OK, so writing Chapter 2 was quite hard. I had to argue with myself being Elena and then being Damon. Both made good points from their own point of view, but they probably went a bit too far. Probably. Oh well, on to the next drama…
Chapter 3: We are young
"Elena? Earth to Elena! Did you hear what I asked?" Bonnie waved her hand in front of the silent girl. Elena was startled and looked up at the young witch. "Huh? Sorry – what?" she said distractedly. Bonnie sighed. "I just asked if you wanted to meet me and Care at the Grille later. You know, girls night out?"
"I think I'm just gonna go home and do some homework, maybe do some cleaning. Alaric is not exactly the neatest person around. You girls go ahead," Elena gave a small smile. Bonnie rolled her eyes. "That's what you said the last three times we asked you to hang out. Come on, Elena. It's been a week, don't you think it's about time to relax a little? I think you could use the distraction. Plus, we missed you." She gazed pleadingly at the troubled brunette. "We can have a sleepover like we used to! We can watch the reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, braid each other's hair, and give each other manicures. Come on Elena, please say yes. Please?"
Elena smiled despite herself. "Oh alright, quit begging, I'll go. I get the bed though!" Bonnie grinned widely as Caroline walked up to them in the school hallway. "Hey, guys. So, did you ask her?" she asked Bonnie who nodded and grinned. "Yeah, she's in. So Elena, pick you up at six? See ya!" She hurried off before Elena can change her mind.
Elena walked into her silent house, feeling wary. Memories from a week ago, the confrontation with Damon, still fresh on her mind. She had been jumpy every time she walked into her room, half expecting to see the smirking vampire lounging on her bed, playing with her teddy bear. She hadn't seen him since that morning, sure that he had been avoiding her as much as she had been avoiding him. She replayed the whole argument in her head repeatedly, and felt shame wash over her.
He was right. She was selfish. The one thing that she didn't want to become, she had, without realizing it. Katherine. She fought so hard against her instincts, and her attraction to Damon. But she did it anyway. She toyed with both brothers' emotions and expected them to play by her rules. It ended up hurting everyone anyway, no matter what she did. Was this inevitable, being cursed as a doppelganger? Tatia, the original Petrova was torn between two brothers, Klaus and Elijah. Katherine, the only other known doppelganger, was also torn between the Salvatore brothers. And then there's her. If it was indeed inevitable, then why did it still feel like it was her fault? Was she so powerless to control her own feelings?
She shook her head to pull herself out of the endless self-torment. She packed some overnight clothes and toiletries to get ready for the girls' slumber party. Bonnie was right, she needed a break. She found herself actually looking forward to be around other people for the first time this week, and just hang out. Things will still be complicated tomorrow. Lord knows the Originals aren't gonna just disappear by themselves.
As Bonnie's car honked outside her house, she quickly grabbed her stuff and head out. The Grill was packed as the girls settled themselves into a booth. Time passed quickly through dinner as they gossiped about school, classmates, Alaric and Dr. Fell.
God, I miss her, Damon reluctantly admitted to himself. He had been drowning his sorrows with his favorite drink: bourbon. That's all he'd been doing this past week. That, and wondering where the heck Stefan was. He hadn't seen his broody brother since the ball. He figured he must have been staying over with Elena. "All's well in the land of Stelena," he smirked. He surveyed the room where all the empty bottles of liquor were scattered around him and decided to head down to the Grill for more booze. He had been secretly hoping to get a glimpse of Elena when he was there for the past few days, but all he got were glares from Blondie and Witchy. Tonight wouldn't be any different.
As he stepped into the dark restaurant, his sensed rather than saw the girl who haunted his dreams daily. His eyes zeroed in on the threesome seated at the far corner booth, noting her pale face. He checked the impulse to go over to her; to apologize, to beg for forgiveness, to pull her into his arms or even to kidnap her so that he can feast his eyes upon her face forever. Fighting for control, his hands in fists beside him, he slid onto the stool next to Alaric who was seated in his usual seat at the bar, already nursing a drink in his hand.
