Author's Note: hey everyone! I know it's been a long time since my last update but my life has been insanely crazy. Anyway, here is the next chapter, I hope you guys like it, and I don't think I mentioned this (so if you haven't looked at the cast list then you won't have seen) but Clara is played by Sara Bareilles. :)
EDIT: Chapter 3 isn't showing up on my iPad so I don't know if readers on mobile are having any problems. Anyway, please let me know if you can see it or not. I have tried sorting this out but I still don't know if it's just my app or if the story is effected. If you can't see it on mobile, you should be able to see it in desktop but I know that's impractical so I'll try sorting it. Anyway enjoy reading!
Song for this chapter – Hold Back the River by James Bay
Clara's eyes felt like they couldn't open as if her mind couldn't process the light. Slowly, she brought her hand up to her face, letting out a low groan and shading her eyes from the light. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before being able to see properly. She looked around the room, taking in all of the objects. A thousand thoughts ran through her head and as she tried to push herself up she felt something soft underneath her fingertips. It was her room. How did she get home last night? She could remember leaving the party but after that, the whole night was kind of a blur. She heard something buzzing next to her on the bedside table and as she turned to find out what it was a sharp pain shot through her neck. Her hand flew up to her neck and she hissed in pain.
"What the hell?" Clara mumbled to herself, getting up and stumbling over to her mirror. She narrowed her eyes at her reflection, not exactly recognising herself. Her eyes trailed to the dark bruise covering one entire side of her neck. She didn't really understand what had happened but she was getting an increasingly sickening feeling. She heard another buzz and jumped.
Her phone was buzzing and Clara only just caught it as it fell off of the side table. She looked at the notifications on her phone.
Matt - 3 missed calls
Caroline – 4 missed calls
Elena – Clara, please answer.
Caroline – We need to talk...
Caroline- Please answer.
Matt – Clara, are you okay?!
She scrolled through endless texts and missed calls. Rolling her eyes she threw her phone on her bed, walking over to her dresser and looking out her outfit for the day. She settled on a pair of black skinny jeans and a simple grey sweater.
After getting changed she heard her phone buzzing again. She ran to see who it was and swiftly accepted the call. Before she could even get a word out, Matt was shouting down the line.
"Clara! Where the hell are you?" She pulled the phone away from her ear momentarily, almost deafened by the volume of his voice. She frowned to herself when she realised what he had said.
"What are you talking about, Matty? I'm at home..." She was more than confused now. How had he not known that she was in her own bedroom?
"What?!" Matt seemed to be just as confused as Clara and she just sent him a noise of confirmation, not completely understanding what was going on.
"Well, where were you this morning?" He threw another question at her as if he was trying to catch her out. Clara frowned again.
"In my bed?" She didn't mean for her sentence to come out as a question. But Matt's confusion made her unsure.
"Hold on, I'm coming home." He muttered, the confusion not leaving his voice for a second. Clara went to object but all she heard was the noise of him hanging up.
Great, now Matt seems to think I'm some sort of lunatic...
Clara finished getting herself ready, applying simple makeup and brushing through her hair before giving up on looking good. She realised that, although Matt was probably only at the grill, she still had quite a bit of time to kill. She quickly pulled on her headphones and decided to tidy her room a bit, dancing all around the place.
She had her music so loud that she never even heard the noise of footsteps or the door being shut. She almost jumped out of her skin when a hand landed on her shoulder. She spun around, hands up, ready to fight. She let her hands fall when she realised that it was Matt and a deep blush settled in her cheeks when she saw her friends standing behind him. Well, now they've all seen my terrible dancing... I'll never live this down.
"Hey Matt, how are ya?" She asked, pulling off her headphones and completely forgetting about their previous conversation.
"Oh no, you don't. Clara Anne Donovan, you are in a lot of trouble." Matt scolded coldly. Clara's eyebrows furrowed before a sense of remembrance swept over her.
