Chapter 11: It Was Damon

Damon stood on the porch for a moment, looking at the door, a small smile playing on his lips.

Inside, Elena was smiling, too, the tears wiped off her face. Jenna came, frowning, from the kitchen.

"Is something wrong?" Elena asked her.

"That depends." Jenna frowned again and Elena looked at her quizzically.

"You were at the beach yesterday, right?" her aunt asked, and she nodded. "I'm not going to ask you who you went there with." Elena thanked god. "But, I'm going to ask you one thing. Where were you last night? You didn't come home and you didn't return any of my calls. I was worried about you."
"I... I'm sorry, Jenna. I left my phone at home. I was at the boarding house."

That had Jenna frowning again.
"I thought you and Stefan were fighting?" Elena cursed herself for forgetting that.
"...We are."

"So what were you-? No, Elena. Please don't tell me you were with Damon." Jenna looked at her sharply.

"I was." Jenna groaned at that, making a face. "But," Elena continued. "It wasn't what you think it was. It wasn't like that."

"Then enlighten me, Elena. Because in my opinion, there's only one way to see this. You and Stefan fight, the next thing I know, you're off at the beach with Damon, who - as we all know, can't keep his paws off of you. And then you spend the night with him? God, Elena. I thought you were the reasonable one in this family." Jenna groaned again. Elena exhaled a frustrated breath.

"Firstly, it's not my fault Stefan and I are fighting in the first place! Secondly, yes, I was with Damon. He was actually nice to me. He can be decent, you know. And thirdly, I spent the night at the boarding house, but did I say I slept with Damon? No. I thought you knew me well enough to know I wouldn't do something like that. And even if I had slept with him, it would've been my business, wouldn't it?" That said, Elena stormed upstairs, leaving Jenna staring back at her with wide eyes. In her room, Elena found her phone ringing. Bonnie.

"Hey," Elena said, smiling to herself.

"Hey! I've been trying to reach you for ages, where the hell have you been?" Bonnie said on the other end, voice noticeably worried.

"I was... away."

"...Okay." She seemed to hesitate. "Can I come over?"

"Sure."

"See you in a few, then."

"See you."

Elena hung up, and it was only then that she noticed all of the missed calls. There were... enough to last her a lifetime. Dropping her phone to the bed, Elena went to take a shower. A cold one, preferably.

Just as she was drying her hair half an hour later, the doorbell rang, announcing Bonnie's arrival. Elena heard Jenna opening the door for her, and then their soft murmurs as they greeted each other. Elena smiled as Bonnie entered her room, pulling her friend into a tight hug.

"I haven't seen you for so long!" Elena said, grinning.

"Yeah, but I'm here now." Bonnie grinned back.

"How is everything?"

"Good." Bonnie smiled. "You know, I met a relative of mine; she's also a Salem witch. Her name is Lucy," she gushed, beaming at Elena happily. Elena laughed with her, saying,

"Wow. This is really great." Bonnie's grin widened.

"She taught me a spell, too. It's just to goof around, but it was still awesome that she taught me that."

"What spell?"

"Well, she wanted to teach me something other than breaking curses and moonstones. It's actually pretty dumb, to be frank. It's a spell to see a person's future... mate - that's what Lucy called it. 'Their other half'." Bonnie air-quoted the words, showing just how ridiculous she thought it was. "It's like, who the person is... meant to be with, or something along those lines." She laughed, but seeing Elena's wistful expression, she said, "And I guess it's not quite appropriate, given the circumstances..."

Elena shook her head as if to clear it and grinned at Bonnie.

"It's okay. I'll be your guinea pig." She tried to sound nonchalant and laughed, but inside she felt uneasy. She had no time to dig deeper into the thought of seeing the one she was 'meant to be with' as Bonnie was already ushering her to bring candles. She returned with them, and the girls went downstairs.

"Hey, Jenna?" Elena called. Her aunt emerged from the living room. "We're going to borrow the dining room for a little while, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll be upstairs if you need me."

