Cannonball

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.

Speedy update! This one is slightly shorter than my usual chapters, but it needed to be in the story. This will all be from Damon's POV, hope you like it :)

February 19th 2013.

Tuesday 8:55am

Mystic Falls

I glance between Katherine and Elena slowly, my entire body tense and frigid and I can see Elena' cheeks heating up red. Katherine does not look happy one bit, and I'm guessing that even the two of us arguing is still breaking her ridiculous no contact rule.

"What's wrong, Damon? Cat got your tongue?" Katherine sneers at me coldly and I glance back at Elena who is looking more and more unsettled by the second.

I notice a lot of eyes on us, most them full of curiosity and intrigue, probably just dying to know the latest chapter on the Salvatore versus Gilbert storyline that this ridiculous town has conjured up throughout the years. I suppose this time though it is my own fault, I should have just left Jeremy alone in that alleyway but my temper and frustration took over me and I just saw red.

Now I feel more exposed than ever, and judging from the look on Elena's face she is feeling the exact same way.

I take a deep breath and hope that she won't totally hate me forever. "Nope." I answer Katherine briefly and turn my attention back to Elena. "She's just not worth my time to even waste a breath of explanation for; I beat up your brother because he's an idiot." I shrug casually. "I'd apologize but…I'm not sorry so…"

Elena stares at me for a moment and I notice her eyes harden. "You're a dick." I shrug at her reply and I literally try to hide my relief when the bell rings. Some of the crowd around us grumble in annoyance, clearly disappointed that we won't be giving them much of a show after all and reluctantly head to class.

Katherine stays firmly glued to her spot, ignoring the ever so dwindling crowd and before I know it it's just the three of us left here in the empty hallway.

"Elena please-"

"Save it, Damon." She cuts me off with a glare and I look at her desperately. "I gotta go to class." She turns around and walks away and I make a move to follow her but Katherine side steps in front of me.

"Move out of my way!" I growl at her angrily when she doesn't budge. "Katherine! Move!"

"Follow her and I'll show your family those photos today." She snaps at me coldly and I clench my jaw tightly, reminding myself for the billionth time with this bitch that it's not ok to hit a girl. I stand still, no longer trying to get past her and Katherine's lips curl into a smirk. "Just what I thought."

"Why are you doing this, Katherine?" I sigh, feeling somewhat defeated.

"Why not?" I glare at her and go to walk away but she clutches onto my arm and stops me.

"Will you just back off!" I pull my arm away from her furiously. "You got what you wanted! Elena and I broke up so why the hell can't you just leave us alone?!"

"Because that would be too easy! Although apparently I don't even have to help you too much because it seems like you're doing a pretty good job of destroying things with Elena all on your own! Typical Damon Salvatore, doesn't know a good thing until it's gone."

I scoff in disbelief. "What the hell would you know?"

"You'd be surprised." She glares at me and I look at her in disgust.

"Why can't you just let this go? What do you have to gain in all of this except for satisfying your sick psychotic brain in other peoples suffering?"

"What do I have to gain?" She laughs in utter disbelief and looks at me like I'm mad. "Are you serious? I get to watch you suffer! I get to take pleasure on seeing you looking miserable every single day, that is what I have to gain Damon and if you don't understand why then you are a bigger idiot than I first thought!"

"Is this about the sex tape? Is that it?"

Katherine groans loudly in disbelief, her fingers clutching her hair in pure frustration. "No it's not just about that! You ruined my life! You not only destroyed me, but you destroyed my relationship with Mason and then you humiliated me! You left me with nothing!"

I scoff in distaste. "Oh please, like your relationship with Mason was even that important to you! You wouldn't have been sleeping with me behind his back if that was the case!"

"Yes I was sleeping with you!" she hisses at me furiously and for the first time since all of this started Katherine actually looks like she doesn't have complete control and it takes me back a little bit. "I finally had a nice guy who genuinely wanted me for me, who actually cared and didn't treat me like shit and instead I fucked it all up for you!"

"Well what can I say, I'm irresistible." I send her a mocking smirk and hold out my arms but Katherine doesn't take this too well.

Oh no.

Her hand reaches out and slaps me across the face before I even have time to blink and I'm not going to lie, it really fucking hurt.

