Heavy in Your Arms

"So is this where like, all the cool kids hang out?" Hayden asked as she looked around the Mystic Grill to see a lot of seniors from her school surrounding her. Some of them ate at tables, while others played pool, and others attempted to order drinks with fake ID's.

"You could say that," Bonnie gave a small smile as she sat down next to her, "How did you like your first day?"

Hayden only made an indistinguishable noise signalling how she really felt about school, before stretching her arms and standing up, "You guys want something to drink?"

"Sure. Can I have a diet coke?" Caroline asked.

"And can I have a sprite?" Elena followed.

"Are you guys serious?" Hayden only shook her head, and pulled her own fake ID out of her wallet, "I'm talking about a serious drink. Something fun."

They only looked at each other, looking like they were finding something to say. Like they didn't want to offend Hayden by saying no. She rolled her eyes, "No problem. Diet coke and a sprite?"

She made her way over to the bar, and after ordering Elena and Caroline's drinks, she asked for a pitcher of beer and three shots of tequila. After downing the shots of tequila, and leaving them at the bar, she grabbed the pitcher and turned to leave before bumping into someone.

A loud cuss left her lips as she expertly didn't spill a single drop of her alcohol and she found her balance.

"You need to be more careful, sweetheart," A cool, but arrogant voice came from above Hayden's short stature and she looked up into blue eyes. It didn't sound like a threat, but merely a piece of advice, and she was sure he was referring to where she walked but there was something that seemed like he meant something entirely different.

"Now why does that sound like a threat?" She took a step backwards as she realised how close they were still standing together. Hayden dammed herself for talking, for her instincts told her to run away from this man. Something told her that he was dangerous, and not in a sexy way. Like his flawless appearance, and perfect face was all a façade, his black clothes and leather jacket amplified that his soul was just as dark as his persona.

And yet, instead of walking away and muttering an apology, she stood in front of him, a smirk on her lips that matched his own and found herself trying to look appealing with a pitcher of beer in hand.

"It's not a threat," His eyes found hers and some dimples showed as he smirked, "Some people aren't as nice as I am, just saying. This town has changed since you've been here last."

She had to laugh bitterly, was her presence in this town known by everyone? Couldn't she just come back home and be in the dark, live her own life? "Does everyone know I'm back?"

He shrugged, and took a step closer, "You're a popular girl, a popular topic at least."

She moved from instinct, she didn't want to be close to him, she wanted to be as far away from him as possible, yet, she found herself flirting back, "Ahhh, I see. Am I this popular with all the good looking boys?"

"Nope. Just me. I've heard a lot about you, Romanov."

She was about to question him, ask him as to why this boy she hadn't even met before, seemed to know a lot about her, but someone interrupted.

Elena, in fact.

"Damon, what are you doing?" Elena's words quickly left her mouth, and she came to stand in front of Hayden, like she was blocking the view, protecting her.

"Just meeting your friend, Hayden." He smirked, and looked Hayden right in the eyes, and she instantly found herself looking away. "Nice girl."

Elena didn't beat around the bush, "Yeah? Well don't you have something better to do? Hayden, let's go."

No more words were spoken as Hayden was dragged back towards the table with Caroline and Bonnie, who were chatting away happily. Hayden sat down with her pitcher, and Elena passed Caroline's diet coke to her before sipping her sprite eagerly.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Hayden didn't bother with the glass; she sipped the Heineken straight out of the pitcher.

"What was what all about?" Bonnie laughed at her friend's use of profanity.

"Damon." Elena whispered and Bonnie and Caroline's eyes immediately widened.

"Stay away from that creep, Hades, okay?" It was Bonnie's turn to dish out the hate. "He's no good."

Hayden was confused to say the least, she didn't understand, what could this guy have done to make her friends hate him so much?

"What did he do exactly?"

"Who?" A voice came from behind Hayden, and all four girls' heads snapped in the direction of the voice.

"Stefan!" Elena smiled and jumped up, hugging her boyfriend. The Two embraced before Elena turned towards Hayden, "This is Hayden."

