Author's Note: It took a week, but here's another chapter! This one gave me so much trouble. Bless my beta, who got a million and one emails from me about this. I think I've filled up her inbox from all of my emails and documents for her to look at. However, for a chapter that kicked my ass so much, I've somehow wound up with the longest one of the story. The present portion is short, but it's so we can just jump straight into the past. We've got a bit of crazy Caroline in this chapter. She's all over the place! Thank you so much for all of the reviews that I continue to get for this story. You all are so truly amazing! I love you all! Enjoy!
Chapter 26
Forgiveness calls
It beckons me
To find the courage
Let it be
Elena rolled her suitcase through the busy airport, taking care to not run into anyone. With each step she took closer to her gate, the more nervous she became. She hadn't seen Matt in years and she was going to show up on his doorstep out of the blue. What would she even say to him when she saw him? Would he even want to talk to her?
She knew that it was an impulsive decision and that it could backfire on her, but she'd learned a lot over the past year. One of the things she'd learned was that people deserved closure. Even if Matt had moved on and found the most amazing woman ever, she'd robbed him of closure for their relationship. She owed him more answers than she'd ever given him, and he deserved those. She wasn't hoping that she would see him and they would be friends again, but she hoped it would be another step in the right direction of putting things back together in her life. How could she truly move forward if she didn't try to right some of her wrongs?
Even though there had been more steps back than she could count during this past year, there had been steps forward. They were hard and were sometimes smaller than she wanted, but they were there. She'd even made progress with Damon. Right now, it seemed as if that progress was all shot to hell, but she'd done it once. When he'd given her no indication that she would ever be able to fix anything with them, she'd still moved forward.
That was all she could continue to do now. Even if she didn't have Damon, she couldn't return to how she'd been before she came back to New York. She couldn't curl up in a ball and shut the world out anymore. She'd lose Caroline and Bonnie for good if she ever did that again, and if she lost them, she'd never survive. They were her rock through everything, and she wouldn't jeopardize the friendship again. As much pain as she was in right now, she wasn't going to let herself give up.
That was what she continued to tell herself as she made her way to the gate. Even though every part of her wanted to go home and cry until she could cry no more, she knew that she had to keep moving. If she kept moving, then she kept breathing, and if she kept breathing, then she still had a chance for something good.
The inner monologue in her head sounded slightly maniacal with the positive things she kept chanting to herself, but she knew what would happen the moment she truly allowed her brain to think about Damon. If she thought about him, she'd be done. It hurt too much, and she'd never make it to Nashville. That was where she needed to be right now, not here. She couldn't be in New York while he got married. She just couldn't.
With yawns and small groans, everyone piled out of their cars onto the grand driveway, stretching their limbs from the long car ride. "Hello Hamptons!" Caroline sang out. She ripped the keys from Stefan and ran for the stairs leading to the front door, quickly getting the door unlocked and letting herself in.
After a great deal of convincing and a few threats of bodily harm, Elena found herself standing outside of the Salvatore's East Hamptons home. Well, home seemed too normal a word for what she was standing in front of. For a place that boasted eight bedrooms, there was nothing homely about it. It was a mansion, and a freaking huge one at that. It would seem the Salvatore money knew no bounds, and when Caroline had insisted on going away for Stefan's birthday, she'd chosen this out of the plethora of vacation homes they had to their name.
She had been reluctant to come, knowing that Stefan was still uncomfortable around her, and things had not gotten any better with Damon. However, Caroline demanded that everyone had to be there, and she swore that Damon would be on his best behavior. She believed the promise had been more for Caroline's benefit than of anything truthful. Though she'd only seen him twice since that day he barged into her apartment two weeks ago, he'd made it clear that nothing had changed; he still couldn't stand her. For everyone's sake, she just hoped that he would keep at least half of his comments to himself this weekend, otherwise things would not end well for anyone.
Her plan was to avoid him as much as possible. She'd started that by riding in a separate car as him on the ride up, choosing to ride with Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan. She suspected the ride had been pure torture on Stefan's part, specifically when Caroline found out that Bonnie had started seeing someone. As she looked at him unloading the bags from the back of his car, she felt correct in her assumption. The man looked like he'd been water boarded for the past two days.
"You're a brave man," she told him as she gathered her bag from him. "Not many men could handle a car ride with three girls shrieking about boys and singing along to the Spice Girls."
Stefan smiled tightly, but tried to respond kindly just the same. "I'm used to Caroline's antics by now. As long as she doesn't force me to sing, I can handle anything."
Elena laughed and threw the strap for her duffel bag over her shoulder. "Well, thanks for being a good sport. I'll try not to torture you anymore this weekend."
"Thank you," he said quietly, then went back to pulling bags from the car.
She sighed and went up to the house where she found Caroline flitting through the living room with a bag of chips in hand. "I found the food!" she proclaimed with a smile, proudly holding up a bright orange Dorito.
"Think you can help me find the rooms?" she asked with a smile. "I do not want to get lost in this place."
Caroline bounced over to the staircase, waving her arm behind her. "Come on, I'll show you your room. It's the one farthest from Damon. I know you are all playing nice this weekend, but I'd rather not tempt fate. Bonnie will be across the hall from you, so you two can have slumber parties if you wish, although I will be bitterly jealous if you do." Her mouth running a mile a minute, she threw open the door to a spacious room with a picturesque view of the ocean. "Voila!"
"Holy crap, this is bigger than my apartment," Elena said, amazed at the size.
"You should see the master suite, it's insane. Say what you will about Giuseppe, but the man knows how to get some good real estate."
"You can say that again."
Voices carried up the stairs as everyone began coming inside and finding their rooms. "Okay, I'm going make sure everyone knows where they are, and then I'll see you at dinner. I'm thinking we'll eat in like an hour. Sound good?"
"Yup, sounds good," Elena said happily, eager to have some time to herself to get her thoughts in order. She'd need to mentally prepare herself for everything that this weekend would entail. For the first time in two years, she would be sharing a house with Damon. For the first time ever, she'd be sharing it with his girlfriend as well. She'd really only met Andie one time, and she hadn't exactly been nice. In fact, she'd fled within the first two minutes of meeting her, and then ended her night by treating Damon horribly because he spent his evening with her. The anger hadn't truly been about Andie, but she hadn't been lying when she said that Andie still wanted him.
As it would now turn out, she was right. She didn't know how long Andie and Damon had been together now, but something had obviously happened to rekindle their romance. From what she'd witnessed that horrible night, she suspected that Andie had never stopped loving Damon, but that the relationship didn't work out. She knew from Damon that he'd never been faithful to a woman until he met Katherine, so that would mean he hadn't been faithful to Andie. If that had bothered her then, she seemed happy with Damon now and trusting that he wouldn't cheat. Elena knew from firsthand experience that if she was lucky enough to get Damon's heart, he'd never look at another woman while they were together.
