Eight days ago, I had never watched an episode of TVD. I frequently made fun of my mom because she liked it, but I had never actually given it a chance. Over the next seven days, I watched every episode in existence (that's 62 episodes in seven days). It was pretty easy because my insomnia has been running rampant for a while now. After having caught up fully, I had to start writing (apparently I'm incapable of just passively enjoying something). And thus we have this weird, soul crushing yet kind of happy piece. I love some parts and hate others, but I'm happy that I got it out as easily as I did.
Enjoy :)
Dear Diary,
It was a Tuesday when she first asked. Their 284th day together. Her head was resting on his bare chest, rising and falling with his every breath. She was almost asleep, with his arms curled around her. She was exhausted. It had been a long day. Long week. Long year, really. But the last few days had been bad. Worse than usual. Tiring.
"You should turn me," she mumbled into his chest.
He was exhausted too, and contrary to popular belief, Vampire's did need sleep. A lot of things about Vampires were contrary to popular belief, but the sleep one was big, at least right then. He couldn't honestly remember the last time he'd gotten more than an hour or two of sleep, and it just wasn't cutting it anymore.
But, regardless of how tired he was, that statement caused his eyes to fly open.
"What?" he asked. She didn't respond. "Elena," he said, shifting to get a better look at her face. Her eyes were closed, and if her breathing was any indication, she was asleep. "Elena," he said again.
"Hmm," she groaned. "'M sleepy," she mumbled, curling closer to him.
"Elena, you can't just say something like that and fall asleep on me."
"Mmh."
Clearly, he wasn't going to get much out of her in this state, and he didn't have the heart to deprive her of sleep any longer.
He never did fall asleep though.
Dear Diary,
Elena awoke alone on Wednesday. Her bed was warm and comfy and she'd very much have liked to stay there and sleep forever, but it was also cold and empty and the sun was shining just a little too brightly.
She dressed quickly and headed downstairs, but something about the scene she found in the kitchen made her stop in her tracks. Ric and Damon chatting over coffee and toast.
"Should I be worried?" she asked, eyeing them suspiciously. She stepped slowly into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, but not taking her eyes off of them for more than a second. It wasn't weird for them to be friendly chatting over breakfast, it had actually become pretty commonplace, but there was something about the way Ric was looking at her, and the way that Damon was avoiding her gaze, that worried her. It felt like they were hiding something from her. Was Jeremy okay? Did something happen to Caroline or Bonnie? Stefan, Matt, Tyler. What had happened?
Or maybe nothing had happened yet. Maybe Klaus was planning something, and Damon and Stefan and Ric were plotting a counterattack that would no doubt risk all of their lives and they were trying to keep it from her so she didn't try to stop them. They'd done that more times than she could count.
"Alright, someone better spill," she said, sipping her coffee.
Ric and Damon shared a look that worried Elena even more.
Ric set his coffee down. "I've got to meet with Sheriff Forbes," he said, grabbing his keys off the counter. "You kids have fun today. Lord knows you deserve it after the week we've had." He planted a kiss on Elena's forehead and dashed from the room before Elena could stop him.
She turned to Damon. "What's going on?" she asked sternly. She knew that knowing whatever it was would put more stress in her life, but not knowing was just as harsh. She wished she could just be a normal 19 year old for five minutes, but that would never happen. She would always be the doppelganger, the orphan child with a brother who saw ghosts and a vampire hunter for a guardian. Her boyfriend was a vampire, and her ex was a blood junkie ripper. Her best friends were a witch and a vampire. This was her life, and there really was no way out of it. Whatever was going on, she had to know. Not knowing was worse.
"Last night," Damon started, looking carefully into her eyes. "You asked me to turn you."
Elena blinked as she lowered her coffee. Has she been so exhausted that she'd said it, and couldn't even remember? She was quiet for a moment, but that was a moment too long for Damon.
"Elena!" he said, shaking her from her thoughts. She closed her eyes and bowed her head to avoid his gaze. "Why could you say something like that?" he asked softly, putting a hand on her arm. She still couldn't look at him. She couldn't watch his eyes judging her. "How could you even think it?"
The truth was, she'd thought about it a lot, had been thinking about it for a long time. She'd thought about it more than anyone should have to think about such a thing, more often than she was willing to admit. She'd thought about it too much. The thoughts sometimes consumed her.
