Chapter Four: Friday Night Bites Part B
Against my better judgment I agreed to go to the dinner, but as soon as we got there, I immediately regretted it. After being greeted by Elena and Bonnie we were sat down at their dinner table and served with spaghetti. As soon as I put it in my mouth I recognized it as the spaghetti from Mystic Grill, but I chose not to say anything about it.
"Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked, finally starting conversation.
"Well, he let me on the team, so I must have done something right." Stefan said.
"Wait you're on the team? As in the football team?" I asked, not being filled in.
"Yeah, it was sort of a last minute decision." Stefan roughly explained.
"Oh, Bonnie you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and…" Elena tried to get Bonnie involved in the conversation, but she cut her off.
"I heard." I didn't know what they were talking about, but I didn't feel like getting in the middle of Bonnie's hatred.
After some more awkward altercations, Stefan easily got Bonnie to warm up to him. Apparently Bonnie comes from a long line of witches. I would usually laugh at something like this, but now I wouldn't be surprised if witches were actually a real thing. However, the conversation was quickly ended when the doorbell rang. Elena volunteered to go answer it, but after a few seconds passed Damon's voice erupted through my ears as well as Stefan's. We both quickly stood up and walked over to the door, where we, in fact, found Damon standing outside the door talking to Elena.
"What are you doing here, Damon?" Stefan asked his brother, clearly not happy he was here. That's when I realized Caroline standing inside the house holding a cake. He probably compelled her to take him here.
"I'm waiting for Elena to invite me in." he said, sending me sly smile.
"Oh, yeah. You can…" Elena was about to invite him in but Stefan stopped her.
"No, no, no. You can't stay can you, Damon? We were just finishing up." He seems to really not want Damon to be invited in. Was i not supposed to invite him into my house? Oh well, it's a little too late for that now.
"It's fine, come in." Elena said, ignoring Stefan's attempts to make Damon leave.
Damon smirked at Stefan, seeing as he won, before walking into the Gilbert house.
After eating Caroline's cake we all moved to the living room. Damon took the love seat and Caroline took his lap. Ugh they seriously need to get a room. Stefan and Elena both sat on the couch and I leaned against the wall, facing everybody. Bonnie decided to stick to the chair that was positioned across from the couch.
"I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething. But good for you. Go for it." Caroline encouraged Stefan.
"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." Damon said, finishing his big inspirational speech that everyone in the room could tell was complete crap; including me, whose been keeping a close eye on him. However, Damon has been doing the same to me. I can tell from all the not so secret glances he's been sending my way.
"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines." Caroline said, and I could see that this wasn't going to end well, because Caroline has always been the jealous type despite having a big heart.
"I'll work with her. She'll get it." Bonnie defended.
"I guess we can put her in the back. It'd be so much easier if Alex didn't quite the team. She was so good at teaching people the numbers last minute." Caroline brought up. I use to be really into cheer leading, but when things got really bad with my dad over the summer, I couldn't bring myself to do it again.
"You don't really come off as the cheer leading type, Elena. And I'm surprised you never told me about you being a cheerleader, Alex." Damon said, doing that weird flirty thing with his eyebrows at me.
"Oh, it's just 'cause Elena's parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun. And Alex is going through stuff with her dad, you know, not showing up at home and stuff." Everybody looked at her with complete shock that she would say this. How did she even know about my dad. I felt both Stefan and Damon's stares on my face and I was desperately trying to ignore them. Caroline finally realized that she shouldn't have said that, but she knew she couldn't take it back so she said, "And I say that with complete sensitivity."
"I'm sorry, Elena. I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die." Damon said, with a hidden meaning behind his words.
"We don't need to get into that right now, Damon." Stefan told him, trying to dismiss the conversation.
"Oh, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up. Mmm." Well, this'll be interesting.
"Um, I'll gonna go do the dishes." I say awkwardly, before getting up and going to the kitchen. I started filling up the dishwasher until there was nothing left in the sink. I was about to close the dishwasher, when Damon walked in with a cup in his hand.
"One more." He said holding it out to me. I went to grab it, but it slipped through my fingers and was about to hit the ground, when Damon used his vampire reflex thing to catch it before hitting the ground.
