AN: Here's another chapter! Uni has taken control over my life so I really don't know when I can update. I know I made you guys wait a month and a half and you should know that I feel horrible. I just don't have the time anymore!
I hope you haven't given up on the story.

Enjoy the chapter.. and please review ? :)

xx

Caroline was home alone when Elena had texted her the plans for the night. However, she just wanted a quiet night in and watch a sappy chick flick with a tub of ice cream. As she stepped into her shower, while her iPod was playing on the counter, she started to sing along. Slowly but surely, she started to get in the party mood. Before she had a chance to understand what she was doing and to stop herself, she was already wearing a mid-thigh red dress that hugged her in all the right places. She had black shoes on and a light make-up, barely noticeable. As she entered the club, she expected to see Elijah, Damon, Stefan and Elena just dancing together in a circle and enjoying themselves. How wrong was she? The first thing she saw was Damon sitting at the bar, beer in hand, hitting on a random stranger and then she saw Stefan and Elena. Dancing. Closely. Way too closely. Caroline kept on staring as Stefan placed his forehead against Elena's and she noticed the way they smiled and looked at each other. Caroline didn't know what to feel: shock, happiness, anger, betrayal? As much as her mind was screaming at her to turn her head, her eyes were glued to the couple. She tried looking away; she wanted to look away but she just couldn't. Her eyes bulged out as she saw Stefan turn his head slightly sideways and kiss Elena right on the lips. The worst part, Caroline thought, was that Elena wasn't pulling back, instead she tightened her grip around his neck and pulled him closer.

Instead of walking to the couple, Caroline turned on her heels and headed straight to Damon.

"What the hell is going on?" a furious Caroline asked Damon.

"Well hello to you too, Blondie," Damon answered with a slight smirk on his face.

"I am not in the mood right now. What. The. Hell. Is going on?" she asked again, emphasizing each word.

"What do you mean?" he asked, playing dumb as his eyes zeroed in on Stefan and Elena kissing in the background. "Shit", he thought to himself. "Can I get you a beer?" he offered trying feebly to change the conversation.

"You didn't answer my question," she replied and arched her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Caroliiiiine, we didn't expect to see you here," came Elijah's slightly drunk voice. Hanging onto his arm was a girl that neither Caroline nor Damon had met before. She had bits of sticky paper all over her shirt making a Peace Sign. As Elijah locked eyes with Damon he immediately understood that things were about to blow. Elijah whispered something in the girl's ear and she smiled before walking away.

"Did you kiss her, just like Stefan and Elena are?" asked Caroline before pursing her lips.

"No, I didn't kiss her and... What was that last part?" Elijah asked as Caroline's words registered in his mind.

"You know damn well what I said." Caroline was not in the mood to have a playful chitchat, not after what she saw. She loved Damon and Elijah, but right now she could kill anyone if it meant getting the truth from them. She was on fire, and having Elijah and Damon playing dumb only added petrol to the already burning flame.

"I really can't hear you, come outside with me," Elijah concluded before reaching for her hand and pulling her towards the door. Caroline didn't have a chance to argue so she followed with a determined pace.

Damon took this as his cue to go talk to Stefan and Elena, who were still embraced in each other's arms, like Caroline had mentioned.

"Sorry to interrupt but Caroline is here and saw you... So we've got a bit of a crisis," the elder Salvatore said.

"I'll go talk to her," Elena immediately answered. She knew that she needed to explain everything to Caroline. Knowing her friend, she probably thinks that Stefan has been cheating on her. Elena stepped outside and straight away spotted an angry Caroline throwing an outburst while Elijah was standing in front of her trying to calm her down. The brunette walked up to them while trying to figure out what exactly to say to Caroline. The closer she got, the dryer her mouth was.

"Caroline," she said when she was close enough. The blonde turned around and Elena could see a mix of emotions in her eyes: hurt, betrayal, sadness and the most visible one was Anger.

"Don't you 'Caroline' me with that angelic voice of yours. How could you? You were meant to be my friend and help me get over Stefan, not hook up with him!"

"It's not like that..." Elena started.

"Oh, so I didn't just see you have your tongue down his throat moments ago? Please Elena, do explain then," interrupted Caroline her voice full of sarcasm.

"It's a long story..." Elena started again only to be cut off by Caroline for the second time now.

"'It's a long story'? What the hell is that suppose to mean, that he was cheating on me with you ?"

"Caroline, let Elena explain," Elijah said.

"Oh, so you know this whole 'long story' as well and you just thought it would be appropriate to just not tell me shit!"

"Let me explain," begged Elena.

"Whatever. If it's a long story maybe it can wait because right now, I don't have time for your shit. Have a good night with my ex," Caroline answered before storming off towards the parking lot. Elijah and Elena both watched as Caroline got into her car and sped away. Elena started making her way back inside.

"Where are you going?" her best friend asked.

"To the bar. Join me?" Elijah smiled and walked with her back inside the club. Apparently they weren't the only ones who decided to have a few drinks because both Salvatores had 3 empty shot glasses in front of each of them. As Elijah and Elena joined the brothers, they both looked up expectantly.

"Not good," answered Elena reading their minds. "So I'm just going to have a shot, and maybe another one and probably one more after that."

The three boys laughed and decided to join her.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Elijah was sitting alone on the steps right outside the entrance when Elena spotted him.

