Yeah, I know. I'm a terrible person for taking so long, but life has been a bit hectic lately. Anyway, here I am with a new chapter I really hope you enjoy it and I know these chapters are way shorter than what am used to but I don't know, this is just the way the story is flowing for me and no matter how hard I try I can't write longer chapters.

Huge thanks to all of you reading this and taking the time to review and as always thanks to my lovely beta because this wouldn't be possible without her.

Here we go.

When the rain came, it washed us out to sea

I'm holding what I love

And she's holding out to me

The Fray

.

I can still remember the first time I spoke with Stefan Salvatore. Damon wasn't going to pick me up since he had been held up at work so I was walking home alone when I saw him. He was sitting on a bench in front of the ice cream store with a book in his hands.

Behind him the ice cream store was filled with young people, a lot of them we actually went to school with, but Stefan was all by himself on that bench outside of the place, looking utterly and completely alone.

I walked towards him with tentative steps; I had been breaking out of my shell lately while hanging out with Damon and could now see how cruel and nasty the people I hanged out with really were, how they only cared about shallow things and didn't think twice about humiliating people like Stefan who didn't think the same way they did.

"Hi" I said softly and felt terrible when his eyes looked at me with shock, as if it was a complete miracle I was talking to him.

"Hi" He answered a bit insecurely. At that point I had no idea what Damon had told him or if he had even told him anything about us.

"What are you reading?" I asked and sat down next to him on the bench. He lifted the book a bit uncertainly and I smiled when I saw the cover "I like to read Dr. Seuss too" I said and his face broke into a huge grin

"Then I guess my brother was not wrong about you" He answered softly, still wearing a half-smile on his face.

"What?" I asked as I played with my ponytail, a nervous thing I used to do and that only Damon had caught on.

"I'm sorry, was I not supposed to know?" He asked with a bit of fear in his eyes and once again I felt terrible. How badly had this boy been treated that he was afraid of everyone's reaction around him?

"No, no it's okay. I just didn't know he had mentioned us to anyone"

"I was there the first time he saw you, I think it was about a year ago" Stefan said while shaking his head with a small, relaxing smile once again "He went to school to speak with the principal about me and you were there sitting on the grass with all of your friends"

I remember staring at him open mouthed as I tried to absorb the words he was saying. I hadn't met Damon until a few months ago when he started working in the diner, the knowledge that he knew about me even before that didn't scare me or make him look like a creep, it only spread a warm sensation throughout my body.

"I think he fell for you in that same moment" Stefan said with a grin while closing his book and placing it on his lap "Damon's a good guy, Elena" He said, the grin disappearing from his face and being replaced by an overprotective expression I hadn't seen before.

"I know that Stefan"

"Do you?" He asked in a somber tone "Because most people will try to tell you otherwise"

I stared at him in silence, and tried to open my mouth to say something but no words were coming out. I knew that he was being honest; it was why I still hadn't told anything to my parents. It wasn't just that people didn't like Damon, they were afraid of him.

"I know that, Stefan" I answered softly "But I'm not like most people"

He eyed me suspiciously before answering "You might be, but I'm still not so sure about that part" I stared at him dumbfounded, I knew that I should be offended because of his comment but a part of me was glad that he cared so much about his brother.

"I can assure you that I'm different" I said with a half-smile

"Just…" He looked at me and there was so much tenderness and love in his eyes that it made me feel like my heart had just been tightly squeezed in my chest "Just don't break his heart"

"I won't" I answered truthfully. In that moment I realized that breaking Damon's heart would mean breaking my own. I hadn't known him for that long but there was something in him that pulled me in, I knew that nothing was ever going to be the same after him.

After that day in front of the ice cream store, Stefan and I developed some sort of quiet friendship. I would sit with him at lunch after seeing him all by himself or we would study together at the library. While all of that happened my friends started to drift away, only Bonnie stuck by me, while the others just couldn't understand how I could be friends with someone like Stefan.

