A Spark of Change (Tvd/teenwolf Story)

A Mundane Life

"Like...exercising?" Elena asks.

"No. I close myself up in my study and work out puzzles. It gets really intense." Seeing Elena's gaze flicker on belief, Charlie snorts, "Yes, I exercise. Martial Arts and running mostly."

"You should try out for Track." Caroline suggests.

Charlie's nose wrinkles at the idea, "Nah. Making it a competition ruins the point. I run for therapeutic reasons, rather than sporting competition. I used to go running through the Preserve back home like every other day."

As her food arrives, she listens as her table get caught up in talking about some party that will be going on the following night. If she's honest with herself, out of the entire lot she likes Caroline best. The blonde is blunt, in way that means she lacks a filter and often doesn't think about how her words affect others. Stefan is next, being quiet, somewhat somber and usually asks questions that deepen the subject matter. Bonnie seems cheery, in a way that she is also brutally honest, but in an attempt to make her friends happy. She isn't sure about Elena though.

It's nothing personal, but the heavy atmosphere around the girl is stifling, suffocating in a way that it shouldn't be when surrounded by so many friends.

"I just don't think I'm ready."

Charlie stares at the forlorn look on the other brunette's face, "Ready? It's a party."

"Oh, it's cause her parents died a few months ago."

Charlie snorts at the absolutely blunt, somewhat dismissive way Caroline states her words, "And?"

"My parents died."

If there's one thing Charlie has never tolerated, it is being spoken to like she's a fucking idiot, "Yeah. I get that. Last time I checked you aren't dead. What's wrong with going to a party?"

"Maybe because the last party I went to, my parents died in the car accident as they were bringing me home."

Charlie is growing a bit irritated by the other girl's tone, "That...sucks, but I don't get it. That's like me never walking into a hospital because my mom died in one. Granted, yeah, hospitals weird me out, but that didn't keep me from visiting any friends that wound up in one." Seeing the blanket shock on Elena's face, Charlie shrugs, "There's no point in putting your entire life on hold just because a person died. Otherwise you'd never actually fucking live."

"They were my parents."

Charlie ignores the growing tension at their table, popping a cheese coated fry in her mouth she nods, "So you keep telling me, but do you really think your parents would want you to just...do nothing the rest of your life?"

"You mean to tell me that you aren't still affected by your mom's death?"

Charlie can feel her expression fall blank as she stares at the girl, "My mother died from a rare form of dementia that caused a part of her brain to shrink. So much so that she couldn't recognize her own children, even started to hallucinate that we trying to murder her, that we were monsters." The startled expression on Elena's face is ignored just as much as the gasps of sympathy, "My brother and I were only eight when she died. Yeah, it affected us and yeah we miss her every day, but I can still remember the compassionate, happy woman that wanted nothing more than for her kids to be happy. Moping around for the rest of my life would be an insult to her memory."

She allows the following silence to hold before breaking it once more, "Like I said, do you think your parents would want you to waste your years, your life, mourning for the lack of theirs? Don't you want to make the memory of them proud, that as each year that passes, you can genuinely say that you actually lived."