"Hello best friend," she said with a slight slur to her voice while taking a seat next to him.

"Best friend?" he repeated and chuckled a little.

"Would you rather I call you brother?" Elijah laughed out loud before nodding. Elena suddenly got up again for no reason and that's when Elijah really noticed her shirt. There were pieces of paper stuck on it to form a smiley face.

"What happened to your shirt?" Elena looked down and giggled.

"I have no idea. I mean, I remember this girl taking the paper off of their shirt and sticking it on the bar and then I took it and made a piece of art on my shirt. But I have no idea who she was," Elena admitted. Elijah once again laughed out loud because he knew exactly who the girl was; she was the one he was talking to at the start of the night.

"Sometimes I wonder how the hell you became my best friend. But then I see this and I remember exactly why. You do the weirdest things at the most unexpected times. Seriously, I wish everyone has a friend like you. You just make life worth living."

"Awww, you're not so bad yourself Mr. Mikaelson," she answered before heading back inside towards the bar. This time, she needed water- lots of it.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"Come outside for a second, please?" asked Stefan to Elena as he took hold of her hand and intertwined their fingers. "It's important."

Elijah, Stefan, Damon and Elena were still out on their night out. Yes, it had gotten really rough when Caroline showed up, but Elena kept on drinking to the point of not really caring. However she had sobered up by now by still decided not to worry about it just now. The reason she went out with her two guy bestfriends and her boyfriend was to have a good time, not to stir up drama. Her drunken thoughts were: I'll fix it in the morning, it's more appropriate.
As she followed Stefan outside, she couldn't quite understand what was so important that he needed to talk to her right now. She gave him a questioning look but kept on following him nonetheless. He sat down on the steps at the entrance and had his back towards the party. She sat down beside him and patiently waited for Stefan to say something. Throughout the entire time, Stefan hadn't let go of Elena's hand.

"We screwed up with Caroline, didn't we?" Stefan asked going straight to the point.

"Yeah we did, we hurt her Stef. She didn't know anything and suddenly she sees us on the dancefloor kissing. I probably would have reacted the same way, I would have gone ballistic."

"Funny you say that, because you didn't," Stefan answered. His eyes met Elena's confused one. "Caroline and I aren't together and she went mental when she saw us. Caroline and I still weren't together and you kept your calm when you saw us at the start of the summer."

"Yeah, because you guys had a thing going on. It was expected."

"And we didn't have anything?" he questioned.

"Stefan..." Elena started. What was she suppose to say. They didn't have anything going on between them, did they? "Things got messy when I left the other time. Then you and Caroline just picked up from where you left off. I was expecting it, Caroline wasn't."

They both heard footsteps behind them and noticed that Damon had joined.

"Hey Damon, come sit down with us," said Stefan.

The older Salvatore sat down with the couple but they continued to talk as if he wasn't there at all. Soon enough, Damon decided to leave because he felt like Stefan and Elena had a lot of talking to do; talking that didn't involve him.

"You know what sucks?" Stefan suddenly asked after a moment of silence.

"Ummm, no. Not really," Elena answered unsure of where this conversation was going.

"The fact that we've seen each other so many times during this summer but we never took the time to sit down and talk," he explained.

"What are you talking about? We've talked thousandth of time."

"Yeah, but it was always some deep conversations that usually ended up with one of us being hurt. We've never sat down and just talked." Elena chuckled a little bit.

"True, but there were always other things happening Stef. We were both busy and when we did talk we always went straight to the point. At least now we get to spend some time together, even if it's not from the very start of the holidays."

"I wish it was more time," Stefan admitted and looked at his feet.

"Everyone wishes for a lot of things, but they don't necessarily get it. You just got to learn how to be happy with what you have. Concerning spending time together, better late than never, right?"

"Better late than never indeed," he answered and kissed her gently on the lips.

"You know what sucks even more?" It was Elena's turn to ask the question.

"Nope. I guess it's your turn to explain," Stefan said with a small smile playing on his lips.

"Damon is leaving Friday, so in 5 days, and then you're leaving the week after," Elena choked out the last words. She was having such a good time with him that she didn't realise that soon enough, they'll have to separate. Once again. The reaction she got from Stefan wasn't one she expected though. He was smiling. Properly smiling, a smile reaching his eyes. Was he happy to be leaving her? Elena couldn't understand.

"I'm leaving a couple of days after you are 'Lena. I pushed my ticket back," he explained. It was Elena's turn to smile. Her eyes crinkled as she threw her arms around his neck.

"Why would you do that?"

"I don't start until late September, so what's the point of leaving at the beginning of the month? I also wanted to spend as much time as possible with you. I want to catch up on all the times that we've wasted together. You make me feel things that no one else has. When I'm with you, I can't help myself from smiling. You've got this glow about you when you're happy and I never want to see that go away. I feel like you're making me a better man, you make me see things differently. You're beautiful in and out. I don't know if Elijah and Damon are aware of how lucky they are to call you their best friend. Like I said ages ago: you've become the definition of 'Perfect'. But the main reason I pushed my ticket back is because I love you."

"What?" she wasn't sure she heard him properly.

"You heard me: I love you 'Lena."

AN: Stefan dropped the 'L' bomb ! :) Next chapter is going to focus Caroline and Elena's relationship as well as Damon's leaving :(