Chasing Perfection
Season One
Chapter 2: The Night of the Comet

Alex stared at the ceiling waiting for her sister to be done since they were going to school together. She was currently thinking about the man she saw, he successfully made her terrified. It was like you were being terrorized and creepily stalked by someone you barely knew. But just when she thought nothing else could terrify her, yesterday's incidents did. When a crow hit the car and then she spotted that man at the grill, a crow and fog all around her and Tyler in the woods and lastly the bite marks on Vicki's neck. She was really terrified—all of it was still haunting her.

Suddenly her sister opened the door and gestured outside the room, distracting her thoughts. Alex eventually rolled over the bed, flipping onto her stomach and stood up immediately to follow her sister. After whatever happened, she thought she needed to get over it because she didn't want to feel more pain after her parents death.

Outside the room, they encountered their aunt dressed in a dark blue dress, getting ready for something. Alex narrowed her eyes when she saw her aunt was doing her hair. "Do I look adult? As in respectfully parental?" Jenna asked for their opinion.

"Depends on where you're going." Alex replied casually while checking her phone.

"Jeremy's parent-teacher conference. Hair up or down?" She wondered, putting her hair up and showed it to her nieces and made them wondered as well.

"Sexy stewardess." Elena commented.

Jenna eventually put her hair down.

"Boozy housewife." Alex said smirking at her aunt, before her eyes flickered back to her phone, replying text messages from her boyfriend.

"Up it is." Jenna confirmed, turning to her nieces who were chuckling before she commented about them. "You guys are feisty today."

"We feel good, which is rare. So we've decided to go with it. Fly free, walk on the sunshine, and all that stuff." Elena explained while smiling to her aunt, trying to show her that she and her sister were going to be fine and she swore she would find a way for them to get used to this.

"Anyway... where's Jeremy?" Alex questioned while checking on her twin's room which was empty.

Jenna replied. "He left early. Something about getting to the wood shop early to finish a birdhouse."

There was a long awkward pause between them when their aunt stopped, looking at them in desperation. "There is no wood shop, is there?"

"Nope." Alex shook her head lightly, exchanged looks with her sister as they had the same thoughts about their brother that left early with a stupid cover up reason. Jenna sighed and muttered, defeated. "Yeah."

Jeremy leaned against a wall and starred at Vicki who was laying on the hospital bed, sleeping well and tightly. His face was forming into a deeply sad expression as he looked at her—he could still remember her condition last night, she was helpless, terrified and hurt. If only he knew what attacked her that night, he would have reported it to the local sheriff immediately, so the case would be investigated sooner or later and no more people would get attacked.

While scanning her and making sure she was fine, a nurse came into the room to check on her tab and wrote something down on the paper she was holding. "You can't be in here, hun. Visiting hours don't start 'till 9:00."

"I just—" He blinked. "How is she?"

"She's lost a lot of blood." She stated while still writing the report of Vicki's current condition.

"Yeah, but she's gonna be okay, right?"He asked hopefully.

The nurse walked towards him and grabbed him by his shoulder, pushing him gently to get outside the room immediately. "She needs her rest. So come back later, come on."

While the teacher was giving a lecture in front of the class, Alex remained quiet and once again thought about what happened yesterday. Yesterday was like a disaster in town,when a lot of terrifying incidents happened in less than 24 hours. How is that even possible? Alex was still mentally asking herself about it, trying to figure out whatever was going on in this town.

"Ms. Gilbert?"

Her thoughts were distracted, she pulled herself back to reality as soon as she heard her teacher mentioned her last name which surprised her. Everyone in class was looking at her as if she was a freak, they were staring at her, making her feel strange. Her gaze turned back to her teacher who creased his brows and waited for her to answer. "I'm sorry, sir. I, uh, I was-" She tried to come up with an excuse.

Suddenly the school bell rang, interrupting her to explain the situation, she breathed out in relief. Slowly she walked out of class only to encounter her boyfriend was standing beside her, "God dammit! Ty, you scared the hell out of me." She breathed out while being pulled into a hug by him.

"Sorry," he said smiling while joining their friends who were currently talking about Bonnie's psychic powers that she has recently told them, walking down the hall. "I'm confused. Are you psychic or clairvoyant?" Caroline asked.

"Technically, Grams says I'm a witch. My ancestors were these really cool Salem witch chicks or something." Bonnie chuckled, looking at them. "Grams tried to explain it all, but she was looped on the liquor, so I kinda turned out... Crazy family, yes. Witches? I don't think so."

"Witch? Okay, a witch?" Caroline almost moaned and scoffed quietly after hearing the explanation. "Well feel free to conjure up the name and number of that guy from last night."

"What guy?" Alex was curious, in case they saw the same guy.

"I didn't see him, she did." Bonnie answered and turned back to her blonde friend to answer her question. "And why didn't you just talk to him Caroline?"

"I don't know, I was drunk." Caroline answered simply.

"Uh, hey, Bonnie, what's that about your statement last night at the party? That this is just the beginning?" Alex asked curiously, looking at Bonnie in confusion, hoping she would explain the meaning of it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know... but I just got the feeling. I'm sure because it feels right." Bonnie replied simply. Her gaze moved to both Alex and Tyler who were holding hands which she thought was cute. Alex only nodded, "Oh okay... I thought you knew something more about it."

