BONNIE
When Elena told me that she had invited Stefan to the Grill that evening, I had mixed feelings about it. I remembered our short meeting in the library: Something about him had stirred my interest, and I might have poorly hidden it. But now Elena had staked her claim, and that might make the whole meet-my-new-boyfriend thing a little weird.
On the other hand, I probably shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. They had met only the night before and spent a couple of hours together, so it might be a little early to be talking about a relationship. But Stefan had obviously struck a chord in her. Admittedly, he had done the same in me.
It had been such a vague, fleeting emotion that I had trouble defining it. There had been a weird kind of deja-vu feeling, but without triggering any memories. I had absolutely no idea what to expect out of this meeting, and I was afraid that I might still feel this way about him after tonight. Something in Elena's eyes had told me that this was serious – that she had really fallen for him. In any other circumstances, with any other guy, I would have cheered. Elena really deserved some happiness in her life. But I couldn't help wishing that it hadn't been Stefan who piqued her interest.
I arrived at the Grill at eight, almost to the minute, yet Elena and Caroline had beat me there. They were sitting next to the window at our favorite table, so I spotted them immediately. Since the evening was still nice and warm, all the front windows had been opened and it felt like we were sitting outside.
"So, have you been to see Matt?" I inquired, after we had settled down and ordered our drinks. "The news has spread all over town by now, but as you can imagine, there are several versions of the story. Do you know how is Vicky doing?"
"Better. She'll be out of hospital in a couple of days." Elena briefly related what she had learned from Matt, which apparently wasn't much. The serious lack of reliable information would probably fuel speculation further.
"Mom has put out a warning to stay out of the woods for the time being," Caroline chimed in. "They've sent in hunting parties, but so far, they haven't spotted any traces of what they think is probably a wild cat."
"What about your personal hunting party, Caroline?" I asked. "Have you managed to track down the mystery guy who escaped you?"
"More likely, it's she who escaped," Elena said gloomily. "I might not be psychic, but I'm still convinced that he was up to no good."
Caroline scoffed and snappily retorted: "Just because he wasn't intent on just talking to me about my favorite book doesn't mean he was all bad, you know."
"Not necessarily. But you have a history of always falling for the bad guys." True enough. With her long, blond hair and her slender and delicate built Caroline surely was an eye catcher. She also radiated flirtatiousness and an ingenuous, girlish charm, which, paired with her looks, attracted guys like flies. And more often that not, she didn't offer too much resistance to their advances. Unfortunately, she was no expert in people, which made her easy prey for every good-looking guy who knew how to push her buttons.
Caroline seemed to be aware of that, as she sighed wistfully. "I know. But why is it that the bad guy is always the most attractive?"
"That's just your perception," I objected. There was no opportunity for Caroline to comment further as the waitress arrived to take our orders. Coincidentally, my eyes were still on her as she went back to the bar, which was why I noticed the black-clad, dark-haired guy that was just about to leave the Grill. I almost whistled through my teeth.
"Talking about hot stuff, girls – check him out!" Caroline and Elena turned to see who I was discreetly pointing at with an incline of my head.
"Oh my God!" Caroline breathed. "It's him!"
"The mystery guy from the party?" I asked, incredulous.
Elena seemed stunned. "But that is Damon, Alys's brother... Are you saying he's the jerk who had a go on you in the park and left you without another word? Are you sure?"
"Sure I'm sure!" Caroline answered indignantly. "Don't you think I'd recognize the guy who kissed me like that?"
She still had her eyes on him as he passed through the room, trying to regain her composure. She was all flushed with excitement, her eyes sparkling.
"You didn't know his name..." Elena reminded her.
"Well, I do now! I told you he was smashing!" Damon had just made it out the door when Caroline's hunting instinct kicked in and she jumped to her feet. "If you two would excuse me... I need to catch Mr. 'tall-dark-and-handsome' and somehow make it look like coincidence. I'll be around."
Elena and I stared at each other for a second, speechless. "Let's just not comment on that..." Elena suggested, shaking her head disbelievingly while I was still trying to make sense of what I had just learned. Another foster brother of Alys's? With Stefan, that made two of them. Both of them incredibly attractive and mysterious. "So all of a sudden Alys is surrounded by family members who turn up out of the blue? I wonder if she's happy to have another foster brother about."
"Damon is her real brother. I met him this afternoon at her place. She seemed at odds with him, though."
"Small wonder. Obviously, his manners leave something to be desired. And he doesn't look like the timid type, if you ask me."
"He isn't." Elena agreed thoughtfully.
"Well, no need to ponder that. Damon is Caroline's problem – she wouldn't thank you for making it yours again."
"Right." Elena sighed, then shrugged it off. "Listen, since we are having a minute without Caroline just now: Remember that her birthday is coming up next weekend?"
