TVD: Bennett Witches -Book 1

104)Safehouse

"She's not here right now" Chris told him, since she wasn't

Stefan is visibly disappointed by this answer, but tries his best not to show it "Ah...." He hesitates for a moment before pointing behind Chris into the house "Do you think I could...? Oh wait you can't invite me in can you?"

Chris sighs and looks around for a moment before reluctantly nodding and stepping aside "Yeah. Yeah, sure. Come on in"

Stefan looked at him confusingly and smiled politely as he steps over the threshold and into the house "How?"

Alaric frowns as he closes the door behind them "Don't even ask. Took me a week and 2 hours of signatures to loophole so I can get people in my own house. Not that vampires should really be here"

Chris then led Stefan into the kitchen of his house as Stefan around at the place, which looks very lived-in

"Ric, Care and the kids left in a hurry. Trying to stay under the radar 'til this Rayna thing blows over. Rather not have them here in danger"

"No, no, it's, uh...it's nice"

Chris hummed "Yeah, thanks. You'd be amazed what you can accomplish when you have a friend like Caroline. Compel an interior designers and making me compel an entire homeowners' association"

Stefan hummed in confusion" Mm. Thought you were, uh, out of the game?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the...'supernatural' world?" He put up finger quotes

"Oh, yeah, we are. But have you ever dealt with a homeowners' association?"

Stefan shook his head "No"

"Have you ever delt with an annoyed Chris" He spoke in the third person

"Actually, I have"

"Well then you should half understand"

Stefan seemed to be becoming more uncomfortable by the moment and chuckles politely

"Uh, look, uh, I'd offer you something but 2/6 people here need blood to eat and three of the others are children so, unless you want string cheese with a side of red blood cells, then I suggest we go somewhere else"

Stefan hesitates for a moment before nodding in agreement "I could probably use something stronger" Stefan gets up and heads toward the front door, and Chris nervously bites his lip

~~~~
Dallas Diner:

Stefan and Chris are at a bar and grill diner near Chris' house, where they're seated at a table and drinking beers together

Just then, Chris' phone rings, but when he sees it's Damon, he ignores it, which doesn't escape Stefans attention "You're not gonna answer that?"

"I still don't wanna talk to him"

"Really? Even after trailing a psychopath together?"

"I tolerated that because you were in trouble if you forget. And even then I wasn't entirely happy"

Chris's phone rings again, and he dramatically lifts up his phone and silences it before setting it back on the table.

Stefan sighs in exasperation before he responded to him "What did I do?"

"What do you mean 'what did I do' Three years ago, you told Caroline you'd be with her when things were safe. Rayna got locked up....and you never showed"

"Well, that's not exactly how it went down-" He tried to explain himself

"Well, that's how it went down for Caroline" Chris interupted him