Note: This chapter has been revised. Nothing's new, it's just better writing.

Disclaimer: Chapter 1 please :)

Monster's Ball

Four days.

Four days.

I had given up. Completely and hopelessly just...given up. There was no expectation of an escape from this world anytime soon. It had been four days since the outbreak of Bonnie's death, and shortly afterwards, Elena and I returned to college as if nothing was wrong. I wouldn't have minded staying at the boarding house for a few more days by myself, but Elena insisted that I return back to college and had looked at me like I had three heads when I told her that it wasn't a good idea. So, I complied. However, I had gone to see Stefan whenever I could, but there was nothing much to tell him about. Elena was avoiding Damon and so was I, even though I wasn't really relevant to him.

Ever since the funeral, I had come to the realization that it wasn't my place to get between Elena and Damon. Sure, I hated her for doing what she did to me, and she deserved to be hurt just as badly. But what about me? My feelings, that was? I wasn't going to let myself wallow in misery because I had to face the music. I had to move on—I had to get over it.

So I stayed away, despite this nagging feeling inside telling me that I should take his calls. Luckily, Stefan kept me grounded. I brought him blood, and we conversed about typical friend things. I tried to escape the wrath of Caroline and Tyler as they divulged in each other in our dorm room since they'd been away for so long. Elena was all depressed and mopey, and I was starting to get bored. I wanted to wake up from this place. When I told Stefan this, he told me that he felt the same way—that this was all a dream—but we both agreed that it was as real as it got, and we had to accept that.

I was stuck here. Forever.

Fortunately for me, I'd adopted a distraction when I couldn't be with Stefan. Oddly enough, that distraction happened to be Dr. Maxfield. Elena had been on the right path when she said that he was hot, and I wasn't protesting one bit. I don't think anyone was. He was still a little sketchy for my taste, but I endured it. He was...different than the rest of these people.

So, when he walked up to me on campus, I didn't turn in the other direction. "Madeline. Welcome back."

"Thanks," I said, smiling as he did. Dr. Maxfield nodded politely and quickly moved on, avoiding silence.

"Are you going to the costume ball tonight?" he asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"Costume ball?" I repeated, thinking it over. They had costume balls here? But, then, I recalled Caroline blabbing about costumes while I was trying to do some of the homework for my classes. I snapped my fingers in recollection. "Right! The Historical Society...thing. Yeah, I'm going. Caroline's in charge of the costumes." Knowing her, I would end up going as Queen Victoria or something tacky like that.

"Great," Dr. Maxfield agreed with another smile. "So I guess I'll—"

When my phone buzzed in my pocket, I held up a finger at the applied microbiology teacher and sighed. "Just...give me a second." I pulled out my phone from my pocket, thinking it might be Stefan or something like that, but when I saw that it was Damon, I inhaled sharply and immediately hit the reject button. With a flick of my wrist, I put my phone back into my pocket. "You were saying?"

"He was saying that he needed to leave," someone said, bumping my shoulder and interrupting my conversation with Dr. Maxfield. I looked to the side to see Damon, who was staring at Wes with somewhat peeved eyes. Dr. Maxfield looked back and forth between me and Damon before finally settling on me and scoffing.

"I'll see you later, Madeline." I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming and just nodded to him as he walked away. Damon stepped in front of me once he was gone and I just crossed my arms at him.

"Seriously? Do you absolutely have to interrupt every single conversation I have with him?"

"He's a teacher, Madeline." Damon rolled his eyes. "So not your territory."

I was slightly offended at the double meaning behind Damon's words, but then I closed my mouth and narrowed my eyes. "Well, he's not my teacher, and it's completely legal."

Damon scowled. "Legality isn't the issue, Madeline. It's morality. You're too moral."

"Just for that, I'm so going to have a hot affair with him and you won't even know what hit you," I snapped. Damon was unimpressed, and he was disbelieving of it, too. I just scoffed and turned my head. "Morality," I hissed as I started to walk away. Damon stopped me, pulling my arm back to keep me from leaving his side.

"Where do you think you're going? You've been avoiding me ever since you got back to Whitmore," Damon accused me. I shrugged at him and jerked my arm back.

