I was about an inch away from committing sororicide and under the circumstances I doubt there would be a court in the land that would convict me.

For starters, I have my sister to "thank" for turning the last week into a non-stop carnival ride. Morning, noon and night, whether we were reuniting with Bonnie and Caroline or just hitting all my old haunts, Katherine had made sure to stamp everything we did with her unique brand of fun. And maybe I needed that. Maybe, I even enjoyed it. But sometimes you just want to get off the tilt-a-whirl and breathe for a moment.

So waking up bleary eyed, in the clothes from last night, the day before we were due to drive up for the wedding and finding my bridesmaid's dress badly damaged was possibly the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Oh no. No, no, no. no. This isn't happening," I moaned, holding the peach silk, A-line dress out in front of me to make sure I wasn't just hallucinating my worst nightmare coming true as a side effect of alcohol poisoning or something. This dress had been shipped back and forth from the US to Italy to make sure the measurements and alterations were all perfect, making each journey without so much as a snag on it. But now, two days before I would have to wear it in front of all of Stefan and Lexi's guests, it had suddenly developed two very black, very large, burn marks right smack in the middle of the bodice.

"Katherine Elizabeth Gilbert," I screeched, the nails on chalkboard effect of my own voice causing the little gnomes that had been needling at my brain since I'd woken up to hammer louder. Throwing a plastic hanger at the motionless lump under the covers on the other bed in our hotel room, I tried again. "Wake up, Kat, unless you want the contents of the ice bucket dumped on you."

First there was no hint of life, then gradually, my older sister groaned, pulling the sheet up around her and poked her head out. "If it's before midday, someone better be dying." She pushed her mass of curls back out of her face, and tried to wipe away some of the eyeliner that had smeared across her cheeks during the night, before fixing a glare on me. "What?"

I stalked to the front of her bed, pulling the ruined garnet with me. "Can you spot the difference?," I asked sardonically, jabbing angrily with my pointer finger at the singed fabric.

Katherine groaned and attempted to flop back onto her stomach. "I don't see how that's my fault or problem."

I'm sure she didn't, considering how drunk we must have been when it occurred. I grabbed the edge of the linen sheet, ripping it off of her, and rested a finger on my chin, pretending to think. "Hmm, I don't know. It could have something to do with the double-barreled curling iron that you were resting on it last night while you were getting ready."

"You're being ludicrous, Elena." Katherine crawled to the edge of the bed to get a closer look at what I was holding. "You can't possibly know it was me who left it on there."

"Unless we have had some beauty conscious burglars visit, it's a pretty safe bet. It obviously wasn't me." I lifted up a hank of my naturally pin-straight hair to drive the point home.

Wrinkling her forehead, Katherine sniffed haughtily and lifted her leg into the air, wiggling her cast-clad foot near my face. "My horrifically broken ankle is hurting me again. I need my sleep, Elena."

I was more than qualified from years of childhood experiences to know when my sibling was trying to get herself out of a corner she'd backed herself into. Stopping her from grabbing the sheet away from me so she could fall back to sleep, I wagged my finger. "Oh no you don't. You've been milking that injury for a week now. You were hobbling around just fine on it last night."

Katherine pouted, then sighed and let out a puff of air, her bangs blowing out of her eyes. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry 'Lena. I really had no idea where I threw that thing to cool it down. It must have fallen into your suitcase."

Rubbing a hand over my face, I shook my head and flopped down next to her. "No, forget it. It's mostly my fault for leaving it on top, out in the open." Deflated, I held up the piece of clothing near to my face, attempting to inspect it. "Dammit, we're driving up for the bachelorette party tomorrow morning and then the day after is the wedding. What the hell am I going to do? There's no time to get a replacement."

It annoyed me that I was getting so agitated over the situation. I dealt with this kind of shit frequently for work, but being tired, hungover and without any of the materials I would need, it had suddenly become a stage five disaster.

