Okay so again sorry for the lack of updates. I am trying but life is too hetic right now but this story will be finished just like the rest of them. My Twitter has changed to TaintedLights follow me there. Hope you enjoy, Chapter 7 of Just A Memory.

Like ships in the night,

You keep on passing me by,

We're just wasting time,

Trying to prove who's right.

Damon POV

Elena left my bedroom to go and find Stefan in his room most probably and all I could do was watch her go. I couldn't ask her to stay and talk things over with me, I had to let her go and see her boyfriend because if she had stayed it would only cause more complications and more confusion, not only for her but everyone who cared about her, including me. Her words still echoed in my head "Tell me the truth and I won't." and they were on a constant reply in my head. After everything that I told her, she still didn't hated me. Elena only wanted one thing from me, the truth and I would give it to her. I would give her everything she wanted because I had to fix what I had done to her. She didn't deserved to be compelled, she deserved more than that and she deserved a love that would always be good for her. She deserved a love that only Stefan could give but I knew that she belonged with me, not Stefan. Elena was my true love and if it was selfish of me to want her then I would proudly call myself selfish.

Stefan laughed at something downstairs and my teeth gritted an instant reaction to whenever Stefan was around Elena, laughing and joking with her and doing things with her that I should have been doing. I should be the one downstairs with my arms wrapped around her delicate frame, laughing with her as she said or did something cute. I should be the one taking her on dates, holding her at night, kissing in her and making sure she was mine and mine only. Everything Stefan was doing with or for Elena, should've been me but I had let my stupid head get in the way of what my heart wanted and I had let her go.

For the next three hours I remained upstairs in my bedroom led on my bed with the necklace and photograph in my hands, the only things that were a physical representation of mine and Elena's relationship. The chain of the necklace flowed over my fingers and the pendant rested on the back of my hand and I rolled it over in my hands, the smell of Elena consumed me. The necklace still smelt of her even if it was very distinctive and hardly noticeable to the average human.

After three hours of being completely motionless and listening to the sounds of her laughter downstairs, she finally made her goodbyes to sweet Stefan. I could hear her every step, every touch and I could hear her heart miss a beat when my brother kissed her on her soft plump lips. I heard her giggle one more time before she took her jacket off the coat hanger by the door before the door slammed shut leaving me and Stefan longing for the girl who just walked out of the door.

How could one girl be so perfect? It was beyond me. Elena was a flawless human being. She was good-hearted, selfless, beautiful and she knew how to have a good time unlike some girls. My love for Elena was a natural pure love and not a unhealthy infatuation like it had been with Katherine. Elena was everything good in life; she brought out the best in people and she brought my humanity out when I thought it was locked away forever. Seeing her crying and looking so confused…so broken had my heart twisting in my chest. I didn't know how to fix what I had done, I couldn't change the past despite how much I wanted to. She wants to know about our relationship she had said so herself but I didn't want to overwhelm her with too much information and send her running back to Stefan. I was completely confused and I had no one to talk to, no one to seek advice from besides Caroline who would probably just through a fit at me for Elena having found out the way she did.

I could just picture her now led on her bed and writing in her diary, writing down things she wasn't brave enough to say to me, things that she could never tell anyone and writing down the information that I had told her hoping that it would all piece together. I sighed deeply. She could never piece it all together, our relationship had been too complicated, too passionate and too addictive to fit together. The only way she could ever understand would for her to actually remember just like I had planned but would she even trust me to do it now?

I had so many questions and so many memories rushing through my head, all mashing together into one and even I was unable to make sense of them but whatever confusion I was feeling; Elena was feeling so much more. All I could do was just hope that she would forgive me for my mistake and if we could be nothing else but friends I would take it. I rolled over onto the bed and faced the faded photograph, if I only knew she was okay. I had to see her, I had to.

