Two months had passed. I got up and looked at the time. It was Elena's birthday. I then realized what the problem was. I shook Anna awake.

"We need to get dressed now." I told her as I began to look for my pants.

"Tell me again why we're both working at the Grill?" She asked as she looked through her dresser.

"Because we have bills to pay and I don't want to ruin my trust fund." I pointed out.

Elena then came in as we were in the middle of changing. The downside of living in a house of three teenage (even though one is a vampire) girls was that no one knocked.

"We need some privacy." I declared.

"I just wanted to see if you were up because Matt called." She explained after closing the door. "You two are late."

"We know that." I replied.

Within a few minutes, the two of us stepped out, both dressed in our uniforms. There were definitely worse things that we could wear to work.

We headed to the Grill in my car. We were both waitresses. Technically we weren't supposed to be, but Mayor Lockwood specifically gave exception to us because of our current living situation. I was trying to get Ric to be our guardian. Technically, he was the only parental figure that I had left since he wasn't divorced to Isobel.

I saw Caroline as I was preparing heading into work.

"So is Elena still trying to bail on her party?" She asked.

"I don't know." I remarked. "We talked for about five seconds this morning."

"Well I do have something else." She declared.

"Another lead?" I questioned.

"It was an animal attack in Memphis." Caroline explained. "It doesn't mean that Klaus and Stefan are involved in it, though."

"I would put money on them being involved." I stated. "Can you have her drop it off?"

We walked inside and prepared for our shifts. The restaurant was just opening, so we weren't too late.

"There you are." Matt replied. "I need you to switch sections with me."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because Caroline and Tyler just sat down in mine and I don't feel like waiting on my ex-girlfriend!" He answered. It sounded like he wasn't over her.

I sighed and headed outside. It was a beautiful day and I wished that I didn't have to be working, but I would get a break later.

"Hey, guys." I greeted the two of them. "Can I get you anything?"

"Did Matt ask you to switch sections with him?" Caroline questioned before she looked at Tyler. "He thinks that we're dating."

"So does my mother." Tyler added.

"Wait, you two aren't dating?" I asked.

"No we're just friends. There's no way that we'd ever work as a couple." Caroline told me.

I got an hour break and I knew that I needed to use it to go to the boarding house. I walked inside and began to look for Damon. I went into his room and he wasn't there.

"Hi." He greeted me. I turned around and saw more of Damon than I ever wanted to. I blushed and turned around.

"You know you should really learn to knock." He quipped. "What if I was indecent? So what can I do for you, Working Girl?"

"I got another lead from Sheriff Forbes." I explained.

"You mean you got another dead-end." He countered as he came over and took it from me. Thankfully he was wearing a towel. Seeing him naked knowing that he had seen me naked really wasn't that fulfilling.

"You don't know that." I argued. "Stop being so pessimistic."

"How about you stop being so optimistic?" He challenged. "Or maybe I should try it? This is going to be the one place that we find Stefan and can convince him to come home."

"Fuck you." I told him as I headed to the doorway. "I'm going back to work."

When I got back, I needed to vent and I decided Anna would be the person I vented to.

"It feels like I have to fight with Damon every time I bring him a lead." I stated between putting some fries in my mouth.

"Did you ever think that maybe Damon doesn't want to find him?" She asked.

"That doesn't make any sense though." I pointed out. "Stefan is in this mess because of him. If I had gotten Elena into a mess like this, I would do whatever I could to get her back. If I didn't have to work, I would go there myself."

"Well I don't understand how Damon thinks." She replied. "I do know that going looking for him for him would be a bad idea since Klaus thinks you're dead and might try to kill you again."

"So do you have any idea what I should wear to Elena's party tonight?" I asked. "Her 18th birthday is kind of a big deal, even though Bonnie can't be here."

"Well I do think that not a lot of people will be paying much attention to you." She pointed out. "Is this going to be one of those nights where you get drunk?"

"That's pretty much every night that I don't have to work the next morning." I pointed out. Though, I wasn't acting the same as when my parents died. "It works even better since I found the perfect hangover cure."

"That's probably not healthy." She replied. "For someone who doesn't want to be a vampire, you're tempting fate a lot."

"I was talking about vervain." I stated in shock. She looked at me in surprise. "It turns out that it cures hangovers. Who knew?"

"Well I'm just glad that I don't get hangovers." She remarked.

That night, I decided to wear a red and black plaid sleeveless dress with black socks and heels. I really wished that I could have shown Stefan what he was missing. Elena was upstairs. Damon was going to help her make an entrance. We were currently waiting for her. I already had a glass of bourbon in my hand when Anna came over to me.

"I got you something." She told me.

"You're supposed to get something for the birthday girl, not her sister." I quipped.

"Well this is something that I figured that you'd want more." She replied as she pulled out my necklace. "Damon found this and gave it to me to give back to you."

"Thank you." I told her softly. It was at that moment that I couldn't help but realize how beautiful she was. She then behind me and placed it around my neck, just like Stefan had when he had first given it to me.

"So what did you get for Elena?" She asked me.

"Oh, I got her this nice perfume that she wanted." I explained, no longer in my daze. I was pretty sure that I was already beginning to get drunk. "So have you really been with anyone since Blair graduated?"

"Nope, it's been kind of slow for me." She replied. "Another part of being a vampire is that you can get really horny. Sometimes I just want to lock the door and just touch myself."

"I know that feeling." I admitted. "Should we be talking about this right now?"

"I don't why we shouldn't. It's something that every teenager does." She pointed out.

"You're not a teenager." I countered.

