CHAPTER FIVE: NIGHTMARE EYES
Bursts of light danced over her closed eyelids, lighting the darkness she had been in. She opened her eyes and tilted her head back. Her brown eyes were warm as she took in the full moon in all of its beauty. She stayed like that for a while, bathing in the moonlight like one might do in the sun.
Strong winds whipped fallen leaves around her until eventually, she felt as though the wind was moving the very earth beneath her. She felt content even in the face of the wind and stretched like a cat, curling herself into the leaves beneath her.
Nova hummed as she pulled herself to her feet, and walked towards the forest instead of heading back into the house.
Grams house looked warm and inviting with the candle lights, sweet smell of cinnamon rolls, and the soft jazz music coming from open windows. And yet, something was alluring about the woods tonight, that led her feet into the dark of the woods.
She let the moonlight guide her, pressing her fingers onto the bark of every tree she passed by. She looked back only once during her walk, but the house was long gone from her sight, only darkness greeted her now.
Something was wrong, she thought. Wandering deeper and deeper into the woods, observing the trees with a growing dread in her stomach. It felt as though ….
Chills went down her spine that made the allure of the woods fade until even the trees looked menacing underneath her gaze. She wanted to cry or run, only she didn't even know why. Just that her entire body yearned for it.
It didn't take long for her to give in to the urge to run as soon as the feeling washed over her body like a tidal wave. Her bare feet hit the ground running, fast enough that it was as though she was flying. She hardly even realized it was thundering and pouring rain until she collided headfirst into a dark figure.
BOOM!
Her back quickly met the earth, yet she could hardly feel anything other than terror as she looked upon the intense lightning that lid up the night sky, and the dark figure standing in the middle of it all.
She scrambled backward, blinking away the rain to look up at the person's face.
"Lena?" She nearly relaxed at the familiarity of her best friend's face, except… there was something still that didn't feel right, that made her uneasy and ready to flee at a moment's notice.
Elena's brown eyes, once warm and full of life, were now filled with a fury so cold it burned. She continued to look at her this way, not moving an inch even as her best friend struggled to pull herself from the earth once more that night.
"Were you ever gonna tell me?" Ele — na — she finally spoke, her voice just as cold as her countenance; her words caused dread to roll down her spine much like the rain.
"Tell you what?" Nova questioned, jaw clenched as she tried to remain calm.
"I don't know, maybe that you're a witch…" she said, her face now more expressive, dark brown eyes filled with hurt.
Hurting people — hurting her was the last thing she wanted, that was what she wanted to say; the words got caught in her throat, and instead she watched the brunette stalk towards her.
A great big rumbling sound filled the air - "Or that you just stood by and watched as my parents died." The cold fury was back with a chilling vengeance, the intensity of it was so great that it made her feel genuine fear.
It wasn't long before the rumble turned into a loud crack ! that made her flinch, stumbling back as though she had been struck by lightning.
"I tried," she heard herself reply.
The brunette's beautiful face twisted horribly until it was all but unrecognizable. Her eyes were dark crimson, and two of her front teeth gleamed like sharp knives as they elongated.
"For someone determined to play God, you didn't try very hard." And by now, it was hard to see her friend behind all the cruel glances and sharp words.
She flinched back when she was grabbed, anxiety filling her down the bones when her chin was abruptly tilted upwards.
Nova fought against the hold, shaking fingers brushed against the unmovable hand now on her neck. This couldn't be Elena. Not the girl who had wiped her tears when she had fallen off her bike. One of her closest friends. No, it… had to be —
Screams cut off the tangled web of her thoughts, the hold on her chin abruptly breaking.
She watched silently, eyes wide as her friend screamed so loud the trees seemed to shake at the sound.
Elena's face, once beautiful even in all of its cruelty, was no longer unblemished. Her skin was like broken porcelain, cracks crawled from up her neck towards her face.
She reached out, watching on in horror as her touch accelerated the spell she had unconsciously cast.
"It's all your fault."
She had gotten used to not being able to sleep peacefully, staying awake so late that she had no choice but to stay awake lest she misses school. And there were no amount of sleeping pills or herbs that kept her dreams from turning into nightmares.
Some, like her sister, might recommend therapy but until she could find a therapist that knew about witches, vampires, and rebirth...
She was stuck with coffee.
"I heard about what happened to the Donovan girl, is she alright?" Grams poured herself a cup of tea in her antique teacup that the girls had never been brave enough to use.
