(chapter four: unpleasantville)

Lipstick cherry all over the lens as she's falling
And miles of sharp blue water coming in

୨୧・┈┈・୨୧

Olivia and her uncle and dad had order Pizza because none of them had been in the mood to cook today. So when the doorbell of their apartment rang she paused The Notebook in the middle of watching and stood up to open the door for the delivery guy who was there standing at the other side of the door with her Margherita pizza and the pizzas for her father and uncle.

But of course she forgot her dad to ask for money.

The pizza delivery guy smiled at her as she opened the door. "Hey, it's gonna be $33."

When she checked her pockets for money and didn't find anything she called her dad. "Dad, I need the money!" When her dad didn't immediately acknowledge her yelling she turned back to the guy. "Just put it on the table." She said, nudging her head towards the little table right by the door.

The guy looked surprised at Olivia's back, who went towards her dad's room asking for the mom, and stood still for a little moment before crossing the border of the front door. He placed the three pizza boxes down on the table while Olivia returned back with her dad's money, which he had retrieved from his pocket.

"Keep the change." She spoke to him as she handed him the money, that he pocketed. The pizza delivery guy backed out of the house again.

"Thanks and have yourself a good night."

"You too!" Olivia smiled back at him, before closing the door wanting to eat her pizza not knowing that this had been the vampire who had caused Elena's car accident a few days ago.

☀️☀️☀️

The next day at school was the day before the 50s Decade Dance and it would be her first Decade Dance at Mystic Falls high school. It had also been the day that Stefan had again been waiting for her at her locker again.

"Hey, Stef." She greeted him enthusiastically. This was one of the many things Stefan liked about her. She was always positive and happy. He liked seeing her happy.

"Hey, Liv." The Salvatore replied, giving his mate a look of admiration, which the Saltzman girl completely missed. "I hope you don't think this is too soon or too weird, but I wanted to give you this." He said as he took a little box out of his pocket and handed it too Olivia.

When Olivia opened the box a beautiful necklace lay on the bottom of it. She slowly took it out. "My God, it's beautiful." She whispered but with his vampire hearing he had heard the words that just came out of his mate's mouth.

"It's something that I've had forever, and, uh, I've never wanted to give it to anyone until now. I'd very much like it if you'd wear it for me." Stefan said with a sly smile.

"Is that rose that I smell?" She asked as she smelled the flower scent coming from the necklace as she smelled at it.

"No, it's an herb." Stefan explained. "It's nice, huh?" Asked Stefan.

"I love it." She turned around and pushed her hair to her left shoulder so that Stefan could put it on, who did so. When she turned back around to face him she asked him something.

"Are you going to the Decade Dance tomorrow?" She asked meanwhile she put her books into her locker.

"Yes. Do you want to go with me?" He asked, hopefully.

But he felt the hope slowly slipping away from him as he looked at Olivia's face expression that was filled with doubt and the feeling of not knowing how to let him down.

But once more she surprised him. "Yes."

She had indeed been thinking of what to do. She knew it was bad to go out with someone after you broke up a month ago with the first person you ever loved but she knew she had to move on, even though she knew that her ex wouldn't agree with her dating other people. It had been a messy break up to be honest. After all Olivia had been the one to let the relationship stop.

But she really started to like Stefan even if she didn't let her mind agree to it because her heart definitely did.

"Great." Stefan smiled at her. "I'll pick you up at

Not much later Caroline approached her.

"Hey, Liv!" Caroline greeted her cheery. Without the girl had a chance to answer, Caroline shoot her question. "Do you want to go to the Decade Dance with me?" She quickly added something, not wanting to scare the brunette off. "As friends of course."

"Oh, Care, I already told Stefan I would go with him just a few minutes ago." Olivia replied, with a sympathetic smile. "But I can definitely spare you a dance?" She offered.

"Deal." Caroline said with a little smile. She had no idea why she was feeling this way or why her brain hadn't let her stop thinking about Olivia ever since she met her. She didn't even know if she had meant to add the 'as friends' part. "Have you got a dress?"

Caroline hoped Olivia would answer 'no' so that they could go shopping together so that the blonde could spend some time with the brunette even though she had bought her dress for the Decade Dance weeks ago.

