Children Of The Damned

Eliana

The day after I told Damon the real reason why I moved to Mystic Falls, I went to Matt’s and made him my famous spaghetti and garlic bread dinner.

“This is absolutely delicious,” he said, but in a way that told me he wasn’t talking about dinner. Of course, the spaghetti sauce on the corner of his mouth ruined his attempt at sexiness.

I wiped the sauce away with my thumb and licked it off the tip of my finger. “Mmm…it is good,” I said, having no qualms about tooting my own horn. However, Matt thought I was playing along with him, and he leaned in across the table to kiss me.

I lost track of time while we were kissing, and before I knew it we were on the couch making out and it was almost ten o’ clock.

“I need to get going,” I said between kisses.

“Ugh, I don’t want you to leave.” He continued, kissing my neck and rubbing my arms and shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Matt. I really have to go.”

“Okay,” he said, kissing my lips one more time before he let me go toward the door.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you on that float tomorrow,” I said.

“I’ll be looking for you in the crowd.”

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Once I got home, I settled down into my pajamas and brushed my teeth. My clothes from the day smelled like Matt, all soap and cologne. My head was still spinning from all that kissing.

Then the doorbell rang and I ran downstairs to answer it. I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought it was going to be Damon, which would have been embarrassing in my pajamas.

So when it was Sheriff Forbes at the door, I was both relieved and worried at the same time.

“I something wrong?” I asked my aunt. She never came to visit, and she was in uniform. She was holding a huge garment

“Oh, no. I just haven’t gotten a chance to go home and change yet.”

“So, what’s up?” I asked. Aunt Liz wasn’t one for small talk.

“Not really. Other than the fact that Caroline came down with the flu. I was wondering if you would cover for her tomorrow in the parade. I thought it would be best to keep that duty in the family. Mrs. Lockwood agreed.”

I didn’t really have a choice. Once Mrs. Lockwood had an idea of what she wanted to happen in her head, she would make it happen in reality or blame someone forever for not making it work out. I knew I would never hear the end of it if I decided to turn down the offer. And part of me wanted to do it anyway.

“Wow,” I said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll do it,” Aunt Liz pleaded.

“Of course I will,” I said, patting her arm reassuringly. Talking t her was always an awkward event. “I can’t wait.”

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The next day, Elena came over so we could help each other out with our costumes, which apparently were extremely difficult to put on by yourself. I had no doubt this was true. I had read enough literature and seen enough 19th century style movies to know how difficult corsets and their ilk could be.

First we curled each other’s hair and tied them in little colored ribbons that matched the colors of our dresses to keep the locks out of our faces.

We listened to Elena’s iPod on my iHome while we got ready. It mostly consisted of pop and hip-hop, which was okay but not really my style. Now we were listening to Lady GaGa, whose music I didn’t mind, but whose appearance freaked me out with all those meat themed dresses and whatnot.

“So, how are you and Matt doing?” she asked as she finished tying the last bow in my hair.

“Great,” I said. “I made him dinner last night. He seemed to appreciate that.”

Elena seemed to think he appreciated it a little more than what I meant.

“He’s so good at being patient with me. We are trying to take things pretty slowly.” I didn’t want her to think that I was already sleeping with him or anything like that.

“He has always been the gentleman,” Elena said.

My dress had to be somewhere around twenty pounds. It was enormous and ridiculously heavy; heavier than anything anyone wears should ever be. But first we had to worry about stockings, petticoats, and corsets.

“Mrs. Lockwood sad we have to make them really, really tight. She’ll literally kill us if we make them too loose. She said that if the women in that time dealt with it, than so should we,” Elena informed me.

“Lovely,” I said as I pulled on all my undergarments.

I helped Elena first. She nearly fell over when I started tugging on the strings. I had to pull hard in order to get them as tight as they were supposed to be. She had to grab onto my dresser to keep steady.

Then it was my turn, and I realized how tight they really were. Dear Lord, no wonder the women fainted if they overexerted themselves. I felt like every breath I took only took in half as much air.

After we were fully garbed in our dresses and Victorian style heels, we made our way downstairs where Matt and Stefan were waiting.

When we reached the foyer, I noticed Damon was there too.

Elena and I curtsied together, and Matt’s eyes never left me. He didn’t look at Elena once. Damon had this strange, wide eyed expression on his face.

“Hello, Mr. Salvatore,” I said, adopting my period mannerisms as I greeted Damon. I curtsied, and he bowed, taking my hand and kissing it like a gentleman. “And what brings you here today?” I asked.

“I thought I would join in the festivities.” Somehow he pulled it off better than I did, and he wasn’t even in costume. He was dressed in his usual dark jeans and t-shirt with leather boots and a leather jacket.

“You look so handsome, Mr. Donovan,” I said, turning to Matt and kissing him.

“And you look beautiful. Much better than Caroline did in time period attire.”

“Don’t be mean to my cousin,” I scolded, swatting him playfully. “She’s probably not too happy she missed out on this.”

“Well, she was Miss Mystic last year too. She can just deal with someone stealing the limelight for once.”

“I’m gad you got to be involved,” Stefan said.

“Thank you, Stefan. I am too.”

“Well, we’re off before Mrs. Lockwood kills us,” Matt said, offering me his arm.

I had some difficulty getting into Matt’s truck. He had to help me pull my various folds of fabric into the vehicle before I shut the door.

Within an hour’s time we were on the float, gliding down main street. I saw Damon. I waved to him as we passed, but he just stared blankly. Matt put his arm around my waist. I guessed it was because of Damon. Was he really jealous?

That was just silly, right?