The Third Salvatore, Part Four
Stefan sat on Elena's bed waiting for her to come home. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
By midnight, she still wasn't there.
Suddenly Stefan was full of anxiety. What if Elena was secretly meeting up with Damon, or, God forbid, Henry? Kissing him, giving him blood… all the stuff that she should have been doing with Stefan instead. Because he loved her most.
"Elena!" he moaned. Whenever she wasn't with him, it hurt. It was like there was a painful piece of wood poking a hole in his heart, killing him. He needed her. "ELENA!"
There were footsteps in the hallway and Aunt Judith threw open the door to Elena's room with an incredulous look upon her face. "Stefan!" she exclaimed. "What in the world are you doing here?"
"I'm always here, every night," Stefan told her. Didn't she know? "But for some reason Elena's not here tonight. Do you know why that could be?"
Aunt Judith's jaw dropped and she took a long time to speak again. "Stefan– you cannot come here at night without permission. Elena's hardly a full adult, and besides, this is my house, so you two must abide by my rules while you're here and–" She stopped, choking slightly. "I have no idea where she could be. We need to call the police."
"No," Stefan said. "I'll find her, don't worry, and I'll bring her back."
He flung open the window and jumped away, to search for his lovely little love.
…..
Elena's shone her flashlight's beam onto the next page of the book, breathing hard. Mrs. Flowers had been asleep when she got there, so she had snuck inside and found where the old witch kept her books of spells. Elena was determined to find something to help her with Henry. Mrs. Flowers might try and keep something from her, maybe for ethical reasons or something else that came with being old and wise that Elena honestly did not care about at the moment.
She froze when she found the next entry in the book: A CHARM OF INFATUATION. She read the list of steps and herbs and things that you needed and decided that it looked manageable. She could pronounce most of the ingredients: that had to be a good sign.
She ripped the page out of the book and stuffed it into her pocket without really thinking about how Mrs. Flowers might react when she saw that. Then, as quietly as she could, she left the library and went out the back door. When she finally got outside, she sighed in relief. She hadn't gotten got. That felt like a miracle.
She hopped into her car, which, thankfully, was a hybrid and made almost noise starting up, and drove back home, feeling strangely light and hopeful. She could do it. She could make Henry hers.
When she could home, she tried to be quiet getting out of the car and walking up to the house, because her aunt was probably asleep. But the low volume fell apart when someone grabbed her from behind, causing her to scream.
"Shush! It's just me, Stefan! Please love, don't scream!"
When Elena heard who it was, she just wanted to scream even louder, but she controlled herself, and ducked out of his arms just as Aunt Judith rushed out of the house.
"Elena! There you are! You scared me half to death! Where have you been!" she babbled, but Elena pushed past her without answering. Leave to Stefan and her aunt to put her into a bad mood. And she had been so happy, too.
"ELENA! THAT IS NOT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR!" Aunt Judith screamed after her, but Elena just rolled her eyes and ran up to her room. Stefan was there waiting for her, as she had expected.
He reached out to her, looking very needy and pathetic. "My love–"
This pushed Elena over the edge. "Stefan!" she yelled. "Will you please just leave me alone! I am so SICK of you and Damon just– hounding me! It seems like you want to spend every second you can glued to my side, and when you're not doing THAT, you're off being idiots, doing stupid contests to, I don't impress, me or something. Well, news flash: I just think it's stupid. So, why don't you just give me some space for once? You and Damon can go see who can last longer in the sun without a lapis ring on. Loser gets an eternity in Hell."
Tears were rolling down Stefan's face, and Elena knew she'd been mean, but she didn't want to comfort Stefan. She didn't care. What kind of man cried like a baby, anyway? She doubted that Henry would do that.
"Elena, I'm sorry," he said. "Please, how can I make it up to you?"
"Just go away," she said. "That's how you can make it up."
He walked over to the window, still bawling, but stopped when he reached it. "Does this have anything to do with Henry?" he asked.
Elena stared back at him. Yes, it did, actually. She probably would have tried to cling to Damon and Stefan longer if she hadn't had anyone better to move on to. "Stefan, it doesn't matter to you. Just go."
"Okay," Stefan cried, and finally, he left Elena to herself.
…
"Oh, Matt, it's just so great!" Bonnie squealed over the phone. Elena hadn't answered when Bonnie had called, and she knew that Meredith didn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night for phone calls, so Bonnie had, as Matt was so keen on saying, chosen the third option: Matt. "I swear I believe in love at first sight now. Henry is absolutely the perfect guy for me."
"That's awesome," Matt said, sounding very genuine. "But, not to ruin your good mood or anything, I was kind of hoping that one of you girls would like me for once. But I guess not. To many Salvatores."
Bonnie was shocked. "Oh, Matt!" she said. "I'm sorry–"
"Nah, don't be," Matt said. "I don't really care."
They were silent for a very long time. "I'm sure you'll meet a girl some day, Matt," Bonnie said. "I mean, you're nice and all."
"Yeah, I guess I am. But I always end up scaring off all the girls when I start talking about all the different choices you have when selecting grilled foods. One girl told me one time that it was kind of creepy, how much I like Bratwurst."
Bonnie didn't know what to say to that, because she was one-hundred percent sure that she had said that to Matt just earlier that day.
"But I don't believe that for a minute," Matt went on. "Nothin' wrong with appreciating good food. It's part of being American."
"Yeah," Bonnie said awkwardly.
They were silent again for a while. "Bonnie, what are you planning on doing with Henry on your date?" Matt asked eventually.
"We don't know yet. Probably some ice cream and then a movie, though."
"May I recommend Jerry's Ice Cream Parlor? It happens to have a large selection of flavors for you to chose from, something I always look for in my eateries."
"Oh, cool, thanks," Bonnie said. She didn't remember talking to Matt on the phone being so weird before, but she wanted to stop talking, now. "Uh, Matt, I've gotta go, okay? Thanks."
"Good ni–" he started, but she hung up. She wished she'd gotten Henry's phone number. She wanted to call him, just to hear his voice. Tomorrow, she decided, she would go to the Salvatores' and hang out with him. All day long. Being in love was nice.
END OF PART FOUR