I could feel the tension in the kitchen as I walk downstairs for breakfast that morning. Stefan, Damon and Zach are all sitting in the kitchen glaring at each other.
“Good morning!” I say in a perky voice as I walk in.
Stefan and Zach both give me silent nods but it’s Damon who comes over and greets me properly.
“Good morning Aly,” he greets me.
“Aly?” I raise my eyebrows at him.
“Yeah that’s my nickname for you,” he smirks his cocky smirk. Stefan and Zach are both still completely silent.
“So,” I begin awkwardly. “What happened last night?”
Once again, Stefan and Zach both don’t say anything and it is Damon who replies me.
“Stefan and I got into a bit of an argument. Then I told Zach that I would be staying in town for a while and he took a hissy fit and now won’t speak at all. Then after that, I went to the Grill and I think Stefan went over to his girlfriend’s house.”
I look at Stefan. “You have a girlfriend?”
“No, I went over to Elena’s,” he says without looking at me.
I look over at Damon and give him the What-is-his-problem look. Damon just shrugs and turns away.
I walk over to the counter and make myself a cup of coffee. I look at Zach.
“So Zach, did you want to discuss my rent?” I ask while sipping the burning hot coffee.
“Sure,” mumbles Zach.
“Wait, you’re making her pay rent?” Damon asks.
Zach glares at him. “Yeah I am.”
Damon then looks at me. “You don’t have to pay rent if you don’t want to. I’ll take care of it.”
“And how do you plan on doing that Damon?” Zach retorts.
“Easy,” Damon smirks. “You aren’t charging her anything.”
“That is ridiculous.”
“Actually that sounds pretty good,” I interject.
They all stare at me, Stefan and Zach have looks of disbelief in their eyes but Damon is grinning.
“I like her,” he states.
“We should be best buddies,” I grin back.
“Deal. Do you need a ride to school?”
I think. “Yeah that would be great. Can you take me to a car dealership after school though? I need to get my own car; it’s more convenient than walking everywhere.”
“Sure,” Damon agrees.
I can tell that we’re going to get along great but I can’t keep that nagging feeling away. I know that Damon practically has no humanity but I feel like there is something there in him still. As far as I could tell, he was a guy that liked to have fun and that’s all I really cared about.
Damon drops me off at school a little early too early and I decide to hang around outside a bit. There’s no one here yet and soon I get bored. I decided to ditch the first half of school and I head to the Mystic Falls Grill. The Grill is just opening and I am one of their first customers for the day. I order a cup of coffee and some bacon and eggs.
I sit in the corner and eat my food alone and that’s when Damon slides into the seat across from me.
“So I drive you to school and then you just ditch and hang out here instead?”
“Uh.” I’m a little speechless for words because I didn’t expect to see him here.\
“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone you skipped,” he smirks.
I finally find my voice. “I was planning to go back…”
“Really?” he questions. “Why don’t you just ditch the entire day?”
“It’s only the third day of school,” I roll my eyes. “It’ll make a really bad impression.”
“From what I’ve heard around town, you already have quite the reputation for being a drinker and talking back to douchebag history teachers.”
I grin at Damon and he returns the smile.
“So why are you here?” I ask him.
He doesn’t reply right away but when he does, he is serious. “Because of my brother. In case you didn’t notice after last night’s encounter, we don’t exactly get along. I vowed to make his life a living hell and I keep my promises.”
“Isn’t that kind of harsh?”
“No.”
“Okay.” I resume to eating my breakfast.
“You’re different,” Damon says absentmindedly. “I like it.”
I roll my eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re hitting on me. I’ve only known you since last night.”
“Nah.” Damon leans back in his seat. “I think I have my eye on someone else.”
“Is it Elena?”
Damon looks at me pointedly.
“No,” he says slowly. “What makes you say that?”
“Well you said you were going to make Stefan’s life hell and since he seems to have a thing for Elena…” I trail off.
“You’re right,” he says. “I am going to make Stefan’s life hell but it has nothing to do with Elena.”
