The second Eden pulled into the high school's parking lot, she saw Elena's friends Bonnie and Caroline run towards the car. Snapping out of her trace, Elena opened the car door and went outside to greet her friends.
"Jeremy, grab your stuff and get out of the car. I need to run to over to the Grill before class to grab my paycheck." Eden said as she looked at Jeremy through the rear view mirror.
"Why can't you pick it up later?" Jeremy asked while grabbing his stuff to leave the car.
"Because my boss won't be there this afternoon and I don't trust Vicki give it to me." Eden responded while staring off into the distance, waiting for Jeremy to get out of the car. She became a waitress at the Grill right after her parents died. Although Eden didn't really need the money, she liked having the job. It was a good reason to get out of the house and the depressed atmosphere that it gave off for those first few months.
It's not like Eden didn't grieve over her parent's deaths, she just couldn't stay in the house that held so many memories of her past. Sometimes she wondered if she had pushed her grief too far down, and that one day it might come back up. But she stopped caring. All she had to do was get out of high school, then she could leave.
"Whatever." Jeremy huffed as he got out of the car.
After Jeremy left, Eden pulled out of the parking lot and drove over to the Grill. Then she parked and entered the restaurant.
Not surprisingly, the Grill was almost empty for being seven in the morning on a Monday. Eden wasn't even sure why the Grill was open this early. Her boss, Leslie, had insisted that it was a great business move. Apparently the Grill had great potential as a coffee shop. Whatever, it was Leslie's mornings to waste, not her's.
She walked up to the bar where a lone customer was sitting with a glass of whiskey.
"Really? It's not even eight in the morning." Eden said to the man. He wasn't looking at her, but from what she could tell, he wasn't that bad looking. He had dark brown hair and a beat up leather jacket on.
"Like you're one to talk. You're here right?" The man responded in a calm, deep voice.
"Excuse me but I am not here to drown away my sorrows as some people here are. I'm picking up my paycheck so I can get out of here and not have to deal with people like you my whole life." Eden shot back, annoyed by the man's arrogance.
"Feisty, aren't we." The man replied in the same smooth voice as he turned over and looked in Eden's direction. Eden realized that she definitely wasn't wrong about her assumption, the man was very good looking. He had bright blue eyes and the sharpest jawline that she had ever seen.
"Shut up." Eden shot back. She was caught off guard for a second, but tried to make it look like she wasn't staring by looking towards the kitchen, and glancing in his direction when she was sure he wasn't looking.
"Anyways, have you seen Leslie?" Eden asked looking back over at the stranger.
"She just left. Something about catching a flight." He trailed off while taking a sip of whiskey.
"Want some?" The man asked, holding the glass in her direction.
"What? Just, no thanks. She just left you here?" Eden replied, shocked at her boss's carelessness.
"Well, lets just say that I have a way with words." The man said with a glint in his eye. "Anyways, I'm Damon. And you are?"
"Eden, but I have to go. I have somewhere to be." She replied while grabbing her bag.
"Wait, you're sure you can't stay just a little bit longer?" Damon asked.
"No, I'm sorry. I can't. See you around?" Eden responded as she turned to leave.
"Will do." He replied flatly as Eden left the restaurant.
Once Eden got outside she climbed into her car and started looking for her keys, but they weren't in her bag.
"Shit, I'm going to be late," she muttered to herself while searching through her car.
"Looking for these?" Eden jumped in her seat as she looked towards the window where Damon was with her lanyard.
"Damon! You scared the hell out of me!" Eden yelled.
"Sorry sweetheart." He said with a smirk. "You left these at the bar, and I guessed you might need them."
"Thanks," Eden replied while trying to grab her keys from Damon.
"Ah, wait. Before you leave I've got a question for you. What are your plans for say... later on this afternoon? I have a nasty confrontation planned with my brother at, well, say eightish, but I'm free otherwise." Damon asked with a strange glint in his eye.
Eden ran her hand through her hair, which had the annoying tendency to fall in her face all of the time. She was going to say something to him. Something about age? Or maybe having a party to go to tonight. Eden couldn't seem to remember. But for some reason, other than his obvious attractiveness, she felt compelled agree with him.
"Sure, I'm free. What do you want to do?" Eden responded.
"Lovely," Damon replied with what Eden could tell to be his signature smirk. "How about you swing by my place at say... eight thirty? I should be free by then."
"Okay, cool. But where do you live?" Eden asked.
"I'll text you the address later, okay?" Damon replied as he turned to leave.
"But you don't have my phone number." Eden responded as she started to look for her phone.
"Oh, but you left that inside too." Damon said as he turned around to toss the phone in her car. Then he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked over to his car.
As Eden started the car and began to drive away she started thinking about her encounter. She was fairly certain that she had left her phone and lanyard in her bag the whole time. Whatever, she shrugged it off and drove to the high school.
Thanks again for reading! Just an fyi... I think I'm still going to have Kathrine exist in this story, but I don't think that I'll have Damon be as obsessed with her as he was.