"Elena! Get off me, ugghhhh..." I shrugged, as I tried to shove Elena's slightly heavy foot away from my nose.

Caroline and Bonnie had bailed on Elena last minute and I was free, so I decided to come over for her crying session, bringing with me three tubs of cookies n' cream flavoured ice cream, three blocks of Hershey's chocolate, and three packets of sweet chili Grain Waves; two of everything went to her, one share for me.

I had slept over at her place, a tradition when it came to broken hearts. We spent the night watching all the depressing and sad stuff and pigging out endlessly on the food I'd brought. We eventually ran out of supplies, so we just ate all the leftover pizza from that night's dinner. Elena fell asleep with her head on my lap, repeatedly saying, "I don't need him. I've got myself." Again. And again. And again.

"Ali, stahp eht, I want to sleep..." Elena pulled on the doona and as an effect, I rolled off the bed onto the floor. "Ouch," I whispered under my breath whilst getting up. I half dragged Elena off the bed, but to no avail. I fell clumsily at the foot of her new 'home'.

I walked lazily down the stairs and nearly tripped over one of Jeremy's shoes. "Jeremy, one of your shoes are here, I nearly tripped over it!" In a split second, Jeremy had picked me up bridal style, with a worried expression etched all over his face.

"What can I do for my princess Alison?", Jeremy asked.

"Hmmm... Can you duck your head a little?", I answered with a question. He squinted his eyes at me, then lowered his head slowly. I pecked him on the cheek and his face brightened up to a deep scarlet.

"Come on guys, no morning make out in front of the sister," Elena whined, standing at the top of the staircase. I giggled and Jeremy carefully let me down. We all walked over to the dining room and Ric was in the kitchen preparing our brunch. He held the spatula flipping thingy with one hand, and the phone to his ear in the other.

The doorbell rang just as Ric hung up and I dashed to the door to open it. Outside stood the quirky, blonde vampire, Caroline, who was carrying a casserole with something that smelled like rain drops from cloud nine. I invited her in and she took the seat next to Elena. As she set the casserole down on the table, Ric acknowledged her presence with a little nod in her direction.

"Who was that on the phone Ric?", Elena inquired. This caused both Jeremy and I to look curiously at Ric who was still busily flipping pancakes. The answer came from Caroline who has waddled her way behind us saying, "Damon. He had some things to discuss." Elena slouched further into her chair, probably thinking of Stefan, and Jeremy and I shared a worried look.

"Well, don't look so glum, I'm pretty sure you guys will be fine," Ric said as he cautiously placed a neatly stacked pile of pancakes on the table. "Go ahead, dig in."

By the time we were finished with breakfast, I excused myself to go home so that I could shower before the meet up at the Salvatore's place. Ric, Jeremy, Elena and Caroline all waved me goodbye and I started to walk down the driveway when my phone vibrated, shaking my whole bag. I looked at the caller id- Bonnie Bennet.

"Eyy, Bonnie, what's up?" There was a couple of seconds before she replied.

"Ali? Hey, did you hear about the meet up at the Salvatore's?"

"Ahuh, around half an hour ago, why?" I fumbled for my keys, trapping the phone between my shoulder and my neck.

"I don't think I can come. Can you tell everyone I can't make it please?"

"Oh," I inserted the keys and unlocked the driver's door. "I'll be sure to tell them. What do I say if they ask why?"

"I'm not feeling too well, I was practicing this spell, and it got a bit out of hand. I'm just a tad bit weak, that's all."

I plopped down my bags in the back seat, "Well I hope you get better soon, we all love you heaps, and I'll be sure to tell them. Rest heaps!"

She muttered a quick thanks and hung up. I dropped my phone onto my lap and- "AHHHH!" My heart was thundering against my chest and I couldn't breathe properly for a good minute.

"Hello Ali," Blue eyes looked at me, filled with both fake innocence and playful spirits.

"Damon. Don't creep up on me like that. EVER. It's not nice," I took several deep breaths, and finally met his blue eyes. He was still flashing those sharp, white teeth, smirking at me as if I were a fascinating animal from the zoo.

