**Chapter forty five**

Behind the mask

*Hailey*

"I have a bad feeling," I told Elena, as I put my mask on, as Stefan parked the car.

"Like tomb vampires bad?" she asked, putting on her heels.

"Like… might not make it out alive, bad." I said finally, fixing my hair. "But it's probably nothing/" I added at their expressions.

"You should trust your instincts, Hailey." Stefan told me as we got out of the car. "You said before that all your visions used to be like that, you just had a feeling. For all we know, you could be having a vision."

Stefan and Elena instantly held hands, and I felt like the third wheel. We walked to entrance, as people walked, danced, and drank around us. Everyone was in masks. I spotted my mom just outside the entrance, and sighed.

"Hailey, I'm glad to see that you look presentable." My mom said stiffly as we walked up to her.

Elena dug her nails into my arm. I managed to choke out, "I always aim to please you, mom," while gritting my teeth in pain.

My mom narrowed her eyes at me, and then Stefan, Elena, and I walked into the party. "That wasn't helping me Elena," I told her, as I rubbed the claw marks on my arm.

"I just didn't want you to start anything with your mom," she said sheepishly.

"Trust me, that's the least of my worries tonight." I said, grabbing a glass of champagne from a passing waitress.

"I'm going to track down Damon," I said abruptly, earning a look from Stefan and a raised eyebrow from Elena.

"What? He's my drinking buddy." I said innocently, before walking away to go find him.

I got two glasses of bourbon from the bar, but I couldn't find Damon anywhere. I had already finished my drink, and was about to drink Damon's, when I felt an arm wrapped around my waist. A hand grabbed the drink from me, before my lips could touch it.

"Hey!" I said, leaning into Damon as he took a sip of the bourbon.

"If we're hiding from Elena, we're doing a pretty bad job of it." He commented, as he finished his drink.

Damon gestured to where Elena was, not too far away from us, talking to Caroline. I pulled away from him, and grabbed his hand. "Come on, I know where a closet is." I murmured with a smirk, tugging on his arm.

"No Hailey, I won't go into a closet with you." Damon said loudly, though not loud enough for Elena to overhear. I pushed Damon, and he smirked at me.

"You're terrible." I frowned, as I managed to pull him into a supply closet.

"I always thought that you loved that about Me." he smirked, before lifting me up onto a table, and kissing me.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, as Damon's hand got knotted up in my hair. He kissed my neck, as I unbuttoned his shirt quickly. Public sex, more like semi-public, was really kinky, even more Damon and me, but it made it hotter.

Damon hitched my leg up to his hip, and attached his lips to mine again. The kiss was hot, needy, and passionate, yet it had that soft, sweet, romantic undertone that all our kisses had had since we admitted our love for each other.

Damon pushed my curls out of my face, as he unzipped my dress. My lips felt swollen from all the kissing and I pulled away for air. Just then, there was a knock on the locked door, and I froze.

"Please, please, please don't be Elena." I muttered quietly, as Damon pulled away from me.

"Maybe if we're really quiet, they'll go away." I whispered hopefully to him.

"Hailey Anne Ellis, I know you're in there. Come. Out. Now."

Right after Elena, my mother was on the list of people who I did not want walking in on Damon and I. yet it was her voice that rang through the door, and I sighed. I hopped off of the table, and fixed my dress. Damon watched me, his shirt half opened and his hair messy.

I opened the door a crack, to see my mom looking pissed as hell. "I'm kind of busy right now, what?" I asked, annoyed.

"You will not go off into closet with random men, Hailey. You will not act like a slut at this party and embarrass me tonight." She snarled, glaring daggers at me.

I rolled my eyes at her. "I'm not sleeping around, mom. Besides, I have a boyfriend. I was just fixing my dress." I lied.

"Like hell," she spat. "I saw you drag some poor man into this closet.'

"Nice to see you again, Holly." Damon said suddenly, pushing the door open wider so that my mom could see him. My mom's eyes widened at the sight of him.

"I'm sorry, Hailey and I shouldn't of have been doing this at a party. Don't worry, we'll act like adults the rest of the party." He said, using his patronizing voice. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the dance floor, my mom gaping after us.

We started swaying to the music, my arms around his neck, and his hands on my waist. Again, Damon seemed pissed off at my mom. I still found it adorable that my mother's treatment of me made him mad.