"Some might say it was an improvement," Katherine opined smoothly, fingering the seam of the dress while curling her lip up. "What was Lexi thinking going with that color scheme?" Seeing my expression darkening again, she held her hands up and rolled her eyes. "Oh calm down, don't work yourself up into a fit. We'll call the nearest bridal store. I'm sure the seamstress will have an idea on what to do."

A couple of phone calls and a few wrong turns later, I drove up to the one place that had agreed to look at the dress on such short notice. Kat shoved the door closed behind me, her nose scrunching up beneath her sunglasses as we entered and she absorbed the miles and miles of white tulle and satin dresses in every silhouette under the sun that surrounded us. I elbowed past her to get to the desk where a diminutive older lady gave us both the once over.

"Hello, I'm here about an issue-"

The employee smiled tightly, the wrinkles around her mouth deepening. "You must be the girl who called about the Vera Wang that had a curling iron left on it."

My nod and Katherine's smirk confirmed her guess.

"These things happen." She gritted out between her teeth in a way that made it very obvious that these things should positively not be happening if you had any brains. "I'm Mallory. Shall we see what we can salvage?"

With a single brusque wave of her hand, the lady motioned us to follow her to the back where Katherine promptly sunk into one of the navy blue and gold armchairs provided, propping her injured leg up onto a small coffee table where her foot instantly scattered the magazines that had been artfully fanned out on top of it.

Mallory pointedly ignored my sister, but the lines on her face tellingly expanded to canyons. When I took the dress in question out of my bag and she got a look at the damage, Mallory sucked in a breath like I had just shown her a desecrated religious artifact.

"Well that has had quite the number done on it, hasn't it?". She sighed deeply, "There's no way you can fade that burn. We'll have to find a similar color fabric and cover it with a bow or something. Go ahead and get changed and I'll look to see what we have."

It wasn't ideal, but it'd have to do. I ducked into one of the dressing rooms that lined the wall in front of us, eager to escape the glare that made me feel like I was back in high school.

"Hey Kat, can you do these buttons up for me?" I requested as I came back out, my head down as I stepped onto the small circular platform, focusing on trying to reach behind me to close the dress.

"We managed four years of not seeing each other and now twice in one week? You going for a record, Gilbert?"

My eyes shot up to find Damon standing on the platform two over from mine, a seamstress kneeling by his feet and adjusting the cuffs of his pants. I let myself look just long enough to digest that the black suit he was wearing fit him like it had been created with only Damon Salvatore in mind.

Once again seeing him so unexpectedly threw me for a loop and my hands fell, the back of my dress reopening. Since the visit to the hospital, I had gone back to the familiar habit of doing my best to forget his existence, and it was working perfectly. At least until now.

I raised my eyebrows at the overly colloquial tone he had apparently adopted, a far cry from the mostly formal way he had interacted with us when we last ran into each other, and faced back to the mirror across from me.

"Damon … I didn't expect to see you again." Katherine's muffled snort at my remark from somewhere behind me made my cheeks flush. "Before the wedding," I clarified snippily, trying not to turn and snarl at my older sister.

"What can I say? Theresa here is the best seamstress in the state. I wouldn't go anywhere else."

Theresa got a dreamy smile on her face that I had seen infinite times before on the faces of all the girls he chose to dump his accomplished flattery on. And if I was being completely truthful, it'd had probably been on my face more than once a long time ago.

Now I just rolled my eyes at how easy and stupid I must have looked back then. "This is your suit for the wedding?" I questioned indifferently, as Mallory returned with a big spool of ribbon. She unrolled a length, held it up above of her and cut off the measurement. "Leaving it a bit late aren't you?"

"You're one to talk," Damon shifted to flare his eyes at me, earning a slap on his shin when he caused Theresa to drop a pin. He indicated with his chin towards my clothing "What happened there?"

Katherine piped up. "Nothing of your concern." The audible licked finger and turning of her magazine page acted as a period to her comment.

