Since I'm SO RESPONSIBLE, I'd rather write than study, so here you go! ;)
When she opens her eyes the next day she finds herself in Stefan's embrace. Her back is pressing onto a cold wall of a college dorm room, her head is positioned in the crook of Stefan's neck, depth in between his neck and his shoulder. One of her arms is uncomfortable curled against her own body, while the other is sprawled across Stefan's chest. Whenever she sleeps over Stefan makes her put some clothes on, which is usually his shirt, one she, by now, considers her own, in case Seth comes back during the night. They rarely spend nights in her room, mostly because Anna is not as open to two people having sex in her room as Seth is. Anna is a bit of a prude, or at least Alisson seems to think so. Elena hasn't put much thought into it. Her and Anna are on good roommate terms, and they hang out from time to time, but she's not exactly Elena's favorite person to be around. She's a lot like her brother.
There are nights when she sleeps over at Stefan's without having sex. There are nights when she can't fall asleep without him next to her. She tries to fall asleep in her own bed which only results to her running from one building to another in her pajamas, knocking on his door in the middle of the night. She used to think how that's not normal for an 18 year old girl, to not be able to sleep without her boyfriend next to her. It used to scare her because what if one day she has to fall asleep without him next to her?
Which is when she realized she's not normal, nor does she want to be. She's a crazy, overly attached girl who, to some extent, depends on her boyfriend and can't trust herself enough to even fall asleep without him. And that's how she likes it, and that's how he likes it as well. They are happy. He is happy with his beautiful and loving girl who steals his clothes, cries at chick flicks, makes him watch cheesy, romantic comedies and falls asleep in the middle of them, stresses out over every exam, remembers every single thing, every morning, if she wakes up before him, puts her finger under his nose to make sure he's breathing, and panics when he realizes what she's doing and holds his breath. She's happy with her silly, insecure boy who makes her smile even when she wants to cry, who kisses her every time they meet and every time they part, who holds her hand in public, who is not ashamed to carry her purse, who buys her flowers just because, who knows all of her ticklish spots but doesn't use it against her, who talks about the future like it's a certain thing, who already knows the names of their children, who carries her up the stairs when her feet are too sore from heels to walk.
They're not perfect, far from it. They're too clingy for such young people, and they have such big expectations from themselves and their relationship. They're so different, but then again, so much alike, because even when they take different paths they tend to meet somehow. But they're in love, even if that love exceeds all expectations of normal teenage relationship. In madness they found perfection. He's a crazy painter and she's his muse for whom he painted his world in all of her favorite colors.
She realized one more thing - she doesn't want to fall asleep without him next to her ever again, which is when she stopped being scared she will ever have to. She accepted his utopia where they live happily ever after like it's a done deal.
Love is the most confusing thing in the world, she concluded. Especially when it's mixed with happiness. It's not hard, it's fairly easy actually. You're in love and you're aware of it as much as you're aware of the air you inhale. But it's like a drug, like an addiction, and it fucks up all of your senses. It's an illusion, a trick your mind plays on you until it becomes too big for even your mind to control and you get lost in the nothingness of it. And once you do, you find peace. You laugh at the silliest things and smile even when the sun doesn't shine. It's a mind numbing experience.
Despite everything, reality creeps into their perfect little world from time to time and shakes things up. They fight. Some months more than the others. Sometimes he silences her screams with kisses, and sometimes he's too weak to do anything but walk away. Sometimes she's the one that walks away. They use their insecurities and flaws to win an argument, even though they regret it second after the words escape their throat.
Time after a fight is Elena's favorite time, or so she often thinks. The sanctuary she finds in his embrace after relieving the fear of the possibility of not experiencing it again. There's something bitter sweet in that experience.
"So," Stefan says loudly, surprising her since she wasn't aware he's awake as well, "Is there something you would like to do for our anniversary or should I surprise you?" he plants a peck in the middle of her forehead.
Elena frowns against the skin of his arm. "What?" she murmurs tiredly.
"Six months. Half a year. Next week," he says each point separately while kissing her delicate skin.
This awakens her rapidly. Only a week ago she was thinking about how soon it will be their half a year anniversary, and now it completely slipped her mind. She blames sleep deprivation, something that's in a big part his fault as much as it's hers.
She's lucky he remembered, it's usually girls who remember these kind of things.
"Uh," she huffs, slowly opening her eyes, "I've been putting up with you half of the year already?" her eyes fall on his, their looks locking, and she smiles teasingly.
It seems so much more than six months. She feels like they've been together since forever.
"I know," he rolls his eyes, "I'm so horrible."
She throws the covers off of them and gets on top of him, her lips landing on his, savoring their flavor because she knows today is a busy day and they probably won't see each other until tomorrow.
"Mhm," she says, her lips still pressed against his, "Just horrible."
His hands land on her ass and he squeezes her roughly, unexpectedly, so her body jerks a little while being on top of him. She rolls off of him, smiling, and tries to find her skirt in the mess of his room.
