Elena groaned as she rolled over in bed trying to get away from the sunlight. It was way too bright and too early in her book to even be awake at the moment. There was a huge pounding in her head and her whole body was aching. She wasn't sure what she did last night but she knew it must have been a hell of a time considering her current state. Rolling over though she crashed into something hard, yet soft and it was not the pillows. Her eyes opened wide to figure it out. There was a naked man beside her, he looked awfully familiar but he wasn't supposed to be there. She wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this man beside her.
"Oh shit." Elena whispered. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit." She removed herself from the bed only to find herself completely naked. If her heart wasn't pounding to begin with it was surely about to beat right out of her chest. Searching the room for her clothes she didn't seem to recognize the room. As if things couldn't get any worse in her book. She was naked, apparently slept with the one guy she could not stand, and she was in a strange place. This was not his room or her room so she had no clue where they were. Her friends were probably wondering where she was. Elena looked around the room to see what a disaster it was, clothes were everywhere and things were knocked all around. This could not be happening to her. Elena grabbed the blanket on the floor wrapping it around herself searching for her cell phone. She needed to find a way to get out of here before he woke up. This was one conversation she did not want to have at the moment, or ever at that. "Where the hell are my clothes?"
"Looking for these?" She heard his voice as she slowly turned around to see a black lacy thong hanging from his finger. The smirk he had on his face is something she wanted to slap off at the moment but it was also what probably got her into this trouble in the first place. She took the time to look him over to see that he was sitting up in the bed with the sheets falling over his lower half revealing his sculpted chest. He had bed head like crazy, or was it a mess because she couldn't keep her hands out of it last night? Running her hands through her hair she cursed under her breath. Since when did she cuss so much?
She marched over to him using one hand to hold the sheet and the other to snatch her underwear from him, but he quickly grabbed her hand so she couldn't pull away. With a confused face he looked down to see a ring on her left hand. His eyes grew wide at the ring that was there. It was his family ring with their family crest on it. What in the hell had exactly happened last night? Her eyes followed his and her heart started to pound again. She was sure she was going to have a heart attack because that ring never came off this man's finger. It was something passed down for generations in their family and no one ever got to wear it, you could get a ring made with the crest in it but this ring in particular was meant for no one but the men in the family. Elena knew the story behind the ring and she knew what it meant and she also knew what it meant for a woman to wear the family crest. This was not good at all. Obviously the ring was too big for her, but apparently the two had bought a spacer for it so she could wear it. His eyes rose to meet hers and his green eyes held just as much fear as hers.
"Stefan…" She whispered when she felt the tears coming to her eyes.
"What did we do?" He asked. He looked down at his hand to see there was a silver band around his ring finger. He pushed the covers off of him jumping up revealing himself to Elena who was too shocked to take in the sight of him. "Elena we can't be married." He searched for his clothes. Stefan rummaged around the room throwing things in frustration until he found his boxers slipping them on and tossed Elena her dress which was ripped. Finding his shirt from the night before which happened to be a white button up he handed it to her.
"My parents are going to kill me." Elena cried. She buttoned up most of the shirt because she guessed in the heat of the moment she had ripped the shirt from him.
Stefan pulled his pants on and sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. Elena sat beside him crying. She was sure she heard him crying too and it was something Stefan never did. The two just sat soaking in the fact that they got married last night.
"This was supposed to be a trip to remember and now I don't ever want to think about it again." Elena said aloud. It was true they had decided to take their senior trip a week before school started because they knew after graduation everyone would go their separate ways and this couldn't happen. Everyone saved up all of junior year and the whole summer to make the trip happen.
"I guess what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas." Stefan said with no emotion.
"We weren't even supposed to go to Vegas." Elena said. They were only supposed to spend a week in California. Who's bright idea was it to make a last minute trip to Vegas before leaving? Oh yeah it was the man beside her and his crazy ass friend Lexi. Elena loved Lexi but the girl was a mess always looking for a good time.
"We can get an annulment." Stefan said as it suddenly hit him. "We just have to tell them that we are only seniors in high school and just eighteen. They have to annul it."
"And what do you suppose we tell them? That we hate each other but when we get drunk we tend to sleep together? So we can't be married because we were drunk off our asses and ended up in Vegas? Stefan they won't buy it."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Stefan said with frustration.
"I think we need to call someone. Stefan we need help."
"Who can I call Elena? Damon? Yeah that will be real good he will just laugh and tell me to stick it out. He's just like your pain in the ass sister."
Elena's head shot up at that and Stefan gave her a pointed look. "I know." She sighed.
"But it's our only hope. Katherine may be a bitch but she has a heart somewhere in there."
