Love Sucks | The Vampire Diaries

Tension

*Third Person's P.O.V.*

        "I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team," Caroline gushed while looking at Stefan with a bright smile. After finishing dinner, everyone gathered in the living room. Damon and Caroline sat closely together on an armchair, as did Bonnie and Annabelle, but on the other side of the room. Elena and Stefan were occupying the couch, and even though there was still enough space for one other person to sit down beside Elena, both Bonnie and Annabelle preferred to sit in their own space. Bonnie still didn't feel comfortable around Stefan, while Annabelle was trying to avoid both of the Salvatores. "Oh, Tyler must be seething. But, good for you, go for it,"
        "That's what I always tell him, 'You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you, you have to go get it'," Damon said, just barely stopping himself from smirking as he looked at Stefan.
        "Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today," Caroline said. "It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever gonna learn the routines,"
        "I missed summer camp, too, and I'm pretty decent," Annabelle spoke up.
        "Well, yeah, but you were always amazing at cheer-leading. I mean, I could make up the hardest routine known to human kind, and you'd do it perfectly the very next day," Caroline said, and Annabelle couldn't help but smile a small smile as she remembered how fun cheer-leading used to be for her. She and Caroline would meet up almost every day after school and show the other the routine they made up the night before. Then they would both learn each other's routines, and have small, playful competitions.
        "I'll work with Elena. She'll get it," Bonnie said, giving Caroline a hard look.
        "I guess we can put her in the back," Caroline mused to herself quietly, and Elena turned her head to give her a nasty look.
        "Hey, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena," Damon spoke up, and Elena smiled uneasily as she put her cup to her lips and took a sip of her tea.
        "Oh, it's just 'cause her parents died," Caroline said nonchalantly, and Elena and Annabelle both froze, "Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun, like Anna. I mean, while Elena completely shut herself out, Anna continued to act like she always does. Elena's just too scared to open her eyes and step back into the light..." Caroline said as if it were no big deal, but trailed off when Bonnie gave her a disbelieving look, while Annabelle just shook her head before looking down. That was when Caroline realized what she said, and immediately regretted it as she saw her best friend look down.
        Caroline and Annabelle were always the closest out of the girls. Admittedly, Annabelle was closer to Caroline than she was to even Elena. Annabelle knew all of Caroline's secrets, and Caroline knew all of hers. The two would always stick together. Annabelle tried to help Caroline with her self-esteem and make the blonde realize that she is her own person, that she doesn't have to compare herself to Elena because she is special in her own way, and Caroline was there for Annabelle when her parents died. Even while at summer camp, Caroline would call her friend every day to make sure that she was okay, or as okay as she could be, and to simply talk to her and make her forget about everything bad that happened in her life. Bonnie and Elena never understood the connection those two had, but it didn't matter.
        "And I say that with complete sensitivity," Caroline said in a quieter voice, while Elena glared at her.
        "I'm sorry, girls," Damon spoke up, while Caroline gave Annabelle an apologetic look, silently begging the brunette to forgive her, to which Annabelle gave a small nod and smile, as if it was nothing. "I know what it's like to lose both of your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die,"
        "We don't need to get into that right now, Damon," Stefan spoke up for the first time.
        "Ah, you know what, you're right, Stef, I'm sorry, I-" Damon sighed, "The last thing I wanted to do was bring them up," he chuckled humorlessly, giving his little brother a sarcastic smile, which made Elena's stomach clench in, what might have been, jealousy as she thought about Stefan's previous love interests.