A/N: I finally have reviews, yay, how exciting. Please keep them coming so that I can keep my inspiration to keep updating this story. It doesn't even have to be a review, you can feel free to PM me if you have any further questions on the story, I make mistakes in writing all the time. So, I am just going to reply to those three guest reviews chronologically and then comes the aftermath so to speak of that disastrous chapter 3.
Guest: I laughed because there are barely any SE fics now on this site and it's so tragic. The concept is so fresh and I hope more and more people come here to enjoy the story.
Bellavida0213: Bonnie and Jesse are absolute gems. I wasn't going to originally bring Jesse in but he is a good balance to Bonnie's blunt and abrasive( to a certain degree, she's earned it) disposition. And for Bamon, it could go there most definitely even though I am not the most privy to Damon. I really loved your take on Stefan/Damon's personalities in this AU because a mutual of mines had a similar perspective on the two since she believes Damon is who he is unapologetically and Stefan tends to shy away from everything basically, lmao and it's okay to be biased. Their dynamic is very fun to write even if it is Damon saying inappropriate, outrageous things while Stefan responds thoroughly disgusted/annoyed. Elena is growing I'll say that and chapter is just that push for her and that's why I love it. Her reaction was very valid and she's young there's this very handsome and rich man trying to woo her and she's dazed, everything is happening so fast for her. Elena and Stefan are a mess that's what I wanted from the get-go. I have this habit of mentioning my mutuals but they were confused on why I made them this way and I'm like guys she's a stripper, it's not going to be your typical SE you love and know in the show. The dialogue note, I hear you loud and clear. One thing I try to do or did is make transition words instead of repeating the person's name like 5 times in a paragraph. I think I get better at that as the chapters but I could be wrong but thank you for the critique and I will go back edit it, soon.
Guest: Glad you're loving it! Please, keep reading and reviewing it only gets crazier for our favorite dysfunctional couple.
Chapter 4: Don't Blink
Damon was just satisfied at the fact that he wasn't the family fuck up this year. He knocked on Stefan's door even if he had a key, he just wanted his brother to get up and open the door for him. He was let in and walked in the apartment, smiling with his hands in his jacket. Stefan couldn't even offer any type of positivity this morning. Damon pulled out his phone, opening Youtube. Still looking down he told him, "You know what you did, right? Okay, I'll play it again to jog your memory."
He heard Elena's voice ringing throughout his entire apartment. Damon held the phone out to display the video of the girl talking to paparazzi while fixing her breast area. Stefan had his hand over his neck, blankly staring ahead. Ignoring it wouldn't make it go away but he could try. Damon circled around him with the video still playing. Three words, 7 letters, repeated in Stefan's ears. Damon shrugged, "Okay, she's pretty I'll give her that, maybe her looks alone have got you caught up. We have all been very smitten once in our lives with a certain girl but these women come to a dime a dozen meaning that they're disposable and that also means that they're liabilities I mean these women are very," he saw what his brother was hiding-a love bite.
Amused, Damon finished his sentence, "They are very loose-lipped aren't they, Stefan? Don't answer, you're sporting a hickey, dude." He couldn't stop laughing, this was the ultimate weapon against his brother. He nudged him, "Okay, how was it? Just tell me straight up man to man." Damon walked over to the kitchen, finding them some bourbon to drink. His suggestive questions wouldn't get an answer. Stefan followed him sitting at one of the stools by the kitchen island. Damon slid him over a glass and he drunk it all at once.
"You don't need to know anything. What did the old man say?"
Damon sniffed his glass, checking the strength of it and tilted his glass up. He never liked weak liquor and he answered, "I honestly don't know. Zach told me he's super pissed though, so I'd expect an upcoming meeting today or tomorrow considering our now changing circumstances." Stefan looked at his phone seeing that he had multiple notifications, none of them he wanted to open. Damon grabbed his brother's glass, suddenly refilling it. He then said, "Oh and Caroline is flying in from Los Angeles tomorrow morning, so yeah I'd drink that and things are looking hella drastic for you, so do a line if you need to, I'll leave."
