Disclaimer: See prologue

You say, "Why does everything revolve around you?"
You say, "Why does everything I do confound you?"
You say that I pulled the world from under you,
You can't go through it this time

And I could be good, and I would - If I knew I was understood
And it'll be great, just wait - Or is it too little too late?

… … …

She couldn't sleep.

She couldn't sleep and she hated it.

So much.

Kenzie sighed and turned over, her thoughts going round and round in her head. After she had left Damon, she had found her father who had been talking to the Sheriff and Mrs. Lockwood. Pulling him away, she asked him to drive her home because she wasn't feeling good. He agreed, trying not to look too relieved and she had gone upstairs to bed, deciding she would be better off if she was unconscious.

But hours later, she was still awake, the events of earlier keeping her awake. She was bruised thanks to Damon, he had kissed her, all because Elena wouldn't and then he had saved her life. Again. Great, now she was super indebted to him. But he did kiss her so maybe that evened them out.

She groaned and turned over, gasping when she saw she was no longer alone.

"You, get out." She hissed.

He didn't move and she sat up, reaching over to turn on her bedside lamp. Her brow furrowed as she got a look at him in the light.

"Damon?"

Still he didn't move, he just sat at her bay window seat looking down at his hands. Kenzie pushed her covers back and stood up, moving to stand in front of him. When he still didn't acknowledge her, she placed a hand on either side of his head and tilted his head up so he would look at her. Her eyes widened, seeing the glossy sheen of his eyes.

"What- what's going on?"

"She's wrong, I'm not better than all that." Damon finally spoke, staring into Kenzie's piercing green eyes.

"better than all what?" she stopped and sniffed before leaning closer to smell then leaning back with a look of disgust on her face. "You're drunk."

"I was." He muttered.

"still are." She countered. "Now what made you go get drunk?"

"You know, it's bad enough being rejected by one girl, sucks even more when it's two but three, ouch."

"What are you talking about? Who rejected you?"

"You did." He reminded her.

Cat rolled her eyes as she removed her hands from his head. "I didn't reject you, I just told you not to use me. You were only looking for comfort from me because of what Elena said to you, most girls don't go for that."

"You're not most girls." He muttered, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer as he pillowed his head against her chest.

"I agree but that doesn't mean I like being used, I mean, if the using was going both ways, then yeah, but you didn't ask."

"Just- just make it go away." He whispered, closing his eyes.

Kenzie couldn't help but lift her arms to cradle his head as she ran a hand through his silky black locks. "Make what go away?" she asked.

"Everything. These – these stupid feelings. I don't care, I don't want to care."

"You're a vampire, you can turn it off."

He leaned back to look up at her. "If I turn it off, I'll kill you."

She dropped her hands and stepped back, a serene smile on her face, "No you won't."

He used his vampire speed to grab her again, pushing her up against the closed door and still no fear showed in her eyes. "Why aren't you afraid?" He hissed.

She shrugged "because I'm not."

"Everyone fears death, why are you different?"

She lifted up her hands in between his arms to break his hold and he let her as she ducked under him, crossing her arms under her chest as she turned and glared at him. "Because I am. I just don't fear it, deal with it. Now tell me what's going on."

"I killed Jeremy."

Silence.

Then she exploded. "You did what?" she all but screeched. She stopped, waiting to see if her dad woke up but he didn't and she turned her anger back onto Damon.

"I killed Jeremy, he wanted to be a vampire so bad so I killed him."

She grabbed his shirt, fisting it in her hands as she pulled him down to her level, her green eyes cloudy with anger. "What in the blue blazing hell were you thinking?"

"That I didn't want Elena to think I was good."

"Succeed much? She's going to hate you. Forever. And I should kick you out of my room for doing something absolutely completely beyond retarded. I actually liked him."

"Oh, so I get to hear shit from you too?" He groaned, removing her hands and moving over to her bed and falling back onto it.

"What do you expect? To come on over and for me to congratulate you?"

"Yes." He petulantly replied.

"Think again, Dumbass. Seriously, how do you ever expect Elena to fall for you if you're going to kill one of the most important people in her life?"

"You told me she wouldn't because I'm too dark." Damon reminded her with a roll of the eyes.

"So you decided to go and prove me right? What the hell? And what were you talking about being rejected three times today?"

"I kissed Elena to show her she was lying to herself about me. Before that, I saw Katherine who told me it was Stefan, it would always be Stefan, then Elena said it right after. So how about you say it now."