Bonnie slid the honey across the wooden kitchen table towards their grandmother. Her own mug was filled with homemade hot chocolate.
Nova held on tight to her third cup of coffee, tugging on the ends of her and just barely resisting the temptation to pour the entire coffee pot into her thermos. It was only the warning glance of both her grandmother and her sister that had made her use a mug in the first place.
"Matt says she's okay. She had to get stitches for the bite," Bonnie said, smiling softly and picking up the cat purring at her feet. The little shit would become spoiled by her sister in this life, she could already tell.
Earlier, Grams had taken one look at the black cat and congratulated her on finding her familiar.
Finding and bonding with a familiar was a rare occurrence that not even Grams had the pleasure of experiencing. It happened sure, but she hadn't been expecting it to happen to her .
Nova supposed she could hardly be surprised, not when she had felt such suffocating magic that night they had reunited. Something had happened that night, she had felt it within her very soul
"Grams, we need to do something. Anything before the Salvatores get someone else hurt, or worse ." Bonnie brought up the elephant in the room, much braver than her older sister in standing up to their grandmother.
Except... it was an argument happening a little too late.
Damon had already been cruel and reckless by taking someone's life, and so blatantly, in the name of causing his brother problems she was sure.
The police had found them in the woods early this morning, but they had been drained of their blood and dead for longer. She remembered the couple's faces plastered all over WPKW9 News with clarity. If only because the girl had reminded her of Caroline.
"Hello, nightmare fuel," she said to herself. She belatedly realized that her sister's normally calm voice was struggling not to raise in pitch.
"— don't you get it, Grams? We aren't kids anymore. How can you expect us to sit and watch as vampires terrorize Mystic Falls, our home because what? Cause you're too afraid?"
Ah, she thought, well this was getting a little too intense. Maybe she should speak up, diffuse the situation?
As she was scrambling to think of a really good joke to break the thick tension, her grandmother replied.
"I understand just fine," Grams said, her lips pressed into a thin line that always meant she was more upset than she let on.
She sent a prayer to every deity she knew to save her sister from getting murdered by their grandmother.
"I understand that you girls getting yourselves tangled with them will lead you both down a steep hill. One that only leads to a dark path and an early grave. I already lost my baby girl and my sister to vampires. I'll be damned if I'm losing my grandbabies too."
Oh .
There was a heavy silence, so thick that the twins felt as though they were drowning in it as they soaked up their grandmother's words.
Grams rarely ever mentioned her daughter as anything other than their mother but what was even rarer was her mentioning family. Outside of long-dead Bennett witches, the girls knew more Hopkins than the Bennett side of the family.
Which was very telling considering they only visited their father's family in Atlanta for weddings and funerals.
Grams had dealt with a lot of heartbreak in her life. This was something that the twins knew well enough. Even so, this would be the first time the older woman even hinted at the full extent of what had broken their family apart.
"Well shit," she said, ever so helpfully.
Bonnie had listened to their grandmother's words with sympathy, her anger melting away from her face. For what else could she do when faced with Grams' grief and heartbreak.
"I—" Bonnie seemed to be trying to get the courage to say something else.
She didn't know what her sister planned to say. How the fuck does one even begin to argue against that?
The front door creaking open and shutting loudly put a pause on whatever her sister had planned to say.
"Anyone home?"
"We're in here, dad," Bonnie said instead, what was left of her stubborn resolve deflating.
Rudy eventually made his way towards the kitchen, his suitcase abandoned by the archway as he walked inside. "Girls, Sheila," he greeted, sparing his children a warm smile that dimmed as he looked at the older woman.
"I tried calling. No one answered."
"Sorry, we were busy plotting world domination," she snarked even as she passed him the plate of freshly baked cookies. Her dad only hummed, too busy taking two chocolate chips and one sugar cookie to remark on her sarcasm.
"These are good, thank you," Rudy aimed his thanks toward his eldest daughter, already finished with his second cookie.
"Grams made them, I just made the coffee," she replied cheerfully, resting her chin on the palm of her hand, blinking up at him expectantly.
He was the one who had taught them about being respectful and kind to those who did things for them. In other words, he would look like a huge hypocrite in front of his kids if he didn't say thank you to their grandmother.
"Thanks, Sheila," Rudy replied after an awkward pause, getting an unimpressed look in reply.
