Into The Hills

Chapter 11

Stefan's POV

We leave thirty minutes later, on his motorcycle, and I missed the feeling of freedom, as I wrap my arms around his waist, we get there and I see it's not the best place but I don't care, I'm here with Stefan, and that was enough.

We park in the parking lot, and get inside, it's like a buffet, and I feel my stomach growl lightly as we sit down.

"Tom must be late." Stefan mutters with a sigh of annoyance

"It's okay.. I'm going to go eat." I apologize with a smile but he nods, giving me a small smile.

I get up and go to the buffet, grabbing a plate, I walk around and decide to take a little bit of everything, I see they have burrito's and it instantly reminds me of California, I used to live off of burrito's.

I sit back down and Stefan stares at his plate, I gently sit closer to him, running my hand along his hair.

"Hey, you should eat, too." I say, and he looks at me, his green eyes unreadable as he nods, standing up.

I feel bad, because I know how much Stefan wanted to see Tom, I assumed they were like brothers, the way he was acting.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Tom show up, he's wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans, against flip flops, his black hair is longer from when I last saw him, touching down his back a little, his blue eyes light up as he sees us.

"Hey!" He exclaims, coming over to us and Stefan stands up, smiling.

"Tommy!" He shouts, and gives him a big hug, Tom pounds him on the back, chuckling.

"Salvatore." He says, chuckling as we sit down, I start to eat the food on my plate but I feel Tom's eyes on me.

"Elena?" He questions, giving Stefan a confused look, but then smiles at me.

"Hey Tom." I chirp, happily as I put down my fork.

He looks back and forth between us, a sly grin forming on his face, he juts Stefan in the ribs with his elbow, and I smile at him, a blush forming my cheeks.

Stefan ignores him, rubbing his side.

"I'm a little bit of a cradle robber." I say, referring of Stefan and I's current relations.

"You, sly dog." He says, pushing Stefan gently, with a laugh.

"Hey, I can't help older women are attracted to me." Stefan teases, glancing in my direction, I squint my eyes at him, playfully, before picking up my fork again.

"Well, I've been there, too." He says, as he looks at me, I know he's referring to Caroline, as I look at him.

Stefan glances between the two of us, his eyebrows raised.

"He used to be involved with my best friend." I explain quickly, making Stefan let go of his theory that Tom and I used to hook up.

"Yeah, how is she by the way?" He asks me, his eyes showing a vulnerability in them.

He was still smitten over Caroline, great. She was trying to work on her marriage and she doesn't need you distracting her, I wanted to say, but I stop myself, it's not my place to judge, I mean look at what I was doing with Stefan, now.

Although, I feel like Stefan and I are different, it's not just about sex, he seems to understand me in ways a lot of people don't. And I hope I wasn't the only one thinking this way for things.

"She's good." I say, smiling at him and he nods, taking a sip of water.

"Anyways." Stefan says interrupting our conversation, as he looks over at who is still smiling, his cheeks red.

"How you been, man?" Tom asks, as the waitress asks him what he wants to drink, he says a doctor pepper, the waitress nods and writes it on the clipboard.

Stefan smiles large.

"I've been great man, sales are high this week, a lot of people, coming to me, I'm pretty happy about it." He says, smiling.

"That's great, man." Tom says, smiling also.

Stefan nods.

"What about you, how are things in California?" I ask, and Tom just shrugs.

"I can tell you one thing Salvatore, they still hate you down there." He says, laughing lightly, I watch Stefan's facial expression change from happiness back to broody, he licks his lips.

"Yeah, it isn't pretty." Tom says, sighing a little.

"What happened?" I ask, but Tom and Stefan don't say anything.

Stefan clears his throat, uncomfortably.

"Drop it, Tom." He says in a dead panned voice, and Tom stops talking.

I wonder why Stefan was being like this and what had happened, I felt like I was an outsider in the conversation.

Tom stares at him, uncomfortably, and for a brief moment it's awkward.

Tom goes to speak again, but Stefan cuts him off.

"Let's go get some food." He says, his face relaxed a little.

Suddenly both Tom and Stefan jump up, grabbing their plates.

"Be right back." He mumbles, touching my hand.

I nod, staring back down at my plate.

They get back and we engage in a conversation about Stefan's childhood, it's very light, but I know they want to say more, it's almost like Stefan warned him of being too personal, ever since that little slip up before dinner.

I find myself getting a little agitated as this secret Stefan is keeping from me, could he not just open up and tell me? Did he really have to be that secretive towards me, I thought we understood each other.

XXXX