Chapter 2: Weird Tension
I wake up in strong protective arms, at first I'm confused because I know I went to sleep alone I'm scared to move then I remember my nightmare, the voices and Damon. He helped me, he just held me when I was shaking in fear, I felt like he knew my pain and comforted me because that meant he understood, but it also made my heart ache for him.
I look at this beautiful man in my bed and I find myself wishing he was 'my man', but of course I know he'll never feel for me in that way as far as I know he doesn't really like me anyway. I study his face because I know I'll never get a chance like this ever again. He looks so peaceful and young when he's sleeping, I decide to enjoy this moment and close my eyes again, I drift off almost instantly.
...
I wake up in my big bed alone, I remember last night and when I woke up earlier. He clearly walked out not so long ago, it almost feels like I dreamt all of it, but I know it was real. The caring side I saw last night was heartwarming, but somehow I don't believe it changed anything at all. I walk downstairs where I see my dad and Lily in the kitchen.
"Good morning sweetheart, I was about to wake you breakfast is ready in ten." My dad smiles and I nod.
Breakfast is awkward as yesterday only the tension between Damon and I almost suffocating, so last night really did change things between us just not in a positive way as I hoped. I decide to call Caroline and ask her to come over, I haven't seen her a lot lately and I miss her. I wait for her outside and smile widely when I see her car.
"Elena!" She says happily when she gets out of her car, I walk towards her.
"Care!" I smile before I hug her. "I've missed this." I admit.
"Me too." She says wrapping her arms around me as she hugs me back. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said it was a big house." She says impressed.
"Nope." I say.
I show her around in the house and we start with the living room where Stefan is watching TV, he looks up and smiles at me. Caroline leans into my as she whispers 'wow, he's hot' in my ear and that makes me struggle not to giggle.
"Stefan this is my friend Caroline." I introduce them, he gets up from his seat and walks over to us.
"Hi, Caroline, it's nice to meet you." He says politely.
"Nice meeting you too." She giggles.
"Come on Care." I say before she regretfully follows me around the house.
"What did you do that for? He was hot." She pouts.
"Oh come on, you can hit on him later." I giggle.
"Fine." She grins.
We've been around the whole house and we're on our way to my room when we bomb into Damon as he was leaving his room. Caroline stands there dumbstruck, I think for a moment she lost her ability to speak at all.
"Hey Damon." I say awkwardly.
"Hi." He smiles slightly before he turns his attention to Caroline. "Who's this?" He smirks.
"I'm Caroline, Elena's best friend." She says clearly lost in his eyes.
"Well nice to meet you Caroline, I'm Damon." He says charmingly and kisses her hand sweetly before letting go of her. I know if I hadn't been there he would charm her pants off her, I just knew he was a player.
"You too Damon." She smiles goofily as Damon walks past her and walk towards the stairs, she looks after him until he's gone. "Wow, you live in paradise." She says dreamily.
"I'm sure you would think so, but Damon is an ass." I giggle.
"Yeah, he has a hot ass." She continues.
We walk the rest of the way to my room and once I've closed the door we both crash on my bed, I let myself breathe out. Caroline looks suspiciously at me and I shrug, I know she's gonna interrogate me so I'm just waiting for her to start.
"What's going on with you and the Salvatore brothers?" There it is I think as she asks her first question.
"Nothing!"
"That's a total lie!" She accuses. "Now spill the beans, Gilbert!" She demands.
"Fine geez!" I say dramatically. "Well Stefan and I were told we weren't allowed to date, we kinda bonded a little over that and we're friends now." I admit.
"You may be friends, but he wants to be more than that. The way he looked at you totally gave him away." She grins.
"You're delusional." I giggle.
"You know I'm right and even if you don't you'll know soon enough." She says.
"Alright." I hold my hand up in defense.
"What about Damon?" She asks sassily.
"Well that complicated..." I look anywhere than Caroline and when I finally look at her she give me a look there says you better start talking. "He hated me from the moment we met and I have no idea why, but we had this moment in the kitchen my first night here where I felt like I saw the real him. I'm just so confused." I admit.
"Anything else happen?" She asks suspiciously.
"Yeah... You know about my nightmares..." I say and she nods. "Well since we moved here I have them every night, I always end up downstairs because I need a cup of coffee and he always go downstairs for coffee every night too." I confess. "Last night though... It was different... I was awake, but the nightmare was still so fresh... I had a panic attack and he was the one who calmed me down... He carried me to my room and ended up sleeping beside me." I tell her.
