Body & Soul - Klaus Mikaelson

Thirty-Six

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"So Alaric is trying to pull himself together," Caroline inquires as we wander around the school gym attempting to set up for the decade dance. The majority of it's been done, Rebekah definitely put in the work yesterday, but she's nowhere to be seen this morning. Caroline is back in her element, running around ordering about students on where to place anything and everything twenties themed. 

Elena is with us, finally back from retrieving Jeremy. She feels safer now, having an eye on Jeremy again. But I know she feels guilty too, things happened while she was gone and they weren't very hidden from a traumatized Jeremy. Needless to say, but Elena and the Salvatore brothers need to talk out the worst of it.

Caroline orders someone about decorations before turning back to us, "Why is that a bad thing?"

Elena shrugs as we stop by a table overflowing with twenties decorations. Elena playfully sifts through it. It's more of a distraction tactic than anything, but if it settles her mind then anything is game, "Just I wish there was something I could do."

I shift softly on my feet. We all wish there was something we could do. We just need to keep moving forward, keep finding ways to make it to tomorrow no matter how hard, like we always do. My jaw ticks, trying to ignore the discomfort growing in my chest at the inability to help. I pick up a prop chandelier off the table and grimace at Caroline, "Where do you want me to hang this thing?"

Caroline scowls snatching it from my hand. For a minute I think she might just snap it in half, "You know what? If Rebekah wanted to hand this monstrosity, she should have shown up to do it herself." She turns on one of our classmates behind her and pawns it off on her while Elena and I chuckle at her reaction, "Just no."

Elena and I rifle through some other decorations as Caroline starts to yell at Matt and Jeremy who are up on a ladder hanging stars from the ceiling. They're both smiling, something I haven't seen in a while. They look like true teenagers, something that they finally deserve to be, "What are you doing? You can't just hang them. They're supposed to trickle down." 

The pair of them scoff at Caroline, shaking their heads, and continue with their work as Caroline smirks at them, "Look at them all bromance-y."

"Yeah," Elena breathes. I can see the relief in her eyes, knowing that Jeremy is safe. It was a huge decision to send him away, one some of us personally disagreed with, but in twenty-twenty hindsight, it might have been the right one. At least he was away from here while Alaric ran around murdering people. That is until Kol decided to befriend Jeremy as a favor to Klaus. Something he wasn't happy I chewed him out for. Elena runs her fingers through a feathered boa, she still watches her brother, "I asked Matt to help Jeremy readjust. He got him his old job back at the Grill. "

Caroline glances back at us, "Well that was nice of him."

Elena hums indifferently. Her stress is bleeding from her, but she's doing her best to hide it, "Jeremy's got a lot on his mind. The whole thing with Alaric has got him really stressed out."

It's got all three of us stressed out. What else are we supposed to do besides stress? No cure, only one that releases some side effects. But it isn't enough. It doesn't fix everything like we need it to, and the rest of us are just trying to ignore the overbearing presence of the idea that Alaric may be going mad any day now. It's a waiting game and my least favorite type.

"You sure it had nothing to do with witnessing you and Damon getting hot and heavy in a skeevy motel?" I say innocently, still rifling through decorations, attempting to feign disinterest. I give her a sly smirk, a playful one, trying to relieve the tension we're surrounded in but it barely falters. Trying to come up with distractions is getting harder and harder, even planning a whole dance isn't helping take our minds off the supernatural.