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

Damon grimaced. "I've been calling and texting you three days."

"I had schoolwork to finish. Honors classes aren't going to pass themselves!"

"Just now, I called you, and you just declined."

"I was talking to Wes!" I defended myself, and Damon, once again, rolled his eyes. It was more out of irritation than anything.

"So it's Wes now, is it?" I crossed my arms defensively and Damon did the same. "Oh, don't try to hide it, Madeline. I know your crush look. I was on the other side of that look. You like him. I don't like it."

"Good thing you don't have to," I returned, shrugging again. Damon and I stared at each other from across the way, until I finally sighed and gave up. "Fine. Fine, what do you want, Damon?"

I didn't want to be so abrasive with him—it wasn't really in my nature to go yelling at a guy for no reason. But in order for me to get over it and for him to have a chance with my sister—which, I'll admit, I didn't want—I had to be this way. we were going to have a problem if he drove several hours out of town just to accuse me of liking someone else and declining his calls. Which...I'm sure, was not the case here.

Damon sighed, caving. "Audrey's been asking about Stefan."

I found no reason to think this was a bad thing. "So? Tell her where he is if she asked. Did you really need to come all the way out here for that?"

"Well...do you really think that's such a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"He doesn't remember her," Damon reasoned, but I didn't understand the thought process. I nodded.

"Yeah, he...doesn't remember anyone," I pointed out. Damon blinked at me.

"He broke up with her right before he went to go dump Silas in the quarry, but ended up getting dumped in there, himself. What if she decides that she's going to take advantage of the situation, you know? Trick him or something?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What, like Elena?"

I had heard the story of, apparently, Elena tricking Stefan into thinking that she was available and into him, from Stefan. Granted, his version of the story might be different than Elena's, but I think the gist of it was there. Damon stared at me with a frown.

"Elena didn't do anything wrong."

I couldn't resist laughing. "Come on, Damon. You don't really believe that, do you? She basically almost kissed Stefan...while she's with you." Damon gulped, and I dropped my mouth open. "Oh...did you not know or something?"

"Just...talk to Audrey," Damon snapped at me. I flinched at the sudden raise of volume, and seeing that jolt, Damon softened his eyes. "Sorry. Just talk to her, okay?"

"Yeah." I recoiled into myself and turned. "Sure. Whatever. I'll talk to her."

"Where are you going?" Damon shouted after me as I started to walk away. I turned back at him and threw my hands up.

"To class!"

Luckily, Damon didn't follow me as I walked across campus. Truth be told, I had another half hour or so before class started, but I just needed to get away from Damon practically breathing down my neck. I wasn't going to do what he asked until I actually realized that I needed to call Audrey, anyway. So, I pulled out my phone and dialed her number.

Audrey answered on the second ring. "Hey, Mads! Did Damon come and talk to you?"

Though she couldn't see, I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Yeah...um, how did you know?" Was she psychic or something? In this world, it wouldn't really be much of a shocker.

"Well, he told me that he needed to talk to you before he told me where Stefan was," she explained. I frowned. When did I become the dictator of another person's life? "So...where's Stefan?"

But the way she was talking...something was bothering me. She sounded like she actually wanted to talk to Stefan, like she knew him personally or something. Confused to the very brink, I stopped in the middle of a pathway and spun around. "Wait a second, do you remember everything? About this...life or whatever."

"Uh...yeah," Audrey said slowly, like I should be thinking the same thing. I bit down on my lip. Well, wasn't this an interesting turn of events? "I got my memories back the night after I called you. Seriously...all of them. I remember everything. Don't you?"

I shook my head and said after a moment of hesitation, "No. I...don't. I mean, I've been remembering a few things here and there, but other than that, there's not much else." Well, this was just perfect. I was the only freakshow—besides Stefan—who didn't have her memories. Wonderful.

"That's...weird," Audrey confessed, surprised herself. I sighed and moved on, finding no comfort in talking about my condition.