He offered a small smile, and held out his hand for her to shake, smiling back she took it before sitting back in her seat. There was small idle chatter, Stefan pulled up a chair and sat next to Elena, holding her hand the whole time and Hayden found it hard not to stare at all her friends. How they had grown up and changed so much, how different they were from how they used to be, how Hayden was now.

She was just about to join in the conversation when her phone rang. Pulling it out of her pocket, she checked the caller ID before answering.

"Julian."

"Miss Romanov," Julian's cool voice came over the receiver, "Will you be home for supper?"

She shook her head, even though he couldn't see her, "No, Julian, I won't be."

"All right then, Miss Romanov."

"Who was that?" Caroline had a smirk on her face, as soon as the phone was back in Hayden's pocket.

"Don't get too excited," She smiled, "It was my butler – well, my mothers butler."

Caroline scoffed, "You have a butler?"

Hayden only shook her head, "Unfortunately, I belong to one of those families."

"The Lockwood's don't even have a butler!" She squealed, apparently finding this all rather interesting, "Oh my gosh, I am friends with like, the richest girl in Mystic Falls!"

"Caroline," Bonnie scolded her friend, "You can't just say that!"

"Why not? Miss Hayden Romanov, richest girl in Mystic Falls – my best friend!"

Hayden only smirked at the blonde next to her, "Wait," Stefan asked and her attention turned to the boy at the table, "Romanov? You don't happen to be a descendant of the Russian Emperors do you?"

"Yeah, actually, on my Dad's side."

"Wow, that must be cool, to have such a rich history like that," he gave a small smile and Hayden scoffed.

"Don't, I already got that speech from my history teacher today."

"Ah, yes," Elena smiled, looking over at her boyfriend, "Ric has in fact already stated his jealously over Hayden's lineage."

Hayden was about to ask why Elena called her teacher by his first name when a bartender walked over to their table, placing a shot glass of tequila on the table. "This is courtesy of the man at the bar." Everyone turned their heads to where the bartender was pointing to see Damon with a shot himself, holding it up in the air and smirking at her. With a wink and a nod, he downed the shot.

"Damon…?" Stefan looked confused, "How do you know Damon?"

"She doesn't," Elena replied for her, "He came up to her at the bar, but I took care of it."

"And why did that happen?" Hayden down the shot, and chased it with a large gulp of her beer, "He's hot."

"Don't!' Bonnie whispered viciously, "Don't ever go there! He's a total asshole! He used Caroline and threw her away like trash."

"Jeez," Hayden laughed at her friend's behaviour, "Okay, cool your jets, bro."

They all talked for a couple more hours, ordering food and on Hayden's part – far more alcohol – and before anyone knew it, she was drunk and everyone was ready to leave.

"You know what?" Hayden stumbled out of the Grill and caught her footing before she fell, "I'm totally okay to drive, let me just find my keys and – hey! Where's my car gone?"

Bonnie and Caroline had left to go home, already saying their goodbye's, which left Stefan and Elena to laugh at the young girl in front of them. "I drove you here, Hayden. Remember?" Elena jingled her keys to emphasise the fact.

"Oh, right," she laughed and ran over to Elena's truck, and then waited for them to walk. It was only a couple of minutes before Elena and Stefan managed to pour Hayden into the car, buckle her seatbelt and then be on their way to her house. The couple laughed at her drunken ramblings, which hardly made sense except to herself.

"Okay, let's get you to bed," Stefan lifted the petite girl with ease and walked her to the front door with Elena, who knocked.

It was a couple of minutes before a middle-aged man answered the door, in a simple black suit with his sleeves rolled up, once Julian saw his employer in the boys arms, he hardly looked surprised.

"Miss Elena, so nice to see you again, I hope Hayden didn't bother you to drive her here," He opened the door ajar, ready for Stefan to bring the girl inside, "Please come in."

