Wow it's been 10 chapters. This is great. Thank you guys for supporting this fanfic (it's my first, as most of you know), you're all amazing. Keep the reviews coming..they really help me, because I need to know how you guys feel about the characters and the storylines they have. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did when I wrote it.
Elena was standing nervously outside Tom's house. It had been four days and they had only spoken once on the phone, in order to arrange their meeting. Tom was expecting that they would just have a fight about what had happened at his father's dinner four days ago. But Elena had talked to Caroline and knew that she was there to meet him, for a completely different reason. She wouldn't lie anymore, she couldn't. It was time for her to say the truth out loud, to the person that needed to know it the most. And after telling him the truth she would go find Damon. She owed him an apology as well. She hurt him and she was sure that the fact that she didn't return any of his calls had made things worse. She didn't have any expectations though. She knew that he had the right to stay mad at her. She knew that there was a chance that she would lose him too. But she couldn't do otherwise. She wouldn't be able to live with herself knowing that she didn't try to make things right. Her entire life, she was an honest person and she wanted to keep it this way. She knocked Tom's door twice and waited. Only moments later he opened it and stood in front of her awkwardly.
"Hey." He said and tried to smile.
"Hey." There was uncertainty in her voice.
"Come in." He invited her and she walked inside the house. Tom's house was minimal. Probably the most futuristic house she had ever seen in Mystic Falls. But there was something wrong about it. Every time she walked inside it, she felt like everything was too cold. Nothing around her was giving her any emotions or awaking any memories. Even though she had spent countless of nights in it, it still felt unfimiliar and strange. It never felt like home. "Do you want a drink?" He asked politely, as he approached her. He was holding a drink on his own.
"No thanks." She said and sat on the minimal black couch of his living room.
"So, I'll let you start." He said as he sat on the leather chair across her. Maybe it's not really the right time to tell him.
"I don't really know what to say." She looked him in the eye. "I never thought that you would do something like that. You made a decision that was only half yours to make." She decided that talking about their fight at his father's dinner, was the easiest way to start tha conversation. She felt the anger burning inside her chest though, but she controlled it. She wasn't there to acuse him. She was there to confess her sins, but when she started to remember the way she felt in that dinner table, she just needed to get it out of her system. "What were you thinking? We've talked about this a thousand times and you knew how I felt. You knew that I didn't wanna rush things." She tried her best to not raise her voice more than needed. He seemed to be calm too.
"It was a mistake." He started. "You know that my father's always pushing me on this department and I didn't know what to say to him anymore. I've used every excuse in the book, I even told him that I wasn't ready for this." He took a sip of his drink. "But I want this Elena. I want to marry you and start a family with you. Why don't you?" There was something desperate in his question.
"It's not that I don't want it. I just don't feel ready to start a family." Great Elena, lying again. "You have me. I'm with you. Why isn't this enough?" Maybe I should just tell him now.
"Do I?" Tom asked. He did his best to forget about it, to act like it never happened, to think of it as a moment of weakness. But he couldn't anymore.
"Do you what?" She was confused.
"Do I have you?" Elena's eyes got wide open the moment he finished his sentence. He knows?
"What do you mean?" She asked carefully.
"I saw you Elena." He yelled before he even knew what he was saying. The sudden raise of his voice got Elena by surprise. He saw me..kissing Damon? She thought that tonight she was going to be the one to get him by surprise, but it was Tom that got her. She started to panic. She felt ashamed. She never meant to betray him like that, but her feelings for Damon were way too strong. The moment he kissed her, she couldn't hold them back anymore. Her heart was beating fast and she thought it would explode at any moment. "You let him kiss you." He took a deep breath and continued. Elena was waiting for him to tell her what an awful person she was. To yell, to scream. She knew she deserved it and she had been prepared for this. She never thought that he already knew though. He didn't say anything. "I thought that it was just a mistake. I thought that if he left town, everything would go back to normal, but nothing's changed for the better! On the contrary, everything's changed for the worse. You stay locked in your room most of the time and you only talk to Caroline. It's almost like I don't exist in your life anymore." He paused in order to calm down. Elena seemed like she was about to cry, but he didn't care in this moment. He wanted to say these things for a long time and he was holding them back.
