❝Never wear your blood on your sleeve❞
•

I sigh heavily for the eighth time as I watch my father sit across from me. He was reading the newspaper and drinking the coffee my mom made, as if he still lived here and nothing changed.

Though, when he heard me sigh again, he put everything down to look at me, "Look, Ro, I know you're not comfortable with me staying here-"

"Yeah, I'm not comfortable. I never am." I agree, "You left us, but still come for every Founder's party. What an amazing father!"

He rubbed his eyes in frustration, "Ro-"

"I don't want to listen to your worthless excuse of how you were unhappy, because I get it." I seethed and he looks at me questioningly.

"What do you get?"

"I get that we were nothing but a waste of space to you. I get that you felt like you were being suffocated in this family, yet that's what comes with the package deal of marriage, if you haven't cracked the code yet." I ranted and he stayed quiet before my mom walked in.

She came over to me, "Tobias." She greeted and he nodded going back to his newspaper as my mother kissed my cheek, "Happy Birthday, Ro."

He looked up from the news and at me, his expression priceless as he had forgotten my birthday, "What ever happened to that Vicky Donovan girl?"

I stop eating my pancake as my mother responds, "She overdosed, apparently."

My father scoffed, looking up at my mother, "It's always animal attacks and overdosed teens," He sighed, "Now what's the real reason?"

•

•

"Hey Elena." I smile after I enter the Lockwood house after my mother and father.

She smiles at me, "Hey, Rowan." She greeted as she sat at the bar, watching Stefan dance with Vicky's mom.

"I see Mrs.Lockwood finally knows how to play good music." I inputted, nodding my head slightly to the music before I got myself a soda.

"It's actually Stefan's doing." She said and I give her a raised brow which she silently nods too, "I see your dad's here." She looking over to where he was talking to Sheriff Forbes and John Gilbert.

"I see your uncle is here." I sigh, "Two people in our live that won't officially leave us alone just yet... wish someone to compel my father to just stay away."

"Cheers to that." She smiled, hitting her glass to mine before my my father toward us, "Speaking of the devil."

I laugh at her hushed words, before my father came with a smile, "Hey, Elena. Nice to see you again."

She nods, before giving me a sympathetic look and walking off. I turn to him, "What's up?"

"Pastor Bill wants to talk to you about you." He instantly told me, before Pastor came up to us.

"Lovely to see you again, Rowan." He smiled grimly before my father walked off, "Glad you made it to Vicky Donovan's memorial."

"Yeah, had to pay my respects."

I groan internally in boredom, after an hour, dreading life as I was listening to Pastor Bill go on about his knee problems. "And you know, for a man my age, who would think that I might have arteritis? But I guess that fall back in the 90s caused it."

"It probably did, pastor." I say in response, trying not to seem bored. And surprisingly, he hasn't caught on either. I hum to every word he says and look in the corner of my eye, to see Tyler walking this way.

Thank God!

"You know, next time your father finally comes to town, he should stop by the church. It would be an honor-" He cuts himself short when Tyler walks up to us and rest his hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, pastor. It's just that my mom needs Rowan's opinion on something. You know, women and their opinions." Tyler cracks a smile, and Pastor Bill instantly nods, letting Tyler pull me away.

He continued to pull me all the way towards a secluded room, which I assume was his dad's office. "Did your mom really need me?"

"Nope." He chuckles, but silently prays for his sin.

"Then why tell pastor that? I was having a very interesting talk with him." I exaggerate and he rolls his eyes, before wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Sure you guys were. Talking about his hip is a very good sentence starter." Tyler states sarcastically.

"It was actually his knee." I correct and he sighs, pecking my lips. "What's up?"

"I wanted to get some alone time with you, actually. I haven't seen you or got to have you all by myself all night." He tells me and I pout, placing my hands on the sides of his face.

"How tragic." I joke and he rolled his eyes again, so I kiss him, "Want to get out of here?"

He huffed, "I can't. My dad will notice." He states, and I nod, looking around the room, and spotting a bottle of tequila, so I get out of his grip and run towards it. He raises his brow as I smirk and wave the bottle.

He raises a brow, "What? It's better than listening to everyone drone on about their boring lives." I say and Tyler looked at me, tempted, "Come on, it'll be fun. And plus, I'm way more fun when I'm drunk. Especially since today is my birthday."

He then smirks, going up to me to take the bottle, "Fine, birthday girl, but we're going to have to go in my room. My dad comes in here." He then takes my purse, and stuffs the bottle deep down inside, so nobody can see it.

