I wake up in the morning to see Jer is still asleep. I slowly and quietly slip out of bed and get ready for a self-defense class, like yesterday I again jog all the way to the class. I thought the pain would be less after every class but no it just keeps getting worse. I don't think I can drive all the way to school. When I enter my room I see Jer was still asleep, so being the nice sister I am I put my MP3 player on the highest volume before putting on some rock band. As the music starts Jeremy falls off the bed and tries to sit up from the horrible wake up call. I start laughing and run into the bathroom as soon as I see him look at me. I take a shower and try to get Jer's face as he fell down out of my head.
When I get downstairs Jer is making coffee and giving me small glares. I am actually shocked that he is already dressed and looks like he is going somewhere. "Good morning Jer." I greet him with the biggest smile possible just to annoy him a bit. All he does is glare back. "Okay, I'm sorry. Forgive me?" I ask with a small pout. "Only if you do me a favor," Jer replies with a smile. Sneaky little jerk. "What do you want?" I ask him seriously. "I'm going to look for Vicki, will you cover for me?" He asks me. Well, that explains his readiness. "Sure. Don't worry we'll find her. I'm going to help Matt go look for her later. She'll be fine." I say and am really tempted to tell him everything, but I shouldn't. "Thanks, Elle. I hope we find her and she's okay." Jer says with a worried smile. Me too. All I could do was smile at him.
The whole day at school I couldn't help but think about Vicki and if she's okay. I know she was an addict would that change how she adapts? Or if anyone like Logan or the council found out about her? I hope Stefan and Damon can help her, even though I don't really trust either of them, I just hope for Vicki's, Matt's and even Jer's sake they can help her. For a minute I think about going to the boarding house and checking on her but that would create a lot of suspicions. Since school was over I decided to go to the Donovan house."Hey Matt." I greet as soon as he opens the door."Hey Ari, what are you doing here?" Matt asks ending with a yawn. He looks like he hasn't slept at all or even eaten."You won't even let me in?" I ask before barging in. "Sorry," Matt replies. He looks like a lost puppy. "Sit, I'll make you something to eat," I tell him as we walk into the kitchen. "Ari I'm not hungry." Matt insists. Really? You look starved. "Matt you won't be able to help Vicki or even look for her if you are sick yourself. Just eat and then we can both go down to the station or look around town once more if you want. Okay?" I tell him while making a simple sandwich and coffee for him. "Okay you're right, thanks," Matt says. "You're welcome besides I'm always right," I tell him and call Jer while Matt eats and he tells me they haven't found anything yet. Once Matt is done we both go to the station. "Hi Sheriff Forbes, we wanted to know if you found anything about Vicki's whereabouts?" Matt asks and Liz looks up at us. "I'm sorry Matt, but no we haven't. Don't worry we're not giving up. We'll find her." Liz replies with a kind smile. I hug Matt as his eyes start to water. "Thanks, Liz. Please let us know if we can help." I tell her. Liz nods and I take Matt out of the station. When we reach his truck I wrap my arms around him and feel him do the same with a tight grip. He doesn't cry just holds onto me and I feel guiltier every second. "How about we go back and you can rest for some time? Then we'll go look for her?" I suggest. It is almost sunset and I just want him to rest a bit. "Okay. But don't you want to go to the Halloween party?" Matt asks me. "Matt, finding Vicki is more important and I hate parties anyways. So let's go." I tell him and he smiles at me. We drive in silence and when we reach I send Matt to his room and start to clean up a bit.
I had cleaned the living room and decide to make something for us to eat since we will have to walk a lot later. I start to make us some pasta and salad, just as I am about to go wake Matt; he walks into the kitchen looking a lot better than he did earlier. "Hey, I made us something to eat. We'll need a lot of energy for the search so.." I tell him. "Thanks, Ari, for the food and helping me find Vicki and cleaning up too," Matt replies sounding small. He looks a bit guilty which I ignore. "No problem Matt, you're my best friend it's the least I could do," I tell him and we sit and eat and at one point we even joke around. I had put a little vervain in his water mostly because I'm paranoid and also because I hope it will stop Vicki from drinking his blood. As we are getting ready to leave we both hear the doorbell and I really wish it wasn't Liz with bad news.
I stay in the kitchen cleaning up when I hear the doorbell ring a second time. This time I go towards the door and see Matt and Vicki. "Can I see her please?" I hear a voice ask Matt. "Don't let him in. I don't want him in here." Vicki tells Matt hurriedly. "Did he do something to you?" Matt asks looking concerned. "No, I just don't want him in here," Vicki explains. Who is it? "Just let me come in so I can explain myself." The voice from outside says again, which I recognize to be Stefan's. "Look, I don't know what's going on but I think you should leave now." Matt declares. I decided to let Matt do what he wants. "Matt.," Stefan says seeming really desperate, can't blame him Vicki could seriously hurt someone. "Please, now, Stefan," Matt says before closing the door. "Hey Vick, are you okay?" I ask Vicki when Stefan is gone. "Oh Ari, hey yeah I'm fine," Vicki replies uncertainly. "Okay, do you want something? I could make you something to eat?" I ask her not knowing what to do. "No Ari thanks but I'm just gonna go get some rest," Vicki says with a smile. "Okay, hope you feel better," I tell her as she leaves. "Want me to leave?" I ask Matt knowing he wants to talk to Vicki alone. "What? No Ari, of course not." Matt says. "Matt it's okay call me if you need anything," I tell him and hug him goodbye.
