The curse of the Salvatores

Part 2

Only when she was so far away from the school, that she couldn't even see the top of the tall building did Stefie slow down a bit. She didn't exactly know where she was going. She went where her legs took her, down the familiar streets passing houses and shops on her way. But everything was different now. The buzzed feeling that usually came at her when she skipped school, the feeling of being free and out of the reach of everyone, now stayed away, replacing itself with an unspeakable numbness she couldn't explain. 

It made her head quiet at least. Absentmindedly munching away on the sandwich her mom packed she eventually found herself standing by the entrance of the park. Eh might as well. She thought, strolling inside.

She knew where to go. There was a general hangout spot, where the town's teenagers liked to gather beneath a skate ramp by the playground. Even now, on a Wednesday morning, half an hour after school started it wasn't empty. As Stefie jumped through the small fence, sliding down the shiny skate ramp she spotted the three figures chilling under the metal frame. She recognized each of them right away. The girl with her long dark hair made into many brades, was Clarie. She was resting her head in her boyfriend Jake's lap, blowing little clouds of mist into his face from her vape. He was laughing at something so hard, it made the whole of his skinny frame lean backward, as he took a sip of a bottle in his hand.  Stefie suspected it did not contain water. 

For an outside observer, Jake and Clarie looked like your perfect prom king and queen. A title that they'd surely would have earned, had they been actually attending any type of learning establishment. But nobody had any recollection they ever did, and by now they were probably too old for high school anyway.

A third kid was chatting along with them, as he balanced himself on his beat-down scooter, pulling off random tricks out of the blue. He was a stout boy, with short blonde hair and a very particular resting face that was mostly typical for caged animals and immates. His name was Bobby Hopkins, and he was the closest thing Stefie had to a friend.  As far as anyone knew the Hopkins boy had no parents. He was living here with some distant uncle of his, who mostly spent his days drinking himself to oblivion. The way Bobby and Stefie became friends was thanks to the fact that the drunk uncle's favorite spot for slow self-destruction was Damon Salvatore's bar at the edge of the town's square. It happened way back, in elementary when Stefie's mom was still doing her residency when the girl spent most of her time in the bar after school. Bobby would appear every afternoon, whenever he got hungry to try and drag his uncle home with more or less success. If it didn't work out, which was most of the time he'd just stick around and play with Stefie, graciously accepting the free food Damon provided him with out of guilt. But as the years went by, the kids eventually grew out the misty bar, and  Bobby got consumed by the foster system for a few years. He bounced around the country for a while, before crashlanding back here, where he started.

They all looked up at Stefie's arrival.

"Look who's here! Salvatoreee!" Cheared Jake, holding his drink up in the air.

" So it's true then? Did they finally kick you out of school yesterday?" He asked curiously, leaning closer. Stefie shot a glance at Bobby, but the boy just shrugged in a way that said; They were gonna find out eventually... She sighed.

"Yeah..." Admitted the girl awkwardly. Jake hissed in amusement.

"Here, you drink to that babe..." Said Clarie sleepily, holding the bottle towards Stefie. She pushed it back.

"Ugh...No way in hell I'm still hangover." Jake and Clarie laughed as they did at mostly everything. Bobby on the other hand spun the handle of his scooter around one more time before he thoughtfully looked at Stefie.

"Did your folks freak?" A sheepish grin sneaked up onto the girl's face, as she too dropped down to the concrete lazily leaning against the back of the skate ramp.