So quickly I wasn't sure if I imagined it, Damon's eyes soaked up the sliver of my back that had been exposed. Unnerved, I twisted my hands behind me, managing to close the buttons by myself after all. When I looked back up, he was staring stoically ahead again.

Mallory began to wrap the miles of wide apricot ribbon around my waist, twirling and knotting it intricately as she went. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, wondering If I did something awful to deserve the karma of being in this awkward position twice and so close together. Probably getting what I deserved for breaking it off with Marcus.

As we dropped back into silence, I watched Katherine in the mirror as she slung her magazine back onto the table and stared around the room, starting to look bored out of her mind. Then, with her typical meticulousness, her eyes narrowed and latched onto something on Damon's ankle that had been bared when Theresa altered his pant leg. Before I could tell her to keep her mouth shut, she grinned and called out to him.

"Now Salvatore, please make my day and tell me that's a moronic Pac-Man tattoo adorning your ankle."

To my annoyance, Damon smirked back, engaging her in the conversation. "Affirmative."

"And, now correct me if I'm wrong," Katherine continued smugly. "But, doesn't Elena have a startlingly similar Ms. Pac-Man tattoo also on her ankle?"

Oh, for god's sake. I should have known an excessively drunken mistake - that Damon and I had found beyond hilarious one night in college - would come back and bite me in the ass sometime.

"Did," I corrected. "I did have one. I had it lasered off years ago." Straightening my spine, I put all my attention on the ginormous bow that Mallory had just about finished tying. I looked like a pre-wrapped Christmas present, but at least it hid the burns. "I'm surprised you didn't do the same, Damon," I added casually.

Lie. Lie. Lie. Big fat lie. I had booked the appointment to get it removed around the time that I'd met Marcus, but it kept getting pushed back, until I eventually just decided to keep the embarrassing reminder of a night I should want to forget. Not that it meant anything to me. It was just more trouble and pain than it was worth to get rid of it. And it was relatively small and easy enough to cover up with the right make-up.

I thanked my lucky stars I was wearing boots today, covering the deception. And although Katherine now looked more superior than ever, she chose not to challenge something which she knew was a falsity.

Damon's forehead tightened and his lips straightened out. Which, to be frank, was the reaction I was looking for and why I lied. I wasn't going to stand here and laugh about some ridiculous drunken escapade we'd had when we were still basically kids. It was in another lifetime and when he essentially insisted on ending our friendship he chose to keep those memories locked away there too.

"Done," Mallory exclaimed proudly, stepping back to her admire her work, totally ignorant of any of the heavy atmosphere that had grown around us.

Katherine opens her mouth to comment, doubtlessly negatively, before catching sight of my face and remembering whose fault this all was in the first place. She pasted a smile on her face "Very Grace Kelly, 'Lena."

I matched her false smile, before gratefully escaping back into the dressing room to change back into my normal clothes. I stayed in there longer than was technically necessary just so I had a chance to get some control back. No matter my lack of feelings towards Damon now, I doubted if there would ever be a time where he somehow would manage not to mess with my head.

When I eventually reemerged, Damon had also finished, his new suit folded over his arm, covered with its clear protective wrapping. He was bent down near Katherine on his haunches, a frustrated look in his eyes, while Katherine wildly gesticulated, spitting out words I couldn't quite make out. When they saw me they both became quiet, their faces turning neutral.

"Ready?" Katherine asked perkily, making it clear neither of them were going to elaborate further on what I had walked in on. "I already paid."

I eyed Damon warily, "Sure." Grabbing my handbag, we all walked to the front of the store, Damon awkwardly trailing behind us. As we exited onto the sidewalk, I threw a polite "see you at the wedding" at Damon before making to turn the other way towards where we parked.

"Wait," Damon called out, catching my elbow and then releasing me almost immediately, like touching my skin disgusted him. "How are you getting up there?"

Katherine, obviously having no urge to continue talking to Damon, left us and got into the passenger side of the car.