With a small sigh, visible to only himself, Stefan carefully walked through the door and followed Julian up the stairs, Elena following suit. Being an old entity himself, he had to admit, her house was awfully gorgeous. It was like the boarding house only cleaner and covered with newer appliances and far more artwork. Some, Stefan realised were originals, and he had to wonder what her parent's did for a living. Her father wasn't around, living in Europe if he remembered what Elena had said in bed a couple of nights before, and her mother did some kind of business in New Zealand, along with pretty much everywhere else in the world.

Julian pushed open some oak, wooden double doors to reveal a large bedroom, which he guessed belonged to Hayden, covered in all sorts of technologies, a huge TV, xbox 360, a fancy computer and some old school gaming machines in the corner, the walls were covered in old paintings, portraits and places, some famous and some not so famous. The only thing that gave it away that it was a teenage girl's room was all the clothes that littered the floor.

"If you could place her on the bed, sir," Julian pulled back the covers and smiled at Stefan who complied with her butlers wishes.

"Do you think it would be okay to leave her?" Elena worried, and turned to her boyfriend, who only nodded his head.

"She'll be fine. She's drunk, not dying."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hayden woke with a start, a purpose; to vomit. She threw the blankets off her legs and ran from her room to the bathroom. Emptying the contents of her stomach – which contained nothing but liquid – she made sure to brush her teeth and get changed out of her clothes before she went back to bed.

She didn't feel up to school today, she was jet-lagged, hung-over and although she wouldn't have liked to admit it – a little embarrassed. She made a fool out of herself in front of her friends and even Stefan, a drunken fool nonetheless.

After hours of sitting in her bed, drifting in and out of sleep, Hayden thought that maybe her hangover had passed, it wasn't until her cell phone rang that she cussed loudly and damned those thoughts to hell.

"What?" She answered the phone with a bit more irritation than she usually did.

"Hayden, darling," Her mother's posh voice sounded through the speaker and she had to scowl at herself. That she was stupid enough to not look at called ID before answering. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, mother. Perfect, in fact."

"How wonderful, how is Mystic Falls? Anything change? Listen, darling, I was thinking of coming back home, just for a while-"

"Have you killed anyone lately? Fed on anyone?" Hayden interrupted her mother, "In fact, have you got your hunger under control at all?"

There was a silence on the other end, and Hayden had to scoff, "Yeah, I don't want you here if there is risk of you killing me."

After her mother had been turned into a vampire, she didn't want her anywhere near her. It was hard enough that she didn't like her in the beginning, but Hayden didn't want to have to live in fear of being exsanguinated. Ruth Romanov was a very gluttonous being, and with her changed into a vampire, Hayden knew that those wants and needs were magnified. She didn't have a problem with vampires in particular, but she just enjoyed fucking shit up to end her life so young.

"I've got business to take care of, Hayden. Not everything has to do with you, you ungrateful little bitch. If I want to come back home, then I will."

Hayden rolled her eyes, "Then why ring up? You do whatever you want anyway, why call at all?"

There was a large sigh on the other end, and some rustling, "Listen, I've talked to Andrew, he said that they are vampires in Mystic Falls that you should look out for… I just want you to be careful, okay? Wear that ring I gave you, you won't die if-"

"Oh, my god," Hayden threw her head back into the pillow, "Yes! I'll be careful! I get it, you've been giving me the same speech for six years. You've been gone my whole life, what makes you think I can't look after myself at eighteen years old?"

There was no answer, just a dial tone from the receiver and Hayden laughed bitterly before forcing herself out of bed.

"Have you tried ringing Hayden?"

"No," Elena sat down at the table, pulling out her lunch, "Thought I would let her sleep it off."

"You have to admit, it was pretty funny seeing her drunk," Bonnie smiled and sipped at her water.

Elena forced a smile on her face and Bonnie looked worried. "What's the matter?"

The pretty brunette girl shrugged her shoulders. What was the matter? What had Elena so worried? What had her feeling this way, that something was going to go terribly wrong; that something was going to happen to Hayden?