"Elena, are you in here?" There was a soft knock on the door, and then Bonnie poked her head in. When she saw that Elena was sitting on her bed, she rushed in and closed the door behind her. "Oh my god, this place is huge!"
"I know!" Elena exclaimed. "I feel like we should incorporate the buddy system so we don't get lost."
"Seriously." Bonnie kicked off her shoes and then lay back on the bed. "So, you ready for this weekend?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Elena admitted nervously. "How bad can it really be, right?"
"With Damon involved?" Bonnie questioned skeptically. "Catastrophic."
That prediction would be tested when everyone sat down for dinner, but despite Bonnie's words, things seemed to move smoothly. She and Damon were at opposite ends of the table and the conversations stayed fairly divided. In fact, Elena found herself mostly drawn into conversation with Alaric. She had not seen him much since she returned, and she'd been worried as to how he would behave around her, but he seemed to treat her much in the same way he had when she was with Damon. He'd always been more than welcoming to her, and she was glad to know that even if she was sure he didn't approve of how she'd treated his best friend, he wasn't going to roast her over the fire for it.
"I almost had to enter AA after you left," he joked during dessert. "I'd gotten way too used to my own personal bartender."
Elena laughed. "I'm sorry, Ric. How can I ever make it up to you?"
"You can start by making me a drink," he smiled. He stood up and held his arm out for her. "Shall I show you to the bar where I can put you to work?"
She linked her arm with his. "Lead the way."
"Hey, where are you two going?" Caroline called out. "We haven't finished dessert."
"I have a debt to repay to Alaric," Elena gravely explained. "I shall be serving my penance at the bar."
"Drinking time starts now!" Alaric exclaimed and led Elena from the room.
The words did the trick of bringing everyone to life, and they all began filing into the living room, throwing out drink requests at Elena. "Woah!" she held up her arms, once she was situated behind the bar. "This is not Green Street! I am not here to service you. I will be making Alaric whatever he wants. The rest of you will make do with what I give you."
"Fine with me," Caroline smiled. "Not like I can drink anyway. I'll sit back and watch you all make fools of yourselves."
"I feel certain I can fulfill that wish for you," Alaric assured her once he had his drink and had found a seat on one of the couches.
Soon, everyone had a drink and Elena found a spot next to Bonnie, who was casually sipping on a glass of wine. Elena hoped that the alcohol would keep everyone relaxed and calm for the evening. Well, she hoped it would keep Damon relaxed. She'd specifically not given him scotch, because she knew that it made him angry if he drank enough, and if she was around when he was angry, it would be taken out on her. She was trying to avoid that tonight.
With the alcohol freely flowing the conversation was easy, and as long as the hot topics weren't touched, Elena found that Damon's snide remarks were kept to a minimum. There was the occasional dig at her, but it hadn't sent Caroline running away in tears, so that was something.
However, several drinks in lips got a little looser and the stories started to come. "Dad wouldn't talk to him for a month," Stefan laughed. "The look on his face was priceless. He caught them right in the middle of it all."
"You think that's funny?" Caroline questioned, and shoved a finger in Elena's direction. "Miss Master's degree over there got caught having sex in the bathroom with her escort after she'd been crowned Miss Mystic Falls."
"Caroline!" Elena shrieked, feeling her face flush red with embarrassment. "You promised never to mention that again!"
"Did I also mention her escort was the mayor's son?" she giggled.
"Oh my god," she groaned, burying her face in Bonnie's shoulder. "I hate you!"
"Come on, it was hilarious! You and Tyler couldn't go anywhere without people thinking you'd gone off to have sex."
"Don't remind me," she pleaded. "I try to block that time out. Tyler isn't a very fun time period to look back on."
"But he was so hot," Bonnie laughed. "He was the star of the football team. Everyone wanted to date him."
"Well, they all got the chance to sleep with him, that should count for something." In high school, she'd still been delusional and believed that she loved Tyler. Every teenage girl thought she'd be with her first real boyfriend forever. She thought he was the best thing in her life, and it didn't matter if he cheated on her. She was shallow enough to not really care that he'd sleep with girls in the back of his car as long as she was the one publically on his arm. She was an obnoxious cheerleader that liked being popular, and being with Tyler was a boost to her ego.
Now, she looked back on the time and wanted to slap her teenage self. There was never a good reason to stay with a boyfriend that cheated on you, but she was naïve and didn't know much better. A relationship like that would never be okay with her now. She wouldn't stand for anything that he'd put her through in high school.
"So, Elena is an exhibitionist," Alaric mused with a smile. "Interesting."
"I am not nearly as stupid as I was as a teenager," she told him apologetically. "Sorry, buddy."
"I don't know, I think you could give your teenage self a run for her money," Damon spoke up from his place across from her on another couch. He leaned back into the soft cushions and draped his arm around Andie's shoulders.
"Maybe so," she quietly said, not wanting to push the issue. With a predatory smile on her face she turned to Caroline. "Since little miss pregnant over here, is so keen to out our dirty little secrets, I think I'm going to out one of my own. Caroline, you ever tell Stefan about the time your mom pulled a gun on Sean Morgan?"
Stefan choked on his drink. "Your mom did what?"
"It was one time!" she exclaimed. "She caught me in bed with him after he took me to his prom."
"Then what did she do?"
"Kick him out, duh!" Caroline said with a roll of her eyes, but when Elena raised her eyebrows, she sighed and said, "Fine, she may have threatened to have him arrested."
"You told me your mom didn't pull the cop card on your boyfriends," Stefan said. "Am I to expect she's going to find a way to arrest me if I make you mad?"
"She's not going to arrest you," Caroline assured him. "This was a one time thing."
"Cause you were fourteen!" Bonnie exclaimed. "Not to mention that he was seventeen!"
"Woah! Blondie had the slut card back in the day," Damon joked. "I didn't know you had it in you."
The blonde shrugged, unbothered by the classification. "My mom was the town sheriff and my dad left my mom for another guy. I was bound to spread my legs for the first guy that winked at me."
"You were the first to lose your V card," Elena admitted.
"Oh hush, you weren't very far behind me. At least mine was halfway romantic."
"You were wasted! You barely even remember it."
"Well, I remember that it wasn't horrible and there were candles."
"Cause it was in that abandoned house that everyone thinks is haunted by witches," Elena laughed.
"Whatever," Caroline scoffed. "I didn't get busted by his mom when I snuck out afterward."
"Oh my god," Elena covered her face with her hands. "Mrs. Lockwood still hates me. She told me that her son was too young to be a father, so I should keep money saved up to handle it if the situation ever arose. Thank god, I never ended up in that mess with him."
