"Okay, tell us EVERYTHING!" Elena demanded the second the waiter at the Mystic Grill had taken their lunch orders and left to retrieve their drinks. Bonnie, still reluctant to let them into her new world, was trying to formulate the next question very carefully.

"What exactly do you want to know?" Bonnie asked, trying to decide which details to give away, and which ones to keep to herself.

"Just start from the beginning." Meredith replied like it was the most obvious choice in the world. If only it were that simple, Bonnie thought to herself, but she proceeded to tell her story anyway.

"Well, you already know about the modeling, and I guess it just sort of snowballed from there." Bonnie let out a nervous giggle. Meredith and Elena both looked at her expectantly and realized she couldn't think of any other people more deserving of the whole truth, than the two best friends who sat across from her. She looked around the sparsely populated restaurant, making sure there were as little observers as possible, and continued her tale. "The modeling wasn't ever something I planned. It just claimed me I suppose. I was working an afternoon shift at that crappy dinner down in Brooklyn. You know the one you visited, with the collapsing ceiling?" Elena and Meredith exchanged looks of disgust, and Bonnie took that as her cue to continue. "Sometime late in November a few years back, around closing time, an older gentleman came in looking for shelter from an awful snowstorm, and I just didn't have the heart to throw him out." Neither Meredith nor Elena made a move to comment, patiently waiting for Bonnie to continue.

"Long story short, he had connections and he set me up with an interview. He told me he loved my hair, and that I would be perfect for a modeling job he knew of. I wasn't going to go at first, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. So I went, and I absolutely loved it!" Bonnie paused to take a breath, and realized that she had been flailing her arms about in excitement and both her friends were smiling at her in amusement. "Since then it's just been job after job, and I haven't really had time to breathe until recently." Her friends seemed to accept this as an apology, and their conversation quickly turned to other topics, successfully avoiding the significant other –well others in Elena's case obviously-question.

…

"Well, well, look at what we have here. The prodigal redhead returns." Damon was lounging on her bed when she returned from lunch later that afternoon. She had never wanted anything more than to go back in time and strangle her younger self for ever inviting that damn vampire into her house. Stupid, stupid girl! Should have known he was a good for nothing inconsiderate, awful excuse for a…a

"If you're going to insult me, just say it to my face. I hate having to dig through the jumbled mess of thoughts in that pretty little head of yours." Damon's signature smirk was in place, but his eyes didn't match the snarky tone in his voice. Bonnie didn't care though. He had no right to go through her thoughts. The inevitable demise of their half-ass relationship was his fault entirely and he damn well knew it!

"What are you doing her Damon?" She wanted to scream until his ears bled; hoping then he'd finally show her a shrewd of compassion and leave her alone. She didn't though, losing control over her senses in front of Damon never ended well.

"Just wanted to visit with an old friend, we didn't get a chance to chat last night." Damon lazily drawled out the words as he continued to lie on her bed, propped up against the head board. Chat? He wanted to fucking chat? After all the despicable, low, awful things he'd done and he wanted to chat about it? Bonnie could feel the toe-curling rage rise farther inside of her. She could practically feel the steam pouring from her ears. Fuck it!

"How dare you? How dare you sit there and act like nothing ever happened? Like you never screwed around with my best friend while we were together?" Bonnie's voice was low and dripping with deep anger that had been buried for many years. Her anger was not the usual loud and out of control entity that normally took her over when she was upset. It was controlled and hard. Damon's eyes shot open and he stood up from the bed so fast Bonnie nearly missed the action entirely. She thought maybe she had angered him enough and he was about to leave. Instead he stood in front of her, looking down at her almost as if he'd never seen her before in his entire life. Like she was a stranger.

"Is that really what you think? I mean I heard you say it last night, but I never imagined you truly believed it." Bonnie was more than slightly confused. Damon never denied the truth, especially if it involved Elena. If Damon had gotten Elena to admit she truly cared for him more than his brother he'd flaunt it to anyone who would listen, and that would not exclude Bonnie, no matter how much he claimed to care for her. Bonnie knew this; she knew he was a proud man, so why was he standing her denying his affair with the perfect Elena?

Damon continued to stare at her in awe. He looked as if he was searching for something inside her eyes, but what he was after Bonnie didn't know. After a few more moments Damon seemed to give up his search, and a spark of defeat started to grow in his eyes. He dropped his eyes from hers and turned to leave. He had one leg out of her bedroom window when Bonnie opened her mouth and spoke.

"Wait. Don't…just wait a second." Bonnie took in a breath and saw him turn around quickly, but his eyes still held a whisper of…sadness? Bonnie slowly let out her deep breath.

"We should talk." It was not a conversation she was looking forward to, but Bonnie had questions, and she be damned if she let him walk out without answering them.

A/N: Wow, I owe a massive apology and thank you to all my readers and reviewers. I never meant to go this long without updating, but I have gotten some more motivation and a lot more free time now that some of my classes are coming to a close, I hope to update more frequently. Thank you to all who continued to read and review this story even though I haven't been properly updating in quite some time. Thank you so much, you are amazing!