"You sure about that?" Elena couldn't help but to let out a small laugh at his question. Their brother and sister were a match made in heaven.
"Stefan, I can't call my parents and ask them for help. They will be so disappointed in me. They were already not even happy about the trip to California to begin with. They were really skeptical when I mentioned your name."
Stefan rolled his eyes of course the Gilbert's didn't trust him. They really had a reason not to now.
"You are not even my boyfriend." Elena softly said. The words stung Stefan because she was right. One of his best friends was dating Elena now. "He's going to hate me."
"He loves you." Stefan told her. "He'll forgive you and we don't even have to tell him."
Elena started crying and Stefan tensed up. He didn't know what to do to fix this problem but he knew he had to figure something out to fix this. It was probably his fault to begin with that they were in this situation he was sure of it. Elena had a problem of always competing with him. He usually played it in his favor and it looks like last night he had. She didn't deserve what he had done.
"I'll call Damon, can you please call Lexi? She will keep everyone stalled and maybe be able to bring us our suitcases. I'll fix this Elena." Stefan promised, but for some reason Elena already knew there was nothing they could do. She nodded going to find her phone while Stefan got his.
After a long conversation with Damon who practically screamed at him through the phone agreed to help the two out. Damon was going to make a few phone calls and see what all he could do while Katherine was going to do the same. Stefan made the two promise not to utter a word even if they could not get the marriage annulled because the last thing that needed to be going around town was that Elena had married Stefan Salvatore.
"Lexi is coming." Elena said.
"Damon and Katherine our working their wicked magic." Stefan sighed running his fingers through his hair.
About five minutes later there was a knock on the door and Stefan went to answer it. "What in the hell happened to you two last night?" Lexi barged in with two big suitcases dropping them on the floor.
"Lexi please no questions right now." Stefan told her.
Lexi looked around at the sight of the room and then at the sight of them. "You two got it on last night." Lexi said with a huge smile. She always was a fan of them being together. "Look I won't tell anyone but how many more times is this going to happen before Matt finds out?"
"I think I'm going to be sick." Elena said running to the bathroom and Stefan ran after her but she shut the door in his face locking it.
Stefan threw his hands up in the air. "Elena we're going to grab some breakfast I'll be right back." Stefan told her. He didn't bother waiting for an answer he knew she needed space to recover from their eventful morning.
"So you're telling me you two ran off and got married last night?" Lexi asked on the elevator back up to the room. Stefan held his left hand up and it got him a hard punch on the arm. "You dick I wanted to be a part of that wedding! Caroline is going to be pissed she didn't get to plan it!"
"So not the problem here Lexi." Stefan replied. "I can't stay married to that girl."
"And why not?"
Stefan looked at her as if it was obvious. "Because I don't love her and I sure as hell don't care about her."
"You're lying."
"Am I?" Stefan asked. "Elena and I have never gotten along. She hates me and I can't stand her. Damon and Katherine being together is just something that forces us to stand each other and the fact that we have mutual friends doesn't help either."
Lexi was calling his bluff because she knew deep down there was a part of him that cared about Elena Gilbert. It was something he had hidden for so long from everyone around him that he was convinced himself he had no feelings for her. "You are just bitter."
"Bitter about what? That Elena doesn't want to be married to me?"
"No you are bitter that she ran to Matt when you messed everything up and when you finally realized your mistake it was too late. You're mad that you took too long to ask her to that dance that would have fixed all your problems."
Stefan didn't say a word as he entered the hotel room again. "Where is everyone?" He asked Lexi ignoring her.
"They are all having breakfast I told them to cover for Elena that she was with me and we were going to some store to pick up something for Jeremy and I told them you must have had a one night stand with someone."
"Thanks." Stefan looked to see that Elena was fully dressed and sitting in a chair looking out the window lost in thought.
"I brought you coffee." Lexi went to her handing her the cup.
"Thanks." She answered still in a daze.
"Everything is going to be okay." Lexi hugged her friend when she saw her tear stained cheeks.
"I'm going to shower." Stefan told them feeling out of place.
"Lexi how am I going to fix this?" Elena asked her. "Everyone is going to be so mad at me."
"Damon is going to fix this." Lexi assured her.
Elena shook her head sadly. "Stefan just said that to make me feel better. I'm married to the one guy I can't stand to be around."
"That's not true."
"It is. We do nothing but argue. He does everything he can to get under my skin and I can't stand it. I do everything I can to piss him off in return."
"Sounds like you two have been married for years." Lexi smiled at her. "Let me see what kind of ring he bought you."
Elena flashed her hand and Lexi's eyes went wide with shock.
