Eat Your Heart Out

Thursday came around much too fast for my liking. Aiden and Eric both felt the same way. I grabbed my backpack and slowly followed them out the door. Eric gave me a hug, to the point that it was a bit hard to breathe. “Keep everything locked, don’t do anything stupid, and nothing after dark, okay?” He told me, kissing the top of my head.

I nodded into chest, trying to free myself. “I’m 18, I’m not dumb.”

Eric passed me to Aiden, who crushed me in another hug. “Call us if anything happens, you understand?”

“Yeah, I got it,” I said, trying to escape from his grasp as well. He let me go and I walked over to the car, throwing my backpack into the back seat. I started laughing, as a thought crossed my mind. “What are y’all going to do when I go to college?”

The look on their faces was priceless.

~*~

School inched by, and I could feel my nerves kicking in by 3 o’ clock. After school, I said by to Aiden once more and got the car keys from him.

“Kris! Hey,” Elena called as I was heading out to the parking lot.

“Hey, Elena, what’s up?”

“A bunch of us are going to the Grill just to hang, if you want to join?”

“Um,” my brain quickly worked over everything. In all honesty, I kind of wanted to go home and stay put, where I knew that I would be safe. At the same time, though, I didn’t want fear of Jeremiah to keep me from acting normal. I pulled out my phone to check my schedule. “I’m working tonight at the bar, so y’all can come over and chat.”

“Great!” She replied, walking with me to my brother’s car. “Hey, also – did you get the history assignment today?”

“A little random, even for Mr. Saltzman, yeah?” I replied laughing.

~*~

I stopped by my house for a brief second to change and then headed over to the Grill to start working. The afternoon was pretty slow, but it picked up around eight, when Elena and everyone showed up. They came and sat at the bar and we had a few laughs and I stole some of their food as I worked.
We talked about school, and I got pegged about home life in New York, and then about my brothers.

“So it’s just you and your brothers?” Caroline asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah,” I replied, shrugging.

“What happened to your parents?”

“They weren’t ever around, so when my brothers graduated college, they talked to my parents and then adopted me.”

The group looked at me, eyes wide. They had never heard about a family like that before.

“Not all families are perfect,” I said shrugging.

“Speaking of, where are your brothers, anyway?” Bonnie asked looking around. “They usually are somewhere near you.”

“Working,” I replied with a slight nod. “I don’t mind, I get Aiden’s car so,” that made them laugh and they dropped the subject.

~*~

At 10, which was when I got off, we all headed out and Stefan pulled me aside gently. “Has your ex shown his face around again?”

I shook my head. “It’ll be okay,” I told him, even though I was really trying to emphasize that point with myself.

“Where are your brothers, really?” he asked, eyebrows furrowing.

I sighed, telling him the truth. “They are both out of town for work. They’re gone all weekend.”

“If you need anything, or that creep shows up again, I’m right next door, okay?”

I gave a slight smile and nodded. “Thanks, Stefan,”

“Of course,” he returned my gestures. “Have a good night,”

“You too. Bye Caroline, Elena and Bonnie!” I shouted as I walked off. They waved and I jumped into the car, taking off toward the house.

The night shadows were playing tricks on me and I sprinted toward the front door. Shaking from head to toe, whether from fear or from the cold weather I wasn’t sure, I pulled the keys out of my bag, and tried to unlock the door. I cursed loudly when they slipped out of my grasp and landed on the porch. Reaching down, I heard the porch let out a slight squeak and saw black motorcycle boots to my left.

“You didn’t really think that you could escape me?” Jeremiah laughed, as he began to squat down beside me. My flight or fight instincts kicked in and, not being able to unlock the door fast enough, I stuffed the keys into my pocket and took off.

Stefan had not made it home yet, because he was dropping Elena off. I streaked passed the boarding house and down the street and almost ran into him.

“Come now, wouldn’t it just be easier if you gave in?”