"Tom, I'm so sorry." She said and her voice broke as the tears started falling from her eyes. She felt like she wanted to die. She let her head fall in her palms because she wanted to hide. She didn't want him, to look at her.
"I know you are." He whispered. "And I've already forgave you. I wanted to fight for us. I didn't wanna let a mistake ruin what we've been building for years. But I can't do this alone. You have to want this, as much as I want this." He finished his drink and went to take a sit next to her. "I want to start over and put all the bad stuff in the past. You won't have to feel guilty anymore, because we will never have to talk about this again." His eyes were full of hope. "I love you. I will always love you. Will you fight for us?"
That was enough. She couldn't hold it back anymore. It was her turn to speak. He had to know the truth. She loved him too much to be lying into his face. She knew she was risking to lose him forever from her life, but she breathed deeply and did what she had to do. She had promised herself and Caroline that she would be brave.
"I wish everything was so simple." She sighed and looked deep inside his eyes. "I could accept what you're offering and we could start over. But I would never stop feeling guilty towards you." She looked away for a moment. "Because, it's not just the kiss that I feel guilty about. I have feelings for Damon. Feelings that can't go away. I tried to fight it. I did." Tears fell from her eyes. "I wanted nothing more, than to do the right thing by you. Because I do love you and I didn't want to let you down, like you never have let me down. But this thing is above me. I can't control it. And I can't exactly keep Damon out of my life either. The moment he would come back to town this thing could happen again, and I wouldn't be able to look you in the eye ever again." She went silent.
"So you're saying that you have feelings for him." He said dryly. "And why didn't you tell me Elena? Why weren't you honest?" He had an I'm-so-done-with-everything voice going on and that scared her.
"I didn't know how to tell you. I couldn't find the words. I was so ashamed. Even now, it is hard. But I'm telling you, even though I know I'm gonna lose you." Her heart was breaking into a thousand little pieces. She wasn't in love with Tom. She knew that. But that didn't mean that she didn't love him. He was the person who showed her that it was okay to feel again after her father's death and the accident. He had stood by her side and she had done the same every time he needed her. Being with him felt natural back then. She couldn't separate friendship from love, because she had never been in love with someone. But now she knew the difference, even if it was too late. "I love you Tom. After everything that we've been through, it's hard to imagine my life without you. But I have to do this. You deserve a girl, that will be in love with you and will want to marry you and start a family with you. I'm not that girl. I tried to be. I tried for you. But I can't." She sobbed. The heartbreaking expression on his face was making her heart hurt twice as bad it was already hurting. She wished she could take his pain away, but it wasn't possible. At least she wouldn't have to feel guilty anymore. She had done the right thing. She had been honest with him. Letting him go, wasn't easy for her. Even if she wasn't in love with him anymore, after three years, she had gotten used to him. He had became a big part of her life and she knew that after this conversation he wouldn't be around anymore. "I'm sorry that I failed you." She cried. "It's all my fault."
"Please, stop this." He cut her off. "It's too damn hard. I can't hear it." He said and his head fell on his hands. She could swear that she saw tears in his eyes.
"You need to hear it." She took his face. He was crying. She wiped away his tears and placed her hand on his cheek stroking it gently. "I'm letting you go, because I love you and you're still my friend." She was looking inside his eyes because she wanted to make him understand that she decided this out of love for him and not because she meant to hurt him. "Take care of yourself." Another tear fell from her eye. She looked his face for one last time and then got up and left the house quickly. She didn't look back.
"Dude, you're out of your mind!" Alaric yelled. "You let Katherine sneak into your life again? I've tried my best to stay out of it, but she's here every night drinking shots with you, and you let her." Damon was staring at him, waiting for him to finish his speech.
"Katherine can't hurt me, because I don't have feelings for her anymore. So I'm just enjoying her company." Damon defended himself.
