Chapter Nine: Heart Skipped a Beat

Please don't say we're done
When I'm not finished
I could give so much more
Make you feel, like never before
Welcome, they said welcome to the floor
It's been a while
And you've found someone better
But I've been waiting too long to give this up
The more I see, I understand
But sometimes, I still need you
~The XX

Damon had an idea, he stood up quickly. Why waste anytime? With a plan already forming in his head he walked out the door and focused all his power into running. His car might draw unwanted attention.

His perfect eye sight guided him even in the dark. Perks of being a vampire, he thought to himself. With little effort, he reached the house in no time. Hidden by the shadows, Damon made his way into the backyard, remaining absolutely silent.

His predator instincts kicking in as if he was on a hunt, his senses tingled. His body practically hummed with anticipation as he crept forward. All the windows were closed and dark, no light coming from any of them. Except one. One window was wide open with a dim light shining through it.

This was too easy. The white curtains blew slightly through the opening with the lightest summer breeze. He stood right under the window, staring up. Crouching with his muscles locked ready to thrust him up through the open window and into the bedroom, he heard something. A voice.

It echoed softly through the window, floating down to his ears. It was Nilin, he was sure of it. He'd know her voice anywhere. She was singing. He could hear the words now, focusing his hearing to transform the murmur into lyrics.

"And it's all that I can hear
It's more than I can bear,"

The sound of a guitar came floating down with the words as well, matching her voice.

"What if I fall and hurt myself
Would you know how to fix me?
What if I went and lost myself
Would you know where to find me?
If I forgot who I am
Would you please remind me?
Oh, cause without you things go hazy,"

Damon could hear Nilin humming the melody softly as he continued to stare up. His muscles seemed to relax as he stood up straighter, momentarily forgetting why he was even standing under her bedroom window at all.

Backing into the shadows slowly, he kept a watchful eye on Nilin's open window. He retreated until he was at the base of a large oak tree that grew in the Gilbert's backyard. Gracefully and carelessly he perched himself high on one of the long thick branches of the tree, allowing him a better view into Nilin's room.

There she was sitting, with her legs crossed on the hardwood of the bedroom floor. Her back was leaning against the side of the bed as she strummed the guitar in her lap softly. Nilly's brown curly hair fell recklessly over her shoulders. Showing how different she was from Elena, who's hair and clothes were always neat and tidy.

Nilin's bangs fell into her eyes slightly and between humming she'd blow them out of the way, or at least she tried to. The girl was a strange one. Though she resembled two women he's already come to know, this one was oddly inimitable. Damon would be lying if he didn't admit that he was curious about her.

From the little time he's been back in this town, he's seen enough of Elena to be able to compare and contrast her to Katherine. With Nilin though, he felt as if he hadn't seen enough yet. She had thrown him for a loop the night she walked into the Mystic Grill. Damon nearly shot across the room and pinned her against the wall the moment he saw her. What stopped him was the way she held herself. She walked into the room with a soft glow around her, not demanding to be noticed or craving attention. She walked quietly as if the noise and light scared her.

That wasn't Katherine at all and that's when the fascination started.

Even though the room was poorly lit— the only light emanated from a side table lamp as far as Damon could tell— he could see her perfectly. He stretched his legs out in front of him on the branch, put his hands behind his head and rest causally in the tree. There was plenty of time to get the necklace. He could hold off for one more night.

Nilin rolled over on to her side, stretching her arms out in front of her. She blinked her eyes open, groggy and sore from a poor night's sleep. "Ugh," she groaned as the morning light burned her eyes.

Her head popped up, looking around the room. How'd she even end up back in bed? When did she put her guitar down? She plopped her head back down, letting out a long sigh. Her memory was spotty, showing that she still wasn't fully awake.

She rolled over on the bed again and gasped. She had miscalculated how close she was to the edge and went tumbling over. Landing hard on the wood floor, she let out an 'oof' when her back hit the hardwood floor. The only thing that cushioned the blow was the pillows and blankets she pulled down with her.

"Ow, really?" she grumbled to herself, trying to untangle her body from the covers. As she was fussing with the blankets, Nilly heard her door open and then laughter. She lifted her head to find Jeremy standing over her, arms crossed over his chest and chuckling.

"Uh, what happen?" he asked, still unable to contain his giggles.

"Shut it and help me up." Nilly said, reaching a hand out. Jeremy grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands, still trying to wake up.

"Did the floor challenge you to a dual, or something?" Jeremy asked picking up her blankets and tossing them on to the mattress.

"No," Nilly confessed, "I fell off the bed." She looked down, a slight redness on her cheeks as she straightened out her pajamas.

Jeremy just continued to chuckle to himself. "You know, they have this marvelous invention called 'legs', they're supposed to stop you from falling," he smirked at her. "You should try them."

Then he started laughing again, clearly amused by his own joke. Nilin wasn't, though. She grabbed one of her pillows and started hitting Jeremy over the head with it.

"Ow!" he complained, raising his arms to block her blows.

"Get out. Out, out, out," she said following him out of the room, continuing to bombard him with her pillow until she closed the door in his face.

Nilly dropped the pillow, and pushed her hair out of her face. She grumbled to herself but then there was a knock on the door. Probably, Jeremy ready to crack another joke. "What?" she said raising her pillow and swinging the door open, expecting to find her youngest cousin there still snickering.

