, that she would never do it again.
Her daydream was disrupted, as her foot tangled in something on the way out of the closet. She was clutching three garment bags in her arms, so it was difficult to see what her heel had gotten caught on. After throwing the garment bags down on the middle bench in the closet, she reached down to grab the scrabbly bit of fabric. When she held it up, her face fell in horror.
It was a tiny, lacy black thong.
Her face flamed, and she gripped her hand around the underwear, and stormed out of the closet.
She knew that it had only appeared there last night. She had walked through his closet to get to the en-suite just twenty four hours ago, and the floors had been cleared. While she knew that she didn't really have any place to be angry about whom Klaus decided to bring back to his apartment, she still found rage boiling in her stomach.
What had happened? Had he kissed her on her doorstep, and then decided instantly he would call up someone out of his little black book? Did he really think it was okay to tell her that she couldn't hang around with Kol, when he went around and behaved like this?
Caroline knew deep down that she had feelings for Klaus, and it felt as though a thousand shards were cutting into those feelings. He acted like he liked her, so how could he behave like this? She didn't want to dwell on this right now. She just needed to get the day over with and then go out with her friends. So, she stormed out of the closet with the garment bags over her shoulder and thong in her hand. Klaus turned around from the window when she returned, but before he could speak, Caroline threw the thong in his face.
As she sauntered towards the elevator with the garment bags, she heard Klaus groaning. But he didn't get a chance to call after her, as luckily the elevator was already waiting, and Caroline managed to jump in and shut the doors before he could say anything.
When she reached the bottom floor, she began to realise that there really was no point in trying to behave for Klaus. So when she hailed and climbed into a cab (deliberately ignoring Klaus' driver, who was parked waiting for her), she pulled out the scrap of paper that Kol had given her earlier, and added his number to her contacts. Feeling quite smug about privately getting back at Klaus, she sent Kol a text message, asking if he would like to join her and Lexi for the drink-thing later on.
Thankfully, Caroline managed to spend the rest of the day in peace. When she returned to the apartment with Klaus' dry cleaning, he was gone. He had simply left her a note with a list of a few things he needed her to do, which she was glad to work through in silence.
No one disturbed her, up until five to five, when she was packing away her things and clearing up the kitchen table where she'd been working. Klaus stepped through the elevator as she was waiting for it, and then awkwardly stepped back into it after her.
"I'll come for the ride home with you," he stated, staring straight ahead.
"It's fine," Caroline replied in a stiff voice. "I'm not going home."
This time, Klaus did look at her. "Well, where are you going?"
"That's none of your business, Klaus. The working day is finished."
She heard Klaus sigh dramatically, and knew he was rolling his eyes. When the elevator came to a halt, she stalked away from him. All she wanted to do now was rush out of the apartment building and go for a well-deserved drink with her friends, who would happily complain about Klaus along with her. But Klaus continued to rush after her, despite her fast pace.
"Don't waste your money. I'll take you to wherever you want to go." Caroline didn't reply until she got to the sidewalk, and stuck her arm out to signal a cab. "Caroline, don't be so childish."
Caroline spun around, flicking her hair in his face. "Me childish? How old are you? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?"
"Twenty-six," muttered Klaus.
"Old enough not to behave like you're still in college," Caroline scoffed back. "Sleeping with a different girl every night is a sure fast way to catch chlamydia, Klaus," she returned her arm back into the traffic.
"I get it, you're still bitter about finding someone's knickers on the floor," Klaus snarled.
"Whatever, Caroline – you said yourself yesterday that we're not together, so why are you acting so bothered?"
An empty cab screeched to a halt beside Caroline, and she pulled the door to the back seat open.
"Maybe because you keep messing with my head!" she yelled back. "I'll see you on Monday," she added, before climbing into the cab and pulling the door closed behind her.