AN: Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to review! Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or anything else that I mention in this story.

Chapter Eight

Several weeks had passed since the…incident, if you will.

You know. The part where I was stupid enough to give up having sex with Damon for chicken noodle soup.

For an update on the Salvatore house: Damon keeps hitting on me and it gets harder and harder everyday to tell him no. I don't understand my logic for not fucking him, but there's just something telling me not to. Stefan refuses to talk to Damon, which Damon just finds hilarious. Stefan is still delusional and thinks that we're going to get married and have mutant vampire babies one day, which under no circumstances will be happening. Bonnie… well, she's a bitch.

I looked up from the old journal I had found in the attic as Stefan walked in the room, his smile looking like a grimace.

"How are you, Elena?"

"Good…" Even though he'd been angry with me when he'd walked in on us, after that he'd gone back to his typical, boring self.

He sat down at the table opposite from me while I got up and walked over to the cabinets above the counter, rummaging through them until I found what I was looking for: Pop Tarts. They may not be nutritious, but they most definitely delicious.

How did we acquire all of these food items, might you ask? Stefan took it upon himself to go to the grocery store with me in tow and buy everything in sight, throwing it all into the cart until there wasn't any more room. (Review: Review if you want Stefan to buy your groceries! What did you think of the chapter?)

The best part was that he didn't know what any of it was.

"Did you sleep well?" I slid my Pop tarts into the toaster and sat down across from him again, smiling to myself.

All right, so maybe I sleep with Damon. But only in the literal sense that we're sleeping in bed, together, and not having sex. It sure as hell was more comfortable than my tiny old bed back at home, and warmer, too.

I resisted the urge to smile tauntingly at him. "Yes, thank you. And yourself?"

He shrugged. "As well as I can during the night."

I raised my eyebrow, confused.

"Well, vampires are traditionally nocturnal creatures. It's our instinct to go to bed at dawn and wake up at midnight."

Hmm. Damon never seemed to have any trouble getting to sleep…

"Why doesn't Damon have troubles sleeping at night?"

He rolled his eyes, obviously aware that we were sharing a bed. "Why don't you ask him? I would assume it's because he's always been more social than me, so he had to wake up during the day."

Damon? More social than him? What the fuck?

"Um, he doesn't exactly strike me as a social type of guy."

He snorted again. "Shows how much you know. Damon has a lot of friends… before he either backstabs or kills them. I use the word 'friends' loosely, of course."

"Of course."

"Anyway, back before we become monsters, Damon was actually a nice person. Still irresponsible, rude and arrogant, but he had a good heart. Then everything changed."

If there was one thing I had learned in life, it was that the two words 'Damon' and 'life' did not go together.

"Whatever, Stefan. You don't have to tell me the truth, but you don't have to lie to me."

He started to protest, but then he got a confused look on his face. "Wait… oxymoron?"

I rolled my eyes. "No. Just moron."

I grabbed my Pop tarts from the toaster and stalked out of the room, done with this boring conversation. I ran right into Bonnie and crumbs went flying everywhere, causing her to laugh as I mourned over my lost breakfast.

"It's no wonder you're so fat. Do you have any idea how many calories are in one of those things?"

"Not as many as there are up your ass!" I didn't care that my insult made no sense.

She huffed and stomped on my hand with her high heel, causing me to squeal in pain.

"Ouch! What the hell?"

She shrugged. "Just getting out all of those extra calories that are lying around in my ass."

I cradled my hand to my chest, noting that it was bleeding lightly and walked upstairs quickly before Stefan could go predator on me again. I found myself in Damon's room without even thinking about it, grabbing one of my spare shirts that he had brought over for me from the old house.

So far, Aunt Jenna had made no move to try to find me, which worked just as well. I saw Jeremy crossing the street the other day and he flipped me off when I waved at him, so he obviously wasn't going to rat me out. I can't honestly say that I missed them, because I'd been too preoccupied to think about my old life.

"What did you do to your hand?"

Damon's voice floating from behind me snapped me out of my reverie, startling me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and gingerly took my hand, examining it.

"Bonnie stomped on it with her bitch boot heel when I told her that she was looking fat."

"Isn't there some rule about calling girls fat?"

I rolled my eyes. "That only applies to guys, Damon."

"Whatever. Let's get you some ice."

He grabbed me by my elbow down the stairs and sat me on top of the counter, earning me a venomous glare from Bonnie. I smiled back cheekily before wincing in pain, my hand throbbing full-force after a few second's break.

