Follow the Lilies | Damon Salvatore

01: The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Chapter One
The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

My journal had always been my best friend. In that way, I was incredibly introverted. My thoughts were sacred, and they were something – unlike most things in my life – that actually held relative value. The light-blue cover was frayed in the corner, and it had an, almost, wavy texture that had been imprinted from my grip. The pages inside were scrawled in messy handwriting of the thoughts I deemed worth documenting from January 1st to now. The entries mostly consisted of anything about basic, high school drama to the demons that plagued my mind.

As much as I was absolutely obsessed with my journal, the real world required at least a minimal amount of human interaction to survive and function normally. (Not that I even succeeded at that, but still). My closest human confidante was Rose Elaine Waters. As you could probably tell from her name, she was the spitting image of elegance. Strawberry blonde hair, bright green eyes, legs for days, and an ungodly fetish with Starbucks. And, like every high school story, all the girls wanted to be her, and all the guys wanted to be with her.

We'd known of each other since seventh grade, but our freshman year was when we really became friends. Of course, it confused people at first. Why was Rose Waters, an actual walking goddess, friends with me, Kelsey Walker? Well, it came down to the simple science of compromise. Rose and I had never actually laid out the terms of our friendship, but it basically consisted of shaved ice and someone to talk to.

Slut Hut was notoriously popular in Mystic Falls. When it came to places to eat/hangout, it was either the Mystic Grill or Slut Hut. Despite what you're probably thinking, Slut Hut was not a strip club. Inside, you'd find worn down couches and futuristic decorations, where you could sit and enjoy some flavored shaved ice. Their selections were a little pricey, but when it came to snow cones, no other business could do it better.

The icy treat had been a delicacy in our friendship since the beginning. It wasn't ideal for cold months, but even then we'd manage to find something to bond over. White Water, a flavor at Slut Hut that consisted of vanilla and blueberry, was my personal favorite. It would always dye the center of my tongue a fluorescent blue, and Rose would always comment that it matched my eyes. I begged to differ. There was nothing fluorescent about me.

My brown hair was long and lacked volume. I was pale – not an unhealthy pale, but slightly ghostly – with random freckles that scattered along my neck and torso. My blue eyes were the only interesting thing about me, and then again, they weren't actually that interesting. I was little over five feet, a little under 120 pounds, and lacked almost all coordination throughout my body. I was seventeen, with my birthday coming up in ten days.

My mom had been planning for weeks. She wanted to have this giant party, invite all our friends and family, and make it one to really remember... Yes, she was that mom. Teresa Walker was no woman to be messed with. Her daily ritual of 80's karaoke while making breakfast, and nightly carry-outs of the various restaurants in town truly exploited her "cool mom" status. At 6:00 PM, she'd leave to go work the night shift at our local hospital – she was a nurse practitioner – and stay awake well into the morning to cook me breakfast and see me off to school.

Although I had my license, my car had been broken down for months. It's fashionable Jeep Renegade title is what had drawn me in initially, and I had been completely oblivious to the sketchy behavior of the guy who I bought it from. Moral of the story, if he has a mustache... don't trust him.

Rose started giving me rides, and it's been a daily tradition ever since. She comes in for breakfast, we eat, we ride to school, and then we suffer through the day with minimal complaining. After school, of course, we visit Slut Hut and either op to eat it there, or bring it back to the house.