Just A Girl (TVD)

Bloodlines

I wake up the next morning and check Elena's room. She wasn't there. There weren't even any signs of her sneaking back in. Maybe she'll be downstairs already? I walk downstairs but only Jenna's in the kitchen and there's no one in the living room. Huh. I decide to go upstairs and get dressed. Maybe she's still at Stefan's. I go downstairs and call out to Jenna as I go to the door. "I'm going out!"

"Uh, you're still being punished!" She says, walking over from the kitchen. "Where are you going anyway?"

"To Stefan's house. I wanna see what's taking Elena so long." I explain. "I mean, they're high school juniors, surely they don't have enough energy to have night and morning sex!"

Jenna chuckles. "You know what? Go ahead." She says. "At least you and Elena aren't fighting anymore."

"While you're still, on the subject," Jeremy walks down the stairs, sketch pad in hand. "You owe me 5 dollars, Jenna."

"Dammit!"

"Did you guys seriously bet on how long we'd be fighting?" They both laugh as I roll my eyes and walk out the door. "Bye!" It's a long ride to the Salvatore boarding house. Once I get there, I set my bike down on the porch steps and ring the doorbell. Stefan answers the door with a weird look on his face. "Where's Elena?"

"Uh, she's... in the bathroom..." He says. He looks worried.

"That was a lie. Where's my sister?" I ask. Why is he lying?

"How did you-"

"Oh please. You're distant, nervous, and your eyes are fleeting all over the place." I say. "For someone who has to lie about your identity all day every day, you're reall bad at it under pressure. So are you gonna tell me where my sister is or not?" He looks nervous. "I mean, if you guys want more time, I can just-"

"She's not here." He says, before I can finish. "She left."

"Well, where did she go?!" I say, my own concern rising a bit.

"I don't know, but she's with Damon." He says.

"She's with DAMON?!" I practically yell.

"I'm not too happy about it either!" He says back.

I groan. This is just great. "Have you at least called her yet?"

"Yeah, but she won't talk to me." Stefan said.

"What? Why not?"

He hesitates. "I'll explain later. Don't you need to get to school?"

"Yeah, I guess." I say. "Are you gonna go? Or are you still dead set on leaving town?"

"I'm still leaving."

"See you when I see you then." I ride away from the Salvatore Boarding house and towards the school. Once again it was a normal day. Except neither Elena nor Stefan were in class. I had to start a big presentation in English on the origin of a popular literary trope of our own choice. I guess I could have some fun with this topic. After school, I was walking to the bike wrack so that I could ride home when Charlie caught up. "Hey! Maybe we could go to the town library to start our projects?"

I unlock the bike lock and look up. "That's actually a really good idea! Wanna go now? We could probably knock the whole project out in one go."

He smile as we both get on our bikes. "Sounds great." Once we get to the library we go straight to an unoccupied table. "So what topic are you doing?"

"I'm doing the Forbidden Love trope. What about you?"

"I'm going with the classic underdog trope." He said

"I don't know just how classic that one is, but it's a good topic!" We both laugh. Halfway through the research, I see Jeremy laughing with someone a few tables down. "Ooh. Looks like Jeremy's got a new lady friend!"

"Oh, really?" Charlie says, looking in the same direction. "Oh, yeah. They are cute together." I nod and look back at them. Jeremy seems to notice me watching and laughs. I grin and go back to my research. "So... I was wondering... if we could talk... about the party?"

I sigh. "Right... yeah, that was... it was really something."

He smiles. "Yeah... so... So what did that mean?"

"It meant the world to me." I say slowly. "It made me feel good, you know?"

"Same..." he said back. There was a pause. "So... are we gonna... be doing more of... that?" He asked nervously.

"I mean, I'm down... O-only if you want to though." I say.

"Um... yeah..." Charlie had a bewildered look on his face. He let out a relieved laugh. "Yeah!"

"Great!" I say, matching his excitement. "Uh, I should get home, but I'll talk to you later?"

"Y-yeah! See you around Nora!" He said, gathering up his things. I do the same we both get on our bikes and ride home. As I walk through the doors I call out for Elena but she's still not home yet.

The next morning, I hear the front door opening and brief yelling. I walk out into the hallway to see Elena coming up the stairs with tears in her eyes. She goes straight to her room. Dammit. What happened this time?