She let out a small snort. "Your brother is kind of uptight. I think I much rather like you. But not like that and as for Katherine- wait how many girls did you kiss today?"

"Three." He muttered.

"Wow, you sure know to make a girl feel special." Kenzie scowled at him, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "okay, let me break this down for you Mr. Let's overreact and not put things into perspective. Elena is in love with Stefan so of course she's gonna reject you. I don't want you using me without asking so of course I'm gonna tell you to back off and Katherine is going to do everything possible to put you over the edge. I should congratulate her next time I see her, because it worked. God, Damon, how could you not see that? I wasn't even there, I don't even know what happened and I know she's playing mind games."

"Why did I come here again?" He asked with an eye roll.

"Because everyone else will try and kill you on sight?"

"And you won't."

"Nope. Who else gets my sarcasm?" she leaned over him to grab her phone.

"You sure you don't want me to use you?" Damon asked, the sarcasm evident in his voice again. "Because with you like this, in those tiny little shorts…." He let out a low whistle.

"Get bent." She told him as she picked it up and called Elena. "Not after you killed Jeremy."

The brunette answered on the second ring, sounding teary eyed and Kenzie shot Damon another glare.

"Elena? How are you doing? I heard about Jeremy."

"Heard?" The other girl asked. "You talked to Damon."

"Yes, I did."

"Kenzie, if he's there right now, you need to leave, Damon will kill you. He killed Jeremy."

"Damon's fine right now." Kenzie softly replied. "I just want to see how you're doing, I'm really sorry about Jeremy."

"Jeremy's fine." Elena's voice broke. "John, gave him a ring so he'll be fine."

Damon sat up, having overheard the conversation, his curiosity piqued.

"What ring?" Kenzie asked, clearly out of the loop.

"There were rings that belonged to my family. Basically, the wearer can't die by supernatural means."

"Oh." Kenzie grew quiet, wondering just how involved she should get in all this. Usually, she would let people deal on their own but she was sure this was a whole other set of rules and perhaps she should get involved… a little. Damon was hurting and he had done something completely rash and she actually found him amusing so she should help, even if this would totally ruin her image.

"Elena, Damon didn't mean to hurt you, Katherine had messed with his head." She softly explained as Damon cocked his head to the side, wondering what she was doing.

"No, don't you dare stand up for Damon. My little brother would be gone if not for that ring and that's unforgivable."

"He saw the ring." Kenzie blurted out.

"No I didn't." Damon whispered, causing the little redhead to shush him.

"What?" Elena asked.

"He told me he saw the ring."

"How does that excuse him killing my brother?"

"He didn't do it with the intent to take your brother away from you permanently, he was just hurting and wanted someone to hurt too, especially after you totally denied him, which I don't blame you for, I'm just trying to explain."

"He told you?" Elena grew puzzled, wondering just how close those two had become.

"Everything." Kenzie confirmed. "He's pretty upset, just don't hate him for too long. He doesn't like to admit it but it hurts him when you're mad at him."

"I'll think about it." Came the grudging reply before saying goodnight and hanging up.

"What, was that?" Damon asked, the moment the call was over.

"Me, helping you. You're welcome." Kenzie replied with a raised brow.

The black haired Vampire rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask for your help."

"I know but you would've been a right bastard without my help. Besides, if you didn't want it, why did you come here?"

"Because I have-" He stopped but she didn't need him to finish it to understand.

"You have no one else."

"Look everyone here is all, oh Stefan, so wonderful and I'm always the bad guy."

"Because you never made yourself out to be the bad guy? I think you're trying to change but you're fighting it at the same time. So yeah, people aren't going to see it."

He let out a small snort. "You're what, 16? You're not supposed to be giving advice."

"18 actually, and I'm not giving advice, I'm giving my opinion. My actual advice is to stay away from Elena for a while. Hopefully, she'll buy that story about seeing the ring. Now, can I get some sleep?"

"Knock yourself out." His smirk back as he laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back against her pillow.

"Get out of my bed."

He didn't respond and she rolled her eyes, getting back into bed and pushing him until she had more covers. She pulled them up, turned away from him and promptly fell asleep.

… …

"Mac? There's some boy here to see?"

Kenzie opened her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them as her dad's words registered in her mind.

"Don't call me that." She yelled back. "Tell him I'll be right there."

