A Secret To Be Kept (Hosie)

Chapter 5: The declaration of...

AN: Eyyyy it's day 5 which means we're halfway done with flashbacks! Now, I'll admit, today's chapter is a bit angsty and probably not what any of you are expecting but I personally had the most fun writing this one so far. I mentioned this before but for this chapter, I used episode 1x14 (Let's Just Finish the Dance) as a reference so there may be some spoilers for those who haven't watched it yet. Also, please just keep in mind that this isn't the same timeline as the show so although the first chapter was 1x13 and this one is 1x14 there is a 6 month time difference. This chapter also skips time a few times and I tried to make it feel as least rushed as possible but I eventually had to just get to the point so forgive me for that. I think that's all for now so I hope you enjoy!

- B

Flashback

After the kiss, the two never talked about what happened. Josie thought she hurt Hope so she started avoiding her in school and stopped visiting her room late at night. Eventually, however, Josie couldn't take the distance so she found herself in Hope's room again.

Although they were spending time together again Hope constantly avoided talking about what had happened with the kiss. This left Josie in a whole lot of confusion because Hope clearly showed signs of feelings physically but whenever something did happen she kept pushing Josie away.

Josie knew this wasn't healthy for either of them especially with Hope still dealing with Landon's death and her dealing with Penelope but she couldn't help but let things happen.

There would be nights where she'd walk into Hope's room and Hope would just kiss her abruptly and others where she wanted to do nothing but sit in silence.

Today marked 5 months since Hope first kissed Josie and she still didn't know what they were. She hadn't told anyone about their stolen moments so she was left in her own confusion.

The Salvatore Boarding School had agreed to host this year's Miss Mystic Falls pageant so today Josie was busy running around doing errands.

Hope already hated social events and she wasn't ready to go attend something this big yet so she had chosen to stay in her room with her door shut while the rest of the school took part one way or another.

Josie was setting down a box on a table when she heard a familiar but dreaded voice.

"Hey JoJo," Penelope approached Josie in an enthusiastic voice.

"If you can't see, I'm busy Penelope." Josie didn't turn to face her ex.

"I heard you needed an escort for this patriarchal event." Penelope simply said.

"What'd you mean? MG is my escort." Josie said in a slightly annoyed and confused voice.

"I was able to convince him to step down from this one." This frustrated Josie.

"And why would you do that?" Now Josie was facing Penelope.

"Well, if you read my letter you would know." Penelope snarked.

"I'm not going to read your letter, Penelope, I already told you that." Josie reminded her.

"Then stop asking me stupid questions," Penelope said nonchalantly.

Frustrated, Josie just walked away.

As Josie had planned, she sabotaged her own chance to win setting up Lizzie's success at the pageant.

This caused Penelope to finally break.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself! What are you going to do when I'm not here to fight for you anymore?" She then walked away.