delicate

20

The exhaustion washed over me after I took a shower last night. The shock of seeing Joshua shook me up. On her way home last night, Caroline called. I told her to go stay with Stefan. It wouldn't be much fun to be with me anyway.

Ryan handed me the coffee mug. I took it gently. "Thanks."

"Damon's on his way. He wanted to hang out while I'm in town."

"It's sweet that you have a boyfriend." I took a drink from the cup before sitting it on the coffee table.

"Yeah. We're going to Jamaica, and we're going to get matching monogrammed towels."

I tilted my head, "Cute."

"So will you be fine here by yourself?"

I nodded and rested my hands on my knees. "I should be, yeah. If I need anything, I'll just call."

He nodded. There was honking outside. He looked over his shoulder before leaning over to me. He kissed the top of my head.

"Don't drink and drive, and don't let Damon either."

He nodded before rounding the corner and leaving the house.

I listened as the car drove off. I sat back and stared at my phone on the coffee table, waiting for it to light up with a text or call from Kai. I sat and stared for five hours before realizing it's pointless. We haven't spoken in a year. Why would we speak now? It doesn't matter that he admitted he had feelings for me or that he asked me to stay, right? Because that's easily forgotten. It never happened to him. It was just a game.

I forced myself to stop thinking about that. I grabbed my phone and slid it in my back pocket. I walked over to my shoes and pulled them on. I walked out of my house, going to my car.

Last night, Ryan took all the boxes and put them in my room. He wanted to unpack them, but he had already done enough for me.

I started driving, unsure of where to go. I wound up at the Salvatore house. I got out and made my way to the front door. I was unsure if I should knock or just walk in. I decided on the latter. I shut the door behind me. I walked toward the living room.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

I sat on the couch opposite of Stefan. "Ryan's with Damon, and I don't have a boy to play with anymore, apparently."

A look crossed his face before he nodded. "Right."

I looked at the mantle above the fireplace. "So where's Caroline?"

"With Elena and Bonnie."

I looked at him again. He was holding a paper above others that were laid out on the table. There was a brooding look on his face as he read the paper carefully. The very old paper.

"What are you doing?" I moved to the edge of the couch and looked closer at the papers.

"Research."

"For," I inquired as I looked at him.

He looked up at me. He studied my face for a minute before dropping the paper on the table. "You really have no clue what's going on."

I furrowed my brows, "About what?"

"These are entries from a journal that Joshua gave me. It's about other prison worlds - every prison world, actually."

I shook my head, "Your point?"

"When Bonnie came back, she didn't just come back. She was sent to a different prison world before coming back home. In that prison world, she found something." He looked down at the table and grabbed a small, double picture frame. He reached it across the table, and I took it.