There was a pause for a few seconds until her boyfriend told her that he wanted to join his team near the field, and before he went outside, he gave her a gentle kiss on her lips. She only smiled, watching him leave until he was out of sight and continued talking with her best friends along the hallway.

"The hospital is keeping her overnight to make sure there are no infections, but she should be able to come home tomorrow though." Matt said to Elena with a relieved sigh, his face twisted in worry remembering his sister, in which no matter how big of a rebel his sister was, he would always be there for her. She smiled supportively but deep down inside wondering if her brother would ever do the same... she probably would be be the happiest sister in the world and all the sorrow she felt may slowly fade. "Well... that's a good news." She said.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Did you get in touch with your mom?" She wondered, at the same time trying her best to change the topic and make him at least feel better. She realized they were actually having the same situation, where their families were torn apart. And they, Matt and Elena, became the only ones to try and fix the family with a lot struggles.

"Called and left a message. She is in Virginia Beach with her boyfriend. So... we'll see how it takes her to come rushing home." Said Matt, still walking together with her, sharing their life stories and issues.

"Vicki's lucky that she's okay." Elena said while lowering her voice, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. They weren't aware that there was someone sitting on a table and overhearing their entire conversations. Stefan.

"I know, and now there's talk of some missing campers." He informed, suddenly sounded worried about the town and all the incidents that happened in it.

"Did she say what kind of animal it was that attacked her?"

"She said it was a vampire," was his reply. Stefan was quietly surprised hearing this, knowing that that girl whom his brother attacked knew exactly who almost killed her last night. Elena paused while looking at him in disbelief, "what?"

"Yeah," he breathed out replying to her question, he knew that nobody would believe it, because honestly he didn't believe it either but it was his sister who spoke. "She woke up last night and muttered "vampire" and then passed out."

"Okay. That is weird." she chuckled lightly.

"I think she was drunk," he shrugged. "So what's up with you and the new guy?"

"Matt, the last thing I want to do is hurt you."

He looked at her, and then quickly made an excuse to leave. "You know, I'm─ I'm actually gonna go back to the hospital. I want to be there when Vicki wakes up, and get the real story about last night."

With that, he left her there alone. Leaving her feeling guilty all over again because of everything she did, or said to him. She looked around and saw nobody though she felt someone was there a few seconds ago. She sighed frustratedly, knowing he was still avoiding her. But then she tried to convince herself that everything would be alright as soon as she got used to it all.

Inside the hallway, Bonnie, Caroline and Alex walked near to the huge door that leads to the field. Alex held her book and hugged it with her arms while talking to her two best friends about the entire Vicki incident that happened last night, since it was still the top news in their school universe. Almost everyone witnessed it, and they were now talking about it. "Did you guys see the bite mark on her neck?" Alex randomly questioned.

"Vicki? No, I didn't." Caroline shrugged her shoulders, turning to their psychic bestfriend beside her. "How about you Bon?"

"Well... when I bumped her earlier before the incident, I saw these creepy things. A crow and fog. I don't know. It gets me dizzy." Bonnie quietly sighed. Alex pulled her into a hug while patting her back, but she pulled away and made a worried face as if something was wrong with Alex.

"Bonnie, what is it?" Alex frowned.

"This psychic thing is driving me crazy. You know what, when we hugged, I saw this crow and fog and it's the exact vision I had when touching Vicki," she panted while looking at Alex carefully before exchanging a glare with Caroline. "I'm sorry, it was weird."

"So... is this something like serial murderous story? Is she gonna be attacked as well?" Caroline blinked her eyes.

"No. I, uh, I have no idea. Let's just talk about something else and hope that this feeling I had is not coming true." Bonnie said while smiling to her friends. Alex mirrored the smile but her attention was drawn somewhere outside the building where she saw her brother.

"Not anymore," Alex groaned quietly.

"What?" Caroline frowned.

"It's my brother." Alex said, immediately putting her books into her bag and walked outside. She saw her brother was walking toward her boyfriend while he was enjoying the talk with his friends. What Alex worried was that... they would probably have a fight over senseless stuffs since her boyfriend never liked her brother. She did the same, disliking her brother and avoided him but she realized she couldn't since her brother was that one person whom she spent her entire childhood with. Many up and downs came towardsthem, and the only one who reminded her to stay strong was her brother.

"Hey, Tyler." Jeremy called. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I was just wondering... have you visited Vicki? How bad is she? What room number she was in? Is she going to make a full recovery?"

"Why? You want to see her? Go ahead." Tyler turned to him with a completely disgusted, distracted, disturbed expression on his face. "Get out of here. Don't bring these because she is no longer with me. Your sister won't like it."

"You told Vicki that even if you broke up with her, you will be there for her. Taking care of her. Now what? Have you even asked her brother at least? Do they know what attacked her?" Jeremy questioned casually, not caring if everyone was around and looking at him.

"I'm gonna kick your ass." Tyler threatened, his eyes were full of darkness, giving Jeremy a death glare as if he were to kill him right now.

"Yeah, you keep saying that, but when are you actually going to do it, huh?" Jeremy squared up to him and glared back as he shoved Tyler almost too harshly. "Cause I vote right here and right now."

