The day went by quickly and I was actually a little anxious to meet up with her. What if she changed? I know I had. I was so geeky and awkward as a kid….ok, so maybe I hadn't changed that much. But at least I finally grew into my body instead of being the tall, lanky kid.

Elena always had that round face of hers, it didn't exactly make her look chubby but it made her face look younger, even than me at times. And then there was Jeremy. I swear he was my first crush, although I'd never tell him back then. I was more of a tomboy and I'm sure he saw me as just another one of the boys.

I'd taken the beater, my parents old car that they gave to me for graduation(Thanks guys! When I said I wanted a car, I was thinking more along the lines of a Malibu but I guess I'll just drive the Buick until it runs into the ground!) to The Grill and walked in the front. The place was just as I remembered. Smelled like smoke, was so dark you couldn't really see much, and had bad music playing in the background.

I looked around a few times and didn't see anyone I recognized. Great….what if this was just a joke? Haha the new girl in town is an idiot let's all go watch and see how she….

"Vi? Vi is that you?" I turned to see Elena smiling at me.

"Elena? Oh my god you look exactly the same!" she came towards me and gave me a big hug.

"You don't at all." she laughed "Oh…I don't mean that in a bad way! I mean…well….I"

"It's ok I know what you mean" I smiled. I wasn't exactly the cutest kid when I was younger

She laughed and we sat down at a table together. We ordered food and made small chit chat. It did seem awkward at first but then we started getting into a good flow once we started talking about classes. We were just talking about how we might try and get a few classes together when our food came.

"Thanks Jer. Hey….you remember Vi, right?"

I looked up and saw him….except holy hell, did he grow up. Tall, muscles, tan, and a smile that…..

"Oh yeah, hey Vi! How've you been? Wow it's been a while, hasn't it?" and he just kept smiling.

"Uhh yeah. I've been pretty good, you know. How about you?" I was mumbling, hopefully he understood what the hell I was saying.

"Good. Good! You know….working at The Grill, going to school…..nothing really exciting."

"Yeah well, that's life in Mystic Falls, right?" Elena responded.

"Well it was good seeing you. Hope I see more of you." he smiled and walked away.

Was he flirting? Or was I just taking it that way? We'd been friends, maybe that's all he meant? Best to just forget about it anyway.

"Wow Jeremy grew up. I remember when he was barely taller than me." I joked to Elena.

"Yeah he's a good kid. He had it a little rough when our parents died but he's turned around and he's a great guy now."

"Well good I'm glad he's gotten himself straightened out.

We chatted for a good half hour before we were interrupted again, and quite rudely actually.

"Elena! Won't you introduce me to your gorgeous friend here?" a young guy slid his way into the booth next to Elena and almost snuggled up right next to her. If he weren't so creepy he'd actually be pretty damn attractive.

"Ugh hands off" she told him as she elbowed him in the ribs. "Vi, this is Damon. Damon, this is my old friend Violet. She used to live here years ago, her and her family have just moved back."

"Violet" he grabbed my hand and kissed it "It's such a pleasure to meet you. I hope we'll be seeing you around quite often." at least this time I knew it was blatant flirting.

"Ok Damon. You can leave now. I'm sure there's a bottle of Jack at the bar calling to you" Elena gave him a death glare.

"Elena I'm hurt. You don't want me here? Aren't we friends?" he feigned a hurtful look.

"No, we're not friends. Now leave."

He finally left and sauntered on over towards the bar where Jeremy was at. They began chatting but it didn't look like Jeremy was too fond of him, either. More like just tolerating him considering he was a paying customer.

"So….is that guy friends with Jeremy?"

"Damon? Friends with Jeremy? Noooo. Hell no. Those two can barely stand each other. No…he's kind of the brother of the guy I'm dating, Stefan.

"Ah, I see. And everyone sort of just tolerates him?"

"Yeah" she laughed "That's a nice way of putting it."

All in all we were at The Grill for an hour and a half talking. It turned from awkward small talk to actual conversation. It was nice to catch up, I realized how much I really did miss her. All the while stealing glances over towards Jeremy. He caught me one time, and just smiled and waved towards me.

I got home by 3:00 and my mom was in the living room reading a magazine.

"Hey sweetheart, how'd it go? Did you two catch up?"

"Yeah ma, it was nice. Thanks for giving me the push to go. You know, Elena looks the same as she did when we were kids! It's crazy." I smiled and sat down next to her. "Jeremy though, he grew up."

"I remember when you had the biggest crush on him when you were little. It was so cute. You two were such good friends."

"Yeah well…..we're all grown up and I've moved on now." I tried changing the subject.

"Did you meet any of her other friends?" she asked me.

"Just one. Well….I don't think he was exactly her friend. This guy Damon came into the restaurant. He's brothers with the guy Elena is seeing, Stefan.

"Salvatore?" My mom questioned.

"Uhh yeah, how'd you know?" I was curious.

"Oh we grew up with a Salvatore and he talked about his nephews Damon and Stefan. I think his name was Zach. Always thought it was strange that he had nephews when he was so young, himself. He made it seem like Stefan was the sweet one and Damon was the bad one. I felt kind of bad…they must have just been kids. He didn't seem to care for Damon much."

"Huh….well, he doesn't seem like he grew up to be a great guy so maybe that Zach was onto something." I replied. "Where's dad, at work?" I asked.

"Yeah he'll be home by dinnertime. Are you going to see Elena again?"

"Yes, actually she invited me to a party at the Boarding House tomorrow night. I guess her and Jeremy are staying there since their house burned down."

"That'll be nice! You just make sure you don't do anything stupid. You know I don't approve of underage drinking. And call me if anything happens and you do decide to do something stupid, ok?"

"Yes mother you know I will." Even though my mom drove me nuts, I still loved her. She really was my best friend and we talked about almost everything. For some reason I couldn't bring myself to talk to her about how I still apparently had feelings for Jeremy. It could be nothing, and he probably still doesn't feel that way about me. Maybe in a few weeks I'd tell her about it if I still was feeling that way. Right now I just wanted to go relax in my room. "I'm gonna go upstairs and relax. I'm kind of tired. Call me down when dinner's ready?"

"Sure honey. Love you."

"Love you too, mom."