"Whatever. I'll tell you where Stefan is, but you have to promise me something." I didn't really want to bring it up, but Damon had a point. If Audrey remembered everything, then she could potentially try to use Stefan's condition to get him to fall in love with her...again. Again? Was that the right term?

"Sure."

"You can't use his condition to trick him into falling in love with you," I told her firmly. "Damon said something about you two breaking up before the summer again and he's worried that you're going to use his...amnesia to be with him again." I scoffed at the thought. Imagine if our situations had been reversed. I wondered if Damon would've done that to me. There was hardly any doubt in my mind that he would've.

"Damon thinks that I'm going to trick Stefan into loving me again?" Audrey scoffed, as if the thought was inconceivable. I agreed wholeheartedly. "That's a Katherine move, not an Audrey move."

I didn't understand the analogy, but I moved on, regardless. "Just...promise me, okay?"

"All right. All right, I promise. Of course." I let out a sigh of relief and told her where Stefan was, deciding to take the risk. Well, to me, it wasn't really a risk. I trusted Audrey...or, at least, I did before she became a part of this world for real. Now who could I trust?

After classes, I went back to the dorm to finish off the little bit of work that I had to get done before the dance later on. But as I worked, a box dropped right from the air onto the desk that was mine. I looked up at it involuntarily since it covered up all of the work that I was trying to finish. Caroline looked down at me with an ever-growing grin.

"What's this?" I asked her, standing up to open the box.

"Your costume!" Caroline exclaimed excitedly. "I gave everyone their costumes this year—I even bought Stefan and Audrey theirs!"

Once I heard it, I stilled my hands on the box and peered up at the blonde vampire. "Stefan and Audrey are going to the costume ball together?" Caroline nodded. "Since when?"

Caroline shrugged. "Before I went to drop off Stefan's costume, he called and asked if I could wrangle one up for my sister. He invited her, apparently." I looked at Caroline with suspicion, and she seemed to pick on it. "Not as a girlfriend or anything! I thought the exact same thing. I mean, I wouldn't put it below Audrey to trick Stefan to be back with her again."

Everyone was seriously convinced that she would do that. I hoped that it wouldn't come true and she would be better than that, though. It was pathetic, trying to make someone fall in love with you under false pretenses. "So why'd he invite her, then?"

"He wanted to, I guess. Even as an amnesiac, he wants to be with her." Caroline smiled. "That's sweet, isn't it? Good for them."

I laughed breathlessly. "Yeah. Good for them." I cleared my throat and looked down at the box again, and this time I opened it quickly. Peering inside, I frowned when I pulled out an old-fashioned gown that was folded neatly inside of the cardboard. Caroline smiled as she watched my expression, but I turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "What is this?"

There were other accessories inside of the box, but I only pulled out the dress. The entire thing looked like a sweat machine. I visibly shuddered. "You're Catherine of Aragon!" she cried enthusiastically. I knew who it was, but Caroline rambled on. "You know...King Henry VIII's very first wife? He cheated on her with Anne Boleyn and—"

"I know who Catherine of Aragon is, Care, I just don't know why you picked me to be her," I said, causing Caroline's smile to falter. Truth be told, I had hoped she would've picked something cool like...Amelia Earhart or something like that.

"Well...if you don't like it, I guess I could take it back or something. We could...find you something else," Caroline murmured, disappointed. I sighed, realizing that I hurt her feelings. Great. Now I felt like a terrible person. Immediately, I retracted my outburst.

"You know what, Caroline? It's fine," I reassured her, trying to make her feel better. "It's nice, actually. I like it."

I gave Caroline a smile to be supportive, and soon, Caroline gave me one in return. She nodded. "I know you hate it, Mads. But thanks for trying."

"No problem."

I walked into the crowded house full of too many historical figures to name. I felt so uncomfortable being at one of these big, fancy parties. Was this something that they did for fun around here? Dress up and pretend like there wasn't a care in the world when, really, there was a vampire apocalypse on the rise?

Yeah...that sounded like something these people would do under impending doom.

"Hey!" I heard as I descended the stairs. Stefan was waiting at the bottom, leaning against the railing. He looked me over with curious eyes. I was trying my hardest not to trip in the old-fashioned, long, fat gown, and so far, I thought I was doing a pretty good job. "What the hell are you supposed to be?"

