𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧—"𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨"

———

"𝙃𝙀𝙔, 𝙇𝘼𝙍𝘼!"

𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙍𝘼 𝙍𝘼𝙄𝙎𝙀𝘿 𝙃𝙀𝙍 head a bit as the shouting of her name with knitted eyebrows, and a smile crossed her face as she spotted her familiar friend as she walked through the glass door—the bell ringing softly in the background.

"If it isn't my favorite customer, Davina Claire," Clara smiles proudly, brushing a few strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. "More ancient Icelandic folk records for you?"

"They're not for me," Davina laughs, her pink lips cringing as she does so. "But yes!"

Clara's usual bright white teeth were stained as the crimson blood stuck to them, and she felt the warm stickiness slip down her lips and chin, onto her neck. She probably had droplets of them falling onto her light baby blue t-shirt, but she didn't really care about the dry cleaners bill right now.

"Please...please let us go."

The blonde opened her icy blue eyes, immediately feeling the high of the blood pumping in her veins plummeting as the dying redhead laying out on the floor next to her feet was crying out. One hand was resting on the ground for support, trying to lift herself up, and then another was wrapped around her bleeding neck, trying to make the wound stop gushing.

"Can you just shut up? God, you're ruining all the fun," Clara hissed out, flashing her bloody fangs at the girl as viciously as she could. The girl quiets down a bit, probably in fear the blonde would finish ripping out her throat.

"Quite the mess you've made outside my shop."

Clara turned her attention away from the suffering redhead by her foot, and to the african american man who was now standing a few yards away from her. She'd never seen the man before, and she was more confused as to why he wasn't completely scared out of his mind.

"My bad," Clara fake smiled, tilting her head to the side a bit with confusion. "And you are?"

"Dalton, Joe Dalton," the man, Joe, looks the girl up and down. "You're a real mess, aren't you..."

"Clara," the blonde narrows her eyes at Joe, a bit annoyed. "I'm not a mess."

"All vampires kill hoards of people when they're upset, don't they?"

Clara was searching her mind for a better comeback, but she wasn't finding one, because he was was absolutely right. She stares down the unfamiliar man, almost wondering what exactly he was searching for.

"You know they kill vampires in the quarter now," Joe informs, and Clara shrugs lightly with an unamused face.

"Does it looks like I care?"

"Someone really messes you up, huh?" The man raises one eyebrow, and Clara was wondering how he was so insightful.

"I don't think that's any of your business."

The blonde crosses her arms over her chest, and she was already tired of this boring conversation. The blood from her victims was suddenly a lot stronger, and she was tempted to just go back to helping herself instead of this man.

"I just think I could be helpful."

A grin crosses the blondes face as she makes eye contact with the very man who quite possibly saved her from herself; Joe Dalton.

"Hey, Joey!" Clara waved over from behind the register as he entered his shop through the same glass door. There weren't a ton of people in the shop, just a couple and then Davina searching across the store for some more of her records.

"How's my favorite worker?" Joe smiles proudly, walking past the blonde as he stands behind the counter as well.

"Oh, absolutely fantastic," Clara smiles genuinely, tapping one of her fingers on the countertop. "How's my favorite boss?"

"Absolutely fantastic," the man smirks, mimicking Clara's higher voice almost perfectly. "You good to lock up tonight?"

The blonde nods repeatedly as the answer, and so Joe also nods and drops a few keys locked together on the counter. "Thanks, night girl."

"No problem, Joey."

The man pats Clara's back a few times comfortably, and then walks through the back and probably out of the back exit. A smile was plastered on Clara's face, not just because she had to be polite to the customers, but to the fact that after all these months she's finally starting to feel better and more herself.

Ever since Kol left, and hasn't dropped a single word since, her hearts been in a million pieces. Not just that, but as soon as she called Damon to see if she should come back, Elena answered his phone with dreaded news.

"Damon?"

"No...Elena," the female voice, Elena, replies, and a certain type of sadness was covering her tone.

"Elena, what's wrong?" Clara questioned, pressing the phone closer to her ear in hopes she could possibly hear any details in the background.

The brunette sniffles, and the worried feeling in Clara's gut was only growing by the second. She swallowed harshly, internally begging Elena to continue or explain.

"Damon...Clara, Damon's gone."

Everything in that exact moment seemed to stop, like the entire world had stopped spinning and people froze in their footsteps and food stopped cooking and everyone's breathing had hitched.

This was exactly the last thing in the entire world Clara needed to know, especially in this given moment.

"What?" Was the only word Clara could muster, fighting the urge once again to let the wetness drip down her cheeks.

"We were trying to save everyone, but the, the time ran out and him and Bonnie...they didn't make it out, Clara," Elena took her time explaining, her voice cracking several times as she tried her best to form actual sentences.

Clara couldn't take the heartbreaking tone of the brunette, so she muttered a goodbye and hung up the phone—instantly throwing it on her bed as she ran both of her hands through her short blonde locks.

Her breathing was out of control, and she was waiting for Elena to call her back and inform her it was all just a cruel joke, but she didn't. So, she let the tears loose as she fell to the ground. Clara buried her head in her arms and pulled her knees up to her chest, and she let all of the sadness drop out of her eyes.

Her back was positioned up against her bed frame, and she didn't know exactly how long she just stayed curled up in a little ball while mourning her best friend.

"You promised," Clara murmured through tears and gritted teeth. "You promised you would be there for me from now on, that nothing would stop you."

Clara was sobbing so harshly that she already felt the bags growing under her eyes, and it's continued crying while muttering things under her breath. She wanted to blame Damon for this, for the rest of her heart breaking, but she knew he wouldn't have left unless he was forced too.