"You better walk away, dude. I don't want your sister to see this and I'm sure as hell you don't want it either." Tyler warned sarcastically, or upsetly, at his girlfriend's brotherwhom he had always disliked to be honest.

"Jer!" A voice came approaching them. It was Alex. Jeremy rolled his eyes, taking a few steps back to see his approaching sister. "What now?" His jaw tightened.

"What's your problem? You're tryin' to show him that you're better? By picking a fight with him? Seriously, are you stupid or what? Stop it, whatever this is." She retorted loudly while pushing her brother away by his firm chest, and when she looked at him in the eyes, he was clearly disappointed and angry.

"Listen Gilbert, I think you better walk away. It's your final warning because I don't wanna kick your ass." Tyler said somewhat upset but he tried to keep it down in front of his girlfriend.

"Tyler," she warned quietly while pushing him a bit far away from where her brother was.

"No. This is your final warning, dick. I'm sick watching you play with Vicki all the time. Your promises are nothing but bullshit, something to make her let go of you. And if you ever do the same to my sister, I swear to God, I will kill you for Vicki and my sister's sake." Jeremy warned back, fearless of who he was dealing with and then immediately left Tyler with Alex there.

"I'm sorry," Tyler apologized while rubbing her back.

Dammit. She closed her eyes slowly, thinking about her brother that had been acting strange and short tempered for the past days. She knew it was all about their parents who had been there with them almost all the time until they passed away ─ everything in her family changed almost one hundred percent. And that look on his face a while ago was showing how hurt he had been. She thought about his relationship to Elena for the past months, and it wasn't even getting better at all.

She let out a deep sigh, and when she opened her eyes, all the memories about her family when it was still complete rushed back, it was hurting but she kept it inside. She decided to go check on her twin brother because she knew he needed someone—and Elena couldn't be the fittest one to accompany him right now. "I think I need to check on my brother, alright? I want to make sure that he is okay." She said kissing Tyler's cheek and immediately ran after Jeremy who was getting inside the building.

Alex immediately gripped on his neck, dragging him to the quieter part of the hallways, and slightly threw him away to the locker while giving him a death glare. "What the hell was that for? You think you can just deal with him that simple and boom, you're done? You know who he is. And he's two friggin' years older than you."

"I'm getting really sick of him, Alex!" He yelled back in disgust when his sister defended Tyler more than him. "Why are you even on his side and not mine? I'm your twin brother! Why are you even dating him? He's a dick. Do you know what he promised to Vicki when they broke up? He said he will be there for her although they were no longer together. But he is now the complete opposite — he doesn't care about her."

"He is dating me, Jer. Alright? He is protecting my feelings for me. He is no longer the jerk you knew. I'm dating him right now because he is a good man, at least he changed, unlike you." She said, her mouth fell open, watching how her brother had gone crazy just because of the Donovan chick.

He stood up and made a pleading face, looking at her, hoping she would understand but she unfortunately couldn't. "You're obsessed over Vicki, that's all. If you like her, date her, so you can prove what you can do. I will be glad if you date her instead of being mad at Tyler." She said, lowering her voice.

"Just leave me alone, Alex. I don't want to talk to anyone right now. Leave." He walked away to the other part of school halls as she sighed loudly, watching him walk away. Fighting with her twin brother was the worst part of whatever happened today, to be honest.

As soon as the school was finished, Elena texted her sister to come to the grill to chat and have coffee together with their friends, Caroline and Bonnie. It has been a rough week for them all, witnessing strange things they knew nothing about.

"Well, I talked to Grams and she told me the comet was a sign of impending doom." Bonnie explained, "The last time it passed over Mystic Falls, there were lots of deaths, so much blood and carnage. It created a bed of paranormal activity."

"That's a movie title, I've watched them. It's so creepy." Alex said casually while eating her French fries and stopped when her friends looked at her awkwardly.

"Yeah, and then you poured Grams another shot and she told you about the aliens." Caroline rolled her eyes, turning to her brunette best friend, the older one. Elena. "So then what?"

"So then nothing," Elena replied simply.

"Not that. I mean, you and Stefan talked all night right?" Caroline prompted. "There was no sloppy first kiss or touchy-feely of any kind?"

Alex only smiled playfully while continued eating her French fries.

"Nope, we didn't go there." Elena shrugged in reply.

"And not even a handshake? I mean, we are your friends, okay? You are supposed to share the smut!" Caroline told her bestfriend, slightly smiling but disappointed.

"We just talked for hours. That's it."

"What is with the blockage?" Caroline suggested, "Jump his bones already!"

Bonnie and Alex both exchanged glares before playing a smirk on their lips about their blonde-friend's words. "That's not gonna happen! I'm a real stalker." Alex chuckled teasing her sister, indirectly.

Caroline smirked back. "Okay, it's easy. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, sex!"

"Profound." Elena rolled her eyes while standing up from her seat, grabbing her bag.

"Wait, where are you going?" Bonnie asked looking up at Elena.

"Caroline's right." She said, "It's easy. If I sit here long enough, I'll end up taking myself out of it instead of doing what I started the day saying what I was going to do."

"I'm coming along." Alex confirmed with a slight smile appearing on her lips, finishing her drink and slinging her bag on her shoulder.

Elena tilted her head waiting for her sister. "Let's go."

