I push the door of the grill open, instantly seeing Caroline and Tyler in a booth, Matt cleaning a table, Jeremy showing Bonnie how to use the pool stick properly, Alaric scolding Damon at the bar and finally, Stefan leaning against the far wall watching everything intently. I make my way towards him, attempting not to get too get too angry. I reach him and cross my arms in front of him.
"What?" He rolls his eyes.
"You know what. You can't just ignore my calls because you don't want to tell me what you were telling Caroline about me." I switch my weight from one leg to the other.
"I didn't say anything to her."
"And I don't beleive you! You told her I was being unrealistic and childish." I move my hands to my sides, holding back from slapping him.
"Stop over-reacting." He sighs.
"I'm not over-reacting!"
"Go complain to Damon if you think he cares so much!" He crosses his arms this time.
"Do not bring Damon into this, he hasn't done anything wrong!" I point.
"There you go defending him again."
"I don't have to defend him! He. Hasn't. Done. Anything wrong."
"And I have? That's new."
This is when I slap him, unable to control my rage.
"Don't do that." He whispers, obviously hurt emotionally, of coarse.
"Don't tell me what to do. You're my boyfriend, not my father." I whisper back, even though I don't care who hears me.
"Maybe I shouldn't be either." His eyes harden. I shake my head and turn around seeing everybodies eyes on us and I run past them all, out the door despite Stefan's calls of apologies.
I get into my car and drive the short way home, stomping inside, tears over-flowing as I slam the door and sprint up the stairs to my room, throwing my bag to the side and, now sobbing, walking to my vanity, grabbing the picture of Stefan and I, spilling tears on the surface of the captured moment. Stefan with his arms wrapped around me, a happy scene, turned into shit. I throw the picture to my feet, wiping away as many tears as I can as I realize I'm not as broken up about the break-up as I am putting into this little scene.
I sniffle and grab my diary and the picture, willing to just write it out and put it behind me. I strut to my window seat and begin pouring out my soul.
oOo
"So..." Caroline and Bonnie say in unison as they sit on either side of me in Alaric's history class room.
"So?" I look up from my text-book.
"What happened at the grill yesterday?" Bonnie leans in.
"Everybody in town knows what happened. You were all there, remember?" I roll my eyes and try to keep reveiwing for tomarrow's quiz.
"Did you two work things out? Stefan won't tell me anything but that he won't be at school." Caroline complains.
"No. It's over. I'm just not in love with him anymore." My voice doesn't waver.
"Not in love with him!" Caroline yells, attracting everybody's attention but luckily Alaric isn't in the room yet.
"Nope." I smile sweetly in apology to my classmates, earning a few scowls and smiles back.
"How can you even say that? Is this about D-"
"Okay, seats everyone. Read chapters six through eight and write four paragraphs on Native American settlements." Alaric chimes in, dragging himself to his desk, obviously hung over from last night's trip to the bar.
"No this isn't about Damon, Elena would never..." Bonnie whispers to Caroline, opening her book too.
"Why wouldn't I, what has Damon done to make you guys hate him so much." I whisper back, watching Ric put his face into his crossed arms in exaustion.
"Um, everything!" Caroline quietly replies with fever.
"Yeah Elena," Bonnie agrees, leaning to my ear to finish her sentence, "He's killed people."
"So has Stefan, Bonnie." I scowl at them both, having already read said chapters in rage yesterday so I pull out a peice of paper. "The only difference between the two is that one is less damaged. Stefan. Damon has had more pain than Stefan's pain doubled so he's bound to be a little worse off. Everyone makes mistakes." I grab a pencil and begin writing.
"Elena!" Caroline squeaks, as if I've done something wrong.
"What!" I say a bit too loud.
"Elena," Alaric mumbles loudly into his forearm, raising his head to start actually working.
"Yes ?" I ask innocently.
"Shut up." He smiles, earning a few giggles from everyone.
"Will do, ." I get back to work on my paragraphs.
After a few minutes I'm almost done but Caroline can't hold her tongue anymore.
"Damon killed Jeremy out of anger." She whispers just loud enough for me to hear.
"He did it because he was hurt." I whisper just as quietly.
"Okay... Fine, I'm your friend and I support you no matter what. But why aren't you in love with Stefan anymore?"
"I'm just not!" I slam my book shut, force it into my bag as I pick it up and sling it over my shoulder, stomping to Ric's desk, giving him the completed paragraphs and slipping out of the room. He'll understand, won't he?
oOo
I sit in my car in the parking lot and pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my contacts. My finger hovers over Damon's name as I think about what I would say to him. I guess I just need a friend right now that isn't on Stefan's side of things and Damon would do the trick. But it's not fair to him. He doesn't like the whole just friends thing and since I'm not with Stefan anymore, he might take me calling him the wrong way. Screw it, I think as I push the call button.
Ring one, ring two, Don't pick up don't pick up, ring three...
"Hey. Heard about the break up." He picks up, speaking in a sexy voice, "Need a rebound?" He teases
"I need a friend." I roll my eyes, butterflies corrupting my stomach.
"You have friends." He replies.
"But they're all taking Stefan's side." I whine.
"Who says I'm not taking Stefan's side?" He chuckles.
"Are you?" I smile to myself, knowing he always chooses me.
"No but that's not the point..."
"Isn't it?" I flirt absentmindedly.
"Hmm..." He contemplates.
"Where are you?" I ask, starting my car, willing to go wherever he may be.
"In your room." He answers creepily.
