Promise You Won't Fall In Love With Me

Chapter 22

No one ever tells you it's going to be like this. When you fall in love.

They tell you have amazing it is, to love and be loved. How alive you feel, how safe, how inhuman, like you are being possessed by some power bigger than anything on this Earth. All of the people, movies, songs, books, they speak about love like it's all unicorns, rainbows and cupcakes, even when they talk about the pain.

No one ever tells you about all of the bad stuff.

Elena was standing on the bleachers with the rest of the people as she watched the medical staff take Stefan away from the field on the stretchers. She never thought a person can feel like this. She never thought she's going to feel like this.

One minute, she had a feeling her body is going stiff, like someone had tied a rope around her body and made her legs melt into one. She had a feeling like someone is squeezing her insides, but from the outside, she felt as hard as a rock. Then, she felt completely relaxed, but that feeling lasted only for a second. Then, she felt like every bone in her body is cracking. She could feel her body trembling, and there were goosebumps on her skin, even though it was the beginning of summer, and it was not cold at all, not even chilly.

She said Stefan's name only once, through a whisper, and it was like she swallowed a razor blade. She had a feeling her throat is bleeding, as well as her mind, from the mention of his name.

Others were shouting, talking, whispering, but she could not hear a word. She could only see people's lips parting to make space for the words that wanted to come out. She could not even say a word, not even if she wanted to.

There were millions and millions of little thoughts crashing inside of her mind. And each was worse than the previous one. Part of her knew she's overreacting, but the other part did not let herself believe everything is going to be perfectly fine.

No one ever tells you you're going to feel like this when you fall in love. No one ever tells you when something happens to the other person, you feel like the part of you is dying away. No one ever tells you the whole world disappears and the only thing you can hear is the beating of your own heart.

Someone should tell that to people before they fall in love. Maybe someone should write a manual, and it would be a law to read it before you commit to a relationship, so when these feelings come you don't feel like you've been ran over by a speeding train.

Because I can assure you, one day, this feelings will appear. Maybe you will see them coming, maybe they will appear out of the blue.

But even if you see them coming, there's not a thing you can do to stop them.

Finally, Elena could see Nik running down the bleachers to one of Stefan's team players, probably to ask him what the hell happened down there. Because none of them had actually seen what went on on the field, since they were too busy with their own talk. After few minutes, Nik came back upstairs, and Elena was relieved by the lack of worry on his face.

As he began explaining what happened, she tried to pay too much attention to his words that eventually, she got lost in them. She heard only certain words, like Stefan was knocked down on the field, he's unconscious, but from the look of things his situation doesn't seem too serious.

So they drove to the hospital, and his parents and his brother were already there. Rebekah ran to them to ask if there were any news. By the same time Stefan's mom started talking, Elena got close enough to hear her saying doctor should come any minute now to tell them the news. Elena could see her trembling hands and the worry in her eyes, while his father was completely calm, going through something on his Blackberry. Damon was trying to stay calm, but Elena could see he's on the edge of his seat. Damon's eyes widened and he jumped out of his seat, which made Elena turn around, to see the doctor standing behind them. All of them came closer as the doctor started explaining the situation to Anna. He used a lot of medical terms, a lot of which Elena did not understand, or even memorize. But she remembered and understood few things, how Stefan had a concussion, some internal bleeding and that his right arm is broken. He had to have a minor surgery for them to stop the bleeding, so he will be sore for few weeks, but he won't be able to use his arm for about a month. The doctor said Stefan is conscious now and that they can see him, but not all at once, so Elena, Rebekah, Nik and Caroline said they will wait in front of his room while his family is in there with him.