"Kylie?" Jeremy pulled himself up from the hole and looked puzzled at the girl. "I thought you'd stay in the truck…what do you mean he's not here?"

"He's not here, Jeremy" Kylie repeated, she was extremely pale and barely keeping her voice steady. "The vampire you and Damon buried"

Jeremy's mouth fell open as he looked back and forth, from Kylie to the empty hole, his heart beating faster with every moment passing as the fear and realization started to sink in all at once.

"How do you know?" he tried to sound casual as though her words didn't affect him to the slightest. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to him. This was a mistake, it had to be. He was being stupid, getting into conclusions without having all the facts. He shouldn't be making accusations because he was wrong, he was stupid and he had it all wrong. Kylie wasn't a traitor, she was his best friend…his only friend…he trusted her. He couldn't have been such an idiot…

"It doesn't matter how I know it" Kylie looked around as if she was scared somebody might be watching them, "You should stop looking, you don't want to find anything" she dropped her voice to a whisper and looked at Jeremy with pleading eyes, "please stop looking"

Jeremy remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him.

"Find what? What are you talking about?" he tried to step forward but the girl backed away with a gasp.

"Stop looking, Jeremy, they will hurt you" she said, her eyes misted with tears.

"Who is going to hurt me?" Jeremy waited with a sick feeling of longing, rubbing his eyes and pinching himself to make sure he was awake, unable to believe he was actually having this conversation. Two minutes ago this girl was his friend, now he had a complete stranger standing opposite him.

"I can't tell you" the girl cried, her entire body shaking.

Jeremy felt immediately guilty and for a moment or two considered to get closer, hug her and comfort her, unable to just stand there and watch her cry. But then another dark thought occurred to him.

"Are you a vampire?" he asked slowly, but his voice sounded strict and confident, very unlike the way he felt.

"No!" Kylie shrieked so abruptly that there was no doubt she was telling the truth. "I'm like you"

"If you are not a vampire then how do you know so much about them?"

"I can't tell you" Kylie repeated bitterly, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "I wish I could"

"Who do you work for? Klaus?"

"The Original?" asked Kylie surprised by this question. "No, of course not. I don't work for anybody"

Jeremy covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the bitter disappointment and took a deep breath, "Why didn't you tell me this whole time that you knew?"

"Because…"

"Because you wanted to use me" Jeremy guessed.

Kylie opened her mouth to respond but no sound came out.

"You knew about Damon and Stefan all along" Jeremy continued in the same accusative tone.

"Yes, but…"

"You used me to get to them" Jeremy tuned her out.

"No!" Kylie screamed at the top of her voice, "I didn't even know you were related to the Salvatores until the party. I would never use you; I want us to be friends"

"Friends?" said Jeremy and despair seized him, even the sound of the word made him sick to his stomach, "You lied to me about everything"

"I didn't mean to!"

Tears pouring down her face, Kylie moved closer to him but this time it was Jeremy's turn to step away from her.

"So why are you telling me now? What changed?"

"I…I don't want you…I don't want you to get hurt" Kylie stuttered looking down at her feet.

"Why?" Jeremy scoffed, louder than he had intended.

The little color remaining in Kylie's face, drained from it as she looked up at the boy and whispered, "Because I love you"

Jeremy looked back at her and something rose up inside him, paralyzing every inch of his body. He wanted to say something, he wanted to yell, let her know of how angry and betrayed he felt but he couldn't…he only wanted things to go back to the way they used to before he came to that forest, before the vampires, before Stefan's arrival to Mystic Falls.

"I'm sorry" Kylie cried and before Jeremy could stop her she turned around and stormed away, leaving him standing rooted to the spot.

Kylie knew about vampires; Kylie said she loved him. Somebody took the vampire he buried in the woods; Kylie said she loved him. Others knew about him burying that body in the woods; Kylie said she loved him. Vampires knew about him and wanted to hurt him; Kylie said she loved him. It was already ten o'clock and Stefan was going to murder him; Kylie said loved she him.

