a/n: anyone else watch the Teen Choice Awards? ...I hate Twilight... Damon totally should have won the hottie award!

THIRTEEN

"Stefan! Stefan wait!" I called after him as I chased him down to the end of the building. He stopped, but kept his back to me. I circled around him until I was standing in front of him. As much as I wanted to hug him I decided against it from the look of pure anger on his face. "That wasn't what it looked like."

He looked at me and I could practically see the steam coming from his ears. "It looked like he was going to kiss you." His voice was strained as he tried to keep from yelling. I returned his stare but couldn't say anything to prove him wrong.

He nodded and brushed past me. I turned after him, tears welling in my eyes and put my hand on his forearm. "Stefan, I-"

In the blink of an eye he had his fingers wrapped around my wrist and his fangs were beginning to show. "Katherine told me you ran off with him."

"And you believed her? She's done nothing but lie-"

"She's not the only one!" he hissed and let go of my wrist roughly. He took a step back from me as though just being near me made him sick. "Of course I didn't believe her, but I thought if I played along I could find out what really happened and save you. Whatever happened couldn't have been too traumatic because you look fine."

"She locked us in the tomb," I blurted forcing myself not to cry. "She killed me and left me in my room and pretended to be me so she could shoot Damon with vervain. She brought us to the tomb and compelled Bonnie to lock us in."

"How did you get out?"

I hesitated on answering. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to him, but if he went to Katherine and told her that Bonnie wasn't really under her control, I had no doubt in my mind that Bonnie was as good as dead. "Damon found a crack in the stone and we managed to break through," I lied weakly and he shook his head.

He turned and raked both of his hands through his hair to cool down before looking at me again. "She told me she came back for me; that she always loved me a little more than Damon. I told her that I didn't want anyone but you." His eyes hardened and I felt a tear slide down my cheek. "At least she had the decency to be open about her feelings."

"I'm not sleeping with Damon!" I yelled in a broken voice.

"But you have feelings for him."

I could only stare at him, unsure of how I could answer that without lying and hurting his feelings. "I love you Stefan," I whispered, wiping tears from my face.

He pursed his lips and looked at me with disappointment. "You're just like her. I might as well be with her since she's the one with her mind made up."

"She didn't choose you Stefan!" I yelled. "This is all part of her latest game where everyone is a pawn; it's just a matter of time before she kills everyone around her."

"Then tell me you don't love him." I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn't love Damon and to my horror nothing came out. He hung his head in defeat briefly and looked back up at me. "You wanted us to take a break, but I think we should just end it."

"No!" I shouted. My body was beginning to tremble as my world came crashing down around me. "That's not what I want at all. Stefan, I love you!" I went to hug him and was surprised that he let me. I clung to him as if letting go meant death.

My heart beat erratically in my chest as I felt his mouth move to my ear. "I thought you did too," he breathed and pulled away from me. "I wanted so much for you not to be anything like her, but I was wrong. Katherine and I were meant to be, no matter how much I tried to fight it."

I wanted to beat the sense back into him and lash out for believing her over me, but before I could even react to his last words, he vanished into the night. I was a wreck; tears clouded my vision and drenched my cheeks while my knees buckled from the intense trembling in my legs. I was expecting to hit the ground but the impact never came. Instead, I was held in place by strong arms and my head was resting on a silky shirt now wet with tears. I knew it was Damon by the scent that filled my nose. "Please don't start," I whispered through sobs and he nodded against the top of my head.

"I wasn't going to," he breathed, gently stroking my back in hopes of comforting me.

"Elena?" came Bonnie's voice. Damon and I both turned our heads to look at her. "Oh my God what happened?" she asked as she came over to us from the entrance to the hospital.

"I think you should go home with Bonnie tonight," Damon said softly as he pulled away.

Luckily my legs were holding me up at this point and I wiped away the tears that had spilled. "Don't."

"Don't what?" he asked as Bonnie moved closer to me and studied me to make sure I wasn't physically injured.

"Just let me go see Caroline and we'll go home," Bonnie said, sensing I needed to talk to Damon.

"Don't go after him," I pleaded.

"I wasn't planning on it," he said and from the look in his eyes I knew he meant it. "He's not worth the effort." That made what was left of my heart shatter. There was pain in his eyes that I had only seen when he discovered Katherine hadn't been in the tomb. So much for the chance of ever patching up the relationship of those two.

