"Tell me," Caroline pleads with a whining tone of voice, pulling Elena by her sleeve. They are sitting on the couch in Elena's living room, preparing themselves to watch a movie. It was some horror Bonnie picked out, something Elena wasn't especially looking forward to. She wasn't a big fan of horror movies, she was more into science fiction, or romance, or a little bit of both. Drama can pass as one of her favorite genres as well.
"I'm not talking about it," Elena shakes her head, a grin present on her face. When Bonnie went to the kitchen to make popcorn and grab soda cans for each of them, Elena got a chance to tell Caroline she slept with Stefan.
It's not that she didn't want to tell Bonnie, she did, Bonnie was her best friend after all. But Bonnie was clear about her feelings towards Stefan, and even though she promised she will try to be happy for them, Elena wasn't sure she will be able to fake happiness when it comes to such a big thing. And Elena was still excited that they finally took a step forward in their relationship, and she didn't want anyone bringing her down. She knew telling Caroline is a safe option because Caroline is excited about almost everyone that's going on around here.
"Elena, I need to know," Caroline whines, clutching herself on the stomach like she's in pain.
"You will survive," Elena laughs at her, self content smile still present on her face.
"You need to know what?" Bonnie appears behind them with a bowl of popcorn in one hand, and three soda cans in the other. She puts everything on the table, glancing at her friends serious face expression.
Elena tries to regain her composure, but all she manages to do is look more awkward while slumping down on the couch. She will have to tell Bonnie, sooner or later. She prefers later. Bonnie looks are her expectantly, there are traces of fear in her eyes.
"Maybe Elena should tell you," Caroline says through a whisper, and Elena shoots her a look. Caroline gives her an encouraging look, before Elena turns her head back to Bonnie and a faint smile appears on her lips.
She takes a deep breath, "I slept with Stefan," she decides it's better to do this quickly than to drag it out.
At first, the expression on Bonnie's face was unreadable. And then, a smile appeared on it. A wide grin, actually. She collapses on the couch between Elena and Caroline, and taps Elena on the knee.
"No way!" her eyes pop out of her skull, her reaction surprising Elena.
"Way!" Caroline answers, clapping with the palms of her hands.
"So.." there's a devilish look on Bonnie's face as she comes closer to Elena, "How big is he?" she raises her eyebrow in her best friends direction.
Elena's mouth falls wide open. "Bonnie!" she shrieks her name in disbelief.
"What?" Bonnie says with a defensive tone of voice, "I have to know are the stories true," she tries to excuse her curiosity.
"That's what I've been saying as well!" Caroline exclaims, throwing her hands in the air.
Elena rolls her eyes at her friends. "The stories are true."
"Yeah, but how much true?" Caroline teases.
Elena exhales a stream of hot air. She knows they're not going to back down, there's no chance they're going to give up on this topic. Caroline never had problems with discussing her sex life, and Elena never had much to discuss about. Elena told Bonnie she doesn't want to know anything about her sex life with her brother unless there's a chance she's going to be an aunt, so they never really talked about it before.
Elena bites her lower lip, bringing her hands into the air. She keeps them collapsed for some time, looking at her friends, and then she starts separating them, slowly. Bonnie and Caroline keep their looks locked on Elena's parting hands, and when she stops, but of their jaws drop.
"That much?" Caroline asks, raising her look from Elena's hands to her blushing face.
Elena turns her look away, thinking she will self combust if she meets one of her friends looks. She can't believe she just told them that.
"So, the stories are more than true," Bonnie says with an easy going tone of voice, trying to diffuse the tension.
Both her and Caroline giggle, which only makes Elena blush more.
"Come on, Elena," Bonnie slaps her arm, "Ease up," she laughs at the way Elena is acting, "It's not like we're going to tell anyone."
Elena raises her look to Bonnie. She hasn't even considered that possibility, her best friends spilling the beans about her sex life to someone else.
"So," Caroline says with a teasing voice, "How was it?" a huge grin appears on her face.