"Yeah, let's go. Later, guys." Alex waved at both Caroline and Bonnie, walking with Elena together, leaving the grill.

Meanwhile in the Gilbert's house, Jeremy walked downstairs and went passing the kitchen only to see his aunt was there signalling him to come over and talk, when he grabbed his jacket. "I picked up dinner," she said as he turned to her for a moment. "Tacos. I had an urge for guacamole."

"No, I'm good, thanks." Jeremy said walking away with the jacket he carried, leaving his aunt in the kitchen.

"Eat anyway. It's a ruse. I want to talk." She replied in quiet mutters, narrowing her eyes at her nephew as he started to leave, still ignoring what his aunt offered.

"Hey, you! Come, sit!" She yelled out, pointing out to him as he began to turn around reluctantly, sitting in front of Jenna and rolled his eyes. "Back in school, freshman year, I could eat my weight in nachos, with extra cheese. It was my munchie food whenever I got stoned."

"You get high?" He grinned in a strange, weird way.

"Did. Past tense." She squinted her eyes as he watched her speaking and his grin faded slightly, when she started to get everything from the shopping bag out. "But, yeah. Loved it. Anything to get a little distraction from life... Reality. And it worked. For a while. Never lasts, though. Hey, I'm not saying I wouldn't love to rail back and kick it, but with a thesis looming and a waistline expanding."

While Jenna was talking and walked approaching the fridge, he made his way leaving the house through the back door when Jenna wasn't looking. But then she sighed when she noticed he was already gone leaving her hanging with her sentences.

When the sisters arrived at the Salvatores boarding house, Elena practically ran for the door and rang the doorbell twice as Alex slowly made her way joining her, trying to plan some conversations in her head when meeting her sister's new crush. When no one came to the door, Alex hit the door knocker and it suddenly swung open. Both started to walk inside, fearless, walking into the house which looked creepy but not so scary either. "Stefan?" Elena called.

"Elena, I don't think this is a good idea. You know, this is so impolite of us..." Alex reasoned while putting her phone into her bag, leaning her head forward to see whatever was there in the house. Elena ignored her while walking further into the house and Alex, however, needed to follow her.

When they heard the door hinges squeak, Elena quickly walked toward the door to see it, and both jumped when they saw a crow came through the door. Alex immediately turned around only to discover that she was right now standing close to a guy with bright icy blue eyes which she thought was kind of hot. "We, uh, we are very sorry for barging in..." Alex said apologizing and took a few steps backward to get some space between them.

"Well, the door was..." Elena said gesturing to the door but when she looked back, the door was already closed. "Open."

Damon looked at Elena for a few seconds. "You must be Elena..." He hung up while scanning the other brunette, "And you're Alex, right? I'm Damon, Stefan's older brother."

"Stefan didn't mention that he had a brother?" Alex stared at him confusedly, narrowing her eyes and glared at her sister who was shrugging.

"Well, Stefan isn't one to brag." He replied still locking his eyes on Alex.

"Please, come in. I'm sure Stefan will be here any second." He moved to the side and led the two into the luxury living room, where Alex stared to compliment everything about the decorations as her jaws broke open. "Wow, this is your living room?" Elena asked.

"Living room, parlor, Sotheby's auction." Damon joked with a slight chuckle escaped his curvy lips. "It's a little kitschy for my taste."

"Cool." Alex chuckled as Damon responded throwing a wink at her.

"I see why my brother's so smitten, it's about time. For a while there, I never thought he'd get over the last one, nearly destroyed him." Damon explained catching Elena's attention in an instant. "The last one?" She asked.

"Yeah. Katherine. His girlfriend?" He creased a brow more in a teasing sort of way. "Oh, you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet."

"Uh, nope."

"Oops." He made a teasy smile. "Well, I'm sure It'll come up now. Or maybe he didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound. We all know how those relationships end."

Elena nodded slowly as she turned to her sister, Alex, who started to speak. "You say that like every relationship is doomed to end."

"I'm a fatalist." He smirked at Alex, still scanning her once again. Until he noticed someone else. "Hello, Stefan."

When the two turned around, followed by Damon, they saw Stefan was standing there watching them, looking at Damon angrily. "Elena, Alex, I didn't know you were coming over." Stefan stated, but he didn't took his dark brown eyes off his older brother Damon.

"We should have called, sorry." Elena nodded slowly, followed by Alex's nod. "Yeah, Elena's right. We're just─"

"Oh, no, don't be silly. You two are welcome anytime, aren't they, Stefan?" Damon smiled charmingly and looked at Elena teasingly. "You know I should break open the family photo albums, or some home movies. But I have to warn you, he wasn't always such a looker."

"Thank you for stopping by, girls." Stefan spoke to them softly whilst glaring darkly at Damon. "Nice to see you."

"Yeah, we should probably, uh, go." Alex nodded with a wide smile started to appear on her lips, the smile that have taken over Damon's attention that moment.

"Yeah. Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Damon." Elena said looking at the older brother while slinging the bag on her shoulder. "Great meeting you too, Elena."

"And it was nice to meet you, Alex." Damon walked a little bit closer to the younger sister while grabbing her hand and land his lips on top of it. "Stefan...? Stefan?" Elena asked as Stefan was blocking her way to leave, and then after his brother released Alex's hand—Stefan moved away, giving the girls a way to leave.

