Happy day! *runs to eat pie* For all Americans-happy Thanksgiving! For everyone else-You should get in on this whole "being thankful and shoving oneself full of food in the name of a 'holiday.'" Okay, I'm kidding. Probably. Just ignore me and my happy mood-that happened to translate to a chapter. Enjoy!

XXXXXX

"Bonnie, I—"

"Not now. I just, can't." Bonnie didn't have time for Elena and her drama, she honestly didn't.

"I'm sorry," Elena said suddenly, shocking Bonnie out of her mental reverie.

Bonnie felt herself harden against her friend, "Why?" She had no intention of making this easy. If Elena wanted to apologize, she was going to have to mean it.

"I've been . . . selfish, bitchy, unfair, and I've been a terrible friend," Elena—Bonnie noticed— had the decency to actually seem ashamed.

Bonnie merely raised an eyebrow, "And?"

"I—" Elena wrung her hands nervously. "I'm sorry."

"I don't really think I'm the person you need to be apologizing to." Bonnie said, trying not to indicate to Elena that she was already softening towards her.

"I know," Elena sighed, almost as if she felt real shame for how she'd been acting.

Bonnie wondered briefly if she were serious. And, if so, why? Why now? So she asked "Why now?"

"Why am I apologizing now?" Elena smiled softly to herself, "Someone pointed out to me that what I really feel right now . . . is alone. And I don't want to alienate everyone I care about just because I went through a really long PMS period."

Bonnie snorted, "Whatever you say."

"Bonnie—" Elena reached out to place a hand on her arm, "Please, give me a chance to prove to you that I'm really sorry and that I want to change."

Bonnie just stared at the girl who was her best friend, who meant so much to her, but lately hadn't been there for anyone. People were allowed to make mistakes, right? Bonnie wasn't sure what to say. "Well, good for you," she heard herself say. "But I think you should start with apologizing to those who you've hurt more than you've hurt me."

Elena hesitated, and dropped her hand her Bonnie. "I hurt you, Bonnie."

"You did. But I'm not the only one. If you want to show me that you've changed, start by fixing everything with everyone else. Until then . . . I have nothing to say to you." Bonnie turned away and walked away. It took everything she had to do so, but she needed to, even though it hurt to do it.

Because Bonnie was lonely. Sure, she had great friends, but she'd spent her time lately playing matchmaker and now she didn't . . . know how Tyler and Jeremy's date had gone. At that she perked up, ready to stop thinking about how she felt and ignore the odd sort of loneliness that had seemed to burrow its way into her.

XXXX

Stefan had intended to seek out Caroline as soon as he'd had the opportunity to do so, but then he just . . . hadn't known what to say. So he'd wimped out.

So when he'd gotten a message to meet her, he'd been nervous, but he'd also been excited. Because even though it had only been two days, he missed her.

It was kind of strange. She was quirky and fun, determined and sensitive, kind and fiercely devoted to those she loved. She was a little neurotic and at times scary . . . but he liked it. He liked how he felt when he was around her.

It was different from the way Elena made him feel—she'd always been a cross between too normal and, well, honestly a lot of stress. He'd loved her, yes, but trouble seemed to follow her around constantly, and when it didn't . . . it was harder for them to be together, actually. She was comfortable, while Caroline was just . . . weirdly energizing.

He should have ended things the moment he'd realized that, but he'd pretended that it didn't matter until he'd realized that she didn't love him anymore. Now, in fact, he knew that she had no idea who or what she wanted, and he was done.

He knew what he wanted. He was just, maybe, a little too afraid to go after it.

XXXX

Caroline sat nervously.

She was waiting for Stefan, and she didn't have the words to express how nervous she was. Terrified, scared, nervous.

She was in love with Stefan, and this was nerve-wracking. She hated waiting. She was a just do it kind of person. She liked to plan things, she liked to be in control, and she liked to get things done.

But this—not only had she not planned it, but she also had to wait.

