January 25th, 2014

While Bonnie had two best friends, she knew deep down that she had just naturally grown closer to Elena over the years. Despite them both being always there for her, somehow, Elena always got there first. Bonnie chalked it up to Elena's deep love—one not blunted by selfishness or jealousy.

She was fair, though, when it came to Caroline. She wasn't wrong to be jealous of Elena. The best example of why she was right was currently in action. Elena was there looking at Bonnie in concern, and Caroline was off doing who knows what. Elena was her best friend, even over Caroline, and something she knew hurt her blond friend.

"He's not a flirt!" Elena burst out suddenly.

Bonnie looked at her friend like she was crazy. "That's a huge reversal from the last time we talked about this. You said he charmed all the women and not to fall in love with him. You even said he wasn't capable of loving only one woman!"

Crap! Elena screamed in her head. She had completely forgotten about that conversation they had. Despite reviewing it in her diary, she had pushed it aside as ridiculous and concentrated on other facts. She had forgotten to consider that Bonnie had listened to her.

Elena said, "Well, you're dumb for listening to me!" She said, laughing to try to add humor to the situation. She had a whole lot of backpedaling to do. "I've been watching him more lately, and I think he's flirting with other women in front of you on purpose."

"Like he's in middle school?!" Bonnie said, scoffing.

Unable to help herself, Elena laughed. That was what she had said when Enzo admitted that to them years later. "They get older. They don't grow up," Elena replied.

"You said he would break my heart, and I think you were right. What's going on with you now?"

Elena realized that she would have to work to fix what she had unintentionally created in the past, and she knew that Bonnie and Enzo would not only marry but be amazing together.

She wanted to help it all happen faster this time. After all, she believed her honest but incorrect worries for her friend had delayed their falling in love. Yet she knew that backpedaling completely wouldn't happen right now. She had started, though, and that mattered to her.

Elena replied, "I recently realized I can be very wrong about important things, and I don't want to give you bad advice. I want you to be happy, that's all."

Bonnie cast her eyes to the floor, "A man that's that sexy is always trouble. He even has an accent!"

"True, but what if he's not trouble? What if I was wrong out of a misplaced concern for your heart? What if you could be amazing together?"

"He's a flirt," Bonnie said in response. "I can't trust that."

Elena nodded in agreement with her friend. Then, her next task was easy to discern; she would tell Enzo to cut it out. "For now," was all she said in response.

After Elena's conversation with Bonnie, she got in her car and drove to a motel just outside Mystic Falls. Once she arrived, she snapped a few pictures of Stefan and Caroline's cars parked around the back.

When she was about to drive away, she stopped, reversed, and almost exited her car. She desperately wanted to get out and key Stefan's car, but she then put the car in drive and left.

It wasn't time to lose her head and take out her anger on her shitty boyfriend. It was time to keep calm and work in the shadows. When she caught him and brought everything he did to light, she wanted him wholly blindsided.

She wasn't going to let her boyfriend off the hook, though. She drove to the Salvatore Boarding house and knocked on the door, smirking before the door opened.

When Damon opened the door, she tried to make her eyes look wider and incredibly innocent, and she said, "Is Stefan here?"

Damon opened the door to let her in and, as she walked in, said, "No, but make yourself at home. I can't imagine why he isn't home. Was he supposed to meet you somewhere?"

Elena shook her head and played dumb, "Nope! It's not like I told him I'd be coming by, either. It's not his fault."

Clenching his fist, he motioned for her to sit, and then he made himself a large glass of Bourbon. Once he had poured it, he asked, "Do you want anything?"

Elena stared at the drink and frowned. If she remembered correctly, she hadn't started drinking Bourbon yet. Still, she said, "Bourbon on the rocks." She didn't care if it surprised him. She needed a drink. Playing the role of the oblivious girlfriend pissed her off. Especially since Stefan was fucking Caroline in a rundown motel right now.

