𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞↠TVD (Major editing)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

"Happy Birthday," Two familiar voices rang out as Sheridan answered the phone, rubbing her eyes groggily as she checked the calendar. Bonnie and Caroline.

Her birthday, a day that meant so little to her a few years ago, was never celebrated or acknowledged and that's what she was used to, that was all she'd ever known. It wasn't as if it made her sad and she chose to never acknowledge it, it just was never made out to seem important to her.

Twenty-two years, so old yet so young.

"What did you get?" Caroline's voice chirped over the phone, causing the girl to squint, fumbling around for her slippers.

"I don't know," Sheridan replied, giving Rufus a quick pat, "I just woke up, and I don't think anyone's been over."

Bonnie smirked, "Don't think anyone's been over. So what you're saying is that you've been alone all morning?" There was a mischievous glint in her eyes, a teasing tone in her voice.

Sheridan rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, not wanting to deal with an interrogation about her love life before breakfast. "Yes, Bonnie. I've been alone, believe me, if I had someone special I wouldn't be cooking my own breakfast."

"You know, you sound a bit miffed," Caroline interrupted, her tone a mixture of amusement and concern. "Who pissed in your cereal?" She grinned at the thought. It was a rare occasion when Sheridan exhibited such signs of irritation.

Sheridan shook her head, "Nothing. I'm fine." She replied with a slight edge to her voice. It was true she hadn't been sleeping well as of late. Her mind kept wandering. But, she couldn't possibly tell them that.

After spending a considerable amount of time alone, relying solely on herself or the occasional friend she would make along the way, she had finally found someone who somewhat cared about her deep down. He had become an important part of her life and her routine and now she was finding it hard to function with the change in routine to avoid him. Their friendship had well and truly hit a rough patch, and now they hadn't been on speaking terms for quite a while. Not a single phone call or message had been exchanged between them, as if he had erased her completely from his life.

As someone who struggled with forming deep connections with people, she found this sudden absence of Damon from her life to be particularly difficult. It was easy for him, she supposed, having lived for over 150 years, to sever bonds and move on. But for her, it was a different story. When she got attached to someone, she did so deeply and it was hard for her to let go. The loss of Damon's friendship had left a void in her life that she was struggling to fill with not allowing herself barely any spare time. No time to sit and think, and that was how she was coping.

"Okay, grumpy," Caroline chimed, a teasing grin plastered on her face.

Her playful nature was a familiar aspect of their friendship, and Sheridan usually didn't mind, understanding it was all in good fun. However, this day seemed different. For some reason, her heart was restless.

"I'm gonna go shower, love you Care, Bon," It was exhausting, Sheridan had come to the conclusion of long ago, anguish was exhausting, the constant craving for something that could never be, wanting to be someone's number one and that's why she'd put off going downstairs for so long, already feeling the heartache of the potential of her mailbox being empty, no birthday cards, just emptiness like the twenty-two years before that.

"Love you, Cher," Bonnie's reply echoed her sentiment, her tone sweetly laced with understanding. She knew Sheridan, perhaps better than anyone, and she sensed her distant demeanour, perhaps even understood the source of it.