In a couple of days I was back at work and things were back to normal- well normalish. I was checking out the website at work and letting Stefan and Damon know about the pilot updates, such as the casting and the boy's surnames being changed to Whitmore along with their ages. This caused mixed reactions of Stefan being both upset at changing so much and slightly relieved that at least some of his anonymity would stay, Damon acted like he didn't give a fig one way or another and I was outraged understandably at the severe changes. This seemed to amuse both of them and at one point when I told Stefan I didn't think that I could bear to do it anymore he actually rolled his eyes at me and told me not to get upset as I had the real thing- this calmed me down a bit and I kept on with the updates.
Meanwhile, Lee got invited over to Stefan's one night so that I could get to meet Elena and Bonnie. The plan was a girly night in with plenty of alcohol and no men, but of course it didn't happen like that.
It started off awkwardly at first, politeness all round- each of us thinking about what to say to the other apart from polite chit chat, then someone decided to break the ice by flying in the spare room window upstairs. The first we knew of it was when he hopped over the stair rail and landed with a deliberate thud on the floor making us all jump.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I asked him, I was angry and stupidly relieved that he hadn't hurt himself. "If I'd have knocked you wouldn't have left me in so I thought this might be the best way to catch your attention. There has been an update on the website about the pilot Stefan and I thought we should let you know since you're all together." I glanced a look at the two girls, who were both as puzzled as I was, "this could have waited until tomorrow surely."
"What is it?" asked Elena sharply, a look of apprehension on her face, Damon took a piece of paper from his pocket and gave it to me with a grin, there was a picture of a young man with brown hair and brown eyes on it. "What do you think?" he asked.
"First impressions- a bit too Twilight for me, but he does have nice eyes. Who is he?" I passed the paper onto Bonnie, who seemed to like him and then it went to Elena who took a quick look and went to hand it back to Damon who refused it with a slight shake of the head.
"Now take a look at this one." I raised my eyebrows at the picture of a handsome young man with piercing blue eyes staring out at me from the photo. "Aha. "The Whitmore brothers have landed," I grinned at him as Bonnie snatched the picture from my hand and started to practically drooling over the picture.
"It's Boone from Lost, he's gorgeous! They're both gorgeous, but which one's which?" Elena snatched the picture off of Bonnie and rolled her eyes at me.
"What?!" asked Bonnie indignantly. "How am I supposed to tell?"
"Obviously the better looking one's me," grinned Damon, I slapped him on the arm and told him to shut up. "The first one's Stefan, the Boone boy's Damon." Bonnie went a nice shade of pink and just went "oh" in a small voice.
"But the producers have had a change of heart about Whitmore. It's still going to be Mystic Falls however much you hate it and they're still shaving a few hundred years off our ages, but they've replaced Whitmore with Salvatore as there's been a few complaints apparently." He grinned at me and I grinned back.
"I'm not getting involved Piccolina, so don't even think about it." Elena and Bonnie looked at each other in astonishment and then at us with puzzled faces.
"I might have to jump ship now Damon. You're just no fun anymore," I pouted and he laughed making me laugh along with him.
"Are you two going to let us in on your little joke?" Elena asked.
"Damon thought I was going to ask him to influence the producers so that the pilot would be more faithful to what actually happened." Elena looked appalled but Bonnie was suppressing a grin, "ooh, Damon. You'd better reconsider if you don't want to loose your number one fan," she laughed.
"What's one less fan compared to the millions who are going to see the pilot and fall instantly in love with me," he shot me a sly glance.
"If they air the pilot. If the fans read the books, if not they'll be falling for hot stuff with the blue eyes." I countered.
"Oh they will, il mio dolce. Trust me." Cue all three of us staring open mouthed at Damon who was practically draped across the sofa by the door looking oh so amused and rather pleased with himself.
"I thought you weren't going to get involved?" I asked him, knowing now that with Damon you had to read between the lines. He shrugged at me and then winked at me again, "I'm not. I did my bit in getting the names changed, the rest is down to the producers and if the fans don't like it they can write another petition." Bonnie had sunk onto the other sofa in shock, Elena was standing by the fire looking totally gob smacked and I didn't know what to feel.
"Then how do you know they're going to pick it up? How do you know they're going to show the pilot?" I was practically jumping up and down with excitement and curiosity, what's more I didn't give a damn at that moment that there were real people involved whose lives it would effect and three of them were in the same room. "Because of people like you," I opened my mouth but he just held up a finger to silence me. "I meant fans of the books. I told you before Elizabeth, trust me."
