Stefan came home the next morning to find his brother sitting in the living room by himself nursing a glass of Bourbon. The bottle sat in front of him on the coffee table with what looked to be a few swallows left inside.
By the looks of his wrinkled clothes and the unruly state of his dark hair, it was safe to say that he'd been there all night.
Stefan walked over, snatching up the bottle of expensive booze and killed the last of it in one swallow, sighing loudly as he sat it back down onto the table.
"Though technically I drank the last of the Bourbon, you still have to replace this bottle considering you drank the bulk of it. Fair is fair, brother."
Stefan thought he'd at least get a small chuckle out of Damon, but his brother didn't respond period.
He slapped his big bro on the leg, moving past him to take a seat in the chair. "What's up with you...trouble in paradise...again?"
Damon snorted without humor, bringing the glass to his mouth and taking a large gulp. "Something like that."
He then fell quiet for some time, not saying anymore and Stefan assumed he didn't want to talk about it, but then his brother resumed talking like he never stopped.
He ran a hand through his messy locks. "I keep forgetting that she's so fucking young." And he said it in a way that Stefan wasn't sure if he was talking to him or talking to himself out loud. "She acts so damn mature ninety-five percent of the time that when she does act her age, it completely throws me off and I react just as stupidly."
Stefan didn't like the sound of that. He sat forward in his seat. "What did you do?"
Damon wasn't listening to him and continued like his little brother hadn't utter a word. "I knew she'd been drinking, but it was just how she said it... and then the way she was looking at me. I couldn't take it."
The younger Salvatore tried not to panic; his brother wasn't making any sense. What the fuck did he do?
The only thing saving Damon from Stefan putting his hands on him right about now was that he could hear Bonnie's heartbeat in the house, so he knew that she was alive.
"Brother, tell me what happened."
Damon finally looked at his brother. "Stef, you already know that I don't give a flying fuck what other people or even other supernaturals for that matter think of me. But when it comes to Bonnie, I care. In fact, I think I care a little too much. So last night, when she looked at me like I was some evil monster instead of the man she loved, I fucking lost it. I snapped, Stefan... and I forced her to take my blood..." He paused for a second, swallowing hard. "I then told her if I wanted to I could snap her neck and make her just like me."
Damon was so disgusted with himself that he drained the glass of Bourbon.
Damn was all the caramel haired vamp could think as he stared at his brother in disbelief because Stefan knew better than anyone that his brother was about that life, but NEVER had he exhibited that type of behavior with Bonnie, so he'd foolishly thought she was the one person Damon wouldn't go there with because he loved her so fucking much.
So now it seemed that even she wasn't exempt.
Surprisingly Bonnie woke up without the killer hangover she just knew she'd have this morning while getting her drink on last night. Well, it seemed that vampire blood was the cure for everything. She looked down at her healed wrist, testing it by twisting it back and forth and then around. It was like new.
She got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to pee before washing her face and brushing her teeth. When she was done, she stared at her reflection in the mirror, thinking about what transpired between her and Damon the night before.
Not only was she angry about what he did, but she was also hurt. She still couldn't believe that he'd forced fed her his blood and then threatened to snap her neck like it wasn't shit to him. Like she wasn't shit to him.
Yeah, maybe she shouldn't have said the things she did, but that still didn't give him the right to do what he did. He'd gone too far this time.
Bonnie undressed, throwing her night clothes into the hamper and got into the shower.
She stayed in there for a good twenty minutes before turning off the water and stepping out to grab the clean towel on the rack to pat her body dry. When done, she rubbed lotion onto her soft skin and then slipped on her bathrobe, leaving the bathroom.
Minutes later, she was dressed in a pair of high-waisted Levi denim shorts with a cute little heather grey tee that read Bow Down on the front and instead of sandals she wore a pair of clean white chucks. She was just about to pull her hair into a ponytail when a knock sounded at her bedroom door.
Stefan had heard Bonnie moving around her bedroom sometime after ten o'clock. So he went into the kitchen to make her favorite breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and thick cut hickory bacon with a small glass of milk and brought it up to her room.
He knocked on the door and a few seconds later he could hear her undoing the lock.
Bonnie knew it was him because Damon never knocked on her door.
When she opened it, he could see by the slight circles under her eyes that she hadn't gotten much sleep during the night.
"I made you breakfast." He said raising the tray for emphasis.
She moved back allowing him to enter the room. He walked over to her desk, removing one hand from the tray and bracing it against himself so that he could move her laptop out the way and sat her breakfast down.
All the while Bonnie didn't said anything and when he finally turned around it was to see her watching him. "So I gather he told you about last night...about what he did?"
She knew that Damon must have told him because she could see the sympathetic look in his eyes. He felt so bad for her that he even made her breakfast, bringing it to her room and he only did that when she or Jamie were sick in bed.
His lips thinned thinking about what his brother did to her. "Yeah, he did."
She nodded, lowering her eyes.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, knowing that she had to be freaked out by his brother's behavior.
She shrugged nonchalantly saying there was nothing to talk about, but he wasn't fooled by this. He watched as she came closer, inspecting the food.