"Well, that was painful to watch." She said out loud instead of keeping her thoughts to herself.
"We should get going," Bonnie said, grabbing her soft brown cardigan from behind her chair.
"Ah, just wanted to remind you girls that I have a parent-teacher conference with a... Mr. Tanner today, and don't forget about tonight's movie night." Rudy reminded them, as though he hadn't been the one to forget last time.
The twins shared a glance before they sent him matching sympathetic looks that caught him off guard.
"Okay, see you later. Good luck."
"Show no fear, he'll sense it."
The elusive comet that showed itself in Mystic Falls every 100 years or so would be passing over the town tomorrow. That of course meant the town had to make it into a fucking event.
The posters and banners for the event had been put up weeks ago and now it was time for the fliers. She had drawn the art last month and now the copies finally laid freshly printed in her hands.
She had outdone herself with the details: a comet passing over the town's clock tower, done in neat lines, and the expensive pencils she had been saving to use for months. Pencils weren't her preferred medium, that was more of a Jeremy thing. She had accepted it out of her love for her town… and the cash sitting comfortably in her wallet for her commission certainly helped.
Printing wasn't technically a four-person job, but hell if her friends hadn't made it one.
They had spent most of after school printing out the original flier until the four of them had found a good excuse to escape to the Grill.
The sun shined brightly down on their table, keeping them pleasantly warm as they spoke.
"So… what is going on between you and the new eye candy?" Caroline wasted no time to ask, iced tea abandoned to put her full attention on the brunette.
Nova joined her in her playful stares, resting her chin on top of her palm as she grinned at the flustered doppelganger.
"We've been talking, that's all," Elena replied and got a prodding look in response. "He... he came over last night and we talked in my room until midnight." There was a soft smile on her face, a rare enough sight nowadays that Nova's grin couldn't help but soften.
Bonnie quietly listened to the conversation, her hazel eyes filled with conflicted emotions. Her worry was clear as the blue skies above them. Their grandmother had been warning them about vampires since they were old enough to practice magic.
And here was one, romancing their best friend.
"So then what?" Caroline pried, leaning in with interest.
"So then nothing."
Caroline narrowed her eyes with a pout, leaning back in her chair. "You two were alone in your bedroom for hours and there was no sloppy first kiss or touchy-feely of any kind?"
"Nope. We didn't go there."
Personally, she didn't see the big deal whether Elena climbed him like a tree or waited until she was old and gray to even kiss the vampire. As long as 'Stefan the Rippah' kept his impulsive fangs away from her best friend, she wasn't too concerned.
Ah, if only she could just throw him a goddamn condom instead of worrying about him draining her friend dry.
"Not even a lingering hug?" Despite her thoughts on the matter, she couldn't help but tease with a wicked grin on her face.
Elena shook her head, her cheeks turning red even as she pretended not to be affected by their words.
"Not even a handshake ? Oh my god, Elena. We are your friends, ok? You are supposed to share the smut." Caroline demanded, looking over for support and only finding it with the older twin as the other became exasperated.
"C'mon Lena, our love lives are nonexistent. We're living vicariously through you." Nova piped in for the fun of it. Caroline eagerly agreed with her with a nod, a sad look on her face that looked only mostly fake.
" We ? No, leave me out of this, this is all you two," Bonnie said, sending her flustered best friend a sympathetic glance across the table.
"We just talked," Elena repeated firmly, pushing her hair behind her ear.
"Okay, what is with the blockage? Just jump his bones already. It's easy! Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, sex!" Caroline explained it in such a way that it sounded easier than it actually was.
"Bow chicka bow wow," Nova added on cheerfully, wiggling her eyebrows with a playful grin on her face.
Bonnie snorted at their behavior, shaking her head at them. "Mature," she said.
"And profound," Elena added dryly, but thankfully the girl seemed to be more amused than actually annoyed by their teasing.
"Don't listen to them, Lena," Bonnie said, throwing an unamused glance in their direction. "If you want to take things slow with Stefan, that's alright . You just broke up with Matt. And we don't know much about Stefan. Being careful with your heart isn't a bad thing."
Being careful around him, was what her sister so obviously wanted to say but didn't.
Elena nodded in thanks to the brunette's reassurance. Yet even as the conversation moved on to other things, she seemed distracted, half-heartedly participating in the conversation.