She looked at the time, seeing she had slept well into the afternoon since she had been up so late talking to Damon. Speaking of, she rolled over to see she was alone in bed, her phone on the pillow next to her. When she unlocked it, she noticed a picture message from Damon and she opened it to see a picture of them, she was cuddled into his side, her head on his chest while he smirked up at his phone. The caption underneath? 'Did you know you snore?'

Kenzie scowled, firing back with one word. 'Ass.'

She rolled out of bed, and grabbed a sweatshirt to throw on over her PJ's, which really only consisted of a tank top and tiny shorts and come to think of it, Damon really must've been out of it if he only made one comment on her lack of clothing.

Grabbing a tie, she put her hair up into a messy bun and ran down the stairs, stopping when she saw it was Jeremy there.

"Jer, hi." She smiled at him, throwing an arm around him. "I'm so glad you're okay."

He smiled at her. "I'm not going to lie, it was the weirdest feeling ever."

"I'm sorry about your girlfriend too."

He shrugged and looked away, not ready to talk about it. "I just came to see if you wanted to come to the carnival today? Make up for the pageant. I didn't realize you'd be sleeping still."

"Late night." She told him. "I didn't know the carnival was still on but yeah, I could go with you, I need to shower first though."

"Why don't I grab some food for us from the Grill and meet you back here."

She grinned at him. "Sure. Are you sure you're up to going?"

"It's better than staying at home and it's better than hanging out with my sister and her friends who wont stop hovering over me and looking at me like I'll keel over again."

"well you did kind of die, it usually upsets people especially when they don't expect you to just pop right back up again."

"But I'm fine." He assured her.

"I know. I'll go get ready, meet you back here in a bit?"

He nodded and she saw him out before jumping in the shower. Her beauty routine usually took at least an hour no problem, her hair alone taking up most of the time. So after she got out of the shower and got her makeup on, she picked out a black top with a green skirt, grabbing her wooden wedges to complete it. She heard her dad answer the door and let Jeremy in again and she frowned, knowing there wasn't much she could do with it. She yelled down to Jeremy to hold on and took a blow dryer to it, drying it as much as possible before dividing it up and putting it into two low ponytails on either side. She could work with it.

"Ready." She called as she came down the stairs.

Jeremy smiled at her as she joined him in the living room for some lunch he had picked up for them, consisting of burgers and fries. She was starving and was almost done her food when she noticed Jeremy watching with a small smile on his face.

"What?" she asked after she finished chewing.

"Aren't you a cheerleader?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Aren't you supposed to watch what you eat?"

Her jaw dropped as she picked up a pillow and threw it at him. "I have a high metabolism, thank you very much."

"I'm just asking." He laughed, returning to his own food.

When they were done, she grabbed a sweater and told her dad she would see him at the carnival later and her and Jeremy walked to the school.

"Thanks for coming with me, I had some other things to talk to you about."

Kenzie glanced over at him. "What?"

"Anna, she gave me another diary before- before she died and I finally read it last night." He stopped and pulled her to a stop, turning her so she was facing him. "Some of the passages mention a couple of vampires that have your last name, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

She held up her hand, showing him the ring on her finger. "This ring has a couple spells on it, one being similar to Stefan and Damon's but I honestly didn't think about it. I mean, I still don't think I'm one of THE Millers, ya know?"

"Start believing it because all the puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place."

"Explain." She told him motioning for him to continue walking.

"Okay, well it speaks of the Millers as a Founding Family and when they continued out west, only two remained. Jack and his wife Jill."

"Jack and Jill? Please tell me you're kidding." She asked with a snort.

"No, it's true."

"I wonder if that nursery rhyme was named after them." She started giggling as she looped an arm through his and started skipping down the sidewalk, dragging him along "Jack and Jill go up the hill to fetch a pail of water-"

He carefully removed his arm from hers. "Kenzie?"

She stopped, trying to put her face straight. "Sorry, keep going."

"I can't find what happened to them. It's like the pages are missing- ripped out or something."

"So what now?" She asked.

"See if your dad has any family journals and we'll check out the library."

"Yay. Study." Her lack of enthusiasm was evident. "School and I don't really see eye to eye you know."

He smiled. "You'll be fine, this really isn't school."

"I know." She replied with a small pout. "How about we just not think about any of that right now and go have fun. I'm sure you can use it."

"I guess." He replied with a small shrug.

The two teens entered the carnival and walked around, looking at all the booths and playing a few games, laughing at their horrible aim and when he finally won something, he handed her the little stuffed animal. They had just stopped to grab some popcorn and cotton candy when a voice interrupted them.

