ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ⇴ ᴛᴠᴅ ² ✓

thirty eight

Billie watched the street from under her shaded eyes. She sat slouched back into her chair at a table outside the grill across from Alaric, sipping beer and pitying themselves. 

Ric had been by himself when Billie walked by, deciding to join him for some much needed relaxation, only to find he had been put in a jail cell by his girlfriend that very morning for the murders around town. "Imprisoned and heartbroken." She marvelled. Billie shrugged, taking a sip of her pint. "You should write a book."

The history teacher shook his head a little, barely having heard her. "You said Meredith was alright. I thought I could trust her." He sank even further into his seat and Billie frowned, feeling a little guilty. Had she been wrong? "That sucks." She tried.

Her short answer prompted an incredulous glare and Billie scoured her head for something better, trying to straighten herself a little. "There's... plenty of other fish in the sea?" 

Alaric laughed out, shortly joined by the girl across from him. She sipped at the liquid as he stared off with a slowly dying smile. "Yeah, maybe." Billie hated to see him looking so sad. He really had the worst luck with women, but she wasn't sure how she could help.

She pursed her lips a little, sitting up and pushing her sunglasses to rest on her head, ignoring the glare of the sun. Harper hesitated almost unnoticeably as her eyes landed on him again, finding the darkness swirling between the fabric of his clothes.

Trying not to be conspicuous, Billie cleared her throat, reaching for her words. "You know, you win some, you lose some. Maybe I could set you up with my aunt Georgie, you'd love her." The clairvoyant emphasized her words, slipping her glasses back onto her nose. She would deal with it later. If there was one thing she'd learned, it was not to confront the problem head on.

She was distracted from her thoughts as Ric began his low chuckle once again and she brightened up as she felt his mood lifting. "What! She's like... a slightly older, slightly prettier, blonder me."

He shook his head while his laughs spilled from his lips, but like the last one, it fell soon, only this time because of a new arrival.

Billie felt an arm wrap around the back of her chair before Damon appeared, dropping into another one beside them. "Who's that? Sounds hot." She couldn't have rolled her eyes harder, gesturing to the heartbroken man in front of her. "I was just saying that Ric here, desperately needs to get laid. Preferably by someone who isn't a complete basketcase."

Damon turns to his friend in offence. "Oh yeah, and when I say it, I'm sleazy." Ric shrugged unapologetically while Billie scoffed into her beer. "You are sleazy."

He didn't respond, having no defence to the truth. "Yeah well, since this whole murder crap is now our problem, we need to find the real killer before Ric gets thrown back in the slammer." The vampire changed the subject.

Billie agreed with his words, but as soon as they left his lips, a sharp stab hit her temple and she flinched, barely containing a hiss of pain. Something was wrong and her head was desperately trying to warn her about it, but Billie was adamant not to say anything around Alaric.

Harper was afraid Damon would have noticed her pain and questioned her about it, but he had been too busy eyeing up the waitress as she came to ask if he wanted anything.

Ric downed the last drops of his cup, standing up and grabbing his jacket off the back of the chair. "As fun as you two are, I've got a pile of papers on my desk to grade by Monday so..." 

Damon nodded his head, letting him go. Billie mumbled a distracted goodbye, reminded of something she'd been thinking about a lot recently.

It was true, she was still under the service of an immortal hybrid who could take her away from Mystic Falls at any time, but Billie wanted to go back to school. It was something that had been on her mind for weeks and for once, she wanted to do something for herself again.

She hadn't realised that she was tapping the ring on her index finger repeatedly against the armrest, attracting the attention of the vampire beside her.

Before he could say anything about it, Billie stood abruptly, chasing after the history teacher before he climbed into his car. 

Damon watched her run over to Alaric, a little disappointed as he had been meaning to talk with her lately. He had noticed her little spaz earlier, but knowing her, she didn't like that stuff put out for everyone to see, so he stayed quiet.

Besides, the dark haired Salvatore rather enjoyed her company. She made him forget about so much, let his brain finally switch off for however long he could get her to stay with him.

"Hey, Ric!" She called out, a little flustered from the hot sun and impromptu run.

Alaric shut the driver door and rolled down the window to talk to her. "What's wrong?" He asked worriedly. Billie rolled her eyes lightly. "Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to ask you for a favour."

His brows went up a notch before he quickly responded. "Yeah sure, anything." 

Billie smiled at his sweetness, grabbing her courage. "I... I want to go back to school." She'd expected him to look a little surprised, but Ric only smiled warmly, looking like he was proud of her.

"And I know it's like almost four months in, but I swear I'll work hard an-" Ric laughed a little, stopping her ramble. "Billie of course." He stressed with a smile. There was no world in which he would have said no to her.

Her shoulders dropped in relief. Billie still fiddled with her fingers, but the smallest humble simper played at her lips. "I just don't want to be a highschool dropout." She laughed lightly. "Not if I can help it."

Ric nodded understandingly. "I'll sort it out. I want to see you in class, Monday morning." He affirmed and Billie bit her lip to control her ecstatic smile, watching as he rolled down the street and around the corner.

She sighed heavily when she was once again left alone on the sidewalk, looking up to the sky and rubbing the worries and doubts from her forehead.

As much as she appreciated his help, Billie was still a little wary. The last time Alaric had shadows swimming at his feet, he'd been possessed by Klaus. But back then, Billie could have told them apart even without her clairvoyance.

It wasn't like that this time.

She whirled on her feet to face the Grill where she'd left Damon, only to find an empty table.