CHARLIE'S ENTIRE BACKYARD WAS FILLED WITH PICNIC TABLES for the potluck party that her mother was throwing and hosting. She and Tyler had to make a crap ton of cupcakes for it, and she was so sick of it by the time they were done that she was pretty sure that she would never eat a cupcake again.

She was sitting with Elena and Caroline on a bench that was pretty away from the party. They were about thirty yards from the nearest table, giving them some privacy as Bonnie came over and joined them, grimoire in hand.

"I have an identification spell that might be able to tell me what magic affected the necklace," the Bennett girl informed them. Apparently, while she, Caroline, and Elena were at the Gilbert house that morning, Elena's necklace had randomly started burning her. It was the necklace that Damon gave her which was the same one that Stefan gave her a while back. Elena handed over her necklace, and the witch sighed. "It's going to take a while, so tell me if anyone's coming, okay?"

"So you're not, like, switching Salvatores, are you?" Caroline questioned, turning to Elena. The Gilbert girl had been spending a lot of time with Damon recently while they were looking for Stefan. She even went over to his house to cook something for the potluck.

The older brunette girl seemed shocked by the question. "What?"

"Caroline..." Bonnie warned because they did not need another fight between Elena and the blonde girl over the Salvatore brothers. She was also trying to focus and did not need their talking interrupting her.

"Stay focused," the Forbes girl told her before looking back at Elena. Charlie tried to shoot her a warning look, but either her friend did not see it or did not care. "As your friend who worries for you daily, what is the deal with you and Damon?"

Knowing that Elena would be pissed about her friend getting all up in her business, Charlie exhaled, "Caroline..."

"There is no deal. He's been just as focused on finding Stefan as I have," the Gilbert girl explained, referring back to what Tyler had said about Damon maybe not wanting to find Stefan because of how he was, like, in love with Elena. To be fair, it was probably an idea that the blonde girl put in his head.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make him any less Damon," Caroline pointed out, and then, she reminded all of them of what Bill had done to her a couple of nights ago. Turns out, he was trying to torture the need for blood out of her. He would hold a blood bag toward her, and if the veins appeared under her eyes, he would open the window while her daylight ring was off. That was seriously sick, in Charlie's opinion. "If my own father, who I love dearly, can't change me. No one's changing Damon. Not even you."

Elena groaned, desperately wanting to move on from this topic of conversation. "Look, why are we even talking about this?"

"Hey, guys," Bonnie called, and they all turned to her before noticing what she was looking at. The necklace pendant was levitating and rising slowly in the air, the chain dangling and following behind it.

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows at her friend, wondering what kind of spell that was. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything," the witch answered, and that confused them more because if she was not doing that, then who or what the hell was? "It has its own magic."

It was a few hours later. Bonnie had left to do some more witchy something or other about the necklace, and the rest of the girls went inside to get some food and talk to people. Caroline looked to Elena with a questioning expression. "Did Stefan ever tell you where he got the necklace?"

"No, and I never asked," the Gilbert girl responded because she probably assumed that it was some family heirloom or maybe even store bought or something. "Hopefully Bonnie will be able to figure it out."

"Please tell me it's time to go," a voice said, and they looked up to see Alaric standing next to them and looking at Elena with a pleading expression. Charlie was glad to know that everyone else hated these parties as much as she did.

The girl nodded frantically with a small chuckle. "Beyond. Where's Damon?"

"Probably off somewhere doing bad things to good people," the blonde girl answered, and when her friend glared at her, she sighed. To be completely fair, Damon did compel her and bite her and make her feel awful about herself and think that she was going crazy. She had a valid reason to hate him. She just did not want her friend to fall into his trap as well. "Consider me the honesty police."

"What is it?" Charlie asked because the Forbes girl's face had just dropped, and she looked really upset about something.

Alaric noticed as well, looking around for what could be the source of her unhappiness. "What the matter?"

