I was still in Bree's bar, laughing with strangers as I listened to a girl with pink hair and glasses recount the embarassing way she met her girlfriend.

"Having fun?"

I spun around to face the familiar voice, before I had to blink really hard to fight the sudden feeling of lightheadedness. It felt like the world was swimming.

"Hey!" I greeted loudly. "I am! Thanks, buddy." I patted Damon's arm. My eyes went wide. "Damn, there are some guns hiding under this leather jacket!"

Damon regarded me, amused. "You are completely smashed."

I pouted. "Am not."

"Are too."

I frowned. "But Elena… She'd be so…"

"Disappointed?" Damon filled in when I didn't finish that.

"She's already disappointed," I said, tears springing to my eyes. "I kept something from her. I'm keeping things from Jeremy. What is wrong with me?"

"You just went from happy drunk to sad drunk in less than sixty seconds, impressive," he told me wryly.

"Ugh, that's just like you to make a big joke out of it!" I shoved his arm. Then I grabbed it again before squeezing his bicep appreciatively. "Impressive," I parroted.

Damon made a cutting off motion to Bree so that I wouldn't be served more alcohol.

I gasped. "Rude!"

I wasn't actually that offended, though. It felt like the world was wrapped in cotton, warm and inviting no matter what happened.

In fact, as I looked at him, his constant smug expression secure on his face, I found myself wanting to kiss it off of him. To take him by surprise. As a bonus, those wonderful blue eyes of his would be closed during a kiss just like would mine be, so I wouldn't have to look into them anymore as they made me question my sanity.

My phone began to buzz.

"Saved by the bell," I told Damon. I doubted he noticed me staring at his lips, I was a master of stealth. "Excuse me. I'm very high in demand."

"I'll bet you are," he said, amused.

I stumbled outside, picking up my phone.

"Mel?" Bonnie said. "Hey. I know you texted that you were fine, but Elena was freaking out and you weren't answering. Are you okay?"

"It's all good, Bonnie Boo." Where was my jacket?

"…Okay? So then what's up with Elena?"

"Lots of freaky shit is up with Elena. Did ya know she's, like, Katherine's twin? Crazy."

Victory! My jacket had been located.

"Are you drunk?" Bonnie asked incredulously.

"Perhaps," I slurred as I struggled to put my jacket on.

"I don't even know what to say. You don't drink. Why did you—"

"Bonnie, Bonnie," I cut her off. "Shh. If you don't know what to say, you don't have to say anything."

She sighed. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Completely."

That was, of course, the moment someone grabbed me from behind. My phone got knocked away in the process and they placed their hand over my mouth.

Was I seriously being kidnapped again? Twice in one day?

Really?

I struggled with my captor the whole way, until he got sick of it and threw me to the ground. I looked up at him.

He must have come after me, specifically, for some reason. Quick, how could I throw him off the scent?

"What is it that you want from me?"

The man frowned. "First of all, that's the worst British accent I've ever heard. Second, I won't hurt you."

"Pish posh."

He rolled his eyes before picking me up. I blinked and I was on a wall. Oh, come on.

"Give a girl a warning before you super speed, asshole," I said, annoyed by the fact that it was a vampire who had kidnapped me. What was it with my rotten luck? Why didn't I get bad feelings anymore?

"Wait here," the vampire said before whooshing away.

Eventually, I heard footsteps. I looked down at a very confused Damon, which would be funny under different circumstances. Getting kidnapped yet again did wonders for sobering up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Damon yelled. "Stop screwing around."

I had never been so offended in my life. "Screwing around?" I hissed. "How about screw you, Damon."

Did he seriously think my drunk ass climbed this wall for funsies? My eyes widened as I recalled what actually happened.

"Oh, right..." The man took Damon down with a bat. "…Look out," I finished belatedly. The man beat Damon continuously with the bat.

Damon groaned as the stranger started to pour gasoline on him. Dread settled in my stomach, but I was sure it was normal dread, not the freaky kind. "Who are you?"

"That's perfect! You have no idea who I am."

"Can you blame him? You don't look very memorable." And there went the last of my brain-to-mouth filter.

The vampire chuckled humorlessly. "Oh, I can blame him. He killed my girlfriend. And I blame him plenty."

I wish I was even surprised, but I wasn't. Just exasperated.

"I can see that," I said slowly. "And you should. I'd blame him, too. Hell, I blame him for lots of things. Did you know he almost sacrificed my town recently?"