The air seemed to be sucked out of the room, and Elena realized her mistake in words. Bonnie was tense next to her and Caroline was staring at the glass of water in her hand. Everyone was scared to talk – everyone but one person.
"I think everyone says that when they look back at their past relationships," Andie said. "I don't think many girls think about an ex-boyfriend and get sad that they don't have a baby. You broke up for a reason, after all."
If there was anything that could make the situation worse than it already was, Andie's words provided that. The room felt like it had dropped ten degrees alone in the past minute, and Elena shivered from chills. "You know what?" Damon rose to his feet and set his empty glass on the table next to the couch. "It's been a long day. I'm going to bed."
"Really?" Andie looked up at him skeptically.
"Yeah, I'm tired."
"Okay," she nodded and rose to her feet as well. "I'll head up with you. Night guys." She smiled and followed him to the staircase.
Soon they disappeared upstairs and Elena looked over at Caroline, panicked. "How much does she not know?" she demanded softly.
Caroline cringed and shrugged her shoulders. "Like, everything."
"Oh god," Elena groaned. "I'm not drinking the rest of the weekend."
"On this note, I think it's time for us to call it a night," Stefan said.
Elena knew it was early, but she agreed with him. She needed some time to herself to process everything that she'd signed herself up for this weekend. She bid goodnight to everyone and disappeared to her room to get ready for bed. After she was ready, she looked around the dimly lit room and realized that she wasn't quite ready to call it a night yet. She grabbed her journal from her bag and quietly slipped into the hallway. She could use some time outside, listening to the ocean, and sorting through everything in her head.
She stepped onto the spacious back deck and soon realized she hadn't been the only one with the same idea. Andie was stretched out on a lounge chair, her computer on her lap, a pen hanging from her mouth, and a notebook sitting next to her. She jumped slightly when she heard the door open and turned to look at Elena, surprise registering on her face. "You scared me." She laughed nervously and pulled her reading glasses off.
"Sorry," Elena quickly apologized. "I thought everyone was asleep. I was just going to spend some time enjoying the fresh air."
"Great minds think alike," she joked quietly, but then motioned to the seats next to her. "Feel free to join me."
"No, I don't want to bother you. You're obviously working."
She turned to reenter the house, but Andie called out to her, "Really, it's fine. You won't be bothering me. The only reason I'm out here is because I drive Damon insane when I work around him. Something about my thinking being too loud for him."
Elena smirked knowingly. She'd heard the same words from him once upon a time. Every time she read one of her pregnancy books, he would tell her that her thoughts were so loud he could hear them. "Still, I really don't want to interrupt anything."
Andie closed her laptop and turned to look at Elena. "No, please, I'd actually like to talk to you. I know plenty about Caroline, but I haven't really gotten a chance to get to know you." Elena silently nodded her head and went to sit down on the lounge chair next to her. She was unsure of what to say to the woman or even where to begin. This wasn't how she anticipated spending the rest of her evening. Why couldn't she have just gone back inside? "You got your Master's in writing, right?" Andie questioned when Elena stayed silent"
"Yeah, creative writing."
"There we go!" Andie said happily. "We both like to write. Caroline tells me you have a few bylines to your name now. What are you writing about?"
"Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that." Andie wrote for the New York Times, no way would she be interested in the small things she'd had accepted by a few websites around the net.
"It has to be more interesting than some of the stuff I'm writing about. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but people get a little pretentious in the journalism world."
"I had something accepted to a women's website a few weeks ago. Nothing special, but just my take on being confused about everything, even though I should be at the point where I'm starting to figure things out."
Andie's eyes took on a deep understanding as she looked at her. "I was really confused at your age too. Not that I'm much older. So, don't think I'm trying to be superior, but I felt really lost when I was in Washington. I didn't know anyone there when I moved and I was still just this baby in a very competitive world. People that I went to school with were starting to get engaged and married, but I was going home to an empty apartment every night. Even though I knew what I wanted to do, and I was working in that field, I still felt like I didn't have anything figured out. You'd be surprised how many people feel that way."
"Being an adult really isn't what it's cracked up to be when we're teenagers."
Andie blew out a burst of laughter and readily agreed. "So true!" Her laughing quickly turned into a yawn, and she shook her head. "Man, I'm tired. I think I'm going to head up to bed." Andie stood up and gathered everything in her arms.
"Okay, sounds good. Night." She went about getting herself situated on the seat again, ready to spend some time with her own thoughts. She hadn't had a chance to properly think through anything that had happened so far on the trip, and if she was going to survive the rest of it, she needed to process some of the thoughts she had racing through her brain.
"Elena." She twisted her head around to look at Andie standing just in the doorway of the house. "I know we don't really know each other, but if you need any tips or ideas on where to try and submit some articles, let me know."
"Thank you," she told her sincerely, surprised by the extended offer.
"No problem." With a parting smile, Andie disappeared into the house and closed the door quietly behind her, leaving Elena alone with her own thoughts.
Sighing, she opened her journal and worked to spill out every emotion she had felt over the course of the day. She'd found over the past year that writing everything down helped her separate herself from what she was feeling. It helped lessen the pain from all consuming to a bitter ache that she simply carried with her throughout the days. It took her deep and crushing anger toward herself down to a manageable level that didn't make her want to destroy herself all over again. And most importantly, it allowed her to release every doubt she had and provide the strength to survive another day. It was the closest she'd come to a sense of peace in the past two years, and she relished in that.
So, she wrote until her hand ached and her eyes could focus no longer on the pages in front of her. She wrote until she could no longer hold her eyes open. She wrote until her body finally succumbed to the exhaustion.
When she awoke, she jumped to attention, lurching forward in the chair from the confusion and shock of her surroundings. The ocean was loud as the waves crashed against the beach, and the sun beat down heavily on her. It was only when she looked around that she realized the sudden awakening she'd experienced. Damon towered over her, holding her journal in front of his face.
"You should know better than to bring your journal when you're around so many people," he advised with a smile. "Never know whose prying eyes might find it too tempting to leave alone."
She shot to her feet, reaching out for her journal. "Give that back," she demanded, mortified at the idea of him reading her innermost thoughts.
"No, let's see what's plaguing the troubled Elena." He flipped through her journal, stopping when he reached a random page toward the middle. At her continued efforts to retrieve her journal, he turned his back to her, holding an arm out to keep her away. He cleared his throat as he skimmed over the words before finally speaking. "I saw Justin today. He still won't talk to me. Although, I understand why he no longer wants to be around me, it still hurts. I wish I could make him understand that it wasn't him I was disgusted with that night; it was myself. I took advantage of the fact that he liked me, when I should have warned him to run the other direction. I knew that he wouldn't help me forget, but I still tried. I slept with him –"
"Stop!" Elena launched herself at Damon, jumping onto his back and snatching the journal from his hands, not caring if she ripped out half of the pages in the process. She'd fight him for those too.