"Catherine of Aragon. You?" Stefan was dressed in a leather jacket and a white t-shirt. He looked like...well, if I was being honest here, himself.

"James Dean." Stefan pulled his lips back and gave me a dazzling, teeth-showing smile. "Ironic enough, Audrey came as Audrey Hepburn."

I gave a look of approval, laughing at the irony in the statement as well. But something hit me when I came face-to-face with Stefan—his eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelt like alcohol. I pointed at him accusingly. "You're drunk!"

Stefan shrugged, not disagreeing or agreeing. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. You should dance with me anyways."

He held out a hand for me to take, but I eyed it with curiosity. When I looked up at him, I found him staring at me. "I thought you were here with my best friend's sister, huh?"

"I am." Regardless of my statement, I took Stefan's hand. We were friends, nothing more. I wouldn't become Elena Gilbert 2.0. "But she's off somewhere taking a breather. I think college life might be a bit too much for her. Hey, where's my brother? Shouldn't you be here with him?"

Stefan pulled me under his arm and spun me back so that he was holding me for the dance. I laughed at it, but when his questions hit, I almost scoffed. "Yeah, right. Like he would come with me instead of Elena. Because that makes total sense, right?"

Stefan nodded and gasped. "Right, Elena. I forgot. Well...I didn't forget that he was with her, but I forgot that you weren't with...him."

I chuckled. Drunk. Definitely drunk. "All right. Maybe you should take it easy there, hot-shot. Seems like you don't have one of those high vampire tolerances everyone else seems to have."

Stefan snorted. "Are you kidding me?" Without warning, he spun me under his arm again and pulled me back to him. When I thought he was done, he dipped me down, causing my breath to catch. But that inflation of oxygen turned into a laugh when the younger Salvatore pulled me back to a standing position and swayed us back and forth again. "I've never felt better."

I smiled, and for the first time, I was actually having fun. Stefan saw this, and he smiled at my happiness. He twirled me out into the crowd, and just when I thought he would pull me back, a hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from Stefan so that my hand disconnected with his. When I turned, I found myself staring into the electric eyes of the otherSalvatore brother.

As soon as I saw Damon's grin, I dropped my smile and groaned. "Okay. I'm done now." I refused to move, but Damon pulled me with him, forcing me to dance. I saw him chuckle.

"You're so mean to me, Madeline." But unlike what it could've sounded like, it wasn't angry or...or even sad. It was playful, as if he was teasing me. But in what world was this funny? I didn't want to talk to him; not now, not ever. I was getting ready to argue when I looked down at his costume and suddenly realized something. I broke away from him, earning Damon to roll his eyes.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" I asked. Please don't say it...please don't say it...

Damon smirked. "Henry VIII," he replied. I choked, finding this a very unfunny joke.

"W-What?"

Damon pulled me back to him and forced us to resume dancing. I couldn't object because...well, I was human, and I didn't really have much of a choice. I was beginning to grasp that now. "Come on, Madeline. You're my wife, and I'm ordering you to dance with me."

"Like it's any different than what you do on a regular basis," I mumbled to myself, knowing that he could hear. Then, I looked up at him and shook my head. Damon frowned, unimpressed that I wasn't playing along. "But I am not your wife. Even Catherine of Aragon was Henry's ex-wife." I opened my mouth to say something else snidely, but then something clicked in my head. "Wait a second! If I came as Catherine of Aragon...you came as Henry VIII...then who did Elena come as?"

Damon scowled. "You're a smart girl, Mads. You can figure this one out."

Catherine of Aragon...Henry VIII...god damn it! "I am going to kill Caroline Forbes!" Elena came as Anne Boleyn? This was a sick, sick joke and it wasn't funny at all. I was mortified; I knew Amelia Earhart would've been a better option!

Damon rolled his eyes again. "Oh, come on. Don't get all testy on me now."

"You do know that Henry cheated on Catherine with Anne?"