Not much time had passed when she abruptly got up from the table. There was a determined look on her face that everyone at the table knew well enough. If there was one thing they all had in common, it was that they were all as stubborn as they were pretty.
"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked, startled away from the conversation about planning a movie night.
"Caroline's right, it is easy. if I sit here long enough, I'll end up talking myself out of it instead of doing what I started the day saying what I was going to do." Elena straightened her shoulders out, spun on her heel, and walked away dramatically.
"Do you guys… do you think she forgot Bonnie drove her?" Nova spoke up after a beat of silence, sharing an amused glance with them.
Warm hands abruptly grabbed hers. She let out a strangled noise that sounded pathetic even to her ears at the abrupt touch. By the amused looks on her sister and best friend's face, they had already known that Elena had made a reappearance behind her.
Traitors.
"Please drive me?"
Nova let out a put-on sigh, rubbing her eyes as though she had been asked to solve a difficult equation.
Despite all her huffing, she had already pulled herself out of the chair and grabbed her things before her friend had even finished speaking.
"C'mon, Juliet. Let's go find your Romeo."
Parking in front of the Salvatore boarding house was odd, for multiple reasons.
For one, the driveway was on some fucking rich people bullshit for one. Parking was a goddamn nightmare when there weren't any normal parking spaces to speak of near the house.
There was also the fact that she hadn't been here since the Gi— that night. It was weird seeing the place again with fresh eyes that were no longer tinted with that special blur of grief, guilt, and depression.
Stefan had tried to contact her after he had dropped her off at the hospital to visit Elena; not via phone or even carrier pigeon or whatever the hell they had used back during his days as a human. No, the weirdo just kept " accidentally " bumping into her until she asked him to fuck off.
He had left her alone to be a pathetic mess alone, thankfully.
But soon after the funeral, she had been shipped off to the hell that had been cheer camp. So other than her wild guesses, it was a mystery as to what the knucklehead had wanted.
Elena breathed in and out, pushing her hair behind her ears as she so obviously gave herself an inner pep talk.
"You've got fifteen minutes to bang it out before I leave you to walk home." She smiled brightly and innocently in the face of the glare.
Elena could aim that glare at her as much as she wanted, but her comment achieved its goal of distracting her from chickening out. She rolled her eyes, nerves evaporated as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the cherry red two-door car.
Nova instantly became bored after she had left and began to play with the volume on the radio, pulling the sun visor down and sliding open its mirror. She was in the middle of putting red lipstick on when she caught sight of her friend, pushing open the door with no one visible on the other side.
She tilted her head at the sight, feeling a frown gradually make its way onto her red lips, her brown eyes trailing back to the mirror. Her brain had stalled for a split second as she rubbed her lips together to smear the color across her top lip.
There was just…. something scratching at her brain... like she had forgotten something, but she didn't know what she had forgotten. It was only a matter of mere seconds before she found herself out of the car, only relying on instinct at this point.
She didn't know why her alarm bells were going off, but like hell was she was going to ignore her intuition.
Nova all but ran across the grass and towards her friend, looking around at the cursed roundabout driveway and beautifully trimmed lawn and bushes. She briefly wondered if they ever did their own garden work and snorted at the thought of the Salvatores pruning roses.
She walked into the boardinghouse, spotting her friend right away. "B&E, Lena? This is new, like stalker level new," she said, laughing as the brunette jumped at the sound of her voice.
Her friend's face as she turned around, it was very reminiscent of the time that she had caught Elena pulling too many cookies out of the cookie jar.
"I didn't break-in, the door was open." The brunette defended herself.
… how does one break it to a delusionally curious person that her explanation didn't explain why she felt the need to enter uninvited .
Nova only hummed in reply, giving the back of her friend's head an unconvinced glance the moment she turned back around to look around.
"Stefan?"
Elena took hesitant steps through the house, her eyes wide with wonder as she took in the place with its lavish furniture.
As her friend gawked at the place, she spotted a bowl filled with candy wrappers. She thought about it for a moment, before grabbing a handful of the candies and stuffing it into the pockets of her plaid skirt.
Where the fuck were these hiding the last time she was here? She stuffed two in her mouth, shoving a handful into the pocket of her faux leather jacket.
Fuck she was hungry, she hadn't even had the chance to order an appetizer at the Grill before getting dra —
The girls found themselves holding hands when something fucking flew into the house behind them, its large wings brushed against her hair. Without a mirror, she could only hope her natural curls weren't fucked.
