Children Of The Damned

Eliana

After Damon left, I sat on the sidelines, not wanting to dance with anyone. Matt approached me, looking worried and slightly jealous. I knew immediately that he had seen me dancing with Damon.

“Who was that guy?” he asked, and then I realized that no one else had been able to recognize him for who he was since he didn’t attend the school.

“Damon Salvatore.”

After that, the night ended pretty quickly. Neither of us were interested in staying much longer, and I found myself thinking that coming here at all in the first place had been a very bad idea.
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Damon

Matt and Eliana left shortly after I did, and I was waiting in the tree outside her bedroom window, where I could also see the front door without being seen myself. Apparently I had put a damper on the evening.

“Goodnight, Ana,” he said, calling her by a nick name I hadn’t heard anyone else call her at the dance. He kissed her cheek and nearly ran to his truck. Pathetic.

Eliana sighed, removing her mask and retrieving a set of keys from her purse, letting herself into the house.

An hour or so later, she came up to her room in sweats and a baggy t-shirt, her damp hair falling in wet curls down her back. Her face was scrubbed clean of makeup, and she looked drained. Still, she was beautiful. She hummed under her breath, a tune that sounded a lot like the song we had danced to.

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Eliana

When I awoke the next morning, I felt as if there was a rogue jackhammer bouncing around in my head.

I forced myself to get out of bed and walk over to the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth and straightened my hair. Frost clung to the windows, so I put on my favorite leather bomber jacket over my blue tank top. I wore my black skinny jeans and knee high felt boots.

Sometimes I swore that my parents forgot I existed. They were like my aunt, the Sheriff. Always working, never spending time with the kids. At least Sheriff Forbes was doing some good in the community while she was ignoring her daughter. My parents worked with the stock market as financial advisors. They also owned a lot of stocks themselves, and knew just how to invest to get the most returns. Apparently being addicted to your job ran in the Forbes family.

I left without eating breakfast, instead taking ibuprofen for the massive headache I was experiencing and chasing it down with coffee.

I was too tired to really think about how I was going to deal with Matt today. He didn’t think we were going out now, did he? It was all just too awkward, and the fun hadn’t lasted long after Damon showed up. I wondered what Stefan would have had to say about it if he had known Damon was there. After all, it wasn’t like Damon was chaperoning, since he had left only a few minutes after he had arrived.

I arrived at school a little later than usual, and was caught by Stefan on the way to class. I was in a hurry to make it on time, so I almost passed him up before he grabbed my arm and gently pulled me back until we were facing each other again.

“Hey, Stefan. I’m really sorry, but I am going to be late for Government if I don’t go now.”

“That’s fine. But we should talk at lunch. I have something to tell you that I think you should hear.”

I nodded, and then went on my way again. But I couldn’t get over the worried look I had seen on Stefan’s face. What could possibly be so important that he had to pull me aside like that?

____________________________________

Class dragged along slowly, and I found myself wishing I had just stayed home and slept in. Matt snuck glances at me in Government during first period, and in English during fourth period.

What was I supposed to say? “Sorry you are too insecure to know that I would never mess around with a piece of work like Damon Salvatore, and sorry for letting you think we were dating in the first place.” ? I didn’t think that would go over too well.

When the bell finally rang for lunch, I left fourth period before Matt could have a chance to walk up to me. I had a feeling an interrogation would follow if I let that happen. Not to mention the fact that I needed to go talk to Stefan.

He was waiting for me, leaning up against the wall of lockers across from the classroom.

“Can we get as far away from Matt as possible before we have any sort of conversation?”

“Of course,” he said, always the gentleman, and then he guided me outside and down the stairs to a picnic bench.

“So what brought this about? And why do I have a feeling I need to be worried?”

“Damon was with you at the dance.” It wasn’t really a question.

“Hardly. I went with Matt, and when he went to hang out with you and Tyler, Damon just showed up out of nowhere and asked me to dance. And then he left. The guy’s a bit weird that way, I’m guessing?”

“Yeah. You could say that. All I wanted to do was warn you-”

“What? That he is a complete womanizer and he just wants something out of me, so I shouldn’t trust him? Don’t worry about that one. Caroline beat you to the punch on that talk. I gave him a ride home after his car broke down. Then he danced with me once at the Masquerade. End of story.”

“Good. I just want you to be careful. Damon has always had some…issues that he needs to work out for himself, and I’m afraid he doesn’t exactly understand how much he can hurt people sometimes. He’s my brother, and I love him, but he’s not good for someone as nice as you.”

“I understand, Stefan.”

“Are you with Matt now?”

“With him? I wouldn’t put it that way. We just went to the dance together. Although I’m not sure he realizes that we are better off as friends. Especially after that little incident with Damon last night. He seems a little too jealous to be boyfriend material.”

“I think he is just worried about you, Ana. He is a little more acquainted with Damon than you are. He got to witness what Damon’s games did to Caroline. He doesn’t want that to happen to you. Neither do I.”

“So you think I should forgive the passive aggressive behavior last night? He wasn’t too nice about it.”

“I think you should. Matt really cares about you. He likes talking to me about you.”

“So now you’re getting both ends of it. I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. Anything I can do to help.”

When the bell rang for fifth period, we parted ways. I found that the more I heard about Damon, the less I liked him, but the more I wanted to know why everyone thought he was so awfully that he should be quarantined from the rest of the world around him. How could anyone hate one person so much?