"We're driving up tomorrow morning."

When his eyebrows furrowed together to meet in the middle, I internally groaned because even now I knew what that look meant.

"That's a long drive, Elena. It's been a while since you've done it and you're not used to-"

I cut him off before he could finish because he so did not get to do the whole concerned bit anymore. "We'll be fine, Damon. Really. Don't worry about it."

Just like I still recognized his tells, he evidently understood by my expression I wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Okay, okay," he held his hands up in supplication. "I guess I'll see you soon then. Tell Katherine to seriously think about what I told her."

Before I could interrogate him about what he meant by that, he spun on his heel and strode away.

I pulled away from the curb, waiting about a half a minute before relaying Damon's message to Katherine and asking her what the hell he was alluding to and what was with the argument I had seen them having.

"I have no idea what he's talking about," Katherine sniffed, taking an emery board out of the side of her purse and starting to file her thumb nail. "And we weren't having an argument. He was just being his normal asshole self. I mean, you know better than most not to listen to the stuff that pours out of that man's mouth, right?"

I rolled my eyes, and turned left. There was obviously more that she wasn't saying, but I knew that when she was in this kind of mood she wouldn't say any more.

"Good looking bastard though, isn't he?" Katherine observed nonchalantly, her stare burning holes into the side of my head. "What happened between you two anyway?"

Katherine knew about the joined at the hip, co-dependency thing we had going before Italy, and she knew that we hadn't kept in touch since my move. She had always been convinced that we'd had some fling and he'd broken my heart. She was half right.

"I don't know," I shrugged carelessly. "Just fell out of touch."

Scoffing under her breath, I could tell Katherine didn't believe me. But she knew it'd be useless to push.

"The way he looks at you says otherwise," she continued calmly.

Nope. Wasn't going down this path today. Or ever. "Quit while your ahead, Kat," I growled.

"If you say so," she sighed, going back to doing her nails and finally dropping the subject.

Miracle of Miracles we pulled off getting up at eight the next morning and prepared for the long car journey ahead of us pretty quickly. Katherine had sunglasses on that covered half her face and we were both dressed in sweats and craving coffee, but, all the same, we made check-out with everything (I hoped) packed and ready.

The elation of waking up on time was swiftly dissipated when we came out of the hotel to find our rental car had a bright yellow wheel clamp attached to it.

"Well done, little sis," Katherine interjected derisively, obviously really helping the issue. "Amazing parking choices."

I kicked the clamp with my boot, not really shocked when it didn't move and all I got was a bruised toe for my efforts. I had forgotten how overzealous the parking enforcement officers were in this city.

"Good morning ladies!"

I attempted to blame that voice on a hallucination before the repulsion on my sister's face gave me no other choice but to accept that, unfortunately, it was very real.

Laughing humorlessly into my hands for a beat, I finally gave up and turned around. "Damon," I greeted resignedly. "Let me guess, another coincidence?"

He leant against the only car I'd ever known him to own. The early morning sun heating up the hood he was perched on, and the sight of the powder blue Cadlllac ripping an unforeseen wave of sentimentality through me.

"Afraid so," he bared his teeth charmingly and pushed his sunglasses onto his head making sure everyone in the vicinity got the full effect of his eyes. "Me and my passenger just happened to be passing by when we saw that you looked like you had gotten yourself into some trouble."

His passenger? My mouth went dry at the prospect of meeting Rose. Christ, it was way too early for this.

"How convenient," I gritted out.

Damon stretched his arms over his head before walking over to us. He glanced at the clamp on the car and tutted sympathetically. "Wow, that sucks. What are you going to do now?"

Katherine, who could see where this was going a mile away, grabbed my arm and dragged me over to a place where Damon couldn't overhear us.

"Don't even fucking think about it, Elena. I'm not spending hours in a car with that man. I'd rather …," she sputtered. "I'd rather hire a private plane."

