Visitation (Vampire Diaries) (Book Six)

Chapter 1__I'll Remember

I just wished that there was a way to go home. 

~~~~~~

Instead of spending another boring, lonely day at home, I decided to go to the game the next day.

I had needed to do something different than staring at the same old walls of my house that would never be my home. 

Standing in the crowd, I looked around in boredom, sitting on a bench, looking toward Alaric and Tyler.

Tyler bumped into Alaric. "Oh. Watch it, dick." He saw it was Alaric. "Whoa, sorry. Still working out the kinks of being human. My tolerance blows." 

Tyler took a sip of beer.

"Yeah, Tyler, not to play chaperone here, but are you sure somebody with your anger issues should be drinking at all this close to a full moon?" Alaric asked. 

"My issues are under control," Tyler told him. "Coach lets me practice with the football team. I get to kick ass in a controlled environment." 

"Till you get plastered and do something stupid and trigger your werewolf curse all over again," Alaric told him.

"Alaric, chill," Tyler told him. "It's under control." 

"Good," Alaric told him, taking the beer away from him. "But just in case..."

"Really?" Tyler asked.

Alaric took a drink. "You know, I haven't been buzzed since I came back to life. And saying that aloud while sober really freaks me out." 

Alaric chuckled.

Tyler looked toward me.

I looked away, taking a sip of beer, pretending that I wasn't listening in. 

Alaric followed Tyler's gaze to me. He chuckled, looking at Tyler. "As the only stober person here, trust me when I tell you this, Tyler. The girl is so not into you. Thanks for the beer." 

Alaric walked away.

I looked toward Tyler, realizing that he was looking toward me, standing, turning around, walking away.

~~~~~~

Later on, I saw a football player with a scraped, blood-stained elbow before the game even started. It was oozing blood. 

My eyes turned red, veins crawling underneath hungrily.

I closed my eyes, trying to force the urge out. I opened my now-normal eyes to see Tyler. I sighed. "Don't you ever get tired of doing that?" 

"Tired of saving you from yourself or teaching you control?" Tyler asked.

"Both," I answered.

Tyler shook his head. "Doesn't bother me." We started to walk away from the blood. "What brothers me is that Stefan abandoned you to learn how to be a vampire by yourself."

"At least I had you as a replacement," I said sarcastically.

"Look, you haven't killed a human being, not even when you were one," Tyler told me. "Why start now?" 

"Yeah, well, it wasn't for lack of trying," I told him. "It was because of you. Too bad I don't know of something just right to pay you back. Because, yeah, you were right yesterday. I do owe you big time."