"I just have this feeling, you know?" Elena looked to see if anyone was listening before continuing, "That something really bad is going to happen, with Hayden. I don't think we should hang around her too much. I mean Damon is already starting to take an interest in her and I don't want it to go any further."

Bonnie's eyebrows furrowed, "So what? You think we should stop being her friend? Caroline is fine, I'm fine, I think you may be reading too much into this." A small smile graced her lips, "Leave the bad feelings and intuitions to me, okay?"

Elena still didn't look sure and Bonnie grabbed her friend's hand in hers, gripping it tightly, "Look, if anything you have told me about Hayden's home life is true, then I think the only thing she actually really needs in the world is us; her friends. We can't start dodging her calls and ignoring her just because we think it's what is right for her. We don't have the power to start making that decision."

"You're right," Elena provided a smile, "I'll invite her over for dinner. You want to come?"

"Can't. Grams wants to talk to me about some witch stuff, but I'll call you afterwards, to see how it went, okay?"

After getting a phone call from Elena, inviting Hayden to dinner, she thought it would be best if she didn't go into school today, and instead use the time to recuperate properly for tonight, which included a long, hot bath, heaps of video games and eventually, more alcohol.

Getting changed into a pair of black skinny jeans that hugged her legs perfectly and a white v-neck shirt that revealed just enough cleavage, Hayden completed her outfit with her black leather jacket before running down stairs and into the kitchen where she found Julian.

"Home for dinner tonight, Miss Hayden?" Julian was stuffing a large turkey, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Nah, sorry, Jules. Gotta go to some dinner at Elena's house."

He looked down at the bird he was stuffing and sighed, "Right then."

"Hey, do you wanna come?" Hayden knew it wasn't something someone usually asked of their butler, but Julian was far more than that to her. He was her father, her brother, her best friend. For years he was the only friend she ever had.

"I am afraid that might be a little inappropriate seeing as I wasn't invited," A genuine smile graced his lips.

"You sure?"

"I am, Miss Hayden."

"Okay, hey, you know what? Still make the Turkey. No doubt I'll come home and be hungry, and we can have a proper dinner when I get back. Just you and me." Hayden smiled at Julian. Not like it would be anyone else but the two of them, but regardless, the two of them liked to spend time together.

"Sure thing."

"Great," Hayden flashed her dazzling smile and walked over to the fridge to grab a beer and sat down at the marble island where Jules stood. "Ruth called too. She's thinking about coming back."

"Good. I think it would be good for you to see your mother again."

"No. I don't want to see her if she is still the same person as when she left."

Julian felt incredibly sorry for his employer, although it seemed like she had everything she had ever wanted, she never really had a family. Her parent's always seemed far more involved in their own lives to really care about their daughters. "Not all vampires are bad, Miss Hayden. If I recall you're father was a great man."

"Are you kidding me?" Hayden had to laugh, "I haven't seen dad in years! Do you realise how much it sucks to have vampires as parents? I mean, I always understood Dad being away all the time, I mean, he's been a vampire for over three hundred years and he is always so busy, but Ruth, she should have been here."

She closed her eyes, trying to swallow whatever anger started bubbling within her. She blamed her parents for how she was, how she acted. She was a supernatural miracle, born to a vampire father and a human mother; only now her mother had been turned as well. She was brought up thinking she was completely normal, and didn't find out she was a half-vampire, half-human freak until her mother was turned and she revealed every secret of the family. About her father and her birth. And Hayden was to keep it all a secret; she wasn't to tell anyone about what she was, because she was one of a kind. Her ring however, had been enchanted by her father's new wife, a thirteenth birthday present.

After her father had learned that his daughter knew about himself, her linage, and even her mother, he had his wife, who was a witch, enchant a ring for her. A ring that, if ever she was to be killed or even die by accident, that she would survive, come back to life. Hayden couldn't believe that a ring, something so small, could protect her life.

"Maybe," Julian sighed and looked over at his employer's daughter with a sad smile on his face, "But there are vampires in this town, and by what your mother has said to me, not good ones. So if you wear your ring then maybe we can live to see ourselves leave this place."