"Okay... Honestly, I have no idea what's going on. I'm just as confused as you are." Matt didn't seem to be listening and, in the space of a second, she was standing right in front of Clara, inspecting her neck.
"What happened Clara?" He asked worriedly, signalling the others to come over. Everyone barely fit in her small bedroom. Now Elena, Stefan, Matt, and Clara herself were cramped in the small space between her door and her bed. Everyone seemed to be staring at her neck and that's when she remembered that Matt had asked her a question. She just shrugged her shoulders in response, a mild pain stretching through her neck.
"I don't know, it was there when I woke up." She glanced up at their worried expressions and a pit of dread settled in her stomach. She looked back at Matt.
"What? I was probably just laying on it in a weird position, it'll be better in a couple of days." She said, convinced that it was just a consequence of her bizarre sleeping positions.
"Clar, what do you remember from last night?" Stefan spoke up, piecing the bits of the puzzle together. Matt stood back a bit, catching on to Stefan's point and getting annoyed at himself for leaving her alone all night.
"Um, I don't know... The ball? We danced, then I got bored and I spoke to Carol for a while before leaving. I'm not really that big on partying." Clara was now more confused that the rest of them put together. She didn't really understand what Stefan was inferring. Did Matt tell him about Tennessee?! Clara tried to clear those thoughts out of her head and was distracted when Stefan looked over at Elena and Matt. It was clear that Clara had missed something.
"How did you get home?" Elena asked bluntly.
Clara was surprised at the seriousness of such a trivial question, but she was even more surprised when she couldn't answer. I didn't drink last night, did I?
"I, uh, I can't remember..." Elena's eyes held a serious amount of worry after hearing that. Clara's eyes widened at Elena's reaction, panicking now.
"Why can't I remember, Elena?" She heard the panic in her voice, confused about how Elena seemed to know something she didn't.
Just as Elena was about to spill the beans, Matt cut her off.
"It was late! You were tired, really tired. You probably just can't remember because of how exhausted you were." He spoke in his most sincere voice, trying to convince Clara that nothing was out of place.
She nodded slowly, not entirely sure what to believe. She decided just to accept her brothers reasoning and she turned, grabbing a hat and throwing it on her head, grabbing her bag.
"Okay... Well, I'm sorry that I worried you guys but, as you can see, I'm fine. Anyway, I've got places to go, people to see, so please excuse me." She said, trying to forget the whole feel of dread and moving towards her living room. She slipped around the others, avoiding Matt as he tried to stop her from going out.
As she was shutting the door, she heard Elena and Matt whispering harshly, arguing about 'telling the truth' and 'lying to family'. Clara shrugged it off, stepping through the door and yelling a quick goodbye.
xxx
Clara strolled slowly through the small park in the middle of the town, appreciating her amazing ability to waste time doing absolutely nothing. It had been almost 3 hours since her visit from Matt, Elena and Stefan, and all she had done was walk around town, getting used to being home. She smiled to herself, relieved that she could actually stay this time. She had been told too many times before that Mystic Falls wasn't the place for her, at last, she was welcome.
Despite Clara's enjoyment of the town's sights, she decided that it was much too cold to spend the whole day wandering around town. She thought of all the places she could go and her mind settled on the grill. Hopefully, there wouldn't be anyone she knew there. She really needed a drink.
Once Clara had walked through the door she did a quick scan of the place. Luckily there was no one she knew there. She walked over to the bar quickly and sat down on an empty stool. A few seats down from her there was a couple whispering to each other about X-rays and stab wounds. Clara stopped herself from listening and turned back to the bar. She waved down the bartender and ordered a glass of bourbon. He nodded simply and she forced a smile, disappointment filling her mind. She knew that it was wrong but she really needed a drink.
By the time the bartender came back with her drink, two men had filled the seats between her and the couple. One of the men was Klaus, one of the hosts from the night before, and the other seemed familiar, however, Clara couldn't place him in her memory. It was as if something was missing.
