Potential (Book Four, The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 3__The Rager

At home the next day, I was outside on the patio, sitting in the driver's seat of my car, the door open, listening to music. 

Damon opened the front door, leaning against the doorframe.

I looked at Damon. "Good day for a midlife crisis. 172 years, I'd say you're due. Where are you going?" 

"That hunter jacked Tyler Lockwood of his werewolf venom last night, so basically, he's got vampire poison in a bottle," Damon told me. "And I'm gonna find him, and I'm gonna eat him." 

"I'll go with you," I told him.

"Oh, but Nikki, aren't you supposed to start going back to school today?" Damon asked tauntingly. I gave him a sarcastic look, looking away. "Yep, that's right. Can't use being sick with a tumor on your cartoid as an excuse to stay home anymore." I tilted my head toward him. "I just want to kill this guy and get the hell out of town." I looked at him in confusion. "Wasn't that the deal? Whoever Elena doesn't choose, leaves." 

"That was before she turned," I told him. 

"And I stayed to help," Damon told me. "If I take Stefan punching me as the first clue, I'm not wanted here anymore." 

"Listen, you blood shared with his girlfriend and he punched you in the face," I told him. "You deserved it. Why don't you stop being dramatic?"

"No, Nixs, dramatic would be leaving before I kill this hunter," Damon told me, walking away, leaving.

I looked after him, shaking my head. 

~~~~

At school, Stefan, Elena and I sat in history class, none of us speaking.

Elena stared at the front of the room, looking as if she was about to cry.

Stefan looked to the front, sighing, realizing what she must have been saddened by. "It’s the first time we’ve been back in Alaric’s classroom."

"First period and I'm ready to bawl my eyes out," Elena told us. 

Rebekah walked into the classroom with flyers. "Morning, everyone." 

"Morning, Bekah," a student told her.

I sat back in my desk in annoyance. "Just like that, I'm no longer feeling sentimental." 

"So, I'm throwing a little anti-curfew party at my new house," Rebekah told us. "Starts at the fifth period and goes till whenever. Spread the word." She passed out the flyers. "You're welcome to join, Elena, if you'd like to bury the hatchet."

Elena took the flyer. "It's a pretty enormous hatchet." 

Rebekah looked at me. "Oh, Nicola, I didn't realize you were well enough to come back to school. Perhaps you'd like to celebrate your survival by coming to the party." 

"The last time I saw you, you threw me into a wall hard enough to make me start bleeding out and left me for dead," I told her. "And now you want me to come to some lame-ass party?" 

"Well, I'm feeling generous of spirit," Rebekah told us, handing me a flyer.

I took the flyer, looking at it. "New house, huh? Did your brother finally kick you out?"

"He didn't kick me out, I left," Rebekah told us. 

"So, you left the only person on earth that actually likes you?" Elena asked.

Rebekah looked down, retaliating by looking at Stefan, using their past against her. "Well, your boyfriend liked me once." Stefan looked up. Rebekah looked at Elena, smirking. "Actually, a lot more than once."