"It's my dad," she breathed out, and they all turned around to see Bill standing in the adjoining room. The Lockwood girl scoffed, wondering how the hell he had the audacity to come.

She continued to glare at him as she asked, "Do you want me to kick him out? I mean, it is my house, technically. I could say that he said that my cupcakes sucked and that he hated me or something."

"Why would he even show up here?" Elena asked, giggling slightly at the brunette girl's offer.

"I don't know," Caroline answered with a shrug, and her breathing got a little heavy. She ran a stressed hand through her hair and groaned, "But I can't..."

Elena nodded quickly. "We get it. I'll call you later."

"Yeah, go," Charlie added, gesturing up the stairs. Caroline shot them thankful look before heading to where her friend was pointing.

☾❄☽

ELENA, CAROLINE, AND CHARLIE WERE WALKING AROUND TOWN SQUARE, talking about the party and everything that happened. Apparently, after the Lockwood girl had retired to her room for the night, Damon had snapped Alaric's neck for no apparent reason. Sure, he had his ring on, so he was fine, but the man still killed him.

"I'm not going to say I told you so," the blonde girl sighed after she heard the whole story. She had been saying the whole time that the vampire was an awful person, and this had just proved her right.

Charlie smiled proudly at her since this was the first time that she hadn't directly tried to point out that she was right, even though she still kind of was. "That's very mature of you, Care."

"But I did tell you....so," she continued, and the younger girl sighed. She had to ruin it.

"Okay, you and Damon were both right," the Gilbert girl admitted as they walked past a group of kids with lollipops. Charlie had a split second urge to steal one of them until she realized that they were covered in child slobber. "I was trying to change him, but if he wants to be in my life..."

The blonde girl sighed, and they could tell that she had been trying to restrain herself that whole time. She finally just gave up. "Wait. I...It's been a long week, so I'm just going to be blunt. It doesn't matter what he does, Damon's gotten under your skin."

"That's not true," Elena countered, shaking her head immediately.

"God, just admit it, Elena, okay?" the Forbes girl groaned, and Charlie had to admit that evens he could see that there was something going on between the Gilbert and the Salvatore between the stolen glanced and the way they talked about each other. "You are attracted to him! In all of his bad brother glory."

The older brunette shook her head since there was no way that she could like Damon. She just refused to believe it. "No."

"Wait, no, you're not attracted to him, or no, you just won't admit it?" Caroline questioned, and it was a valid question. Elena probably just did not want to admit that she was attracted to Damon because it would feel like some sort of betrayal to Stefan.

"I can't, Caroline!" the Gilbert exclaimed, finally pausing so that she could talk to them. "If I admit it, if I even thought it for just a second, what does that say about me?"

"It says you're human, Elena," the other girl informed her. Then, she looked across the square and saw her father in a car, staring at her with an expression that said that he wanted her to come over.

Once the other girls spotted him, their expressions turned to glares. "Do you need me to..."

"No, I got it," the Forbes girl sighed before walking off over to her father to hopefully tell him to go away and stop bothering them. He deserved it after everything that he did to her.

That left Elena and Charlie alone, and they just continued walking around the square while they waited for their friend to come back. "How are you doing, Char, with everything?"

"I'm good," the werewolf answered, but she knew that when she said 'everything,' she meant what had happened with Klaus and the spell and everything. "It was tough. For a while, I really like being alone. I thought it was better than casting my depression onto everyone else."

"But..." the older girl trailed off, sensing that there was more.

"But your idiot jackass brother had to get me out of bed and get me used to being around people again," Charlie continued for her, causing Elena to smile a little bit, happy that her brother was being so caring toward the girl. "So, last night, when Caroline and Tyler were having sex in his room, and you were dealing with Bill and Alaric, and just everything else was happening, I really felt lonely for a second."

The human placed a comforting hand on the other girl's back. "I'm sorry, Charlie. If you ever need anything, you're welcome to call me. I'll either come or send Jeremy over if I can't."

"Thanks, Elena."