• • • •

Faith's mother returned after the hospital called her. She wasn't able to convince her doctor to not call her.

She had her blue eyes cast down on her lap where her hands laid. She studied the pulse oximetry on her finger and the IV needle in her wrist as she felt the harsh glare of her mother. Her doctor was oblivious to the glare, thinking Circe Everly was actually worried about her daughter and not because Faith had interrupted her trip to Louisiana and was going to leave the minute the doctor did.

"She had to get five stitches on her head and she had bruising on her back, but we gave her some pain medication to reduce the pain," her doctor told her mother, keeping her eyes on her chart. "When they brought her in, she was also malnourished and had scars and other bruises that didn't happen from the accident. Do you know where they would come from?"

Circe faked a worried look. "I don't know. Faith always seemed to get hurt in weird places. Sometimes she would wake up and tell me, she got a bruise on her leg, but she wouldn't know where it came from."

The doctor nodded, marking something on Faith's chart. "Okay. Well, she can leave today once you discharge her, and she'll need plenty of bed rest and to eat properly."

"Thank you," Circe told the doctor before she left. Once the door closed, her true colors appeared. Her emerald green eyes darkened as she glared at her daughter sitting in the hospital bed. "Can't you do anything right? You were put in here and for what? Saving that Donovan girl? The least you could've done was die before they had to call me."

"I'm sorry, Mother," Faith mumbled, keeping her head down. She knew from experience that locking eyes with her, she will receive a beating no matter how hurt Faith was at the moment. "It won't happen again."

Circe scoffed. "The same excuse every time. I'm going to discharge you and you're going to find some way to get yourself home. I'm going back to Louisiana."

Not waiting for a response, she left the hospital room. At the sound of the door clicking shut, Faith clenched her hand into a fist. Her fist trembled as anger flooded her thoughts. If only she wasn't so scared of her mother, she would cut her lifeline in a snap.

The lights in the room flickered at her anger and Faith tried relaxing. She didn't want to cause another problem where Circe would beat her before she left.

A few minutes later, a nurse came into the room and told her she could leave now and to pick up her medication on the way out.

"What do you want, Stefan?" Faith questioned with her back to the door as she threw away her bloody clothes. She turned around and raised an eyebrow at him. "I can practically feel your self-loathing from here."

She waited for a moment for his response and when she got none, she turned around to pocket her phone and placed her necklace around her neck before walking past the vampire. Annoyance grew inside of her as Stefan continued to follow her outside the hospital.

"I can take you home," Stefan suggested from a few feet behind her as they crossed the parking lot. He stiffened when Faith suddenly whisked around. Her eyes narrowed on him and her fingertips glowing a light red, touching the ruby gemstone on her necklace.

"You're really annoying," Faith spat before she was covered by shadows and disappeared from the vampire's sight.

She appeared on her porch. She sighed as tears began to prickle at her eyes. She fumbled with her keys before opening the front door and slamming it shut. She slumped against the door as she finally let go of her tears.

She hadn't cried when she got hurt from Damon. She was ready to escape this world, her life. She hadn't cried when her mother wasn't worried about her. She hadn't cried since she was eight years old.

So why was she crying now? Faith didn't know the answer.

Maybe it's because nobody seemed to notice Faith hadn't come to school yesterday. Maybe it's because nobody had called to see if she was okay. But did Faith care? She didn't care about Caroline Forbes, Elena Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, or anyone in this town. She didn't care about the Salvatore brothers being in Mystic Fall or Damon killing people.

• • • •

Crystal blue eyes watched as high schoolers walked around the field. The sun was beginning to set as people began to arrive for the first football game for the school year. Faith rolled her eyes before popping a pill into her mouth and continued walking around, aimlessly around the field. She faked polite smiles at the people who tried to strike up a conversation only to be told by her that she needed to meet up with some friends. Obvious lies to her, but not to them.

To the town, Faith Everly was a smart and polite teenage girl from the Everly family, a Founders family. She was the teen girl who Circe Everly, a successful businesswoman, was proud to call her daughter. The Everly women were strong and independent women that were able to go past the death of Daniel Woods.

To her 'friends', Faith Everly was a party girl. She liked to go to every party, especially those that involved alcohol. She was sarcastic and mischievous, yet a smart friend. One who always complained about her mother being strict, not wanting her to be out no later than ten at night. Faith Everly, who got along with anyone from any age.

But both versions were wrong.

She wasn't joyful or smart or any of the above.

Faith Everly was a weak girl. One who wished to escape the world. Faith Everly drank alcohol and took pills so she could escape the reality of her life. She was a girl who jumped off Wickery Bridge at an attempt to drown but will always be saved by the magic in her ruby gemstone necklace. Faith Everly was not scared of dying unlike the kids her age, she was ready at any moment.

