Reckless Love (Elena & Damon)

11 - Beautiful

Put your future in good hands — your own.

Elena's head was throbbing. Her feet were hurting. Her legs were burning. It seemed as if her entire body was riddled with pain. Or maybe she was just feeling that way because she was looking for any excuse to get out of this dumb convention that she had somehow found herself in.

Really, it was all Matt's fault. When Elena and Matt had talked about the need for her to find something to do with her life, she had taken it seriously. She knew he was right and she knew that if she didn't start to work out her life now, she would probably never. However, she had no idea that Matt had taken it just as seriously too.

The next time she arrived for a shift at the bar, Matt had handed her a ticket. And no, it wasn't a plane ticket to the other side of the world that Elena had naively hoped it would be, but rather a ticket to some career convention, made for people who were just like Elena — unsure and scared.

But Elena didn't want to be grouped in with all these people. Despite the fact that she was like them, she didn't want to let anyone know that. She didn't want strangers to look at her and think, 'that girl looks just as unsure as me.' She didn't want to look at other people and realize that no one looks as soul-crushingly terrified as she does. She wanted to sort through this on her own.

But Matt knew Elena well. Not extremely well, not anymore at least, but well enough to know that if he didn't help her she would never put in enough time to work out her life, so instead of just buying one ticket, he bought two, which meant Matt tagging along and no way of Elena getting out of it.

And now she was here. At this convention called CareerWise, trying desperately to show Matt that she was interested, when really all she wanted was to be at home and try and work this all out on her own.

As she roamed the giant hall, she spent mere seconds glancing at the different booths around her, but nothing jumped out to her. Accountant — no way. Interior designer — as if. Chef — yeah, right. There was nothing catching her eye, nothing she could see herself being. This whole thing seemed useless.

'How are you going?' Elena heard Matt call from behind her, and she turned around to face him.

'Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Just having a look at different stalls,' Elena said quietly, as she pretended to be interested in the closest booth to her.

Matt craned his neck up to look at the booths name, and then looked back down to Elena, his eyebrows furrowed. 'Plumber?'

Elena mentally cursed herself for not picking a better booth to look at, but then continued her act. 'You never know.'

Matt frowned and let out an exasperated sigh. 'You should take this seriously, El.'

'I am,' she replied, through gritted teeth. She wasn't in the mood for this convention, and she certainly wasn't in the mood for the lecture from Matt that she knew was coming.

'I don't think you are. You haven't even picked up any brochures.'

In petty fashion, Elena leant forward and picked up a plumbing brochure, then turned to Matt offering him her most sarcastic smile. 'Look at that. I picked one up.'

Matt rolled his eyes and followed Elena as she moved away from the plumbing booth. 'I'm just trying to help Elena.'

Elena sighed, and instantly felt guilty. 'I know you are Matt. And I appreciate it. I just don't know if this is the best help.'

Matt scratched the back of his neck anxiously and walked awkwardly next to Elena as they made their way past hundreds of other booths. 'I don't know how else to help.'