Hey guys! I'm incredibly excited to be starting this new story that, honestly, I think/hope will be very different from my first. I came up with the premise for this a few weeks ago and have been itching to start it. I apologize for the delay of posting this as my internet shut down last night for some unknown reason but I had to make sure I got it to y'all today :)

This story will be REALLY AU/AH. All human, no supernatural, etc. I'm also trying to be a bit more risque and actually make this story M unlike S&S which stuck to its more conventional 1864 ways.

Now, I'm giving myself a rule that I'm not going to continue this story if people don't like it. I have way too much stuff to do (with it being the end of my senior year) and I can't sit around and write a story that nobody cares about. So please please please I need reviews and feedback even if it's negative. I can work with negative. I can't work with nothing. But I don't have many doubts that this will happen because of my fabulous and loyal readers. Seriously, I adore every inch of your beings.

Please subscribe to my alerts if you like this story as well. For those of you that are waiting for the final chapter of S&S, that will be up soon I promise. I'm just dying to get this one uploaded.

Chapter 1: Just Breathe

Yes, I understand that every life must end,

As we sit alone, I know someday we must go,

Oh I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands the ones I love

Some folks just have one, yeah, others, they've got none

"Elena!" Elena Gilbert whipped her head around towards the girl spastically running towards her. Guys left and right watched her wind-tangled blonde hair soar past them. With Caroline, it was hard to tell whether guys were watching her because of her strikingly good looks or her wild energy. When she finally reached Elena, she was panting from the exertion.

"Hey, you cannot just leave me behind when psycho Dr. Salfredga decides he wants to have a thirty minute discussion about the plants he's growing in his apartment," Caroline wheezed out.

"You know I typically wouldn't… what in the hell are you putting in your hair?" Elena stopped noticing her friend trying to tame her tresses with a floral head wrap. In fact, Elena had "noticed" the entire ensemble when Caroline had entered class a few hours ago but she typically didn't comment.

"Steve likes the whole bohemian thing." Caroline self-consciously smoothed out the floral tank top and brown maxi skirt she was wearing underneath a huge tan trench coat.

"Steve? Are you dating a goddamn forty year old?" Elena asked bewildered. Her friend was starting to look like an eighty year old with the gaudy costume jewelry and suede flats. Caroline typically dressed in the preferred style of her latest boy toy. Amusing to watch, dangerous to Caroline's wallet.

"Shut up, his full name's Steven, but I've got too much to do to waste time saying his whole name." Elena laughed. No matter what her friend's absurdities, she was just happy to be along for the ride.

"Well, I'm terribly sorry I left you in there with him, but you know I have plans," Elena smirked, thinking about her engagement that evening.

"Oh yes, of course, how could I forget? Elena's got a date with Mr. Perfect." Caroline's dramatic gestures earned her a hard slap in the arm from Elena.

"He's not… perfect, Care." Elena smiled as she said it, her mind reflecting on some particularly faultless moments from the past weekend.

"Oh stop, you can't keep the fucking smile off your face for more than five seconds, Elz. Just admit it: you're in love. Everything's flawless and fabulous in your perfect little world."

"Well, I might just do that tonight," she winked and began to walk away but felt a yank on her shoulder only a few moments later.

"I'm sorry. I don't think I heard you right. Elena Gilbert, the girl who has never said 'I love you' to any man is going to tell her boyfriend tonight, after eight months, that she loves him."

Elena smacked her again. "Yes, thank you very much. I think tonight's… right."

"Jesus Christ, Elena. I'm fairly sure you have found the one."

Elena smiled and, after exchanging goodbyes and a promise to have a study session soon at their favorite coffee place or they'd "no longer be friends, bitch", she was off towards her small apartment across town.

Stay with me...

Let's just breathe...

"Ula!" Elena called out, dropping her brightly colored bag and candy colored blazer onto the couch and her mail on the kitchen counter. She grabbed the large container of cat food from one of the cabinets and began to pour it into the pink ceramic bowl on the floor designated for the cat that was now hobbling its way into the room. Yes, she'd adopted a three-legged cat. Naming her Ula, after a small village she'd visited while traveling in Europe, seemed an apt name for a sweetheart like her.

