“Sarah, don’t go outdoors and don’t talk to her unless it’s necessary. I’ll leave someone outside to guard the house.” And with that, Damon ruffled her hair before walking off down the stairs and through the door. Sarah however, didn’t move an inch, not even when Katie frowned and turned her face away from her.
“You keep staring at me as if I have some sort of disease. You’re not very polite, are you?”
Sarah quickly snapped out of her daze and shook her head, “Sorry, I just–” she paused in hesitance and twiddled her fingers. “Is something wrong with you? There’s blood at the side of your lips.”
“Blood?” She blinked as her hand reached up in haste and swiped the left side of her lips.
“It’s the other side.”
Katie spun around, wiped her face clean and then turned back to glare at her, but her glare wasn’t enough to hide her obvious embarrassment. “Mind your own business, will you? Stop acting like you care.” She aggressively flung her hair behind her shoulders and stalked off, but her movements weren’t as proud nor straight postured as always. She was struggling to walk without swaying and Sarah could see it. Something was definitely wrong with her.
Sarah wasn’t sure why she did it but she found herself following behind her. Maybe it was the fact that she was obviously hurt that made her momentarily put aside the fact that she hated her to some extent. Or perhaps, it was simply because she was curious as to what or whom had hurt her. As far as Sarah knew, there was no one else in the house aside from the three of them. If neither her nor Damon did anything to her, then did that mean it was self inflicted? Or she had some sort of illness? Either way, Sarah needed to know or she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.
“I don’t exactly like you, to be honest.” They stopped in the kitchen, Sarah by the entrance and Katie in front of the counter. “But if something’s wrong and I can help, I’ll help you. I’m not as cold hearted as you are.”
Katie was silent and her face was as hard as a rock. She was thinking hard on something and Sarah was anxious to know what that was. “So?” She urged, watching her every move as she moved to open the fridge and dig through the cupboards, taking out a bottle of liquor. Sarah’s eyebrows furrowed. Even she herself didn’t know where that was, so how in heaven’s name did she know?
“How do you know where that is? Did Damon tell you?”
“You said you want to help right?” Katie responded, casually disregarding her earlier question. “I don’t have much time left. Probably within the next few years or so, I’ll die… If you want to prevent that, you should leave Damon to me.”
Sarah’s gaze became incredulous. “What?” After hearing that, she was slowly getting to the conclusion that feeling sorry for Katie, wasn’t a very wise move on her part. She was back with the leave Damon thing again? Seriously? She should’ve expected this. The main reason she came here in the first place was because of Damon anyway, so she shouldn’t have put this pass her. Who knew lies could stretch this far?
“I’m being completely honest here.” Katie clarified as she stared at a disbelieving Sarah. Her face and voice were nonchalant enough to convince anyone and if Sarah wasn’t in her right mind, she probably would’ve trusted those stoic eyes she beared.
“Rejection isn’t as easy as saying ‘I reject you as my mate and bla bla bla’. It comes with a price. Damon might not feel our bond anymore but I can. I can feel the pain when he touches someone else, kisses someone else, fucks someone else. It’s so freaking scourging that even my own skin feels like it’s on fire.” She spat each word with its own share of venom. “Helping me means giving him over to me. That is the only way to end this torture aside from killing myself.”
Speechlessness… that was what plagued Sarah. There was no way! What if this was some new strategy used to get Damon on her side? What if her words were something to lure her, to get her to lower her guard? And what if there was no consequence, there was no pain… what if all of this was a lie?
There were millions of questions running around in her mind and Sarah couldn’t decipher which was true from which was not, but the only thing she was sure about, the only thing she could easily deem as credible…. were her eyes. Those weren’t the eyes of a liar. Those were the eyes of someone who was in pain, someone who had been through a lot. Throughout her whole rant, her eyes took on so many emotions that Sarah could almost feel guilt rise within her being. But still, she couldn’t believe it, her mind couldn’t accept it. Something as simple as rejection couldn’t do such damage.
“I—” she swallowed. “D-Do you think I’d seriously believe that?”
“You can ask Damon or Jason, whoever you want… or you could try it out yourself… I don’t care.” She sighed.
Sarah eyed her suspiciously. “Why are you telling me this anyway?”
