A/N: I loved your reviews last chapter and I loved seeing some familiar names from my TPL readers. I also love that you guys are following this story and putting it on your faves already! Thank you!

I haven't watched last night's TVD yet, but I am told that it will piss me off so I'm looking forward to that (not).

Longer author's note at the end because those are kind of my thing.


Let's sit back and watch the bed burn

Caroline placed a reassuring hand on Elena's shoulder. "I'm right here."

Elena nodded as the pounding on the door persisted.

"You know I'll kick this door in!" he screamed.

"Can you wait upstairs? I feel like I can calm him down, but I don't want anyone else in the way," Elena whispered to Caroline.

"Like hell am I leaving you alone with him."

"Elena!" His voice was getting impossibly louder.

"Please, Care," Elena pleaded. "I can handle this. I'll yell if I need you."

Caroline contemplated it for a few seconds. "Fine. But the minute I feel like you aren't safe, I'm coming down here with a baseball bat and swinging at him until he leaves."

Once Caroline hesitantly disappeared upstairs, Elena placed her hand on the door knob. She took a deep breath and calmly spoke. "I'm going to open the door now. Can you please stop hitting it?"

The banging abruptly ended and Elena turned the handle. As she slowly began to pull the door open, he pushed it open the rest of the way and barged into the house.

"You're not answering your phone!" he yelled at her.

Elena noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were tinged a pinkish color. He'd been drinking. It was barely ten in the morning and he'd been drinking. He already had such an anger problem and it was even worse when he drank. God, she hated it when he drank.

"I forgot to charge it last night." She stared down at her feet, really trying to avoid an argument. She was exhausted of fighting with him.

"Well maybe you could have called me on Caroline's since she clearly had her phone to post this." He tossed his phone to her harshly.

Elena caught the phone in her hands. He'd pulled up Instagram and there she was posed in a photo with Caroline, Enzo, and Damon. Her head was resting on Damon's shoulder as he pulled her closer by her waist. They were all smiling and seemingly having a good time. She'd been such a fool to not see through it.

"Want to tell me who the fuck that guy is?" he spat. "We end a three year relationship and it only takes you three months before you're crawling over some guy in a club! I bet you fucked him too, didn't you? Of course you did. Figures that you'd open your legs to the next guy who shows any interest in you."

She hung her head and continued to stare at the screen. She really hated it when he talked to her like this, but she had to let him get it out or else he wouldn't give her a chance to speak. She'd been fighting with him long enough to know this.

"I thought we were supposed to be working things out!" he yelled at her as he snatched the phone from her hands. "Apparently you and I have very different definitions of what that means."

"I'm sorry," she apologized and the memory of Damon telling her to stop apologizing for everything came to her mind.

"You damn well better be sorry."

She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. She shouldn't have to take this anymore. "You know what, Kai? I'm actually not sorry because we aren't together and we haven't been for three months."

"That's not what you were saying to me when you were screaming my name three nights ago," he scoffed, no longer yelling at her.

"If I remember correctly, you were quick to remind me of it when I asked you what you were doing out with April last week."

She knew she'd caught him in one of his infamous double standards. Kai could always do as he pleased, but he would freak out if Elena ever so much as studied with a male classmate.

"Look, you're drunk. Let me get you some water, okay?" Her tone softened as she watched him sit down on the couch. He was calming down, like she knew he would eventually.

As soon as she entered the kitchen and was no longer in his sight, she let the tears fall. Kai would never actually hit her, but he was a master as using his words to hurt her. Sometimes he'd say things that would dig so deep, they'd leave permanent scars on her heart.

She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water then sat it on the counter as she tried to catch her breath and wipe back the tears. She didn't want him to know that his words cut so deep so she was determined to pull herself together before going back out there.

"I'm sorry I flipped out on you. I don't have any claim over you and I know that. I'm just still so in love with you, Elena."