Alex breathed out while running impatiently outside the house together with her sister, closing the door behind them, and walked away from the house's area. Back in the boarding house, the argument was still up. "Great gals!" Damon smiled playfully—or smirked.

"Whoo! Alex is lovely and, Elena, she's got... spunk." The smile on his lips turned into a very playful smirk. "Did you overwork yourself today? Let me guess... Hospital."

"Someone had to clean up your mess." Stefan countered walking towards the fireplace.

"Well, were you successful?" Damon asked playfully. "Did the powers of persuasion work? Remember, if you don't feed properly, none of those little tricks work right."

"How long were they here?" Stefan asked fiddling with his ring slowly. "Were you worried, Stefan?"

"Scared I might use the whole mind tricks to the cute and passionate Alexandra Gilbert or your little crush? Relax, brother." Damon scoffed sarcastically and patted his brother's shoulder twice.

"What game are you playing, Damon?" Stefan asked turning around to Damon who was shrugging at the moment before walking away. "Guess you'll have to wait and see, won't you?"

Over the Gilberts house, Jenna, Alex and Elena were standing in the kitchen making food together. Alex was pouring chocolate souce onto her sundae as Elena began to help mixing it before Alex took some with the spoon and tried it.

"He's on the rebound, and he has raging family issues." Elena explained while trying some of the sundae she made and exchanged look with her sister.

"Well, at least it's an ex-girlfriend." Jenna commented.

"Yeah, at least it wasn't mommy issues." Alex chuckled, licking her lips and put the sauce back onto the kitchen's cupboard. "Or cheating issues, or amphetamine issues."

"You tell us." Jenna shrugged lightly and laughed grabbing an apple while taking a bite of it before the door was opened and was heard closed a while later. Alex turned to see Jeremy walked in with his hood up, looking at Alex for a moment and then glaring at Elena and Jenna before running for the stairs. "Hey Jer─"

"Jeremy!" Jenna called, running after him and standing at the bottom on the stairs while ignoring how she had cutted Alex off. "Where were you?"

"More stoner stories? Look, Jenna, I get it, you were cool once too and that's cool." He said holding a thumb up at Jenna. "Oh, no, no, no!" Jenna groaned, throwing her apple at Jeremy as he tried to walk upstairs.

"Ow! Why, Why? Why did you do that?" Jeremy asked turning around.

"Listen to me, quit ditching class, or you're grounded. End of discussion." Jenna warned him.

"Parental authority, I like it." Jeremy gave her another thumbs up and a weird grin that made Alex laughed quietly on her seat. "Sleep tight." He finally walked upstairs and headed to his room.

"Depression makes him an idiot." Alex shrugged with a smile while trying another spoon of sundae and then wiped the table with the tissues.

Next day, Stefan was inside his room and was getting ready for school while Zach slowly came giving him lectures, it felt very peculiar for a younger man like him to gave the ancient vampire a little lesson. Stefan looked at his nephew as if he was asking what he was doing there.

"What is Damon doing here?" Zach finally sent out a question.

Stefan sighed, buttoning his shirt and replied the question tersely. "He wants to make my life miserable, that's how he enjoys his."

"Well, he's putting us all at risk. This girl in the hospital could talk!" Zach informed carefully while looking at his uncle firmly.

"She won't. I took care of her." Stefan promised.

This didn't convince Zach enough. "You sure?"

"I'm not sure, Zach," Stefan admitted with a heavy sigh, "I don't know how well it worked. I'm not as strong as Damon."

"So... what happens if it doesn't work?" Zach asked again.

Stefan shrugged and about to leave, looking at his nephew once again. "I don't know, I'll deal with it."

"Is she worth it? Uncle Stefan... this girl you came back for?" He called Stefan who was stopping at the door and was giving his nephew a look before leaving the room in silence, not replying to the question.

At the grill, Jeremy encountered Vicki near the bar as she was about to leave, but he paused her there. From the distance, Tyler was watching the two while Alex was sitting beside him to watch her twin brother. "Vicki, what are you doing here?" Jeremy asked.

"Fighting with Robert about my schedule. You'd think getting ripped up by a rabid animal would merit an extra sick day." She joked with a chuckle.

"Well, are you feeling okay?" Jeremy asked again about her condition. "It still kinda hurts."She replied.

"Well, the doctor gave you something, right?" Jeremy made sure, raising his brows.

"The kid stuff." The drug addict teen replied. "Nothing with an o on it, I think they're onto me."

Jeremy laughed with her before grabbing a bottle of pills from his hoodie pocket slowly, not wanting anyone to notice. "Here, knock yourself out, literally." He placed the whole bottle in her hand.

"Thanks, Jer." Vicki smiled at him, taking two instantly, and looked at him. "Are you gonna watch the comet later?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

"I hadn't really thought about it." She admitted coyly. "But I could be talked into it. I'll meet you out there in a few."

Tyler blinked almost a couple of times while Alex watched him being irritated watching Jeremy and Vicki being together. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath and thought positively about her boyfriend. It felt like she was suffocating inside, there were so many thoughts zipping through her mind, and all conflicted. But again, she tried to think more positively, because she knew one thing that Tyler loved her and she loved him. "I'm just going to ask her if she's okay, would you let me?" Tyler asked distracting her 'trying-to-calm' thoughts as he caressed her hair gently.

