Love, Hate, and Friends

Chapter 20

The next morning Kol woke up on Bonnie's couch.

As he lay there he wondered to himself if maybe she didn't hate him quite as much as she liked to let on. After all, why would she invite him to sleep on the couch instead of outside if she didn't at least care about him a little? And why did that make him so happy to know?

He looked over to the door to Bonnie's room as he heard her cell phone ringing. There was a small beeping noise as she answered her phone before someone else began to speak before she even got the opportunity to say 'Hello'.

"I don't know if you're mad at me for not telling you or what, but things are really weird between us right now and I don't like it," Caroline's voice came through the phone.

"I'm not mad at you, Care," Bonnie replied as he headed over to her bedroom door.

Kol immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep as he heard the door opening. He wanted to hear that conversation and he was sure that Bonnie would try to stop him from listening if she knew that he was awake.

Bonnie peeked out the door to find Kol sleeping before she shut it again and sat down on her bed.

"I mean yes, things are weird, but that more has to do with the finding it out from Kol thing," Bonnie told her friend. "And from him deciding to tell you about the mistake I made of sleeping with him even though he himself said that no one was allowed to find out about it."

"You weren't supposed to find out from him," Caroline replied. "I had this whole plan where I was going to tell people one at a time. And I was starting with you because I thought that you would have the hardest time accepting it and I didn't want you finding out about it from someone else ... But I guess that kind of backfired ... But that was what I was going to tell you about right before Kol showed up. I'm with Klaus ... Or at least I was; I don't really know anymore."

"Why, what happened?" Bonnie asked her.

"Kol got to him and now he won't talk to me," Caroline explained. "Thank God that you're not mad at me because I don't think that I could handle that while they both are."

Bonnie frowned as she heard the sound of a door closing. She left her bedroom to see that Kol was gone.

"Gee. Thanks, Bonnie," She muttered sarcastically to herself.

"What?" Caroline asked in a confused tone.

"Klaus kicked Kol out last night and I found him sleeping outside in the rain," Bonnie responded. "I let him sleep on the couch here and he just left without as much as a thanks ... Not that it's overly surprising."

When Klaus woke up his anger from the night before had diffused and was replaced by guilt. He had let Kol get to him and snapped at Caroline without even giving her the chance to try to explain herself.

He quickly got dressed and began to head towards the front door of the house.

"Nik, where are you going?" Kol asked urgently as he walked up the front steps towards his brother.

"To Caroline's to apologize," Klaus said in an unhappy tone. "I never should have listened to you and let you get in my head."

"Good," Kol said, confusing his brother. "Don't listen to me anymore after this. I made assumptions and thought that Caroline didn't want to tell people, but I was wrong. I heard her talking to Bonnie this morning, she was about to tell her before I showed up."

Klaus was more than a little surprised by his younger brother admitting to being wrong.

"You go see Caroline and tell her that I'm sorry too," Kol told him. "I have to go do something else because you were right. The whole reason that I was obsessing over figuring out what you were hiding was because I was trying to keep my mind off of Bonnie ... I have to go deal with my own problems."

Klaus shot his brother a look of confusion. He wasn't used to Kol taking any responsibility since it was a rare occurrence.

Bonnie was both surprised and confused when Kol showed up knocking at her door.

"Why did you come back?" She asked him in confusion as she leaned against the frame of the door.

"I need to say something and there is a very good chance that you aren't going to like it, but can you just let me say it all before you get mad and start frying my brain?" Kol asked her.

"I'm listening," She told him.

"I like you. I've been trying to ignore it and hoping that it would go away if I deny it enough, but it doesn't. The harder that I try to resist, the stronger the feelings get," Kol admitted. "And I don't understand why. I can hardly even stand to be around you most of the time and you irritate me to no end, but the feelings won't go away."

She went to go say something, but stopped when he began to speak again.

"And I know that maybe telling Caroline about us sleeping together wasn't exactly smart, but I'm not going to apologize for that," He continued. "Because I'm not sorry that we slept together and I'm not ashamed of it. That wasn't just meaningless sex for me, that was me losing control around you."

"I know that it wasn't meaningless," Bonnie admitted. "But it would never work. We can barely tolerate each other as it is."

"We'd make a terrible couple," Kol agreed as he took a step closer to her. "We'd be miserable most of the time and we'd constantly be arguing."

"I know," Bonnie told him as she stared up into his eyes and slowly moved her face close to hers.

"It would never last," Kol said as his lips hesitated just centimetres from hers. "And it's guaranteed that we'd both come out of it bitter and filled with regret ... If we even both make it out alive."

"I know that. Just shut up and kiss me before I change my mind," She said as her arms wrapped themselves around his neck.

"As you wish," Kol said with a tilted smirk before pressing his lips against hers.

Bonnie smile into the kiss as her arms tightened around him.

As the kiss deepened, he wrapped his arms close around her waist.

The kiss lasted for one long minute before Kol pulled away. He loosened his grip on her waist, but still kept his arms there.

"So I heard that there's some Founder's Day party on Friday," Kol commented. "I'd like to take you."

Bonnie seemed to consider for a moment before telling him, "Pick me up at seven."

Caroline headed toward the door unhappily when she heard someone knocking on it. She was surprised to find Klaus standing there when she opened it.

"I'm sorry, love," He told her. "I should have never closed the door in your face. You were trying to explain, but I wouldn't listen. I'm listening now."

Caroline bit her lip for a second in hesitation before she said, "I was going to tell Bonnie. I was about to when Kol showed up, but I wanted to tell her when it was just us. And the only reason that I got mad about her knowing was because Kol just blurted out that I was sleeping with you and didn't even let me explain it to her myself."

Klaus took a step closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I shouldn't have listened to Kol," He told her. "I'm sorry ... And so is he."

"I do want people to know about us," Caroline assured him. "How would you like to be my official date to the Founder's Day Kick-Off Party on Friday?" It was Saturday morning, so it was a little under a week until the party.

"I'd love to," Klaus told her before kissing her on the top of the head.

Afterwards she turned her head up to kiss him on the lips.