Authors note:
This is an idea I've had for a while, and I plan on playing with this idea again in the future and continuing it in a full story and not just a oneshot. But for now, this is what you're getting :)
Josie and the Squad crash the latest Mystic Falls High Dance and a strange girl seems to have her eye on Josie.
Josie looks in the mirror, running her hands down the material of her dress. It's perfect, white and silky, a simple look as she doesn't want to draw too much attention to herself. Life has been hard enough recently. With dreams of a strange girl keeping her up at night, to feeling like there's something...missing. Like there's just this great big hole in her life where something used to be, but she can't work out what that something is.
Lizzie on the other hand, well she's gone for something a little bolder. Especially since the idea to crash the dance was hers in the first place. She's trying to draw as much attention as she can, which in some ways will help keep the spotlight away from Josie.
She'd first approached the Squad about it a few days ago. She suggested that they all dress up and attend the Mystic Falls High Masquerade Ball, seeing as their school never has dances as fun as this (this is usually down to a monster problem or two). MG agreed enthusiastically, which is no surprise considering he'll do just about anything Lizzie says. Kaleb agreed if only to keep an eye on MG around all of the humans. Landon and Rafael decided to tag along seeing as they had nothing better to do. And Josie, well she didn't want to go. She hasn't wanted to do much of anything over the past few months. it's hard to describe, but she's felt somewhat of a void in her life recently, and she can't work out what is meant to fill it. But anyway, she basically got forced into it by Lizzie.
"Perfect!" Lizzie says from the bathroom door. "What do you think?" Josie looks to her twin, who's dressed much fancier than herself, with a mask to match the outfit.
"You look great." Lizzie smiles at the compliment. She walks over to her twin, hooking her arm around Josie's as she leads them to the door. Josie picks up her mask on the way out, sliding it over her face.
"We both do. Those pesky Mystic Falls students won't know what hit them."
Just a few hours. Josie can handle it all for a few hours.
She has to.
Before she walks out the door, she leans down to her desk to pick up her favorite necklace to complete her look. A smile graces her lips at the familiar feeling of it sitting on her chest, and suddenly she's ready for anything the night could throw at her.
----
They meet up with the rest of the Squad outside. After some persuasion, Lizzie had managed to convince her father to drive them all to the dance in the minivan, so as to not make it obvious they are from the Salvatore School, (not that anyone will know when they get in there). The man said something about needing to into town anyway.
When they arrive, dozens of well-dressed students are flooding in through the main entrance.
"Alright, I want you all back here at 12pm, no later. Anyone who's even a second late will face the consequences. Understand?" Hums of acknowledgment are thrown around. They all take his threat rather lightly.
"Yeah, whatever. Bye dad, love you!" Lizzie shouts as she's the first one to leave the van. The rest follow behind shortly after.
Josie walks beside Landon. He's become sort of her best friend in recent weeks. After they both expressed feeling a hole in their life, they've spent their summer searching for answers and they are yet to find any. It has kind of brought them closer together.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Josie asks Landon as they enter the school. She knows that this place used to be hell for him.
"Considering I use to get bullied here every single day for 2 years, I think I'm gonna be okay. Are you?" He throws back. Josie wasn't expecting this, so she takes a second to think about her answer. Honestly? Before she'd left, she was on the verge of staying home, curling up in her bed under the warm blankets, taking care of her plants, and writing in her journal. Now? She may as well try and make the most of it.
"I'll be fine. We'll get through this night together." She says, a soft smile on her face.
"Together," Landon says, offering a hand to Josie. She accepts it willingly.
They finally make it to the hall where the dance is taking place. Music blasts loudly. Students are scattered across the entire room, dancing on the dance floor, and sitting at the tables. They manage to find an empty one in the corner of the room. Josie takes a seat, not yet feeling like dancing. Lizzie runs off with MG to the dance floor almost immediately and both Rafael and Kaleb find themselves in a conversation with other students. Landon looks at Josie and asks if she wants a drink. He returns a minute later with a glass of punch each for of them.
Josie gets to talking with some students who come over that recognize Landon. They share funny stories of when he used to go to their school. The less painful ones for him. Josie finds that's she actually enjoying herself while hearing embarrassing stories about her friend. It helps the time pass by quicker.
"Josie!" Lizzie shouts. She's close enough that it can be heard over the music. Lizzie motions for the group of students to leave and takes up the seat next to her sister. MG sits on Lizzie's other side.
"What do you want, Lizzie?" Josie asks her sister, who seems oddly excited about something.
"That girl over there has totally been staring at you all night."
"What girl?" Josie frowns. Lizzie nods her head in the right direction.