"He didn't."
"He did." Elena informed her.
"This thing is sacred. I've never even been able to get it off his damn finger."
"Really?" Elena was now the one surprised.
"Really he almost chopped my fingers off one night when I tried."
"He lets me play with it all the time…I mean when we get drunk. He let me wear it when I was sixteen."
"When you two dated." Lexi finished for her.
"Yeah." Elena sighed. "Seems like forever ago."
"But it was only two years ago."
"Funny how much things can change." Elena had to admit she did like the way the ring looked on her finger but she knew it wasn't hers to keep. "I can't stay married to him." Lexi felt as if she was having dejavu or something.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm in love with Matt, I don't love Stefan. He doesn't care about me anymore."
"Don't kid yourself, we know he does."
"I'm afraid not." Elena told her sadly. "I'm ready to go home."
Stefan exited the shower dressed in a clean pair of clothes talking on the cell phone and it sounded like Damon. Closing the phone he looked at the girls. "We need to make a trip to the Justice of the Peace and state our case and pretty much beg for an annulment. Apparently its frowned upon for seniors to make trips to Vegas, get drunk, and marry their enemy."
"Let's go." Elena said gathering her things. "Matt is blowing my phone up wondering when we will be back."
"I told Bonnie we were meeting everyone at the airport." Lexi said.
"We've got an hour." Stefan looked at his watch.
Stefan, Elena, and Lexi made their way across town to the courthouse and the married couple went in and tried to plead their case to the judge but he was not having any of it. He told them that with their parents' permission that they could get an annulment but if not then they would have to stay married until the date of their graduation. Stefan argued with him almost getting thrown into jail for the profanities he was sending the man's way. Elena stopped him and drug him out of the court room. The two picked up their marriage license with sad faces. Lexi was pretty pumped and insisted to take pictures with it.
"Here take this. I don't want any evidence that I married my best friend's girl." Stefan handed it to Elena.
"I don't want it." Elena shoved it back at him.
"I'll take it." Lexi stuffed it into her oversized purse. She was actually happy the judge didn't give into their request but she was also sad because her two favorite people were depressed. This wasn't what she wanted this trip to be about. "Look I know this isn't ideal but can we please just have a nice flight home?"
"Can the plane just go up in flames please?" Elena groaned. "I don't want to think about home at this point."
"Katherine is going to kick my ass." Stefan spoke up. "Your parents are going to hate me even more if that's even possible."
"I know that's right." Elena said. The trio made it to the airport and when they walked up Elena noticed that the ring was still on her finger and Stefan's was on his. "Get rid of your damn ring."
Stefan looked down at his hand and took the ring off shoving it into his pocket as Elena did the same. Lexi eyed them curiously wondering why Elena didn't feel the need to return his ring.
"You've got to be kidding me?" Stefan asked looking at his ring finger.
"What?" The girls asked.
"This." Stefan showed them the nice little E tattooed on his finger.
"You have got to be shitting me?" Elena looked at her finger and thankfull there was nothing there. "Cover it up. I don't care no one can see that. We are getting it removed when we get home. As if you couldn't screw my life up even more."
"Excuse me? You are the one who screwed everything up. I'm sorry you can't keep your hand's to yourself and from the looks of it the E looks like it was done in your handwriting so don't accuse me of doing this on mine own woman."
"Guys shut up we are about to meet everyone." Lexi told them. "Stefan stuff that hand in your pocket."
The meeting was awkward to say the least but Elena did a good job of putting on a smile and faking her happiness. Stefan watched as she kissed Matt sweetly telling him that she had missed him and loved him. Stefan wanted to throw up at the sight. Lexi pulled him to the gates so they could get on the plane. Elena felt guilty running back to Matt but she had formalities to keep up.
"Glad to see some things never change, Matt always did enjoy my seconds didn't he?" Stefan whispered in her ear when no one was looking.
Elena's eyes filled with rage. "Go to hell."
"Only if you lead the way."
"I hate you."
"At least we can finally agree on something Mrs. Salvatore." He winked.
"Stop."
"Why? You afraid your golden relationship will be broken?"
"Stefan stop." Lexi told him.
"I'll see you at home." Stefan laughed.
"Do you have to be such a dick?" Lexi asked him.
"No, but it pisses her off so I think I'll keep it up." Stefan replied back.
Lexi sighed. This was going to be a long ride home with these two. Surely someone would put the two out of their misery. At least she hoped they would. Forcing these two to be together was like putting fire and kerosene together. There was bound to be a huge explosion in the end and someone was going to end up burned. It was the way it worked with Stefan and Elena, no one could ever win.