A/N: Thank you for favoriting, following, and most importantly, reviewing MPH, guys! You rock.
I'm relieved that you weren't mad, but actually glad that Maya got some! ;) The road trip is officially over! Is Maya going to make it home safely? Let's find out, shall we? ;P Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines present in "My Paper Heart" are my own work.
When we finally arrived on my street, I got out and took a few steps away from the car. I turned around and bent down to look through the open window of the passenger side.
"May I take a breath now?" Damon asked in mock annoyance.
"You may," I chuckled before looking at him quietly for a moment. He broke the silence, a teasing smirk on his lips, obviously knowing what was on my mind.
"No need to thank me. I know already that I'm the best wingman anyone could wish for." I shook my head and laughed at his cockiness.
"Actually, you are," I admitted. "Thank you for taking me along with you. You did a wonderful job of taking my mind off things." I paused briefly to search his eyes. "And thank you for being my friend."
He gave me a gentle nod, confirming once more that the ambiguity between us had been cleared.
"Now go get your shower."
"Ugh...I've been dreaming about it for the entire past hour," I uttered throatily, rolling my eyes for theatrical effect. He laughed.
"I've noticed. Sweet dreams, Maya..." He winked at me playfully as I straightened myself up. I wished him good night and crossed the street as he drove away.
It happened when I put a foot on the opposite sidewalk. That nagging feeling prickling at the back of my neck—the one telling me that Katherine was around. I immediately turned my head to look after Damon's car, but he was too far away already.
I couldn't care less right now if she noticed that I felt her presence; I just wanted to get out of here. It was impossible for me to imagine this encounter ending in something other than a bloodbath. If she got a chance to sniff me, she would not be happy about the information that would give her.
I thought of running to Caroline's or Bonnie's house, but she would probably just chase me down. And she was a lot faster than I was. Damn it.
I urgently ransacked my backpack and almost sighed in relief when my hand touched wood. I pulled the stake out quickly and shoved it in the back of my shorts, my outfit not allowing me to use the wrist weapons. I put my bag on my shoulder again before she could see me, careful to hang it on the opposite side of the hidden stake.
"Well, well, well...look who's here. And in one piece." Katherine appeared on my porch, at the end of the walkway I hadn't set foot on yet. She seemed to be in a good mood, but I didn't really pay attention to her greeting. I was too busy trying to decipher which way the wind was blowing. I was also scrutinizing the front of my house, the flower beds and the porch in hopes of finding a way to bypass her quickly and lock myself safely inside. Her next words, however, snapped me out of it.
"Where have you been?" she inquired lightly but with a clearly demanding undertone.
"I believe it's none of your business." I was careful to keep my voice casual to hide my restlessness, knowing that I was dealing with a five hundred year old moody vampire.
"Is it not?" She faked innocent surprise, but there was warning in her eyes. "I thought we had a deal. Oh, wait...let me rephrase. You imposed rules on me, but you're not keeping your end of the bargain."
I forced a deep frown on my face, pretending to be confused by her thorny attitude.
"I didn't get any letters..."
"I left one at your door this morning."
"I never got it," I said warily, expecting her not to believe me.
"I know." She raised her arm and flipped the letter around, waving it between two of her fingers. I could have sworn that her hands were empty two seconds ago.
"When you didn't show up, I checked your house. No sound. And the letter was still on your handle..." She started to slowly walk down the few steps of my porch, causing a wave of heat to crash over me. I needed to find a way to keep the distance between us, and fast.
"But since you hadn't missed a date so far, I went to your school to see for myself if you had the nerve to stand me up." She flashed dangerous eyes at me, daring me to even try. If it wasn't for her dark glare and my current state of nervousness, I would have corrected her about her stubborn use of the word date.
"Imagine my surprise when I heard your little brats worrying about your absence and accusing me of all sorts of awful intentions..." She crossed her arms and raised her shoulders in mock offense, amplifying the curve of her collarbones.
"And to think that for once, you had nothing to do with it," I said in a sarcastic tone. I was acting a lot more confident that I actually was, stalling for time to find a way out. She giggled at my comment and started to walk towards me again. I instinctively walked backwards. I froze and stopped a crazy snort from coming out just in time. That was my plan? Taking a step back every time she took a step forward? I needed to say something that would make her halt. Hopefully, leave.
