For once the days seemed to be pleasant and Liesel's moods seemed to match the day and everything seemed to be going well, there was this innate calmness in Mystic Falls. It was there was this peaceful tranquility all around now that Damon was no longer running around town and Liesel was enjoying the days, things were actually looking up for her as now that she had Stefan in her life, her days were a little less lonely. Although Liesel was currently waiting for Stefan to get a move as even though Stefan had this super speed thanks to being a vampire, the usually punctual Stefan was running late for once, doing god knows what. Liesel could only assume that Stefan was pouring his heart and soul into that journal that he insisted keeping which he went to a considerable effort to keep out of Liesel's paws who was rather keen to read the journal as she was interested in what the hell a vampire would put into a journal. But Stefan wouldn't allow her to read it and Liesel had sort of accepted the fact that she would never see the inside into Stefan's many journals and she wouldn't sneak behind his back and snoop in his room as she respected the fact that there were certain boundries in their friendship. So now all Liesel could so was do a tarot reading on the hood of her car as she waited. Liesel had already turned two cards over and the first was death, that card was always coming up when Liesel had been doing readings recently and it never made much sense to her, so Liesel was putting it down to Stefan being the undead and all. The second was the tower reversed which Liesel wasn't sure what to make off. Maybe when she had the last card it would all make sense. Turning the last card Liesel saw that it was the high priestess and she frowned as she glanced over the three cards sitting in front of her, looking at them she couldn't figure out for the life of her what they meant. Tarot reading wasn't her strongest talent but she was sure as hell a lot better at reading tarot cards than reading tea leaves which was a whole other story which Liesel wasn't willing to get into.

"Hello Liesel."

Liesel looked up from her cards to see Zach standing in the doorway of the front door of the Salvatore boarding house offering a small wave and a friendly smile. Doing the polite thing Liesel grabbed her cards and unceremoniously stuffed her cards back into her bag which was sitting on the ground beside feet. Liesel offered up a smile in return as she liked Zach. She had come to realize that the two of them shared a lot in common, the both of them were pretty much outcasts, bound by family secrets which meant their lives could be anything but normal. Despite being related to vampires, Zach was a good guy and despite everything he had gone through he was surviving the best way he knew how and Zach gave Liesel hope for her future. Maybe she could survive in this town without losing her damn mind.

"Hey Zach!"

"Beautiful day isn't it?" Zach asked and Liesel found herself agreeing.

"Sun is shining and we no don't have to worry about Damon anymore so it is indeed a very beautiful day, it's like the universe knows that we deserve a break after everything we've all gone through lately." Liesel replied and realized that she sound way too happy and cheerful for her liking, it was starting to sound like she was becoming an optimist which she anything but. Liesel was putting this down to her hanging out with Saint Stefan for too long, all his optimism was rubbing off on her, which wasn't good as he was the happy and optimistic one in their pair whilst she was the pessimistic and moody one. Plus not having to worry about Damon causing trouble, no longer made Liesel wearily look over her shoulder every time she left the house. There were no longer any animal attacks, life was going as well as could be expected when someone like Liesel lived in Mystic Falls and she was enjoying it. Liesel never expected herself to become like this, all warm and fuzzy but hanging out with Stefan was clearly effecting her in more ways that one.

"–Hey Lees, sorry for taking so long." Stefan said finally making an appearance as he slid past Zach and made his was over to Liesel who waved the whole thing off as there was no need for Stefan to apolgize as it wasn't like they were really in a rush to be heading into town. Plus it was a lovely day and why shouldn't they take their time in order to enjoy the nice days? "I'll see you later Zach."

"You know I may have to start charging to ferry you around all the time Salvatore, I'm pulling double duty here as a friend and chauffer. How is it that you don't you drive despite being a hundred and sixty one years old? Surely you could have taken a small break at some point during all those decades you've lived in to learn how to drive. It's not exactly too hard to learn how to drive, they give licenses to pretty much everyone including hormone imbalanced teenagers who are probably too immature to be allowed on the road. Besides it's not like you've had a job or anything to keep you busy, in fact you have had plenty of time to learn how to drive…" Liesel stated as her and Stefan walked towards her car.

