"Are you sure about this?" Damon asked, rubbing his eyes at the early sun. It was seven in the morning. Tyler left his house last night around 11PM, and didn't say where he was going, so I went back to the Boarding House and spent the night with Damon.
"Yeah. I need a little break from Mystic Falls. Magnolia told me I could come up whenever I wanted, and I think it will be good for me. I'll only be gone a few days max." I smiled at him as I pushed my backpack into my backseat, beside my cooler.
"Did you pack enough blood bags? I don't want you vamping out at the first sight of a human." Damon squinted as he crossed his arms.
"Yes, I have more than enough." I let out a small laugh, "Don't be mad. I'll be back before you know it. You and I will spend a couple of days together when I get back. And you can pick what we do in those days. Whether that be staying in bed the whole time, or going out. Okay?"
"Fine." He let a small smirk grow on his face as he placed his hands on either side of my neck. "Call me when you get to Magnolia's, and I want nightly calls telling me all the sexy things you did."
"Oh, yes. I'll give you every detail." I smirked back at him as I leaned in to kiss him, neither of us making any noise until we pulled apart. "I've got to go. I want to get there before noon."
Damon let a small groan out, his breath hitting my lips. "Okay." We gave each other small smiles as I climbed into my car and drove away.
+
Four hours later, (I am aware that it is a 11 hour drive from Virginia to Illinois, but to speed up everything I changed it to four.) I was in Chicago, in front of my old apartment building specifically. I didn't tell Maggie that I was coming down. I wanted to surprise her like she did me. My phone died on the drive over, as I used it to listen to music the whole drive. I would have to charge it when I got inside so I could call Damon.
I grabbed my backpack and locked my car as I climbed out. I took a deep breath as I stood in front of the building. Memories of Maggie and I ran through my head, as well as the memories of Stefan and I. I shook my head quickly before walking through the door. Immediately, I heard my name.
"Blair Sommers! How dare you come back here without informing me first?!" My eyes followed the voice to behind the front desk. Anthony Cosgrove; the building's owner's son. He had on a navy blue button up shirt with a name tag reading Tony in a fancy font.
"Hey, Tony." I smiled as I walked up to the desk, "Are you just keeping up the fort until Clark gets off break?"
"Nope," Tony smiled proud, "Clark got a promotion. He's the manager of the building now, so my dad let me take the roll of concierge. I don't get paid nearly as much as Clark did, but its a job."
"Good for you." I nodded. Tony was the janitor of the building, originally. He started the job at sixteen, and continued working as the janitor for the next four years. He was now twenty, and obviously upgraded from the janitor position.
"What are you doing here?!" Tony asked after a few seconds of silence, "not that I don't want you here! I've missed you — we all have. But, what brings you back? Magster says that you've got yourself a fancy little life in Virginia; surrounded by hunks."
I let a small smile grow on my face at Maggie's nickname, "can't a girl just visit her old place?"
Tony leaned over the desk so he was a new inches away from me, examining my face, "not when she's Blair Sommers. You don't like going back- to old places, in time. It's not like you."
I let out a little huff as Tony sat back behind the desk, "I've changed, Tony. Plus, Maggie probably jazzed up Virginia way more. It's not fancy at all. It's sometimes great, but it's depressing and dramatic most of the time." I copied his previous position, leaning over the desk. "Now, stop pestering me, give me a hug, and be happy that I'm here."
Tony let out a laugh, as he walked out from behind the desk, wrapping his arms around my sides. "I am happy you're here, BS. Where are you staying? Maggie has been leaving gone a few days, and Haylee has gotten herself a roommate."
"Where's Maggie?" I asked, confused. She had only been back from Virginia a week or so.
Tony shrugged, "the night she got back, she was telling all of us about it, but stopped midway because she got a call. She talked on the phone for less than a second before hanging up. She told us she had to go, but she'd be back within a week. I guess she should be home anyway now."
I sighed, shrugging as well. "Not sketchy at all. Go ahead and just give me one of the spare keys to her apartment and I'll stay there."
Tony let out a long 'hmmm' as if he was contemplating whether or not he should give me a key. "Blair, you gotta understand, I'm the concierge now, I can't be breaking the rules anymore. I'm making $12.60 an hour, and I can't lose this job."
"Tony. What do you think I'm going to do? Rob her? Most of the stuff in Mag's apartment is from consignment stores, I'd get nothing out of taking her stuff. Just give me the key." I held out my hand, making no movement until I felt the coldness of the key in my palm.
"If Clark asks -" Tony started.
"If he asks, I bribed the new janitor." I smiled and mouthed a thank you before walking up to my old apartment.