"Yeah, sure." She smiled─faked a smile perhaps, when her man walked away approaching his ex lover. "Hey, Vic. How are you feeling?" He tried to smile.

"Like you care." She spat quietly walking away from them as Jeremy made a look in a mocking manner, sending it towards the Lockwood guy. "What are you lookin' at, Gilbert?" Tyler hissed walking back to her girlfriend on the seat. Jeremy turned to see them and was annoyed at how his brother-in-law seemed to try catching Vicki's attention by asking her condition.

"She didn't want to talk to me. So okay, I'm still good." Tyler said practically while wrapping an arm around her neck while watching Jeremy leave the grill immediately.

Alex and Tyler casually sat on the bench while watching Bonnie and Caroline light their candles and then Bonnie passed them two unlit candles after that. "Some people who didn't attend this event are so not cool at all. They are going to miss this." Bonnie stated and turned to their candles that weren't lit and lit it for them. "Exactly." Alex laughed, sharing the candle's fire with Tyler.

Alex, unknowingly, and suddenly spotted Matt looking at Elena and Stefan jealously as they were talking together and lighting each other's candles. "Alex, back to the discussion!" Bonnie held her hands up.

"Yeah, yeah. Relax." She said with a positive smile. "It's the night of the comet, why would I miss it?"

"She's right, let's move and join the crowd." Tyler suggested, standing up from the ground and ready to walk with his girlfriend. "Let's go." Bonnie confirmed.

A while later, a voice came from Damon's right side as he looked up to see the girl he had bitten back at the school party. "I know you." She said; it was Vicki.

"Well that's unfortunate." Damon smirked, turning his gaze at her when she walked towards him and started to stare intently. "I don't know how but your face..."

"Excuse me, sorry." She apologized leaving to the bathroom shortly and stood near the sink looking at her pale face on the mirror. She popped another two pills from the pill bottle Jeremy had given her and quickly washed them down with some tap water. When she rose back up and looked at the mirror, she saw Damon standing behind her and he came forward, attacked her and sank his teeth into her neck.

Everyone was gathered at the grill, and Bonnie, Tyler, Alex, Elena and Caroline were all sitting together at a table and were joined by Matt. They were talking about the comet, until Jeremy came interrupting them. "Hey," Jeremy walked over. "Has anyone seen Vicki?"

"You're her stalker, you tell us." Tyler spat calmly leaning back on the chair. Jeremy replied, "I can't find her."

Alex looked at her brother and unexpectedly got shocked, at the same time still waiting for everyone to react about it as well.

Tyler rolled his eyes and replied, "She probably found someone else to party with. Sorry, pill pusher, guess you've been replaced."

"Tyler, stop." Alex warned quietly, rubbing his firm chest to calm him down and then turned to Elena who asked in an instant. "What's with the pill pusher?"

"Ask him." Tyler gestured towards Jeremy, which shocked Alex. "Seriously, Jer? Are you dealing?"

"What, are you gonna do this right now?" Jeremy glared.

"She's never gonna go for you," Tyler's eyes darkened. "I knew her well, she would never go for a little boy like you."

"She already did." Jeremy growled. "Over and over again."

"You slept with Vicki?" Alex half-shouted, disbelieving.

"She means Vicki Donovan slept with you." Caroline chuckled nastily, as if she was giggling seductively.

"And I didn't have to force her into it." Jeremy looked evilly at Tyler.

"Stop." Alex warned again.

"What the hell is Jeremy talking about?" Matt asked Tyler in protest, being protective of his little sister. "It's nothing, man. He's a punk, let's just ignore him."

"All of you need to shut up now, okay?" Alex affirmed while standing up. Interrupting everyone. "She's missing and this debate about this slumber party won't help!"

"She's right." Tyler agreed. "We should go search for Vicki."

"How?"

"We'll check the grill bathrooms." Bonnie stated, dragging Caroline and Elena with her to the bathrooms. "I'll check the square." Matt declared.

"I'll come with you." Jeremy attempted to leave.

"Not until you're done with me, emo hippie." Alex grabbed him to the corner. "So you're dealing now? Really? I tried to calm down, but you're getting on my nerves."

Tyler crossed his arms watching his girlfriend scolding her brother in the corner, he found it amusing if he wanted to be honest. "I'm not dealing." Jeremy said.

"That's a nice cover up story, and it's some kind of foolish. Jer, it's a serious matter, this is the last warning, okay? I'll keep an eye on you." Alex shook her head lightly watching her brother.

"Elena and Jenna already gave me such warns and complaints. And now, not you too. Okay? Okay." He protested while rolling his eyes.

"Hey, listen to me! This isn't a good thing, Jer. Should I tell the school about this, or you want me to keep an eye on you? Pick one." Alex said, offering choices, leaning back against a wall and still waiting for Jeremy's response. "I choose none of the above." He glared at her and Tyler before leaving to the square to join Matt.

On top of a shop building, Stefan caught Damon holding Vicki on the edge of the building. It took Stefan a second to get himself up there, and he was already looking directly at his brother and Vicki at the edge of the roof.

"Excuse me." Stefan interrupted although Damon had already interrupted when he was aware his heroic brother was already there.