"You know, I never said I didn't know how to drive Liesel, you just assumed I didn't know because you drive us everywhere. I know how to drive Liesel, I'm actually a very good driver." Stefan announced and Liesel actually stopped in her step.

"You know how to drive?"

"Of course, as you've pointed out I am a hundred and sixty one years old. I had to learn at some point." Stefan replied with a cocky smile on his face, which Liesel didn't like in the slightest. One thing Stefan was picking up from Liesel was her arrogance and it wasn't an attractive sight, only one of them could be the arrogant one in this duo and Liesel didn't want to hand that title over anytime soon.

"Then why am I always the one driving? Is it because you don't have a car of something? Or is it the license thing? Because I could understand that as I believe people over the age of 60 should retested and in your case things could be very complicated to explain given your date of birth and the fact that you will never age a day again, it might be awkward to explain your age and the fact that you haven't aged a day since you were seventeen." Liesel questioned and Stefan just chose to laugh, for some reason he found this entire thing hilarious which Liesel failed to understand in the slightest.

"I have a car, it's just that I'm having some trouble with it and it's not exactly the kind of car I drive around here without drawing a lot of attention to myself." Stefan explained.

"Couldn't do any worse than me!"

"What's wrong with your car?" Stefan asked eyeing up Liesel's car.

"There's nothing wrong with it as it's barely a year old and it's a very nice little compact crossover suv but that's not what I'm talking about. This car is a Volvo which only soccer moms in this town drive yet little old me drives one. I can tell you now that I am the only teenager in this town who drives one and do you want to know why? Because of my dear papa who worries about me getting into car accidents despite the fact I am a very good driver. My dad knows that if I somehow wrap this car around a pole then I will most certainly survive and walk out the car pretty much scratch free given he got me a Volvo which are known for their high safety standards and reliability. I draw attention to myself generally, this car doesn't exactly help with it." Liesel replied with a weary glance over at her car.

"Chief Caffrey only wants the best and safest for his little girl, I think it's sweet that your dad worries about your safety." Stefan stated as he climbed into the passengers seat of Liesel's car and took notice of something that was sitting on the floor of her front passengers seat. "Hey is this yours?"

"What's mine?" Liesel asked as she climbed into the drivers seat.

"This, you're a photographer?" Stefan questioned as he held up a digital SLR camera and Liesel nodded, half paying attention to what Stefan was asking her as she took her bag as well as Stefan's bag and flung it into the backseat of her car, leaving him with the camera. She had actually forgotten that the camera was in her car, Liesel had just assumed that it was in her bedroom somewhere but apparently she was very wrong. Sometimes things like that happened, her memory tended to get a bit fuzzy at times because of all the things she saw so sometimes she would misplace things. Forget things she had done or things that had happened.

"Every girl's gotta have a hobby, photography just so happens to be mine… Knowing you Stefan you want the full story so here it is, my dad got me into taking photos as when my mom died I became the emotional cripple that I am today and he was worried because I wouldn't talk to anyone about how I was feeling. You know I don't like talking about my mom, I never have really because of what happened, what I say… I could never really talk to anyone about what happened, I had to keep it to myself and I started to bottle everything up and my dad was worried, bless him… He tried so hard to get me to open up but I knew I couldn't, as young as I was I knew I could never talk about my mom. So my dad encouraged the seven year old me to take photos to show how I was feeling, it started with disposable cameras and just gone on from there." Liesel explained as she drove round the Salvatore's driveway before pulling out of it and driving back in the direction of town, as she was doing this Liesel realized that she should have made Stefan drive. Now that she knew that Stefan was fully capable of driving, he could now be her own personal chauffeur.

