1 | Unforgettable ✓

Chapter 7 - downwards

Arizona

It's been about a week since I haven't been back to Mystic Falls. I've been traveling around places close to Mystic Falls though. I haven't answered anyone's calls. I honestly don't care, I couldn't care less what they think. They can think I'm dead. Who cares? What surprises me though, Elena has called a lot, but guess who has called more. Damon. Why does he want to comfort me. All he's ever down was hurt me. So I don't want to deal with that. Elena is really annoying. She calls maybe every hour. Stefan doesn't call a lot, maybe 3 times in the last week. What a bummer. Caroline's sorry, she doesn't know what got into her. But I think it's finally time to go home. I miss it there, I'm getting homesick. I bought a whole lot of new clothes which I absolutely love. Can't wait to show them off to everyone. It's a Saturday, so no school. I go to the Salvatore house, and look who I find; the whole gang.
"Hey." I smile, and I sit down on the couch.
"That's all you have to say?" Elena seems pissed.
"Yes. Why?" I ask. I know what's wrong I just want her to get pissed at me.
"Arizona Rose Gilbert. You know exactly why I asked that. You left for a week without returning any of our calls. Why?"
"I didn't feel like it." I shrug my shoulders. I know I'm getting her more pissed. She walks out and tells Damon to go talk to me.
"How are you?" I smirk.
"Answer Elena's question please, Ari." Damon pleads.
"I told her. I didn't feel like getting scolded by every one of you." I answer. I walk to Stefan and Elena and hear the talking very discreetly.
"What are you two lovebirds doing?" I ask.
"Well." Stefan tells me all what happened.
"Quick recap. Bonnie has being seeing her ancestor, Emily. There's a new teacher because of Damon's fault. Damon now helps the council to "kill all the vampires." Convenient. Also Stefan's best friend came to town, Lexi. But Damon killed her. There's a doppelgänger named Katherine in the tomb and Damon wants to get her back. But Elena found out about her, and drove away but got into a car crash, and Damon saved her and went to Georgia. Elena saved Damon from Lexi's boyfriend. Logan Fell was a vampire, you guys killed him. There's more vampires in town, they kidnapped Bonnie and Elena. Does that sum up about everything important?" I summarize the long ass story.
"It's seem likes Damon was the main topic last week. So glad I missed that." I say trying to annoy him. Damon rolls his eyes at me.
"Well. I'm gonna go now. I have a lot to unpack. See you guys later." I leave, and remember Jenna is going to be home. I roll my eyes after the thought of getting grounded. I drove home in about 5 minutes. I walk upstairs as fast as I can.
"Woah, woah, woah. Where do you think you're going, Arizona?" Jenna asks me.
"To my room?" I try to sound unaware of situation.
"You've been gone a week and you're not even going-" I cut Jenna off by going upstairs.
"Sorry!" I apologize walking up the stairs. As I'm walking to my room I see Jeremy drawing. Damon compelled Jeremy to forget that she got killed, and she just left town. He's doing a lot better now.
"Hey Jer." I greet him in a quiet voice."
"You're back. How've you been?" He seemed so bright and back to himself.
"I'm good. Yeah. I guess." I say to him smiling weakly.
"Well I'm going to go to my room, it's nice to see you Jer." I say. I went to go sit down on my bed but Elena texted me.
"We have to go to the tomb. Damon wants Katherine and he needs to trust us." Okay. I get downstairs and Stefan is here too. When is Stefan not here.

***

We arrive at the tomb and we meet Damon, Bonnie and her Grams. Bonnie and Sheila start to do the spell so Damon can go in there.
"Just so I can trust you guys, I'm taking Ari with me inside." Damon says.
"There's no need for that." Bonnie says trying to defend me.
"Yeah, it's fine. Damon needs to trust us so Arizona can go with him." Stefan says.
"I didn't sign up for this." I sigh very quietly. Damon and I enter the tomb, but I lost him not even 2 minutes in. I trip on something, and I land next to a desiccated vampire.
"That's disgusting." I say.
"I'm going to get lost in here, and then I'm going to die. Great. How do I get out of here now." I keep babbling. Then suddenly I see a different girl.
"Who are you?" I ask her.
"I'm getting my mother, I mean no harm to you." She says then leaves.
"Damon? Damon?" I keep calling his name, but I bump into him. He doesn't look too happy.
"You alright?" I ask.
"Katherine isn't here. I remember her getting thrown in here. Where is she?" He asks himself.
"Damon, I think we have to go. The spell isn't going to hold much longer." I beg, but he still isn't budging.
"You're going to get stuck down here. We can figure things out when we get out." I try to convince him. He just nods, and it takes us about 3 minutes to find our way out. I can walk out, but Damon is stuck in there.
"Wait, what?" I'm confused as ever.
"Get him out of there!" I yell madly.
"He's better in there." Sheila replies. I get pissed so I go back in there, I see that girl earlier with her starving mother. Oh great.
"Mother, go to her." The girl says pointing to me.
"Wait. You said you mean no harm to me." I say scared. But I have an idea.
"If you don't let them out, she's going to kill me." I say. No magic is happening, so I get ready for the mother to drain the life out of me. Until Stefan comes in and pushes her away.
"Okay. Now you gotta get them out." I say smirking. Bonnie and Sheila do their magic and everyone make it out alive. After we get out I hug Damon. He doesn't seem like he wants to do anything right now. I don't blame him. We all go to the boarding house without talking. Tonight didn't really boost my mood of being "alive and free." Stefan and Elena go up to Stefan's room to go discuss something. I could care less if they leave me out of it.
"Arizona."
"Damon." I answer mimicking.
"Could I ask you a question?" He seems drunk as hell.
"Are you going to remember what you asked me?" I say laughing.
"Probably not."
"Save it for when you're sober then." I laugh.
"I'm going to go home. Goodnight Damon, don't get into trouble. And tell Elena I'm leaving her here." I walk out of the house and start my car. I drive home and go to my room. I drift off to sleep.