I screamed and headed toward the other direction, running down another street. He let me run, laughing as he watched me try to escape him. I ran down the middle of the street as fast as I could, but he was instantly in front of me. “Now, now, why do you think you could outrun me?”

A scream came from my mouth as I turned; however, I turned way too quickly and fell on the hard pavement. There was an immediate throbbing in my ankle and when I tried to stand up and keep going, I fell again because I couldn’t put weight on it.

Jeremiah walked closer to me, in slow movements, mocking the fact that I was trapped.
“Dear Kristyna, you knew that this would happen.” He knelt down so that he was eye level with me, “You knew that you could never run away. I’ve marked you, remember?”

My eyes locked with his and what I saw in those were hate, hunger, and lust. Whimpering, I tried to pull myself out of the road, but he grabbed my right ankle, holding me still and making me cry out at the same time.

He laughed and then froze, as if he heard something. Immediately after I could hear the car engine coming down the street and headlights were on us. Jeremiah froze for a brief second as it came closer and then, deciding not to attack, took off to God knows where. I shielded my eyes with my left arm from the headlights and the car stopped a few feet from me.

“You know, it’s pretty stupid to lay down in the middle of the street, trust me,” I heard a silky voice say.

I removed my arm, looking up as the driver of the car appeared beside me.
“It wasn’t on purpose.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” I replied, flipping myself around so that I could push myself up to a standing position. I balanced myself on my left leg and crossed my arms. “Fine, see?”

“Need a ride home?” he asked, now leaning against the hood of the car, blue from what I
could see with the headlights.

I looked to my side, judging the distance. “Naw, I’ll walk.”

A look of surprise quickly scampered across his face, before being hidden by a blank look. “Okay, go ahead,” he said motioning to the road in front of us.

“Fine,” I said, turning and taking a careful step with my right foot. My ankle gave instantly and I started to fall, but he caught me before I hit the ground. We were far enough apart that I knew that it wasn’t humanly possible to do that.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said trying to push away from him, but he instantly scooped me up bridal style and walked back to his car. “Damon I’m fine,”

“Bullshit.”

“Put me down,”

“Okay,” he said after popping the door to the passenger side open and sliding me inside. He was on the driver’s side in a matter of seconds and quickly started up the car. Within a few minutes we turned the corner onto our street.

As soon as he pulled into his house, I opened the door, swung my legs out and stood. Using his car for support, I started to walk back home.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I looked up, almost walking straight into him.

“Home,”

“There’s no one in the house.”

“Yeah there is,” I said pointing to Aiden’s car, hoping to fool him.

He turned toward the house, stared at the darkened windows, and then looked back at me. “No there isn’t,”

During this conversation, another car pulled into the driveway and a much friendlier voice reached my ears. “Kris, what are you doing over here?”

“She was in the middle of Oak Lane when I found her,” Damon replied before I could open my mouth.

Stefan jogged over to us, and quickly glanced over me. “Are you hurt?”

“No,”

“Yes,”

I glared at Damon and repeated my answer.

“You can barely walk.”

“Not true!” I snapped back, trying to walk around him again.

Quickly, Damon moved my hand off of his car and I started to fall, but he caught me. “You can barely walk,” he stated again.

Stefan looked between the two of us as Damon once more picked me up. The brothers looked at each other for a moment, before both started to walk inside, bringing me with them.

“Look, my brothers will be mad if I’m not home,”

“Oh, quit the act, we both know they aren’t home and they won’t be home.”

I fell silent and glared at Stefan. “You told him?”

“If something happened and I wasn’t here, I’d rather know someone could help you. Even if it was Damon.”

“Thanks, brother,” the sarcasm dripped from his words.

Stefan just shrugged. Instantly, Damon continued his journey upstairs, carrying me to a back room on the corner. It was a very simple room, covered in a lot of red with very little furniture. He carefully sat me on the bed, taking one of the pillows from beside me and sliding it under my foot. Crossing my arms, I watched him as he walked off to another part of the room, which I assumed to be a bathroom.

