My face freezes for a moment. He loves me? Stefan has just admitted that he loves me! I'm completely in shock. I have no idea what to say to him. Do I love him, I think I do. I have never been in love so I don't know what the feeling is like. Knowing that he loves me fills me with elation. It makes me feel…whole. He has been everything I have been waiting for in a man so far and I want to make this longer than just a month fling. I practically stay at his, we see each other everyday, I miss him when he is not around and I light up again when he is with me. Is this love? I hope it is because I have never felt this with anyone else I have been with. I have always wanted to be in love with a guy who loves me back. I have had a few of my ex's say that they love me to me but I have never felt a rush like this before. I have always felt awkward afterwards but this time I feel excellent. I don't know whether it is because of the night, the fact that Stefan and I have been so close lately or that I am immensely happy but I suck it up and say those three words I have always wanted to say to someone.
"I love you too." His face lights up and he grabs my face and kisses me with such force that I nearly fall over. Yes it is true. I love this man. I meant every word of that and I feel like my heart is swelling and getting bigger as if I was the grinch saving christmas all over again. I have finally reached it. This is what it is like to be in love. I try to stop myself from crying. It feels like this big weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I am free. It is not a burden now. I can happily admit that I love Stefan Salvatore. He parts us and rests his head on my forehead.
"We have to go back otherwise they will think that we are missing." Stefan says and I slightly pout. I didn't want to move from our little moment of heaven in the garden.
"Okay" I say as we walk back into the crowd to join Caroline and Matt. I stare at Caroline with a "Oh My God" look to her and she looks at me with a look of bewilderment. Not wanting to wait any longer, I excuse us both and grab her hand to pull her into the bathroom. We are both standing in the toilets next to the sink when my mouth goes on overdrive.
"Stefan just told me that he loves me" I say as quickly as I can. I needed to tell someone otherwise I would explode. Caroline's face is a look of wonder and amazement. "What did you say back?"
I take a pause before saying it "I told him that I loved him too and I meant it" I say beaming and blushing bright red
"Oh my God! That is amazing! Elena I'm so happy for you." She says hugging me tightly. I had finally got it off my chest. For the next ten minutes I went into detail about what had just happened. Caroline ooh'ed and aah'ed and even gasped when I told her about the kiss.
"That is amazing Elena. I am so happy for you and Stefan. I knew there was something special going on with you two." She said making me roll my eyes. Of course she knew. Nothing ever went past her. We spent another minute or two sorting out our makeup and left the bathroom to meet Damon walking past us.
"Caroline, Elena" Damon said politely. He was dressed all in black. Definitely not in fancy dress.
"Damon." said Caroline in a cold tone and excused herself. She never really warmed up to Damon since his quips about us being journalists when we first met.
"She doesn't like me does she." He said
"She didn't like that you made fun of our job." I say snarkily
"Oh come on it was only a joke. I never meant any harm by it."
"I'm sure you didn't" I said back as reassuringly as I could. If I was going to date Stefan then I had to be nice to Damon and I personally have no problem with him.
"So where is my brother?" He asks looking around the room to look for him.
"He is somewhere. I think he is in the corner over there." I say pointing out someone who looks like him.
"Okay. I'll talk to him later. You look amazing by the way Elena." He says with a little glare in his eye that I can't quite work out yet.
"Thanks. I would say the same to you but you're not exactly in fancy dress."
"Nah. I'm going for the villain look. Dressing up is not really my thing…well not that type anyway." He jokes making me laugh.
"Stefan is really lucky to have met you Elena you know that?" Damon says changing the subject. I look at him quizzically.
"He was very different before you. He was always in the papers as a player and yet in reality he was the one who always got hurt. It lost him his confidence so he dated more and more people who just wanted his money. He has completely changed since he met you and for that I thank you." He said to me with what looked like a genuine smile. Stefan wasn't a confident man? So who is the guy that I met in the restaurant when I interviewed him?
"Thank you. I never really realised that he wasn't that confident. When I first met him he was fine to me." I say trying to pry and get more information.
"That's just a front he has with all of the people he has interviews with. He always has his front on when we both talk to journalists. You and only one other person managed to break through to him and he shot her down after finding out all she wanted was a story from him" My mind flashes back to the night of our first date. He had told me that a journalist before had got with him but he found out from a camera in one of her buttons a few years ago. I really do hope that he doesn't think I'm going to do the same.