I can tell he’s lying but I don’t push further. I look at the clock and it’s almost 11:30pm. I had been sitting and talking to Damon for nearly three hours!
I stand up and push back my chair.
“I should get going.” I leave some cash on the table and signal to a waiter that I’m leaving. He comes over, collects the money and bids me goodbye.
“I’ll see you after school,” Damon calls as I’m leaving.
“See you later!”
***
It’s only while I’m walking that I realized I should have asked Damon for a ride back to the school although I doubt he would have been willing to. By the time I arrive, its lunch time and people are all outside sitting around. I head to the back of the school and sit in a shady area.
I see Jeremy Gilbert walk up to a guy named Tyler Lockwood. The town is small and you learn the names of the important people quite quickly. Tyler is the son of the mayor of Mystic Falls.
Jeremy and Tyler start arguing about Vicki Donovan and soon they are fighting and at each other’s throats. I sigh as I get up and head over to the arguing boys.
“What’s going on here?” I ask.
“Nothing that concerns you,” Tyler sneers at me. “This little punk here was trying to pick a fight with me.”
“I was just telling you to lay off Vicki,” Jeremy responds. “She doesn’t need some stupid asshole like you playing with her heart and screwing her over.”
“You should be smart and walk away Gilbert,” Tyler says waving his hands.
“Come on Jeremy,” I say trying to drag him away but he’s being stubborn. “Jeremy,” I say more urgently.
Finally he turns around and storms off.
“Yeah, run away you little baby!” Tyler calls.
I whip my head around. “Shut up you dickhead!”
I chase after Jeremy who’s huffing and puffing in anger.
“Why do you bother with him?” I ask.
Jeremy glares at me. “He’s playing the girl that I care about.”
“Oh and what can you do about it? You’re just going to start picking fights with Tyler Lockwood?” I yell.
“What’s it to you?!” he shouts back.
“I don’t like watching people get hurt for no reason,” I reply.
“That’s how I feel about Vicki! She should just ditch Tyler and come to me. I wouldn’t hurt her the way he does,” Jeremy mumbles bitterly.
I can feel myself soften a little. Jeremy was just a broken little boy that really cared about this one girl that was just as broken as he was, if not worst.
“Just give Vicki some time,” I say. “She’ll make the right decisions.”
And with that, I left Jeremy alone in his thoughts. I see Elena walking with Matt as I round the corner of the school.
“Hey guys,” I smile. I look at Matt. “How Is Vicki doing? Did she know what attacked her?”
Matt grimaces a little before responding. “The doctors think it was some animal attack but last night, Vicki woke up and muttered ‘vampire’ before passing out again.”
I feel my body stiffen. Damon was sloppy, he let Vicki live and this could cause problems for all of us.
“That’s crazy,” I laugh it off.
“I know, I think she was drunk or something,” says Matt. “Anyways, I’m going to go back to the hospital to see if she’s awake. See you girls later.”
“Bye Matt!” Elena and I chorus.
I look at Elena now. “So,” I start. “What’s going on between you and Stefan?”
A slight blush creeps its way onto Elena’s cheeks but she just laughs nervously.
“Nothing really, we’re just friends right now,” replies Elena.
“But it’s budding in to something more,” I tease.
“Oh shush,” Elena giggles a little as she sees Stefan coming towards us.
“Hey Elena,” Stefan says. He just nods at me. I can tell he’s still mad from this morning. Elena says her farewells to me and she leaves with Stefan for their next class.
I’m quite annoyed with Stefan’s attitude now and I decide to ditch class for the rest of the day too. I pick up my cell phone and ring Damon. He answers after the first ring.
“Hello?”
“Damon, it’s Alayne,” I say. “Can we just make our car shopping trip now?”
I can hear him smile on the other line. “Of course, I’ll be at the front of your school in 10 minutes.”
Sure enough, 10 minutes later, Damon was waiting at the front of my school.
“That was fast,” I say while getting into his sleek and shiny car.
Damon just smirks and begins driving. “So what kind of car are you interested in?”
I think for a while. “A bright red, sports car,” I finally say.
Damon laughs. “And how will you be paying for that?”
