**Chapter eight **

Dreams do come true

*Hailey*

After class, I walked right past Elena to my locker. Damon was going to pick me up soon.

As I slipped on my leather jacket, Elena walked up to me. She had a stubborn glint in her eyes, but I knew that she wanted to resolve our fight.

"Where are you going?" she asked me, as I shut my locker.

"Places." I muttered, pulling my hair out of its holder, and smoothing it down, trying to make it flat.

"Here," Elena said, moving a lock of hair so that it was flat on my head.

Biting my lip, I felt bad for not trusting her judgment. Elena was my best friend- if I couldn't trust her, who could I trust?

But what if Damon wasn't like she said he was? The feeling- the attraction- was almost magnetic. I was the moth, and he was the flame. It was the kind of attraction that got hearts shattered, but also the kind that never died out.

Which was exactly why I was going to get to know Damon better, despite Elena telling me that he was 'dangerous.' But that didn't mean I had to be a bitch to my best friend.

"I'm sorry I can't tell you certain things." Elena muttered, and I sighed.

"I'm sorry I was being a bitch." I said, and Elena smiled.

"So we're good?" Elena asked, and I grinned.

"We're great." I agreed, leaning against my locker.

"So where are you going?" Elena asked, frowning slightly as if she knew the answer.

"Ditching." I said, ignoring Elena's frown.

"Hailey, you went to one class!" she sighed.

"Yeah, one more than I would've went to if my best friend wasn't a bossy nag." I muttered, and she glared at me.

'Well, I'm only a bossy nag, because you're a lazy alcoholic." She retorted.

"Touché." I said, and she laughed. I suddenly remembered that she and Stefan needed a ride home.

"Here" I said, giving her my car keys. "You break her, and I will kill you. Just saying." I said, not joking even a little.

Elena rolled her eyes. "You would marry that car if it were legal." She muttered.

"Damn straight." I smirked, and then felt my phone vibrate.

"Okay, I gotta go. Later Lena." I said, walking towards the front entrance.

"Wait, how are you leaving then?" she called, my car keys dangling in her hand. I pretended not to hear her, and disappeared into the crowd of students.

Damon was waiting for me, and I absentmindedly checked out his car. It was like mine, but a pretty blue. My dad had made me into a car fanatic.

"Nice car." I said, slipping into the passenger side. "Mine's better."

Damon smirked as he drove out of the school parking lot. "I doubt that."

I rolled my eyes. "Yours is pretty and all, but mine is just plain sexy." I said, smirking.

"Why don't you just marry it?" he retorted, and I laughed.

"Sadly, it's illegal. I've checked."

At the grill, I forced myself to stop drinking after having a rum and coke. I didn't want to have Elena come and get me, and find out I was going against her wishes and basically saying that I didn't trust her.

"I don't understand how you can stand beer- It's disgusting." My nose wrinkled as Damon drank some of his beer. Despite having an obvious drinking problem, I couldn't stand beer.

Damon shrugged. "You learn to like it." He said, as I picked the tomatoes off of my cheeseburger.

"You don't like tomatoes? What's wrong with you?" Damon frowned as if I had morally offended him.

"Well, if I to list all of them off, we'd be here all night." I joked, brushing my bangs out of my eyes before taking a bite.

Damon's eyes traveled to the ring on my finger. "Where'd you get that?" he asked, looking as if he had seen it before.

"My Dad gave it to me for my fifteenth." I said. "My mom thinks it's ugly, so I that's why I wear it." It was definitely one of the reasons, though I couldn't tell him the biggest one.

Damon laughed, and then asked. "You don't get along with your mother very well, do you?"

I shook my head. "It's a very long story; we'd be here all night if I told it." I said, picking at my French fries.

"I met her this morning, at the council meeting." He grinned when I grimaced.

"You're on the council? And I thought you were cool." I muttered, and he glared at me.

"I'm awesome," he said, stealing some of my fries. "And I'm on the council because it provides certain advantages." I frowned when he didn't explain any further, but didn't push him.

"Like I was saying, Holly is… a little much. I'm eighty-five percent sure she was hitting on me." He said, and my nose wrinkled.

"What a slut." I muttered, and Damon raised his eyebrows.

