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"Hiding in your bedroom under the covers all day isn't going to solve things."
Benjamin barged into Sebastian's room without knocking; he sighed when he saw the lump on his brother's bed hiding under the covers. Without so much as a warning, he grabbed the end of the covers and yanked them from Sebastian. "You can't avoid our father forever. Sooner or later, you are going to have to face him."
"I can." Sebastian dragged the covers back over himself only to have them once again yanked away from him, and this time, they were out of his reach, so he couldn't grab them. "I swear to god, Benjamin, if you don't leave me alone, then I am going -"
"You are going to do nothing." Benjamin grabbed Sebastian by the arm and pulled him from his bed. At least Sebastian let him do it without kicking up a fuss. "You're going to get yourself cleaned up and get dressed, and then you and I are going to go get something to eat before we go to school."
"I don't want to," Sebastian whined, not caring that he sounded like a child. He just wasn't in the mood to do anything. All he wanted to do was stay in bed all day and shut out the rest of the world.
"I thought you wanted to be a normal teenager and attend high school?"
"I changed my mind and decided to become a moody teenager who doesn't attend high school," Sebastian told him. "You already know what it's like to be one since you are already one."
"I take offence to that. I am not a moody teenager." Benjamin shoved Sebastian back onto his bed. "I'm the fun brother." he sighed again. "How about this? Instead of going to school, we go somewhere else?"
"Where would that somewhere else be exactly?" No matter where they go, they'll end up running into their father, and he doesn't have the energy to argue with his father about the same thing they are always arguing over. Sebastian knew how it was going to go with his father. He would do something the brothers didn't agree with, and then their father would say sorry when it was obvious he didn't mean it. It just goes around in circles when it comes to their father, and they'll be right back where they started.
"I don't know. Anywhere, and you can choose where we go."
"Deal, but you are paying."
"If it gets you out of the house, then yes, I will pay." Benjamin was happy he was getting his brother out of the house and out of whatever mood he was in. "Even though we don't need to pay for things when we can get what we want for free."
"We are not going to compel anyone to get things when we have enough money to buy what we want."
"If I want a drink, I'm going to have to compel someone to get one."
✰✰✰✰
Miley Bennet was so engrossed in her drawing on the sketch pad that she didn't pay attention to the people around her. She always got that feeling when she had to draw something, and she couldn't ignore it, especially when she had an insane feeling that something was going to happen tonight. Drawing was a way to discover what that something was and try her best to prevent her drawings from coming true.
"You are meant to enjoy yourself when you come to a bonfire." Jeremy sat down on the ground beside his best friend. "Not spending it sitting on the dirty ground drawing."
Miley didn't react to her friend as she was more focused on her drawing to notice that someone sat down beside her.
To get her attention, Jeremy nudged the girl's shoulder. When she didn't respond, he took her pencil, which finally got her to stop drawing.
Miley blinked a few times and shook her head. For a second, she didn't know where she was until she remembered she was at the bonfire her big sister Bonnie had dragged her to. Miley didn't even want to come to the bonfire; instead, she wanted to stay in her room, listening to music and drawing.
"What are you doing here?" Miley questioned Jeremy when she realised she wasn't sitting by herself anymore. "And why do you have my pencil?"
Jeremy rolled his eyes and handed her back her pencil. "I took it because you weren't paying any attention to me. What are you drawing? I'm guessing you had one of your freaky visions again that's why you didn't realise I was here."
"Don't call them that." It made her feel like a freak. "They are nightmares. And I don't know what I'm drawing until after I've finished dreaming them. I get weird feelings that I have to draw, and after that, everything is hard to explain. I wish I could turn it off, but I can't."
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you, and you do know I'm here for you?" Jeremy told her. "I'll try my best to help you get through this anyway I can."
"Thanks." Miley furrowed when she saw Tyler and Viki coming their way, but Tyler didn't look happy. "Why are your girlfriend and Tyler heading our way right now?"
"What?" Jeremy glanced up and saw Tyler and Viki walking over to them. Jeremy thought he meant something to Viki, but clearly, he was wrong when she wanted Tyler instead of him. He should have taken Miley's advice and stayed away from Vicki.
Once Tyler and Vicki were close to them, Jeremy stood up with Miley and stood in front of his friend, keeping her out of sight.
"Don't look so down," Tyler said to Jermy once he was in front of the two best friends. "You can have her when I'm done."
Miley saw Jeremy gripping the beer bottle in his hands. She knew he wanted to knock Tyler out, so she grabbed a hold of Jeremy's wrist, stopping him from smacking Tyler with the bottle or punching him. "Jer, don't. He's not worth it. Walk away and ignore him." She sighed when she saw him loosen his grip on the bottle. At least she was getting through to him.
