Chapter thirteen

Falling slowly

Elizabeth

"Jeremy, get your lazy ass up!"

A week had passed, and in that week Jeremy and I were closer than ever. He hadn't drunk or done drugs since I stole his stash, and I hadn't even thought about him since my conversation with Damon at the grill. I was waiting for Poppy to show up, and with the Founders Ball in three days I was sure that she would then.

"Ellie, it's a Sunday!" he moaned, covering his head with a pillow.

"Come on, I have so much planned! We're going on an adventure, Jer!" I said cheerfully, jumping on his bed.

"It should be illegal, to be awake before nine in the morning." He mumbled, before sitting up. He was shirtless, and his hair was messy. He looked adorable, and I stared out his window to avoid looking at his chest.

"So, what is this great adventure we're going on?" he asked, getting up and stretching. He was completely oblivious to my dilemma.

"A surprise. Get dressed and meet me downstairs in ten. Wear comfortable clothes, and you'll probably want some water. I'll be waiting with coffee." I said, before walking out of his room.

Downstairs, Elena was yawning and pouring herself coffee. "I'm kidnapping your brother today." I told her, stealing a piece of her toast.

"Keep him," she teased, and I grinned.

"Any word on Poppy?" she asked, and I shook my head, sitting down at the table with her.

"Lily's been asking around, and there's no sign of her. Poppy might be here as we speak, but she won't give us any sign until she has the proper audience and location. So I'm just going to live life until she shows her face, 'cause there's nothing any of us can do until Poppy wants us to know where she is." I sipped my coffee, frowning slightly when I thought about Lily.

She'd been acting strange lately, especially whenever Damon was around or mentioned. I was worried that she was falling for him, but Lily promised that she and Damon were just friends. Lily had never lied to me before.

"I just want to say thank you, for helping Jeremy. He's completely better, and you managed that within a week. I've been trying for almost a year and nothing." Elena shook her head, a small smile on her lips. "I don't know how you do it."

"If I tell you, then I'd have to kill you." I teased, just as Jeremy walked down the stairs.

"You promised coffee?" he asked me, and I gave him his cup.

"We should be off. Later Elena." I said, grabbing Jeremy's hand and pulling him towards the door.

"We're going on an adventure." Jeremy told his sister dryly, but he had a grin on his lips.

"Have fun." Elena smiled, as Jeremy and I walked out of the house.

"Oh, we will." I promised her cheerfully. "Besides, every minute with Elizabeth Salvatore is fun. You just never know what I'm gonna do next."

~LG~

"Are we there yet?" Jeremy whined for the thousandth time, as I drove my car to our adventure location.

I rolled my eyes. "No Jeremy Gilbert, we aren't. Like we weren't two minutes ago, or four minutes ago, or thirty seconds ago." I said.

"Why can't I know where we're going?" he asked, drinking his coffee.

"Because it'll ruin the surprise. Now hush, and let me drive." I said, changing radio stations.

It was ten minutes later, when we pulled to a stop to the side of a deserted road. All that was around us were trees and a semi-blocked trail. I got out of my car and gestured for Jeremy to do the same.

"Come on, if we hurry we'll be there by lunch." I said, and Jeremy apprehensively followed me along the trail.

"How'd you find this place?" Jeremy asked after a while of kicking branches aside.

"My brothers and I discovered it when we were kids. We used to hang out in here all the time, hiding from my father. I haven't been back in a very long time." I said, smiling nostalgically.

"You say that you grew up here Ellie, but I don't remember you. Or Stefan, or Damon." Jeremy frowned, and I stiffened slightly.

"I did really grow up in one place Jeremy, we moved around a lot. But we came back here a lot to visit my uncle, and that's when we discovered this place. Technically, I didn't grow up here, but I like to say that I did." I lied, feeling guilty.

Jeremy bought my lie, and we walked in silence for a few minutes. I was lost in past memories about my childhood, and jumped slightly when Jeremy spoke.

"You know, it's not fair that you know about Vicki and Anna, and I don't know about the guy who broke your heart."

I thought about his words. "You know about him. Kind of." I said. In the past week, I had found out more about Anna and Vicki, and had decided that Jeremy wasn't over either of them.

