Elena was at the boarding house waiting for Stefan. Gosh, where is he? He should've been here an hour ago, she thought impatiently. Not even five minutes later, Stefan walked through the door. He walked over, scooped her up in his arms, and gave her a small kiss.

"Hey." He said still holding her.

"Hey, what took you so long?"

He put her down and they sat on the couch. Why did he get this sudden feeling of not wanting to tell her about the talk he had with Caroline? It wasn't a bad talk…He had to tell Elena. She hated it when he kept stuff from her.

"We just trained a little longer than usual."

He couldn't tell her. He didn't know why, but he couldn't.

"Oh, ok. How is she doing with training?" Elena asked sincerely.

"Not perfect, but she's getting better every day."

"That's good," Elena said with a small smile. "I'm glad you're helping her with this. It worried me that Damon was going to teach her at first…that would have been a disaster."

Damon walked in the room at that moment. He had that half smile on his face that could bring any girl to her knees. Any girl except Elena, that is.

"Talking about me, are we?" He said with that snarky attitude he always carried around with him.

"When are we not talking about you?" Elena came back with equally snarky.

"Good point." He said and winked at her. She just rolled her eyes.

Damon sat down on the couch across from Elena and Stefan.

They sat there in quiet from what seemed like forever before Damon broke the silence.

"So, party at the grill tonight. Who's going?"

A party right now didn't sound that great to Stefan. He needed to sort out this mess with Caroline. Would it even be called a mess? It was just one simple talk to make sure everything was going okay with her. Then why did it leave him feeling like this?

"Uhmm…actually, Damon. We have better things to do." Stefan said.

Elena disagreed. She thought a party sounded great. It felt like forever since she has had any fun.
"What? Stefan, we haven't been to a party in who knows how long. A little fun could be good for us."

"Yeah, Stefan. Listen to our girlfriend." Damon said. He knew Elena wanted nothing to do with him, but he said 'our' anyways because he knew it would upset Stefan, who already seemed to be upset.

"I don't want to go, okay?" Stefan snapped.

Elena jumped a little at his tone. "Well, you don't have to be rude about it. We're only trying to get you to lighten up."

"I'm not going. End of discussion."

"Stefan…is everything okay?" She looked at Damon for support, but he looked rather smug with the fact that his brother is upset.

"I am fine, Elena. For the last time, I don't want to go to a party tonight."

He still had a rude tone underneath his forced calm when he spoke. Elena didn't like that too much.

"Well, I do. Damon, would you mind giving me a ride?"
This angered Stefan even more. "No. You are not going with him."

Now Elena was mad. What was his problem today?

"You do not speak for me. I can make my own decisions." She snapped at him.

Stefan didn't speak. He just looked away, and Elena felt bad for snapping at him.

In a softer voice, she said, "I need to get out a do something. I haven't had fun in what feels like forever. I want a night off from all this vampire and werewolf stuff. You may not trust your brother, but I do. I'm going with him, and I'll be okay."

Damon was enjoying this little argument. He loved it even more that Elena was sticking up for him. She said she trusted him…after everything he's done to her…she trusts him. That made a small piece of ice on his non-beating heart melt.

Stefan looked at Elena and only nodded then walked out of the room. Elena thought to take after him, try to get him to talk to her, to get him to tell her what was wrong, but like she said; she needed a break. So she looked at Damon for an answer to her earlier question.

"I would love to give you a ride, Elena."

The way he said it made it sound like there was a double meaning behind it. Elena glared at him as he started laughing and they left to go to the party.

Despite the fact that Elena can't stand Damon most of the time, she was glad she was going with him. He knew how to have a good time, and a good time was what she needed.