❝everybody knows you're the second coming❞
He had never met someone so committed to killing him.
Kalila had always had a boring life, up until her mother was murdered by a vampire and her father uprooted their entire life to Mystic Falls. Now she's...
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˗ˏˋ CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE ˎˊ˗
The car ride on the way over was completely silent. She could feel Stefan looking over at her occasionally, but she couldn't bring herself to look back. She couldn't believe that the two of them almost kissed, but at the same time, she was overthinking, worried that he really wasn't trying to kiss her, and she just thought that he was trying to do that. Quite frankly, she felt like she was losing her mind.
But that thought was quickly washed away as they pulled up to Elena's house, the red and blue lights outside gathering the attention of all the neighbors. "Holy shit," Kalila said under her breath, taking it all in.
"I know," Stefan interrupted her thoughts. "Come on." He got out of the car and Kalila quickly followed him.
They were able to get past the crime scene line pretty easily, but as they got to the front door, a police officer stopped them from entering. As Stefan turned to compel him, Elena interrupted. "It's okay," she called from the staircase. "I invited him." The police officer stepped out of their way as Elena came down the stairs the rest of the way, her arms immediately going around Stefan as he pulled her in for a tight hug.
Kalila looked away guiltily, taking in her surroundings. She had only been in Elena's house the one time she came over with Jeremy, so she felt incredibly uncomfortable. She tuned back into the conversation as she realized that they were talking about Jeremy. "He took these pills, and I just..."
"Okay," Stefan assured her, his eyes flicking to Kalila for just one brief second. She sighed, following them up the stairs to Jeremy's room. Jeremy was sitting on the side of his bed, his eyes wide as he watched Kalila come into the room.
"Kalila?" he asked in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"I..." she trailed off, not really sure how to answer other than telling him she knew all about the vampires that he was researching and just never happened to tell him.
"Isobel is Kalila's mom," Elena interrupted, casting a quick glance at the other girl. "So since she's technically my sister, I thought she could help."
"Did you know your mom was a vampire?" Jeremy questioned Kalila. She cocked an eyebrow, wondering why he was being so short with her.
"I didn't," she said slowly, glad that it was the truth. "But I know now." He is silent, and avoiding eye contact with her.
"So he drank Anna's blood and then tried to kill himself?" Stefan asked Elena, who just nodded. Stefan walked forward, bending down to Jeremy's level and examined him. Kalila was shocked. When did Jeremy find out that Anna was a vampire? And why the hell did he want to be a vampire? Damon had told her on the way home that Anna died, so she knew it wouldn't be to be with her.
"So am I a vampire now?" Jeremy asked, almost excitedly.
"You want this?" Kalila asked. She had watched how vampirism had ruined Stefan's life, and now Jeremy was willing to just fully accept it into his life? It didn't make sense.
"Listen to me, Jeremy," Stefan said harshly, getting right up in his face.
"Stefan," Elena warned, but he just continued.
"Anna's blood healed you of the effects of those pills. Her blood is leaving your system, and if you try to kill yourself again, you will die for real." Jeremy looked away, obviously annoyed with Stefan talking him to the way that he was, but the vampire in the room wasn't wrong. Kalila just couldn't believe that he really wanted to be a vampire. It would probably drive her crazy.
"Elena," Stefan finally said, backing away from Jeremy. "Why don't you go to the hospital? Kalila and I will stay here with Jeremy." Elena nodded without a second thought, thanking him and rushing down the stairs. Kalila inwardly cringed, knowing that Elena wouldn't have agreed at all if she had known what had happened earlier. She tried not to think about it as she turned to Stefan.
"Okay," she sighed. "You go deal with the officers downstairs and I'll stay with Jeremy." Stefan nodded, avoiding eye contact as he walked out of the room and she turned around so she wouldn't have to watch him leave.
"Kalila," Stefan said, grabbing her attention once again. He was staring at her the same way he was staring at her earlier that morning. "Can we talk?" He gestured to the hallway outside Jeremy's room. She spared one look at Jeremy, and when she was confident he wasn't going to try and kill himself again, she followed him with only a slight bit of hesitation.
"What's up?" she said as she came to a stop in front of him, crossing her arms. She knew exactly what was up.
"About earlier...I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"No!" she exclaimed as her eyes widened, not realizing she was giving off that sort of vibe. "No, I just think it's kind of..."
"Yeah..."
"Yeah."
The two stared at each other for a few moments. "So what do we do?"
Kalila sighed, running her hands through her chest as she willed herself to think with her brain and not just her heart, which was screaming at her to kiss Stefan and just figure out what happened later. But she couldn't. She couldn't do that to another girl. It didn't even matter that it was Elena. She just couldn't do it. She was a bitch, but not that much of a bitch. "Just forget about it?"
Stefan's face fell only slightly, but Kalila caught it. "Yeah...yeah, you're probably right." Kalila nodded as he moved to the stairs. "I'm just gonna...yeah." She watched as he rushed down the rest of the stairs, coming a stop in front of the police officers gathered in the entryway of Elena's house. She frowned, going back into Jeremy's room.
"What are you really doing here, Kalila?" Jeremy immediately interrogated her as soon as she walked back into the room. She crinkled her eyebrows in confusion, looking at him like he was completely insane.
"Excuse me?" she asked, hand resting on her hip.
"I know that you just used me to find out about what I knew about vampires so you could report it back to Elena." Well...he was half right. But Kalila couldn't figure out how he knew about any of it. "So why do you even care enough to be here when I'm the last person that wants to talk to you?" He was angry, and it was incredibly obvious. Truthfully, after she had grown closer to the vampire gang of Mystic Falls, she didn't think he would ever find out.
"Right...and who the hell told you that?"
Jeremy shifted uncomfortably. "Anna." There it was. It made complete sense that Anna would try and turn Jeremy against her after she basically slaughtered a whole bunch of tomb vampires and left them in her living room.
"First of all, I didn't even know Elena until you introduced the two of us in your living room," Kalila explained as she took a seat at his desk chair. "And second of all, I wanted to find out what you knew about vampires so that I could find out about vampires to find Isobel. That doesn't mean that we're not friends, and you're pretty crazy if you think otherwise."
Jeremy rolled his eyes but smiled in spite of himself. "But you still only became friends with me to find out about vampires?"
"Technically," she admitted, deciding it was time to be honest. "But I didn't stay friends with you to find out about vampires considering Damon and I are texting buddies."
He laughed. "You're friends with Damon?" She nodded. "Didn't you punch him in the face?"
"And I'll do it again, on God." The two of them laughed. Kalila smiled, finally glad that Jeremy knew the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
