Feel This Moment
Disclaimer: I don't anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.
This chapter is set towards the end of the summer before Damon and Elena's senior year at college.
Damon is 22 and Elena 21.
Hope you like it...
"It's too hot to be moving." Elena lifts up her tank top a few times to let the air in as she stands in her old apartment surrounded by empty boxes as she fans herself with her hands.
"Oh please, you'd think you'd be used to this weather by now." Charlotte smiles at her as she tapes up one of the many boxes taking up their living room.
She smiles thinking back to the summer she has just had with Damon, the two of them spent two months travelling to the Dominican Republican, Jamaica, Barbados, and St Lucia before flying back to New York from The Bahamas two days ago to prepare for their final year at college which starts in three weeks.
"That still doesn't make this any less exhausting."
After spending their first year living in the college dormitory's and their sophomore and junior years living with their friends, both Damon and Elena decided to make the decision to spend their senior year living together just the two of them.
"Yeah and where are the boys? Funny how they disappear just as all the hard work starts." Charlotte rolls her eyes and she laughs and nods her head in agreement.
"Hey now, have some faith, Charlotte." Damon walks into the apartment wearing just a dark blue vest top and black shorts with a NYU baseball cap placed backwards on his head. She can't help but lick her lips as the vest clings tightly to his body, showing off his muscled body and biceps, his tanned arms and legs from their summer vacation giving him even more of an extra sexier edge than usual.
He is truly something.
"Hi you," She smiles at him flirtatiously before greeting him with a slow kiss. "You're late."
"I know, I know." He turns his head around just as Will wonders in, sweat dripping from his forehead. "We lost track of time at the batting cages, gotta keep fit while the season is out, you know?" he eyes her up and down slowly, his eyes bulging at her tight fitting white tank top and dark jean short shorts showing off her long tanned legs.
She is beautiful.
"He's been running me ragged." Will huffs behind them breathlessly as he wipes his brow of sweat. "And now he wants me to move boxes across town? Who does he think I am?"
"Oh come on," he shakes his head with a smile, turning around to face his best friend, his hand running down Elena's arm before linking their fingers together. "It's only three blocks away."
"I still don't see why you need to even get your own place anyway, what's one more year?" Will asks casually.
"Yeah," Charlotte joins in. "I mean you practically live together anyway, staying where you are is totally better for rent control."
"Oh come on," Damon smirks. "It's not like we are moving far. I know we're both awesome but you can live without us you know."
"Oh please, I just don't want to live with Bryan on my own." Will waves him off. "It has nothing to do with you personally Salvatore, you're messy and you never put food back in the fridge so it always goes off and smells weird, you never be quiet when you come home late and everyone else is asleep, and you get water everywhere in the bathroom." He lists off my bad traits one by one. "Yeah, good luck with him Elena." He whistles slightly.
Elena smiles and runs her spare hand down Damon's chest slowly. "Aw it's fine Will, I know all about his bad habits. I'll kick him into gear."
"Oh will you now?" Damon wiggles his eyebrows at her and Elena rolls her eyes before pushing him away.
"Ok, enough chit chat, we've packed most of the boxes up already so start with those." She points to some boxes by the door.
"Geez Elena how much stuff do you have?" Will eyes them up warily.
"A lot." She grins at him. "Thanks for volunteering!" she skips off into her bedroom before he can even argue.
After hours of trailing back and forth between Elena's old apartment and their new one, in the scorching August New York heat carrying heavy boxes and dragging along packed to the brim suitcases, Elena finally had all her things into their new apartment.
"Oh man, remind me to take a rain check when you move the rest of your crap over here, Damon." Will crashes down onto the sofa in the lounge and Damon chuckles before grabbing a few beers from the cold fridge and passing everyone one before dropping onto the couch next to Elena, his arm immediately wrapping around her.
"I'm exhausted." She yawns while leaning her head onto his shoulder. "Can we unpack properly tomorrow? I'm too tired to do anything else today." She tilts her head to look up at him.
"Sure baby. How about we just chill out here tonight? Order in a pizza, have a few beers?"
"Sounds good to me!" Charlotte grins. "Shall I text Annie to come over after work?" she asks, meaning Elena's other roommate, or well, ex-roommate now.