"Wow, he must really care about you." She says excitedly.
"I don't know Care, he hated me even more this morning..." I say.
"I think you should give it some time, it sound like you like him too." She smiles.
"I guess I can't run from that..." I admit.
Caroline spent the entire day here and even dinner time comes around she goes home, I was happy to have her to talk to because I was beginning to go crazy. I know there something about Damon I like, something about him there draws me in.
We all eat dinner together like our parents wants, it's still very quiet at dinner. I look over at Damon and he's looking anywhere but at me. I just want to know what's going on in his head, but I'm not sure he'll let me in. After dinner I follow him upstairs, but I don't stop him until we're alone.
"What?" He snaps and I'm taken aback.
"I just wanted to thank you because you helped me last night." I try to smile, but his hash tone got to me.
"Listen, we had a moment and I helped you last night, but it's not a big deal and it doesn't make us friends!" He snaps walking away from me and back downstairs, seconds later I hear the front door open and close indicating that he left.
I lie down on my bed trying not to think at all, but my mind constantly wanders back to Damon. I think he has a few different personalities, at this point I've met polite Damon who helped me with my box on the stairs, I've met caring Damon who helped me, seductive Damon who was seducing Caroline and angry Damon who hate people trying to get closer to him.
A knock on my door brings me back into my room, a second later Stefan stands in my doorway and I signal for him to come in. He walks over to me and sits down on my bed next to me, I smile at him and sit up.
"Hey Stefan, what's up?" I ask.
"Have you seen Damon? He left after dinner." He asks.
"No I haven't seen him." I say honestly.
"He does this a lot." He says sadly.
"What?"
"He just takes off and no one knows where he is, he has done this for years even when he was a kid." He explains.
"I get a feeling that something is bothering him, but he shuts down if I try to talk to him." I shrug.
"Yeah, he hate when people get in his business... He never actually had a steady girlfriend either and I guess it's because he doesn't want anyone to close, that includes me too." He looks down.
"Do you know why he shut down?" I ask.
"No, but it happened around the time our father died." He says sadly.
"What happened to him?" I find myself asking.
"He fell down the stairs when he was drunk and Damon was the one to find him." He explains and I gasp, this must be it. This is why he won't open up to anyone and I know that because I've done and I'm still doing it.
"That must have been horrible for him." I say compassionately.
"Yeah, but it's a long time ago." He shrugs.
"How long?" I ask.
"Nine years, Damon was 15 and I was 8." He explains. "What about your mom?" He finally asks and normally I would have avoided the question, but I've been grilling him for information so I better give him something.
"Two years ago, I was 15 and Jeremy was 11." I tell him fighting the tears and the guilt there comes along with talking about it.
"I'm sorry." He says sincerely.
"I'm sorry too... About your father." I smile slightly.
"It never gets any easier does it?" He asks.
"I don't think so." I whisper, suddenly we hear something just outside the door. Stefan and I look out of my door to check where the sound comes from. I quickly see Damon and he is making out with a blonde tall girl I've never seen before, I guess he has a girlfriend after all.
"You better get used to that, he brings home a new girl almost every night." He sighs sadly. So not a girlfriend then?
"Why?" I ask curiously.
"No one knows." He shrugs before he leaves my room, I guess he doesn't want to hear or see this and right know I wish I could go too.
I close my door trying to block out the sound of the girl's moans, but it's pointless. I turn on my iPod and lie on my bed listening to music with headphones on. I wonder why he's like that, why would he want to bring home a new girl almost every night? Two hours later I take off my headphones to hear heels walking down the stairs, I think she just left. I don't want to dwell on it so I get ready for bed trying to think about anything else.
...
I wake up once again from a terrifying nightmare, it's always the same, but that doesn't make it less terrifying. I still have trouble breathing, I walk into my bathroom and throw water on my face. I just wish it would stop, I can't handle it and the last few weeks it has been even worse. I get downstairs and to my surprise Damon is in the kitchen making coffee.
"We gotta stop meeting this way." I half joke.
"Yeah." He says quietly.
"Hey, what wrong?" I ask worriedly.
"Nothing." He says with his back to me.
"Why won't you talk to me?" I ask placing my hand on his naked shoulder, in one shift move he has turned around and pined me up against the wall. I look terrified at him and that's where I notice just how terrified he looks.
He seems to snap back to reality and notice that he's hurting me, I didn't notice how tight he was holding me until he begins to let go, I whimper in pain. That makes him jump away from me, I look at my wrist and to my arm, that's definitely leaving a bruise.
