Chapter 7

They had been at the mall for a couple of hours. Elena thought it was a good distraction, and was glad that she went with her best friend, because she didn't have to deal with anyone or anything. She'd forgotten about her mom and her boyfriend, it felt weird calling him that, because when Elena said boyfriend, she pictured a boy on her own age. She didn't think about Jeremy either or Damon. She didn't like being around him, well not really, he made her feel all these weird feelings that she had never experienced before, and she kind of liked him. She was really confused when it came to him.

All of the sudden out of nowhere in the middle of their conversation Caroline stepped in front of her. "I can pretend that I'm not seeing it, but then again I can't which is why we're having this conversation…"

Elena had no idea what her friend was talking about, and maybe she was a little scared to know the answer. "What are you talking about, Care?"

"I know that you say you don't like Damon, but what happened this morning? It's like…" She paused. "I mean… okay I have no idea what I'm talking about right now…" Caroline said and shook her head.

"Just now because I thought it was like that all the time…" Elena teased her friend.

"I'm serious, Elena." Caroline put her most serious face on.

"So am I." Elena said sarcastically.

"No seriously, I mean one day you hate him, and the next day you can't look away from him, and you're all nice to him. I just… I don't understand that's all." Caroline shook her head.

Elena sighed and smiled. "You know, Caroline, I love you, I love that you care so much about me, and that you worry, and the reason you are saying this is because you don't want me to get hurt. You think that he is just going to screw me over like he's done with almost every girl in L.A. but the truth is that…" Elena laughed thinking about her answer. "I don't even know."

"I get it if you like him I mean he is like so gorgeously hot." Caroline shrugged. "I don't blame you."

"I don't know if I like him." Elena shook her head.

"You want know my opinion?"

"Not really."

"I think that you like him and the whole hating him thing was just you avoiding him, and you mom spending time with him, just made you avoid all the family stuff." Caroline smiled.

"Maybe you right. So you think that I just avoided him because that I like him and not hated him?" She asked trying to understand what Caroline had just said.

"Don't be so surprised, Elena, of course I'm right. I don't know if you noticed, but somehow during all of our conversations we ended up talking about him."

"You mean like now?" Elena smirked.

Caroline shook her head. "It's not the same."

Elena nodded. "Because this time you brought him up," Elena teased.

"No." Caroline shook her head. "This time it was intentionally, the other times it was instinctive."

Now that Elena thought about she could hear that her friend was right. She could deny it all she wanted to, but her best friend really was a winner when it came to successful relationships.

"Oh my god," Caroline shouted. She pointed towards one of the stores.

"What?" Elena asked.

"It's my dress," she said and went over to the window of the store.

Elena followed her. "What are you talking about? That's not your dress." Elena shook her head, and tried to figure out what her friend was talking about.

"Yes. That's my dress," Caroline said again.

"Carol-"

"Do have to spell it out for you? It will be my dress, once I buy it." Caroline looked at the dress again. "That is the dress," she said as if she was in some kind of trance.

"You want to go in?" Elena asked. When Caroline didn't respond, Elena gave her a small push, and Caroline turned around. "Do you want to try it on?"

Caroline smiled. "Yeah…" they walked inside the store. It was a big store filled with beautiful party dresses.

When they came inside a woman came over to them. "Can I help you with anything?" she asked.

"Yes, we would like to try the green dress you have stored in the window," Elena said.

"Sure. Follow me," the woman said. They walked further into the store. There were all sorts of dresses. They were short, long, with and without strops, and it seemed like they had all the colors in the world, but still there wasn't one model with more than one color. If you wanted the yellow one, they didn't have it in all sorts of colors.

While Caroline was in the changing room, Elena looked around in the store, at all the beautiful dresses. "Can I help you?" the woman in the store asked her.

"No thank you," Elena said. "We'll let you know if we need any help." Elena tried to smile, but right now the woman was getting on her nerves, she was like one of those pushy saleswomen.

"Okay," she said and walked away. Elena sighed, she knew that Caroline was a bit slow to change her clothes, but this was really slow. Elena was about to tell her to hurry up, when Caroline stepped out of the changing room.

"Oh my god, Caroline." Elena was stunned. Speechless. She didn't know what to say.

"What?" She looked down her body. "Is it not pretty, or- No! It's me isn't it? It doesn't fit my stupid, ugly body, and-"

"No!" Elena said. "You're just so beautiful." Elena smiled.

"Really?" Caroline asked.

"Really." Elena nodded.

"Good," Caroline said and went back into the changing room. "Now we only need a dress for you."

"What? No. I don't need one." Elena looked around, looking for a decent looking dress.

"I'm sorry," someone poked Elena's back. She turned around to see a girl around her mother's age maybe. "Are you from Mystic Falls?"

"Yes?" Elena answered confused.

"Are you looking for dresses for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant?"

Elena was still confused. "Ehm… yeah. How did you-"

The woman smiled at Elena. "You look just like your mother, Elena."

My mother? She knows my mother?

"I'm sure you will win just like she did," the woman said and smiled and then walked away.

Caroline walked over to Elena. "You okay?"

Elena sighed. "Yeah… I think I am.." Elena smiled. "So… can you help me find a dress?"

Caroline's face lighted up. "Really!"

"Yeah," Elena smiled. "I think I should compete."

"YAY!" Caroline jumped enthusiastically.

Caroline paid for the dress, and they shopped a little more, and then they drove home.

"So…" Caroline said when they were about halfway home. "What happened today?"

Elena clenched her teeth, and pretended that she didn't know what Caroline was talking about. "What do you mean?"

Caroline scoffed. "You know what I. Damon!"

"Oh… Ehm… That was nothing." She looked out the window. Caroline opened her mouth to say something, and Elena knew she had to stop it. "Can we not talk about this right now? Please!" Elena smiled.

"Eeeeehhhhhh… okay," Caroline said, and the rest of the drive home, they sat in silence.

XXXXX

"Thanks for the ride, Caroline," Elena said and got out of the car. She popped her head inside. "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."

Caroline smiled. "It's fine, Elena. I can't blame you. You know, next week it's been two years."

Elena smacked the car door. What was she talking about? Two years?

She walked inside. "Mom! Are you home," she yelled and threw her bag on the floor, and went in to the kitchen, to the fridge, to get a bottle of water. She looked at the calendar that hung on the fridge door. Two years. She scoffed. Off course. Jeremy. Next Thursday was it two years since the accident.

"Better…" She heard a familiar male voice say. She turned around to see him standing right there in the door frame, and more confident than ever.

"Damon…"