**Chapter twenty five**

The crash

*Hailey*

I walked to the football field, walking through crowds of excited students buzzing about the game and my after-party. I scanned the crowds for Elena as I walked, not seeing her until I met up with the cheerleaders right by the field. I did not intend to tell her about my confrontation with Damon. She'd tried to talk about him with me this entire week, but I kept changing the subject. I didn't want to talk.

"Be careful, Caroline's in a mood." she warned me, frowning at how messy my makeup looked, despite my attempts to clean it up. Just then Caroline spotted me.

"Hailey! You're late!" she barked, coming over to me.

On normal occasions, I would've ignored her, and maybe roll my eyes, but since I was all worked up over Damon, Caroline being bitchy was what I needed.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, I showed up, didn't I?" I smirked. Elena gave me a warning look, but it was too late.

Caroline glared at me. "You should be on your hands and knees thanking me that I let you on this team, Ellis." she snarled, and I laughed humorlessly at her.

"Thanking you? If anything, I should hate you more!" I shot back.

"What Ava ever saw in you, I'll never know!" she yelled at me.

"Really, I was just thinking the same thing about you! At least we were alike; all you two had in common was your last name!" I yelled back, my temper getting the best of me. The guilt from Ava's death plus my pain and anger about Damon wasn't a good combination.

Caroline blanched as if I just slapped her, and I suddenly felt a strong grip on my arm yank me away from the rest of the group.

"Hailey! I told you to be nicer to Caroline!" Matt yelled at me, glaring.

"She started it!" I said childishly, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Caroline hasn't been taking Ava's death well, and the last thing she needs is you picking on her!" Matt insisted, glaring at me. I don't think I'd ever seen him so angry.

"'Picking on her?' you make it sound like we're in kindergarten and I just stole her Barbie doll!" I hissed at him.

"Well, you're acting like it!" he shot back.

"What do you even see in her, Matt? You're too good for her! She's a slutty bitch!" I yelled at him. If I couldn't take my anger out on Caroline, I'd take it out on him for sticking up for her.

"Caroline's made some mistakes, but so have you! And when you love somebody, you see past their mistakes, to the good in them. I love Caroline, and if you care about me, you'll care about her too. At least enough to stop bullying her! I don't want to choose between you two, but if I have to, I choose Caroline." and with that, Matt walked away from me and onto the field.

I stood staring after him, thinking that he was the second man tonight to choose a bitch over me. But in this case, I suppose that I deserved it. Did I really want to lose Matt because I hated Caroline?

I shook my head to clear it, and walked onto the field where the cheerleaders were gathered. I ignored Caroline and Matt, who were kissing, and walked over to Elena, who was at the edge of the field, talking to some of her old cheerleading friends.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked me, as she walked away from the two girls she was talking to.

"Yeah, I just feel like a bitch, that's all." I replied, as I blew my bangs out of my face, like I did whenever I was disgruntled.

Elena didn't say anything, but just watched as the football players ran onto the field, the cheerleaders and crowd cheering loudly.

"Are you sure you're okay, Hailey? You've been acting different ever since-" I knew what she was going to say next, but I cut her off.

"I don't want to talk about it, Elena. I fine, okay. It's not like it was anything serious." I shrugged, biting my lip.

"Well, didn't you guys… you know-?"

"Have sex? Course not! I'm not a slut; I don't just do it with anybody!" I exclaimed, lying through my teeth.

"I know that Hailey!" Elena said quickly, "It's just that, when I found you-"

"We didn't do it, Elena. Now just drop it." I snapped, my temper rising. I felt extremely guilty, though, when she looked like I'd just kicked her in the stomach.

"Elena, I'm so-" I started to say, but she cut me off.

"Whatever Hailey," she said, walking to the stands.

Ugh, I had to stop letting Damon get to me. I already cried over him, now it was time to move on. I had to stop snapping at my friends who were just trying to help.

The game was boring, because I didn't care that much about football. The only fun parts were- I was sad to say- was the cheerleading routines.

