Love in the Time of Monsters
Jeremy loved Vicki. When he was with her, he could hardly think about anything else. He hated that she was with Tyler. He was a jerk and treated her like trash, and Jeremy had wanted nothing more than to save her from him. He had loved her.
He had also loved Anna. She was strange, at first, be she had found a way into his heart, and he really couldn't push her away. When he was with her, he still thought about Vicki. Thought about becoming a vampire and tracking her down. But as he started to love Anna, Vicki started to fall into the background. When Anna died, it all but destroyed him. He'd tried to turn, just so he could forget the pain of losing her. He loved Anna.
He had loved Bonnie, too. Bonnie, the girl he had known most of his life and never seen as more than his sister's best friend. But suddenly she was more than that. Suddenly she was the one he wanted to be with. When he was with her, he thought about Vicki and Anna. He thought about only other girls he had loved. Thought about how he'd lost them, how everything he touched died. Sometimes he's afraid that, just by being his with her, terrible things were going to happen to her. Terrible things would probably happen to her anyway. He loved Bonnie.
He was in love with Tyler. His love for Vicki and Anna, and even Bonnie, had been destructive at best. He had loved them, but he was in love with Tyler. He understood the difference now. Tyler had been the jock and Jeremy the stoner and they had hated each other. But somewhere along the way, with all the vampire and werewolf madness, they had both changed. They were friends at first, then best friends, practically inseparable. Until one day, he realized he was falling in love.
Maybe that was the difference. He had never really been friends with Vicki and Anna and Bonnie, they had just skipped right to dating. Maybe that was why it never worked out with Elena and Stefan, but with Damon things were better. Maybe you had to be best friends first, then lovers.
Jeremy and Tyler were best friends. They were best friends who went to movies, and held hands, and fought monsters together, and at the end of the day, they went home together. Amidst all the insanity that their lives seemed to revolve around, it was the only thing that really made sense.