“I have my ways.”
“I’d like to see that,” he smirks at me.
Unsurprisingly, Damon drives really fast and after half an hour, we are out of Mystic Falls and at the first expensive sports car dealership Damon could find. The place sold Lamborghinis. I instantly spotted a red one that I wanted.
I pointed it out to Damon and he just laughed at me.
“Okay go in there and buy it.”
Challenge accepted.
I walk into the shop and start a friendly conversation with the salesman. He leads me over to the car and allows me to go for a test drive around the block. The car works like a dream.
“I’ll take it,” I tell him.
The salesman leads me to a back room to sign some papers and pay for the car.
That’s when I decide to work my magic. I manipulate the air around me, creating a soundproof air bubble so that Damon can’t hear what I’m saying. I look into the salesman eyes.
“You are going to give me the car for free,” I state. “I am walking out of here with the car and you aren’t going to do anything about.”
I release the air bubble surround the room.
“Okay Miss,” the salesman says. “Have a nice day.”
He hands me the keys and I walk back outside, grinning at Damon.
“I got it,” I say.
“No way!” says Damon in disbelief. “How did you do it?”
“Gave up my entire tuition fund that my parents saved for me,” I lie smoothly.
Damon just continues grinning at me and then suddenly, his eyes light up.
“Want to race back to Mystic Falls?” he asks me.
“You’re going to lose,” I say.
“Want to bet?”
“You’re on!”
I hop into my new car, start it up and feel the quiet purr of the engine running underneath me. The car starts to accelerate and twenty minutes later, I have beaten Damon back to the boarding house.
“HA!” I cheer. “I win.”
“Your car is new,” Damon points out.
“Whatever,” I grin.
We both head into the house and go our separate ways. I go up to my room to continue sorting through my clothing. I am so immersed in organizing my closet that I don’t notice the doorbell or the knock at the front door.
It isn’t until she starts calling out for Stefan that I realize Elena’s in the house. Unfortunately, Damon has already gotten to her first. I can hear Damon familiarize himself as Stefan’s brother but then I hear him start trouble by telling Elena about Stefan’s ex-girlfriend, Katherine.
I decide to walk downstairs before Damon could do anymore damage.
“Hello Elena,” I say in a friendly voice.
“Hey Alayne,” Elena looks a little frightened of Damon’s presence.
“Aly.” Damon says through gritted teeth. I can tell that he is somewhat annoyed with me. Then I feel another presence behind us and Stefan’s there.
“Elena,” he says greeting her first. He completely ignores Damon and I. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“Hey,” Elena says, smiling a little. “I know, I probably should of called first.”
“That is ridiculous,” interrupts Damon. “You are welcome here anytime.”
It got really awkward after that. I plopped myself down on one of the sofas and started playing on my phone. Stefan and Damon both stood their ground, glaring at each other. Elena finally took her cue to leave.
“Uh, I should probably get going,” she mutters. “I’ll see you at school Stefan. Bye Aly.” Elena hurries out of the house as fast as she can.
I can tell that Stefan is furious with Damon, who doesn’t even care. Damon whistles low.
“Great girl,” he comments.
“Why are you here anyways Damon?” There is cold fury in Stefan’s voice.
“You’ll find out,” Damon smirks. And then I hear him lean down and whisper in Stefan’s ear, “Stop playing your little high school games. We both know that the closest you’ll ever get to humanity is when you rip out their throats.”
I cough loudly and they both look over.
“What’s for dinner tonight?”
***
The next day at school, I was handing out flyers with Elena and Bonnie.
“What are these for anyways?” I ask them.
“Watching the comet,” Bonnie grins cheerfully.
“Is that tonight?”
“Yeah,” she answers. Then she looks at me. “You are planning on going, right?”
“Um, no?”
Bonnie starts shrieking. “Okay you have to go! This is one of those one time things,” she pleads. It might have been one time for her but I had already seen this comet a while back.
Bonnie keeps pestering me and eventually, I give in. The rest of the day flies by and soon it’s nighttime.
