Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries, however consider this story mine. Any dialogues not canon from the show as well as any descriptive sentences are the end result of over twenty years of writing. I have poured my heart and soul into every beautiful paragraph, every perfect sentence, every hot and/or romantic scene, and every funny one-liner. To copy this work or any other and claim as one's own, in whole or in part is a criminal offence punishable by ostracism, harassment by my loyal readers, and possibly even dismissal by the MODs. It's not worth it; don't be a thief :)
Chapter 8: Parallels
Elena nervously sipped her cup of coffee and stared longingly over at the bar; she really needed a drink at the moment, but knew it would only make things worse. Isobel's message yesterday had been terse and hinted at something that Elena would find unpleasant. She almost considered leaving The Mystic Grill and pretending she had forgotten about the meeting, but before she could seriously consider it she heard the foreboding sound of clicking heels. Dressed in a classic black dress, sheer black long-sleeved shirt and black nylons, Elena's birth mother was the very image of sophistication as she hung her bag and jacket on one of the empty chairs.
"Hello, Elena," Isobel said pleasantly as she took her seat, placing her hands elegantly on the table top. Elena forced herself to smile, wanting to get this meeting over with.
"Isobel," she acknowledged without a hint of warmth.
Isobel frowned slightly. "Such civility," she commented. "Is that any way to greet your mother?"
"My mother's resting peacefully next to my father in the cemetery," she replied coldly. "You just happened to be the one who gave birth to me."
Isobel sighed, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Is this how it's going to be every time we have our weekly chat?" she asked, slightly irritated.
Elena shrugged indifferently. "We could always stop them, if you don't like my attitude," she suggested.
Isobel pursed her lips together in a thin line. "You know, for someone who claims to be an adult capable of making her own decisions, you're certainly acting like a spoiled child."
"Must be genetic," Elena quipped. "Why do you insist on these lunches if I'm such a disappointment?"
Isobel smiled sweetly. "I'm your mother, Elena. I want to be more involved in your life," she replied. "Speaking of which…" she reached into her black satchel, pulling out a file folder and placing it on the table. As she opened it, Elena realized she had a copy of Elena's latest assignments.
"Where did you get those?" Elena demanded, feeling her face growing hot with anger that Isobel could so easily invade her privacy like that.
"Vanessa," Isobel answered her in a tone as casual as if she were discussing the weather.
Elena sighed, feeling a sense of betrayal. "Of course," she muttered. "I should have known you'd have your lackeys keep tabs on me."
Isobel shrugged. "It's not like you would tell me anything," she said, unconcerned. "So I simply asked some of my contacts at the school to keep an eye on things for me."
"It's an invasion of my privacy!" Elena shouted.
"Keep your voice down, Elena," Isobel scolded her. "We wouldn't want to cause a scene."
Elena glared at her, but refused to get into an argument with the woman. Isobel was a cold, calculating, manipulative bitch; Elena should have known she'd exploit her various connections to retain some level of control over her.
Isobel smiled sweetly again. "That's better," she said. "Now, about your grades…"
"I don't want to talk about it," Elena cut her off.
Isobel narrowed her eyes at her. "Well I didn't want to have to hear from a colleague that my daughter was failing all her classes, so I guess we're both not going to get what we want today."
Elena stared stonily at the wall behind Isobel. The older woman sighed, looking at her with a serious expression. "I think you should come home," she said.
"What?" Elena gasped; her eyes wide with horror at the thought.
"It's obvious what's going on here, Elena," she said. "Stefan's a distraction you can't afford. You need to focus on your future."
"Stefan is my future," Elena snapped.
"Of course," Isobel said sarcastically. "I forgot you're in some great epic romance and are going to live happily ever after."
"Why is it so hard for you to accept that I'm happy with Stefan?" Elena asked.
"Because you're throwing your life away for something that isn't going to last," Isobel replied. "You're twenty-two years old! How can you possibly know what you'll want ten years from now? Stefan is weak and foolish, and he's only going to drag you down with him. I'm just trying to prepare you…"
"Prepare me for what?" Elena cut her off again, ignoring the cutting remark about her boyfriend. "For an illegitimate child, an ex husband, and a big empty house with no one to share it with? Sorry, I've seen that future; I want no part of it."