"Jesus!" I clutch my cheek in disbelief and look at her angrily. "What the hell is wrong with you! You're crazy!"

"Yeah I must be crazy to still fucking love you even after everything you have done to me!"

I freeze and stare down at her in shock, watching as she pants breathlessly as she tries to calm down her rage and already I can see in her eyes that she regrets the words that just flew out of her mouth.

"What?"

She lets out a shaky breath and looks around the empty hallway for a moment before turning back to face me, her features back to a somewhat semi-confident state. "You heard me." she snarls firmly.

"You love me?" I ask completely bewildered. How the hell can she love me? She said herself that I treated her like shit and she's right, I wasn't exactly the most doting boyfriend when we used to date.

"I hate you," she fires back. "I despise you with every bone in my body, but you know what they say…you only hate someone because you care, and it sickens me that I still care about you because you don't deserve my love, you don't even deserve my hate!"

I stand speechless by her words and she just lets out another bitter laugh and takes a step forward so we are standing toe to toe, she lifts herself up on her feet slightly so we are eye level and she closes the gap so our lips are almost touching.

"And that is why I want to see you lose everything, including your precious sweet Elena." She whispers the words out so cold and bitterly that it actually makes me gulp. She stares at me long and hard for a moment as I let her words sink in around us before she takes a step back and turns on her heel and walks away without another word.

Well shit.

It was a big mistake to go to school today and it just reminded me of my reasons for staying away in the first place.

It's made things ten times worse with Elena, although that would have been inevitable anyway the moment she found out that the cuts and bruises on her little brother was all down to me.

I look down at my phone to see a text from Zach asking where I am and why I'm not at court to support Giuseppe like the rest of my family. I've managed to avoid my father so far during this trial, because in the back of my head there is still that nagging part of me that is telling me that this is all my fault.

If Giuseppe gets sent down for this it will be because of me.

Yet another person who I care about that I've screwed over.

I'm on a roll.

I sit outside my apartment in my Camaro for longer than I realize, staring down at an open and empty blank message screen on my phone, wondering if I could get away with contacting Elena again, especially after Katherine's earlier confession which makes her even more dangerous than ever.

I still can't get my head around that outburst just yet and I'm trying not to think about it until I learn how to not drive myself crazy because of it.

I sigh and decide to go for it; I need Elena to know how sorry I am, even if I do have to do it over a lame brief text message.

I never meant to hurt you, I am
so sorry, please believe me.
I love you X

I hit send and press my phone against my lips as my stomach boils over in a sickly feeling of nerves, while I sit waiting for a reply that I know deep down is never going to come.

I'm out of my mind.

No, I'm borderline crazy.

But I need to do something. I need to take some sort of control of the downward spiral my life seems to be insistent on going down lately.

It's been hours since I sent that text to Elena and just as to be expected, I didn't get a reply. Not even an acknowledgement that she read it, never mind believed it.

So I've resorted to desperate measures, desperate and dangerous measures.

One simple text to Stefan confirmed that he was spending the evening with Katherine, which means that she won't be following my every move this evening for once, although I'm still pretty cautious because it is Katherine and God knows what else she may or may not have up her sleeve.

I pull my hood over my head as the rain starts to pour harder as I walk closer to Elena's house, I make sure to always look over my shoulder because you never know who might be watching and I know that Mystic Falls is absolutely full of curtain creepers who are always on the lookout for the next piece of gossip and scandals.

When I reach Elena's house I notice all the lights are on and the cars are parked outside meaning that everyone is home, which is going to make this ten times harder. I discreetly creep around to the side of the house where Elena's bedroom window is positioned and curse the heavy rain soaking through my hooded jacket and making the grass uncomfortable to walk across. Finally I make it to the trellis that is on the side of the house and again look around to make sure that there is no one watching before I step on and attempt to climb up but my wet shoes are making this ridiculously hard.

I only get to the third bar of the trellis before my feet slip and I fall off, landing on a thud in the muddy grass.

"Fuck!" I curse in annoyance and try again, this time my wet slippery shoes slide straight away on the soaked trellis and I fall straight back down, although at least I manage to land on two feet.

The rain continues to pour hard and fast around me and I slam my fist angrily against the wall because there is no way I am going to be able to make it up there without breaking my neck.

