A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! Hope you enjoy :)
Chapter 7
I took the subway to work this morning. I haven't done that in a while ever since I made enough money to buy a myself a car. This job pays really well so I was able to indulge in the luxury of buying an expensive hybrid SUV, an Audi Q5. Much like Stefan but his is a coupe.
I was kind of nervous for our date today. He didn't want to give me details about where we're going. Just that we were gonna have fun and to take comfortable clothes. Oh my god what if he wants to go skydiving?! No no, he wouldn't. I don't know if I would classify that as fun. I mean, it's sure to be a rush but I would need to think long and hard before deciding to do that.
I finished most of my work for the day early so I decided to hang out in Bonnie's office for a while. See what she's up to.
As usual, I walk in without knocking and plop down on her couch.
"So what's new Bon?"
"Oh nothing, just thinking about putting a dead bolt and my door so people stop barging in at their own discretion. Ya' know, the usual."
Oh Bonnie, my sarcastic, witty, best friend. I smile at her and she smiles back.
"You done with your paper work already? Damn, Stefan must be a hell of a guy to have you speeding up your productivity." She laughs and I glare at her then smile.
"For your information little miss sassy pants, I didn't have much to do today. Just revise some articles, send some things down to the printer and that's about it."
She's typing away on her computer and looks over at me briefly, smiles then asks, "Do you know where he's taking you today?"
"Ugh no. He won't tell me. To be honest I don't know if I'm more frustrated or curious." I giggle.
"Elena Gilbert giggling and being all giddy over a guy, Oh. My. God." She teases. I grab one of the couch cushions and throw it at her but I miss.
"You know, he has a brother..." I say tracing circles on the couch with my finger.
"Nu-uh, no way. Don't even think about it Elena."
I laugh. "Why not Bonnie? We could like, double date. I haven't seen him but Stefan described him as tall, dark hair, blue eyes. Sounds appealing doesn't it?" I wiggle my eyebrows a bit and she just stares at me like there's something wrong with me.
"Come on, ever since your little fiasco with Jeremy you haven't seen anyone." A while back Jer and Bonnie had a little thing going on but my brother being the numb nuts he is, got drunk and made out with an ex of his. I do give him credit though because he confessed it to Bonnie but she decided they were better off as friends. We joke about it every now and then so it's not awkward. Plus when Jer comes to visit, we all go out. They've stayed close friends.
"Don't you remember how bad it went the last time I was set up for a date? Katherine had told me about Jaime and good God he was a bore. Then turned out kind of stalker-ish wondering where I was all the time and who I was with. I don't have time for that."
"Look, I'm not saying you have to become a couple or anything. It doesn't even have to be a date. We can just all go out, as friends. Do some type of activity that could be fun and not be like a serious type of outing like going out to dinner would be." I look at her expectantly. After a moment she sighs.
"Fine. And only because I know you'll keep bugging me if I say no. Plus, it'd be nice take a break from everyone here at the office, besides you of course." Yes, she gave in.
"Great." I reply with a big grin on my face. "I'll be sure to tell Stefan later."
We talk some more then I decide to head back to my office to get ready to leave.
My office phone rings.
"Yes, Anna?" I ask knowing it's her.
"How rude Miss Gilbert, do you always answer your office phone like this?"
Stefan. "Did you charm my assistant into letting you call?"
"I did no such thing. She very willingly let me call on my own. No charming needing."
I just roll my eyes. "Hey, no eye-rolling." Wait, how did he..? I roll my eyes again and smile. "I'll be out in a minute." I grab my things and leave my office.
"There she is, beautiful as ever." He says as he see's me approach.
"Not too shabby yourself Salvatore." He gives me a hug and I get all warm inside. His arms have this sense of security, I can't even explain it. I'm not in his embrace for too long but, this overwhelming feeling of homeyness overcomes me so when he breaks contact all I can do is stare up at him. He smiles and grabs my hand ready to lead me out of the building.
Fun. We're going to have fun.
XXXXXXXXX
As soon as we get into his car I ask him if he's going to tell me where we're going.
"No."
"Aww why not?" I put on a pouty face trying to get him to tell me. He looks at me and for a second I think I've got him but then smiles and turns away, eyes back on the road.
"I'll tell you when we're getting close. In the mean time, how was work today?"
Maybe I should give him the silent treatment. No, that could turn out bad. He might just keep quiet as well and I'll end up losing anyway.
"It was good. Finished my stuff early then went to see Bonnie for a while."
"Did you talk about me?" He takes his eyes off the road and looks at me, every couple of seconds looking back making sure he wasn't going to crash.
"Eyes on the road Salvatore. Wouldn't want to die before I know where we're going."
He just laughs. Such a wonderful laugh. I could listen to it all day and never get tired of it. I wonder what his voice sounds like in the mornings just as he wakes up.