We leave the room and look around before nonchalantly about to walk up the stairs, until Matt call his name. "Hey, Ty, you seen my mom?"

"Do I look like your mother's keeper, Matt?" He snapped out of nowhere.

Matt furrowed his brows, "What's your problem, man? I think you should lay off the Vodka."

"And who are you to tell me that?"

"The only friend that gives a rat's ass about you." They both began to bicker at each other pointlessly, making me realize that were drunk.

"Whatever." Ty completely forgot that I was standing there, seeing as he walked off, but not before shoving Matt's shoulder.

"You okay?" I asked Matt and he nodded, sitting on the last step, having me sit beside him. I huff out and take the tequila out my bag and place in on the floor.

He looks down at the bottle and chuckled, "Had plans?"

"Not really." I shrugged, picking at my nail polish.

"So," He started off, making me look at him, "You and Tyler?"

"No, no. Definitely not. We're just friends." I rush out and he nods, "He's becoming more.. tolerable."

"Yeah," Matt laughed, "When he's not a dick."

I laugh too, but let it subside, "So how have you been?"

"Been better." He sighed, "I think I grieved her before she was truly gone, you know? Like, I had already wrote a new chapter for my life."

My heart aches as I think back to Vicky getting stabbed, "Well, that's good. It makes times like this easier to wake up to."

He looks down, causing us to be silent for awhile. However, after almost ten minutes, he stands, "Do you want to go outside? Get some fresh air?"

"Yeah, because it smells like old lady perfume. A lot of it." He chuckled as I stand and make our way outside, "I'm so glad we got-"

"Mom?" Matt yells out, making me look over to Tyler kissing Mrs.Donovan. Matt rushes over to them and pushes Tyler off her. "What the hell!"

"Calm down, Matt-" In anger, he punched Tyler, though Tyler retaliated and hit him. The pushed and shoved each other, knocking Kelly into a serving table. Tyler gets on top of Matt and continuously punched him, which made me step in.

"Tyler, stop it." I went to grab him, but he elbows me hard in the nose, taking me off balance. I leaned myself up against a beam as my nose bleeds viciously.

Hurriedly, I push past Elena as she came in to see the fight breaking out. I rush to the nearest bathroom and lock it, pulling on the roll of tissue and taking a whole handful before wiping at my nose.

I was glad that it wasn't swollen, though it did bleed a lot. I began to wipe at it, before I heard a knock at the door. I go ahead and open the door, only to reveal Tyler, who I roll my eyes at.

He grimaced at my nosebleed, "I'm sorry."

I scoff and go back over to the mirror, "Tell that someone who cares, right now, because I'm pissed at you." He closes the door behind him, when he entered, leaning against it. "So what are you going to say this time? Daddy issues? You're too drunk? Your anger got out control- or was it your hormones? I really want to know why the hell you would go and kiss your best friend's mother, Tyler."

He lowered his head and I huffed out as continue wiping at my nose, "Are you okay?" He mumbled, managing to meet mine.

I nod, "I'll live. But I'm not the one you should be asking that to."

"I did elbow you, though." He holds a small smile before walking over to me and grabbing the tissue out my hand. He turns my body to his, lifting up my chin, before helping me clean up my nose. "You don't have to forgive me."

"I know." I mumbled, and his eyes flickers from my nose to my eyes.

"And I don't deserve it."

"I know." I repeated and he sighed when I began to run my hand through his hair, "You're a bad guy with good intentions, Lockwood." I stared at him as he paused his movements, "And you are such a dick.."

"It's practically my middle name." He muttered, tossing away the tissue before I rest my hands on both sides of his face. His hands were placed on the sides of the sink, trapping me. He slowly smirks, "But you like that about me, don't you?"

I shake my head, "I like the good parts of you that happens to switch every five minutes with the bad." My hands teasingly trail down his chest until I reach his waist, "Lockwood, you are going to be the death of me.."

I inch my face close to him, our lips seconds from touching. He moves closer to me, holding a smug lock, "Oh, am I?" I hum, switching positions with him, having him lean on the sink as I hover over him.

My fingers trails up and down his arm as I move my lips to his ear, "And that's why this isn't going to work." I abrubtly push myself off him and he looks shocked, "You're one of the bad guys, Ty...I don't want to be with the bad guys."

I sigh heavily and walk out the bathroom, leaving him in there. He called my name constantly as I walked off, but gave up when he saw I was already halfway out of the house. What a great way to spend my birthday; with a bloodied nose and a aching heart.