DAMON
I never thought I would be happy to see Lexi in my fucking life. But after having to listen to Caroline's annoying chatter, even briefly, and knowing that she still hadn't gotten my crystal back from that little Bennett witch nearly made me lose control and rip her head off in front of everybody.
But it would do me no good to murder the daughter of the Sheriff. Unfortunately.
Not to mention what Dean would do to me if he found out.
Dean.
It always came back to him, didn't it?
I shook myself out of my thoughts as I finished off my drink and got up from the bar to go talk to Lexi.
"Where's my brother?" I asked, plastering on my default smirk as I sauntered towards the 350-year-old vampire.
"He said he would meet me here," Lexi replied, narrowing her eyes at me, seemingly not stopping and continuing on her way to the bar.
"Can I buy you a—" I started, even as she scoffed at me and walked off.
Well, so much for that.
But who cared? Soon her bitchy attitude wouldn't be a problem anymore.
* * *
STEFAN & ELENA
Elena opened the front door and immediately froze when she saw Stefan standing on the porch. "Oh. Hi," she said, shifting on her feet. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, Lexi said that you came by and you-you seemed upset," Stefan said, furrowing his brow slightly.
Elena stiffened and nodded her head curtly. "Right. The girl in the bath towel."
"Towel?" Stefan asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Uh-huh," Elena said knowingly.
The vampire creased his eyebrows as he tried to process through the confusion he felt until he realized what she was implying. "Oh. No, no. No, no, no, no. Um..." he chuckled lightly. "Not like that, no. She, uh, she's not exactly a girl. Lexi's, um, she's 350 years old."
Elena's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean she's a..."
Stefan nodded in affirmation, and said, "And she's my oldest friend. Nothing romantic. Ever."
Elena nodded in comprehension as she berated herself for jumping to conclusions. "Oh. Okay, well, she kept staring at me. It was weird," she said, stepping back from the doorway so that Stefan could come in.
"Well, you know," he stammered. "I've talked about you, a lot. So... guess she felt like she knew you."
Elena quirked her lips upward softly at hearing his words before they reverted back to a sullen frown. This reaction did not go unnoticed by the vampire as he took a tentative step forward, drawing nearer to Elena. "So is everything okay?" he inquired. "Why'd you come by?"
Elena brought her hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear while saying, "Nothing. It was a mistake."
Stefan exhaled deeply as he finally came to stand a foot apart from her. "Elena, talk to me."
"I can't," Elena huffed, crossing her arms and lowering her gaze to the floor. "That's the problem, Stefan. I'm keeping all these secrets from everyone. And had Sam and Dean not told Bonnie about everything before they told me, I wouldn't even be able to tell my best friend. And now Dean is gone and I can't even tell him how—"
"How what?" Stefan cajoled gently.
Elena let her head fall back against the wall with a light thud. "I can't even tell him how I feel about him. I can't tell him that even after everything I learned... I still love him. Do you know how hard that is?"
A sharp pain stabbed the inside of Stefan's eyes, as he fought back tears and his heart shriveled up inside his chest.
She loved him. She still loved him.
Of course, she did.
Why would he expect anything different?
It was always Dean after all. Whether it was Elena or Damon or Katherine.
It was always Dean.
"Yeah," he choked out. "Yeah, I know what that's like. More than you know."
"It's like I need to talk to someone but the only one I can talk to is... you, and..." she trailed off dejectedly. "I mean, I could talk to Sam or Bonnie, but they seem to be more in the dark about what Dean is going through than even I do. I just— I'm scared. Everything is changing and Dean hasn't been seen in days, and I don't know if I can keep up."
"I want you to know..." Stefan began, forcing the pain out of his voice as he spoke, "that I will always be here for you. You can come to me about anything, okay?"
Elena nodded somberly. "Well, thank you for coming by."
Realizing his presence was no longer wanted or needed, Stefan to his cue to leave. However, before he made it out of the door he stopped and turned back around with a hopeful smile on his face. "Hey, do you need a ride to the Grill tonight?" he asked casually.
Elena raised both her eyebrows as her eyes sparkled in amusement. "Are you going to Caroline's party?" she laughed.
Stefan rolled his eyes and smiled, saying, "Yeah. Lexi's dragging me. And, uh... it's my birthday."
Elena pushed herself off the wall and approached him. "Wow. Um, happy birthday, then," she said went back up to the door. "Actually, I, um... I think I'm gonna stay in tonight. Monitor the phones just in case Dean calls or something."
Stefan's smile lost a bit of its brightness, but still, he nodded in understanding. "Okay," he replied, backing out of the doorway. "Well, uh, have-have a good night."
Then he turned and walked back down the step of her porch as she closed the door softly behind him.