I was a flyer, which meant I did a lot of cool tricks in the air. We were pretty good as a team. The opposing team's cheerleaders were good too, though they were all stuck up bitches. Mystic Falls won- which was a surprise, because our team sucked. I was glad though, because I could cheer extra loud and piss them off.

"What a bunch of cheer whores." Caroline muttered under her breathe, as the cheerleaders stomped their feet and glared at us.

I choked on a laugh, and I goggled at Caroline like she was some strange alien from a different planet. Who knew she was funny?

All the cheerleaders were buzzing about our win and how my party was going be awesome, but I just stood around edge of them. I wore the same uniform as them, but that didn't mean I was one of them. At least, not yet. I shuddered at that thought.

I instead looked at the crowd that was making its way to the parking lot. I loved people watching. Suddenly my insides turned to ice as I thought I spotted Damon inside the crowd watching me, but in a blink of an eye, he was gone.

I took a shaky breath and looked away. I spotted Tyler over by a group of football players, all of them sweaty and gross. I walked over to him, since he was the one friend I hadn't pissed off tonight.

"Hey, Hails." He grinned, as he spotted me.

"I thought I told you that if you ever called me Hails again, I would kick your ass." I said, wrinkling my nose at him. He smelled like sweat and dude.

"Go take a shower, you smell." I said, pushing him away from me.

"Oh, does that mean you want a hug, Hails?" he smirked at me, before giving me a big bear hug.

"Tyler, I will kick your ass into next year." I threatened, giggling. He let go of me, his brown eyes glittering mischievously.

I knew right then, that if I got drunk enough tonight, I would definitely be hooking up with Tyler. Alcohol mixed with my broken heart would result in me doing something I had always shut down, because my mom would approve of it. I knew it was way too soon to jump into a new relationship, but I wasn't asking for that. I was asking for a hot hook up to help me rebound from Damon. Tyler could definitely help me do that.

"Find me at my party later, okay?" I told him, smirking to myself.

"Why?" his eyebrows furrowed.

I sighed. Guys were so slow. "Because if I get drunk enough tonight, you're going to get some action." I said, and his eyes widened.

I walked away from Tyler, ignoring the hollowness in my stomach. I knew that it was a really bad idea, especially since Tyler and I were friends, but I needed a bad idea or two, to get over Damon. I needed some fun.

As I made my way to my car, I heard some people arguing, and turned my head towards the sounds to see Caroline being cornered by three of the other team's cheerleaders.

I don't know if it was because of my conversation with Matt, the fact that only I got to bully Caroline, or that I was still angry, and would happily kick the cheerleaders' non-existent asses, but I changed my route to my car, and instead, made a beeline for Caroline.

"Is there a problem?" I said, as I came to a stop at my captain's side. Caroline's eyes widened at me, and I gave her an easy smirk.

"Oh look Forbes; it's one of your cheer sluts here to rescue you. Ooh, I'm so scared!" cackled the blonde in the middle, obviously the leader. Her two cronies let out high-pitched shrieks, that made my ears hurt.

"Ok, Blondie, let's get some things straight here." I said, coming to step in front of Caroline like a bodyguard.

"First of all, I'm not a cheer slut. That'd be you, blonde and blonder. Second, only one person in the entire universe gets to harass Caroline Forbes, and that's me. So it'd be best to get as far away from me as possible, before I rip your fake blonde hair out of your skull. And third, you shouldn't be afraid of me, you should be freaking terrified."

Blondie's eyes widened for a second before she laughed in my face. "Why on earth would I be terrified of some depressed emo bitch? I have my pride, you know."

But I was already taking my earrings out. "Caroline, dear, hold these for me." I said to her, handing her my earrings.

Then without a moment's thought, I punched Blondie in her fake nose, and she screamed in pain. Left hand clutching bloody nose, she charged at me, and I easily dodged her. She ran into a tree, and fell to the ground, knocked out.

