I walked into the town square. Bonnie and Elena were handing out pamphlets for the comet tonight.

"Hey Mel. Would you like a program?" Bonnie offered me.

I accepted the pamphlet with a teasing grin. "Caroline's making you two work hard, huh?"

Caroline was making them do this, but had given me a free pass to work on our cheerleading routine because I was her co-captain. I had decided to take a break to talk with Bonnie and Elena.

"Very," said Elena. Well, didn't she look glum, confused and defeated.

"Stefan didn't call, huh?" I said knowingly.

Elena shook her head. "Or text. But then I realized we never exchanged that stuff."

"An important milestone in any relationship," I said jokingly.

"Isn't it?" Elena laughed, before turning stoic again. "The timing is wrong, anyway. With the accident, and Matt still having feelings for me…"

"You are not blaming Matt for your relationship problems," Bonnie said.

"I'm not blaming him," Elena said quickly. "It's just, I don't want to move on too fast."

"And string Matt along again? Giving him hope that you'll get back together with him?" I filled in, annoyed. "Elena, breaking up with Matt was a huge relief for you, and don't you deny it. Stefan and you have an amazing connection, and yet all I'm hearing is reasons why you can't."

Elena looked at me and frowned. "But what about the whole Damon thing?"

Confusion clouded Bonnie's eyes. "Who's Damon?"

"Stefan's brother," Elena answered. "I mean, me and Stefan talked all night and never once did he mention anything about a brother. That's weird, right?"

"He had to have a reason not to mention him," I said. "A reason you'll never know if you don't ask."

"I suppose you're right."

"Of course I am," I said. "Now, I gave to go. I need to continue working on the cheer routine. It's gotta be perfect or Caroline will kill me."

Normal people would chuckle and tell me not to overreact, but Elena and Bonnie both nodded grimly, knowing perfectly well that Caroline was indeed capable of giving me a gruesome death and hiding my body if I screwed up the routine.

So, I did the wise thing and walked away.

It was chilly as we stood in the town square, waiting for the comet. Elena, Bonnie and I were waiting for Caroline to get back with our candles. It took a few minutes before she arrived, handing us four little cups that weren't lit yet.

We all thanked her, and I turned around to see if someone could light my candle. Someone leaned their light to mine, but my smile fell when I stared right into a pair of dark brown eyes.

"Tyler."

"Mel." He grinned. Guess he was done calling me a bitch, huh?

"Where's your girlfriend?" I asked, referring to Vicki. She'd been released from the hospital and any sympathy I had for her was gone. She was still dating Tyler, and she was still stringing Jeremy along.

Tyler's smile fell.

"If you want me to leave Vicki, I will," said Tyler. I looked him in the eye. I felt a sudden surge of nostalgia; the way he was looking at me was how he used to look at me back when we were together. Like I was his entire world. "For you. You know I will."

"If you really want to win me back, then why are you still sleeping with her?" I challenged. His jaw set. Yep, tender moment over. "And why do you keep picking fights with my little brother?"

"He's a punk," Tyler said immediately.

"No, you're a punk," I said. "Leave him alone and while you're at it, stay away from me too."

"Fine, have it your way," he said angrily before walking away. I shook my head and sighed. Conversations with Tyler were just so…draining.

But all thoughts about my ex-boyfriend were forgotten when the comet was visible. It was beautiful, and I watched with awe. I wished my parents could have seen it. They would have loved it, especially Mom.

There didn't seem to be any sign of impending doom, either. Bonnie's Grams had been wrong.

"Hey, ready to leave for the Grill?" Elena asked. I nodded.

We went to the Grill. I noticed Tyler; apparently he'd gone here after our conversation. Jeremy approached Tyler.

"Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?" Jeremy said loudly. Oh goody, Vicki is missing. I found myself a seat away from the drama, but I could still hear everyone loud and clear.

"I can't find her," Jeremy said, sounding worried. He was probably thinking about the bonfire, and what happened to Vicki there. But I really doubted the chances of Vicki getting attacked by an animal again. She was probably out partying or doing drugs or whatever.

Tyler's eyes flickered to me before turning back to Jeremy. "She probably found somebody else to party with. Sorry pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced."

Anger flared, but I kept my expression neutral, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of me.

Elena didn't ignore Tyler's comment. "What's with the pill pusher?"

"Ask him."

"You wanna do this right now?" Jeremy challenged. I could see in his eyes that he wanted a fight, and Tyler was going to give it to him.

Elena turned to Jeremy incredulously. "Are you dealing?"

Both Tyler and Jeremy continued to ignore her.

"She's never gonna go for you," Tyler taunted.

"She already did. Over and over and over again," Jeremy responded. I knew Jeremy was telling the truth, but Vicki would deny if anyone ever asked. She felt embarrased that she slept with someone younger than her. In turn all she was doing was hurting Jeremy, and I hated her for it.

"Yeah, right." Disbelief was clear on Tyler's face. Everyone else didn't seem to believe him, either.

"You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline asked, letting out a laugh. "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with you?"

"There's no way," Tyler added.

"And I didn't even have to force her into it," Jeremy pointed out smugly. What did that mean?

Matt, understandably, joined the conversation after Jeremy's snide comment. "What the hell is he talking about, Ty?"

This was escalating too far. I got up from my seat and walked up to them. "Hey, geniuses, how about all of you just shut up and go look for the girl, instead of arguing about who slept with who?"

I was met with awe-struck faces; no one had been expecting me. They'd all been so caught up in the conversation. Their expressions would've been comical if I wasn't in such a poor mood.