The men started a conversation with the couple, and it was anything but friendly. Clare could feel how intense it was and she was 2 stools away. After the others had finished their conversation, the men turned to Clara. The one closest to her, the one who seemed familiar, simply smirked and watched her closely. Clara shrank into herself and she jumped slightly when she heard Klaus' voice.
"So, are you going to drink that or not?" He asked, gesturing to her untouched glass of bourbon. She had actually forgotten about it in her attempt to be nosy. She glanced up at Klaus and his brother and shook her head.
"You know what? You have it. It's really not a great idea for me to drink." She mumbled, sliding it down the bar.
Klaus chuckled to himself before speaking.
"Forgive me, love. This is my brother, Kol. I don't believe you two met last night." Klaus said with sincerity, smiling warmly at Clara.
"Nice to meet you, love." Kol took Clara's hand and kissed her knuckles softly. Clara almost swooned and couldn't help but smile. However, she did feel intimidated at the same time, something seemed to be off. She forced a smile and stood up from her stool.
"I don't mean to be rude but I really have to get going. It was nice seeing you." She said, turning to leave.
"Goodbye... Clara." Kol smirked to himself as she got up to leave. His smirk grew as Clara turned back to look at him. That voice was insanely familiar. His low voice set a deep fear in Clara's heart and she forced herself to look away, turning towards the door.
Once Clara was outside she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding in. Kol had really creeped her out and she decided that she had had more than enough air for today. She started heading home, pulling her coat tighter around her body and picking up some speed.
xxx
Clara pushed the door open quietly, hoping to sneak past anyone in the house. She found it strange when she realised that no one was actually in the house, however, she settled on the idea of Matt and her friends going out somewhere for dinner. At least no one would interrogate her about how she had spent her day.
She swiftly dumped her things next to the couch and continued through to the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of lemonade, trying to make sense of the events of the day. Clara didn't have to check her watch to know that it was getting late. The darkness from outside was seeping into the house and she walked over to a lamp, turning it on, trying to bring some life back to the room. The house felt cold as if the temperature had just dropped when Clara walked through the front door.
She put down her glass on the side table next to the couch and picked up her stuff, dragging it through to her bedroom. The door creaked as she swung it open and Clara felt her expression fall into a frown. That's not creepy at all...
Clara kicked the stuff under her bed and plugged her phone into her charger. She gazed down at the photo of her, Matt, and Vicki, smiling to herself as memories flooded her mind. As she went to leave, something in the mirror caught her eye. She glanced up, a pair of deep brown eyes staring back at her. Her eyes widened in realisation.
"Kol." Her voice was barely a whisper as she spun around to face the original.
Her eyebrows furrowed when she looked around the room and there was no one there. Her room was still, in contrast to the trees outside that shook with the wind. Clara shook her head and blinked a few times, trying to clear all thoughts of Kol.
Clearly, I've become delusional. I must be more tired than I thought.
Turning back to the living room, Clara pulled her bedroom door closed behind her and walked back over to the couch. She slumped down in front of the TV, sipping her drink and skipping through channels. She saw that there was an old rerun of Scrubs on and smiled to herself, settling on that channel. She slipped her shoes off and brought her legs up onto the couch. She stretched out her body and pulled the blanket that was always over the back of the couch over herself. She slowly felt herself losing consciousness and felt her eyes droop closed halfway through the episode.
xxx
Clara's eyes snapped open when she heard a tapping behind her. It took her a minute to figure out that there was someone at the door.
Who the hell is that?
She stood up sloppily, forgetting that she was wrapped in a blanket and just deciding to take it with her. She slumped over to the door, glancing at the TV and seeing that there was now an episode of Friends on. She rolled her eyes at one of Chandler's jokes as she reached the door. She stretched her arms above her head, her blanket falling to pool around her feet, and let out a yawn before opening the door.
"What are you doing here?" Clara asked, confused as she saw her visitor.
xxx