Thank you to blueguju and ArabellaWhitlock for beta and prove reading this for me.

Jeremy's POV

The week seems to have flown by with Bella being here. Bella is now fully settled in here at Mystic Falls High but is quickly getting pissed at the fact that she's been asked so many times by most of the guys for the upcoming dance next week. Her brother Sam has started his job at the police station three days ago; some of the teens have been trying to give him the run around and a hard time. So far everything they have planned has failed.

"So how do I look?" I turn around to look at Aunt Jenna, and give her a smile and thumbs up.

"You look great, so are you not going to tell me who the hot date's with?" I watch as she blushes a little, shaking her head.

"No, not just yet." I frown at her but she just shakes her head at me.

"This is a small town, I'll find out sooner or later." I tell her and she gives me a look to say she knows I'm right.

"If it goes well tonight, I'll tell you and Elena tomorrow. Okay?" I nod my head at her, silently agreeing.

"Okay, I better go. Elena's staying at Stefan's tonight. She wanted that bag dropped off tonight, could you do it for me?" Aunt Jenna says as she walks to the door. I roll my eyes because that's where Elena pretty much seems to stay. I'm starting to think she moved out without telling anyone.

"Yes, I'll drop it off. Have a good time and remember to be good, no drinking and driving, and be home before twelve." Aunt Jenna chuckles and shakes her head a little before walking out the door.

About five minutes later Bella arrives at the door. "Ready to go?" I nod my head at her and pick up Elena's bag.

"I just need to drop this off for Elena; she's staying at Stefan's again." Bella nods her head and walks to my car.

"So I get to see the Salvatore house?" I nod my head at her knowing she's been dying to find a reason to go, just so she can see it.

"Wow." Bella says, and then continues to mutter something that I didn't catch.

I get out of the car and Bella follows me to the door. As I go to knock on the door, it's opened by Damon.

"Well hello Tink." He says grinning at Bella. "Gilbert." He says my name but keeps his eyes on Bella.

"Come on in." He moves out of the way and opens the door. I walk in first with Bella close behind me. I turn and look to see that Damon has put his arm around Bella's shoulder and pulls her closer to him. We walk towards the main sitting room, and I see Bonnie and Caroline sitting across from Elena and Stefan. They all seem to be in a deep conversion which stops as soon as I enter. Elena turns to look at me and smiles, then her eyes shift to Damon with Bella, suddenly glaring at them. I'm not sure if the glare was at Bella or Damon.

"Aunt Jenna asked me to drop your bag off." I say as I place it down next to her.

"Thanks Jeremy, so where are you and Bella off to?" Before I can say anything Damon is talking as he walks past me.

"Take a seat Gilbert." He sits on the seat near the fire and looks at Bella.

"I have a seat right here for you Tink." He says patting his lap. Bella just looks down at his lap then to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I think you would enjoy that more than me." Damon smirks at her.

"Oh, you would enjoy it Tink. So, so much." I think everyone in the room picked up on what Damon was talking about. I clear my throat and look to Bella who seems to be amused more than anything else but I can still see the faint blush on her.

"We, Bella and I, are planning on going to a party." Elena looks at Damon as I talk, in fact I don't think her eyes have left Damon and Bella from when they walked into the room.

"Elena?" I say when she doesn't respond to me.

"Bella, I hear Matt's planning on asking you to the dance." Elena says in a rather bitchy tone.

Bella turns to look at her in shock.

"He is? Shit! You're his friend, talk him out of it." Bella says looking between Elena and me.

"What? Are you kidding? Matt is the hottest guy at Mystic Falls High." Elena says and she puts on a fake smile.

Bella tilts her head. "You mean besides your boyfriend, who I will add is in the room." Bella says as she points to Stefan almost implying that Elena forgot about him.

"Reason one as to why I don't want to date the quarterback is he is in fact a quarterback and I have been made to try out for cheerleading. I always say hell no to high school cliques." Bella rolls her eyes at me.

"Two, I don't like him that much, he's kind of...blah." I look around the room to see that everyone's just looking at Bella.

"Three, I'm done with high school boys. I'd much rather have a man, you know one that's not afraid to go after what he wants." Damon chuckles as Bella looks to he give him a disapproving look before turning back to Elena.

"Four, you dated him, that's like the sisterhoods number one rule, you know? Also, don't kiss, flirt, or date your ex-boyfriend's brother." I gulp as I clearly hear Bella's tone when she said brother. I look around the room to see that everyone is just looking at Bella with open mouths. "There is a lot more on the list, would you like me to keep going?"

