red | Klaus Mikaelson

three

The following days in Mystic Falls were no different from the rest. Kayleigh would hangout with her friends, her aunt, or Rebekah, whom she started getting close with. She forgot how boring Mystic Falls was, not as boring as Kansas, but one of the most exciting things to do was drive around and blast music.

Kayleigh wanted adventure, she wanted to have fun, not just hangout at the Grill or go shopping everyday, she wanted to live.

Broken from her trance when the doorbell rang, Kayleigh jumped up to see who was there. Looking out the small window on the doorframe she couldn't see anyone. No one was there when she fully opened the door either. She sighed.

"Lame ass ding dong ditchers," she muttered. About to close the door, Kayleigh looked down and saw a small white envelope, with Kayleigh Fell written in cursive. She picked up the letter and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

It was an invitation. An invitation to a ball. Kayleigh has always wanted to go to a ball. Of course, Mystic Falls had founders parties and balls, but Kayleigh was never old enough to attend. Who would throw a ball if not the founders?

The Mikaelsons. At least that's what the invitation said. She thought that name sounded familiar.

Rebekah Mikaelson.

It was being thrown by her family?

A beep from her phone pulled her from her thoughts, funny enough, it was Rebekah.

Bex: Hey Leigh!! My family does this weird thing when we are all in town where we throw a ball, please come!!

Leigh: dude i've always wanted to go to ball ofc i'll come :))

The ball was tomorrow, meaning she had 24 hours to find the perfect dress, no pressure, right?

Meredith declined the invitation for the ball and decided to stay home with her boyfriend of sorts, Alaric. In Matt's words he was a "history teacher slash vampire hunter slash best friend of an 150 year old vampire". Quite the life.

While most people in this town had ballgowns to fit the part, Kayleigh didn't. So she pulled on a sundress and some platform sandals and drove to the only store in Mystic Falls that would have dresses right for the occasion.

Upon entering the store, she was overcome with options, and immediately texted Rebekah an SOS to meet her, hoping she could offer some insight on what to wear. Rebekah arrived within minutes and found Kayleigh sitting on a small couch in the woman's section, looking helpless.

"Have no fear, your fashion savior is here" Rebekah joked walking to meet Kayleigh.

"Please never say that again," Kayleigh responded, laughing.

"What do you need help with?" Rebekah asked.

"Everything. I've never been to one of these. What kind of dress to I get? Do I wear heels? How fancy is it?"

"A long ball gown style dress. Heels for sure, and fancy. We Mikaelsons take these things seriously, plus you never know who you'll meet."

"Daunting." Kayleigh thought.

After quite literally hours Kayleigh stood in-front of a large mirror looking at herself. It was a long flowy dress that cinched at her waist, showing her figure. The dress sparkled in the light and moved beautiful when Kayleigh did. On the top, the dress had intricate detailing and even small flowers were scattered around the dress.

It was stunning.

"I love it!" Kayleigh said quietly.

"You look stunning," Rebekah told her honestly.

"So what's the deal with this," Kayleigh started, "do I need a date?"

"Does someone need a date?" Kayleigh heard a familiar voice say, though she hadn't heard it in over a year.

Quickly, Kayleigh turned around and was met with the raven haired boy.

"Damon!"

"Leigh!" The two hugged in a tight embrace.

"Wait," Rebekah said, "you two know each other?"

"Yeah, he uh, helped me with something awhile ago." Kayleigh stuttered, not really wanting to go into details. Her past was her past, and she wanted to keep in that way.

"Hm, anyways, Leigh doesn't need a date. Thank you, you can leave now, Damon."

"Ouch, still mad at me?"

"You know bloody well I am."

"Does someone want to explain, or?" Kayleigh interrupted.

"Damon slept with me to get me to share some information with him."

Damon shrugged and gave Leigh a what can you do look, the girl responded by rolling her eyes and going back to looking at the dress she wore.

"D are you-" Leigh started, only to notice Damon had sped off.

"Alright that's it you're buying that dress."

*****

After dress shopping, Kayleigh met Elena at The Grill for dinner.

The two dove even further into memories and Kayleigh made Elena explain her love life again. She denied having a thing for Damon, but Kayleigh could sense it. She had a feeling about it.

"So what about you?" Elena said, "Any romance in Kansas?"

"One, I was dating this guy and I just remember being so infatuated with him, I did whatever he said. It was weird though, like, like I didn't have control. He did."

Slowly, Elena started putting the pieces together, "Wait, do you think you were compelled?"

"I don't know, I don't even know if he was a vampire. He made me read these crazy latin books, and try to guess what he was thinking. Maybe he thought I was a witch or something."

"How did you get out of it?"

"Damon, actually," Kayleigh said, "He was in town visiting my neighbor Mary. I was watching her house while she was gone though and so I just talked to Damon for awhile. Then Jake, my boyfriend at the time, came over while Damon was there, and I don't know, they had a weird stare down and went into another room, and Jake just dipped."

"What the fuck."