"Kill me, kill me now," Damon said by way of greeting. "Tempting, but I'm busy now. Maybe later," Ric smiled as he watched his buddy tossed four glasses of bourbon down the hatch in quick succession. As his gaze slid over to his students at the other end of the room, he teased, "I'm guessing you're not here for the scenery?" "Nope, I'm here for two things," Damon smirked, holding up three fingers, "free booze and my buddy Ric. Bartender, leave the bottle." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girls gather their things and made their way to the exit which was right next to where they were seated.
Elena walked towards the exit of the Grill and paused next to Ric without noticing Damon sitting to the left of him. As Ric turned towards her, his new position revealed Damon, who had turned his whole body to face her, his clear blue eyes locking with her brown wide ones. She quickly lowered her eyes and spoke to her unofficial guardian. "Ric, I'm staying over at Bonnie's tonight, so don't wait up, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, she quickly walked towards the exit, keeping her eyes lowered until she reached outside.
"Did I have glass for lunch today? She didn't even stopped to say Hi!" he muttered. "Was it so hard to say 'Hi Damon, you look well. Sorry I haven't seen you this past week, how are you'?" "So, what was the fight about last week?" Ric asked. "Oh, the usual stuff. We agreed that I was a bitch and she was a dick. Same old, same old," Damon shrugged, tossing down another two shots. "Wait, you called her a dick?"
"Maybe not in so many words. I don't know, I can't remember," he slurred. "The point is, I was pissed, she was pissed, we said some things, we should have moved on by now. Man, that girl can hold a grudge!" He shook his head. "Oh, and by the way, you live there, right? Tell my brother to come home, will ya?" Ric frowned, "Stefan? I thought Elena said he left? He took off the night of the ball, didn't he tell you?"
"My baby bro left Elena? Why? How? Why?" Damon asked, confused. "She said they finally talked it over and decided for a clean break and so he left. I thought he would have at least told you. I mean, sure, you're an ass, but you're still his brother!" Ric exclaimed. "Maybe I should check my Twitter or Facebook account. He might have left me a message there!" Damon retorted sarcastically.
"I have no one left to talk to, Ric," he whined, "baby bro left, the love of my life pretends I don't exist. Blondie and Witchy gives me the evil eye. You're all I have left, buddy. I love ya, man," he leaned in to kiss Ric's cheek but was averted by the sight of a vervain grenade held in the hand of the teacher. "I have weapons, and I'm not afraid to use them, dick!" Ric said as he shoved the drunk vampire off causing him to fall off the stool and landed with a thud on the floor. "Hey, where'd my drink go? And why are you so tall all of a sudden?" Damon wondered and looked up at Ric in confusion. Ric sighed and helped him up by supporting his arms, "Come on, drunky, let's get you home before you embarrass yourself."
"Home? But I don't wanna be alone. Hey, can we cuddle?" Damon slurred and then turned to the bar and raised his voice, "Bartender! You wanna come back to my place? I don't have any friends. Hey you guys, wanna be my friend? Let's go back to my place and partyyyyy!" He motioned to the whole room. Ric groaned and shook his head in disbelief, "Did you just come on to the entire room? Now, we definitely have to go." He pulled Damon outside and into his car just as he was starting to sing off-key at the top of his lungs, "Tonight… we are young! So let's set the world on fire, we can burn brighter than the sun..ohhhhhh" Ric grinned despite himself. Damon sure was a funny drunk.
Having watched 3 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the girls decided to get ready for bed. As they changed into comfy pjs and laid down on Bonnie's bed with Elena in the middle, Caroline asked, "So, what are you planning to do with Damon. He looked kinda sad earlier. Do you plan on talking to him, ever?"