"Guess that's where I'm meeting you." I hang up and put my car into drive, escaping hell for acceptance in Damon's strong (metaphorical) arms.
I pull into my drive way and climb out of my car, wanting to sprint up to my room but I resist the urge by biting my lip, grabbing my bag and slowly gaiting to my front door. I slip into my home and force myself to climb the light wooden stairs at an average pace. My sneaker soles slap the floor boards infront of my bedroom door and I turn the knob, telling myself not to be dissapointed if he's not there. The door creaks open and I see a black clad figure lounging on my bed, I can't help the grin spreading across my face as I discover his signature smirk and smolder are plastered plainly on his georgeous face.
"Hey." He looks at me with those beautiful clear blue eyes and runs his fingers through his raven black hair.
"Hi." I take a deep breath, trying to calm my fluttering heart, knowing very well that he can hear it. I drop my bag next to the door and use the hair tie on my wrist to put my long hair into a high pony as I go to lie next to him. "How've you been?" I lay down and stare at my nails.
"How have I usually been?" He turns onto his side to look at me.
"Not very good..." I sigh because I'm almost always the cause of him not being very well. I copy his movement, leaving only a few inches between our faces.
"So since when do you and my brother fight about me?" His smirk grows.
"Well apparently we broke up over you but... Since he ran out of things to accuse me of." I return his smirk with one of my own.
"You don't seem too broken up about it." He leans in a bit.
"I'm not." I lean a little too. "If he wants this, I want it too. And I guess if I can say that then Jeremy was right." I pull away and lie on my back again.
"What was Jeremy right about?"
"I'm not in love with Stefan anymore." I finally admit to myself.
"What happened to 'it will always be Stefan'?" He asks, his smirk turning serious and fairly shocked.
"Do you really expect a seventeen year old girl to know what she'll always want?" I giggle.
He lets out the breath that hitched in his throat as I sit up and begin to un-tie my shoelaces and slip them and my socks off. My head turns to look at him over my shoulder to see he's laying on his back again, looking at the ceiling in deep thought. I crawl over and curl up into his side, my head on his chest. I listen to the slow beat of his heart and his quickening breath.
"When did you last see him?" I ask cautiously.
"This morning before I left the house. He had a drink in his hand and he was brooding into the fire. I heard you guys arguing in the square last Monday..." He states.
"Everybody did." I reply somberly.
"And I was at the grill yesterday."
"I know. You were sitting at the bar with Alaric, like usual."
"What made you skip school?" He breathes.
"Caroline and Bonnie were scolding me for defending 'the murderous Damon Salvatore'" I laugh darkly.
"I heard that guy was a real lost cause." He teases.
"I think he's a really good but very misunderstood man." I look up at his genuinly happy but shocked face.
"Do you now?" He puts his emotional barrier back up with the facade of a smirk.
"Maybe if he wouldn't pretend to be such an ass all the time, other people would see it too." I sigh and look down again.
"I can't."
"I know... People just can't seem to give you a chance even though they give Stefan multiple chances. He's probably killed just as many people in ripper mode as you have in pain and everyone still thinks him above you. Frankly I'm getting tired of it, I can only imagine having to deal with it as long as you have, I would probably snap at some point too." I swallow back my anger. "I just want... I just need you to know that somebody is here for you, because I don't blame you for what you've done. It's most likely a challenge to try at all and I respect you for doing just that... Trying, I mean. I promise I won't ever leave you." I whisper the last part, sitting up to look him in the eyes as I come to realize that everything I just said is true... Including the last thing.
"I- I don't know what to say..." He clearly holds back tears (hopefully of joy).
"Don't say anything." I mumble, leaning towards his face, my eye-lids fluttering closed as our lips softly meet.
oOo
"Elena, are you out of your friggin' mind?" Caroline squeaks into the phone, causing me to pull it away from my ear. "What are you going to tell Stefan?"
"Um... He broke up with me!" I shoot back.
"No he didn't!" She freaks out.
"What do you mean? He said he shouldn't be my boyfriend anymore, that counts as a break-up right?" My eyes widen.
"No! It means he was hurt and offering an out. You ran away, you didn't take it!"
"Yes I did. Running away means 'FINE' and he knows it." I calm down.
"But did you really have to get with his brother?"
"I just kissed him. Nothing else. We are not 'with eachother' okay?" God! I think to myself.
"Does Damon know that?" Caroline hangs up.
I sit on my bed later the same night, staring at my phone now, quietly cursing Caroline under my breath.
"Maybe I didn't know that..." Damon laughs from his seat at my window.
"I just don't want anyone to know yet. I don't think I could handle the look on Stefan's face just yet, either." I squeaze my eyes shut, imagining having to tell Stefan about any of this... Ever
"He's too un-grateful. Maybe he needs to see where that gets him in life." Damon shrugs, but I know he loves his brother too much to mean that.
"Damon..." I start.
He shrugs and appears on the bed beside me, smiling in a way I've never seen him smile before.
"So... What does any of this mean?" Pain flashes across his clear blue gaze.
"It means... I love you." I smile at the truth in my words and the butterflies in my stomach.
"Really?" He smiles again.
"Really." I smile back at him. I carress his face with my hand, finally letting his love consume me whole, letting all the feelings I've been fighting rush over me in a wave of complete bliss. His eyes flutter closed at my touch and I kiss him again, allowing my eyelids to droop as well. Our lips softly guide eachother at first until it really kicks in and his hands are on my face and the small of my back as he lowers me down to lay on the bed, his skilled form hovering over me. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer still, moaning against his mouth, kissing him harder.