Damon shrugged. "He also chopped Anne's head off." He flicked his index finger under my chin in an attempt to cheer me up. "Lucky for you, I only sent you to a convent."

My stomach turned. God, this was getting creepier by the minute. "That's not making it better."

"You're right. It's not."

But something about him—his tone, his appearance...I wasn't sure—was making me angry. I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes accusingly. "What's your angle, Damon? You've been calling me non-stop all week, you showed up this morning and interrupted my conversation with Wes, you're here now dressed as my ex-husband...what are you trying to accomplish, here?"

Damon bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at me with a certain level of anger. He avoided the question and responded with questions of his own. "I'm curious. Why are you avoiding me? Ever since the funeral, you've been so angry with me. Angrier than you've ever been before. Is it because I was there for you when your little professor boyfriend wasn't?"

"I'm angry at you because I lo—" I stopped myself short, suddenly aware of what was about to come out of my mouth. Damon was catching on, too, and I covered myself up quickly before he could say anything. "Because I loathe you."

Damon scoffed. "No, you don't, Madeline. Even when you've loathed me before, you've never...loathed me."

"It's not about me!" I snapped, but I soon realized that it was worthless. Raising my voice wouldn't get my point across, I had to try it another way. I sighed and swallowed hard, trying to get the words out. "Damon, we should be moving on. That's all I'm trying to do."

I could see a flicker of hurt cross Damon's eyes, and I felt my chest tighten. "I'm selfish," he growled. "You knew that already."

I expected him to hold me captive some more, but instead, he looked up and spotted something far more interesting in his vision. I would've predicted that it was Elena, but I couldn't find the will to turn back once Damon released me with an enigmatic one-liner and left my presence. My head hurt. I might've been giving Damon mixed signals here and there, but he was just giving me pure whiplash.

Exhausted of the party already, I walked over to the bar to get a much-needed drink. Hopefully, the bartender would let me slide since I only had a year to hit the legal age mark. But when I walked over to the area, I spotted that witch—Qetsiyah...Tessa...whatever—sitting down with a drink. Getting one of my own slipped my mind once I realized that there was something I was dying to ask her.

"You." Tessa turned to me and watched as I pointed at her accusingly and came to a slow when I walked up. She only smiled. "What did you do to me?"

"I used your blood as activation for my spell." Tessa shrugged. "You're a Pure Blood, Madeline."

I opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it when the information struck me. I raised an eyebrow at her. "A Pure Blood?" I repeated, puzzled.

Tessa nodded. "Yes. You've been to another realm, you've never had sex..."

She said all of this like I was supposed to know why I was so important—why a Pure Blood was so special, I guess. But I blinked at her and interrupted, shaking my head. "Wait a second, how the hell do you know that I haven't had sex? That's a personal matter!"

Tessa just laughed, as if the answer was right in front of me, but...it wasn't. "You're a Pure Blood. I wouldn't have used you for my spell if you weren't one."

"Well what does being a virgin have to deal with being a...a Pure Blood?" I said the words with weariness, almost resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

Tessa scoffed. "Oh, I don't know...everything, perhaps? It's the literal definition, Madeline."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" I exclaimed, hissing at her. Tessa straightened at me, raising an eyebrow. Eventually, I backed off, deciding that it was not the time to start asking questions I didn't want and/or need the answer to. I wanted to know about something else. I pointed at her again."You gave me those memories. Those...memory...dream-things. Whatever they were, you gave them to me, didn't you?"

The witch shrugged. "Well, I can't take all the credit...but I did intentionally use you so I could push your memory in the right direction. Silas doesn't want you to remember so...well, I do."

I frowned. "Wait...you know about me?"

Tessa laughed. "What, that you've been in another realm for the last three months? Hello! Pure Blood, remember? The only way that happens is if you go to another realm for three months, of course."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I said frustratedly, throwing my hands up in the air. Tessa looked at me with no interest at all, but I was determined to get my way. "How do I get out of here?"

Tessa shook her head. "Get out of...where?"

"Here!" I gestured around the lavish building and to all the people who thought I was their friend, ex-girlfriend, or sister. Tessa still looked at me as if I were acting strange. "I want to go back to my damn life!"