"Bonnie? Is it true that you did this?"

Stefan sat there, looking like the same confused and brooding idiot that he always did, as Bonnie nodded.

"So what?"

"Come with me, please."

"No."

This could get ugly.

"Bonnie, I'll crumbled twenty five more pop tarts all over your pillow and stuff them in your bra tonight if you don't get the hell out of this room right now!"

She stood up, mumbling something about shipping me off to some secluded island in the middle of nowhere, and sulked behind Damon. As soon as I heard the front door shut, I allowed my suspicions to drop and made myself another pop tart.

Stefan looked appalled. "Didn't you already eat one of those?"

I will so slap you, sister. "No. I crumbled it into Bonnie's lap."

"Oh." He shoved his face back into his newspaper and muttered something about politics.

"Can't any of you speak like normal people?"

"And by normal people, you mean…"

"So I can actually HEAR you?" I yelled just for effect and he winced, covering his ear.

"Well, Damon and I are adapted to speaking inaudibly, so I'm going to go with 'no'."

"That's unfortunate, then, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Only to you."

I plucked my shoe off my foot and chucked it at him as hard as I could. Of course, he stuck his hand out and caught it without even looking up from his newspaper.

"Bitch ass motherfucker!"

"Elena!" he scolded me. "Language!"

I rolled my eyes. "Right. Because I'm an oldie and I live in the nineteenth century."

His face remained smooth and unoffended by my crack at his age as I grabbed my pop tarts and sat across from him, much from how I left him earlier that morning.

"So…" Well, wasn't I Miss Chatty Cathy that day?

"So, what?"

"Um… dogs or cats?"

He laughed without humor. "Cats."

"Is there some private joke that I'm missing out on?"

"Um, duh?"

"Well, look who learned a modern term!"

"That's not really a modern term, Elena."

"These people can be very difficult to work with," I muttered to myself as I left the room. Bonnie came back into the house with a scowl and Damon followed her, looking equally as happy.

"Bonnie."

She ignored me and stomped down the stairs.

I turned to Damon. "Does she live down there?"

He shrugged. "Ask Stephanie."

He shoved past me and stalked down the hallway, brooding even more sexily than usual.

"Stephanie?"

I heard a chair slam against the wall. "I don't know anyone that goes by that name."

"I do."

"Goodnight, Elena."

"But, it's morning!" I began to protest.

He gave me the hand without even looking back. Bitch.

I meandered around the house for a while and found, remarkably enough, nothing. It was like all of this vast space was just sitting there, nothing to fill it with, waiting for someone to come along and put a big piece of furniture there that would take up the entire house.

"Damon?" I called out.

For once—the one time I actually wanted him to—he didn't appear behind me. Instead I received an unfriendly sounding, 'what' from the room he had mysteriously disappeared into.

"Can I be your interior decorator?"

"No."

Damn. He must have been in a really bad mood.

"Fine. I'll just find something else to do." I was beginning to think that I had a problem, the way I kept talking to myself over and over again.

And so around and around the house I went, in search for some kind of entertainment, all to no avail.

"Elena!" Bonnie yelled at me sharply when I passed by the door to the basement for the seventeenth time. Not that I was counting…

"What, bitch?" If she was going to be hostile, then I was entitled to be as well.

"You haven't forgotten about tonight, have you?"

I racked the back of my brain for what could be happening tonight, but nothing came up. "No…"

"It's the carnival, you idiot!"

Oh, no… I groaned in horror as I finally remembered that tonight was, in fact, Mystic Falls High School Carnival, the most hyped up event of the entire year. Everyone went, whether they went to the school or not, as long as they were in high school. It was strange to think that I fit into that category now.

"Well, have fun." There was no way in hell I was going to go back there to face all of my peers again. Besides, Jeremy was sure to be there. Ugh…

"Oh, you're going. We all are."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "I hate to break it to you, but you and Stefan are the only two people that actually go there."

She rolled her eyes. "You know how it works; as long as you're a teenager, you get in."

"But…" Come on, Elena, come up with a legitimate excuse. "Damon can't really pass for a teenager. I can't just leave him here all alone!"

"Why the hell not? He's, like, a hundred years older than us!"

I rolled my eyes. "So much for the vampire secret."

I thought back to the other night and figured there was no time like the present.

"Hey, Bonnie?"

"What?"

"The other night, Damon and I were out and about and we ran into this other vampire that's dating my brother. They were talking about something stupid, like a book of spells, and Damon said you have a story to tell me. So…"

She raised her eyebrow. "You still haven't figured it out?"

