Chapter 7 (Day 3 continued-Day 4)
"What the hell are you doing in my niece's room?!"
Damon zooms so that he's now standing in front of Jenna, and the woman has fear and surprised all over her face.
"How… what..." Jenna pants in fright and curiosity.
"Shh… now listen to me carefully, Jenna. I was never here, you come to Elena's room to cleaning it a bit, then you feel tired and take a nap for an hour or two in your room," Damon's pupils dilates as he looks straight to Jenna's eyes.
She repeats his commands and goes to her bedroom without a word. Damon let out an exhale before he goes out of the window to find some snack to calm him down.
"I'm telling you, Ric, you were right! Damon is a vampire and he tried to compel me. Thank god for the vervain herbs you gave me yesterday," Jenna exclaimed as she sits on the edge of her bed.
"Was he being anything but good? Did he hurt you?"
"No, he just compelled me and I pretended to follow his orders."
"Okay, good," Alaric sighs through the phone. "Now I want you to also put vervain in Elena's tea or coffee everyday, at least once a day. That way we know Damon can't compel her."
"Okay, of course. But can you do something, though? Just make sure Damon is not staying in this house, especially not in Elena's room. Take him to your house, or something. Let him stay there," Jenna asks, fearing that Damon would take advantage of her niece.
"I'll try to find him around town then offer him a place to stay, okay?"
"Okay, thanks, babe. I'll talk to you later, love you."
"Love you too."
A sandy haired man spends his an hour long break sitting at the Mystic Grill hoping the man that he's looking for come to the place since it is the most popular hangout place in this little town. He's sipping his iced tea as soon as he has swallowed his delicious chicken burger. Every five minutes, Alaric looks at the front door hoping Damon would come through it so he could launch his brilliant plan. Twenty more minutes until he has to be back at the school, a tall, lean handsome man in his leather jacket and the same shirt he had worn on Sunday comes strolling to the bar. Damon sits down and asks for a drink to the bartender as Alaric keeps his eyes on him. He finishes his iced tea before he gets up, sitting at the empty stool beside Damon, the vampire he has been waiting for.
"What do you want?" Damon asks a second before Alaric sits down next to him.
"It's almost 1 p.m and you're drinking bourbon?"
"It's 10 p.m somewhere, teach."
Alaric keeps quiet, studying what he wants to say next that would not make the man in front of him suspicious.
"I'd rip your throat out in ten seconds if you keep staring at me, I know I'm good-looking," Damon smirks teasingly, but Alaric knows that he'd do it in a heartbeat.
"I'm looking for a roommate. My old roommate left to get married and I can't really afford the rent with my income. I think I told you about I'm a teacher at the high school, just started last week," the teacher said casually, but he hopes Damon would say yes or else Jenna would go crazy thinking about a vampire hanging at her niece's bedroom.
That does it. He gets Damon's attention.
Damon turns his stool so that his blue eyes focus on the man in front of him, "What?"
"You heard me."
"So, your stupid plan is to ask a stranger to fill the void in your house?"
"You're not a stranger. You ate breakfast with my girlfriend and her niece on Sunday with me," he said matter-of-factly.
"You were stupid to do that without even knowing my name, and you are the most idiot person to ask me what you just asked," Damon turns again to his drink, completely ignoring the look that Alaric is giving him, "Get lost."
"Okay, I admit it was strange to do that, but honestly I saw you behind the tree at the Gilbert's property, and you look like someone who hadn't eaten in a month and I just —"
"I said get lost," Damon grits his teeth, "You are starting to get on my nerves, teach."
"Fine, last chance. I kindly offer a place to stay, if you don't have any, for at least a month. Just until I can get back on my feet with the salary the school gives me. You in?"
"Why do you think I don't have a place to crash anyway?"
"Well, for one, you still wearing the same clothes as the last time I saw you. Second, that stubble makes me thinking you haven't got an appropriate shower in days."
"You're smart," Damon mumbles, looking down at his drink.
"That's why I'm a teacher," Alaric says proudly, thinking his plan is working after all.
