I'll never love again [1]

THE BIRTHDAY

Nat was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had been awake for almost an hour now. Today was hers and Elena's birthday, and all she could think about was Elijah and Klaus. It had been almost two months since she last saw them, but she couldn't get them out of her mind. The dreams had stopped for now, and the lapses had been less frequent thanks to Jonas' herbs, but she would run out of them soon. Bonnie had been trying to find which herb Jonas had given Nat, but no luck still. She was also trying to get more of the herbs she had given her to help her sleep, but she couldn't find anything either. That meant that in a week or two she would start getting her memories back, and soon after that she would start having lapses again.

She sat up and walked to her wardrobe, looking through her clothes. Katherine had been sending her clothes over the summer, with little postcards from the places she was in, which she put in a cork board hung on her wall. Nat was trying to get out of her comfort zone, her first step being a haircut and giving away some of her clothes to make space for Katherine's. Some of the clothes were definitely not the type she would normally wear, but she decided to do it anyway. After a moment looking through her wardrobe, she found a pair of denim shorts, a white blouse and a pair of converse. She quickly got ready and walked out of her room, heading straight to Elena's.

She knocked on the door and a second later, her sister opened it, already dressed for the day. Elena had been trying to find Stefan all summer, enlisting hers and Damon's help. Nat understood her need to find him, but she knew Klaus would never let him come back. For some reason, he wanted him by his side. But Nat still helped her, looking out for her in the process and trying to avoid the hybrid finding out her sister was still alive.

"Happy birthday, Lena."

"Happy birthday, Nat." They smiled at each other and Elena walked out of her room, closing the door behind her. "Matt just called me." She said holding out her phone. "Jeremy's late for work." Nat sighed and gestured for them to go to their brother's room to wake him up. Elena walked in and pulled the curtains up, waking Jeremy immediately.

"Aaah!" He groaned covering his face. "Early. Bad!"

"It's not early." Nat said and pulled his cover off.

"You're late for work. Matt just called." Elena said and he looked at the clock on his nightstand.

"Well, maybe he'll fire me."

"Aim high." She said before walking out of the room. Nat turned back to Jeremy and glared pointedly at him. He rolled his eyes and pointed at the door, gesturing for her to leave. She raised her arms up and walked out, following Elena. Suddenly Elena's phone rang and when she checked the caller she saw it was Caroline. She answered it and put it on speaker so Nat could hear too.

"Hi, Care." Nat said out loud.

"Hey, Nat."

"What are you doing?" Elena asked walking down the stairs with Nat.

"Just shopping for the party you're trying to bail out on." The vampire told them. They didn't feel like having a birthday party after everything that had happened these months, but Caroline organized one anyways, trying to cheer them up.

"We never said yes in the first place." Nat reminded her entering the kitchen and seeing Ric trying to make coffee.

"You were never going to, which is why I planned it anyway." Caroline retorted. "And my mom wants you to call her, Elena."

"Did she find something?" Her sister asked eagerly.

"An animal attack in Memphis. It's the third one this week in Tennessee." Caroline said.