Hello my fabulous readers, I know some of the chapters has been a little short, but this is not one of those.
Enjoy! ;-D
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Damon had made plans for us to meet Stefan and Elena at the Grill and had driven us there in his pale blue Chevy.
"It's time to show these people how a real city-girl parties," Lisa said cocky and crocked her arm in mine, dragging me inside. I shot one apologetic look at Damon who just smiled at me. Lisa scanned the room and walked up to the bar. I noticed Damon sitting down on the other side of the bar, with his eyes on me.
Maybe he didn't want to cramp our style... City girls and all that...
"I'd like a drink for me and my friend."
"I'm gonna have to see some id:s," he said.
Dammit! We were still underage.
Lisa pouted. "I thought it would be easy down here on the countryside." There it was; that puppy dog face she used to get what she wanted. This didn't seem to have the slightest effect on the bartender though.
I notice in the corner of my eye how Damon gestured, apparently to say something to the bartender. Too busy trying to cheer up my friend; I lost my eye-contact with him until the bartender put down two shot glasses in front of us.
"Compliments from the gentleman over there," the bartender said and gestured to Damon who raised his glass towards us and then came over to sit next to Lisa.
"Why thank you Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome," I said with a flirty smile to him.
"Oh, I'm not that tall," he retorted in his cocky way.
Lisa apparently felt the need to interrupt us. "So Damon, why don't you have a girlfriend?"
"I'm staying away from women for the moment," he said. "It's in the best interest of women everywhere." He had a somewhat distant expression on his face and I wondered why.
His answer surprised me; in fact the whole question surprised me. I hadn't even thought about him with some girl. I was still watching him as he talked to Lisa who seemed to be smitten by him just as I was, when somebody came up to me from behind.
"Hi beautiful, are you waiting for me?" I got a kiss on the cheek when Tyler closed in on me.
I instantly felt someone staring and I turned my head to find a curious look from Lisa and a glum one from Damon. What? Why? Oh, yeah, didn't he say something about raging issues; well I wonder who is enraged now?
Both guys shared a look I couldn't interpret but it was not friendly.
Lisa and I had a few shots before Stefan and Elena showed up, and after that she and I decided to play pool in our slightly tipsy state. I wasn't sure Lisa had ever seen a pool table before and I showed her what she was supposed to do.
It didn't take long for Tyler to join us. "Oh good, Lisa is going to need some help," I said relieved and he offered to help her.
Suddenly I felt Damon at my side. "Isn't it wrong when they are two and you are here all by your own?" He had his usual glib expression and I noticed Tyler wasn't too keen on having Damon by my side. I looked around in the Grill and noticed Stefan and Elena sitting with a few friends in a booth, they seemed to have fun together, not paying any attention on us.
We played a few turns and I noticed the guys were quite competitive. When Tyler took his turn getting us drinks I asked Damon. "So what's the thing between you and Tyler; another boyfriend?" I dared him in a whispering voice.
"That mutt," he spat out and stepped real close to me. "I thought I told you I like girls," he whispered, smiling, staring at me with those gorgeous blue eyes.
"And yet you don't have a girlfriend..."
He tilted his head to the side. "Yes, I wonder why?" he mused with his eyes locked to mine.
"Excuse me?!" Lisa interrupted, gesturing with the pool cue straight towards Damon's chest. He grabbed it in a split second, making me jump in surprise.
"Don't want to ruin the shirt," he muttered and I swear I heard Tyler snicker over by the bar.
We kept playing another few rounds and the competition between the two guys was getting worse and worse. They were just inches from pure hatred and that was the time Lisa and I had enough.
"You guys have a great time; we girls are going home now." We turned on our heels and walked, not in a perfect straight line, but still towards the door. On our way I noticed that Stefan and Elena had left.
When we got out, both Tyler and Damon were already there. How the hell could they manage that? We must have been more drunk than I thought.
"I've got this, mongrel! You go inside again; I'll take care of the girls," he said with a smirk.
"Sure you will, Jaws!"
They were actually starting a fight, buffing up and walking around all cocky like two big lions taking aim and staking claims.
"Knock it off guys!" I slurred a bit and went in between them with a hand on Damon's chest.
He looked down on my hand. "Are you trying to feel me up now?" His smile was gone and he looked challenging at me with a crocked eyebrow and his lips pressed hard together.