"Yes. I bought it yesterday. It's a typical yellow circle dress." Olivia answered. She knew when she saw it that was the one.

"Oh my God! We are gonna match." Caroline said, excitedly.

☀️☀️☀️

The next day it was time for the Decade Dance and Olivia was extraordinarily excited to have a normal dance with her friends.

Her father and uncle had already left to the dance, both had volunteered to be chaperones. Well her dad was more because he was a teacher at the school and uncle Alex didn't want to spend his evening alone at home.

A few minutes before Stefan would pick her up, something happened.

Olivia had been adding the last touches to her make up when a man suddenly came into her room where she had been and attacked her. When she saw his face she recognized him as the guy who had delivered pizza earlier today.

Other than attacking her to the floor, nothing happened because a repeatedly loud knock was coming from the front door of the apartment, making the man or in this case, vampire, run away from her, though a window. But that was not the problem. He went out of the window really fast. Like a light that went on.

But that's not possible, right?

She probably just imagined that.

She quickly ran over to the door, to see Stefan standing there with a very worried face. "Are you okay?" He immediately asked. "I heard something."

"There was this guy and he was just randomly in here and he attacked me." Olivia said a bit shocked. She had been in this town for a while now and she had already been attacked in a car and in her own kitchen, what was next?

"Are you okay?" Stefan asked his mate again.

"Yeah. He jumped out of a window. I should probably check if he's okay." Olivia said thoughtful. "Oh yeah I forgot, come in." She said, inviting him in and Stefan didn't waste any time.

"Liv, he attacked you." Stefan said.

"Yeah, I know. I don't even know how he got in here but he jumped out a freaking window." She said a bit more fast now. "I'm not really in the mood to have a dead body next to my apartment, you know?" She really didn't want her night to get ruined by this.

When she looked out of the window, which had a tree placed right underneath it, she figured the man must have softened his fall by the tree.

"How did he get in?" Stefan asked her as he watched her close up her window before going over to the other one, to make sure it was closed.

"The door wasn't closed and uncle Alex and dad left ten minutes ago and I was in my room so I didn't really hear him entering." She turned to him. "Please don't tell my dad, he's already so protective with what happened with that news guy." Not that she wasn't thankful or anything. because she was.

"Okay." Stefan agreed, but he was still really worried himself since probably the same man just attacked Elena in her house before coming here. He had just received a text from Benjamin who was with Elena now and Damon was also there.

Stefan looked at his mate, admiring her as she picked up her purse. "You look immensely beautiful, Liv." He complemented her.

Olivia smiled at him. That compliment almost made her forget about what happened two minutes ago. "You look very handsome yourself, Stef."

"Shall we go?" Stefan asked her, offering her his hand.

"We shall." She replied, taking it.

☀️☀️☀️

After a few dances, Stefan joined his brother and Benjamin at the side of the dance and Olivia made her way over to Elena, who stood looking around, nervously. And it seemed like she wasn't the only one with the plan to join Elena.

"Having fun?" Elena asked as Olivia, Caroline and Bonnie joined her by the table, next to the punch bowl. Caroline handed one of the glasses with punch to Olivia who thanked her.

"No," Caroline answered. "But this took about two hours, so I'm at least staying half of that." They all shared a laugh as Bonnie turned to Olivia. "Having a good first dance?"

"It's been great, really." Olivia answered her with a smile as she turned around and looked at Stefan who was also looking around worriedly with Ben just like Elena had been doing.

"What's Damon doing here?" Bonnie asked, sounding alarming as she saw the Salvatore brothers and Benjamin.

"He wanted to come. I promise, he'll behave." Elena promised.

"So what is this, like, a threesome now, you, Damon and Ben?" Caroline asked as she and Bonnie glared at Damon, neither of them liked him very much.

"No, but we're just gonna have to tolerate that Damon is gonna be around here too. Which makes me come to the point of Stefan and you." Elena spoke as she gave Olivia a knowing look.

"What?" Olivia asked, with a giggle as they all turned towards her with raised eyebrows, except for Caroline, who was glaring at her drink.

