"Sì, Papà," I said over the phone the next morning. "Damon is here in Mystic Falls. He didn't want to come home yet."
"Oh me, Stefano," he said in his accent. "You are needing glasses? Are you so blind you can't be seeing your fratello?"
"My what?" I asked.
"You brother!" he said sternly over the phone. "I love you, Stefano, but you italiano skills have gotten less."
"I love you, too, Papà," I laughed, "but your inglese is bad these days."
"I will phone Nicoletta and tell her that Damone is with you," he noted audibly. He always called everyone by their Italian names.
I heard a child cry from the other end, "Is everything alright, Papà? Where are you?"
"Beppe?" I heard a female say over the phone. "Pippo?" Those were both nicknames of "Giuseppe".
"Papà!" I yelled into the phone.
"That was Rossanna," he said when he could hear me again. "You remember her, Stefano? She has a bambina now. She so tiny! Her name is Sabina. I call her Bambina Bina!"
He chuckled at his own joke. My Aunt Roxanne came over for a week of vacation last year to visit me and Damon. She'd told us she was going to have a child, but I was never told that she actually had the baby. Sabina was a pretty name, though.
"Ciao, Stefano!" I could hear her say over the phone.
"Ciao, Zia Rossanna!" I called as I laughed.
"Well, Stefano," my father began. "I should go off the phone now. I love you, son. Arrivederci!"
"I love you, too. Goodbye!" I said before I hung up the phone and groaned into my pillow. "Ugh."
Apparently that groan was loud enough to hear, for Mrs. Flowers came up and knocked on my door, "Are you alright, Stefan?"
"Yes, Mrs. Flowers," I said through the walls. "I was just talking to my dad in Italy."
I could've sworn that I heard her mumble something about foreign families being too much to bear, but she was an old lady, so I couldn't say anything if she rambled to herself all day. It seemed normal for people her age.
My phone rang again. At least it was a local number.
"Hello?" I said.
"Ciao, Fratellino," I heard an all-too-familiar voice say over the line.
"What the hell, Damone?" I yelled. I then covered my mouth, because I'd called him his name in Italian. Maybe I was speaking with my father a bit too much. "If you're going to call me "little brother" at least do it in English!"
"Why would I do that, Stefano?" he asked, and I just knew that there was a sarcastic smirk creeping onto his face. I just knew it! "Annoying you is too fun to play by the rules."
"Where are you?" I asked. "You didn't even call Dad to tell him you were here. Do you understand how worried he was? You don't answer your phone, call, or even show up on your flight. Then - because he's so worried - he feels the need to call me and fret. You're more trouble than you're worth, Damon."
"Oh, that hurt," he said in mock pain. "I was just checking in on you, and you insult me. How rude!"
"Shut up!" I snapped.
There was a mumbling over the phone, and one of the voices was female. It sounded like Elena.
"Are you with Elena right now?" I asked.
"Maybe," he laughed.
For some reason beyond me, Damon's comment infuriated me and I hung up the phone before throwing it at my wall. It was a bad idea. I wasn't aiming for anything in particular, and thus, my phone flew out the window I'd opened earlier in the day, before I left for my shift at the Grille. With many profane words shooting from my mouth, I stomped down the stairs and out the door to retrieve the device that I truly believed would be the item that drove me to insanity.
The kicker of the whole situation is that when I picked up my phone from the front of the yard, it started to ring again. I gave an irritated chuckle and powered the phone off. I didn't even know who called, and at the moment I really didn't care.
I looked at the clock when I went inside, and without thinking, let out an exasperated sigh. I was late to meet Elena at her home, "Cock-sucking-mother-fucking-son-of-a-bitch!"
Worse situation: I'd said it right in front of Mrs. Flowers.
My eyes grew wide, "I'm so sorry…"
"Damn, boy!" she said as she did the typical modern day "snap". "You have a fucking mouth on you that would put a sailor to shame, even if he had a part-time job as a trucker."
She laughed, stood up straight, and walked back into the kitchen as she resumed her incoherent mumbling. Despite my terrible day, I laughed in spite of myself. The woman surprised me yet.
I quickly fondled my keys in my pocket and headed out to my classic red Porsche. I'd deny to any police officer that I knew the speed at which I was going, but in actuality, I knew it down to the very single digit. I had to get to Elena's quick. We couldn't be wasting any time. Ever since the new piece of evidence was found, it has been seemingly all that's on her mind.
