the once quiet room, with only the vampire diaries heard in it, now was empty and quiet
viviana stood outside of her house glaring at jeremiah after he told her what happened — what he did
"this is so stupid" viviana said quietly, her hands going through her hair
"it's actually pretty smart" jeremiah said as he started looking around the garden
"so after this stupid date we stay away from each other right?" viviana said as she looked through her closet
"uh well — "
"what else did you say jeremiah? "
"we should also date" all that was heard was a low laugh from the girl
"oh you are serious" viviana said awkwardly noticing the annoyed look the boy was giving her "if you haven't realised it yet jeremy, you are the last person anyone would believe I would date"
"what why?"
"well you are not my type everyone knows I can't stand you" viviana insulted as jeremiah laughed loudly making the girl quickly slap her hand on his mouth
she noticed now just how tall jeremiah had gotten, she was too short in front of him now
"be quiet"
"you think I would actually want to date you ?" jeremiah said humorously "i meant fake date"
“why?” viviana wondered confused
“look i have thought about it on the way here, you want your revenge on your ex that you are still hung up on —” jeremiah said as viviana rolled her eyes “i am not!”
“yea whatever... and i want belly, so we pretend to date, you make rick jealous and i make belly jealous” viviana didn't say anything, she stood holding back a laugh at the wrong name he called her ex boyfriend.
what made it funny was the viviana hated alaric saltzman. she always wondered how someone could be so annoying and selfish.
on all her rewatches to the show, and watching legacies, her hatred for him only grew.
"whatever but we are setting rules" viviana finally mumbled something as she went to go in her house but noticed jeremiah didn't go to his car yet
"go to your car, I will be right back" jeremiah only nodded as the two went different ways
"you look horrible" jeremiah said as he started his jeep making the girl scoff "did i ask you?" viviana argued back as jeremiah laughed quietly
"i am glad you are dressed nicely though" jeremiahʼs laughter died down "we might be out just for a little bit longer than getting ice cream”
"what are you not telling me?" viviana huffed annoyed as jeremiah gave her a small smile
𓆉
sitting in jeremiahʼs jeep was the last thing viviana thought she would be doing this night — in her whole life actually
the ride was silent — a comfortable silence until vivianaʼs phone started ringing making her huff as she read the caller ID, she didn't answer it though
knowing she will probably embarrass herself in front of jeremiah, but her phone kept ringing more so she looked at jeremiah with a far away look in her eyes
"can you pull over?" viviana asked quietly as jeremiah nodded, for some reason the girl speaking now wasn't the mean girl everyone hated since last summer
neither was it the golden girl
it was simply a girl no one could read, a girl with many secrets, a girl that had the need to keep secrets to herself
and just for a few minutes, jeremiah found himself feeling bad for the girl — not that he cared about her — he just felt bad for some unknown reason to him
and his pitty grew even more as he watched the girl's face fall as she talked on the phone, whoever it was, it must have been really serious
as viviana got back in, she rolled her eyes at the dirty blonde boy who kept his eyes on her "can you start the stupid jeep jeremiah?" viviana asked, but her question came out more as a demand making jeremiah scoff
"do you really think I wanted to spend my night with you of all people?" jeremiah spoke, not caring if his words affected her or not
viviana laughed bitterly " you are the one who told your entire house I was going on a date with you"
"you kissed me at the bonfire" jeremiah bit back " oh please, I did you a favor" viviana smirked but jeremiahʼs next words made her feel her skin crawl
"do you really think I didn't hear how ryan complained on how horrible you were?" jeremiah laughed quietly "it's me who is doing you a favor actually"
when jeremiah never got a response from the brunette girl, he turned to look at her only to find a scowl on her face making him sigh
" i didn't mean — " as jeremiah went to apologize, viviana turned to glare at him "save it"
just like that the ride was awkward and so was the entire night — but for different reasons
viviana believed jeremiah was nothing but a lying, annoying piece of shit, she really did, but that didn't change the fact that in her eyes what he said was low, even for him — even if he didn't know the truth
just like his brother who was nothing but a crappy person
with the girl lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice jeremiah driving past many ice cream shops near them
𓆉
as the two arrived, viviana smiled faintly noticing the pink car of ice cream