But she'd never voiced it. Until last night.
"How could I not think about it?" she replied.
She opened her eyes just long enough to see the look of shock and horror and pain etched into Damon's face.
"How long?" he asked her, and she hated the way his voice sounded. Accusatory.
"Long enough." Since discovering why Katherine had become a Vampire. Since Damon fed her his blood so she would become a Vampire rather than die when Klaus killed her to complete his ritual. Since John had died so she wouldn't have to. Since realizing that her blood was the only thing that ensured the existence of Klaus' army of Hybrids. Too long.
"Why?" he asked. She opened her eyes. His voice was pleading.
"Why not?" she asked, her voice breaking slightly. "If I'm a Vampire, Klaus can't use my blood. If he can't use me, he'll stop threatening the people I love."
"If he can't use you, he'll kill everyone you care about as revenge," Damon replied angrily.
And that was exactly the thought that stopped her from going through with her thoughts of transformation.
"If I die now," she said, ignoring him. "My blood can't sire anymore Hybrids. Tatia's bloodline ends with me. No more Doppelgangers, no more Hybrids."
"Are you even listening to yourself?" Damon exclaimed. "No, of course not, because you're Elena Gilbert and you're always gung ho to fling yourself into harm's way to protect people. We'll, it's stupid! You wouldn't be doing anyone any favors. He will kill everyone just to make sure you suffer. Don't you realize that?"
"Of course I do!" she shouted back at him. "That's why I never brought it up!"
"But you did bring it up, Elena!"
Elena closed her eyes again and shook her head. "I'm just so tired, Damon," she said, her voice implying that she'd all but given up. "I'm tired of fighting him. I'm tired of him constantly winning because there's nothing we can do to stop him."
"So you just want to give up?"
"No! I want to win for once. I want to end every chance he has of making more Hybrids. I want to stop spending every minute of every day worrying about if we're all gonna make it to the next one. I want to stop wondering who is going to die next. You? Jeremy? Ric?"
"And you think becoming a Vampire is your best option?"
"It'd be so easy," she said. "I'll drink your blood, and then I'll die. I'll run into a burning building, or down a whole bottle of sleeping pills or something. I'd like it to be you, but I can't ask you to. And then I'll come back. Blood bags aren't hard to find in this town, there's at least a dozen in the fridge right now. Bonnie can make me a daylight ring and Caroline can teach me everything Stefan taught her about control." She left out the part where she and Damon live happily ever after, forever, because she knew it was overly sentimental, and not all that likely to actually happen. Not if Klaus had any say in the matter.
Dear Diary,
Elena spent the rest of the day hiding from Damon, who spent the day drowning himself in booze at the Grill. He was angry. The alcohol wasn't helping, but it wasn't making matters worse, either.
Elena eventually went back home, knowing there was only so long she could hide from Ric. She may as well get it over with as soon as possible.
"Hey," she said, walking through the front door.
"Sit down," Ric said. "Let's talk."
She obeyed, because she knew there was no use fighting it. She was tired of fighting.
Ric wasn't angry. He didn't use harsh worse, or an angry tone. He just talked, and he listened and she hated him for that. She hated him for behaving too much like her father, her real father, the one who raised her. She hated him for not getting angry. Angry would have been easier.
Dear Diary,
Caroline and Bonnie stopped by. No doubt Damon had planned some sort of intervention before drinking himself stupid. Or maybe it was all Ric. Yeah, that sounded more accurate.
Bonnie and Caroline weren't angry either. Bonnie was confused, but Caroline was understanding. It had been a long time coming, but she had really come to love being a Vampire. She could see the appeal: eternal youth, nearly immortal. The bloodlust wasn't one of the finer points, but it wasn't so terrible.
"Just," Caroline said, pausing to consider her words. "It's not a means to an end. You can't go through with this unless it's what you really want. If you only want it so you can escape Klaus, so you can one up him, you'll be miserable."
"There has to be some way to stop him that isn't like this," Bonnie said. "You don't have to die."
"And Damon is right," Caroline added. "If you do it, you'll make him angry."
"I know," Elena said. "I'll be putting all of you in even more danger. In order to stop Klaus in the long run, I'll risk losing everyone right now."
"In a hundred years you probably won't even remember us," Caroline said, trying to laugh lightheartedly, but the tears in her eyes gave her away.
