Title: Miles To Home

Summary: For Elena Gilbert life couldn't be more perfect. She has the perfect life, perfect boyfriend, and headed towards the perfect dream job. Everything is going, well, perfectly. There's just one catch… her twin sister Katherine. When Katherine disrupts Elena's perfect life, she runs away to New York. It was the perfect plan… until she has to return home and face everything she ran away from; including her ex-boyfriend Damon. Based off the amazing trailer of the same name by the extremely talented minds and video editing talents of ElePatro (noralsel) and Caro (_LightToMyDark).

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made from this work.

The bass vibrates against my body. It's almost as if my heart beats along with the familiar tune, my blood pulsing along. Mason Lockwood's house is beaten old colonial at the edge of town. It's surrounded completely by woods and the nearest house is more than a quarter mile away. It's perfect for the constant parties he throws. No neighbors to complain and plenty of space to invite the whole school.

Though this time it looks like he invited the whole county.

When Caroline and I arrived, I was eager to get inside but now I'm completely overwhelmed. Caroline decided it was best we split up and I've lost her in the crowd. No matter how hard I try to move through the crowd, I continually bump into people. There are people in tight knit groups, others dancing close together, and couples locked in passionate embraces. Through it all the scent of alcohol permeates the room. It's enough to make me gag.

I'm about to give up on my search, text Caroline that we'll just handle this tomorrow, when I notice a familiar face: Aimee Bradley.

Maneuvering through the crowd, I bee-line for her. She's deep in conversation with her best friend Sarah, eyeing a group of boys nearby. Neither of them notices me until I'm standing right in front of them. Still, I have to tap Aimee's shoulder to get her to look in my direction.

"Elena Gilbert?" she squeals, eyes wide. She's taking in my casual jeans and Henley tee covered by a blazer outfit with disdain. I'm aware I don't match up with the skimpy, sparkly dresses barely covering the rest of the girls here. But it wasn't exactly like this was planned. "Since when is a Mason Lockwood party your scene?"

"It's not," I reply, quickly. It's obvious. My discomfort has to be evident even to someone has dimwitted as Aimee. My arms are crossed, shoulders hunched, eyes searching. I want to be in and out of here as quickly as possible. "I'm looking for Damon."

"Salvatore?" she questions; like there is anyone else named Damon in our school, let alone small town.

I nod impatiently. I don't have time for this. I just need to find Damon and get him out of here and away from my sister before… Well, I'm not sure. But I know I need to talk to him, fix this. This whole rift between us is killing me. I know I asked a lot of Damon when I brought him into my life but I had no idea that just as everything was coming together, our differences would pull us apart. That what I had thought was perfect would shatter so quickly.

"He's with Katherine."

"Where?" I stress, fighting the urge to grab hold of her and shake her.

She hesitates for a second, sharing a look with Sarah, before saying, "They went upstairs somewhere. Damon was really out of it."

Without even bothering to give her a response, I push my way through the crowd until I reach the staircase. It's thinned out a bit enough around here that I'm able to reach my phone and send a text to Caroline. I let her know where I'm headed and that I'll meet her at the car with hopefully my boyfriend in tow.

Then with a deep breath to steady my nerves, I climb the stairs.

It's relatively less crowded on the second floor. On the way up were several couples kissing on the stairs and as I looked down both ends of the hallway I see a few more up against vacant walls. I decide to test each door with the knowledge that I might walk in on someone since it's still too loud to call out. Even if Damon and Katherine could hear me, I don't know if they would answer.

Thankfully the first few doors are locked and it isn't until I reach the end of a hallway that I notice one door has been left ajar. Ignoring the few remaining doors, I head straight for it and push it open enough to peek inside. I catch the sight of my sister standing before Damon as he rubs his face. He's swaying slightly on his feet and I'm almost certain he's about to fall into the wall behind him.