"Katherine isn't here for no reason! Mark my words." He warned his friend.
"Consider them marked." He sarcastically and Alaric rolled his eyes.
"You know what? Do whatever you want." He finally gave up.
"I'll be careful Ric! Okay?"
"Let me guess. He didn't listen." Rose had just gotten inside the bar and could already tell what was going on. She knew them too well.
"Are you two playing my parents now?" Damon couldn't believe this.
"When you can't think straight on your own, then yes! We are." She yelled at him. "We are your friends Damon. Your family. And we love you. If we don't warn you, then who will?"
"Thank you for your warnings. I'll keep them in mind." He yelled back. "Anything else?" He asked ironically and Alaric and Rose both gave him a disaproving look. "Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go to my house. Keeping the bar all alone for the entire evening was exhausting and my back is killing me." He stood up from the stool chair he was sitting on and got out of the bar.
He wanted to tell them the truth. But if they knew that he had invited Katherine to his house, they would get the wrong idea and they would start lecturing him. But the past few days he felt good every time he had hanged out with her. Katherine was a fun person to be around and she was taking his mind off of things. He was starting to see her as a friend, even though he thought that this would never be possible when she had first suggested it. He was still emotionally detatched from her and that was the only reason he wasn't afraid of getting hurt by her again.
He was at his house in no time, and there she was, waiting for him on his porch.
"It was about time." She said with a devilish smile on her face.
"Oh I bet you just got here." He smirked.
"Well, you know me too well." Well, at least better than some people. She added in her head.
"Let's get inside." He opened the door and let her in.
They spent the entire night drinking and catching up. It was fun, but Damon's mind was on Elena again. It was at these hours that he felt the need to call her. He just wanted to hear her voice and ask her if she's okay, and then he'd hung up if that would be what she wanted. He missed her and his distraction wasn't working. He thought that Katherine would make him forget about Elena for a few hours, but even her hilarious stories couldn't make him laugh with his heart. He felt like a part of his heart was missing, and he knew exactly where that part was...it was with her.
"Your mind is somewhere far away." Katherine stated and got him by surprise.
"No, I'm just tired. It's been an awful day at work." He informed her.
"Well I'm gonna go then. You obviously need to rest. But before I go, one shot for the road." She smiled. Damon and her tried to reach the bottle of bourbon at the same time. As a result the bottle fell and the liquor got all over Katherine's shirt.
"Oh shit!" Damon said. "I'm so sorry." He quickly brought the bottle back into a standing position and went to the kitchen to bring Katherine a kitchen towel.
"It's okay." She said when he gave it to her. "I hated that shirt." She chuckled.
"Why don't you go in my room and change? You can take one of my shirts. They're in the third drawer on the left." He informed her.
"No, it's okay. It's not a big deal." She tried to decline his offer.
"I insist." He said.
"Fine." She gave up and made her way to his bedroom and closed the door behind her.
She looked around her and instead of heading to his drawer, she took a look at his nightstand. While they were together he always had a picture of them standing there. It was gone now. She opened the little drawer of the small furniture and was surprised that she didn't find condoms. So he's not with someone else and he also doesn't have sex with anyone. This is not very Damon-like. There was something inside the drawer though. A piece of paper with black calligraphic letters on it. She quickly got it out of there and started reading it. When she finished it, she quickly put it back where she found it. Everything was starting to make sense. Maybe that was the reason why Damon was acting so weird. He had just found out who his father was. Guiseppe Salvatore. She had heard the name before thanks to her father. If she was right about who she thought Guiseppe Salvatore was, then maybe she would get back the life she once had. She knew that from that moment she needed to be even more smart and careful. Katherine Pierce is back. A devilish smile was on her face.
"Elena you've been crying for hours. I can't see you like this. It breaks my heart." Caroline said and her friend another tissue.
"I'm sorry." She said between sobs. "I can't go home. If my mother sees me like that, she will start worrying."
"It's okay. I don't want you to leave. Just try to calm down, please." She begged.
"Okay." She said and started taking deep breaths in order to stop crying.