She heard his voice before she felt his hands wrap around her waist from behind. He rested his chin on her shoulder and the familiarity of the embrace was almost enough to comfort her. How odd was it that the very person who upset her was now the person who could make her feel better?

"If it makes you feel better, I won't be seeing him again," she breathed out. "He was an ass."

Kai planted a sloppy kiss on Elena's neck. This was so typical of him. He always wanted to have sex with her after a huge fight. Elena wasn't sure if it was some weird power trip thing or maybe it was the adrenaline. Either way, Kai got off on conflict. He breathed it.

None of that changed the fact that Elena needed to end this cycle and she needed to do it now. Hell, she needed to do it months ago.

"Kai, we can't. Not anymore." She freed herself from his grip and picked up the glass of water from the counter.

"So you'll turn me down, but not him?" Kai was clearly offended and it became evident to Elena that he was really just trying to mark his territory, a grown man having a pissing contest with a guy she'd never even see again.

"You're drunk. Please just have some water," she deflected, holding the glass out towards him.

"Kai, you need to leave. Now." True to her words, Caroline was standing in the doorway of the kitchen armed with a baseball bat. She'd probably never even swung a baseball bat before, but Elena wasn't doubting that she'd try it now.

"Elena wants me here. Don't you, sweetheart?" Kai replied, looking at Elena to back him up like she always did.

"Can we please talk more when you've sobered up?" Elena asked. She was trying to keep her voice neutral.

"Hello? I knocked on the door, but no one answered and it was unlocked?" Damon's voice sounded from the living room. Of fucking course he'd show up now.

Elena took a deep breath, deliberately ignored the angered expression on Kai's face, and brushed past Caroline into the living room. "Why are you here?"

"Believe me. I had no intention of coming back, but I think I left my wallet in your room," Damon replied.

Elena noticed that he'd showered and changed since she'd last seen him. He was even wearing a suit, a very nice suit at that. Maybe he hadn't been lying about having a meeting this morning.

"Is this him? Is this the guy?" Kai questioned as he stalked out of the kitchen.

"Kai, leave!" Caroline yelled at him.

He completely ignored her and walked directly up to Damon until they were nose to nose. "Fucking my girl once wasn't enough, huh?"

Damon squared his shoulders and stood a little taller, towering over Kai by a few inches. "Well maybe it wasn't enough for her considering you can't even make her come."

"I should beat your ass right now," Kai mumbled. "Get blood all over that nice expensive suit."

"I'd like to see you try," Damon bit out.

"Will you two just stop?" Elena yelled, interrupting their stare down.

Both of their heads snapped over to look at her with Caroline standing behind her for support.

"Damon, please go get your wallet and get out so I never have to see you again. Kai, we'll talk later when you're sober. Please leave." Elena tried her best to stand tall as she ordered them around.

"There's that sassy spirit," Damon smirked before running off up the staircase.

She turned her attention back to Kai. "We're not going to get anywhere with you like this. Please?"

Kai balled his fists at his sides and looked around the living room for a moment. Without another word, he headed out the front door and slammed it behind him.

"Oh don't tell me your guard dog left," Damon remarked as he descended the staircase. "Things were just about to get fun."

"Did you find your wallet?" Elena replied, an annoyed tone in her voice. This was officially the morning from hell.

Damon held it up in his hand and waved it back and forth.

"Good. You can leave now." Elena tried to usher him outside of the house.

"Misery loves company, Elena."

"What?"

Damon stood in the doorway, one foot inside of the house and one out. "I'm just saying, you were so offended that I pretended to care about you when you lied to me too. At least I don't have a girlfriend that you don't know about."

"He isn't my boyfriend anymore." Elena crossed her arms, not even sure why she felt the need to explain herself.

"Could have fooled me." Damon shrugged.

Elena didn't answer. She wasn't in the mood for banter with a person she couldn't stand to be around. Instead, she slammed the door in his face. If she never saw Damon Salvatore again, that would still be too soon.


By the time Bonnie came home from church, Elena and Caroline were two wine bottles deep.

