Chapter Text
Caroline refused to even think of the word Fate, but Luck was an interesting concept.
Take that entire day of Highs and Lows, for example.
1) Woke up earlier than the alarm feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day, BUT stubbed her toe on Tyler's stupid dumbbell as she got out of bed.
2) Her hair caught the button of a rarely worn blazer and yanked like five whole strands out of the front of her scalp, BUT then she put her hand in the pocket and discovered a twenty.
3) Gave Tyler's sleepy face a kiss and heard him murmur an unprompted 'Hey. I love you'; BUT his morning breath was horrendous.
4) Got her travel mug ready with the most perfect coffee she'd ever made, BUT then spilled the last mouthful down the front of her pristine white shirt as she got off the elevator.
Now, all of those things were fairly independent of each other. She had barely noticed the bad for the extra cash and the fluttery feelings of the elusive 'I love you'. She looked kick ass, she was gonna be so early to work. The spill could still be rectified, because she was only an elevator ride away.
Interesting that when she got back to the apartment, she immediately caught Tyler and Hayley getting hot and heavy in the lounge.
Like. Not even less than two minutes after she left.
"Seriously?" she deadpanned.
Hayley at least had the decency to look ashamed, but Tyler tried to explain himself.
"It's not what it looks like!" he said quickly.
"Oh, I really wanna hear what it isn't." She raised her brows, looking between him standing at half-mast under his sweats and Hayley's top nakedness. "Go on."
"I was-..." He blinked at her. His hair was in crazy spikes from eager hands, which Caroline was ultimately familiar with because he usually looked like that after she was done with him. "I was -... She was choking."
"On your tongue?" Caroline guessed. Full bitch-mode engaged, she gave Hayley the Mother of all up and downs, pursing her lips. "What, you couldn't put a nice bra on, at least?"
Hayley glanced down at the worn hem of hers, a hand self-consciously going to hide the hole between fabric and elastic on her chest.
"Caroline," she said. "It hasn't been going on long, I swear."
"How many times?" Caroline prodded.
"Nothing happened," Tyler insisted. "She's just a friend."
"Twice," Hayley told her.
"In the apartment?" Caroline pressed. "In our bed?"
"Nothing has been going on," Tyler announced. "I haven't done anything with her, she's lying."
"Once in the apartment," Hayley agreed. She looked at the floor. "Yes, in the bed."
"Our bed." Caroline nodded. She took a calming breath in. "Where was the other time?"
"We didn't fucking do anything!" Tyler took a step forward but didn't dare come any closer under Caroline's reproachful glare. "She's insane, Care. She's fucking lying, she came in here and took her shirt off-!"
"And then started choking?" Hayley muttered. "C'mon, Tyler."
"You did," he hissed. "Care, she came on to me. I didn't let her in, she knocked and then pushed open the door. She wants to fuck me, but I didn't want to hurt her."
"Where was the other time?" Caroline said, looking only at Hayley.
"At his work," Hayley admitted.
"That's why he got fired?" Caroline guessed.
"No," he said. "No, stop listening to her, she's full of shit-!"
"I think so," Hayley said. "He told me he wanted to focus on baseball."
"Baseball?" Caroline repeated with a frown. "He doesn't play baseball."
Hayley swallowed and glanced at Tyler, who bit out: "Shut up and go!" She swooped down in an unfairly graceful crouch for someone with such long legs, and picked up her top, pulling it on hurriedly.
"He's taken me to a few of the games he's played in," Hayley mentioned. She zipped up the fly and looked at Caroline with meaning. "He's been talking about going professional for weeks."
"Oh really?" she said, and looked at Tyler. "Interesting. Was that before or after you lost your job and had me supporting the both of us?"
"I didn't lose my job," he hissed. "I left!"
"I called Benny," Caroline told him frankly. "I called him after the first week to ask why you'd left. He told me you were fired. He wouldn't tell me why. He kept saying it wasn't his business, which is hilarious given that it was his business you left in the lurch."
"You're such a nosy bitch," he snapped at her. "I told you it didn't matter! What the fuck right did you have to call my boss-?"
"I couldn't support the both of us and I had to give up college because you wouldn't get a job," she retorted sharply. "And you decided that the appropriate course of action while I worked my ass off and gave up on school was to bring the neighbors over and fuck them in our bed?"
Tyler's jaw clenched, and he glared at her resolutely, every inch the stubborn seven year old she'd known him as all those years ago. It was laughable, really, that she had wasted so many of her tears on this walking asshole.
It was like a flash went off in her brain.
Elena had mentioned time and again that Tyler was leery and gross with other girls. Bonnie had told her that he was touchy. Rebekah had said he outright asked her out, that one time, and when she'd reminded him he had a girlfriend, he'd said: 'Caroline who?'
This guy was... a jerk. He was... a jerky, dicky, ass-y little fuck boi. And she'd wasted... her whole teenage life... and a good portion of her twenty first year... being ass over head in love with him.
"You," she said slowly. "Are such a massive waste of my time."
"Caroline," he said, lifting his hands to her. "Hang on, hang on a second, just let me explain-"
"Mm," she said primly. "No thanks."
She looked at Hayley, who was inspecting her hands, and then back at Tyler, who started to walk towards her.
"Just wait," he urged. "I can explain-"
"We are so beyond over," she told him flatly. "Done. Forever. You're welcome to him, Hayley."
Hayley said something but Caroline couldn't hear over Tyler's protesting, which she couldn't hear because she was literally seeing red and had to leave before she clawed his cheeks into little ribbons.
He tried to grab her purse, but the handle broke and slid out of his grip (another weird little bit of luck. Broken purse? Not great. Broken purse to escape the suddenly clingy ex? Perfect.) She darted away and down the steps with him hot on her heels, but where she leapt over a puddle from the leaky roof, he skidded and ate shit on the way down.
Bursting into the pouring rain, Caroline made a hasty bee-line for the bus that had just arrived in the stop, jumping on and taking a window seat to stare out of it against the rivulets of water. She watched the murky people jogging in the rain and twisted her neck to look at the apartment building, just in case he ran after her.
He didn't.