Consumed » Kai Parker

Thirty Nine

"So we were thinking..."

The way Elena trails off causes me to look up from my battered library copy of The Tempest and at the girl sitting across from me. My sister bites her lip, glancing between Bonnie, who's next to me pretending to be overly engrossed in her criminology notes, and Caroline, who gives Elena a discreet nod.

"What?" I ask, slowly placing my bookmark in the pages and shut the book.

"Just putting it out there that this was Caroline's idea," Bonnie mutters, raising her eyebrows at the stack of notes in her hands. Caroline shoots her an exasperated look.

"Really, Bonnie?"

"What, I mean, it's not like Elena and I would have ever thought of doing something this–"

"If you say stupid, I will throw a very dramatic fit right here in the library, Bon," Caroline warns, raising her index figure in the air.

Uh, oh. My eyes dart between the two girls leveling each other with a look, Bonnie's wary and Caroline's slitted. Do I even want to know what this is about?

Probably not but curiosity and Caroline's struggle with withholding information will shove the answer in my face one way or another.

"Can someone fill me in?" Caution coats my tone and I wait for someone to tell me what's going on.

Not surprisingly, the blonde is the first to speak up, leaning toward me across the table with her palms pressing down on the wooden surface.

"It's nothing bad, really. Basically, here's what I wanna do: you were stuck during the prison world during Christmas. All of us were too bummed to properly celebrate without you–I mean, I spent it with my mom, but everyone else wasn't in the mood when I suggested holding a Friends-Mas at my place. And that sucked but I get it because well, how can we even have a Friends-Mas with one very important friend stuck in some sort of trippy witchy demension?"

I nod slowly, still not understanding what the proposal is and how any of this brought on Bonnie's evident reluctance. "Yeah. So...what are you saying?"

Her composed expression soon gives way to a radiant grin. "I wanna have a belated holiday party this weekend, with all of us, Stefan, Damon, and you know, the whole crew. It'll make up for the lack of festivities when you were...still gone."

"A party?" I repeat uncertainly, my mind replaying scenes from my welcome-back rave when Jay had me cornered against the wall.

She tilts her head, scrunching her face up in thought. "Honestly, I guess it's more of a dinner. Don't worry, it's low-key, totally your thing. Just close friends will be attending."

Bonnie clears her throat and Caroline huffs, shooting her another look.

"That sounds fun," I smile, genuinely meaning the statement. Having all my friends together for a cozy celebration of my favorite holiday doesn't sound so bad; it sounds great, actually. But I know I'm still missing a key detail to this dinner, if Bonnie's clear lack of excitement and Elena's blatant silence is anything to go by.

"Except..." Elena cuts in, glancing at Caroline.

"Except...what?" I raise an eyebrow, looking at the blonde who's toying with her manicured nails.

"Oh, nothing," Bonnie waves a hand dismissively, reaching over to snatch a paper from Caroline's side of the desk, ignoring her "hey!", and hands it to me. "Just take a look at this interesting guest list."

I eye them curiously before scanning the paper in my hands, a list in Caroline's neat handwriting.

Me
Charlotte
Bonnie
Elena
Damon
Stefan
Matt
Tyler
Jeremy
Alaric
Jo
Liv
Kai