"hey vivi" an old woman said to the two teenagers once it was their turn to order, it wasn't until she glanced at the boy that she smiled softly at him "and jeremiah"
"hey mary" viviana said softly as she looked at the available flavours
"your regular?" mary asked the girl who nodded with a smile as mary turned to jeremiah — who ordered chocolate and salted caramel making viviana glance at him confused
they ordered their ice cream after viviana argued with jeremiah and insulted him
the later doing the same, saying that blueberries ice cream wasn't that good as she made it seem like
even though mary didn't give them their ice cream yet and viviana never mentioned what flavor she got
"how long have you two been dating?" mary asked as she handed them their ice cream with a smile
"a few weeks" jeremiah smiled kindly at the woman
" i am so happy for you two"
"thank you" viviana smiled shyly as jeremiah frowned but covered it up quickly
" well I won't keep you two from spending your time together" mary offered a motherly smile "but you viviana are telling me every little detail next time you are here "
viviana laughed as she waved at the woman and the two walked away as the two sat together, they were met by natalie and ryan who were also getting ice cream making viviana huff
"not only do I have to spend my night with you — now I have to see their faces too " viviana mumbled making jeremiah scoff mocking hurt
"oh please you love me" jeremiah teased the girl only to receive a small glare
the two sat together and viviana smiling every now and then as the two talked to make it believable
truth was, they were discussing the whole fake dating thing and setting rules as no one was close enough to hear them
it was more of viviana setting rules but jeremiah didn't mind, she would save him the embarrassment after he practically told everyone at his house that he was dating her
𓆉
as viviana sat with jeremiah in his car her phone started ringing again making her huff, she didn't answer it though as jeremiah raised his eyebrows at her
"ignoring everyone too?" jeremiah stated but it came out as a question
as he noticed the frown on her face he continued "that's new for you — "
"what makes you think you know anything about me?" viviana all but snapped as jeremiah huffed
"can you at least pretend to tolerate me if we are going to make this work out?"
"i will do that when people are around" viviana sighed " and i don't care if this works out or is believable or not "
"what?" jeremiah murmured "you are the one that will end up embarrassed, I have nothing to lose"
"whatever"
the rest of the ride was silent, with a song playing that viviana didn't even have the energy to focus on as she was playing on her phone
jeremiah hummed to the song as he parked the jeep and got out of it to open vivianaʼs door for her "oh you are such a gentleman"
"anything for you anna " jeremiah smirked at the girl but frowned once her small smile fell and she looked ahead of them at the place they were heading to
she started walking feeling Jeremiah's eyes on her, she could see from the side of her eye the frown that was on his face
"vivi" susannah called out noticing the two teenagers walking in, viviana turned to where the voice was coming from and was met by a huge smile from susannah making her smile back
"look at you all grown up" susannah mumbled as she pulled the girl into a hug, susannah kept her arms around the girl for a little too long — though viviana wasn't complaining, she was sure she could stay in the womanʼs arms for hours and not get tired of her
as susannah pulled away, she smiled happily at the girl "laurel would be so happy to see you here" susannah said as she took the girl's hand in hers
as susannah started pulling viviana away, she dropped Jeremiah's hand as she walked happily with the woman away, probably towards laurel
jeremiah frowned slightly but walked around looking for steven or conrad, until he found conrad drinking and steven just looking around.
choosing to go to steven, jeremiah laughed quietly at his friend who turned to him with a smile "where's viviana?" steven asked confused
"she's with your mom I think" steven only nodded as the two looked around.
jeremiah started putting books in Steven's arms just to pass time and see how much he could handle, until he got bored and his eyes landed on a couch so he pulled steven and sat together
"where did you go?" steven teased
"we just drove around " jeremiah replied "and we got ice cream, from that shop she always liked"
"which one?"
"the one near the mall — the pink car" jeremiah said as he scrolled through his phone
"i never realized she prefered that one" jeremiah only hummed "i cant believe you finally got over whatever pity thing going through your mind and asked her out"
it was true — jeremiah stopped talking to viviana when they were thirteen over a pity thing, one that he only ever admitted to his mom and steven heared them talking about it, but he never said anything.
