[ BOOK ONE ]
Erin Gilbert believed the worst thing that could ever happen to her was the death of her parents. But when the Salvatore brothers waltz into town, she finds herself longing for the sorrow-filled days of the past.
All too soon, Erin's n...
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TWO MONTHS. IN hindsight, the short time frame wouldn't seem like much to the average person. Just a blip on their radar. A change in the seasons. A passage of weeks hardly noticeable without a determined awareness. But to Erin Gilbert, it felt like a lifetime.
The days after Stefan's disappearance were rough, to say the least. Jenna and John's deaths were still so fresh that another loss pushed them to the edge. Stefan wasn't dead, but it somehow felt like he was. He left town, not of his own freewill, and they would possibly never see him again. Not with him basically in servitude to Klaus.
Elena and Damon took it harder than anyone else, each for their own reasons. Elena missed the love of her life, while Damon missed his little brother.
Erin supposed it was different for Damon. He went decades without contact with Stefan in the past. He could handle the separation better. With Elena, she wanted to do anything and everything to try and bring Stefan back to them. Back to her.
For Erin, she simply missed her friend. She and Stefan weren't exactly close, but she could always rely on him when she needed to. He was a steady presence since the death of her parents, and his absence felt like a hole had opened up. A small hole, but a hole nonetheless.
Distractions were a way Erin kept herself sane. To keep her grieving mind occupied, and to get her out of the dreary atmosphere that consumed her home. She hung out with Caroline, sometimes Tyler when they were together, which always seemed to be the case, but Erin didn't mind.
Since triggering the werewolf curse, Tyler practically became a different person. A less egotistical and rage-filled person. It made being in his presence a lot more tolerable.
Other times, Erin visited Jeremy at his new job at The Grill. They couldn't spend much time together with him on the clock, but the act of seeing him act like a normal teenager with a summer job made her feel better. She refused to think about what could've happened if Bonnie hadn't brought him back to life after Sheriff Forbes accidentally shot him. Jeremy was alive, and that was all that mattered.
And when it came to Elena, Erin tried her hardest to indulge her search for Stefan. There was no harm in combing news articles and asking for leads from Sheriff Forbes, who was more comfortable in the supernatural know than before. But after all, she knew Elena needed to move on. Move forward. Stefan was gone. If he came back, great. But if he didn't, her sister couldn't continue to put her life on hold. No one wanted that. Stefan wouldn't have wanted that.
Once her phone went off for the dozenth time that morning, Erin rolled out of bed to get ready for the day. Her and Elena's eighteenth birthday. A milestone that she and her sister had been excited for in the past. Now, not so much.