Stefan wasn't going to let her play it off like she wasn't effected by what happened. "I know you're hurt... and probably angry too by what happened last night...but what I also know is that side of Damon has never been directed at you before and I know firsthand how frightening he can be."
She closed her eyes, shaking her head as the tears came. "He forced me to take his blood and then he threatened to turn me." She covered her face with her hands as she began to sob. "And for a moment I actually thought he was going to do it."
Stefan closed the small distance between them and wrapped his arms around her, causing her to sob even more because he'd been so standoffish with her lately and she didn't understand why.
His hand cradled the back of her head as he gently shushed her. "Listen to me okay Bonnie and this in no way is me trying excusing what my brother did to you last night...but what you have to understand is that Damon and I are vampires. We can go forever without feeling, but when we allow ourselves to open up, to feel and care, that can be both a good and a dangerous thing."
She pulled back to look at him, wiping the tears from underneath her eyes.
He continued, gently placing his hands on her shoulders. "It's good because we are allowing what's left of our humanity to show...but it can also be very dangerous because when we become hurt our emotions are more heightened than ever before and that can lead us to do unpredictable things.
"And last night, Damon's fear of you possibly hating what he is caused him to lashed out because he can't change that about himself and his thinking probably was that if he couldn't change himself then he could certainly change you." He paused allowing that to sink in before continuing. "Yes, it's a twisted, fucked up way to think if you're not a vampire, but it's the reality of the situation you are in Bonnie."
Speechless was the only word to describe the teenager in that moment.
She moved, causing him to drop his hands from her shoulders. "That's a load of shit, Stefan and you know it!" She seethed lowly. "You mean to say that after all these many years being alive on this earth, you and Damon have zero self control and restraint when you're emotional…is that what you're telling me?"
Bonnie couldn't believe the bullshit he was spewing. Who was he trying to kid here?
She stepped back, briefly closing her eyes and holding up her hand while taking a calming deep breath. "You know what…I think you should leave."
Stefan was momentarily stunned, his jaw slightly dropping open. "But Bonnie…" He stuttered.
She cut him off, shaking her head. "No Stefan, I don't want to hear it…look, I know Damon's your brother so you've got to have his back, but I also thought that we were friends…" She stopped when her voice became thick with emotion and she turned away from him. "Please go."
He didn't move immediately, wanting to say so much to her but not finding the right words. And after a moment of staring at the back of her head, he finally spoke. "We are friends, Bonnie…and I'm sorry that I made you feel like we aren't…you'll never know how sorry." He sadly.
When she heard the door lightly click shut, Bonnie opened her eyes releasing the tears she'd been holding in. She angrily wiped her face. This was all just too much. She needed to get out of this fucking house before she went crazy. So walking to the closet, she opened the door grabbing her overnight bag and began packing some of her things.
Bonnie was heading towards her car when she felt a swish of air rush by her. She stopped, knowing that it wasn't a sudden pick up of wind, but the breeze of a fast moving vampire moving past her and sure enough there was Damon standing behind her car taking off the license plate so that she couldn't leave the house unless she walked.
He really was a class act.
She planned on staying at Matt's house for a few days to get her head together, since his mom and her boyfriend were on vacation and he had the house to himself. It was a good four miles from the boardinghouse. She could walk there. So without saying one word to Damon or even acknowledging him with a glance she proceeded to walk past him with the strap of her overnight bag firmly on her shoulder.
He was in front of her in no time.
Bonnie was able to stop herself before bumping into him. She took a couple of steps back to gain some space between them, but she still refused to look at him instead her eyes going to the right of him.
"Look, I know I fucked up last night but you leaving me isn't going to solve anything, in fact it will only make things worse, a lot worse. So let's just go back inside the house and talk things out, okay."
She shook her head. "No. I don't want to do that."
"And I don't want you to leave me, Bonnie. So now what?"
Her angry gaze swiftly swung to him. "After what you did last night, I honestly don't give a damn what you want Damon. So I suggest you let me leave. I'll be at Matt's place for a few days and when I'm ready we'll talk but not a moment sooner."
A tiny tick began to drum in his left jaw.
She saw it, knowing what that meant. Damon was quickly losing his patience.
He watched as she looked down and began opening her bag by pulling down the zipper and when she reached inside and pulled out what looked to be some sort of wooden stake he's blue eyes widened in disbelief.
"Just in case you're feeling froggy and want to leap." She explained.
"So you're going to kill me?"
"You threatened my life first, remember?"
Bonnie wasn't playing around. Her face was serious as hell and in that moment, Damon knew that she would stake him if he ever came at her again like he did last night.
She was made of tough stuff and that's why he loved her so fucking much.
"Two days Bonnie and that's all the space you're gonna get from me and if you're not back here in exactly 48 hours I will come get you."
Nothing but the birds chirping in the trees could be heard as they silently stared at each another. He then handed her back the license plate he'd taken off her car.
She reached out, taking it from his hand and without saying anything more Damon walked back towards the house.
And as she watched him leave, the gravity of her situation hit Bonnie Bennett like a ton of bricks and she never felt so young and out of her depth in her entire life.