Chapter 8

The first night without Damon wasn't so bad. Bonnie was still mad at him for his stupid stunt with the car, as well as the things he said afterwards, so she turned away from his side of the bed and forced herself not to think about him. She fell asleep a few times, but it never lasted more than an hour. Still, the lack of sleep didn't bother her because she was running on angry fumes and was determined not to miss him.

The second night was tougher, mostly because her anger had begun to wane and she started to think that maybe she had overreacted.

By the third night of being in bed alone, she was miserable. She hadn't been sleeping well, but more than that, she made the mistake of rolling onto Damon's side of the bed. His scent was still everywhere on the sheets and pillows. The smell of his Old Spice soap infiltrated her senses and made it impossible not to miss him. She threw his pillows off the bed and turned around, but the smell had already overcome her and she couldn't get away from it.

She groaned and threw the comforter off of her body. She went to the kitchen in the hopes of finding something that might help her sleep. She noticed that there was a faint light coming from underneath Caroline's door, and even though it was late, she knocked a few times. Caroline called for her to come in and when she did, she saw her roommate sitting cross-legged on her bed with a thick book in her lap.

"Hey," Caroline said with a tired smile. "What are you doing up? It's after midnight."

"I couldn't sleep," Bonnie sighed. "Studying?"

"Yeah. Organic chemistry test tomorrow and all of these symbols look like Russian to me."

"Oh, well I won't bug you."

"You're not bugging me. Come here. I need a break anyway."

Caroline closed her book and put it on the floor and she patted the bed. Bonnie climbed onto the bed and curled on her right side, while Caroline curled on her left and they giggled at each other.

"It's been a while since we did this," Bonnie said.

"I know. All this time as roommates and we haven't even had a real sleepover."

They smiled and Caroline folded a pillow under her head.

"So what's up?" she asked.

Bonnie hesitated, but then asked, "do you think I was too hard on Damon?"

"No," Caroline said, without any hesitation at all. "He was an idiot, and he deserved every word that you said to him. He didn't make it any better when he put his foot in his mouth, like he always does." When Bonnie responded with a slight nod and a kind of disappointed look on her face, Caroline continued. "But...I think he did all that stuff because he believes in you and thinks you can do anything. He just has a really dumb way of showing it. And besides, it's obvious that you miss him. You should call him and make up."

"I want to," she sighed. "But at the same time, I don't. He was such an asshole."

"That's Damon," Caroline said simply. "You signed up for asshole-y-ness when you became his best friend."

Bonnie noticed how she said "best friend" with a tinge of disgust. "I'm sorry, Care. I've been neglecting you. And Matt. I've been with Damon so much that I haven't been spending enough time with you."

"I'm not mad. It's just...you don't have to be with him all the time, you know? We haven't even caught up on 'Scandal' and you're missing this whole season."

"You're right. I'll make up with him but I promise to do better about making time for you, too, okay?"

Caroline half-smiled. "So, have you had any nightmares while he's been gone?"

"No, not really. But my bed feels empty."

"Well I'm sure if you call him, he'd be more than happy to hold you nice and tight while you sleep," she teased.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Don't start."

"What? I'm just saying...Bonnie and Damon, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N..." Before she could say the 'G,' Bonnie smacked her in the face with a pillow. Caroline laughed and Bonnie rolled out of the bed and told her good night. She had a little smile on her face when she returned to her room, and she tried again to get comfortable and go to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about Damon, though. She hated fighting with him and she was never good at holding grudges. So before she could talk herself out of it, she called him.

The phone rang a few times, and with every unanswered ring, Bonnie's stomach tightened. What if he was out doing something else? What if he was the one who was mad now and didn't answer? Her brain went off on a long chain of 'what if' questions before Damon finally answered.

"Hello?" he asked, sounding wide awake.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. I'm surprised you're calling me."

She slid down, nestling herself under the comforter, as she tried to think of something articulate to say. All she could come up with was, "I couldn't sleep."

"Nightmares?" he asked.

"No, no nightmares."

"Oh." She heard him move around before he asked, "then why are you calling?"

"Do I need a reason to call you?"