Wait, what?
I snap out of it and decide to talk about the whole double date thing.
"I was thinking. I want Bonnie to get out more and since you mentioned your brother.."
"Oh no, that can't be a good idea."
"Why not? They're both single."
"Yeah but like I said, Damon doesn't do relationships."
"Well I'm not saying they have to be in one. We can just, do a double date that's not a double date. We can all go out together, it could be fun." I say trying to convince him.
"I don't know Elena, it could be disastrous. My brother doesn't always like to behave himself. I'd hate for him to do something to piss off your friend or you and therefore ruining my chances to get to see you again."
Well if that's not the sweetest thing he's said I'll be damned. "Come on, he can't be that bad. How about I promise that whatever happens, you'll still get to see me afterwards?"
He takes a minute to contemplate the idea. "Ok, but I still have to get him to agree with it. Can't imagine that'll be easy."
XXXXXXXXX
We've been on the road for about 40 minutes now. I think I fell asleep for a little while. Stefan wakes me saying we're almost there.
"Ok so the deal about this place is, one of my regular customers who lives on the outskirts of town, works at this little carnival, mini theme park type place. I've gone a couple of times with some friends so I thought it'd be something fun to do together."
I didn't really expect this. A big smile comes across my face. "Wow, I haven't been to a carnival in ages. They used to have one once a year back home but it was mostly just carnival games and a ferris wheel. Nothing too big." I feel like a kid again, getting excited about a carnival.
"So I didn't make a complete ass of myself thinking you'd like this?" He seems nervous.
I touch his arm and smile. "It sounds great Stefan, thank you."
XXXXXXXXX
Finally we arrive and the place looks awesome. From the parking lot you can see 2 mini rollercoaster and some weird bungee jump, superman contraption and a lot of carnival games.
As we get out of the car Stefan tells me that his friend works at the main little office and that I can go change in there while he talks to his friend.
I'm back a couple of minutes later in comfy jeans and a burnout grey color tank top. Stefan is waiting for me to go leave my stuff at the car and finally head in.
I really do feel like a kid again. All I want to do is play all the games and get on everything. Oh and have some cotton candy too.
"So what are we doing first?" I ask Stefan excitedly.
"I was thinking go-karts. Get some friendly competition going." He says with side grin walking us over to the go-karts.
"Prepare to lose." I tease and he scoffs.
"3...2...1, GO!" That's all I hear before I hit the gas pedal speeding off in my little go-kart. I feel like I leave Stefan behind and decide to scream back at him, "HA HA Eat my dust Salvatore!" I look ahead of me again and make my way through the course. I make the first whole lap in the lead.
Right as I'm about to yell something back at Stefan, I notice he's not there. I turn to the other side just to see him zoom past me.
"How do you like them apples?" He yells up ahead. Fast and the furious reference, nice.
I do my best to catch up to him, staying right on his tail. A turn is coming up and we're on our last lap. An idea pops into mind. I stay right behind him almost bumper to bumper and just as he's about to start turning, I clip him and it sends his kart spinning bumping right into a wall. I speed past him laughing and I hear him yell but I can't make out what he says.
As I wait at the finish line, I'm already out of the kart and standing off to the side with a big grin on my face. I expect him to come back looking defeated but quite the opposite.
He smiles at me and gets out of the kart.
"You little cheater. You totally clipped me."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I won fair and square." I say feigning innocence.
"You're innocent huh?" He comes closer and grabs me by my waist and starts tickling me. I, being very ticklish, burst out into fit of laughter.
"Ste- stef-stefan stop!" Oh man I can't breathe I'm laughing too hard.
"Say you cheated and I'll let go."
"Neh-never!" I manage to get out between breaths.
"Oh really?" He tickles me even harder and I can't take it anymore, tears have started streaming down my face.
"Ok ok! I cheated!"
He quickly stops and smiles. "I knew it." He gives me a peck on the lips like it's something that comes natural to him, grabs me by the hand and starts walking. I of course am left stunned. I don't even think I could tell you my name if you asked me in this moment.
He brings me back to reality when he starts to speak. "I'm thinking laser tag now. Yeah?"
"Oh my God they have that here? I haven't played since I was a kid with Jeremy."
"Yeah its not really big but I like it because instead of a warehouse where you're running on the floor, its like a bouncy castle. That of course makes it harder to run around. There are air filled cylinders that you can use to shield you and some other ones that are like mini walls."
"I can't even remember the last time I was in a bouncy castle." I say laughing.
We make it to the entrance of the laser tag. We take off our shoes and put on the chest plates that record your score and are attached to the laser guns. The structure of it is a little building with the whole entire floor being a bouncy castle. Its high off the ground so when you're going to enter, you have to climb in.
