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Chapter 9

"Of course he's into you," Caroline rolls her eyes, trying to apply her brand new red lipstick on her lips without using a mirror. She always enjoys a good challenge. "And you're into him," she states confidently, smacking her lips together, producing a popping noise.

She just got back from visiting her dad in Wilmington and asked me to come over to her house to check out all the stuff he had gotten her. He still feels guilty for cheating on her mom, leaving them for another woman and moving to another town, even though it's been more than two years already, and Caroline is using that fact to her advantage. She always brings a pile of clothes back with her, clothes I get to borrow, which is a lot nicer than clothes we get to buy in our little 'middle of nowhere' town.

I pull out a cute little summer dress from her suitcase, already seeing myself in it, glancing at her from the corner of my eye. "We're just friends, and you know it," I say with a certain amount of sharpness in my voice.

"No, I know that both of you believe that you're just friends," she says victoriously, as if she just discovered the best comeback ever.

"You're nuts," I shake my head, digging through her suitcase, "Also, you look like a clown. As far as I know, your upper lip doesn't reach all the way up to your nose."

She groans, reaching for the mirror. "Oh my God!" she exclaims when she sees her reflection, "My ultimate dream of applying lipstick without looking at myself in the mirror like an all powerful goddess of femininity is dead!" she pulls a moist tissue out of the box and wipes her face clean.

I release a low chuckle at her tendency to make everything seem more dramatic than it actually is.

"And I may be nuts, but at least I'm not in denial about some things like some people I know," she shrugs, wiping the last traces of lipstick from her face.

"Denial?" my curiosity gets the best of me, "What things?"

A light smirk appears on her tiny, thin lips, as an ultimate sign of victory. "The way he looks at you when he thinks no one else is looking. Or his behavior when you started dating Tyler.."

The skin on my forehead creases with confusion. "What are you talking about? Stefan and Tyler are friends."

"Yeah, which is probably the only reason why Stefan hasn't smashed his face," her eyes go wide with confidence in what she's saying, "His knuckles turned white from squeezing his fingers into a fist every time you guys would kiss."

I pull my eyes away from hers so she doesn't see recognition in my eyes. I remember catching him looking away in those situations, but I didn't pay much attention to it back then. I thought it's weird, wrong, but the thought disappeared from my mind as soon and as simple as it appeared.

"My favorite one is the expression on your face every time you would see him hooking up with another girl," she giggles, probably thinking about how clever and witty she is. Observant as well.

"What expression?" I frown. I don't have an expression designed just for that situation.

"Oh, you know, the one where you squeeze your eyes as if you just swallowed something sour, your upper lip starts twitching and your nose crinkles. It's there for several seconds and it's extremely hard to catch," she says, looking at me carefully in order not to miss my reaction to what she had just shared with me.

I don't do that, I want to say, but as the words start climbing up my throat I start questioning them. Do I really do that?

"Come on, Elena," she rolls her eyes, the tone of her voice indicating that she's completely serious now. Everything up until now was a joking matter. "You can't say you don't find him attractive."