Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 9

Graciela felt miserable.

Which she felt was stupid because she hardly knew Stefan, had hardly spoken to him, and already she was incredibly bummed out that she hadn't gotten to see him. She'd spoken to him for what, five minutes in person? Maybe slightly more?

And yet, she wanted to see him again. To talk to him again. How bad would it really have been, to go to the festival?

Cami came by around lunchtime with some food. Graciela accepted the ham sandwich, but ate it with a sad expression on her face.

"So, Elijah talked to Klaus," said Cami. "And it seems he found out about what Klaus said to you. Regarding the marriage thing."

"He was joking," she muttered, despite knowing damn well that Klaus had been mostly serious. "We all know Hayley likes Elijah. Her marrying Jackson would make them all miserable. Jackson likes her, but she doesn't like him as much as she likes Elijah, whose heart will break if she marries another man and sees her stuck in a relationship that she didn't fully want. I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to be turned just to marry Jackson and I wouldn't want to marry Klaus, but I would have been fine with marrying Hayley if it came down to it. If it really would help."

Cami just nodded slowly. "You can talk to me about how you feel, you know? I won't tell Elijah. Sometimes, you just need to let it out. To rant."

Her eyes started to water again. "I just finally started feeling happy and hopeful despite everything that's going on. It felt so normal... me finding a boy cute, he helps me when I have car trouble, we start to talk and hang out and... Elijah's hiding something from me and I hate it. Stefan hasn't even replied, he's probably decided I'm not worth his time if I'm going to have an overprotective father figure holding me back. I appreciate that Elijah cares enough to protect me but this just kills me inside. Being back to the same old patterns of getting stuck indoors for weeks at a time..."

"I know," whispered Cami. "You just want life to feel the way it does for everyone else."

"I don't want to trigger my curse, I don't want to be more involved in this than I have to be. Once I am good enough at living alone, I would rather leave and just... pretend I'm human and that the supernatural world isn't even real." She set her plate aside, and hugged her knees to her chest. "I want to know the truth about Stefan."

"Why don't you ask him?"

She brought out her phone, and typed out, 'Would you be willing to tell me why Elijah thinks I'd be in danger if I was with you? I would like to know, please.' She showed it to Cami, who nodded. She sent it.

"Do you think Klaus would tell me?" asked Graciela. "I do want to hear it from Stefan but I kind of... already want to know when he tells me his side of it."

"Klaus probably would tell you," said Cami thoughtfully. "But are you sure you want to already know what it is?"

"Yes. If it's something really bad, I'd rather have time to let it settle before I talk to Stefan about it. That way I might be more prepared to respond properly depending on what it is."

"Just keep in mind that he is a vampire. Whatever you find out could be really gruesome."

"I know. Which is why I need to know, right now."

Cami left her alone to call Klaus. He didn't answer the first time, but he did the second.

"You must be desperate if you're calling me," he said. "What, you want my permission to go on a date with Stefan? Permission granted."

"We both know that Elijah will be pissed if you let me go," said Graciela. "I want to know why Elijah is so against me hanging out with Stefan. Is it because he's a vampire? Is it the age difference?"