"Shut up, Melanie," Damon said through gritted teeth. He was the one who convinced me to drink shots, and it wasn't doing wonders for the way my filter fled whenever I was in a dangerous situation. Now he had to deal with it.

The man did not react negatively like Damon. He made an enthusiastic hand gesture towards me, his gasoline momentarily forgotten. "Exactly! He's a bad guy."

"The worst," I agreed, glad my stalling attempt was working. "Who is your girlfriend, anyway? If you're gonna kill him, you should at least let him know. I mean, let's be honest, he's probably killed lots of girlfriends."

Anger crossed the man's expression. "My girlfriend went to go visit Stefan, and then he killed her."

"Lexi?" I whispered, but he picked up on it with his enhanced hearing. "Lexi was your girlfriend?"

I remembered Lexi telling me about her boyfriend. The one who made her reconnect with a human part of herself she'd thought she'd lost.

The man nodded, before taking out a lighter and flicking it open.

"Wait!" I cried out. "Don't kill him!"

"I'm doing you a favor!" he said, looking confused. "He's the worst, remember?"

Maybe it was that I didn't want to watch someone else die, vampire or not. Maybe it was that he was Stefan's brother, and I knew Stefan would miss him despite all that he had done.

(Maybe it was the memory of him taking all those bullets for me. Maybe it was the memory of laughing in the bar. The easy camraderie we had when he wasn't hurting anyone.)

Either way, I said, "Please. Don't do this."

"He killed Lexi!"

"I was there when he killed her. It was a monstrous act. But if you kill him, if you decide who lives or who dies, you're no better than him! Lexi said you made her feel human. Don't become someone she wouldn't recognize."

The man stared at me as I spoke, and began to cry. He glared down at Damon, but he didn't throw down the lighter. When he looked at me, I thanked him.

"I didn't do it for you," he said, before using his vampire speed to disappeard.

Which left me stuck on a high wall.

"Jump. I'll catch you," Damon said.

I glared at him, but it wasn't a long debate with myself. Either I jumped or I was stuck here.

I jumped down and landed directly in Damon's arms. After the last couple of days and the alcohol still in my system, the sensation of being held was incredibly comforting. I leaned into his touch, only to realize what I was doing.

I immediately scrambled to get away from him. His lips quirked, and he was probably about to comment on what just happened. I shoved his chest before he could.

"Ow," he complained melodramatically. I hadn't hit that hard and he was a vampire, for crying out loud.

"You shouldn't have killed Lexi," I told him.

"I know."

I blinked, surprised at his answer. "Good," I said simply.

He looked at me, not saying anything. I was struck again by how striking his eyes were, but I had alcohol in me so I could be cut some slack. That damn alcohol… I could feel a headache coming on.

"Ugh, I'm really regretting all those shots. And…" My eyes widened as I remembered my conversation with Bonnie. The one that got cut short. "Oh no. He kidnapped me while I was talking to Bonnie. Everyone probably thinks I'm dead."

"Good thing I found this, then." He reached in his pocket.

As soon as I recognized that he was holding my—albeit mangled—phone, I snatched it out of his hand.

"That doesn't sound like a thank you," he said.

"Please. I saved your life. You're the one who should be thanking me," I said as I unlocked my phone. It was very much worse for wear. I couldn't believe it still worked.

He groaned. "You're never going to stop holding that over my head, are you?"

I smirked, tapping 'call' on the spectacularly cracked display. "What do you think?"

Elena picked up immediately. Her voice was thick, like she'd been crying. "Melanie?! Are you okay?"

"I am," I reassured. "It's been a long day but I'm fine."

"I'm glad," she said. "I'm sorry for the way I ended our earlier phone call."

"No, Leen." I frowned. "You were right. I should have told you the truth. About Katherine, and about the content of that notebook. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," she said. "I told Jenna that you were sleeping over at Bonnie's, and Bonnie agreed to cover for you."

"Thanks," I said, relieved. I hadn't even thought of a cover story for Jenna.

"Will you come home?"

I glanced at Damon, who was shamelessly listening in on both sides of the conversation with his hearing. He nodded.

"Yeah. We're gonna go home now. I'll see you soon, okay?"

We exchanged goodbyes before I hung up.

In Damon's car on the way back to Mystic Falls, I fell asleep. I didn't know how long for, but when I woke up, we were still in the car.

"Why'd you bring me with you?" I asked quietly.

"Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty," he teased, before answering, "You're not the worst company in the world, you know."

"I thought I was 'annoying'," I quoted mockingly.

"I didn't say you were the best company in the world," he replied without missing a beat.