Bonnie and Caroline stayed over that night, curled up with Elena in her bed, just like they were still in seventh grade and the fate of the world didn't rest in the balance.
"Whatever you decide," Caroline said as they fell asleep. "We've got your back. One hundred percent."
Dear Diary,
It took her a while to track Damon down. She spent nearly the whole day looking for him. He wasn't at the Boarding House, not at the Grill, not at any of the lesser known bars. Finally, she gave up and returned home.
And that's where she found him, lying in her bed, drunk and drooling.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he said. "I shouldn't have."
"I'm pretty sure I deserved it."
"I just wish it wasn't on your list of solutions."
Elena didn't respond.
"It isn't fair," he continued. "None of it."
"It's not just a solution," she said a while later, when they were both in the bed and he was at least halfway back to sober.
"What?" he asked, his eyes closed.
"Me becoming a Vampire," she said. He wished they could move past this thought, that it could be taken off the table, but he knew it would always be an option to Elena, as much as they all hated it. "Caroline was right. If my only reason for changing is as a means to an end, I'll be miserable."
"You will be miserable," Damon said.
"But it isn't just a solution to the Klaus problem," she said. "It never was just about that. It's also about you."
This caught Damon's attention.
"What?"
"How long before people start to realize that you're not aging and you have to skip town? What do I do when that happens? Will I come with you? And how long before I start to look older than you? How long before I'm old and dying? Will you still love me then?"
"Of course I will," he said. She believed him, of course. But that didn't change things.
"I don't want that. I don't want to die and leave you behind."
"No," Damon said. He was far from a good reason to become a Vampire.
Dear Diary,
Bonnie and Tyler were dead. Jeremy was in a coma and no amount of Vampire blood would bring him out of it. Stefan is once again under the control of Klaus. Damon had been tortured by the Originals for six days.
"You're going to do it, aren't you?" Caroline said the moment she saw the look in Elena's eyes. "Damon's not gonna be happy."
"You know what?" Elena exclaimed, rounding on her. "I don't care what Damon thinks!"
"It's not going to be easy to get his blood without his permission," she pointed out.
"Then I'll use yours."
"You won't be able to walk in the sun," Caroline pointed out. "Not without-" she stopped. She couldn't bring herself to say the name.
Dear Diary,
Bonnie and Tyler were dead. Jeremy was in a coma. Stefan was working for Klaus.
Damon was okay.
Elena and Damon didn't pretend to be happy to see each other when she entered the Boarding House. Elena wasn't really sure she remembered what happy felt like. He wrapped his arms around her, and she returned the embrace, holding onto him tighter than she ever had before. Like she was terrified of letting go. Like this was the last shred of happiness she had and she couldn't let it go.
"I'm guessing this isn't a social visit," he said quietly into her hair.
"I want you to turn me," she replied calmly.
He pulled away from her and looked closely at her eyes. "Are you sure?" he asked.
"I know I won't be able to walk in the sun, I don't care. All I want is to see the look on his face when he realizes he'll never make another Hybrid."
Damon knew that is was all about revenge for her. It wasn't about her love for him, as much as he wished it could be. Maybe at some point it really had been about him, just a little bit, but it was all revenge now. Damon supposed that was something he could get on board with. Vengeance was never a bad thing in his book, and if it meant he could be with Elena forever?
He cut open his arm with his teeth and held it out to her. She closed her eyes and drank.
"You're sure?" he asked again. He needed her to be one hundred percent on this. If she didn't really, really want this, he would end up hating himself for it even more.
"Do it," she said, closing her eyes.
He snapped her neck.
Dear Diary,
He knew she wasn't dead, not really. She wasn't breathing and she wasn't alive, and she was completely still in his arms, but she would come back soon enough. That didn't stop that tears that were now falling freely.
Dear Diary,
When she awoke, her head was resting in his lap. She gasped for breath a few times as she tried to sit up.
"It's okay," he said soothingly, despite the fact that he had been crying. "It's okay, you're okay." She doubted he believed this because 'Vampire' was rarely associated with 'okay'. But she wasn't a vampire yet, she was only in transition. He held out a mug to her. "You're sure?" he asked once again. This was the last chance she had to back out. She nodded, momentarily wondering what he would do if she said no. She took the mug and drank.