"No! No!" Vicki shrieked when she felt like she was about to fall. "Shh, I'm not gonna drop you."

"Not bad." Damon said covering Vicki's mouth. "Have you been eating bunnies?"

"Let her go." Stefan ordered.

"Shh. Really?" Damon asked, surprised, taking his hand away from her mouth. "Okay." He almost dropped her as she screamed quietly.

"No! No!" Stefan stepped forward.

"Ugh, relax." Damon threw her forward into Stefan's arms.

Vicki sobbed. "What's happening?"

"I don't need her to be dead, but you might." Damon smirked at Stefan before looking down at the terrified drugged teenager. "What attacked you the other night?"

"I don't know, an animal." She admitted, although it didn't sounded convincing.

"Are you sure about that? Think about it. Think really hard." He faced her. "What attacked you?" Damon repeated the question.

"A vampire." She whispered terrified and moved a few steps back.

Damon asked her again, trying to scare her. "Who did this to you?"

"You did!" She exclaimed, trying to get away from him.

"Wrong!" Damon interrupted her in a humorous voice and convinced her again with his mind tricks. "It was Stefan." He whispered as he grabbed her to his side as he began to compel her. "Stefan Salvatore did this to you."

"Stefan Salvatore did this to me." Vicki repeated.

"He's a vampire." Damon continued compelling the teen. "A vicious, murderous monster."

"Please, Damon, please, don't." Stefan begged him to stop the acts and the tricks as Damon stopped compelling her, ripping off Vicki's bandage. "If you couldn't fix it before, I don't know what you're gonna do now." He smirked while throwing the weakened young girl at Stefan and threw her neck bandage to him after that.

"Your choice of lifestyle has made you weak." Damon scolded his younger vegetarian vampire brother. "A couple of vampire parlour tricks is nothing compared to the powers you could have, that you now need." Damon watched as his brother was becoming darker with blood lust, but was still trying to resist it at the same time. "But you can change that, human blood gives you that."

Stefan shook his head, trying even harder to resist the blood craving, fighting the urges of feeding off the girl on the ground. "You have two choices," Damon said. "You can feed and make her forget, or you can let her run screaming 'vampire' through the town square." He offered while looking down into the town square where he spotted Alex with her dumbass boyfriend, a title he made for Tyler. They were looking for this girl who was with him right now.

"That's what this is about?" Stefan finally spoke firmly. "You want to expose me?"

"No, I want you to remember who you are!" Damon retorted.

"Why?" Stefan asked while looking at his older brother. "So I'll feed, so I'll kill, so I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again... you know what? Let her go, let her tell everyone that Vampires have returned to Mystic Falls, let them chain me up and let them drive a stake through my heart." Stefan glared darkly, "At least then I'll be free of you."

Damon scoffed at his brother before wandering over Vicki who was laying on the ground of the roof, as then he immediately pulled her. "Come here, sweetheart."

"No!"

"It's okay." He cooed before whispering something in her ears and then rubbing her arms to comfort her. "What happened?" She asked clueless. "Oh, I ripped my stitches open."

"You okay?" Stefan asked in concern, worried about the girl's condition. "I took some pills, man, I'm good."

Vicki laughed softly and began to leave the roof carefully, leaving the two brothers alone with their debates. "It's good to be home. I think I might stay a while, this town could use a bit of a wake up call, don't you think?"

"What are you up to, Damon?" Stefan narrowed his eyes, confused about what he was going to plan in the town.

"That's for me to know and for you to dot, dot, dot." He grinned, "Alexandra Gilbert."

"Leave Alex out of this. It has nothing to do with her." Stefan demanded.

"I'll leave Alex when you leave Elena, Stefan. Think about it, and that's it. That's the only option." Damon said darkly with a smirk, warning his brother.

Alex got out of her boyfriend's car with her older sister, walking into the house after kissing him, and closed the door behind them. When they walked upstairs, they heard noises coming from their brother's room and immediately approached it. "Jer?" Alex tilted her head to check the room.

"No, it's me," Jenna popped from his room, checking on his drawer, interrogating things. "On hypocrite patrol."

"Uh, what are you doing?" Alex tilted her head to the side and confused. "And Jeremy hasn't come home yet?"

Jenna stood up, facing her nieces, straightly. "I've become my worse nightmare. The authority figure, who has to violate, a 15 year old's privacy... jackpot!" She held up a bong, "I see the hiding places haven't gotten anymore imaginative. And no, he hasn't come back yet."

"What brought this on?" Elena asked, walking in the room joining her aunt while Alex stayed outside leaning back on a wall. "Your ass-hat of a history teacher shamed me good yesterday."

"You got Tannered." Elena referred to what the kids called when getting schooled by Mr. Tanner as Alex chuckled quietly, walking inside and throwing herself at the couch, scanning the bong.

"Discover the impossible, Mrs. Sommers." Jenna quoted Mr. Tanner's sayings from the parent-teacher conference. "Got it, thanks. Like I didn't know I was screwing up."

"You're not screwing up, Aunt Jenna." Elena assured her while standing next to the couch where Alex sat.

"Yes I am." Jenna replied, she sounded firm. "And you know why? Because I'm not your mother. She made everything look so easy—and I was screwing this family up."