I sat my bag beside the door as I pushed the key into both of the locks, pushing the door open once it unlocked. I grabbed my bag and tossed it in before checking the mailbox directly beside the door.
I didn't open the mail or anything, just grabbed it because I knew Clark would eventually stop putting Maggie's mail in her box if it overflowed. I held the eight envelopes in my left hand as I walked into the apartment.
— or tried to.
Being that Maggie's name was the only one on the paperwork for the apartment now, I could no longer go in without her invitation. I externally groaned, "damnit!" I kicked the invisible wall keeping me out.
I shook my head, tossing her mail through the border, it fanning out all over the carpet, as my eyes landed on my bag. My phone, charger, and clothes were all in that bag, and I couldn't get it.
"Blair?" I heard the squeaky voice belonging to Haylee call out. Haylee was Maggie's immediate neighbor, and best friend, taking my roll immediately after Stefan left town. She and I always got along when we were together, but the second we were apart, she would text everyone, bringing up the key moments she thought I was annoying that day.
I faked a smile as I turned towards her, "Haylee! Hey!"
She returned the false grin as she glanced at Maggie's apartment. The smile left immediately, "please don't tell me your moving back in. Maggie and I are at the peak of our friendship, and I don't need little miss perfect ruining that." Haylee's arms crossed over her chest as she strolled towards me.
I let out a humorless laugh, "chill out, I'm not moving in. I'm just staying for a few days- or I was going to. I can't get in."
"The door is open, just walk in." Haylee rolled her eyes as she muttered "looks like her IQ hasn't improved" under her breath.
"I guess my IQ hasn't improved." I shrugged, letting out a fake laugh as I turned towards her. Her eyes were large as she stared. "Do me a favor?"
"If I must." She walked closer to me, stopping two feet away.
"How kind of you to offer!" I clapped my hands together as I faked excitement. "I would love if you'd grab my bag for me. I'll get out of your hair the second you hand it to me."
"Oookay." Haylee sang as she stepped through the threshold and grabbed the backpack, handing it to me. "Now if that's all," she said as she walked out of the apartment and shut the door, "I'm in the middle of an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians."
"Bye, Haylee." I spoke quickly, throwing my bag over shoulder as i walked the key back down to Tony, then up to the highest story in this building.
Since I wouldn't be able to stay with Magnolia until she got back, if she got back, I will be trying to stay with Cara. Cara was the 'weird one' out of our group. She only hung out with us at first because she was Haylee's step sister. Out of the whole group, the only ones of us who actually liked her were Maggie, Finn and myself.
I took a deep breath as I knocked twice on the door. Cara and I didn't end on the best of terms. She had a crush on Finn, and she found out I had slept with him before and she got upset. We hadn't spoke for a month when I left. Hopefully she would let me stay with her.
The door opened half way, and Cara stood in front of me wearing only a tank top and underwear. "Hey, Cara." I smiled small, unsure of if she was still mad at me or not. I heard a quick click and I knew what Cara had behind the door. "Okay," I held my hands up in defense, "I'm going to be honest here, even though it could end with my body having one too many holes — you're overreacting. I didn't know you liked Finn when I slept with Finn, hell, I didn't know Finn when I slept with Finn."
"I'm over that, Blair." Cara rolled her eyes, groaning. Acting more like her step sister than usual, "put your bag on the floor, get on your knees, and keep your hands high."
I slowly did as told, "what the hell, Car, are you a cop now?"
"Ha, right." Cara let out a laugh, "I'm just protecting the people I care about." Cara came out of the room, grabbing my bag. She opened it, pulling everything out. After examining every piece of clothing and everything else, she sighed.
She held the gun up towards me, obviously familiar with a gun. "Stand up, come in here, and sit there." She flicked her wrist towards a metal chair.
I nodded after swallowing a lump in my throat, standing up slowly. "If your over my night with Finn, may I ask why you have a gun to my head?"
Cara let out a humorless laugh as she rolled her eyes again. "As if you don't know. Sit!" She yelled as she shut the front door and I made my way to the chair.
She tied my hands behind my back, and sat in front of me with the gun aimed at my chest. "Where is she, Blair?"
"What are you talking about? Where's who?"
"Stop playing games! Where's Magnolia?!" Cara yelled, her grip tightening against the handle of the gun.
"I don't know! Tony said she got a call randomly and left. I haven't talked to her since she left Virginia. I'm as clueless as you!" I huffed, "what's wrong with you, Car?!"
"What's wrong with me?" Cara stood, shaking her head, as well as the gun, around. "My best friend is missing, quite possibly dead, because of you, Blair Gilbert!"