Not cool. It just made her even more nervous. She sighed and stood up from her seat. She was early, so she could leave, and no one would ever know that she'd been there. She could call Stefan—better yet text him. Yes, that.

Or maybe she could just ignore him and pretend that—"Stefan."

Stefan just stood there, smiling down at her nervously. He sat down across from her. "Hey."

"Hey." Caroline couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm glad you wanted to meet, because I honestly needed to stop putting this off."

Caroline frowned, "What are you talking—" Caroline was interrupted by a waistress coming by and setting down a notecard.

"Bonnie?" Stefan asked.

Caroline picked up the card and read it quickly, "Elena."

Stefan raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Apparently she's sorry." Caroline tried to hold in the snort she felt building up. Sure, she was sorry. And Caroline was going to run off to California in order to marry Bonnie.

Actually, that wasn't a bad idea—Caroline's odd train of thought was interrupted by Stefan placing his hand over hers. "Caroline—"

"Don't." Caroline pleaded. "Don't be sweet and touch my hand. Don't say anything. Unless you mean it."

Caroline watched Stefan carefully, waiting to see what he would do.

XXXX

Bonnie decided to walk. Because yes, she was that insane.

"Bonnie," Damon appeared next to her. She avoided eye contact with him, preferring instead to walk faster—realizing, of course, that he could keep up with her easily—so that she could get to Tyler's house quickly.

"Bonnie." Damon said again, this time a little more seriously. "I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you. And if you want to talk about that . . . what happened," Bonnie felt a little flustered, and more than a little out of breath—both out of nervousness and the fact that she was practically running now—"Then I especially don't want to talk about it."

"Bonnie—"

"Stop doing that." Bonnie stopped in her tracks and whipped around quickly to stare at him, "Stop saying my name like that."

"Like what?" Damon asked, genuinely confused. Not only was this not going the way he wanted it to—though he frankly had no idea how he'd expected or wanted it to go—but she was kind of scaring him. Not in a terrified, loss of life or limb sort of way, but in a female, emotionally devastating kind of way.

Bonnie glared at him. "That way."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow, "Like you care, Damon."

"B—" Damon started to say until he saw a dark look beginning to form on her face, "I kissed you." He said instead, bluntly.

Bonnie, unprepared to have it put out into the world like that, was surprised. She looked around quickly, "Don't say things like that!" she whacked him with her hand. "Especially in public places." She just stared at him. She whacked him again for good measure and sighed. "Let's just pretend it didn't happen, can you do that?"

She wasn't quite sure that she could, but she was sure she could pretend that she was pretending it didn't happen.

She could do that.

"No."

But not if he wouldn't even try.

"Why not?" Bonnie demanded.

"Because I tried doing that. But I can't stop thinking about—" Bonnie held up a hand to stop him.

"Damon," Bonnie bit out his name, "No. You can't say something like that."

"It's true."

"Can't you just go back to being a jerk? I'd like that."

Damon smirked, "And women wonder why they always get stuck with dicks. They literally beg us to be mean to them."

Bonnie glared at him. She stepped forward and stared into his eyes, fury seeming to want to burst out of her at any moment. "Damon—"

Damon knew a hopeless situation when he saw one and placed his hand on her shoulder, "Bonnie."

"I—" Bonnie felt like she was on fire, like every nerve-ending on her body was just aching for . . . she leaned slightly, shocking herself and Damon and kissed him.

It was different from the first time. Because now she was arching up into him and her arms had wrapped themselves around his neck and she was, well kissing him back.

Or, if you wanted to be technical about it, he was kissing her back.

Regardless, this was different.

Bonnie pulled away, gasping for air and Damon nuzzled her neck. "That was bad."

"Probably."

Bonnie shook herself free of him, "That we can definitely pretend didn't happen."

"What, do you just hang out in 'I'm delusional Land' because I want to know how to find that place? You seem to really like it." Damon lifted an eyebrow—which was just about all he could do because he was still trying to process what had just happened.