"Sure." Elena agrees with a smile.
"I'll ask Bry over too, even though the jackass bailed on helping us move." Damon rolls his eyes as he thinks about his lazy roommate, he loves the guy but it drives him crazy sometimes that he doesn't seem to know what early mornings look like, hell he barely makes it out of his bedroom during sunlight.
"Ok, but make sure it's not a late one, I have work first thing." Elena yawns tiredly and nuzzles her head into Damon's chest.
She started working part time at a local coffee shop during her junior year, the pay wasn't spectacular and neither was her hours, but the extra cash helped a lot and she needed it.
Damon insisted that she didn't need a job, and that he would pay for anything that she needs but obviously she wasn't happy about that. In fact, they had many arguments about it when she first started looking for work. He wasn't happy that it would mean they would get to spend even less time together, especially if she ended up working in a bar or a club, taking her away for some of their evenings which were when they saw each other most.
In the end, she found a local coffee shop about 10 minutes away from her apartment that were needing someone to work for a few hours a couple of days a week. It was perfect because she could fit it around her classes, and although the early morning starts were a pain in the ass, especially if she'd been out the night before, she still appreciated to be working and earning her own money.
Damon was happy, because she never ever worked past 6 and it wasn't a bar where she'd get hit on by drunken idiots all the time. In fact, the only thing he didn't like about it was the 5am alarms that would wake him up some mornings.
They'd only been living in the new apartment for two weeks when they had their first guests.
Caroline and Bonnie had decided to make an impromptu visit to New York before the new semester started, and Elena being the good friend that she is insisted that they share their only guestroom instead of forking out the cash for a hotel.
Damon of course, wasn't exactly thrilled by this.
"Elena, if it's money that is a problem, I'll pay for their rooms myself, hell, I'll even get them a penthouse suite if that's what they want." He follows Elena into the guest bedroom.
"Don't be silly." Elena scolds him as she starts to put fresh sheets the double bed. "They are my best friends; I'm not going to make them stay in a hotel when they have come all this way just to see me."
"They'll still get to see you. Hell, there is a Hilton just a couple of blocks away!"
"No." she rolls her eyes at him. "They are staying here, ok? That's final."
"I can't believe you're making me endure three full days of living with Caroline Forbes." He huffs as he watches Elena make the room presentable.
"Oh come on, she's not that bad."
"You would say that, she doesn't pick at every single little thing that you say and do, or criticizes you every single chance that she gets."
"She doesn't do that." she defends her best friend but there isn't a force to her voice and when I raise my eyebrow at her, she sighs loudly. "Ok fine, you're not her favorite person but you're growing on her, and I thought she was growing on you too? What happened? Last time you saw her you even smiled at something she said." She teases me.
"That doesn't mean I want her in my home-"
"Our home."
"Our home," he rolls his eyes. "For 72 freaking hours!"
"It's not like you'll be spending all of your time with her, in fact, I bet you've already planned a way to avoid this place for the whole weekend."
"Not for the whole weekend." He smirks at her and Elena just shakes her head before finishing up with the bed and approaching Damon.
"Promise me you'll behave?" she wraps her arms around his neck, his hands immediately falling to their usual place on her hips.
"Ah, now I don't like making promises that I cannot keep."
"Damon," she dips her head and presses a slow sensual kiss on his neck, one of her arms falling downwards, her hand sliding down his chest over his black t-shirt. "Please," she starts to leave a trail of kisses. "For me?" she lifts her head back up and lightly presses her lips against the corner of his mouth.
Damon groans slightly as her hand slides lower and lands over the growing bulge in his sweat pants. "Do I get anything in return?" he asks in a low tone, his hand slipping down to cup her ass over her tight jean shorts.
"I promise to make it worth your while." She stares at his lips before pressing her mouth against his. Damon immediately deepens the kiss and goes to push her back onto the bed behind her but a shrilling loud sound interrupts them and Elena immediately pulls away.
Damon groans as he watches her breathlessly pull out her cell phone from her shorts pocket and send him an apologetic smile. "Hey Caroline." She taps Damon on the chest and steps back.
