Chapter 15

The writing was definitely different, Jessenia couldn't deny it if she wanted to. The original note had an elegant, almost calligraphic style while the one Damon just wrote was a sloppy scribble. There was no way he could write with the style the note had and this just muddled Jessenia even more. Damon didn't write the note and she'd left him, running out of the house heartbroken, probably hurting him in the process.

"I don't know what to say." She said finally, dropping both pieces of paper on her lap.

"Well that's a first." Damon knew he sounded like a jackass, but it was his way of dealing with the current anger he felt. "You ran out on me, Jessenia. Did you think I'd be that low and write you a note if I didn't want you?"

Jessenia lowered her head in shame, shutting her eyes. "I didn't know what to think." She whispered, wiping away the tears that started slowly falling. "I was hurt and confused. I know my dream put damper on things and I figured you didn't want to deal with me anymore."

"You thought wrong." Damon really wished she had some liquor because the way he was feeling right now was deadly. "I didn't give a damn what you dreamt about. I told you that and you still ran after finding that lame note. That just shows how little you really think of me and I guess I can't blame you."

"Damon…"

"That still doesn't change the fact that you actually thought I would take the coward's way out instead of telling you to your face." Damon cut her off, gritting his teeth and took a few deep breaths to try calming himself down. "Unless you were just looking for an excuse to get away from me?"

"No…No that's not it…"

"Really?" His eyebrows narrowed along with his eyes, almost glaring at her. "Then what exactly is it, Jessenia? Please enlighten me, tell me why you wouldn't stick around and confront me about the note. Tell me why you ran off."

Jessenia opened and closed her mouth, but nothing was coming out, just more tears spilling down her cheeks. "I thought…"

"STOP SAYING YOU THOUGHT!" Damon roared, the anger consuming him and knew he should probably leave before he ended up hurting her. "YOU THOUGHT WRONG! I DID want you, bad dreams about me and all, but you saw a note that isn't even my handwriting and BELIEVED I WOULD DO SOMETHING THAT LOW!"

"I-I didn't…"

"What?" Damon growled, stepping toward her and watched as she instinctively backed away on the bed, which hurt more. "You can't be with someone you fear constantly, Jessenia. You can't be with someone you think is going to kill you or write a stupid note telling you they never want to see you again. That's so damn cliché, I would NEVER do something like that and you should've known better. But all you did was run like a COWARD instead of fight for me."

He was angry and had every right to be. Jessenia thought he was capable of something that low because of who he was. He hurt Jessenia the first chance he got all because he wanted to know her secret. Instead of waiting and getting to know her better, he lashed out, scaring her nearly to death. So of course when she found the note, she automatically assumed he didn't want to be with someone who was emotionally unstable as her.

"I'm only human, Damon." She said quietly, not looking up at him. "I don't know what else I can say to make this right."

Snorting, Damon backed away from the bed, putting distance between them. "You're right, I don't think there is either. But I wasn't about to let you walk away from me without knowing why you ran off. Now that I know what you think of me, I'll leave you alone now, Jessenia." It was like Elena all over again, except he was the one walking away from the only human he'd ever opened up to fully.

"Damon…" Jessenia reached out for him and stopped when he held his hand up.

"Don't. You don't have to explain anything to me. I get it."

No matter what he did or how hard he tried, Damon was never going to be capable of finding someone. Maybe that was his punishment for all eternity was to be alone. This was the third woman that ripped his heart out and hurt him. Damon had vowed he would whoever hurt him after what happened with Elena, but he couldn't do it to Jessenia.

Love really was painful, pointless and overrated.

"Please don't go!" Jessenia cried out, making one last feeble attempt to stop him from walking away, standing up from the bed. "Please Damon, I'm sorry…"

Slowly turning around, Damon really wanted to go to her, take her into his arms and kiss all the pain away. He wanted to take it all away for her, wishing he could compel her to make this easier. From the moment he laid eyes on her, Damon felt something for Jessenia that couldn't be explained and he didn't want to ignore it.