He turned and raised one eyebrow at her, "Back to being 'off brand' Elena?"

She smiled in response and nodded, "Are you saying Bourbon isn't a good drink?"

"Hell no!"

"Then figure that my taste is improving and move on."

Damon poured her a drink and handed it to her before retrieving his and sitting down across the living room from her. "See that package on the end table by you?"

Elena picked it up and chucked, "I see you wrapped it."

"How would you know?"

"Because it looks like a professional wrapped it. If Stefan wrapped this, it would look like it was done by a four-year-old on Redbull."

Damon laughed and pointed at the package. "That's from me."

Elena smiled at him and said, "I love being right." She then tore open the paper and added, "A leather journal with a tree of life on it. Interesting. You hated that black rose, didn't you?"

"The correct response, E-Lena, is to say 'Thank you.'"

She blushed and said, "Thank you, Damon." After setting the journal aside, she eyed her drink, picked it up, and then took a sip, savoring it. Once she swallowed, she said, "Hated my other journal?"

She knew she wouldn't abandon her "battle journal," the one that would outline her strategies and the eventual results of planning to trap Stefan, but she decided to use the one from Damon next. It would be good to have a new one to start the latest chapter of her life after Stefan.

"It didn't have puppies and bunnies on it. It felt off," he teased.

She pointed at her new journal with her drink hand and said, "That doesn't have puppies and bunnies either."

"I was kidding. You know what I meant."

Elena sipped her drink and then tried not to telegraph her next question. She wanted it to catch him off guard. "Should I write in it all about how my boyfriend's brother told me he loves me?"

She saw it startled him only because she had been watching very carefully. Noticing he quickly schooled his features, she listened to him say, "You can. What would come next, though? Will you write about how it got your panties wet?" he teased her.

He didn't disappoint. She knew she was working with a master, and his quick wit pleased her. "I don't generally lie in my journals, but since you bought it, I could write that if you ask nicely."

Damon smirked. "You're right. You shouldn't lie in your journal, but even more so, you shouldn't lie to yourself."

She raked her eyes over his body and watched him enjoy it. "Speaking of hot…" She paused dramatically and said, "Enzo's going about winning Bonnie over all wrong. If he wants her to date him anytime in the next, say… four years, he needs to stop flirting with anything that has a vagina."

Damon would later question why he didn't catch on at that moment or even get an inkling that Elena knew, but it was such a natural part of his life and something he knew to be true; he said, "I'll talk to him."

"If he hurts her-"

"You'll kill him," Damon finished for her.

She shook her head. "No. If he hurts her, he will ruin his life. Get him to grow up and stop acting like a player. I suspect that where Bonnie's concerned, he's not."

"He's not," Damon affirmed. He knew what a strong relationship Bonnie and Enzo had. It was intense at times observing how good they were for each other.

"Good." She then set down her drink and stood after grabbing the journal. "You're a generous pour. I shouldn't finish that and drive."

"You're leaving?"

She held up the journal and said, "I have to get home. I have lies to write." She then pretended to ponder a bit and added, "Like believing that you love me."

Damon leaned back in his chair, unconcerned. He had time, and he refused to be rushed into a mistake. "I already wrote a note to you on the first page. 'He loves me' is already written there."

She flipped open the journal and read what he had written:

Elena,

Your first writing prompt is "He loves me." I want five hundred words to describe how that makes you feel.

Damon

She shut the journal and looked over at him in surprise. "I could show this to Stefan."

"You won't."

Elena admitted he was right and that the old Elena wouldn't have either. She would have just tried to pretend that the situation would blow over. "I'm not writing about that!"

He smiled, took a big drink, and replied, "In my fantasies, you will. I look forward to thinking of that later in the shower."

"You're disgusting!" She objected without any real heat in her words.

"Keep telling yourself that," he said dismissively.

After she left, he crossed the room, poured her drink into his, and took a large swig. He would be patient, but that didn't mean he wouldn't enjoy the process.