When I reach home I hear Elena say, "...Jer, it's for the best." Seriously how stupid is she? "Look, for months after mom and dad died, I felt like crap, like "nothing really even mattered" crap. Now all of a sudden, I get these moments and things started to feel just a little bit better, and Vicki was in every single of 'em. So you may not see it, but trust me. Keeping me away from her is not for the best" Jer tells her before looking back at his phone. I have a feeling he was talking to Vicki. "Hey, Vicki's fine she's at home with Matt," I tell Jer as I sit on one of the sofas. "Hey, Elle and I know we're going to meet at the Halloween party," Jer tells me. Knew it. "Oh okay. How about some hot chocolate or coffee?" I ask him wanting him to drink some vervain. "Sure hot chocolate sounds great," Jer tells me with a smile. I make us both some with a little vervain in both.
I had decided to go to the party initially but changed my mind and dressed in some workout clothes and decided to go train. I need to be prepared, I don't even know how many vampires are there in the town. So I decide to not take any risks at all. I was done with my defense class when Matt called me.
Matt told me that Stefan was harassing Vicki and needed me to come there. So I start walking to the school which was only 5 minutes away. I call Jer and tell him to call me if he sees Vicki since Matt was looking for her. He texts me saying they were near the school buses. I text Matt and tell him I'll look around the school and he should look inside. When I reach I see Vicki bite Jer before she suddenly draws back and screams. I reach them and inject Vicki with some vervain I had filled in an injection (which I stole from my dad's supplies that he kept at home.) And check over Jer as Vicki falls to the ground hopefully unconscious.
Just as I am about to check Elena and Stefan come running over. Stefan is looking over Vicki while Elena is annoying Jer. When Stefan is done he looks up at me then to the injection still in my hand and I shake my and silently beg him not to say anything. "Oh my god, is she okay?" I hear. Right, Jer is still here. "Yeah, probably the punch or maybe something she took before coming here," I tell Jer when both Elena and Stefan freeze up. "Oh, yeah maybe," Jer says. He didn't sound convinced. After that we split up Elena and Stefan took Vicki after Stefan told Jer that he can help her with the addiction, even going as far as saying that he used to have the same problem, to think about it he could have had a blood addiction problem or something. I tell them to talk to Matt about it, I didn't want him to worry again. I text Matt and tell him he could trust Stefan. Jer and I leave for home.
"She bit me," Jer tells me as soon as we reach my room. "What? Jer what are you talking about?" I ask. Jer exposes his neck and repeats, "She bit me." I see two puncture wounds on his neck. I knew about it already. I saw her bite him. "Jer..." I start. "No, no don't lie to me. Please tell me." Jer says. He was really begging. "Okay, if you're sure," I tell him. Just as I am about to start telling him, Elena walks in "Hey, can I talk to Jer alone?" She asks while crossing her arms. Something is up. "Actually Jer is really tired and we were just gonna go to sleep," I say before Jer can say anything. "Right Jer?" I say while giving him a look. "Yeah, yeah we were just about to sleep." Jer agrees with me. We both then look at Elena. She looks angry, mostly at me which is normal she hates it when I get my way. She also didn't like that Jer and I are so close. She didn't say anything though and turns and leaves. "Tomorrow Jer, goodnight. You can sleep here again." I tell him with a stern look. "Okay, goodnight Elle," Jer replies.
Jer fell asleep soon enough. I hear a tap on my window after a while. I know it is Stefan and I have a lot to explain. "Hey," I say as I open my window for Stefan. "Hey." He greets. Awkward. "So....? Why did Elena want to talk to Jer alone? And don't lie." I ask him. "She wanted Damon to make him forget everything that happened tonight," Stefan says honestly. We were both on the balcony of my room. "She doesn't get to decide that Stefan. I hope you know I won't let that happen." I tell him with determination. He stares at me before replying, "Don't worry about it, I promise it won't happen. How do you know?" So I tell him how I had already suspected him and how I saw Damon kill Mr.Tanner, but I didn't tell him about the vervain. We sit in silence for some time.
After a few more minutes he asks, "Why does Elena seem to dislike you?" I am shocked, no one actually takes notice of me or how Elena acts towards me. "I don't know. It's always been like that I guess. She doesn't like me or anything I do really. Ever since we were kids it's been like that. She would blame me for her mistakes or get me in trouble and things like that. I tried at first to make things work but after a while, I just gave up and moved on." I explain to him. He doesn't say anything after that, just stares at me. I couldn't take it anymore, "Well, I'm pretty tired so goodnight." I tell him. "Goodnight." He says and leaves and I finally start to breathe again. I go to my room and fall asleep.