"You know being a you know what, must really come in handy." I say taking the cup from him, this time without dropping it.
"It's the best thing that's ever happened to me." He said, and a part of me actually believed him.
"Who was the girl you were talking about about earlier?" I brought up not so subtly.
"Ahh, I see Stefan hasn't told you about Katherine, yet." He said, watching me rinse out the cup he gave me.
"Was he supposed to? I mean all I know is what you said a few days ago to Elena and I. About her being Stefan's ex." I asked.
"She was the woman we both loved." He said, bluntly.
"She must've been pretty special for you both to love her." I pointed out as I went to put the cup into the dishwasher, but he grabbed it from me and put it in the dishwasher for me.
"She was beautiful. A lot like you in that department." He slyly complimented. I hid the upcoming blush by looking down at my feet, and letting my hair fall in my face.
"She was also very complicated and selfish and at times not very kind, but very sexy and seductive." He added.
"What happened to her?" I asked, seeing as he kept on saying 'was'.
"She died in a fire. Very tragic."
"I'm guessing this wasn't recently."
"Before Stefan and I even turned." He cleared up. Wow, that was almost 200 years ago.
"You guys are so old." I laughed, making him chuckle a little. "I'm sorry, about Katherine." I spurted out. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love." I added.
The way he looked at me was...hard to figure out. It was like he surprised anyone could feel bad for him. Like he was foreign to the words 'I'm sorry'.
"You need any help cleaning up?" Bonnie asked, as she walked in with Elena.
"I was actually about to head home. Thank you for inviting me, though." I said, politely to Elena.
"No problem." She smiled back. I looked back to Damon again and saw that he was already looking at me. I gave him a small smile before walking into the living room where Stefan was talking to Caroline, who I just noticed was wearing a scarf. It's not even scarf season. Oh don't
have this be what I think it is.
"Hey, Stefan. Can you bring me home?" I asked. He looked up at me and I could tell I interrupted something. "Actually, you look busy. I'll wait in the car." I say, before he could say anything then walk myself out the door and into his car.
I sat myself in the passenger's seat and tried to ready myself for seeing my father when I get home. I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be furious. I'm surprised he even knew I wasn't home. Usually he's to looped up on liquor to realize who's in the house and who's not. Who knows, maybe he'll be passed out on the floor or something.
I was only waiting for 10 minutes tops before Stefan opened up the driver's seat door and sat down. "Please tell me Caroline isn't Damon's personal juicebox." I say casually.
He looked at me for a second sympathetically. I feel like I don't even have the right to be angry with Damon. I mean, he's a vampire and they're supposed to feed on human blood, but that doesn't make it right.
"He's a dick." I mutter, but I know he can hear me by the way he chuckled.
"What was Caroline talking about earlier? About you and your dad?" He asked, as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.
"Oh, I forgot to tell him that I was going to be staying over people's house's and I sort of lost track of the days, so I guess he was asking around to see if he could figure out where I was." I explained, leaving out all the bad parts.
"Are you going to be in trouble?" He asked. Good question.
"He'll probably just take away my phone or something." I wish that was the punishment I would get.
He nodded and I decided to change the subject. "Oh yeah, I meant too ask you something. You seemed really against Damon being invited into Elena's house, why?" I said, not mentioning I invited him into my house.
"Sometimes he likes to do things to get even with me. Impulsive things. And I didn't want him to have a free pass into her house if that ever happens. Speaking of; same goes for you. I know you two are getting to be friends and stuff, but keep your guard up. He only cares about himself." He ranted and I figured he wasn't going to like the next words that came out of my house.
"Well, then I don't think you're gonna like what I'm going to say next. I kind of already invited him in." I said as quickly as possible.
"You what?" He looked over at me with wide eyes.
"I didn't know it was that big of a deal." I defended. He let out a long sigh and I immediately felt kind of bad.
"Just...be careful when it comes to him." He advised me and I nodded. We eventually pulled up to my house and I turned to him before I got out.
"I'll see you at the game tomorrow night?" I asked.