"where's your date?" conrad asked as he suddenly appeared next to the two
"i think she's with laurel" jeremiah said quietly, not daring to look in his brother's eyes
"no she's not"
"how do you know that?" it was steven who spoke up this time only for conrad to show him what seemed to be like a business card
"she was just setting me up for a job"
no one got a chance to reply, as jeremiah noticed viviana looking around confused until her eyes landed on him making her smile softly at him
as she went to walk towards them, she froze noticing conrad there too - whom she wanted to avoid the entire night
"vivia" jeremiah called out to her with a smile making her smile back and walk over
"hey" viviana said softly — intentionally not saying names as steven smiled at her while conrad didn't even cast her a glance
"hey vivi" steven said as the girl smiled directly at him, her eyes going to conrad for a second until she quickly walked to sit next to jeremiah who tried to give her space to sit as much as possible
it wasn't until steven elbowed conrad that he coughed and muttered something which viviana barely heard
she didn't know what he said though, so as she took a seat next to jeremiah who gave her a small barely noticeable smile
"no offense steven but it's really boring here" viviana spoke up after a few minutes of silence
“i second that” lilith showed up, sitting on the floor as there was no room for her on the couch
jeremiah frowned " i feel hurt" he mumbled making her laugh softly
she lied, she would be embarrassed if this didn't work out just as much as jeremiah would be, so here she was acting nice when all she wanted to do was take her anger out on anything
"yeah . where ?"
"We could go into town" jeremiah spoke up "I don't know buy some weed from that guy with the Rainbow Dash tattoo?"
"he got arrested last summer" "nah, he got arrested last summer." viviana and conrad said at the same time.
it was the first time conrad glanced at her — other than the glare he sent her when jeremiah called her over which she probably didn't notice
"you smoke now too?" conrad asked the girl but his face fell realizing how rude it sounded when he said it
“uh no, my friend told me” viviana didn't say anything more though, she just sat back feeling jeremiah glancing at her not that she dared to look back at him whilw lilith rubbed her knee
she kept her eyes on her hands as she toyed with her bracelets
"oh , shit. really ?" jeremiah said feeling the tension rising
" yeah. " conrad mumbled
"yeah , we could go to the drive-in. " steven suggested
"dude , gross. no , i-i don't want
to watch belly hooking up with some kid in the back seat of a minivan." jeremiah disagreed making viviana sigh boredly
"you , actually - let's go to the drive-in." it was conrad who spoke up this time
"wait . like . . . like, really?" steven and viviana by now started staring at the ceiling out of boredom
"yeah . why not?" conrad asked
"yeah . yeah !" jeremiah laughed
"all right, bro." steven said as he stood up followed by viviana
"you're driving." conrad only threw the keys at steven
"oh, yes."
"Get up. Come on." jeremiah quietly stood up and put his arm on vivianaʼs shoulder as they went to follow the other two
viviana seemed annoyed , not that she even cared about belly or how she would feel after her first date was crashed by teenage boys
but she didn't talk and jeremiah didn't ask what was wrong — even if it was clear something was bothering her
though she excused herself from him and didn't get in the car, pulling lily with her claiming she had forgotten her phone on the couch.
as the two walked back in viviana stared at her cousin confused “is everything okay?”
“yea, yea, everything is fine” lilith nodded with a smile “how are you and jere?”
“we are good betty , how are you and justin?” viviana sighed “just talk to him when you are ready”
“i don't want to” lilith shook her head
“i think you do, you are just scared, and that's okay” viviana rubbed her cousinʼs arm
“how is that okay?” lilith sniffled
“love is scary, it's like you are always scared of something bad to happen, scared of what the future holds, i don't really know” viviana recalled all the times she got scared around justin, she was always scared of losing him, she dreaded the idea of losing yet another friendship because she was too much to handle. “but it's still beautiful, so the fear, i think itʼs worth it” lilith nodded at viviana
“i will talk to him eventually, i mean we are friends” lilith shrugged and walked out, taking note of how viviana didn't even get her phone because they both knew it was in her bag.
author's note!
I am too lazy to write the drive-in scene, I will probably add it in the next chapter as it's kind of important in the book
enjoy this chapter babes!