Life sucks when you have to write this chapter first but all you want to do is write Lemon.

Speaking of which, so far, from reviews and pms, the top three suggested places for Lea and Damon to go are...

New York City – Which I want to do because Lea wants to go to NYU.

Disneyworld – This was where I was going to take them, and someone pm'd this option to me. Writing Lea nerd out would be hilarious.

New Orleans – Not only because Lea loves herself some True Blood, but is a voodooist.

Sadly, this chapter is Stelena. Meh.

All of this is happening while Lea and Damon are on their trip.

Chapter 13 – I Think I'm Paranoid

Fighting with Stefan was by far one of Elena's least favorite things to do. You wouldn't think so by how much they'd been doing so lately. They argued more than they actually enjoyed each other's company.

No one knew that, of course. Not even Damon.

This particular heated debate was over Elena's distancing herself from Stefan.

"I can't take this anymore," Elena sighed, exhaling every bit of frustration she could. The rest turned into aloofness. "I'm not talking to you if you're just going to keep acting so self-righteously."

Stefan followed her throughout her bedroom in the Salvatore boardinghouse. Which of course, was Stefan's room as well.

"That makes perfect sense," he said, trailing her like a shadow. He was so close to her that if she were to stop even for a second, the two would collide harder than cars on a highway. "Usually the ones so used to being sanctimonious can't handle when it's returned."

She was not self-righteous!

God, Stefan needed to seriously calm down. After Elena turned, everything Damon claimed about his little brother became perfectly clear. He was holier-than-thou, broody, and presumptuous. He was such a damn know-it-all! She couldn't remember a time where he admitted to being wrong.

"You're right, Stefan. You're absolutely right about everything. That's what you want to hear isn't it?"

"No. What I'd like to hear is why you've been acting so differently since Damon left and where've you've been running off to. That would be a start."

Elena couldn't tell him that. No matter how much it pained her to be keeping a secret that severe from him. She couldn't say that she'd been acting so strangely because she was cheating on him with his brother and that's where she'd been late at night.

"I can tell you that I'm not staying here for another minute."

"No!" Stefan growled before appearing in her line of vision without a moment's thought. His hands found their way on her shoulders and his piercing gaze filled her eyes.

He'd never put his hands on her like that before.

And he thought she was one who changed.

"You're not leaving again. We're going to talk about this."

If he wanted to be hands-on then they could be hands-on.

Shoving him away, eyes wide as he seemed to so easily forget that she was a vampire, Elena snarled. "Fine then, Stefan, let's talk. Let's talk about how different someone would act once finding out that their boyfriend made a deal behind her back."

She still couldn't believe that Stefan had done that to her. That he would set Damon up to leave town the way he did. That was horrible and hurtful. He didn't even tell her until long after Damon was gone.

Or well... when Stefan thought Damon had left.

"Would it matter if you didn't have feelings for him?"

How could he ask her that. As if she wouldn't have been just upset if it were Lea leaving.

"He's my friend! I care about him. Just like I care about you, Caroline, Bonnie, and everyone else in our circle. I wouldn't want anyone to leave town and you know that."

If any one of them were gone, Elena wouldn't know what to do. The only reason Stefan would ask something like that was out of insecurity.

Were his insecurities valid though? Elena may have been furious with him, but she wasn't unfair. She didn't want to think this, but maybe their relationship wasn't as solid as she would've hoped.

"Okay, so you're going to blame sneaking out late, me never seeing you, and you always having something to do on Damon not being around? How does that make any sense?"

"I'm not blaming anything on anyone!" she cried, seconds away from pulling her hair out. "God, I'm just angry all the time you know. And hungry. Not for those disgusting deer either. I want something human."

That was another thing with Stefan. He was trying to hard to mould her into something she wasn't. He was so busy trying to revert her back into the old Elena that she had to sneak around with Damon to become who she was supposed to be.

That, and eating from animals was fucking disgusting.

