Red Thread ▹ Rebekah Mikaelson

10.

red thread.

10. to a fading friend

__________

     "I feel like I'm going crazy. I'm totally paranoid all the time."

     "You have a right to be. Klaus is still out there, and he knows you tried to kill him."

     "Why hasn't he made a move? There's been no sign of him, nothing. Just my slow spiral into insanity."

     As Bonnie began telling Elena about her repetitive nightmare, the bell over the Mystic Grill door chimed, both Elena and Bonnie instinctively looked toward the sound. Foster didn't look their way as she made her way to the bar. Elena and Bonnie's conversation moved to Stefan, then Damon, then Foster.

"She still mad at you?" Bonnie asked, watching Foster join Damon. "Looks like she forgave Damon."

Elena looked over her shoulder, toward the bar side of the Grill, seeing Foster clap a hand on Damon and Alaric's shoulders before taking a seat on a stool.

"I'm not sure. She has every right to be. I mean, I lied to her, to her face, about the murder of her best friend," Elena sighed, "I do miss her though."

Bonnie smiled, in what she hoped was a comforting manner, "I'm sure she'll come around. She just needs time."

Foster tuned her hearing back, catching the end of Damon trying to convince Alaric to drink with him. She briefly wondered if it looked weird that she was sitting in between her teacher and her older brother at a bar, but threw the thought away. Did it really matter? Her nose scrunched as the bartender started undressing Damon with her eyes and vice versa.

"I can't believe you're making me drink alone," Damon basically whine. He'd already tried convincing Foster, who argued it was barely noon.

Alaric didn't look up from the papers when he said, "I'm busy."

"It's the eve of Klaus-ageddon," Damon announced, "You're doing homework."

"Alaric's the teacher, Damon. He grades the homework," Foster chided, rolling her eyes. Damon waved her off.

"This may come as a shock, but I am not here to hang out with you." Foster snorted. "I'm here to see Jeremy, who is an hour late for his shift."

"Kids today, where are their values?"

Alaric slid a paper over. Foster visibly winced at a large, red 'F' at the top of the page. "That's his midterm paper," Alaric told them, "Copied it off straight the internet, didn't even try to hide it."

The pre-mentioned bartender decided to speak up, overhearing their conversation. "Did you say you were waiting for Jeremy, as in Jeremy Gilbert?" she asked. "He was fired last week."

"And the plot thickens," Foster mumbled into her awaiting shot glass before taking it.

_________

     They moved from the bar to the dartboard. Elena was busy filling up Jeremy's voicemail when Foster began lining up her shot.

"So what time did Katherine end up leaving last night?" Damon asked abruptly. Foster froze for a spilt second but regained her stature.