Elena sighs. If she's not going to talk about this with her friends, with whom is she going to talk about it then? Maybe she doesn't feel a need to talk about it now, but one day she might.
She presses her lips together, trying to hide that big smile she can feel creeping on her face.
"Amazing," a word finally pours down her lips, her tone of voice a little more excited than she intended it to be. She knows amazing is not a word good enough to describe how it has been, but there's no other word, really. There's no word good enough. "Apparently, I've never had an orgasm before," she confesses shyly.
Bonnie and Caroline share a confused look.
"But you had sex with Matt," Caroline looks back at Elena, confused.
Elena rolls her eyes. "I'm aware of that, I was there," she chuckles.
"And he never gave you a.." Bonnie asks, sympathy present in her voice. Elena's not sure is it for her, because she never had one, or for Matt, who was never able to give her one.
"I guess not," Elena shrugs before collapsing on the couch. It seems they forgot all about watching the movie, "It was.. nice. With Matt, I mean. I thought that's it."
"How did you two end up having sex anyway?" Caroline asks wearily, since it came out of the blue, and she knows Elena is a type of a person who likes to plan things beforehand.
Elena cringes. "I did something awful," she raises her look to her friends.
"What?" both of them ask at the same time, clearly curious.
Elena sighs. "Remember the incident with Katherine in the cafeteria?" she waits for both of them to confirm that they remember, and once they nod their heads in confirmation, she continues, "Well, that really got me.. furious. So I asked him to write a list of all the girls he's been with," she presses her lips together.
"Oh Elena! You didn't!" Bonnie whines in disbelief.
"What were you thinking?" Caroline gasps, her brows furrowed.
"I wasn't thinking, that's the problem," Elena tries to defend herself, even though she herself knows there's no excuse for what she asked him to do.
"So, did he write it?" Bonnie asks.
Elena nods her head. "I haven't even read it, never wanted to. I never really cared, either," she covers her face with her palms when she remembers what had she put him through, "I was acting like a brainless, dramatic, jealous teenager!" she exclaims angrily, realizing that kind of a behavior is so unlike her.
"Why did he write it in the first place?" Caroline fumes through her teeth.
A smile appears on Elena's lips, lightening her whole face, "Because he loves me," she looks towards her friends.
Their lips part in surprise.
"I guess that's another thing," Elena squeals, "He told me that he loves me."
"No way!" Bonnie repeats once again. It seems that this became her catch phrase.
"Way!" Elena laughs.
"So, Ms. Gilbert," Caroline puts her arms around Elena's knees and looks at her with a giant smile on her face, "What is it like to be in a happy relationship with Stefan Salvatore?"
Elena grins. "Better than you can imagine."
"I can't believe it," Rebekah kicks Stefan in the leg with the foot under the table, "You told someone you love them before you told me," she crosses her arms across her chest like a little child who was just told there's something they're not allowed to do.
"Is someone jealous?" Stefan mocks her by making a pouting face expression.
Rebekah sighs and turns her look away.
"May I remind you that you're the one who urged me to have a girlfriend in the first place," he cocks his eyebrow in her direction.
"I never urged you to fall in love with her!" Rebekah exclaims, not caring how silly she sounds.
Stefan chuckles at her words.
"Bekah, do you really need to hear those three words to know how I feel about you?" he reaches for her hand, taking the whole matter more seriously once he notices there are real motives in her voice behind all that humorous bickering.
Rebekah turns her head to him and shoots him a surprised look.
"So you said it to Elena because she needed to hear it?" she furrows her brows as he squeezes her hand in his.
"Yes," he answers truthfully, "And because I needed to say it."
A small stream of hot air goes through Rebekah's nostrils. She bends over the table to be closer to him, "This emotionally present Stefan scares me a little," she says seriously.
"Get used to him," he winks at her.
She pulls her hand away from his and sits straight. "You're happy," she states.
He smiles. "I am."
Rebekah has no other choice but to smile as well. "It's a nice look on you." After those words her face adopts a devilish expression, "How was it?" she teases.
"How was what?" he hums, playing dumb.