"My body is." She reminded me. "It's actually quite the downside. I'm in a perpetual of puberty. It is a good reason to wait if you do want to be like me."

"I just have a feeling that it's not going to be something that I end up having any control over when it happens." I stated. "I don't want to be like Isobel."

"You will never be like Isobel." She promised me. "You know I think that you could use fun right about now. Let's dance."

She grabbed me and began to spin me around. There was no denying that dancing with her was always fun. I guess one of the best parts was that she loved to do it and she loved to do it without me asking first. I really did feel like I was gliding along the clouds.

So, after we finished dancing to strange European pop songs about sex, I decided to get another drink. It was then that I noticed that there was a stoner group. I also found Caroline.

"Is that my sister over there?" I asked.

"Yes, and I'm pretty sure that's Matt over there with her." Caroline stated. I couldn't believe that my sister was a druggie. I supposed that it did explain why she was eating so much. "I've driven him to drugs."

"And apparently Bonnie being gone and Jenna dying has done the same to Elena." I replied.

"Hey guys." Matt said with a chuckle as he walked over to us. I wasn't sure if I should do anything. It was Elena's birthday and she could get high if she wanted to. The biggest issue was that she was making it difficult to maintain a buzz. It was kind of like when Stefan was having his blood issues. She would definitely be able to eat as much cake as she wanted.

I also noticed that while Caroline and Tyler weren't dating, she definitely wanted to date him because she compelled the school slut to leave Tyler alone. I couldn't believe that Tyler had brought her to the party even he couldn't get herpes as a werewolf. Did he really want sex that bad?

"So what are you drinking tonight?" Tina asked me. She had a cup of beer in her hand.

"I think it's Jim Bean or something." I replied. "I honestly don't care about what's on the label as long as what's in the bottom tastes good?"

"Have you ever thought about going to Alcoholics Anonymous?" She questioned.

"I'm not an alcoholic. I just like to drink." I stated. "Honestly, I'm no worse than Ric or Damon."

"I'm pretty sure that both of them are alcoholics too." She remarked.

"I don't need anyone to judge me, especially someone who's had a DUI." I pointed out.

"I've been to the meetings and while I don't consider myself to be an alcoholic. I think that you are." She replied.

"I don't need to hear any of this anymore." I replied as I charged upstairs.

I wasn't an alcoholic. I just had a lot of issues because nearly every member of my family was dead. In my opinion, I was handling it pretty well because a lot of people would have gone insane. I opened the door to Damon's room because he was picking up his girlfriend that I was pretty sure that he felt nothing for.

"This room is occupied!" Caroline shouted. I walked in to see that she was chowing on a blood bag. "Sorry, I thought were some random."

"What's going on with you and Tyler?" I asked.

"Nothing's going on between us." She replied.

"Caroline, you compelled a girl that was going to have sex with him to go away." I stated. "You like him. It's okay to like him."

"We're two different species. We're all wrong for each other." She declared.

"All I am hearing is reasons why not." I remarked before I noticed something strange about the room. "Has that whiteboard always been there?

"I don't think so." Caroline replied before we turned to look at the back of it.

I was shocked. It was basically a list of every lead that I had given him, and some other ones that I hadn't, but they were pretty much all animal attacks. Pretty much all of them were on the East Coast, going as far as Tennessee.

"What is all of this?" Caroline asked.

"It's what I've been giving Damon." I replied. "He's been looking for Stefan without me. I can't believe that he's been looking without me."

Needless to say, I was pissed when he finally got back.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked.

"When were you going to show me this?" I countered.

"It's nothing but a bunch of dead ends." He replied.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were keeping track of Klaus's victims?" I yelled.

"Because they're not Klaus's victims, they're Stefan's." He explained. No, there was no way that Stefan could have killed all of those people.

"What?" I responded in shock.

"Stefan's flipped the switch." He added. "He's killing people and he's liking it. I just got back from him killing my girlfriend. He doesn't want to be found."

"No, that can't be true." I denied.

"He's gone, Mary, and the sooner that you accept it the better." He told me. "Now get out of my room."

I walked out of his room and made sure to grab another bottle. I had to find Anna because she was my ride home. I also couldn't help but wonder if Elena had gotten home safe. I'd never been high before but I was pretty sure that you weren't supposed to operate a vehicle while you were high. I found Anna was downstairs.

"You look like you're having a rough night." She commented.

"Well Damon basically doesn't even care about finding Stefan anymore and Elena is a druggie and people are judging me for drinking. Have you seen Ric?" I asked.

"He said that he wasn't going to be staying over anymore." She replied. "He wanted to move on with his own life."

"You see this is why we need to have jobs." I explained. "We're the only ones that can take care of ourselves."

"So are you going to stop looking for Stefan?" She asked. "I mean you still love him, don't you?"

"I don't know." I answered. "I mean, yes, I love him, but I don't know if he's going to come back ever."

"Well maybe we should go home and sleep on it." She suggested before she took me to her car.

Once we got home, I noticed that Elena and Matt were eating ice cream in the kitchen. It was a little bit funny to see.

A little later, I was getting changed for bed while Anna was brushing her teeth. I always wondered if vampires liked to have their fangs nice and sharp or if she did it just to seem human.

I then noticed that my phone was ringing. It was from an unknown number, but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I answered. There was no response. "Who is this? Stefan? Stefan if this is you, I want you to know that I still believe in you and I still love you. I won't stop until we can be together again."

So it was not Mary's birthday obviously, but there was still the scene with the necklace. She's fallen for Anna even if she can't admit it. Please don't forget to review.