"I know a thing or two about having a parent who's made it very clear that you disappoint them." Damon said abruptly, as I rested my chin on his shoulder. "Stefan was always my father's favorite. It's ironic, how he killed him."

I raised an eyebrow. "Stefan killed your dad? Funny, he seems like the brother with the most self-control." I mused, as Damon spun us around.

"Well, then you haven't heard about Stefan's ripper days." He said, smirking slightly. "My brother doesn't know how to live on the edge. Either he's a ripper or he's eating bunnies. I, on the other hand, have the self-control to drink human blood and not go ripping out the throats of every human in sight."

"Except when you snap, then yeah, you have your shit together Damon." I smirked up at him.

"What do you mean? I don't snap." He argued.

"When you get really upset, you stop thinking and do something really stupid. Elena's told me a few stories, and you've told me more." I murmured into his shirt.

We danced in silence for a few minutes, until I asked abruptly, "Is it hard, controlling your blood lust?"

Damon shrugged. "In the beginning, it is. Everything's changing- your body, your senses, your personality. You learn to control it."

I paused. "Do you ever miss being human?" I whispered.

I expected Damon to say "Hell, no." but he didn't answer quickly. He took so long that I thought that he wasn't going to answer at all, but eventually he mumbled, "Mm hmm." Into my hair.

I frowned. "You don't like being a vampire?" I asked. It didn't sound too bad to me, and it was a very real possibility for my future.

Damon smirked slightly. "I'm an eternal stud, Hailey. What's not to love about that?"

I hit him playfully, and rolled my eyes. "It's the little things that make being a vampire bad." He continued, after he pulled me back into his arms. "Mostly, it's that your emotions are heightened. That's why I snap- though, I really don't think that I do. I feel everything a hundred times more than you do. That's why vampires turn off their humanity, why it's our instinct. Because feeling pain when you're human sucks. But when it's multiplied a hundred times, it can kill." He stopped and kissed my hair. "Feeling pain sucks ass, but feeling love-"he cut himself off again.

I smiled softly, and kissed Damon, not caring who saw. I pulled away when the song ended. "I should probably go find Elena." I said, unwillingly pulling away from Damon.

I mouthed, "I love you," as I walked away from him. I felt warm and fuzzy, and had a goofy grin on my lips. I went to get another drink, and straightened my mask as I did. My lipstick was really smudged from kissing Damon, and I did my best to try to fix it.

"Hailey?"

I turned around to see Derek in a mask. I smiled, though it was a little forced. I wouldn't lose Damon over him. "Hey Derek." I said, grabbing my drink. Derek walked closer to me, and I forced another smile.

"Can we talk? We never got the chance to catch up." He said his blonde hair messy.

I looked around for Damon, but he was nowhere to be seen. I shrugged inwardly; Derek and I were friends, after all. "Sure, why not?" I said. We walked down a hallway, away from all of the noise.

"So, how are you and Damon, Hails? Are you happy?" Derek asked.

I nodded a huge smile on my lips. "I love him." I said happily.

Derek frowned. "I don't think that you know him, Hails. Not really."

I frowned back. "I know Damon more than you do." I snapped.

He raised his eyebrows at me, but I didn't apologize. "I love him Derek, and Damon loves me too. Trust me." I said, as I finished my drink.

"But you don't love him nearly as much as me."

I raised my eyebrows at Derek's outburst. "What the hell are you talking about?" I said, as he stepped closer to me.

"Don't lie, Hailey. You've never gotten over me, because we're meant to be together. Remember how we made love? Remember how I made you scream?" he inched closer to me, and I backed up against a wall.

"I was fifteen, Derek, with nothing to compare you to. But trust me, you're not even in the same galaxy as Damon." I snapped.

Derek's eyes turned dark, and then he suddenly kissed me. I pushed him away immediately, and slapped him.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed.

Derek glared at me, his eyes filled with rage. "I told you Hailey, if I can't have you, no one can." He said.

And then it all went black.

~LMF~

A/N: thank you to: aireagle92, vdemily, colleenrawr, SomebodyWhoCares, Kelsey, jacquline, CassieSalvatore, AubreySalvatore, and Carrie9582 for reviewing!

Reviews, gracias!

~Abby :)