"Jeremy, it's so good to see you alive."

Kenzie watched his whole demeanor change. The fun, easygoing mood they had going diminished and she could see his shoulders tense and a scowl appear on his face. She spun around to stop Damon from saying anything else that was stupid when Jeremy answered him.

"Aren't you a little old for a high school carnival?"

"A hundred and fifty years too old."

Jeremy let out a small humorless laugh as he shook his head. "You're pretty funny cracking jokes when I could I don't know, blow the whole lid off this thing by telling someone what you really are."

Kenzie's eyes widened as Damon grabbed Jeremy and pushed him away from the crowd, leaving her to helplessly follow after them.

"Please tell me that isn't a threat."

Jeremy held up his hand with the ring on it. "Maybe it is."

Kenzie inwardly groaned and stepped forward as Damon grabbed Jeremy from behind, putting an arm around his throat.

"Damon, let him go." She warned him. "You've already killed him once, really no point in doing it again."

"Oh, you said it, so I should do it, right?"

"No, you should do it because we're in public and there's far too many people around. So quit being a jackass."

"What if I make it stick this time?" Damon asked, releasing the teenager and holding up his ring. Jeremy looked at his hand before looking back up at it with panic in his eyes.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "Then I'm really going to have a hard time talking you out of that one."

"I don't need your help." He said with a scowl, turning to Jeremy. "This is what we're not gonna do: we're not gonna walk around like we are invincible when it's this easy for me to end you. If you want to tell people what I really am go ahead and try. I will shove this ring so far up your ass, you'll really have something to choke on."

He threw the ring at Jeremy and turned and walked away. Kenzie quickly looked the other teen over before telling him she'd catch up with him later, she wanted to go deal with Damon. Jeremy looked unsure about letting her go off on her own but she assured him she would be fine and rushed after the Vampire, catching up with him near the arm wrestling booth. She grabbed his arm to get his attention.

"three words. What the hell?"

He roughly pulled his arm away from her.

"Again I say, what the hell?"

He turned on her with one raised eyebrow. "I can't have stupid little high school students thinking they're invincible now, can I?"

"Oh my god." Was her exasperated reply. "That's so stupid."

"What are you even doing with him anyways?" Damon asked with a scowl.

Kenzie's brow furrowed. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem." He turned to the arm wrestling booth, watching Tyler beat each challenger and she followed his line of vision but not really watching as she tried to figure him out.

"You so do, you're acting as if-" her jaw dropped and she slowly turned her head to stare at him. "-you're jealous."

"I am not." He replied with a scowl. "Why would I be jealous? I don't even like you."

"Right, you loathe me." She said with a snort. "try again."

"I like trading insults with you, that's it."

"Says the guy who kissed me." She reminded him with a smug smile.

"He kissed you?"

Both looked over to see Stefan beside them, looking between them with a curious look on his face.

"She's delusional." Damon said, looking back at the arm wrestling. "Now leave me alone, I'm observing."

"Observing what?" she asked.

"Obsessing you mean." Stefan offered, looking to where his brother was looking.

"He's got strength." Damon noted.

"He's a triple letter varsity athlete, of course he has strength. You're reaching." Stefan countered.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kenzie looked between the two in confusion.

"Enter the Uncle." Damon ignored her, acting as if she was no longer there.

"That's ridiculous." Stefan replied.

"Seriously, what's going on?" She tried again.

"Okay, he's the champ, who wants to go next." Tyler was saying, having just been beaten by his Uncle.

"Stefan wants to go." Damon called out and Kenzie let out an exasperated sigh.

"Sure, I'll go." Stefan stepped up across from Mason.

"Not jealous?" Kenzie asked.

"No." Damon told her.

"Really?"

"No. Why would I be jealous? Remember? I don't like you."

"Okay." She began to walk away from him.

"Where are you going?" He called after her.

She shrugged, walking up to Tyler and tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around and she grabbed his shoulders, with a quick smirk at Damon, she pulled him down, kissing him hard on the lips. She pulled away, leaving Tyler dumbfounded and walking past Damon with a small shake of her hips, noticing he looked ready to murder her. Or Tyler. It was hard to tell at this point with his eyes widened in that oh so creepy way he was good at.

Sure that wasn't exactly the mature thing to do but did enjoy proving him wrong.

"Call me when you've pulled your head out of your ass."

… … …