A/N: Hello everyone, it's been a while. I have finally finished all my exams (GCSEs)! Which means I have plenty of time to write. I haven't written anything TVD related in months, so this chapter may be a little rusty. I'm trying to move it further away from the plot of the TV series, whilst there still being links to it, so bare with me. I've given Elena a bit of an attitude in this one, because it's quite fun to write, but tell me if it's too out of character and I'll fix it for the next chapter. As always, thanks for all the positive feedback, it's amazing. If you have a minute, please do review. Enjoy x
Chapter 6.
Elena's POV
Mr Tanner was being a dick.
This was not unusual behaviour.
But I was in an unusually foul mood.
So it annoyed me more than it normally would.
Why did Stefan feel the need to hide everything from me? What was his deal? I got that there was a history between him and Damon, a bad history, a disagreement of sorts, but there had to be something more than that. Stefan hated him. People say they hate their siblings in moments of quarrel, in moments of weakness, but secretly they love them. It's like that with Jeremey and me. He can do drugs, he can drink himself into a stupor, but he's still my brother, and I'll always forgive him. But I could see no love shared between the Salvatore brothers.
From the look and sound of it, Damon had done something. Something unforgivable. But the older brother had seemed nothing but kind, if not a little strange, to me. He clearly liked to get under Stefan's skin, but, in my opinion, that didn't warrant the clear loathing that Stefan seemed to feel towards him.
I was sitting in a particularly tedious history lesson. It had never been my favourite lesson. Nor would it ever be. What succeeded in annoying me even more was that Stefan did seem to be enjoying himself. He was sitting next to me, at the desk to my left. He was leaning forward, listening intently to everything Mr Tanner was saying. He turned his head towards me suddenly, as if he had sensed my gaze upon him. He smiled. Damn that smile. I couldn't stay mad at him long when he was doing that.
"Miss Gilbert?"
I turned my eyes quickly to the front of the classroom, where Tanner was looking at me expectantly. Crap. Hadn't. Heard. The. Question. Not that I would likely have known the answer to it any way.
"Um. I don't know?"
"Is that a question or a statement?" he looked smug.
I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. And then anger. Everyone was looking at me.
"A statement," I said, with a bit of venom.
He looked slightly startled. Good. But before he could interrogate me further, a voice rose up to my left. I didn't need to turn to see who it was.
"November, 1989"
Mr Tanner moved his eyes from me and onto his next victim.
"Very good, Mr Salvatore⦠Assassination of Lincoln?"
"April 15th, 1865"
"Kennedy?"
"November 22nd, 1963"
Tanner looked a touch annoyed, but was also clearly impressed. More importantly, his attention had been averted from me.
I looked over to Stefan, when Tanner's back was turned, meaning to say thank you. He was already looking at me, a question in his eyes. But then the bell went and I stood, meaning to make a quick exit to avoid answering his questions.
"Two pages, typed, by Thursday. Don't forget. I won't listen to excuses," Tanner called, as we began to file out.
I was halfway out the door, when a hand caught my wrist. I turned, expecting to see Stefan, and was surprised to see Bonnie. She dragged me along until we turned into the girl's toilets, before letting go of me.
"What was that about?" she asked. "I've never heard you speak to a teacher like that, ever."
I sighed. "I know. It's just, he's such an asshole. And I'm tired."
"He's always been an asshole. That's not what's changed." She looked at me then, really looked at me. "This is about Stefan, isn't it?"
"Don't sound so smug about it."
"I told you-"
"You had a bad feeling, yeah I know. I've got a bad feeling too. Happy?"
"I'll be happy when you're happy."
I groaned.
"I was happy. I was happy until I found out he'd been keeping secrets from me. Did you know he had a brother?"
"No, but is that relevant?"
"I don't know! I don't know, because he doesn't tell me things. That's just it, Bon. Relationships are built on trust, and I don't know if I can trust him."
"Just to make things clear; I am not taking his side here. But you've only really just met the guy."
"But it doesn't feel like that. It feels like I've known him for months."
Bonnie held up a hand. Stopping me.
"What you need to do," she said, annunciating clearly, "is go home. And sleep. Then you need to come out, tonight, to the bonfire. Confront him if you want to. But you need to have some fun."
I couldn't argue with that.
Bonnie drove me home, History had been our last lesson of the day and neither of us had felt like hanging around afterwards. I thanked her and made my way up to the front of the house, pulling out my keys as she drove off.
"Elena?"
I turned around, startled. I bent down to pick up the keys that I'd dropped, only to find Damon already holding them out to me. I stood a little awkwardly, before taking them gratefully.
"Sorry if I startled you," he said.
He looked surprised, if not a little happy, to see me. Which was odd considering we were standing outside my house.
"Um, no it's fine. I'm just a little jumpy."
He didn't respond immediately, so I smiled awkwardly and fitted the key into the lock of the door.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Just walking home. You know. Busy day," he said, but he looked, strangely, a bit flustered.
"Right," I smiled at him. "Do you want a cup of tea or coffee-"
But he was already shaking his head.
"No. Thank you, though," he said. "I better be getting back, but it was nice seeing you, Elena."
"Yeah, you too."
He turned and walked, rather quickly, away and down the street. I shook my head in amusement. He was an odd one.
Finally, I unlocked the door and stepped inside, grateful to get out of the hot summer air. I tossed my keys into the bowl, remembering, oddly, the feel of Damon's hand on mine as he had handed them to me, and quickened my step until I had reached my bedroom. I flung myself down on the bed, not bothering to change, and quickly fell into a confusing and muddled sleep. I kept seeing the two of them. The two brothers. I had the overwhelming sense that I had mixed myself up in something. Something I couldn't escape from.
