Impassioned

Chapter 25

Elena lies on the couch, waiting for Ryan to get home, just like she does every night. He takes classes at the University not too far from here, they end late, and Elena waits up for him every night.

"I'm home." The front door opens and Elena hears Ryan's semi-tired voice call out to her.

"I'm on the couch." She calls back, standing up, fixing her t-shirt. He comes over, kissing her on the lips swiftly, she barely gets to feel it.

"How was your day?" She asks, just like she does every night.

"It was alright, how about yours?" Ryan sets his bag down, sitting down on the couch.

"It was good. I missed you though." She gives him a sly smile, sitting next to him on the couch.

"I was only gone for the day." He argues. She rolls her eyes at him. "Come on, play with me, I'm sure you missed me to, didn't you?" Elena bats her eyelashes at him, swinging her leg over his lap, straddling him.

"Elena we talked about this..." He warns, not wanting to repeat himself.

"Would anyone really know? I know you want to touch me, and I know you want to be touched. So let me." She ignores his protests, pulling her shirt off before he can stop her. His cheeks turn red and he turns his head away.

"You know you can't just appear to have changed, you actually have to change." Elena scoffs at his words. She thought he was just helping her gain popularity in town, she had no idea he truly felt that she needed to change. She thought he liked he just the way she is.

Elena shakes her head, clearing her throat, refusing to let herself cry. She stands up, pulling her shirt on as fast as she can. Grabbing her cellphone, she turns to leave.

"Elena, come on." Ryan tries to grab her arm but she moves away before he can reach her.

"Screw you." She manages to say, she slams the door as she leaves the apartment.

"Troubles with the boyfriend?" Elena jumps as she hears Damon's voice. He doesn't sound amused like last time, he almost sounds sympathetic.

"Do you even care? I'm sure you'd like there to be." Elena isn't in the mood for Damon to argue with her.

"Maybe, but I don't like seeing you hurt." He follows her as she walks away, thankfully it's dark, she doesn't want Damon to notice the tears in her eyes.

"Than maybe you shouldn't have been the one to hurt me." Elena spits out, stopping and turning to him, hugging her arms to her chest.

"I know what I did was wrong, I get that now. I made a mistake, Lena." Elena tries to ignore the sincerity in his voice, and the familiar sound the way he says her name.

"What were you hiding from me?" She didn't mean to ask the question, the one that has been eating away at her for six months. What could be so horrible that Damon would let her leave?

"Let me take you somewhere, it's cold and...we're not exactly alone out here." Damon steps closer to her, noticing the way her hand moves to wipe away a stray tear. Elena looks to the front window of her apartment, she sees Ryan looking out at her. Half of her wants to walk back into her apartment, knowing that going with Damon could undo everything. But the other half wants to go with him, needs to go with him.

"Okay." She whispers, her heart beating erratically. Damon grabs her hand, not even realizing he's doing it, he leads her over to his car, opening the passenger door for her, she gets in.

"Elena!" She hears Ryan call from their front door. Damon gets into the driver's side, shutting his door. He looks at her, watching as she ignores the man calling out for her.

"Elena please get back here." Ryan calls again, realizing his mistake.

"Drive." She tells Damon, her voice a quiet sound.

"Gladly." Damon can't help but feel some joy at the fact that she's ignoring Ryan, choosing to go with him.

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Damon pulls into the driveway of his house, nothing about it has changed. Only for a moment does Elena worry about her Aunt seeing them, but the opening of her door breaks her away from her thoughts.

She unbuckles her seatbelt, standing up. Her shoulder brushes the cool leather of his jacket, and it sends a shiver down her spine.

"Let's get you inside." Again Damon takes her hand in his, leading her inside his house. As she sits down on the living room couch, she looks over to the dining room, remembering the first time she came over, when she helped him with moving in. She had no idea something so innocent would have such a result.

Damon takes a seat beside her, he hates the way her gaze won't meet his eyes. He despises himself for hurting her, for making her feel like she did something wrong.

"It was only two years ago, both me and Stefan were living in Italy with my father. I had gotten a job at the prep school my brother was enrolled in, I had no girlfriend, no friends, everything had been handed to me, even my job. I found out that my father had set it up. At that point I didn't care." He explains, Elena realizes it must be a hard thing to talk about, she knows he's always had trouble talking about the way he feels.

"Many of the girls at the school pursed me, they had come from the same situation as me, they never had to work for anything, let alone good grades. You were not the first student I had slept with." He admits, feeling shameful of his actions, if he could take it back he would.

"So you gave them good marks in exchange for sex." Damon sees the pain all over her face.

"Yes...but there was this one girl. Her name was Katherine Pierce. She was one of my students, and from what I understood, one of Stefan's friends. She didn't want just an easy A, she wanted more than I was willing to give to her. When I tried to tell her that I didn't want a relationship, she went crazy, screaming at me. She threatened to go to the police and tell them I raped her." Elena's eyes widen at the mention of this girl.

"So what did you do?" Elena wonders.

"I went along with what she wanted, she liked to play games, the fact that she had to sneak around excited her, i was her rebellion. Stefan found out, turns out he was in love with her, no clue how he didn't see how insane she was. After awhile she got bored, finally tossed me aside, and that's when I decided a fresh start would be good for me."

"And then you went to that Center you told me about...because of what happened in Italy." She puts two and two together.

"I realized that I needed help, so I went to Mystic Falls for it, it was far away from everything that happened. Then like I said, I saw you." Damon looks into her eyes, giving her a soft smile. It's been too long since he's been able to gaze into her eyes like this.

Elena realizes why he wanted to hide this from her. The shame must have consumed him, made him hate himself, made him want to change himself. Run away from who he truly is.

"What should I do?" She whispers, feeling pulled in two, very different, directions.