“Where are we?” I asked, taking in my surroundings.

“My room,” I could hear the smirk on his voice. Immediately, I started to get off the bed. “Don’t move,”

I froze for a brief second, and then continued to swing over the side of his bed. “Watch me,” I whispered. This was not going to happen to me again. I had learned my lesson with Jeremiah.

The bed shifted as a new weight was added to it and I felt an arm wrap around my waist and pull me back down. “I said don’t move,” he hissed at me, dropping clothing into my lap. “These will be much more comfortable than what you’re wearing. I’m going to try and find a wrap. Don’t leave,” he got up from the bed and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

There was a pair of black basketball shorts and a white wife beater that he left for me and, after making sure the door was closed, I quickly changed into them – giving up on my escape plan. There was no way that I would’ve even made it out of the room before he got back. The tank was big, but the elastic waistband on the shorts hugged my small frame. Folding and putting my clothes on the floor, beside my shoes, I leaned back on the bed and closed my eyes.

I awoke to the door shutting again and saw Damon holding some sort of brown ball in one hand. He popped a small metal part off the brown ball with his finger, revealing that the ball was a long wrap. He then sat on the edge of the bed, and pulled my foot into his lap.

He was extremely gentle as he wrapped my right ankle, brows furrowed as he focused. I couldn’t help but cock my head to the side in a bit of confusion. I had never seen him act like this before. He clipped the metal part on the last bit of bandage to the rest of the wrapping, and then carefully rested my foot back onto the pillow.

“I would be completely fine sleeping on the couch,” I managed to finally get out. I reached out to touch his arm but he pulled farther away and looked at me.

“No.” He replied before standing and walking over to a dresser quietly hidden on one side of the room. “You are staying in my bed, it’ll be better for your ankle.”

“Damon, its fine. Really.” I answered crossing my arms. “I’m not going to rob a decent night’s sleep from you by taking your bed.”

He smirked, digging for something. “Oh, you won’t wreck my night’s sleep. Trust me.”

“You’re one of those people who can sleep anywhere?”

“No, not really,” he turned around to face me, a few garments in his hand. He was leaning over me in about a second. “I’m sleeping in the bed, too.” And with that he was over in the bathroom area.

“Excuse me?” I tried hard to keep my head turned the other way while he changed.

“It’s my bed, and I really don’t mind sharing.”

I immediately started pushing myself up, ready to fall down the stairs if that meant the only way to get to the bottom and the couch.

“Nu uh,” I heard before a muscular arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back down. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To the couch,” I said whipping my head around to face him. Bad idea. He was smirking up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and, of course, completely shirtless. My face was instantly red and I quickly turned my head in the other direction. I could hear him chuckle.
“I told you, I don’t mind sharing.”

“Well, I do.” I tried to pull out of his grip, but he easily pulled me straight back to his nicely chiseled chest. “Damon, please.”

He stayed silent for a minute, as if actually pondering his answer. “Um…no,” he said placing his lips on my neck. I let out an involuntary body shiver and I could feel his
smirk. “You’re quite comfortable.”

My throat was instantly dry, and nothing would come out. He took his arm from around my waist and gently drew his fingertips up and down my right arm. “Come on, “ he whispered seductively, “what harm can one little night do?” He placed a small kiss at the nape of my neck. I just about died.

More than you can ever imagine. I thought silently, old memories of my ex-boyfriend quickly shooting through my head.

“Hmm?” He kissed my throat, waiting for an answer.

I didn’t want him mad at me, but at the same time I was terrified of what he could do. I took in a sharp breath and shakily let it out. “F-Fine” I mumbled, praying that my body would relax enough that I would get some sort of rest tonight.

“Good.” He said, his arm pulling the comforter out from under us and then pulling it over us before putting his arm back around my waist and his head back on his pillow.

I let out one more deep breath and shut my eyes tightly. The faster I go to sleep, the faster I can get up. It was going to be a long night.