ʙʟᴜᴇ » ᴛᴠᴅ ¹ ✓

two

Seven and a half hours later, Billie stood with her back to the station while her bus rattled away behind her, the green of the rural urban fringe of Virginia before her.

It was pretty, she had to admit. Billie had spent her whole life surrounded by a concrete jungle of high rise buildings and big star wannabes. The air seemed fresher, less toxic here. Free of pollution and greed.

Billie hadn't called her aunt to tell her she'd be coming so soon. Maybe Cara had, but there was no one at the station to pick her up, so Billie assumed bitterly that they'd forgotten about her as soon as she'd left.

She imagined her parents lounging happily around the kitchen island, clutching full glasses of wine with merry smiles on their faces, grateful that their burden had disappeared. Billie shook her head of the thought, refusing to entertain it, even if she believed it was true to a degree. She always knew they were waiting for her to turn eighteen so they could promptly kick her out, but it seemed they couldn't wait the extra six months, especially since they'd discovered a loophole.

Billie Harper had never been to Virginia before, she'd only heard stories of her crazy Aunt Georgie in Mystic Falls. Cara never let her see the woman, claiming it was simply too much of an effort to drive so far for a woman with several screws loose. Billie wasn't allowed to call or write her either. First it was, the number must have deleted itself, or, she couldn't remember the exact address. Whatever it was, Cara and Georgie never had a good relationship, which was why it shocked Billie so much that her mother had stooped so low as to send her here.

Billie asked around town for her aunt's address, expecting disgusted looks according to the stories, but the name didn't strike any of them as odd or shameful and eventually she'd gotten an enthusiastic point in the direction of her aunt's apartment building.

Harper had conflicting thoughts as she slowly walked down the carpeted hallway towards the flat she was to live in for the foreseeable future. From the few words of her aunt she'd heard, Georgie didn't sound crazy at all, lovely even. The new perspective battled with the appalling stories from her childhood, which is why her hand froze in the air, hesitant to knock on the wooden door, the large golden '11' staring at her.

But the liberty of time was taken from her when the door burst ajar on it's own, a messy head of curly blonde hair appearing. She jumped slightly at the girl standing before her, arm hanging in the air, about to knock.

Billie's mind hit a wall. This wasn't what she expected. She had been expecting to find a crazy old hag with a bird's nest for hair, a long, crooked, hook nose and spindly whiskers protruding from her chin.

But Aunt Georgie was actually quite pretty. Sun-kissed, beachy, curly blonde hair was pulled into a messy, loose bun, small strands falling away at all sides like they'd refused against all attempts to comply with the updo. She had startling blue eyes, and cute freckles dancing along her nose.

Though her eyes were quite beautiful, Billie couldn't help but notice the purple tinted bags that rested beneath them and the tired look her aunt carried heavily.

Her clothes were comfortably baggy and her sneakers would have given Cara a heart attack. Georgie had a relaxed aura to her, friendly and unproblematic. She appeared to be in her late twenties at the most.

"Oh, uh... Can I help you?" She got over the initial surprise, subtly rubbing her muddy sneakers on the doormat in an effort to look somewhat presentable.

Billie dropped her hand quickly, realising it was still hanging up and she pulled the edge of her shirt down in nervousness.

"It's Billie... Harper." Billie didn't know why she was suddenly so anxious in her aunt's presence. She was thrown by how... normal she was.