"What did I miss?" Bonnie asked as she hung her car keys on the key rack by the door. She could tell Elena had been crying and Caroline was in her well-known protective mode, her arm firming wrapped around Elena's shoulders as they sat on the couch.

Elena proceeded to spill it all to Bonnie over another bottle of wine. The amazing evening with Damon followed by the terrible morning, Kai showing up, Damon showing up again. All of it.

"Elena, I'm sorry again for posting that picture. I must have hit the post button on accident before I put my phone back in my purse. I honestly didn't mean to. I deleted it now." Caroline rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"It's okay. The damage is done now and it isn't your fault. It's mine for ever getting involved with Kai. I'm so stupid."

"Elena, don't beat yourself up about it. Kai was so nice in the beginning. We all really liked him when we first met him," Bonnie comforted her.

"He wasn't always like this," Elena shook her head. "He used to be really kind. I guess I have a thing for turning men into assholes. Same thing happened with Damon."

"Listen to me," Caroline said as she took Elena's face in her hands. "You are not the reason. Men are such dicks. They just are. I mean I've been hooking up with Tyler for six months and he still hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend. So if you're stupid for falling in love with Kai, then what does that make me?"

Elena smiled.

"Exactly. I am not stupid and neither are you," Caroline reassured her.

"Let's get you both out of this house for a little while and end the sulking," Bonnie said, standing up from the couch.

"Easy for you to say when you're perfectly happy with Elena's little brother," Caroline teased.

"Jer isn't exactly little anymore," Bonnie reminded her. "He's kind of an adult now too."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Ugh. I know. Don't remind me."

The three of them passed the day away with a trip to the lake. It was unusually hot for April in Virginia this year and though the water wasn't cold enough to play in yet, the sunshine felt warm on Elena's face as they lounged on the picnic benches next to the water.

"I needed this, Bonnie. Thank you," Elena pulled her sunglasses down from her nose.

Bonnie flipped through a textbook for a class she had a test in the next day. "No problem. Sometimes it's nice to just get away for a little while."

"Should I call Tyler?" Caroline asked them. "I think I should call him."

"No. No boy talk right now. Let's just pretend we live in a world without boys for a little bit, okay?" Elena beseeched.

"Fine by me." Caroline flipped her hair. "I could use a break too."


As Elena stumbled into her Principles of Finance class ten minutes late on Monday morning, she slid quietly into a desk in the back of the room. Thankfully, she'd still beat Professor Saltzman here so she wouldn't be counted late.

Kai had been waiting for her when she pulled into the parking lot this morning, armed with a vanilla latte for her and an apology for how he acted yesterday. He was almost so predictable that it had become comical at this point. It was their cycle. He'd act like a dick to her, then come back with what really felt like a sincere apology, she would forgive him, they would sleep together, and then the cycle would start over.

She was more reluctant to accept his apology than usual, which is what caused her to be late for class. Finally after him physically getting down on his knees in front of her, she relented and agreed that she would come over to study with him after she was done with classes. Elena was naïve. She knew what studying really meant, but she couldn't say no to him when he was quite literally groveling at her feet.

It wasn't like Professor Saltzman to be this late to class. He had a pretty laid back classroom in general, but he was a stickler for being on time. That was basically his only rule.

A woman that Elena recognized as the dean of the business school walked into the front of the classroom and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "Good morning everyone. Professor Saltzman's wife went into labor a little earlier than expected so he will be on paternity leave for the next month. He asked me to let you all know that the baby is doing great, a healthy baby girl named Olivia. His wife lost a lot of blood so she is in ICU. We'll keep you updated when we know more."

Elena made a mental note to send an email to Professor Saltzman offering her help. He'd always been so nice to her, even granting her a couple deadline extensions on her assignments when things with Kai spiraled too out of control last semester.

"I think you all will be really excited to learn who will be subbing in for him while he's gone," the dean added. "Damon Salvatore is a good friend and a large donor to this university. He's known Professor Saltzman for a very long time as well and is doing this as a personal favor to him. Please treat him with the same respect during his time here that you would treat any other faculty member."