In less than thirty minutes, they were all set - Bonnie was sitting on the sofa in the living room, eyes closed in concentration as she kept chanting quietly. The lights were off, and the room was dark, apart from the candles that were lit up on the table. Elena pulled out a chair in the dining room and sat on it. She put one hand on the table, palm up as 'the one' was supposed to appear and take hold of it. In the other hand she was holding a candle. Closing her eyes, she started whispering,

"Come. Come to me... I invite you..."

She was about to call out to Bonnie to tell her how completely ridiculous it all was, when suddenly a figure began to form in front of her. It was like fog, nearly transparent. She just needed to see a little closer...

"Elena?" she nearly dropped the candle she was holding, hitting her leg hard against the table.

"Ow," she complained and looked up to find Damon standing next to her. The fog figure was long gone, and even in the dim room she could see Damon's lifted eyebrows. In the other room they suddenly heard Bonnie's sharp intake of breath.

"What's...?" Damon questioned, jabbing a finger towards the living room. He was clearly confused, frown deepening with every passing second.

"I'll explain later," Elena told him, getting up to check on her friend, Damon following close by. When they entered the living room, they were met by a visibly shaken Bonnie, her eyes wide. Spotting Damon just beside Elena, her eyes widened even further. She just kept staring at the two, not moving, and Damon leaned closer to Elena and whispered,

"What's up with Judgy?" it was a mock-whisper and Bonnie shot him a death glare.

"Everything's fine," she returned in a tight voice. "Elena, can I talk to you? Alone." She motioned towards the kitchen with her head.

"Sure." Elena looked at Damon. "Behave yourself, will you?"

Damon winked, flashing her a wolfish grin. "Sure I will." That didn't sound very convincing, but she decided to ignore it and walked to the kitchen after Bonnie, who closed the door and put the water running.

"What the hell is he doing here?" she then hissed. Her previous good mood had obviously crashed.

"I have no idea."

"I don't like it," Bonnie said bluntly, looking Elena straight in the eyes. "Didn't you see who appeared in front of you when we did the spell?" she asked, pausing for only a second before continuing. "It was Damon."

"What?"

"Exactly. And then you two came out of the dining room together..." she shuddered. "Think about it." Then she turned the water off and left the kitchen. Elena was frozen on the spot. Damon? No. It must have been a mistake. It had to be. Her stomach turned uncomfortably. She took a deep breath and entered the living room silently, deep in thought. Damon lifted his hands in mock surrender.

"I was a good boy." He smirked. Bonnie was glaring at him from the other side of the room. Ignoring her presence, Damon crossed the room and stood in front of Elena.

"I actually came here to... check on you. Are you okay?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper. Elena looked at him, contemplating his candidness. Finding no hint of sarcasm or whatsoever - only raw concern - she whispered,

"I'll be just fine." His face said he recognized her quoting him from earlier. He smiled and put his hand on her shoulder for a second. Elena desperately tried to ignore the feeling the touch sent through her body. Bonnie cleared her throat loudly, earning a 'bitch, I'm going to kill you' glare from Damon.

"I'm gonna take off, then, okay?" he said, and when Elena nodded, he shot Bonnie one last glare and disappeared. Bonnie stared at Elena. What had just happened.

"Uh. Okay. I'm not even going to tell you how plain weird that just was, so I'm... just going to forget that Damon was even here." Then she grinned. "New topic!" she sat down on the couch. "Why didn't you pick up yesterday? I called you like, a million times. What were you up to?"

"I was at the beach," Elena admitted. Bonnie grinned.

"Clearly you had fun if you stayed out that late, you're usually the early leaver. Because I called you home late at night; Jenna told me you weren't there."

"I...I slept over at the boarding house..." Elena looked down.

"So you and Stefan made up?" A smile spread on Bonnie's face again. Then it was Elena's turn to frown. She shot an uncertain look at her friend. "Uh, not exactly."

Bonnie was clearly confused.

"Then who...?" she trailed off as realization dawned on her. Elena felt uncomfortable. She knew Bonnie felt nothing but hatred towards Damon and wasn't quite supportive of their friendship.

"With..." Elena swallowed. "Damon."