𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫
- - -
❝And then you caught my eye
Giving me the feeling of a lightning strike❞
Somebody to You
~ The Vamps
- - -
"Kat come on in!" Miranda Gilbert waves her elder daughter towards the car idling before the edge of the forest party. The girl's curled head swivels to her straight-haired twin "You called them?!"
Elena rolls her eyes and sits in the backseat, the seat behind her mom's. Huffing, Kat follows suit, wiping her drunken eyes. She sits beside her sister, squeezing her into the other window with a teasing tongue pocking out drunkenly. "Mom!" Elena whines, poking her obnoxious twin in the waist.
Kat giggles "Wuss", making her dad laugh behind the wheel "Come on girls, Jenna's waiting..."
Miranda starts lecturing the girls about skipping family game night to go get drunk at a cheap party "Oh come on Mom! The party's only once in a year, we just finished school! Didn't we Dad?" she softens up with a Puss-in-the-boots smile. He shakes his head "I think you deserve this night off, but..." he shouts over Elena's whoops and Kat's cheers "Underage drinking is not the way to celebrate"
"No fun, Da- look out!" she screeches as Grayson loses control over the wheel, the car running over the wooden bridge and into the lake.
The seatbelts don't give out under the water, the girls trying to break through the windows. Murky water rushes in and Kat gasps over the surface "Dad...! Da-"
Their mother doesn't move, blood mixing with the brown deluge around them. Kat opens her mouth in a silent scream, trying to free her sister. Breath starts becoming foreign, life being dragged out of their body. The sisters look to each other, eyes drooping and arms shaking. The last thing she sees is a dark swirling mass dragging her sister away from her.
Kat Gilbert gasps awake out of her dream. It wasn't new to her since the accident three months ago, but her fisted fingers don't really let go of the warm sheets that once offered her peace. Elena slept beside her, up on the bed while she was down on a mattress to calm her sister if she had any of her screaming nightmares
"It was a dream.... It was a dream..." Kat mumbles to herself, looking at the clock.
5:13 a.m.
Sighing, she gets up, tiptoeing around her sleeping twin and darts into the bathroom with a towel "It was a dream" she mumbles through her toothpaste.
"It was just a dream" she gasps when her feet touch the shower.
"It was just a dream Kat" she repeats again, with a proud nod at herself as she darts out downstairs. She leaves her hair loose around her shoulders, letting her locks touch her waist. For the next hour, she works on breakfast. Jenna has a meeting at Whitmore and both she and Elena can't cook. Setting waffles down in plates, she calls out for everyone "We're running out time! Everyone get your asses down here now!"
Jenna is the first one to stumble down, almost tripping down the stairs as she hears food calling to her "I was gonna try toast today, I swear"
Kat chuckles, "It's okay, I woke up early Jenna, I had the time" Though waffles are pretty simple, she took her time doing everything in the kitchen. That's her trick these days, stretch every second out to the maximum. That's what you do when time stops moving for you.
Jenna dutifully calls out to the remaining children of the house and sits down, waiting. If it was three months ago, she would have been gobbling up the contents of her plate, but now, being a legal guardian to three teens means squeezing in adulthood in her time.
Elena comes down, not really smiling "What's the discussion?"
"Waffles, sit, eat" Kat orders with an authoritative smoky voice, her green eyes flitting around. Elena sighs "I don't care about waffles Kat, it's all about the coffe-" her words halt mid-word when the elder twin holds up a full pot of hot coffee triumphantly. "Sit"
"Is there coffee?" the youngest Gilbert finally presents himself - laces untied, wrinkled pants and ruffled hair. He snatches the cup out of Elena's hand with a teasing lilt and sits beside Kat on the other side of the platform.
"Good morning" she smiles, swivelling to him and running her fingers through his hair - making it appear more presentable. He bends his neck downwards with a protest and shoves waffles down his throat. "Your first day of school and I'm totally unprepared... Lunch money?" Jenna extends her fists with 2 rolled stacks of bills. Her stance is unusually panicked as her eyes widen.