I look up at Elena's window feeling quite defeated, I knew this wouldn't go well but I still thought I would at least make it up to her window to actually be able to see her.

I go to turn away and leave, knowing that this was a massive risk coming here in the first place but I barely make it two steps before I stop myself.

No.

I need to make sure Elena knows how sorry I am and that she hasn't given up on us.

So I pick up some small rocks from around garden, still making sure that no one has seen me and that I'm being absolutely silent as to not alert her family. I don't know how I would be able to explain this to Grayson without getting into major trouble one way or another.

I throw the first rock off her window and wait with baited breath but nothing happens, not even the smallest sign of her curtains tugging. So I throw the next one, and the next and the one after that.

Still nothing.

With a bolt of frustration I throw the last one in my hand a little harder than the others and I watch in slow motion as it bounces off the glass but this time with a crack.

Fuck.

I've cracked her window.

I cringe as a line slides down the window, a small circle of broken glass in the middle, not quite breaking the glass through open thank God, but still, the damage is there.

And of course this is when Elena chooses to finally hear it.

I watch as she tugs open her curtains, her eyes widening as she sees her broken window before looking down and seeing me.

I probably look rather pathetic, all the way down here in the dark, my hood covering my head as the rain continues to soak through my not at all waterproof clothes.

This is not exactly how I planned everything to go down.

I watch anxiously as she quickly opens the window. "Damon!" she hisses down at me in a loud whisper.

"I'm sorry about the window." I cringe because this is certainly not how I wanted to start this conversation. "Send me the bill, I'll pay for the damage."

She looks at me in disbelief before speaking, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I'm sorry!" I call back up at her but she immediately hushes me. "Sorry, sorry!" I hiss quietly this time, following her moves of a loud whisper.

"You shouldn't be here, Damon! You need to leave! My Dad is home!"

"Please, just hear me out!" She goes to close her window. "Elena please!" my voice raises unintentionally but the rain just seems to get heavier and therefore louder, hopefully blocking out my voice from anyone else around or in the house.

"What do you want?" she sounds defeated and I hate that this is all down to me.

"What happened with Jeremy…" I pull my hood down so she can see my face, so she can see how truly sorry I am about all of this. "I'm sorry, I never meant to…I just…he caught me dealing and he threatened to blackmail me and then everything that's been happening lately just built up and I lashed out. I'm so sorry. I know he's your brother, I know that you love him and I hate myself for intentionally hurting someone you love."

"He's my family, Damon!" she looks hurt and again I hate myself. "Do you have any idea how I felt when I found out that not only was he hurt, but he was hurt because of you, because of someone I love and who I trust, who I thought would do anything to protect me and in extension him too."

I gulp slightly and swallow the lump in my throat as the rain continues to pound hard against me.

"I know, I messed up."

"You did." She agrees.

"Do you think you will be able to forgive me?" I ask desperately and wait with bated breath as Elena looks down for a moment, not yet giving me an answer. "Elena?"

"He's my brother."

I nod my head slowly. "It's ok," I force a smile. "I get it." I turn around and walk away, knowing that this was a bad idea from the start but I guess I needed to hear that.

"Damon!" she calls out after me and I stop before slowly turning around. "I just need some time."

I let out a bitter laugh but I doubt she hears it. "Yeah well…all we have right now is time, right?" I shake my head at the reality of it all and I watch as her face drops slightly but she doesn't say anything. I force another smile and turn away and keep on walking.

This time she lets me.

The second I get back to my apartment I know something is wrong, for one my door looks like it's been busted open and immediately I am on high alert as I slowly step inside, my fists clenched at both of my sides ready to hit out at whoever the hell might be in my apartment.

I look around and notice that everything is trashed and destroyed and I slowly take another step inside when I hear the sound of footsteps that aren't coming from me.

"Come out come out whoever you are…" I call out into the eerily silence as I slowly walk further and further into my trashed apartment.

However I come to a halt when a figure walks out of my bedroom and it's the last person I expected to see.

"Stefan?" I frown and immediately relax. "What the hell are you doing here? Do you know who did this?" I motion to my apartment, immediately walking around and lifting up some of the fallen stools and chairs.

"Yeah I do." He nods his head slowly as he walks towards me and I turn to face him with a frown.