"Well, I thought after our last conversation, maybe we weren't friends anymore."

"Just because we have a fight, doesn't mean we're not friends. Fighting is what we do, remember?"

"You were pretty mad at me," he said in a sing-song voice that made her smile despite herself.

"Yeah. And I'm still mad at your tactics. But after a little reflection, I guess I know that you were only trying to help in your very dumb, very Damon-like way."

"I accept your apology."

"Excuse me?" she asked with a laugh. "I don't recall apologizing."

"You did, in your own very judgey, very Bonnie-like way." She smiled and for a moment, they fell into a comfortable silence over the phone. "I wouldn't hurt you. You know that, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do. But still, driving me off a cliff? Did you think that was going to end well?"

"I don't look before I leap, Bon-Bon. You know that about me."

"Can we at least agree that any future training sessions won't include surprise near-death experiences?"

"Sorry, can't make any promises. But at least now you're on notice that anything can happen when you're training with me."

"Gee, thanks for the heads up."

"So now that we're made up, is this officially a booty call?"

Bonnie snorted. "You wish."

"It's awfully late for a girl to be calling a guy unless there's some booty involved. I can come over if you want. I'm sure that bed is feeling pretty lonely without me."

"It is," she admitted, "but I actually wanted to talk to you about that, too. Maybe we should cut back on all the sleeping together stuff."

"What? Why? I let you hog the covers."

"Because I've been neglecting everything else. We've been so into our little cocoon that I've barely spent time with Caroline or Matt or done anything else not related to defending myself against Lily. And at least so far, I haven't had any nightmares, so it's not like we have to keep sleeping together. It was only supposed to last until I could keep her out of my head, and it seems like I'm doing that now."

"I guess that meditation worked," he said, sounding a lot less jovial than before.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Silence overtook the conversation again and Bonnie felt like she should say something else, but she wasn't sure what. She hoped Damon would save her from the awkwardness floating between them, but when the quiet just stretched on, she faked a yawn.

"It's late. I should go."

"Okay."

"I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah. Good night."

"Night."

She hung up and although she felt better since they weren't fighting anymore, she felt weird knowing that their sleeping arrangements had come to an end. She consoled herself by squeezing Damon's pillow and burying her nose in the scent. Pretending that it was him helped her drift off to sleep, but it didn't last long. She thought she heard knocking on a door, and then the sound of her phone chirping further woke her up. She blindly reached for the phone and saw a message from Damon.

i'm at ur door

Before Bonnie could really understand what was going on, she heard knocking again. She snapped out of her sleepy haze and threw the covers off, then hurried to the door to stop the knocking before it woke Caroline. She turned on the kitchen light and opened the door to find Damon standing there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice a little groggy.

"I don't think it's fair for you to cut me off cold turkey like this," he said. "Just because we don't have to sleep together doesn't mean I don't want to."

It took a minute for his words to sink in, and when they did, she smiled.

"Only you would say something so nice at such an ungodly hour."

"Are you gonna invite me in or what?"

"Get in here before you wake up Caroline."

She took his hand and dragged him inside. They went to her bedroom and shut the door, and in the dark, Bonnie felt her way underneath the covers again. She heard Damon moving around, taking off clothes, and then she felt his body weight dip the other side of the bed. She couldn't fight the elation she felt when he pulled her close to him, spoon-style, and he planted his nose in her neck.

"Mm, three days without this is too long," he groaned. He kissed her once on the neck and hugged her tightly.

"You're being awfully affectionate," she said, although she made no move to stop him.

"You can't tell me you didn't miss this," he said into her ear.

"I did, but it's late and we should go to sleep."

"How can I sleep when you smell this good?"

He kissed her neck again but it wasn't just a peck. He suctioned some of her skin into his mouth, and although his kisses didn't alarm her at first, her eyes widened when she felt a pulse of arousal shoot from her neck to her breasts and down in between her legs. She pulled away slightly and asked in the dark, "what are you doing?"

"Apologizing," he said, latching his mouth to her neck again.

Bonnie didn't know what to do, and her body reacted before her mind when he found a sensitive spot and bit it, and she rolled her neck to the side to give him easier access.