"I'm sorry." He whispers pained.
"What just happened?" I ask when I get out of the shock mode I was in.
"I... I wasn't completely awake and I didn't expect that you would touch me, I panicked." He says, he looks confused and shaken up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." He whispers.
"It's okay, I'm fine." I say.
"No you're not, I already see the bruise on your arm." He says sad and angry at himself. I look at my arm, I put my hand over it as I walk closer to him.
"It doesn't hurt, I'm okay, I'm sorry I shouldn't have scared you like that." I say.
"Don't defend my actions, just don't." He says turning away from me.
"Damon?" I say as I hesitate to touch his arm, but eventually I do and make him turn around. I caress his cheek to make him look at me. "I'm okay." I whisper.
"How can you just let something like that slide?" He asks, he looks disgusted with himself.
"You didn't do it on purpose, you were almost sleepwalking." I say and before I can think any better of it I pull him into my arms, he hugs me back instantly. I try to ignore how I feel fireworks in my abdomen, but it feels so damn good.
My train of thoughts disappear when I feel a drop of water on my shoulder, I don't need to look to know that he's crying. What happened to him? What did he see? It must have been terrible because I have no doubt that he's strong. What ever made him cry was without a doubt bad, I don't have to ask to know that whatever this is he has been holding it in for a very long time.
"It's okay." I whisper and that alone makes him shake, he really had a rough night to break down like this. I just hold him because I don't know what else to do, it's ripping my heart to see him like this. "You're gonna be okay." I whisper holding onto him. We stand there for a long time before he stops shaking, he seems to get some control back as he slowly lets go of me.
He takes my hand and examine the bruise. "I'm a terrible person." He whispers.
My eyes find his and there's no doubt that he really believes that. "No, you're not, I don't know what happened to you Damon, but I know it was bad. I know you blame yourself, but you're wrong." I whisper.
"How do you know?" He asks distracted from his thoughts.
"Because if you had been a bad person it wouldn't affect you this much, you wouldn't care, it wouldn't give you nightmares." I say.
"I-I hurt you." He whispers pained and I know this will make him feel even more guilty than he already do.
"Damon, I'm alright, I know you didn't mean to. I'm not blaming you and this," I say looking at the bruise. "will fade."
"How can you be so caring towards me? Even after I've snapped at you and hurt you, and yet you don't hate me?" He asks moving closer to me until there's barely any space between us.
"I'm caring towards those who deserve it." I say almost forgetting how to breathe and I have to remind myself to actually breathe when I run out of air.
"I don't deserve it." He says shaking his head.
"Yes you do." I look into his eyes and what I see is a scared little boy, whatever happened to him happened when he was a kid and it makes my heart ache. His eyes holds a terrible story, a story there is haunting him and tearing his soul apart.
"No, but I need it." He whispers, his eyes are fixated on my lips and it makes my heart beat faster, being close and underdressed doesn't help in resisting this hot, sexy, yet broken man. He moves closer and closer until I can feel his breath on my lips, I feel his bottom lip touch mine and my eyes flutter closed. My arms wraps about his neck instinctively and desire explodes in my abdomen as I wait for him to actually kiss me. Just as our lips is about to meet I become aware of screaming upstairs and that makes us jump away from each other. "What is that?" Damon asks and I listen, then I realize.
"It's my brother." I say fearfully as I run for the stairs with Damon right behind me, I run to Jer's room and open the door. I hurry inside to see him tossing and turning, I'm by his side quickly and I start to shake him awake.
"Wake up! Jer, it's a nightmare wake up!" I almost scream, I know exactly what he's seeing when I hear him gasp for air. He thinks he can't breathe. "Jer, wake up! Please wake up!" I cry completely in tears and he jumps up gasping for air. "Oh thank god." I say relieved.
"Elena?" He gasps and tears fall from his eyes, I hug him. What is it about this night? Then I remember this was the night it happened two years ago.
"It's okay, Jer, it was just a nightmare, you're okay." I tell him.
"It was so real, so real. I felt like I was back there." He whisper.
"I know, I know." I whisper holding him, I know Damon must be standing there confused, but right now I can only focus on Jeremy.
After awhile we all walk downstairs and drink a cup of coffee without saying a word, I look at Damon and he looks confused.
"I'm gonna go take a shower." Jeremy says before heading for the stairs.