How could Kylie love him? Jeremy was thinking while walking alone on the empty street. His pace was rather slow considering that he was already half hour late for his curfew and it was almost sure he would get yelled at, but he couldn't care less…Kylie said she loved him. But he didn't love her back…or at least that's what he thought. She knew about vampires, she lied to him and if that wasn't enough she wouldn't tell him the truth even now. Of course he didn't love her back…

He hasn't felt this betrayed ever since he find out about Kol being an Original vampire, sent from Klaus to kill him.

Jeremy glanced at the watch on his wrist and heaved a great sigh, it was ten thirty and Stefan would be furious which to his own intense astonishment gave him a weird kind of dim pleasure.

He was still around Mr. Bell's neighborhood, debating whether or not to return to the Salvatore boarding house, when he heard a police siren from the end of the road and soon after a police car stopped right beside him. The side door swung opened and a short; chubby little man walked out examining Jeremy from head to toe. The boy looked back at him and was about to keep walking when the man spoke.

"Is your name Jeremy Gilbert?"

Jeremy stopped dead and turned right around to face the Deputy.

"Are you Jeremy Gilbert?" Jeremy watched the man's fat moustache move up and down as he was talking in a broken-record sort of voice.

Jeremy moved forward and took a more careful glimpse of the man. He was compelled.

"Yes, I'm Jeremy Gilbert" he said boringly as the man was about to open his mouth to repeat the same question and threw his hands up front, for the Officer was holding handcuffs that were undoubtedly meant for him.

"Damon Salvatore says hello" said the man blankly while cuffing the boy.

Jeremy rolled his eyes as the compelled Officer shoved him into the backseat.

Driving to all the way to the police station the man didn't say one word and Jeremy guessed that Damon was saving it all for when he could have a direct physical contact with him to say everything he wanted to say; though Jeremy was not afraid to the slightest, in fact he was surprised how much he didn't care. Kylie was a traitor and he lost the body with the mark, this day couldn't possibly get any worst, even if Damon decided to kill him.

The police Officer seized Jeremy by the back of his shirt and hurriedly marched him inside the police station and didn't stop until he reached a long hallway down in the basement, where most of the lights appeared to be out. He opened a wooden door with bars on top and shoved Jeremy inside the room without a word.

Jeremy heard the key turn in the lock and the footsteps of the man as he was returning to his office.

The cell was empty part from another guy that Jeremy recognized to be from his school. He was a couple years older but he remembered him from his days in the stoner pit with Vicky.

"Didn't know that Sissies like you Gilbert end up in places like this?" said the boy named Alex…or was it Jake, Jeremy couldn't decide. In his defense all the times they met he was higher than the Empire State, trying to make out with Vicky and that guy's name was the last thing he cared about.

Jeremy ignored him and kicked a cigarette litter lying on the stone floor.

"So, what are you in for, Mr. Goody Goody?" Alex or Jake continued in the same mocking tone.

Jeremy glared at him sideways and watched as the older boy made a step closer to him.

"Murder" Jeremy pulled up his sleeves and with the same threatening tone that Damon used countless of time on him, he said, "Come near me and I'll personally make sure you won't live to see your court day, is that clear?"

The guy blinked twice, took a few steps back and sat on his bench, without saying a single word.

"Much better" Jeremy nodded, his eyes still gleaming dangerously as he leaned against the wall and took a deep, calming breath. Five minutes in jail and he already managed to turn himself into the human version of his Guardian.

Another police officer came in several minutes later; surprised by the boy's presence there but more surprised about the gun Jeremy still had in his possession, he dragged him upstairs for a short interrogation in which Jeremy said nothing. Part from that, the rest five hours slipped smoothly with him waiting in his cell for Damon to show up and kill him.

Jeremy had never sat through a longer night in his life, the time he waited seemed endless, he even thought to apologize to his cellmate just out of boredom, maybe he even had some pot on him. If there was ever a good time to start doing drugs again, jail was probably it.

He was right about to open his mouth when suddenly he heard the voice of the Deputy that took him in for interrogation, speaking from upstairs, "Which one is yours?" he asked.

"The idiot one" Damon's voice responded, he didn't sound happy.

Definitely not happy.Jeremy thought sinking further into his seat.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little more specific, we don't exactly run a house of geniuses here"

"Gilbert, Jeremy" Damon said shortly and soon after, he heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs, growing nearer and nearer to Jeremy's cell.

