Hello lovelies. Ah, it feels so good to be able to post again! I know it's been a while since I've updated my incomplete stories or posted anything new. When life gets in the way, right? But that's about to change. I promise to make it up to you. Starting from now ;)
First, I have no idea how this idea presented itself to me because it's relatively different from the other ones. But I wanted to try it out nonetheless. So, here we are. Please heed the warnings and triggers but other than that, I request you to read it with an open mind.
WARNINGS: Smut, abuse, rapes, child abuse, self harm, drugs, occasional swearing.
Initially, it won't be too dark or shady, but just in case, I'll post warnings before every chapter. And yes, Damon plays as important a role as Alaric And as I've mentioned in the summary, Elena is a troubled teen- very. Hope you guys enjoy it. :)
Alaric Saltzman was so grateful to be at his buddy's house after the day he'd had that he practically hopped through the front door. "God, it's good to be home!" He groaned, startling the couple on the couch.
"Oh," he said wincing at his own silliness. Damon wasn't in a compromising position with his guest when he barged in but he looked at Alaric like he had ruined any and all chances of that ever happening. Alaric gave the woman a once over, trying to remember if he had seen her around before but it was a lost effort.
He had never seen Damon with the same woman twice. It was one of his cardinal rules. He grudgingly wondered how Damon managed to strip all intimacy from the most intimate act he could imagine. Alaric had had one- night stands and friends with benefits, and no one knew better than him that sex and making love were two different things. But he never thought that he'd be able to view sex the way Damon did- like a handshake. Alaric frankly thought it was sad although Damon was not a man who inspired pity. He had women fawning over him all day and night.
"Hey Ric!" Damon called out pushing to his feet, not bothering to button up his semi- undid shirt which precariously draped his chiseled frame. "I'll join you in the bed room," Damon said simply not even looking at the woman, who didn't bother being sufficiently overlooked.
No endearments. No hint of remote admiration even. He heard the woman sigh and obediently drag her ass up the stairs. That's how it always was with Damon. Alaric never approved of his behaviour but there was little he could do about it.
"Are you back for good?" The hope in his voice was evident.
"Mind if I rummage through your liquor cabinet?" Alaric asked. "It's been a long day."
When had he ever minded? "I'll take one," Damon smiled, joining him at the breakfast bar. Alaric grabbed two glasses and pulled out a random bottle, not caring to read the label because he knew that Damon didn't own anything that didn't need to be followed by an aspirin.
Just as Damon was about to grill him with questions about the 'situation' he had landed himself in, Alaric's phone buzzed. Alaric groaned as he saw the name on the screen. It was Elena. "Gah, I've had enough of her for one day!"
Damon couldn't help but feel a tinge of sympathy for his friend. After all, Alaric's life had changed over a fortnight and as much as he had been willing to be gracious about it, Damon could see in him the raw residue of distress and weariness.
Damon answered the phone on speaker, "Alaric's phone. He can't get to it right now but-"
"Alaric?" The girl's voice was frantic. Almost urgent. "I- I- need to speak to him."
Damon glanced at Alaric who didn't look the slightest bit worried. He frowned, "Do you want to leave a message?"
There was a pause on the other side. "Well, ask him not to flip out if the space heater is in flames when he gets home." And the line went dead.
"The last few hundred times, it was about wanting a map to get to school, a well- sketched, colour coordinated handbook about how people from New York survived in small towns with one mall and hardly three pubs which overlooked fake IDs and-"
"Woah!" Damon cut him off. "Let me stop you right there."
Alaric shrugged and took a huge swig of his drink.
"That bad, huh?" Damon wondered how Alaric even agreed to be an erratic, whiny, bipolar sixteen year old's guardian. He knew that Alaric had been very close with the girl's foster parents but there were limits to a friendship man! If it had come down to him, he would've never gone through with it. He loved Ric enough to leave a naked girl waiting in his bed and chances were, he wouldn't think twice to take a bullet for him but this? No. Just no.
"You have no idea." Alaric shook his head, running his hand roughly through his hair.
Damon wasn't going to sit by idly as his friend struggled. He wasn't going to offer to babysit for him anytime soon but he would try to make it better. "Let's hit the grill and find you a girl."
"What about the one in your bedroom?"
"I didn't like her anyway." Damon smirked.