"Why are you sending me home with Bonnie?" I asked, surprised that my voice was as strong as it was. Inside I was experiencing a roller coaster of emotions and abandonment was high at the top. It was one thing to be cast aside by Stefan, but Damon was doing the same thing at the moment. It was too much in such a short time.

"Because you're emotionally compromised and I can't promise that I won't use it to my advantage. Not when I know we were so close before," he whispered.

"What?" I breathed, not sure I had heard him right.

"While I absolutely love taking girls on the rebound, I don't want to hurt you even more. It's already been proven that I can't say no to you. I'm strong, but I'm not that strong."

That left me feeling conflicted. I wasn't sure if I should be angry with him for thinking I would automatically jump into bed with him just because Stefan had smashed my heart or grateful that he was doing the smart thing by putting distance between us. At the moment it was fifty-fifty because either way I looked at it, he was right. I had never been in this situation before. When I broke up with Matt it didn't feel like he had taken my heart out and stomped on it like Stefan had done. "I don't have my phone," I said after a few minutes of staring at the ground while I thought about it.

"I'll just call Bonnie if something happens and she'll have my number should you need it."

"How?" I asked, risking a look up at him.

"I'm going to exchange digits with her."

Only Damon could find humor at a time like this. I tried to smile, but ended up looking back down at the pavement when I couldn't. "Caroline asked to see you, but I told her we'd come back another day," Bonnie said as she walked up to us.

"I need your number and you need mine," Damon said as he handed her his phone. She gave him hers and they programmed their numbers in the other's phone. "Stay indoors as much as you can," he said mostly to me and then looked at Bonnie. "Stefan is no longer on our side. If you see him, run."

"Are you safe at the boarding house?" Bonnie asked, causing both of us to look at her with surprise.

"Not exactly, but I'll be fine," he said and tore his eyes away from mine before walking to his car.

My heart grew heavy as I watched him walk away and I closed my eyes when he disappeared around the corner. "Elena?" Bonnie asked cautiously.

I looked at her and nodded before walking with her in the opposite direction to her car. "I'll explain everything when we get to your house."

"Are you hungry?"

"No," I replied and put my hand over my stomach. I had been hungry earlier, but now the thought of food made me a little queasy.

We drove in silence. I had my feet on the seat with one arm wrapped around my legs to hold them up. I propped one elbow up on the ledge of the window and leaned my head on my hand. My eyes were closed as my mind went over the events of the past few days over and over again. "We're here," Bonnie said quietly and I followed her from the driveway up to the front door. Once we stepped inside the house I felt a relief I hadn't felt in days. Just knowing that no vampires could get in here without permission was enough to nearly make me weep.

We went up to her room and lay shoulder to shoulder staring at the ceiling with our feet resting against the headboard like we always did. "Where should I start?"

"How about the things that happened tonight."

I thought about it and I could already feel the urge to cry again. I told her everything that had happened today, starting with Katherine and Tyler in the woods. When I got to the part about Stefan, I began to choke up. She reached for my hand and laced her fingers with mine. "He saw me getting off the elevator with Damon and took off. I went to find him and he left me; for her. Even though she lied to him. Again."

"That was a big mistake on his part. She's only using him."

"That's what I told him," I breathed and used my free hand to wipe away a few more tears.

"Can I ask you something?" Bonnie asked after a few minutes of silence. I nodded and she turned her head towards me. "Is there something between you and Damon?"

"I don't know. Lately I've been feeling something for him, but I don't know what exactly it is. He's said it himself that he's a womanizer. How do I know that he won't discard me when something better comes along like he did with everyone else? I am human and he gets bored with us so easily. Look how he treated Caroline."

She smiled lightly and shook her head. "You're not Caroline."

I turned my head to narrow my eyes at her. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I still think he's a monster, but he is in love with you."

I rolled my eyes. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Because it's true and the fact that you've considered the pros and cons of being with him is proof that you feel something for him that goes beyond being friends with your boyfriend's brother."

"Ex," I said bitterly and looked back up at the ceiling.

"You know what I mean," she said dryly.

I sighed heavily. If Bonnie, of all people, could see this from a few interactions between us then there must be something to it. I closed my eyes as I remembered how I felt when Stefan disappeared and compared it to how I felt while watching Damon walk away. My heart felt heavy and fragile all over again at that mental image and my eyes snapped open. I wasn't sure when it happened but it had.

I was in love with Damon.