I shook my head.

She made a disgusted noise from the back of her throat and pointed to the living room, sitting down on the couch. "Humans can be such idiots sometimes."

"You're insulting yourself, you know."

She chuckled evilly. "No, I'm not."

Oh, no. No more vampires.

"Please tell me you're not a vampire." If my ex-best friend turned out to be a vampire I would lose it, for real.

"I'm not a vampire."

I breathed deeply in relief. "Thank God…"

"I'm a witch."

Oh, because that's so much better.

"Witch?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. You know… hocus pocus, and Mickey Mouse, and that kind of stuff. Except for that I do actual spells."

Well, at least her dietary habits weren't going to affect the eco system.

"That's cool, I guess." I probably should have been miffed that she didn't tell me sooner, but I had too many secrets to worry about to care about such an irrelevant little detail.

She seemed almost animated, reminding me of how she used to be. "I know, right?"

All of the sudden her face fell. "But then you left me, right when I needed you most."

I stared at her sadly. "Bonnie! I didn't leave you. Aunt Jenna's the one that took me out, remember?"

"I know. But I needed you there with me. Every time I looked over, expecting you to just magically reappear, you just… wouldn't."

I could feel my heart wrench, which was really pathetic, after everything that she'd done to me. I couldn't help but think back to the years of when we were kids and would play all day long, get into all sorts of trouble, and then blame it on Jeremy. That was back when he would actually talk to me.

"Elena?"

Despite my irritation at myself, I could feel tears pooling in my eyes. "What?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, for all of the stuff that I've said to you in the past. It was uncalled for and it wasn't true, either. I…. I miss you."

The tears fell down my cheeks as I gave her a watery smile. "Thanks. I've missed you, too. It hasn't been the same without you."

She gave me a light hug with one arm and I knew that while things would never, ever be the same, things were going to get better between us.

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We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and talking about a bunch of random stuff that didn't have to do with anything. At some point she had used my weakness to her advantage and convinced me to take Damon to the carnival, because she and Stefan were going as a couple.

I raised an eyebrow. "You and Stefan are dating? I want all of the details!"

I thought back to when we had just started our senior year and she had an enormous crush on him and smiled, knowing that she would at least be happy with him.

She blushed, almost completely back to her old self. "Well, I don't know if we're 'dating'. We're definitely 'together', though."

She sighed and rested her head on my knee. "I'm so glad I told you about my secret. I feel so relieved!"

She hopped up and down on the couch, giggling like a maniac and reminding me of when we were fourteen and would read tween magazines during sleepovers. Maybe now we could do spells….

"Hey, Bonnie? What kid of spells do you know?"

She shrugged. "I don't really know that many yet. It takes a long time to get them all down and I've only just begun."

"What spell book do you think Damon was talking about?"

"I don't know; there's thousands of them." That narrows it down.

I frowned, dismayed. Remember when I told you I was nosy? I kind of under exaggerated on that.

"We'll figure it out later."

"You'll figure what out later?"

Bonnie blushed again when she saw Stefan standing in front of us. "Oh, nothing. Let's get ready. See you later, Elena."

"Wait!"

They rudely ignored me, prancing out the door and slamming it behind them, not a care in the world about what I could have to say. I sprinted after them and barely caught them in time.

"Where are you going?" BTW (that means, 'by the way'), my wheezing as I spoke like an old lady was most attractive.

"We volunteered to help set up," Stefan offered as he opened and shut her door for her.

I grinned. "Well, Stephanie, aren't you miss goody two-shoes?"

If he weren't such a gentleman, I bet he would've punched me in the face. I waved goodbye as he drove off, glaring at me through the rear-view mirror. I growled under my breath at the thought of facing off with angry Damon.

"Damon!" I yelled as I entered the house. "We're going to the carnival."

"No!"

He was before me in a matter of seconds, scowling. "Damn it. You were stupid enough to fall for it?"

"To fall for what?"

"What did you think Bonnie and I were arguing about earlier? I was fighting for our right to stay here—alone." His hands went to my shoulders again, lightly squeezing and going towards my chest.

Oh, God… so hot…

I had to muster up my most-lust free and even voice that I could manage in that moment. "Too late now."

His glare didn't really affect me because I saw it so often. "What if we just don't show up?"

"As mildly tempting as that sounds, Bonnie and I are starting to rekindle our relationship."

He rolled his eyes. "Who are you dating—me or Bonnie?"

