Hidden Hope

Ch. 4 Watering Hole

Ariella's POV

When Caroline said there may be a few more people than Matt mentioned, I think she forgot to say that she meant half of the school would be here. Seriously! I think there's close to a hundred teenagers here. I didn't even think this many people lived in this town.

"Ellie, Caroline, over here!" Matt yelled from the water. We both walked over to join him and his friends. 

"Damn Ellie. I didn't know you could get hotter." Tyler swung a hand over my shoulder, while checking me out.

"Still not happening, Ty." The guys all laughed at his failed flirting. 

"A guy can try." He shrugged his shoulders with a smile still gracing his face. 

"Ellie, I want you to meet a couple of our friends from school. Most of the guys are on the football team with Ty and I. This is Will, Ben, and Ronnie."

"Hi, guys." I gave them a little wave. "It's nice to meet you all. I'm Ariella. I just moved here yesterday."

"Well that explains it." Will said. "I was wondering why we haven't seen you before. You're not the type of girl that you don't notice." A blush rose to my checks at what he was insinuating. 

"Oh, but that makes you blush!" Ty yelped. "Not the million times I told you you were hot?"

"Maybe you just don't have game anymore, Ty. Are you loosing your edge?" Ronnie joked. 

"Oh you little..." Tyler jokingly growled at Ronnie, but everyone just broke out into laughter. It wasn't hard to see these guys are good friends with how they poke fun at each other. 

"Alright, I have to introduce her to some other people. I'll catch up with you guys later." 

"See ya Matt. I'm sure we'll see you again soon, Ariella. See you later, Caroline." Ronnie said.

"It was great meeting you three!" I said as they started heading to the lake. 

"Bye guys!" Caroline said. "Great, now we can introduce you to our friends!" She grabbed my hand and started pulling me over to a group of people on the other side of the lake. 

"Hey! This is Ariella, she's new here." Caroline excitedly told the group. 

"Oh hi! I'm Elena and this is my friend Bonnie. This is Damon." She was standing closely to this Damon guy. Are we not introducing him as the boyfriend? Wouldn't she want people to know? I took a quick at Caroline to see if her face would give anything away. Boy did it. I guess they're not together yet. 

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. So, you just moved here?" Bonnie asked. She seemed nice enough.

"Yea, I'm actually staying with Alaric." The confusing that took over Elena's face was a little funny. She looked ready to start firing questions at me, but was stopped when another guy joined the conversation.

"Hey! Is this Ariella?" He asked. I took a quick look at him before nodding yes. "Hi, I'm Jeremy. Alaric was telling me about you and how you'll be staying with us for a bit."

"Oh! It's nice to meet you Jeremy. I hope you don't mind?"

"Of course not. I mean, he didn't say much about why you were coming, but lightly mentioned a couple things. I can relate and I'm so sorry to hear about them." 

"Thank you." A sad smile placed itself on my face. 

"Wait, you're living in my house? Why don't I know about it? Why didn't anyone ask me?" Elena finally got her questions in. 

"Alaric tried to call you, like ten times. And talk to you this morning before you ran out of the house to go talk to Damon. Have you even checked your phone?" Jeremy looked at her gobsmacked. 

"It was important! How could you make this decision without me?! I live there too." Sensing the aggravation and distress from the girl, maybe I wasn't welcome in that house?

"I don't have to stay there. I can figure something else out if it's a problem."

"Don't even worry about it. Alaric and I are completely fine with it. Elena is just pissed that she ignored the problem too long and we made a decision without her."

"Thank you , Jeremy. Please let me know if there's ever a time that it doesn't work anymore. I will figure something else out."

"Don't worry about it. Just enjoy the party and I'll see you later, okay?" I gave him a quick nod with a smile, appreciative towards his words. He walked back over to another group that got loud when he returned.

"Alright, I'm going to grab something to drink. Anyone want anything?" I think I need a second to myself, especially with how Elena keeps looking at me.

"Could you grab me whatever you're drinking?" Caroline asked. Everyone else shook their heads. Good, I didn't have that many hands anyway. 

"Sure, no problem."

"Do you need me to bring you over?"

"Thats okay, Caroline. You don't have to babysit me. I'll be fine. I want you to enjoy the party too!" She gave me a little laugh and smiled as a walked away. No reason to make her lead me around if I'm capable. 

I found the area with the drinks and couldn't help but think about everyone I've met so far. Matt has been nice and introduced me to Caroline, which I'm thankful for. Ty has made me laugh and is playful with his silly attempts to get me flustered. Caroline is lining up to be a great friend and I'm really happy about that, especially with what's happened this week. Bonnie is quiet, but seems okay. Jeremy has been very welcoming. Damon hasn't said a word to me yet, which could be good or bad. Elena, on the other hand, does not seem to like me. I may try to keep my space there for both of our best interests. 

"Ariella, right?" A new voice said behind me. There was a hardness to a voice. I turner around to see a guy with broad shoulders and forest-like eyes.

"That's me. And you are?"

"I'm Stefan. You met my brother, Damon, before."

"Oh, yea. Hi, it's nice to meet you."

"Look, I'm not in the right mindset to sugarcoat this. I've been going through a rough patch and talking to you is new. It's like a breath of fresh air. Can you do me a favor and talk for a couple minutes? We can talk about anything you want. My mind hasn't felt this clear in months." His eyes look liked there was a battle within. One part of him wanted to go crazy, the other wanted to feel this newfound comfort. 

"Um, sure. I don't see why not. You'll have to deal with my funny ideas though. Just remember you brought this upon yourself." Before I knew it, laughter was coming out of me. He doesn't know how interesting this can get. "Can we go sit on the logs by the fire though?"

"Yea, let's go." Stefan stepped towards me, and grabbed my hand. A shock of surprise went through me as he interlaced our fingers. I just looked at him and his sights remained forward, unaffected by my surprise. This man must have all the confidence in the world. I just shrugged and gave his hand a little squeeze. What's a little physical contact?

Too busy thinking about Stefan and his words and fingers wrapped around mine, I missed Caroline coming towards where we were standing, who quickly froze upon seeing us together. I missed the surprise on her face after Stefan's words, and even more, the confusion that melted into her features when he grabbed my hand and walked towards the fire. Turning around with an idea in her head, her drink was left forgotten on the table.