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“Of course,” Hope says, looking at the enchanted coin. “Of fucking course.”
She knew there would be some changes when she left, but she didn’t imagine they would start doing magic right in front of humans. First, it was an enchanted coin, and then it would be something much worse. Then again, who was she to say something? They could do whatever they wanted, for all she cared.
The game’s about to finish and the Salvatore’s Stallions are losing for good. Hope sees Josie coming from talking to her new Headmaster, and she sees something sinister flickering in the brunette’s eyes.
Hope is not stupid, she knows something’s wrong. She can feel the unsettling atmosphere around her. She tries to concentrate on the game again.
Maya locks eyes with her and throws the ball. Hope catches it, looking for Ethan. She stops and then raises her arm to deliver the ball to him. Instead, she hears the crack of a bone.
The ball falls out of her hand, and something breaks inside of her. She knows exactly who did this to her, but her heart is not ready to accept that yet.
“Hope!” She hears, but she isn’t paying attention. The pain in her arm is not even comparable to the swelling of her heart.
Josie stands there, a few feet away, a look of distraught on her face, like she wants to say something that doesn’t come out.
Hope knows she needs to rearrange her arm and she will heal fast, but she’s incapable of moving. She’s sure Josie can see the disappointment in her eyes, even if the brunette doesn’t know who she is.
She looks away first, distracting herself with the pain and the sting in her eyes, and the trail of blood prickling at her arm.
Being homeless sucks. It’s not like she can go back to New Orleans because her family doesn’t remember her, neither to Salvatore’s School or any other place. So she’s homeless. And poor. She’s starting to think she should have jumped again into Malivore.
Her arm is fine now, thanks to Alaric dragging her to the “Marshall’s doctor”. In reality, she had to go alone into the forest to fix her arm. She stayed sprawled out on the ground feeling miserable. She had no one.
“Hey,” A voice says, startling her.
She stops looking at the black pit of mud, adjusting her position onto the bench.
She looks up, surprised of finding Landon sitting by her side. If she’s being honest, she doesn’t want another broken arm because of Landon.
“What do you want?” She asks, a tilt in her voice.
“I… wanted to say sorry. I know you’re a witch too… sort of, and I also know you know she was the one that broke your arm. I kind of broke up with her and I was wondering if—”
“Don’t.” Hope says, “Whatever you’re gonna say, don’t. Just… leave me alone.”
He hums nervously.
“I thought you liked me…?” He says, more like an affirmation.
Hope doesn’t know if she wants to scream or laugh. Two days ago, this would have been what she wanted. But now… she isn’t sure.
She sighs, listening to the scratching of the rats and feeling the hard floor of the school below her like she’s in there. She doesn’t want to go back, but sleeping on the bench is now out of question thanks to Landon.
“I would prefer it if you just go.” She mutters, even if she feels the last drop of love stirring her up from inside. There he goes, her first love.
She loves him, but she can’t be with someone who just broke up with her girlfriend like she is nothing, and for what? To be with someone who he doesn’t know?
And also, there’s Josie. She remembers the light touches and the secret smiles and the hidden looks. She remembers how her arms held her and how she would sneak out to the twin’s room to be with her. Hope loves her, even if she doesn’t know to what extent yet.
Landon doesn’t say anything, but Hope hears the shuffling of his shoes against the pavement when he leaves.
She thinks her night can’t go worse, but God decides in that very moment that she needs a shower, an abundant one to make matters worse. She loves the rain, but not when she feels miserable and forgotten.
She feels like she has walked for hours now, and she’s soaked like never before. That’s why she doesn’t expect to see Josie waiting for her in front of the school. She guesses she’s waiting for her because she stands when she sees Hope.
Josie looks stunning, as always. She is under a navy blue umbrella, which she holds with one hand, while the other is playing with her shirt.
Hope tries to settle her nerves too. When she’s close enough, Josie starts.