"The longer you abstain from humans the better. It's been a month since you became a vampire which means you've haven't drank from a human for thirty days."

Thirty days? Try four.

Damon had taught her how to drink with modesty. She could have a snack, compel her victim to forget everything happened, and sleep with a clear conscience. And if she couldn't find anyone, she'd revert back to the one person she knew would be willing to offer her a quick drink.

"This isn't working. I can't keep doing this." Elena was brave enough to at least stand up for herself on this topic. She had to let Stefan know she was done with his vile methods of vampirism.

"Yes, you can. You're strong enough," he said, hints of the same caring and reassuring man she fell in love with resurfacing.

Only this time, his motivation and uplifting sayings only further enraged her.

Hand flying to her brow, Elena couldn't take more of this pretending to be the perfect couple any longer. "Can we just be honest here."

"Have I not been honest with you the entire time?"

Maybe. But she hadn't been.

"I dunno. Making a deal behind my back doesn't seem very honest. And neither are your reasonings for me drinking only from animals."

Elena knew her next few words were going to hurt Stefan. She could feel it. But she had to do this for her. She was done with letting him control her life. He controlled everything! Her choices as a vampire. Her friends. Hell, he was practically forcing Lea into talking to her.

Yeah, she figured that out all on her own.

"What are you talking about," he asked.

She didn't want to sugarcoat it. That would only make things worse.

"The only reason I can't drink from humans is because you don't want me to be like you. A ripper." She snatched the bandaid off quickly. "I can drink blood, Stefan. I know I can. But because you can't, because you're suffering that means you want me to too."

Everything became so quiet after she said that. A hair-raising, unsettling calm washed over the both of them. She could hear the metronome of old grandfather clock in the living room tick, that's how silent everything became.

Was he going to hit her?

"How could you even think something like that?" He blinked, mouth agape, eyes glossed with disbelief. She really did it this time. Again and again she hurt him and he never did so in return.

God, couldn't he just hit her instead of stare at her like that.

Instead of keeping the knife embedded in his back, Elena just yanked it right on out.

"Because misery loves company, that's why."

It was funny. She thought she would've been the one to give a dramatic exit, but instead, Stefan was the one who left. He didn't yell at her, or cry, or break furniture, she hurt him to a point where giving her a reaction was too good. She inexplicably and irrevocably ruined just about everything.

She wasn't going to take it back. Not this time. Everyone wanted to make her out to be the fucking villain, sans Damon of course, then she'd be the damn villain. It was a title she'd wear proudly. If sticking up for herself made her the bad guy, so be it.

"You really are something you know that?"

Elena really didn't need someone else trying to tell her off, but the voice chastising her was one she thought she'd never hear again. One that made her heart shrivel.

Skepticism casting over her, Elena turned around to see the phantom she thought was lurking her room.

"Lexi."

There she was, lying on the bed she shared with Stefan, a magazine sprawled against cotton sheets. Flipping a page tiredly, Lexi yawned. "And here I thought you were different. That maybe you actually were good for Stefan. Boy, did you have me fooled."

First the ordeal in the bathroom at Mystic High, now this.

Yeah, it was pretty safe to assume that she was going crazy. A certified wacko.

What was happening to her?

"You're wrong. I am good for Stefan. He loves me and I love him."

"You know who you sound like?" She laughed at her words as if she were stupid along with crazy. "Chestnut hair. Olive skin. Cutthroat personality?"

No. She was not anything like her! "I am nothing Katherine."

Katherine was only out for herself. She didn't genuinely care for the Salvatores. Not like Elena did. She didn't manipulate either of them into loving her and she didn't betray them.

Lexi didn't seem to be on the same page as her. They weren't even in the same book.

"You can keep telling yourself that. Repeat it one hundred times over and over like a mantra all you want, but that doesn't change a thing. You're just like Katherine. Hell, you're worse. At least she had the balls to admit to her wrongdoing. You think you're doing them good."

