Might as well take her mind off it, and maybe make herself worthy of athank you from Stefan, Bonnie thought.
She tapped Elena's knee, and when Elena turned, Bonnie kissed her.
Elena broke the kiss very quickly, as if afraid to set off some holocaust again. But Bonnie saw at once what Meredith had said about it not being sexual. It was...more like being examined by someone who used all her senses to the fullest. When Elena moved away from Bonnie she beamed at her just as she had at Meredith, all the distress washed away by - yes, thepurity of the kiss. And Bonnie felt as if some of Elena's tranquility had soaked into her.
"...should have known better than to bring Caroline," Matt was saying to Stefan. "Sorry about butting in. But Iknow Caroline, and she could have gone on ranting for another half hour, never actually leaving."
"Stefan took care of that," Meredith said, "or was that Elena, too?"
"It was me," Stefan said. "Matt had it right: she could keep on talking forever without actually leaving. And I'd just as lief nobody run Elena down like that in my hearing."
Why are they talking about those things? Bonnie wondered. Of all people, Meredith and Stefan were least inclined to chatter, but here they were, saying things that didn't really need to be said. Then she realized it was for Matt, who was moving slowly but with determination toward Elena.
Bonnie got up as quickly and as lithely as if she could fly, and managed to pass Matt without looking at him. And then she was joining Meredith and Stefan in small talk - well, medium-small talk - about what had just happened. Caroline made a bad enemy, everyone agreed, and nothing seemed to teach her that her schemes against Elena always backfired. Bonnie would bet that she was hatching a new scheme right now against all of them.
"She feels lonely all the time," Stefan said, as if trying to make excuses for her. "She wants to be accepted, by anyone, on any terms - but she feels - apart. As if nobody who really got to know her would trust her."
"She's defensive," Meredith agreed. "But you'd think she'd showsome gratitude. After all, we did rescue her and save her life just over a week ago."
There was more to it than that, Bonnie thought. Her intuition was trying to tell her something - something about what might have happenedbefore they had been able to rescue Caroline - but she was so angry on Elena's behalf that she ignored it.
"Why should anybody trust her?" she said to Stefan. She sneaked a peek behind her. Elena was definitely going to know Matt anywhere, and Matt looked as if he were fainting. "Caroline's beautiful, sure, but that's it. She never has a good word to say about anybody. She plays games all the time - and - and Iknow we used to do some of that, too...but hers are always meant to make other people look bad. Sure, she can take mostguys in" - a sudden anxiety swept over her, and she spoke more loudly to try to push it away - "but if you're a girl she's just a pair of long legs and big - "
Bonnie stopped because Meredith and Stefan had frozen, with identicalOh-God-not-again expressions on their faces.
"And she also has very decent hearing," said a shaking, threatening voice from somewhere behind Bonnie. Bonnie's heart leaped into her throat.
That was what you got for ignoring premonitions.
"Caroline - " Meredith and Stefan were both trying for damage control, but it was too late. Caroline stalked in on her long legs as if she didn't want her feet to touch Stefan's floorboards. Oddly, though, she was carrying her high heels.
"I came back in to get my sunglasses," she said, still in that trembling voice. "And I heard enough to know now what my so-called ¡®friends' think of me."
"No, you didn't," Meredith said, as rapidly eloquent as Bonnie was stunned mute. "You heard some very angry people letting off steam after you'd just insulted them."
"Besides," Bonnie said, suddenly able to speak again, "admit it, Caroline - youhoped you'd hear something. That's why you took off your shoes. You were right behind the door, listening, weren't you?"
Stefan shut his eyes. "This is my fault. I should have - "
"No, you shouldn't," Meredith said to him, and to Caroline she added, "And if you can tell me one word we said that isn't true, or was exaggerated - except maybe for what Bonnie said, and Bonnie is...just being Bonnie. Anyway, if you can point to one word of what the rest of us said that isn't true,I'll beg your pardon."
Caroline wasn't listening. Caroline was twitching. She had a facial tic, and her lovely face was convulsed, dark red, with fury.
"Oh, you'regoing to beg my pardon all right," she said, wheeling to point her long-nailed forefinger at each of them. "You'reall going to be sorry. And if you try that - that witchcraft-vampire type thing on me again," she said to Stefan, "I have friends - real friends - who'd like to know about it."
"Caroline, just this afternoon you signed a contract - "
"Oh, who gives a damn?"
Stefan stood up. It was dark now inside the small room with its dusty window, and Stefan's shadow was thrown before him by the bedside lamp. Bonnie looked at it and then poked Meredith, as the hairs tingled on her arms and neck. The shadow was surprisingly dark and surprisingly tall. Caroline's shadow was weak, transparent, and short - an imitation shadow beside Stefan's very real one.
The thunderstorm feeling was back. Bonnie was shaking now; trying not to, but unable to stop the shivering that had come on as if she had been thrown into icy water. It was a cold that had gotten directly into her bones and was ripping layer after layer of heat off them like some greedy giant, and now she was beginning to shakehard....