"I know what it's like, having a parent who you hate. My father always liked Stefan better than me. He never approved of anything I did- even called me a disappointment a few times." He had a bitter look on his face as he talked about his dad.

"You too?" I gasped overdramatically. "We should start a club."

He half smiled, as I stole some of his onion rings. We ate in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn't an awkward silence.

"Elena doesn't know you're with me, does she?" he asked bluntly, and I shook my head.

"No, we're already on the rocks. If she found out that I went against her warning…" I shook my head. "She doesn't like you." I told Damon bluntly, and he smirked.

"I know, she loves telling me that to my face." He said, and I laughed.

"If you know that Elena will be mad if she finds out, why are you here?" he asked curiously.

I shrugged. "I've never been one to do as told." I said.

He smirked. "We have that in common." He said, as he gave me his onion rings, and took my French fries.

Damon and I had a lot in common.

Damon was driving me home, as the sun was slowly setting. It was almost six, and we had spent the entire day talking and playing pool. And the entire time, I just wanted to grab him by his leather jacket and kiss him. The only thing that stopped me was that I actually liked him as a friend.

Damon pulled to a stop in front of my house, and I got out of his car. To my surprise, he followed me out of my car to my front door.

"Are you glad that you ignored Elena?" he asked me bluntly, as I leaned against my front door.

"I haven't decided yet." I teased with a smirk.

He smirked back at me, and then turned his back. "Later Hailey." He said, walking to his car.

"Wait." I blurted out, walking towards him.

When Damon turned to face me, I grabbed him by the leather jacket, and kissed him.

I could tell he was surprised, but he kissed me back. His hand ran up into my hair, while the other pulled me closer. I pulled away suddenly, and he frowned at me.

"Have a nice night, Damon." I smirked and walked up to my door.

I heard him laugh slightly. "You'll pay for that, Hailey." He called, as I shut the door.

Grinning, I felt like I could run a marathon. I closed my eyes, and rested against the front door. That was the best kiss I'd ever had.

"And where have you been?"

I turned to face my mom, who looked angry. I narrowed my eyes at her- she was killing my buzz.

"Like you care." I retorted, walking around her to the stairs.

"Hailey Anne Ellis!" she shouted after me.

I ignored her yelling, and slammed my bedroom door shut. Ellie purred, and rubbed her face against my legs. I picked her up and scratched her, as I sat down on my bed and turned on my cell phone. My eyes widened, when I saw what I had missed. 20 text messages. 15 voice mails. 34 missed calls. All from Elena.

I called her, wondering what had happened.

"Alright, where's the fire?" I joked when she answered.

"Hailey! Thank god! I was so worried!" she said, sounding relieved beyond relief.

"Just because I didn't respond to your messages or answer your calls doesn't mean I'm dead, Lena." I teased.

"It's not that, Hailey. Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?" I asked, confused.

"Hailey, there was an animal attack. A girl was killed. They hadn't released any names, and since you weren't answering- I was so scared…" she trailed off, and instantly felt guilty for putting her through that.

"Well I'm fine, Lena. Calm down, or you're gonna have a heart attack." I said, wondering who had died and if I knew her.

"I'm fine, Hailey. Oh! Turn on your TV to channel 5! They're doing an update on the attack." I stayed on the phone, as I turned on the TV, and changed it to channel five.

Sure enough, there was a handsome news reporter on the screen, with the wordsbreaking news on the bottom of the screen. When I noticed where he was though, my stomach dropped a hundred feet, and I felt sick.

He was reporting at the exact location where my nightmare took place.

"To all you people at home just tuning in, we have breaking news. Today around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 16 year old Carly Fell was brutally attacked and killed by an animal while jogging. Her body was found by other joggers around an hour later. She was already dead by the time they found her. Eye witnesses report that she had multiple bite marks where the animals had bit her. Police have not clarified whether or not this attack is related to the animal attacks that had happened last year. Stay tuned for more information involving this terrifying tragedy."

I tuned out the rest of his babble, dropping my phone as I went into shock.

Carly. Jogging. Attack. Bite marks. Dead.

I guess dreams really do come true.

A/N: thank you to: charmedgirl92 and Angelfang for reviewing!

Reviews make me smile!