ʙʟᴜᴇ » ᴛᴠᴅ ¹ ✓

seven

The set up committee for the masquerade ball was just as hellish as Billie imagined. She'd met Mrs. Lockwood for the first time though Billie soon discovered she was a penny away from being a raging bitch.

She was inside the mansion, heading towards the table with a fresh batch of masquerade masks. There was only one other person there and when Billie came near, she spoke up.

"I've brought more torture." He looked up, baby blue eyes crinkling at the sides from a cute smile.

"Oh goody." Billie smiled politely, but she couldn't help her confusion at the subtle ray of light surrounding him.

She pushed it aside, like she always did and started to notice the downhearted expression he wore. "Oh come on, sorting masks can't be that bad." She held up one of the biggiest and featheriest of the lot to her face, looking like she'd just stepped out of the cirque du soleil. It cheered him up for a brief moment, but the stressed look took over soon enough.

"It's just... girlfriend problems." He looked down, like he felt ashamed admitting it out loud.

Billie frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm sure it'll work out, man." She spoke genuinely. Billie never tried out the whole relationship thing before, well, not after her first one crashed and burned before her eyes. Maybe because she'd seen so many failed ones. It scared her, the idea of being so vulnerable again. Besides, it was a rare occurrence that anyone actually liked her, that wasn't a massive creep. So she didn't actually have much choice in the matter.

He smiled, a scar on his lip appearing prominently. "Yeah, I hope so. I'm Matt."

Billie smiled. Glad to see his optimism turn up. "Billie." She reached over and shook his hand playfully.

He looked like he was about to say something else, but Billie heard the ravenous screech of Mrs. Lockwood nearby, jumping up about a foot in surprise and slight fear.

Matt laughed at her surprise, while Billie tried to control her breathing. "You don't get used to it." He informed her, remnants of laughter behind his aqua eyes.

Billie grinned sarcastically. "Good to know."

She turned, ready to answer the matriarch and called over her shoulder. "See you later, dude."

»»»

Billie spent the next hour running around doing tasks for Mrs. Lockwood like an errand boy. But she didn't mind too much, it kept her mind off things. She spotted Elena and Stefan, but weirdly, they kept their distance from each other. Stefan gave her a look like he'd explain later.

But Billie did happen to notice that the devil who'd coerced her into coming was nowhere to be found. And when she appeared for the first time at the event, she looked stressed and guilty.

"Bonnie what's wrong?" The witch jumped in surprise and turned to her friend.

She sighed and thought about how to put her question into words.

"You know your... thing." Bonnie was nervous and Billie just nodded, encouraging her to keep going.

"Can you, turn it on or, maybe see the right choices for other people?"

Billie frowned in thought, the idea had never crossed her mind. "Uhh... I-I've never tried, why?"

Bonnie filled Harper in on what the Salvatore brothers had asked her to do. And by the end Billie was ready to knock their immortal skulls in.