Meant To Be

chapter three

Four days later...

The past few days had passed rather smoothly. Damon and I had continued staying in my motel room and had successfully avoided any more strange (and slightly sexual) awakenings. I hadn't gotten in contact with Caroline or Elena just yet because, hey, it'd been close to three years. Another few days couldn't hurt, could it?

Besides, Damon and I were just getting back into our old swing and I wasn't quite ready to add another old friend to the mix just yet. One step at a time.

"Bon Appétit!" Damon says as he places a plate with an omelet and hash browns down in front of me, pulling me from my thoughts.

He sits down across from me, instantaneously shoveling his own plate of food into his mouth.

I chuckle at the sight. "Hungry much?" I ask.

"My appetite for food as a human is just as great as my appetite for blood as a vampire, what can I say."

"I see that," I say, cutting a piece of the omelet and trying it. "Mmmmm, so good."

Damon looks up at me and grins. "I know. Like I said, food actually tastes good again. I'm making sure that everything I eat tastes amazing."

"Well, you went over 150 years without taste buds, I completely understand that," I say with a smile.

Damon's phone makes a sound and lights up suddenly, and he picks it up to check it.

"It's Elena, she wants to talk. Wanna be my backup in case things go awry?" he asks.

"You mean do I want to be a distraction so you don't need to talk to her about your marital issues?"

He laughs. "You know you're more than that to me, Bon."

"Mhm, sure. I have to go pay her a visit anyway. You're still talking to her though!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Finish up and let's go."

-

-

Damon and Elena's home was a medium sized, two-story condo on the edge of Mystic Falls. After moving out of the Boarding House, Damon had bought and paid off the condo as a surprise for Elena. They'd been living there for a little over two years now, and Elena was getting ready to graduate from Whitmore and head to medical school across the country. Damon had told me all of this over the days we had spent together, and I felt very much back in the loop now.

"Ready?" Damon asks as we sit in his car, across from the house.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I say, opening the door and crossing the street.

-

-

Unlocking the door to the house, I walk inside and head into the kitchen, looking for Elena.

"I'm back," I say aloud.

I hear footsteps approach from down the hall, and then she appears. "Hey. I'm glad you came, we need to..."

The front door shuts then, and I assume Bonnie finally built up the courage to come inside. She walks down the hallway, stopping a few feet away from us.

"Hey," Bonnie says with a smile.

Elena's jaw drops, followed by an elated smile. "Bonnie?" Elena shrieks. "Oh my god, you're back?!" They close the distance and hug each other, laughing happily.

When they pull away from each other, Elena asks, "When did you get here? I thought you were traveling."

"I was. I took a break to come back home for a while. I got here a little under a week ago."

"A week? What have you been doing all this time?"

"Well," Bonnie points at me, "Damon and I kinda found each other at the Grill. We've been hanging out the past few days, telling each other all about what's happened."

Elena frowns. "Oh, that's... nice." She turns around and faces me. "Can you give us a few minutes, Bonnie? I'm so glad you're here, but we'll talk in a few, okay?"

Bonnie nods, leaving me to go sit outside. Now I'm doomed.

"So you've been staying with Bonnie all this time, huh?"

"And?"

"And... you couldn't have told me she was back?"

"Well last time I checked, she and I are a helluva lot closer than you two are. Even if we haven't seen each other in three years."

"It doesn't matter, Damon. She's still my best friend, she always will be."

"Is that really the only thing you're upset about?"

"Well, it's been days. How much can you possibly talk?"

I laugh. "We spent over three months together, alone in a prison world. I think our capacity for talking is pretty high."

"So that's all you did? Talk?"

I glare at her, picking up on exactly what she was insinuating. "You think I cheated on you with my best friend? How low do you think of me?"

"Well, I mean..."

"No, Elena. We're fucking married. I would never do that, no matter how bad our relationship is these days."

"I'd hope not."

"My best friend who I haven't seen in years just came back, and you have the nerve to think I was cheating on you with her? Did you ever think that maybe I just missed her and wanted to spend some time with her? At least she likes me still, unlike you. She's probably the only person left that I can actually talk to freely and actually be myself around. All you do is complain..."

"Then why don't you marry her then, if you love her so much?" she yells. "You want to know why I texted you? To tell you that it's over. We've been arguing for over a year now, and it's becoming clear to me that we were actually doomed from the start. We can't fix this, and I'm leaving in a couple months, so. Here."

She hands me a thick envelope. "Divorce papers. I already signed them, all you have to do is sign them and send them to the address listed. Can you handle that?"

My head is spinning- from anger mostly, but shock as well- as I rip open the envelope and sign the documents. When I'm done, I hand them back to her.

"Done. You send it. And what do you want to do with the house?"

"It's yours. I-"

"Great. Goodbye Elena. Leave the keys under the mat when you leave," I say, before walking straight out the door without giving her a second glance.

"What happened, I heard yelling-" Bonnie asks from her seat on the porch.

"We broke up, divorced, we're done. She called me over to hand me the papers. Let's go."

I walk down the steps and to my car, getting in before looking back to see that she's crossing the street, looking at me in confusion.

"You were supposed to talk to her, try to fix things-"

"They're not fixable. Get in. I need a drink."

She sighs, looking back over her shoulder at Elena in the doorway.

"Train's leaving Bon, stay or go. Pick one."

Elena gives her a tight smile as I start the car. She looks back at me decisively before walking around the front and getting in the passenger seat, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Does this mean you're siding with me in all this, or..."

"I don't know, Damon. Just drive."

I nod before taking off down the street.