"Hey!" he shouted as she stole the journal back from him. "I was reading."
Out of breath, she dropped back to her feet and clutched her journal tightly to her chest. "What the hell is wrong with you?" To emphasize her anger, she shoved him roughly, sending him stumbling forward. When he righted himself, he spun around to face her. "You don't just go around reading people's private thoughts."
"Don't leave your journal open for people to read." He shrugged, unaffected by her outrage.
"You had no right!"
"Please," he scoffed, "I didn't even get to anything of value. You stopped me right when I was getting to the juicy part of you whoring it up out in Chicago. Not that it comes to much surprise after what we learned about your sexual encounters last night."
"One, I was a teenager and he was my boyfriend. Two, ha!" she laughed in his face. "Like you're one to talk. I'm not stupid enough to think Katherine and Andie are the only women you've slept with in the past two years. So don't even come at me about being a whore. It was one guy, Damon! I think that hardly classifies me as a whore."
"You're right," he conceded. "Whores make money. You just got thrown out."
Before she could think about what she was doing, she reared her arm back and then swung it around, punching him in the nose. "What the hell?" He jumped away, delicately holding his nose as he complained about the pain.
"Ow!" she cried out, clutching at her right hand as it throbbed in pain. The journal fell to her feet, but both were too preoccupied with their own agony to care. "That hurt!"
"No shit!" he grunted, still holding his hands to his nose. "You don't know how to break someone's nose without breaking your own hand in the process!"
"Oh, I did not break your nose," she denied fervently, while hopping around in pain.
"Well it sure as hell hurts!"
"You called me a whore!"
"Well," he shrugged. Far beyond her limit, Elena grabbed her journal from the deck and stormed off to the door. "Oh, come on, we're just getting started. You haven't even tried to knee me in the crotch yet."
She pivoted around on her heel and went back to him. With as much force as possible, she shoved her finger into his chest and shouted, "You are an asshole!"
When she got back inside the house and slammed the door behind her, Stefan rushed into the room, in a hurry to get to whatever was happening on the back deck. "What happened?"
"Ask your brother," she told him coldly as she blew past him.
She didn't know where the anger had come from to get a real response out of her for the first time since she'd returned, but hearing him mockingly read her journal had sent her over the edge. While it may be a joke to him, that small book had become her only true solace in the past year. It was the only reason she survived most days and he'd tried to take that from her. She'd given him a lot of leeway, but she wouldn't give him that. She deserved to have something for herself that he couldn't use against her.
She stormed into her room and hastily buried her journal deep in her suitcase. Surely he wouldn't actually sneak into her room to read it. Scratch that; he totally would, however, only if she was witness to it. He couldn't very well be an ass if she wasn't present for it. Annoyed, she slammed her suitcase shut and kicked it across the room.
"What is going on in here?" She turned to see Bonnie slipping into the room, still wearing her pajamas. "It sounded like a stampede coming down the hall."
"Damon is an asshole. That's what's going on," she vented.
"It only took you three years to figure it out, but yeah, he kind of sucks." Bonnie sat down on the bed and curiously looked at Elena. "What brought you over to my team?"
"He read my journal and then called me a whore."
"He said what?" Bonnie balked.
Elena shook her head, feeling some of her anger dissipate as Bonnie's ratcheted upward. "I know I deserve a lot of his behavior, but I'm not a whore. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not that."
"Well, don't say it to me. I know that. Say it to him."
"I did," Elena declared strongly. "And then I punched him." Bonnie's hands flew to her open mouth as she loudly gasped. "Don't you dare tell Caroline."
Bonnie giggled softly behind her hands. "I think the bruise he'll be sporting will tell her everything she needs to know." Amazed, she shook her head and finally allowed her hands to fall back to the bed. "You really punched him?"
Embarrassed, Elena nodded. While there was something oddly liberating in the act of punching him, it was also very foreign to her. She'd never been a violent person. Sure, she fought with her brother growing up, but that didn't count. In fact, the only person she'd ever hit had been Damon. The two times she'd raised her hand at another person Damon had been on the receiving end of her violence.
She threw herself down on the bed, burying her head underneath one of the overstuffed pillows. "I can't believe I hit him."
"To be fair, he had just called you a whore."
"After he read part of an entry where I mentioned sleeping with Justin. It didn't exactly come out of thin air."
"Oh, give it up, Elena," Bonnie groaned. "If he's going to be mean to you, then he's going to be mean to you. It doesn't mean that you have to subject yourself to it even when he's not around."
"I abandoned everyone who cared about me because I was too caught up in my own pain to pay attention to anyone else. That doesn't exactly make me a good person."
Her pillow was cruelly ripped away from her and Bonnie jerked on her arm. "Get up!" she demanded until Elena complied. "I don't know what was in the water at Northwestern, but you need to snap out of it. You made a bad decision. No one will argue with you on that, but newsflash, us mature adults are going to recognize that you understand what you did and are trying to be better. I get that your time in Chicago sucked, so why would I want to make things suck for you when you're back?"
"Because I was selfish."
"Most people are."
Elena groaned and rolled her eyes. "You just don't like Damon. That's why you're acting this way."
Bonnie shrugged unapologetically. "True, but Caroline loves him and she's not going to be mean to you. We get to recognize that you made a mistake and not spend months punishing you for it. If Damon has a problem with you, he needs to grow up, and talk about it. Cause, I'm sorry, this behavior isn't funny or helpful for anything."
The door burst open and Caroline bounced into the room, an indignant expression on her face. "Are you having girl time without me? Traitors!"
She jumped onto the bed, tackling the two women to the mattress. Elena grunted from the impact, as the air blew out of her lungs. "God, that hurt," she complained, playfully shoving at Caroline's sprawled out form. "Starting to feel pregnant there, Caroline."
"Watch it," Caroline warned. "I might burst into spontaneous tears." She pushed at Elena and Bonnie, shoving her tiny form between them and stretching out on the bed. "So, what's the topic of conversation?"
As she got situated, Elena met Bonnie's eyes over Caroline's head. Bonnie's gaze was clear and concise – she thought Caroline needed to know. She did not share Elena's belief that Caroline should be kept in the dark about Damon's behavior. Elena's thoughts hadn't changed though; Caroline didn't need to be dragged into the middle of everything that was going on.
When Bonnie opened her mouth, ready to jump in and reveal all, Elena blurted out, "Bonnie's boyfriend! We're talking about Bonnie and her new boy toy."
"Oooh! I love boy talks!" Caroline preened. "Have you had sex yet?"
"Caroline!" Bonnie shrieked in embarrassment.
"What?" Caroline asked innocently, batting her eyelashes like she was talking to Stefan. "We didn't get to talk about that stuff on the way here. I want details about it all."