“I’m sorry,” Josie says, sounding defeated.
“Save it,” Hope says, because she’s supposed to hate her. She’s supposed to not know her at all. Still, it hurts to talk to her like that.
“Look, I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me since I met you, and I don’t think I should tell you this but I start to ramble when I’m nervous, and—I don’t know, I feel like I know you and that I should apologize even if we don’t know each other, does that make sense? Also, it was awful of me to break your arm like that.” She finishes, looking like a tomato. She wants to punch herself in the face for talking too much.
Hope cracks a small smile, looking down.
“How did you find me?” She prefers to ask, ignoring the apology.
They are very close now, since Josie tried to cover them both with the umbrella. Hope knows that if she lifts her gaze, she will be millimeters away from kissing Josie. So she decides to keep her head down, focusing on the nervous sound of Josie’s voice and in her rapid heartbeat. Sometimes, she hates her wolf hearing.
“I… may have followed you? I mean, I went to talk to you but Landon was with you, so I waited behind a tree.”
This time, Hope laughs with her whole body, making the mistake of lifting her head. Her laughter dies down once she can feel her noses touching and the water dripping off her face.
“I’m so sorry,” Josie repeats, feeling guilty.
“I know,” Hope says. “I’m sorry too.”
Josie smiles a little, locking her eyes with her. She knows what she’s about to do is wrong in many ways, but she doesn’t care. Something pulls at her insides, making her step forward and kiss Hope.
It’s a tentative kiss at first, like asking permission. Hope is shocked, but she can’t deny her feelings. She pulls Josie closer, making her drop the umbrella. She’s kissing and pulling at her lips, deepening the kiss, and Josie sees Hope’s face, she sees Hope taking a bullet for her, and she sees Hope above the tombstone with a shovel, and she knows.
The memory makes her stumble backward. Hope catches her with a worried look on her face, thinking she has messed up.
The rain is falling stronger now, and Josie grabs the umbrella, covering themselves again. She doesn’t say what she’s thinking. She just stares openly at Hope. She’s freezing, but she doesn’t want to break the spell that seems to surround them.
“Did I… did I do something wrong?” Hope asks, hiding the trembling of her voice. She has figured out by now that she can blame it on the rain.
“I… remember now,” Josie says, her feelings being a mix between desire and betrayal. “I remember everything.”
Hope feels like a hypocrite. She didn’t get Landon back because he had dumped Josie like she was nothing, but minutes later she was the one kissing Josie, not caring about Landon. It seemed that he was also nothing to Josie.
The walk from the school to the Salvatore’s is silent. Kind of. Josie is in deep thought, but that doesn’t stop her to steal kisses from her. They are tempting fate but none of them cares.
Still, with their hands all over themselves and Hope’s kisses on Josie’s neck, they know they have to talk about it. They know, but they can’t stop. Josie’s stomach makes twists with a particular hard kiss, moaning softly into Hope’s ear. They are in the middle of the Salvatore’s hall, trying to get to their room and they have forgotten Josie sleeps with her sister in that room.
“We” Kiss. “Shouldn't,” Hope says again, because she knows better than not communicating before trying to have sex with a friend.
“Mmmh.” Josie moans, not agreeing with what Hope suggests.
They stumble backward, opening the door of the twins’ room.
“Oh, my god. Oh, my god!!! What is the meaning of this?” Lizzie yells, covering her eyes with a pillow.
“I’m… We… this is not what it looks like, I swear.” Josie mutters, sounding panicked.
“I thought you hated her?” Lizzie asks, half-confirmation, half-disgust. She realizes very late what she had said when she feels Hope’s somber mood.
“I think I’m going back,” Hope says. There’s still water dripping from her face and her clothes and she realizes she’s soaked, in both ways. “I need to go.”
Josie almost falls, but she manages to grab Hope’s arm.
“No, please stay. Where are you going?” She asks, because by now she has guessed Hope is homeless and the question seems to mask that very poorly.