Damon goes quiet for ten seconds before he turns his stool back again to face the History teacher, wearing his straight face, "Very well. I'll stay for a month."
A small smile turns wider into a grin that adorn Alaric's charming face, his plan is working. Jenna is going to be so happy, meaning that he is going to be so happy.
"Great! Here is my address," he takes out a piece of paper from his dark brown briefcase and write his home's address then gives it to Damon, "Feel free to come by after six. I have classes til four, then swing by to the gym for a while."
Damon takes the paper in his hand, "Wonderful."
Alaric gets up from his seat, takes his briefcase in his hand, "One more question. Do you have a job?"
"Being a fine-looking stud is one tough job to do all day," Damon smirks, downing his drink in one swallow.
Alaric rolls his eyes, preparing himself for a month of sarcasm from his new roommate, "Well, I need the money by the end of the month. That means a week from now, got it?"
"I'll give it you by tomorrow," he waves as if what he has said is nothing.
"See you later, roomie," Alaric winks mockingly, earning a groan from the vampire.
"Get out. Teach. Do something."
"I'm Alaric, by the way. Not 'teach'."
"Don't care."
"You what?"
Currently, Elena is in her navy t-shirt and grey yoga pants, sitting on her wooden chair doing homework. Damon casually leaning against her headboard with Elena's brown teddy bear sitting comfortably on his chest. Elena was in the middle of doing her AP English assignment when Damon told her about Alaric's offer and his new living arrangement.
"I accepted your aunt boyfriend's offer and now I move out of your room. Isn't that what you want? To have your room for yourself again?"
"But —"
Elena frowns. What is it with her? Sure, she wants Damon leave her alone but it doesn't mean she wants him to move out. For the past three days, he has made some prominent changes in her life, especially in her loneliness department, that she thinks she starts to get used of him being her roommate.
"What?" Damon asks, noticing her long pause.
"Didn't you at least a bit suspicious? First, with him invited you to our Sunday's breakfast, then offer you to be his roommate," Elena states, still trying to wrap up the fact that Damon will move out and the weird offer.
"Of course it's suspicious, my dear. But what's life without a bit sense of danger?" Damon smirks, turning on his charm in front of his soul mate.
Elena shakes her head slightly, temporarily forgetting her thousand long English reports that's due tomorrow, "Be serious for one minute. What if he knows what you are? What if he wants to stake you at night? You use stake to the heart to kill a vampire, right? The legend did not make that up, right?"
"I won't tell you how to kill me —"
"So I was right," she mutters under her breath.
"— And no matter what you say, I'm moving out in twenty minutes."
"Are you sure?"
"What, you worry about me?" Damon playfully narrow his baby blues then put the teddy that has been on his chest on the bed next to him.
She scoffs, "Why would I? I'm just trying to be realistic here."
"Because deep down, Elena," he accentuates the E in her name to prove a point, "You are starting to care about me because of the way of the universe works that makes us soul mates."
"Dream on, Damon," she turns her focus on her homework but all she can concentrate is what are Alaric intentions to offer Damon such offer.
"Seriously though, Elena, it'll be fine," Damon says in an attempt to drop the subject, as he has to see what kind of place he is going to live from now on, at least for a while, in less than twelve minutes.
She sighs, "So, are you sure you want to live in Alaric's house? At least until I find a way to poof you back to where you belong?"
"I am right where I belong, though," he says softly, making her forehead creates little creases, "I'm with you. I'm with my soul mate."
"Ugh, stop with the soul mate thing," she groans.
"I'm not going to stop until you believe me that we are soul mates," Damon exclaims in finality.
Elena mumbles something about him being stubborn before he gets up to where she is sitting. "Don't worry, I'll still be visiting you everyday. Or you want me to come every night?" Damon adds as he smolders his eyes and stares directly to Elena's captivating brown eyes.
"Whatever," she dismisses," Well, bye."
"That's it? Just 'well, bye'?"
She let out an over dramatic sigh before she turns to face him, "It has been a good three days with you here and I humbly thank you for your help to help me with my homework, and I hope you're happy in your new place. Now, good bye."