Isobel glared at her. "I never said I was perfect, Elena," she said emotionlessly. "I've made my share of mistakes, but choosing to live my life for myself was never one of them."
"You're alone and miserable," Elena pointed out. "You gave up the chance to have a family, twice, and you tell me it wasn't a mistake because you're not obligated to anyone else? I don't want that for myself! I would never want that."
"I'm not telling you not to have a family, Elena," Isobel said tiredly. "I'm just asking you to focus on building a life for yourself first, before you tie yourself down."
"Is that why you left Ric?" Elena asked, knowing that she was pouring salt into a deep wound. "Was he tying you down?"
Isobel's dark eyes blazed with anger. "How dare you bring him into this," she hissed.
Elena didn't care if she was upsetting Isobel at the moment; she'd crossed a line trying to interfere with her life, after all. "You know, he told Jenna the other day just how much happier he is with her. They're getting married in May; did you get the invitation yet?"
"That's enough," Isobel said warningly.
"Tell me, Isobel," Elena added bitingly. "Was living your life for yourself really worth losing the man you love?"
Elena knew she'd struck a nerve; to all casual observers Isobel would have appeared to be just as calm and collected as always, but the slight twitch of her mouth indicated she was seething. She gathered her bag and coat from the seat before gracefully rising to her feet.
"Well, if you're not willing to discuss your situation like a reasonable adult then I suppose I'll just have to have a word with your father regarding your trust fund," she said in a business-like tone.
Elena shrugged indifferently. "You do that," she said coldly.
Isobel pursed her lips, frowning with disappointment. "I'll see you next week, Elena," she said. "Hopefully you'll have had time to reconsider my offer."
Without another glance at her daughter, Isobel left a ten dollar bill on the table. "That should cover the coffee," she said before walking out of the restaurant. Elena resisted the urge to bury her head in her hands and stood up, gathering her things as well. She left the money on the table, deciding Vicki or Matt could keep the change. Right now she just wanted to get out of here, go home, and perhaps sneak a drink or two from Damon's liquor cabinet. After dealing with Isobel, she certainly earned a five-minute reprieve from her good girl image.
When she walked into the living room twenty minutes later, Elena was in a state of shock; Damon was sprawled across the sofa, and he had some very familiar pieces of paper in his hands.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, arms crossed across her chest as she gave him a disapproving glare.
"Reading," he said nonchalantly. He didn't look up at her, but continued poring over the pages full of her scrawled writing. "Wow, I come off as a real dick in this story," he commented.
She moved forward, snatching the pages from him.
"Hey, I wasn't finished," he whined. She ignored his protests, quickly filing the papers back into her binder that she'd left on the coffee table earlier.
"I didn't give you permission to read my work," she said, furious that he would invade her privacy like that. Those pages were just as personal as her diary, as far as she was concerned; how dare he?
"You're the one who left them out," he pointed out. "I was simply curious."
"I didn't leave them out," Elena countered. "They were on the table in Stefan's room!"
Damon shrugged. "So? They were still left out where anyone could see them. Besides, better I see them than Stefan," he said smugly.
Elena narrowed her eyes. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just that your story is quite revealing," he said, grinning impishly at her. "I have to say, I was surprised that you made Stefan such a wimpy vampire, considering he's 'the love of your life'," he air-quoted the words she'd used in her story, smirking at her in amusement.
"What makes you think my story has anything to do with you and Stefan? I never mentioned your names once," she said defensively. She was already embarrassed enough that he'd read her work; the last thing she needed was for him to realize she found him to be incredibly seductive, if not a bit dangerous.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Ok, they're completely fictional, no parallels being drawn, I get it." His words were heavily coated in sarcasm, but she refused to give any indication that he had cracked her code. "Anyway, Sebastian is a wuss. I don't understand why Helena doesn't just go for Damien; he's way more fun."
"Because Sebastian actually cares about Helena; Damien is just an ass who's trying to mess with her head and try to seduce her for his own amusement," Elena replied tersely.
Damon frowned and shook his head. "No, I don't think that's it at all," he said thoughtfully. "I think he genuinely likes Helena, but she's just too busy convincing herself she's meant to be with Sebastian to see it."
Elena cocked her head to the side, crossing her arms in front of her. "Oh really?" she said. "You think you have some great insight into their relationship?"