Katherine must have the same idea because she steps towards him. Even in the loud house, the sound of her heels connecting with the wooden floors over and over is the only sound I hear. I'm about to bolt into the room and stop all of this but I must be a glutton for punishment because I can only stand there and watch.

Before my sister can reach him, Damon holds a hand out. "Stop it, Kat. I'm fine."

"You're not," she teases. "Hanging out with my sister has made you a lightweight."

"Hanging out with your sister has made me a better man."

She crosses her arms and I'm sure there's an eye-roll to go along with it. "And look where that's gotten you. Back here. With me."

"I'm not with you," Damon clarifies and my heart swells. If I'm being honest with myself, it was where my thoughts have ventured since the moment Caroline showed me the Instagram picture.

It's short-lived however once my twin-sister opens her mouth. "Then why the text to tag along? Hm?"

Damon's hand drops from his face and he sighs. "I just needed an escape. I couldn't pretend anymore."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion. Pretend? Is that what he's been doing with me? I've been so concerned with having everything be perfect and within my vision of how things should be that I've neglected to realize who my boyfriend truly is. That he had demons, made mistakes, flaws. Was that the reason why it's been so hard for him to show me the darker sides of himself? The sides he lets my sister see.

And what shatters my heart worse than his words is the look on my sister's face. It's not one of calculation and manipulation but full of understanding and empathy. I've never seen her look so…soft.

"Explain something to me, Damon. If you can't be yourself with someone you love than why are you with them?"

Damon groans. "Not this crap again."

"I'm serious."

And even I can tell she is. There's a tone in her voice and a look in her eyes that's full of concern for my boyfriend. This isn't her normal up-to-something routine. She truly cares for Damon. Whatever connection they had before I came along was a lot deeper than I thought. Suddenly, I feel horrible for getting in between them.

Damon sighs. "I was going nowhere, Kat. I was angry all the time and drowning myself in booze and women. Elena… Well, she made me want to be better, be something. Have a future."

"But you stopped being you."

"I wasn't exactly happy being me."

"You're not exactly happy now," she counters. "Look at you."

Looking at him, I see it too. He looks miserable, drowning once again. Only now there's a weight to his shoulders. That broken soul I noticed when I got to know him better is still there. I've been blinded this whole time by his smiles and humor that I've forgotten they're his best defense. I thought that if I just loved in him enough, believed in him enough I could fix what is mother's death and father's abandonment did to him. But by my not so gentle shoves to be better I've created my own wounds on the man I love.

And it kills me that my sister has noticed this before I have.

"I'm just confused, Kat. Okay? I want to let Elena in but she won't understand."

My sister's hands move to her hips. "But I do. Talk to me."

Damon's eyes snap to hers and I can see the temptation there. The need to unload whatever has been weighing him down. But he chokes on his words and closes up his mouth stopping himself before it all comes spilling out. Katherine notices it all and that softness that was in her eyes fades away and that cool distant look is back on her face.

She sees a challenge.

Part of me wants to interrupt now and stop whatever Katherine is about to pull, but I'm frozen in my spot wanting to see how this all is going to play out. By a stroke of luck, they have been so wrapped up in their conversation and drunk enough to not pay attention to me peeking in on them. And I can't help but listen in.

"I never understood it," Katherine says. "How something could happen with Elena and never with me."

Damon's eyes are lidded; he's tired, confused. He just shakes his head and replies, "What are you talking about?"

"We told each other everything, Damon. I know things about you Elena doesn't. You were never anything but yourself with me." Her eyes meet his. "I look just like her."

He shakes his head, his eyes squeezing shut. "You're different."

"We're identical twins, Damon. How could you fall for Elena and not me?"

"I said it already. You're different. You may look alike but you're different people."

Katherine's eyes narrow. "You mean she's better."

I watch as Damon's eyes soften. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. I've been hearing it my whole life."

My sister's words confuse me. If anything it's been her own actions that have spewed on this comparison between us. She placed us both on different ends of a spectrum, shoved me away until we were no longer connected. It's by her own doing that the labels of good and bad twin have been placed on us. It's by her own words.