"Your not an emot–"

"–Yes I am Stefan, I appreciate the fact that you don't think of me as one but let's be honest here, how I deal with emotions and feelings isn't normal. I may be no sociopath but I am emotionally crippled. My default emotion is miserable, I find it hard to express my emotions and I don't have feelings like regular people and I am unable to form normal functional relationships with people. I can't be honest with my own family, I don't tell my family how I'm feeling, they just have the spotter's guide to Liesel and I think you are the only person I have ever been honest with and even then I was rather unwilling about us being friends and the two of us hardly have a normal friendship. I find it hard to express my feelings towards people and I'm very aware of it, that's perhaps one of the few things that I'm honest with myself about. " Liesel replied making it clear that she didn't want to discuss it any further. She didn't like talking about feeling she didn't have and so she wanted to move on from this topic rather frequently.

"So tell me more about this photography thing."

"Nothing much to tell, I shoot using both digital and film cameras, I prefer shooting black and white photos. Then I develop my own photos, my dad built me a dark room in our basement for my fifteenth birthday. That's my dad for you, always going above and beyond to encourage and nature anything that has the potential to make me happy… Always thinking of me and putting me before myself, I don't deserve him. But anyway enough about me and my bizarre habits, we seem to be talking about me an awfully lot lately so let's talk about you. How are things going between you and Elena?" Liesel asked in an effort to move things along as she didn't like talking about herself as there wasn't really much to talk about without getting back to her emotionally stunted self.

"Your interested?" Stefan skeptically asked.

"Pretending to be interested. I hear that's what friends do when their friend is dating someone who they don't like. So here's me pretending to care about your relationship with Elena… Last time I checked you were still holding up in the boarding house paranoid that she was about to dump you. So what's happened since? Judging by the fact that you are your normal upbeat self I think it's safe to say she hasn't dumped your ass yet." Liesel questioned in snarky manner.

"Elena's a good person, you should give her a chance Liesel." Stefan began and Liesel knew where this conversation was heading, this conversation had been looming on the horizon for a while now and Liesel knew that it was only a matter of time before this conversation had to happen. She was rather hoping that she could avoid it for a little while longer as Liesel wasn't ready to have the conversation with Stefan about why she hated his girlfriend. Earlier she was complaining that Stefan was making her too happy go lucky and now was her chance to go back to her unhappy and miserable self. But that meant venturing down a deep dark path…

"No I don't have to give anyone a chance Stefan, especially Elena as she is one of the popular kids and just like most high schools the popular kids are all self absorbed wannabe who think too much of themselves and whose mediocre drama resemblances some cheesy teen drama show that really needs to be taken off the air. They have these superiority complexes and think they are so much better than everyone else when they are really not. Elena and the rest of her bright and shiny popular friends are not as clean cut and sweet as they want you to think. You may think the sun shines out of Elena's ass but I don't Stefan, I don't like Elena for numerous reasons and she's from one of the founding families and you know how I feel about them." Liesel stated in an irritated manner, gripping onto her steering wheel in a tight manner.

"I'm from one of the founding families."

"You're a vampire." Liesel retorted, unable to stop herself from pointing out the obvious.

"And?" Stefan asked pushing for an explanation and Liesel sighed.

"But your different Stefan. You are not like everyone else from the founding families Stefan, your different just like I am. You're the vampire and I'm the psychic, we're two freaks who are living in some even more whacked up version of Stepford. This town isn't the cookie cut town it makes itself out to seem, you and me both know it. This town has secrets, it tells lies and covers up the truth to suit it's own interests. Mystic Falls is not what it seems, the people in this town are monsters Stefan, most of them you have no idea… The darkness they have in their heart, the cruelty they've shown people. You say Elena is great and everything but she isn't Stefan. Elena is no more of a good person than I am, and trust me I am not a good person." Liesel said, her voice going up an octave as her temperament started becoming anything but calm. This conversation was just making her feel uncomfortable, the direction this conversation was going in was just upsetting her.