Or worse, shat on.
"Why didn't you close the door behind you?"
"You were right beh.. never mind, we should try to look for it."
The girls both turned around at the same time, now on a mission to look for that damned bird so it wouldn't shit on expensive furniture that they couldn't afford to pay —
Damon Salvatore was barely fucking breathing distance away from them.
"Futuō, cunnus, fuck! Que te jodan a tu mamá, que te jodan a tu papá y vete a la mierda por tu culo." Nova couldn't help but let out a plethora of curse words, more pissed off than frightened.
Who the fuck had lacked the foresight to teach this bitch the meaning of personal fucking space?
Damon's blue eyes, previously glued to looking at her best friend's face in all of its eerie doppelgänger glory, were now on her. He raised an eyebrow, probably very much aware of what she had just said. She would be even more upset and disgusted with him if he had wasted his years as a vampire not learning any other language other than English.
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Damon asked her, letting out a low whistle, looking more impressed than insulted by her vulgar language.
She curled her hands into fists, just barely resisting the urge to throw a punch instead she opened her mouth.
"We're sorry for barging in, the door was open.." Elena spoke before she could retort, looking back and pointing towards the large wooden door only to see it firmly closed.
What a little trick bitch.
"You must be Elena. I'm Damon, Stefan's brother." Damon introduced himself, giving the doppelgänger that intense stare again.
To his credit, he didn't seem infatuated as Stefan, simply curious in all of his intensity. No, he was too busy being pussy struck by another Petrova doppelgänger.
Elena's mouth was slightly agape at the revelation, her brown eyes now regarding the " mysterious stranger" in a new light.
"And you. You look familiar." He turned his head towards her, tilting it as he examined her like a bird might its prey. "Have we met before by any chance?"
He pretended like they hadn't stared right at each other for a whole ass minute underneath the Grill's bright lighting.
She slowly looked him up and down, in the same manner, smiling at him when she met his gaze. It wasn't very hard to see that her smile didn't reach her eyes. It was less a smile, and more like a barring of teeth really. Sharks probably look prettier than her at the moment.
"Oh, have we? Sorry. I've got a bad habit of only remembering important people." Her voice was annoying to her own ears in all of its faux cheer. She watched him carefully underneath her lashes and was rewarded by the glimmer of anger in his eyes.
She bit her lip to stop herself from letting out a laugh, that would've made her question her own mental state even more. Breezing over her unsubtle insult that made even her friend surprised, she introduced herself since Elena was too stunned to even speak.
"Nova Bennett, friend and current chauffeur of this one." Nova nodded her head at the brunette by her side, popping a chocolate mint into her mouth with a grin she couldn't quite contain.
There was a spark of recognition in his eyes at her last name.
Something was deeply wrong with her for liking fucking with them so much. She knew regardless of her plans, it wasn't a good idea, to poke the bear like this. She couldn't help but enjoy the rush it gave her, it was quickly becoming her favorite choice of entertainment. She should honestly thank both of them for entertaining her.
"He didn't tell me he had a brother." Elena interrupted whatever it was that they were doing.
"Well, Stefan's not one to brag," Damon said, an easy smile on his face that didn't reach his pretty eyes. He turned towards an archway, nodding his head. "Please, come. I'm sure Stefan will be along any second."
Nova crossed her arms and followed along closely to her friend, keeping her eyes on the vampire should he even twitch wrong.
"Wow.. this is your living room?" Elena said, her head moving this way and that way as she tried to take in every little detail of the extravagant space.
"Living room, parlor, Sotheby's auction. It's a little kitschy for my taste." Damon replied, still looking at her friend with that signature intense Salvatore stare.
Nova silently agreed with his unenthusiastic assessment of the living room, as the room was in one word…. a lot . She supposed that, at the very least, the couches looked cozy enough. She just preferred rooms that didn't look like a vintage store and a museum had taken turns vomiting on it.
Although she wasn't the room's biggest fan, she still made herself at home by sitting on the couch.
Elena sat down along with her, reluctant to stay standing awkwardly in the middle of the room next to a stranger.
"I see why my brother's so smitten," he said, pouring himself a drink. "It's about time. For a while there I never thought he'd get over the last one. Nearly destroyed him."
He spoke without a shred of sympathy on his face or in his voice. He was being an absolute shit stain of a host by stirring up drama instead of offering them a goddamn drink or food.
