Not About You

Chapter Twenty-Six

They'd seen less of Elena since Caroline exposed her to the truth. The blonde was the only one even moderately upset about it. When she did see her other friends, she'd taken to meeting them at the grill or one of their houses.

The decision had been made for Caroline and Stefan to have a rather public breakup hoping Katherine would leave Care the hell alone. Lucy thought the plan was stupid.

"You two should consider doing the same thing," Stefan said.

Lucy and Damon exchanged a look before turning back to the younger Salvatore. "No," they said in unison.

Stefan shook his head but shrugged. It was up to them. He wasn't going to waste time trying to talk them into it.

The next day was the volunteer day to work on the new park. Why a town this size needed more than one park, Lucy had no idea.

"Wake up, princess. We have things to do," Damon told her as he leaned over her waiting for her eyes to open.

Lucy groaned. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Community spirit?" Once his girlfriend sat up, he handed her a cup of coffee.

She sipped it and hummed at the taste. "Can't we just admit I'm antisocial and stay locked in the house?"

He tilted his head as if he was considering it. "No, we can't. I'm on the council and we need to witness Stef and blondie's big fight."

Lucy sighed. "Fine. Find me something to wear."

They both dressed in jeans and one of Damon's t-shirts so they almost matched as they arrived hand in hand and half an hour late.

They split up, Lucy looking for Caroline while Damon searched for his brother. Lucy soon found the blonde painting a shelter with Elena. She greeted both of the younger women with a nod of her head. "How's it going, Care? You and Stef still fighting?"

Caroline sighed. "Yes. He's worried about Katherine."

"You didn't tell me that you and Stefan had a fight," Elena said as she came to stand with them.

"Yeah, well, it's not like I want to talk about it." The baby vamp released a groan of frustration. "He's so stubborn."

"To be fair, she did kill you, Caroline," Elena said.

Lucy lifted a brow. That was actually a good point. Huh.

Care dropped her brush into the nearly empty bucket of paint. "I'm gonna go talk to him."

Lucy watched her friend walk away, dropping a hand on Elena's shoulder when she moved to follow. "Not this time, Elena."

She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest but stayed put. They were too far away to hear what the vampires were saying to each other, but Lucy had the general idea as they'd planned it out the night before. She just hoped Katherine or one of her spies was listening or the effort was wasted.

When Caroline stormed away, Lucy followed after to play the sympathetic bestie. "You okay?" she asked as she fell into step with Caroline.

The blond crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes with a little smirk. "It's fine. I can't make him be my boyfriend."

Lucy hummed in agreement. "So how long do you think it will take him to figure out you're still living in the house?"

Caroline laughed then covered her mouth with her hand. Despite Katherine's short temper, they decided the safest place for Care was still the boarding house. If worse came to worst she could just stay inside where the elder vampire couldn't reach her.