Mari had her fake Oscar-winning smile on as she completed her blood-born duty as Mayor Lockwood's daughter. Handing out the stupid pamphlets she'd spent hours printing and folding was not her idea of fun, but at least she had managed to rope in her best friends to help.

"Tonight! Night of the Comet! Would you like a program?" Bonnie asked sweetly, handing out the damned-things to people the girls past in the town square. She turned slight to face Elena as they continued walking, "... he didn't call, huh?"

"Or text." Elena sighed dejectedly, handing out another pamphlet. "But I realised we never even exchanged that stuff. We've never gotten to the texting part."

"That's an important milestone in any relationship."

"Isn't it? The timing is wrong, anyway."

"When is it ever right?"

"I'm not ready, Bonnie."

"Who is?"

"At least I put myself out there." Elena cut in, defensively.

"Is that what you're calling it?"

The girls stopped walking and Mari watched Elena turn to fully face Bonnie, "What do you mean?"

"All I'm hearing is reasons why you can't."

Silence fell over the girls as Elena mulled the statement over.

"Sorry to interrupt, but if I don't get rid of all these pamphlets my father is quite literally going to kill me." Mari was joking, but the other two girls tensed up at her statement and the continued to walk through the square. Mari liked to believe that certain aspects of her life were private, but in a small town like Mystic Falls? Everyone knows everything.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☁︎

Mari hadn't seen the comet with the rest of her friends, instead choosing to sit in a booth inside the Grill. There was something about that stupid ball of ice and made Mari really uncomfortable. At least, she thought what she was feeling was discomfort, she couldn't really tell. Maybe she was just sick of the stupid thing and it's stupid pamphlets. Either way, Mari decided to stay in the warm with a glass of lemonade. She'd forgotten to ask for it without ice, so the ice cubes were clinking obnoxiously against the cold glass as she swirled her straw around. Vicki usually served her, Mari wasn't really sure why, but she didn't have anything against the brunette. Mari hadn't seen her around in a while, but chalked it up to it being Vicki's first day back at work since the accident.

People eventually started filtering into the Grill as the temperature outside dropped. Mari's booth ended up as a homing beacon for her friends and other kids from her classes, and despite the urge to just go home and sleep this weird feeling off, Mari stayed. Tyler had come over and offered her a curt nod, to which Mari rolled her eyes. She never expected Tyler to actually apologise, but it didn't annoy her any less.

It wasn't too long after when Jeremy Gilbert came up to them all asking, "Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?"

Mari blanched, what is wrong with her tonight? Maybe she's got food poisoning or something, because the thought of Vicki Donovan being missing should not make her want to throw up.

"You're her stalker. You tell us."

"I can't find her."

"She probably found somebody else to party with. Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced."

"What's with the pill pusher?" Elena asked, defensively.

"Ask him." Tyler sneered, jerking his chin in Jeremy's direction.

"You wanna do this right now?" Jeremy challenged, eyeing up Tyler.

"Are you dealing?" Elena cut in, trying to catch her brother's attention.

"She's never gonna go for you." Tyler laughed, cruelly.

"She already did. Over and over and over again." Jeremy retorted, smugly.

"Yeah, right." Tyler scoffed.

"You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline asked incredulously. "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with you?"

Mari wrinkled her nose in distaste. Jeremy was barely 15 years old and Vicki was 18.

"There's no way." Tyler denied adamantly, dragging Mari out of her train of thought.

"And I didn't even have to force her into it."

Mari froze, feeling her throat constrict that the words. Force her into it?

"What the hell is he talking about, Ty?" Matt demanded, as Mari slammed her drink onto the table. The ice shook at the violent action, letting out an annoying clinking sound as they bounced off the side of the glass. Mari glared at the glass, finding the sound extremely aggravating, before turning her glare to Tyler.

"Nothing, man, just ignore him, he's a punk." Tyler brushed it off, avoiding his sister's gaze.

"You know what, how about all of you shut up and help me find my sister?"

"We'll check the back." Bonnie offered.

"I'll check the square." Matt said, and Jeremy jumped in, "I'll come with you."

"Oh, no, no, no. You are coming with me." Elena intercepted Jeremy, dragging him away from the booth.

The booth was empty as everyone disappeared to help find Vicki. Tyler tried to make a run for it, but Mari latched onto his arm before he could move, digging her freshly manicured nails into his skin, forcing him to look at her.

"What the fuck, Tyler?" Mari seethed.

Tyler rolled his eye, jerking his arm out of Mari's grip before storming off.

a/n: guys it's almost december, merry almost christmas lol