After flipping through an absurd amount of junk mail and kicking her casual tan boots off, she went into her room and surveyed her closet. She contemplated getting dressed up for the occasion but decided against it, remembering a recent comment he'd made when he declared her "twenty times hotter" dressed down than up. Typically, she would have disregarded such an obvious remark, but when it came to her boyfriend, she knew she could trust him. His remarkable ability to always tell the truth, no matter how many times he was forced to go back his own apartment afterwards, was one of the things she liked most about him.

She settled on staying in her neutral colored chunky sweater and distressed jeans, but added the glittery heart-shaped stud earrings he'd bought her to add a bit of spark to her ensemble. She cursed, checking the time. Of course, she was running late. She always was.

She headed to the kitchen and began to speed up the cooking process. She was making his favorite dish, fettuccine alfredo, mostly because that was the only thing she could cook decently. As she watched the water boil, she decided the deafening silence was too much for her. She sat down on the couch and pressed the remote that controlled the set of iPod speakers in the corner of the living room. She rummaged through her purse to grab her phone and typed out a text.

Can't wait to see you tonight. I couldn't get your sexy ass off my mind all day. ;).

She smiled with near giddiness, imagining his reply to her flirty message. Ula jumped up next to Elena on the couch, and rubbed herself against Elena's sweater. She smirked at the attention hungry cat and patted its soft fur before getting up to continue the meal.

Practiced all my sins, never gonna let me win,

Under everything, just another human being,

I don't wanna hurt, there's so much in this world to make me bleed

The food was done. The table was set. The playlist on the iPod was quickly running out of songs. Ula was fast asleep on the couch, her small chest slowly rising and falling. Elena was sitting criss cross on the carpeted floor, attempting to go through some flash cards but failing thanks to her uncontrollable desire to check her phone every minute or so. Every time she was convinced she'd missed the ping of a text. Phones were always unreliable. In fact, to curb her frustrations, she'd determined that his phone had simply died and he was running behind. But 92 minutes (she'd been counting) was extreme. Especially for a guy who was known to be almost annoyingly punctual.

To add to the misfortune of the evening, the neighbors had decided to start their near nightly sex that was so loud she could barely stand it. Elena figured out the downside to her cheaply priced apartment early on in the arrangement.

"There it is!" She whispered. She and Damon had been sitting on the couch, intently watching a House Hunters episode. Well, Elena had been intently watching. Damon, on the other hand, was attempting to head in the direction their neighbors were.

"Oh my god, you weren't fucking kidding," He laughed and then turned to look at Elena mischievously. "Have you ever met them?"

"No, interestingly enough. Why?"

"They probably look like the most unsuspecting people. It's probably like a librarian and a… what's an equally reserved job for a guy?

Elena pondered it for a moment. "A mathematician."

"Yes! A mathematics professor at the university was in the library one day, attempting to look for a book on quantum something or other and then he stumbled upon an unassuming beauty in the stacks. He approached her and instantly realized he wanted to tear off that unflattering grey wool skirt and rip out her severe bun and…"

"God, stop it. I don't want that image to go any further." She paused for a moment and made a gagging noise. "Shit, too late."

"Prude." He smirked. "We should knock on their door-"

"No way! I'm not calling them out on… that." Elena blushed.

Damon laughed. "Well, I was going to say we should knock on the door and ask if we could join 'em." Elena hit his arm as he chuckled. "But, now that you mention it, they are ridiculously loud. And they do this every night?"

"Not every night, but most, yes."

"That's the kind of shit you report to the landlord."

"No! That's even more embarrassing. Besides, the landlord's a pervy old man. I'm fairly sure I've never gotten through a conversation with him without needing to take a shower afterwards."

They attempted to simply turn up the volume on the TV, but it was like the neighbors were playing a game of "who could be the loudest?"

Damon seemed to pick up on it. He turned to look at Elena for a quick moment before suddenly letting out a loud groan. Elena's jaw dropped. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Now, Elena, you know there's no way I'm going to let them beat us. This way, you can keep watching your show, and I can have some fun." Elena gasped as he let out a long moan.