Hope doesn’t answer. Instead, she listens to the rhythm of the rain and her heart warms at the smell of earth, lavender, and peppermint. She smells Josie’s arousal and heat and she feels dizzy. Her eyes turn yellow and she knows she needs to get out of there as fast as she can, but she can’t bring herself to move.
“Hope? What’s wrong?” Josie asks, oblivious of her current situation.
“Nothing. I—I swear I’m fine.”
Silence strikes and then the door opens and Lizzie disappears, closing it behind her with force. She thinks Josie said something to her to get her to leave, but she’s not sure.
“No, you’re not. Look at me,” Josie says, lifting Hope’s face. “It’s fine. Breathe.”
They’re still standing in the middle of the room, so Josie starts to strip off her wet clothes in front of her, though she fails in realizing Hope’s panicked expression.
Hope’s eyes turn yellow again, but this time she doesn’t hide them.
Josie’s eyes widen, connecting the dots in her head. “Oh, it’s—it’s my fault. I’m so, so sorry.” She says, covering her chest as fast as she can.
Once she finishes, she gives Hope something dry to wear. “I, umm, I think they will fit you.”
Hope hums, apprehensive about changing in front of Josie. She does it anyway, avoiding Josie’s gaze. When she finishes, Josie pats the bed beside her, asking Hope to sit down with her.
“You know we have to talk about… this, right?” Josie starts with a careful approach that Hope has only seen in her.
“I came here when I got out of Malivore,” She says like a yelp of hurt that lets Josie knows she saw them, even if she hasn’t said it. “I wanted to see Landon and even Lizzie. I… missed you, but I saw you and you were so happy. I didn’t want to ruin that for you.”
“So you just pretended not to know us? How’s that better?” Josie’s hurt tone bites more than Hope would like to admit.
“I was so jealous, but I could never be mad at you, you know? So I left since everyone was better off without me in their lives.”
There’s a pause and the only audible sound in the room is Hope’s elaborated breathing.
Finally, Josie decides to ask what they are thinking.
“What does this mean for us?” The question comes out shaky, like she’s scared of what Hope will say. And she is.
“I… don’t know. I’m well aware of my feelings for you, and it’s obvious that I like you since I don’t do the one-night thing. But… I’m still a stranger for everyone and I feel like Landon deserves to know who I am.”
Josie nods, knowing too well that secrets will tear them apart.
“I will tell them tomorrow, and then we can look for a way to bring the memories about me back.” Hope states. She knows she’s overstaying, that she needs to go back to the hard floor, and the rats, and to crying herself to sleep, and to being homeless, orphan and lonely. Maybe she could crash in the park and get out before someone notices. She’s not going to fall asleep anyways, but the park sounds better than the school’s basement.
She gets up, ready to say goodbye, to say that that was all a mistake and that she shouldn’t have kissed her, but she knows it’s all a lie.
Josie seems to know what’s happening on Hope’s mind, because she says, “Stay, please.”
Hope’s face goes through different shades of red, settling with cardinal red, a mix of pink and bright red, both colors alike and opposite at the same time.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude or anything.”
Josie is about to answer, but Lizzie takes that moment to come back to the room, almost jumping into her bed with a grumpy sound.
“Did you two finished making out? I’m going to sleep now and I expect complete silence.” She says, casting a spell to flick the lights off, with no intention to wait for an answer.
Josie holds Hope’s hand, guiding her to her bed softly.
“Nothing’s gonna happen,” Josie says, feeling the uneasiness in Hope’s posture. “I mean, I want to, but I get that we shouldn't.”
Hope hums, fiddling with the hem of the borrowed shirt.
“I like you too, by the way,” Josie adds like it’s something they talk about every day. She pauses hesitantly, and then she bends, kissing Hope again, but this time the kiss is soft and loving. “Good night, Hope.”
“Good night, Jo.”