"Gilbert, it's your lucky day" said the Officer with the bald spot on top of his head and the beer belly, unhooking a pack of keys hanging from his belt and going for the lock.

Jeremy stood up and stared at Damon behind the bars and for a cowardly second seriously considered asking the policeman to leave him in there locked and beg him for a life sentence in prison…at least there he would be safe from Damon.

"Bye Alex" he waved to his cellmate that was now looking at Damon with a kind of relieved expression, thinking he was lucky he didn't have to follow this guy home.

"My name is Jake" he said scratching his head.

"Right…I knew that" Jeremy shrugged and went out in the hallway, under Damon's glare.

After Damon compelled Jeremy's gun out of the policeman and said goodbye to Sheriff Forbes, him and Jeremy walked in silence back to his car. Jeremy really didn't want to follow him in a place without witnesses, but under the circumstances he had no choice.

Damon turned on the engine of his car and soon they were on the road, driving toward the Salvatore boarding house. None of them was talking. Damon drove with his eyes still, glaring on the road while Jeremy was leaned against the window, watching his breath steaming up the glass.

"I'm sorry…" he muttered first after a while, unable to take more of this silence. He didn't mind the yelling, the constant scolding or the slaps at the back of the head, what he was scared off was that expression of silent anger, mixed with a large doze of disappointment, all ready to pop at any second.

"I'm really sorry…" he added as Damon gave him a fleeting look, but did not speak.

"I know you are" said Damon in a tone of comprehension that took him completely by surprise.

"Look, you're right. Scream all you want and you can hit me or snap my neck, I get it…I swear I won't do it ag—"

"I know you won't" said Damon, cutting through the boy's babbling. "And it's because you are free to do whatever you want from now on"

"What?" Jeremy gave a very shaky laugh.

"Yes" Damon stepped so abruptly on the brake that Jeremy almost flew through the windshield. "I can't see a reason why shouldn't you"

"Damon—" Jeremy fell silent at the look on Damon's face.

"You are not a kid anymore, right Jer?" Damon tapped on the steering wheel, his glare distinctly colder. "You are sixteen now, you shave and kill vampires. You don't need rules, you're a man"

Jeremy really did not like the emphasis he put in all those 'you's'

"It's not like that…"

"It is" said Damon with a pained expression on his face, "You can take care of yourself, so now get out"

"What…?" Jeremy glanced nervously at him.

"You're a big boy, you can find your way home" said Damon looking pointedly outside his window.

Jeremy didn't need to be told for a third time, he pulled the door open and stood outside for a few seconds, looking down at Damon almost pityingly "You know what?" he started in a menacing fashion, his face contorting with rage "Why do I even bother apologizing to you? You're a dick!" he slammed the door shut behind him.

Damon didn't respond to this very impressive act of rage as Jeremy thought of it to be, and simply took off, letting him stand foolishly in the middle of the street.

"He left…!" Jeremy gaped after the car, as it disappeared behind the corner, "he actually left…what an asshole!" he could feel his face burning.

On the plus side Damon had already given him his gun back, making him wish for some random vampire to show up, just so he could shoot him down.

What he didn't expect though was to have his wish come true, and especially not so fast.

He was walking for about ten minutes when through the darkness he saw a prone, male figure lying in the middle of the street. At first he thought it must have been an accident and somebody got hurt but soon as he saw the figure move he knew he was wrong.

The man sat up and looked at the bright, starry sky, illuminating the characteristics of his face and then turned right around to pierce Jeremy with his glare.

"You" Jeremy sighed, "my favorite traitor friend, just the person I needed" he said in tones of mocking sorrow.

"What a lovely welcome, if I knew I would show up earlier" said Kol with a diabolical smile, "missed you too, mate"

"Don't call me that" Jeremy spat, "what do you want here anyway?"

Kol stood up and stretched his body with a yawn.

"Just enjoying a quiet evening" he said dreamily, walking next to Jeremy who glared at him boringly.

