Heartlines ▹ Elena Gilbert [1]

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE
CONFRONTING A DEMON

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     Rowan studied herself in the mirror. She told herself that she was simply looking over her outfit, but the outfit she wore was barely anything worth looking over. Just sneakers, jeans, a white shirt, and a black jacket thrown over it. She pulled her hair over her shoulders and tried to ignore the necklace resting just below the hollow of her throat. When Elena had originally given it to her, she remembered feeling touched, but she also remembered thinking that it was the gaudiest thing she had ever seen. It was simple, and probably wouldn't have been noticed in big cities like New York or Chicago, but in her small town, people would see it as ostentatious. It would attract attention, and she knew that attracting attention was the last thing she needed.

She fiddled with the small blue stone thoughtfully, twisting it around and around before straightening the chain and starting all over again. It was an antique, something Stefan had dug out of his collection of family heirlooms. She wondered who the necklace had belonged to. A cousin? Stefan's mother? His fiancé, before Katherine came in and compelled her way into his head? Or had it been Katherine's? The thought made her frown, her hand falling away from the necklace. She didn't particularly mind wearing a piece of jewelry that had once belonged to Katherine—a daylight necklace was a daylight necklace, and she was grateful to be able to walk in the sun again—but it seemed like cruel irony to learn that she was wearing the necklace of a woman who had done this to her in the first place.

"Rowan!" She jumped, then winced when her mother's loud voice floated up the stairs. She was slowly learning how to control her enhanced hearing, learning how to tune things out, but she wasn't quite there yet. She scowled and rubbed at her temples as her mother continued. "A friend is here to see you!" Rowan frowned.

"Who is it?" she called down, cracking her door open and popping her head outside.

"Stefan Salvatore," her mother responded, and then Rowan heard her add, "Come in, come in. You're letting all the heat out." When Stefan responded, Rowan was surprised by how charming he sounded. He had always seemed so awkward around her. She jerked her door open wider and darted down the stairs, her footsteps loud in the otherwise quiet house. When she got down to the foyer, she saw that Stefan was smiling and laughing at something her mother was saying.

He had a cute smile, she realized, if someone was into that sort of thing.

"Alright, mom, I got him," Rowan said, smiling at her mother as she reached Stefan's side and wrapped her arms around one of his, tugging him toward the stairs. Her mother immediately zeroed in on the touch, and Rowan mentally cursed herself. Rowan had never had a boy over—she had never been interested, and save for some experimentation at parties and bonfires, she had never really had a boyfriend—so she often forgot how protective her parents actually were. They were lax on the rules because Rowan's therapist had told them that strict rules would just make her worse, but that only applied to so many things. Clearly, boys were something her mother wasn't going to be lax about.