The Third Salvatore
Elena Gilbert rolled her eyes, completely exasperated with the constant bickering between her two boyfriends. The gang was having a barbeque at the Salvatore mansion, something that was supposed to be fun, but to Elena, it was just boring.
"Hey, Elena, watch me eat this hotdog!" Stefan said, rushing over to her. "I bet I can do it in two seconds flat." He stuffed it into his mouth like some sort of monster and swallowed it whole.
"You're wasting food," Elena reprimanded mildly. She was too exhausted to really get angry at him.
Then Damon rushed up to them, holding a hamburger. "That was wholly unimpressive, Stefan. So you can eat a hotdog in two seconds? I can eat a hamburger– which is meatier, and harder to chew– in less. Watch and be impressed, Elena." Elena tried not to look as Damon ate the hamburger faster than any human ever could.
Meredith raised her eyebrows in Elena's direction, and Elena took it as an excuse to escape from the horrors of the Salvatore brothers and go hang out with he real friends.
"Looks like one might actually be better than two, huh?" Meredith smirked at Elena "At least in this case." Bonnie laughed as Elena scowled.
"It's not my fault they're both completely disgusting," she said. "It used to be impossible to decide which one I loved more… now I can't decide if I love them at all."
Damon and Stefan dashed past them to their pool. "I CAN HOLD MY BREATH LONGER THAN YOU," Damon shouted at Stefan. "I CAN HOLD IT FOR AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME!"
"I CAN DO IT LONGER!" Stefan replied, and they both jumped into the pool, sending a colossal splash of water all over the deck.
When they were underwater, they pushed each other back and forth, and eventually began wrestling as well. Damon forced Stefan's mouth open, then tried to blow water in it, but they both ended up choking on the water, and flailed at each other, not longer quite in control of their situation. Meredith had to dive in and pull them out of the water.
"Wow," Elena said. "They can't even go underwater for a minute without drowning. And they're vampires."
Bonnie smiled ruefully at her. "And to think I used to like Damon. At least Zander's slightly better."
"How are you two, anyway?" Elena asked curiously. "Still in love?"
Bonnie snorted in bitter laughter, which Elena took immediately as a no. "Last night, Zander took me out to eat, but half way through the date he was all like, 'Oh I gotta go and leave you here all alone without a car. Bye-bye'. And I was totally stranded there, so I started walking home, and I saw Tyler Smallwood walking down the street, and you know how gross he is, so I had to slip into a store to hide from him. And the store was really creepy and there was this guy in there with a blonde mullet and really blue eyes so I had to try and run away from him, too."
"Sucks," Elena said when she heard Bonnie pause. She hadn't really been paying attention, because Stefan and Damon were racing each other around the pool in a way that looked extremely dangerous.
"It does," Bonnie agreed. "I don't think we can be together anymore."
Just then Matt, who had finished grilling, saw their sad faces and walked over to them, trying to cheer them up. "Hey, guys, what's with the long faces? I mean, come on, this party's great… Look, we got hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, dip… what more could you possibly want from this party?"
Elena frowned, contemplating the question as she watched Damon and Stefan dunking each other into the pool. "I don't know. Maybe, more choices?"
Matt nodded like he understood what she was talking about. "Well, if you don't like hotdogs, and you don't like hamburgers, we've also got Bratwurst, which is my personal favorite. It has a similar texture to the hamburger, and an easy to eat shape like the hotdog, but the flavor is just so much more powerful than those meats, too. It's really great. When people ask me which I prefer, the hotdog or the hamburger, I always say: the third option– Bratwurst!"
Matt seemed to take this topic way too seriously, Elena thought. But something about that statement had rung true for her– if she only had a third option, something better than both Stefan and Damon… maybe then she could be happy.
"Do you have a vegetarian option?" Bonnie was asking Matt, walking over to get a paper plate. It was then that Elena saw him. An amazingly handsome young man– he had dark, luscious curls. Pale skin. High cheekbones. And those eyes– she'd only ever seen that color eye on one person before. Black on black. Like Damon's. And that mouth: so sensuous, that slight curve. His face was a sculptor's dream. Like Stefan's. And he was walking towards the gate of the mansion very purposefully.
Elena hopped out of her chair and ran over to open the gate and let him in. "Hello!" she said. "Who are you?"
He smiled vaguely at her. "My name's Henry… um, I was wondering, is this the Salvatore residence?"
"Why, yes, it is," Elena said. "My name's Elena, I'm a friend of the Salvatores. Come in, come in." She moved out of his way and he walked in, staring around at everything that was going on. His gaze lingered on Stefan's and Damon's.
"My God," he said. "Brothers!"
They looked up from their furious tick-tack-toe battle and stared at him, like he was some sort of dream. Damon was the first to recover. "HENRY!" he yelled. "YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE ALIVE!"
Henry and Damon hugged each other, ruffling one another's hair. Elena noted that Damon was still the shortest. Stefan then ran over, and he hugged Henry, and then they both tried to hug Henry, and then they began pushing each other back and forth in an effort to get Henry all to themselves. Elena was embarrassed with their immature behavior, but she couldn't control them.
Finally, when they finished hugging him, Elena walked over and smiled at him again. "It's strange. In all the time I've known Stefan and Damon, they've never mentioned you… are you a vampire, too?"
"Why, yes, I am." He glared at his brothers. "Don't know why they wouldn't talk about me. Huh." Then something caught his eye… he was staring in Elena's direction with a look of wonder upon his face. A look of joy. Elena's heart swelled. She'd found the one, at last. She'd found her soulmate.
But he pushed right past her and kept walking. Straight to Bonnie.
END OF PART ONE