"Sure I do! You said the two of you were planning to stay on campus..."
"That's what Caroline wanted. But I thought it would be nice if we could have a surprise party for her here, instead. I spoke to Tyler – his parents have this little log house down by the lake, which is ideal for a party. He said we could have it."
"Yeah, I remember we had some parties there during our last high school year. That would be fun. I'm sure Caroline would love it, especially if we were to invite a few of her friends from campus to come, too. It should be easy enough to organize. We can get everybody to bring something and have a barbecue."
"I'll tell Tyler. He said he'll help with the decorations and such." Elena suggested. "How about meeting tomorrow so we can go into detail?"
"Tomorrow's not good..." I sighed regretfully. "I promised grams to continue my lessons in witchcraft. I suppose we could meet on Monday, though..."
"Yes, that would be okay for me, too. So, how's your training coming along? Has anything come out of it yet? Anything more useful than scary visions, I mean."
I shrugged. "So far, it has been purely theoretical. But Grams is expecting to see a sudden boost in my powers, soon. It's because of this comet."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"According to her, celestial events influence a witch's powers – enhancing them, or in my case, bringing them fully out."
"Well, that sounds promising. We all could use a little magic in our lives..."
"Maybe not this particular magic. Grams said that this comet has been known to bring death, chaos and destruction every time it's passed the sky above this town. She thinks it's a harbinger of evil."
"Come on, Bonnie, you don't seriously believe that, do you? It's just a massive clump of dust and ice. There's nothing evil about seeing it pass by. After all, it means that it's not going to hit us, which surely is a good thing. – There, Caroline's back. She doesn't look like the hunt brought any game, though..."
In fact, Caroline looked sorely disappointed, plunking down into the chair and pursing her lips.
"I suppose you didn't catch him?"
"No! It's unbelievable. He just, like, vanished from the face of the earth – again! Do you think he might be avoiding you, Elena?"
"Me?" Elena looked at her with a confused expression, trying to follow the trail of Caroline's mind that had led to that particularly weird conclusion.
"Well, it can't be me: He sure didn't try to avoid me yesterday, and he doesn't even know Bonnie yet. Well, I know where he lives, now..."
I gave her a dubious look. "Are you going to lurk outside Dr. Daniels's house until Damon gets out and try to make it look coincidental?"
"No," she smiled, "I'll think of something brilliant." When neither me nor Elena applauded her idea, she sobered. "Look – it's the first time that someone really exciting shows up in this sleepy town, I'm not gonna let that particular fish off the hook! So, whatever advice you're burning to share with me, just keep it, girls!" We both wisely did. Caroline could be very stubborn if she set her mind on something.
As if he had known that this was just the right time to make an entrance, Stefan stepped into the Grill. He briefly paused, his eyes searching the room. Elena, who was sitting facing the entrance, spotted him immediately. "Stefan!" She waved to him, beckoning him to join us. He did, a slightly uneasy smile on his face. "Sorry, I couldn't make it earlier. I hope I'm not interrupting..."
"No, not at all." Elena smiled. "I'm glad that you made it." She quickly made the introductions, seemingly a little nervous. "So, here are my two best friends, Caroline..." Stefan and Caroline politely shook hands.
"... And Bonnie..." Elena continued, directing his attention to me. He offered me his hand in greeting, too, and I took it, our gazes locking. And about a thousand things happened simultaneously. I was hit by such a flood of the weirdest pictures and feelings that I had a hard time taking it all in. My hand seemed to get an electric shock from the touch of his skin, and he must have felt the same thing, for I couldn't say whether I tore free of his hold or if it he had dropped it as if burned by my touch. I gasped, and we stared at each other in shock for an instant.
"What the hell..." Caroline muttered flabbergasted – obviously, the weird incident hadn't passed unnoticed. "What's going on? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I think I just have..." I muttered involuntarily, and a small, worried frown appeared between Stefan's eyes. I felt myself blush. "I'm so sorry... I don't really know what just happened."
"Did you have another vision?" Elena inquired somewhat anxiously.
"Sort of..."
"Well, what did you see?" Caroline asked excitedly, as if this made for highly entertaining dinner conversation. Feeling totally helpless I shot another look at Stefan, who, not surprisingly, seemed uncomfortable. Still, there was also sympathy in his eyes and a trace of guilt – as if he somehow believed that this was his fault and felt bad for me.
"I saw – a grave." Three pair of eyes gave me shocked look, and for a moment, no one said anything. Elena was the first to get back her senses. Her eyes suddenly lit up and she actually broke into a wide smile. "There we go, it's official!" she beamed somewhat proudly. Caroline and I stared at her in confusion. What amusement could be found in the fact that I was officially going crazy?
