When Josie Saltzman’s father told her and her twin sister Lizzie that they would be welcoming a former student back to the Salvatore school, she wasn’t expecting this. She’d thought of it but had quickly pushed those thoughts back because she believed that it just couldn’t be true. She thought that maybe it’d be a younger student who moved or maybe a student who had already graduated and was there just to revisit all their former mentors and teachers.
And as she stares Penelope Park, who’s leaning against the wall, up and down, she still can’t believe it. Why would Penelope come back? She was the one who left in the first place. Josie still didn’t even completely understand why she left.
“Hey Jojo,” Penelope greets. She sounds amused, and Josie clenches her fist at that. She really has the audacity to treat this like an everyday event?
“What the hell are you doing here,” Lizzie says in a low, aggressive tone, “Satan?”
As Lizzie continues to spit out profanities, Josie stares at Penelope. The long-haired girl (Josie assumes she let it grow out while she was in Belgium) looks back at her and raises an eyebrow. Josie shakes her head in return.
“I’m gonna just… head back to my room. You can deal with her,” she says to her sister. Lizzie opens her mouth to protest but quickly stops herself when she sees the look on Josie’s face. Josie turns around and starts walking away when she feels a hand gently placed on her shoulder.
“Not even gonna welcome me back?” Penelope jokes, but her tone is soft. Josie spins around with an angry expression.
“...Welcome you back? Are you serious? Of course I’m not gonna-”
She stops at the sound of Lizzie’s footsteps and she looks to where she was just standing and realizes that Lizzie is walking away. She mouths something that Josie can only decipher as something along the lines of “I’ll let you guys handle this alone” and continues back to her room.
Josie turns her attention back to Penelope, and her amused expression from earlier is back. The same half-grin and sparkle in her eye, the very same playful face Penelope had when they’d sneak out together at late hours when they were still dating, the same face she’d make when they inevitably got caught, the same face she’d have on when Alaric was scolding them.
The same face she’d fallen in love with.
She lets out a deep exhale, as if she’s trying to let all the unwanted thoughts and memories of their relationship out.
“Why are you even here? What happened to that fancy all-witch supernatural school in Belgium?” Josie asks bitterly. Penelope shrugs and takes a step forward. The brunette can’t help but be frustrated by the lack of response she’s getting from her ex, so she stays planted in her place.
“It honestly sounds like you don’t even want me back here,” Penelope says. Josie wants to bite back with something, something that show that she doesn’t care about Penelope’s presence, but she knows that that’s not true. She also knows that no matter what she says, Penelope will know it’s not true, so she keeps quiet.
Neither of them say anything for what feels like forever, and Josie is about to say something to rekindle the conversation until Penelope decides to talk first.
“So, gonna show me to my dorm-”
“How are you treating this so casually? You were the one who left, you were the one who broke up with me in the first place, but you’re just walking back into my life as if nothing happened? Why did you leave me anyway?” she whispers the last words. Penelope looks at her, studies her.
“Because of the Merge, Josie, you know that.”
“So you just left me when I needed you the most?”
Penelope says nothing, but Josie notices that she’s lost her cool, unaffected expression, and now has on a look that Josie can only describe as… empathetic? Ignoring this, she continues.
“You said you loved me, and then you left me. Even when I asked you not to leave, you still left. Why?” She hesitantly moves closer to Penelope, bites the inside of her cheek, and gazes into her eyes, looking for some sort of answer that’ll substitute for the girl’s absence of a vocal answer.
“I didn’t… I didn’t want to see you die,” Penelope responds.
“So you didn’t believe in me?”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“You knew I might’ve died but instead of being there for me and supporting me when you knew that I wasn’t over you, you flew to Belgium,” Josie continues walking forward, ignoring the shock that’s clear on Penelope’s face. “You never even contacted me. I called you everyday for weeks and you never answered, and I don’t care if this is me being selfish right now but I loved you Penelope, and I still love you, yet you left me, and I’m sorry if I just can’t handle you being here-”
Josie stops. Wow. She really just said that. Penelope is looking at her with, still, shock, but she also looks… proud.
Josie also realizes just how close they are, and immediately she feels the tension around them thicken. Penelope still hasn’t said much and Josie still feels so overwhelmed with emotion. She leans in slightly, and the other girl follows suit, and all of a sudden, Josie closes the gap and takes Penelope’s lips in her own.
The kiss is tender, and unlike their last kiss when Penelope was about to leave to Belgium. This isn’t bittersweet, just sweet. Because the kiss feels like home and all hostile, insecure thoughts that Josie had vanish.
She pulls away, panting, and Penelope’s signature smug, entertained grin is back on her face. And this time, when she looks at her, she lets the memories flood her mind, because she knows that even if those are just memories, they can make new ones together. Penelope isn’just the person she had fallen in love with, she’s the person she’s in love with.
She wraps her arms around Penelope’s waist and buries her face into her neck, hugging her tightly as if she’d fly away if she let go of her.
“I’ve missed you,” Josie says, her voice slightly muffled.
“I know.”