Elena shakes her head at her. "No, but he's a great guy. He really is the best of boyfriends, you're really missing out." Elena says as she looks from Bella to Damon.

"And that's why you're still dating him?" Bella asks sardonically.

Elena looks at her while opening and closing her month a few times, "we knew each other for years, but we're just better as friends. I mean I see him as a brother now that I have Stefan." Elena says as she looks to Stefan for the first time since I arrived.

"Jeremy, I think we should go." Bella says looking at me, with a look to say she's finding it hard to hold back from saying something that would be true but end up upsetting Elena. I sigh and nod my head at her.

"Okay, well you have your bag. I'll see you if you ever come home."

I follow the directions that Bella gave and am a little shocked to find us at a college party.

"Bella?" Bella smiles at me and pulls two bags from the back seat and hands me one.

"Front seat or back?" I look at the back and nod my head before climbing over into the back.

"Is Elena going to kill me?" I talk as I pull out the shirt and jeans Bella has packed for me.

"She won't know. I'm more than sure Stefan will keep her busy all night." I nod my head while shuffling out of my old jeans, putting on the new ones.

"What about Aunt Jenna?" I hear Bella laughing.

"Well I am pretty sure she won't be home till the early hours of the morning. I'm really surprised they haven't torn each others' clothes off by now."

My head snaps to the front seat but I can't see Bella as she lies down.

"Do you know who she's dating?"

Bella sits up and grins at me, nodding her head. "Ric." I look at her and tilt my head. The only Ric I now is-

"She's dating Mr. Saltzman?" I yell out which make some guys they were passing the car to turn towards us.

"Yup, they make a cute couple." I roll my eyes and button up my shirt.

"Hmm... Jeremy, I see you've been working out." I look to Bella who is applying a little makeup.

"It helps me feel calm." Bella give me a look and nods her head at me.

"Can you hand me the leather jacket?" I look back seeing that it's up on the back window. I grab it, get out of the car, and look Bella up and down.

She's got on a little black leather pants that are laced at the top of her legs and sit on her hips and black slashed top which stops just above her belly button. Her hair is laying loose down her back, and on her feet are her army boots.

Bella gives me a spin and I give her a nod of approval. "Let's go and have some fun." I hand Bella her jacket and she puts it on.

We walk in and grab a drink first before heading to the dance floor. We spend time between the dance floor and drinking.

"Hey, Jeremy." I turn and look shocked to see Anna stand there looking between Bella and I. I had met Anna a few weeks back when she was looking for her mom.

"Hey Anna, this is my best friend Bella. Bella, this is Anna." Bella leans over and shakes Anna's hand.

"Well I'm going to a dance with some hot college guys. I'll leave you two to talk." I watch Bella walk away and smile as I turn back to Anna.

"So..." I say feel a little unsure of myself.

"My mom and I are moving to Mystic Fall's this week." I grin at her happy.

"Really? You'll love it and you can hang with Bella and me."

Anna looks over to the dance floor where Bella is dancing. "You look like you're very close, is she you girlfriend?" I look at her a little shocked.

"What?! God no! I love her and will do anything for her, but no. She's like my little sister." Anna smiles and nods her head at me.

"We've know each other for eleven years, and she knows more about me that anyone including Elena." Anna looks at me happily.

"I'm glad that you have someone like that." I nod my head at her and look to the dance floor.

"Would you like to dance with me?" Anna looks to the dance floor and then nods her head.

"Come on, show me your moves." I chuckle and lead her to the dance floor.

Damon's POV

My eyes go to Bella's ass as she and Jeremy head back out to his car. Good god does she have an ass on her, out of all the girls I've ever seen or been with, her ass is by far the sexiest.

"You're such a disgusting pig, Damon." Elena's bitchy voice makes me looks back to the group, who are all looking at me with the judgmental eyes.

"What? I can't help it if Bella is sex on legs." Elena stands up and crosses her arm under her chest.

"Really? Aren't you supposed to be brooding over that fact Katharine, the girl you claim to love, wasn't in the tomb?" I stand up and look down at her.

"I'll leave the brooding to my brother since he's so much better at that than I am. And you know what they say; the best way to get over a girl is to have one under you. You're not jealous are you Elena? There's Matt chasing after Bella, then there's Jeremy and then me, what's wrong, don't you like sharing the spot light? Or is the fact you know you've been pushed out of it?" I chuckle at the angry look on Elena's face, knowing that I'm right. Elena has been the golden girl, the girl every guy wants for a year now. Then Bella arrives, now most of Mystic Falls High's boys are all trying to get Bella to date them and Elena has become yesterday's news.