I removed it fast. "I said knock it off!" I did my best to use my authoritarian voice and I felt sober all of a sudden. "Tyler, I'll see you in school; Damon, you're coming with me." I took him by the arm and dragged him towards the car. "Are you sober enough to drive, or do I have to call your brother?" I glared at him. "Or perhaps we should just walk home."
"I'm certainly not sober enough to drive." Lisa giggled while Damon was still glaring at me.
"Get in the car; you will not walk home in the middle of the night. God knows what's out there." He muttered and Tyler snickered again.
What was with the two of them?
* * * * *
Waking up with a hangover was not something I had done since I moved here, but this morning I really made up for it. Even Angels purring was painful I realised when I woke up with him in my bed. With a moan I stumbled downstairs desperate to find some aspirins.
"Good morning," Damon said with a smirk.
"No; bad morning..." I muttered and walked carefully to the kitchen and found the can of aspirin, swallowed two of them and gulped down a whole bottle of water.
"Didn't you drink enough last night," he teased, but I only glared at him and left the kitchen without a word.
"Emilia!" I heard a hissing voice when I walked past Lisa's open door; I think she intended it to be a yell, but it came out as nothing more than a hiss. "Aspirin?"
I snickered and regretted it immediately as I felt my head pound. I nodded, and regretted that too. I went back downstairs and met Damon in the parlour; he held the can of aspirin out and two bottles of water.
How did he know? Okay, he saw the shape I was in and it didn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out that Lisa was in the same shape as I was. With just a grateful smile I took the aspirins and got back up to Lisa, handed her the pills and one of the water bottles and then I plopped, no I carefully laid down beside her on the bed. She pulled the cover over us and we did our best to go back to sleep.
After another couple of hours sleep we felt better and could actually even laugh and talk about what had happened the night before. We got in the shower, well not together of course, but it felt so good and when I met Damon downstairs everything felt better.
"Whoa, she's alive!" he said sarcastic, waving his hands in the air but I just smiled at him. "A little girl-snuggle did the trick," he added quietly in almost a seductive tone.
"Are you stalking me?" I said looking wickedly at him.
He looked at me with almost the same expression, but then he shrugged. "No I just passed Lisa's room and you looked cute." His glittering eyes made my stomach clench.
I snickered to hide it before I went to the kitchen for breakfast, or brunch to Lisa and myself.
Finally showered, fed and dressed we wanted to go to the mall and asked Damon if he wanted to take us, or if we could borrow his car.
"You are going to need a car of your own if the two of you are running around in Mystic Falls," Stefan said.
"Sure, but..."
"I can't drive you all the time," Damon cut in. "People to see, places to go to..."
"I know, I'm sorry but..."
"So we bought you one."
I just blinked. "What did you say?"
"Here!" Damon threw me a set of keys. "Have fun," they said and left us.
We stood there, just staring at the key and each other for a while.
"What are you waiting for? Come on let's check it out!" Lisa yelled, almost more excited than me.
Out on the driveway was a little black sports car parked. I stood by the door absolutely dumbfounded, looking at the car that looked brand new. My eyes were welling up and I felt like a fool; they couldn't go around and buy me cars. I walked closer to it and peeked inside it and it looked brand new. I had never been good at car models, but I could see in the front there was an H like in Honda and on the back I could read CR-Z.
"Damon and Stefan get out here!" I yelled, suddenly almost mad. They had probably been standing just inside the door, because they joined us in a flash. "What is this?! You can't go around buying me cars!" I yelled.
They looked surprised at me. "We won't buy you more than this one," Stefan said teasingly.
"You know what I mean! This is a brand new car; it must have cost a fortune!" I didn't move here for them to spend all of their money on me.
"Don't worry, we're not bankrupt yet, and we want you to have it." Damon came over and gave me a comforting hug.
"Really?" My tears were flowing freely by now.
"Em, we want you to have it!" Stefan was also by my side and I hugged him as well. "You're gonna have to work harder to leave us bankrupt," he said convincingly in a low voice.
"Really?" I couldn't believe my luck. "You promise?" and they nodded. My tears finally stopped flowing and a smile started to spread in my face instead. I turned my attention at the incredibly cool car again, made a squeal and clapped my hands in a way I would never admit if anyone asked me. When I opened the door I noticed it had only two seats and in the back there were a huge cargo area.