Tessa stared at me for a while, but then she started laughing. This time, her laughs were sharper and throatier than before. I waited, watching as she practically doubled over with laughter, finding something funny.

"Don't you understand?" Tessa asked me mid-laugh, dialing down at the end of her question. I stood still as her smile dropped and she gestured around. "This is your life, sweetie."

"Hey, Audrey," I greeted as I walked up to my best friend at the buffet table. Audrey turned around and smiled at me. She was dressed as Stefan said—Audrey Hepburn—complete with pearls the size of quarters, a big old bun on top of her head, and Hepburn's signature elegant black dress. I wasn't very happy about what happened with Tessa back at the bar, but when Stefan interrupted, I knew that there was no hope of earning back her attention. What did she mean when she said that this was my life? This was definitely not my life!

Maybe there was no hope for me.

"Hey," Audrey replied. "Where's your hot date?"

"I didn't come with a date."

Audrey frowned. "You mean...Damon didn't break up with Elena for you yet?"

I glared at her as Audrey's frown turned up and tried to get me to do the same. I just shook my head. "So not funny."

She shrugged. "Worth a shot. Besides, it's not long before that happens, anyway."

"Audrey, trust me. That's not going to happen." I sighed. "It's...way too late."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "It's never too late. Not with you and Damon. You might not remember, but I do."

"I don't want to remember," I mumbled under my breath, but it was so low that Audrey's human ears couldn't pick up on it. All of a sudden, I saw Wes emerge from the crowd and smile at me, causing my mood to automatically lift. "Hey! Dr. Maxfield."

"You...can call me Wes, you know," Wes told me as he walked up, causing me to turn to face him. I shrugged.

"Sure. Wes."

"You came," he noted. I nodded.

"Yeah...I don't think I really had much of a choice, though." I looked down at the dress I was wearing and sighed. "Caroline almost cried when I told her I didn't want to be Catherine of Aragon so...I wonder what she would've done if I told her I didn't want to go."

Wes laughed, and I turned around to introduce him to Audrey. Instead, she had seemingly slipped away in the few seconds that we'd been talking, and I turned back around to him and gave him a tight smile, feeling the awkwardness. Suddenly, Wes held out a hand for me to talk. "Would you like to dance, Madeline?"

I looked down at the hand and bit my lip. "Isn't there some...rule against that or something?"

"Well, as much as I would've loved to have you as my student..." Wes trailed off and shrugged. "I guess you don't have to be."

Without much thought after that, needing a pick-me-up, I nodded at him. "Sure." I didn't know why everyone was so interested in dancing with me since I was a terrible dancer. On a scale of one to ten, I was an eleven and a half. But, regardless, I pushed through it, just trying not to step on his toes. Since Wes was—presumably—a human, he didn't have the agility that vampires did. After a second of dancing, I sighed and continued, "So...who are you supposed to be?"

"Dr. Jekyll," Wes said, faking offense that I didn't realize it sooner. I raised an eyebrow.

"And Mr. Hyde is...?"

"I-I'm not responsible for my darker half," he replied. I grinned. "And you? Catherine of Aragon? Interesting choice."

"Yeah...not so much." My costume brought dark clouds over my head, but I snapped out of it once I realized that Wes was waiting for me to explain. "My sister came as Anne Boleyn and her boyfriend, my ex, came as Henry VIII. Talk about a weird situation."

But Wes wasn't so interested in the costume. He just widened his eyes in shock. "Your sister is dating your ex-boyfriend?" I nodded. He whistled in surprise. "Wow. That's...that's something different."

"Yeah. Different and...awkward," I admitted. I could feel Wes's eyes on me as I glanced around the room. Eventually, he spoke again.

"But your ex-boyfriend's still in love with you?" he urged. Immediately, I cut my eyes back to him.

"W-What would make you say that?"

"Oh, come on." Wes scoffed, as if it were obvious. I felt suddenly uncomfortable. "That guy who interrupted us this morning? That look he gave me? It's the international sign between males to back the hell off."