Elena moves to slap me across the face and I catch her hand before it come in contact. "Don't do that again, or I will no longer care who you are or who you date." I put a little force into my hold, just till she knows I mean what I say.

"Damon, let go of Elena right now." Stefan says as he places a hand on me. I let Judy go. "That's not why Elena's upset. It's because you're going to end up hurting Bella." I roll my eyes at St. Stefan, he really needs to get a clue that Elena likes to be looked at and likes to have boys fall at her feet. It's also the main reason why she still hangs out with Matt. That is something I would never allow is my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend to be hanging around making puppy dog eyes at her.

"Oh really, so why has she got her panties in a twist?"I ask sitting back down with a drink in hand.

"What are you planning to do with Bella? Compel her to have sex with you, date you, allow you to drink from her, till you screw up. Look at Caroline, Vicky. You got your heart broken, so you're breaking other girl's hearts to make up for it. You know what, don't worry about Bella, after all she's not important enough to you. We'll fix whatever it is you do her, after all that's all Stefan and I do is clean up your messes." Elena shakes her head at me and walks out, I glance at Stefan and know he think the same as what Elena just said.

I sigh and walk out of the house. I find myself walking and sitting outside of where the tombs are. I replay what Elena said but there's no way I'll be one of those guy that hands over my balls to my girlfriend. It's not like Bella and I are really friends, she's just someone I met a week ago.

"Damon, we need to talk about this." I don't turn around to face Stefan.

"We were meant to save her. She's meant to be in there, trapped." He sighs then takes a seat next to me.

"I know and I am sorry. I know this my fault, for us thinking that she was dead then trapped. I swear I thought he would help." I hold back my growl at hearing Stefan again, repeating the same thing he has said a countless number of times. At the end of the day he trusted our father more than me. That hurts more than him going after a girl that I liked, and to find out that Katharine didn't love me like I thought she did.

"I know you hate me for bringing you into this life." I turn my head sharply and look at him, getting him to stop talking.

"I don't hate you for that, I can understand that. I hated that fact she changed you too, that she loved you enough to allow you to change too." I stop talking before I can say that I felt like I was not enough for her, that my love for her was not enough. Even now that I'm finding and coming to terms that it was true. I'm not enough for anyone.

"What are you doing with Bella?" I chuckle a little.

"I'm not doing anything with Bella right now brother. Give the girl a chance to settle but we both know, no woman can resist a guy this good looking, my style, my charm. She will be mine, I just enjoy the chase." I get up and move quickly away from him before he can speak again.

I head over to the nearest college campus' dorm building and grin when I see a party in full swing. I walk in and look to see who will be my meal. As my eyes go to the dance floor, I stop and stare before shaking my head and move to where Bella is dancing with some douchebag. I move behind her and the guy gives me a look to say 'mine, fuck off'.

I wrap my arm around her and pull her close to me. "Damon." I chuckle as I lean down at her, seeing her eyes are still closed.

"You're on to me again." I say and she tilts her head up, looking at me upside down. The smile on her face makes me bend a little and place a kiss on her forehead.

"Hey, bro but I was dancing with your sister." I let out a growl as Bella chuckles then she turns to grab my arm.

"Sorry, Rob, he's not my brother. Thanks for the dance." Bella says a she leads us way. She grabs a bottle and a black jacket before pulling me outside.

"Want to share?" Bella say as she shakes the bottle of Bourbon. I smile taking the bottle and opening it.

"I love a girl that has good taste." Bella chuckles as I drink and follow her outside

"It was a mistake; I was aiming for the soda." I look at Bella as she lies down on the ground and looks up at the sky. I lay the opposite way with my head next to hers. The top of my head touches the top of her shoulder. I turn to her and sniff her neck again, and she smells as good as she did the first time. I turn back and look up at the sky.

"So, what's a girl like you doing at a college party?" I watch Bella turn and look at me from the corner of my eye.

"I heard some people talking about it and it seemed like a good way to let my hair down, and I think Jeremy really needed a night out." I look at her with frown.

"Did you forget to bring him?" Bella chuckles and shakes her head.

"No, he met a girl named Anna, she made his eyes dance so I gave them some alone time." I nod my head then take another drink. I hand it over to Bella who takes a drink and hands it back to me.