Stefan lifted his drink letting the bottom of it float in the air. He smiled and said in an uncharacteristically happy voice, "Thank you for this brother and hey Damon, watch out." The warning didn't register for the playboy until he was dodging glass being thrown at his head. Damon whined, "Man, that was a good pour too." It hit the wall beneath the wood cabinets ad right below the sink. His constant taunting really was a preface of what was really the reason he came over to Stefan's apartment for. He let his older brother poke fun at him for the situation, but now this was reality and he had to deal with an actual storm, his ex slash best-friend who would demand answers.
Elena, Jesse, and Bonnie were all on the couch drinking red wine talking about their shift. The topic of last night hadn't been brought besides Elena finding out how they got home. She did not want to jump straight to her scandalous night. The two women had the morning shift and headed straight to Jesse's house right after work. At work, Elena had been making twice her earnings and she was nervous that people would start realizing the girl in the video was indeed her. She barely talked her entire shift but some, if not all the girls knew it was her. They giggled and snickered when she walked in the breakroom and it took Bonnie to shut everyone up to cease it.
Now the two of them sat on their friend's love seat while he sat in the recliner. Jesse placed his wine glass on the coaster rather loudly. It alerted them. Knowing he got their attention he asked the burning question, "What happened with you and lover boy?" Bonnie leaned in wanting to know the details just as badly as Jesse. Elena breathed in and out before telling them their cold ride to Coney Island and how sweet he was at first when they got there and began dining. She mentioned how cold it was and how she never had been on something so high. Looking down, she started fiddling her thumbs and said, "Then we got in the limo. He was everywhere in my mind, his voice was inescapable in the best way and he just looked really kissable."
Bonnie wide-eyed and asked, "So, what happened next, Elena?"
It was all fuzzy in her mind one moment Stefan was in her ear and then the next she had him in her mouth. Then came the arguing and crying, she felt so many complexities at one time.
"I may or may not been on my knees on that limo floor."
Jesse poured more wine in his glass. Bonnie was still stunned and said, "So you basically sucked his dick?" Elena nodded, processing the green-eyed girl's bluntness. Jesse had already downed all of his wine. "So what did it taste like? I've never sucked dick in a limo, the front seat yeah, but a limo? Girl, that's some expensive head. Wow." Maybe she should be teaching him a thing or two. They still sat, waiting for her to finish her story. Elena ignored him and continued her story leading up to the paparazzi bombarding her. Bonnie's quietness just turned into laughter, this had to be a joke.
"So, you jumped on him, pleasured him, and then you're crying and ruining his life the next moment? I'm sorry, Elena but you're-"
Jesse waved her off, "Nevermind all of that, we know our girl is kind of a nut case, no pun intended. Did you spit or swallow?" He wanted to be sure before being too proud of her.
"I swallowed," She sunk her head into one of the couch throw pillows. Jesse and Bonnie both shrieked. After their shock wore off, Elena still had her head in the pillow sulking. Jesse's face twisted in disgust. That had been his favorite pillow and her feminine tears had stained it. Bonnie motioned for him to stand up aggression in her moving hands. He slowly rose from his very comfortable recliner and put a hand on Elena's shoulder and Bonnie soon followed.
"Hey, we're here for you, no matter what you're going through. This is a judge-free zone, we've all done our shit but that doesn't mean teasing you or-"
"Scolding," Bonnie added, she still didn't think her friend knew the weight of his words had to the press. Elena sniffed, raising her head from the cushioned pillow. Jesse picked it up by the edge, throwing it somewhere unimportant. Elena held her hands out weakly, still feeling like an emotional wreck. They knew an inevitable hug was coming. The brunette held on to them, squeezing them and said with a cracked voice, "I love you guys so much."
It was now Monday morning and Stefan was making breakfast. Cooking had been one of his favorite hobbies and even though he'd never become a professional didn't mean he couldn't have a five-star kitchen to match his culinary skills. Besides, everyone loved his cooking, not so much to make them forget what transpired in the last 36 hours. Making themselves known, Damon barged in with Lexi behind him. The aroma of bread and bacon filled their noses.
