"Don't forget Elena, we have to go shopping for prom dresses after school today." Caroline said walking over to her when she walked onto the school grounds that morning. She was tired after the passion filled weekend with Damon. Normally a weekend was for refuelled after the hellacious week of school, but not that weekend. That weekend was all about christening her apartment. And they did, over and over again if she remembered correctly.
"Oh right. Of course." she said automatically, when in reality she wanted to go back home and crawl into bed with Damon. But of course that wasn't going to happen.
"Elena, what's on your mind? Come on, we planned to go together. This is our last prom ever. Graduation is in a month." she begged.
"I said I'd go Care. I'm just super tired." she admitted.
"Now why would that be? It wouldn't be because you partied with us all weekend, so I wonder?" she asked tapping her chin thoughtfully with her finger.
"Shut up Care, and yes it is exactly why you think." she admitted with a wide grin on her face.
"I'm so jealous. Tyler and I only had sex once this weekend." Caroline pouted.
"I'm easily in the double digits." Elena bragged.
"Shut up. Let's just focus on the dress shopping and prom on Saturday." Caroline said choosing to ignore Elena's more than flourishing sex life.
"Works for me. And then I get to go home to my apartment to my sexy boyfriend. Plus my moms coming by this afternoon. She couldn't do it yesterday because she had something to take care of." Elena said.
"At least you shouldn't be having sex this afternoon then." Caroline sulked.
"Actually as far as I know Damon is staying at his house tonight. We cant spend every night together. If we were to do that, there is no point in having the apartment, I might as well just move into the boarding house." she said.
"Thank God." Caroline said relieved.
"I need recovery time. I could barely get out of bed this morning." she admitted.
"I don't want to hear about this anymore." Caroline said jealously.
"Good. I don't particularly want to talk about it anymore." Elena replied.
Elena went through her classes and spent time with her friends. She knew she should be more involved with people she was friends with, her life couldn't be entirely about Damon. She had lunch with a large group of friends and invited a few more girls to come dress shopping with her Caroline and Bonnie, at Caroline's insistence. She knew that with graduation coming, she wasn't going to see much of her friends. Especially since she wasn't planning on going to college. The editor at the newspaper had offered her a job as his assistant a few weeks earlier, when she graduated. He knew she was into writing, and he was a longtime friend of her dads. He offered her the job, and promised to train her on other things, so eventually maybe she could be hired as a writer for the paper. It was the perfect opportunity. She couldn't wait for graduation, because then Damon could stop paying her bills. She wanted to be self sufficient, and wanted their relationship to be normal. When the school day was over everyone took separate cars to the dress shop. Elena, Caroline and Bonnie browsed racks together as they chose a small pile to try on.
"I want something sexy but not slutty." Elena said.
"I take it you're not going demure this year?" Caroline confirmed.
"Nope. I want to look good for Damon. He deserves it. I want to be hot for him." she said as she glared at a hot pink gown that was seven shades of ugly.
"I don't blame you. How about this?" Caroline asked of a black dress with a thigh high slit.
"No. I don't want to wear black to prom." she said finding an ice blue gown with jewelled straps that criss-crossed at the back. It was silky and had a high slit and a fair amount of cleavage. It was beyond perfect and the cost of everything in her bank account.
"I love this." she said.
"Go try it on." Caroline insisted, liking the look of the dress. Elena nodded and rushed towards the change room to try on the beautiful dress. When she came out Caroline and Bonnie erupted in applause.
"Perfect! You look gorgeous Elena!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"It's amazing." Caroline affirmed. Smiling, Elena locked herself back in her change room and redressed.
When they were done shopping everyone paid for their purchases and went their separate ways.
"If you're bored tonight, give me a call. Since you're having a Damon-free night." Caroline said.
"I'll see what I end up doing." Elena agreed.
"If not I'll see you tomorrow. Are we still going to prom together on Saturday night?" Caroline asked.
"Yeah we can double. You and Tyler, me and Damon. Bonnie needs to find a date and join us." she said nudging her hip into Bonnie's.
"Uhm. I already found a date." Bonnie coughed.
"Oh my God. Bonnie Bennett, who is it?" Elena demanded as Caroline looked on sheepishly, knowing who it was.
"I don't want to tell you here. Can we go back to your apartment and talk for a while until your mom comes over. Like we used to?" she asked.
"Sure. My mom isn't coming over until she's done with Carole Lockwood." Elena said.
"Alright." Bonnie said climbing into her car. All three girls drove separately over to the apartment, and Elena let them in.
"It feels weird to be here without Damon." she noted.
"He's been here every night since you got the apartment hasn't he?" Bonnie asked.
"He has. I miss him." she admitted.
"Well have a seat. I guess I should probably tell you who I've been seeing since Saturday night." she said.
"Oh yes. I almost forgot about that. Bonnie Bennett...spill." she ordered. Caroline sat down on the other side of the couch.
"I'm dating Matt." she said too fast for Elena to comprehend.
"What? Bonnie if you want me to know you'll have to speak English." Elena said.
