On the first page of our story
The future seemed so bright
Then this thing turned out so evil
I don't know why I'm still surprised
Even angels have their wicked schemes
And you take that to new extremes
But you'll always be my hero
Even though you've lost your mind
Love The Way You Lie (Part 2) by Rihanna ft. Eminem
Chapter Two: Love The Way You Lie
Another perfect blood red rose. There it was right next to Elena in bed on the pillow next to her. Taunting her. Those roses that she used to love seeing everyday, that made her smile and think of Damon. Now just made her feel guilty. Especially after what she found out last time she was with him, before last night. They had been sneaking around for a month and a half now, and it wasn't until last week that the guilt of using Damon like this finally hit her. She knew her pictures from her room were disappearing, but while wandering around Damon's room, she knew where they disappeared too. Right there in his room, hidden in his nightstand were all her missing pictures. She knew Damon always liked her, she knew at first it was to piss off Stefan and somewhere along the way, he started to like more than that, until it built up to that moment when Isobel came a blurted it out to her in front of Damon and Stefan, and that kiss Damon shared with Katherine, but he was so caught up in thinking it was actually Elena, that he didn't notice how she had no heartbeat. And everything else that happened after that, Elena knew Damon had feelings for her, but she never knew how strong they really were. She remembered leaving early that night, she had already slept with him that day, and she was feeling too guilty to stay. And when he called her last night, she was hesitant to go, but she went anyway, pretending nothing was wrong while her mind was racing. And the way he loved her finally sank in last night. From the way he held her to all the sweet, intoxicating kisses he gave her. Somewhere in his mind, he was using those nights to keep himself from snapping, he was showing Elena how much he cared for her even though she was completely clueless to it all. But Elena wondered just how long he could have gone on like this; pretending to be with her and that she knows just how much he loves her, and that she loves him back just the same. It wasn't right for a person, alive, dead, or undead, to live like that. Elena did care for him, and she cared for him more recently after everything that has been happening, but she didn't know if she loved him as much as he loved her. So there she was, lying in bed, staring at that blood red rose that made her only think about how bad of a person she really was. She was using Damon for her own personal needs. Just like Katherine. The woman she hated the most, she had become in that month and a half. Using Damon for sex, just for the hell of it, and whenever she wanted.
She started to feel the tears roll down her cheeks, but it didn't last long since a knock on her window made her sit upright in bed and wipe the tears away. She thought it was Damon. Sometimes he came in the morning, just to say hi, but this time it was Caroline. Elena grabbed the rose and put it in the vase on her nightstand where the other roses from Damon were.
"Come in" Elena said and she saw her window open, Caroline walk in, and she shut the window behind her
"Hey" Caroline smiled and sat down in bed next to her
"Hey" Elena said and faked a smile as best as she could even though she felt like crying
"So I haven't seen you in a while, where have you been? Every time I tried to call you, you haven't answered, you rarely text back, what has you so busy?" Caroline asked curiously
"Just, family stuff" Elena sighed, she hoped Caroline would believe her pitiful excuse, but from the look on her face, she wasn't buying it
"Elena…what's wrong?" Caroline asked
"Nothing" Elena said and got out of bed and head to her closet "I just…have to take care of something today. Not exactly looking forward to it" Elena sighed
"You have a secret boyfriend or something? That's the only thing I can think of that would have you so…weird" Caroline said
"…Kinda" Elena sighed "It's complicated"
"I'm guessing you're not gonna tell me who, huh?" Caroline asked
"No. There's no reason to anyway. I'm ending it" Elena sighed
"Why?" Caroline asked
"Because…it can't work anymore" Elena said
"He doesn't want people to know about you guys or something?" Caroline asked
"Just the opposite" Elena sighed
"So…he wants people to know…but you don't?" Caroline asked
"…Something like that" Elena said and started getting changed "It's just…he loves me more than I think I love him….and I don't want to keep…using him like this anymore. I'm a bad person for starting this in the first place"
"Oh" Was all Caroline said, she didn't want to push Elena and ask who it was she was secretly dating "Well…how long have you been with this guy?"
"A month and a half" Elena sighed "I just don't need this in my life right now. I need things less complicated, not more complicated"
"I get it" Caroline sighed and nodded "Well, I'll be around if you need someone to talk to"
"Thanks" Elena said and nodded and Caroline made her way out of Elena's bedroom window and Elena was alone again
Elena walked into the bathroom and her reflection caught her. She used to glow after nights with Damon, and now, she looked like hell, she barely slept last night once she got herself home, she was up until 4am with her thoughts racing and it showed today. But she thought it fit. She felt terrible today, so it made sense to look terrible. But she put make-up on and fixed her hair and tried to look somewhat okay. She just prayed that Stefan wouldn't be there when she basically broke up with Damon.
Damon usually woke up feeling great. Especially lately while being with Elena. But he just woke up with this feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong today. He didn't know what, but he knew something was going to happen that he wasn't going to like one little bit. He got up and dressed and started thinking about last night. It was the first night he noticed something off about Elena. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else the entire night, she was thinking about something. And the way she practically ran out of the Boarding House last night after they had sex, she just wanted to get out as soon as she had done what she had to do. That wasn't how she usually acted.
