Fix You

Chapter 1

My father never wanted me. He didn't bother to keep it a secret. His sons were his pride and joy as long as they obeyed him. As his only daughter, I was practically worthless in his eyes. Just a burden that needed to be pawned off on the first man willing to marry me.

Then, our mother died. And my already hateful father managed to get worse. Naturally, he blamed me, as I got ill first. And it all went downhill from there. The only day he was ever anything close to nice to me was Sundays, when our family attended church. He had to put on the mask of a grieving widower trying to do right by God and his three children. Sundays were also the only day my father was anything close to proud of me as a lead singer in the church choir.

Part of me always wondered if my brothers blamed me for losing our mother as well, or if that was just my anxiety after years of torment at my father's hands. I never had the nerve to ask them, not even after everything that happened in our childhood home. We all decided it would be in all of our best interests if we went separate ways for a while, pretend as if our bloodline was snuffed out by the vampires the town feared. We had agreed to keep up with each other as much as possible, and then both of my siblings stopped responding to me. Not that I expected much from Stefan to begin with. What worried me was when Damon's messages started to come through more and more infrequently. And as much as I didn't want to, I had to bring myself "home", despite how much it twisted my stomach into knots to have to do. I close the door on my tiny beaten up sedan, never having been one for luxurious cars like my brother. I stand in the driveway, staring up at my childhood home. My stomach churns as I look at it, perfect as it's ever been. For a brief moment, I consider getting back into my car and just calling Damon on repeat until he answers, the town retreating in my rearview mirror.

My hand is inching for the car door handle when the front door swings open, a face I thought I'd never see again staring at me.

"Who are you?" She asks me, almost sounding jealous.

"Who are you?" I retort, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Elena Gilbert." She says and I nod as if I recognize the name.

"Is Damon home?" I ask, and now the jealousy is almost rolling off the girl.

"I don't think he's up for visitors right now." She tries to lie and I roll my eyes.

"It's a good thing I'm not a visitor then, isn't it?" I ask as I brush past her and into the house. Its been updated over the years, but still feels dark and depressing.

"Damon!" I call as I stroll through the foyer into the living room, he pops around the corner near the stairs looking at me shocked.

"You broke your promise." I say before he can greet me. "You've been ignoring me."

"I've been busy." He says and I just stare at him.

"Does that have anything to do with the Katherine look alike I passed outside?" I ask and he refuses to meet my eyes. I barely refrain from rolling my eyes at him and scan the room. My eyes fall on a letterman jacket that can only belong to Stefan and shock rolls over me.

"What the hell, Damon. When were you going to tell me that you and Stefan were living together again?" I say, trying to hide my hurt.

"It's a recent thing." He says and now it's my turn to not make eye contact, tears threatening to spill over.

"You hate this house anyways." He points out snarkily and my eyes flicker to his.

"My bad for thinking my brothers would want me around, won't make that mistake again." I say and raise my hands in faux surrender.

"I just wanted to make sure you were still alive. I'll get going." I say and turn to walk out the door.

"Serena. Stay. I'm sorry, I should have told you." Damon says and I turn to face him again, scrubbing the fallen tears from my cheeks.

"I don't know how long I'm in town for." I tell him with a shrug, "And if I decide to stay, I'm not going to that hell pit they call a high school."

"What have I missed so far, because it's clearly no coincidence you and Stefan are living together and there's a dead ringer for Katherine Pierce here." I say and flop onto the sofa.

"Elena? That's Stefan's current girlfriend." Damon says and I can hear a hint of disdain in his voice.

"Huh. From the way she treated me outside, I would have thought she was here for you." I respond nonchalantly.

"She was jealous?" He asks and I nod.

"Of course, it probably didn't help that I didn't tell her I'm your sister." I say and look back at him.

"She doesn't know you have a sister, does she?" I ask and Damon shakes his head no.

"This should be fun for me then. What time does school let out? Maybe I should show up to torment Stefan too."

"Three and you should try to be nice." He says and I laugh.

"I'm gonna be nice. It's not her fault she doesn't know about me. It's just gonna be funny to see the look on her face when she finds out I'm your sister."

It doesn't take much to find Stefan's car in the parking lot of the high school. I hoist myself on the hood, and sit cross legged in the center of it. Ignore the flock of teenage boys who's heads are on a swivel as they jog by.

About ten minutes after the final bell, Stefan appears Elena Gilbert in tow. Her face races through several different masks of emotions before settling on indifference.

"This is the girl that was at your house earlier." She points and I give her the trademark Salvatore grin.
"Serena what are you doing here?" He asks sounding as if he's already exhausted with me.
"Is that any way to greet the sister you haven't seen in years?" I ask and barely hold back my giggle as Elena's jaw drops.
"Why are you here?" He says, ignoring my statement and I roll my eyes.
"My mistake for thinking either of my siblings would be happy to see me." I say and slide from the hood of his car.

It's not like I was expecting a red carpet to be rolled out, but it stings knowing that neither of them have even a modicum of happiness to see me. Or the tact to at least fake it.

"Don't worry, I won't be in town much longer. I'd hate to be burden on your lives." I say and stuff my hands into my pockets and walk away.