"You coming to the game on Saturday?" he asks. It's his first college football game ever, the reason he's here at all.
"Of course," she replies, finding her skirt under his beanbag. "By the way," she says casually while wrapping the skirt around her waist and pulling the zipper up. She can't be bothered by changing into her own top, which is way too crumbled, so she stays into his shirt she's been sleeping in. She's doing their laundry anyway since the time he tried to do it and shrunk half of their clothes to size that would fit only a five year old. "Last night was amazing," she leans down to give him a goodbye kiss.
"I'm always at your service," he grins after she detaches her lips from his.
She smiles at him while shaking her head. She grabs her purse and before she disappears behind the door she says, "Oh, about your question," she smiles warmly, "Surprise me."
She opens the door of her dorm room with a smile on her face until she notices people there. Anna, Lucas and few other people she knows from the book club stare at her in disbelief as she stands before them in Stefan's shirt which makes her skirt barely visible under it, messy hair tied into a bun, purse in one hand and heels in the other.
"Where were you?" Anna asks, her eyebrow raised at Elena. "I thought you would be coming back here after the party."
Elena rolls her eyes, privately though, so none of them can see her, and answers as she throws her purse on the bed and heels by the side of it. "I went back to Stefan's," she sighs, answering even though she would rather not.
"What were you doing?" the quiet girl whose name Elena still doesn't know, and probably won't ever remember, asks, and Elena turns to her, confusion evident all over her face.
"Seriously?" she cocks her eyebrow in the girls direction with a grin on her face.
But the girl keeps staring at her with a confused face expression, surprising amount of innocence in her eyes. Elena finds a little bit of herself in the quiet girl.
"We were fucking," she says coldly, calmly, like it's nothing, like she's saying the most common think you could come up with.
Lucas huffs. "Can't you say it nicer?" he furrows his brows as she shifts her look to him, "We slept together? We made love?" he gives some suggestions, "Even we had sex sounds nicer," he shakes his head.
Elena exhales loudly before frowning at him, "But we didn't," she brushes him off, "We fucked," a small smile appears in the corners of her lips as she remembers last night and how they have to repeat it as soon as they get the chance.
"Aren't you ashamed?" Lucas spits his question out in disgust, "To talk about it like that?"
She wiggles her lips for a moment before responding with a short and quiet, "No."
She used to be, shy and ashamed of it, but not anymore. She hasn't felt ashamed for a while now.
"It's completely normal," she brushes Lucas off once again, and this time he doesn't ask anymore questions.
"So, how long have the two of you been together?" Anna asks to change the course of the conversation.
Elena sits on the edge of her bed. "It will be six months next week," she smiles gently.
"How did the two of you meet?" one of the girls squeaks from the back of the room, which is when Elena realizes she has to put more effort in remembering everyone's names.
"Let me guess," Lucas says mockingly, "He was a quarterback and you were a cheerleader and can things get any more obvious?" he smirks.
Elena giggles. "Not exactly," she shakes her head, "Me and Stefan go way back, actually. All to kindergarten. We were best friends since childhood."
"And then you realized you're a little bit more than friends," Lucas huffs, interrupting her story, "How.." he catches the annoyed look on her face, "Cheesy."
"No," Elena frowns, but doesn't allow him to push her off the track, "We got drifted apart. Actually," she wiggles her nose, "We kinda hated each other."
"So, what happened?" Anna asks, and Elena thinks how this is probably the first time her voice sounds truthfully curious.
"Our lives intertwined again," she smiles, "Silly circumstances. One thing lead to another and.."
"You fell in love," the quiet girl continues her sentence, seeming invested in the story.
"Yeah," she says shyly, feeling pleasure of loving him all over again, "And now it seems like I've loved him forever," she can feel blush attacking her cheeks once again.
"And you think it will last forever?" Lucas says fairly serious, like he's making a statement based on her own thoughts, but she can sense the mocking in the back of his throat.
"Is there something wrong with that?" she asks.
He knits his brows. "No," he states calmly, "There will be other people, though, for both you and him. Maybe someone will show to be a better fit for you than him."
Something flashes in her eyes. "Oh yeah?" she asks angrily, "Like who? You?"
He grins at her, and than grin makes her as cold as a stone. "Yes," he says calmly, "We would make a much better couple than the two of you do. We're much more alike."
"I'm nothing like you," she says bitterly.
"Of course not," he laughs arrogantly, "I meant we share common interests. I bet I could make you feels things with my pants on."
"Since I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to make me feels things without your pants on," she smirks at him, and his throat tightens, his eyes adapting a serious, somewhat angry look. "Also, you have no idea how Stefan makes me feel. We could have same opinions, point of views, values and choices and yet you wouldn't even be able to come close to making me feel how he does. Now excuse me, I'm going to take a shower," she gets off her bed and starts walking towards the bathroom.
"Elena," he calls after her, and she turns around, "The book club is hosting a party this Saturday, Alisson already confirmed her arrival, will you be there as well?" he asks smugly.
"I wouldn't miss it."