Chapter Two: Blackbird
Ascend may you find no resistance
Know that you made such a difference
All you leave behind will live to the end
The cycle of suffering goes on
But memories of you stay strong
Someday I too will fly and find you again
Let the wind carry you home
Blackbird fly away
May you never be broken again
~Alter Bridge
The odds were against them, what was about to happen next determined victory or defeat. Nilly took a deep breath, angled herself just the right way, lining everything up perfectly. With one thrust of her arm she sent the cue ball sailing across the pool table. It ricocheted off the eight ball, sending it sailing into the hole.
"Yes!" Nilly shot her pool stick in the air and began doing a little victory dance. "That's how we do it," she said, bumping hips with Bonnie.
"I still think you cheated," accused Elena, crossing her arms over her chest in defeat. Stefan choked back a chuckle and Elena eyed him but they continued to grin.
"Sore loser," Nilly joked taking a sip of her drink and rousting herself on a stool.
"Am not," Elena walked over to a stool and taking a seat as well.
The night had gone better that she'd guessed. Nilly was actually enjoying herself. She felt free, as if she didn't have to constantly worry and look over her shoulder. That pessimistic voice in her head was wondering though, how long would this last? Nilin tried her best to push it away. She was determined to make her first night back a success.
She let out a sigh as conversations began around her, zoning out a little. It was easy to get lost in the world of a young adult. When the radio was playing one awesome song after another and when there were jokes being cracked left and right, one could forget about everything outside of that moment. Still she felt an apprehension that made her chest tight.
"Woohoo, earth to Nilly." Bonnie's voice rang, sending Nilly out of her mind and back into reality.
"Hmm?" she blinked, confused.
"We lost you there for a second." Elena said, her voice tinged with worry. "Where'd you go?" she asked more softly.
"Nowhere," Nilly swore, giving her a soft smile. "I'm right here."
Elena smiled back and gently squeezed Nilly's hand. "Good, because you're going to be here for a while."
"I think you made a mistake coming back to this town," Bonnie added. "'Cause we're never going to let you leave," she laughed, winking at Nilin. Though everyone was happy and joking, Nilin felt anxious and she didn't know what was causing it.
In an attempt to calm herself down before she overreacted to nothing, Nilly slid off her stool. Her head was starting to spin slightly and the room suddenly felt like it had shrunken. "Um, I'm going to grabs something to drink," she said with a tight smile before turning away from her friends. No one made an objection as she walked away.
The air felt like it had thickened as she tried to squeeze her way through the crowd. Nilly found her way to the bar eventually, after being forced to stop and make small talk with several people. Now, all she wanted was something to dull this on coming headache. She sat down on one of the bar stools and leaned her elbows on the counter.
"What can I do for you?" asked the bartender, a young guy with dark blonde hair and dimples.
She rested her chin on one of her hands and smiled up at him. "Just a soda, please."
"Right away," he said, not taking his eyes off Nilly. She let out a small laugh under her breath as he turned to fill her order. The whole concept of flirting, dating and a normal relationship seemed so absurd to her that she couldn't help but laugh. But it never hurt to give it a try, right?
Nilly pulled her wavy dark hair into a loose ponytail and blew her bangs out of her face. She sighed again as the bartender returned with her drink. He placed it in front of her and smiled. "Here you go," he said, continuing to grin at her.
"Thanks," she smiled back faintly.
"Anything else I can help you with?" he said slightly flipping his bangs out of his eyes. A short burst of laughter escaped Nilly to her surprise. She tried to choke it back but the damage was already done.
"Sorry, sorry. Um, no I'm okay. Thank you," she said grabbing her soda. The bartender had his eyes on the floor now. With his face flushed from his jaw to his hairline, he didn't look up as he left.
Nilly looked down at her drink and mixed the bubbles with the straw. Shaking her head at her drink she gulped down the soda. The air bubbles burned her nose a little, but her head was beginning to clear. If anyone was going to epically fail at ordering a simple drink, it would be her. It was only because Nilin felt so uncomfortable all the time, as if her skin fit her three sizes too small.