"Oh my god, I'm dating a fucking 12 year old." Elena's face grew even redder as Damon's moans and groans began to turn into "Yes, right there's" and "Don't stop's." "Damon, seriously, stop it!" But his antagonizing was working. The couple next door was playing along, increasing their sounds to match Damon's.

Elena's embarrassment began to turn into hysterical laughter as Damon's face was nearly turning red in his attempt to out moan the couple next door. All of a sudden, Elena realized something and gasped. She rapidly began hitting her boyfriend.

"Damon! They're watching porn!" He looked at her confused. "You've spent the past ten minutes trying to groan louder than a porn star." Her laughter grew even louder looking at Damon's face, now red from humiliation.

"Wait, how do you know that's not them?" He asked, trying to defend himself.

"Because I know how she sounds when she..." Elena paused and her cheeks inflamed.

Damon laughed at her inability to say the word. "I think I'm the one dating a fucking 12 year old." He leaned over and kissed her hard on the mouth.

Elena tried to get through a few more flash cards but realized how tired she was. She pushed herself up off the floor and headed into the kitchen. It was spotless, as she'd already cleaned everything she'd cooked with to pass the time. She started a pot of coffee (incredibly strong because of her unnatural tolerance level) and walked back to plop down on the floor next to her books. She flattened herself down so that her entire body was parallel to the horrible carpeting. She stared up at the popcorn ceiling, repeating a few of the charts from the flashcards in her head.

Stay with me

You're all I see...

It took her a few minutes to realize exactly where she was. All she could see was white. Her entire body ached. Finally realizing she was on the floor, the memories of the previous night came flooding back abruptly. She shot up off the ground, groaning a little bit trying to stretch out the stiff muscles from sleeping on the ground. She bent down to pick up her cell and checked her messages. She had a mass text from a local boutique she forever regretted giving her number to and a few spam emails but nothing else. She checked the time: 4:13am. She looked at the dinner she'd made, still set up on the table, the pasta long gone cold. Elena caught a glimpse of herself in the small decorative mirror on the wall and realized that she looked like hell. An imprint of the carpet was now obvious on her face and her hair was flat and frizzy.

The gut feeling that something was wrong came fairly quickly afterwards. Where could he be? If he'd forgotten about their date, he would have at least checked his phone and seen her text. If his phone had died, he would have recharged it by now. If he'd lost it, he would have made sure he communicated with her in some way. She couldn't remember a time where she hadn't received a good night text from him, especially since they hadn't talked all day. She tried to flip through her mental calendar, trying to recall what his plans had been. Although his job made him work late occasionally, he would never have worked until 4 in the morning.

Panic started to build. The first word that came into her brain was "dead." It was suddenly all she could think of. Dead in a car wreck. Dead in an alley somewhere. Dead at the bottom of a river. Dead in an emergency room. The images didn't stop. Her throat began to close up as her empty stomach began to turn.

Her more rational side began to kick in as she tried to take deep breaths. She couldn't count the number of times she'd overreacted to shit and been convinced someone had died just because they'd been a few minutes late. She was actually surprised she hadn't gotten caught up in it earlier. She decided the best course of action would be to just get a good night's rest and hyperventilate in the morning if need-be. Besides, her entire body ached for sleep after getting barely enough to survive for the past week. After she changed into a sleep set and brushed her teeth (stopping every once in a while to take more deep breaths when the fears returned), she sent another text to the same number and then rolled over into her pillow.

Babe, I'm worried. Please call me when you get this.

Did I say that I need you?

Did I say that I want you?

Oh, if I didn't I'm a fool you see

No one knows this more than me

That decision to fall asleep two weeks ago was the biggest regret she'd ever had. Actually, the biggest regret was letting him out of bed that morning. He'd begged to stay in bed all day with her, like he typically did but she'd simply laughed it off, even though the offer had been tempting. She had to go to class and he had to go to work. She would give absolutely anything to go back to that moment, go against her rational head, and leap back under the sheets with her boyfriend. Because, if he'd stayed there, if she'd kept him there, he wouldn't be gone. He wouldn't have been a missing person for the past fifteen days.

