"Thanks, Matt," Elena tells her friend, as he refills her water with the hand not in a cast. He stops to chat for a minute, and then he's on to the next table. Elena feels bad that Matt is always working so hard. She wishes she could do something to make his life easier – but Elena knows that he wouldn't take her money, and she'd essentially be signing his death certificate if she invited him to live with her to save on rent.
As Matt moves away, he reveals Kol – sitting at the bar, watching Matt's every move with the hungry eyes of a predator who has chosen its next snack. Elena pretends to look down at her phone, as she examines Kol from beneath her lashes, her thoughts racing. She's unsure why this particular predator has focused on Matt – but she isn't going to abandon her friend to the death looming in those dark eyes.
Elena thinks briefly about calling (texting) the cavalry. But none of her friends are a match for an Original. Damon got a lucky drop on Kol before – she doesn't think Kol will allow it again. (She thinks very briefly of Elijah, driven from Mystic Falls by his regret. She'd forgive him anything if he were ihere/i right now.)
Elena looks down at her outfit – a pair of jeans and a Henley over her tank top. She tugs on the bottom of her shirt, playing it up as her anxiety causing her to fiddle with her clothes. (She pretends that she doesn't notice that she pulled down her tank top enough to reveal a hint of her lacy black bra beneath.)
Elena puts her phone away and sighs – perhaps a touch dramatic, but hopefully not over exaggerated enough to raise suspicion. Then she walks to the bar like a girl on a mission. (She is, but hopefully Kol doesn't guess that her real mission isn't getting drunk.)
Of course she's focused on convincing the bartender to give her a tequila shot, even though she's underage.
Of course she's too self-absorbed to notice Kol, a few chairs down from where Elena is giving the bartender her best smile, and leaning over to flash a hint of cleavage.
And of course the bartender refuses to serve her. (Elena knew he would – she icounted/i on it.)
She pouts, looking around the bar as if searching for someone to buy her a drink. She lets her eyes widen as they fall on Kol, lets her lips open to mouth his name without a sound – as if she's surprised to see him.
Kol is at her side in a moment, completely uncaring if anyone sees him move too fast to be human. "Doppelganger," he greets, a smile playing along his lips that Elena would call mischievous if she didn't know the viciousness lurking underneath.
"My name is Elena," she tells him, with just a hint of Petrova fire, as she stares up into those dark eyes. She feels her heart racing – with fear, though maybe he'll think it's mixed with something else. Even instinct is telling her to run – far, far away.
She reminds herself that she needs to stay to distract him from Matt, and that Kol won't kill her. Klaus needs her. (She tries to forget that Elijah told her that Kol is the most unpredictable of his brothers – that even Klaus fears Kol's wildness, at times.)
"Two shots of tequila," Kol orders the bartender. "Why don't you just leave the bottle?" He looks away from Elena just long enough to compel the bartender, and then he turns back to her, presenting the bottle of tequila with a flourish.
"Maybe I should get going," Elena tells him, letting her voice tremble just a tiny little bit, letting her eyes dart around the room as if searching for a hero. (She very purposefully does not look at Matt, his back to them as he cleans a table.) "Elijah…"
"Has my big brother been telling stories about me?" Kol asks, handing her one of the tequila shots. He clinks their glasses together, drinking his own and then watching with a smile as Elena shoots hers down quickly.
"Only good things," Elena responds, not even bothering to hide the lie. She takes a tentative step, as if to walk around Kol.
"What's the rush, love?" he asks, looming over her without touching her – grabbing her shot glass to fill it again. "Stay a while. This town is awful boring."
Elena has a feeling that a bored Kol is a very, very dangerous Kol.
"Well, I guess a ifew/i drinks wouldn't hurt," Elena replies, shooting him a half-hearted flirtatious smile. He's too distracted by her cleavage to notice. "Maybe while we play a game of pool?" she offers.
Kol smiles, and follows her to an empty pool table. Elena cleans the floor with him the first game, letting herself giggle and flirt and relax more and more with each shot that they take. During the second game, she watches the way he watches her – dark eyes often focused on her breasts, peeking out just a bit more as she leans over to take her shot.
He's engrossed by her, seemingly forgetting about Matt completely.
It's exactly what Elena wanted. Except – as she misses a shot, and Kol walks up to her to take his turn, and their bodies brush together as she gives him the table – she realizes that she hadn't really planned on her exit strategy.
When Kol walks her home after she beats him at pool for the third time, she's somewhat surprised that he doesn't even try to ask for an invitation inside. He doesn't even try to steal a kiss (or a taste of her blood). Kol is gone the moment Elena is safely over her threshold.
She wonders if that's the end of it.
(The next morning, when Elena opens her door and a deliveryman hands her a big bouquet of flowers and a letter with an invitation to dinner, she realizes that there's a very good chance that her misdirection was itoo/i successful.)