"Don't tell me you were worried about me," I mocked dryly. I was hoping that implying she was showing hints of some kind of feelings would make her flee. Unfortunately for me, she remained completely unfazed.
"Of course I was. Tonight is the night you're wallowing yourself willingly in depraved sex with me. How can that happen if you're missing, hmm?" She said it with so much confidence that it left me dumbstruck. It didn't last long though, because I noticed sudden anger flashing in her dark eyes. Fuck. A cruel smirk stretched her lips, her aura oozing coldness, and before I could do anything she sped in front of me.
"Where were you?" she drawled dangerously. I swallowed hard and slid my hand discreetly in my back pocket, a few inches away of the stake hidden in my waistband. There was a big chance that playing dumb would piss her off even more, but I needed to handle this conversation very carefully.
"Just on a road trip with Damon," I answered after clearing my throat. She raised a skeptical eyebrow, her intense look burning holes in my skull.
"Did Damon pimp his Chevrolet into a strip club?"
"What?"
"Oh, I don't think you want to play this little game with me, Maya," she warned, taking a bouncing step forward to stand only a few inches from me.
"I'm—" I clenched my jaw tightly to keep my pride from hurling a snarky comment. I took a mental breath and spoke again. "It was just a nightclub. Nothing fancy." I forced a smile on my lips as an attempt to ease the heavy tension around us.
"No? And yet, your body says otherwise..." She leaned closer and placed her mouth next to my ear, making all my muscles tense instantly. I reached up to wrap my hand around the stake. "Who is she?" she whispered huskily, her breath fanning my hair.
"I don't know who you're talking about," I managed to mumble.
"I'm talking about the slutty owner of this." I gasped as I felt fabric moving out of the front pocket of my jean shorts. She took a step backwards to expose the piece of lingerie hanging on the tip of her finger. Shit. I had completely forgotten that Spencer had shoved it in there.
"Should I check to see if you're still wearing yours?" she continued, mischief laced with bitterness in her voice. And just like that, I watched my ready-to-use excuse "it's mine" flying away. I opened my mouth, but closed it again when no sound came out. I wasn't sure what this conversation was ultimately about. Suddenly, I felt my blood boiling inside. I had had enough of this charade she was forcing on me for way too long.
"So what?" I barked, snatching the lacy panties from her hand.
"So what?" she repeated in disbelief, dropping her arm back down.
"It's not like you have anything to say about it. What I do with my...life is my business! Not yours!" I was doing my very best to keep myself from stomping closer to her and pointing a furious finger in her face.
"Oh, no?" Her eyes lowered to slits. "You wanted to be wooed, and I diligently complied. Yet, you've been denying me for two months now before suddenly deciding to fuck a perfect stranger? What happened to 'I need to be attracted to more than just a body'?" she sneered, contempt twisting her face.
"I wanted to be...you diligently complied? I can't believe this!" I shouted, my voice getting higher with anger. "First of all, she had more qualities than just a stunning body!" I purposely used the flattering word to rub it in. "Second, I never wanted you to do anything! I kept repeating over and over again that I was not interested! I never wanted to have anything to do with you to begin with." At this point, I was literally yelling at her, but I was not quite done yet.
"You're pissed only because you lost at your own little game...you didn't get to hit the jackpot. That must cut deep into your pride, huh?" I was releasing the frustration and anger that had built up the past couple of months, preventing me from being even remotely cautious. "You're acting jealous not because you care about me even a tiny bit, but because all you see in me is your personal doll! You're just a spoiled brat who doesn't like to share her toys. God, you're so fucked up..." I took a few steps backward, feeling nothing but disdain and bitter disappointment toward her.
Realizing suddenly what I had just said to her, I tightened my grip around the stake, pretty sure she was about to kill me. But she didn't move. She seemed to need some time to let what I had stuffed down her throat sink in. Many different emotions passed over her face, most of them too quickly to allow me to decipher them. One, though, was extremely easy to identify.
