"I'll Still Have Me"
Stop looking at me, stop looking, stop looking, stop looking at me, Rayna repeated in her head as she played with her mash potatoes. The pear-glazed pork chop was good, but she didn't have the stomach to eat, with Colton stealing stares every moment he could.
It was already hard being mad at him when he was so damn cute.
Not to mention how much he hated seeing her upset. So much that he was always quick to resolve any issue that sparked between them.
He knew that Rayna wasn't the type of person to always say how she feels.
She took everything internally and, to keep the peace, would rather suffer and die with her feelings than trouble others and voice her needs and wants.
Considering she never felt heard by her parents, she lost her will to speak up, which she carried into their relationship.
It took time, but Colton was able to get her to talk to him. He eventually became the person she opened to the most - even before her best friend.
Rayna knew he was trying to figure out what to say after dinner, which made her nervous because she didn't have anything to say to him.
Colton could get her back in his grasps if he wanted, but she didn't want him to know that. She had to be tough, strong, and protect her heart. She refused to let him hurt her again.
Rayna sucked in a breath, chewing on her pinky, anxiously.
"You're not hungry, honey?" Stefan looked nervous about what his quiet daughter might be thinking.
She had been so polite and friendly, he couldn't figure out how she stood on the drastic change.
"No," Rayna pushed her plate away. "It's delicious," she assured Elena. "I've just got a bit of jet lag still, and I have to get used to the time difference."
"Right, right, of course," Elena nodded. Though Rayna could tell, she and Stefan suspected that something was up.
Rayna desperately wanted to go home. Well, her other home. She had told them of her exciting life in France, and now she wanted dinner to be over.
"Would you like to take your plate home?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great," Rayna appreciated it.
Elena stood up, reaching over for her plate.
"Wait a minute, honey," Stefan stops her. "I think we should all talk first."
Elena slowly sat back down, looking between the two eye-locked teenagers, "okay."
Stefan pushes his plate away. "Now, Elena and I understand that we moved pretty fast with everything."
"Understatement," Colt read Rayna's mind, receiving a scold from his mother.
"We're sorry," Elena says. "We have no excuses, only that we love each other and we don't regret our decision. The how yes, but the it, no."
"Exactly," Stefan nods. "We know that we won't be the Brady Bunch, but we want to try and meld this family. And we want to do everything that we can to make sure you guys are comfortable. Okay?"
"Okay," Rayna shrugged nonchalantly while Colt just nodded.
If their parents had married anyone else, maybe they would be rioting. But since, unknowingly, they used to be a couple, they weren't going to rub any feathers.