Josie looks at the girl. The first thing she notices is her hair. It's long, like a faded sort of red color. Then she notices the mask she wears, and how from a distance it manages to hide all of her facial features. Josie gets this feeling that the face underneath is utterly beautiful. And then, there's the dress that she's wearing. It's black to match her mask. It's long, with lace details across the front.
"She has?" Josie questions. It seems hard for her to believe that a girl like that would be looking at her. She fiddles with the talisman, the cold feeling of the metal passing along each of her fingers.
"Yeah. You should talk to her." Lizzie suggests.
Josie thinks about it.
What's the worst that could happen?
The girl could laugh at her, reject her, tell her she's stupid. So what? Josie won't know unless she tries.
Her heart pounds in her chest, hands become sweaty. She rubs them along her dress, thankful that it doesn't leave any marks. Step by step, she approaches this mysterious girl. She looks back at her sister and friends, all of which have big smiles on their faces as they watch her. When she turns back around, she's about arms-length away from the girl.
"Hi," Josie says. Truly a great start.
It takes a moment for the girl to register that Josie is talking to her, but when she does, Josie can see the confusion on her face, even if it is covered by a mask. She watches as the mask slides up slightly as if the girl is scrunching her brows.
"Oh...um...hi."
"So...what's your name?" She asks. The girl pauses, adjusting her mask. The look on her face, it's as if she is thinking about her name, but that would be stupid. Nobody has to think about their name. It comes automatically, like a reflex. It's not something you forget.
"It's umm...it's Andrea." Andrea. Something about it feels familiar. Then again it is a relatively common name. However, Josie can't shake the feeling that she thought her name would be something else.
"I'm Josie. It's nice to meet you." She puts out her hand. Andrea seems to stare at it for a while, hesitant to take it. She eventually does and Josie smiles, looking directly into her eyes. They're so blue. A shade that she feels is almost unique to this girl. It's so bright and wonderful that she figures most people get lost in them. She can feel herself doing so now.
"How long have you been going to this school?" Josie jumps to a new question. She realizes their hands are still connected. Her cheeks grow rosy and she pulls her hand away.
"Started this year after I moved to this town."
"Where did you live before?" She follows up.
"New Orleans."
"What was it like there?"
"Loud. Busy." Josie notices Andrea's answers are short, sort of closed off like she doesn't want to say too much. Josie wonders if it is because she doesn't want to talk to her or if she's the kind of girl who doesn't open up easily. She hopes it is the latter, otherwise it would mean she's wasting her time.
"Do you like it here?" She tries, hoping to get more of an answer this time.
"In Mystic Falls?" Josie nods. "It's okay, but...I don't know. It just doesn't feel like home anymore." Hope explains, though rather vaguely.
"What do you mean anymore?"
"Oh, uh...just that um..." The girl looks around like she's searching for something. "Hey, I don't suppose you'd like to dance?" It comes out of nowhere, but Josie is not about to turn down a dance with a beautiful girl.
"Yeah. Sure." This time, Andrea is the one offering her hand and Josie accepts it almost instantly. She follows behind the girl as they push through the crowd to reach the dance floor. Fortunately, or maybe, unfortunately, the moment they find a spot it switches to a slow song.
"Oh, uh...I'll just um..." Josie can see the uncertainty behind the mask. She grabs Andrea's hands and puts them comfortably by her waist. Andrea's eyes follow the action, but they jump up when she feels a set of hands slide around the back of her neck.
She looks at Josie and Josie looks at her.
They sway to the music.
Left to right.
Forward and back.
Slowly, moving to the rhythm.
It's like the world fades away. It's quiet. Peaceful. Just them. Dancing. Josie is about to speak but Andrea beats her to it.
"You don't go to this school." She states. "It's just, I feel like I would recognize you if you did."
"No, I don't. I go to the Salvatore Boarding School."
"Ahh. Our biggest rivals. I guess it makes sense why you'd crash our dance. I hear it's a school for a bunch of troubled rich kids."
"Something like that." Josie chuckles quietly to herself.
If only this girl knew, she thinks.
"So who are you here with?"
"My sister, and a few of our friends. You?"
"My friend Maya, she basically dragged me here. These sorts of events aren't usually my thing, but she's run off with her girlfriend." Andrea explains. She looks almost sad for a moment, but she quickly hides it with a smile.
"So she's left you?"
"I guess, but I don't mind. Most people tend to leave." That hits a bit close to home for Josie. There was Penelope, and...well-
She could've sworn there was somebody else.
"That sounds...lonely."
"It would be, but I've never been much of a people person. Not unless you count-" She doesn't finish her sentence. Josie can feel that there is more to it. She doesn't want to push too much, but she also has an overwhelming urge to find out who Andrea was going to talk about.
