Skin and Bones
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It was the coldest night of the season. The January breeze felt like blades on her face.
Damn, she should have dressed up a little bit more.
But her well-being was the last thing on her mind when she stormed out of the house after having gotten into a fight with her absentee excuse of a mother.
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The neighborhood was quiet. It stunk like cheap beer, but it was almost comforting to her. Her entire life Elena Gilbert had lived in the most ill reputed quarter of the town of Grove Hill.
When you experience that sort of reality, you learn to toughen up.
A figure of a badly beaten man was in a yard she passed by, surrounded by syringes and the infamous white powder. She knew better. The girl turned her face in another direction and accelerated her pace.
Where was she even going, anyway?
For all she knew she could not walk back inside the Flemming's. She had been kicked out for good.
.
Thirty minutes of walk later and she had already risked her life twice.
That hour of the night was the most dangerous. Shootings, rapes, all sorts of things took place when the town was the most vulnerable.
So, she hid behind a set of dumpsters. Ironic, she thought, just the moral of my life.
Her phone buzzed.
"Where you at? Stopped by but Isobel the bitch threw stuff at my car. –Vicky"
She sighed.
"I'm by Billy's club. Come pick me"
Little did she know it was the beginning of it all.
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"So this Damon Salvatore dude is playing there. It's lame, everyone's fussin' about it, but the guy's fucking hot." Alexa announced, the sultriness obvious in her voice.
"Well, threesome it is then" Vicky laughed naughtily, as she sipped on her beer and held onto the wheel with only one hand. "Roll one for me?"
Alexa nodded, loving the idea of getting the party started ahead of time.
"Yo, Elena, you've a lighter?" the fake blonde called out to the backseat. "Gilbert?"
"What drug's she on?" she asked Vicky, when she realized their friend was in another place.
Vicky placed her hand on the horn, making the girl startle. The two evil friends laughed. "Now she's back" she smirked, satisfied.
"What?" Elena asked, absent-mindedly.
"Have you ever had a foursome?" Alexa asked.
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The bar looked everything but cheap. Although the guests… well, stoned groups of horny whores pretty much covered it. It looked like a brothel. It would have excited the hell out of Elena, if it hadn't been for the fact that tonight she was not in the mood.
All she wanted to do was get as drunk as humanly possible, and probably pass out until every neuron of her brain lost function. Being oblivious would have been a bliss.
But this was true life, and it sucked.
Just the time to make it inside, and men were already lurking over her collarbone and checking out her voluptuous ass. She moved her hair aside, to show off even more. That move had been mastered so well that it just came out as a natural reflex to her.
Needless to say, the drinks kept coming and coming without her having to waste a cent.
All men expecting her to stop being lucid, just to take advantage of her curvaceous body for the rest of the night. But she was Elena Gilbert. She did not go down that easily.
All those years of drinking had made her build up an enviable tolerance.
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"So… you wanna go in my car?" The heavy breath of an older man reached her left ear. She leaned away from the stool she was sitting on, taking in the image in front of her. He must have been in his fifties, uncured beard and poor manners. The usual.
"Tell you what" she tried not to slur on her words. "Get us another three shots of tequila and then we can have all the fun you want".
Vicky watched from the other side of the table, proudly smirking at her friend. She knew what was going to happen next.
She handed over to Elena a small envelope.
The latter quickly opened it, pouring its powdery content inside the men's unattended beer.
Five minutes later, she had received three more free shots and the recognition for being a roofie.
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Vicky laughed. "That was evil!"
Elena simply shrugged it off. "He was not worth the fuck".
It was then that she saw those eyes.
Even if she wanted to avoid looking at them in the crowd, they would have pretentiously called out for her attention. They were in a shade of blue that blurred out all the surroundings, enchanting you to stare at them as if they had some kind of twisted spell on it.
Elena looked away, finding herself out of breath.
Who was that? The guy had moved too quickly for her to be given time to focus on his face. So, she scanned the room, this time sincerely curious for the owner of that killer gaze.
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"Looking for someone?"
When she turned, he was standing right in front of her.