"I still can't believe that they did it. I promise I will never do the same thing with Stefan. I don't want him for a story." I say to Damon making sure that my honestly shines through to him.
He nods his head "Believe me I know that you do. You are completely different from her and the other girls that he has been with. I trust that you will keep your promise" His face suddenly turns very dark and he leans forward to me "Otherwise I will make sure that you will never work again. Stefan is my brother and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that he is happy. Got it?" I stare back at him in shock and in slight fear. His words are quite menacing and down right scary. I try to gather whatever back bone I have left to respond.
"Got it. Believe me you and I are on the same page when it comes to Stefan and his happiness." I say to him, making sure that I have direct eye contact to make my point clear. Brown eyes into blue, his face seems to lighten up as his mood changes again and smiles. "Good. See you later Elena" He says and walks away. I take a second to recover my breathe. What the hell was that about? He had just suddenly changed. I can understand him protecting his brother but threatening someone he knows that his brother is dating is surely taking it a step too far? I don't know and I don't think I honestly want to know. I calm myself down and I go to find Stefan. He is talking to a woman in a black A line dress with what looks like a black lace mask. Her and Stefan seem very cosy together and they seem like they have known each other for a while. I walk over to him before my mind wanders too far off a path I don't particularly want to face.
"And here she is" I hear Stefan say as he reaches an arm out to me hooking it around my waist. "Katherine, this is my girlfriend Elena." I smile and shake hands with her. My jealous side smirks in relief. Good he has mentioned me.
"Elena. It's lovely to meet you. Stefan was just mentioning about your job." She says to me. She doesn't seem too bad. "I bet you must get a lot of clients as of late."
I smile politely back at her. "Yes. Yes I do. Before I was in the papers, I actually was known to quite a few celebrities in the first place so it didn't exactly hinder my reputation." I explain. "I'm sorry, what is it you do?"
"Yes sorry I'm being very rude." Stefan interjects. "Elena this is Katherine and she is a journalist aswell. She is a freelance writer for a paper in London." My jealousy immediately calms down.
"Ah fantastic. How are you finding freelancing?" I ask curiously. Ever since Stefan mentioned to me about quitting my job, the subject got laid to rest but it still rested in my head as to whether I stayed in my job for no reason.
"It's not without it's difficulties. Although it does have it's merits aswell." I see her eyes shoot straight to Stefan and I see him shift uncomfortably. Something in my head is screaming to me bad signals but I let it go for now but stay alert.
"Have you run into Damon lately?" Stefan asks rather snarkily trying to change the subject. But this doesn't seem to lighten the mood at all.
Katherine's face loses all of it's colour but she attempts to keep herself composed. "I haven't seen him, but then again I'm not intending to."
Stefan looks at her warily "Please tell me you are not here to cause a scene Katherine. You and Damon are finished. You don't even need to be here." I turn to look at Stefan in shock.
Katherine catches my shocked face and scoffs. "I'm actually here to write a story for a paper Stefan. I'm surprised though."
"What's that?" Stefan asks
"I wasn't expecting you to be here, let alone actually talking to me like a relatively normal human being. You're normally more….. crass. Especially after what happened. I'm sure you've told Elena about our history"
Stefan stares back and scolds. "There was no point mentioning your past with Damon to Elena since you two are no longer together."
"I'm not talking about me and Damon Stefan." She purrs to him and raises her eyebrows suggestively making Stefan become very shifty. There was something that they were hiding. I suddenly caught the way that Katherine was looking lovingly at Stefan and he was looking back with what looks like hurt in his eyes and my face turns to stone.
"Excuse me?" I say looking judgementally at Stefan.
"That's right. I dated Damon and I dated your boyfriend too. Got a problem with that?" She retorts snarkily. Suddenly everything was coming together like a lightbulb in my head. Damon had dated a freelance journalist who I now know was Katherine and Stefan had also dated a journalist who wanted nothing more than a story from him. The girl who broke his heart. No it can't be the same person. It can't be the same girl both brothers had dated! Surely not! My mind was racing and my face had turned to shock. This is too messed up to be true. My breathe starts to hitch and I immediately excuse myself to get some air. I arrive outside and I am standing in the same place where not long ago Stefan and I had told each other that we love each other.