"Goodbye Senia." Damon had opened her window and flew out of it, landing on his feet right in front of Stefan and Elena. "Enjoy your eavesdropping, brother?" He ignored Elena for the moment.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked, keeping his arm tightly around Elena's waist.

"What does it look like?" Damon shot back, walking away from them toward his car. "I'm doing what all women are the best at doing: Walking away."

That stung Elena a little because she knew the meaning behind that. "I'll go check on her."

Damon pulled out of the driveway and sped down the road, hitting the steering wheel a few times. Kassandra was back and now that Stefan suddenly had a soft spot for Katherine, Damon was screwed either way he looked at it. He had to push Jessenia away until the threat of the K sisters from hell was taken care of. Of course, he wasn't telling Stefan and Elena anything, Damon liked to do things on his own terms.

Elena tapped on Jessenia's door and pushed it open, hearing her distressing sobs, having heard everything Damon said to her. "Jesse, can I come in?" She asked softly, frowning when Jessenia didn't respond.

As if finding that note wasn't painful enough, Damon's unexpected visit had just made everything ten times worse. Jessenia hadn't meant to run away, but how was she supposed to respond reading that note? Something told her there was a bigger reason why Damon reacted the way he did.

"Jesse?"

"Please go away." Jessenia whispered with her back facing the door, curled up in a tight ball with the blanket drawn up over her.

Elena didn't listen and sat down on the bed, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Jessenia, he didn't mean what he said…"

"H-How do you k-know that?" She demanded in a faltering voice, wishing the tears and pain would stop.

"Damon is a very volatile man, if you haven't noticed. He does things…irrationally, but he's still a good person. He has a big heart, but doesn't like showing it." Elena explained softly, running her hand up and down Jessenia's covered up soothingly. "He's doing this for a reason and we'll find out what it is."

"No." Jessenia slowly sat up in bed, wiping her tears away and slowly looked at Elena with red rimmed eyes. "I'm just going to leave him alone like he wants and focus on my schooling."

Deciding to get Jessenia's mind off of Damon for the moment, Elena smiled widely, grabbing her hand. "That's an excellent idea. You know the Homecoming dance is coming up in two weeks right? We really need to go shopping and find dresses for it." Elena would find out what was going on with Damon and hopefully he would be Jessenia's date for it.

Jessenia looked a little skeptical. "I don't think I'm gonna go…"

"What?" Elena shook her head. "You have to go. This is your first Mystic Falls high school memory, Jesse. Don't let a guy get you down like this. We'll go together and Stefan will just have to get over it." Unless Damon came around by then, which Elena was currently counting on. "Come on, it'll be fun going shopping together and trying to find those perfect dresses."

Jessenia had to admit it did sound like fun, she had never gone to any school dances because of her mother. "You're not going to leave me alone until I do this are you?"

"Nope, you might as well just say yes so I don't have to grovel and beg."

Sighing resignedly, Jessenia reluctantly agreed just to get Elena off her back, deciding maybe it wouldn't be so bad having one best friend in Mystic Falls, even if she was a vampire.

~!~

Walking into the local bar and restaurant, Mystic Grill, Damon instantly headed to the bar area, needing several drinks. He tapped the counter and got the bartender's attention, asking for a double shot of scotch. Slowly twirling the glass in his hand, Damon downed the liquid and smiled coldly when he felt a familiar presence sit beside him.

"Hello Ric." He greeted flatly, asking for another round. "Rough day?"

"Something like that." Alaric replied, asking for a jack and coke. "You look like you're ready to either get rip-roaring drunk or tear someone apart. So, what happened?"

Alaric and Damon weren't exactly friends, but they were about as close as it got to the actual term. Alaric had come to Mystic Falls trying to figure out what his deceased wife, Isobel, found so fascinating about the small town. That and he wanted to track down the vampire that killed her in front of his eyes.

It was Damon, but Alaric ended up finding out that Isobel hadn't been murdered like he thought. She had tracked down Damon and begged him to turn her into a vampire, which Damon did. After that, Alaric just focused on his job, which was Mystic Falls High School history teacher and a secretive vampire hunter, helping the Salvatore brothers and Elena.