"Oh god, it's starting already." He groans in annoyance, watching in frustration as Elena leaves the room.
Elena smiles as Damon waves at her from the pitch below her, and she can't help but lick her lips as she admires him in his baseball uniform, his cap on top of his head blocking the sun from his eyes, his bat clutched tightly between his fingers and she cheers as he takes his place to batting.
"GO Damon!" she hollers with a grin.
"Urgh, this sucks. Is it over yet?" Caroline whines from beside her but she just rolls her eyes and watches as Damon hits the ball with a thud, just like always, and she cheers and jumps up and down as the ball flies straight outfield and he makes a homerun.
"Wait, why are you cheering? Did we score?" Caroline asks confused.
Bonnie chuckles and starts to explain some of the rules to Caroline but she knows her blonde friend will lose interest after 10 seconds, she was a cheerleader for the football team for 4 years and Elena is sure she doesn't even know what a touchdown is.
"How come this game is even happening? It's summer, school hasn't started yet." Caroline frowns confused and Elena shakes her head and takes a sip from her bottle of water.
"I told you already. It's a fundraiser game, Care, some proceeds go towards buying new training equipment and uniforms and the rest goes to homeless hostels in and around the city."
"What? Damon Salvatore doing something charitable? What is the world coming too?!" she mocks slightly.
"Caroline," she hisses at her in annoyance. "I thought you agreed to be nice?"
"To his face." Caroline rolls her eyes. "He can't hear me."
"No but I can." She mutters. "Seriously, you need to stop with your Damon hate, he's been nothing but civil to you since you got here yesterday and in fact, it's been nearly four years since we've been together and you not supporting us is starting to get a little old."
"Oh come on! You know I support you in everything you do, Elena, even your relationship with him."
"Well then maybe you should do a better job in showing it."
"Girls," Bonnie interrupts calmly with a smile. "Time and place."
"Sorry." They both mumble at the same time and she can't help the smile that creeps onto her face, matching the growing one on Caroline's.
Sometimes things don't change.
"Elena!"
She looks up to see Bryan walking up the steps of the bleachers towards them, his dark green t-shirt tight against his chest, his black shorts hanging too his knees and his blonde hair as messy as ever.
"Hey." She greets Damon's old roommate with a smile. "Am I seeing things? Or are you actually out of your stoner pit before sunset?"
" ." he rolls his eyes as he takes an empty seat beside her. "So, are you not going to introduce me to these two beautiful ladies?" he smirks and she rolls her eyes as she looks back to her friends to see them both swooning.
"Play nice." She warns him quietly. "These are my best friends from home, Caroline," she motions to the girl beside her. "And that's Bonnie, who also happens to be dating my brother so hands off!"
"Elena!" Bonnie gasps in embarrassment.
"Nice to meet you both." He holds his hand out to shake Caroline's hand before standing up and reaching over to shake Bonnie's.
"Pleasure." Caroline grins at him and she watches with a quiet groan as Bryan slowly eyes her up and down.
Since Tyler and Caroline are in the off again stage of their relationship, she knows that her BFF will be on the loose looking for a male companion, and she also knows that Bryan will be more than willing to comply to her.
"So, what did I miss?" he leans back into his seat and pulls on his sunglasses, probably to hide his hangover.
"Damon's team are winning, he just scored a homerun." She tells him proudly with a smile.
"And Will?" he asks amused. "He looked in no fit state to play baseball this morning." He chuckles.
"Oh God, you guys went out last night didn't you? I knew it!" she shakes her head disapprovingly and she looks briefly back at Damon who is stood chatting to his teammates as someone else takes their bat and that's when she notices him rub his temples every now and then, his eyes squinting.
He has a hangover.
She looks over at Will who is sat down on the bench, a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes and his cap pulled as low as possible over his head, his arms crossed over his stomach.
Damon had decided to give the girls the apartment to themselves on their first night, saying that he would stay at Will and Bryan's place so he wouldn't get in the way. She insisted that he didn't have to go, but he really didn't mind, and now she knows why that was.