Apparently, this isn't Damon's first time hearing this from my sister's mouth. "Fuck them, Katherine. They don't know you."

And the way he says it just proves how little I know about the depth of my sister and boyfriends connection. It's obvious in his tone that when he stresses a "them" that there is an identity in mind. Conversations of Damon stressing to me to speak to my sister and get an explanation for her behavior play over in mind. Maybe there's always been a reason behind her hatred towards me. A valid reason. But I've been too caught up in surviving her games to ever get to the bottom of it.

"But you do," she states, firmly. "And even you chose her over me."

"Katherine…"

But the sentence just hangs there unfinished. There's nothing he could say because I made him make a choice. By choosing to be with me, Damon swiftly cut ties with my sister. The original anger and betrayal I felt coming to Mason's house has quickly become muddied with the sympathy I'm feeling for these two people who are unaware I'm watching them. In this unguarded moment I'm seeing sides of them I didn't know existed.

It's confusing me more than I like.

I should be angry at my sister for all she's done—for the incident in our bathroom, for what she's saying now—but I'm starting to think there's more to her game. Maybe there's something I've been missing. And the same lies with Damon. I've strived for his perfect self that I stopped appreciating and seeing what's really going on in his life. It was my own anger over our fight that prevented Damon from opening up to me. That led to him running away here to alcohol and my sister.

All of this confusion has me starting to push open the door a little more. I want answers. I want to fix the heartbreak on my sister and boyfriends face. I want both of them to stop with their walls and finally let me in. And I don't want to judge them but instead understand them.

However, once again, my sister's prevents that from happening.

"Kiss me."

Damon seems just as shocked as I am. His brows are pulled together and the thought just doesn't seem to register on his face. But it definitely has with me. That sympathy and confusion I was feeling only seconds ago as burned away with my renewed anger and hurt.

"Stop it, Kat," Damon says. "We've both had too much to drink."

"Come on," Katherine says, stepping towards him. "Kiss me."

My boyfriend is silent as she approaches him and then her fingers are running up over his grey button-up, over his stomach and chest. Her mouth is close, too close and it has my heart breaking and tears falling from my eyes. The sight of my twins hands on my boyfriend in such an intimate way would hurt enough but the fact that Damon is doing nothing to stop it has completely broken me.

"I love Elena," Damon says. But his voice is slurred from the alcohol and it has my sister's face only getting closer.

Her mouth is only a breath away from his when she says, "Pretend I'm her."

And that's the final straw.

I can't take it anymore.

My hand covers my mouth and I cry out, "Oh my God," and race away from the room. This whole night has been too much but the sight of Damon and Katherine seconds from kissing has finally shattered whatever belief I had for either of our relationships. I'm not even sure if Damon was going to kiss her back but they will always have a connection to each other and that will always tear us apart.

I need to get far away from anything my sister can ever touch.

As I race down the hallway I hear Damon calling my name. It's desperate and loud and the very sound of his voice cuts through my soul. My hand is clutching at my stomach as I try to hold myself together and just do what I need to in order to get out of this place. I can't handle a conversation right now. I just can't.

"Elena!"

I push my way down the stairs, shoving past those same happy couples I passed on my way up. They're completely oblivious to the life altering change that just happened in my life. A few give me dirty looks and mumble horrible things but I can't even bother to take it in because I know Damon is right on my heels and I need to get to my car where hopefully Caroline is ready to go.

Instead of going out the front door where I know I'll have to push my way through more people, I turn and head towards the back where it's less cramped. I'm convinced I'm nearly home free and I step out onto the back porch and reach the back door when I hear my name one more time.

This time much closer. Softer.

"Elena."

