Every now and then when the loneliness got to be too much to bear, Bonnie sometimes thought about selling her childhood home and the business and moving far away from Mystic Falls because other than the auto-shop, there was nothing really holding her there.

Yeah, there was Emily. But Emily had her own life as a single mother trying to raise two kids. And even though at times she struggled, Bonnie still found herself being somewhat envious of her best friend's life because she had what Bonnie longed for.

A family.

Emily's parents and little brother lived just two miles away from her and she saw them everyday. So whenever Emily would always complain about her mother prying into her personal life or her father telling her how to raise her two boys or her brother being a nuisance, Bonnie wanted to tell her to be grateful for them because to still have them in her life was a blessing.

But Bonnie couldn't tell Emily that without revealing how utterly alone she felt.

It's been two years since her father died and Bonnie still found herself grieving the loss of him. He was the only family that she had and he raised her by himself, never remarrying after her mother died from complications of Lupus when Bonnie was just ten years old. So he was all that she knew, all she had and because she was his only child, he taught her everything he knew, including working on cars and when he died, Bonnie was left everything he owned, the house, his truck and the auto shop he'd built with his own hands.

Maybe that was the reason why Bonnie could never bring herself to sell it because her father had literally put his blood, sweat and tears into that place.

And it was because of her father that Bonnie never told anyone other than Emily about the rape.

Knowing her father the way she did, Bonnie knew that he'd want justice for what Tyler did to her and he'd stop at nothing until they got it, but the Lockwoods were the richest family in town. They yielded a lot of power and influence and they had the ability to ruin her father if they chose to and even at sixteen years old Bonnie was wise enough to know that. So she kept quiet about the whole incident, keeping her mouth shut for longest time. Suffering in silence until it became too much to hold inside. She had to tell someone or it would eat her alive. About three years after it happened, Bonnie broke down one night and told Emily.

It was so hard, trying to act normal after it happened. Having to fake being sick to her father so he'd let her stay home from school because it hurt too much to walk. She'd been a virgin, so she was sore for days afterward. She felt so disgusting and dirty, no matter how many showers she took, she just couldn't get clean. In the tiniest of ways, her life had changed so much. Before the rape, Bonnie had the biggest crush on Luca Martin, a boy in her class and about two weeks after it happened, he asked her out on a date. It just came out of the blue and it made Bonnie wonder if maybe she was giving off some sort of vibe that she wasn't a virgin anymore and that everyone knew. Of course no one did, but it made her withdraw from her peers. She stopped going to school functions. She didn't even attend junior prom.

Tyler Lockwood had no clue of the damage he'd done to her.

There was always the fear of running into him. Mystic Falls was such a small town. But because Bonnie was so much younger than Tyler and him being rich, and she working class, the two didn't exactly run in the same circles. Only at town events could there ever be a possibility of that happening which was why Bonnie made it a appoint to not attend any of them.

But a few weeks after the rape, Bonnie stopped by the shop after school to find Tyler chatting it up with her father about football while her dad worked on his car. Bonnie didn't know what to do. The man who raped her was sitting there in her father's shop. It was so surreal. And when he saw her standing there, he actually spoke to her. It was such a normal, casual greeting like the night in the woods never happened. That he didn't violate her in the worse way imaginable. It was shocking. The audacity he had to come there. Did he not have any shame for what he did to her? What he took from her?

How dare he show his face?!

It was maddening the amount of rage that Bonnie felt in that moment. But in the same breath, she felt so helpless. Because Tyler came there because he knew he could. He knew that there would be no repercussions for his actions. That she was a nobody and no one would care.

It wouldn't be the last time Tyler sought out Bonnie.

While Tyler was in bed nursing a severe hangover along with caring for his black and blue balls after having been kneed in the nuts by Bonnie, Matt took it upon himself to give Damon and Logan a little taste of what Mystic Falls had to offer in way of entertainment.

He took them to The Dooms, it was their version of motocross.

Damon had never seen anything like it in his life. There was about twenty guys dressed in protective gear and helmets riding dirt bikes at top speed with each one vying to be the first one to reach the finish line.

It was very exciting to watch, especially with all the people on the sidelines cheering the bikers on as they raced through the lengthy circular dirt track.

When it came down to the last lap around the track, the people who were sitting down stood to their feet as four of the riders were neck and neck with 50 feet left to go to the finish line when all of a sudden two of the bikers crashed into each other being thrown to the ground.

And the crowd went wild when it was just the remaining two speeding toward the finish line.

"Go Kol, you got it man...you got it!"

"Come on Bonnie, you can do it...black girl magic!"

Damon did a double take, clearly shocked. "Bonnie?"

"Yeah Bonnie Bennett?" Matt answered. "She's been riding dirt bikes since she was a kid. She's sort of a tomboy."

And Damon watched in utter fascination as that tomboy won the race.

It seemed that everyone who was at The Dooms had the same idea of going to the Mystic Grill for dinner, including Bonnie and that girl who was screaming at the top of her lungs black girl magic.

Motioning to a waitress, Damon ordered a bottle of champagne and had it sent over to their table.

Only being able to see the exchange between Bonnie and the waitress and not hear what was being said, Damon waited, watching when the waitress finally pointed over to him.

Hazel-green eyes crashed upon electric blue before disengaging.

Damon knew he'd been denied when the waitress turned away from the table still carrying the champagne on the tray.

"She doesn't take gifts from strangers." The waitress told him.

It wasn't everyday that Damon Salvatore got shut down by a woman.