For once we were on the same wavelength. Thinking about spending the majority of the rest of the day in a car with Damon and his girlfriend wasn't something I thought I could endure. But waiting for someone to come unclamp the car or tow it or whatever usually happened in these circumstances would take too long as well.

"Elena, come over here for a sec. I have someone who wants to say hi."

Looking over my shoulder, in place of the female I'd expected to see appearing from the car, I saw a very familiar sandy haired man standing there instead.

"Ric?!" I exclaimed excitedly, catapulting myself over the space between us and throwing my arms around his neck while he made an oomph sound on impact.

Because of his job touring colleges giving history lectures, it had always been hard for Alaric to find the time to come visit. And although we frequently kept in contact over the phone, it had been at least and year and a half since I'd seen him face to face and I had been under the impression he was going to be out of town this week as well.

Ric grinned down at me, but bizarrely hastily removed his arms when he exchanged a look with Damon over my shoulder, running a hand through his hair to play it off.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Got some time off work," he explained. "That douchebag over there is a whiny child and can't make it a day on his own." Over the sound of Damon grumbled rebuttal, Alaric explained, "His girlfriend can't make it till tomorrow so he made me come for the bachelor party. Besides, I can't miss Salvatore junior getting hitched."

That made sense. Unlike Caroline and Bonnie who barely knew Stefan, Alaric had always been close with the youngest Salvatore.

"That's great," I smiled genuinely at him.

He jutted his chin over to where Katherine and the car were. "So what you going to do about that?". Patting the Cadillac, he informed encouragingly "You know, we got two spare seats going your direction."

I sighed, trying to get my thoughts together, when, once again, I felt Katherine grab my arm to pull me away.

"Alright Kat," I complained. "I'll tell them no. Give me a chance."

Katherine expelled a puff of air like the weight of the world was on her. "Well, I don't know. I guess we could deal with them for a while. I mean I would hate for you to be late. You know how important time keeping is to me."

Cocking an eyebrow, I barely suppressed the desire to laugh in her face. "Kat, what are you smoking that makes you think I'd buy that? What made you change-". I broke off my question when I saw my sister's eye-line had been locked and loaded onto Alaric while I'd been speaking. Of course. Fresh hot meat for her. She couldn't resist the siren call.

I dug my nails into my palms, and glanced over at Damon. "And you wouldn't mind?"

"The more the merrier."

"That's settled than," Alaric clapped his hands joyously while helping Damon load our luggage. I took the time to step away for a second and pull my hair up into a high ponytail. Breathing deeply, I viciously tightened the hair tie. I could do this. I only felt off balance because after so long without having him in my life, this last week had been like overdosing on Damon Salvatore

It wasn't like he was in my heart anymore. I could even resist getting sucked back into being friends with him again. I was a grown ass woman and he was history that didn't need to be revisited.

"Ready?"

"Ready," I confirmed, spinning back around to get into the car. And of course Katherine had claimed the back seat with Alaric, leaving me no other choice but to be in the front with Damon. Well that was just great.

As we drove down the street and exited onto the freeway, I stared at the two coffees Alaric had just handed over to Katherine and I. "Wait a minute," I registered suspiciously. "Why did you just happen to have two extra cups if you didn't know you were going to run into us?"

Suddenly Damon and Alaric found the passing scenery supremely interesting and pretended they had temporally gone deaf.

Three hours into the trip and I was just about done with everything. Katherine had started the journey off by dramatically recounting the whole story of her broken ankle. Her retelling was a whole lot more dramatic than I actually remembered it being in reality, and she got a promise out of Ric to take care of her for the weekend. An offer that I guessed she had been aiming for all along.

And because Damon still refused to add GPS to a classic car, we had already gotten lost at least four times taking his 'amazing' shortcuts.

"Dude, you're tired. Just let me drive for a while," Alaric eventually offered when we ended up on another incorrect road.