I turned to face Blonde and Blonder, who just stared wide eyed at me, before hurrying over to Blondie. I smirked victoriously as I turned to face Caroline, who was staring at me with shock plastered on her face.

I took my earrings from her, and put them back on, while she continued to stare at me. "What?" I said after I had my earrings on.

"I can't believe you did that." she said, her voice filled with awe.

"Did what?" I said, putting a hand on my hip.

"You stood up for me! I haven't seen you do that for anyone but Elena." She said, grinning.

I sighed, and straightened my skirt, before saying, "Listen, Caroline. I have something to say to you, and don't interrupt me, or I might not be able to finish it."

Caroline stayed silent, and I took that as her permission, so I said the long speech that formed inside my head.

"I'm a bitch. There's no doubt about that. But I'm especially a bitch to you, and there's really no good reason for that. I know we've hated each other since kindergarten, but I don't know why. We just have. And lately, I've been a bigger bitch than usual, and earlier when I brought up Ava, I had no right to say those things. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that I-I'm s-s-orr-orry." I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes before starting again.

"I'm sorry. I'm going to try to be less bitchy to you, because, well, Matt's my friend. He's like my big brother, and I love him like one. And he loves you, and I'm not gonna let the fact that I hate you ruin our friendship. So I'm gonna suck it up, and get over it. But let's get one thing straight- if you break Matt's heart, I will make you regret that you were ever born." then I smiled at her, a thing that felt so unusual on my face.

"Bye Caroline." I said, before starting to walk towards my car.

"Are you and Matt coming to my party?" I called over my shoulder.

"Wouldn't miss it." she called back, a small smile on her face.

"Good." I said, as I watched Matt hurry over to Caroline. He mouthed a 'thank you' to me as he did, and I smiled at him.

As my car came into my line of vision, I saw Elena leaning against it. "That was oddly nice of you." she said, as I searched for my keys in my purse.

"What can I say? I'm a nice person." I shrugged.

Elena laughed, as I unlocked my car.

"I'm sorry Lena. I know you're just trying to help, but I really don't want to talk about the D-word. At least, not yet." I apologized for what felt like the millionth time tonight. I didn't apologize much, because I wasn't one to admit I was wrong.

Elena looked at me softly. "You really cared about him, didn't you?" she said.

I didn't meet her gaze. "Yeah, well, we all make mistakes."

I ran a hand through my hair, not wanting to think about Damon. "Do you and Stefan wanna come over to help set up for the party? I don't know how to set up the speaker without electrocuting myself."

Elena laughed, and nodded, though I knew she could see right through my subject change. She started to walk away from me, but she said softly, "I saw you with Tyler earlier, Hailey. I know you're thinking about hooking up with him tonight, but it's a bad idea. I used to push you two together, but you're still hurting over him, and hooking up with Tyler won't change that. You'll ruin your friendship."

She walked away without another word, and I considered her speech. She was right of course; Elena seemed to be always right. But if I didn't hook up with Tyler, it was going to be somebody else.

As I started my car, Elena's words replayed repeatedly in my head. "You really cared about him, didn't you?"

The stubborn part of me wanted to say of course I didn't, I was just having fun with Damon. But I was too tired to argue, too tired to lie to myself. I did care about him. Maybe a lot, maybe too much. It didn't matter, it hurt either way. If there were any way in the world to forget Damon Salvatore, I'd do it, no matter the cost.

I was so lost in my thoughts of Damon, that I didn't see the people standing in the middle of the road.

I swerved off the road as hit them, and ran into a tree, my head smashing into the steering wheel.

Everything went black for what felt like hours, but when my eyelids fluttered open, I saw a person, a vampire, and a foot away from me.

I didn't even have the chance to scream, before he picked my car up with me in it, and tossed it across the road.

The last thing I heard before my head smashed into the windshield was, "The families will pay for what they did to us."

~LMF~

A/N: thank you to: jacquline, SomebodyWhoCares, msgreenphoenix, Chella8181, Angelfang, kat, and colleenrawr for reviewing!

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~Abby :)