Jumping up from the bed, I heard Stefan walking slowly up the staircase to his bedroom. I remained seating on the bed until I heard his bedroom door shut so I wouldn't have to answer his stupid questions about where I was going. Also I didn't want to see my brother because I didn't want to feel the guilt that would certainly arise when I would see his young boyish face. Stefan didn't deserve to get hurt but even if Elena chose him after all this; he would find out the truth and think that somehow I betrayed him.

Silence echoed around the house and I took that as my cue to leave. I practically ran down the old wooden staircase, barely holding onto the banister because all I could think about was Elena and how she was feeling. What if she was crying again because of me? Because of what I had done? The mere thought was unbearable but she had every right to feel the way she was feeling. I had no right taking her memories away from her without asking her permission first, it wasn't right or fair. Taking away Elena's memories had been selfish and a mistake, one that had held horrible consequences.

My leather jacket hung on the coat hanger and I grabbed it immediately, shrugging it over my shoulders before I raced off into the night towards Elena. The night air was cold and the wind was fierce, seeking revenge on an unknown criminal but somehow I felt as though it was after me. The further I ran the more the wind followed, chasing me. Forcing me to run faster towards Elena, it seemed as though everything in Mystic Falls knew what I had done and was judging me because of it. The guilt I was feeling towards Elena was turning into full blown paranoia.

Finally after all the running I reached my destination: The Gilbert Home. I circled the house seeing if anyone was awake. There was a light on in the kitchen and I could see Jeremy making himself a glass of water before switching off the light and returning back to his room, probably to listen to his rock music through his headphones. I circled the house once more and found an upstairs light switched on; Elena's bedroom. She was stood there looking through her window at the endless sea of trees that lay before her. Elena wore her blue pyjama shorts and the matching t-shirt, pyjama's that never failed to access her curves. I groaned, did she really have to be wearing them right now? Elena run her hands through her hair before sighing and returning back to her bed. She didn't look upset or confused, she didn't look like she was feeling anything which only made my guilty and worry turn into a frenzy.

I placed my feet firmly on the concrete path underneath me before jumping up to Elena's bedroom window. I gripped the window's ledge tightly in my left hand whilst I tapped the glass quietly with my other hand. If it had been any other night, I would have just invited myself into her bedroom but tonight I need her acceptance and I wanted her to do things that she wanted to. Elena needed her free will. Elena rolled her eyes before hopping back out of her bed and opening the window for me to enter. I lifted my legs over the ledge and stood behind Elena who childishly had her back to me.

"Elena we can't talk if I can't see your face." I told her trying to hold my sarcastic tone but it fell when she finally turned her body around and I saw the tears that were flowing down her cheeks.

"Elena…" I whispered not really knowing why.

I stepped towards her my hand outstretched wanting to erase the tears. Despite everything that I had done to her, I had never wanted Elena to get hurt because I thought by letting her go I was protecting her, giving her a life without vampires but yet she always managed to find one. Elena watched me hesitantly, her eyes finally showing emotion and anger. An expression I knew all too well on her angelic face. I moved one step closer to her but she only backed away from me. Elena shook her head before rolling her eyes at me once more and now I could practically feel the anger that was radiating from her. Her feelings were clear and written all over her face; Elena hated me and she didn't want to see me.

"Get out Damon. I need time to think please." She begged me but though I wanted to listen to her and leave so I could give her the free will I know she deserved but I just couldn't leave her when she looked so fragile and broken.

"Elena, don't. Let me talk to you and help you understand things please." Now I was the one begging but still the angered expression did not leave her, in fact she only grew more agitated and angry. I could see she was thinking over something in her mind, it was like seeing wheels turning as they tried to figure out something.

"Did you even love me or did you just use me for sex?" She hissed at me but that wasn't what scared me. What scared me was how much she resembled Katherine, she had never been Katherine no matter how angry she had been but right now they could be the same person.

Her words made a mark in my brain as I tried to think of how her train of thought had developed. How could she even think that I was using her for sex? I had never treated her like one of those other girls that I would sleep with and feed from. Elena was more to me than that and she always had been, even from the first moment that I met her. She knew that. Couldn't she tell from how I reacted earlier to her finding out? Everything about our relationship had been real. Everything.