Kat holds her wallet out, answering for Elena and herself.
And even Jeremy actually, but he takes his share with a quick 'cool'. Kat opens her mouth to bid him goodbye when he himself comes and kisses her cheek. She tries to smoothen his hair once again but he rushes off with a wave to the rest of the women "Laces!" Kat warns before the front door thuds shut at his exit.
"What else am I missing? A number two pencil?" Jenna fires amusedly.
"You said you have a meeting at Whitmore"
"Yes, I'm meeting my thesis advisor at... " Jenna's expression morphs from amusement to horror as she peeks at her watch "...now. Crap!" she looks to Kat with wide eyes, she was supposed to drop her niece off and then floor it to college.
"It's okay, go" Kat pushes her off with an assuring smile and watches hopefully as the door closes. Maybe life won't be hard after all. She could survive through the day if she just walks to the school.
Kat hated being dependant on her aunt for being dropped off everywhere, but she couldn't get behind the wheel after nightmares and memories troubling her conscience.
"Do you want Bonnie to give you a ride with us?" Elena straps on her bag, her words practically shoving the word 'no' into Kat's face. Kat and Elena ran in the same circles, but it was not always that they confided in Bonnie Bennett without the other involved.
Kat shakes her head "You go, I'll lock up, got your schedule?—"
"And my ID, and my emergency tampon? Bye Kat" Elena rolls her eyes and rushes off when they hear Bonnie's familiar car horn in their driveway.
Clearing everything up, Kat strings over her leather satchel and takes her coat and felt hat. At last, taking a breath, her eyes flit to the shiny blue keychain hanging from the board to her left. The Camaro keys.
Her dad's red Camaro wouldn't be gathering dust in the garage if the elder Gilbert just had the courage to drive it without her father.
Waiting for a minute to think over it, Kat touches the rim of her lowered cap-clad head. "No" she breathes out, pursing her lips and walking out, no other metal on her hand but the house keys.
Kat stands on the manicured front lawn of her school - Mystic High - nothing so mystic about it at all. Just classes, decade dances, gossip and decade dances again. Scratching her hands along the leather weaving with a zzzup, she cautiously makes her way inside. Everyone doesn't stop talking, but their attention is taken by her straight form but nervous eyes.
She walks into the hallways to see Elena and Bonnie standing in front of the admin's open door. "Hey Bonnie, what're you looking at?" Bonnie smiles, looping her hand through Kat's with an enthusiastic shrug "Checking out Mr. Hot Back over there"
Kat's eyes slide over to him, brows raised "I see no lie about the back, but look at that ass!" she fans herself dramatically "Wait, what if he's squint-eyed?"
Bonnie mock-glares at Mr. Hot Back "You have to be hot, prove her wrong, don't be squint-eyed, please be hot"
"Yo Jeremy good batch man" she hears someone yell to her baby brother. "I gotta go, tell me if he's not squint-eyed 'k?" Kat stomps off, leaving her twin and Bennett friend. Elena would just go hard on Jeremy, like she was going hard on herself. That wouldn't help anyone in their situation, so Kat was left to guard things of her siblings from her siblings. Elena didn't realise that everything about Jeremy was fragile - his personality, his emotions, his sobriety.
Darting into the men's room, she hits Jeremy, making the eye-drops topple off from his hands "I asked you to stop!"
"Look, I can expl-"
"You can do that after you've handed it over to me, I don't want you getting caught Jerry" she uses his nickname in an open attempt of convincing. She opens her palm in anticipation. He glares "You need to chill yourself alright!"
At home, when she offered him waffles and coffee, she was his sweet sister. But now, in the washrooms of Mystic High, she was just an obstacle to getting high.
Kat slaps his shoulder, swallowing the amusement bubbling open despite the situation. No matter how much she tried, a stoned teen telling her to chill herself just seemed endlessly funny "Chill myself? What is that supposed to be? Stoner talk? Shut up and hand it over, anywhere but school Jeremy, we had a deal, and I'm here... I'm not Elena okay?"
