Salvatore War

Chapter 17 - Best Friends Forever

Jed's pov

"Come on Jed," Hope called behind her as we ran through the woods, jumping over fallen trees and ducking under low hanging branches, racing back to school.

"Slow down, Hope! You're gonna trip!" I called after her, but she just kept running full speed without looking back. We technically weren't even supposed to be in the woods unsupervised but Hope always wanted to go exploring and she was my only friend so I did whatever she wanted.

"She's gonna be here any minute, Jed, come on!" she yelled again and this time I sped up, catching up to her.

We finally reached the clearing at the edge of the woods where the trees meet the fresh cut field and I saw Hope's face light up, looking towards the school. As I followed her gaze we both began running again, back to the main building as fast as we could.

"MUM!" Hope yelled as we reached the school and she leapt into her mother's arms, hugging her tightly.

"Hope! I've missed you so much Baby," Hayley expressed as she wrapped her arms around her daughter. Hope hadn't shut up about her mum coming to visit for weeks and I was just as excited. I never had a mum, she died when I was born but Hayley was always like my mum too - I asked her if she could be my mum when I was seven, because I didn't like not having one and she said yes. I'd even spent a few summers at Hope's family's house in New Orleans where we'd play with the other werewolf kids everyday in the Bayou- I was the only student at the school that knew who she really was back then, it was our little secret.

Hope finally let go of Hayley and she went straight over to me and swept me up in my arms as if I were her real son, kissed my head and told me she'd missed me too.

"You're the werewolf, right? The one that used to stay at Klaus' house with Hope, Hayley and Freya over summer break when you two were little," Hope's brother, Marcel, asked as we trudged through the woods at night, still looking for Hope.

There were search parties out everywhere.

"Yeah," was the only thing I replied as we continued to walk.

"Weren't you two best friends for like four years?"

"Six - seven to thirteen," I correct. "Why does it matter?"

He ignored my question entirely and carried on. "And then she just stopped mentioning you, why?" He asked instead.

"We just fell out, I guess," I answered half-heartedly, slightly annoyed and just wanting to find Hope and make sure she's alright.

"Why, though? There has to be a reason." He pushed.

"Because we were thirteen! I was stupid and wanted popularity and girls and parties and she didn't. So I ditched her, okay, because I was stupid. That's the reason."

"Huh, I mean I guess that makes sense. You became friends with that Roman kid when he got to the school, started tormenting that poor, weird, werewolf kid, Henry and got everything you thought you wanted. But it wasn't actually, was it?"

"What are you talking about? It was exactly what I wanted."

"No, because if it was, you would've outed Hope about being a Mikaelson - but you didn't, you kept her secret for years."

He had a point. "If I did that, Hope would have to leave. I didn't want her to leave, that's never what I wanted. Besides," I sighed, "if Hope left I wouldn't just be losing her, I'd be losing the only mother I'd ever known too. Even when Hope and I stopped being friends Hayley was still there for me whenever I needed her and would visit me too whenever she visited Hope. My dad always blamed me for killing my mother, he never cared but Hayley did. She even came down to the school when I triggered my curse - she cared about me, there's something about being cared about that's just nice." I explained, he nodded in understanding or something and we continued to walk in silence for the rest of the night.

"Best friends forever?" She'd asked, holding out her pinky.

"OK, Hope. I'll be your best friend forever," I'd agreed - shaking her pinky with my own.

THREE HOURS LATER

Landon's pov

It was three a.m.

The search parties had been called back to the school hours ago even though we hadn't found Hope - it had gotten too late for all the students to continue looking.

Now though I was pacing around my room, completely uselessly. Unable to sleep without knowing Hope okay, yet still unable to go out and look for her. The storm she'd created was still raging outside and the rain hadn't ceased.

I was about to go and see if anyone else was awake, surely the others wouldn't be able to sleep without worrying about Hope as well - but that's when my door opened and she walked through it.

"Hope! Are you okay? We've been worried sick about you!" I said as soon as I saw her, walking up to her and cupping her face in my hands.

"I'm fine," she answered meekly, "I'm fine, I want to go to bed," I pulled her into my chest and she buried her face in it, hugging me back tightly. She was freezing, and soaked, she must have been walking around in the rain the last fourteen hours she'd been missing.

She pulled herself away from my chest and I looked down at her. She looked exhausted.

"Let's get you into some dry clothes, Baby, okay? Then you can go to bed," She nodded, meekly again and sat on the end of my bed while I grabbed her a hoodie from my drawers.

I brought it back to her and she removed all her wet clothes and put the hoodie on over her otherwise naked body before climbing into my bed. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her tiny body into my chest - she seemed so fragile. Hope cuddled further into me and fell asleep within seconds, I however stayed awake much longer just staring at her tear stained face and hoping she'd feel like herself again in the morning.