"So, tell me about your ex." I say when Bella doesn't say anything after ten minutes.

"He was perfect, could do anything he put his mind too, was extremely good looking and women fell at his feet all the time. He was always the perfect gentleman. He was boring." I chuckle because that's what I was thinking when she was talking about him.

"Sometimes I look back now and I wonder if he was trying for Sainthood. He made me feel wrong, that my feelings were dirty and wrong and I should been ashamed to have shown them to him." I frown when I hear the sadness in her voice.

I turn to her as she laughs. "When he first left me, I felt like it was my entire fault, as if I wasn't worthy of him."

I roll onto my side and look at her. "You don't really seem like to type to have a lack of confidence." I say a little confused.

Bella matches my body movement. "I did, for a long time I did. If you met the girl I was two year ago, hell, even a year ago, that's who would've been there but someone, the one that knows you, sort of helped me with that too. Edward left me broken because of his fear; he chose to protect his own heart over mine. He could respect himself for who he was and didn't understand when I did.

"When I met this person, our friend, I was so broken up over Edward, so afraid it took a week for me-" Bella stops talking. "Let's just say I was put through more pain, but then our friend gave me something that changed my life, showed me another way. What would happen if I allowed that pain to live inside me? So I let it go. It's been a year since I met them, and the pain I felt the night he left has gone. I hope Edward is okay and happy. And I hope he finds the girl that's right for him." I look at her shocked that she would want that for someone that broke her heart.

"What about you?" I look at her, sigh and roll back on to my back.

"What about me?" My reply is short and gruff.

Bella smiles and lies flat on her back again. "Have you had your heart broken?"

I chuckle. "Did our friend not tell you?"

Bella shrug her shoulders a little. "I would like to hear from your point of view."

"Yes, I met this girl. She was staying at our house, I came home and she was there. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I told Stefan what I thought of her, he knew how I felt. I mean I never chased a girl before, always went for the easy ones. But she seemed to keep choosing Stefan over me, and he swore to me he didn't feel anything for her. After he took her to a dance, I told her how I felt and I made love to her. But again she went back to my brother, and he started to want to be with her. I couldn't understand how he could do that to me, to his-" I stop, trying not to get worked up.

"She left both of us, I thought she had passed away, then when I found out she hadn't, I thought she needed my help and I spent most of my time trying to find a way to save her, only to find that she was fine. I don't know if she knows where I am, or if she's looking for me, but I've been told that she does know where I am and she just doesn't care." I stop talking as the anger starts to build up.

"But you need to see her, talk it out with her, and have closure so you can freely move on." I turn and look at Bella as she talks. "It's hard when someone tells you that you fell for the wrong person, or that you don't feel what you think you feel. You've lived years of trying to find a way to her, only to find out that she wasn't there. You feel cheated, wronged but there's always that little bit of hope inside of you that tells you just maybe she did feel something for you that makes it all worthwhile. That they did use you, that they saw something inside of you. Because if they didn't, it suck ass, and it's so much worse to find out that someone you give your heart to doesn't think you're worthy of the truth, worth their time to say why they did what they did to you. You're not even worthy of the few crappy seconds it would've taken to say I care for you but I don't want to spend the rest of my days with you, a sorry or even a goodbye, take care of yourself." I take a drink and hand it to Bella.

"We've both been really fucked over." Bella chuckles a little.

"While you were more ways than one, I was just fucked over." I chuckle at her double meaning.

"Are you telling me you never give it up to Eddie boy?" Bella shakes her head.

"At first, I was happy you know, but as we got know each other, he was still keeping me at arm's length. We didn't even really make out. Good way to make a girl feel desired and good about herself. I always felt that I wasn't pretty or sexy enough for him." I sit up looking at her in shock.

"Tink, you are one sexy girl. Really, what the hell did you date? Even a gay guy would find you sexy. That guy must've been one stone cold fish, more likely his dick didn't work right." I look at Bella as she starts giggling at me.

"Come on, better get back to Jeremy and make sure no one's is messing with him." I jump up and help Bella to stand.

I stop short, feeling a little uncomfortable about what I had told Bella about Katherine. I look into her eyes, and I let out a sigh as I remember that I can't compel her.

"I take to my grave whatever you said to me. I will not repeat it, not even to Jeremy." I nod my head at her.