“Because I obviously want you to give up Damon. And maybe because I want you to know just how miserable you’re making my life.” A pensive look clouded her eyes as she drifted into memories of he past. “Although, to be honest, I’m the one who made my own life miserable. I betrayed someone I cared about and tried to save people who would never even think of saving me. Stupid, aren’t I?” She chuckled whilst downcasting her eyes to stare at her feet. And then, following that action, she said the most unexpected of things, “As soon as Damon takes care of Maxim, I’ll leave.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “What? You’ll leave just like that?”
“Why do you seem so surprised? Any normal person, would’ve been happy to hear that…. But I guess if you want me to stay and do a threesome then I’m definitely up for it.” A laugh followed her rather ludicrous suggestion, and Katie tried her best to make it sound atleast a bit genuine but sadness was practically all that anyone heard from her lips and because of that, Sarah wasn’t even sure how to respond.
“Why leave all of a sudden? I thought you were hellbent on getting Damon back.”
“I can’t get him back if he doesn’t want to come back. It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t care one flying shit about me anymore. And I’m not even sure if he ever did. That look in his eyes when he speaks to you… I have never seen it before.” She smiled sadly as she allowed her body to slip downwards against the counter and to the floor. “You must want to murder me for reeking havoc and then wanting to run away from it in one piece, right? But I’m already dying… you should atleast let me off this once.” She popped the bottle cap with her teeth before tilting her head back and bringing it to her mouth. Sarah paled as she watched her gulp down the liquor without so much as breaking for air. Her lips didn’t release the rim until almost half of it was down her throat.
“Let’s try this…” She wiped her lips. “whoever drinks the most gets Damon. What do you say?”
“I don’t take part in such childish things.” Sarah internally cringed when she realized that her words sounded much like Damon’s. “… I mean, I don’t drink much. And besides, I thought you said you were giving up on Damon.”
“Fine then. But just so you know, this is one of the last three bottles here and I’m pretty sure Damon’s not gonna replenish these. You should probably drink when you have the chance.” She outstretched her arm and rose her brow expectantly, her eyes making gestures towards the liquor she was holding. Sarah frowned. Liquor wasn’t something she drank often, in fact, she only drank a few times when Trixie and Haguy were around. But afterwards, she hadn’t gotten a chance… mostly because she didn’t know where it was kept. Now that she knew, she was tempted to give it a go.
Getting drunk and doing stupid things weren’t exactly something she should do around someone like Katie, but turning away that offer especially when Damon’s not here, would be a loss on her part. Because for one: getting drunk made her feel free and capable of doing and saying whatever she wanted… though the after effects were something she dreaded greatly. And two: provoking Damon was something she lived for.
Taking a deep, Sarah reached for the bottle and hesitantly, her fingers wrapped around it.
“Don’t tell him I gave it to you though. It’s the other way around, got it?”
“Yeah. Whatever.” With that, she tipped the bottle over and filled her mouth with liquor.
******
******
And then an hour later, both Sarah and Katie were drunk to the point where someone could slap them and instead of retaliating, they’d laugh. And as for Damon, he was standing by the door, his seething red eyes watching both women chatting nonstop on the floor. “Sarah!”
Sarah’s head immediately spun in his direction and she clasped her hands together with a bright smile. “Damon! You’re home!”
He sharpened his glare. “What the hell is going on here?”
Seeing the anger in his eyes, she instantly tried to assure him. “I’m not drunk.” She held her hands up in surrender and stood up, staggering in his direction. “I swear. I’m just a little dizzy.”
“I thought I told you not to drink.” Damon crossed his arm over his chest and side stepped her when she tried to touch him.
“I didn’t drink.” She tried to lie but the look that Damon gave her made her stop her attempt. “I did, but only a little. I can hold my liquor, Damon!… unlike some muscular dude I know.”
His eyebrows drew together. “I’m a werewolf, Sarah. You can’t compare me to you.”
“Then drink the rest of this and we’ll see.” Katie came up from behind her and held out a bottle with around a quarter of its original content. Damon didn’t even acknowledge that she had spoken, but Sarah was a different case. She grinned, grabbed the bottle and shoved it into his face. “Yeah! If you can drink all this without getting drunk then I’ll acknowledge that your species are superior.”
“Why the hell would I-”
“… do something so childish?” Sarah finished for him. “Because I said so.” She took a staggering step closer and lifted her eyes to stare hard at him, a stern look on her face. “Or are you too chicken?”
Damon knew that trick for sure. But again, his pride allowed him to fall prey to her trickery, and without so much as giving it a good thought, he rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the bottle out of her grasp. “Fine.”
And a minute later…. he was gulping down the leftover liquor in one single go.
And then another minute later…. he was drunk as hell.