"I am a football player now." He says. I'm glad he doesn't seem mad anymore. I sent him a smile before getting out and walking up to my door. As I opened it I saw he was still sitting in his car, waiting for me to get inside. He's a sweet guy. Elena is lucky to have him.
I turned back around and completely walked into my house, closing the door behind me. I smiled to myself, facing my closed door, but at soon as I turned around a glass bottle was being thrown at my head. It hit the wall right next to me and broken into a bunch of little pieces and the containments of the bottle were all over me. Alcohol. I felt one of the pieces hit my check and most likely cut it. I looked at where it was thrown and a few feet away I saw my very angry and very drunk father.
"Where the hell have you been the last few days?" He scolded.
I tried my best to muster up an excuse, but nothing came out. I didn't have an excuse. I was to wrapped up in finding out about the existence of vampires.
"I asked you a question!" He yelled and picked up a nearby vase and chucked it at my head. I managed to duck and avoid getting my had smashed, but as it hit the door it shattered into a million little pieces, leaving little cuts on my arms.
"I-I'm sorry." I mumbled.
"That's what you always say, but you never learn, do you? Go down to the basement." He ordered and I had to refrain myself from bursting into tears the moment that sentence came out of his mouth. The basement was a place that could send me into tears just by thinking about it. It was where I got my worst punishments. I hadn't been down there in a while and I really don't want to go now.
"Dad, no I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I promise. Just please don't make me go down there." I pleaded, and I had to force the tears from falling down my face.
"Are you begging? Didn't I tell you to never beg. You are weak." He told me, getting angrier by the minute. Seeing as I wasn't moving he walked over and grabbed me by the hair and dragged me down to the basement.
I pleaded for him to let me go, but there was no use. This was going to happen, whether or not I liked it. Once we got there he threw me in the middle of the room, next to this piece of metal that stuck out of the ground. He didn't waste any time to cuff me to the piece of metal and I was so scared. I already knew what was coming next.
He walked away to get his makeshift whip and when I saw him come back with it I looked down and let the tears silently pour from my eyes. "Three whips is you punishment. If you make a sound you get two more, understood." He told me from behind me.
I nodded my head and as soon as I did that I felt the whip connect with my back, making a snapping noise. This pain was the worst pain I'd ever felt in my life. I grinded my teeth together, to stop myself from making any noise for the next two whips and when he was done, I could feel the blood seeping from my back.
He dropped the whip and came over to uncuff me. "Maybe now, you'll know better then to disobey me." He told me before walking away and back upstairs. I wanted to get myself into my room, but I couldn't even move. I was in excruciating pain, so did the one thing I knew I would regret in the morning. I pulled out my phone and dialled Stefan's number. I knew I couldn't call Tyler, since he couldn't hide me at his house anymore and Caroline was out of the question because as much as I loved her I know that if I told her, the whole school would know by tomorrow night.
After two rings he picked up.
"Hey, Alex." he said through the phone. As soon as I heard his voice I couldn't stop the sobs from coming out.
"Stefan, I need you to come pick me up." I cried into the phone.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" He asked, sounding really worried.
"Just please come get me. I'm in my basement." I asked, not caring if my father saw him.
"I'll be there in 2 minutes." He promised, before hanging up. I laid on my cold basement floor, trying to steady my breathing because everytime I made the slightest move it caused pain. Thankfully, Stefan wasn't lying because within two minutes I heard his voice from the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh my god, Alex. What happened?" He rushed over to me and helped my sit up on my butt, but I winced in pain.
"Here." He said, and at first I didn't understand what he was doing, but then i saw his face vamp out and he bit into his wrist. "It'll heal you." He told me as he pushed it towards my mouth. I looked at him wearily, but I was willing to do anything to make this pain stop, so I latched my mouth onto his bleeding wrist. He pulled it away when he saw I had enough and I immediately felt my wounds healing, including the ones on my face and arms.
"Your dad's calling you upstairs." He told me. He must have heard it with his vampire hearing thing, because I couldn't hear a thing, but it didn't stop the look of fear from creeping up on my face. He saw this and was quick to pick me up, bridal style, and use his enhanced speed to get us both out of there as quick as possible. Everything was a blur until we got outside and he placed me in the passenger's seat. Even though I was healing, I was still a little sore.
