"Elena!" She turned to see a shadow of a small boy running towards her. As he got closer, the urge to cry overwhelmed her and before either one of them could know it, tears filled her eyes and she wailed.

"Elena?" The boy sounded worried and confused. His shadow crouched over her fallen figure.

"Elena, don't be sad. You just have to get up." He tugged at her shirt, trying to hoist her up from the hot black concrete but - failed to do so. She could see his confused frown through her tears.

"I want Mommy!" She continued to wail and wail before she pushed the boy down to the ground and ran towards her house. Elena didn't look back to catch the hurt in his eyes.

The moment she ran through her doors, she saw her mom going through papers, glasses hanging off her nose.

"Mommy!" Miranda looked up to the sound of her voice and worried, she quickly scooped Elena into her arms.

"What's wrong honey? What happened?" Elena could feel another round of tears coming and she pouted with glassy eyes. She didn't know what to say or do except to point at the little boy still fallen on the street. Miranda followed her finger and when she found who Elena was pointing towards, she frowned and shut the porch door.

"Elena, I don't want you playing with that boy again. Mommy doesn't want you to get hurt. Okay?"

Elena nodded and wiped her tears away. She looked up to see her Mom smiling down and couldn't help but smile back. She loved her mommy. Mommy always knew best.

"Now who wants to eat some ice cream, huh?"

The week went by smoothly, for the most part. Elena kept to herself and was holed up in her room whenever it wasn't breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Stefan found it interesting to see such a young, vibrant (looking; looks do deceive, you know) girl always inside her room. His own younger sister, Sarah, was always out and about, looking for trouble. There were always moments when he'd catch her sneaking out with her even joked about it, seeing as Stefan would always let her go.

So, seeing Elena like this - friendless and alone made him feel sympathetic. He, above all people, knew what it was like to be all alone. He was certain everyone did.

But he had to remind himself that it was different. Elena was different and so were her circumstances.

Surprisingly, she didn't have any of those screaming nightmares that Alaric mentioned to him. The nights went by better than expected and Stefan was able to sleep quite peacefully in his designated room opposite from Elena's, from 5 to 10am. Of course, he had the morning guards patrol closer to the house during those hours, just for good measure. Stefan couldn't be too sure. Especially when he himself was asleep. He always felt a sort of unease when he slept. It wasn't just because of the whole "Damon Parker" thing. It was his general paranoia. Bad things always happen when he sleeps.

So there he was, sitting on his chair with wide eyes, waiting for dinner. There were signs of fatigue around his eyes, but the hunger that surged through him was enough to keep the weariness at bay.

And speaking of food, he peeked a glance at his watch and grinned at the time. 6:15. It was almost time for dinner. Lord. Stefan could've never imagined life would be like this. Hungrily waiting for dinner and no one to talk to? He hadn't appreciated human interaction this much, at least not in a while. Life out in the woods had been brutal for him. Though, even then he had had the freedom to do what he wanted to do, eat when he wanted to, and talk when he wanted to. He was even tempted to check his phone for messages. Could he be any more desperate? And if he was like this week one, how ever can he last the whole summer?

He groaned, all the while wondering what he had gotten himself into.

A creaking of the door alerted him from his thoughts and he looked straight ahead, as if nothing, not even an Elena, could come across his mind.

"Enjoying the view?" Stefan heard Elena's soft but firm voice and smiled his small smile before turning. She was leaning against the doorway, looking awfully unhappy to see him. If they were in any other situation, he'd have been offended.

"Nothing like the color of wood, to sharpen your mind every passing second." Stefan tried to smile at his joke, but the look on Elena's face quickly disheartened him. He coughed instead.

"So, out for dinner already? You must be hungry." He began to get up from his chair before Elena quickly dismissed him.

"Actually, I came out to tell you I won't be eating dinner." She pursed her lips and Stefan swore she looked like she was going to say something else, but instead Elena took one last look at him and stepped away from the door. "You can eat alone."

"Elena-" He took a step towards the door, attempting to see what was wrong, only to have the door shut on his face. He knocked, knowing she had locked it from the inside. Luckily, her father had given the spare key to all the rooms. Though that was only for emergencies.

"Elena. Please open the door." He knocked again.

"Please go away." Elena's voice, laced with sarcasm and irritation, made him smile. At least the attitude didn't change.

"Is everything alright?" He waited for her answer. And waited. Glancing at his watch one more time, he noticed it was half past six. He knocked once more.

"I'm just saying, Ms. Gilbert. You don't look well. Is there something I can do for you, at least?" No response.

Irritated now, Stefan crossed his arms and debated on what to do. By the look on her face something was definitely up. He just had no clue. And it wasn't like he could intrude her privacy (though, on his contract - if need be, he was allowed to do so). No, no. Elena was just like any other person. If she didn't want to eat dinner, then so be it. He would just have to eat alone. As he stalked down the stairs, he couldn't help but feel like a cross dad, who had just dealt with his hormonal rebel teenage daughter. He laughed at himself and went on to take out a microwave meal from the fridge.

Ten minutes later, he was back on his lonely chair with a microwaved meal hot in hands. It wasn't too bad. There were mashed potatoes and a decent looking kind of meat slumped next to it. Ah, and the yellow bits that he could've sworn were peas must be corn. To Stefan, it wasn't shabby at all.

He dug into his food, appreciating the salty taste that every microwaved meal had. It was too bad that he didn't have anyone to share it with. At that thought, Stefan suddenly brightened up with an idea. Obviously, Elena was hungry. It'd been hours since they last ate. Stefan smirked, if she wasn't going to talk to him then he'd just have to make her. And how would he do that, you ask? Well, there was a reason why Elena's middle name was Irritated.

"Mm, oh god. This is so delicious." Stefan said, loudly. "I wonder how, on earth could Elena skip dinner? This is great!" His words came mushed together just like the potatoes on his plate due to the food in his mouth. He knew this wouldn't necessarily work with Elena, but he hoped it'd irritate her enough to open the door and yell at him.

Still, there was no response. Not even a peep. So Stefan, unusually determined to get her out of her dusty little room, continued to moan and moan, literally munching on his very soft food. This went on for another five minutes, but still - no sound. And good Lord knows he was running out of bits of food to munch on.

Now, Stefan had his share of humiliating moments, but nothing could have prepared himself for the amount of embarrassment that he felt the moment he heard a voice interrupt his eating.

"Stefan?"

Slowly but surely, Stefan looked up to see the ghost herself look at him with a mildly amused look. He was caught in mid-chewing, but quickly - he recovered and stood, well more like stumbled up onto his two feet.

"Elena?" He glanced at the door and back at her. Then back at the door and back at her.

"Yes?" She crossed her arms, sounding absolutely done with him.

"You're...outside your room."

"And so are you." Yep. It was definitely her. No doubt about it.

"What are you doing outside? I mean, how? Why?" Stefan took a step closer to Elena. He couldn't help but notice how she herself took a step back.

"Are we playing 20 questions now?" She uncrossed her arms and walked past him to get to the door.

"No, but I'd appreciate it if you could answer me." Stefan stood behind her, watching her unlock the door with her key.

"I'd appreciate it if you could butt out of my business. You being my dutiful bodyguard," Stefan winced at her dripping sarcasm, "doesn't mean I have to give up my privacy. Can't I just..." She paused. "Can't I be a normal person too?"

He didn't notice the quiver in her voice. And before he could say anything, she shut the door behind her back, leaving him standing in the empty hallway.

For some reason, he didn't sleep a wink the whole night.