Elena watched as the last person she wanted to see in the entire world walked into her classroom. This had to be the most awful one night stand in the history of the world. How was she supposed to survive a whole month like this? She was already too far into this class to drop it and she really needed to take it now to graduate on time. She was stuck with him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning for the next month.

"Thanks, Adele," Damon charmed the dean. "I'm really grateful for the opportunity to take some of my real-world experience and adapt it to the classroom."

The dean laughed and blushed a bit and Elena rolled her eyes. Damon was quite the Romeo. Oh, if only everyone knew what he really was like.

"Well, Mr. Salvatore I will leave them in your capable hands." She walked out of the classroom and shut the door behind her.

Damon rubbed his hands together as he surveyed the seated students. God, he looked delicious. Why did he have to be such an asshole? "Well, looks like it's just us for the next hour. Feel free to call me Damon. Mr. Salvatore makes me feel old."

Elena sunk down in her chair and drew doodles on the cover of her notebook, hoping to avoid his gaze. Since she was hidden in the back, maybe he wouldn't notice her. Maybe she could even get through the next month by flying under the radar.

"Now who can tell me the difference between a sole proprietorship, a partnership, and a corporation?" All hopes of hiding in the back of the classroom shattered as Damon called on her. "You in the back hiding your face? Can you tell me?"

Elena looked up at him and she could tell by his expression that he was definitely not expecting to see her here. "A sole proprietorship is owned by an individual who maintains all assets and liabilities. A partnerships occurs when two or more persons come together as co-owners. A corporation legally functions separate and apart from its owners or shareholders. Corporation can sue, be sued, purchase, sell, and own property. Owners can dictate direction and policies of the corporation, oftentimes through elected board of directors."

She recited this directly from her textbook. Academics always came easy for Elena, luckily.

Damon was clearly caught off guard at how well-versed she already was. "Very, very good Miss-"

Of course he didn't remember her last name. That would imply that he actually gave a shit. Elena rolled her eyes. "Gilbert. Elena Gilbert."

"Yes. Very good Miss Gilbert." Damon smirked at her.

Thankfully, he didn't call on her for the rest of class and Elena spent it taking notes while pretending that Damon was actually anyone but himself. That's how she was going to have to get through this next month. She'd just pretend he was Justin Timberlake or something.

Damon dismissed the class. "Miss Gilbert, can you stay behind for a few minutes?"

That was actually the last thing Elena wanted to do. She'd rather chew off her own arm than have to be in a room alone with him again.

"I didn't know you were a Finance major," Damon said to her as the classroom cleared of everyone else.

"Yeah well, you didn't ask while you were busy pretending to care about me." Elena focused her eyes on the clock on the wall instead of on him. So far she'd seen Damon in a black t-shirt, a business suit, and now a button-up shirt with no tie. All three looks suited him, but she didn't want to be caught checking him out. He was already smug enough.

"I promise not to give you any preferential treatment. I'm a professional, Elena. I'll be fair."

"Thanks," Elena scoffed.

"So your boyfriend," Damon began.

Elena's eyes snapped to him and she noticed that he had his hands shoved into his pockets while he casually leaned on the desk behind him. "He isn't my boyfriend anymore."

"Right. Well whoever he is, he's a little intense. Probably not a good guy for you to be around," he remarked.

"And you care because?" Elena licked her lips. She was trying not to focus on how good he smelled.

"No reason. Just an observation."

"Can I go now, professor?" She sarcastically drew out the last word.

"Yeah, you can go."

Elena grabbed her backpack and darted from the classroom as quickly as her feet would carry her.

The rest of her classes passed by quickly for the rest of the day and soon she was back to her car, shoving her keys in to unlock her car door.

"Hey! Elena! Bonnie gave me a ride this morning because my car was acting us. She has to stay late for club stuff. Can you give me a ride to the frat house? Tyler's expecting me." Caroline caught up to her quickly, panting a little from the sprint she did to Elena's car.