"You're a witch – just like your grandmother said!" Elena declared in a ta-da-voice, miraculously looking happy about it. I failed to see why seeing a grave when touching a living person's hand should be any less creepy if she were actually right and I was indeed a witch. I forcefully shoved away the sinister thought Elena was blissfully unaware of. "You've got – what would you call it? Backsight!" she exclaimed, trying to explain. "Stefan and I actually met two days ago, at the cemetery!"
Stefan cleared his throat. "Well, that's true, as weird as it might sound. So, I think Elena must be right. How exciting – meeting a real witch." He gave me a kind smile, but did not try to take my hand again.
"You two met at the cemetery?" Caroline frowned, sounding displeased.. "That's not awfully romantic..."
"I was visiting my family," Elena said defensively, and I felt a tinge of relief. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was a memory that I had received from his mind – a memory of him and Elena meeting at her family's gravesite. It just didn't explain the sudden feeling of coldness and darkness that had come with it and which made me shudder still.
Stefan slipped onto the bench next to Elena and opposite from me and I carefully avoided his gaze. So much for the attraction thing, I sighed to myself.
"Since you're here all by yourself I suppose you didn't manage to talk Alys into coming as well?" Elena enquired.
"I didn't get a chance to talk to her. She was out of the house by the time I got back. But I found this still on her desk, where I had left it." He handed her a little notebook that looked suspiciously like Elena's diary. "Haven't you been over?"
"Thank you for bringing it! Yes, I was there, but Alys didn't know anything about the diary. She thought you must have forgotten to mention it to her."
Stefan frowned. "How strange. I had left it on her desk, together with short note..."
"Don't worry, I have it now! So, have you eaten anything for dinner? We haven't ordered yet, but we were going to. You should have a pizza, it's the best you can get here." Realizing that she was overdoing her effort to make him comfortable, Elena broke off, looking slightly embarrassed. If Stefan had noticed, he didn't seem to mind. He smiled and even seemed to relax a bit.
"Alys and I had dinner together before I got here, so I guess I'll stick with a beer. But please, go ahead and order. I'll try the pizza some other time."
While we were waiting for our food to arrive, Caroline and Elena took turns in bombarding him with questions: About how he liked the town so far, whether he had gotten to know many people yet, what the university was like where he had studied until now. Stefan answered all of them obediently, and even though he must have felt like going through a job interview for most of the time, he never seemed ill at ease. I kept quiet most of the time, still trying to analyze the mixed signals I was receiving from him.
Whenever our fleeting gazes crossed, his hazel eyes were warm and smiling, even if his mouth wasn't, most of the time. He didn't seem to smile often, and when he did, I always had the feeling that there was a deep sadness lying underneath. He seemed like a lost soul, making me long to reach out for him, while some parts of my mind screamed out in warning. The same eerie feeling that I had experienced before our neighbor died told me that Stefan came with heavy emotional baggage and would bring pain, trouble and danger. I could only hope and pray that I was wrong.
It was a pleasurable evening – apart from the fact that I kept fighting this feeling of gloom for most of it. Before we noticed, it was almost twelve, and since it was the second evening in a row that we'd stayed up late, we were all getting tired and decided to call it a day.
"Well, thank you very much for inviting me to come," Stefan said on getting up. "It was a nice evening, and it was a pleasure meeting Elena's friends. She can count herself lucky to have both of you." If I hadn't known any better, I would have said that the look he gave me was grateful, which didn't make a whole lot of sense. But when it came to him, nothing really did.
"Yes, it was nice meeting you, too," I said politely and gave a quick and reassuring smile to Elena. "We have to repeat this some time soon."
"Next time, though, you have to make Alys and her brother come along," Caroline chimed in, smiling innocently. Stefan looked at her with an unreadable expression. "You've met Damon?"
"At the party, yesterday. He left rather abruptly, though. I haven't had a chance to invite him along."
"Well, he is somewhat impulsive, it seems..." He didn't go further into that, and – as I noted with interest – neither did he say anything to Caroline's proposition. Probably fearing that she would take notice of that, too, and possibly get pushy, Elena rushed to say good bye and almost dragged Caroline to the car. She didn't seem to mind. Most likely, she was quite satisfied with the turn things had taken: She had a name and an address, and probably even a plan worked out.
With Caroline happily engrossed in her plans to capture Damon, she would most likely forget to tease Elena about the fact that she, for the first time in a long while, was on the point of seriously falling for a guy, too. I wondered, briefly, if Caroline was right. Maybe girls did always fall for the bad guy. Though I there was definitively an aura of darkness to him, I couldn't negate Stefan's charm and attraction. Still, for an instant, when I saw Stefan and Elena wishing each other good night, I felt a pang of jealousy... because Elena had claimed him first.