Fuck, she was hungry.
Elena, the forever curious one, fell easily enough into the trap set as she asked, "The last one?"
"Yeah, Katherine, his ex-girlfriend," he answered her, as though it was obvious who he was referring to. " Oh , you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet." His face twisted into a face that was supposed to be apologetic but came off a tad apathetic to her.
"Nope," Elena replied, now visibly annoyed by not only Damon but his elusive brother as well. She hated not knowing things.
" Dude , they've barely known each other for a week, been together for even less," Nova interrupted, gently knocking her shoulder against her friend's. "Give it time, I'm sure they'll get all of that awkward stuff out of the way. Especially now that you've been so helpfully nosy."
Damon hummed, visibly ticked off. She couldn't tell if he was upset at being called out or just by her general presence.
"He probably didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound," he continued, completely ignoring what she said to continue to stir the pot. "We all know how those relationships end."
"You say it like every relationship is doomed to end."
Nova bit her lip, trying not to zone out as a moment of deja vu washed over her. Fuck, was this what it was going to be like whenever she heard scripted lines half-forgotten?
For a moment everything had seemed just a little less real.
"I'm a fatalist." He responded, gaining an eye roll from the reincarnated girl. "Hello, Stefan," he then said, turning towards the sound of creaking wood.
Elena stood up and turned around, visibly brightening and relaxing from her rigid posture from only seconds ago.
She turned on the couch, resting her chin on the back of the couch as she looked at the younger Salvatore who stood in the archway. She struggled not to laugh at the look on Stefan's face, but a few huffs fell out of her mouth anyway.
Boys and their dick measuring contests.
"Elena. Nova. I didn't know you two were coming over." Stefan didn't even bother to take his eyes off his brother.
Elena smiled slightly at him, moving closer to the younger Salvatore. "I know. I should have called. I was just…"
Really horny, she thought but didn't say, holding her tongue for her friend's sake.
"I'm a nosy bitch. I wanted to see where you live and dragged Lena along with me so you guys can recite poetry to each other.. or whatever it is you nerds do." She lied for her friend's sake, her brown eyes flipping between the brothers in anticipation.
She wondered if they would fight when they left and a part of her wanted to stick around to watch the show with popcorn in hand. They were just so fucking messy, it was bound to be both annoying and entertaining.
"Oh, don't be silly. Elena is welcome here anytime." Damon said to the brunette before turning back to his brother. "Isn't she, Stefan?"
"What about me?" She muttered, frowning at the back of his stupid head, resisting the urge to throw something at it.
"You know, I should break out the family photo albums or some home movies. But I have to warn you, he wasn't always such a looker." Damon teased lightly, relaxed, and completely at ease in comparison to his brother who was attempting to burn a hole into his skull.
"That's okay. Elena gave herself a bowl haircut in fourth grade. I've still got photos." She said, grinning at her friend. It was a source of embarrassment to her friend if the betrayed look she shot her told her anything. But in her opinion, it was just too cute to get rid of —
Not to mention hilarious and great blackmail material.
"Thank you for stopping by, it was nice to see you both." Stefan practically kicked them out, ignoring everything that they had just said.
Elena looked taken aback by his words and the cool and polite tone he had delivered them in. She looked between the two brothers, noticing the suffocating hostility between the two.
"Yeah, we should probably go." Elena looked at her, and she sighed, reluctantly getting up from the couch. "It was nice to meet you, Damon."
"Nice to meet you, Elena." Damon sounded so genuinely entertained by her or possibly just her ability to make Stefan so overprotective.
"See you at school, Stef. Thank you for being…such a terrible host, Damian." She smiled at him, big and wide and so obviously fake.
"Damon," he corrected, returning the fake smile with one of his own.
"Right." She rolled her eyes, her smile quickly leaving her face as she walked past him. She patted the younger Salvatore on the shoulder before leaving the house.
Vampires are a lot less cool in person, she thought.
"What… what was that?" Elena asked once they were in the car and far away from dramatic siblings.
Nova kept her eyes on the road, old school R&B music playing on low and windows rolled down to let in fresh air and sunlight. "That, my dear friend," she spoke in a faux British accent that she quickly lost, "was a sign that they both need therapy. The hot ones are always super traumatized. I mean look at us."
Elena shook her head with a frown, her eyebrows scrunched up like it always did when she was confused. "I don't get it. Why didn't he tell me he had a brother?"