Elena gave her a stern look that said more than any words she could possibly form would. Tyler and Caroline had been hooking up for months now, but he dodged the conversation every time she tried to bring up any kind of relationship talk. Caroline was normally a really strong girl, but she just could not seem to let Tyler go.

"Don't give me that look. A girl has needs!" Caroline climbed into the passenger seat of Elena's car.

"It'd be pretty hypocritical of me to judge you too much. I told Kai I'd come over to help him study for Biology." Elena made a couple turns until they landed themselves on Greek Row.

"Do you want to borrow my baseball bat?" Caroline asked.

Elena laughed as she pulled in front of the fraternity house where Tyler lived.

"I'm completely serious!" Caroline added.

"I know you are. That's the funny part of it."

"So do you want to borrow it?" Caroline opened the passenger side door and started to get out of the car.

"No, I think I'll be okay. I can handle Kai."

"Suit yourself. Don't wait up!" Caroline bounced up the front steps of the house and let herself in.


"How was your day?" Kai asked as he sat on his bed with his Biology textbook on his lap.

Elena had chosen to sit in his desk chair. She wanted to avoid winding up in bed with Kai if at all possible. "You're supposed to be studying. How am I going to quiz you if you don't know the chapter?"

Kai closed the textbook and looked up at her. "Humor me with a little conversation first? It's been a long time since we've just talked."

"My day was fine." She wasn't about to tell him about her finance class debacle. That would just start another argument with him demanding that she drop the class and there was no way that was happening.

"Just fine?"

"Yeah, just fine."

"You sure nothing out of the ordinary happened?" Kai prodded.

"Why are you acting so strange?" she asked.

"Oh, no reason." Kai shrugged. "I just thought you might want to share with me that the guy you're fucking is teaching your finance class now. Just thought you might want to mention that."

His tone was detached and cool, but Elena knew better. On the inside, Kai was boiling.

"I'm not fucking him. It was just one time," Elena bit back.

"So you say, but we all know how important your grades are to you. What a perfect opportunity to fuck yourself an A plus. Well, maybe an A minus. You aren't exactly the greatest lay, let's be real here." Kai stood up from his bed and walked over to her. He loomed over her.

"How dare you say that, Kai? You know that I have earned every grade that I've ever gotten! I've worked hard to get where I am!" Elena protested.

"I want you to drop the class." Kai's voice was cold and serious. His eyes were so intent that it almost scared her.

Elena had made a lot of sacrifices for Kai over the years, but this was one thing she would not budge on. She was not about to let him jeopardize her academic career over some petty jealousy. "I'm not going to do that."

"You're mine, Elena. He doesn't get to touch you anymore."

"We aren't back together, Malakai. Now please stop or I will leave."

"Yet. We aren't back together yet," Kai muttered under his breath as he sat back down on his bed and picked up his textbook.


A/N: Kudos to reader Imagination Run Wild for suggesting Kai as Elena's ex-boyfriend. I actually hadn't decided who I wanted it to be yet, but Kai actually really fits the character. So thank you!

I want to say that Elena and Kai have a VERY unhealthy and dysfunctional non-relationship. He is emotionally manipulative and sometimes downright verbally abusive. It will probably only get worse before it gets better (IE she and Damon finally fall in love), so if this kind of relationship is triggering to you then I'm not sure you should read on any further in this story.

I think I'm realizing as I am writing this that part of this story is coming from personal experiences with exes of my own. I am lucky enough to have a really great husband now (married almost 2 years!), but I wasn't always so fortunate and I had to deal with my fair share of possessive assholes before I found him. I hope none of you ever have to go through that, but if you have or are currently please stay strong and know you are not alone. I am always available to talk to you via PM. I've been through it and came out on the other side still alive. You will too.

On a happier note - Let me know how you all are liking the fic so far. I love theories. I love suggestions. I love it all!