"Liesel people are not what you think they are, Elena's not what you think she is and if you'd only give her a chance then you might be surprised. Liesel you don't always have to keep pushing people away because you expect the worse from them. I know that you don't like most people in this town but things don't have to stay this way, things can change…" Stefan replied and Liesel responded by stopping her car and turning off the engine and climbing out of her car, she couldn't keep driving whilst having this conversation as it was upsetting her and distracting her from the road and the last thing she wanted to do was get into an accident. "Liesel…"

"Do you want to know why I hate this town? Why I don't like anyone in Mystic Falls? Why I supposedly keep my distance from everyone and push people away? It's because of this damn town Stefan! This town broke me, they pushed me down and ripped me apart and left me to pick up the pieces. Do you really think I wished for my life to be like this? To be the outcast in town? To be the person who everyone crosses the street to avoid when I'm in town? Do you think I want to be called things like Tall, Dark and Creepy? Or von Trapp?! I wanted none of that but the people in this town did that to me." Liesel yelled, unable to contain herself as if Stefan wanted to have this conversation then they would have it and she would let him in on some home truths. "Do you have any idea what it's like being seven years old and realizing that you are different from everyone else in this town? That you can do stuff that other people can't do, like having a premonition of your mothers death six months before it happened? Can imagine what a toll something like that takes on a child who realized that she was all alone with nobody to talk to? Do you know what it's like to come back to school after your mom dies and no one wants nothing to do with you? Well I do, because that has been my life every single day since my mom died. I was seven years old and I had to sit by myself, eat by myself and wonder around at recess by myself because everyone just avoided me. It's like they could tell that something was wrong with me, that something wasn't quite right with Liesel Caffrey…"

"Liesel…"

"I was seven years old and all alone and I needed someone Stefan, back then I needed somebody. Anyone would have done, I needed somebody but no one came instead they just turned on against me and soon all the pointing and staring started. All of sudden I was the freak from the Caffrey family! I was seven years old when people started calling me names like that and it has just gotten worse over the last nine years! I-I had no one, no friends to play with me or stand by my side when things got tough. I've had to endure it all by myself and the only people I could count on were my family, they were the only ones who cared but there was only so much they could do. They couldn't be by my side all day long. Everywhere I went people would give me grief for no reason and that doe eyed girlfriend of yours was one of those people. You know our moms used to be friends? You wouldn't know it given how Elena and people like Caroline Forbes and Tyler Lockwood would give me crap, call me names and throw food at me when I walk own corridors. It wasn't just the kids who would treat me like I was nothing, it was adults too and nobody did anything. They all just made sure to make me feel like I didn't belong here in this town, that I didn't belong in my own family! So don't you dare tell me to give people in this town a chance!" Liesel said, her voice getting stuck in her throat numerous times as she struggled to contain her emotions.

"Liesel, I can't even begin…"

"Some days when things were really bad and I didn't have the strength to fight anymore I used to hope that I wouldn't wake up the next morning because then it meant that this nightmare of mine would be over…" Liese hoarsely said unable to shout anymore.

"Were you–"

"Suicidal? I don't think so, as no matter how matter how much I thought about it I could never go through with it because as much as my life has sucked over the last nine years there are people who I can't leave; my family. They've gone through so much already that I can't leave them, the idea of putting them through that much pain is what used to give me the strength to carry on. I couldn't be selfish, not after everything they have done to protect me." Liesel admitted.

"You shouldn't be in this amount of pain Lees, you're so young…"

"W-well that's why this town has down to me… You know e-everyday my dad tells me how much I mean to him, he says it doesn't matter what anyone else says or thinks about me. I just have to remember that he loves me. He tells me that every day so I know that I matter because the last nine years I've been made to feel worthless Stefan. My dad worries about me constantly, all he wants is for me to be happy and it kills me inside that I can't be, because I can't remember what it's like to be happy for more than half an hour. I want to make him happy because he's a good man and he deserves more than to have a daughter like me…" Liesel choked out.

"Your dad is a very good man and he's right too… You do matter Liesel, no matter what anyone says." Stefan said as he took a step towards Liesel. "I am so sorry Liesel."

"For what?" Liesel asked, letting out a strangled laugh.

"You said that you needed someone all those years ago and I'm sorry for not being here when you first needed me but I am here now. I'm here now Liesel and I won't let them hurt you anymore."