I stared at him, wide-eyed, as he waited impatiently.

"Well?"

"Um, I wouldn't really call either one of you my boyfriend."

He groaned. "Don't you dare deny it, Elena. I know you feel something."

Duh. "Well, of course I do! That doesn't just mean that I can act on my first impulse! Besides, I don't even know that much about you."

"What more do you need to know than you already do? You know the basics: I'm an arrogant, rude, mean, manipulative, compulsive, and insanely handsome eternal stud." He summed his entire character up very matter-of-factly, surprising me.

"With a sweet side," I added, just to see what he'd say.

"No. With an even darker side."

"I don't think that's possible."

He smiled sexily. "Oh, you're just beginning to learn the basics of immortality, my princess of darkness."

He stepped forward, closer to me, as he said that, like a lion coming in for its kill. I stepped back out of reaction and he followed me until we reached the wall, him pinning my hands above my head.

His lips somehow managed to find my neck and lightly kissed it, up and down, driving me insane. His fangs lightly grazed my skin, but it didn't hurt like I thought it would; it was actually a huge turn on. I hoped I wasn't turning into one of those pain-equals-pleasure typed freaks.

His mouth was thoroughly exploring my jaw line, kissing every bit of skin that it could reach, while I stared up at the ceiling and begged myself to find the willpower to tell him to stop.

At this point, I didn't even know why I would want him to stop.

Just before I could say anything, his lips covered mine and his tongue shoved into my mouth, causing me to gasp and brace myself against him for support. I found myself unconsciously grinding against him in a most inappropriate way, both relieving myself and setting my body on fire at the same time. My fingers tangled into his dark hair and my leg hitched around his waist, pulling him as close as I possibly could.

His mouth tasted the same way it always did: sweet and spicy. His cool breath was the only thing that was keeping me from passing out as his tongue went in and out, and in and out, and in and out.

Right before I was about to get into doing things that I would have really regretted, the phone rang from the living room at the same time his lips started traveling down my neck and towards my chest. I jumped as the shrill noise made contact with my ears.

He growled savagely, pulling me tighter, like I was his pray. Not that I had a problem with that…

"Damon," I panted out, "go get the phone."

My voice was raspy and low, unlike my typical one. Who knew that I had a sex voice, after all? I'd never actually used it when I fucked other people.

He more or less ignored me as his tight arms continued to constrict me. And so I started to struggle, just a little bit, just to get him out of his phase that he was in.

"Go get the phone."

His grip lessened, but he still didn't let go.

"I'll still be here when you get back."

I guess that must have been enough for him, because he let me go and was out of the room, the high ringing noise finally ending as he snapped at some unlucky person. I put a hand over my heart and tried to catch my breath, sounding like I had just won a marathon, and made my way over to the couch.

He was back in less than a minute, looking confused. "You want to do it on the couch?"

I shook my head. "No. I need to go get ready for the carnival."

He groaned loudly and shook his hands through his hair. "Why do we have to go? We were on a roll! Why do we have to stop the fun?"

I ignored his whining. "Who was that on the phone?"

He rolled his eyes angrily. "Stephanie. He's bitching about the fact that we're going to be late if we don't hurry."

"Wait… what? We can't be late!"

"Should I even bother asking why not again?"

I cringed as I got up, having grown used to him supporting all of my weight, and ran to the bathroom. Basically, I looked like I had just had sex; which wasn't too far off.

"Come on. We have to go right now!"

He glowered at me for about fifteen seconds before pulling the car keys out of his back pocket and pointing towards the front door, causing me to smile. I ran as fast as I could, causing him to chuckle.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Hey! This isn't that bad for a human!"

He was by my side in a flash. "Yeah, but it is for a vampire!"

He picked me up again and through me over his shoulders, supporting me like I was a toddler on top of her father.

"Damon! Put me the hell down! NOW!"

"I don't think so."

I clenched my eyes shut and enjoyed the breeze on my face as we zipped to the side of the house where the car was parked. He gently placed me in his little convertible and shut my door, already bucked in by the time I reached for my seat belt.

"Do you mind? I like to actually see where you are, you know."

"Why? Is it because you can't get enough of my sexy, trim body?"

He was never going to let that go, was he?

"Oh, get over it, Damon!"

We argued all the way there, about every thing from whether or not he was fat to what radio station to listen to. He turned it to some stupid Oldies station and he couldn't bring himself to appreciate my pop, so we opted for heavy metal. For some reason that solved the issue.