"This isn't good," she said. She meant to be stern but her voice sounded breathy.

"Feels good to me," he mumbled. "And you can't tell me you haven't thought about it." One hand found a sliver of skin and stroked it, which turned her on more than it should have. "All this sleeping together and you never once wondered what it would be like?"

Before she could answer sensibly, that same hand of his traveled underneath her shirt and palmed her breast. She knew it was a shame how her back arched and pushed it further into his hand, especially when she was trying to talk both of them out of whatever they were doing.

"No, I haven't," she lied.

"Your hard nipples tell me otherwise," he said as he resumed kissing and sucking her skin.

"You're grabbing my boob. What do you expect to happen?"

She yelped when he turned her onto her back and pressed himself in between her legs. She gulped, even though she couldn't see him, because she imagined what he must have looked like when he said, "I expect that if you didn't want this just like I do, you would have witchy woo-wooed me into a wall by now."

Bonnie had no comeback for that, because he was right. If she was thinking in her right mind, she would have tossed him out the window or at least slapped him. But she wasn't in her right mind. She hadn't been touched that way in so long that it was impossible to tell him to stop.

So she didn't stop him when he leaned down and kissed her. She had wondered fleetingly what kind of kisser he might be, and he certainly didn't disappoint. Although his lips and tongue started off cool, the more she kissed him in return, the warmer he got.

She didn't stop him when he tugged her T-shirt over her head and discarded it somewhere on the floor. She didn't stop him when his wet mouth connected with her breasts, and he pulled moan after moan from her lips.

And she definitely didn't stop him when his fingers slid underneath her shorts and panties and found a home in her wet center. It only took him a few strokes to learn exactly how and where she liked to be touched, and she was embarrassingly close to climaxing very soon into his efforts.

"Come for me," he whispered against her lips. "Come for me, Bonnie."

He whispered her name like some kind of sacred chant, and each time he said it, she got closer and closer, until...

"Bonnie!"

She snapped her eyes open, only to find that she was alone in her bed, fully clothed. She blinked a few times and saw a very concerned-looking Caroline standing in her bedroom door. She was about to ask what was going on, when she looked around and saw that every thing that hadn't been bolted down was floating several feet off the air, including the bed. As soon as Bonnie realized that she was causing the floating, everything crashed to the floor and she bounced harshly on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked, although she didn't move to come inside. "I heard you moaning like you were in pain."

Bonnie blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what was going on. "Is Damon here?" she asked.

Caroline frowned. "No. He hasn't been here since you uninvited him." She took a tentative step in. "I have my test this morning but if you need me to stay with you, I can compel the teacher into letting me take it later."

"No, no, no," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "I'm okay. You can go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. We'll talk later."

The blonde frowned but relented. "I'll call you when I leave class."

Bonnie waited until her roommate was out of the apartment before she fell onto her pillows and replayed the night. Had it all been a dream? It had felt so real, every second of it. Maybe Damon had left before Caroline woke up. She rolled over and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. The call history showed that she had called Damon at 12:41 and they talked for five minutes. But there was no text from him saying he was at her door. He hadn't come over after all.

And for some inexplicable reason, a part of her was disappointed.

...

The dreams didn't stop. Every night for the next few days, Bonnie dreamt of Damon in a more than friendly way. She didn't know how to make the thoughts stop, and they were slowly consuming her mind. She was thinking about it even while she and Caroline had lunch. Caroline was going on about something and Bonnie was trying her best to listen, but she was distracted when her phone rang and she saw Damon's name on the screen. Her stomach did something funny, and she hit the ignore button.

"Who's that?" Caroline wondered, happily munching away on a salad.

"Damon."

"And you ignored it? I thought you two made up."

"We did," she sighed.

"But?"

"But I know he's going to ask to come over and I'm not sure that's a good idea right now."

"Why not?"

Bonnie hesitated, even though she was bursting at the seams to tell someone. Caroline was not the ideal candidate for the situation, given her opinion about Bonnie's relationship with Damon, but she was really the only option.