Rebekah looks around herself, and then locks her eyes on his face. "The sex," she whispers.
Stefan smirks. "Okay," he collapses his hands into a fist, "This is probably the cheesiest thing I'll ever say in my life," he looks at her seriously, "But it's way better with feelings."
Rebekah's eyes widen in shock. A moment of surprise attacks her before a smirk appears on her face. "Sex has nothing to do with feelings, he said," she raises her eyebrow in his direction, "Sex is a completely separate matter from love, he said," she said with his tone of voice, mocking him.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," he chuckles, not responding to her teasing, "I was wrong."
"Is there something wrong?" Stefan asks Elena when he notices she's checking her phone every few minutes.
"No, why?" she looks at the phone displeased before putting it back into her pocket.
"You look tense," he gets on the floor next to her, where she's doing her homework. He puts his arms around her waist and pulls her closer to him. She leans onto him and puts her head into a well known space between his shoulder and his neck.
"My acceptance letter still hasn't arrived," she closes her eyes, her eyelids heavy, "I told Jeremy to let me know if it does while I'm out of the house."
"It's going to arrive soon," he kisses the top of her head, "I'm sure of it," she can feel a smile forming on his lips while they're pressed on her head.
"How come you're not nervous?" she raises her head to look at him.
He realizes they never had this discussion. About their future and where they might be going. And how there's a chance those two places won't be close. It seemed so early, to think and discuss about those things now when things are finally looking better for them. It might ruin everything.
"I already know where I'm going," he takes her hand into his and intertwines their fingers. His look falls down on their collapsed hands, and from that point of view, everything seems simple.
Like their future is bright, like they have a future at all.
"Oh?" she asks curiously.
Maybe they find a way to work it out. The distance thing. Some couples do.
What if she outgrows him, though? Many people outgrow their high school loves once they go to college. What if she meets some super cute geeky guy who knows her favorite book from the first to the last page and she realizes that's the type of a guy she wants to be with? Not someone who has never even heard about her favorite book.
"Princeton," he says, "We made a deal with the scouts few days before we left for Rome."
"Why haven't you told me anything?"
"Back then? Well, we weren't on such friendly terms at the time. You would probably say that's the only way I could even go to college, or something like that. Afterwards I had some other things on my mind," he squeezes her closer to him with his free hand.
She giggles.
She really has to quit that whole giggling thing.
"I never really thought that, you know? That you're just another stupid jock."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm serious," she looks up at him, "I know you're not stupid. You're lazy, but far from stupid. And I know how much you love playing football."
"You really thought like that?" he asks surprised.
She nods, scraping her head against his chest. "Saying you like playing football just because you don't know how to do anything else is like saying I like to write just because I don't know how to do anything else," she shrugs, "We do those things because we enjoy the talent which has been given to us by nature."
He kisses her cheek. "Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you talk like this?" his hand travels under her shirt and caresses the skin of her stomach, tickling her a little.
She giggles again.
"Princeton is on my list as well," she says.
He stops kissing her cheek and becomes serious.
"Really?" he says hopeful.
Is it selfish from him to hope she doesn't get anywhere but there, so he can keep her? So he doesn't have to let her go?
"Second option, actually."
"What's your first?" he asks curiously.
"Harvard," she says through a whisper.
He whistles.
There's not chance she won't get in. She deserves it. If she doesn't get in, there's not a chance for anyone in their school to get in either.
They stay in that position for some time before she asks, "What are you thinking about?"
"How I finally understand my mom, and what she meant by how love makes you stay even when you want to run."
"You want to run?" her body tenses.
He laughs. "Not now," he kisses her cheek, making her relax. "But the other day, while we were fighting in the kitchen. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to be somewhere else. I wanted to run away from the whole situation."
"But you didn't."
"No."
She gets out of him embrace and turns around to face him. "And why is that?"
"Because there was no chance in hell I'm leaving you," he removes a strain of hair that fell across her face.
She puts her arms around his neck and pulls herself closer to him. "I know exactly what you mean."