I smiled, too tired to bother to conceal it.

"I knew it'd piss off our siblings if I brought you with me," he said honestly.

I didn't bother stifling my chuckle, either, at the typical Damon answer. He lifted an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

Instead, he asked, "What did you mean, earlier on the phone with Elena? You apologized for not telling her about a notebook."

I blinked, groggy, as I tried to remember that. I could faintly recall such a thing. Damn.

But then I considered it. Damon already knew something was up. Elena already knew the truth. There was no harm in telling him, now.

"I'm a mind reader."

"Hilarious," he said dryly. "Is this your way of getting back at me for taking you to Georgia, or…?"

I sighed. "I'm not joking."

"Alright, fine. What am I thinking, right…now?" He looked at me like he was undressing me with his eyes.

"Something dirty," I said, rolling my eyes while I blushed. "And it doesn't work like that! I can't read the supernatural. I can't read you."

He frowned, smirk disappearing. "…You're actually serious."

"Yes! You thought I was a witch, but I don't think that's it. I think I'm…something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," I said, frustrated with the truth of it. "Emily said I'm not human."

"Emily told you that?" he asked sharply.

"When she posessed Bonnie," I clarified unnecessarily. "She said that a powerful spell was placed on me and only just broken. I know Emily is not a poster girl for reliablity—"

"If Emily told you that, it's probably true," he said seriously. "She broke her deal with me because she didn't want to unleash bloodthirsty vampires. It was different. When it comes to magic, she wouldn't mess around."

"Oh." I swallowed. "Good to know."

He raises an eyebrow. "So what does this have to do with a notebook?"

"I wrote everything that was going on with me down, instead of telling anyone. Elena found it while we were in Georgia. Part of the reason she was pissed."

He hummed, non-commital.

I glanced out the window, watching the road. A few minutes later, Damon broke the silence.

"Earlier, you asked how I died." He paused. I looked at him, surprised and curious. "My father shot me."

"Oh," I breathed, unable to imagine it, before lamely offering, "That sucks."

"Yep," he agreed wryly. "Just like your lame vampire pun."

"Unintentional lame vampire pun," I corrected with a smile. My smile faded, though, as I thought about it. I had gotten the basics of the backstory concerning Katherine in 1864 by reading Elena's mind, but it felt different to hear this kind of thing from the source. More real. His own father…

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"It was a hundred and forty-five years ago, Melanie. No need to brood about it."

"Coming from the guy who still wants the same girl from a hundred and forty-five years ago?" I winced after I said it. Not exactly something sensitive to say to someone who can't get said girl back. "Sorry."

He shrugged, dismissing the apology. "It's true."

"Katherine must have been one hell of a girl, to inspire all of this," I blurted out my thoughts.

"She is," he said quietly.

I frowned at the present tense, but didn't comment. I still spoke of my parents in present tense sometimes. Grief could be strange. Thanks to Emily, Katherine was stuck in the tomb forever.

The rest of the car ride was in silence.

Damon took me home. I watched his car drive away, filled with an odd feeling. He couldn't get Katherine back, so he probably wouldn't stick around Mystic Falls.

I used to think that was a good thing. Hell, it was a good thing, for Mystic Falls' population. Which was why this feeling was surprising me. I was the one who said one roadtrip didn't make us friends. And we weren't! So everything was fine. Ugh.

I looked forward to crawling under my covers and finally sleeping in a bed this time.

I walked into the house, stumbling back as Elena stormed upstairs.

"Elena!" Jenna called after her, but Elena ignored her. I heard the door slam.

"Um…" I said, unsure what I just walked into. "Hey?"

"I didn't want her to find out that way," Jenna mumbled, not looking at me.

"Hello?" I waved my hand around. "Find out what?"

Jenna sighed, and looked me in the eye. "She's adopted."

"She's…adopted," I repeated, blinking rapidly.

"Can you talk to her?" Jenna gave me a pleading look.

"Why? Because I know what it's like?" I asked, maybe too snidely. Me and Elena could start a club.

Jenna's face fell. I sighed.

"Sorry. I've had a really long day and it's making me snappish. I'll talk to her, but first I just want to sleep, okay?"

Jenna nodded. I felt guilty for not doing more to comfort her, but I really was super tired. I left a dejected Jenna in my wake while I headed upstairs.

I changed clothes as quickly as I could before finally getting in bed and going to sleep.

Summer break has ended for me and I probably won't be able to get chapters out at my usual pace, though I'll definitely try. Thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews! I love reading reviews, they really motivate me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.