The Diary of Jane

I Hate Tomatoes

There was a couple of old ladies sitting towards the back gossiping, a lady in her mid-30s maybe by the counter eating a scone and reading the paper, but the one that caught my eye was the guy over by the front window. He seemed to be a bit older than me. His messy dark hair, almost black hung over his piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a black leather jacket with jeans. He averted his eyes from his magazine and looked up at me. I slowly looked the other way, acting like I was just scanning the room before I returned my camera.

"What are you having Miss?" The bartender asked.

 "I'll have a beer please." I said to the bartender as I put my elbows onto bar table, getting comfortable. 

"I'll have what she's having." I heard a voice say. The bartender nodded and went to make our orders. I turned around to meet the stranger's gaze. His features were oddly peculiar, his hair was longish and was hanging scruffily over his piercing blue eyes. His skin was pale, his hands crammed into the front pockets of his jeans. His expression was slightly blurred which if anything made him more mysterious therefore more attractive. 

"Come here often?" I asked, looking in his direction. 

"Only when I'm absolutely bored to death by my brother back home and when I feel like some fun." He smirked. 

"I'm Damon. Damon Salvatore." He said sticking out his hand to me which I obviously took. 

"Jane Moreau." 

"Wow, nice name but you don't sound European." 

"Thanks and I'm not. I'm american, my dad was French." 

"Was? What happened?" 

"He used to work for the military and an attack went horribly wrong... he never came home." He did look rather sorry for me, although his expressions were rather... impossible to read. 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don't be, it as a long time ago and I got over it." 

"If you don't mind me asking, what brings you to Mystic Falls? I'm sure I've never seen you before, I'd have remembered." He said, 

"Cocky much?" I smiled. 

"Very much." We laughed. 

"Yeah, and to answer your question, I just needed to get away. My sister and I never get along and I just couldn't be around all that anymore, plus I do love to see new places and take pictures for my portfolio and focus on my writing, so...yeah." 

"I definately understand that," He said, straining the word 'definately' and smiling.

"So...Did you know that rubber bands last longer when they are refrigerated." I asked absent-mindedly. He just stared at me. 

"The beer seems to have already gotten to my head." He laughed. 

"No, actually I did not know that, but did you know that there are 158 verses in the national anthem of Greece and no one's ever memorized them?" 

"No and did you ever realize that you cannot sneeze with your eyes open?" 

"'Screeched' is the longest mono-syllabic word in English" He looked proud of himself. I don't know how this game started exactly but at least we were talking, I hated awkward silence. 

"Why doesn't 'onomatopoeia' sound like what it is?" I asked smiling. 

"A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours." 

"And um...um...uhh... Darn you got me." We laughed at our stupidity. 

"I've never played that game before." He admitted. 

"Well, there's a first time for everything." I said, he looked at me intently as if he was trying to read my mind. I just gazed into his amazing eyes and got lost in them for a second after I snapped out of it. We chatted some more until it got late. I hadn't noticed how quickly the time had passed. I waved goodbye to Damon and took off. It was terribly windy once I opened the bar door and I clutched my sweater to my chest. I had been walking for about 5 minutes and was close to freezing to death. I gripped my sweater tighter as I looked for a taxi or a bus, atleast to get me up the hill when a car stopped by me.

"Need a lift." A voice I recognized to be Damon's said.

"I'm fine, thanks. I don't want to be a bother." I replied.

"Come on, I'll take you home. It's freezing and if I leave, you'll be stuck here." 

"Thanks." I sighed. He opened the door for me and went to the driver's seat. He started the car and began to drive. 

"Address?" He asked. 

"Umm, 2104 Maple Street." 

I was looking out the window, watching the scenery go by. All of a sudden, Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd came on the rock station that Damon had playing in the car. 

"Ooh, turn it up!!" I said to him. He reached over and turned the volume up a bit so it was louder. I started bobbing along to the music and singing softly. 

"You like Lynyrd Skynyrd?" Damon asked me. I looked to the front of the car and saw him looking at me in the rearview mirror with raised eyebrows. 

"Yeah." I replied. He raised his eyebrow even higher. 

"What?! I lived in Texas for a few months, okay. We kinda moved around a lot because of my mum's job, but mostly in Washington. They play that stuff a lot around there." I said to him. 

"Okay, changing the subject. We need a topic." 

"I hate tomatoes." I said suddenly. Damon got a strange look on his face before he laughed. 

"Where did that come from?" he laughed. I shrugged. 

"I dunno, just felt like saying it." I told him. 

"Okay then." He said slowly. "Why do you hate tomatoes?" 

"I don't know. I just don't. They're all red and smooshy and stuff." I told him. He laughed at me. 

"Those are very good reasons." He said, totally mocking me. I narrowed my eyes at him. 

"You know what?" I said to him, trying to think of a good comeback. When I couldn't, I stuck my tongue out at him. 

"That's mature." He laughed. 

"I know!" I said brightly, causing him to laugh even more. I started bouncing up and down slightly. 

"What are you doing?" he asked me curiously. 

"Bouncing." I said absentmindedly as I looked out the window. 
"Why?" he asked. 

"Because I am bored and hyper." I told him with a big grin. He shook his head. 

"I can see that now." He said. I just grinned even more at him.