Should she dress to impress?
"Give me one good reason why I should wear this dress," Elena Gilbert drawled in a hopeless tone. Her birthday had come at last, and even though she wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed with some hot cocoa and enjoy a movie, her best friend Caroline, ever the cheerful one, had suggested, well, actually forced Elena to celebrate. Of course Elena was against it, as she was not feeling very festive due to the recent death of her best friend and her boyfriend. I mean, who would be? Damon had meant the world to her and this time, there was nothing she could do to bring him back. Damon and Bonnie were gone and for good this time.
Caroline's joyous voice interrupted Elena's gloomy trail of thought, "Listen up, missy! You know perfectly well how gorgeous you'd look like in this dress. And all the compliments you'll be getting are bound to cheer you up eventually!"
"Actually, Care, I don't really feel like celebrating this year. You should go, have fun with the boys, I'd rather just stay right where I am," Elena said, laying down on her bed.
"Don't start again! When have you ever felt like celebrating your birthday? You're going and that's final!" Caroline practically shouted the last part as she was getting quite annoyed with Elena's constant inconsolable attitude. I
t had taken her two weeks to convince Elena to leave the house. When she had accomplished that, she thought she was capable of everything concerning Elena Gilbert. I guess I was wrong, Caroline thought.
She had spent the last two hours persuading her to join everyone for some drinks at the new bar Alaric had found after the whole Other Side fiasco, and Elena had reluctantly agreed. Everything had seemed okay, that is, up until five minutes ago when Caroline had presented Elena with her gift which was, in fact a dress the blonde had bought for her friend with the purpose of the brunette wearing it for her birthday dinner. Elena had been very happy to receive a present from her friend. After the classical "thanks, you shouldn't have" and "of course I should have, it's your birthday" had been exchanged, Elena had slowly untied the red ribbon and opened the white box to reveal a very lacy and very revealing red dress.
"You're a fool for thinking I'd wear something like this for Jeremy, Stefan and Alaric. Not to mention Tyler! He won't be afraid to say I look like a slut."
"He wouldn't dare. In fact, we bought the dress together. He quite liked it."
"On you, I'm sure," Elena mumbled.
Caroline didn't seem to have heard her comment and continued, "And, you're not wearing this for others, you're wearing it for yourself. Don't you want to feel sexy and wanted?"
"Not really, and I doubt you'd want to if the love of your life had just died."
This certainly shut Caroline up for a second. She hadn't expected Elena to mention Damon's death. They had avoided talking about it, despite Caroline's constant pleas to do just that.
After a few minutes, she decided to break the awkward silence that had dawned upon them, " I guess you could wear something of yours if you'd like."
"Thanks."
"I'll have a look through your clothes then," Caroline said standing up from the bed she had occupied up until that moment.
After a minute or two of rummaging through Elena's closet Caroline had already found a few other options for Elena's attire. Picking up a dress, she spoke up, "What about this one?"
"Too short."
And so it started. Every dress choice she proposed was either too short, too long, too old or too bold. Nothing seemed to go well with Elena.
Caroline had practically given up on finding the perfect dress, that is, until she noticed two beautiful dresses that had been hidden from her view before. Holding them up she asked Elena one last time, in hopes, that one of these Elena would agree to wearing.
"Please, tell me you'll wear one of these!"
"I feel like you've started begging, and in a way I feel sorry for you, but the answer is no. To both of them. And you know why? Because this one," she said pointing to the dark blue dress, ''I wore when I first slept with Damon, and the other one when I first told him I loved him!" And with the last words she suddenly broke into tears.
"Elena, I'm sorry, I didn't know!" Caroline hugged her friend and comforted her until she had calmed down.
Then she abruptly got up from the bed and picked up something from the floor. When she turned around Elena was looking at her, confusion written all over her face.
With the kindest, most sincere and hopeful look she could muster, Caroline once again took the red dress out of the box it had come in and adding a bit of a puppy-dog look into the mix she glanced up at Elena's face which had been previously covered in tears.
" Now you give me one good reason why you shouldn't wear this dress?"
Elena's lighthearted laugh was all the response Caroline needed.