"Oh come on!" Bonnie started. "He's been wrapped around your finger since the moment you got into town."

"Yeah. How did you two meet?" Elena asked, interested and Bonnie nodded with enthusiasm.

But before Olivia could reply to Elena's question, her phone's ringtone interrupted them. "Sorry." She said to them before picking up her phone and walking away from their table.

"Olivia." A man's voice came from the other side of the phone call.

"Hi, who's this?" She asked.

"You don't remember me from an hour of two ago?" Olivia's head shot up from the man's words and she immediately started to look around the gym because she had a feeling he would be here now.

"Here's what you're going to do. There's an exit door behind you. You have five seconds." He instructed to her.

"Why would I do that?" Olivia asked confused. Did this man really think she was gonna go outside alone after he broke into her home, just like he said, two hours ago?

"Or Jeremy dies." Olivia turned to look around by the table where all the food stood placed beautifully on the table. Jeremy was getting some punch and behind him stood a man with a black sweater. Indeed the man who had come into her home. "I can snap his neck so fast, I bet there's not even a witness. Now, start walking." 

Olivia found it quite an unnatural threat. Who snaps someone's neck?

"Don't you dare touch him." Olivia said as she started walking over to the exit.

"Keep walking. Through the door." He said, stepping away from Jeremy.

From the moment she was out of the gym, she started running until one of the doors in front of her were closed and there was no way out of the hallway on her left or right. Or behind her, were the vampire was already approaching her. There was a door on the left but more towards the man but Olivia decided to take the risk and run inside, leading to the cafeteria. Inside the cafeteria she was met with Elena, who was also trying to open a door.

"Elena?" Olivia asked but the Gilbert had no time to answer her new friend as the vampire she ran over with her car stormed inside and grabbed Olivia by the hair, throwing the girl over the table, before also throwing the Gilbert over. 

The man picked up Olivia and placed her against the wall. And Olivia was getting more scared when the veins under her eyes became plain visible.

Suddenly Elena stabbed a pencil in his neck, making the vampire loosen his grip on Olivia.

The man got the pencil out but Elena just jammed in two new ones, which made the vampire lose his balance.

When he got up again, he made his way over to Olivia again since she was the closest to him, but once again he got stopped in the middle of his actions by an immensely angry Stefan, who threw the vampire to the other side of the room.

The new vampire was cornered by Damon and Benjamin, while Stefan immediately went over to his mate to check for any wounds

"Hey, Dickhead." Damon spoke from behind the vampire.

"Nobody wants to kill you. We just wanna talk." Benjamin added.

The vampire just jumped over the table to where Elena, Olivia and Stefan were standing. Stefan staked the vampire with the back of a broom, making both Olivia and Elena gasp.

"Now you feel like talking?"

"Screw you." The vampire muttered as he glared at the youngest Salvatore brother, who just stabbed him deeper with the broom. 

"Wrong answer." Stefan said. "Why are you doing this?" He asked.

"Because it's fun." The vampire answered.

Stefan turned the broom around, making it hurt even more. And by now the shocked Olivia was wondering how the man was still even breathing.

"What do you want with Olivia?" Stefan asked.

"And Elena?" Benjamin added once more.

"She looks like Katherine." He answered to Ben. 

"You knew Katherine?" Damon asked, a confused expression filled his face.

"Oh, you thought you were the only ones. You don't even remember me." The man said and Olivia just got more and more confused by the second.

"Tell me how to get in the tomb." Damon demanded.

"No." The vampire answered and Stefan stabbed him once more. "The grimoire." 

"Well, where is it?" 

The man didn't answer and by now Stefan was just stabbing him repeatedly. 

"Check the journal. The journal." The vampire breathed out from the pain. "Use Johnathan's journal. Johnathan Gilbert's."

Damon backed away from the vampire.

"Who else is working with you?" Benjamin asked.

"No, you're gonna have to kill me." 

Stefan took out the stake and placed it in the vampire's heart, silencing him for ever. The vampire grabbed the stake, close by his heart as he fell to the ground.

Stefan turned around to Olivia, who directly back away from him.