"I—" Bonnie sighed, "Don't have time for this." Bonnie stalked off at that, leaving a surprised Damon staring after her.

XXXX

Tyler and Jeremy were not making out.

Okay, so they were.

Bonnie had been let in by Tyler's mother who had told her that "the boys" were just hanging out upstairs. She'd suggested that Bonnie knock on the door before going in. At that Bonnie realized that Tyler's mother knew, that she just didn't care, and was waiting for him to be comfortable enough to tell her.

So, yes, they were "hanging out." Bonnie had smiled at that. Yet still, when she knocked on Tyler's bedroom door, she was shocked at how much muttering and shuffling went on before the door opened and she saw them both there, a little breathless.

Tyler sighed in relief when he saw her, "Oh, Bonnie. Hey."

Bonnie smiled, genuinely glad to see them together, and apparently happy. "Hey. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"You're not," Jeremy assured her, a silly grin on his face.

Bonnie felt a warmness inside her at that, "You two are horribly adorable."

Tyler and Jeremy looked at each other at that, sharing a smile.

"You two need to stop," Bonnie said sternly, smiling all the same. "Because there's a lot of sweetness in here, it's shocking you both haven't, you know, started a diabetes epidemic."

Tyler just drifted back over to Jeremy, sitting back down beside him on the bed, taking Jeremy's hand in his own. "Is this one of those, but at least you'll die happy kinds of things?" Tyler asked, not looking at Jeremy, because he was incredibly aware of how corny that was.

"Yes." Jeremy answered, squeezing Tyler's hand.

"So you're okay?" Bonnie asked, teasingly.

"Yeah. We're taking it slowly—" Bonnie snorted and interrupted Tyler's answer.

"We are," Jeremy insisted.

Bonnie merely lifted an eyebrow. "If you say so."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes, "Anyway. Have you spoken to Elena yet? She's been texting me non-stop, but I've managed to get out of it and avoid her whenever I get the chance."

Bonnie sighed, feeling guilt creep up on her, "I think she wants to apologize."

"Really?" Jeremy seemed rather eager. Bonnie realized that he probably just missed his sister.

"I think so," Bonnie said kindly. "Anyway, I should go."

"You don't have to."

"I do," Bonnie smiled. "But that's okay. Um, have fun. But, you know, not too much," she watched with great pleasure as they both turned beet red.

"Hey, Bonnie?" Tyler called out as she started to twist the doorknob and leave.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Bonnie smiled, "I'm just glad it's worked out in the end," and she left, shutting the door behind her.

Jeremy turned to Tyler, "Do you think she's okay? She seems a little . . . "

"I don't know," Tyler said. "She's Bonnie though. She'll be fine. And if she isn't, we'll make sure she is."

XXXX

Caroline and Stefan stared at each other. Caroline wanted an answer to her question, but she didn't want to urge one if his silence was his answer.

So instead, Caroline broke the silence first, "I'm sorry for what I said the other night. It was unfair of me."

Stefan winced. "No, you had a point."

Caroline raised an eyebrow, "Did I?"

"You did," Stefan smiled briefly. He sighed, his smile disappeared. "But I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

"For letting you go. For being too afraid to—" Stefan stopped and buried his hand into his hair nervously. "I need to start at the beginning."

"We have time," Caroline replied simply.

"My history is pretty awful."

"Yup." Caroline responded. "But under the circumstances, it makes sense."

"And it makes sense why no one would possibly want to be around me, and why they wouldn't want to . . . get close to me," Stefan continued.

Caroline grabbed his hand that wasn't nervously messing up his hair, "That's ridiculous, Stefan. You're lovable and sweet. You're a great friend," she defended him fiercely. "There's nothing wrong with you."

Stefan smiled at that, "Caroline," she let go of his hand and withdrew into herself again.

"Continue," was all she said.

"Elena and I—we were good together for a while."

Caroline knew that. She felt her heart do painful twisty gymnastics.

"But we're over."

"Are you really?" Caroline asked suddenly. "Because you still drop everything for her, and she's—" Caroline realized that she was being loud. She lowered her voice as she said, "You love her."