It was a chronological problem that she had been dealing with for a while now. Her nerves have become so frayed that she was a live wire and doing normal things seemed impossible and, frankly, unimportant. More or less, she became an introvert— hence that awkward encounter.
As she downed half of her drink, the embarrassment began to leave her cheeks. She zoned out again, trying to put the incident behind her. No need to dwell.
"Well, that was interesting," a sleek sarcastic voice suddenly said beside her. Nilly let out an involuntary gasped, which sounded more like a choke. She quickly spun herself around to glance next to her.
The once empty stool was suddenly occupied by someone— a man. A very handsome man, Nilin noted. He wore a simple black button shirt, that fit him very well, she might add. His dark hair was carelessly tossed and fell slightly in his eyes.
Under that hair was the strangest eyes Nilly had ever seen. She couldn't help but stare at them. They were as dark as midnight but had a shine to them. So dark she could barely tell where the color ended and the pupil started. His face held a crooked grin as he looked over her, leaning on his one hand like Nilly had been moments ago.
Nilly had a strange feeling wash over her, as if she knew this stranger somehow. But how was that possible?
"Did I frighten you?" his grin widened.
Nilin blew her bangs out of her eyes, straightening up on the stool. "You shouldn't do that to people. You're going to make someone drop dead one day," she snapped. Nilly waited for her heart to slow but it wouldn't. It pounded in her chest. She looked at the man again, an embarrassing heat washing over her face. "You saw that?" she pointed a slim finger in the blonde bartender's direction.
"Oh, I saw that," his lips quivered as if he was forced to hold in his laughter. He raised his glass to his mouth and finished the liquor in it.
"Damon Salvatore," he lifted his hand towards her.
She gave him a toothless grin and reached to shake his hand. "Nilin Gilbert, but just call me Nilly." She took his hand to shake. As their skin touched it sent a shock through Nilly's arm, tingling every nerve ending. Simultaneously, their arms shot back, as though each other's hands were on fire. They stared momentarily at one another before Nilly looked down.
"Sorry, I guess I shocked you," she mumbled, rubbing her arm. The shock had left it hot and tingling. "Um, you said Salvatore, right? As in Stefan?" she asked, quickly changing the subject. He seemed to follow her as if he was about to ask a similar question.
"Correct," he grinned at her and motioned for the bartender to come over, "he's my little brother." Nilly kept her eyes down as the bartender meekly returned to take Damon's order. "Two shots, thanks."
The bartender poured the clear liquor into two shot glasses and slid them over to Damon, than he quickly retreated to the other side of the bar. Nilly combed her fingers through her ponytail, an anxiety thing she'd picked up over the years. Again, she was feeling compressed and uncomfortable in her skin.
She was about to make a lame excuse to leave, when Damon suddenly slid a shot glass towards her. Surprised, she looked up. He put a finger to his lips as if to say 'shh' and winked at her.
Nilly just smiled, her heart beating at a very unhealthy speed. She grabbed the glass and quickly looked behind her to where Elena and the others were. If she got caught she'd be dead. As if he was reading her mind, Damon spoke up, "They won't see you, no need to worry."
She couldn't help but smile back at him— though it was probably more of ogling then smiling. The man was gorgeous… and he knew it. Arrogance wafted off of him. She guessed that he wasn't normally told no and often got what he wanted. Usually that would cause a flag to go off, but for some reason it didn't.
Nilin raised her glass towards him. "To new beginnings," she toasted.
"To new friends," he declared, giving her another wink as he threw his head back, downing the shot. Nilly mimicked his movement and set the glass down on the table. She winced a little, feeling the liquid as it slid down her throat, slightly stinging. But when it hit her stomach a warm feeling began to emanate through her body.
She let out a satisfied sound and reached behind her head to pull her hair out of its ponytail. "So do you usually buy strangers drinks with in the first five minutes of meeting them?" she wondered, looking to Damon as she shook her hair out.
Her eyes met his and she froze, caught in his gaze. His elegant dark eyes were locked on hers. His mouth was slightly parted with a semi-shocked look. The only thing she was able to do was to stare back. Trying to break away from his gaze, Nilly slid her eyes down to the empty shot glass, wishing she had another. When she looked back up he was smiling strangely as her still staring.
