The Hybrid (working on editing)

Chapter thirty two

I walk into the bathroom and begin to get ready for school; I grabbed some clothes on my way. I throw on a pair of skinny jeans and a light blue long sleeve shirt. I brush out my hair and pull the mess of blonde into a high ponytail.

In the mirror I catch a glimpse of two half circle scars on the base of the left side my neck. "Is that a bite mark?" I ask my reflection and stare at the teeth imprinted on my shoulder.

I can hear Nik chuckle on the other side of the door and mumble something along the lines of "Oops." Or "My bad"

I pull the elastic onto my wrist and try to cover the mark with my hair. Nothing, not even close. I step from the bathroom and walk to my closet. I pass Nik, whom is still laying under my blankets with a smirk on his face. I open the closet door and pull out a black scarf. I wrap it around my neck with one hand as I close the door with the other. I look in the full length mirror on the back of the door. The mark is still fully visible.

"Screw it," I say removing the scarf and tossing it at my dresser. I watch Nik's reflection as he stands up from my bed and slips on his jeans. He catches my eye in the mirror and walks over.

"You could always just stay home," he lulls kissing the bite mark.

My limbs grow heavy and I desperately want I take him up on his offer, but like I told him Caroline would kill me if I skipped on her birthday.

I turn and face him. "Get dressed if you insists on taking, me to school, we have to go now." I tell him.

He pouts. The deadliest vampire of all time is making a pouty face like a four year old, and it's adorable. He's got the complete look, sad eyes and plumped out bottom lip.

I grab my bag and phone from my desk. I turn back to Nik and see his expression hasn't changed.

I pick up his shirt and throw it at his chest. "Come on," I complain, "your making me feel guilty."

He breaks his pout just for a moment. "So it's working?" He resumes again after putting on his shirt.

I slowly approach him. He drops his pout and steadies his face. His mouth forms a straight line and he fixes his gaze on mine. As I get closer his arms rise up to pull me into him. His hand wrap around my waist. My right arm hovers beside his head. Our lips nearly meet when...whack!

I cuff Nik in the side of the head. "We have to go, I'm already late." I laugh running out of the room.

He chuckles and races after me. I make it to bottom of the stairs before I'm swept up into his arms. He kisses me before placing me back down. We grab our shoes and leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The school comes into view and we drive into the parking lot. Students scatter along the pavement trying to get into the large building.

"We can still go back," Nik says slowing the car to a stop.

I unbuckle my seat belt and lean across the gap between our seats. "Goodbye, Nik," I says pecking him on the cheek.

I pull away, he grabs my shoulder, kisses me and tries to drag me onto his lap, but due to the cars design it doesn't work in his favour. Instead he leans farther to me and moves the collar of my shirt. He kisses the mark he left, slightly scraping his teeth across it. He removes himself and a wave of shivers chime through my body.

"Goodbye," he says kissing my cheek with a smug smile on his face. "Have fun at school."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So sorry I'm late," I say rushing to Elena and Bonnie at Caroline's locker. I was supposed to be here to help them decorated her it. It looks like they're almost finished, Elena is hanging streamers and Bonnie is handing her stuff.

"It's okay," Elena says adding tape to hold the ribbons in place. "We just got here too. Can you pass me the balloons?"

I pick the pink and red balloons off the floor and hand them to her.

"Thanks. What got you running late?" She asks taping the balloons into place.

I could practically feel how red I was thinking about Klaus in my bed. "Just didn't want to get outa bed this morning." I try to hide the clearly visible mark on my neck. I quickly steer the topic off of my early morning activities. "What about you two, why were you late?"

Bonnie takes a moment to answer. "I was... working on some spells."

"Working out with Alaric." Elena says. "I have something I need to tell you Bonnie, and you're not gonna like it."

"What happened?" She asks. I snatch the card off the floor and scribble our names on it.

"Jeremy is gonna be leaving town for a while. He'll be staying with some old family friends in Denver, until this whole Klaus thing blows over." She says taking the card from me and shoving it into the door if the locker.

"Jeremy wouldn't just leave you to deal with Klaus alone" Bonnie says

"She's not exactly 'alone', it's not like Jeremy does much anyway." I mumble to myself unheard by the two of them. Jeremy and I are alright, but he really doesn't do too much.

"I know... I asked Damon to compel him."

"What?" I could see sending him away, but compelling him? Is that really the best idea?

"I know, But it's not safe for him here anymore. Leaving will give him a better life. The only reason I'm telling you is because I know that you two haven't really worked out your stuff."

Stuff? What stuff?

"And I thought that maybe you'd wanna say goodbye." She finishes.

Bonnie spots Jeremy across the hall and heads in his direction. The two of them start talking.

Elena fixes her gaze on my neck. "What's that?" she asks motioning to the bite mark Nik left.

"Nothing," I try to play it off like its no big deal, but my voice squeaks. She doesn't look convinced. I start to panic. "Um, I'm going to class." I evacuate as quickly as I can without drawing too much attention. I thought it would've healed over by now, apparently not.

Instead of wandering the halls till the bell rings I go to my locker and get my stuff now. I walk to history trying to get this day over with already.

Alaric went through attendance once class had started. No Caroline. How could she skip school on her birthday? We decorated her locker and everything, and she couldn't be bothered to show up.

I was thinking about leaving school early today, but I got corned by Bonnie, Elena and Matt in the hall between class.

"What's up?" I ask closing my books in my locker.

"Have you heard from Caroline?" Matt asks leaning on the wall of lockers, hands in his jacket pockets.

"No, she totally skipped," I explain.

"We're thinking about going to her house after school and celebrating there." Bonnie says.

"You in?" Elena asks, she glances down at my mark again.

"Yeah I'll meet you there after school." I leave for my next class. Once out of sight I exit the school building and pull out my phone.

"Yes love?"

"Hey Nik, slight change of plans." I say instantly feeling guilty for cancelling on him. I said I'd be with him tonight.

He doesn't say anything, he just exhales deeply into the phone. He seems to already know what I'm going to say.

"Caroline didn't show at school, so we're surprising her at home." I explain. A rock settles in the pit if my stomach.

"Alright," he says rather calmly. "Have a good time."

I have no response. I was expecting something a bit more...angry? Honestly I don't know what I was expecting, but it sure wasn't that.

"Okay?" I finally say a bit confused. "I'll call you latter, I'm on my way to english."

"Later then," he says breathing softly into the receiver.

"Absolutely" I say hanging up. Time to make it through the rest of the day.