"Wow, it's a shopping-car!" Lisa exclaimed as she jumped in on the seat next to me. I just laughed.
Suddenly I jumped out and hugged the brothers again. "You're the best family a poor orphan girl can have!" I skipped back to the car, jumped in and started it. It was apparently a hybrid car that ran on both fuel and electricity the guys told me. Lisa and I took it for a test drive.
"I can't believe my luck; have I died and gone to heaven? These guys are so sweet; they would never harm anybody," I rambled on and on and Lisa laughed with me.
In the following few days I did my best to show Lisa Mystic Falls. I showed her around my school and we went on a shopping streak.
"It's a little funny name for a town. What's the mystery?" she wanted to know.
"We have mysteriously many hot guys here," I answered, wiggling my eyebrows making us laugh.
* * * * *
A few days later Lisa and I had arranged a video-night. We had popped popcorn and put the film in the DVD-player, we were going to see Twilight; again.
Damon strolled in, plopped down on the couch next to me and grabbed a handful of popcorn. "What are you watching?" He put his arm on the backrest behind me and I felt safe as always in his presence; safe and a little jittery.
"Twilight; it's a vampire movie." Lisa explained.
He started to cough a bit, like he was choking on the popcorn. "Really? Vampires?!"
"Yes, you can hold my hand if you're scared," I said a bit provocative and he looked at me with a glib expression.
Oh, I was so going to pay for that later.
He sat back, really settling in, to watch intensely. He made a few remarks and grunted several times. "Lei non é a bella..." he muttered in Italian and I snickered a bit at his glum tone.
"Bella is just her name..." I whispered back. "It has nothing to do if she's beautiful or not," I giggled and he made a face and drew me closer with the arm that was now around my shoulders. I didn't object, just revelled in the butterfly-feeling in my stomach.
Stefan and Elena walked into the lounge.
"Oh do sit down. This is Twilight, it's about vampires." Damon emphasized every word with a weird look at his brother and Elena.
"Yes I promised Damon he could hold me if he got scared," I told them which made him tickle me and I squirmed, giggling in his grip.
"I think I could scare you if I wanted to..." he dared me and Elena looked a little horrified at him. He rolled his eyes at her. Stefan and Elena sat down and we continued to watch together.
Suddenly Damon started to laugh. "Oh, come on, this is so unrealistic!"
Lisa and I just stared at him. "It's supposed to be unrealistic! It's not like there really are vampires out here..." I informed him with a smirk.
His smile disappeared in an instant. "Of course not; but what if there were?"
"Then they would most certainly not sparkle..." I heard Stefan mutter and Elena nudged him in the side.
Why were they acting so strange?
I had noticed Elena's looks every time Damon was too close to me, but this whole situation was really puzzling me. Was it jealousy; no it couldn't be, could it? Lisa on the other hand was totally absorbed in our favourite movie and hadn't noticed anything.
I thought my paranoia had stopped, but here it was creeping in on me again. Here was something going on...
Had Elena and Damon had something going on? What had Stefan thought about it, or wasn't he aware of it?
* * * * *
There was this party in town; Damon said something about the founding families and our ancestors being one of them. He explained that he was one of the members in some committee or counsel and he asked if Lisa and I wanted to come.
We were of course exited and had got ourselves an appointment with the hairdresser together with Elena. First we had gone dress-shopping because Elena had explained that it was in fact a ball so we were supposed to wear gowns and we had found some exclusive dresses. Elena's was black and tan with a huge skirt, while Lisa's and mine were more slimming, but with billowing skirts which felt like walking on a cloud. I chose a black one, shimmering in silver and Lisa found a pink sweetheart dress with an asymmetrical hemline.
I was a bit blown away at first, not too big fan of the rich and famous, but Elena explained that Caroline was gonna be there and that it was held at Tyler's house. Tyler's mom was apparently the mayor of this town and she was a friend of Damon's since he was in the founding committee.
We girls had a good time on our own with the shopping, with Elena having all the knowledge and Lisa all her money; we had no problem with dressing for the occasion.
We took Elena's car to her house were we squeezed into our gowns and helped each other with the make-up.