On my mind, though, was the moment after I'd saved her from the raging waters yesterday. We were so close to kissing that I could almost taste the yearning. Whether it was mine or hers was still a mystery to me, but maybe we could find that out as we solved the other mystery at hand.
I didn't care if Damon was, in fact, with her; I had to help her in any way I could. No amount of time with my insane brother could ever change the want to be near Elena. I'd been with her for only a month, and I was already in way over my head. Sometimes I even questioned at night what the hell I was doing-even wondered why I wouldn't just go back to New York and continue with my life. I should mourn the death of my dear Katherine, and then get on with my existence after remembering her sweet qualities. I shouldn't be here…but I just couldn't stay away.
When I'd arrived at Elena's home, she was out on her front porch swing sipping on some tea as her legs helped her sway back and forth. I quickly exited my car and came running up to her.
"I'm so sorry, Elena," I said. "I didn't mean to be late."
"I called you, but it only rang twice before going to voicemail," she said as she moved the files beside her for me to sit down.
"Yeah, I've had a bad morning," I said, and then something hit me. "Were you with Damon, earlier?"
"Nope, I haven't seen him since…yesterday." She blushed at recalling the memory, and I looked away before my smile became bigger than the face it was placed on.
There was an awkward silence.
"Well," I began, "what did you find out?"
"I was examining the piece that I found yesterday," she said as she fondled the item in her hands, "and I found something quite interesting about it."
She showed me the chunk; I could see an oddly placed dent.
"I was remembering where this could've possibly come off of, and I realized it was a part of the passenger door," she said.
She then showed me the dent up closely. This time, she pressed her hand to it…and it fit perfectly.
"It's Katherine's hand print," she told me in a serious tone. "I don't know how that's possible, but it is. If we were in some supernatural world, I'd say she was Wonder Woman and stuck her hand out to stop the car from caving the door in like I'd originally assumed. But instead, the car slammed too hard and caved in every part of her side except where her hand was, making this chunk pop out of the door like a puzzle piece."
"How could this happen?" I asked.
"I really don't know," she said. "Maybe that's how it happened, but she may have broken her arm in the process without the examiner noticing. Whatever the case, this just further proves that this wasn't an accident at all. She saw it coming and planned for the impact. My family was murdered."
"My God," I said when it finally hit me.
"Yeah," she agreed. "Is it alright if you go through the files alone tonight? I have to meet up with Bonnie now that she's coming back from visiting family out-of-state."
"Bonnie?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said. "She's my best friend along with Caroline. The two couldn't be more different, but I think you'll like her. I'll introduce you two soon. She's coming home later and she'll need to get settled in."
"Yeah, I'll go through them," I said as I took the three files from her, along with a notebook, the car piece, and copies of all the pictures Elena printed from her camera.
"Until then, I need to go to the store for groceries," she started. "Alaric is busy at summer meetings all this week, and Jeremy keeps sneaking off somewhere. Would you like to go with me?"
The thought of getting out of the sweltering summer heat and into an air conditioned grocery store was appealing to me, so I agreed.
"I'll go with you," I said. "Do you have a list? Are we taking my car or yours?"
"I have the list," she said as she pulled it out of her jeans pocket. "We can take your car if you want. I'll give you gas money."
"Nonsense," I laughed. "I offered."
"If I didn't give you any, I'd feel like a mooch," she said with small stress lines beginning to form on her forehead.
"Elena, it's fine," I said with a sincere smile. Just being with her was enough to make my day worthwhile.
"Are you sure?" she asked wearily.
"Yup," I said as I jumped up.
She laughed at me and proceeded to lock up her home and follow me to my car.
"You were right about it standing out in a crowd," she laughed. "It's very old."
"Yes," I agreed. "Don't hate on the car. It's old enough to be your car's great-grandmother, and it still goes faster."
"So it's a girl?" she accused.
"Yup," I said. "This car is my most prized possession."
"Wasn't Katherine your prized possession?" she asked. I was learning to better speak freely about Katherine now, except with specific words in the same sentence.
"Katherine wasn't a possession," I said. "She was just my most prized."
I was glad to see that the mending process had taken effect, but I wondered if the rate at which I was healing meant that I loved Katherine less than I claimed I did. I quickly shooed the thought from my mind and made small talk with Elena all the way to the local grocery store.
...
