Saturday, January 18th 2014

Elena grabbed her keys and reached the door as her phone rang. It was Caroline, and she knew she would try to confront her —again. Reluctantly answering, Elena held back a sigh as Caroline whined and asked, "E-lennnnaaa, please, can I go shopping with you? You said you were going out today."

After forcing a sweet tone, Elena replied, "I just need to buy a new journal. It's not like I'm clothing shopping."

"But we haven't hung out together in weeks. I'm beginning to feel like you're avoiding me," Caroline chastised.

Elena wanted to scream that she was avoiding Caroline since she was a rotten betrayer, and so was her husband. She mentally reminded herself that she had to be careful. At this point, he was her boyfriend, probably Caroline's, too, and slipping could be problematic.

Instead, Elena said, "Let's meet for lunch. I'll call Stefan and have him join us. How is noon at the grill?"

"Sounds perfect!" Caroline replied.

"Great, see you then," she then hung up quickly with a genuine smile on her face.

In the past weeks, she had made a decision. If Caroline wanted her husband and her life so badly, she could have it. She hoped they would be miserable together. After all, they were cheaters. She firmly believed they would both end up cheating on each other and destroy their lives. She just hoped she had sideline seats to watch the fallout.

And now, the plan was that she would be very late to lunch to try to push Stefan and Caroline together even faster. In the end, she was sure she wanted one thing out of all of this for sure: She wanted everyone to know he was cheating on her.

She knew how she was viewed in the small town of Mystic Falls. Caroline was very jealous of her, but she had reason to be. Sure, Caroline won all the pageants and was the head cheerleader, but Elena had the townspeople's hearts. Caroline was always expected to become just a trophy, but Elena was expected to make something big out of her life. Elena wanted to prove them right —this time.

"You already filled another journal?" Elena heard Damon ask across the room in the bookstore. She turned and saw him walking up to her, looking concerned. He had been doing that a lot the past two weeks.

She raised one eyebrow at him and held up the one she'd picked, "I have." The journal had a plain white cover with a black rose. When she found it, she thought it was perfect since black roses were associated with death, hatred, and revenge.

"Interesting," he said, eyeing the cover. "It's a bit off-brand for you, isn't it?"

She looked at the journal and frowned. Ever since she woke up ten years into the past, she felt angry all the time. He was right —it didn't fit with who Elena was in the past, but she wasn't that same girl anymore. She deflected a bit and asked, "Since when have you had a problem with the color black?"

Watching his face for a reaction, she realized her teasing hadn't worked. He frowned and said, "I'm not buying the journal. You are."

"You journal?" she tried teasing again. "Did you want this one? I could pick out a different one."

Damon sighed and said, "You're deflecting, Elena."

"I wasn't aware that I owed you an explanation. I'm dating your brother —not you."

Damon glowered and replied, "He doesn't deserve you."

Elena ultimately agreed with his assessment of their relationship. It was all going to come to an end, but before it did, everyone was going to know what an asshole he was. That and she was going to destroy his life as much as she could.

She said, "That's not your decision. I get to choose who I date."

"You do," he conceded. "But that doesn't mean you have good taste in men."

Later, after she had purchased the journal with the black rose on it and left the store, she searched her memory for Damon having ever criticized her relationship with Stefan in the past. She quickly conceded she couldn't remember, but that didn't mean anything. She figured his words stood out more now because she knew he was right.

Elena walked into the grill at 12:20. She was afraid to push it anymore, and in a small town, she couldn't convincingly say she was any further away when she noticed the time.

"You're late!" Caroline shouted out when Elena approached the table. Elena then watched closely and saw that Stefan must not have seen her come in, and Caroline's words were a warning. Seeing him scooting his chair a bit further away from Caroline amused her.

Elena sat down and set her purse on the seat behind her. It wasn't a cheap purse, and she didn't want to stretch the straps too badly on the hardwood chair. "Sorry, I started reading a book at the shop and lost track of time."

"Which book?" Stefan asked.

Elena grasped around for any book she could and said, "The Great Gatsby." She blushed, thinking about how telling of her mental space that was.

"Ugh! I hated that in high school!" Caroline fussed. "And that bit about the green light, how fucking boring!"

Elena forced herself not to laugh at Caoline's remark too much. It figured her friend wouldn't pick up on the green light, symbolizing the unattainable dream, especially when Caroline's unattainable dream was Elena's husband.

She did notice that Stefan was quick to side with Caroline, which gave her a sense of dark amusement. They had been aligned against her, even in front of her, so subtly all along. It wasn't something she had any reason to notice before. Yet, knowing the outcome sheds new light on everything.

Lunch, in the end, was a test of Elena's patience. Everything that involved either of them since she woke up in the past was.

Later that afternoon, Elena sat down with her diary and brainstormed ideas on how to catch Stefan and Caroline cheating. It couldn't be her directly. She needed an impartial party that would still be furious when they found out. Bonnie crossed her mind, but she wasn't sure she wanted to do that to her friend. It seemed awful to her to manipulate the one person she trusted anymore.

There was Damon, but she didn't know if everyone would believe him. It wasn't a secret that he and his brother didn't get along. Even after the death of the Father, who worked to drive a wedge between them, they hadn't reconciled.

She knew everything still needed a lot of planning on how to best execute her scheme.