He snorts, picking up his drops "Just leave me alone Kat, you'll just snitch to 'Lena"
She glares, taking the drops herself and wetting his eyes "You're an idiot if you think I do that. Now, will you just talk to me?"
He glares right back, pushing past her and barging out, the thud of the door punctuated by the sound of a loo flushing. Scrunching up her nose at her presence in the men's room, Kat walks out, lowering her hat further onto her locks "The things I do for that weasel" she mutters, opening the door and rushing out to the right... only to run into the wall.
"Ow!" Kat staggers back, a fit of sneezes overcoming her squashed nose. She rubs her nose with tears in her eyes with one really important realisation - she really should try not to run into walls.
Only, it wasn't that she ran into.
"I'm sorry, are you alright?" cold hands grip her elbows, the warmth of the person's voice contradicting it.
"Ow..." she sneezes once again, wincing "I-I'm, so so sorry, I-I wasn't, wasn't looking sideways. I mean, I know that I should, but you know we always don't do what we're told to do" she blurts out, cringing "I'm sorry, I-I ramble a lot, you know it's like, like my weakness or min-minus or whatever-" she looks up, her air cutting down to a sharp breath when she her eyes land on the boy "Wow"
"Excuse me?" he cracks a confused smile, his voice appearing clearer to Kat than before. And oh my God, was it heavenly or what. His height makes her look up a few inches, into his green eyes, not piercing jade like hers but oak-green kind ones. His sharp nose ends in a hook, just centimetres above his thin arched lips that now move with his chiselled sculpture-like jaw. Kat felt like she was talking to a model of Vogue.
"Huh?" she blinks, taken aback by the sudden view of the close-up .
"I asked..." he smiles again "...Are you alright?"
She waves around "O-Oh, yea, yes, I'm alright... I'm, uh, sorry to barge into you... Really!" Her words may have indicated that she was leaving, but the girl couldn't help but stay rooted to her place in pleasant surprise.
"Is this, uh, the men's room?" he points to the door, which proving the absurdity of the situation bears a black sign 'MEN'.
"Yes... I mean, not for me, I-I mean it's a, it's a l-long story, yeah... You carry on... sorry" she moves to her left to go but so does he at the same time. To the right, same time. They chuckle and the guy backs off towards the wall, a hand flourishing to the open hallways brimming with gossiping teens already.
Kat smiles sheepishly and staggers off, her mind stuck on the kind new guy with oak-green eyes.
"Oh, my God, Kat! You're not here for one day and already have hotties behind you!" Caroline says. Her exclamation was a mixture of jealous and gossip, reminding Kat of the old days. To others, they weren't really the old days. But that was the thing about grief - the rest of the world moves on, while we were held rooted in the past.
Snapping herself out of her melancholic daze, Kat looks behind to see — sure to her best friend's word — a few boys hanging by the lockers, throwing her looks. Her gut sinks a bit when she doesn't see the boy she ran into earlier. Kat rolls her eyes in a tantrum, turning back to Caroline with a shrug "Not one of them is decent"
They wait outside their History class, watching everyone walk in. It was a ritual of theirs, they stood against the walls of the History classroom - their first period, until their friends came and went in with them. Matt, Tyler and Bonnie... And then Elena. She smiles in warning at the blonde and completely ignores her sister. Kat frowns "What's her problem?"
The eldest Gilbert's mind often spun at the whiplash of emotions she was forced to endure with her siblings. First Jeremy, now Elena.
Caroline throws a little glare by Elena, she never liked the expendable way she treated motherly Kat "Oh nothing, you know, just that the new guy talked to you first. Don't fret on it" she rushes into the class, leaving Kat alone in the hallway.
Or not completely alone.
"Are you going in there?" a voice sounds in there, making Kat jump, throwing off the books in her hand and the satchel off her shoulder in the process. "We have got to stop bumping this way" she chuckles. The boy she wanted to take a look of again, kneels along with her to pick up her discarded stuff.
He chuckles "Okay... I'm Stefan... Salvatore." he smiles and gets up with her satchel. Kat tips her felt-hat with a shaky smile "I'm Kat"
"Kat...?" he slips the satchel over her shoulder with a gentle curious smile. It was the closest he'd been to her after the run-in the first time.