Both Elena and Lisa was so amazingly beautiful I was really jealous, but when they led me to a mirror where I could see myself, I was actually blown away. I hardly believed it was really me standing there; me the little emo-orphan. I felt like Cinderella.
There was a knock on the door and Elena got down and opened it to let Stefan and Damon in. They were there to escort us to the ball. I was a little nervous, not having been in a situation like this before and had to check myself in the mirror once again.
"Emilia, get down here or we will leave without you!" I heard in Damon's voice that he was not really in a good mood, but he tried to hide it with the teasing.
It was in fact a little strange how well I had got to know them all over these few weeks. "I'm coming!" I yelled, grabbed my clutch and walked carefully down the stairs in my high heels. Both brothers gaped when they saw me.
"Sei molto bella!" Damon breathed and I blushed. Never had he said I was beautiful before, and frankly I had never thought about it myself until I had met my gaze in the mirror minutes earlier. I had been really surprised, myself.
"Grazie!" I replied shyly and bit my lower lip.
Lisa didn't seem to appreciate all the attention I got though. "Come on, let's go, Cinderella!"
It turned out to be a bit of a problem to get into the backseat of the car and I was glad none of us had chosen one of the big ball-gowns when I took the seat in the front next to Damon. Stefan and Elena took as usual Stefan's little red Porsche; and they were on their way ahead of us.
Damon strolled into the ball with Lisa on one arm and me on the other. Quite a few heads were turning our way and I could see Damon's glib expression, especially when Tyler caught a glimpse of the three of us. He even drew me closer and whispered in Italian how beautiful I looked.
Was that just to provoke Tyler?
I couldn't tell if I was getting sick and tired of this display of manhood between the two of them or if I was indeed flattered. All I really could tell was that I seemed to shiver all over as soon as Damon leaned in to whisper something in my ear and I didn't feel like that with Tyler. Damon was in a way much more dangerously exiting. But then again, he was older than me, so I couldn't really expect him to find me interesting, not even being eighteen yet.
I was three months younger than Elena, who had recently turned eighteen. Soon I would too.
Tyler came up and welcomed us to the party, with this being his house and all. I hadn't know that until Elena had told me about that and about his mother being the mayor of this town, I hadn't known that either. Just when Tyler was about to offer me his arm, Damon asked me to dance with him.
I was terrified. "I can't dance stuff like this!" I hissed at him, but he just chuckled.
"Do you trust me?"
I looked a little peculiar at his face. Of course I did, why wouldn't I? They had taken me in and in this short time they had become the only family I had.
I smiled at him and he took my hand, spun me around and then I was in his arms on the dance floor. He had never really held me like this before and he felt so incredible strong and he was so dashingly handsome in the suit that I was floating on little pink clouds.
"I can't believe how incredible beautiful you look tonight," he whispered in my ear. My whole body tingled and I had to gasp for air.
"Thank you," I said modest, trying to get my bearings straight.
"You're welcome, mia bella."
It felt like the dance was going on for hours, but when it ended, it felt like it had only lasted for seconds. "You want something to drink," Damon asked as we left the dance floor. I felt a little emotional and only nodded. He kissed my cheek and left me.
Tyler was fast on my side as soon as Damon had left me to get us something to drink. "Can I get a dance with the most beautiful girl on this ball?" He was really getting his flirt on.
"I'm really not a dancer..."
"Come on, I saw you dance with Damon; sure you can dance."
"Sorry, I..."
"Back off Tyler!" Damon was at my side with an arm around my waist.
What the hell?!
"Seriously, guys?" It felt like I was shooting daggers at them. "This is not the time or place for you two to go off on a pissing contest!" I hissed at them and they looked really surprised. "You're ruining my night here!" I walked off to find Lisa or Elena, which ever who was closest and at that moment it hit me; I had really moved here, these were my friends now and I was okay with it.
"Em!" Lisa came walking toward me. "I found myself a hottie!" She had Matt on her arm, smiling. I knew him a bit from school and from the Grill and I just smiled back at them. Matt had this charming smile that could light up an entire room and the two of them smiled at each other.
I just had two douche bags, trying to conquer me... I thought glum and wondered what I was supposed to do with them; I needed help.
