"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well. "
-Laini Taylor-
.
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We had it all planned out.
I had snuck out a bag filled with clothes and took it to Damon's house. I was going to go to ballet classes as usual and wait for Damon there. He was going to go to the construction site and the diner to collect his paycheck and then meet with Stefan at his house so they could load the car and pick me up. I was going to meet them at the parking lot at six p.m. sharp, he would appear in his blue Camaro and we would drive off to someplace where they couldn't catch or criticize us.
In the bag where I was supposed to carry my dance outfit I had my wedding dress, a simple white lacy gown my mom had gotten me a few months back without realizing what I would end up using it for. I also had a pair of cream colored heel shoes and a cute white garter belt I had gotten this morning, I charged it all to my mom's account, it seemed fair to me because without her paranoia I was sure I would have been able to convince my dad to celebrate a wedding bigger than Missouri.
I was so damn excited; I had woken up that morning with the biggest smile on my face because my dreams were finally coming true. I loved him, I loved Damon Gabriel Salvatore and there was no doubt about it. We were finally going to get married and lay low until I turned eighteen, just a few months more. I had no idea what we were going to do or who this Enzo guy was but I didn't care, I could wait tables or work as a clerk in a store, I honestly felt indifferent as to what I had to do, just as long as Damon was next to me and our child.
I pressed my hand onto my belly and smiled, this wasn't planned at all but I had faith that it was going to work out just fine, so I waited, I waited for him to show up and sweep me into his arms.
But things rarely turn out as you plan them and I've been proven that over and over again. And on that day as I waited to start my new life I was utterly and horribly shocked when Damon didn't show up. Yes, you read that correctly, he didn't show up.
Now just for a second picture this scene in your head: a young girl standing in front of a dance school on a hot summer afternoon, holding a simple bag that contains her wedding dress carefully folded. Full of hope, happiness and anxiously waiting for a blue Camaro to appear in the distance, pretending not to realize that the sun was no longer out. Trying not to panic and repeating to herself how much he loves her "He'll be here" she murmurs to herself as she tries to remain calm. Then succumbing to begging "Please God, make him show up, make him show up and I'll never ask anything of you ever again". And when the moon shows up with clarity in the dark sky, when the bells of the church toll telling her she's been waiting for six hours she collapses on the floor, her knees losing all their strength. And only then does she know that she would never see the blue Camaro again, or the wolf tattoo. She knows that those bright blue eyes will never look at her again and that soft voice won't say her name ever again. Only then does she know something inside her broke and that it would never be fixed.
"I'll pick you up in the front, right in the parking lot of the academy" He had said "Six O'clock sweetheart, all right? I'll be there"
Why would Damon leave? Why would he leave if it was his idea to run away? This was exactly what he wanted, I knew deep inside my heart that he loved me, then why had he disappeared?
I started walking in a state of numbness, I wasn't aware of anything around me. I'm sure I must have been quite a sight, a young girl clutching a bag in front of her for dear life while tears kept streaming down her face. My face hurt, my throat, my eyes, everything hurt from all the crying and I still couldn't stop. Everything was falling apart.
I went to their home, a part of me hoped to find the lights on and realize they were there. That something had happened and they hadn't been able to leave the house but when I got to the little place there was nothing, not even the bare hint of movement inside, all the lights were off and the blue Camaro was not at the door.
A new wave of sobs took hold of my body and I crumbled there, leaning on their door while I cried my heart out. I cried for us, our baby, our house with the big porch. I cried for all the things that had slipped through my fingers in a matter of seconds.
I started walking back home after that, my spirit broken, my hopes and dreams all shattered on the floor. What was I going to do now? How was I going to fight against them all without him by my side? Damon had been wrong, I wasn't meant to do great things, I was a coward and knew that I couldn't do this on my own.
When I arrived home all the lights were out and my parents were soundlessly sleeping, it seemed weird to me that they weren't in the living room ready to scream at me for showing up so late, but I didn't really dwell on it because I was just grateful, the last thing I needed at the moment was to hear my mother's screams. Instead I dragged myself to my bedroom and collapsed on the bed, I didn't even change my clothes, I just pulled the comforter over my head and cried all over again until there weren't more tears left and I finally fell asleep.
Up until this day I still can't figure out what truly happened that day. I know he loved me, I know it in my heart. But then what happened, why did he decide to take on her offer? Why didn't Damon and I disappear into the horizon as we were supposed to do that day?
For three days I stayed holed up in my room. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think, I couldn't stop crying. My father looked at me sadly and I could see guilt behind his eyes, that was my first clue that they had something to do with what had happened to Damon.
I called both of Damon's bosses and they both told me the same thing, he had collected his paycheck and then left, there was nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary. No one in the entire town knew what had happened with Damon and Stefan, and the saddest thing was that no one cared.
On the third day I called the police, an elder man answered just as my mother was walking into my room.
"Officer Peterson, what can I do for you?" The voice in the background said
"Elena what are you doing?" The voice of my mother said.
"I want to report a missing person" I told the man on the other side of the phone while biting my nails. The sun was starting to set in the sky and a soft breeze moved the trees around the house.