With my hand on the doorknob, I turn towards him. I'm not ready for the absolute heartbreak on his face, the crazed look in his eye and the red rim of held back tears around his eyes. The sight of my face causes him to lose his footing. I can only guess what I look like to him. The tears streaming down my face, the puffiness of my eyes and the redness of my cheeks. Good. He should see how much this is killing me.

Because he got involved in the game my sister plays. And even worse is he helped her win.

We had one stupid fight and he went running back to her world where problems aren't dealt with but ignored, erased with alcohol. He let her draw him back in with her good times and shared past. They traveled down memory lane and he let himself fall back into the ease of escapism. He said he was pretending with me when in reality the world he existed in with Katherine was just that. It's a world where vices make you forget your problems.

At least I tried to understand and help him.

We stand there in silence just staring at each other. I can already feel the finality of it. The way all of our dreams of the future seem to fade away, broken. Our life in NYC isn't something I can see anymore. Something as simple as a night out with my sister could end all of that. It brought so much to light. Too much to move past.

"Nothing happened, Elena," he finally says. And I believe him—in the sense that he didn't kiss my sister. But something else happened. Something I can't quite explain. I never lost faith in him but he lost enough in me to trust my sister with his secrets. To run to her when things got tough with us.

My eyes drop down and I start to speak, trying to ignore the way my voice cracks. "You came here, Damon. With her."

"I know. I just… I needed to get out."

I don't even bother wiping away the tears streaking down my face. "I know that I put a lot of pressure on you to be better and I'm sorry for that." He tries to correct me but I've already heard too much. Both from Caroline and his own mouth. I'm owning up to my own faults but he has his own to pay for. "But you know how my sister is and you went to her instead of telling me what's wrong."

"I'll tell you what's wrong. I'll say it right now."

Turning away from him, I whisper, "It's too late, Damon."

The truth is I don't want to hear it. I mean a part of me does because I want to know what has had him spinning out of control. But it's because of that part that I can't know. Because I'll have to help him and heal him and make it better. And once I know it'll be too hard to walk away from him.

And I need to.

"I wasn't thinking. I didn't think."

I inhale a shaky breath. "It doesn't matter, Damon. She won. Katherine won."

My sister has successfully cracked apart my perfect life. The thing she has made her main purpose in life. I wonder what she'll do now that she's reached her goal.

"It's not a game. She didn't win anything. I'm here with you. I want to talk this out."

I shake my head. "It's never going to end."

It's the truth. As long as Damon is in my life and I'm pulling him one way, Katherine will always try to tug him the other way. It's been that way with everything in my life. After everything Damon has been through he doesn't deserve to be in a tug-of-war between twin sisters. And I deserve better than constantly worrying about my sister and my boyfriend.

I love Damon. I honestly do. But I can't let this be my life.

I need to get back to my path. Focus on myself and follow the plan I had for my future.

Far away from Mystic Falls. My sister. Damon.

My eyes meet his and I know it'll be for the last time. I take a moment to study him, remembering what it was about him that made me give him a second chance. Why did I see such good in him despite his reputation? And I find the answer in those expressive eyes of his. Right now they are full of that same pain I saw when they first caught my eye. Only this time I know I'm the reason.

Those eyes were the reason I pushed him to be better. I witnessed for myself the way they lightened as his pain did, as I became more and more of a presence in his life. But I see now that I took advantage of that. It's one thing to want the best for someone, another thing entirely to want to change someone.

Right now this is where Damon belongs.

He needs to escape his life and make mistakes. I have no doubt that one day he'll find his way out of it. Find his way. But it won't be because of me. It'll be because of him.

I ready myself to say the words, feel my heart shatter with each syllable of them.

"It's over. We're over."

And I turn away from him as I see the subtle shake of his head, the denial taking hold of him. But I can't look back. I turn the knob and open the door, stepping out into the cool night air. I hug my chest as I hear the sounds of a room being torn apart on the other side of the now closed door. I can almost picture him shoving things off the nearby table, breaking apart the chairs, taking out his pain on everything in that room.

It takes all my strength to walk away. But I do.