"Who?" I ask impatiently. "Tell me so I can go and kick his ass!"

After the day I have had this is the last thing I fucking need, especially after what just happened with Elena. So I am absolutely dying for an excuse to go out and take out all my aggression on someone, and whoever did this is lucky enough to be my chosen target.

"It was me."

I freeze, all earlier thoughts being wiped from my mind and I slowly turn around to face Stefan confused, noticing the hard cold look in his eyes for the first time since he stepped out.

"What?" I take a cautious step towards him. "This was you? Why?"

He scoffs and lets out a laugh. "Don't play dumb with me, Damon; I know all about what happened with Katherine."

I literally feel my heart sink to my stomach.

He lets out another laugh, probably because of the look on my face. "Didn't think I'd find out, did you? That she'd tell me? Sorry to burst your bubble but she did, she told me everything."

"Stefan-"

"No you listen to me for once!" He roars out furiously and I feel a little taken aback from his outburst. "Why couldn't you just leave it be, huh? Why couldn't you just leave her alone! Typical Damon, always wanting what he can't have!"

"Look this is different-"

"No I told you to shut up and listen to me!" He cuts me off furiously and I look at him startled, I have never ever seen Stefan this mad before. "How could you, Damon! I'm your brother!" I gulp slightly as he continues. "How could you? I knew you didn't support us but…I didn't think it would be because of this." I frown slightly at his words, not entirely sure what angle he is going for here but when he continues he makes things clear. "You know, you were right about Katherine, I guess she is a liar and a cheat, I just never ever thought she would betray me with you, that my own brother would stab me in the back. At least now I know why you were so insisted on warning me off her."

Katherine.

That fucking evil conniving manipulative bitch!

"What exactly…" I clench my jaw slightly and try to remain calm before I continue. "What exactly did Katherine tell you?"

"The truth!" he hisses back angrily. "That you two were in love and that she'd been seeing you behind my back! That my own brother stabbed me in the back and betrayed me!"

"Stefan-"

"No don't!" he holds out his hand to stop me and for the first time his anger looks like it's about to turn into pain and I hate myself. "Don't bother with your excuses, Damon, I know what kind of guy you are, I've always known." He lets out a bitter laugh. "I guess I was just fooling myself to think that you actually cared about me." He shakes his head and storms past me with the intention of leaving. "Oh and I forgot to tell you," he swings back around. "Dad wants to know why you haven't been to support him at court and that if you don't show up tomorrow then you clearly don't care about this family." He snipes out coldly. "I obviously already know the answer to that one whether you show up or not." He glares at me once more before leaving.

I slowly unclench my fists, my hands starting to shake as I look around the mess around me.

I laugh despite myself, because I guess this apartment is looking exactly how my life is right now.

One big fucking destroyed mess.

I take a seat next to Klaus in the dark gloomy dive bar we found about a year ago, back when things were a lot more simple and easy. Back when I didn't have a care in the world, back when Elena Gilbert was nothing but the daughter of my father's rival who meant nothing more to me than a slight distaste because of her name and lifestyle. Back when I was still semi-dating Katherine in some sort of on-off-on again relationship, where we didn't really have any morals between the two of us but it didn't matter because we only cared about one thing anyway.

Back when Stefan and Klaus were the only people's opinions I cared about, still having the solid attitude of everyone else to go fuck themselves.

Back when I wasn't feeling like this.

"It's going to be ok mate." Klaus slides a glass of bourbon along the bar to me that he had waiting.

"Is it?" I sigh and pick up the tumbler, staring down into dark liquid and wondering how my life got so fucked up. "Elena isn't speaking to me, by choice this time; Stefan can't stand the sight of me and Katherine hates me more than ever, determined to make my life a complete living hell." I let out a dry bitter laugh and down the whiskey in one. "I can't see things getting better any time soon."

Klaus stays silent from beside me before motioning towards the barmaid for a refill; she complies with a wink and a flirty smile to my best friend which he barely responds too before passing me my next drink.

"Elena will get over it," he takes a sip from his own glass. "I mean how would you feel if someone beat up Stefan?"

"Pissed." I admit.

"Exactly." He pats my back. "But she'll get over it because she loves you."

