A Heart Worth Loving

Meeting Stefan at the Grill, they played a few games of pool and then Layla headed home to finish the mayor’s order. It was late by the time she made it to bed, falling asleep almost immediately and waking up the following morning to her alarm. Kissing Brandon’s head as she entered the kitchen, Layla took a seat and poured herself some orange juice.

“The cakes look amazing,” her gran commented with a smile, “When is the mayor expecting his order?”

“He wants it by lunchtime, so that it’s at the house and ready for when they need it later.”

“I’ll make sure he has it on time,” her gran promised, before checking her watch, “You better get to school.”

Standing up, Layla collected the bag containing Tyler’s birthday present and swung her backpack over her shoulder as she left. Arriving at school, she found Tyler and hugged him before handing him the bag.

“Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, babe,” Tyler said with a grin, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and heading over to their first class.

Sat in her final lesson of the day, Layla listened to Mr. Saltzman talking about the Battle of Gettysburg and packed away her stuff as the bell rang. Collecting a few things from her locker, she made her way home and got ready to head over to the Lockwood's house.

“Have fun,” her gran told her as she pulled on her jacket, “Wish Tyler a happy birthday from me.”

“I will,” Layla replied.

The party was already underway by the time she arrived, stopping at the door to talk to the mayor and heading inside to find her friends. Scanning the room as she made her way over to Stefan, Layla spotted Davis and frowned as he motioned for her to join him.

“Does the deal we made still stand?” Davis asked.

“It definitely still stands, but I don’t know if the plan I had will work anymore,” Layla told him, looking around as the mayor called for silence and pulled Tyler to the front of the room, “Meet me at the Salvatore house tomorrow afternoon and we’ll talk.”

“Sounds good to me.”

After listening to the mayor make a speech about his son, everyone applauded and sang Happy Birthday as the cake was brought out. Feeling a hand on her back, she glanced over to see Damon and smiled.

“Please, enjoy the rest of the party,” the mayor added, once Tyler had blown out the candles and had some photos taken with his parents.

“What’s he doing here?” Stefan asked a while later, standing with Layla and watching as Davis spoke to the mayor.

“Keeping up appearances I assume,” Layla replied with a shrug, “We may know who he really is and why he’s in town, but everyone else still believes that he’s a historian.”

“I’m not comfortable with him being here,” Tyler mumbled as he handed Layla a slice of cake.

“He won’t do anything,” Layla reassured him, turning to Stefan and continuing, “I’m meeting him tomorrow to come up with a plan to get him what he wants, then hopefully he’ll leave town...”

“Are you sure that he can be trusted to keep his word?” Stefan asked.

“Of course I don’t trust him, but I know for a fact that he’ll be leaving once he gets what he wants...”

Standing outside as the sun began to set, Layla allowed her mind to drift and jumped slightly as Damon spoke.

“Thinking about anything interesting?”

“Just wondering if my plan would still work with others involved...” Layla admitted, glancing over and turning around to face him, “Part of me feels responsible for Seth being here, despite not having anything to do with my mom’s betrayal and I don’t want anyone else getting hurt because of it.”

“We don’t want you getting hurt either... I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Deflating slightly, Layla let Damon pull her into his arms and relaxed as he wrapped his arms around her.