The round lasts 5 minutes and you have to tag your opponents as much as you can by pointing your gun at their chest plate. Doesn't sound difficult right? Wrong.
We climb in and we take different ends so we're in like a duel or a show down. When the buzzer goes off for our time to start I quickly run over to behind a curtain dropped from the ceiling to help conceal you. I think I can hear him running but I don't know from which direction so I take off running and start shooting in every direction. His chest plate goes off just as mine does as well and I feel like I'm just screaming like some crazed lunatic trying to kill someone. I can hear Stefan grunting in response while he shoots me too. I keep running to make it behind another curtain on the other side of the arena. I run into another player as I'm turning the corner which scares me for a second but I quickly kneel down to stay out of sight. I see a cylinder up ahead and decide to run to it and kneel from there. But little did I know that the closer you are standing to the cylinder, your weight brings the floor down tipping the cylinder over and you along with it. I yelp trying to get my balance but all I can do is laugh and I hear Stefan coming laughing at me and shooting at my chest.
"Help me" I say trying to get up.
"Your enemy isn't supposed to help you Elena." He says laughing.
"Shut up" I grab his hand and bring him down but I manage to get up and start shooting at his chest.
"Cheating again Gilbert"
I laugh and run off trying to hide again. I feel time is almost over as I'm crouching behind yet another curtain. I hear him on the other side which would place him almost in the middle walking my way but on the other side of the curtain. I decide to live out a James Bond fantasy and start running towards him jumping out in front of him from behind the curtain to a slow motion drop on my side as I yell and shoot for his chest. I swear I feel like I'm in the air for forever before finally dropping and hearing the buzzer.
We're both laughing hysterically at my choice of maneuver and after a couple of minutes finally make it out of the arena. Stefan is still laughing as we make it outside and start putting our shoes on.
"How did you even think about that move?"
"I don't know. I just saw an opportunity to surprise you and took it. Too many James Bond movies I guess."
"I won by points but I say you win hands down on style."
"The only way to win." I say giving him a million dollar smile.
We go off to play some of the games. He insisted on trying to win me something and after a couple of tries, he finally got me a stuffed koala bear which was extremely adorable. We held hands the entire time and I haven't felt this happy, this amazing, ever.
It's almost 6 o'clock and we decide that the Ferris wheel will be our last ride. We get on and I snuggle up to Stefan's side as he puts his arm over my shoulder. When we get to the very top we can see the most amazing view of the sunset. The whole sky is orange and there are barely any clouds and there's a flock of birds flying off in the distance. It kind of looks like those stock photos that come with picture frames. My head had been resting on Stefan's shoulder and I lift it up to look at him.
"Thank you" I say looking into his eyes.
"My pleasure" He responds.
I look down to his lips, and lick my own, waiting expectantly.
"Are you waiting for somethings Miss Gilbert?"
"Shut up and kiss me Salvatore." He smiles and leans in to give me a heart warming, stomach fluttering, breathtaking kiss. I swear our faces are molded perfectly for each other because it feels like they fall right into place, be it when we're kissing or like right now, having our foreheads together.
"I'm really happy I met you Elena." He says as he moves his head back a little to be able to focus on my eyes.
"So am I, Stefan." I say back as he moves a strand of my hair behind my ear and lightly caresses my cheek before leaning down and kissing me again.
XXXXXXXXX
Stefan parks his car in front of my apartment building and we walk to my door talking about today.
"Do you want to come in for some coffee?" I ask him as I open the door.
He looks at me and smiles. "I'd love to, but I'm sure you're exhausted plus you have work early in the morning so I don't want to keep you up."
I swear that just made me want him even more.
I grab on to his shirt and pull him into a kiss, full of want and passion. His hands are on my waist pulling me closer to him as I start walking back into my apartment. I shut the door with my foot as soon as we make it inside, still not breaking the kiss. I push him up against the door and kiss him again. I hear him moan then I feel him turning us around to where I'm the one with my back on the door. My hands go around his neck and I lift my right leg move up to his waist. His left hand quickly makes it to my thigh holding it up pressing himself closer to me. He starts to trail kissing down my neck and I feel myself slowly start to lose my sanity. I want him. I want him bad.
"Elena." I hear him call me but it sounds far away. "Elena" I hear again. "Hello earth to Elena" I hear louder now snapping me out of my daydream.
"Huh?" I say not aware of what just happened.
"You okay?" He asks a little worried.
"Oh" I let out a breath. "I'm sorry, kind of zoned out there for a minute."
"No problem. So I'll take a rain check on that coffee ok? You get some rest."
"Sure. I will." He leans in and kisses me, says goodnight and he's gone.
I lean on my door after I close it.
"Oh boy" I let out, frustrated yet happy because today, was unforgettable.
A/N: Don't kill me :D