"No! How could you even think that? For God sake, Elena I love you! Are you really that oblivious to how I act when I'm around you? Elena do you even know how much it hurts to see you with Stefan! Even when we were dating, I never used you for sex. I would never do that to you!" I snarled back at her. "If anyone pushed our relationship to keep going to the next freaking level it was you! Not me. You!"

"Yeah, well maybe you were to busy running away from us like a scared little boy!"

"Whatever, Elena." I shrugged before jumping out of the window and leaving Elena to argue with herself. I wouldn't be part of this. I wouldn't allow her to have a reason to hate me. She wasn't blaming me for this one, I would fix my mistake but if she wanted to walk out and leave me this time. I wouldn't help her.

Elena stood there watching me, her brown eyes moving as I paced around her small bedroom. The black heels she had worn tonight hung in her hands and her black mascara was all over her face due to the tears that she had previously cried. Her hair was messy and tangled because she had run her fingers through it so many times. The black cocktail dress she had worn for our dinner tonight was ripped at the seam because she had run away from me due to my arrogant behaviour. Everything was wrecked upon her but the only thing that reminded me that my Elena was still stood before me were her eyes, her beautiful brown innocent eyes that never strayed from mine.

"Damon what are we doing?" She asked her voice tired and weak.

Elena slumped onto the bed and tossed her heels into the corner of the room. She reached towards her feet and rubbed circles in them softly, no doubt those heels had done the damage to her feet. They were a death trap! Elena's eyes flickered from mine and then rejoined mine but her eyes didn't look young anymore, they looked old and worn out.

"What do you mean?" I raised my eyebrows at her, only a few moments ago we were close to ripping each others throats out and now we were back to being Damon and Elena, the couple in love. It didn't make sense. I had never experienced a relationship like mine and Elena's, we either wanted to love each other or kill each other. We had some serious issues that had to be talked through.

"Us." Elena sighed before carrying on. "Damon, I'm coming up seventeen in a month yet I feel like I'm thirty when I'm around you. I love you so much and I can't bare to be without you yet I can't help but feel that this isn't right. All the fights isn't normal."

She was right. It wasn't fair to her but how could I change who I was without pushing her away? I would only hate us both if I changed who I was. I wouldn't change the man who I had become after all these years. I wasn't the nice guy, I had never been him. So how could I become him? Questions flowed through my head; What if there wasn't a way out for me and Elena? I couldn't be the better man, I couldn't it wasn't in me anymore.

"I need to sleep. Thanks for tonight, handsome." Elena hopped off the bed and made her way towards me, the make up still all over her face but it didn't seem to bother me. She kissed me on the lips before pulling away too soon for the both of us.

"You're welcome. I should let you get some sleep." I used the excuse for her but really I was the one who wanted to leave. I had to get out of this bedroom, away from Elena and think about the future so I could fix the problem that existed between me and her. There had to be a solution, there had to be.

As I walked back to the house, I remembered the aftermath of mine and Elena's last fight. That night I had gone home to search for a solution, any solution that would keep me and Elena together but I had found none. The only solution that I had found drove us apart and now here we were still fighting, still pushing each other to do something different but if there's anything I've learnt over the last year without her is you can't change the past. You can't go back in time and fix your mistakes, you move forward and learn from them and that's what I intend to do. Me and Elena would work this out because I'll be damned if this had the same ending as last time.

And if it all goes crashing into the sea

If it's just you and me trying to find the light

Like ships in the night

You're passing me by

You're passing me by

Like ships in the night

Song was Matt Kearny - Ships In The Night. Brilliant song and desribes the chapter perfectly! Don't forget TaintedLights on Twitter now, hope you enjoyed this! Please review. Next Chapter we see how Elena's coping after this and there's a Lockwood Party coming up! ;) Love MidnightGirl467 xXx