We walk into the dorm building again and I see half the males that are near the door all look Bella up and down with grin on their face. I drape my arm around her and pull her to me. I look down seeing that she's looking up at me. I grin, more like smirk, down at her.

"How tall are you Tink?" Bella chuckles, "Because I am not a big man." As a blush appears on Bella's face, I raise my eyebrow at her.

"Oh Bella, I am big in that department, and you really do have a dirty mind, which I think I'm enjoying finding out about it. I'm about six foot, Stefan is a little taller than me at six one but I seem to tower over you." Bella shakes her head.

"I'm five two." I give her a look. "I am, I swear." I chuckle and nod my head at her.

"Hmm I will have to check that out later." Bella rolls her eyes and then looks to the dance floor.

"I found Jeremy and I'm glad to see he's okay." I look the way Bella is looking and see Jeremy is dancing with Anna, a fellow vampire.

"I think he like her."

"Of course he does, it in the Gilbert DNA." I say with Bella giving me a confused look right after.

"It's in his DNA to like a pretty girl?" I shake my head, not like I can tell her it's in his DNA to like a vampire.

"Never mind, come and dance with me." I say as I pull her to the dance floor.

I spin Bella as soon as we get to the dance floor. "You got some good moves Damon." I pull her close to me.

"I've got moves you never seen before." Before she can say anything, I have spun her away again. I smile when Bella's face lights up as she laughs. It confuses me a little as Bella normally seems happy but this is the first I've really seen her looking like this, which to me means she hides behind a mask.

I spend the next hour dancing with Bella before Jeremy come up to us.

"Bella, Damon?" I grin at him.

"Gilbert, Anna." I look to Anna and watch as she moves a little away from me.

"How is your mom doing?" Anna swallows and gives me a pleading look.

"She's doing much better thanks."

"You'll never guess what Bella. Anna and her mom are moving to Mystic Falls and she'll be starting school with us next week."

Bella smiles and lean over to hug Anna. "I'm so happy." Anna gives her a worried look and just grins at her.

"I won't be the new girl anymore, and you're pretty so the guys will stop asking me out and ask you out. YAY! You have just saved lives." Jeremy chuckles and shakes his head.

"She doesn't like being asked out, she likes to be in the shadows, watching everyone." Anna nods her head.

"Have you asked her to the dance yet? It would be a good way for her to meet people." Jeremy pales a little and glares at Bella's suggestion.

"You should come with us, I think it's the 50s dance." Anna turns and looks at Jeremy.

"Yeah, 50s you should come with Bella and me, and have a laugh as she tries hard to hide from the guys who all asked her to it." Anna looks to me and I roll my eyes at how worried she looks.

"Yup, I know Elena and Stefan have been talking about it non-stop, I may even pop in on it." Bella turns and looks at me.

"Aren't you like twenty-four? Are you allowed to attend?"

I look at her and chuckle, "I normally do what I want." Bella rolls her eyes and looks back to Anna.

"Do you need a ride home?" Anna nods her head and Bella looks at me.

"What about you Damon, do you need a ride, or are you planning on staying here to get another kind of ride?" I smirk at her.

"I would like a ride but I'd rather do the driving." I take the keys that Jeremy had taken out of his pocket and walk away with it.

Jeremy and Anna sit in the back and Bella sits next to me. I drop Anna off first and see Pearl look at me from the window. "Who's next?" I ask looking between Bella and Jeremy.

"Me." Bella says, "This is Jeremy's car." I nod my head and drive to Bella's house. Jeremy gets out and walks her to the door.

He gets in the front seat and looks at me. "Look, Bella will kill me when she finds out I did this but she's my friend. Whatever it is that you're doing with her, please don't hurt her. She's been through a lot and there's a lot that's happened to her this past year, some that she hasn't told me about yet. I can see the change in her, a lot of them are good but there is still a lot of hurt there. I'm not asking you to be the best guy or even a great guy, all I ask is that if this just a game to you then leave her be, if its more than that, good, but keep in mind Bella is always trying to save people from being hurt no matter the cost to her. She's one of the best people you can be friends with. She'll always have your corner and will stand up for you, always. She's easy to please and to love, and she shows her love for others every day." By the time he finished his little speech, he was getting out of the car.

"I'll come by and get the car tomorrow. Good night, Damon." He closes the door and walks away. I laugh a little while shaking my head. Seems as if Jeremy is protective of little Bella, even more so than his sister, but I wonder what more could've happened to Bella last year.

What do you think of Bella taking Jeremy to a college party? Leave a review and tell me what you think.