After a long night of studying in the library, Elena was rushing back to her dorm room, where Bonnie and Caroline were waiting impatiently. Tonight was supposed to be a girl's night in, which Elena and the others desperately needed. College life was extremely busy, and Elena's personal life was complicated to say the least. As she walked, Elena carried a large purple bag of college textbooks over her shoulder. One of the considerable advantages of being a vampire attending college was that the heavy books that once might have caused her a sore shoulder were now feather light. Of course, she also have "vamped" back to her dorm room. But Elena liked walking, it allowed her time to think and it made her feel almost human again. Her tall boots tapped on the cold concrete floor and the sound echoed in the empty hallway. There weren't many people still on campus at this time of night.

Elena loved college. Though Mystic Falls would always be home, leaving had been an exciting fresh start. She had met many fascinating new people and she liked learning about things that actually seemed relevant. The parties weren't so bad either. Lots of kids looked forward to it; the college experience. It was an important milestone in many people's lives. Go to college, get a job, marry your college sweetheart, buy a house, get a dog and start a family. This kind of plan wasn't exactly in the cards for her anymore Elena thought sadly. She sighed. Elena hated feeling sorry for herself. She knew she was lucky to have gotten a second chance at living… even if she was dead.

Elena thoughts slowly turned to Damon. If anything good had come out of her becoming part of undead, it had been their relationship. For that reason, she decided to call him, as he could always cheer her up. The thought of him turned up the corners of her mouth and as she still had a few more minutes before she would complete her long trek across campus, she dialed his number. Though they'd been having some problems lately, Elena was ready to put it behind them. She loved him and missed him despite her frustration at his constant excuses for not coming to visit.

"Yeah?" Damon answered in rough tone.

"Hey, it's me." Elena said.

"Hey" he said slowly, his tone softening.

She paused. "I'm just heading back to the dorm. Caroline, Bonnie and I are having a girl's night. Thought you could keep me company for the way back."

"Sounds like a blast, wish I could be there. You know how I love girl's night. I am great at braiding hair and listening to Taylor Swift" He replied jokingly.

Elena smiled. "Speaking of that, do you think you could spare some time to come visit your girlfriend this weekend? Caroline is going on a trip with the Model UN and I'm going to have the dorm all to myself. We can get Chinese takeout, watch a movie and maybe you could stay over." Elena said in a slightly suggestive tone.
There was a long pause. "You how much I want to Elena. But I just can't right now. Sheriff Forbes has been having problems with at least two vampires near Mystic Falls and she needs me as backup."

Elena frowned. He had given her yet another excuse and she felt hurt at his rejection.

"But… I miss you." Elena said softly.

"I miss you too." He replied, and with this he did sound sincere.

"I just can't come down this weekend."

Elena knew he had his job of taking care of Jeremy, and holding down the fort in Mystic Falls but she was frustrated and tired of his excuses.

"You know what? Just forget it. Goodbye Damon."

"Elena-" he started to say, but she had already hung up.

She put her phone away and pulled out her key to unlock the door, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder. She loved Damon but right now she just couldn't deal with him.

"Elena! There you are!" Caroline said loudly. "We've been waiting for you all night!

She sat on her pink and blue comforter covered bed, holding up two unopened bottles of vodka. Her usually perfect golden curls were frazzled and her eyes were shining with excitement. The room was rather large for a typical dorm. They each had a bed and desk, and there was a small mini fridge in the corner.

"Thank god, now we can finally start drinking." She giggled.

Bonnie looked amused at Caroline's excitement, smiling as well. "There may have been a third bottle that has since disappeared." She whispered to Elena jokingly, loud enough for Caroline to hear. In response a pink and blue pillow was thrown at her head. Elena smiled at them; she loved her two best friends to death and well…technically the love had lasted after that. Two vampires and one half dead witch, they were an interesting crew.
"Tough day, Care?" Elena asked her.
"The toughest." she replied. "Professor Gates gave us 20,000 word essay for Monday on ancient languages and- "
She put her hands up in the air in an exasperated manner and sighed.

"Urgh. You know what? I'm over it! Let's get this night started, I'm over school: bring on the vodka!"

Soon they were all settled on Caroline's bed which had the best angle to the TV, a graduation gift from her Sheriff Forbes. After a few minutes, Bonnie, who had grown tired of flipping through channels had settled on the Bachelor.

"Oh I haven't seen this one yet!" squeaked Caroline.

Elena leaned over to the side table next to the bed, and grabbed her red nail polish. She pulled the brush out of the bottle and began to apply it to her nails, while Bonnie and Caroline intently watched the screen, rooting for their favourites. Elena wasn't really paying attention to the show but thinking about Damon instead. Maybe Damon had changed his mind about her, she thought to herself. The thought put a lump in Elena's throat.

After an hour or so when the program was finished, Bonnie switched the TV off. The girls were all certainly feeling the alcohol after the bachelor drinking game they had played (Care's idea of course). Despite this, Bonnie had noticed that Elena was looking a little bit down.

