𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐝?

- - -
❝I walk in like a dime piece
I go straight to V.I.P.
I never pay for my drinks
My entourage behind me❞

Me Too
~Meghan Trainor
- - -

Two days later, the Town Square was teeming with residents and cars alike as the midafternoon Virginian sun roasted everyone. Banners declaring the 'Sexy Suds Car Wash' were hanging down from every lightpost and pillar. The name was a bit odd, but Caroline wasn't budging on it unlike her allowance for Elena to not wear a bikini. And Kat had to use her puppy-dog eyes to make Caroline relent.

But all would good, as the funds raised were going to be deposited for the Welfare Committee of the Whitemore Orphanage.

Kat's flip-flops squeak along the concrete as she rushes around the makeshift washing stations. She kept the best job to herself, barking orders at the other thumb-sucking Queen Bitch wannabees. It made her feel some sort of control on her life, because nothing else seemed to be going her way these days. 

Stefan was back with Elena (thanks to Kat), Jenna seemed about ready to have hate-sex with Logan (thanks to Elena) and lastly, Tyler wasn't talking to her. Ever since Tyler's parents ruined the Lockwood name for Vicki, she had been avoiding Tyler and growing closer to Jeremy. And Kat did not have much time in between vampire handling and Caroline's planning to make Tyler speak to her.

Something in the darkest corner of her mind made Kat wonder if she was using Tyler as a distraction, from Stefan. She was terrified to realise that ever since she had met Stefan, her time with Tyler had decreased. It had been weeks since she spent a movie night with Tyler, or Matt for that matter. But the moment Stefan had abandoned her, she remembered the boys. 

Kat shakes out of her thoughts to face the girls behind her. She notices Elena there too, in her functional unbuttoned tank tee and shorts. 

"Alright people," Kat bellows, "There will be no friend discounts. No freebies. No pay-ya-laters."

She points the girls to their stations and duties, leaving Elena by her side to talk. But before she can make any conversation, Stefan comes up from behind Elena, hugging her.

"Hey!" Elena giggles. The sound that Elena made, made Kat want to scrunch up her nose; her twin's boy-sickness somehow made Kat despise how unreal it looked on her face.

Kat smiles at Stefan, leading the couple to a black car that Caroline was waiting near with her own clipboard. Caroline's blue eyes narrow in a master glance, skimming over Elena and Stefan's outfits with a disappointed glance. Kat told her that Elena was choosing to dress down for today, but she never expected Elena to really dress down.

"The event is called sexy suds, you know..." She pastes a disdained smile on her already tanning face before acknowledging Kat and walking away. The frills on her baby pink two piece bikini shook with her every step, making people turn to her in the wake of her stomp. Clearly she wanted to get over the Damon thing by being snubby and glib. So granted.

Kat looks at her twin smug smirk, "Looks like you just got scolded?"

Elena frowns, "And judged too..."

Stefan plays along and puts on a shocked face "Wow." 

Elena scoffs, trying to remove her tee. But her hands miraculously become uncoordinated after years of practice with shirts and Elena slump back against Stefan as a tangle of cloth and hands.

Kat found the whole thing desperate for vying attention, but she holds her tongue; Stefan is her boyfriend, he gets the whole packages with Elena— all the desperation along with the starry eyes. 

"Uhm—" Elena hums as Stefan helps her with her shirt. He swipes some hair out of her face with his McDreamy smile.

"...Sorry, So not sexy. Ugh!" Elena groans but Stefan whispers, "I disagree"

Kat averts her eyes as they share a deep lip-lock. It was somehow gross and violating to bear witness to such things. So Kat, being the insecure person she was, chokes out an embarassed laugh, "Okay I really need you both to... not get horny in the middle of the street. That would be monumentally helpful, thank you very much,"

The pair part with a chuckle, Elena's more forced than Stefan's lighthearted one. 

Stefan shrugs and removes his shirt to reveal a toned chest. Once again, Kat had no option but to make her eyes not stare at him. She awkwardly leans against the only dry spot of the car as they begin washing a car. Elena starts filling in the silence. 

She points to Stefan's ring "You're getting soap in that."

Stefan just shrugs "Oh, it's fine..."

"I noticed that Damon has one, too. Is there a story behind it?" Elena asks, lathering some soap onto a sponge.

Kat tenses at the older Salvatore's name but Stefan just hands her a bucket of water while answering her sister, "Yeah, um, it's the family crest from the Italian renaissance"

Elena glances at it again, "Oh. You should really take it off. I could put it in my bag—"

Kat can't help but smile in mirth when she looks at Stefan's panicked face. She leans lazily against a pole, "Yeah Broody," she shakes her head patronisingly, "You can't possibly spoil it in soap!"

Stefan throws her a betrayed look, "No it's, it's fine. Really. Thanks, though." 

Elena gives up with a small smile and they go back to cleaning the car.

"I still wanted to name the event something less pedophile," Kat jokes, dodging a spraying hose as it sprays water over the windshield of their assigned car. 

Elena tuts at her, a mocking smile on her lips as she said, "I don't see you bending half-naked over a car Kat..."