"There are no details to share. We've only been on a few dates." She sent a pointed look in Caroline's direction. "And no, we haven't had sex yet. I'm sure you'll be the first to know if it happens."
"But you like him." Caroline loosely shook Bonnie as she began to sing, "You think he's cute, and you want to kiss him! You wanna be his girlfriend."
"This is precisely why I don't tell you anything!"
"No, you're just too private. You don't like to share anything with anyone."
"She has a point, Bonnie," Elena agreed.
Bonnie snorted. "Like that's a road you want to go down right now."
Caroline tensed and looked to Elena. "What is she talking about?"
"Nothing," Elena denied with a smile. "Our little Bonnie is just deflecting."
"Well, duh, but there's more to it. I'm not stupid. Bonnie is always the one that catches you doing things and then outs you to me when you can't fess up to it. Spill! What's going on, and how is Damon involved?"
Elena closed her eyes and picked up the pillow behind her head, then covered her face with it. "Why do you always do this to me, Bonnie?" she whined.
"Because I'm your best friend, and Caroline deserves to know."
Elena wanted to get mad and tell Bonnie to stay out of her business, but she knew that wouldn't be fair. She'd known Bonnie most of her life, and that meant she knew that Bonnie didn't go along with keeping people in the dark for long. Things were always simple for her: Honesty or nothing. She would have demanded that Caroline know about everything at some point, but Elena had hoped that point would be further down the road.
With a sigh, Elena removed the pillow from her face and sat up. "When we have breakfast this morning, Damon may be sporting a bruise."
Caroline's eyes narrowed and her head tilted slightly to the side as she stared up at Elena. "Why?"
"Um," Elena nervously scratched at an area of skin just behind her ear, averting her eyes from the curious blue ones focused on her, "I may have punched him?"
Caroline shot up like a rocket, shrieking, "You what?"
With a nervous chuckle, Elena shrugged her shoulders. "Whoopsie."
Caroline sputtered incoherently, shaking her head back and forth as if trying to force the information to sink into her brain. "Why?"
"He may have stolen my journal and called me a whore."
"He really did that?" Caroline questioned, with a small dose of hope in her voice that Damon hadn't resorted to such tactics. When Elena silently nodded, she seethed, "I'm so stealing his leather jacket."
"Caroline, it's not a big deal," Elena tried to reason with her friend. "I got mad and I punched him. I think he got the message to not read my journal anymore."
"I don't care if he got the message. He shouldn't be doing things like this. If he's with Andie and so happy about his life now, why does he have to act like this?"
Elena looked down at her fidgeting hands in her lap. "Maybe because I was completely horrible to him after the miscarriage, and then up and left him with no warning. It's not like he doesn't have reason to hate me."
"What are we, thirteen?" Caroline rolled her eyes. "I stopped hating people once I got out of high school. You get mad and then you get over things. I'm not saying he needs to be your friend, but he needs to give it a rest. We all know how he feels. This is just redundant at this point."
"I really hurt him, Caroline. You know how he behaves when he's hurt." For all of his effort to appear cold and unfeeling, she'd never met anyone who had feelings that ran deeper than Damon. He loved with everything he had and when you hurt him, all that love transformed into hate. When that man was in pain, there was no limit to the pain he could inflict on the person who hurt him. "He's getting everything out of his system."
"Well, I hope his system is empty now, because I am not doing this for the rest of my pregnancy. Stefan especially won't. He's gone into crazy overprotective mode since we found out I was pregnant. If Damon doesn't calm down, they'll end up in a fight, and I'm not going to be holding ice to my husband's face when I'm six months pregnant. I'm not saying he can't be mad, but he has to figure out a way to handle this. Things like last night and this morning can't keep happening."
"I know," Elena said softly. "I shouldn't have hit him. I'm sorry."
"I'm not mad at you for that. I'm just mad at the entire situation." Tears welled up in Caroline's eyes and she quickly buried her face in her hands. "Stupid hormones!"
"Oh god, please don't cry." Elena quickly pulled Caroline into her arms and rubbed what she hoped was a reassuring hand down her back. Even if Caroline wasn't mad at her for this specific thing, Elena knew that she was reason they were all in this situation to begin with. If she hadn't left, none of this would be happening. Even if Damon was the one currently causing the problem, she was the one that instigated it all, and Caroline was the one paying the price. "I'm sorry," she apologized, now crying herself. "I'm so sorry."
It took some time and a little convincing on her part, but Elena and Bonnie calmed Caroline down and got her cleaned up enough to go down to breakfast without being subjected to any questions from Stefan. They were all in agreement that there was no need to inform Stefan of the talk that had gone on in Elena's room. The tension between the brothers would probably be bad enough already, and they all decided they didn't want to make it worse.
When they entered the kitchen, Damon, Stefan, and Alaric were engrossed in a heated conversation, with Damon on the receiving end of most of the heat. However, as Stefan spotted Caroline, all talking came to a halt and he walked over to her, a smile on his face. "It's about time you came down," he teased while he leaned forward to place a soft kiss on her mouth. "Breakfast is almost ready."
"Good," Caroline beamed, smiling up at Stefan in complete adoration, "The baby is starving, and you know what happens when the baby doesn't get food."
Stefan chuckled lightly and brushed his hand lightly over her slightly protruding stomach. "Yes, I do. The baby can rest assured that it will be fed very shortly."
As Stefan and Caroline playfully talked to each other, Elena allowed her gaze to find Damon. She could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves, and his jaw was clenched tightly in anger. It was the bruising she could see forming under his eyes that gave her pause. She'd really done that to him? A part of her wanted to apologize to him and ask if he was okay, but when his eyes met her, and she was greeted with nothing but fury, she thought better of that.
"While you two are doing your ridiculously nauseating PDA session, I'm going to go make sure Andie is up." Damon breezed out of the kitchen without another glance at anyone in the room.
Even with Damon out of the room, the tension level didn't diminish much as everyone seemed to keep to themselves. Bonnie stuck quietly to Elena's side as they set the table. Alaric stayed by the stove, making sure nothing got burned, but probably really trying to stay out of the fray as much as possible. If there was one thing she'd learned about him over time, it was that he was the least fond of confrontations out of everyone. She suspected it was from the amount of time he'd spent around Damon and Stefan and learning that it was best for everyone involved to stay completely silent unless fists started flying. That had then probably adapted into staying out of any confrontation around him unless it directly involved him. Luckily for him, this one didn't, so he stayed silent. Caroline and Stefan were the only people actively speaking, but that was no surprise. They'd always been unnaturally happy around each other, and with her now being pregnant, they were so attached and ecstatic that nothing could bring them down for long.
