A/N: TY, everyone! LOL, bb1019, I get what you're saying about Tyler but I like the idea of him loosening up in a situation where he can be publicly open with Jeremy without worrying about someone they know finding out about his sexuality. Don't worry, though, I'm not totally making him OOC now. - Toulip Fontana, I debated having Anna there, and if Six Flags had been planned ahead of time Jeremy definitely would have invited her. As for Damon finding out, all I can say is I'm taking care to resolve each situation. ;) - Black Lighted Clouds, you're too nice for words. Thank you very much.

Chapter Thirteen

After driving back to the hotel so Damon could check out, Elena decided to ride back with him. Jeremy stuck with Stefan and Caroline, glad that Elena hadn't invited him along. Damon wasn't someone he enjoyed in long doses. Hanging out with him at the amusement park was alright. It was cool of him to score them all tickets and the day turned out to be really fun and memorable. There was just something about getting his neck snapped by the guy though…. Really made him hold a grudge.

"You guys mind if we stop for food?" Caroline asked from the driver's seat. "I'm starving."

Tyler looked away from the window behind her amicably. "I could eat."

Of course he could. Jeremy could knock back as many calories as the next teenage boy with an overactive metabolism, but werewolves and vampires seemed to crave sustenance five times as much as a normal human being. It was like the monster in them was actually just an obese spirit possessing their bodies.

Then again, they did grab an early lunch and then mostly snacked on junk the rest of the day between rides. He tried to shake his fatigue enough so he wouldn't fall asleep on the way to a restaurant. "Me too."

"Cool! I'll text Elena where we're going," Caroline pulled her cell up from between the front seats, murmuring, "so she and Damon can…meet us there."

Stefan pulled the phone out of her hand and pointed at the road. "I'll do it." He volunteered and she didn't put up a fight.

"Fine." She conceded. "Just don't start saying 'decapitate' again."

They found a restaurant/bar joint open to minors and found a table after everyone decided fast food was out of the question. Elena and Damon arrived not long after and joined them. The place was quiet for a bar. There wasn't a lot of chatter and the jukebox wasn't all that loud whenever anybody bothered to get up and put it on. There was a television mounted up at the corner of the bar where the news was playing. Jeremy was glad it wasn't on a game of some sort. It would be a shame to cap such a great day off with a bunch of drunk, shouting sports groupies. There would be enough of those back home.

Jeremy leaned back in his seat at the table as they finished up their meal. The food wasn't bad. It wouldn't make any Top Ten lists but it was filling and tasted well enough. Actually, now that he was well fed Jeremy's exhaustion was beginning to settle into his bones. He slumped forward again, grabbing Tyler's leg under the table and squeezing.

Tyler looked over at him sleepily. Long days in the sun took a lot out of someone.

"Alright. Are we ready?" Damon asked and signaled for the waitress without waiting for a response. Jeremy didn't think vampires required sleep, though he knew Caroline at least did it sometimes anyway, having walked in on her passed out in Elena's room or on the couch downstairs numerous times after her change. He figured Damon was just ready to get a move on.

"Is everything okay?" The waitress, Jeremy couldn't remember her name until he glanced at her nametag (Nora), smiled with a notepad in her hand. She was pretty, couldn't have been much older than them. Not as ancient as Damon and Stefan by far.

"Yes. Bring us the checks please. Individuals. I spent enough on you people today, thank you." Damon added to the group as a tactless side. Elena wasn't hungry and had only picked off his plate so he didn't have to worry about covering her.

Tyler pointed between him and Jeremy. "These two are together." He informed her, leaning forward and reaching for his wallet.

She nodded in his direction and then glanced back in surprise. "Oh! …my god," she brought a hand to her chest and beamed. "Tyler Lockwood!" At the sound of his name Jeremy automatically pulled away from him, letting go of his leg under the table and sitting back in his own space. "I'm Nora Groves. I met you once at a party about a year ago in Mystic Falls. My cousin, Pam, goes to school with you."

Jeremy was jogged out of his tired state and slammed back into full alert. Pamela Groves was a gossip of Caroline's caliber. Come Monday he would be surprised if even the school's shunned chess and AV club hadn't heard about their group's trip to Meadows. His mind raced trying to remember if he acted inappropriately with Tyler in a way that might get him in hot water with their schoolmates.

Aside from grabbing his leg he didn't think they even kissed while they were there. He was tired and mostly stared down at his plate the whole time after being served. They might have held hands on the way in. His gaze flicked to the front of the bar. It wasn't a diner so there were no wide stretching windows overlooking the parking lot, just a front door in a small closed off business. Still, his heart started up in a dizzying race against the worry spinning around his head.

"Oh right. Hi." Tyler feigned a memory of her politely and sat back, eyes flitting between her and his lap. "Uh, how are you?"

Nora smiled and tucked her short yellow/orange hair behind her ears self-consciously. "I'm great. It's so funny running into you all the way over here. I remember Pam used to have such giant crush on you. She talked about you all the time, oh my God. I swear she cyber-stalked you for like a year."

