Reckless Love (Elena & Damon)

10 - Selfish

The loyalty you give will not always be returned.

It seemed like it had been forever since Elena, Bonnie and Caroline had all caught up. They could simply blame it on the fact that they had all been busy, with Bonnie and Caroline at university, and both spending time with their partners — with Bonnie still denying the fact that she was seeing anyone at all— and with Elena spending a lot of time at the bar, and when she wasn't there, spending time trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. So yeah, they could blame it on them being busy, and they liked to.

But the truth behind it all was that suddenly they were all living very different lives.

Caroline had found the man of her dreams, and everyday they were moving towards the future, together. They spent many nights tucked away in their apartment, just simply enjoying each others company. They had all but decided they were each other's future and forever. It was Stefan and Caroline all the way to the end. It seemed as if all they needed now was each other. Elena knew that she was still very important to Caroline, she knew that whatever happened she always would be, but it didn't change the fact that it still hurt just how little they seemed to see each other these days.

Bonnie was up to who knows what. But she was always busy. Never free to catch up, morning, noon and night. She seemed to always have something going on, or someone. Elena was still convinced she was seeing someone new because she always gets like this when she is. Secretive and private, never really giving much information. Obviously she was still in the process of trying to decide if this guy was good enough to really allow into her life.

As for Elena, well, still nothing had changed. She was floating between shifts at the bar, thinking about what she wanted to do with her life and strangely, talking to Damon. Not in person, they hadn't seen each other now in a week or so, but there had been some random, surprisingly long phone calls, in which nothing important was really talked about, just rambling to each other about their days. For some reason they had found comfort in talking to each other, but right now it was just platonic — much to Elena's dismay. And perhaps Damon's too. But there was definitely potential for it to turn into more, they both knew that, and they were both terrified of it. 

But as terrified as Elena was, she couldn't shake the eagerness of it all. In the few months she had known Damon, somehow he had etched his way into her brain. Despite all the rude comments and mouthing off, he had cemented his place in her mind, and she had no idea how to get rid of him. But right now, she didn't want to. Right now all she wanted was him. 

Due to the fact that there was limited time to spend with her best friends these days, Elena jumped at any and every opportunity to. Hence why she organised to meet them both for lunch on one of the only days of the week they could all manage to be free to see each other.

'I haven't seen you both in so long,' Caroline said, a smile etched on her face as she looked at both Elena and Bonnie sitting opposite her.

'I know. Not since the Hampton's,' Elena admitted, thinking back to that weekend that took place two weeks ago. 

'But we've all just been so busy,' Bonnie added, retreating to the familiar excuse.

'Oh yeah. I've been flat out,' Caroline replied, following in her footsteps.

Elena held back a defeated sigh and instead plastered a smile over her face. 'How's Stefan, Care?'

Caroline automatically started beaming, 'Amazing. Really, just amazing. I'm so happy. I don't think I've ever been this happy.' 

'That's wonderful. I'm so happy for you,' Elena replied, trying to hide the jealousy. 

'I want him forever,' she continued, and showed no signs of slowing down. 'I want to marry him.'