you and me, forever.

2. Hello, Sister

She had returned upstairs and started to unpack the bags she had brought home, and just as she finished with the last bag, The door opened downstairs once again, this time accompanied by the voice she had been expecting.

"Mom! I'm home!" Caroline shouts as she puts her purse down.

"Hi sis" Katie say standing at the top of the stairs with a big smile.

"KATIE?" Caroline yells and swallows the older girl in a hug, "what are you doing here?? How are you here?? Is something wrong? How have you been?" She rambled and Katie just laughed.

"Oh how I've missed your rambling Care," She says back, before noticing her little sister also had tears in her eyes, "I'll explain everything...I've missed you so much," she quickly adds, and this time she pulled Caroline in for another embrace.
•••

They were seated on the porch bench of their home and taking in the day when Katie looked over at her sister and decided it was time to start explaining, at least the short version of why she was back.

"College didn't turn out to be what I thought," She started to say, "A lot happened, and it was great until about a few months ago."

"What happened?" Caroline says with concern written all over her face.

"It's a really, really long story I'd rather not get into fully right now, but in short, I'm gonna be home for a while. I need a massive life reset and a huge dose of family time," She smiled at Caroline. It was always funny to her how her and her little sister always seemed to get along well. Despite all the misconceptions about the little sister being annoying to the older one, or the older one practically traumatizing the youngest, they never fell into those categories. To them, they were best friends who just happened to be sisters. Sure, they argued like siblings, and occasionally got on each other's nerves, but could never stay mad at one another for more than a few hours.

"Promise you will tell me if I can help? I want to know everything that happened, but I understand you just got settled," Caroline says and Katie grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze.

"I promise. I love you Caroline."

"I love you too," she sighs squeezing her big sister's hand in return.

"I would much rather know what's been going on with you, I'm dying to know all the high school drama and boy troubles" Katie smirks.

"Oh believe me there's a lot to tell" Caroline laughed.

With that, the two girls ended up sitting outside talking for hours, about anything and everything, no matter how big or small the significance was, as the day started to drift away and the sun started to set.

•••

"So Tyler Lockwood...wow," Katie laughed and Caroline gave her a slight shove.

"He's a lot different than what you remember, we all are I think.." Caroline sighs, her mind wandering off.

"I could imagine...I have been gone far too long...Have you seen Dad at all?" Katie asks. She knew the answer was probably no, but she hadn't know if the family dynamic shifted since she's been away. She also hadn't forgotten the things she learned from her father before she left for school, and she found herself wondering who she could confide in about it. Surely, her sister would be 18 next year, so what was the harm bringing it up now?

"Nope. Not for a while. Have you?"

"No, just when I went to see him before moving into college three years ago. We keep in touch here and there though, not often but it's something. When I saw him all those years ago, he told me some weird things about the family history in Mystic Falls," Katie says peaking her little sister's interest.