Drinking blood as a Vampire was much different that drinking blood as a human. There was more than just a coppery taste and unpleasant viscosity. It was rich and sweet and drinking it made her feel alive, all irony aside.
"How do you feel?" he asked her after a while.
"Alive," she said. "Angry."
"Yeah," he said. "All that anger you were feeling before is magnified now. Try to keep it under control." He knew it was pointless to say this; keeping it under control would be virtually impossible without shutting her emotions off altogether.
"I'll be fine," she assured him, which they both knew was a lie because she was far from fine before she died.
"Here," he said, pulling something from his pocket. A necklace. A silver chain with a simple, yet elegant pendant.
"It's beautiful," she said, surprised by the sudden gift. She didn't understand why he was giving it to her. Was it customary to gift someone after they died?
"Bonnie enchanted it before-" he started. "I suppose I should have realized then that something was wrong. She must have known what was going to happen. She wanted to make sure you could walk in the sun."
Tears welled up in her eyes and a choking sound came from her throat. The pain had been too much before she was a Vampire, and now it was worse.
"I'm sorry," he whispered as he clasped the chain around her neck.
"Where did it come from?" she asked when finally found the ability to speak again.
"It was my mother's," he said slowly. Elena really had no idea what to say to that, so she kissed him.
Dear Diary,
Elena spent four days curled up in bed, not asleep, but not truly awake either. Damon brought her blood, always in a mug, or a pretty glass, but never just a bag, like he didn't want her behaving like a savage. He held her while she cried, until there weren't any tears left in her. For four days, she mourned. Mourned her humanity, her friends, her family.
Caroline stopped by for a while, to see how she was doing and to offer some advice on how to be a teenage vampire. They avoided the topics of Bonnie and Tyler and Jeremy, though it was all either of them could think about.
In the scheme of things, four days really wasn't all that long, and Elena probably could have spent another few years in exactly that state, but she had to get up sooner or later, and the Original family had given her the perfect reason.
Dear Diary,
"You're sure you want to go to this thing?" Damon asked as they dressed.
"Of course," she replied.
"You know it's probably a trap, right?"
"Well, the joke's gonna be on him, isn't it?"
He stared at her for a long time, only it wasn't because she looked amazing in her dress. He was worried about her.
"I'm fine," she assured him, though he never actually asked. He knew she was lying, but he didn't call her on it. Instead he helped her zip up her dress and kissed her softly.
"Don't forget this," he said, handing her a glass full of clear liquid.
She shuddered as she choked down the vervain. "Will I ever get used to that?" she asked.
"It'll get easier," he said. "Give it a month or two, and it won't hurt so much."
Dear Diary,
Klaus loved throwing parties. Elena was sure it had less to do with socializing with the town and more to do with proving how much power over people he had, but she could have cared less at that point. There was very little she cared about now.
"Well, don't you two look wonderful," Klaus said when Elena and Damon entered the mansion, arms linked. "Please, enjoy yourselves."
Klaus wanted her blood. That was all he ever wanted, and Elena knew that. That was why he threw parties on a regular basis, so he would have something to hang over her head.
Dear Diary,
To say Klaus was furious would be a gross understatement. There wasn't a word on earth that could properly show the rage he felt when Elena revealed herself.
"There's nothing left for you here," she said. "I think it's time you left Mystic Falls and never came back."
Dear Diary,
Her biggest fear had been that he would kill the people she loved. He'd already killed some of them, and she'd lost so much even before he became a part of her life (though, when it all came down to it, every death was his fault). Before she turned, she had tried to block out the thought that possibility – probability that he would kill the rest as punishment for plotting against him.
In the end, he greatest fear becomes a reality.
Dear Diary,
First, he bit into Mayor Lockwood. His siblings started to drink other members of the Founders' Council. They should have known better, because the Founding Families had been drinking Vervain so long there was probably more of it in their blood than actual blood. They moved on to civilians. What they didn't realize was that the Council had been feeding the poison into the water supply for months. Every human made them choke.
Dear Diary,
They started snapping necks. If they couldn't get blood out of the townspeople, they could at least give Elena every reason to regret her mistake.
They don't touch Damon and Caroline. Killing them wouldn't be as fun as watching them suffer alongside Elena for the rest of their eternal lives.