"Not really, I don't know his name. I don't know how he broke your heart. I don't know if you're still into him." Jeremy said, and I sighed. I had managed a week without thinking about him, and I guess a week was too long.

"For the sake of today, we can refer to him as 'the biggest jackass to ever exist' or just 'Jackass' to shorten it. He broke my heart a lot of different ways, but the final straw was when I caught him screwing some whore. And honestly, no, not really. It's been a lot better, being here. I've… let him go a lot more than I had before. But he was my first love, and you never forget your first love." I smiled slightly at him.

I could see the outline of my secret hideaway now. We were almost a mile away. I heard Jeremy sigh.

"I'm sorry Ellie. If I knew who he was, I'd kick his ass for you." He said, squeezing my arm.

I laughed, even though I knew that he could kill Jeremy before Jeremy could even think to run. It was still sweet though.

As we walked, my mind went back to a particularly painful memory.

1864, Mystic Falls, Virginia

I moaned slightly, feeling his warm lips against my neck. His fangs pricked my skin, and I knew that he wanted to bite me.

"Does it have to be the neck? My father did not believe me when I tried to convince him that the bite mark was just a bruise, last time." I asked, my dress half off, and my hair spread out around me.

He groaned, and kissed my neck. Then he kissed down to my stomach, and I sighed slightly as he bit me. The first few seconds hurt, but after it felt pretty good- if the vampire who was biting you was being careful. Which he was.

His lips went back to mine, the blood on his lips smearing around my mouth. I sighed in content, as he removed my dress without our lips breaking.

After making love, I dozed, completely naked, with my head on his chest. He just played with a lock of my hair, and pulled the blanket tighter around our bodies.

"I love you," I said suddenly, and I felt him stiffen beneath me. "I know that you don't believe in love, that it's a vampire's greatest weakness, but I do."

He didn't say anything for a while, as he contemplated my words. "Go to sleep, Elizabeth." He said softly, kissing my forehead.

I closed my eyes, and did as he told me to.

"Ellie?"

I stared blankly at Jeremy, and blinked at him. "Huh?" I asked, confused.

"You were zoning out." He said, and I thought that he knew what- or who- I was thinking about.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I was thinking about him. Sorry."

"Nah, its fine." He smiled slightly, as the sun shone down brightly on us. "I catch myself thinking about Anna and Vicki all the time."

Seconds passed, and then I asked quietly, "Do you still love them?"

He didn't answer right away. "I don't know," he said finally. "I guess so, I'm definitely not completely over them, but I think about them less, I miss them less. I'll always miss them, but it doesn't… it doesn't hurt like it used to."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I'm getting over him, but I think that to let them go completely, we need to actually start dating, you know? Can't be lonely losers forever." I grinned at him, hip bumping him.

I've seen other guys- mostly vampires- since 1864. Most of the relationships were just sex, and none of them lasted long. It was hard to be in a committed relationship when you still thought about the man who broke your heart daily.

"Speak for yourself," he teased, bumping me back. I laughed, and Jeremy grinned. It faltered after a few seconds, and he said, "I've been thinking about that actually. You know Mallory Price from our bio class? She asked me to the founder's ball on Tuesday."

A feeling I could only connect to jealousy flooded through me. "Oh? Did she now?" I tried to sound interested, to sound happy for him, but I was gritting my teeth.

"I didn't give her an answer yet, but I don't know… I don't think I'm over them yet." He sighed, and I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. His hand made mine look tiny, and they were rough and calloused.

"You'll never completely move on until you find someone to move on for. Maybe Mallory's that someone." I shrugged, though I secretly wanted to tear Mallory's throat out.

"Yeah, you're right. I think I'll tell her yes." He smiled, completely oblivious to my jealousy. But weren't all boys blind when it came to girl's feelings?

"Awesome." I said, trying to smile. It came out as a glower.

My unreasonable jealousy was pushed to the side when we came to a large cave, blended in with the trees and moss. I beamed, and tugged Jeremy's hand.

"Come on, we're here." I told him, practically dragging him into the cave. He looked apprehensive, but followed me inside the dark, wet cave anyway.

"Here" I said, pulling two flashlights from my packback and giving him one. Then I turned on my flashlight, and shined it across the walls.