I snorted, looking up from the novel I had been skimming while attempting to avoid conversation with the driver. "Fat chance. You know he'd rather eat nails than let someone else touch that steering wheel."

Feeling Damon's eyes dart over to me, I hastily backtracked on my mistake. "Well it used to be like that. I don't know anymore." Making assumptions about what we still understood about each other was a dangerous path to take.

Alaric cleared his throat, interrupting the strange tension that had developed. "So Elena, not that it hasn't been great to meet your sister, but I thought you were bringing your boyfriend with you."

I cringed and was partly grateful when in the rear-view mirror I could see Katherine lean over and whisper an explanation into Alaric's ear, probably grabbing the chance to be seductive while doing it.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry," Alaric apologized, resting a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged and went back to reading my book, "Don't worry about it." I pretended I couldn't see Damon's hyper-curious look, so he kept quiet and busied himself with looking in his side mirror.

When the words I was reading begun to make me feel motion sick, I shut the book and closed my eyes, sinking back into the familiar leather. Shit, even the smell of the car was the same. Before I could get lost in memories of the road-trips I'd spent in this very same seat, remembering the arguments over the radio stations and playing the license plate game, I turned over and forced myself to take a nap.

I received the most unpleasant of wake up calls; Katherine poking me in the cheek with her sharply manicured index finger, telling me loudly we had arrived at the hotel in Mystic Falls that had a whole group of rooms blocked off for the wedding.

By the time I had dragged my self out of the car, I'd been left alone with Damon and the luggage. "Thank you for driving us Damon," I took my rolling suitcase from his hands. "I mean it. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Oh no," Damon grinned, following me to reception. "I'm staying here."

"You're not staying at the boarding house?"

Shuddering, Damon replied "Hell no. That place is crawling with florists and caterers. My step mother has completely lost it too. I'm safer here."

I smiled thinking about how Giuseppe and Jane must be dealing with their youngest getting married in their house. It must have been several months at least since I'd seen them last.

While we waited in line to check in, I suddenly felt Damon's breath scorch the shell of my ear as he leant in to whisper to me.

"You see that woman over there?" He surreptitiously pointed to a lady sitting on a sofa in the lounge, petting the toy poodle on her lap. "You think she cuts her hair to match her dog's or it just does that naturally?"

For one second I let myself fall back into the familiarity of it all, us against the world trying our hardest to make each other laugh. Then reality hit and with it came the knowledge of why I'd been acting so arctic towards Damon. I was still hurt. As irritating as it was that it still bothered me, when Damon had cut the ties of our bond, that had been something I knew I could never go through again. And I was pissed he was acting like we could just pick up from where we left off.

Today and at the seamstresses, he'd been different, so unlike how he behaved at the hospital. Now he seemed to be determined to pretend like the last four years hadn't happened. Unfortunately for him; they had.

I stepped out of his space and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, focusing on the ground.

"Jesus, Elena. Will you lighten up for five minutes?!"

I glared at him, shaking my head at his inability to read the room.

Bending down to catch my stare, he continued in a softer tone. "I'm trying here."

Fine. If he wanted to talk about the elephant in the room, then we would. "Then stop. You don't need to try. We just need to be civil with each other. Isn't this what you wanted?"

"That's not fair-"

I snapped, just about managing to keep years worth of feelings spewing out at him. "What's not fair is that you still think that by invading my space, and staring all intensely at me that you can manipulate me into acting how you want at any given time. Newsflash, Damon. I'm not that lovesick little girl anymore. It won't work."

The reference to the L word shut him up long enough for me to talk to the desk clerk, check in and to grab my key card. I began to walk away, the echoing of my heels on the marble floor sounding insanely loud, before politely saying "Have fun at your brother's bachelor party, Damon. Goodnight."

With the amount of wrong directions we'd taken on the way here, it probably would have been easier just to have waited for the clamp to have been removed. We'd arrived several hours later than planned and I scraped just enough time together to get ready for Lexi's party, never mind fitting in a visit to Stefan. Katherine decided to skip out on the night. Her ankle was hurting and she and Lexi had never really clicked.