Dear Diary,
Watching everyone die was killing Elena. She knew most of them. Had gone to school with them, or their families, had been to a hundred formals with them. They had been her friends, he mother's friends. These people didn't deserve to die. It was her fault. It was killing her. So she did the only thing she could.
She shut it off.
Dear Diary,
They didn't kill the entire town, but Elena didn't care. They left a good portion of the town intact, maybe because they were bored, maybe because they'd achieved their purpose, maybe so they would have more people to torture.
But Elena didn't care.
Dear Diary,
Damon recognized it almost immediately. He could see the blank look in her eyes and he could see that she had ceased to care.
And he was pissed.
Dear Diary,
She didn't understand why he was so angry. Why didn't he understand? She had to shut it off. It hurt too much to feel. He had to understand that.
Dear Diary,
She didn't care anymore. She had no connections in Mystic Falls anymore. It was her emotions that gave her a reason to be there, and without her emotions, she had no reason to be there. Damon hardly talked to her now, but she didn't even care about that anymore.
She left.
Dear Diary,
She didn't return to Mystic Falls for a long time. She didn't see anyone from her old life, she didn't care.
Dear Diary,
Elena wasn't a ripper. She smiled sweetly at pretty girls and pretty boys and talked her way into their homes, or brought them back to her hotel. She used them for blood and for sex. She wiped their memory and let them sent them on their way. She rarely drained anyone dry. Leaving a trail of mutilated bodies would only get her in trouble. She didn't need the police on her tail, and even more she didn't need Damon tracking her down.
Dear Diary,
It was sixteen years before she saw anyone from Mystic Falls again. Caroline Forbes. She was in Seattle, Washington when Caroline found her.
"What are you doing here?" Elena asked boredly.
"Just passing through," Caroline replied. "Couldn't very well say in Mystic Falls, could I? People start to notice when you don't age past seventeen."
Dear Diary,
They talked for little more than ten minutes before they started fighting.
"You sound just like Katherine," Caroline accused. Elena would probably have hated this comparison, but she's hardly Elena anymore.
Dear Diary,
It was another five minutes before they find themselves outside the bar, fighting physically.
"I hate this version of you," Caroline said, throwing a punch, then kicking her legs out from under her. Elena easily brought her down with her. "You're heartless and cruel."
"It's better than the alternative," Elena spat back.
Dear Diary,
Elena's mouth was full of blood, mostly her own, but a little of Caroline's too. Every bone in her body had been broken at least once. Caroline had taken just as bad of a beating, was somehow still standing, where Elena was lying on the ground.
"Turn it back on," Caroline shouted. "Turn it on!"
"No!" Elena yelled back at her. She didn't want it back.
Caroline picked her up off the ground and shoved her into the wall. "Turn it on!"
"No," Elena said. Caroline slammed her head into the wall.
"Turn. It. On." She ordered, hitting her friend with every word.
"No!" Elena cried back at her. "I don't want it back!"
Dear Diary,
She turned it back on. She wished she didn't.
Dear Diary,
She curled up in bed, just like she did when she first turned, but she was there longer this time. Days, at first, but then days turned to weeks, and weeks turned into months.
Caroline, always her best friend, even when she didn't deserve it, was there the whole time. She held her in her arms, and she made sure there was always blood in the fridge.
Dear Diary,
It was torture. For months, she relived every death that had been caused by her. Every person Klaus killed to get back at her. Every person she bled just a little too far.
It hurt.
Dear Diary,
She couldn't return to Mystic Falls, no matter how much she wanted to. She missed the people there, but they didn't miss her. She was a Vampire, and that would be clear to everyone the moment she returned. Sixteen years was a long time, but not long enough. People would recognize her, and they would recognize what she was. After everything that had happened with Klaus and the Originals, they knew about Vampires, and they hated them. She couldn't return, not for a long time.
She went to Colorado instead.
Dear Diary,
Jeremy had grown up while she was away. After being brought out of his magically induced coma, he got away from Mystic Falls and finished up school. Gone to college, met a nice, normal girl. Got married, had a few kids.
He was lying to her, of course. He never told her that all three of his exes were dead; two vampires and a witch. He never mentioned that sometimes he saw ghosts. Never said that the reason his sister never came around was because she was undead.
And, of course, when Elena finally did make an appearance, she had to pretend to be her own daughter. Being perpetually nineteen wasn't always easy.