"Loved, Caroline." Stefan corrected her.

Caroline looked down at the stable in front of her at what had been carved in. She saw 'S+E' and "M+C" and realized that she and Elena had once carved those little lovey dovey things into that very table.

So awkward. Maybe it was a sign.

"Caroline, I've really enjoyed spending time with you lately."

Caroline didn't respond at that, as she let her index finger trace over the letters.

"And I know this isn't a lot to say, but it's the truth. I don't want to lead you on, but I also want to be honest." Stefan saw what she was looking at and took her hands gently in his, "Look at me Caroline."

She looked up, quickly drowning in his eyes, barely realizing as he kept speaking.

"I'm falling in love with you, Caroline."

"Well, that was fast," Caroline heard herself say. She realized that she'd just ruined the moment and tried to keep in her laughter.

"We've been spending together for a few months before that, Care. And we've been friends for a while. And I don't think it's fast at all. It feels natural." Stefan was mildly annoyed and attempting to justify his feelings, not recognizing that Caroline looked like she was about to start laughing.

He narrowed his eyes and took a moment to think. They met eyes again and both simultaneously broke out laughing.

They shook the table and decided to leave. They stood outside; off to the side where no one was around, just laughing as if they'd lost control of themselves. Which, in fact, they had.

Caroline stopped laughing first. She leaned against a wall with her eyes closed, "Is this one of those rom com moments where we realize we should just stay friends?"

Caroline felt Stefan appear in front of her and opened her eyes. "No," Stefan leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips.

XXXX

Bonnie got back home and sighed deeply when she saw that both Elena and Damon were waiting for her. She stepped forward and glared at them both, "What is this?"

"I came to apologize—" Elena said.

"I told you to come back when you'd fixed things with everyone else." Bonnie reminded her, ignoring the feelings of guilt. Elena seemed like she were serious.

"I'm working on it. I set Stefan and Caroline up—" Both Damon and Bonnie stared at her in shock at that reveal. "And I'm headed over to see Tyler in a while. But then I saw Damon and I decided to apologize to him too, for, well, playing with his feelings."

Bonnie turned to look at Damon at that. "Well, good for him. That doesn't explain why you're both here."

"He reminded me about how I treated you, and I just," Elena stopped to clear a tear out of the side of her eye. She was crying, Bonnie realized. "I miss my best friend."

Bonnie sighed and stepped forward, wrapping Elena in her arms, "I know."

Damon merely watched them. "How sweet."

Elena pulled away to look at him and raised an eyebrow, "But that doesn't actually explain why you're here. Why?"

Damon awkwardly looked at Elena, then felt his eyes shift to Bonnie, "No reason."

"Then you can leave now," Bonnie practically demanded. "Bye."

Elena looked back and forth between them and was surprised by what she saw. "Oh. I never thought about that."

"You never thought about what?" Bonnie asked, confused.

"Nothing, Bonnie. Just something potentially amazing that I'd never even really thought of before."

"Oh." Bonnie and Damon both proceeded to look at her, even more confused.

"I have to go," Elena said suddenly. "I need to talk to Tyler, and I still have to hunt down Jeremy."

Bonnie winced, "You might find them together, don't—"

"Don't be a bitch, got it!" Elena finished, smiling. "I'm turning over a new leaf." At that she bounced down and went off on her "quest."

Bonnie and Damon just stared at each other. Suddenly Damon was right in front of her, inches away. He lifted his hand to her cheek, "Bonnie—"

"Do you really not get it? Making up with Elena makes me more likely to tell you to get the hell off my porch." Bonnie said, with more heat than she actually felt.

Damon's smile disappeared. He stroked the edge of her face with his thumb, softly.

Bonnie felt her breath intake sharply. "Damon."

He stopped and she sighed. He stepped back and waved. "I get it." And with that he disappeared.

She walked inside before sinking to the ground, leaning against the wall. "Damn it, Damon."