I was awoken by a loud knocking on my door. I turned over, the duvet cocooned around me, my hair in my face, to see Jeremy standing in the entrance. He looked mildly amused. I contemplated throwing a pillow at him. Then though better of it.
"Bonnie's here," he said, before he turned and walked off.
I stood up and wandered over to my window. It was still light, though considerably dimmer than when I had gone to sleep, and Bonnie's car was parked outside. I looked at my phone. There were five missed calls from Stefan.
I had the fastest shower on record, careful not to get my hair wet, before changing into jeans and a top. I had my hairbrush in hand when Bonnie finally came around the corner.
"Hey," she said by way of greeting.
"Hey back," I said, pushing my feet into a pair of converse.
"You doing okay?"
I stopped, exhaled and then, "Never felt better."
She smiled and came over to give me a hug. I returned it, feeling a lot better than I had a few hours previously. I turned to look at my desk and quickly pocketed a paper clip. I had the beginnings of a plan.
We arrived at the bonfire just as the party was beginning to kick off. Over the music, Bonnie yelled that she was going to find us some drinks. I sat down on a log and looked into the fire, grateful for the warmth, as the air had gone cooler with the growing darkness.
Two arms went around my neck. I yelped as Caroline leaned on me.
"You came!" she yelled. Her eyes were a little off focus and she swayed as she sat down on the log beside me.
"Hey Care," I smiled at her.
Her face turned deadly serious for a second, but her tone was light and joking.
"Elena Gilbert, having fun? It's practically unheard of."
"I don't think I'm having quite as much fun as you," I giggled as she tried, and failed, to place her hand on my forehead, in a mock attempt of taking my temperature.
"That's because you need some liquor. You need to get onto this level. It's amazing. Everything is so colourful, and-" she cut herself short. "Bonnie! You're here too! We're like the three musketeers, together again at last, taking the world hostage and- and ransoming it off to Doctor Evil," she looked immensely proud of herself.
Bonnie looked at me, and we both started laughing at the same time. She handed me a red cup, and I took a swig of the liquid. It burnt my throat and made my stomach warm and tingly. I held my hand up high, grasping the cup, and cried "All for one and one for all." The other two also held their drinks up, with varying degrees of success- Caroline succeeded in spilling half of hers over herself- before each taking a long gulp. Okay, I told myself, this was good, this was fun. I could do this. I could enjoy myself, I could forget my worries, my problems. I continued to drink until there was nothing left in my cup but air.
I stood up, slightly unsteady on my feet, and made my way over to the beer pumps, calling out over my shoulder to notify my friends of this, but they were deep in conversation, exchanging whispered giggles. And then I walked into a solid wall of person. Said person put both hands on my shoulders to steady me.
"Stefan?" I asked, though obviously it was.
"You okay?" he said, still holding my shoulders.
I dodged past him and busied myself filling the cup I was holding. I was hoping to avoid that particular conversation. But to be honest, I had nearly forgotten about him since I arrived at the bonfire. So I gave a noncommittal 'mmhmm'. He turned me around to face him. I met his eyes briefly before I looked over his shoulder.
"Hell no," I said, gently (or as gently as I could in my inebriated state) moving him aside.
I marched up to my brother, who was standing around fifteen metres away, and plucked the joint right out of his hand. He gave a yelp of surprise as I tossed it on the earth and ground it under my shoe.
"Elena? What are you doing? What the actual-"
"Save it Jeremy. I don't want to hear your excuses. Why are you even here?" I asked.
I saw him glance off to the side and I followed his gaze. Vicki Donovan, with her arm wrapped around Tyler Lockwood.
"So you're stalking Vicki now? Jeremy, please, go home," I begged.
"You should do as your sister says."
I turned around to see Stefan standing there.
"Just- Just give me a minute," I said, turning back around to Jeremy.
But he was gone, walking off in the other direction. Perfect.
"Elena, we should talk."
"So talk, Stefan. I'm listening," I said, waving my arms about loosely to point to my ears.
"Maybe when you're sober?"
"Of course you find another excuse!" I gasped, smiling, but the smile felt dead on my mouth. "You never tell me anything. You act all hostile to your brother, but you never tell me why. I know nothing about you. Just tell me something. Anything. Because otherwise, whatever this is between us, is over."
I started walking off in the direction that Jeremy had left in, but suddenly Stefan was in front of me. How had he moved so quickly? I held a warning hand up to him.
"Come on, let's get you home."
"I'm fine."
"No you're not."
I looked at him then. Really looked at him. He stared back, eyes full of concern. It was irritating. I was fine. I was enjoying myself until he came along. I was doing well. I didn't need to be babied. I felt in my pockets, and found the paper clip I had placed there earlier. As quickly as I could, I moved the sharp tip of it along my left index finger. I didn't really think about what I was doing. But, sure enough, a small bead of blood welled up from the shallow cut. Stefan looked down at my hands startled.
"Elena what-" and he stopped.
He tried to turn away, tried to hide his face. But I saw it. Temporarily. I could have blinked and missed it.
It was the face from my nightmare. The teeth, the veins. A sharp cold went through my body then. And I let it. I let it take me. I shut my eyes, letting my vision go black. I could feel myself falling. Falling. Falling. I welcomed the darkness like an old friend.