She came to a slow stop at a stop sign, turning to give the girl a judging look until she met her eyes with a defensive gleam in them. "Because you've only been talking to him for like two days, bitch," she said, this time it was her turn to be exasperated.
"People are like onions. You can't expect to get to the last layer, to its core, in one day."
"Did you just. Compare a person to an onion?"
"Am I wrong? Tell me I'm fucking wrong."
Elena sighed, nodding in agreement. "I just can't help but wonder. What happened between the two of them to make Stefan become so..." She struggled to find the right words, fixing her hair behind her ears for the millionth time today.
"Constipated?" Nova gave her the red hair scrunchie from her wrist, getting tired from just watching her try to keep her long brown locks away from her face.
Elena accepted the scrunchie but not the word, her face twisted into mild disgust at her vulgar word usage.
"No? Okay, well how about, tense."
She hummed in agreement, pulling her long brown hair back into a high ponytail before pulling out her phone and looking at her messages.
Nova briefly glanced over and noticed a text message from Jenna, but nothing else. He was probably still busy glaring at his brother to notice he had hurt her friend. The idiot.
She shrugged like she didn't know exactly what had torn them apart and everything else about their complicated familial relationship. Past and future.
That was something that Mr. Constipation would have to be honest about.
"A goddamn mystery to me," she lied.
Nova had fallen asleep halfway through her and her family's re-watch of the Karate Kid movies.
She woke up with ice cream on her cheeks, making her face stick to the leather of the couch. There was a crick in her neck from sleeping at an odd angle that made her wince every time she twitched.
No one had been kind enough to wake her so she could move to her soft bed. Such cruel people she called family, she thought.
Nova blinked once and then twice, reaching over blindly and grabbing her phone. She flipped it open, bypassing the unread messages she had to stare blankly at the time.
She didn't know what had woken her up at 3AM, but she knew there would be no going back to sleep. She got up from the couch, taking the soft pink blanket with her into the kitchen. Wrapping it tight around her body from head to toe, she then started to make breakfast.
Time blurred together as she made homemade waffles, rolled omelettes, and fried bacon.
The saddest part of this morning was that even as she stared at her favorite foods, her appetite was nonexistent. She huffed tiredly, putting the food in the oven's warming drawer.
Nova rested for a moment on the couch, briefly noticing the sunlight that was beginning to pour into the living room, painting the room in a hazy golden glow. It was such a beautiful nuisance.
She breathed in and out, watching through bleary eyes as hair that had fallen out of her bun and into her face moved with her every breath.
She lazily waved her hand at the windows, willing the curtains closed with a flick of her wrist.
Today would either be uneventful as ever or … it would all go according to plan.
She decided to get dressed for the day, though her very body protested at the idea by making her eyes twitch from lack of sleep.
"What do you think, Merlin?" She turned to her familiar that lounged on her windowsill, distracting him from biting on the tassels on her curtains. "Hat or no hat?" She pulled off the black cap, staring into his green eyes.
Her dad hadn't been expecting to come home to a stinky fur-ball sitting in his chair. Fortunately for her, he had found it hard to kick him out when both of his girls had gotten attached so quickly.
Nova made a face when the unhelpful little shit turned away from her to look out of her window. She turned back to the black hat with a bisexual flag sewn onto it, quickly slipping it onto her badly straightened hair.
Despite getting up earlier than everyone, she was still the last one out of the house because of how long it had taken her to finish homework she had almost forgotten and figure out what to wear.
She was smart enough to know that driving was a bad idea when she was so fucking tired. She did the reasonable thing and walked to school.
She got there fifteen minutes late but she figured not wanting to get someone fucking murdered was a good enough reason. Her Math teacher didn't think so but what the fuck did he know.
"Are you dying?" Caroline asked after class, the two of them walking arm in arm to the bathroom.
It was the blonde's way of asking if she was okay, so she didn't take it too personally. Her friends and sister had been throwing her concerned glances all day, but she had been the only one who had found the opportunity to corner her.
"I'm fine, just didn't sleep much last night." Or the night before last, she thought but didn't say.
Caroline nodded, still concerned but accepting the answer easily enough, and then changed the subject to talk about their new cheer uniforms for this semester.
Nova found herself zoning out so much during class that even the one person who had been avoiding her was worried.
"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked, trying to look uninterested in her reply and utterly failing.