"Think it's too early to break out the alcohol?" Bonnie whispered to her as they set plates on the table much more slowly than was needed.
Elena tried to contain her chuckle, but did say, "Not if we make a Bloody Mary. That's a morning drink."
Bonnie nudged Elena's hip with hers. "I like where your head is at, Gilbert."
"Hey Ric, you up for some Bloody Marys?" Elena looked over her shoulder at Ric, whose head shot up at the mention of anything that related to alcohol, showing the main reason why he was best friends with Damon. "I'll take that as a yes?" she laughed.
"The more time you spend asking, the less time you leave us to drink. Hop to it, Elena. I want a drink in my hand five minutes ago."
She smiled and went to the fridge. "I don't think I can handle the second part, but I can handle the first part." She quickly gathered what she would need to provide everyone with more than enough to drink, and with all of her bartender knowledge still rolling around in her head, she had drinks handed out by the time Damon had entered the dining room with a smiling Andie.
As everyone took their seats once the food was on the table, Bonnie whispered in Elena's ear, "I hope you made these strong."
Before Elena could answer, Alaric coughed and then began to cheer. "Man, I've missed your bartending skills! I could marry you, Elena Gilbert!"
Everyone laughed at Alaric's overwhelming excitement over a strong drink, but it was Damon's next comment that brought them back down to earth. "Just don't come to me with your battered woman syndrome."
"Watch it, Damon," Caroline warned as she sat down.
Breakfast started off calmly, with everyone making very specific efforts to not upset Caroline. Damon's part in this had been staying silent. Obviously, he was playing by the old adage of if you didn't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Everyone, mostly Elena, was incredibly grateful for this small reprieve from his now usual behavior.
The easy conversation turned down a different road when Andie asked Elena about Northwestern. "What was it like in Chicago? I've visited, but I always thought it would be fun to live there. Was it?"
Knowing how forbidden the topic was, everyone around the table tensed and she could practically hear them holding their breaths for what would come next. Knowing, she didn't have that option, Elena tried to answer as innocently as possible. "Northwestern has two different campuses, and my stuff was on the campus in Evanston. I was only about 20 minutes away from Chicago there. It was just a train ride away."
"Oh, well that must have been somewhat of a letdown," Andie said. "I'm sure you were wanting to live in another big city since it's what you're used to. Was that why you picked Northwestern?"
"Um, I guess," she shrugged. "I applied to a few different places and that one seemed like the best fit at the time."
"Elena, I'm running a little low on the Bloody Mary. Think you could make us some more?"
"Blondie, you're pregnant," Damon pointed out.
"Well," she quickly reached over and grabbed Stefan's, "His is running low. So, more alcohol please?"
"Coming right up." Thankful for the reprieve, Elena hurried into the kitchen, but then took her time mixing the drink together, opting to keep it as strong this time as the last. She needed the courage, and she didn't think Alaric would be too happy with her if she interfered with his desire to ingest as much alcohol as possible during the meal. However, all too soon, she was returning to the dining room with a filled pitcher in hand. "I come bearing gifts."
Ric held his glass high in the air. "You better start down my way."
"What am I, your waitress?" she joked, but started toward him anyway.
"Should I tip you?" Ric teased when she filled his glass.
"I'm no stripper, Ric. I don't accept ones."
"I guess it's true," Damon mused from behind her. "You can take the girl out of the bar, but you can't take the bartender out of the girl."
"Okay," Elena smiled brightly and walked away from him. "I think you've reached your morning limit for alcohol."
"But come on," he coaxed, "It feels just like old times. You trying to get guys drunk while you strut around in your barely there attire, meant to garner yourself as many tips as possible." Self-conscious, Elena looked down at her pajama choice of a t-shirt and shorts that were no worse than what Caroline had on. Annoyed, she turned to glare at him from behind the blonde's chair. He smirked and allowed his eyes to roam over her body. "It's how you caught my eye after all."
As she took note of the hurt look on Andie's face, she knew that Damon was hitting more than his intended target. "You were going through a divorce, everyone caught your eye. I wasn't anything special."
"I should concede the point to you on that one. I did get over you quickly enough."
"Hey Damon," Bonnie called out, "How about you get off of Elena's ass long enough to pay attention to your own girlfriend. You can't stand Elena, so why keep talking to her?"
"Hey, tiny judgmental person, how about you stay out of this?" he retorted back.
"I'm not in this," she denied. "I'm just pointing out that you need to grow up."
Damon laughed. "Preaching to the wrong choir here. I'm not the one in this room that doesn't know how to handle my responsibilities. I take care of what I need to take care of. In fact, I think the argument can be made that I take a lot more from people than I should."
"Well I think that argument can be made for my friend right about now." Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest and dared Damon to challenge her.
"What's wrong? Elena can't fight her own battles?"
While everyone turned to look at Elena, Bonnie kept her eyes focused on Damon. "I think your face negates that assumption."
"Oh god," Stefan groaned and covered his eyes.
"You told me that Stefan accidentally hit you when you were working out this morning." Andie looked pointedly at Damon, waiting for a response that he did not give her. "Well what is it, Damon? Did Stefan hit you or was it Elena?"
"Guys, if you can't all play nice, then leave," Caroline warned.
"I'm sorry, Caroline," Andie apologized, "I just need a couple answers and then everything will be fine."
"Trust me, everything will not be fine when you get those answers. So, can we table this for later and let me enjoy my breakfast?" Caroline pleaded.
"Just tell me who hit you and I'll drop it," Andie said, focusing her attention back on Damon.
"I did it," Elena finally spoke up. "I hit him."
Andie allowed her eyes to travel the room and take in the various looks of discomfort on everyone's faces. "I'm sorry, but I'm just really confused right now."
"So much for dropping it," Damon mumbled, leaning far back in his chair, and resting his arms on the arm rests.
"Maybe cause that's all I've been doing lately, Damon," she snapped. "Something is going on that you're keeping me out of."
Damon rolled his eyes. "I'm not keeping you out of anything. Stop being paranoid."
"I'm not stupid, Damon," she said through gritted teeth. "I know that something has changed since Elena got back, but what I can't figure out is why. You told me that the two of you broke up because things weren't working out anymore, and then she went to Chicago for school. So, if it happened like that, why is all of this happening?"
"Can we just talk about this another time?" Damon asked her, this time with a nicer touch to his voice.
"No!" Andie slammed her hand down on her chair. "You've been saying that to me since she got back. I'm either getting answers from you, or I'm going to get them from someone else in this room."
"There are no answers to give," Damon tried to tell her, but she wasn't falling for his game this time.
"Do not do this to me," she whispered to him. "I am not 20 years old anymore. If this is how it's going to be, I'm not sticking around as long as I did last time."
