Reckless Love (Elena & Damon)

1 - Meeting

There is something of yourself that you leave
at every meeting with another person.

'You're really pretty, you know that?' A drunken man slurred at the bar, as Elena Gilbert served him yet another sex on the beach.

'I think that's about the tenth time you've said that,' she replied, and forced out a tight smile across her face.

She had been serving this man for a little over two hours and had watched him go from a neat, corporate looking gentlemen, to a disheveled, wasted mess. He had been giving her a range of compliments for the past two hours, which when he wasn't as drunk were somewhat flattering, but now he had trouble keeping his head off the bar and the admiration he claimed he had for her wasn't as pleasant as it once had been.

Elena had been working at the bar, called Red Label, for almost three years now, so she was more than used to this kind of behavior. She had watched countless men and women trying to numb whatever pain they were feeling, only to end up more broken as they left the bar, or got dragged out.

She was never meant to see this many people wonder in and out of the bar, as she was never supposed to stay for more than a year, let alone three. She took the job after one year out of high school, as a means of earning extra money on the side, but she quickly got stuck. At the time, she was studying nursing at college, but once she realized it wasn't for her and dropped out of the course, she discovered that she had not much left besides this job. In short, she was scared to let go the only steady thing she had. After coming out of high school and realizing that everything she thought about who she wanted to be was wrong, she found herself trying to cling to something where all that didn't matter - and the bar is what she settled on.

'Sex on the beach is good, do you like sex on the beach?' the man perked up again as he took his first sip of the drink.

Elena rolled her eyes with her back turned to him, and then turned back around to face him with yet another fake smile plastered on her lips. 'The drink, yes.'

'And the real thing?' he mumbled quietly, with a glimmer in his eyes.

'Can't say I've tried it.' She realized her tone had suddenly turned angrier, and she was well aware it was not the type of tone she should be speaking to a customer with, but at this point, she was fed up with the man. The questions and comments had turned from light-hearted to intrusive and somewhat rude. Elena lifted her eyes to look at the clock. It had just hit 8 o'clock, which meant she had another 30 minutes. Another 30 minutes and this man would be someone else's responsibility.

'You alright down here Gilbert?' Her boss, Matt called out to her as he came out from the storage room.

It always felt weird to call Matt Donovan her boss, as in reality, he was not only the same age as her, but a lifelong friend too. Both their parents had been friends before they were both born, so they were always destined to be close. In fact, they had actually dated for about a year, before it came to an end. Much to Elena's relief, they had somehow come out as being closer friends when their relationship ended, and she was thankful, because she couldn't picture her life without him. He was another form of stability that kept her tied down to this bar, and in a sea of instability, she needed as much constant as she could get.

'Yeah I'm fine,' she replied, and then stepped in closer to him to whisper in his ear, 'man down the end is close to reaching his limit.'

Matt looked up to the man who had now finished his drink, and had his face flat on the bar. He rolled his eyes and looked back to Elena. 'Is he being a dick?'

Elena shrugged her shoulders. 'I've had much worse, I can handle him. But not if he vomits all over the counter.'

Matt let out a light laugh, before nodding along. 'Alright. I guess it's time to cut him off. Don't serve him anything else, unless he asks for water.'