We all stand around in a crowd holding candles and chattering mindlessly. Stefan shows up later on and Elena goes off to walk to them. I see Matt’s gaze follow them and he has a heartbroken expression on his face.
I see Elena blow out her candles and she walks back over towards us.
“Let’s go to the Grill,” she smiles.
10 minutes later, Elena, Matt, Tyler, Bonnie, Caroline and I are at the Grill sipping on cola since we’re all underage. I really wanted some alcohol so I headed over to the bar.
“One shot of vodka,” I say.
The bartender looks at me like I’m crazy.
“I’m not serving alcohol to a minor.”
“Yes you are,” I reply.
He comes over and looks me in the eye to tell me off. Big mistake.
“I would really like a of shot of vodka,” I say. “No make that three. And it’s on the house. Take care of it.”
He blinks at me a couple of times before his eyes come back into focus.
“Sure thing Miss.”
He pours three shots into the little shot glasses and I down all three in one go. The alcohol burns my throat going down and it feels good.
I walk back over to my group.
“You smell like vodka,” Tyler Lockwood accuses.
I grin back widely. “Guilty.”
“The bartender served you alcohol?!” Tyler yelped.
“Yeah I just asked for it and he gave it to me.”
“Teach me your ways!” Tyler grins.
Jeremy comes over. “Have any of you guys seen Vicki?”
“Wouldn’t you know?” Tyler is instantly hostile. “You’re the stalker.”
“I can’t find her,” Jeremy says frantically.
“She probably found someone else to party with,” Tyler sneers. “Sorry pill pusher, I think you’ve been replaced.”
Elena looks at Tyler. “What’s with the pill pusher?”
“Ask him,” Tyler smirks.
“You deal?” Elena glares at Jeremy.
Tyler is still smirking at Jeremy. “She’s never going to go for you.”
“She already did,” Jeremy shoots back. “Over and over again.”
“Wait you had sex with Vicki Donovan?” Caroline exclaims. “Wait, Vicki Donovan had sex with YOU?”
“No way,” Tyler leans back.
Jeremy smirks. “I didn’t even have to force her into it.”
“GUYS,” Matt says loudly. “This is my sister you’re all talking about!” He looks at Tyler. “What does he mean?”
“Ignore him, he’s a punk,” growls Tyler.
“Why don’t we all shut up and go look for Vicki?” I finally speak up.
Matt looks at me gratefully before standing up. “I’ll go check out the square.”
“I’ll come with you!” I say.
“We’ll check the bathroom.” Bonnie volunteers herself and Caroline.
“I’ll check the back,” Jeremy starts but he’s interrupted by Elena.
“No, you’re coming with me.” Elena says forcefully grabbing him by the arm and towing him aside.
Everyone goes their separate ways and I follow Matt outside. We walked over to the square to see if Vickie is hanging around but she is nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?” Matt asks angrily.
“Calm down Matt,” I say. “We’ll find her.”
Matt sits down on a bench and puts his head into his hands. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. I sit down next to him.
“Hey, it’ll be alright,” I say softly.
“Vicki told me something pretty crazy the night she was attacked,” Matt tells me.
“Do you believe what she told you?” I ask calmly.
“I don’t know,” he admits. “She said something pretty crazy but she was also drunk.”
“Did she sound drunk though,” I press. “When she told you what attacked her?”
“Wait, how do you know she mentioned whatever it was that attacked her?” Matt looks at me.
Oops.
“I overheard you talking to Elena the other day,” I admit truthfully.
“Oh.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find her. Stop worrying, you’re going to give yourself frown lines.”
Matt chuckles lightly at this and then he stands up.
“Let’s go see if any of the others found her.”
We head back into the Grill and discover that no one has seen her. I don’t even think Tyler bothered looking because he’s still lounging in the same position as before. Everyone else is in different seats but Elena and Jeremy is gone.
“She’ll turn up eventually,” Bonnie says to Matt reassuringly.
At that moment, Vicki stumbles through the front doors of the Grill. She looks awful and I could smell the blood coming off her.
