Into the Dark

Chapter 8

"You didn't need to kiss me to get me to stop talking," I informed him, vacuously. I felt like my cheeks were on fire from the close embrace and I could still feel his warm lips on mine.

"Yes, yes I did. You are just so annoying sometimes. I can't even stand to be in the same room as you occasionally," Damon commented, digging his hands into his pockets. It thrilled me for some strange reason to see that he looked flushed and a little disheveled after our kiss.

"Well, no one's asking you to stay," I told him, recovering from the kiss. "Here's the door," I gestured to it. I caught the side of Damon's face with my fingernails and he yelped out a little in pain. I watched as blood pooled on the spot and I felt a little queasy: I'd never really liked blood.

"Ohmygod, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" I trailed off and hurried into the downstairs bathroom and grabbed some disinfectant spray and a plaster. Damon was sitting on the armchair when I came back, dabbing his wound with a tissue.

"No! Don't do that… it'll get infected," I told him, as I sat down in front of him and reached up to yank the tissues gently from his hand. He let go of them and looked down at me incredulously.

"I don't get your idiosyncrasies, tiny. One minute you're yelling at me to leave the room, the next minute you're worrying about a tiny wound of mine getting infected?" He looked perplexed as he let me spray the wound, wincing a little and trying to be brave.

"I'm weird," I said, as I cleaned the wound and placed a plaster on it. When I was done, I got up and returned the things to the bathroom.

Damon was standing by the door when I came back. "Your little scratching thing was not very nice," He said.

"It was an accident. I apologized and everything," I responded, trying not to get annoyed at him once more.

"I know," Damon added, then he neared me and put his hands to my waist, pulling me close to him.

I gasped out but I couldn't make myself pull away from him. Something made me want to be close to Damon Salvatore. Even the thought of Tyler couldn't repulse me from Damon's proximity and that scared me more than anything. "What do you want, Damon?" I asked, in a slightly shaky voice. I could smell his perfume Hugo by Boss and it drew me to him even more.

"We need to get one thing straight, Bon," Damon whispered, and I shivered involuntarily, and tried to pull away but he fixed me in his embrace. "This is my band as much as it is yours. I made everything real happen to your lame band and changed it to a kickass rocking machine so next time you go to complain about me, be thankful that I took you along for the ride," He purred.

I flinched at his harsh words, "That's not true. We could and would have made it without you," I said, confidently, but in real life, I wasn't actually sure if that was of veracity. I mean, Damon had done a whole lot for the good of the band and I wasn't sure if without him and his brother Stefan we would have even been recognized or not.

Damon laughed then and I realized we were so close I could see into the bottomless depths of his azure blue eyes. I felt like I was either going to drown in the small, turbulent pools he called eyes or take a pleasant swim in them. They were fixed unwaveringly on me and I felt the butterflies return to my stomach, swimming around with such tenacity that I felt a sick thrill from it all. He kept looking at me and I suddenly became aware of the lukewarm heat coming from his body and his slightly accelerated breathing. I thought of our kiss about 10 minutes ago and pulled away as Tyler's face flashed through my head.

"Come here," Damon whispered, his voice insidious and soft at the same time.

I shook my head, "You….you should…go," I told him, in a shaky voice. I personally felt like my emotions were going into overdrive and I didn't know how I was going to handle myself around Damon the next time I saw him. I could hardly process the last 5 minutes or what had happened in them. I sighed as my cell phone started to buzz around on the coffee table once more. I walked towards the table and grabbed my phone, seeing Tyler's name once more on the screen.

I whipped my head back to see what snide remark Damon would make but there was silence and I found myself in an empty room.

I sighed and picked up on Tyler. "Hey Ty, what's going on?" I asked, breathlessly.

"Hey Bon Bon. What's going on? You sound….weird. Is everything okay?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, yes," I said, as breezily as I could, "Everything's good. I'm just a little emotional because of the Gossip Girl episode I saw. Blair Wardorf said yes!"

I could practically see Tyler roll his eyes. He knew about my affection for Gossip Girl. "Okay, I know now that everything's okay. So did you start your Calculus homework yet?" Tyler asked, changing the subject.

"Nope, I'm about to go do it now. Did you do your economics paper?" I questioned.

"I started it," Tyler said truthfully, "but I was watching the Lakers game,"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Go finish it now. We only have a fortnight of school left and then we're free finally," I goaded.

"Fine," Tyler groaned, "You go do your homework,"

"Will do, Ty," I smiled, "I'll call you later then,"

"Sure thing." Tyler said, cheerfully, "Bye Bye,"

"Bye….Tyler?"

"Yes, Bon?" He asked, surely.

"Um, I love you, Ty,"

"Love you too, Bon,"

I hung up, sighing, feeling overwhelmed with guilt because of what had happened with Damon. I had kissed him. But it was amazing. Not like when I'd kissed Tyler. It was different and new and I'd never felt anything like it before. Yet, he annoyed me to the core. But I was Tyler's so-called girlfriend. So-called because I didn't know exactly what we were. And this was just going to be the start of the insane love triangle between Tyler, me and Damon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That scene with Damon made our relationship worse and better in equal amounts. Worse, because whenever Damon and I were in a room the tension was immediately upped and the air around us seemed to buzz with strain. Things had been said (mostly by me, I'd admit) and I couldn't just unsay them. I'd said a lot of mean things that I couldn't take back and although Damon had said some things too, I know that I'd overstepped my boundaries a couple of times. Those cruel words I'd thrown lay between us like a lumpy pillow- innocuous, not doing anyone any hurt, but getting in the way all the same.

