"Everything dies baby that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back.
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City."
Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen
"We were both young when I first saw you.
I close my eyes, the flash back starts..."
Love Story – Taylor Swift
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my plot and my own characters.
Chapter 2 – Remember Then?
"Bye Mum! Bye Dad!" I shouted as I headed out the door.
"Elena!" my mother called from the kitchen, "Don't go too far, all right?"
My 15 year old self rolled her eyes. "Don't worry Mom; I'm only going to the beach," I reassured her.
"Elena..."she chided, "Be careful, you're not in Mystic Falls anymore, and I don't want you wandering off and getting lost."
I huffed, halfway out the front door, "I know that Mom."
"Good, now be back before 7:30!" she reminded, before I shut the door behind me.
I had never been this far from home before. That was one of the first things I realised as I walked along the beach with the vast and wide ocean extending before me. I liked it; I liked the freedom it brought. I enjoyed the peace of being on my own: Just me, the soft sand between my toes and the smell of the sea spray on my skin. I sighed; it was just starting to get dark as I sat down a little way off from the pier. The soft sea air tickled my face as I sat with my legs pulled up to my chin; I was my own little island of calm. I couldn't remember the last time I had been completely on my own like this, usually when I was at school I had some gaggle of girls with me, asking my opinions on makeup and boys. If it wasn't that it was Jeremy nagging me to play some kind of computer game with him – he was going through his awkward faze and he didn't have a lot of friends. But this was nice, just looking out at the endless azure sea – the tide was quite far out now.
"Pssst!" I nearly jumped out of my skin. I swivelled my head back looking for the cause of the noise. "Hey, over here!" I looked to the dirty industrial grey columns of the pier on my left. There was someone there, under the pier... lurking in the shadows. I gulped, "Why hadn't I used my common sense and sat further away? Stoners hang out under piers, don't they? Was I going to get mugged by some crazy homeless person?" I thought, scrambling to my feet and backing away, slowly.
"Hey! Hey! Don't go, I'm not gonna hurt you!" A figure emerged from under the pier, it was guy. He couldn't have been more that 18, 19? He didn't look like a crazy homeless person either. Actually, he was kind of... good looking. That is, in a tortured, emo sort of way. He had messy, jet black hair that fell round his pale face and just teased his shoulders. He was dressed in a crumpled Iron Maiden T-shirt and dark, scuffed jeans. I must have looked like a complete idiot, stood staring with my eyes wide. "Sorry if I scared you," he said, looking embarrassed and a little dazed. "It's just, you don't happen to know what the time is, do you?"
"He wants to know the time? That means, maybe he had been asleep under the pier and oh god, that means he was a stoner!" I thought.
When I didn't reply he went on to say, "I'm meant to be at band practice at 7:30, they'll kill me if I'm late."
"It's- it's 7:20" I managed to stutter.
"Oh shit!" he swore, gathering a faded leather jacket of the ground. "Thanks a bunch... what's your name?"
"E-Elena, Elena... Gilbert." I said slowly. Great, I forgot my own name – now he probably thought I was a weirdo.
"Tell you what Elena, you're 16 - right?"
"Right," I said lying almost automatically.
"As a thank you, I'll get you into my gig tonight; it's at Rock City, 9:30."
"Oh. Okay." I was a little stunned.
"No problem, bye!" and with that, he ran off across the beach...
"Elena, Elena!" A voice spoke, slightly too close to my ear for comfort. I squinted, blinking my eyes against the sunset. Where was I again? As I rubbed my eyes everything started to come back into focus, I was in Damon's car and Damon was peering at me with a box of very delicious smelling donuts. Oh, now I remembered. I had been driving for nearly 7 hours, Damon had long since given up persistent cries of 'Are we nearly there yet?' and found new ways to annoy me whilst driving. We had only taken a small break at the rest stop; Damon had decided he simply couldn't go another mile without some form of sugary goodness. "W-what happened?" I said, yawning.
"You, Miss Lewis Hamilton, fell asleep," he informed me with much relish. "I think it's safer if I drive now, seeing as you can't even keep your eyes open."
"We'll be there in... 15 minutes," I objected.
Damon clenched his jaw, an obvious sign of his annoyance. "You know..." he said, "I'm pretty sure I've guessed where we're going anyway," He took a bite of donut.
"Oh yeah?" I said, stealing a donut from the box.
"Yep," he said, popping the 'p'.
"Go on then Damon, what's your guess?"
"Ah! Now that I cannot tell you..." he said cryptically.
I rolled my eyes. "Deceit will not get you into the driving seat Damon..."
"Elena! I'm wounded, I'd never lie to you!" he cried indignantly.
"Oh sure, but I think your forgetting one tiny detail, Damon," I said amusedly.
"What?" he frowned.
"You're evil."
"Oh!" Damon said smacking his palm to his forehead, "Y'know I completely forgot about that Elena!" he said his voice heavily laced with sarcasm.
"Elena," Damon said after a while, "I thought you said 15 minutes, I really don't want you passing out on me."
I ignored his statement and stared at the road. "Ask me the question Damon."
"What question?" he said baffled.
"You know the question Damon," I said gritting my teeth; it was the one he had been plaguing me with this whole trip.
"Oh," Damon said understanding. "Elena, are we nearly there yet?" he said putting enough whininess into his voice to rival that of a 5 year old.
"Yes Damon," I smiled as the bright lights of Atlantic City lit up the horizon of the darkening sky, looming ever closer. I swallowed, "Oh god, we really are."
TBC
A.N: Hey, it's me again! Can I just say thank you so much to everyone who reviewed or added my story to their favourites/alerts, including Erinscan – you were my first reviewer, you really made my day!
So, what do you all think? I know you're all probably wondering who Mr Mysterious Emo is, all will be revealed soon, probably in the next chapter... Also, is anyone from around Nottingham, UK? If so you will know where I stole the name of the Rock City venue from, lol!
Again thanks so much for the feedback; it really encourages me, :)