Elena had succeeded in persuading Caroline and Bonnie to go clubbing like it was going out of style. She and her friends bounced all over swanky clubs, flashing fake IDs which looked masterfully legitimate considering she had to make out with the computer geek for it. It was worth it.
They were having a fabulous time. They danced until her feet felt like they were going to fall off, but she toughed it out until Caroline complained about her heeled boots first. They slid into the bar stools when the bartender smiled and gestured toward two men standing by the pool table, "Your drinks are on them."
"We scored," Elena giggled in Caroline's ear and fluffed up her curls, winking at one of the men who was brown haired and looked slightly older than the other.
"Elena!" Caroline didn't sound very excited. "Don't! They'll come over here!"
"Uh, isn't that the whole point?" Elena said deadpan and turned confidently in her barstool to face the approaching men.
Caroline and Bonnie had only known Elena for a week and a half but they doubted if she was a sixteen year old at all. She certainly didn't act like one and sometimes even looked more groomed and mature and at the same time managed to pull off the rebellious naughty teenager look.
"Nuh- uh," Caroline said nervously, "I'm not open for business."
"Why?" Elena chuckled, "Because you went on a date with this Tyler guy a week ago? He hasn't called you back. Would you take a hint?"
Caroline winced internally and drained a shot. Technically, that was true but Elena could've at least been subtle about it.
The guys reached the table. "Okay if we join you?" The blonde man asked, his eyes on Caroline.
Bonnie looked like she was having a panic attack and Caroline's palms were sweating. Amateurs, Elena rolled her eyes at them and addressed the men, "Sure."
"Kol," The younger one shook Elena's hand. His stance was loose and easy. Confident. He was Elena's type.
"Elena Gilbert."
"This is my brother, Klaus."
"I'm perfectly capable of introducing myself, Kol," Klaus took Caroline's palm in his, making her sigh.
He waited for her to respond. "Caroline," Elena said a little too loudly, snapping Caroline out of her stupor.
"Are you guys in college?" Bonnie decided to join in.
"I go to Duke, yes," Kol diverted his attention to Bonnie. "I'm visiting family here. I didn't get your name?"
"She's Bonnie," Elena interrupted, not high on Bonnie hogging Kol's attention. "We should dance," she bit her lips suggestively.
"Shall we, love?" Klaus smirked at Caroline.
Caroline let out a light- headed giggle, "Totally."
Kol and Klaus headed toward the dance floor when Bonnie caught Elena's hand. "Elena they're too old for you."
"Not tonight. I'm twenty one," Elena held up her fake ID.
"Care, that Klaus guy looks like he's out of college. Do you really think you should-"
"Look, I don't know about you vestal virgins but I'm here to have fun." Elena put down her drink.
"Hey, I'm not a virgin!" Caroline looked offended.
Elena scoffed at Bonnie's pursed lips, "Wow Bon- Bon, may be you should just sit at the kiddy table."
Caroline followed Elena to the dance floor, not wanting to earn the kiddy table status herself. Why did it matter what Elena Gilbert thought anyway? Well, for some reason it did. Bonnie had known that Elena was bad news the moment she had seen her. Her instincts just worked that way.
Elena's electric blue dress was bright even under the black lights. They were swallowed into the mass of writhing dancers and Elena quickly found herself pressed against Kol.
She let go, giving herself over to the grinding beat of the music and the sultry atmosphere of the rocking club. Lifting her hands in the air, she swayed, releasing the lingering tension from the long, inconsistent week.
"You're beautiful!" Kol yelled by her ear.
"Thanks!" It was a lie, of course. She was sweaty and her hair clung to her in a sticky tangle but she didn't care. The songs raged on, increasing the sexual tension between them. She closed her eyes, losing herself to the music.
When his hands started to slide over her waist, she caught them, pinning them to her hips with her own. He laughed and dipped his knees, aligning his body with hers.
They were three songs out before Kol leaned in and whispered with his raspy voice, "Do you want to get out of here?"
Elena felt the electrical charge sweep over her skin, heightening every sensation. Abruptly the music was louder, the temperature hotter, the sensuality of the club more arousing. She nodded.
"Thank you, Liz, I appreciate that." Alaric replaced the receiver, fuming. This was the limit. He wouldn't do it. He would just call social services. Elena wasn't his responsibility anyway.
