𝔉𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔏𝔦𝔣𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔏𝔦𝔞 𝔏𝔞𝔲𝔤𝔥𝔩𝔦𝔫 ⚜️ ᴛᴠᴅ¹

CHAPTER Ⅸ

Elena Gilbert broke up with Damon Salvatore, news of the year. Now the whole girl gang except Bonnie was single. On their way to find new boyfriends? Or enjoy in their lonesome? Who knows right now they just wanted to enjoy the taste of a problem-free life.

"So we all agree? No more moping about life's little failures and no more dabbling in the dark arts of boyfriends past. This is a fresh start." Caroline said as she walked into a classroom with the girl gang in tow and turned around to face them.

"Couldn't agree more. I happen to love fresh starts." Elena joined in.

"Um, I haven't been moping or dabbling," Bonnie interjected as they all sat down. Bonnie beside an unknown blonded, Lia beside her, Elena beside Lia, and Caroline at the end.

"No one likes a bragger, Bonnie," Caroline said as they started adjusting their bags and themselves in their seats. "Today is the dawning of a new era. This is stage one of our metamorphosis into the land of the brave, the free, and the single."

"Bonnie's not single." Elena quickly cut in.

"Bonnie's best friends are single, which makes her single adjacent. So she can be our wing woman." Caroline said as she pulled out the flyer to the Annual Bitter Ball taking place at Whitmore and passed it to Elena.

"'Whitmore's Annual Bitter Ball, a night to celebrate broken hearts, jilted lovers, and bitter singles.' This is our fresh start?" Elena asked with a raised brow as if she kinda did not like the idea.

"No. This is our purge, our cleanse. This is where we rid ourselves of the baggage better known as our tragic and mortifying first semester." Caroline explained with a huge smile on her face as Bonnie nudged Lia's side forcing her to turn to her. Bonnie pointed at the blonde beside them with her brows, as Lia noticed the pen moving on its own and the girl's hovered an inch or two above it as if she was controlling its movement with magic. The blonde noticed the girls staring at her and immediately stopped the pen as Caroline called out the two girls' names. "Bonnie! Lia!" Caroline exclaimed as the two girls faced the blonde vampire again. "You guys in?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like fun." Lia asked while shrugging her shoulders as the two girls shared a look pondering on what they had just witnessed.

«↢⁕↣»

"Well, I'm feeling lucky." Lia heard Damon as she walked past the steps of the Bitter Ball.

"Lucky about what?" She asked making a presence known.

"Good, we found you," Damon said looking happy at spotting Lia before turning back to Bonnie. "Now, we don't need your suspected little witch's help."

"What the hell is going on here?" Lia asked totally confused about the situation.

"What's going on is that you're late and I'm dragging you away from him," Caroline said as she walked towards the trio and dragged Lia away.

"Caroline, wait!" Lia said as Caroline stopped pulling her. "What's wrong?"

"Well, let's see. A: You're late, & B: You're talking to Damon." Caroline answered as she listed out the reasons for her behaviour.

"Alright, I'm sorry. What do you want me to do?" Lia asked not wanting to make Caroline angrier.

"I want you to be a respectful single by finding someone in this room and dance with him," Caroline said motioning toward the room. Lia's eyes landed n Stefan and a smirk grew on her face.

"I'll be right back," Lia said before walking toward Stefan. "Hey"

"Hey" Stefan greeted the brunette vampire. "You're looking nice."

"Thanks. Come on. You can be bitter with me." She said as she tried to make him dance with her.

"Oh. No. No. No. You are the second person that I didn't come here to dance with." Stefan said refusing to dance with anyone at the moment.

"Okay, then what are you not telling Elena?" Lia asked as she overheard his conversation with Elena earlier.

"Way to eavesdrop, Lia"

"You came to a dance of your own free will. Something is up."

"Okay. Fine. Damon fell off the deep end."

"Uh, what do you mean exactly by 'deep end?'"

"For starters, he killed Elena's friend, Aaron."

"He--? What?"

"Yeah and I came here to tell her, but we were dancing and she seemed so happy and I just couldn't..."

"You think if you tell her what he did that she'll give up on him forever?"

"Yeah. I know she will. And I don't think I can pull Damon back from that. I mean, I've seen Damon at his worst, Lia, and I actually think he enjoys the way it makes him feel. It's like the more pain he can cause, the more reasons there are for people to hate him. He wants to confirm everyone's lowest expectations of him and I just honestly don't know how to fight that side of him." Unbeknownst to them, Damon was hearing in on their conversation.

"Why all the dramatics, brother?" Damon asked walking up to them with Caroline and Bonnie behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked his brother.

"Finally, you wanna tell me what's going on?" Lia asked Bonnie in a hushed tone with a tensed look on her face.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not her date. We're not going to break any Bitter Ball rules." Damon said as he moved his hands in the air for dramatic flair.

"How about you just answer the damn question?" Stefan interrupted irritatedly.

"Well, Bonnie is going to find me a witch to do a locator spell on the elusive Dr. Wes Maxfield. She's going to find him, I'm going to kill him. Bon-Bon, should I tell them?" Damon asked looking at Bonnie.

"Enzo has Jeremy. If I don't get a witch to find Wes by midnight, he'll kill him." Bonnie said as she showed them an image of Jeremy tied up somewhere. Suddenly, Elena appeared behind them and started breathing heavily as she spotted the person in the image.

«↢⁕↣»

"You want me to what?" Lia asked as she rushed towards the Whitmore House with Stefan and Elena.

"I want you to hold off Enzo long enough for Elena to free Jeremy," Stefan explained the plan again. "Can you do it? Will you do it?"

"See? That wasn't so bad." Lia heard Enzo's voice coming from inside the house.

"Too late," Lia said as she sped into the house to see Enzo holding a plastic bag around Jeremy's face as if he just choked him. "You want to know what's bad?" Lia asked Enzo making her presence known as Enzo furrowed his brows at the unknown face. "This" Lia said with gritted teeth as she raised her hand giving Enzo an aneurysm who fell down on his knees clutching his head in agony. Stefan sped him and held Enzo in a chokehold against the wall as she stopped the spell and moved towards him. She didn't notice Elena walking in and giving Jeremy CPR.

"You should've left when I told you to," Stefan said as he pinned Enzo against the wall.

"Did I give you the impression that I was taking orders from you? My bad." Enzo said as he changed positions with Stefan, who instantly head-butted him. They started fighting as Lia went toward Elena to help Jeremy. She saw Elena punching Jeremy in the chest as he woke up with a gasp.

"Thank God." Lia sighed in relief as she saw Jeremy alive and crouched down beside him as Enzo threw a stake in Elena's back which Stefan instantly pulled out. She zoned out Enzo's, Stefan's, Elena's, and Damon's interactions as she faced Jeremy. "Are you alright?" He just frantically nodded in reply. She looked up only to see Damon walking out and Enzo already out of the door.

«↢⁕↣»