Well, Miley thought she had gotten through to Jeremy, but Jeremy dropped the bottle. It smashed to the ground, and he pushed Miley to the side a little too hard, causing her to fall to the ground, and then he threw a punch at Tyler. A fight broke out between Tyler and Jeremy, with Vicki screaming at them, attempting to break up the fight.
Stefan came over and tried to break the fight between the boys, but he got punched for even trying and also got hurt again when Jeremy picked up his broken bear bottle and struck Tyler. instead, he got Stefan, not like Jeremy realised.
Miley shook her head and went to pick up her sketch pad from the ground. She narrowed her eyes at the open page of her pad. A sketch of Mr. Tenner's dead body in the school parking lot was staring back at her. It wasn't just the history teacher in the drawing; Stefan was there, and someone else she hadn't met before, but she drew a few times.
Glancing up from the drawing, she noticed that Stefan was no longer there, so she picked up her pad, shoved it back into her bag, and went to try and find my tenner before anything could happen to him. She was going to try and save someone.
✰✰✰✰
"Who's lame idea was it to come here again?"
"I believe the lame idea was yours," Sebastian responded to his brother's question.
For the full day, the brothers have been out, and now, for the night, Benjamin decided to end the night by going to the school bonfire.
"Why did you agree? We don't want to be here and don't even like football."
"Because you wouldn't stop nagging me until I agreed to go."
"I do not nag." Benjamin did nag a little. "Next time I suggest something as stupid as this, then I will give you permission to smack me."
"Okay." Sebastian easily agreed.
"You didn't even hesitate to agree with me."
Sebastian grinned, though his smile dropped a second later when he saw his father trying to kiss Elena. It looked like he was going to kiss her. "What is he up to now?"
Benjamin liked to know that as well.
The brothers watched as Elena slapped Damon and said something before storming away, leaving Damon stunned behind.
Sebastian and Benjamin weren't surprised when their father appeared before them. "You know it's rude to spy on people."
"And do you know it was a dick move you made trying to kiss someone without their say-so?" Sebastian shot back.
Damon scoffed. "I was just messing with her it wasn't like I was going to kiss her."
"Maybe you should stop messing with people and get a life."
"I'm having fun, and I'm not going to stop anytime soon."
"Your fun is going to get someone hurt, Dad." Sebastian wished his father would start caring about other people's feelings for once. "Let's go B."
Damon stopped his sons from leaving. "You two should understand the things I'm doing here don't affect either of you."
"Everything you do affects us." Benjamin snapped. "You always drag us in the middle of your stupid games, and we are sick of them. Be honest with us, Dad. Why did you even want us to come home in the first place?"
"You know why. I wanted to spend time with you and make up for the times I wasn't there for you. I'm s-"
"Stop saying you're sorry!" Sebastian yelled. "It doesn't mean anything unless you truly mean it.
"I'm trying here with you guys, but nothing I do or say is good enough for you, Sebastian," Damon said. "I'm trying my best to be a better father, but I'm not going to change the way I am. I'm not a nice person you both know that about me. I'm not going to pretend to be one for you two to give me a chance. I am going to be there for you no matter how much you don't want me to be or no matter how much you push me away. I love you and I made a promise to your mother which I'm not going to break." Damon never stuck around to hear what Benjamin and Sebastian were going to say because he didn't want to hear it. He was going to try and give them time to come to him on their own.
Sebastian turned to Benjamin. "Before we go home, I want to go somewhere."
"Where would that be?
"Somewhere that would hopefully make us feel better."
✰✰✰✰
The place Sebastian had in mind was at their mother's grave site.
Sebastian sat down in front of their mother's grave while Benjamin sat down flowers before he sat down next to Sebastian.
"You are meant to buy flowers, not steal them."
Benjamin rolled his blue eyes. "I didn't steal them. I borrowed them."
"And are you planning on giving the flowers back?"
"Why would I give them back?" Benjamin wasn't planning on giving them back. "The flowers now belong to our mother."
"So you stole them, you didn't borrow them."
"Shut up."
After the playful banter between the brothers, it was quiet for about ten minutes before Sebastian said anything. "Would it make me a bad person if I said I wished our mother was here instead of our father?"
"No, it wouldn't make you a bad person," Benjamin told Sebastian. "You can feel what you want to feel. You can feel sad, angry, whatever. Nobody can tell you how you can feel, Seb."
Sebastian swore to himself that he wasn't going to cry, but he couldn't help that a few tears escaped. "Maybe things would be different if she was here."
"And maybe our lives would be different if we had both of our parents," Benjamin said. "We don't know what our lives would've been like if we took a different path. I think we should both be grateful that we got a chance at some life, you know?"
Sebastian nodded; he understood what Benjamin was saying. "Yeah, but it still doesn't stop me from picturing what it would be like."
"Seb, I wish she were here as well. I wish we knew what a wonderful woman she was."