By the time we got there, pretty much everyone was in the middle of some kind of activity. I took it upon myself to go get a fortune cookie from the booth that said, Free Fortune Cookies on it, both promoting health and social activity.

"One fortune cookie, please."

The man that was standing behind the counter looked at me up and down and sniffed, pulling a fortune cookie out of his little box.

"Did you sniff me?"

He looked at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No. I sniffed your aura."

He shoved the cookie in my hand, using it to crumble. "That will be one cent, please."

"But your sign says that it's free."

"My sign lies."

"If I have to pay for this thing, I want one that isn't all smashed up."

He shook his head. "No! You got your fortune cookie, now give me the penny!"

"Jesus. Talk about pushy salesmanship."

I rolled my eyes as he hissed something along the lines of 'go die in a hole' at me and found Damon harassing Jeremy and Anna over in the corner of the field the event was taking place in, having paid for my useless fortune cookie.

"Damon!"

He waved at me and gestured to come over while Jeremy stalked away, Anna close behind.

"What was that all about?"

He shrugged. "Just a bunch of bitches; can't have a carnival without them."

"True."

I opened my fortune cookie and the little slit of paper fell into my palm. It read: If you truly love someone, you will always go to them.

I scoffed. "What a useless piece of garbage."

He took it from me and had the same reaction I did, shoving it inside his pocket.

We meandered around for a little while, not really enjoying any of the festivities that it had to offer. We could have had much better ones at home.

Finally, he gave me a nudge and pointed at the massive Ferris wheel.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll be stuck on top!"

I looked at him like he was insane but followed him nonetheless. As we slowly made our way up into the sky, I rolled my eyes as he snuck his arm around me, shaking our seat on purpose.

"Stop that!"

"Why? It makes it more fun."

"No, it doesn't. We're not all undead."

"Just you wait and see."

"I'll hold you to that."

"I wouldn't."

Good point, Damon. Good point.

Because karma is an evil bitch, we ended up getting stuck on top, just as someone predicted.

"Well, would you look at this?"

Of course, he was carefree, not at all worried that we were several feet above the ground and he was shaking us back and forth.

"Hey, look! It's Bonnie and Stefan!" he said, pointing in his direction. As my head whipped around to see what his unexpected enthusiasm was all about, he grabbed hold of my jaw and lightly kissed me on the lips.

This kiss was different. It didn't last more than a few seconds, but it was better than all of the other ones we'd had; it was sweet and tender, like he was kissing me for reasons other than lust. It was like he actually cared.

He pulled away after a few seconds, gingerly releasing me as to not send me flying down to the ground, and looked away as I felt a smile start to play on my lips.

"What was that for?"

His eyes found mine and I saw nothing but sincerity. "Nothing. I just wanted to kiss you."

"Okay." That was most definitely fine with me.

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The rest of the night was fairly uneventful.

We got home, Bonnie and Stefan following behind us, and we all stayed up to talk for a little while. Even though there was still a trace of hostility in the air between the two brothers, they were considerably nicer than usual to each other.

As we bid each other goodnight, the subject came up that Bonnie and Stefan would be returning to school tomorrow—that had had a break because of the preparation for a carnival. That meant that Damon and I would have the house all to ourselves, and it also meant that we could get into all sorts of naughty trouble…

"Goodnight, Bonnie." It felt nice to be able to say that without a trace of hate in my voice.

She hit me on the back as she walked back towards the basement, where I presumed that she slept. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Stefan." He had a weird twitch in his eye, like he was in on something that I wasn't, as he bid me good evening.

"Good night, Damon."

He nodded as he poured himself a drink. "I'll be up in just a minute."

I was half way up the stairs before I trotted back down to the point where I could see him again. "Oh, and Damon?"

He raised his eyebrow at me, as his mouth was full.

"I would most definitely consider you my boyfriend."

And for the first time ever, I actually got a genuine smile out of Damon Salvatore.

AN: What's up with everyone being so nice? Hopefully they'll all be back to their bitchy selves by next chapter, because that's what makes them so entertaining. ;) A lot happened in this chapter, whether you guys know it yet or not.

Please, please leave me a review. I would really and sincerely appreciate it and thank you so much to everyone who has done so thus far in the story. I love you guys! (PS: The more reviews I get, the more likely I am to write a lemon. Damon and Elena have an awful lot of spare time together… just saying.)

Thanks so much for reading! New update on Monday. Take care, everyone!

Love,

Evie