"We only went to the bar." Bryan defends them immediately, meaning the bar that coincidently happens to be across the street to their apartment, which she knows was so much more than a coincidence when they just so happened to pick that apartment to live in, instead of a place which she knows was so much better and more spacious, but didn't happen to be across the street to a cheap bar.
"Only to the bar." She rolls her eyes. "The same bar which you are pally with half the bar staff and somehow manage to get yourselves free shots for half the night?"
"Well what can I say? They reward their loyal customers." He smirks and she shakes her head with a smile.
"You're a bad influence, Bry."
"Oh please." He waves her off before leaning over to look at Caroline. "You knew Damon before I did, tell me Caroline, out of the two of us, which one do you think is the bad influence?"
Before Caroline can respond she immediately steps in. "Ok, she doesn't know you so that is not a fair question! And besides, even if she did her answer would be the same because she's bias!"
"I am not!" Caroline defends herself immediately.
"Ok fine, then go on, answer." She sits back and watches as Caroline smiles at Bryan.
"Well I've known Damon for a few years, so naturally I'd have to answer with him being the bad influence." She tells him with flirtatious eyes and Elena shakes her head knowingly and glances at Bonnie who is laughing.
"Elena, I like your friends." Bryan nudges her in the side and she glares at them both before standing up and shuffling past Caroline to sit on the other side of Bonnie.
Bryan just laughs and takes his place in my now vacated seat beside Caroline and she turns her attention back on the game, not wanting to have to be tuned in on Caroline and Bryan flirting.
"Stupid shit pop music." Damon grumbles to himself as he turns off the shower to hear the loud beat of some boy-band or teenage sensation or whatever the hell it is that the girls are blaring right now.
Sometimes he forgets how bad his girlfriend's taste in music can be sometimes, especially when under the influence of her hometown friends.
He wishes he took Will and Bryan up on the offer to head straight back to their apartment after the game, but no, instead he decided to go home first to shower and sort himself out before meeting back up with them.
Big mistake.
He grabs his towel and runs it over his face and his head to dry his hair, and if it wasn't for the ridiculously loud music blaring from the guest bedroom next door, he may have heard the sound of the handle turning and the door opening.
No.
Because of this shit unbearable ridiculously loud pop music, he had the pleasure of hearing the shrieking scream of Caroline Forbes instead.
"AHHH! OH MY GOD!" he drops his towel from his face in fright to see a frozen looking Caroline stood at the door, her eyes wide in shock as she quickly covers her face with her hands.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" he bends down and picks up his discarded towel, immediately covering himself up but he knows from the blush on Caroline's cheeks that it's too late. "What the hell is wrong with you!"
"With me?!" Caroline shouts back at him furiously, her fingers still covering her eyes despite him now being partially naked instead of completely. "Who the hell showers without locking the door!"
"It's my apartment! I forgot!"
"You forgot?"
"Yes! It's not like we've had many guests within the two whole weeks we've lived here! I'm normally just used to it being me and Elena!"
"And now because of your stupidity I am traumatised!" she shrieks and he rolls his eyes in annoyance.
"You're traumatized? You're not the one stood here in a tiny towel right now after your girlfriends annoying friend has just seen you naked!"
"Excuse me? Annoying friend? Says the arrogant asshole!" she scoffs offended, her hand slipping from her face. "You are so rude!"
"Whatever!" he snaps. "Why are you still here! Jesus!"
He watches as she practically stamps her feet before turning around and and leaving.
He lets out a loud groan and hits his head off the shower glass in frustration and disbelief at what just happened.
"And one more thing!" he jumps slightly and turns back to the door which Caroline is suddenly back at. "Do not tell Elena about this, or anyone actually! This is embarrassing enough as it is!"
"Oh don't you worry about that, I'm mortified myself, thanks." he spits at her coldly and this time when she leaves he follows as far as the door before quickly flipping the lock.
As soon as Caroline and Bonnie leave he is making a no guest rule and turning the spare bedroom into a gym.
So Caroline has been acting weird all night, Elena has noticed.
She can't pinpoint what it is, but it's almost as if she's hiding something, she's just not sure of what.
Bonnie doesn't seem to know what's going on with their blonde friend either, but she figures that after a few more drinks Caroline will open up as normal.