"Damon" Stefan's voice rang through Damon's room and Damon turned around to face him "Why is Elena here?"
And with that, Damon felt his heart drop, he knew that the something terrible was going to be something to do with Elena.
"I'll take care of it" Damon sighed and started to walk out of the room only to be stopped by Stefan grabbing his arm
"What's going on Damon?" Stefan asked
"Nothing" Damon said and tore himself away from Stefan's grip and continued to walk down the hall and downstairs and reached the front door and he waited to hear Elena's footsteps get close to the door. Damon knew Stefan was hovering, he was going to listen in no matter where they were or where they went, he was suspicious now. Damon sighed and opened the door as soon as he heard Elena's heartbeat on the other side of the door.
"Can I talk to you Damon?" Elena asked and Damon could hear the sadness in her voice, he knew something was really wrong now.
"Sure" Damon said and let her in, he knew Stefan was there, but she didn't have to know. Stefan would have found out sooner or later, he had smelled Elena's scent on him a few times already in the past month and a half
Elena walked right into the living room and didn't bother to sit down, she just stood there and faced Damon as he walked towards her, but she held her arm out to keep a distance between them, he already didn't like where this was going. Elena held her hand there on Damon's chest and grabbed his shirt and she felt her tears start to fall, the tears that she couldn't hold back. Damon wanted to hug her, but she kept him away, letting go of him and backing up every time he took a step towards her. Eventually, he stopped moving towards her and Elena wiped away her tears, she had to be strong to do this, she had to break this off now before it got worse. She cared for Damon, but she wasn't sure it was the way he cared for her. Now she just had to find a way to tell this to Damon without him snapping like a twig.
"Damon…I can't do this anymore" Elena finally said breaking the long silence between them "I can't"
"Why?" Damon asked and slowly felt his heart sink even lower than it already was
"Because…you love me. I know you do. But you love me way too much" Elena said "I don't know…if I love you back that way, or if I could ever love you back that way" Elena sighed and the tears fell again "You love me too much Damon and I don't deserve that love. I'm a terrible person. I've been using you-"
"What makes you think I haven't been using you too?" Damon asked, he was trying to lie to her, he didn't want to lose her, not like this
"I know you haven't" Elena said "I saw it all Damon. Last week, in your nightstand. Where you've been keeping all those pictures of me. You keep bringing me roses…if you were using me, you wouldn't care about me like that"
Damon wanted to say something back, something that would make her think over everything she was saying and stay. Sure, Stefan would know now, but maybe they wouldn't have to be a secret. They could have a chance like how her and Stefan had a chance. But he couldn't think of a single thing to say when he saw that she meant everything she had said, it was all right there in those big brown doe eyes that he loved so much it hurt.
"…It'd be best…if we didn't see each other anymore" Elena said and wiped away her tears and walked past Damon and head for the front door, but he grabbed her arm and stopped her before she could get to that door and she turned around to face him
"Use me, I don't care Elena, just stay" Damon pleaded, he never begged someone before to stay with him, not even Katherine.
"I can't" Elena said
"I'm a masochist Elena, I like pain, use me all you want, you don't have to return a single ounce of love, just stay" Damon said, begging even more for her to stay
"I can't Damon. I'm not going to make you suffer. No one can go through life without getting love back from someone, and I don't know if I can love you back the way you love me" Elena said and wiped away more stray tears "…Just…give me some time alone. I can't promise to come back though"
Damon knew nothing he could say would change her mind, so he just nodded and gently let go of her arm. And he watched her walk towards the front door and walk away. Once he heard that door slam, he didn't know weather to be angry or sad. He didn't know weather he wanted to lash out at someone, or go cry his eyes out in his room. This was why he hated emotions, why he hated feeling. Feeling something for someone only brought heartache and pain that you can never make go away, but he could. With a flip of a switch, he could make all this pain he was feeling right now go away. He tried and tried as he stood there to no longer feel anything for anyone. But he couldn't flip that switch. Elena's face was burned into the back of his mind, and all that time with her was flooding back to him. It was so much pain he just wanted to crumple down to the ground like a rag doll. For once, that pain couldn't go away. Because somewhere in his sick and twisted mind, he was hanging on to a glimmer of hope of that Elena would come back. And he didn't want to be a monster when she came back. So Damon did the next best thing to flipping the switch off. He walked over to his scotch and started drinking. He heard Stefan coming downstairs, probably seething with anger that Damon laid a hand on Elena. But he didn't care, the pain was all consuming. Someone could have staked him right now and that wouldn't have hurt as much as the pain of losing Elena felt.
"You were with Elena?" Stefan asked as he walked up behind Damon
"Maybe" Damon sighed and kept drinking "Not anymore"
"…I'm sorry" Stefan said
Damon turned around and saw Stefan without any weapon at all, so why was he apologizing?