Bonnie was the first to speak up, gesturing to herself and Caroline. "We'll check the back."

"I'll check the square," Matt offered, while giving me a grateful look. It made me uncomfortable. Matt and I weren't friends.

I tossed my hair. "I'll come with you."

"Me too," Jeremy started, but was cut short by our siser.

"Oh no, you are coming with me," she said angrily, grabbing his arm and keeping up her tough love thing with Jeremy.

"Let's go, Matt," I said. He nodded, and we exited the Grill.

We arrived at the town square in silence. Vicki was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, isn't that Stefan Salvatore?" Matt asked. I followed his stare, and sure enough, there he was. "Let's go talk to him. Maybe he's seen her."

We walked to him.

"Hey, Stefan," I greeted.

"Hi," he replied, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

"Have you seen Vicki?" Matt asked. "She's missing."

This seemed to worry Stefan, but he still looked like he desperately wanted to be somewhere else. "I'll keep an eye out for her."

I blinked. Stefan was being really jumpy. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Stefan smiled, but it was clearly forced. I would know. I was the expert on those kind of smiles. "Excuse me."

"Hey, I saw you at the hospital yesterday," Matt said, squinting his eyes, stopping Stefan from walking away. The hospital?

"Did you?" Stefan asked tensely.

Matt lifted an eyebrow. "What were you doing there?"

"Visiting," Stefan responded vaguely.

"Visiting?" Disbelief was clear in Matt's voice.

"Visiting who?" I asked, because, sue me, I was suspicious too. Stefan was being jumpy and vague.

Worst-case scenarios started invading my mind; what if Stefan was leading Elena on? What if he'd been in the hospital to visit some sort of girlfriend? There had to be a reason Stefan didn't want to tell us. And I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, I really did, but the last time I gave someone the benefit of the doubt, I got hurt. I didn't want that for my sister.

Silence engulfed us. Stefan clearly wasn't planning on answerering my question.

Matt decided to speak up again, "You know, Elena and I, we've known each other for a long time. We might not be together right now, but I look out for her. And I'll always look out for her."

"Yeah, Stefan, considering I'm her sister, I'll always look out for her too, obviously," I pointed out. "So, is there anything you want to tell us?"

Stefan looked like he was going to say something, but then, suddenly, he excused himself again and hurried away. Me and Matt shared a look. Something shady was definitely going on here…but what?

I went inside the Grill, tired of searching for Vicki. After our little talk with Stefan, Matt and I had split up. I noticed Bonnie and Caroline. "Hey, is there any news?"

"Yeah, apparently Stefan found her wandering around," Bonnie said with a nod.

"What, really?" I scoffed. So all of this worrying had been for nothing. Typical.

"Yeah, it's so much drama. Ever notice how the druggies are the biggest attention whores?" Caroline said. I nodded.

"Excuse me, hi."

We all turned to face Stefan, who had the annoying habit of appearing and dissapearing without making a sound.

"Um, have you seen Elena?"

"I think she went home, but I'm gonna give you Elena's number and her email," Bonnie offered before writing it down on a napkin. "She loves to text and you can tell her we said so."

Stefan smiled at us. I didn't smile back. "We didn't get to finish our conversation earlier. If you don't mind me asking, who were you visiting at the hospital, Stefan?"

Stefan was about to answer me, when Bonnie gave him the napkin and went into some sort of trance. "What happened to you?" she asked softly in an un-Bonnie like way, before snapping out of it. "That's so rude, I'm sorry. Excuse me." Bonnie quickly ran out of the Grill. What the hell?

Stefan stared, watched her leave, before he turned to me. "I, uh, I had been visiting Vicki. Wanted to pay my respects."

"You met her, like, a few days ago. I didn't know you were so close," I said sarcastically. I knew I was being mean, but something just didn't feel right. I felt like he was lying. And what the hell happened with Bonnie just now?

He shrugged. "I felt bad for her."

"Why would you, you didn't attack her."

"Melanie, enough with the interrogation!" Caroline laughed at me, before giving Stefan an apologeptic look. "She's not usually like this."

Nope, usually I'm a match-making fanatic. But something didn't feel right about all of this. All of this would be so much easier if I could read Stefan's mind like I could read everyone else's.

Stefan smiled in response, but it was clearly forced. "Right. Well, I'm going to head out. Goodbye."

"Bye, Stefan!" Caroline chirped. He exited the Grill and Caroline turned to me with a pointed look. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing," I said. "It's just, Elena really likes him. I want to make sure he's a good guy, you know? That he won't hurt her."

"That's awfully…sisterly of you," she noted. Well, yeah, duh, I am her sister. I do sisterly things. Thank you, Caroline Holmes. "But remember, Elena is old enough to make her own choices. She doesn't need you to be her guard dog."

Was that was I was doing? Was I being overly protective of my sister? Seeing deceit where there wasn't any? Caroline thought I was projecting my own issues of getting cheated on onto Stefan and Elena's relationship. Maybe she was right.

Still… Something was off about Stefan. I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't as bad as the worst-case scenarios in my mind. I needed to get a grip.

I sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"I always am," Caroline said, satisfied. "When will you learn that?"

"Exaggerating is a sin, my friend."

"No, it's not." I simply ignored her and started heading for the exit. She followed me. "It's not, Mel! Mel?"

Tomorrow, I would decide what to do about Stefan. Wether to push it and investigate, or to just… let it be. Tomorrow.