But instead she found a wide eyed Elena with her hands raised in front of her, "Whoa there, put the weapon down," she joked.

Nilin dropped the pillow again, "Sorry. You're brother was bothering me." She ran a hand through her hair and looked at her cousin. That's when she realized there was someone standing behind her. Stefan leaned causally on the wall behind Elena, his hand trying to cover the smile on his face.

Nilly looked down at herself, all she had on was a ratty t-shirt and tie-dyed shorts, as Stefan stood there impeccably dressed like always, along with his gorgeous everything. She couldn't even imagine what her hair looked like right now... Her head snapped up quickly, her cheeks beginning to blush.

"Eeep," she squeaked out and swung the door shut. She could hear Elena and Stefan's laughs muffled through the door. "What do you even want?" Nilly yelled as she desperately searched for a hairbrush.

"Let me in," Elena said on the other side of the door.

"No."

"Oh, come on," she argued.

"Nooo." Nilly said again.

"Pleeeease?" Elena tried.

"I'll stay out here." Stefan offered through the door. With an inner groan, Nilly padded over to the door, opened it quickly, grabbed Elena's arm and forcefully pulled her in, slamming the door again behind her.

"Yes?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Elena still hadn't recover from her giggle fit with Stefan, "I'm sorry, I just—"

"Yeah, yeah," Nilly said, going over to the long mirror to comb her hair out.

When Elena finally composed herself she walked over to the flower patterned sofa in the corner. Sitting down she said, "There's a party tonight, well really it's a dance at the school. An end of the year celebration for everyone and I think you should go."

Nilin turned around to face her. She was joking, right? Taking Nilin to a crowd high school dance was her was of catching up? "Two problems," Nilin said, looking back to the mirror. "One, I hate parties and two, I don't even go to school here anymore."

Elena smiled, "Well, you hate parties because you never go to them, and you're in Mystic Falls, Nil, I'm pretty sure you can get into a High School dance without any trouble."

"Elena—" Nilly was about to argue, but she cut her off.

"Come on, Bonnie, Matt and even Tyler are going to be there, it will be fun. An easy, carefree night with friends, I promise. Besides, I feel bad leaving you alone all the time," she pushed, frowning a little.

Nilly caught Elena's eyes in the mirror. "I don't mind being alone," she said. She thought for a moment, looking down at her now frizzy hair. "Fine, I'll go."

Elena just smirked at her, "Good, because even if you said no, I would have dragged you there anyway."

"And hat's why I agreed." Nilly said, rolling her eyes, "Another problem though, I don't have anything to wear. Unless sweat pants and t-shirts are proper attire, that is."

"Oh, don't worry, I already figured something out." Elena smiled.

Nilin rubbed her still tired eyes with her knuckles, letting out a grown. "What the hell did I just agree to?" Nilin mumbled as she turned back to focused on combing her hair out while Elena talked.

This was so unlike her. Elena never cared about what Nilly wore. And why was she set on having Nilly go out tonight? Nilly brushed it off quickly though as her cousin just being excited and left her worrying at that.

When her hair was neat and she had more decent clothes on she allowed Stefan to come in, out of the hallway. He sat with Elena on the couch as Nilly scurried around straightening out the bedroom. She eventually sat down, crossed legged, in front of them as the three talked about random things.

Mostly, getting Nilly caught up on the drama and events she had missed out on while she was gone. Things like the death of crotchety Mr. Tanner, Elena quitting the Spirit Squad, a new history teacher, and of course all the juicy break-ups and make-ups.

Nilin noticed things about Stefan and Elena as they talked. The way one glanced at the other when they weren't looking. The way Stefan mindlessly played with Elena's fingers. How, as time went on, they got closer and closer together on the already tiny sofa. And just the feeling alone that radiated off the two off them was enough to make Nilin smile.

They were clearly happy just sitting in the guest bedroom, chatting on about this or that. They seemed to be crazy about each other.

Nilin was sure that at one point, when she turned around quickly to grab something from besides the bed, Elena had pecked Stefan on the lips quickly. As if she had been waiting the entire time for Nilly to look away just to do it. But Nilin caught them. She didn't bring attention to it or anything, just giggled quietly to herself, like the hopeless romantic she was.

Nilin was happy for Elena, of course, but she did feel a twinge of jealousy. She knew Elena, if anyone, deserved a good normal relationship with someone as sweet as Stefan. She deserved her fairy tale ending, her prince in shining armor. You know, the whole ten yards.

The something dawned on Nilin though. She realized that she didn't really need, or want, one. Her life wasn't some fairy tale. She was never the damsel-in-distress kind and that was okay. Nilin could save herself, even if it was her heart that got her into messes. She worked better alone anyway.

Besides, getting close to people just allowed them a chance the leave you. You can't hold on to someone forever.

With that thought Nina quickly distracted herself by focusing on the two love birds in front of her, instead of the rose on the windowsill that she had caught herself staring at.

Author's Notes:
Chapter Nine is now up! Thank you for reading, it really means a lot to me. I'll be publishing Chapter Ten on Monday, so I hope you guys like it. Remember to Favorite, Follow & Review. Especially Review because I want to know your thoughts and how I'm doing. Anyway, thanks again.
RLS

Featured Song:

Hazy by Rosi Golan

Check Out the Outfit:

Go to Polyvore Dot com and attach the following to the end of the url

Nilin: /chapter_six_nilin/set?id=90401079