A school dance was the last place on my list of places that I wanted to go to. The last time I went to a school dance, I ended up draining a young girl and then throwing her body over Wickery Bridge like some psychopathic murderer from a TV show. According to Damon, I had to go as a chaperone while he visited Dr Meredith Fell over Alaric. It seemed that he had found some the jar of untouched herbs in his apartment, the herbs that Bonnie specifically gave him so he could tame the Psycho Alaric. Damon wanted me to go with him, something about keeping an eye on Stefan and, most importantly, the girl that everyone seemed to fawn over, Elena Gilbert.

   "Do I really have to go?" I whined at Damon, following him. "May I remind you that the last time I went to a school dance, I killed someone."

   "You're going," Damon said, quickly glancing up at me.

   "Let me repeat myself: the last time I went, I killed someone." I crossed my arms and let out an annoyed huff.

   "You won't do it again," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. 

   "Okay, you and Stefan said the same thing last time," I tried to reason once again, "and I ended up killing someone. How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

   He stopped and turned to look at me, laying his hands on my shoulders. "Clara, you're going and that's final. You need to keep an eye on Stefan and Friends."

   "You mean Elena?" I forced a smile and I pushed his hands away from my shoulders. "I'm not going to this stupid dance, Damon. I'm going with you."

   "You need to stop trying to dodge Stefan," he suddenly said, leaning a bit closer to me. "You and I both know that there's something going on between the two of you, and the only thing keeping you apart is Elena. How about going, dancing with him, maybe..." He trailed off as he heard Stefan talking in the living room.

   "Yeah, everything alright?"

   "Yeah, yeah. I just, um... I wanted to, uh..." Elena's voice came from the other side of the phone. "Caroline and I were talking about going to the dance, and, um... Okay, look, I know where we're at, you and I, and I know it would be stupid to even think that we could go back to the way things were, but I'm going to the dance and I'd like to go with you."

   "Um," Stefan paused, "I'd love that."

   I looked up at Damon, my arms crossed. "That's one of the reasons of why I don't want to go."

   Damon stared down at me for several seconds, then entered the living room. He leaned against the doorway, staring at his brother with a hint of anger in his eyes. "I'm thinking gardenia corsage," he told his brother. "Wrist, obviously; you don't want to accidentally stab her in the chest with the pin. Now, that could get messy."

   "Damon, I..." Stefan off as his brother walking out of the room. His eyes then landed on me. "Clara, I..." I said nothing and turned, following Damon out of the house.

   He was getting in his car, eyes hard and lips set in a straight line. By the way he moved, I could tell that he was angry. He stared at me as I got in the car, then let out a groan when he got in as well. "Clara, I said–"

   "I know what you said," I cut him off, "but your brother doesn't need a babysitter and I seriously don't want to deal with any of that now, tonight, or ever."

   "Yeah," Damon breathed, starting the car. It was quiet between us as he drove, as I stared out the window. 

   I had my arms crossed, thoughts reeling. Why did I feel so weird? Each time I thought of Stefan with Elena, I felt something stir inside of me. I knew that feeling too well, due to me having felt it so many times before. I, as much I regretted to admit it, was jealous. It sounded so strange coming from me, being jealous over Stefan and Elena. I couldn't like him, at all, especially since he was Damon's brother and the boy—or man, whatever—that I had comforted when his mother died. It felt strange feeling an attraction to him, as if it should have never been there. But, I knew that it had been there all along since we were small. I had always felt an attraction to him, I just had never gone through with it.

   Damon drove to Alaric's apartment and told me to wait in the car. I thought he was going to check up on the man, but he returned several minutes later with a jar full of herbs. When I asked what happened, he said nothing and drove straight to the hospital. He got out fast, almost slamming the door shut. I had to hurry just so I could follow, all while still being confused as to why he carried the jar with herbs. He stopped behind t Dr Meredith Fell, Alaric's sort-of girlfriend and the woman that used vampire blood to fix a lot of things. 

   "Don't do that," Dr Fell said when she turned to see Damon suddenly stand there. "It's not funny!" She tried to step around him, but he stopped her.

   "Oh, come on," Damon told her, almost smiling. "It's a little funny."

   "What do you want, Damon?" she snapped. When she saw me step beside him, she almost rolled her eyes. "And, Clara."

   "I need medical advice. For a friend," he told her, his face hardening once again. "Alaric, you remember him, right? About six foot two, tried to hack you into pieces."