Technically, by marriage to Isobel, Alaric was Elena's stepfather, so he felt the need to protect her. Elena had been adopted as a baby from Isobel and her adoptive father's brother, John Gilbert, who was Elena's biological father. John ended up giving his life to save Elena, having Elena's witch friend Bonnie cast a spell that would take his life force into his daughter, sacrificing himself in the process.

"I don't think you want to know, Ric." Damon said honestly, having a feeling he'd probably get punched in the face if he told this man what happened with Jessenia. "Think its best if I just keep my mouth shut and keep drinking."

"Now that's not like you, Damon." Ric chastised, downing his first shot of jack and chased it with a beer. "Usually you're gloating about all the things you do."

"True that, partner." Damon clinked his glass against Alaric's, both of them downing shots. "You really want to know?"

"Would've have asked if I didn't."

Damon eyeballed him for a couple seconds, deciding it couldn't hurt to tell him what happened. Worst case scenario, he would end up getting punched in the face and heal within minutes. Given what he did to Jessenia prior to their deal, Damon had a feeling Alaric wasn't going to go easy on him either.

"Jessenia and I spent some time together and it didn't end well." He didn't have to go into details, just gave Alaric the bare minimum. "And no, I didn't hurt her, physically anyway."

Alaric raised a slow eyebrow, wondering what 'some time together' meant and turned to fully face Damon, eyes narrowed. "You have my undivided attention. What the hell happened?" Didn't he tell this vampire to stay away from Meredith's cousin?

Before Damon got into the whole Jessenia story, he was going to need a few more shots in him and so was Alaric. "I went over there yesterday and made a deal with her. She agreed to spend twenty four hours with me and we ended up in the woods on the outskirts of town. We talked, asked each other some questions and then ended up back at my place. Nothing happened in the physical sense, but…Katherine showed back up with a guest."

"Who?" Alaric was more than curious now, running the pad of his thumb around the rim of the glass.

"An old flame from way back in the day, before I was turned. Kassandra. Turns out, she was the bitch's sister. So now the K sisters from hell are in Mystic Falls. Cheers." Damon downed another shot, deciding he needed something stronger and changed his next round to whiskey. "Oh and you want to hear what's even better? One of those bitches decided to write a note and left it in the parlor for Jessenia to find. She thinks I wrote the damn thing. So she ran out on me and I confronted her about it. I'm not really upset about it because she's only human." He snorted, losing count at how many shots he inhaled.

"So let me guess, and I'm taking a wild guess here, you told her it did bother you to push her away." Alaric could've been a psychic, chuckling at his own mental joke. "And you think that'll work, honestly?"

"Honestly, no I don't and you wanna know why? Because of Elena. She's friends with Elena and you know she's going to badger me until I come clean about why I pushed Jessenia away." Damon wasn't looking forward to that confrontation at all, groaning inwardly.

Alaric couldn't help chuckle at Damon's bad luck with women, shaking his head. "You want in on a little secret?" When Damon nodded, Alaric downed another shot, smirking. "I knew all along that Jessenia spent time with you."

Damon closed his eyes, shaking his head and asked for a Bloody Mary. "Meredith told you I take it?"

Alaric nodded and held his drink up. "She knew you wouldn't hurt Jessenia, even though you threatened to kill her."

"Yeah, yeah I'm about tired of hearing that." Damon grunted, leaning forward on the counter and started nursing his drink. "Surprised you're okay with this considering you told me to stay away from her."

"Hey, if Meredith's fine with it, then so am I." Alaric said reasonably, stretching his arms in the air and clapped Damon hard on the back. "I know you think you're protecting her by pushing her away, but trust me, you're not."

Damon rolled his eyes, waving Alaric off dismissively. "I know what I'm doing, don't worry about it."

Holding his hands up, Alaric decided to leave Damon alone for the time being, already expecting a phone call from Meredith regarding this. "Hey, if Meredith is upset, I'll have to defend Jessenia's honor by slapping you around a little bit. You don't mind do you?"

"Not at all, have at it." Damon watched as Alaric slapped some bills on the counter before walking out, leaving him there to drink himself into oblivion.