He thought that he could manage. That she would already be reared- that he would only have to guide her with her SATs and college applications. She would turn eighteen in two years and his job would end. But Elena was clearly a troubled teen and it was definitely not mentioned in the job description. He was a teacher. He should've known better.
He heard the floor boards squeak in the foyer and prepared himself to ground Elena until he found a way to get rid of her for good.
Elena slid in through the front door almost too stealthily to be noticed. She darted straight toward the stairs before she caught Alaric standing by the kitchen, his arms folded against his chest. He didn't look very pleased.
"Oh, hi."
"Where were you?" He asked in his no- nonsense tone.
"Uhm, at Caroline's?"
"Beep. Wrong answer. Let's try again, shall we?" Alaric took in her dress and chose not to touch that subject for now.
"Well, I was," Elena continued to the stairs.
"Caroline's mother thinks that you're a bad influence on her daughter," Alaric settled on the couch.
"Oh really?" Elena scoffed, "I would love to hear her thoughts on her precious daughter twerking with a guy twice her age."
"Is that where you've been? Dancing with college guys?" Alaric had been willing to give her a pass the other night when she had lied that she was with her friends all night writing a paper that was due the next day, but he wasn't about to let this one go.
Elena wiped at her mussed make up and took off her shoes, positive that the talk might last longer than she would like it to. Elena liked attention. She had done all sorts of things in New York ranging from shop lifting to piercings. From tattoos to drugs. Once she had even gone to the extent of posting a video of herself indulging in Heroin on the internet, but her foster parents had managed to get it down.
"This arrangement can only work if you're willing to make it work, Elena," Alaric said patiently.
"It's not my fault you were busy doing whatever when I called you to inform you that I would be out late."
"Inform?" Alaric laughed with no hint of humour in his voice. "It doesn't work that way. You have to be home by eleven. May be even ten on school nights. You don't get to use fake IDs. Do you know that you could get arrested for that?"
"Relax, that won't happen."
"Why do you have to dress like this?" Alaric couldn't hold his tongue. It was way too conspicuous to not notice.
"Don't pretend like you care, okay?" Elena snapped. "I've been in foster care since I was three. You're the sixth person unfortunate enough to be stuck with me. Do yourself a favour and let me be. You do your job around me and I'll try not to bother you."
Alaric was a bit shaken with her thought process. "Is that how things used to be with Greyson and Miranda?" He knew for a fact that it couldn't be true. Greyson and Miranda had yearned for a child all their lives and there was not even the remote possibility of them fitting Elena's description.
"That was how things were with everyone," Elena didn't like to think about her former foster homes. "No one cares."
Alaric didn't know how to respond to that. Instead he just rubbed his forehead with his palms. How was he supposed to explain to her that he did care and that he was not like others? Hell, he wasn't even a licensed foster parent for screaming out loud. He was a friend of Greyson's and he knew that they had only taken in Elena two months prior to their accident. It had all been so sudden and he was the closest they had to family. He just wanted to be her friend if she could let him in.
After a long stretch of awkward silence, Elena cleared her throat, "So are we done?"
"For now," Alaric finally declared. "You however will eat your dinner before you go to bed." With that he trudged up the stairs not waiting to give her a chance to complain about that too.
He dialled Damon's number and held it to his ear. Damon answered after the first ring. "This better be a life or death situation because if this is about-"
"She has a tattoo, Damon!"
"So what? All teenagers do." Damon groaned.
"You think?" Alaric plopped on his bed. "What- what if she's in some kind of a cult or something? What if she does drugs? What if she wants to drop out of school and go live in a hut on some mountain?"
Damon sighed, "If you're so curious, snoop."
Alaric stood up, his interest peeking. Snoop? Was that even legal? "That won't be fair. It would be a violation of her privacy."
"You never seem to have a problem cock- blocking me. You'll be fine." Damon hung up.
Snooping it is then.
So you might've noticed that Elena is very Katherine- like but there's more depth to her which you'll get to see in the chapters to come. She's only being rude to Ric because she has had some pretty brutal foster parents in her past and she has a fair amount of trust issues coupled with insecurity.
Alaric is obviously struggling with the new change in his life and he has had no prior experience in the parenting department so excuse him for freaking out. Do you guys think he'll snoop though? What will he find if he did?
Let me know :) You guys are also welcome to PM me if you want to talk about the story or just anything at all. I'll be updating The Shortcut Home soon. Cheers! :D