Cold Hearted | Damon Salvatore

nineteen

19. Miss Mystic Falls

Aria was fast asleep when the ringing of her phone woke her up from her deep slumber, she let out an annoyed groan and without opening her eyes she grabbed her phone from the side table and answered whoever was calling her, before she could get even one word out, her best friend started yelling into her ear.

"Aria Connor!" Caroline yelled, immediately causing a sleepy Aria to move the phone from her ear,  "Where the hell are you?! You haven't answered any of my texts, you're not even at school, do you realise how much you have missed?!".

"School?" Aria asked confused, finally opening her eyes and looking at her surrounding in confusion, she realised she was in Damon's bed, that's when everything that had happened last night came crashing back to her.

"Yes school, Aria" Caroline said, "You know the place you go to study".

"I'm sorry Caroline, my alarm didn't go off and I'm guessing I overslept because of that" Aria said, feeling guilty for making Caroline worry.

"Of course you overslept" Caroline mumbled, "You realise how much you've missed?".

"And what exactly did I miss again?" a curious Aria asked.

"Well first of all, Bonnie's back" Caroline informed.

"Wait what, seriously?" Aria asked, sitting up on the bed in shock, "You better not be joking with me Care".

"I promise I'm not joking Aria, Bonnie's really back" Caroline said, "Oh and they announced the Miss Mystic Falls competition".

"The what now?" a confused Aria asked.

"The Miss Mystic Falls competition" Caroline repeated, "You know the competition me, you and Elena signed up for".

"The competition supermom made me sign up for" Aria finally remembered, her mind going back to the day Miranda Gilbert dragged Aria out of her bed and made her sign up for the competition, at first Aria hated the idea of it, but Miranda had hyped Aria up, she told Aria the time she and Aria's mom had participated in the competition, she told her how much they enjoyed it, she had told Aria that at times it was important to get out of her comfort zone and do something they would never do, eventually Miranda had managed to make Aria really excited for the competition, but now, after Miranda's death, Aria no longer had any interest in this competition.

"Yeah" Caroline whispered, in a sympathetic tone, "The interview for the competition is happening today at school and you need to be here".

"I don't know Caroline, I only signed up for this competition because of supermom, I wanted to win for her, but now she's dead, there's no point in me competing" an apprehensive Aria admitted.

"Yes there is, Aria" Caroline stated, "You need to compete in this competition for me, so what if Miranda is not here, I'm here, and I want you to compete and win this competition".

"Caroline, I know you want to win this competition and I don't want to compete with you" Aria said.

"Aria I'm competing with Elena not you, I'll never compete with you, and if you win or I win, it's the same thing" Caroline said.

"I don't know Care" an unsure Aria said.

"Please Aria" Caroline pleaded, "You can even ask Damon to be your escort".