I stay silent and swallow an unwanted lump in my throat. "I don't think that even matters much anymore." I mumble quietly as I press my eyebrows together. "Katherine isn't going to stop, Klaus."

"Zach still not found anything?" he questions and I shake my head.

"Nope." I take a sip from my bourbon, letting it burn down my throat and I let out another bitter laugh. "You know, she told me she loved me today."

Klaus literally chokes on his drink and I chuckle softly at his reaction. "What?!"

"That's why she's doing this, because she believes in some twisted and sadistic way that what we had was something special…"

"Jesus," Klaus mutters under his breath in disbelief. "That's an interesting turn of events."

"I know, right? Which is why Stefan hates me because Katherine only went and told him that the feeling is fucking mutual between us and that I've been sleeping with her behind his back." I shake my head in utter astonishment and can't help but laugh at the absolute craziness of it all.

How has this freak show become my life?

"She's fucked up."

I nod my head in agreement. "And she's angry, she's so angry at me, and at Elena too but most of all me and shes determined to make me suffer."

"You know what they say; hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"Hell hath no fury like a Pierce scorned; she's out for revenge because she thinks I screwed her over. She thinks that the only reason I even made the sex tape public was because I still cared about her and that I wouldn't have bothered otherwise." I scoff slightly. "The ridiculous thing is that I did care, but not about her, I cared because it was Mason Lockwood she cheated on me with, I cared because she was happy with him, it had nothing to do with her, it was all about my dislike of him." I finish off the rest of my bourbon. "I sent out that tape to get Katherine out of my life for good and to humiliate and hurt Mason in front of everyone but instead it's just come back and bitten me in the ass and now I'm the one who is hurt." I shake my head again and let out a bitter smile. "How ironic is that?"

I can tell that Klaus doesn't have an answer to that; I mean how can he when I don't even know? I feel like I'm stuck, like I can't make a move to fix things with Elena without making things ten times worse with Katherine, but then I don't want Elena to think that I don't care and I want to stop her from hating me, but Katherine is always there, everywhere just waiting in the shadows to fuck me over one more time.

So how can I prove to Elena that I'm sorry, without upsetting her in the long haul if Katherine finds out and reveals the truth to the world about our relationship?

Either way I'm screwed and either way Elena ends up hurt because of me.

It's a lose lose situation. I lose, no matter what I do, and no matter what I do, Katherine wins.

I stay another couple of hours with Klaus, slowly going through the bars stock of bourbon but I make sure I don't drink enough to get drunk.

I already feel so out of touch and out of control without adding intoxication to it.

When I get home it's the early hours of the morning and I walk into my trashed apartment, stepping on some broken glass courtesy of my brother dearest and I sigh loudly at the sound.

I manage to shut the door behind me with a thud, since its damaged it doesn't necessarily lock properly and I make a note to myself to call Finn first thing in the morning to fix it.

I ignore the mess for now and head straight towards my bedroom, just wanting to crash and forget that this day has ever happened.

I really do think it can go down in one of the worst days in history.

My relationship with my brother is in complete tatters and my relationship with the girl I love isn't that far behind. My Dad is just one wrong move away from cutting me off for good and my manipulative psychotic ex has just turned up her anti-Damon revenge scheme up a notch.

Isn't life just peachy?

I change out of my clothes and throw my tired body on to my big comfortable mattress, which thankfully Stefan managed to leave in one piece. I'm about to fall asleep, my eyelids getting heavy when my phone decides to ring loudly.

I groan in annoyance and hit the ignore button, wanting to cut myself away from society for the rest of the night but the damn thing rings again and I know to make it stop I better just answer it.

"Fucking hell." I mutter angrily under my breath and squint in the darkness to see the caller ID is my Uncle Zach. "What?!" I snap at him angrily as I hit the accept button this time.

"Tut tut is that the way to greet someone who has just done you a massive favor?" he replies lightly and I groan and slowly sit up.

"What are you talking about?"

"You asked me to look into Katherine Pierce and her family, remember?"

I straighten up more alert. "Yeah?" I wipe my tired eyes which are much more awake. "Well? Did you find something?" I ask anxiously, my heart starting to pound against my chest.

"Oh yes." He chuckles through the phone. "I most certainly did."

Thanks for reading!

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Until next time! :)