"Oh, it's come to last names now, here" she offers her hand "It's Katherine Violet Gilbert... Blame a very dead ancestor for the name" she chuckles. His hand freezes in place, eyes dilating just a bit "I-uh, class is about to start" he sluggishly points to the door.
Weird change.
"Then Virginia divided in 1863 with the northwest region joining the union..." Mr. Tanner drones on about the history of Virginia as Kat scribbles down in her narrow notes. You know when people say you could feel looks creeping up your spine? She felt that.
Tilting her head behind, she meets curious smouldering green eyes. Biting back her excited grin, she swivels back ahead, her notes and Tanner long forgotten. Her mobile buzzes in her desk.
Bonnie: Hawt-E staring @ U
"Okay... Don't look. Don't look. Don't look" she begs herself, biting her lip with lowered eyes. But her eyes inch to the edge yet again, seeing him.
There's something about him... Alluring.
That night, the Mystic Grill teems with teenagers sipping on sodas and coke as Kat steals some curly fries from Matt's basket. Narrowing his eyes, he lifts her hat off her curly head.
One true way to get what you want from Kat Gilbert - it always involves a hat.
"Hey! No... no!" she whines "Not the hat, anything but the hat! Matt please... Sorry, I said I was sorry!" she snatches it back from him with her tongue poked out childishly.
Tyler shakes his head "What's with you and hats?"
Kat hits his hand "Don't mock the hat Tyler, it's my signature" she blows air towards her open locks on her forehead, successful in getting them to rise. He shakes his head with a roll of his eyes, which divert when Vicki Donovan struts to their table. She was Matt's sister, but they couldn't be more different if they tried.
Vicki had often indicated a rebellious nature after seeing her younger brother become the town's golden boy, when she just remained the 'slut with mommy issues'. But unlike the rest of them, and to Caroline's chagrin, Kat knew that there was a kind girl underneath the bitch facade Vicki had displayed.
"Thanks Vick" Kat smiles and takes the other basket of fries to share with Matt. Tyler and Vicki share some smirking eye contact "Do you need another refill?" she raises a flirty eyebrow. Tyler inches closer to her, handing her his empty glass "I'd love one". She hops off in a hum, leaving Kat and Matt disgusted.
Well, Kat felt more jealous than disgusted, but it was time for her to let go of the childish crush she had on the Ty she knew. It was stupid - yes, but she was long over it.
"Please tell me you're not hooking up with my sister" Matt scoffs, hands freezing mid-air from the basket. Tyler shrugs with mocking innocent eyes, when everyone in the room knew that he was all but "I'm not hooking up with your sister"
Kat groans, rolling her eyes "You're a dick"
Shrugging, he walks off probably in search of Vicki, when Bonnie sits beside Matt from the other side of the booth. They talk about school, the homework on day one and the hot girls and guys. Stefan's name comes up once or twice, but the girls let go of his topic when Matt tensed up a bit too much for their cheesy boy banter.
"So Kat..." Matt tries to not be rooting for information, when in fact they all saw right through him "How is Elena? Has she said anything about me?"
"The last time I ended up poking my nose in your relationship, I almost lost my virginity to Caroline's loser long-distance boyfriend. So... So not getting in the middle of it" she smacks his head. Kat was known to be upfront, and the bitter memory of Matt and Tyler having to beat up Caroline's long-distance booty call for pawing Kat took him out of his zone.
"Why don't you call Elena" Bonnie suggests to the blond quaterback.
He shakes his head, chomping on three curly fries at the same time "I can't, it's too weird! She broke up with me"
Bonnie sighs, her hand around Kat's "Give her some time Matt"
He looks over their shoulder, and back at Kat with a sad mocking smile that somehow feels as if he's blaming her "More time huh?"
Elena just entered the Mystic Grill.... with Stefan Salvatore close to her back.
Very close.
𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫
Well, there goes the first chapter! Don't I just love the 'like it but can't have it' vibe?
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