By now he was standing in front of me in a very intimidating manner and it was working very well, I was having trouble even looking at him.
"Of course I trust you, Damon. You haven't given me a reason not." I shrugged, he took my hand and kissed the back of it which made me blush furiously then he laughed when he saw my face and winked at Bonnie who was looking more and more like she wanted to jump on him.
"Ahem! This was meant to be a girl's night in," Elena said pointedly from her position by the fireplace. Damon glanced at me and was about to open his mouth to Elena when I managed to drag myself back to Earth, albeit kicking and screaming, I withdrew my hand from his and it was my turn to smirk.
"She has a very good point. Thank you very much for the pictures which I would like to assure will be analysed in depth, I promise." That got a grin and a chuckle, he bowed low and wished us good night, then thankfully walked out through the front door.
After a minute or two of silence, when we could be sure that he'd gone; Elena let out a deep breath. "Wow. Just when I thought I had him figured out he goes and springs that on me."
"I don't think anyone will ever be able to figure him out. But that's part of his charm isn't it, the fire that's inside of him." Elena went red when we both stared at her. "He really gets under your skin doesn't he? You'd have to be a robot not to feel anything when he's around." Whispered Bonnie almost to herself.
"Well I'll drink to that. I put all the alcohol in the kitchen didn't I?" I asked trying to lighten the mood. I went into the kitchen to open a bottle of wine that they'd brought but they followed me- Elena to ask where the bathroom was and Bonnie stayed to have a little chat about our favourite subject.
"Wow. What spell did you cast to do that?" She grinned.
"I wish I knew." I laughed, "but to be honest with you I think we're becoming good friends." Bonnie snorted and handed me a glass of wine.
"Damon doesn't do friendships, you should know that. He'll be making a tally and you'll have to repay him in full later on in blood."
"I think you're both wrong. I think that he finds it all very amusing to be a character in a book and now a tv show, especially as he's met one fan and has discovered that there are hundreds more out there. Bonnie's right about one thing though Lizzie, Damon's doing this for himself not for anyone else and the minute he gets bored with all this you might find yourself in serious trouble, you need to be very careful." Nobody heard Elena come up behind us until she spoke, but I didn't want to listen to any of the warnings. It wasn't like that, we were just friends having a laugh.
"Of course he's provided you with a sufficient substitute- smouldering Somerhalder if you're into piercing blue eyes and evil grins." Bonnie winked at me, Elena gasped in mock horror. "Bonnie! She has a boyfriend!"
Both of us turned to stare at Elena who went a very deep shade of red. "I'm allowed to window shop. I wouldn't cheat on Lee," I protested. Bonnie looked pointedly at Elena who glared back at her- "he coerced me. I did it to protect Stefan, you know that."
"You weren't being coerced in that dream you had when you slept round Bonnies' that time," I pointed out. Bonnie gasped and put her hand over her mouth Elena glared at me. "How dare you. What do you know about my dreams?"
"Elena, there are currently five books about you, Damon and Stefan. I've read them so much I practically know them off by heart. Both of the boys have read them as well." Elena looked as though she was going to be sick, I actually felt sorry for her as she went and sat down.
"I'm sorry." I said as I sat next to her, she looked very pale.
"Stefan said there were books about us and that you were a fan. He didn't tell me that he'd read them," she whispered.
"He probably didn't want to hurt you. I gave them to Damon to read the next day and after he'd finished with them Stefan read them, I was dreading it actually. I thought that they'd get into a massive fight over some of the things that went on, but it doesn't seem as though that's happened. Perhaps they've finally grown up."
Bonnie laughed, "it's taken them long enough hasn't it?" Elena relaxed a little bit and smiled, "you'd hope that after 500 years they'd have grown up by now, but I suppose with men you never know."
"I'll lend you the books if you like, just take good care of them as the first book is signed." I grinned and the two girls laughed.
"I wonder who signed it? It wasn't Stefan by any chance?" mocked Elena.
"I didn't have the courage to ask him to autograph them. Anyway, I leant them to Damon on the condition that I have his autograph because I knew he'd like that." My turn to go red and take a huge swig of wine, they just laughed.
"Well I propose a toast." said Elena standing up. "To friendships old and new, may they last forever." Bonnie and I stood up and all three of us clinked our glasses.