"Maggie isn't missing or dea-" before I could finish my sentence, Cara hit the gun across my head, causing me to pass out.
My eyes were heavy as i came to. Cara was just out of sight in the kitchen, but in hearing distance, "it's all her fault, baby! She's the reason Maggie is gone. I'll probably never see her again, I need to know why she did it!" Cara whisper yelled, tears evident in her voice.
"Cara," Finn's Australian accent shocked me. Cara called him baby? Finn's voice wasn't like Cara's, it was quite calm. "You could of just asked her what she knew, you didn't need to go straight violence."
Cara sighed, peeking out of the kitchen to see me; awake. She didn't say anything to Finn again before she came towards me. "You know something, you need to tell me what it is!"
"I know nothing, Cara!" I weakly stated, not quite back to my full strength. "All I know is that Maggie left me, came back here, then left for a week or so to visit whoever called her. I don't think she's missing, or dead. I think she's just away."
"She's different, now! You know that?!" Cara's eyes attempted to hold in the tears that brimmed the edges, her voice was still stern, but she wasn't yelling now. "Because of you. She changed."
"I seen her a week ago, she was the same bubbly, crazy Magnolia." I sighed, trying to adjust my hands to be comfortable between the ropes.
"She probably was normal with you. She's not normal though. She's crazy. Her life mission right now is to learn everything there is about Blair Gilbert. About you." One tear slid down her cheek, "because of Nick. That psychotic monster that I warned you about when he first came around. He practically stalked you for weeks, yet you let him into your life. He is the reason that Maggie is going to die if she isn't already."
"What does Nick have to do with anything?" I muttered, hating talking about him.
"Everything!" Cara screamed, her gun still in hand. "After he took your V-card, we got lucky. We were free. He just left, and left you alone. Until you left. Then he needed to know about Blair, 'the brown eyed beauty.' He came here, he threatened me. He wanted every small little detail we knew about you. We didn't know much, so he just left us alone and started bothering Mags."
"I told her to avoid him, to call the cops. But she felt bad for him! She thought of him as the guy who messed up, who didn't understand his own feelings so he left. She helped him in every way she could. And guess what? She's not going to have anymore to offer soon, and he's going to kill her. I can tell, I can feel it. So you can think about that while you live your perfect little life as Blair Gilbert. You get to live the rest of your life knowing that your best friend died because your stalker couldn't get you."
"No, Nick's not a stalker. He's not violent even if he did approach Maggie, he wouldn't hurt her." I shook my head. Despite the fact that Nick left me the morning after "making me a women" he was a good guy. He didn't have a bad bone in his body. (Hahahaha why did I write making me a women I could have used so many other terms ahha)
"I'm not even going to explain all the things that would qualify him as a stalker." Cara shook her head. Finn was standing in the corner of the room, pinching the bridge of his nose. I heard a light 'ding' echo from one of the rooms down the hall.
"Do you have my phone?" I asked, brows furrowed.
"Yeah. I need Nick's number, so I'm charging it." Cara stated, quickly grabbing my phone from the room. "Oh, you have a lot of unread messages, and missed calls. Who's Damon? Stefan? Ooo, a lot of angry texts from Tyler. One from an Elijah. Hmm. Let's just ignore all those for now and just find Nick's number."
"I don't have Nick's number anymore. I've gotten a new phone since Nick." I stated, sighing. "Can I please have my phone?"
"No. If you don't have Nick's number, we're going to try calling Maggie. She's practically obsessed with you, too. She should answer." Cara shrugged, dialing Maggie's number.
Even though I doubted Maggie would answer, she answered before the first ring ended. Cara pressed mute quickly, "don't say anything about being tied up." She pointed at me before unmuting it.
"Hello? Blair? You there?" Maggie's voice echoed throughout the speaker.
"Yeah, hey, Mags! Sorry, I just wanted to know where you were currently." I asked as calm as I could.
"I just got home. I was actually about to call you. I've got good news! I'm moving to Seattle, I've got a full scholarship to the University of Washington! I have to be at the school by 8 am tomorrow. I have a flight to Seattle in an hour. I'm so excited!" Maggie exclaimed sheepishly. You could hear her unlocking her door, "oh that's weird, my mail's inside on the floor. Anyways, what's up with you?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm up at Cara and Finn's actually. I came to surprise you, but you weren't home. Tony says you've been gone for days?" I asked, hopefully, nonchalantly.
"Yeah, I was staying with a friend! Sorry I wasn't here when you showed up. Come on down to the apartment when you want. I want to see you before I go!"