"It's so pricey in here." she looks at the cocktail menu in her hands, already having ordered a drink earlier but did not enjoy the amount of money that had to leave her purse for it. "Why don't we go somewhere else?" she suggests.
"Sounds good to me." Bonnie quickly agrees. "I don't know how you and Damon can afford to live in the city, it's crazy expensive compared to Mystic Falls."
"We get by." she smiles slightly, still very much aware that Damon's wealth isn't public knowledge. "You want to go somewhere else, Care?" she asks her friend who is staring off into space bored.
"Sure." Caroline puts on a smile that is far too wide before standing up. "Let's get out of here, show us the way, Elena!"
She smiles and links her arms between both of her friends as they walk out into the dark but brightly lit up busy New York streets.
"I have just the place." she muses after a few minutes of walking. "Come on, it's just two subway stops away."
After an uneventful ride on the subway, surprisingly, Caroline didn't whine about how dirty it was like she did earlier that day, they arrived to their destination.
She opens the door and smiles at the fairly crowded place, and she knows why her boyfriend loves it so much. It's never empty, there's always a buzz around the place but it's never so busy that you feel over crowded or like you can't move or dance properly.
She spots Damon stood by the pool table beside Will, Bryan and a few of their friends. She notices Charlotte, Annie and a couple of her own girlfriends too and she quickly leads the way over but not before hearing Caroline groan behind her.
"Urgh, Damon's here? I thought this was girls only!" she huffs.
"Care please." she turns around to face her friend with a tired sigh. "Make an effort, for me, please."
"Fine." Caroline holds her hands up. "For you."
"Thank you." she smiles slightly before turning back and continuing. "Hey!" she greets everyone happily before skipping towards Damon.
"Elena." he looks at her surprised and smiles slightly, but she doesn't miss the way his eyes land behind her briefly and he tenses slightly. "What are you doing here?"
She shrugs. "We want to have a good night, so why not come here? Besides, the places uptown were too expensive and we didn't want to waste our money on overpriced cocktails."
"So you chose to come for cheap beer and whiskey instead?" he smirks slightly at her.
"Oh come on, you know Jim makes a good cocktail." she replies with a smile, motioning to one of the bartenders.
"Don't tell him that." Damon chuckles and she turns around and starts introducing everyone to Bonnie and Caroline.
Caroline and Bryan immediately start chatting away and she's glad to see that Caroline is back to her usual self again, and she puts it in the back of her mind to ask her best friend what was bothering her earlier another time.
"Hey." she pulls Damon away from everyone. "You haven't said hello to me yet." she smiles flirtatiously before standing up on her tip toes, her lips hovering by his.
"Sorry," he gives her a little grin before kissing her slowly, his arms immediately wrapping around her.
"That's better." she smiles brightly after pulling away. "I've missed you today, I feel like I've barely seen you."
"You saw me earlier..."
"Yeah for like five minutes, you darted out of our apartment so fast that you barely even said goodbye." she frowns slightly when she thinks about it before a smile tugs on her lips. "Does Caroline scare you that much?"
His eyes widen immediately and she looks at him confused. "Wh-what?" he practically stutters out. "Why would Caroline scare me?"
"I..." she trails unsure of what to say. "What's wrong with you?" she laughs slightly. "You're tense..." she runs her hands across his shoulders before realization crosses over her. "Wait, did something happen with you and Caroline earlier? Because she's been acting weird around me all night. Please don't tell me you had another fight, you promised you'd be nice."
He stays silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "She just infuriates me."
"Damon, you know how much it hurts me that you two don't get along."
"I know, and I do try, ok? And half of the time, we don't even mean what we say to each other." he tries to diffuse the situation. "Don't you worry about me and Caroline, we'll be good, ok?" he leans down and kisses her quickly. "Now let me buy you a drink, I'll be right back." he squeezes her shoulder before heading towards the bar and she sighs before heading over to talk to her best friend who is stood talking with Bryan.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?" she interrupts them.
"What? Now?" Caroline does not look like she wants to leave and Elena isn't sure if it's because she doesn't want to talk to he or because she doesn't want to leave Bryan.
"It'll just take a sec, I promise I'll bring her straight back to you." she smiles at Bryan who nods his head and shrugs.
