Timeless

Chapter 24

"Hey Caroline! Great party!" Sophie said flashing her a perfectly sweet smile, drapping herself over Tyler's shoulder.

"Thanks," Caroline returned, her eyes dilating and boring into Sophie's. "Now leave it."

The blonde girl turned without hesitation and walked away from them, leaving Caroline and Tyler alone in the middle of the dancing crowd.

"What the hell?" Tyler exclaimed.

Caroline rolled her eyes and brushed past him with her trusty bottle still at her lips. She made her way through everyone, and headed up the stairs towards Damon's room. He had a couple blood bags hidden away in his secret stash that she could break into. She just needed to indulge and get away from everything for a minute. Being at the party, pretending everything was normal and fine, was turning out to be harder than she thought. She felt a little bad about ruining things for Tyler. But she had let her jealousy get the better of her. What was it they said about misery loving company?

She grabbed a blood bag from the old wooden trunk in front of Damon's bed and took refuge in the bathroom, sitting up on the vanity counter and sipping her blood. The warm liquid calmed the burn in her throat but did little to settle her nerves.

Maybe it really was time for her to move on. To stop—quite literally—living in the past. Even if she could find Klaus, how would she manage to convince him to stop terrorizing her friends and let Stefan go? Damon had warned Elena time and time again not to go poking her nose into Klaus's whereabouts. As long as Klaus thought she was dead, she was safe. Caroline's face scrunched up as she realized, she couldn't just think about her own desires, she had to consider the safety of her friend. All of her friends.

A few minutes later she heard the door open and shut. Great, just what she needed. More horny, happy couples, flaunting their happiness all over the place.

"This room's off limits," she called out. Elena appeared in the doorway. She smiled at her. "Oh sorry. Just needed to get away for a beat. Are you hiding too?"

"Just looking for Damon," Elena replied.

"Well he better be here somewhere. We haven't even done cake yet."

Elena winced. "I think I'm gonna pass on the whole cake thing."

"No you can't it's your birthday! It's the dawn of a new day!" Caroline urged Elena, desperately wishing she could break her friend out of her unhappy funk. "We have to continue forward and get on with our lives and you can't do that until you've made a wish and blown out the candles!"

"Is that what you all want me to do? Just get on with my life?"

Caroline's shoulders sagged. Caroline had been thinking just moments ago about moving on with her life, but she realized she wasn't alone in that. Elena would have to go on too. "No. I don't know. Maybe."

Caroline wanted to tell Elena she knew how she felt. That she felt torn between hanging onto love and moving on and accepting where fate had led them.

"I'm not going to give up on finding Stefan."

"No. Of course not and you shouldn't," Caroline said, "but you can't just let your life pass you by. Wasn't Stefan the one that wanted to make sure you lived it?"

"You want me to make a wish Caroline? I just want to know that he's alive. That's it. That's my wish," Elena said, spinning around and heading away from her.

Caroline groaned inwardly. She had done it again. Said the wrong thing. She had shoved her problems and worries out onto her friends. Elena had been through so much. She didn't need Caroline adding to it. Caroline followed after her.