Consumed » Kai Parker

Thirty

"Charlotte...Charlotte....Char!"

My eyes snap open to Caroline hovering over me, her hands repeatedly shaking my arm. Upon meeting my tired gaze, she blows out a sigh of relief and starts tugging me up into a sitting position.

"Caroliiiiiine," I mumble groggily, my sluggish efforts to  lean back into my mattress useless against her supernatural strength.

"Do you even remember what today is?" She asks, finally releasing me and crosses her arms over her pink cardigan.

I think for a moment. "Saturday?" I yawn, "which means I should be sleeping in, so..."

As I start to slump back down into my bed, she shakes her head and grabs my hands, pulling me off of the bed.

"Oh, no you don't," she scolds and I sigh, rubbing my eyes.

"Wow, you really did forget," She says, pursing her lips. I look at her in utter confusion.

"Forget what?"

"Helloooo? Your welcome-back party!" Caroline exclaims, throwing her hands up, "I've only spent all week planning this. It's tonight, how could you forget?"

Oh, crap.

"That..." another yawn escapes my lips, "totally slipped my mind, Care, I'm sorry."

She sighs dramatically, her arms dropping back to her sides. "It's fine, but you need to get dressed now."

I arch an eyebrow at her, glancing at the digital clock next to my bed. "Caroline, it's ten in the morning. The party doesn't start until, like, seven. What's the rush?"

She gives me a pointed look before striding quickly towards my dresser and yanking the drawers open, pulling out random items of clothing and holding them up for me to see.

"You don't have anything rave-appropriate to wear tonight," she says, thrusting the clothes back into their piles and shoving the drawers shut.

"Rave-appropriate?" I repeat, puzzled over what type of clothing is "rave-appropriate."

"You know, bright colors, showing a little–or a lot–of skin," she explains and I bite my lip uncertainly.

"I don't know...I was just going to wear a nice dress or something, maybe some jeans–"

"Jeans?" Caroline looks horrified, then determinedly walks toward me and pushes me in the direction of the bathroom. I'm still half asleep and therefore unable to even try to resist her as she forces me inside of the small dorm bathroom.

"You're the guest of honor," she reminds me, "guests of honor don't wear jeans. Take a shower, freshen yourself up because I'm taking you shopping."

Before I can respond, she slams the bathroom door shut and I hear her boots clicking across the wooden floor.

"I'll be in my dorm if you need me!" I hear her call, "I'm going to get Bonnie and Elena to come along."

The sound of the door swinging shut signals her exit and I exhale slowly, looking at my baggy-eyed, bed-headed reflection in the mirror distastefully. A shower and some new clothes definitely couldn't hurt.

I want to be excited for tonight but all I can really do is pretend the best I can for Caroline and everyone who worked to put this celebration together. It's not that I'm dreading it, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't prefer to just have a night in with the girls tonight. A slumber party would've been a more than satisfactory get-together for my grand welcome-home gesture–a gesture that I didn't need to be so grand at all, despite Caroline's fussing over it.