Did she have to defend herself to everybody!

Seemed like the only person on her side nowadays was Damon.

"I am. Stefan would still be a ripper-"

"If Lea wasn't here."

What did Lea have to do with Stefan not being a ripper? Was she his emotional rock like Elena was? Did she fight until she was at her wits in to pull him back into sanity? Lea could boast about many things. Saving Stefan's humanity was not one of them.

Elena didn't have it in her to tell Lexi that. She wasn't going to continuously explain herself to anyone. "Damon would be-"

"Happy. If you weren't with Damon, he'd be happy. Because deep down he knows you're only toying with him until you get bored."

That was lie number two. Damon would be miserable without her. He said that to her in more or less words. If Elena weren't with Damon, he'd be with Lea. And they all saw how that played out.

All she wanted was for everyone to be happy. But it seemed like the more and more she thought she was getting closer to that goal, the less and less joyous everyone was. She thought taking care of the Klaus problem would bring them all together, but now the group was in disarray. She thought that becoming a vampire would lead to her and Stefan spending an eternity together, now they could hardly stand five minutes together.

"I have good intentions," she said.

"Yeah, and we know where those lead you. On a one way ticket to the land down under. And trust me, there aren't cute koala bears and boomerangs where you're going."

That was it! Saying that she wasn't good enough for the Salvatores was one thing, saying that Elena's actions and intentions were malicious and that she deserved to go to hell was another.

What did Lexi know anyway? If she were so smart, how come she didn't foresee Damon killing her.

"Get out."

"You want to know how you can get me to leave?" She smiled, eyes twinkling with glee. Was she taking joy in upsetting her? "You have to tell Stefan all about the skankfest you've been having with Damon."

Deep down, Elena knew that's what eliminating all of her weird hallucinations would take. That her spazzing out was just the result of a faulty conciseness. Her guilt was eating at her.

Still, she wasn't brave enough to handle the consequences of what would happen afterwards.

"I can't, he'll hate me for that."

"I'm counting on it," Lexi laughed. "But would you rather have him suffer, or free him."

"I love him." was all Elena could reply with.

"Wow. You really are worse than Katherine. I was just trying to scare you at first but you seriously have no moral compass. Even she let them go." Rolling off her bed, Lexi began to skip towards Elena, her Katniss Everdeen-esque braid jouncing with every step she took. Once the two were in arm's length of each other, Lexi placed a hand on her shoulder. "Listen girly, you may be a vampire, but you've still got that poisonous Petrova bloodline haunting you. Why is it that you think Tatia and Katherine both ended up miserable and lonely, because you're cursed."

"I said get out!" Before Elena knew it, her hand was connecting with Lexi's cheek, a loud smack resounding in the tension filled air.

She slapped her.

She actually slapped her.

But whatever bit of joy she felt from letting the blonde have it was immediately overpowered with sorrow. She didn't mean to hit her. She let her emotions take over her body for a split second.

"Lexi, I'm-"

"Fine. A lady always knows when to leave," Lexi cut Elena's apology off and turned her back away from her. "But if you don't tell Stefan and soon, it only gets worse from here. Don't say I didn't warn you."

And like that, the vision of Lexi faded quicker than it came, leaving Elena all alone to think on her actions.

She was so wrong. Everything she'd been doing was so wrong. To Damon, to Stefan, to Lea.

Her visions were right. She was a terrible fucking person and was going to hell.

Shit, she couldn't take this anymore.

Elena had to tell Stefan.

C . B . D

I hope I captured the annoyingness that was Elena well. Despite my disliking for her, she's still a dynamic character who is kind of hard for me to write.

Because she's fucking boring, that's why.

Cheating on Stefan has been the most interesting thing I've seen from her.

Question: Same question as last chapter except it's round two of where Lemon will go!

1. New Orleans 2. New York 3. Disneyworld

Where should Damon take her.

Next Chapter: Part 1 of Lemon's road trip!