Hayden had to smile; Julian always knew the right thing to say whenever she was down. About to jump up and wrap her favourite person in the world in a hug, she was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.

Elena.

"Hey."

"Hey!" Elena's happy voice penetrated her ears, "So I'm leaving for home now, so see you there?"

"Sure thing." Hayden ended the call and hopped up from her seat at the island. "I gotta go now, I'll be home later."

Hayden made sure she had her phone, her beer and her ring before leaving the house and jumping into her car. The ride was anything but silent; she blasted music from her speakers, shouting the lyrics and sipping at the beer in her hand, driving through the roads going almost twice the speed limit. She was thankful that growing up on the New Zealand roads had taught her to drive with such skill. Well, that and grand theft auto.

Pulling up outside Elena's house, she had to smile. It was exactly the same as she remembered it to be. It was still the same colour, the flowers in the garden, even the grass was the same length as she remembered it to be. After locking her car, she walked up to the front door and knocked, waiting for someone to answer.

The door opened inward, Hayden's hair blowing around her face as she saw Jenna standing in the doorway. "Jenna?"

"Hayden?"

The two of them hugged each other, large smiles on their faces at memories of the other coming to mind. "Wow, Hades," Hayden smiled at the use of her nickname, "You have… really grown up."

"Thank you?"

"It's a compliment, believe me."

"Okay then," Hayden followed the girl into the living room, where Jeremy sat, playing Xbox.

"Jeremy?"

His eyes left the television for a second, "Hey Hayden," and then he did a double take, "Hayden, hey…"

"Puberty treated you well, Jer, you've really grown up." He paused the game in a second and had left the couch, walking over to Hayden to get a hug which she gladly reciprocated.

"Me? You look… wow, you look amazing."

"Anyway," Jenna interrupted the two teenagers awkwardly, "What are you doing here? Elena isn't home; I think she might be at Stefan's."

"Uh, I hope not, because she invited me to dinner."

Hayden was ushered through the kitchen, to where Jenna was sitting with Damon in the kitchen, cooking. To say she was surprised to see him with a towel leisurely thrown over his shoulder was an understatement. She thought Elena and such didn't like this guy? Then why was her over here in the kitchen cooking?

"Hayden," He had a smirk on his face as he nodded in hello, "Fancy seeing you here."

"Damon," Hayden sat down at the island in the middle of the kitchen. A glass was placed in front of her, and he filled it with red wine, all with that incredibly sexy smirk on his face. She didn't know what to do. Her emotions were conflicted; everyone was telling her to stay away from this guy, but every bone in her body wanted to jump right there and then, and with the way he was looking at her, she thought he wanted the same thing.

In a matter of seconds Jenna was all over him, flirting shamelessly and talking about ex-boyfriends. Hayden was glad she only had to listen to it for a couple of minutes before Elena entered the kitchen and looked just as confused as she did.

"Hey!" Jenna had clearly had a little too much wine, "Where have you been? We're just cooking dinner, Hayden too."

Elena looked over at her friend who only sent her a look of quiet desperation, and Elena made a reminder to ask her about that later.

"Stefan with you?"

"Uhm, he'll be here soon."

"Good." Damon replied and came over to fill Hayden's glass which was previously empty. "Enjoying the wine, Hades?"

What was this guy's deal? What had him think that he could flirt with every girl in the room and get away with it? With his luscious dark hair, effortless smirks and perpetual good looks, it pissed Hayden off. Which, thanks to her vampire lineage, was extremely easy.

Downing her wine in one gulp, she left the kitchen and entered the living room. Jumping the back of the couch, she plopped down next to Jeremy, stealing his controller and fluently picking up his place in the race.

"Hey," he objected with a laugh in his voice, and Hayden only smiled back before finishing the race first. "I was playing that."

"Obviously, Jeremy," she smiled back at him, "Go get the other controller."