"Yeah, okay! I'll be down in a second." I sighed, hoping that Cara would allow me to go. "See ya."
"Mhm!" Was all I got in return before Cara hung up.
"I told you she wasn't dead. Nick isn't violent." I muttered, "now would you untie me? I have somewhere to be."
"No-"
"Cara, let her go. None of this was her fault." Finn spoke finally. "She was a victim just as much as Mags was." Cara stood still, so Finn came to my back and untied me. I stood up once freed, and Cara harshly handed my phone to me. "Your clothes and things are back in your bag. My sincerest apologizes, BS, I didn't know Cara had this planned."
Finn hugged me quickly, placing his hands on my arms after he released me. "It was good to see you, despite the scenario it took to see you. I do hope you come back to visit soon."
I smiled and nodded, though I wasn't sure I would return. I glanced at Finn's left hand and seen a ring on his third finger, "what is this?"
Finn's smile grew ear to ear, as he showed off his simple black ring. "I am a married man, now. Cara is now a Cassidy." Cara didn't care for the conversation anymore so she walked down the hall, "she's crazy, but I love her."
I only nodded again, agreeing she was crazy. "Bye, Finnegan." Finn smiled, patting my shoulder as he handed me my bag. I walked from their apartment to Maggie's.
The door to Maggie's was wide open, as she rushed around the room, throwing clothes onto her bed. Unlike Finn and Cara's apartment, Maggie's is one large room, besides the bathroom. "Hey, Blair! Come on in. I've got to rush, but I want a hug!" Maggie smiled at me for a second before returning to her many suitcases lined upon her bed.
I walked past the threshold, hugging Maggie for three seconds before she let go of me. "Hey, Mags, can I ask you something?"
"Anything!"
"Do you think Nick was a stalker? I, uh, I've been thinking about it for a while, and -"
"No! Nick was a good guy! He made a mistake when he left you. He didn't understand what he was feeling. If I didn't like you and Damon together so much, I would tell you to go back to Nick." Maggie didn't allow me to finish, "sorry, I just, I liked Nick. He was a good one."
"Right," I nodded as she threw all her underwear onto her bed in hopes of making it into a suitcase. "One more question," Maggie let out another Mhm, "what friend were you with?"
"It was -" Maggie paused as she slowed down, "huh, that's weird. I don't remember."
I sighed. A strong feeling that she was high rushing over me, "you just left their place. You don't remember at all?"
"No. Not one bit." Maggie sighed as well, looking at me, "oh, no. Blair, no! I'm not high, I promise! I just, i can't remember who I was with. I swear, I didn't do any drugs."
Her heartbeat stayed the same throughout the time she talked, so she wasn't lying, "okay. I believe you." I nodded. She was probably drugged. I took a deep breath as I walked up to her. I stared into her eyes, "who were you with, Magnolia? Be honest."
"I don't know." Maggie's voice went monotone. She blinked quickly as I backed away from her. She had to have been with Nick. Cara wouldn't be so paranoid if she wasn't.
And if she did get drugged, and feels like relapsing, I can let it be my fault, I grabbed Maggie's shoulders, holding her still. "Maggie, this is the last time you'll ever see me. You will forget completely that Blair Gilbert was a person you knew. You'll forget about everyone in Chicago, and you'll forget Nick. Go to Seattle, enjoy yourself. Be happy. Stay sober."
I held onto my bag as I vamped out of the room, and to my car within seconds, tears streaming down my cheeks as I pulled away from the building.
—
In all honesty, this chapter was originally just to show you that Blair actually had "friends" in Chicago besides Stefan and Maggie. Then it became a "what am I to do with Maggie" chapter.
Magnolia has served her purpose. She was only created to introduce Nick into the storyline. Nick is now introduced into the storyline, so Mags is a character with no storyline. & I could have killed her, in all honesty. Because I wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. But then I decided to have her memories erased, and have her sent to Washington, so if I wanted, I could bring her back/start her own story/sell her. Anyways, I hope you guys liked Magnolia's character, and I hope you're all okay with the fact that she won't be seen for a while. If you have any questions about any of the characters or the chapter, feel free to ask! I hope you liked this chapter. Please vote and comment (if you want) xxx
CHICAGO CHARACTERS FC'S & AGES
Alden Ehrenreich as Anthony "Tony" Cosgrove (20)
Sophie Turner as Haylee Martin (22)
Tanc Sade as Finnegan "Finn" Cassidy (21)
Chloe Grace Moretz as Cara Cassidy (18)
Hugh Laurie as Clark Humphrey (49)
Nick as a secret ;)