"Good! That's good." Caroline said and started taking deep breaths too in order to show her friend that she was doing it right. "Now that you're calmer. Please understand that Tom loves you and deep down he knows that everything you did was for his own good as well. He might be mad now, but he will forgive you. He's a good person. He just needs to take his distance for little while. You didn't lose him forever." She stroked Elena's back.
"And what about Damon?" Elena asked. She felt like akid waiting for her mother to explain to her something that she didn't understand.
"Now that you broke up with Tom, you can call him or even go to Denver and see him. You two really need to talk."
"I know we do. But what makes you think that he will want to see me? I hurt him." She started crying again.
"Yes but you didn't mean to! And Damon was asking too much from you. He knew you couldn't make a decision like this, without thinking about it first. To be honest, the problem with you two is that you had bad timing." She went silent. "But I have a good feeling abut this. You'll see that in the end you'll be together. You're soulmates. I mean who finds her long lost best friend after seventeen years, only to fall madly in love with him?" Elena couldn't help but smile at the fact that Caroline was describing all this in a dreamy tone.
"I hope that you're right, because I can't lose Damon. I need him in my life."
"You won't lose him. Trust me." She gave Elena a sweet smile. "What you need to do now, is to keep you distance from the boy drama for a few days and then, when you're ready, call Damon. He'll be so happy to hear you. You've been dodging his calls for a week."
"I know. And it took everything I got to not answer the phone. It's just that, ever since she kissed me our relationship became more than friendship. And I was still with Tom. Even by talking to Damon, I felt like I was cheating on him." Caroline shook her head.
"But now you don't need to worry about any of this. You're free Elena. You can make new decisions, plans, you can be with whoever you want. You can be happy. Really happy. And I haven't seen you happy in years." The girl took Elena's hand inside her own. "Everything will change for the better. You'll see."
"I'm home." Katherine shouted.
"Hey." Thered-head woman said while working with her laptop. "Why did it take so long to get back?" She asked.
"Sage, I think that I might have found the answer to all my problems." Katherine said and sat on the couch with her.
"Your problems can't be solved sweetie. You're homeless and you have no money." She looked at her for the first time.
"Just hear me out!" Katherine said. She looked excited.
"Okay fine. Tell me." Sage rolled her eyes.
"I was in Damon's room earlier and I found a letter. His mother must have asked someone to give it to him if she died. And in that letter she revealed who's Damon's father." She paused for a second. "Does the name Guiseppe Salvatore ring a bell?" Sage's eyes got wider.
"Salvatore? As the one who knew your father? The one with the publishing house?" Katherine nodded and a smile spread on her face.
"Exactly." She said.
"And how does this solve your problems?" Sage was confused.
"I have a plan of course." Katherine said like it was the most natural thing in the wrold and a devilish smile appeared on Sage's face.
"Of course you do." They both laughed.
"My plan has some flaws though. But I'm working on it. It needs to be good if I want it to work."
"Well then, let me help you make it perfect." Sage winked.
They spent the rest of the night thinking everything through and in the end, they really did it. They had the perfect plan.
So that was the 10th Chapter. I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry if it contains a lot of mistakes, I didn't have the time to check it properly before posting it. Elena broke up with Tom. I tried to make it emotional, because they're two people who really care about eachother...they just didn't work out as lovers. They were always meant to be friends I think. So how did you feel about it? Also I know that some of you were mad at Elena for not anwering Damon's calls and not just saying how she really felt, but she just needed some time to think about everything that happened. She needed to make her decision, and she stayed away from Damon and away from Tom in order to do it. I hope that this chapter helped you understand her point of view all better. And then there's Katherine. Seems like Alaric and Rose were right about her. She was up to no good from the beginning, but now she has even bigger plans ahead. Btw she's not aware of Elena. She has no idea that Damon is in love with someone else. We'll see how this will work out for her. Anyway, be nice and review. You can also find me on Twitter ( shelovesdamon) and I'll happily answer any questions you might have and even give you some spoilers if you want to. Love you all. xxx