"If I tell you, you have to swear not to make fun of me or make a big deal out of it," Bonnie said seriously.

"Okay..."

Bonnie held up her pinky. "It's the only way I know you'll keep the promise." Caroline groaned and rolled her eyes, but she wrapped her pinky around Bonnie's and they shook on it.

"Now spill," the vampire said, her eyes growing happy at the prospect of gossip.

"Well, ever since that night that Damon and I talked on the phone, I've kind of been having sex dreams about him." Caroline's eyes widened further. "I know, I know, it's not that serious," Bonnie said hurriedly. "I mean, I've had sex dreams about other friends before. But these aren't just dreams. They feel really, really...real. I guess I'm afraid that if he sleeps over, I might not have control in my sleep and I'll dry hump him or something and it'll be really awkward."

Caroline was quiet for a moment and Bonnie could tell that had they not pinky-sworn, she would have been having a field day. Instead, she calmly put her fork down and approached the situation very clinically.

"What exactly happens in these dreams?" she asked.

"It's usually the same build-up, you know? He'll come over and we'll get in the bed together. But instead of going to sleep, he'll start kissing me and stuff and then one thing leads to another. I mean, technically, we've never actually..." Bonnie waved her hand around.

"Banged," Caroline said.

"But he'll do other things and I'll get all worked up but I always wake up before I..." She waved her hand again.

"Come."

"And now I'm just so...ugh!"

"Horny."

"Yes!" Bonnie said with a frustrated sigh. She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Oh my God, this is so embarrassing."

"Hey, no, none of that." Caroline forcibly pried Bonnie's hands off of her face and gave her the stern look. "We are best friends, Damon be damned. I'm at least your best girl friend. If you can't tell me stuff like this, who can you tell?"

"I know, but you know I'm not good at...sex...stuff."

"Then it sounds like it's time for you to get good at it."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"The way I see it, you have three options. One, you can do nothing and let yourself get wound up so tight from these dreams that you accidentally set the apartment on fire in your sleep."

"Ha, ha," Bonnie said dryly.

"Two, you can put your fingers to work or invest in some sex toys."

Bonnie's cheeks flushed.

"Or three, you can ask Damon to give you the business."

"Noooo," she whined. "I don't want Damon to give me the business. I like my relationship with him just the way it is."

"Fine," Caroline said with a shrug. "Suit yourself. But you know he won't stop asking to come over, you'll give in, and then you're going to wake up riding him like a cowgirl. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I thought we pinky-swore not to make fun of me?"

"I'm not making fun, just stating the facts. But if you are going to do him, could you try to do it before May? Stefan and I made a bet and if I win, I get some really nice shoes."

"You did not!" Bonnie said, and she threw a fry at her.

"Would I ever lie about shoes?"

Bonnie threw more fries and Caroline threw some back. They broke into a full-on food fight and were in the middle of laughing and causing a big mess when Bonnie felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe you two could throw water on each other next and we can see your bras," Damon said with a dirty smile.

Bonnie hated the way that she suddenly felt nervous around him. "You're a pig."

"And you have ketchup on your face." He wiped it off her cheek and then sucked the ketchup off his finger. Bonnie's eyes immediately flew to Caroline, who was smiling smugly. She mouthed "shoes," and Bonnie threw her burger bun at her.

"Excuse me while I go to the ladies' room," Caroline said. "I'll let you guys catch up."

The girls stared at each other, silently communicating too much for Damon to keep up with.

"What was that about?" he asked, stealing one of the few fries remaining on Bonnie's plate.

"Girl stuff."

"Mm, and what's this about with you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you. We've talked every day."

"Yeah, and I've been a good boy and now I want you to invite me back in. A vamp gets lonely at night, you know."

Bonnie thought back to what Caroline had said. She knew well enough that Damon was not going to let it drop until they were snuggle partners again. She rationalized that maybe the dreams were only happening because she missed him, and if he was back in the picture, they would stop.

Somehow, she knew that wasn't the case, but she agreed anyway.

"Okay, tonight you can come over," she said.

"Perfect." He grinned. "See ya tonight, Judgey."