Peppermint by Mary Borsellino Meredith doesn't do anything to stop it. In fact, Meredith doesn't do anything; she just watches. It's as if she can't act; she can only react to things. Caroline Forbes writes the words and wishes they were true. Wishes that Meredith was always a shadow on the periphery, never initiating anything. Just Elena's parrot, sidekick, backup, clone. Wishes Meredith was an extension of Elena. But Elena was always warm, and soft, and her big dewy eyes were that impossible blue. They were like perfect dolls together, china skin on china skin, tasting like toothpaste and sugarfree chewing gum, mint mint mint. Perfectly manicured fingers twisting and teasing and taunting. And Meredith's not like that. Her fingers never tease. If asked, Caroline would have said she hated the teasing, once upon a time, with Elena. But now she knows how much she misses it, because Meredith's almost clinical, and her fingertips pinch. There's no gentleness in her touch, and her arms and legs are stiff. She never melts, meshes. She's always apart from the world, watching. Her breasts are firmer than Elena's, dark nipples like hard little buttons against Caroline's stomach. Sometimes Meredith holds her wrists down and doesn't let her move. It's the closest to teasing that ever comes. Meredith's pepper, and Caroline guesses that makes her and Elena peppermint together. Mintpepper, it should be, because Elena should be the leader. Caroline doesn't even let herself think of Bonnie. She loathes Bonnie, loathes her light herbal smell and merry laugh, her flustered compassion and flighty spirit. She hates Bonnie as much as she hates Elena, as much as she hates Meredith. She hates Elena because that's where Meredith's loyalties lie, will always lie. With Elena. Everyone loves Elena best, and Caroline hates her worst for it. She hates Bonnie because that's who she can't be, ever. Can't push her hair back into a scrunchie and run off to school with her skirt inside out, can't spend all day staring at the back of a boy with luststruck eyes. Bonnie has permission to do all the things Caroline has made herself above. She hates Meredith because Meredith's fingers never tease.