***

I wake up and instantly checked my phone. I've gotten a text from Liam.
"Do you want to come to the grill @ 11 to hang?"
"Sure! I'm not doing anything today anyways." I texted him back. I got ready and saw that no one was home. I had to think for a while to remember what was today. The bachelor auction. Right. I decide to get a head start. I walk today because it's pretty nice outside nonetheless. When I arrive it's about 10:56. I order a drink for now until Liam arrives. I smile brightly when I see him. It seems like he's the only thing that makes me happy now.
"Hey, Liam." I say. I haven't seen him since last week, he should be extremely mad at me for not telling me where I went
"I want to apologize, I left without notice. I should've really told you, you're the one person that I should've talked to-" I was going to keep going but he stopped me.
"It's okay. You were hurting, but next time I expect you to talk to me okay?" He said. I nod and smile. I'm so glad that he's not mad at me.
"Oh yeah. Uh. So the think I wanted to talk to you about was.. I don't know how to say it to you.. um would you want to go out.. with me?" He asked. I just smiled at him I got caught up in the moment.
"Arizona?" He asked.
"Oh yeah. Sorry. Yes I will." I just smiled after that. That was probably the highlight of my year. After that we just ordered lunch and got food. I asked Liam to drive me to the boarding house. Elena is usually there, so I'd go there. I'm about to go out the door, and he kissed me on the cheek. I think I just turned bright red there.
"Thank you for today. I loved it." I say. I get out of the car and I walk inside. I see Damon stab the history teacher, Alaric Saltzman.
"Damon, no! What the hell, and why?" I yelled.
"He attacked me." Damon says with no remorse.
"You know he had no chance against you." I say. That's when Stefan came in. He rushes over here and says,
"Damon." Stefan says in disappointment.
"All I did was tell him the truth, his wife didn't want him anymore. It's not my fault that he couldn't handle it." Damon replies.
"Like you've been handling Katherine." I say to him.
"I'm handling it fine. You know what? Isobel came to me. She found me. And if she's related to Elena, that means she's related to Katherine. Maybe Katherine sent her to me." Damon says defending himself.
"What the hell do you mean?" I say confused.
"Ooh, Elena didn't tell you." Damon says.
"What?" I say.
"Isobel. Elena was adopted, and Isobel is her real mother. And uh. Damon turned her, and Alaric was her husband." Stefan briefly stated. I just sigh, and Damon gets bored so he leaves. I see Alaric's fingers move. And he wakes up.
"What happened? What's going on?" Ric says.
"Did Damon turn you?" I ask.
"No, I went for Damon and he stabbed me." He says avoiding the question.
"Did someone slip you blood?" Stefan asks.
"No. It's something else." Ric says. He looks down to his finger, that has a ring.
"A ring?" I ask him.
"It protected me, Isobel gave it to me." Ric says.
"Impossible." Stefan says.
"I know." After we helped Alaric, I went home. I didn't want to talk to Elena. I get it, but she tells me everything. I go to my room and pick up a photo of my parents. I sigh. I go to wash my face, and change into my pyjama's. I go back into my room, and see Damon.
"What do you want."
"I remembered my question." Damon says. I ignore him.
"I'm sorry for kinda killing Alaric." He tries to apologize.
"You don't mean it."
"You're right, but I'm sorry that you had to see it." Damon again apologizes.
"Fire away then."
"Why are you acting like a total bitch now. After you came back from your weeks journey. You just suddenly changed your behaviour." He says.
"I've always been like this. I haven't changed. I'm just more fun, and I'm carefree now. I just went through a phase with my parents, and that phase is done." I say happily.
"I don't believe you. You know I can compel you to tell me, because you're not wearing any vervain." Damon says coming closer to me.
"But you wouldn't. I have nothing to hide. And you trust me, and I trust you to not do it." I say.
"Mm. Fair point, but I feel like you're hiding something. But I won't, at least not yet." Damon says. I get a text from Liam asking me if I want to hang out, I huge grin grows across my face.
"Ugh. What are you smiling about." I don't even hear him because I'm too focused.
"I gotta get ready, get out." I say.
"First, tell me what's going on." Damon is very intrigued.
"You wanna know?" I continue to do my hair. Damon nods.
"I have a date alright, so get out." And Damon is gone. I get ready and walk to the grill. I accidentally bump into a guy right outside the house.
"Uh, I'm sorry." I say. I keep walking, then I turn around the guy isn't there. Okay, weird. I turn back around and I black out.