✓ 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄, 𝘬. 𝘮𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘰𝘯

𝙛𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣—"𝙙𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙨"

———

"𝙎𝙊, 𝘼𝙇𝘼𝙍𝙄𝘾 𝙄𝙎 𝙏𝙍𝙔𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙊 pull himself together. Why is that a bad thing?"

Clara glanced up to Caroline, who was to the right of her while Elena was to the left of her. She liked being in the middle whenever she was walking or sitting with friends, it almost made her feel apart of the group better.

Currently, the trio were walking into the gym where everyone was setting up for the decade dance. Clara was guilt tripped into helping the two, mostly because she'd been distant. And that was all due to the fact of one thing; Kol Mikaelson.

She had felt almost off since their makeout session in the dark backyard of a dead vampire, and she hadn't quite had the courage to tell her friends yet. She was embarrassed the heat of the moment got to her, and she didn't exactly know how to tell them she made out with the brother of one of their enemies.

"I just... I wish there was something I could do," Elena states, flinging her arms up a bit. She then grabs a chandelier that was sitting on a table in front of the two. "Where do you want me to hang this thing?"

"You know what? If Rebekah wanted to hang this monstrosity, she should have shown up to do it herself," Caroline scoffs, snatching the quite ugly chandelier from Elena's grip and hands it off to some random girl. "Just no."

Then her eyes gaze up to Matt and Jeremy, who were both up on the same ladder. They were hanging up sparkling paper stars, and Carolin let out a loud huff of annoyance.

"What are you doing? You can't just hang them! They're supposed to trickle down!" She shouts loud enough for the boys to hear, and then she spins around to find Elena and Clara chuckling to themselves. But they stop abruptly when the blonde shoots them daggers. Her face softens up a bit, and then she continues. "Look at them all bromancey."

"Yeah, I asked Matt to help Jeremy readjust. He got him his old job back at the grill."

"Well, at least they have friends," Clara smiles a bit to herself as she watched her friend laugh with the younger Gilbert.

Both Elena and Caroline shortly laugh, and then Elena carries on the conversation. "Jeremy's got a lot on his mind. The whole thing with Alaric has got him really stressed out."

"You sure it had nothing to do with witnessing you and Damon getting hot and heavy in a skeevy motel?"

That was quite honestly the last thing Clara wanted to hear about, because she felt genuinely bad for Stefan. Apparently, a little while after Clara had fallen asleep, the brown haired girl and the blue eyed boy had a makeout session by a vending machine that Jeremy just so happened to walk in on. She didn't feel nearly as guilty as she did before for kissing Kol when she heard it from Elena the next day, but still felt bad.

"I didn't tell you that so you could torture me with it," Elena says, sending Caroline a bit of an annoyed look teasingly.

"What are friends for?" Caroline smiles, and then suddenly Clara gets so ridden of guilt that she just bursts out like a bubble.