LOVE ²

3 ⋆ let it be

Thierry had been keeping a close watch of Diego and Annabel's recent expeditions across New Orleans. For weeks now, whenever Diego wasn't with Marcel and Annabel wasn't wherever she disappeared to most days for hours at a time, they were together. Thierry didn't know where they went, but Annabel's moodiness seemed to have faded significantly since they started hanging out more, which everyone was grateful for.

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Annabel was standing by her dresser, folding clothes, with her phone propped up against a bottle of perfume, in a lengthy Facetime conversation with Caroline Forbes, of all people, since apparently Caroline had run out of people in Mystic Falls to complain to. "Yeah, but Damon? I mean, come on!"

"Would you rather her go back to Stefan?" Annabel asked, raising her eyebrows as she looked into her phone camera.

"Yes! Well, no- I don't know," she groaned and threw her head back dramatically.

"Caroline! People change, okay? She died, she's a vampire now. She had the sire bond, she lost Jeremy, she turned off her humanity, she burned her house down, now Jeremy's back - she's been through a lot in the last year. And if Damon is the one that she's going to for help getting through it, I would just step back, let her do her own thing. Even if Damon isn't your favorite person, clearly he's helping her. And she loves him, and you love her, so... You just gotta let it be."

"Yeah... I just-"

"You're worried about her," Annabel finished. "And that's okay. She's your friend and friends worry about each other. Just," she sighed, trying to figure out the right way to phrase it other than telling Caroline to fuck off and get outta Elena's business, "take a step back, forget your personal issues with Damon, and just take a second to look at this whole thing objectively."

"You're right," Caroline said definitively, "thank you. Hearing it from someone outside of the drama - especially you - it helps."

"What do you mean 'especially you'?"

Caroline was quiet for a moment. It was her turn to figure out how to nicely phrase her thoughts. She wanted to say, Because you're a total bitch with no filter, but she figured that, as well-intentioned as her words were, they wouldn't come off that way.

Annabel watched her struggle, and was expecting something mean to come out of the blonde's mouth, but luckily her words were far from it.

"You're honest. You don't care about sugar-coating things. And you've got a different perspective, one I don't think any of my other friends have."

Did I hear that right? Annabel thought to herself. Did she just say we're friends? Wait, are we friends? Is this what having female friends is??? "Well, I'd rather hurt someone's feelings than lie to them," she says.

"It's refreshing," Caroline said. "Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you. Jeremy accidentally let slip that your birthday's coming up, so expect some mail."

"Mail?" Annabel repeated. "You sent me mail?"

"Don't act so surprised, Bella. You weren't in Mystic Falls all that long, and most of us either didn't like you or were scared of you when you came, but... you made an impression. At graduation, especially. You were the one who called Klaus to come save Damon, you were the whole reason he was even coming to Mystic Falls in the first place."

"Oh, don't be modest," Annabel joked, then seeing through the phone Caroline's face heating up.

"Okay, you were the main reason. Either way, we care about you. Even if you can't see that, we do. Elena especially. You were there for Jeremy when she couldn't be. And she respects you for that, we all do." Annabel was quiet, and Caroline was afraid she said something wrong, that she somehow offended the teenager, until she saw a rare smile on her face and relaxed a little.