She did it. Finally after all of those years pretending to be 100% committed to a relationship that was suffocating her, Elena Gilbert ran away and never looked back.
Unlocking the door to her apartment, Elena Gilbert was dead set on having all of her belongings packed by the time the clock struck 11. It was already 8:30 pm and she was exhausted after a long day of work. Being a waitress really wasn't what Elena had planned for her future. She had these big, elaborate plans of becoming a journalist for a big fashion magazine or maybe running her own publishing company. Never in her life had she thought she would throw that all away for a 3 year relationship with a guy she thought was 'the one'. Only after a year and a half years of dating each other, Elena decided to make the decision to move to LA with her boyfriend Richard Ward, who had a dream of owning his own company out west. Aunt Jenna and her brother Jeremy had begged and pleaded Elena not to go, not only just before she would start her fall semester at University of Virginia, a college she dreamed of going to since the age of 5. Even her best friends Bonnie and Caroline tried to convince her to stay, for the sake of them. But in the end, they all lost the argument and she abandoned them for reasons she doesn't fully understand. Now here she is, hair in a messy ponytail covered by a baseball cap with only a t-shirt and shorts on, sitting on the stairs of her and Richard's apartment with her one-way plane ticket clutched in her fist to Virginia and her luggage, waiting patiently for him to arrive home and deciding the best way to tell him that she is heading back to Virginia to escape the smothering smog of the city, and to escape the overpowering hold he held over her head. The move to LA completely changed the relationship she had with Richard. With the success of his company, he became distant, rude, violent, controlling and a verbally abusive drunk. Earlier that week Elena had called her Aunt Jenna for the first time in months and told her that she was coming home. After Jenna had stopped crying and Elena gained her composure, Jenna asked no questions about why she was coming home and for that Elena was thankful. She told her that Jeremy will pick her up at the airport when her flight arrived. She hung up the phone with a new found joy in her heart and for the first time in a long time, she saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Now her she is, 5 days later, waiting in complete silence for the moment that would set her free.
Her flight left at 4:30 in the morning, because the earlier the time was the faster she was out. She heard the faint sound of keys attempting to unlock the door and every time the person on the other side failed to unlock the door, he would grunt. "Great", Elena thought to herself, "he's wasted." Richard then stumbled into the living room and tried to make his way up the stairs but was blocked by the human wall that was Elena. Towering over her, she stood before him, her legs trembling. Swallowing the fear rising in her throat, she looked him dead in the eye and said,"I'm leaving for Virginia. I'm going back home to my aunt, and my brother and my best friends and most importantly, back to my life. This relationship, or if you would even call it that, is suffocating me and I can't breathe. You've changed so much and frankly I'm sick of being treated like garbage. I deserve more respect and more attention and I need to be with someone who is willing to give it to me." As Elena rambled, she hadn't noticed the anger that was ever present in Richard's face. He took his large hand and grabbed her forcefully by the neck, effectively crushing her wind pipe. He looked at her with pure hatred and she struggled to get loose but he only gripped tighter. "Let me tell you something Elena," he said her name like it was poisonous,"This is the cold, hard truth. You are worthless. I would be surprised if your family welcomed you home with open arms. You are a disappointment to me, your family and your friends. You are nothing, Elena Gilbert. So you get the HELL out of this apartment, this town, and when they don't accept you for the absolute trash you are, don't expect me to be here waiting for you." With every word he said, it wounded Elena far greater than the pain she felt in her throat. He threw her to the ground and stepped over her to go to bed, she assumed. Tears were freely flowing down her face as she rubbed her tender throat. There would be a definite mark visible on her neck, but the permanent scar on her heart would never be seen. She picked herself up off the floor, brushed herself off, grabbed all of her bags and ran like a bat out of hell.
She arrived at LAX, went through security, checked in her bags and now it was just a waiting game. Sitting there gave her a lot of thinking time, which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she listed a bunch of things in her mind that would take effect once she landed in Virginia. She would not once think about Richard and all the pain he has caused her. She would live a life that was absolutely Dick free. She would not trust any male that would happen to show up in her life after this escapade. It was also a curse because it gave her time to think of all the horrible things that Richard and said and done to her. Already breaking her first rule she set for herself merely minutes ago, she wiped angrily at her tears and calmed herself down. After texting Aunt Jenna that her flight should be leaving soon, Elena heard her flight being called and stood up, grabbed her carry on and walked right into that airplane that would carry her farther from her nightmare.