Kat recognised the underlying insult in Elena's voice, and she did not like it one bit. Kat looked down at her over dress, with all her hair pulled into a bun. It was Jenna's cream colored cover up, reaching till below her knees and full sleeved to stop her from tanning since morning. Elena somehow thought Kat was the more loose version of herself, beautiful and breaking hearts left and right.

So the hurt at her snippy comment pinched her and vanished the next second. Stefan chose to politely avoid his gaze towards the car.

"Okay," Kat shrugs, her sad smile morphing into a smug smirk, "Remember, you asked for it. Now, watch and learn 'Lena." She throws a totally unnecessary but a surprisingly effective wink at Stefan, walking away. Sauntering up to the money counter, asking Caroline to raise the volume of the stereo. Meghan Trainor's badass tune might have helped a bit, or maybe it was Stefan's entranced stare, that Kat's shimmy becomes more sexy than she intended it to.

People stop and stare at her lean form walking across the parking lot. Slowly and purposely, Kat loosens the knot of her cover-all. The softly falling cloth elicits a gasp from her audience; every high school boy had his eyes glued to her every step, and every girl was gritting her teeth, wanting to be her.

Now this is sexy suds.

Kat smirks, pulling the pencil holding her bun in. Her long curly hair cascades down her shoulders with a few shakes. No matter how she looked, Kat felt sexy.

She waves to Tyler and his jock friends who dreamily return the greeting. No matter how many times she rejected the boys, they always found a way to get wound up over her every look. 

Matt and Bonnie shake their heads from afar, each with an admiring smirk of their own.

Caroline hands Kat her straw hat. It fit on top of  her locks like a snug friend, her long brown hair held just till its fold while billowing from right underneath it. From below the rim of the hat, Kat looks back to glance at Stefan and Elena.

Elena's playful attitude is long gone and she looks a bit.... jealous? And Stefan is looking nowhere but her shaded green eyes. He looks like he's seen a ghost. 

Kat winks and waves to the couple and steps up to the podium, clipboard and pencil in Caroline's hand.

Setting the mike right, she hoots, "Hel-lo people of Mystic Falls! We're here to do great service for the town. But no great is that straight people! So here we are, at the SEXY SUDS CAR WASH! So let's have some fun and showing off. And oh!" she puts a hand to her mouth in a mock gasp "Washing cars of course!" she rolls her eyes as people cheer and laugh.

She felt different, like she was more than she gave herself credit for. Kat was enjoying herself.

She steps off, walking towards her twin and her boyfriend with the same high of everyone's gazes, "This," she waves around, "is what I call sexy suds"

Elena huffs, rolling her eyes and walking away. Kat narrows her eyes and looks to Stefan with a clueless shrug "What is something I said?"

▻▻▻

Two hours later, at the Boarding House

Kat gets out of her car, treading towards the Boarding House where she decided to spend the rest of her 3 hours, doing homework and on Damon-watch. She had left Caroline and Elena in charge of the car wash, giving an excuse of some cramps. She hated lying to Caroline, but at least it won her the promise of some cuddle time and warm soup with her later.

But Damon was already left unwatched for most of the morning and afternoon, which made both Stefan and Kat uncomfortable. That explained why she was here without any warning message to Stefan. Stefan had a key made for her a few days ago, something that Kat secretly jumped over in the private confines of her room. But it meant that she could come and go as she found fit.

Kat parks her car with a hum, walking up to the porch steps. But something dangerously terrorising drops in her gut when she sees that the door was ajar.

Wide ajar.

She removes her hat and looks down at the key Stefan gave her. Letting all the things in her hands slide down to the carpet, she runs. She runs inside and down the cellar door with stumbling steps. Two doors to the right and she finds Caroline opening the latch on the door.

"No!" Kat plunges forward to push the girl out of the way and force herself onto the weak door.  "No! Get out of here. Ru-" metal hits her cheek as the one inside steps outside. She catches Caroline's hand "Run!"

She screams and rushes out but before Kat can take another breath, a strong drying hold chokes her neck to a chest "Going somewhere?" 

The grip was supernaturally tight, as dry as sandpaper. Black spots swam at the corner of her eyes as the hold almost cracked her jaw. Damon's cold breath rasped in her ears and she fought. But nothing gave in the elder Salvatore venomous strength.

She holds back a whimper, taking a shaky breath. She kicks his shin and tries to wriggle out of his grip when a sickening crack of her neck sends her still body thudding to the musty cellar floor.

▻▻▻

Outside the Boarding House (Late)

Stefan gets out of his car, checking his phone, the screen shows that it's 12 and his missed calls to Elena. Just as he's getting out, he hears the rumble of Elena's car.

In a minute, Elena's car skids to a stop as she gets out in anger and almost in tears of disbelief. She walks towards him, a few steps from her car. There was something angry and disbelief in her stomp as smashed her car door shut.

When he sees her crying, he rushes forward. He doesn't even make two steps when he hears the girl he loves gasp out, "What. Are. You?"

Kat had the same expression on her face a few days ago, when she was sobbing and scared at seeing the real him. But her accusation had not been as poisonous as Elena's. No, hers was like a broken plea for answers as she crashed right into his arms. She didn't mind that he was a vampire, she hadn't asked for what he was underneath his facade. No, his Vivi just asked him who he was.

But Elena? She was angry beyond belief, betrayed and looked ready to run him down with her car.

"What. Are. You!"