"What-? What do-? How are you gonna find the other now?" Elena asked the three men, stuttering.

"He had to die." Damon assured her.

"Elena, he's been invited in." Benjamin said, stepping closer to Elena, who in their case didn't back away from her boyfriend.

Suddenly they heard sounds from outside the gym doors, alarming them.

"Go." Stefan spoke to his older brother who quickly left the room to find the source that made the noise. Not knowing that it had been Alaric, who hadn't noticed his daughter was inside the room since Stefan was blocking her from his view.

"What are you?" She asked him, even though she already had a feeling.

"I'm a vampire." Stefan said and by now Benjamin and Elena were leaving so the two could get some space.

"Like Dracula?" The girl asked. Stefan shook his head at his mate.

"Please just give me a chance to explain."

Olivia though for a minute and Stefan let her.

So the guy she probably was starting to like was a vampire. So he would never age again and stay seventeen forever. Meanwhile she would grow old. Their relationship would be of short time, right?

He feeds of people and would be drinking  their blood.

Her head was filling with questions.

How old was he really? How did he die? Can he read her mind just like Edward Cullen did with humans? How did he become a vampire? Does he have a reflection? Why did he kill this guy or vampire? Who's Katherine? Are witches and werewolves real?

"Okay."

"Just give me a few minutes to deal with this and then I'll bring you home." Stefan suggested and Olivia nodded.

☀️☀️☀️

It had taken only a few minutes indeed since Stefan wanted to explain everything to her as fast as possible and Stefan had explained everything to her about vampires and what had happened to him to become a vampire. Stefan did let out the fact that he was a ripper. This all would already be much to process and he didn't want to scare her off even more. 

Right now they were at the Saltzman's apartment and Stefan was making some tea for her.

"So you don't kill to survive?" She asked him. If he did it for fun, Olivia was sure this wasn't gonna work out.

"Animal blood keeps me alive." Stefan answered.

"Animals?" Olivia asked, horrified and Stefan sensed he made a mistake by telling her. But he was honest and he felt like she would appreciate that more.

"Old ones that are close to death or ones that heal very easily." He said.

"Alright. How do you walk in the sunlight tho?" She asked him. 

"We have rings that protect us from burning in the sunlight." Stefan explained, placing the cup of tea in her hands before sitting down himself.

"Are there any other vampires in Mystic Falls except for you, your brother and Benjamin?" Olivia asked him before taking a sip of her tea.

"Not anymore." Olivia looked up, curiously. "There was a time when this town was very much aware of vampires and it didn't end well for anybody."

"Why did the man have to be dead?" She asked, referring to the man that they had killed.

"He was invited in. He could come back and hurt you and I didn't want him to do such things." Stefan answered, but his mind wasn't with the dead vampire. It was focused on her and on how beautiful she looked with her hair like this. It made him wish he could've met her when they were indeed in the 50s.

And on the lipstick which really matched her skin tone. It made him want to kiss her.

Everything about her was so beautiful to him. She was like a portrait anyone could keep staring at for the next decade. She was like a beautiful flower you just wanted to take care of so she doesn't get hurt. Olivia was like the sun, from which Stefan never wanted her to shine any less bright as she had been the last few days.

"Why-?" She was cut off when his phone rang. 

He lent closer to the table to pick up the call and she leaned closer to the table to place her cup of tea down. When they realised what position they were in, neither of these things happened. Well, Olivia did quickly put her tea down when Stefan leaned in to kiss her.

And she didn't pull back.

To both their displeasure the front door opened and both pulled away from each other. Well, Stefan only did because Olivia pulled away who didn't want her father or uncle or even both to see her kissing someone. 

"Hey sweetheart." Alaric said, kissing her head as he saw his daughter sitting on the couch and he turned to Stefan. "Stefan."

"Mr. Saltzman." Stefan greeted. "I should go." He said, even though he didn't want to. Kissing her made it even harder to stay away from her. "Bye Liv."

"Bye!" Olivia waved and when the door closed behind him Olivia let out a breath. She had a feeling this was gonna become complicated. But complicated was good in some cases, right?

Words: 3403

Published: May 18, 2024

Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it keeps me really motivated!

x Kat