Alex looked up at her aunt in concern about what she just said, she sounded tired and felt terrible about her involvement with the family, "No, you're not. We're happy to have you, you're not screwing up anything." Alex said, repeating the point of Elena's last statement, "You are all we have. We love you."

"No, I can't do it. I'm going to say or do the wrong thing, and this kid is going to get worse, and it's all going to be my fault." Jenna grew more paranoid about Jeremy's drug problem.

"I mean, yeah, I know he's in a rough shape. We've been seeing worse, hearing worse about him, Aunt Jenna. But these, aren't your fault. This is just the fear talking." Elena informed her wisely and grabbed her hands supportively.

"You are a little scared, that's all. We all are; Alex and I are the same too." Elena looked down thinking for a second and then looked at her sister. "We'll see, I'm sure he'll be okay." Alex smiled weakly and hugged her aunt.

"Yeah.. And hey, I have to go do something," Elena stared at Jenna kindly after thinking for a while. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Jenna nodded slowly with a comfortably smile and rubbed Elena's hands. "Yeah." She answered tersely while looking at her niece who was standing up, getting ready to go somewhere.

"Where are you going?" Alex wondered.

Elena squinted her eyes and smiled widely. "Somewhere. You stay here, with Jenna."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes while walking out the room together with Jenna as Elena was making her way downstairs.

After being left in the bar on her own, Caroline decided to return home as she was getting no more juicy information from this story, and she left the grill bar and walked toward her car and was still thinking about the stories, when she noticed someone standing far away from her. She suddenly stopped, and fear struck through her heart as she walking across the parking lot. She heard a loud crash that came from behind her, and fumbled her keys, accidentally dropping them in a jerk movement.

She bent down to grab the keys and when she stood up, there was a black-haired guy standing in front of her which almost caused her to jump out of her skin, startled by his sudden presence.

"Sorry," He apologised with his casual arrogant smirk playing on his curvy perfect lips, catching Caroline's attention. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"No, it's fine," She chuckled while shaking her hair slightly to brush her long bangs out of sight and started to flirt. "I was hoping I'd see you again."

"I know." He replied, wiggling his eye brows and tilted his head slightly.

"Cocky much?"

"Very much." He smirked playfully as she replied with an amused grin.

Over the boarding house, Stefan answered to the doorbell that just rang, opening it slowly only to see that his dream girl was standing there with her white outer wear. "Hey." She greeted while rubbing her fingers.

The moment was paused when he looked deeply into her eyes—still unbelieving that she was actually coming over. "Would you like to come in?" He offered moving to the side.

Elena jerked her thumb behind her while slowly turning around. "Comet's actually this way."

He blinked and smiled to himself, and started following her to the brick wall outside the house as he saw she was leaning against it while looking up to the jet black skies that she thought was amazingly beautiful.

"Sorry for barging in." She apologised with a low voice. "Especially after earlier."

"No, I'm glad you're here." Stefan replied calmly. "The way we left things, I didn't like it."

"So here's the thing; I got home tonight, planning on doing what I always do; write my diary like I have been since my mom gave me one when I was ten." She said, giving a little history flashback of her childhood. "So I get everything out, every feeling and it all goes in this little book I hide on the second shelf behind this really hideous ceramic mermaid, but then I realized I'd be writing things I should probably tell you."

"What would you write?" He asked.

"I would write; Dear diary, today I convinced myself it was okay to give up. Don't take risks, stick with the status quo. No drama, now is just not the time. But my reasons aren't reasons, they are excuses. All I'm doing is hiding from the truth, and the truth is that..." She paused, trying to find the right words to say. "I'm scared, Stefan. I'm scared that if I let myself be happy for even one moment that, the world's just going to come crashing down, and I, don't know if I can survive that."

"Do you wanna know what I would write?" He asked her as she nodded. "I would write... I met a girl. We talked, it was epic. Then the sun came up and reality set in, well this is reality, right here."

She formed a little smile as her heart finally won, she can't refuse the feelings that; whenever she was around him, she felt good, and it was right. The smile appeared on her lips was pure, it wasn't forced or based on anything that forced her. She wondered what people would say if she told her real feelings to everybody, would they think of her negatively?

Both of them giggled and began to walk more further around the house's terrace, talking and started to gain deeper knowledge of each other's life. And they ended up kissing. Elena had a nice night, but questions were still around her head, what if Alex will disagree with her decision of being in love with Stefan?

AN — Alex finally gets to meet our favorite Damon Salvatore! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Kudos to my amazing beta. Anyway, I'd love to hear from you so feel free to review, it'll be highly appreciated!

I also want to thank these amazing people so much for reviewing the first chapter: WhispersAndDream, RisingPhoenix89, Forever Fanfiction Lover22, and Saffy2510. And of course, for those who followed and favorite the story too. Thank you guys, you have no idea how everything you guys do make my day!

If you want to see how I envision Alex, do visit theroseofgilbert dot tumblr dot com for pictures, gifs, bios and other stuffs related to the story. You can also send questions to the author, Alex and Damon since one of them will be online every weekend!

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Do you wanna see the outfits that Alex wear? Then you are more than just welcome to visit my polyvore! My username is summerhuntress. All outfits are there! Feel free to follow if you have an account.

~ To Be Continued ~