"So how's it going with Damon?" she asked hesitantly.

Though all of Elena's friends, Bonnie included, were still quite hesitant over their relationship, she would always support Elena. Elena sighed

"Not so great recently. I don't know why, but we never see each other anymore. I don't know why he won't just come and visit me. We had such an amazing summer together."

"Typical Damon" said Caroline, rolling her eyes.

"You know how busy he is Elena, I'm sure everything will be fine." Bonnie replied, but Bonnie was also confused. Damon was completely enamoured with Elena, what could possibly be keeping him away?

"Well what about you Bonnie Bennett? Have any boys caught your eye recently?" Elena asked, swiftly changing the topic.

"Bonnie and Jeremy hadn't been on speaking terms all summer, and Elena wondered if Bonnie had moved on. Jeremy certainly hadn't, though he had refused to talk to her after she had sacrificed herself for him.

"Well, I guess there's one guy, his name's Travis…" Bonnie stopped abruptly and gracefully picked herself up off the bed.

"She shook her head as if an attempt to clear it. She wasn't ready to think too much about Travis because that lead to thoughts of relationships and thoughts of Jeremy. What kind of relationships could half-dead witches even have?

"Ok, I think we've had enough of all that. This is girl's night, not guy's night."

She got up stretched her legs and moved over to Elena's bed.

"Aw…" Caroline sighed. "It was just getting good, I want to know more about Travis. And what kind of Girl's night doesn't involve boy talk?" She pouted.

Elena knew why Bonnie wanted to change the subject, the love life of a living/dead witch was complicated. She now regretted asking her.

"I have a better idea of what to do." Bonnie replied smoothly. "I've been learning some new spells and-"

Elena cut her off quickly. "Bonnie, do I need to remind you what happened with that last time? With expression? And what it did to you?" The pain was evident in Elena's voice.

Even if Bonnie was talking to them and hanging out, her life wasn't normal. Because of the events that occurred on graduation day, Bonnie was in between the veil and the normal world. She came and went between the dead and living but she was also in both places at once. That was why she had decided against actually doing college, at least until things settled down. For now Bonnie was living in an apartment off campus hiding away from home because it was easier than explaining to her father and other people that she was in fact a ghost.

"I know, Elena." She smiled understandingly. "But on the other side, I've been learning a lot of new things from Emily and my Grams. I know I can trust them."

Elena looked over to Caroline who appeared unconvinced.

"Bonnie…" she said, her voice unsure. "Are you positive this is safe?"

"I'm positive!" said Bonnie giddily.

"Okay then" said Caroline. "But I'll need another drink before we get started."

She picked the bottle up and downed the remained liquid. Elena was feeling uneasy about the whole thing but she trusted Bonnie. She knew she wouldn't let things get out of control again.

"I think you're really going to like this spell Caroline." She tucked a piece of her brown hair behind her ear.

"It kind of relates to your history major."

Caroline and Elena were both confused.

"What?" they said together.
"So Emily taught me this spell that allows you to see parts of the past from the point of view of someone who lived it." Bonnie said quickly.

"In this case, we can see what Emily's life was like in the 1800's! We all have to concentrate on Emily's presence, I'll chant the spell and then we will be able to witness in our own eyes a few minutes of her life in 1864. Cool right?"

Caroline looked less frightened.

"Ok…I guess it sounds alright" Elena said in a voice that showed she was still unconvinced.

"Let's get started." Said Bonnie, ignoring her best friend's uncertainty.

The girls sat down on the dorm floor, in more or less in the form of a triangle. Bonnie's hands stretched out to Caroline and Elena. She squeezed Elena's hand tightly, her dark fingers around Elena's pale ones. Then she grabbed Caroline's.

"Close your eyes" she commanded.

Elena did as she was told and as the room went dark, Bonnie began to chant in a hushed silky tone in a language incomprehensible to Elena. Bonnie was almost done chanting, Elena's palms were just starting to perspire and Caroline was just starting to feel nauseous from the alcohol when the group was interrupted by a sharp

"Bring! Bring!"

Elena looked guiltily at Bonnie; she had completely forgotten to turn her phone off. Luckily it seemed that Bonnie was still in a deep trance from the magic, but Caroline wasn't and her eyes were wide and anxious.

"Elena! Put it away!"

Elena reached into her jean pocket to pull her phone out. It was a call from Damon. She couldn't help but answer it.

"Damon, this isn't a good time; can you call me back later?" she spoke in a hushed tone as to not disturb Bonnie.

Before Damon even had a chance to answer, the line was cut and many things happened at once. Bonnie finished the spell, her eyes flashing open, Caroline decided she most definitely needed to vomit and Elena felt a sharp pain all over her body, something she had never felt before. It felt like her body was snapping and tearing into a thousand different pieces. She screamed out, high and shrill and then the world as she knew it was gone.