Elena shook her head, "No, he was right about me. I hurt him deeply. The best thing I can do for him right now is to stay away from him. I really don't want to cause anyone more pain. I can't help it that I'm the doppelganger and am cursed to come between him and Stefan, but if I can avoid it, then I will. They're better off without me, anyway. Even you guys are better off without me." Caroline sat up and stared at Elena. "What? How can you say that? You have been the pillar of strength for Bonnie and me. If anything, you have been the most courageous person I've ever met. I'm so grateful for your friendship. Right, Bonnie?"
Bonnie kept quiet, and bit her lips as she frowned. "Bonnie?" Caroline urged. "Well, yeah. You have been so brave in all this. You may be a doppelganger, but you're still human. Care is a vampire and I'm a witch, so we can probably take care of ourselves. Your life had been threatened more times than I could count, and yet here you are," Bonnie replied quickly. "Well, that's because you guys were always around to save me. It's not bravery, it's just…..you guys. But don't you see? Maybe my time was up, and we kept screwing with fate, and somebody else got caught in the crossfire and they died instead of me. It doesn't make my life more precious, it just….delays the inevitable. I should have died in the car accident with my parents. Stefan shouldn't have saved me. Just think, then Stefan and Damon wouldn't have stayed in Mystic Falls. Vicki wouldn't have been turned into a vampire and staked. Aunt Jenna and Uncle John would still be alive, Klaus wouldn't have been able to create hybrids, Grams wouldn't have died from opening the tomb, Jeremy would still be here living his own life. And Caroline, you wouldn't have turned into a vampire and broke up with Matt. Everyone would have been happy." Tears rolled down Elena's cheek and stained the pillow.
"But we still would have lost you," Caroline said softly. "We can't know for sure what was supposed to happen. Our lives could have been worse. Don't forget, vampires have been in Mystic Falls since the eighteen hundreds. You had no control over that. Anna would have been here to release her mother from the tomb; Damon also would have tried to find Katherine. Either way, Bonnie and Grams would still have been involved in the tomb spell and the tomb vampires would have been accidently released anyway. You influenced Damon to save the town, too. He turned good for you, Elena. So, don't take the blame for everything that went wrong in this town. This place has already been cursed from day one."
"Caroline is right," Bonnie spoke up, "as much as I hate to admit it, Damon and Stefan saved us so many times, and the town too. To be honest, I did blame them and you a little bit when Grams died, but hearing Care's version of events, I guess it's true that some things were unavoidable. Maybe I wouldn't have found my mother if I didn't have the dream about her helping me with the sealed coffin, if Klaus didn't turn up in Mystic Falls. I would have spent my whole life wondering and never knowing the truth. So, Elena, stop blaming yourself and just move on. We are still young, and we have our whole lives ahead of us. Someday, we'll look back at this time in our lives and thank God it made us so much stronger. Of course, Care will stay a teenager while Elena and I will grow old with wrinkles and cellulites and have fat asses. We'll sit on the porch in our rocking chairs and bitch about Care's eternal youth and the seven hundredth boyfriend we saw leaving her house." The girls giggled at that and burst into a song, "Tonight, we are young (we are young), so let's set the world on fire (fire) …."
Meanwhile, Esther and Finn decided to approach the Bennett witches tomorrow to help her with the spell to reverse the vampire turning, to make them all humans so that they can be killed. The abomination had to be stopped. It was time.
I must admit this chapter was quite fun to write. The previous two chapters were so emotional and full of angst, and I thought maybe this one could be a little more silly and funny. I love writing drunk-Damon and I love the bromance between Damon & Alaric. Of course, there are still plenty of facts in this chapter, some history of all that went on in Mystic Falls since Season 1. The next chapter will tie in with the real series "All My Children" so chapter three is the calm before the storm. The song I referred to is "We Are Young by Fun", I thought it appropriate. So, like it, love it, hate it, I would appreciate your reviews. I'm trying to put in a chapter a day so that you don't have to wait so long for an update. Hope you guys will stay with me on this.