He signed in on his controller and the two of them caught up on life, shamelessly flirting with each other and playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, which was Hayden's third favourite game, so she had beat Jer more times than she could count before Damon rudely interrupted.

Jeremy was called into the kitchen to help setting the table, which meant his controller was placed on the couch, unoccupied for only a few seconds before Damon had snatched it up.

"Why do I get the feeling you don't like me?" Damon smirked while un-pausing the game and accelerating in the vehicle.

Hayden shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, there's just something about you that doesn't seem like you're good for me. I'll tell you when I know what it is."

He smirked. Oh, she didn't know the half of it.

"Hayden," Elena sang from the kitchen, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Letting the controller fall out of her hands and onto the couch, she followed Elena's voice towards the kitchen. "Yo, bro. What's up?"

Elena didn't want to have to ask her friend to do this, but something was more important, and she had to deal with finding Jonathan's journal before Damon did. Stefan had just sent her a text saying he was on his way, and needed to talk to her and Damon, and that it was best that Hayden may go home, seeing how as she wasn't involved in any of this.

Elena ushered Hayden out to the foyer, by the front door, "I know this is going to sound really, really bad. But something just came up, emergency family thing. I promise to tell you about it as soon as I can but do you think you could—"

"Leave?" Hayden scoffed. God, like hell it was a family thing. Elena always had been a shitty liar.

"I'm so sorry. Really, I will explain everything at school tomorrow."

Hayden shrugged her shoulders, "Lena, don't worry about it. Seriously."

And within a second Hayden was out the door and in her car, peeling out of the driveway and down the street towards town; towards the Mystic Grill.

Bonnie laughed, "Well, first mistake, Metallica karoke?"

Her date with Ben had been going better than great, excellent in fact. She loved how much of a gentleman he was, funny and definitely cute as well. Things felt like they were finally falling into place. Like she would be able to finally have all the happiness that Elena possessed if she had her own boyfriend.

Ben laughed, "At least I committed."

Bonnie was about to reply when she saw Hayden enter the grill past Ben's head, and she had to smile. Was she seriously here to get drunk again? How much alcohol could this girl take?

"Hayden!" Bonnie waved her arms frantically in the hopes of catching her friend's attention. And it worked. Hayden spotted the dark skinned girl, and smirked seeing her with a boy.

"Hayden, this is Ben, Ben, this is Hayden." The two of them shook hands before the gorgeous brunette girl turned to her friend.

"You talk to Elena today?" She wanted to try figure out what was the matter with her, and Bonnie seemed the way to do that, they were best friends after all. "She's acting weird."

Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness came from Hayden's back pocket and she fished for her cell phone. Checking the caller ID, and noticing it was Julian, she decided it would be better if she took it, since it turned out after all she was going to be home for a proper dinner and not just a second dinner.

"Bon, we'll talk about it later, okay? Gotta take this call." Hayden quickly hugged her friend goodbye and left for the bar, where she could order herself a drink.

Bonnie stood frozen in her place, like she had been shocked by Hayden's touch, one thought came to mind.

Death.

Was it possible? Was Hayden a… vampire? She had gotten the exact same feeling when she touched Stefan. Ben's voice broke her out of her trance and she stared at him. "What? Oh, nothing. I just gotta make a really important phone call. Be back in a second, okay?"

She didn't leave time for him to reply, she had taken her phone and left towards the bathroom, as far from Hayden as she could, and dialled Elena's number.

"Okay, I'm alone. Give me the deets, Bonnie, I'm dying."

"It's going great," Bonnie answered quickly, "He's a perfect gentleman, but that's not why I'm calling."

"What's the matter?"

"Hayden just hugged me right?—"

"Wait, Hayden's there? At the Grill?"

"Yeah," Bonnie's eyebrows furrowed and continued, "Anyway, when she hugged me I got this really, really weird feeling, it like, shocked me, and then I realised it was the exact same feeling I got when I touched Stefan."

"What?" Elena sounded worried now, and extremely confused. "So you're saying, what? That Hayden's a –"

"I think Hayden's a vampire."