Of the Night

“Salvatore,” I said primly, turning around and looking at the monstrous man-boy that had managed to blot out the sun. I had to look up to meet his eyes, which was annoying because I wasn’t short. He was just annoyingly tall.

Caroline and Rebekah stood beside Klaus, shit eating grins mucking up their faces. I’d get my revenge later, particularly when Caroline was dancing around Klaus and any supposed feelings of affection he may have for her.

“Have a nice weekend?” Damon asked, clearly not going to give up.

I didn’t answer.

“Dream of me, sweetheart?” His tone was overtly sexual and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

I gritted my teeth. “No, but I’m sure you dreamt of me, sweetheart.” I could see Rebekah and Caroline desperately trying to stifle their laughter in my peripheral vision. I flipped them off and continued on my way to the main entrance desperately hoping it would be Caroline and Rebekah falling into step with me and not other certain unmentionable people.

Unfortunately, nothing works out for me.

“It’s not very healthy to run away from your feelings. Did you miss me, Gilbert?” Damon asked, his voice all charm and arrogance. His black hair was messy and curled at the nape of his neck and behind his ears. Dark sunglasses shielded his eyes, but I didn’t have to see them to know the look he was giving me.

“Tons,” I said tonelessly. “I don’t know how I ever survived the weekend without you.”

Damon laughed, a rumbling chuckle from deep in his chest. “I’m glad to know you’ve finally accepted your love for me.”

“I admire your ability to delude yourself.”

“I only learn from the best, sweetheart.” I had to bite my tongue then, to keep gallons of hateful vitriol from spewing out of my mouth and burning the skin off his annoying, pretty boy face.

I stopped walking abruptly. Damon went a full two strides ahead of me before he realized I wasn’t there. When he turned back, he had one eyebrow raised.

“First things first,” I began, my tone scathing. “Don’t call me sweetheart. You might think it’s cute but I find myself losing respect for you every time you insist on doing something I have clearly said before that I don’t like.” I was struggling to keep my voice even and disinterested, but the anger was seeping in like poison. “And second? I have a boyfriend. I’d appreciate it if you’d understand that basic fact. I don’t want to hate you, Salvatore. Don’t give me reason to.”

Damon’s face was completely blank for a long second before a slow, easy grin spread across it. His teeth were too white and straight and it made me want to acquaint his face to my fist. I was sure it’d be a happily ever after. “Whatever you say, Gilbert. Sorry I tried to remove the stick that’s lodged up your ass.”

My cheeks burned red and I opened my mouth so I could whittle him down to the good for nothing prick he is, but I glanced to my left and saw people watching us. Whispering. Giving each other pointed looks.

Mystic Falls was a fish bowl. There was nothing you could do in this town that wouldn’t be under constant scrutiny from everyone around you. Especially if you were one of the Founding Families. School just magnified the lens, and I had no desire to be the specimen under it. Damon naturally attracted attention when you removed his family history from the equation. When you added it, everything about him suddenly became gossip-worthy. He reveled in it.

Elena Gilbert was seen having an argument with troubled Damon Salvatore in the school parking lot before homeroom? Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore were seen together?

The gossip mill might explode. I shuddered at the thought.

So I closed my mouth and instead turned away from him. From all the people, all the whispers. My back was hunched and I could feel the sun burning into my exposed shoulders. Where the hell did Rebekah and Caroline go? I swear to God when I saw them again I was going to tear them a new—

“Elena?” A familiar voice snapped me out of my murderous thoughts. Concerned blue eyes (different blue eyes, less intense and more boyish) stared into mine.

I grinned. “Hey, Matt,” I said lightly, feeling the tension melt away from my shoulders. He bent down and gave me a quick peck on the lips before straightening up. His gaze went over my shoulder, and he squared his jaw.

“Salvatore,” Matt said, nodding stiffly in Damon’s direction. I looked over my shoulder to see that Damon was still standing a few feet behind me, sunglasses tucked into the collar of his shirt. His eyes were cold, hard and flat as a knife. They held a threat and to be quite honest, it pissed me off.

“Matty,” Damon said in return, bowing his head and smirking. “Hope you’re having a great day.”

I scowled. “Fuck off,” I hissed, and dragged Matt along with me to first period.

***
The day went on as monotonously as usual. English and Spanish were okay, but I nearly fell asleep in Physics and very seriously considered plunging a pen into my eye socket during Calculus. Thankfully, fifth period was lunch and provided a much-needed break in the middle of my day. The weather was fine and I couldn’t wait to spend the period lounged out on the campus green. I would probably take a nap, or hibernate until graduation. Either was a perfectly valid option.

I pushed open the main entrance door and shielded my eyes from all the light that suddenly assaulted my senses. For about three whole seconds I thought I finally knew what being blind was like.