He quickly got into the driver's seat and drove off to where I'm guessing was his house. "What happened to you?" he asked, but I just faced the window. I didn't want to see his face when I told him.
"Was is it your dad?" He asked and I still refused to answer. I didn't want to talk about it, but I knew I would eventually have to.
"Just...don't tell anyone." I asked, still not facing him.
"Okay. Okay, I won't, but can you please explain to me what happened down there?" He asked, but I didn't answer.
He clearly saw I wasn't going to answer any of his questions, so he let the rest of the ride be silent. When we arrived at his house we both got out of the car and I was already completely healed. Well, physically.
"Can I take a shower?" I asked once we got inside.
"Yeah...yeah, I'll leave some clothes for you in the room you stayed in last night." He told me and I nodded before walking up the stairs to where the bathroom was. When I got into it, I locked the door behind me. As soon as I saw my reflection I was disgusted with myself. I had dried blood all over my body, my face was pale and I basically looked like I came right out of the Walking Dead as a zombie.
I looked away, having seen enough of what I looked like, and shredded off my clothes, then got into the shower. I turned the knob all the way to the right, so that the hot water would come out, and then started ridding myself of all the dried blood.
I walked into my room for the night and saw the clothes Stefan had left for me. It was, what looked like, one of his black tank tops and basketball shorts. I didn't even know he owned basketball shorts. I easily slipped on the clothes and dried my hair a little with the towel. I had folded all my bloody clothes and put them in a neat pile next to the bed, so that I could take them home and wash the.
Home. That seemed like a place that was foreign to me. I had heard that 'home' was supposed to be a place you could feel safe and be yourself and for some people that's exactly what it was. But for me...it was quite the opposite.
I sat myself at the top of the bed and leaned my upper body against the headboard. Home is the last place I want to be. I don't ever want to go back there.
My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Yeah." I called out and the door opened and Stefan peaked in. "Can I come in?" He asked, and I nodded. He walked in, closing the door behind him and sat himself at the foot of the bed, facing me.
"I know you don't want to talk about it, but I need to know. What happened back there?" I knew I couldn't avoid it any longer. After what he just saw I have to explain myself.
"My dad...uh, he likes to drink a lot. And when he's drunk he does a lot of things he wouldn't do while he's sober. Ever since my sister and mom died, he's been different." I started.
"He beats you?" It wasn't really a question. It roughly translated to 'how could he do that to you'.
"He's just trying to grieve." I defended. I don't know why I do that though. He's hurt me in so many ways and yet I still find a way to defend him for it.
"He's sick, Alex. People can't just do that." He told me.
"He'll get better." I said, hopefully. "He has too."
He looked at me in a sympathetic way. It was similar to how Tyler looked at me when I told him. "Alex…" He started, but I interrupted.
"I know what you're going to say, but I know he'll get better. It's just a phase." I tell him, not being able to stop the tear from gathering in my eyes.
"Do you really believe that?" He asked and that was it. I couldn't stop my sobs from escaping my mouth, because truthfully, I didn't know if this was ever going to stop or if it was just countless routine that was going to happen until I graduated high school.
Stefan pulled me into a hug and tried to calm me down. "I hate him, Stefan. I hate him." I sobbed into his shirt. He just shushed me and ran his hands through my hair.
I didn't realize that I was so tired from all the crying i had been doing, but I accidently fell asleep in his arms.
When I woke up the next morning I was by myself in the bed, not that I'm surprised. According to the clock next to me it was...4:30 in the afternoon. Shit, I overslept. I jumped out of bed and the first thing I noticed was the a note on the dresser. I walked over to peace of paper and read it.
Hey, I had to go to school for warm ups before the game. I didn't
want to wake you since you could use the sleep. I picked up some of your clothes from your house. They're in the dresser under this note. See you at the game.
-Stefan
I smiled to myself and placed the note back onto the dresser. When I opened up one of the drawers I indeed, found some of my clothes. He really was a good friend.