"Who?"
"Nobody. Doesn't matter." She says.
"Oh come on, you were clearly about to talk about someone. Who is it?"
"I don't know if...I um-"
"How about this? You don't even have to tell me a name. You just seem like you need to talk to someone, so talk to me about them." Josie offers.
She can't help it. She just has this feeling, like all this girl needs is someone to talk to. And Josie is more than ready to listen.
"Okay, well there's this girl. A-and she's smart and funny, and so so beautiful. Her heart...she's just so kind a-and caring. She's got this smile that just, it makes you smile too, y'know? Even if you're having a shitty day, you'll smile just because she's smiling. And when she laughs, god, when she laughs you can't stop laughing either. And her eyes..."
Josie nods along. she knows exactly what that's like. She's experienced it far too many times. Fallen so far that she can't pick herself back up. Drowning in a pool of thoughts and feelings all about one person.
"She's everything to me. I think-I might even love her. No, no I do love her. I always will." Josie's frown matches Andrea's one at the end of her sentence. It looks far too sad for what she's saying.
"So then what's the problem?" She asks, adjusting the placement of her hands slightly.
"We used to be best friends. I would tell her everything, and when I was ready to tell her about this, i-it was like she forgot that I existed."
Josie listens closely to Andrea. Every word pulls at her heartstrings more and more. It breaks her because it all feels too familiar and too real. Too real to her life, to what she's been through. Her eyes grow watery as Andrea goes on, filling with emotions stronger than what she should feel for the words of a stranger.
"It hurts because all I want is to tell her the truth, but she seems so much happier now without me in her life. And I care about her too much to ruin that. But, without her, I just don't know where I fit in this world. I feel lost, hopeless even."
There's a small pause in their dancing, as they both process what Andrea has said.
"I know a thing or two about putting other people's happiness above your own. Let me tell you, it's never worth it. So if you want my advice, tell this girl how you feel. It could go either way, but isn't that better than the heartbreak of never even trying?" Josie suggests. She's not sure where this advice is coming from. What she is sure of is that she wishes someone had told her this years ago. She wishes that she'd put her happiness first. That she hadn't-
"I-I don't know. I can't...I-" Andrea pauses, bringing a hand up to wipe her eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. I shouldn't be telling you-"
The mask blocks her from being able to wipe the tears away. She pulls it off, drying her eyes with the back of her hand. "I should go. I'm sorry." She says, walking away.
In the split second that she sees her face, Josie recognizes it. The eyes, her nose, the way her hair frames her face. She recognizes her. It's the face from her dreams. The one that has been haunting her for weeks. The mystery girl. The girl who has her wishing she could go back to the same dream every night and never leave.
"Wait!" Josie shouts, in a desperate attempt to stop her from leaving. It works. Andrea stops, but she doesn't turn back around. "You're real, how can you be real?" Nothing makes sense. Josie grabs her necklace. She-
"You got me this, didn't you?" This draws Andrea's attention.
"Excuse me?"
"This necklace...I-I could never remember where I got it from, but it was you, wasn't it?" She doesn't remember it. Josie doesn't remember the day she received it, it's kind of always been a blank spot that she's never thought about twice, but now...she just has this feeling that she can't describe when she looks at Andrea. She just knows it is her who gifted it to her.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I've never seen that thing before."
"You're lying." Again, something else Josie can't explain, but she knows that Andrea's lying.
"I-I really should go. Goodbye, Josie. It was nice meeting you." She puts the mask back and walks away. This time she doesn't stop. She heads straight for the doors and leaves.
And Josie is stuck, watching her leave. She wants to stop her, she wants to tell Andrea to wait, but she can't. She's frozen in place. She can't think straight as her mind starts asking a bunch of questions and finding the answers itself. She's frozen as her mind is flooded with words. So many words. All in Andrea's voice. Yet they aren't from today. They're from memories, ones Josie didn't know existed. From memories that she's forgotten. Dozens of them. And they're all coming back. All at once.
The first day she joined the Salvatore School.
The first time they spoke.
The first class they shared.
The first time they hung out together.
The first time they killed a monster.
The countless times she saved Josie.
All of the memories are coming back, filling the void Josie has been feeling all summer. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Each memory becomes clearer than the last. Each one, a memory of-
"Hope," Josie calls for her best friend as she collapses to the floor.
Authors note:
Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know your thoughts below. What did you think about the Josie/Landon friendship? I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading. Also, I'm thinking I might do a version of this from Hope's perspective, so it'll be a bit more painful and angsty, but let me know what you think. <3