He nodded, looking at her seriously. "Yes, I do," he said confidently. "See, I think that not only does Damien desire Helena, but she secretly wants him too; she just doesn't want to admit it because then her perfect little fantasy life with Sebastian will come crashing down around her, and she's not sure she's ready for something so real and passionate with Damien."
"I think you're reading a little too much into this story," she said, dismissing his comment as if it proved nothing. "Damienis the bad guy. He's the one coming between Sebastian and Helena, after all."
"Well of course you're going to say that, you're the author," he pointed out. "But see, as a reader, I can look at this whole thing more objectively, and from the way you write Damien and Helena's scenes together, it's obvious there's a lot of sexual tension just waiting to be explored. I'm surprised she didn't jump him right there in the parking lot, though that slap was still pretty telling." His eyes glittered with amusement as he looked up at her. "Tell me, how did you ever come up with that scene?"
She knew he was referring to last night's incident in the kitchen, but she'd be damned if she'd admit that was how she came up with the part where Damien tried to compel Helena to kiss him and she slapped him, having unknowingly been wearing a special necklace given to her by Sebastian that was meant to protect her from Damien's influence.
When he didn't get an answer, Damon decided to move on to another scene that had amused him. It had been the part where Damien and Helena first meet, and she had described him as incredibly handsome and seductive; he happened to like that scene a lot, and wished Elena hadn't snatched the story away from him so quickly. He'd been really looking forward to reading more about their two alter egos; she wasn't fooling anyone by changing their names.
"I think she's attracted to Damien and only slapped him because she was going to give in. You set it up so perfectly at their first meeting," he smirked. "So much sexual tension…"
Elena glared at him. "Maybe on Damien's side, since he's obsessed with her, but Helena feels nothing for him," she said firmly. "She's in love with Sebastian, after all."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Please," he said. "Their whole love story is just a big ball of melodramatic teenage angst. There's not even any heat or passion at all between them."
"There's passion," Elena argued defensively.
Damon shook his head. "Nope, not buying it," he told her. "From the second Helena started going on and on about Sebastian, I could tell it wasn't real. She doesn't ache for him the way she obviously does for Damien. Why else would she dream about him instead of her boyfriend?"
Elena felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment and looked away from him, staring at the wall to avoid his perceptive eyes. She refused to say anything more about the dream sequence; she didn't want to accidentally give him any more power over her than he already had.
"So what happens next?" he asked.
"Huh?" Elena responded, slightly startled from her train of thought; she was remembering parts of her dream, when he'd seduced her after sneaking into her room while she was sleeping.
"In the story," Damon reminded her. "What happens next, after she slaps him? You didn't let me finish."
"Oh, that," Elena said, flushing slightly. "I don't know," she admitted. "I haven't finished it yet."
"But you will?" he asked, sounding hopeful.
She eyed him suspiciously. "I guess," she said. "Why do you ask?"
"Because it's really good, and I'm curious to know what happens in this love triangle between Sebastian, Helena, and Damien. It sounds interesting."
"It's not a love triangle," Elena protested. Helena's in love with Sebastian, end of story.
Damon shook his head, smirking slightly. "I don't think so," he said. "I'll bet you anything she goes for Damien in the end; Helena has way too much fire in her to be wasted on Sebastian. There's just no chemistry between them; it's puppy love, and it won't last."
Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't be so sure," she told him.
Damon looked into her eyes; they were full of pity, sadness and another unreadable emotion. "Then Helena will only be lying to herself," Damon said seriously. "And she'll likely regret it for the rest of her life if she doesn't even give Damien the chance to prove he can love her far better than Sebastian is capable of."
She stared at him, at a sudden loss for words. She had a feeling he wasn't talking about the story anymore, and she cleared her throat, ready to switch to a less dangerous topic.
"So you really liked my story?" she asked, sitting on the chair next to the sofa and turning to face him fully. She'd never had anyone actually read her creative pieces before, so she was genuinely curious as to what he thought.
Damon nodded his head. "Yeah, from what I got to read, it was really good; and I'm not just saying that either. Is this the assignment you've been working on for one of your classes?" he asked.
"No," she frowned, shaking her head. "My classes don't really focus on creative writing. This was just something I wrote for fun; it's a hobby of mine."
He furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why aren't you taking creative writing classes instead?" he asked. "You obviously enjoy it; why not turn it into a career or something?"
