We Always Survive ♥ (A Damon and Elena Fanfic)

Chapter 1 - Letting Go

Damon POV 12/25 9:30pm-12:00am

Elena reaches up to her toes and kisses me softly, taking me by surprise. She pulls away, as much as I don’t want her to, and gives me a weak smile before getting in the car. Part of me wants her to leave because it’s the right thing to do, but part of me wants her to stay here and fight me on this. I know that won’t happen though. She gets into the car and I close the door, trying to keep my composure. Standing on the porch, I wait for the car to leave. After a few minutes, it starts and pulls away down the road as I watch it disappear. I rush inside and bump shoulders with Jeremy, not wanting to talk to anyone right now.

      “Watch it. I do have the overwhelming urge to kill you, you know. You might not want to push it,” Jeremy growls, but I ignore him, heading over to the bar to pour a glass of bourbon. I toss it back and lean on the bar, trying to think of anything but Elena. Jeremy sighs and walks down the hall, to what I assume is his room. His footsteps grow faint and the door shuts behind him.

I slide down onto the floor and lean my head against the bar, squeezing my eyes shut. How can this be happening? I don’t understand. She is the one person I can be around and not be a complete asshole. When I’m with her, it takes me back to before I was turned, when I was a decent guy. Of course this happened, though. After everything I’ve done, there’s no way I deserve to be happy. There’s no way I deserve her. Maybe Caroline and Stefan are right, maybe she doesn’t really love me, maybe it is just the sire bond. It doesn’t matter what the witch in New Orleans says, there’s no way she could love me. The door down the hall clicks open and I stand up, nonchalantly pouring more bourbon in my glass.

Jeremy walks out of the room and leans on the wall at the end of the hallway in silence. I mutter, exasperated, “Can I help you, little Gilbert?”

      “You really love her don’t you? My sister.”

I turn to face him with a blunt response, “Yes. I do.”

      “I’m sorry. You’re a dick,” he scoffs with a hint of humor in his voice.

I chuckle quietly and nod, “Trust me, I know.”

      But he laughs and continues, “But I know you’d take good care of her. Ric saw past it, and I’m sure I could too.” Rolling my eyes, I set the glass down on the bar and walk past Jeremy, patting him on the back as I stroll down the hall.

      “Get some rest, we’ll train tomorrow.” I say flatly.

I go to the room Bonnie spelled and shut the door. Bonnie isn’t the biggest fan of me, but she doesn’t want me to get staked in my sleep either, so she spelled one room so that Jeremy couldn’t get in. I take off my shirt and throw it on the dresser, knocking over a picture. I pick the photo up and return it to its original spot, but take a second to look at it. It’s a picture of Jeremy and Elena from when she was about 12 years old. I rub my thumb across the picture of the two and can’t suppress the small smile that creeps onto my face. After setting the picture down, I walk back over to the bed and lie down, looking up at the ceiling for a few minutes. I check my phone and see no new messages, which was weird because Elena always texted me making sure I wasn’t dead. I always thought it was kind of cute and annoying, but I miss those messages now. I switch to lie on my side and close my eyes, hoping to fall asleep, because all I can think of when I’m awake is never seeing Elena again.