"Right." He said. "Can you bring me my check, please?"

"Sure, no problem...but what about the champagne?"

"Consider it a tip." He told her.

Emily was floored, her mouth literally gaping open. Things like that only happened on television, not in Mystic Falls at the Mystic Grill and definitely not to her best friend!

"Bonnie, are you crazy? He's fucking gorgeous! Why didn't you accept the champagne? He was only congratulating you on your win!"

"I don't care. I don't know him...and neither do you. Besides, looks aren't everything." She said un-bothered, picking up the menu even though she already knew what she wanted to order.

"Not every guy is a Tyler Lockwood, Bonnie." Emily said as gently as possible. "Believe it or not, there are some good ones out there."

"Are you ladies ready to order?" Asked the waitress.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to drive his 69' Camaro to Mystic Falls because his baby wasn't used to lengthy road trips and now she was beginning to stall.

Tyler's mother suggested that Damon take the car over to Rudy's auto-shop.

So he did that afternoon.

Parking his car, Damon got out and had a look around the place.

"Can I help you?" A male voice asked.

Damon turned. Clearly he wasn't the mechanic because the older man had to be seventy tops.

"Um, yeah. I need for Rudy to have a look at my car. Something's wrong with it...it's stalling for some reason."

The old man frowned and then taking off his cap, he scratched his gray nappy head. "Well, I'm sorry to tell you this mister, but Rudy's been dead for two years now."

"Come again?" Damon asked slowly. Trying to decide if the old guy was maybe senile. So he asked a follow up question. "Sir, if Rudy is dead...then who is running the shop?"

"That will be me." Bonnie said, walking up to the two males.

Bonnie almost smiled at the shocked look on Damon's face. It really did tickle her more than she cared to admit.

Stunned into complete silence, Damon watched as Bonnie handed the old man a cold beer with one hand while still carrying her mountain dew and snickers bar in the other.

"Thanks for watching the shop while I walked to the store, Grady."

"No problem, Miss Bonnie. Any time." He said with his eyes on the beer bottle, licking his lips in anticipation. Grady could already taste it in his mouth.

As he walked away, Bonnie then turned her attention back to Damon. "How can I help you?"

"You're the mechanic?"

"Yes...as well as the owner of this fine establishment. So again, I ask, how can I help you?"

Scratching the back of his neck, Damon proceeded to explain the problem. "Yeah, right. Um, something's wrong with my car." He said, walking towards the vehicle.

Bonnie followed.

"It's stalling." He continued.

Placing the mountain dew and her unopened snickers bar on the ground, Bonnie opened the car door, sliding behind the wheel. She cranked it up.

Again she was barefoot, wearing cut-off shorts.

Popping the hood, she got out. "Let's have a look see."

The car was a work of art, both the body and underneath its hood. It was simply beautiful. Her father would have drooled over it.

"Who's work is this?" She asked unable to drag her eyes away.

"Excuse me?"

"Who restored the car?"

Damon's first thought was to lie and say he did it himself because he could tell that Bonnie was really impressed. But he decided to go with the truth.

"Some guy in Atlanta who specializes in retro muscle cars."

"Jimmy Thornton." Said Bonnie.

Well damn, thought Damon. "Yeah, I think that's his name. He also restored a 1963' Porsche 356 Karmann coupe for my father."

"Oh yeah, what color?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Red."

"Sweet." She said, lowering the hood. "Well good news, there's nothing major wrong with your car, it just needs a tune-up that's all, but I need to drive it first, to see how she rides.

"No fucking way." Was Damon's automatic response, totally forgetting about seeing Bonnie handle a dirt bike just the day before.

"Excuse you?"

"Look, I don't let anyone drive my car."

Bonnie chuckled lowly, shaking her head. Typical, she thought. "Fine. Tilly and Sons auto-shop is two towns away. You have a good day now." She said, walking around him to grab her snack.

Fuck! Damon Salvatore did not like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. But he had no choice.

"Wait."

Pausing, she turned her head. "Yes."

"Fine, you can drive my car."

Was this guy serious? The nerve. "Hold up, why are you sounding like you're doing me a favor?"

Damon blinked a second, like she should already know the answer to that. "Because I am." He was teasing/flirting with her.

But Bonnie didn't take it that way. "Wow." She uttered in disbelief, turning to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"There are two things in this life I don't suffer, fools and entitled rich white boys. You have a good day now."

For some reason Damon got the impression that You have a good day now was Bonnie's nice way of saying Fuck off.

Shit! Why did he keep striking out with this girl?

"Hey wait, I was just joking...I didn't mean anything by it. Just like with the champagne, there were no strings attached. I saw you race and it was impressive and I wanted to congratulate you. That's all."

Bonnie stared at him for a long moment and he didn't look away, staring right back at her. She sighed softly. "Fine. I'll fix your car, just let me go get my shoes."

Feeling like he'd just won the fucking jackpot, Damon's good mood returned. "It's nice to know you own a pair." He teased with a sly grin on his lips.

Knowing he was teasing her now, she took it good naturedly. "Ha, ha. Very funny...I'll be back in a second." Heading towards the shop, but then she stopped walking turning back to him. "Wait, I don't even know your name."

He chuckled. "It's Damon...Damon Salvatore."

"Well Damon, my name is Bonnie Bennett." .

"It's nice to meet you Bonnie." He said and it was sincere, she could hear it in his voice.

After a moment, she replied. "You too."

Damon smiled. "See. Just that quick, we're no longer strangers."