Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 30: Roman

The day after her visit with Rebekah, Hope finds herself in her room at the Salvatore School, leaned against the headboard with a charcoal stick in one hand, fine toothed paper in the other. She has barely begun her drawing, no end goal in mind.

She is joined by Josie, in hook-lying position, backwards on the bed. A book magically hovers over her face.

The two have been sitting in comfortable silence for just a few short minutes, both just enjoying time in each other's presence. If Josie notices a distance in Hope's eyes and body language, she doesn't mention it, attributing it to the lack of sleep Hope told her about in a text the night prior.

Josie's attention is pulled away from her book when she reads over the full name of a character in her novel. A thought springs into her mind as she hears the single stroke of Hope's charcoal against her paper, "Hope?"

"Yeah?"

"What's your middle name?"

Hope looks away from her drawing to gaze at Josie, who hasn't looked away from the page in her book. She hesitates before answering truthfully,
"...Andrea."

A small grin appears on Josie's lips. Learning new things about Hope, no matter how big or small, always has that affect on her, "That's pretty, Hope Andrea Marshall...Is it a family name or just something your parents came up with?"

Hope pauses for a moment. She hasn't told Josie either of her parents' names. She obviously can't say they are Niklaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall, Josie would automatically know who she really is.
Her middle name comes from her mother, but how can she explain that without actually saying 'Hayley Andrea Marshall?' Perhaps she could reveal her mother's birth name instead, that would be more difficult to piece together.

"It was my mother's name. Andrea Labonair."

Josie nods before adding a follow-up question, "What's your dad's name?"
Josie tears her gaze away from the book to study Hope's reaction to the question, not wanting to overstep by asking about her family so much. She catches Hope's curious gaze, probably wondering where her sudden increased expressiveness of interest is coming from.

Hope seems to hesitate before responding, "Nik."

Josie finally makes a connection on her own, "Oh, so your little cousin was named after him?"

Hope simply nods, "He was."

Hope can sense the desire for knowledge from Josie. It makes her think back to her emotional conversation with Auntie Bex yesterday. She swallows thickly as she forces her attention back to her drawing, rather frustrated when she realizes there are only a few curved lines on the page.

She begins absentmindedly running the charcoal across the paper, no longer feeling inspired or interested in her work.

Josie finds herself no longer able to ignore the distance between them, noticing the walls Hope has been forging around herself all day, "Babe?"
In lieu of a response, Hope only looks up again, meeting her gaze. "Is something bothering you? You've just been a little distant today."

Hope gives her a weak smile, "I'm fine, just got a lot on my mind. That's all."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Josie observes as Hope ever so slightly grips at the edge of her paper, tearing her gaze away and her jaw tenses. That's not a good sign.

Hope takes a deep breath, opening her mouth to speak when there's a knock at the door.

Saved by the bell. Hope turns her attention to the door instead, "You can come in."

The door opens as Caroline steps into the room. Josie sits up, removing the spell holding her book in the air and turning her body to face her mother, "Hey mom!"