Waking up the next morning and seeing that she still had no communication had caused the lump in her throat to return. She'd tried to focus in class that day, but she could barely see the board behind her watery eyes. Around ten that day, she'd gotten a call from his assistant. Apparently, he'd gone on his lunch break the day before and hadn't come back. Rose had assumed he'd simply turned off his phone to spend a technology-free day with Elena, but not showing up to work the next morning had her concerned. That's when Elena realized this was much bigger than a dead phone.

Her life had become a living hell shortly afterwards. The worst part was the phone calls. The first phone call, the one made with shaky hands to the police station had been terrifying. Having to call 911 had felt trivial. 911 was used for real emergencies, like a car accident or your grandfather having a heart attack. Not for asking where your boyfriend was. But she didn't know the number that directed her to just the police station. The calls after that had gotten worse and worse. Thankfully, the police had been kind enough to let her come in early, even though it hadn't been the standard 48 hours. But she knew that going to talk to the cops was something she couldn't do alone. She shakily selected Caroline's number from her phone.

"Oh my god, the guy at that sandwich place we always go to that I can never remember the fucking name of, wrote his number on my bag. I'm telling you, this whole turban look is totally getting me to my next boyfriend. Did I tell you that Steve has become such an asshole? Oh and don't worry, judgey, it's not like a full Arabic turban or anything. It's super cute and feminine and it's basically just like a ski hat or…"

Elena could barely speak. "Care-" A sob that had long been held in finally broke through.

Elena could practically hear Caroline stop in her footsteps. "Elena, where are you?"

"I'm in… I'm n-near the N-natural S-sciences building," Elena choked out.

Elena heard the click of the phone right after, "Stay right where you are."

As I come clean...

I wonder everyday, as I look upon your face, uh-huh

Everything you gave

And nothing you would save, oh no

Elena had never been more thrilled to see a faux fur coat, high waisted shorts with lace tights, and black ankle boots appear in front of her. She had sat down on a bench, holding her stomach and bent over her knees. She was actually thankful that no one had stopped to ask if she was okay because she was fairly sure she would have screamed at them to "fuck off."

After filling Caroline in on the events of last night and this morning, Caroline had taken Elena's keys and driven them both to the station. Caroline sat with Elena through every step of the process she was allowed in, alternating between squeezing her hand and running her fingers through her hair. Caroline was there with words when Elena couldn't speak and coffee when Elena couldn't function. After everything had calmed down, Elena had never been more thankful for her friend.

Nothing you would take

Everything you gave...

"M'am." Elena shot up from the hard plastic chair she'd been sitting in for the past two hours. Caroline had dozed off a bit, but woke up after hearing the chief approaching. She stood next to Elena, hands interlocked.

"There's not much left for you to do here. A full investigation is launching as we speak and we'll have plenty of our finest looking for your boyfriend. What I recommend for you is to go home, take some heavy sleeping pills, and try to help yourself get some rest. You're going to need it."

"H-how soon do you think it will take until you find him?" Elena asked, her voice trembling.

The officer sighed. "It depends on a lot of different factors, Ms. Gilbert. But I do think it's appropriate for you to go ahead and start making some calls to his family. Just in case."

"Well, he doesn't have much family. Only a brother."

"Actually," Caroline interrupted shyly. "I've already contacted him. He should be here soon." Elena looked inquisitively at her friend. Why did Caroline have his number?

As though timed, a lean handsome man with dirty blonde hair and green eyes came bounding up the steps right at that moment. His eyes were filled with terror. "What happened? Can somebody please tell me what's going on?"

And she hadn't told him anything.

Nothing you would take

Everything you gave

Hold me til I die

Meet you on the other side...

So? Anybody have any theories? Questions? Comments? I really wish you'd stop pretending to be able to write's? :) I'm going to try to make this a mystery as much as possible so don't be upset if I don't directly answer your question. But please feel free to ask them in the reviews in case another of my fabulous readers might be able to answer it for you.

Also let me know if any of the more mature content is like jarringly bad. I honestly don't swear that much in real life so adding it into dialogue or conversation is a little bit awkward for me, but I'm trying to be realistic.

I love you ladies more than life itself (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea ;p). I hope you have a fabulous week and I will see you on Sunday with either the next chapter of this or S&S's last chap OR MAYBE EVEN BOTH! :o