"You never wanted to have anything to do with me?" she finally asked, breaking the dreadful silence. "So you never enjoyed our conversations? You didn't forbid Damon and Stefan to try to kill me? That would've saved you from the hell I apparently put you through." Her voice was calm, but I could hear the building tension underneath its smoothness. I could literally sense her wrath oozing out of her body, even from where I was standing.
"I believe I never forced you to miss me, just like I never forced that arousal you feel every time your skin brushes past mine..." She walked toward me to close the distance between us, like a lioness on the verge of a massacre. The deliberate slowness of her pace made her even more terrifying. I moved one of my feet to gain better support and bent forward slightly, bracing myself to fight back.
"You're such a hypocrite," she hissed, her darkened eyes burning with icy fire. "You think you love her, but she's just the inaccessible, safer choice because you, little girl, are too damn scared to stand on your own two feet!"
"Let me guess. You're the better choice?" I sneered, my voice unrecognizable from the rage her barb about Elena provoked deep inside me.
"She's not the one for you! She'll never be able to give you what you need." Her cold, calm mask cracked, passion now freely fueling her wrath. I never felt so small in my entire life.
"You're adventurous, Maya. You thrive on adrenaline…and you're too subtly complex for her to comprehend." She leaned so close that only a couple of inches separated our bodies. "But most of all, that...wildness running through your veins, so powerfully. She'll never accept it. She'll just try to tame it. And that's not what you want, is it? That's why you're so attracted to me."
She challenged me to say otherwise with a deadly look. I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. My nails were digging into the skin of my palm, my knuckles turning white around the stake. I wanted to yell in her face that she didn't know a thing about me. I wanted to beat the crap out of her for those words that had cut so deep that I was physically in pain. She had no right to pretend she had figured me out. But the memory of that night on my porch, when she strangled me against my door, flashed through my mind and prevented me from doing anything stupid.
"And yet, your fear...your denial keeps you from going after what you long for. To be who you really are. Maybe I'm the broken one, but you're the only one who needs saving."Her voice was steady, deep and so intense it was almost unbearable. It made me snap beyond the breaking point.
"And you're the one who's going to save me?" I yelled so loudly that my voice rang in my own ears, rage dripping from my every word and gesture. "I thought you just wanted to fuck me!" She moved so fast that I gasped in shock. Her nose was brushing against mine, her hot breath fanning my lips. Her dark eyes were boring into the most hidden depths of my soul, sending shivers of tremendous fear down my spine. There was a real raw emotion shimmering in them, and I knew instinctively that it was rooted in the most ancient part of her. This emotion felt like it was channeling every excruciating feeling, every barbaric occurrence of her existence. And I realized I was going to die.
I pulled at the stake hidden in my shorts, aiming for her heart. But I didn't get the chance to even remove it completely from my waistband. Her flat hand was hovering over my elbow, effectively stopping my movement. Eyes still locked intensely on mine, she seemed to deliberately avoid physical contact.
"I would suggest that you keep that in your pocket," she rasped with tension. I didn't let go of the stake, but didn't make a move to use it either. We both stayed frozen in this position for what seemed like an eternity, deeply aware that each of our inner turmoil would determine what would happen next. Then she finally moved back. She bypassed me slowly without another word, her heels clicking on the concrete a few times before I heard a rush of air behind me.
I took a deep, urgent breath, my eyes closed in relief. My body slumped instantly, finally free from all the agonizing tension. After a moment, I turned around with wide eyes. I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that I was still alive. I looked downward at my chest, checking for any kind of injury. Just to be sure. I stayed a little longer in a numb haze, staring into space until I finally came back to my senses and locked myself inside my house.
I leaned back against my front door and sighed heavily. I couldn't believe that she had destroyed everything once more, in barely ten minutes. I ran a hand through my hair and gritted my teeth. No! I was not going to let her ruin all the fun and the wonderful moments of the day. It wouldn't be fair to Damon. It wouldn't be fair to me after all I'd been through.
I pushed away from the door, determined to erase every single second of this encounter with Katherine from my head. I went upstairs, replaying all the funny and sexy moments of my road trip with Damon, over and over again, letting the memories fill me with comfort.
When I finally slipped into bed, I had a relaxed, happy smile on my lips.