"Alright," she began once we entered. I took a moment to relish the fact that we were in an air conditioned building. The boardinghouse didn't have such luxuries. "I need spinach, milk, eggs, bread, doughnuts, bottled water, eight chicken breasts, and mint chocolate chip ice cream."
I laughed at the last one.
"What?" she smiled. "I cannot live without my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's my favorite!"
"I like it, too," I agreed. "I always had to buy a separate carton because Katherine never ate any ice cream but vanilla. If I didn't buy two separate flavors, I at least bought chocolate syrup to cover up the bland taste. My favorite was always chocolate chip cookie dough."
We both laughed.
"That's a good idea," she said. "Let me put chocolate syrup and cookie dough on the list."
She took a pen out of her hand and scribbled it quickly on the list before we made our way back to the produce department.
"Is there anything you want?" she asked as she compared the weights of two bags of spinach leaves.
"Not really," I said.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "I'll buy it as long as it's legal."
I laughed, "I'm sure. I don't need anything."
She turned around and met my eyes, "I didn't ask if you needed anything; I asked if you wanted anything."
"The thing I want in this store can't be bought," I said casually, but the weight of my words loomed in the back of my brain.
She gave me a curious look, but I just winked at her.
"What's next on the list?" I asked.
"Um, milk and eggs," she said as she looked down at her list as she tried to hide a blush. I think she knew what I was talking about.
We made our way back to the dairy section and continued our small conversations until we were finished.
"Are you hungry?" she asked as the cashier finished ringing her up.
"Just a bit," I admitted. "You?"
"Starved," she laughed. "Do you want to go to Subway? They have the best sweet onion sauce."
"Sure," I agreed, "but it'll never beat Rosenthal's. You should put your groceries away first or they'll spoil out in this heat."
"True," she said. "We'll stop back at my house first and then we can go."
"Okay."
"And I'll give you gas money," she mumbled, but I heard it.
"No you won't," I said casually as I grabbed all of the bags and headed for my car.
"Stefan, I can get a bag," she said as she followed behind me.
"I know," I said, thinking about just how real karma was, "but I got them all."
"Ugh," she groaned. "You men and your chivalry."
"Whoever said chivalry was dead obviously hasn't met a Salvatore man," I laughed. "Even Damon has class when he wants to use it."
"Why did you think I was with him earlier?" she asked once we arrived at my car.
"He called me and I heard a woman in the background," I said. "She sounded like you."
"Oh," she teased. "I thought you might've been jealous or something."
"Me, jealous?" I asked. "Of course I would be."
She laughed at my bold statement. I think she took it as a joke. When I smiled at her without laughing she looked back at me.
"Really?" she asked with casualness.
"Duh," I said. "My brother getting the beautiful girl after getting everything else in the world would infuriate me. Especially since he'd only want you because he couldn't have Katherine."
"I remind you of Katherine," she looked down. "I guess I understand why you think I'm beautiful. I look just like her."
Her face fell a bit.
"Elena, that's not what I said," I told her softly. "I said Damon would think that because he tried to steal Katherine from me. He'd try to get you because he failed with her. I myself, on the other hand, do think you're beautiful, but not because you look like her. Your light shines even in the darkest times. I'm not going to lie and say I was only with Katherine because she was the only beautiful one I saw. There are plenty of girls that I'm attracted to, but none of them hold my interest. Take Caroline for instance - she's beautiful, nice, funny, and everything a typical guy would want in a girl, but I don't have any spark with her. It's not all about physical appearance, Elena; because that's the only thing you have in common with Katherine. You are completely different than she is."
"Is that a good thing?" she asked.
"Of course," I said.
She smiled at me, "Thanks, Stefan."
"You're welcome, Miss Gilbert," I laughed as I took her face into my hands and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.
She blushed and I smiled quickly before going to the front and getting into my car. I didn't say anything else about it the whole day because I didn't want to dwell on it. Little did she know is that if I thought about it too much, I would've regretted not kissing her where I really wanted to.
I didn't, though, because I was still having an internal war with myself. I wasn't sure if I truly liked Elena for her personality or if it was, in fact, because she looked like Katherine. I wasn't lying when I said they were different. Polar opposites, actually, but more than likely, there was still some bias. I wasn't going to make any sudden decision regarding her until I was sure. What happened yesterday was too close, and for a second I was actually glad Damon had came and stopped it. Though, I really did want to kiss her.
Like I'd said, I was way over my head in this situation. At the moment, though, I didn't care. I was having the time of my life.
Maybe even more fun than I'd ever had with Katherine.