Bad Blood || The Vampire Diaries [1]

29: Before Sunset

   "Ugh!" Caroline's voice echoed from the phone. "I can't believe you're doing this, Clara!" She had called me while going back to school, something about cleaning up last night's dance. Since she didn't want to be alone while driving, she decided to call me. The conversation we were having began an hour back, which made me realise that she had been driving in circled in order to continue our conversation.

   "Well, it's decided, Care," I said, glancing over at the phone on the bed. "I decided weeks ago, I just... I pushed it further back for a while."

   "And now you think it's the perfect time to leave?" she asked, disbelief in her tone. "I can't believe you!"

   I threw a bunch of clothes to the bed and laid my hands on my waist, rolling my eyes as if she could see me through the screen. "When I left with Klaus to Chicago, all I wanted to do was bring Stefan back. I didn't care about surviving, about me coming back, about anything that involved me, but all I wanted was to bring him back home. And I did, in a way, of course, since it was Klaus that brought us back."

   "You can't just leave after all we've been through," she said, her voice lowering. "Clara, we need you here."

   I sighed and moved towards my phone, slowly. "I'm not really needed here, Caroline. You got through so many things without me being here, without knowing that I was even alive; you don't need me, I'm not needed..."

   "You need to stop saying that!" she cut me off. "Clara, stop saying that you're not needed, because you are. You helped all of us, even if it was in a small way, and that makes you needed, because without you helping us in those little things God knows what would have happened."

   "I appreciate you trying to make me better, but that will not stop me from leaving," I told her, letting out a soft chuckle. 

   "Ugh, fine," Caroline said in defeat. "Are you doing to tell Stefan? You did tell him that he would be the first to know if you ever decided to leave."

   "He found out long ago," I said. "Let's keep this one to ourselves."

   She sighed. "You can't just continue to ignore him, Clara. It's not really his fault that he loves both Elena and you."

   "Technically, it is," I chuckled, shaking my head.

   "Uh, no, because you can't control who you fall for."

   "Then, before you plan on leaving for God-knows-where, would you come down to the school and help me clean up last nights mess?"

   "Sorry, I'm not in high school anymore."

   "Clara, please–"

   "Bye!" I pressed the red sign on my phone and let out a breath, glancing around the room I had called mine for almost a year and a half. It was filled with little trinkets from the past and present, filled with nothing but memories, and I felt sad that I was letting those memories go but I also felt liberated. I felt as if I could let go of so any things, but at the same time I felt like I would be worrying about so many things. 

   My phone rang again from the bed, the tune echoing around the room and the empty house. I answered the phone without looking at the caller ID, thinking that it was Caroline calling once again. She was either going to ask me to help her clean, or she thought of something new to tell me so I wouldn't leave. "Care, I told you that nothing you tell me will..."

   "Wrong person," the caller said. "Clara, I need you to meet me at Elena's."

   "Damon?" I glanced down at the phone, reading Damon Salvatore on the screen. "Wait. What? Why?"