"Fine. Matt." she said looking away from one of her best friends. It was girl code to not date your friends exes, no matter how happy she was with another guy.
"Matt? Matt Donovan, my ex boyfriend?" she clarified.
"Yes. I ran into him at work and we talked for a while. He admitted that he kind of wanted to ask me out and I told him to do it. We went out last night and had so much fun. He asked me to prom." she explained, hoping that Elena wouldn't be mad.
"Wow." Elena said unsure of how to respond.
"I'm sorry. I know its so wrong. Girls don't date their friends' exes." she panicked.
"Bonnie its fine. I cheated on Matt with Damon. Matt is fair game, and I feel nothing but friendship for him. If you feel more than go for it. Just please don't hurt him. I hurt him bad enough as it is." Elena assured her friend.
"Are you sure its not completely inappropriate?" Bonnie asked.
"It's fine. I want you to be happy Bon, and I want Matt to be happy too. This is the perfect solution." she said.
"I've decided that I can't wait for Jeremy to come home forever. I'll always miss him but I just need to realize that its over." Bonnie said.
"Good. I want you to be happy Bonnie Bennett." Elena told her friend. Bonnie smiled and the girls talked like old times until Elena's mom buzzed the apartment. Elena got up and buzzed her in. Miranda and Grayson knocked on the door a couple minutes later.
"Where's Salvatore?" Grayson asked in form of greeting to his daughter.
"He's staying home tonight. I'll see him again tomorrow." she answered her father. "Hi mom." Elena said hugging her mom quickly. Elena was happy her parents decided not to come visit her before she was entirely settled in. Even yesterday she was finding places for little things. But now she was finally fully settled in and she was happy.
"It looks really nice in here. Did Damon help?" Miranda asked.
"Pfft, Salvatore help with anything, other than perhaps the removal of clothing." Grayson scoffed.
"For the record he did help. He moved most of the furniture and hung everything up straight. I mostly dictated where I wanted everything to go. He did everything." Elena replied.
"I'm glad. Why don't you show us around?" Miranda suggested. Elena nodded and showed them the kitchen and the living room before walking them out on the balcony. After that she walked them down the hallway and showed them the bedroom and the bathroom.
"That's all there is to it." she said.
"It's nice. I love where you put the photo frames." she said of the frames which were now filled with pictures of her and Damon, of her and her friends, and of her and her parents and Jeremy.
"It was the best place they fit." she admitted.
"Please tell me you didn't buy them for her?" Grayson asked.
"For the record yes I did. I wanted her to have something nice to put in her apartment from us." she said.
"Whatever. Did Richard talk to you Elena?" Grayson asked.
"Yes he did. He said the job was still open to me if I wanted it when I graduate. And I said I would most definitely take it. It pays more than enough to pay my bills." she said.
"Good. I don't want you depending on Salvatore." Grayson said smiling slightly.
"His name is Damon, and he's my boyfriend. I'm in love with him. Soon enough if you want to be in my life, you'll have to be in his too." she said firmly. Grayson scowled but didn't say nothing.
"Don't worry dear. He's slowly started to soften." Miranda assured her daughter. Elena smiled and looked over at her dad who was appraising Damon's handiwork on all the pictures on the walls. After her parents left, Elena changed into her pyjamas and locked the doors before crawling into bed. She shut off the light but couldn't fall asleep. The silence in the apartment was deafening and it wasn't too long before she couldn't take it anymore. She had school in the morning, but she couldn't get to sleep.
"Screw it." Elena said throwing off the covers and getting dressed in a pair of swear pants and a sweat shirt. She hated that she was doing this, and he hated that she was this cowardly. That she couldn't spend a single night alone in her apartment without being scared to death. It only took a few minutes to get to the boarding house in the minimal nightly traffic. She debated on knocking on the door or just walking in, in the end she just walking in being as quiet as she could. All the lights were off signalling that he was in bed. She could still see the lamp on underneath the closed bedroom door so she knew she wasn't waking him up. Elena paused outside the door with her hand raised poised to knock before the door opened.
"What are you doing here?" he asked curiosity and worry evident in his voice.
"I couldn't sleep there by myself. I needed you." she said.
"Come here." he said opening his arms so she could walk into them. She wrapped her arms firmly around his bare upper half and held him tight to her.
"I'm sorry." she said.
"It's okay. You can stay here tonight." he told her leading her to his big bed. They crawled in on opposite sides but immediately made their way to the middle where she crawled into his arms and laid her head on his chest.
"I couldn't sleep either." he admitted as they held each other.
"I'm glad. I'm going to have to get used to it someday. I can't always be having you sleep over, or running over here in the middle of the night." she said.
"You'll get used to it. It'll take some time, but until you're ready to sleep alone in the apartment, keep running over here. I'll sleep over on weekends, during the week we'll make it work." he told her.
"We'll make it work." she agreed. She pressed a kiss to his chest and he tightened his hold on her.
"Let's sleep. You have school in the morning." he told her, kissing the top of her head. She nodded sleepily and closed her eyes.
"I love you Damon." she said.
"I love you too. Now go to sleep." he said.