There was a time in his life when he actually liked Kol and even enjoyed spending time with him. He was fun and careless and he was a friend to him, but that was a long time ago, so long that he forgot how it felt to be betrayed by him…all until that very same day. How could he be that stupid? Leave his guard down and allow himself to trust another person, especially after Damon made it clear as it gets that making friends was not the strongest part of him. Maybe after all the old man had a point, why would anyone like him? He was awkward and weird not to mention kind of a nerd. He couldn't expect acceptance from anyone, he was not good enough, and he didn't deserve it. Maybe it was better this way. Be alone forever, like Damon and never endanger getting hurt by others again.

"So, what are you doing here?" asked Kol, though Jeremy could tell he didn't care much for the answer.

"Just enjoying a quiet evening" said Jeremy with an ironic smirk to which Kol responded with a laugh.

"You know that I could kill you…right?" asked Kol, the glee in his voice even more pronounced now.

"Feel free, in fact please do!" Jeremy walked past the Grill that was closed by now.

"Bad day, huh?" said Kol, slightly put out. He always liked a little panic as a response to his death threats but little Jeremy wasn't that kind of person.

"You care?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"Absolutely not" Kol reassured him and they kept walking in silence.

"You know what? I have something to cheer you up" Kol jumped up after five minutes, since he started getting bored by Jeremy's company.

"Doubt it" Jeremy ignored him.

"Alright…" Kol stood still speaking to a random headline about the importance of vegetarianism. "I guess I won't tell you then the little something I know about a resurrection stone…"

Jeremy stopped dead in the middle of the street; he slowly turned around and looked at Kol as though he just realized he was there with him this whole time.

"What does it do?" he asked carefully.

"Resurrects people, what do you think it does you twat?" Kol rolled his eyes, "did you get dumber or something?"

"Where is it?" Jeremy ignored Kol's last comment.

"Good question" Kol paced thoughtfully around him, "It got stolen this morning from my family's safe deposit in Atlanta, Georgia"

"Is that what Damon was doing there?" Jeremy spoke quietly to himself, "How did your family get the stone in the first place?"

"It belongs to us. My mother was the witch who originally create it soon after we all got turned to vampires, as a way to bring us back to life if anything happened"

"Wait…" Jeremy called a halt, looking suspiciously around the empty streets, "why are you telling me all this?"

"Klaus wants the stone to remain a secret and I want to piss of Klaus" Kol shrugged, "it was nice to see you again though, we should go shoot some pool for old time's sake"

"Yeah, I'll be sure to write that down on my calendar" said Jeremy sarcastically, his mind still going on about the stone.

Kol promptly turned away from the boy and was about to leave, when he heard Jeremy calling after him.

"Oh and Kol, I forgot" Jeremy tugged the gun out of his belt, "That's for Denver…mate" he pulled the trigger twice, aiming for his stomach.

Kol fell a few steps back with a painful groan.

"Fair enough" he gave an audible laugh, helping the bullets out of his healing flesh, right before he swept through him quick as lightning into the darkness.

By the time Jeremy returned to the Salvatore boarding house it was about three o'clock in the morning, though from what he could see Damon was still not inside, since the only car parked outside was Stefan's.

He pushed the front door open very half-heartedly and as he expected it from all along the lights were on and Stefan was waiting for him sitting in the first two steps of the staircase, reading "Gone with the wind" for a millionth time.

"Good morning Stefan" Jeremy tried to move past him, but Stefan pushed him back.

"Where were you?"

"Well at first I was at the woods, then I went to jail, then Damon picked me up, and then he left me by the old hospital and told me to walk back home" said Jeremy counting on his fingers, "productive day"

"Jeremy, I hate violence" Stefan stated, sounding thoroughly exasperated. "You know how much I hate violence, right?"

"Yes" Jeremy nodded, thinking that this was probably not the right moment to remind Stefan of his Ripper days.

"Well I do" Stefan shook his head, "But I swear if it wasn't for tomorrow and giving Elena the perfect family vacations, I would beat you up senseless" he said in a low rumble sort of voice, " do you understand me?"

"Yes Stefan I do, and I want you to know how much I appreciate for not beating me up senseless for the sake of my sister" Jeremy smiled brilliantly at Stefan and with that climbed the stairs back to his room.