Dear Diary,
She liked Colorado, and she loved seeing with Jeremy again, it was the first time in a long time she'd been happy. But she couldn't stay. Somewhere in those sixteen years, he'd become a person of his own, and she felt like she was intruding on his life.
Dear Diary,
Even after all the time she spent away, Jeremy still knew all her tells. He knew when she was about to skip town. He understood why, and he knew leaving would probably be better for her. But he didn't want her going alone.
Dear Diary,
She was about to leave town, when a thick fog rolled in at her feet. A normal person might have thought it was a strange change in weather. A superstitious person might have been fearful. Elena let herself smile like she hadn't smiled in years.
"Hello, Damon," she said.
Dear Diary,
It wasn't easy at first. They didn't exactly part on the best of terms, and it had been sixteen years since they'd last seen each other. Sixteen years since they'd been in love. A lot had changed in sixteen years. They had changed.
Dear Diary,
It wasn't easy at first, but it doesn't take long before things started to feel normal, like they used to feel.
No. Things would never feel like they used to. Sixteen years of distance wasn't hard to make up for, but they weren't the people they once were. They were happy, but they would never be like they once were.
Dear Diary,
It was another hundred years longer before they thought it was safe to return to Mystic Falls. Their most recent memories of the town weren't good ones, but they both felt like it was something they needed. Like they would always find their way back to the place they were both born, 152 years apart.
Dear Diary,
They tried to keep to themselves. The quietly moved back into the Boarding House and stayed quiet and out of trouble. They tried not to draw any attention to themselves because, while people had mostly forgotten the existence of Vampires, the Founder's Council still existed, and they were prepared for Vampires, as their ancestors had always been. Damon was sure there must have been some record of them, and that it was better not to draw unnecessary attention.
But trouble always had a way of catching up with them.
Dear Diary,
Someone eventually noticed that blood had been disappearing from the blood bank, and someone made the connection to Damon and Elena. Damon and his usual hot head self got into a fight with the mayor, and started ranting about how the Founder's Council was a crock of lies and that the only living relatives to the original Founders were he and Elena.
Needless to say, they were hunted down.
Dear Diary,
They ran from their home until they were sure no one was following them anymore. When the finally stopped running, all they could do was laugh. There was nothing particularly funny about the situation, but maybe there was. They'd been there over a hundred years before and had to leave. Damon had been there a hundred years before that. They'd probably be back in another hundred years. Maybe they were doomed to always be running from Mystic Falls.
Dear Diary,
They didn't hear from Klaus or the other Originals for a long, long while. They didn't think about them, didn't search for them. They just let the memory of them fade into the millions of other days they'd lived. They didn't worry about the things they no longer had any control over.
When they did run into Klaus again, there was no explosion, no apocalypse, no hell spawn. There was shrouded anger over the inevitable betrayal of two hundred years prior. Klaus was still angry, and no doubt would be for a long time to come, but open hostility would serve no useful purpose.
Damon and Elena couldn't kill Klaus, and Klaus had no reason to kill them. They went off in opposite directions, hoping to never see each other again.
Dear Diary,
The year was 2254 when Damon and Elena found their way back to Mystic Falls again. Elena had been alive over 250 years, Damon over 400. Elena wondered if they would ever get bored of living, if they would tired of each other, and get sick of seeing the world.
She didn't think so. The world was in a constant state of flux, always changing, never the same. Sometimes they would revisit a place after only five years away, and everything would be so different, it was like a whole new place. There was always something new to see in the world, and she never got tired of it.
Never got tired of Damon.
Dear Diary,
Mystic Falls was different.
No. It wasn't different. Mystic Falls was a like a time capsule. The people changed but the town never did. The outside world was all high tech robots and flying bikes and jet packs and computers the size of a contact lens. In Mystic Falls, it was perfectly commonplace to see a horse-drawn buggy and things being built by hand. The Founder's Council (Damon always used air quotes when he talked about them) still prepared for the possibility of Vampires and Werewolves and all the other monsters that went bump in the night. They grew wolfsbane and vervain and fed it into the water supply and baked it into pies and never once suspected that maybe the old tricks didn't work anymore.
Dear Diary,
Elena had long since lost count of the number of day's they'd been together. She'd lost count of the years, though she knew it wouldn't be hard to figure out.
It didn't really matter how long they had been, only that they still were.
I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this. Please. I thrive of your opinions.