I rolled my eyes. "But that's just Damon. He's an ass by nature. Besides, he's not in love with me...he's just trying to make himself feel better."

"You have your perception of it, I have mine, and I'm sure he has his," Wes applied intellectually, but I was growing tired of the conversation as the minute passed. He seemed to notice this and changed the subject. "So...are you going to stay here this time around or are you going to take off with your sister again and disappear for a few days?"

I laughed. "No, I think I'm here for good this time. But, you know, there seems to be so much crap going on back home. I'm not really sure of anything anymore."

"Hmm..." Wes hummed under his breath. I watched him as he struggled for words, but instead, he pulled me closer and swayed us back and forth as his lips came by my ear. I thought it was a little weird, and that's when I understood what Damon was saying about my morality issues. God damn it, I hated that he was right. "Well, if I were you, I would tell your sister and her vampire friends to get out of here as fast as they can."

I stood, shocked. Now this was an interesting turn of events. "Excuse me?"

I tried to pull away from him, but I couldn't. Wes pulled us around in a circle. "I'm not saying that you have to leave. You're human, they're not onto you. But you tell the rest of them to go back to Mystic Falls and never look back."

I finally found the strength to push away from him—or, maybe he let me this time. But with a scoff, I just gave him a look and walked away from him, as pissed off as I could be. Dancing was just not my thing with these people. Stefan was tolerable, Damon was horrific, and Wes was just...interesting. That was interesting. As a champagne went by me, I grabbed a glass and downed it, not minding all the adults around me. They could let the one year difference slide.

Twenty minutes later, when the party began to die down and I was looking for anyone I knew so I could tell them I was going back to the dorm, someone grabbed my arm and started pulling me against my will. To be honest, I was so used to it, I didn't bother fighting.

"Let's go," I heard someone whisper, and I realized immediately that it was Damon.

"What happened?" I asked, trying to discover what the problem was.

"Silas happened. I was working with him to bring Bonnie back, Tessa found out and got angry, and now Silas is dead and we need him to bring the witch back," Damon explained. I shook my head.

"And I'm needed in this...why?"

Damon shrugged. "Why do you have to be needed? I figured you'd want to help."

I finally stopped letting him lead me, so I jerked away from him so fast that Damon was surprised and actually let go of me. We were pulled to a stop in front of the exit, and he sighed in annoyance as he turned around at me. I shook my head. "Damon, I don't want to leave. I like it here."

"Why?" Damon snapped. "Because your professor boyfriend or my brother?"

I don't know what came over me, but I knew Damon had no right to treat me this way. I took my hand and slapped him, right on the cheek. If he wasn't vampire, I was sure it would leave a mark. My own hand was on fire, and I had no doubt it would be red and sore for a while. But it was worth it. Damon left his cheek turned, having been surprised by the slap, and he turned back at me with his jaw squared. I huffed, but it was worth it. He had no right, and I needed to do something to stand up for myself. Wes...Damon...Tessa...I was done with it.

"You good now?" Damon growled through his teeth. I almost flinched, but I refrained. He took one step forward and I stepped back to get away from him. "Are you happy now? You finally got to do what you've been waiting to do for months! Do you feel better, Madeline?"

"I didn't slap you because you cheated on me, I slapped you because you're being a dick," I found myself saying, and I tried hard not to shake. He looked at me with an anger I hadn't seen before—not even in my memories. Damon ran his tongue over his teeth and I scoffed. "Not that you didn't deserve it for what you did with Elena because you're right—it felt great, Damon."

"Well I'm glad you think so. Let's go."

"No!" I snapped, stepping back before he could grab me again. Damon looked back at me and watched as I shook my head firmly. "I'm moving on. You should, too."

We stared at each other for a while, and I could see his cold eyes harden. I wasn't sure if he was going to do anything if I moved, but I decided to take the risk. Ducking my head, I brushed past him and found that I had gotten away with it, slipping right past him and out the door so I could do what I wanted. I didn't look back, not once. I meant every word I said; I needed to move on, and so did he.

For the sake of both of us.

Okay! That concludes this chapter! Thank you so much for the comments and follows and favorites and everything, you know you all are the best!

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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