That night I slept on the sofa downstairs…. I say sleep….more like stare into oblivion for hours and watch the time slowly go by over thinking about our argument. As soon as Stefan gave me that ultimatum I left him standing at the base of the stairs and slammed the living room door effectively locking myself in. He didn't follow or call after me as I leant back on the door, slid down and cried for hours. I eventually fell asleep but I have no idea when. Luckily my alarm clock is on my phone and I wanted to be up the next day before Stefan had to go to work. I really don't know what to do about all of this. I don't want to leave Stefan or this house, but I don't want Rebekah and Katherine to effect our relationship so much that it goes like that anyway.

I walk into the kitchen that joins the living room that morning and I see Stefan sitting there as if he was waiting for me. His alarm doesn't go off for another hour so I just stand there in a mixture of silence and confusion as to why he is downstairs as he stares back at me. From the looks of things he got about as much sleep as I did. The bags on his eyes were huge, he looked barely conscious and there was a bottle of whiskey and a glass on the table keeping him company.

"Morning." I manage to say, gathering whatever pride I had left and walked to the counter to make myself a cup of tea.

"I thought you would come to bed last night." Stefan says slowly as if they were dragged from his mouth. He sounds tired and honestly those few words pull on my heart. Damn it why does this boy affect me so much!

"Well there is no point if the person that I share a bed with does not want me there." I spit at him. I had to make him hurt for what he did to me.

"….I never said that I didn't want you there." Seriously!? He really wants to go into technicals right now?

'You gave me an ultimatum Stefan. That's pretty much the same thing." I say thinking to myself. 'Don't break. Don't break.' when all I want to do is fall into his arms, melt into his embrace and joke about how much an arse he is and hear him say that we will work this all out. But my exhausted, angry side is still rather pissed and is having dibs on my vocal chords this morning.

"Elena…..I…." He says startled, but it seems he can't finish his sentence and just again stares at me as if there is pain in his eyes. I know he wants to apologise, but I am not going to spell it out for him. He is the one in the wrong and should accept that. "I missed you last night." It felt like a big knife had just cut across my heart right there and then, inside I was crying a river, my thoughts screaming for me to go over to him, but I knew that I had to stand up for myself and I kept my still face as I processed the words over and over again.

"I need a shower and I need to go to work." I say finishing the last of my cup of tea in one large swig and then walk into the bathroom upstairs. Once again I break down not caring if he hears me or not. I really want to fight for this man but he is giving me an ultimatum that I can't fulfil, while in the meantime I have his two supposed best female friends making me break up with him because one of them wants another chance with him, and above all he is completely oblivious to it. Do I really want a man like that? Of course not. He should hear my side of things and understand where I am coming from. Yes I have sounded and acted like a completely jealous girlfriend ever since I moved in, but I can't do anything about Rebekah. Katherine is surprisingly not my concern. She is preoccupied with Damon. The last I heard, them two were going on a date tomorrow night but Rebekah is the one that I can not stand. I hear a slam of the front door which pulls me out of my thoughts and it was like a light bulb going on in my head…That's it. I know what I need to do. If he wants an ultimatum, he can have his own.

Stefan POV

Work has been horrible today. The fight with Elena last night and this morning and also having to fight with so many cameras outside my house didn't help my mood. The cameras kept asking me how I was dealing with everything, but I had no idea what they meant. I walked towards the bedroom to hopefully find Elena. I really need to talk to her and apologise. I feel terrible about how things ended last night and I don't want to hurt her. I just….I just wish that she would try and make an effort with my friends more. That's all I want.

I get to the bedroom and I see a letter on my side of the bed addressed to me. I pick it up….it looks like Elena's handwriting. What's going on? I open up the letter and begin to read.

Dear Stefan

There are no words to describe how sorry I am for writing this letter to you but you were right. I didn't really give Rebekah and Katherine a chance and that is not fair on you but you need to know the truth but I am not ready to tell you yet. Let's just say that I am doing this out of the best for you and our relationship. I have decided to go away for a week so I can clear my head and think about what I really want from this relationship. I love you with all of my heart and I need you to know that but you are also right about one other thing. I am a jealous girlfriend, not because you have a friend that is a girl….but because you will not see my side of things when I tell you there is something wrong when it comes to them. I am sure they are wonderful people but they never gave me a reason to like them which you need to talk to them about not me. I understand that you will always back your friends up and I respect that, but you never listened to me and I realised that I was fighting a losing battle, so I have taken the cowards way out.

This means that I am not coming with you to the awards but I will be there as part of the paparazzi for my column. You will not see me before then and for that I am sorry. I need my space right now after last night and I need you to respect that. I could not bring myself to say this to you in person because otherwise I never would have left and I would still be stuck in the situation I am in now. It is not for you to know yet and I hope that you will understand why I did this if I tell you eventually. Never the less I have tried to tell you but my attempts have fail. If you want 'us' to continue I will talk to you at the awards show. If not, then I understand and I will move my stuff within the next two weeks. You were very observant last night….. I just wish you were as observant over the last few weeks.

Thank you for the most amazing couple of months. You have met your task. I now know what it is like to have been in love and for that you will always have a place in my heart. You showed me what is was like to believe in fairytales.

I will love you always

Elena.

I drop the letter and I instantly move to her wardrobe and I notice some of her things are gone and one of her suitcases is missing. I run into the bathroom and most of her stuff is gone. No no no no this can not be happening! Last night was a fight. Just a stupid fight. This wasn't meant to happen. We were meant to argue and then talk about it in the morning. Not this! No I can't lose her. I need to find her.

:O What do you think to Elena's plan?! It was so hard writing that letter from Elena to Stefan I almost cried when I finished it! Please don't hate Stefan my dear readers - I know that I am writing him as a complete douche but there is a lot of manipulation and confusion caused from other people. This story is all about learning curves and Stefan is definately on the cusp of one. STELENA all the way! As much as I love Damon, I will always believe in the epic love of Stelena. Please don't hate me guys for this! I love you all and thank you so much for reading this and asking for more updates. They put a smile on my face everytime I read one :D I know this was a short chapter but a new chapter is coming next Wednesday! xxx