Stefan almost choked on the last bit of coke at the bottom of his glass, but Caroline was leaning forward with her elbows on the table absorbing the information like a presidential address. The waitress didn't seem to harbor any protective feelings for Pamela's privacy. Lacking a filter over their mouths was probably a family trait. Fun family.

"That's…" Tyler rubbed the back of his neck but was unable to come up with something to smooth away the awkwardness settling around the group. "…Okay."

"I'll tell her I ran into you!" She said cheerily, not noticing the strange looks coming at her from Damon and-more subtly-Stefan.

"Gorgeous," Damon snapped his fingers and tapped his watch. "Checks."

"Oh right." She remembered her station and glanced at her notepad, then back at Tyler and finally to Jeremy. "So wait." She pointed between them. "Your meals are together? So you're like…?"

Jeremy cleared his throat and sat forward, giving her a forced smile. He beckoned to the dartboards in the back corner of the bar. "Tyler here lost a bet." He covered quickly. "Didn't think I could hit the bull's-eye twice in one game. Underestimated by impressive marksmanship. Loser buys dinner, and as you can see I'm not a loser."

He set one of the smiles he usually reserved for Mrs. Lockwood on her and she giggled. "Way to go." She congratulated, which thankfully meant that she must not have noticed that not once during the night did any of them wander over to the dartboards. "I'll be right back with your checks." She tapped Tyler's shoulder and headed off.

Tyler sighed and the one exhalation was full of meaning. His eyes slid to Jeremy. "Smooth." He said gratefully. The knot that had unwound in Jeremy all day returned, but he nodded, looking away and rubbing a hand through his hair.

Caroline tapped Elena's forearm on the table conspiratorially. "Remember how much I hated Pamela Groves? She's the one who started that rumor about me last year. That one about me being a bleached blonde?" She glared with disgust. Turning to the boys across from her she shook her head primly. "She's awful. I'm glad you're gay. I would just die if you were with Pamela. Jeremy's better anyway-OW!"

Elena pinched her sharply on the arm as Tyler dropped his head to his hands and rubbed his brow in exasperation. Jeremy's eyes were wide as they set on her in disbelief, and Stefan stared apologetically at the table, too attached to Caroline to speak out on her mistake but too aware of the sensitivity of the matter to rush to her defense either.

"Caroline!" Elena warned her and lowered her voice in a hiss. "That is private. Remember?"

Caroline looked over at them and collected herself. "Oh right." She was quiet a moment before playing it off. "It's not like anyone heard me. I was talking about her cousin. I wouldn't talk loud enough for her to hear. I'm not stupid."

Jeremy blinked and rolled his eyes at the table. They might still be in Meadows, but he felt the walls of Mystic Falls closing back in around him.

By the time they got back to town, finished dropping off Tyler and Jeremy got inside the house it was late enough to justify the cloud of exhaustion hanging over him. Elena popped her head into the hall at the sound of his entrance, which was surprising enough because he kind of figured she would be spending the night with Damon since it was his first day back. When Jenna skipped out and waved him over excitedly he felt even more tired. It was too late and he was too drained to start rehashing the day with his aunt already. He wanted to sleep.

"What?" He drawled, his voice developing the low croak of someone who needed to find a bed to dive over as soon as possible. He trailed over into the living room slowly. "Guys, I'm crashing two seconds from right now. Can we giggle in the morning?"

He stopped and eyed them oddly as he entered the room and saw the excitement on their faces. It wasn't let's-talk-about-Six-Flags excitement either. There was some genuine sparks behind their eyes.

"What?" He repeated.

Jenna jerked her hand out, extending an envelope for him. He walked over in the lamplight, confused.

"What is it?"

"It's from NYU!" Jenna said as he took it and looked down to see the information for himself. "I forgot to check the mail for a few days. It's probably been sitting there since Thursday. I was going to call you but I figured it was something you would want to see in person. I didn't open it!" She assured him and laughed shortly. "Wanted to though."

Jeremy grinned and looked back down at it. He applied for early admittance at the same time he applied to Virginia Tech because he wanted to be sure he was getting out of Mystic Falls as soon as he could. Still it seemed early to be hearing back from them. Then again, he doubted it took that long to print out a rejection form and fold it up into an envelope. They probably had a temp who did that around the clock for all the losers who wasted their time and money on an application.

"Open it!" Elena waved both hands palms up to hurry him.

One corner of his mouth lifted. "I may not be the first Gilbert to go to NYU, but I was the first to bother to try." He joked as he ripped through the top fold. Jenna and Elena laughed and bounced, grabbing each other's arms. Jeremy shook his head and pulled the paper out. He stretched it open and his face fell mid-way through the first sentence.

Their bouncing stilled and he looked up slowly in bewilderment. "I…" He looked down at it again to be sure. "I got in…"

"You got in?" Jenna exclaimed in equal confusion before her eyes grew huge with joyous shock. "You got in!"

Elena screamed and before he could spend another second staring down at the paper baffled, two pairs of arms were thrown around him. He stumbled backward trying to right them all as they squeezed and jumped and pushed and screamed. He looked over their shoulders but only a short laugh was able to bully its way past his astonishment. Crumpled between him and two women overdosing on happy endorphins was his ticket out of Mystic Falls and Virginia. That was…

…unexpected.