I found Caroline, wearing this gorgeous vintage powder blue dress but she seemed to be in an argument with some guy I didn't catch more than a glimpse of and I didn't want to disturb so I kept looking for Elena. I found her by the bar where she just got a glass of champagne.
"What's the problem with Damon and Tyler, they act like they're archenemies or something," I hissed to her and she looked a bit weird at me. "Have they been in a fight over a girl in the past or are they old lovers?l," I spat and she almost choked on her champagne. "Okay, perhaps not old lovers then..." I added with a little giggle which made her smile.
"Ciao, bella; champagne?" Damon was by our side and I gave him a little irritated look, but took the glass he offered anyway.
"So, are you done biting Tyler's head off?" I said tart making both Elena and Damon choke on their champagne.
Damon started to laugh. "Probably not," he said and kept laughing even though Elena glared at him. "Are you done with him," he countered in a low voice and close to my ear.
I shivered in his nearness and looked up into his sky blue eyes. "Yes," I answered as cocky as I was able to.
A smile broke on his beautiful face and he raised his glass toward me. "Cheers!" I rolled my eyes at him and took a gulp from the sparkling liquid.
"Balliamo?" he asked with a crocked eyebrow and held up his hand towards me.
Once again I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help to smile at him. "Yes, I'll dance with you," I answered with a sigh and he took both of our glasses and put them on a table nearby and then led me to the dance floor.
Then I was in his arms again, and I felt so safe there. He smelled so good and the air seemed to zing between us. How could I feel like this; he was supposed to be my distant cousin or step-brother or something. This was not appropriate!
He was a perfect gentleman, holding one arm out to rest my hand on and the other on my ribs. I thought about some comments in the movie 'Dirty dancing' about floppy arms, but then pictures about some other, more compromising scenes in that movie flickered for my inner eyes, and that didn't help my unrealistic crush.
"Is there something wrong," he whispered.
I had to clear my throat before I assured him everything was okay. He looked down at me and smiled and I felt like everything really was okay. He pulled me a little bit closer and almost touched his cheek with mine and I didn't want the song to end. I assured myself that this was not at all inappropriate, that this was a natural feeling of security and affection to feel toward my new relative.
Oh, who was I fooling?
"Grazie," I mumbled when the song ended and he took my arm, hooked it in his and lead me off the dance floor.
"Oh, don't you look like a cute couple..." someone close by whispered at us. I never saw who it was and Damon and I just stared at each other puzzled.
Lisa came over and snapped us out of it, luckily. "Matt had to go; now I'm bored!"
I laughed a little; glad to get away from the tension I'd been in.
"Do you want to dance, or do you want to go home?" Damon offered.
"I can't dance this kind of dances," Lisa hissed and nodded for the door instead. "It's too bad I have such a headache," she said a little too loud for people around us to hear it. Damon chuckled and offered her his other arm, and we left the party in the same manner as we had arrived; Damon with one girl on each arm.
* * * * *
The fall break was ending and it was a sad time when Damon and I drove Lisa to the airport in Richmond. He gave her a hug and left us alone for our goodbyes. We hugged and hugged and assured that we would call each other every day.
The last thing she did was looking me over in a scrutinizing way. "Get on with it and jump his bones, you know you want to..."
"Tyler," I asked surprised.
"No, not Tyler... I mean Damon!" Once again she did her best to emphasise every word.
"I can't do that, he's supposed to be my brother," I hissed. "Besides, I'm too young for him; he's probably after a full blooded super model," I added a bit glum.
Lisa laughed. "Come on, he's not that old!" I stuck my tongue out at her and we hugged before she had to go and I returned to Damon outside the door.
The ride home was quiet except for the music coming from the stereo.
"Are you very sad she had to leave?" Damon asked which snapped me out of the thoughts that had taken hold of me.
I looked at his glorious face and felt my face blush a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, but it's not that; I'm contemplating something she said." I did my best to dodge the subject, even to myself.
He looked me over in that intense way only he could, which sent shivers all over me and I felt my heartbeat pick up. I stared out the side window instead. Had I really fallen for this guy who was supposed to be my new guardian? Granted, the feelings were nothing like I would have imagined myself having for a brother, but it somehow felt wrong.
No, let me rephrase that; it felt too good to be right...
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I hope you liked it!
VeGirl