The yellow light caught drawings on the walls, drawings that I was surprised were still there. I smiled though, and walked to them. I could still see eight year old Elizabeth, ten year old Stefan, and fifteen year old Damon drawing them.

Mystic Falls Virginia, 1857

"Stefan, you are making me look like a horse," Damon complained, pushing Stefan away from where he was trying to draw our family with paint Damon had sweet talked Melody Masters into giving us.

"Maybe you just look like that in real life, Damon." He retorted, pushing him back.

I laughed, and then went back to painting my wall. I was in the middle of painting a very bright flower, when Damon picked me up.

"So that is funny Lizzie?" he asked with a grin, as he started spinning me around the room. I giggled, and dropped my red paint onto the ground, causing it to splatter all over us.

"You have a horse face…" I giggled, and Stefan laughed from behind us.

"You are going to get it, Lizzie." Damon threatened, before tickling me.

"No! S-st-stop it D-D-D-Damon!" I screamed out from between laughs.

Damon laughed, and let me go. I fell to the ground, my hands falling into the paint. My dress was ruined by it, and Mother would yell at me later, but I didn't care. This was just another day in the life long adventure I had with my brothers. One day we were painting caves, and the next we were playing a day long game of hide and seek in the wheat fields behind our house.

"Damon? Stefan?" I asked sweetly, and they turned around from the wall that held the painting of the Salvatore family.

"Yes, Lizz-"Stefan started to ask, before I took my bucket of paint and splattered it onto them.

They just stood there, covered in blue paint, until Damon grabbed green paint and Stefan black. And they started chasing me.

"You are so done, Lizzie." Damon laughed, before pouring paint over my head.

"Took me a damn week to get that paint out of my hair," I muttered, tracing the flowers I had painted 154 years ago.

"What?" Jeremy asked, looking at the family picture Stefan had painted. Damon did look a bit like a horse.

"Nothing," I said quickly, smiling secretly to myself. I walked over to him, and stared at my full name "Elizabeth Alessandra Salvatore" written across a wall in my eight year old handwriting. It was crossed out, and "Lizzie," was written below it. I grinned, as I remembered hitting Damon for doing that.

"So you guys did this? All of this?" Jeremy asked, and I nodded.

"One of my favorite memories is painting this cave. We had a hell of a time doing it, too. Me and my brothers." I said with a smile on my face.

"You guys are close, aren't you?" he asked, leaning against a stone wall of the cave.

I nodded. "I'm close with them, they're just not close with each other." I muttered. In the week I've been in Mystic Falls, Stefan and Damon's relationship hadn't improved. There were still snarky comments and jabs, and I was starting to give up hope on them ever being brothers again.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked.

I shook my head. "A long story Jer, maybe I'll tell you it someday." I sighed, leaning next to him on the wall.

Minutes of comfortable, thoughtful silence passed. "You know, I have a friend you can go to the ball with." Jeremy said, pushing his dark hair out of his face.

I raised my eyebrows. "One of your stoner friends? No thank you." I said, absentmindedly tracing my name on the wall.

"No, not one of my stoner friends, one of my art friends. His name's Ryan, and he thinks you're hot." He smirked, and I smiled slightly.

"I don't know Jer…" I sighed, not wanting to date this Ryan.

"Come on, 'the only way to move on is to find someone to move on for.'" He smirked as he quoted me.

I sighed. "Fine, I'll go with him to the damn founder's ball. But if he's a dud, 'I'm going to kick your ass." I smirked.

"Deal." He grinned, and I smiled slightly. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he looked at me, and before I knew it, we were both leaning into each other.

I would've kissed Jeremy Gilbert right then and there if my phone hadn't rung.

We both jumped apart, an awkward silence settling around us, as I answered my phone. It was Stefan, wondering where I was.

I walked out of the cave for better reception, the whole time thinking about how I was falling for Jeremy Gilbert.

~LG~

A/N: I think I'm starting to tick people off, with all this teasing about mystery guy. But I want to get Jeremy and Elizabeth going before I bring him in.

Thank you to: hplover1616, vdemily, HawthorneTree, and funnygirlash101 for reviewing!

~Abby :)