She sighed. "My parents decided I should study something a little more serious, so I'm taking business writing classes instead."
He frowned. "Forgive me for saying so, but you really don't strike me as the clerical type."
"I'm not," Elena admitted. "Actually, I'm pretty much one bad paper away from failing the entire program."
"I don't get it," he said, confused. "Why would you keep studying something that obviously makes you unhappy? Why not just quit?"
Elena's eyes widened in shock at his words. "I can't just quit," she said seriously.
Damon shrugged. "Sure you can," he said simply. "Life's too short to spend it doing things that make you miserable; you should do things you love instead, like write something you actually want to."
"My mother would never allow it," Elena said sadly.
"So what, she'll cut you off?" Damon asked, rolling his eyes slightly. "Please, my father tried that trick with me years ago, but I just had no interest in spending every waking moment of my life either in med school or at the hospital; it just wasn't my thing. But I left home anyway, and found my own path, and I'm happier for it. I have a bunch of night clubs in different cities, and I've got my little side business entertaining the ladies," he winked.
"You mean you're a stripper," Elena said pointedly, giving him a disapproving look.
"Hey, I was blessed with this sex-god physique; might as well make the most of it," he justified, grinning cockily. "Besides, until you see me in action, you're not allowed to judge me."
He rose from the sofa, strutting past her with a deliberate gyration of his hips. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready. There's a certain politician's wife who's waiting for me to show up and wish her a very happy birthday, but don't tell anyone because it's a secret," he winked, placing a finger to his lips as if telling her to be quiet; as if she cared. But as she watched him leave the room she couldn't help but wonder just what sort of performance he was giving tonight. She growled in frustration; she really needed to stop thinking of him like that. He was off-limits!
Her phone began buzzing in her jeans pocket and she pulled it out, rolling her eyes when she saw the text from Stefan.
Working another double shift tonight. Will see you tomorrow before the party. Love U.
Elena sighed, knowing that tonight would be another night spent alone; Damon wouldn't even be around to keep her company. It was strange, but in a way she felt better when he was around. Sure, he was constantly making inappropriate comments, but she wasn't as lonely as she used to be before his arrival. She'd almost begun to think of him as a friend of sorts; albeit a highly annoying, cocky friend, but a friend nonetheless. She would miss him tonight while he was out entertaining; without him around there really wasn't a whole lot she could do to take her mind off things. She turned her head, noticing the binder still on the coffee table and sighed, pulling out the loose-leaf paper and a pen. Damon's words of encouragement echoed in her head, and she smiled softly thinking of how he'd genuinely seemed interested in reading her work. Stefan had never once shown any interest, and it felt good to have someone praise her for her hidden talent; even if that someone happened to be Damon. So with her mind made up, Elena began to work on another chapter of her story; after all, it wasn't like she had anything else to do tonight.
Author's Note: Okay, before I get a bunch of messages from my concerned friends, let me just say that I've rediscovered my talent for typing one-handed. I'm actually amazed since I haven't done it since I was seventeen (at which point I decided to teach myself how to type properly). Anyway, the wrist is wrapped in a tensor bandage and on ice. Thank you to all who sent me best wishes for a quick recovery. I will do my best, but I think I might give my other hand a break soon so I don't hurt it too. That's the trouble with having injured my wrists several times over the past five years; they never really healed completely. I really should just stop putting so much weight on them, but then how am I supposed to lift anything? Oh well, I just have to be more careful that I don't bend them back so much when I move.
Okay, I'm off to bed now. If you wanna chat, you all know where to find me ;)
Be Good and Review
P.S
I haven't forgotten about this story, I've just been suffering Writer's Block for the next chapter. In the meantime, I have a way to make it up to those of you who don't mind being a little spoiled ;)
As most of you know I have a LiveJournal account (drkprncss17). Recently I have added Special Spoilers accessible to those who wish to read sneak peeks of my stories. As mentioned earlier in my notes, I've been writing bits and pieces of scenes ahead of time and creating the chapters later. So, if you're REALLY itching to read something new, you can add me as a friend and reply to my Who Wants to Be Spoiled? thread requesting I add your name to my list. This is the ONLY place where I will post these scenes ahead of time, so if you want 'em, you'll need an account. At the moment, there are two scenes for Living With Sin, the second being a tender Delena moment just in time for Valentine's Day :)