Better though because the viciousness of those words had affected us and scared Damon and I into being more polite and civil with each-other and all those other qualities you needed to possess when you were in a band together. Fortunately, this new benevolent behavior, this conciliatory behavior, didn't give me a chance to get put to the test because I had to do the whole school thing while the others (with more lax parents or in Tyler's case: a mother he could manipulate) headed to New York to set up for our big gig that was happening in a few days.

The parents concurred after much foot-stamping, sulking and door-slamming in their faces, that I could take 2 days off school to go do 'some of my pop stuff' and so a week later, I sat in my corner of Alaric's office surrounded by my French revision sheets while Alaric drew things on a white flip chart.

"So after that little gig in SoHo's "Green Garden", you have a week of rehearsals which takes you here…" Alaric pointed to the relevant place on his Sharpie, "And then you have a week's residence at the Oak Park Inn. There should be some press and interviews and stuff between then but we'll sort it out as it comes, you know. The New York gig is going along as planned on Saturday night,"

"Is there a guest list?" Caroline wanted to know, an excited look on her face. She had her long blonde hair pulled into a bun and her blue eyes were kohl rimmed and looked extra wide.

"Three people each, Caroline," Alaric responded to her, systematically as he brought his marker back to the chart.

I smiled at that. 3 people? The only 3 people who would actually want to listen to us strutting around on stage singing our songs were sitting around this glass-topped table.

"Bonnie," Alaric called, catching me unwary, "Do you have anything you want to add, babe?"

Everyone, including Anna, our publicist, and Alaric's assistant, Stevie, turned to look at me.

I shook my head, feeling a little embarrassed as I looked down at my French notes. "Nah, I was just thinking about something amusing," I told them all.

Alaric came around to place his hand on my shoulder, a concerned look on his face. "Oh poor Bon," He drawled, "You've got so much on your mind because of these exams and the pressure your parents are putting on you for them. It's a real pity we couldn't convince your parents to delay these tests for a while,"

"Yes, it's a real pity," I echoed, biting the edge of my pen.

"Bonnie's parents are really into getting a good education," Elena rushed to my rescue and I felt grateful for her. I felt Alaric's fingers flex on my back and I felt slightly uncomfortable. I shifted on my seat.

"Its okay, Alaric. It really is… Just a few more weeks and I'll be one hundred percent…one hundred and one percent in fact… for Into the Dark. You can just call me Commitment Girl," I put in, running a hand through my hair.

Alaric's hand moved from my shoulder to the top of my head and he patted my hair gently. "I know… I just don't want my little star to get all stressed out before our grand performance in a few days," He cooed.

I could see Damon and Caroline exchange looks that involved a lot of smirking and eye-rolling but I just ignored them. Elena looked at me comfortingly from one of my sides, then Stefan smiled and Tyler winked at me. I grinned at them all and ignored Damon who had just started speaking:

"So Bonnie shouldn't do publicity then," He said, smoothly, "I'll do her interviews, just to give her some extra time to….study,"

"Yes, that's a good idea… It'll make Bonnie even more wanted. Then we can put Bonnie out bit by bit and then launch her with an exclusive piece, front cover of course! That'll really hype her unavailability," Alaric enthused but his assistant, Stevie, and Anna, our publicist, murmured their agreements before I could object because I'd been practicing my interview techniques since forever.

I nibbled on my pen and watched Damon send a rancorous glare in my direction which I shielded with a cool smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Caroline, you know I saw you and Damon exchange those… looks while we were in that meeting. They were kind of mean," I admitted, in my room later than day. Caroline was staying the night over to help me revise for my English Literature because she'd always been good at that sort of thing.

Caroline sighed and flipped the page of my Teen Vogue that she was reading. "You know we were just kidding. At least I was. I know that Alaric likes you better than us and I don't mind," She told me, honestly. I could tell that she was being frank but I didn't like her nonchalance at this topic.

"He doesn't like me better! It's just because I'm the lead singer… Gosh, that sounded vain… I didn't mean it… I…" I trailed off and Caroline grinned and pushed the magazine aside. She threw her arms around me.

"You're the star, Bon. No matter how much Damon doesn't want to admit it. You're the real reason Into the Dark is a success. It's your sexy sense of je ne sais quoi." Caroline pressed, hugging me close.

I rolled my eyes, "I don't even know what that is. I don't have a sense of whatever… and we're all stars. This band… it's me and Elena, Ty and you against the world," I said, sleepily, as I leaned back into my pillow.

"Yes, I know. I'm never going to forget that." Caroline murmured, "You're my best friend, Bon," She yawned.

I sighed, "You too, Care. You and Elena, as well. I think we should hit the sack before we pass out," I suggested, tiredly.

"It has been a long day," Caroline concurred. I nodded and flicked the light off before I got under the covers. Caroline wiggled under them too and we lay there side by side just as we had done when we were kids. She leaned her head onto my shoulder. "D'after tomorrow is going to be so exciting. New York's beautiful, Bon bon,"

"I can't wait to see it, CareBear," I murmured, "We're going to rock New York,"

"You said it…. Into the Dark are going to be a legend," Caroline said, closing her eyes.

I closed my own as well and sank into the softness of my pillow. I thought about our big gig in New York the day after the next and I wondered if New York was as wonderful as in all those movies I'd seen on TV. I hoped it was. I wondered if I'd dream about New York and our gig but strangely, I didn't. I dreamed instead about a badass, blue eyed rocker called Damon Salvatore.


A/N: And I just wanted to put that little snippet about Bonnie and Caroline at the end because we all know that Care's harmless (and so is Damon so to speak)… What did you guys think of the developments?

Do you think something's gonna happen between Bamon in the big apple?

REVIEW please!

Lily xx

Disclaimer: I don't own TVD.