But I didn't care, if they drifted away so easily it was because they weren't truly my friends. Stefan was a nice guy and I liked spending time with him, and Damon was so happy that his brother finally had a friend that the grin he used to give me every time he thanked me for making school a little bit easier for his brother it was worth more than a thousand fake friends.

I had Damon, I didn't need anything else.

I remember resting on top of Damon's body and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. His car was parked at the falls and the moon was shining brightly in the sky.

The car smelled of leather and a faint trace of honey, which Damon always carried around because of his job at the cafe. His hands were tracing patterns on the skin of my arms and his breath was moving the hairs on the nape of my neck.

"Will you please come?" I asked once again. I had been trying all night to convince Damon to come to a party my parents were throwing on the weekend. They always did those sort of social gatherings and I always had to endure them all alone, but it had occurred to me that maybe this year I wouldn't have to do it all alone since I had Damon with me, but from the moment I had mentioned it he had refused.

"It's a bad idea, doll" He said and I could feel him shaking his head.

I huffed and moved my legs, the sound of the fabric of my skirt echoing in the silent car "Why not?"

"I already told you why" He pressed a kiss on my temple and rested his hands on top of my belly. "I don't belong there, Elena"

"You belong with me" I answered stubbornly. Looking back now I think I might have been a bit selfish with him, I only thought of my needs, of how much I wanted him there and not of how he would feel surrounded by people who always thought the worst of him.

"I don't even have any good clothes to wear" I turned around and saw the vulnerability in his eyes, my heart breaking at the sight of it. I was used to always seeing him so strong that to see weakness in him was completely startling to me "I can hardly show up at your house wearing this"

He motioned to his ripped jeans and simple white shirt.

"We'll work something out" I told him "Clothing is the last thing you have to worry about"

"But I have to Elena" He replied "Because I want to make an impression on your parents and your friends, you know they already think I'm not good enough for you"

On more than one occasion Damon and I had suffered from nasty looks from people at my school, it was a miracle that my parents didn't know about it yet, Jeremy did and he had been beyond supporting. Something that I always loved about my cousin was that he was different from everyone else; he didn't care about status or what society wanted.

"Please Damon" I whined once again and threw my head back so that I could stare into his blue eyes. I loved his blue eyes, I can still remember them so vividly, I had never seen a pair like that, so deep and crystalline, so full of power and emotion. Well that's a lie, I did see a pair just like those once but thinking about it breaks my heart every time.

"Fine" He muttered with what was supposed to be an annoyed tone but I could see the smile forming on his face.

"Really?" I squealed and sat down on the cramped back seat of his car, the fabric of my skirt wrinkling with the move "You'll come?"

"I'd do anything for you doll" He answered before I launched at him, filling him with kisses. His hands tangled in my ponytail and I moaned into his mouth as our kisses turned more daring.

Damon and I had been gradually making our touches bolder and bolder every time, but we still weren't even near close of going all the way so I was incredibly surprised when I felt the hunger in his touches and in his kisses.

It was as if he wanted to eat me whole. "I'm sorry" He panted next to my lips when we broke apart "I just got carried away"

"It's okay" I told him as I felt my face heating up "It's just that I don't know if I'm ready..."

"Hey, it's okay doll" He stroked my cheeks and placed a kiss on my forehead "We don't have to do anything"

I gave him a big smile and nestled into his arms once again, nuzzling into his neck "I love you Damon" It was the first time that I let those words slip out of my mouth but it felt wonderful.

"What?" He choked out, eyes wide as saucers.

"I love you" I told him once again, smiling against the skin of his neck.

He stayed silent for a few seconds as if trying to absorb the words; I could feel his heart beating wildly and his breathing growing unsteady. "You have no idea how much I have longed for those words"

His voice was charged with emotion and his hold tightened on me "I love you too Elena, like I've never loved anybody before"

I pressed myself even closer to him and gripped his biceps "I guess that's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah, a really good thing" He answered as he started stroking my arm once again. The moon kept shinning above us and the world kept spinning around us.

I felt invincible, like nothing could touch me. I was on top of the world. If only I had known how easy you could be knocked down to the ground.

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