Damon and I spent the next few hours together in our classes, picking seats together and wasting the day talking away, it was a nice change from what I was used to, being all alone, except for lunch when I sat with Bonnie and Caroline. After our third class of the day was over, he looked at me.

"Can we go get lunch now? I'm kind of starving." I laughed and nodded, knowing exactly what he was feeling. I was starting to get that sick nauseating feeling you get when you haven't eaten in a long time, and because of my rush, I didn't eat breakfast this morning either.

"Yeah, come one I'll take you to the cafe Bonnie and I planned on eating at today." We started walking and out of my peripheral vision I saw someone familiar. I almost sighed because I knew he was staring at me.

It was Stefan Marks, my ex-boyfriend of almost two months now. I sighed under my breath, hoping he wouldn't cause a scene by walking over to Damon and me, but my hopes failed, and he came strolling over to Damon and me.

"Hey Elena." Stefan said in his deep voice. Stefan looked much like Damon, except his hair was a brown color, instead of Damon's black hair color, and Stefan also had piercing bluish-green eyes that formed into a teal color. He was the football player girls swooned over, and the all-star the other jocks wanted to be.

"Stefan." I said solemnly and looked at Damon, he had a blank expression on his face, he didn't look happy, and he brushed his thumb against my hand, which made me blush.

"Who is this?" Stefan gestured to Damon beside me like I was still his property. To start off, Stefan broke up with me. We'd been dating for about a year, then he met a guy names Tyler that he'd hung out with before he came to the university. They went out drinking and partying then Stefan cheated on me with Tyler's then girlfriend Rebekah Mikealson. Let's just say they aren't friends anymore.

"I'm Damon. Damon Salvatore, and as far as you're concerned, I'm her friend." Damon piped up from beside me; his tone was a lot more serious than what it had been when it was just he and I around each other.

"Oh, well, good luck with her, man. You'll definitely get some use out of that." I watched as Stefan's eyes scanned my body and I felt disgusted, on the verge of breaking down in tears. I didn't think Stefan would have the nerve to exploit me in front of another man, but in the back of my mind I knew that he wasn't the guy I'd first fell in love with nearly a year ago.

I was about to just forget it, run away from Damon and the entire situation when Damon got right up in Stefan's face. Damon's expression had changed from blank to anger; raging anger.

"I doubt you have the right to talk. You look like something's someone's gotten a lot of use from." Damon put emphasis on 'a lot' and I saw Stefan's jaw clench, then he swung at Damon. My breath caught my scream as I took a step or two back.

Luckily, Stefan missed, but Damon came back with a right hand of his own, hooking Stefan right in the nose; Stefan fell flat to the ground, holding his nose in both hands. There was blood everywhere, on Stefan's shirt, hands, and even on the concrete pathway. Damon took a step back toward me and stared at him.

"Next time you should think twice before you open your mouth." Damon spat at Stefan before he started to walk off, and I followed behind him, not knowing much more to do, because I didn't want to be around Stefan when he got back up. Damon turned around and looked at me; he was gritting his teeth, and neither of us spoke.

"Elena," he spoke softly and looked straight at me, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Not in front of you, especially not on school grounds." I looked down; right, on school grounds. Damon would probably get expelled for this. Or at least come very close to it, and it was only his first day. Damon spoke again, not allowing me to say a thing.

"I let my anger get the best of me." He ran his hand through his midnight black hair. "But I couldn't stand what he said about you, it wasn't right." I just stared at Damon. Unable to move, speak, do anything; he did it because of me. Not because I was just some random girl, because I was me, because he actually cared about me.

I thought he was going to walk away as he turned the opposite direction so he was no longer facing me, but I got my sentence out before that.

"And I'm not angry with you. That's the single greatest thing anyone's ever done for me, ever, you're my hero, as far as I'm concerned, Damon Salvatore don't you dare walk away from me." I said in the same tone I had when we first met and he turned back around, looking at me.

His expression had changed once again; he was no longer angry, as far as I could tell. There was actually a look of relief on his face, like he'd been set free of something, and he returned to my side. He leaned down and whispered in my ear.

"Technically, I had the right to do so if I would've pleased." I felt his warm breath against my ear as he chuckled and I smacked him gently on his shoulder, it was the same thing he'd said to me this morning, and even I was laughing.

"Oh, come on, smartass; let's go get something to eat." I winked at him and he chuckled again, following my lead as I walked toward the Blazer Café on the south side of campus with him, our hands occasionally brushing against each other's as we walked down the concrete pathways.