"I have biscuits and fruit on the table, nothing else is done," Stefan had his back turned from them, still preparing food. Damon smelled bacon so he was going to get bacon. While he was stealing a piece from the skillet while Lexi sat at one of the stools. She wasn't going to taunt him since she figured Damon and the press had terrorized his peace enough. Instead, the laidback friend took a more positive approach.
"I mean we can barely see who it is since it was way too dark outside. She looks pretty though, maybe your taste is better than Damon's."
Damon snorted, "She isn't even putting out." He chomped down on a piece of bacon obnoxiously. He just couldn't believe his brother was pursuing an exotic dancer just for the hell of it. Maybe that was the biggest key difference between the two-how they treat women. Lexi took his comment into considered it for just one second, "Exactly. There's just something so poetic about her being a stripper and making him work for it, I have to respect it."
Finishing off his bacon Damon said practically yelling, "Oh no, we are not making this into an 'even when Stefan loses he wins in some way' he's in more deep shit than me. Has a fiance for God's sake. I did my dirt but I was never tied down, I'd mess up someone else's happy home before mine."
"Well, if they're not having sex, Damon, why does it matter? It seems to baffle you like you're the one missing out on any pussy. I don't see any unfaithfulness. It could just be a really loose friendship."
Damon ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated, "Doesn't matter, he's still entertaining her, and what are you, his lawyer?" Lexi shrugged, smiling at her friend bringing over a hot plate of breakfast food. There was this unspoken knowing smile Lexi and Stefan exchanged all the time and it drove Damon mad, but especially now.
"I'm going to pick Caroline up from the airport now," grumbled Damon.
After his brother left Stefan started to shake, he sat down trying to level himself but his nerves were at an all-time high. Lexi walked over to him placing a hand on his shoulder. She asked, "How long? You can't be on that shit when Crazy Caroline gets here and Damon said that meeting is at 5 today at the manor." Stefan shook his head, of course, there would be a meeting and conveniently enough he had to find out from Lexi. Begrudgingly, he answered, "48 hours and counting, I feel like my lungs are about to collapse."
Lexi nodded, "Okay, that's good. Just keep your heart pumping, do anything. I'm not here to judge and you know that." She gave him a side hug and patted his back telling him it was going to be okay. After they parted, he said in a low voice, "When that meeting is over I am going to go see her and I want answers." It didn't seem like a smart idea but he was running out of solutions and he'd be lying like hell if he didn't still yearn for Elena.
Caroline's arrival in her home state had been not so lovely as the cold weather hit her like a ton of bricks and she was greeted by her least favorite member of the Salvatore family. Having someone pick her up from the family instead of a taxi taking her home made her feel wanted. The last thing the lively blonde wanted to do was show up uninvited. While in the car, Damon could feel the pounds being shoved in his car's trunk after she shut it.
"Thanks for nothing," Caroline grunted, noting his lack of help. "If it was Stefan, I wouldn't have to even roll my luggage out." She froze, "Why isn't he here?" Damon was driving off from the airport, faking his focus on the road. She looked at him angrily and called his name out, to which he pretended he never heard and she bopped him on the head.
"Ah, fine, please not the face! He's at his house and Lexi's there, let the man breathe for a second some groupie embarrassed him. He feels awful and you know about that self-loathing thing he does."
Caroline nodded her head, "So, that's the story we're running with? He's obviously fucking her or at least wants to, Damon, I saw the video way many more times than you, and not for the laughing factor. I was like, really analyzing it." Damon felt bad for the girl, he awkwardly touched her shoulder and tried to offer comfort. Caroline wiggled his hand away and she gritted, "I don't need pity and especially from you, Damon. And actually, instead of taking me straight to Stefan's, take me to the manor I want to be the first familiar face your brother sees at the meeting." The black-haired stud quickly put both hands on the wheels of his Corvette speeding off with a devilish smirk.