"I'd suggest you do yourself a favor and get out of the relationship now," Caroline advised, giving up on hope that the meal would return to normal, no matter which path she took. "Most women shouldn't be subjected to Damon, even on his best day."
"Really?" Damon challenged, all of his anger now focused on Caroline. "That wasn't what you were telling me after Elena left. In fact, I remember you saying that she'd made a big mistake when she did."
"If you were going to turn back into asshole Damon, even if she didn't go, I'm certainly glad she did," Caroline threw at him.
Damon laughed quietly. "Now there's the Caroline I've missed. I knew she had to still be in there somewhere. There was no way you could keep up the loving sister charade for much longer before things returned to normal, and you took her side."
"Don't you say that to me," she threatened. "I am not choosing any sides. I love you, Damon, but when you insist on acting like this, my patience runs really damn thin, and you've been testing it since the moment Elena got back. It's been two years. The sympathy card expires at some point."
"I never asked for your sympathy."
Caroline leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, and glared at Damon. "No, but you sure as hell asked for everything from your brother."
"And that involved you how?"
"We were married," she told him slowly, sounding out each syllable of every word. "Things tend to become a two-for-one package in a big relationship, especially when you get to the point of having children. So, if you get sick of me, you're out of luck now."
"Yeah, I more than understand how the baby thing works, Caroline," he snapped. "Had some firsthand experience before I got royally fucked over."
The screeching sound of a fork falling to a plate shattered through the room, serving to remind Damon and Caroline of the audience they did have, namely Andie. Her skin had gone pale as she looked at Damon. "What is she talking about?" she questioned quietly.
"It's nothing," Damon tried to reassure her and began moving his own chair back. "Come upstairs with me and we can talk about a few things."
"I don't want to talk about a few things, Damon!" she yelled. "I want to talk about this thing. What did you mean? What are you talking about?"
"Please, just come upstairs with me," he begged her.
"No! If I go upstairs with you, you're just going to lie to me. That's all you've been doing this whole time, and I want answers. For once in your life, just give me the real answer."
"No!" Damon rejected. "I'm not going to do this with everyone around. Either come upstairs with me or don't get any answers. It's up to you."
"And you think they won't tell me anything?" she challenged, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Well, they haven't for this long, and if they know what's good for them, they'll continue not to. This is between us, not them."
"I think you got us all involved a long time ago, Damon," Stefan spoke up quietly.
"Watch it," Damon warned his brother. "This is between me and my girlfriend. End of story."
"Obviously it's not!" Andie screamed. "This whole thing involves everyone but me. I want to know what is so important that you have apparently been lying to me."
"I'm not doing it like this."
"Oh, dear god! Just say it already! Elena had a miscarriage and then ran off to Chicago! That's why Damon hates her! That's what he hasn't told you!" The room fell silent as everyone turned to stare at Caroline in shock and horror – everyone but one person. Andie's gaze bounced from Damon to Elena, her brown eyes wide and almost hollow as she tried to make sense of what she'd just been told. She had to have known what was coming on some level, but she couldn't have prepared herself for that. "Uh-oh," Caroline mumbled, realizing the magnitude of what she'd so ungracefully revealed.
Damon finally turned to Andie, reaching for her hand, only to be met with resistance as she quickly jerked it away and shook her head. "Andie," he tried, but she launched to her feet, sending her chair falling to the floor from the force of her sudden movement.
Her watery gaze locked onto Elena's, and she could see all of her emotions flooding through her brain. "I'm sorry," she whispered before she turned and fled the room.
"Good job, Caroline," Damon snapped at her, throwing his napkin down on the table. "You're lucky you're pregnant." He turned and followed the scorched path his girlfriend had left in her wake, calling after her as he ran up the stairs.
"Well, Happy Birthday, Stefan!" Alaric lifted his glass in the air and then proceeded to drink all of the contents without stopping.
"I messed this all up," Caroline whimpered. She got out of her seat and moved the small distance to her husband's seat, where she climbed onto his lap. "I'm sorry, baby." She wrapped her arms around his neck, and placed a small kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry."
Stefan sighed and pulled Caroline more tightly to him. "It's not your fault. Don't feel bad."
"I just wanted to give you a relaxing weekend for your birthday."
Elena dropped into her vacated seat and filled her empty glass to the top with the red beverage. "I shouldn't have come," Elena admitted. "This isn't your fault, Caroline. I knew he wouldn't want to spend the whole weekend around me. I should have stayed in the city."
"I think a lot of us just made some bad judgment calls this weekend," Stefan acknowledged.
At the sound of shattering glass upstairs, Caroline groaned and buried her face in Stefan's neck. "I think we just broke their relationship."
"Damon wouldn't have these problems if he'd been honest with Andie from the start," Ric pointed out. "I told him it would bite him in the ass, but he never listens to me."
"That might have something to do with the drink permanently attached to your hand," Stefan joked, trying to lighten the mood before Caroline went over the edge.
"You've met your brother, right? Alcohol is a necessity while in his presence."
Elena snorted. "You love him and you know it. You always had to have your weekly boy's night with him. Don't think I've forgotten about that."
Alaric shrugged unapologetically. "What can I say? The man is good for my ego. If he can make anything halfway decent out of his life, surely I'll wind up with the most amazing woman on the planet."
"Oh my god!" Caroline exclaimed, perking up at Alaric's mention of finding a girl. "I have the perfect person for you to meet. She just started a few months ago and she is precious. She was a model as a teenager, but decided she liked working behind the scenes instead. She is gorgeous and the sweetest person ever. She eats too!" Caroline jumped to her feet and rushed into the kitchen to grab her phone. "I do not know why I didn't think of this before. She's perfect for you! She's really smart and she always has a book with her. She's twenty-six, and broke up with her boyfriend right before she started working with me. Smile!" Before Alaric could react, Caroline snapped a picture of him. "I'm going to send this to her. You're going to love me forever."
Elena officially loved pregnancy brain.
"Watch out, Elena, she's coming for you next," Bonnie teased, happy that the tension was mostly gone from the room, but at that moment, loud footsteps were heard on the stairs and everyone soon saw Andie going to the front door with her suitcase in hand.
"Come on, Andie, you can't be serious," Damon called after her.
"Oh, I'm dead serious, Damon. I'm going home."
"It was a mistake, okay? I'm sorry." As he followed her outside, slamming the door after him, everyone sighed and looked at each other around the table.
"If we thought this weekend was bad before, it's about to get apocalyptic," Alaric pointed out.
Elena pushed her chair back and rose to her feet. "I'll be right back."
"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked, grabbing Elena's arm.
She looked helplessly at the front door and then back at her friend. "Me coming back is the reason they're in this fight. I should try to help."
"Elena, it's not about you. Don't get involved," Caroline insisted. "Stay out of it."