"Elena hang up that damn phone" My mother shouted as she lounged herself at me and took the phone out of my hands. I watched in disbelief as she apologized to the officer and hung up.
"What are you doing?" I asked once I was able to find my words again. "Something had to have happened to him, mother, I have to find him" I said rapidly. My hair was a mess, my eyes were red and blotchy and there was a frenzy in my stare. Anyone who could have looked at me at that moment would have thought I was a crazy woman, and perhaps I was "You have to let me find him!" I shouted
"You won't find him Elena" She said in a hard voice. Her dark eyes looking at me with something resembling pity "And nothing bad happened to him"
"How could you know that?" I whispered, the adrenaline slowly leaving my body. "How could you-"
"We gave him a way out, that's what happened" She told me "Do you really think this is the life he wanted? Taking care of a seventeen-year-old and a baby? The man barely earns enough to live, Elena; he would never be able to support a child"
"What did you do?"
"Us? We did nothing" She walked closer to me and it was then that I noticed the bag she was holding, the one I had filled with the clothes I took to Damon's house "I always told you that that boy's intentions were no good" She stroked my face as a small smile appeared on her face "But we are here to take care of you"
I felt sick to my stomach, just looking at her made me feel sick. I slapped her hand away and moved backwards as fast as I could "Tell me what you did!" I shouted
"We did nothing" She said harshly "It's better to ask what he did to you" She let the bag of clothes fall onto the floor.
"Tell me, mother" I was full on sobbing now, the floor was moving underneath me and now there was no one to catch me "Please just tell me"
"Did you really think I was going to do nothing as I watched you run away with him?" She said straight to my face "That I was going to let you ruin your life? What do you think happened?" She moved towards the entrance "We offered him money, he took it and went away" She said before slamming the door of the room and walking away.
Money, my loving parents Damon Gabriel Salvatore money so he could leave me. The worst part? He took it. He took it and disappeared from my life. Please, try to digest that.
I never asked how much it was, I never could. My head was aching and there was a big weight in my chest, I tossed and turned all night in my bed without being able to sleep, I wanted to cry but my eyes were already too sore and my head kept throbbing so I did the best that I could, I took aspirins. But not one or two. I took the whole damn bottle.
It's not easy to kill yourself or to kill the baby living inside you, I know that. And only now as I think back to that moment I acknowledge that there was a baby inside me when I did what I did, at that moment I was just thinking about myself and how much it hurt, there was no baby, there was no one but me and that incessant pain consuming me.
After they got my stomach pumped they forced me to stay in the hospital for several nights. I remember laying there in the room smelling strongly of disinfectant, staring at the ceiling and thinking how messed up things got. I kept thinking that at this time I was supposed to be Damon's wife and we were going to be living somewhere with snow; that he would kiss me and I would dance for him and everything would be right in the world.
Instead I was here, trapped in this place with no one but my parents as my jailors. That Damon was somewhere else because he chose money over me. I remember thinking how unhappy my existence was and how much I wanted to disappear. So I tried to starve myself to death.
Once again, the baby who had miraculously survived my first attempt was only a secondary thought. I couldn't think about it at the moment, it was only me. Me who I wanted to get rid of.
It's amazing how long you can actually go without eating. Eventually you end up dying or it gets really hard to stand on your feet. But time really has to pass until you can die from starvation, in my case it only passed enough to make Isobel and John realize that their problem was so much bigger than they initially thought, that they couldn't control me and this was way out of their league.
They didn't know what to do with me, my baby had survived both of my suicide attempts and it was already too late to get an abortion. So they just had to think up another solution, or rather she did. Because well, Isobel was the master mind behind that brilliant plan.
I was sitting in the living room when they told me about it, my father's hand was on my knee and he looked at me with a guilty expression on his face. I had seen that same expression on his face ever since the day Damon left me.
"It'll be good for you sweetheart" He had said in a soft voice "It'll be nice there"
I was going to be sent away. To Stella Marie's house in Los Angeles, a house for…well 'those girls' as people often said. My mother had heard of this place because of Reverend Young, he thought it was the only solution to my problems, that way my dirty little secret would be locked away and no one would ever have to know of the shame Elena Gilbert brought into the household.
"Father young says it's pretty there, sweetheart" My father said softly and I could do nothing but stare straight ahead, lost in my thoughts "It's like a hotel they said"
"And it won't be for too long" My mother who was sitting across from us said "Only for five months or so and then you can return as if nothing happened"
I wanted to laugh, I wanted to shout and I wanted to cry. As if nothing had happened. I was going to be locked away in some place to hide my shame, I was going to give birth and then they would rip the baby out of my arms. How could she possibly think I could come back here as if nothing had happened?
"Elena, are you listening to what I'm saying?"
They watched me, she and my old loving father watched me. I moved my head but I couldn't utter a word, which was in form with my new plan. I was not going to say a word to anyone ever again.
What was the point? There was nothing I wanted to say anymore. This was supposed to be my new life, hiding secrets, locked away as an unwanted guest and dreaming about a blue eyed boy in a blue Camaro.
Review? Please don't hate me!
