I'll Be Your Last

I Feel Pretty

Rebekah looked at me warily the moment I walked into her room. The worried look in her eyes stopped me cold.

“What?” I had to ask. “Are you okay?”

Rebekah put some steel in her expression, folding her arms across her chest as she stared at me intently. I didn’t expect this. I expected her to be happy. When I’d proposed a double date with Klaus and myself, Stefan had easily agreed to go and at the time, Rebekah had seemed very eager. So what was up with this?

“Is my brother plotting something?” she asked me directly.

“To take us out of this freakin’ mansion for a fun night which I desperately need,” I said teasing her.

Rebekah didn’t share my amusement. She still looked at me stone-faced.

“If Klaus is planning something…” she said in warning.

“Whoa.” That took me off guard. “What’s this all about?”

“I don’t know, Caroline. Perhaps it’s because the last several times that I’ve planned a fun evening of dress up and dancing, I ended up daggered or otherwise unable to attend.”

Hanging my head, I stopped. I hadn’t even thought about that and I felt like a heel. She was right. Elena had been the one to dagger her before the homecoming dance – just one reason she hated my other friend. But it gave me an idea of something to say…

“If it makes you feel any better, I missed most of the homecoming dance,” I threw in.

“Most of?” Her expression told me she didn’t know that.

“Tyler vervained me to keep me safe since the Salvatores were planning to kill Klaus using your father.”

“The night Mikael died.” Rebekah reflected on that. “I’d forgotten you weren’t in on that one.”

I shook my head.

“I thought I was,” she said sadly.

“Enough of that,” I told her, smiling and trying to get my friend in a festive mood. “Tonight is tonight. And tonight we’re going to be happy and laugh and dance and have an amazing time!”

Rebekah sank onto the edge of her bed, her expression glum.

Looking around the room, I noticed that the door to her huge walk-in closet was open and a few dresses had been pulled out and laid across the chair at her vanity. She’d been thinking about it. But the sheer number of dresses she’d pulled out told me she was conflicted about something.

“Okay, now that we’ve established that your brother isn’t going to dagger you tonight,” I began.

“How can you be so sure of that?”

Poor Rebekah. How was I going to break through all of her worries so she could have a good time with me?

“I just am,” I assured her. “He gave me his sincere smile, not that smirky one where he crinkles up his eyes and you know he’s up to something.”

“I know that look,” Rebekah told with a dry huff of laughter. “All too well.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him to be up to something tonight,” I admitted to her. “But I can almost guarantee you that it doesn’t involve you or any of us here.”

She looked like she wanted to believe me. But I couldn’t keep from feeling like something else was bothering her.

“Okay, spill,” I came to a stop before her. “What else is on your mind?”