"What? Is there... Is there something on my face?" I rubbed my face gently, and rolled my tongue over my teeth to see if I had missed any stubborn bits from breakfast. Doing so caused Damon's grin to grow wider. "No, I just wanted to talk to you. I missed you Ali," he said, as he pushed away a strand of stray hair from my eyes. Our skin touched for the slightest amount of time, but it was enough to set fireworks erupting in my chest.

"Damon, I'm not Elena, you can cut the crap. How are you doing with her? Are you planning on using her recent fight with Stefan to your advantage?" His eyebrows furrowed and he abandoned the topic.

"I'm driving," he said, more as a demand than a question.

"Okie ma dokie," I replied, trying to lighten the mood. Before I could open the door, he did and pulled me out, leaving me dazed and unsure of where I was. I walked to the passenger side and Damon took the wheel. "So, are you coming to the meet up at my mansion?" He looked at me cockily, not even glancing once at the road.

"Focus on driving Damon," he returned his attention to driving.

"You still didn't answer my question."

"You want an answer? Do I even have a choice?" I rolled my eyes and shuffled in my seat.

"Is that the answer or...?" I looked over to an amused Damon and decided to ignore him.

We finally arrived at my house and he let me out, like a proper gentleman. I didn't have to grab my bags because he did it for me like a chauffeur. I could list just about a gazillion girls who would've loved to be in my place. I opened the door and he led the way to my room. He dropped all my things on the floor and plopped himself on the bed. "Eyy, get off. I just changed my sheets," he sat up slowly but walked off into the lounge anyway. My parents were out on a business trip and my fridge was full. I guess he planned on swallowing all of it in one gulp. "Bloodsucker, I'm taking a shower ok? Don't wreck anything," I said loudly enough for him to hear. I heard a quiet sound of agreement as I walked into the bathroom and locked the door.

When I finished my shower, I dried myself, put on grey trackie-dacks and my Mickey-Mouse hoodie. I felt sooooo lazy and the comfort coming from my clothes tempted me to scamper back into bed. I made my way to the kitchen, grabbed some sweet n' salty popcorn from the pantry and once I popped it open, I chucked one at Damon. He caught it in his mouth. I sat on the opposite end of the couch, my legs straight enough for my toes to touch Damon's thighs.

"Don't we have to go already?", I questioned him. He continued to stare at the ceiling, in a world of his own.

"Huh?"

"Aren't we gonna go? To the meet up at your 'mansion'?" He seemed to snap back into reality, and he checked his watch. 1:30.

"Nahh, it's not until 2:30. I can get you there quickly if I wanted to anyway. What do you wanna do?" I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do. Maybe just lie down. Or think. Or dream. But I can't do that with Damon. Anything with Damon kills me. Every touch, every single connection with him is enough to enable me to produce electricity for the whole of Virginia for infinity. I let out a deep sigh. Damon did too. Then we kinda just stared at each other. And wow. It was the most comfortable silence I've ever had with someone. And he broke it with, "Ali, come here." I shuffled to him. He put one arm around me and it felt like the most natural thing to lean into him. So I did. And it felt sooooo good. My head was resting on his chest and we fit like two pieces of a puzzle. We sat there talking about random things for nearly an hour, eating my popcorn, cuddling, just being comfy. When the time came that we had to go to his place for the meet up, we packed up and he asked me to jump on his back.

"Jump on!"

"What- no!" I was frantic. I was never, ever, ever gonna hop on his back. Those freaking vampire back rides were as scary as the world's tallest and wildest roller-coasters. Damon being Damon, he didn't pay attention to my NO. He carried me over his shoulder and began running in his super vampire speed. Around 30 seconds passed when I felt we finally came to a halt.

"Ali, you're fine now," Damon whispered into my ear, his cool breath making the tiny hairs at the back of my neck straighten their posture. He let me down slowly, and he held me in a hug until I pulled away when I recovered my sense of balance. He grabbed me by the wrist and we walked together into his house. The rest of the crew were already there, all but Elena. At the rate we were going, she wouldn't want to be anywhere closer than 100 kilometres to Stefan. We all knew that, which was what caused the awkward silence. At least that's what I thought. But as Damon and I walked further on, we saw a face we weren't expecting.

"Oh. My. Gosh."