As I stepped out of the building, stars dancing across vision, my foot snagged on the ridged piece of metal that lined the floor of the exit. I lurched forward, prepared for my face to hit the concrete, but an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back up in the nick of time.

I splayed my hand out against my savior’s chest to balance myself, before looking up to thank them. The words nearly died in my mouth.

Because who else could it be, really, than Damon Salvatore? Who was glancing between me and my hand still pressed against his chest? Whose arm was still wrapped around my waist and was beginning to feel less comforting and more like a boa constrictor squeezing out my last breaths?

I snatched my hand away and pulled back, effectively putting a comfortable amount of distance between us.

I cleared my throat. “Thanks for keeping me from face planting, Salvatore.”

There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “You should be more careful next time, Gilbert.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I should, shouldn’t I? I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m temporarily blinded. I appreciate your concern.”

“No problem, Gilbert,” he replied, and I took that as my cue to leave and head to the picnic spot beneath the big tree on the green. There was a plaque nailed to the gnarled wood that declared it to be the oldest tree in Mystic Falls, but the Founding Families were fond of sticking a plaque on anything to make our boring little town seem more viable as a tourist pit stop.

Rebekah and Caroline were already waiting for me, a blanket spread out on the grass. More perks to getting the good parking spot.

I barely had a chance to sit down before they bombarded me with questions.

“Did I see what I think I just saw?”

“Did Damon and Elena actually have a semi-civil conversation?”

“Did Elena actually allow Damon to touch her and didn’t chop his balls off for it?”

“Did I totally just imagine you telling him to fuck off this morning?”

I expertly avoided all of their questions by taking a swig of Sprite. The carbonation burned my throat and I almost choked. I would do so well under interrogation.

“Where’s Matt?” I asked lightly, ignoring the blush staining my cheeks, eyes searching the general area for a blond head of hair. He usually came and ate with us most days, along with his friend, Tyler Lockwood, and maybe our friend Bonnie, depending on the day.

Rebekah narrowed her eyes. “Convinced him to run to the Grill to grab some lunch before he tried to insert himself where he wasn’t wanted.” Her gaze only grew more pointed. “He and Damon should be grateful, really, because I saved them both from castration.”

A smile quirked at the corners of my mouth, but I said nothing. I had to keep my cool. Caroline and Rebekah were each a force in their own way, but together they were a force to be reckoned with.

Another minute and a half under Caroline and Rebekah’s gaze, and I was spilling my secrets to the world.

“Okay, fine!” I said, throwing my hands up into the air in mock surrender. “About this morning, he just pissed me off. More so than usual. I can’t stand it when he gets all annoying and smug and thinks he can do whatever he wants. I had to take him down a peg. And for just now? I tripped, he kept me from busting my face on the concrete, so I said thank you. My parents instilled me with manners, you know. Not my fault he got all grabby.”

Caroline grinned, her normal, effervescent, bubbly personality turned up the max. When Caroline got like this, she was actually capable of stunning her prey into submission with a well-placed wink and grin. “Actually,” she began, “I think the most important thing here is that your response to his grabbiness was delayed by a whole two minutes.”

“I concur,” Rebekah chimed, lounging on the blanket with one arm to prop her up. Her blonde hair fell in waves over her left shoulder and her sunglasses kept her looking beautifully disinterested.

“I didn’t even know it was him at first!” I insisted, desperate to hold my ground. The entire duration of my friendship with Caroline and Rebekah had been plagued with their constant vigilance in believing that Damon and I were meant to rule Mystic Falls with an iron fist.

When their expressions clearly said they didn’t believe me, I took a different approach. “I’ll admit that I don’t hate Salvatore. Yet. But I’m not his biggest fan either. He annoys me more often than not. Anyway, I’m with Matt. I’m happy with Matt.” I stressed the importance of the word happy, in case they didn’t understand, or obstinately refused not to.

Rebekah’s perfect eyebrows rose up. “Oh, you mean the end table?” Caroline snickered and I scowled.

“Matt isn’t an end table.”

“He kind of is, ‘Lena. I’m totally supportive of your relationship and everything, those are your choices, but what do you even see in Matt?” Caroline’s doll-like face was painted with sympathy.

I frowned. “You know why, Care. Matt’s dependable. He’s always there for me. He’s sweet and caring—”

“And never disagrees with you, worships the ground you walk on, and only feels the need to assert his quarterback manliness whenever you’re around Damon. I don’t know about you, but those seem like the qualities of a fantastically made end table to me.” Rebekah rattled all this off in her usual bored tone while flipping through a magazine I hadn’t seen her take out.

I opened my mouth to say something else when, speak of the devil, Matt walked over with a grease-stained bag from the Grill, smiling. Guilt tore at my insides.

When he sat down beside us, talking about whatever uninteresting thing happened on his way to the Grill, I let him kiss me and ignored the two particularly annoying blondes sitting across from me.