Faith Everly was not a strong witch. She was a siphoner. An abomination, a mistake, one that had her father killed in a car accident.

Faith Everly was alone.

"Faith! Hey!" She pushed her black hair behind her ear as she met eyes with Jeremy Gilbert. A confused expression appeared across her features as the younger male walked closer toward her.

"Yeah?" She asked, confused and she wasn't faking it. She never talked to the young Gilbert, alone. The only time she did was during summer break when they bought drugs from the same dealer which Jeremy found out Faith did drugs. The same day, both of them got high together since Faith needed to act like she was worried about the teen boy. Things didn't go as plan since, in a drug haze, the two ended up having sex and Faith had deflowered Jeremy.

The brunette boy tilted his head to the side, motioning toward a truck. "We got alcohol if you want."

Faith narrowed her eyes on Jeremy, suspiciously. "Did Vicki do something?"

"What?" Jeremy asked, but noticed her look. "Yeah, but that's not why I invited you."

"It's not?" Faith asked. "Do you have feelings for me?"

"No," He scoffed with a slight smile. "Do you want a beer or not?"

"I'm not refusing alcohol," Faith said, smirking and grabbing the boy's arm and pulling them to the truck with the rest of the junkies.

Faith watched from the truck as the rest of the crowd listening to Mr. Tanner's speech. Taking a swing of her beer, her eyes were trained on Tyler who seemed pissed off about something and was walking toward Vicki.

"I'm guessing she chose Tyler," Faith spoke, glancing at Jeremy. The Gilbert sat next to her, near the edge of the tailgate. " and here I thought she liked you."

Jeremy only shrugged as he took a swing of beer. Faith stiffened as Tyler angrily stalked over in their direction.

"Don't look so down," Tyler smirked at Jeremy. "You can have her when I'm done."

Her eyes widened when Jeremy stood up and struck Tyler on the face with his fist. Faith managed to move out the way just as Tyler slammed Jeremy against the truck causing the glass bottle of alcohol to break against the ground. Attention began to gather on the fight as Tyler flipped Jeremy over his shoulder. Once Jeremy landed on the ground, the Lockwood began to punch him.

Not liking who had the upper hand, Faith wrapped her hand around her necklace. Her hand glowed a faint red color as she chanted in Latin and Tyler was pushed off Jeremy. They rolled around on the ground as they both tried to get the advantage while getting a few hits on each other. It wasn't until Tyler was going to strike Jeremy again that Stefan appeared and held Tyler's fist back.

Faith scoffed in amusement as Tyler punched the vampire on the abdomen but caused no reaction on Stefan.

Taking advantage of Tyler's distraction, Jeremy grabbed a piece of the broken bottle and swung it at Tyler but Stefan managed to move the Lockwood male out the way. The shard pierced Stefan's palm instead as Elena arrived at the scene. Taking the last of her alcoholic drink, Faith jumped down from the truck.

"What the hell, Jeremy?" Ellena yelled, pushing her little brother on the truck as she tried to raise his head up. "Put your head up, you're bleeding."

"I'm fine!" Jeremy snapped.

Elena narrowed her eyes on him. "Yeah, you sure smell fine!"

"Just stop, okay?" Jeremy walked away from the scene.

Elena ran a hand through her hair, feeling stressed as her eyes traveled to Faith's. Looking at the brunette's worried and desperate look, Faith knew she wasn't going to be able to get out of this one.

"I'll go talk to him," Faith sighed as she pulled a joint from her back pocket. The joint was ripped away from her hand as she was about to lit it and Faith looked at Elena in annoyance.

"Seriously, Faith?" She scowled at the black-haired girl. "You're already drunk and I don't need you talking to my brother high also."

"Like he listens to you so well," Faith retorted, dryly. "Fuck off, Elena. Don't go ordering me around and how about you start caring about your brother instead of worrying about your fucking boyfriend who might be using you as his rebound. What was her name, again? Katherine, was it?"

The shock and hurt look on her face made Faith smirk at her before she walked away from the scene.

• • • •

"Well, game's canceled," Faith told Jeremy as she handed him a can of beer. They were at a secluded area of the bleachers where no one could see them. She crouched down to peer at the brunette's bloody face but noticed him smiling. "Did Tyler hit you in the head that you're going crazy?"

"She said it wasn't for the drugs," Jeremy said.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously."

Jeremy looked up at Faith. She was crouched down where her arms laid on his knees as support and her crystal blue eyes studied his face. Noticing him staring, Faith looked at him weirdly, "What? Are you planning on kissing me or something?"

They stared at each other for a second until Jeremy's eyes flickered down at her lips before closing the distance between them.