DBDB
"Hello?"
The young woman on the other line apologizes for calling, stammers incoherently about not meaning to wake her while she chokes back sobs.
Bonnie nudges the satin mask from her eyes, the crowd of pillows surrounding and cocooning her in her sleep falls to the carpet. The shrill ring had frightened her awake, pulling her out of sleep. Her heart pounds in her throat, mirroring the terror of the girl's tears.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm on your porch," the young woman manages between ragged breaths, her distress palpable through the phone's receiver, "I just, "She pauses, as if she is unsure how she ended up on Bonnie's doorstep. "I needed to see you."
Bonnie doesn't know what time it is, she only knows its late as she considers the repercussions of being seen.
Her eyes adjust to the dark. A draft had forced its way through the crack in her bedside window while she slept. Stirring her room, fluttering the pages on her desk, and gently billowing her curtains into linen ghosts.
Telling her childhood friend, she can't come down because she has to get up early for a Bennett luncheon, is a bullshit response. But one the girl will accept. The girl will say she understands even if it's not true, even if it drives another wedge in their friendship, another mile of distance between them.
Bonnie murmurs to give her a minute to throw on some clothes.
Tossing the down comforter off her naked frame, the cool air grips her, strokes her throat and trembles her lips.
Quickly clasping a bra, she pulls up a pair of biking shorts and tugs a hoodie over her head.
Slipping on her sneakers, she hightails it down the stairs, oblivious to the curtains falling flat and the pages on her desk settling.
DBDB
The moon is high and Elena is a hunched silhouette on the porch steps, her chocolate brown hair veiling her face.
The girls didn't reach for one another when Bonnie surprised them both by coming downstairs. There was no affectionate hug or burying of their worry and grief into each other's necks.
"I missed your birthday," Elena states after minutes of awkward silence, her disappointment in herself blatant. "I haven't missed your birthday since kindergarten."
Bonnie leans on the wooden railing, leaving the space next to Elena on the porch steps empty, "It was months ago, 'Lena. Don't beat yourself up over it," Bonnie says, toeing the shrubbery through the slats, "You were trying to find Stefan."
The doppelganger runs her hands through her hair, "Yeah," She mouths with a tear rolling over her wan cheek, "He's home now. Damon drug him back to the boardinghouse this morning. He said he found him outside of Charlotte," Elena sighs, "After a whole summer chasing after him, he was in the one place we hadn't searched."
Bonnie envisions a frantic Elena, all summer scouring every small-town street, every city block, hoping to catch a glimpse of the youngest Salvatore. Riding around with Damon, being a witness to his torture and his threats to whoever they encountered who might know of his brother's whereabouts.
A locator spell would have helped.
Bonnie knows he asked her Grams. She's sure he got one after he sent Elena packing from their road trip and was able to sufficiently inspire another witch to do just that.
Bonnie stuffs her hands in her hoodie and takes a seat next to her, "Are you out here crying because you're so happy?" Bonnie lightly jokes, scooting closer to Elena, who instinctively places her head on the petite witch's shoulder.
"What did you do?"
"When?"
"For your eighteenth birthday, Bonnie?"
"Um, Dad grilled," She recounts, "And Grams made her special punch" Bonnie says, motioning her fingers into air quotes on the special, "But Lucy threw me a big party in the city," Bonnie continues, "It was all of her friends except for Matt, but she made it really fun for me."
Elena's eyes crinkle at Bonnie, "I'm glad, you deserve it." She says before asking if Caroline missed Bonnie's birthday too.
And despite just asking the question, Elena answers in unison with Bonnie. "Caroline would never."
The girls laugh.
"She mailed cookies and a card," Bonnie responds in their laughter over the jinx.
Elena slumps and shakes her head, "She doesn't even live here and she's a better friend to you than me."
Elena says the truth without remark or explanation, disarming Bonnie, making her feel visible.
The doe-eyed brunette pushes herself off the stairs, and her eyes light up as she looks down at Bonnie. "If you're open to it, I would like to celebrate your birthday. I can throw you a belated Bonnie birthday party," She plans with her hands on her hips, "I'll get your favorite. Strawberry cake. And I'll make sure all of your friends are there, we just need to have it before senior year is over."
Bonnie offers a small smile, allowing Elena to dream, "That would be nice."
"I'll call Care. She will have thoughts." Elena quips, grabbing her car keys from her pocket and saying goodbye.
Bonnie would never have described Elena as a bad friend. Because then she would have to admit she is one too. She was prepared to nurse her heartbreak over their friendship and graduate with this mountain of guilt weighing her down, guilt of hiding while Elena struggled to survive and save their town.
Bonnie leaps from the porch, tapping on the driver side glass, "You're going to leave without telling me what happen to Stefan?"
DBDB
At the boardinghouse, Bonnie's converse squeak on the polished hardwood floor and resounds through the grand foyer, punctuating the stillness of the mansion.
Elena nods for Bonnie to follow, and Bonnie's ponytail sways as she silently trails the doppelganger. They walk through the lavish living room, adorned with its plush couches and leather chairs. Glittering crystal reflects the roaring fire, its glow offering an illusion of warmth that eludes the space.
Bonnie fixates on a solitary bottle of bourbon, teetering precariously on the edge of the coffee table.
Beside the bottle, a sweating glass of melted ice has marred the wood.
It is an unfinished act of pleasure. Hurriedly abandoned.
Elena guides Bonnie into a labyrinth of hallways, each growing darker as they descend, passageways lined with feeble-lit sconces nestled between richly woven tapestries, ancient swords, and floor-to-ceiling oil paintings depicting mythic scenes of chaos and lust.
Elena unlocks the cellar door and flicks a wall switch. A single light bulb buzzes and swings at the top of the stairs.
Bonnie hesitates, suddenly smacked by fear, and struck by Elena's seeming lack thereof as she watches her friend rush headfirst down the stairs towards death.
Because that is all vampires are.
She hears her grandmother's warnings. 'That friend of yours has chosen to get herself mixed up with those vampires and they are gonna' be the death of her.'
Before, Bonnie believed her grandmother might be wrong because a Stefan existed. A Stefan who rescued her friend from the same fate as her parents and loved her friend unlike any love Bonnie has ever seen outside of romance novels and fairy tales. A Stefan who compelled Caroline to leave Mystic Falls and move in with her Dad to free her from his brother's cruelty. A Stefan who wrote poetry and shyly recited his lines in their advanced English lit class, who she occasionally caught staring at her from time to time, his sadness apparent in those late hazy afternoons while she waited for the bell to ring.
On the way over to the boardinghouse, Elena described the horrific and terrible things Stefan has done. That there are dead bodies littered from here to Florida. Missing person reports and leaflets with Xeroxed faces on bulletins in Charleston and Tallahassee.
Bonnie listened intently to Elena detail his blood-addled state, his mania and destruction. Elena told her Stefan spoke in rattled tongues, breaking through the originals compulsion to yell at her to drive a stake through his heart.
"He was working for Klaus, deterring him away from me and Mystic Falls. Klaus compelled him to drink human blood, he told Stefan he needed it as an assurance of his loyalty."
Bonnie held her friend in her arms and let her bawl like she had when her parents drowned.
Months ago, after Bonnie opened the tomb, upsetting her grandmother and disgracing her familial coven, Sheila promised to protect Elena as best as she could but she vowed to never lift a finger to help a vamp.
Aiding vampires is forbidden for a Bennett.
It is a cardinal sin.
One their ancestor Emily unknowingly committed, binding her family to the vampire who left his drink on the ruined coffee table.