I don't even know where to begin apologising for how long this has taken me to upload. I am so sorry. Final year in college, its been crazy. Summers almost here though so I should be able to stick to a decent schedule soon.

As the pair neared the front door once more Klaus let go of Caroline's hand and placed his own at the small of her back to help her up the steps to the house. "We wouldn't want anybody asking questions just yet love" he smiled at her. "I guess you're right, can't have you being at the centre of a scandal on your first day in town now can we?" Caroline smirked.

Caroline re-joined her friends in the garden after exchanging phone numbers with Klaus; she couldn't hide the excitement on her face as she sheepishly slid back into the circle between Bonnie and Matt. "Where did you go Care? We thought you left us." Bonnie enquired. "Sorry, the queue for the toilet was ridiculous, you think in a house this size there would be a few we could use but apparently not." Bonnie didn't look like she bought it and Caroline was sure she'd get interrogated later on when it was just the girls but for now she let it go. The rest of the party passed without incident, unless you count Tyler embarrassing himself by knocking over a tray of glasses, which amused Caroline far more than it should have.

"Breakfast tomorrow morning at the grill ladies?" suggested Bonnie as they all made their way back to their cars. "Oh I can't" replied Katherine, "Stefan is taking me to some sort of exhibition Charlottesville and we have to leave super early. Something to do with vampires or blood I can't really remember, you know how obsessed he is!" The others laughed, "that's a pity Kat, make sure an insist he takes you shopping afterwards though, you'll have earned it." Caroline was pretty close to Stefan but even she had to admit his obsession with all things gory was a little weird. Secretly she was glad Katherine couldn't make it, she wasn't as close to her as she was to Bonnie and Elena and she knew Bonnie was going to be full of questions about where she disappeared to at the party and Caroline wasn't sure if she was ready to share that information with her best friends, but she definitely wasn't ready to share with Katherine.

Elena was the last to arrive at the Mystic Grill, the next morning. "Sorry girls, Saturday morning, you know how it is." She blushed. "Unfortunately we don't know how it is miss I am so in love with my new boyfriend I can't tear myself away from him a second earlier than is absolutely necessary" teased Bonnie not realising she was about to start Elena on a fifteen minute monologue about the many virtues of Damon Salvatore. "OK Juliet, that's quite enough for now" laughed Caroline, "let's eat."

Just as they were finishing up and Caroline thought she had gotten away with it Bonnie turned to her, "so Miss Forbes, are you ready to explain to your two best friends in the whole wide world why you disappeared from the party yesterday for twenty five minutes and came back looking happier than I've seen you since I don't even remember?" "Um, will you accept a no?" Worth a try, thought Caroline. Bonnie didn't even answer her she just stared, with a slight smirk, never breaking eye contact. "Ugh, OK! You are such a little witch sometimes Bennett, you always get what you want." Caroline acted like she was annoyed but secretly she was dying to tell them. "I have a date."

Twenty minutes later and Caroline sat deflated and a little angry after answering what felt like a thousand questions. The girls couldn't believe Caroline had agreed to go out with this strange man who she barely knew and was quite a few years older than her. Elena and Bonnie both thought it was a terrible idea and that he had altogether too much charisma to be genuine, they totally ruined the moment. Caroline was so excited for her date, she really felt like there was something there between them and her friends weren't being supportive in the slightest. She honestly couldn't believe the hypocrisy of Elena who had fallen head over heels for her boyfriend's older brother despite the fact that he was quite frankly, a bit of a douche, and she had gone for it, against everyone's advice, despite all the warnings, and Caroline had to admit it really had worked out for Elena, which is what made this even worse, she should understand. "Look, he made me feel like I was the only damn person at that party, I'm fresh out of a pretty horrible breakup and I deserve to have a little fun, so I'm going to go for dinner with him no matter what you say, so you both would be better of just accepting that." Caroline stood from the table and turned on her heel, she was well aware that you should never choose a man over your friends, but just this once, she knew she was right, and Bonnie and Elena were just going to have to get over it.

As Caroline fumbled through her handbag for her car keys her phone started to jingle, she froze when she saw the name on the screen just for a split second before composing herself. "Hello?" "So Miss Forbes, how about that dinner date?"

Thank you all for reading, I love to hear your reviews so please leave one if you have time :) Follow me on tumblr at iamsiredtodelena or on twitter katie_flood - that's two underscores by the way!