“Maybe . . .” Matt tried to make his voice sound optimistic. “Maybe Damon will find a way to help her.”
Elena just gave him a haunted look. “How?”
Matt didn’t know. He had faith in Damon. Maybe too much faith, he thought abruptly. Maybe he should be trying to figure out what was causing Bonnie to behave this way, too.
It was strange. He knew that he had a hundred reasons for trusting Damon implicitly. After all, he’d given up his scholarship to Kent State in order to go to school where his best buddy was going. That was a pretty extreme thing to do, but it just demonstrated that those hundreds of reasons were highly compelling.
The only problem was that out of the hundreds, he couldn’t seem to focus clearly on any particular one.
* * *
Elena tied to make small talk with Matt while they waited for Damon to return, but finally she fell silent. She didn’t want to admit it, but Bonnie’s latest outburst had frightened her badly.
Blood and death . . . Sacrifices . . . For fun!
What in God’s name was that supposed to mean? And what was happening to Bonnie? She seemed to get sicker with every hour that passed.
She’s a little hysterical about what happened to you—and she’s a sensitive girl under stress, Damon’s voice in her mind seemed to counsel sensibly.
So why does she still act this way when I’m out of the hospital and we’re all having a good time? Elena asked the voice, which suddenly fell silent.
She shook her head slowly. “Matt, nothing makes sense, anymore. But . . . Damon’s going to be back soon, I imagine, and he thinks he’s won on this ‘I’m inviting myself to half of your bed’ thing.”
Matt looked at her, clearly surprised. “That’s what I thought, too. That’s what everyone—” He broke off, flushing.
“I know what everyone thinks and I couldn’t care less,” Elena said shortly. “But the truth is that I have to keep my promise to Aunt Judith. I have an idea of how to convince him that I mean that. Will you help me?”
“Uh . . . sure,” Matt said. He looked quite relieved, for some reason. “So, you have a plan?”
“Oh, I have plenty of plans,” Elena murmured. “But we’ll start with something outrageous, I think. Okay with you?”
“Fine with me,” Matt said, with surprising enthusiasm.
* * *
Caroline closed the door of her dorm room behind herself. She put the box of delicious-smelling-if-it-didn’t-have-too-many-green-peppers-on-it pizza down, then put her hands on her hips, easing her aching muscles. Oh, God, she didn’t need a mirror to know how far her stomach protruded. She’d been so proud of her abs, too.
“Ouch!”
/> The twins had been kicking and making a ruckus in the last few days. Caroline hadn’t mentioned it because she seriously, seriously, didn’t want anyone feeling her swollen belly, and it was just the kind of thing that Bonnie would insist on doing. Honestly.
Caroline sat down carefully on her bed. She stretched out the fingers of both hands to examine her lovely green nails.
“Oh, no!” she exclaimed in annoyance. The nail on her left pinkie had broken diagonally off at the outer edge.
If that wasn’t the most aggravating thing . . . ! She huffed as she got an emery board and began to work on the uneven end of the nail.
It had probably happened while Bonnie had been doing her “crazy” routine. Caroline might be a werewolf, but at least she didn’t have to act as if she were insane just to get attention. The nerve of some people!
* * *
Meredith watched Bonnie from under her eyelashes as they walked from Elena’s room to theirs.
She held the pizza box in both hands, with the icepack on top. It wasn’t the most efficient of arrangements, but their room was only a few steps away.
She wished that she could think of something more to do for Bonnie than wrap her in a heating blanket, apply the icepack to the bump on her head and make her some kind of soothing tea. Chamomile, maybe.
And then . . . ridiculously and most unfairly, Meredith wanted to go on a long run, all the way around campus. She felt so frustrated somehow, as if she desperately needed exercise. Her limbs were literally aching for a workout.