"I've messed up a lot for Damon. The least I owe him is to not ruin the relationship he's in." She dropped her napkin to the table and walked to the front door, ignoring the fearful eyes at her back. She knew that this had a very big possibility of blowing up in her face. She could very well do much more harm than good right now, but she needed to try. Maybe she'd be able to help explain things in a way that Damon couldn't. This whole thing was about her, which meant it was partly her job to fix it.
Damon was in the middle of trying to block Andie from the car when he spotted Elena coming down the front steps. "Go away, Elena. I think you've done enough damage for one day. "
She remained silent until she reached the angry couple, only speaking when Andie turned to look at her. "Andie, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
"You're not the one that needs to apologize," Andie tightly assured her.
"But I am. This is really my fault. I was pregnant, and I did lose the baby. I was really bad to Damon, and things were really hard. That's why I went to Chicago. I know you must feel like we've all been keeping you in the dark, but it wasn't what we were trying to do. None of us talk about that time, even with each other. I hurt a lot of people when I left and Damon was one of those people. He came home one night to find me packing my bags, and I never gave him any real answers about why I was doing what I was doing. I think that's why he hasn't said anything to you. He can't give you answers if I've never given him any. I'm just, I'm sorry you had to find out this way. It wasn't my intention to cause you any pain."
"Thank you," Andie whispered quietly.
"I'll go back inside, but I hope you'll stay. Ric's already drunk in there. It would be a shame for you to miss the show he'll put on for us." She smiled and slowly backed away from the couple, her eyes meeting Damon's for a brief moment. He stared at her in confusion, seemingly unsure of what she'd just done, but he said nothing, only continued to watch her until she turned her back and climbed the stairs to the house.
She didn't know what happened after she went inside, but thirty minutes later, after everyone had cleared the table, and was gathered round the living room, making plans for how to spend the rest of Stefan's birthday, Damon and Andie reentered the house, Damon carrying her suitcase. They gave soft smiles and silent waves as they disappeared up the stairs for the next several hours.
Lunch came and went, with everyone spending their day on the beach, bathing in the sun and waves of the ocean. Alaric, who had only continued to drink, provided the free entertainment for the afternoon, drastically changing the mood of the party. What had been a disastrous birthday weekend was turning into an enjoyable experience. Even though there were some bumpy moments, she was happy she let Bonnie convince her to come. To take any step forward, she had to live her life again, and spending time with everyone was how she was going to do that. Showing them she cared and that she was trying to grow was what would help the most in the long run.
When nighttime fell upon them, she found herself curled up under a blanket with Bonnie and Caroline, happy to be in the arms of her friends. "Stefan probably thinks this was his worst birthday ever, but I think it's been kind of fun," Caroline laughed quietly, linking her arm through Elena's and dropping her head to her shoulder. "Ric always provides some good entertainment."
"It's been good," Elena agreed. "I've liked spending time with you girls. I think this was what I missed most when I was at school." It was true. While she had ached desperately for Damon, she'd felt hollow without her friends. No matter what choices any of them made in life, they had always stayed strong together and they always would. There would be hard times, but they'd come out strong on the other side. She didn't know if she'd ever really move on from Damon, there was still so much love and heartbreak there. However, she did know that she'd never survive if she had to go two years without her best friends ever again.
"I missed having someone else to buffer Caroline's crazy," Bonnie admitted with a laugh. "She's a lot to handle on your own."
"Bonnie just can't say she loved not having to share me," Caroline teased. "You love my crazy."
"I love handing your crazy off to other people." She twisted her head to look at Elena. "So you're stuck with us forever, because if you ever leave again, I'm having her committed."
Elena pulled her arms free and threw them over Bonnie and Caroline's shoulders. "You girls are stuck with me for the long haul." She pulled them tightly toward her, only to end up on top of Bonnie when Caroline tackled them to the sand with an overzealous hug.
"I'm far more amazing than either of you realize, but I love you anyway."
"Alright, you three break it up!" Stefan and Ric came running down the beach, arms loaded down with explosives. "We have fireworks for the birthday boy. "We've had a few explosions this weekend, but we figured we'd end the night with some literal ones." Alaric dropped them to the sand with Stefan not far behind him. "Are you ready for the firework show?"
"Will you let me sing Katy Perry?" Caroline squealed, jumping to her feet.
"Caroline, you sing and I'll throw you in the ocean." Damon's silky voice carried down the beach as he walked down from the house, his hand enclosed in Andie's
Everyone was silent for a moment, unsure of how to react. Damon and Andie had been holed up in the house all day, and nobody was sure if things were fine or if they were just faking it. However, when Andie smiled brightly and said, "Well then you'll be throwing me in the ocean too, because I'm totally singing," everyone relaxed.
"How about Damon stops doling out threats and helps us with these fireworks? Time to prove you're not completely useless," Ric taunted with a broad smile.
"Let's all be clear on one thing," Damon said as he bent down to help situate the explosives. "I am not paying the fine for these fireworks when we get busted by the cops."
"Yeah, cause how ever in the world would you afford them?" Stefan teased, eager to fall into his normal routine with his brother. "Okay, time to set off some fireworks. Ric, don't kill us," he warned as Ric pulled out the lighter he'd be using.
"Stand back and enjoy!
In moments, fireworks lit up the sky, ringing loudly through the air. Caroline leapt over to Stefan and threw her arms around his shoulders. "Happy Birthday, baby!" she cheered
Bonnie slid next to Elena, a bright smile on her face as she stared up at the sky. "The neighbors so hate our guts right now," she laughed.
"They should get over it and enjoy the free show," Elena declared. "And then call 911 for us when Alaric inevitably kills us all with a stray firework."
As the makeshift firework show continued, Elena's eyes slid over to Damon, standing behind Andie, with his arms wrapped around her shoulders. His head rested next to hers as he laughed about something she said to him, and then they shared a soft kiss as a bright firework exploded overhead. It would seem that whatever she'd said today had made some impact.
Watching them, a selfish part of her wished that she hadn't said anything. If she'd stayed quiet, Andie may very well be back in New York City now and her relationship could be very over with Damon. Instead, she was in Damon's arms, laughing and kissing him. She'd done something to help them get to that point and it did hurt to see. There was something very real about seeing him with her now. The relationship seemed more real. He'd truly moved on from her and found an amazing woman.
Almost as if he could feel his eyes on her, Damon's head slowly turned to look at her. They were not filled with anger and confusion, but simple understanding. They were warm and so very reminiscent of how he'd looked at her two years ago. It sent butterflies aflutter in her stomach, and her heart raced just a little more quickly. When the corner of his mouth tugged up into a small smile for the briefest of seconds, something bloomed to life inside of her. In that moment, she knew, no matter what happened after they went back home, something had changed this weekend. She'd taken one small step toward something better—toward him.