"What just happened, Elena." Damon asks when Jeremy is gone upstairs.
"Um... I..." I stutter.
"Elena! Why couldn't he breathe?" He asks forgetting his own nightmare and his own problems.
"He thought he was drowning." I whisper so quietly that I'm not sure he heard it.
"Why?" He asks and I shake my head, I can't talk about this fresh tears forms in my eyes. "Elena?" He asks worriedly and I shake my head again. "You had the same nightmare didn't you? That's why you were gasping for air when you came down here?" He asks and I nod.
"Yeah." I whisper.
"Wanna talk about it?" He asks.
"No." I shake my head as sip more coffee.
"Maybe I misjudged you, princess." He smirks trying to lighten the mood and I glare at him, now is not the time. "Hey, are you okay?" He asks caressing my chin and makes me look into his eyes, as soon as I do I'm lost those eyes, looking into his eyes makes me weak-kneed.
"I will be, it just this day." I admit.
"What about it?" He asks.
"My mom died on this day two years ago." I admit.
"I'm so sorry, Elena." He says compassionately.
"Thanks." I say giving him a weak smile. "I'm gonna go shower." I say.
"Yeah, I am too."
We walk upstairs together and that's when I realize why he was pressing that girl into the wall across from here earlier this evening, his room is right across from mine. I walk inside trying to wrap my head around everything that happened the last hour, Damon breaking down then my brother and I almost broke down too.
I try to wash away all the horror, but I don't feel calm at all, this time the shower doesn't work, I get dressed in a different top and clean panties before I exit the bathroom. I get back to bed, but I'm restless, there's no way I'll fall asleep again suddenly there's a quiet knock on my door, I sit up instantly.
"Come in." I whisper and the door opens revealing Damon, he walks over to my bed and sit down.
"You can't sleep either, can you?" He asks.
"No, I'm still shaking." I admit.
"Me too." He admit and I notice that he in fact is shaking.
"I know it's weird, but do you mind staying in here I don't want to be alone." I whisper.
"Of course." He says as I lie back down again and he lies down beside me, I lift up the covers inviting him to lie under them as well. He moves closer to me under the covers and pulls me into his embrace, suddenly I feel warm and safe. I cuddle closer to him and my eyes flutter closed I'm fast asleep.
I wake up feeling warm, too warm then the memories from last night return and I slowly open my eyes. Damon is still in my bed, his legs is tangled in between mine, my head is on his chest and our arms are around each other. It feels so good, I could really get used to this I realize that I might have a 'tiny' crush on Damon.
I decide to enjoy this for as long as it lasts because I'm sure it won't happen again, and the thought is surprisingly painful. He slowly awakes, I look up at him fearing what I'll see on his face, but he just smiles at me, how confusing.
"Good morning." He whispers.
"Good morning."
"How are you feeling?" He asks me concerned.
"I'm better, you?" I ask and he seems to consider my question.
"Better actually." He smiles and it makes my heart flutter, I'm sure he can feel how fast my heart is beating. "How did you sleep?" He asks caressing my cheek.
"Surprisingly good." I admit. "You?"
"Same, which is weird for me. I never sleep with anyone." He admits and I don't doubt for a minute what he means since I heard that girl leave last night.
I try to avoid his gaze, but it backfires when I look down if his chest he's well trained and it's a hot look on him. He only wears boxers and they don't do much to hide anything at all, I blush when I realize that he's aroused. I look away, his gaze catches mine I'm flushed and he chuckles, I thought he might be embarrassed, but no not at all.
I notice a tingling feeling on my belly, I realize that the top I'm wearing has moved up to under my breasts during the night and he seems to notice that too. He gets a good look at my body and his heated stare makes the temperature rise, I feel like I'm melting from his heated stare.
"I should go back to my room." He says heatedly and of course I don't want him to, but I nod. He gets up and walk out of my room without another word.
Things are super awkward between Damon and I, on one hand I don't think he likes me at all, but he's definitely attracted to me that much was clear this morning. There's something about last night, I actually learned a lot, but I think I'm missing something important. I suddenly remember that the camping trip is later today, so I better try to sleep a little more.
A/N:
Hi everyone,
I'm so sorry for the long wait on this one. I've made the mistake of having to many ongoing stories at the same time and that's why it sometimes takes me a long time to upload my stories. I'm really sorry, but just for the record I'm never giving up on a story. It may take awhile, but I'm never giving up on a story :)
Thanks for reviewing and reading it means a lot to me :)
- Until next time :)