"No," she replied more honestly than she would have liked. The number of people pouring from classrooms, their shoulders bumping into hers, and the mixed sounds of laughter and yelling, even the fabric of her shirt overwhelmed her.
He seemed caught off guard by her honesty as much as she was and stopped pretending not to be concerned.
Nova blinked and suddenly she was outside, sitting underneath the bleachers of all places.
"How do you do that without getting high?"
Nova lazily turned her head, meeting the dark brown eyes of someone vaguely familiar.
Wasn't she the one who always sat behind her in History? Ciara? Claire? She couldn't remember her name, only that she was smart and pretty.
"You were spacing out," Jeremy said when she looked towards him for clarification. "When was the last time you got some sleep or ate?"
She narrowed her eyes on him. "I don't know, mom . When was the last time you looked at your text messages?"
Nova had been sending him text messages and memes all week and none of them had been answered. She would've been worried about him being dead if it weren't for the fact that she had caught glimpses of his stupid black hoodie around school all week.
Jeremy threw a package at her that she caught with a frown. "You look like crap."
"I still look better than you, you little shit."
She looked down at the package and her stomach clenched when she saw the sandwich inside of it. Reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything today. Right, she had forgotten.
Things were quieter here in the stoner lair, other than Jeremy and Maybe Claire, there was just one other person nearby quietly smoking.
She inhaled and exhaled the fresh air, and for a while, she didn't say anything while she ate the sandwich. It was poorly made, too much cheese and not enough spinach but it was easily eaten.
Nova looked over and found a carton of chocolate milk being offered in her direction. She looked up and saw Maybe Claire offering her the drink, her large brown eyes were kinder than most.
"Thanks," she said, clearing her throat when it came out as a whisper.
"Hey, why does she get a thank you, and I get called a little shit?" Jeremy asked, a joint in his mouth that she failed to notice.
"She's prettier," she said with a shrug, ruffling his hair and laughing at the pathetic glare he gave her.
Caroline looked over at her with her pretty blue eyes, slowly batting her eyelashes as she tried to so obviously get her way. "Tell me everything," the blonde demanded. "What happened after you caught her breaking in? They didn't like, start tearing each other's clothes while you were still in the room. Oh my god, did they?"
Needless to say, she regretted even bringing up the awkward moment from yesterday.
"Honestly, that would have probably been more entertaining." She muttered under her breath before passing out a flier with a tired lopsided grin. "Nothing. His older brother was there. Things got fucking awkward, so we left."
Caroline perked up at the mention of a brother, a devious smile slowly appearing on her face as she leaned in closer to gossip. "Brother? Stefan has an older brother? Is he hot?"
"Uh, no. Yes? Maybe in a rejected Green Day member kinda way," she said absently, getting distracted by the smell of the other girl's perfume.
Caroline made a face like she was trying to picture it, her blonde curls tickled her nose as she suddenly spun around to hand someone a flier. Her bright smile and the pep in her voice were just one reason why she was a good cheerleader.
"Tonight's the night of the comet! Won't be around for another hundred years, would you like a program?"
"One hundred and forty-five years." She couldn't help but correct, wishing she could go back in time and take her words back.
"Just pass the fliers out, you big nerd."
With four of them passing out fliers, it didn't take very long until they were empty-handed. Though it didn't take long, that didn't mean that things didn't get very boring when all they did for the next hour was pass them out.
Nova stared at the deep paper cuts on her fingers, a pout on her lips, and her feet tapping on the ground as she waited.
Caroline had stopped her from just licking away at the many paper cuts and instead insisted that she wait so that she could go get the first aid from her car. Who even kept a first aid kit just lying in their car?
She would ignore anyone else's orders, but she had folded quickly underneath the pleasing look of her best friend.
Nova tilted her head back on the bench, staring longingly at the popcorn machine just waiting for her to pay for its overpriced buttery kernels.
She frowned when the sight of popcorn was blocked by a blob of black, and dragged her eyes up and met the eyes of Damon Salvatore once more that day.
She narrowed her eyes but didn't break eye contact, if only because it felt like if she did it was allowing him to win at whatever game he was so obviously trying to play.
Sadly, her eyes were still so very much human and it didn't take very long for him to disappear the moment she blinked. She didn't react like a well-adjusted person and smiled to herself.
His random appearance could only mean one thing: everything was going as planned.