“Vicki!” Matt immediately rushes over to help her. He settles her into a chair and continually asks if she’s alright.
“I took some pills,” she mutters. “I think I’m good.”
“Ugh,” I hear Caroline Forbes grumble from beside me. “The druggies are the biggest attention whores ever.”
“Tell me about it,” murmurs Bonnie.
“So much drama,” I say.
Stefan walks through the doors at that moment and walks over to our table.
“Hey,” he nods at everyone. “Have any of you seen Elena around?”
“She went home,” says Bonnie. “But here, I’ll give you her cell phone. She is really big on texting so you might want to do that.” Bonnie has managed to protrude a pen and piece of paper out of nowhere and she scribbles down Elena’s phone number on to it. She smiles as she hands it to Stefan but the minute their hands make contact, I see her freeze.
There is a look of horror on Bonnie’s face and it’s like she’s just seen a ghost. She looks at Stefan in horror and asks, “What happened to you?”
“You okay?” Stefan is confused.
“No I’m sorry, that was completely rude of me,” says Bonnie, snapping out of her trance. “Sorry, excuse me.” Bonnie gets up and leaves.
“Yeah she just blanks out like that,” Caroline says.
“Okay, I’m leaving,” states Stefan. He looks at me. “You going home soon?”
“Later,” I say. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“Okay, bye.” Stefan turns around and leaves.
I sit and chat with Caroline for a little. She’s actually okay now that we’ve somewhat managed to talk a little more. She’s just a little shallow and inconsiderate of other people but hey, so was I.
“Look over there,” Caroline points over at Vicki Donovan who is locking lips with Tyler Lockwood. The two of them were utterly disgusting.
“She seems to be doing fine.” I comment.
“And now look over there,” Caroline now points to Jeremy, who is watching Vicki and Tyler from afar.
“That is a broken-hearted Gilbert boy,” I say.
Caroline just laughs wickedly. “Gosh there’s so much drama with these people. Seriously, can’t they all just figure out this shit. Vicki is a complete slut, I don’t know why they both want her anyways.”
“It’s because she’s a whore and doesn’t mind spreading her legs,” I say.
Caroline’s eyes widen. “That is so true! I would never but I guess Vicki just takes after her mother.”
“Her mother?” I ask.
“Yeah, she’s a whore too,” says Caroline. “I hear she’s off somewhere with her boyfriend and that she just left Matt and Vicki. She didn’t even respond to Matt’s phone calls about Vicki’s accident.”
“Tough,” I grumble. That wasn’t the worst parent story I’ve heard, I have had worst personal experiences.
“I know right!” Caroline doesn’t get my sarcasm. “My parents are divorced and I thought that was bad but at least neither of them are whoring it up.”
“Mine are dead,” I say. “It’s honestly not that hard.”
“How do you survive anyways?” Caroline asks me.
I think for a bit. “I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself.”
Caroline laughs at that. “Of course you can.”
We chat a bit longer but soon, I’m bored so I decide to leave. I say my farewells to Caroline and exit the Grill. The night air is chilly and I feel a slight breeze stir. I turn around and Damon is suddenly standing there.
“You gave me a fright!” I accuse.
He just grins back. “I know.”
“So are you stalking me?”
“No I just randomly bumped into you here,” Damon says.
“Oh well I’m headed back to the boarding house, need a ride?” I point to my new Lamborghini.
“Nah, I have some things I need to do,” Damon says. “I’ll see you back at home.”
I drive back to the boarding house and I see that Elena and Stefan are talking outside.
“Hey guys, I’m tired. I’ll see you tomorrow, bye,” I say quickly before heading to my room upstairs.
Zach confronts me on the way. “I would be careful if I were you.”
“What?” I question.
“I said, be careful. Damon is not to be trusted.”
“Zach I’m not an idiot, I know how to watch my back. I’ve seen guys like him before so you don’t have to act like my father,” I complain.
“No,” says Zach seriously. “You don’t know Damon’s true nature.”
Zach is pissing me off right now. I look at him threateningly.
“I’m pretty sure I know what he is Zach,” I say before turning around and heading up to my room.