There was only one suitable club in town, and luckily for Lexi it had met the requirements for her bachelorette party. When I finally arrived, it wasn't hard to find her in the darkness through the sweaty mass of people dancing. The booth she was sitting in was the loudest and it was attracting a lot of male attention by the looks of it. As soon as she spotted me making my way over, she jumped up to greet me, a pink feather boa wrapped around her neck and a plastic tiara haphazardly balanced on her head. Drunken debauchery indeed.

"Elenaaaa Gilbert!" She yelled, the slur in her words evident as she pulled me into a one armed hug, trying to balance a full shot glass in her other hand. "You made it."

"I made it!," I laughed, putting an arm around her waist to help guide her back to the table.

"Girls," she waited for quiet from the five other woman sat at the table. "Meet Elena, my very own Italian bridesmaid."

"Lexi, you know I'm not Itali-"

She flapped her hand, speaking over me. "Well you practically are and it adds a little class to my bridal party." She grinned in response to the shouts from her friends.

Before I knew it I was sat down at the booth with everyone, a drink in each hand. And at the beginning it was great. I was having fun, surprisingly, with everything else that was going on. Lexi's friends were great, just as bubbly as the bride-to-be and even though I was the outsider to the group, they never made me feel that way.

However as the night wore on it was evident something was wrong. Lexi was smashed. Almost paralytic. Which fine, okay, it was the night before her wedding and maybe that was what you were meant to do. But she didn't even look happy doing it and as her drink count grew, so did the cutting remarks to her friends. I'd never seen Lexi like this before and could only speculate it was just a bad case of nerves about the big day.

Seeing my chance when she had paused from dancing to grab another shot from the table, and we were finally alone, I persuaded her to sit down for a song or two.

"How excited are you about tomorrow?," I prompted, nudging her shoulder.

"So excited," she responded, the smile on her face almost looking painful. Countering my question, she asked, "How's it back being in the US again?"

Noticing the abrupt subject change, I nodded "Good. It feels nice to be home."

"Have you seen Stefan yet?"

I shook my head, straining to hear her over the pounding music. "No, just Damon."

"Damon, huh?". She leant closer to my ear. "I've never asked, but is there a history there? Because about two years ago Stefan was bugging Damon about something and he mentioned your name. Damon went apeshit and wouldn't speak to Stefan for a week."

Not wanting a repeat of the conversation I'd already had with Katherine, I made an unidentifiable noise. Not like she'd remember telling me any of this in the morning anyway.

Before I could fashion a reply, Lexi grabbed a vodka and coke from what seemed like thin air, throwing it back and clapping her hand to her mouth after, looking like she was trying to stop herself from vomiting.

"Hey Lexi," I begun, gently touching her arm. "You doing okay?"

When she turned to look at me I could tell the answer to that question was most definitely a no. Her eyes were wide and glossy, and her face was completely drained of color.

"I love Stefan, Elena."

I looked at her, confused. "I know that."

"No I love him. I mean he's my best friend. Everyone wants to marry their best friend, right?"

I could feel the myself grow a little uneasy. What was she getting at here?

"He's such a great guy," she continued to ramble. "It was just a case of cold feet. I was just being stupid."

"What the hell are you talking about Lexi?"

She looked at me like someone had put the fear of god in her, a sob coming out of her throat. "I slept with someone else last night, Elena. I cheated on Stefan."

Oh fuck. What the hell was I supposed to do with that?


A/N- Ah! An update. I really have no excuses other than work got busy quick and the summer was hectic. I can't apologize enough and hope this chapter made up for the wait a teeny tiny bit.

Updates will be way more regular now that summer is over so I can only hope you'll still continue to enjoy the story :)

And, a huge-ginormous thank you to Sandra who still beta's everything I throw at her.