"I don't need your sympathy" Damon sighed "You'd actually be doing me a favor if you staked me right now like you usually do"
"I'm not gonna stake you Damon" Stefan said "I really am sorry"
"Why do you care? I thought you loved Elena?" Damon asked with a bit of venom in his voice
"I care because you're my brother and you're in pain right now. And I do love Elena. But I loved her enough to let her go" Stefan said
"Yeah well, not all of us are self righteous like you. I can't let go of her" Damon said
"I'm not telling you to let go of her" Stefan said "I'm telling you…to fight for her"
"…Either we entered an alternate universe…or drugs really can effect vampires" Damon said
"No, I'm fine" Stefan said "I can tell you love her, a lot."
"So why is the guy that was so in love with Elena, standing in front of me, telling me to fight for her, when you could fight for her too? Steal her away from me?" Damon asked
"Because…this isn't my battle. You fight for her Damon. I'm your brother, I should start acting like one again after 146 years." Stefan said
"So I'm not gonna have to fight you for her?" Damon asked and couldn't help but give a small smirk to his brother
"Not this time" Stefan sighed and smiled a little "Just…give her a few days. Then start fighting" Stefan said and turned around and walked upstairs
Elena had taken every rose from Damon that she had and thrown it into the fireplace at home. She got to the last rose and felt a few tears fall and she held the rose there for a minute. The last rose from Damon was there in her hands, the last thing she had to remember him by. Now that she wasn't with either of the brothers, who was to say that they were going to stay in Mystic Falls? They could leave tomorrow for all she knew.
"What's with the rose burning party?" Jenna asked and walked into the living room
"Not much of a party" Elena said and wiped her tears away and Jenna handed her the box of tissues
"Caroline told me today what you did" Jenna sighed "She was worried about you, she said you seemed really down in the dumps again"
"I used him" Elena said
"…We all make mistakes Elena" Jenna sighed and sat down next to Elena and put her arm around her "But, if you really didn't love him back…you did the right thing"
"That's the thing…I don't know if I loved him back" Elena said and wiped her tears away "He loved me so much…I guess it scared me a little how much he loved me back, and I didn't even realize it. I'm the worst person on this planet"
"No you're not" Jenna said "You got scared. People get scared of love. Some people think it's the best thing on earth, and others have been burned so many times, their scared of feeling it again. From the sounds of things, you just need to take a break from falling in love to figure out when you are really in love with someone and when you're not. But then again…I guess you can never really take a break from falling in love, huh?" Jenna asked
"Not really" Elena sighed "…If I tell you this Jenna, can you promise not to freak out?"
"…I promise" Jenna sighed
"It was Damon" Elena said
"…The guy was Damon? As in Damon Salvatore?" Jenna asked curiously
"Yes. You promised-"
"I'm not freaking out, I'm just…confused" Jenna said
"Why?" Elena asked
"I always thought you liked Damon. I mean, I know he's an ass, but…I don't know. You just acted different around him. More…alive" Jenna said "Plus with all the time you've been with him secretly, you were pretty perky" Jenna said
"I guess I was" Elena sighed
"I would have never thought of Damon. For being someone that would make you smile. But, people can surprise you sometimes" Jenna sighed "And I'm not really one to talk, remember Logan?"
"I remember" Elena said and smiled a little
"Total jackass. But…I loved him. Love sucks" Jenna sighed
"Tell me about it" Elena sighed
"So…I'm gonna get some ice cream. And we can sit here and just talk. Sounds like you need to get some things off your chest" Jenna said
"Yeah" Elena sighed
"I'll be back with that ice cream then" Jenna smiled and walked into the kitchen
Elena looked down and the rose in her hands. She had been gripping onto it so tightly, the thorns pricked her. She looked at her bloody hand and watched as it healed up quickly from Damon's blood being in her system from last night. She put the rose that was now covered in her blood on the stem and put it back in the vase next to her. She didn't want to burn that rose anymore. She wanted something to remember him by. Elena kissed the rose, she didn't know why she wanted to, but she did anyway and walked away into the kitchen to get a towel to wipe the blood off of her hands. And as she got rid of the blood, she thought of those ice cold blue eyes that begged her to stay today and her heart was breaking the more she thought about it.
A/N: Before you all come and kill me for breaking Damon and Elena up already, think of this: every great relationship had it's bumps in the road. I mean if it were that easy to fall in love with someone, life would be a whole lot easier. But it's not that easy most of the time, and I can't see Damon and Elena just instantly falling for each other like Elena and Stefan, they need a struggle. I think if they have a struggle, than when Elena finally realizes that she loves Damon, it will be that much more powerful :)
SO, their not together for now, but this is a Delena story, they will end up together :)
I wanted to give Damon someone in this story, so I gave him Stefan, so he can actually have someone to talk to instead of suffering in silence and having to fight Stefan for Elena on top of everything. Stefan is the good guy in this story, just to let you know, he will always be the good guy in this story, so no need to worry of Stefan trying to ruin them ;)
Elena and Damon are going to have to fight for their love in this story, it's not gonna be 1,2,3, "Oh my gosh I just realized I love you so much Damon!" kinda thing. Even though Damon is kinda love sick over Elena in this story, it's about her falling for him and finally realizing it. So I hope you understand more about this story now :) Now I'm off to go work on my other stories. I love you guys! xoxo, Avril