Her cheeks flushed. Did she have something on her face?
"What?" she snapped, an annoyed tone in her voice.
Damon shook his head a little. "You remind me of someone. A girl I knew ages ago," he paused as if to say more, but stopped.
Nilly couldn't hold his eyes anymore Instead she fumbled with the twisted chain of her bracelet. "Oh," she said awkwardly. With enough confidence, she looked up at him again. "Have we met before?" Nilly asked quickly, almost stumbling over the words.
Damon shook his head. "I don't believe so, I'd remember," he smiled.
Nilly frowned slightly in confusion but quickly dismissed it. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be snippy." She let out a breath, "This town wasn't very welcoming to me at one point. So I'm a little paranoid, I guess you can say." She looked up at Damon, hiding under her bangs. Her face held a tired looking smile.
Nilly expected him to dash off right then. She expected him to make a run for it because she must have had a neon sign above her head flashing "Caution: Tragic Past. Avoid at all risk." She would understand if he did, but he didn't. He simply nodded as if he understood. Then, very unexpectedly, his cool fingers gently brushed the hair out of Nilly's face, tucking it behind her ear. They stare at each other for a moment. It felt like a minor eternity before they broke eye contact.
His hand paused for a moment before it dropped back onto the counter. His fingers left Nilly's skin hot where they touched, but it sent shivers down Nilly's spine, raising goose bumps on her arms.
"I think we need another round," he said coolly as if nothing had happened. She just nodded, not trusting her voice, as he ordered two more shots. She decided to ignore her pounding heart, as well as an alarm going off in the back of her mind somewhere.
At the moment, the consequences of talking to this man didn't make it into her brain. So when the shots came she flung her head back and allowed the burning liquid to replace any chill left in her body.
"So why come back?" Damon asked.
Nilly was confused as her mind began to blur just the slightest around the corners. "Excuse me?" she said puzzled.
"If this town didn't feel so welcoming, why waste your time on it? Why come back?" he reiterated for her.
Now Nilly understood, but it still took a while to find the right answer. "Well, it was my home at one point," she said slowly, "I loved it here. If you love something, shouldn't you give it another chance?"
He nodded his head again, a few strands of hair falling on to his forehead. That alone seemed to kick her heart up a few notches. What was with him that made her react like this? she thought with an unreadable amount of mixed emotions. Who was he?
"Why'd you come back?" she said, raising an eyebrow. Maybe asking a few questions would make Damon seem less scary to her. He looked at her with confusion this time. "Stefan told me that you guys used to visit here, and recently moved back." Nilly explained, clearing his confusions.
He chuckled, "Well, you see. My little brother needed someone to look after him. Where ever he goes, trouble just seems to follow him." Damon smiled as if there was a joke that she didn't hear.
"Oh," was all Nilly could say. She turned behind her where Stefan and Elena were still. The music was loud but, she could see them leaning over the pool table laughing. Nilly smiled and turned back to Damon. "Well, he's lucky to have someone to look after him."
Damon laughed again. Maybe 'laughed' wasn't the right word, more like snickered. A strange feeling rose in Nilly, she was growing uneasy. There was definitely something off here. She glanced back over her shoulder to her friends.
"Who's looking after you, Nilly?" Damon suddenly asked. She returned her attention to him. His smile returned, causing her heart to jump, but for a different reason. His eyes were different though— Darker? If that was even possible.
She tried her attempt at a smile. "Just me. I'm like you. I'm the one looking after everyone else," she said cautiously.
"You're looking after them?" he nodded behind Nilly.
"That's what family is for, right?"
"Yeah, that's family," he said downing another shot. He banged his glass on the counter and smiled at her again, a smile that could melt the coldest heart. But the atmosphere seemed to change, something was different. "How about you and me get out of here, somewhere more quite?" Capturing her gaze, he locked his eyes on Nilly. She noticed another change, something different about Damon as he stared at her.
Before she could answer someone moved between them.