"Fine with me, come find me when your done." he walks away leaving the two of them alone.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Caroline looks down at her painted finger nails and she definitely hears the nerves in her voice and she realizes that she's probably afraid of telling her about her fight with Damon and she decides to instead reassure her that it's ok.
Her and Bonnie are only going to be here for a couple more days, she doesn't want her childhood friend to feel awkward or uncomfortable just because she has a personality clash with her boyfriend.
"Look, Damon told me what happened." she watches Caroline's head snap up, her eyes wide.
"What? He did?"
"Yeah." she smiles a little. "And it's ok, really."
"It is?" Caroline looks surprised.
"Yes," she laughs slightly at her reaction. "Honestly, I should be used to this by now."
"You should?" Caroline looks confused and now she doesn't know why. "This has happened before?"
"Well...yeah..."
Caroline immediately lets out a dry laugh. "I told him he should have locked the door! Hell, he probably leaves it unlocked on purpose, I mean no offence babe, because we all know how vain Damon is."
Locked the door? What? How vain Damon is?
"Caroline..." I squint, frowning completely baffled. "What are you talking about? Locked what door?"
She watches as her best friend pales. "Oh crap." she notices Caroline's eyes dart past her and she turns her head just in time to see Damon approach them, two drinks in his hands, a glare on his face.
"What the hell is going on?" she looks between them both.
"Well done, Caroline!" Damon snipes at her coldly.
"Me?! You're the one who is spouting your mouth off! How was I supposed to know that you didn't tell her the truth!"
"The truth?" Elena interrupts, starting to get sincerely pissed off now. "Will one of you please tell me what the hell is happening!"
Damon sighs loudly. "Ok fine...earlier today...I was showering, and your stupid best friend here doesn't know how to knock-"
"I don't know how to knock? Excuse me! You should have locked the door! What kind of idiot doesn't lock a bathroom door when he's showering!"
"Oh my god!" Elena interrupts them. "Please tell me you didn't walk in on him in the shower?"
"Worse." Caroline cringes. "As he was standing stark naked climbing out of it, and it wasn't a pretty sight, trust me!"
"I wouldn't trust your opinion in that department darling with the guys you've hooked up with." Damon glares at her.
"Excuse me? You are one to talk, we both know your man whoring past!"
Damon is about to argue back with a comment of his own but they are both interupted by the sound of snorting and laughter.
It's Elena.
"You're laughing?!" Caroline looks at her best friend in disbelief.
"Oh my god, stop." Elena giggles and even holds out her hand onto Damon's arm to steady herself. "This is hilarious!"
"Hilarious?" Damon doesn't seem impressed in the slightest. "How the hell did you work that one out?"
"Out of everyone, it had to be Caroline." Elena laughs. "Oh wow!"
"Wait, you're not mad?" Damon asks confused.
"Why would I be mad?" she finally calms down, letting out a shaky amused breath.
"Well...because I walked in on your boyfriend..."
"It was an accident, and you two are clearly more pissed about it than I am!" she laughs again at the look on both of their faces. "Oh come on, why would you think you couldn't tell me about this?"
"Um, because it's mortifying." Damon scowls a little at Caroline. "And embarrassing."
"And because I've essentially seen your boyfriend completely stark naked..."
Elena's smile falters a little and frowns. "When you put it like that..."
"On that note," Damon grabs Elena's hand after discarding their newly bought drinks to the side, and pulls her away towards the dance floor across the bar "Dance with me?" he twirls her around with a smile, before pulling her against him, his hands instantly wrapping around her tightly.
"Is this your way of distracting me away from the fact that my best friend has seen you naked?"
"Is it working?" he half grins at her and she lets out a small smile.
"Maybe." she wraps her arms around his neck. "But I may just have to accidentally walk in on Will or Bryan when their showing just so we're even." she wiggles her eyebrows at him in the exact same way that he usually does to her, a devilish smirk on her lips.
"Oh hell no!"
Hope you enjoyed it.
Not much going on in this one, just wanted to show a brief glimpse to this time of their life so I hope it was ok!
Drop a review and let me know :)
Until next time!