"You're my best friend, you selfish prick! You weren't supposed to leave me!"

But Clara had come a long way from the heartbroken mess a girl; especially since it took her a week and three days to finally leave her apartment afterwards.

But her mind was taken off the sadness of before as she saw the brunette witch walking back up to her counter, two records held tightly in her grip.

"Find some good ones?" Clara asked with a raised eyebrow and half smirk. But Davina's only response was a simple eye roll and placing the two records on the counter.

The ringing of the door made Clara glance towards it as per usual, but the customer who walked through made her have wide eyes and parted lips—that Davina also seemed to notice.

The person who had walked their way inside the tiny record store was a younger man, probably a year or two older than Clara. He had curly brownish hair, and his blue eyes were noticeably bright from even the distance. He was a little bit taller than 6 foot probably, with a stickler built body with a little bit of muscle mass. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a grey jacket on top of it, with dark blue jeans.

"You might catch flies with that open mouth."

Clara snapped immediately out of her staring at the cute boy, and turned her attention back to her witch friend.

"What?" Clara questioned, huffing out a bit defensively. This was the first time since Kol left that she had been utterly speechless when she saw a cute boy, and it felt a bit odd.

"Oh, he's cute," Davina smiles proudly, turning to look over her shoulder at the boy as he looked at both girls.

The boy lips turned upward as he smiled at the two, and he rose his hand a bit to wave hello. Clara felt utterly embarrassed, and she wondered if he had caught her staring so hard, so a light blush crawled onto her cheeks as she rose her hand a bit to give a soft wave.

"He's so into you," Davina nudged Clara slightly, and and her reply was a shrug as she looked at the counter instead of the boy.

"Look, are you getting these records?" The blonde asked, completely ignoring Davina's last statement in hopes of changing the discussion.

"You should get his number," Davina suggested, nodding a few times. "I mean, have you even talked to a boy since—"

"C'mon," Clara groaned, her head tilting backwards as she did so. "I thought we agreed not to say his name."

"Lara, you can't live in your little shell pretending that Kol Mikaelson is still here, you gotta get back in the playing field!" Davina said rather loudly, and Clara cringed at her as many peoples heads turned, including the cute brunette boy.

Clara took the two records from the counter and looked at the price tags; both were four dollars each so she typed it quickly on the register for the total of eight dollars. Davina seemed to roll her eyes again as she dug out a few singles out of her pocket, handing the change to the blonde after a second.

"I'm not pretending," Clara said after giving Davina the two records back. "That he, like, didn't leave me. I'm just trying to get over it, alright?"

"Alright," Davina rose her hands up in defense, caving in. "But, I still think you should get the cute boys number."

"You think?" Clara asked, biting down on her lower lip as she saw the boy searching a box of records on the table a few yards away from them.

"Oh, I know."

Clara smiled softly to herself at the thought, but then the nerves started forming in her stomach at the thought she'd actually have to be smooth and talk to him.

"Is this where I buy the records?"

The blonde immediately shook away all of her distracted thoughts as the brunette boy was now standing in front of the counter. Her eyes fluttered to Davina standing a foot or so away, and she flashed two thumbs up with a smile as she exited the store; leaving the two by the counter all alone.

"Uh, yeah, sorry," Clara smiled apologetically, taking the record from the boy and placing it on the counter. Their fingers grazed each other for merely a second, but she swore she felt a spark between them. "You don't seem like the boy to listen to Taylor Swift."

"Oh, really?" The boy questioned, raising one brow at the blonde. This was when she noticed he had a rather cute accent, one that sounded familiar.

"Unless a girls got you wrapped around her pretty little finger," the blonde teased, an actual smile spreading across her face.

The boy narrowed his eyes accusingly at the girl standing in front of him, and he was a bit surprised she had the courage to just call him out like that. "She gifted me a record player, and yet we aren't together anymore, I still listen to it everyday."

Clara didn't respond, and sent a pitiful pursed lip with a frown tugging upon it. She felt bad for the boy she hardly knew, since it seemed like he had been dealing with a breakup as well.

"I apologize if that was too...abrupt," the boy cringed up his eyebrows a bit, and Clara shook her head.

"Hey, I get it, breakups suck."

"I have no idea why someone would do such a thing with you, however," the boy smiles brightly, staring at Clara with a bit of warmth.

The smile on Clara's face almost seemed to brighten even more, and a deeper red blush was growing on her cheeks as her eyes fell to the counter instead of looking at the boy, and then back up.

"Wish I knew," Clara joked, trying her best to not her good feeling swelling in her stomach show.

"I'm sorry, love, losing someone you care about has to be just about one of the worst things to happen to you."

Clara's smile seemed to fade almost instantly as the boy said love, and she had a million flashbacks to the original vampire she had fell so deeply in love with. The boy seemed to notice this, and he questioned why her face had turned so serious.

"What is it?" The boy asked, genuinely interested.

"Just, uh, someone I used to know said that a lot," Clara shook off the weird feeling she was getting; why was she being reminded of Kol? Right there in front of her is a nice, cute boy that she could've already gotten the number of if she wasn't so stiff. "I'm Clara, Lockwood."

The girl extended her hand in hopes she hadn't frightened off the poor boy, which seemed to be fine since he took in her hand gently, shaking it a bit.

"Pleasure to meet you, Clara Lockwood, I'm Kaleb, Westphall."

a/n: yay!! another chap (which i actually like) is finally up! don't forget to vote & comment my boo thangs👻