"Elena, I'm hurt," he pouts, sticking out his bottom lip, "Where's the love?"
"I don't even like you, vamp," she sticks her tongue out, earning her Damon's most famous smirk.
She giggles softly, "Honestly, though, Damon. If you need any help, just come to me. It's the least I can do anyway for your help with my homework and –"
She trails off. She can't really say thank you to Damon for making her laugh and entertained for the past three days.
"You got stuck in the middle of the sentence again," he singsongs making her let out a slight chuckle.
"And making me… less lonely for the past three days," she smiles sincerely.
"So now you admit you're lonely. Just when I'm about to leave, you give me something that raise a dozen questions about you," he muses.
"No, we are not roommate anymore. You have traded me to the less beautiful and less amazing person than I am. You do not get to ask questions and expect me to answer you anymore."
"You're right," he states.
"About what?"
"That you're far more beautiful than Alaric. You're far more beautiful than other women I have met before in the lifetimes I have lived in," he declares softly. And as soon as the words come from his mouth, he suddenly feels all warm inside because he finally get to see Elena blushes because of his statement.
Elena herself, aside from the pinkish red that starts to form on her cheeks, feels her stomach somersault in reaction to Damon's declaration. Not even her past boyfriends have ever said anything as sweet as Damon just did.
"Now, you're just joking," Elena shakes her head, trying to compose herself.
"Believe it or not, it is what I think of you honestly," he starts to make his way to the window. He wants to get out of Elena's room before he says something so impulsive that will only make both of them confuse, "I think I'm gonna get going. I'll see you around. I mean it when I said I will visit you everyday."
Then, in next second he's gone, leaving Elena dumbfounds staring at her window.
Damon opens his eyes because of the sunshine that shoot directly on his perfectly sculpted face. He blinks repeatedly before adjusting to the light.
Last night, at ten past six p.m, he had arrived at Alaric's house that now also a place for him to stay. It was a one story house that painted white with window shutters and medium sized oak door and two pale yellow Adirondack chairs on the front deck. Alaric had shot an eyebrow knowing Damon only brought one backpack consist of a pack of underwear and boxer, four black shirts, one navy shirt, one deep red Henley, and one dark washed jeans and one dark blue jeans, that he had stolen from a nearby expensive store but Alaric did not need to know about it. He had shook it away then shown him his room across the hall. The room that Damon had and will stay in is pretty simple. The walls were painted off white, a bed that enough to fit two people with white sheet and brown quilt, a dresser in front of the bed with a small TV screen on top of it. A small walk-in closet on the corner and the small bathroom with showers, toilet and a sink in it.
"You like? It doesn't scream luxury but it's pretty much I can afford. Well, with a roommate, that is," Alaric had said.
"Eh, it's okay, not as big as my home I used to live in."
"Where are you from?"
"New York," he easily had lied to his new roommate.
"That's… pretty far away."
He had nodded, trying to stop Alaric from asking any more questions.
"Anyway," he had continued, "We are adults here, so I just want you to keep the dirt in your room. Help yourself with the beer in the fridge and the wine on the wine rack at the kitchen as long as you don't finish them by yourself. And the money is by end of the month, you really don't have to give it to me tomorrow."
"I said I will give you tomorrow so I will give you tomorrow." Yet Alaric also did not need to know that he will compel some people to give him money that covered enough both their rent.
"Okay," he had raised his hand up in the air.
Damon shakes his head trying to wipe the sleep off his face. It feels strange for him, after three days waking up in Elena's girly bed, he is alone in a very uncomfortable, plain bed. He decides he will visit Elena after school, and grabs some donated blood bags from hospital since he does not feel like to compel people for his daily feedings. Being away from Elena feels sucks, he decides.
Surpsise! I had a pretty good day at campus today and in a really good mood so I put it in good use by continuing Come to Me. For those who haven't read Blind Date, I rewrite the chapters so you can check it out!
Do not forget to tell me what you think by hitting the review button!
Have a great day!