   "How is he?" she asked. "Are those herbs that Bonnie made for him working?"

   "I don't know." Damon raised the jar of herbs he brought. As soon as he did, everything linked in my head. "Can they work if he doesn't take them? I found these in his loft, untouched."

   Dr Fell glanced from the jar to the ground, then looked up at Damon and me. "I think you should have made him swallow that," she told us. "You should have pushed it down his throat if that's what it took for him to drink it."

   "Bad?" Damon sarcastically asked. When Dr Fell looked at him with anger in her eyes, he nodded. "Okay, very bad, got it."

   "Okay, wait." I raised my hands and shook my head. "So, basically, what you're saying is that we should have made sure that he drank the herbs because if he didn't..."

   Dr Fell cut me off. "Since he didn't, I think it is very dangerous now. His other self might have overthrown his natural self."

   "I talked to him this morning," Damon said, shaking his head. He had a look of annoyance and disbelief. "He said he was going to get out of town for a couple of days."

   "He probably meant that he was going to plan our deaths in the next couple of days," I muttered, shaking my head.

   "Or tonight," Damon softly said, glancing down at me with hard eyes. 

   "The dance," I realized, my eyes widening. "Oh my god, the dance!"

   We marched out of the hospital with our phones in hands. I tried calling Caroline while he tried calling Stefan and Elena. No one answered. All calls connecting to their voicemails over and over again. I groaned and slammed my phone to the floor of Damon's car.

   "Heyyyyy!" Damon called, glancing at me. "I get that you're angry, but don't take it out on my car, or me."

   I took a deep breath. "Sorry. It's just annoying how they all decided to turn off their phones for a stupid dance."

   "I think you're not annoyed because of that," he said, almost smirking. "You're annoyed because Stefan went with Elena."

   "You're also annoyed for the same reason," I pointed out, rolling my eyes.

   "I don't show it as easily as you do," he pointed out with a soft chuckle. "Clara, you let your emotions show like an open book. You've been easy to ready ever since I met you."

   "Oh, really?" I crossed my arms and looked at him, annoyed. "I'm so easy to read?"

   "You get angry easily, and when you're angry you swipe your tongue on the inside of your cheek," he said. "When you're annoyed, you either cross your arms and purse your lips tightly. When you're happy, you smile with your eyes and let this small—very small—smile appear on your lips. When you're sad, you bite the corner of the inside of your lip and look down with a smile. When you lie, your lips stay slightly open, or you scratch behind your ear." He turned to me and smirked. "Clara, I know you more than you know yourself."

   I wanted to say something, but he was right. He did, in fact, know me more than I knew myself. I did those things naturally, so I never paid attention to them. But then, there came Damon Salvatore, pointing out the little things I did as if it were nothing. I huffed and leaned back on the chair, annoyed at him. How dare he? How dare he say those things to me when I was so conflicted over my feelings? I wanted to tell him something in return, spit at him the little things I had noticed about him as well, but I didn't know where to start. 

   I let out a scoff and shook my head. "You're hard to read," I said, my voice breaking the silence. "You're only easy to read when it comes to certain things, certain people. When you're in love, you stare at them with so much admiration and have this smile on your lips, little but filled with so much emotion. When you're sad, you covered it with anger. You'd set your lips straight and stare, as if you were looking for something in them that made you angry, anything to stop you from feeling sad. And when you're angry, you're like a Berserker. You fought in this near uncontrollable trance-like fury, which you overcame immediately after you noticed what happened."

   "Did I scare you when I was angry?" he asked, smirking.

   I turned my head to him and also smirked. "I found it attractive," I told him, taking off my seatbelt. "I found it uncontrollably attractive, as if I just wanted to pounce on you right there and then." I pushed myself closer to him, glancing from his blue eyes down to his lips. 

   "Now you're just teasing," he said, still smirking. His eyes glanced down for several seconds before looking back up at my eyes. His hand slowly reached to my cheek, pushing away a strand of hair that had been in front of my eyes. Slowly, he leaned down and his lips connected to mine. The kiss began slow, and then it moved to a passionate one. His hand was on my neck, pulling me close to him as our lips moved together. I laid my hand on his neck, feeling his soft skin as we kissed.

   His kiss reminded me of being human. I felt as if I had sneaked out of my house and met him by the woods, just so we could kiss. It felt like stealing glances at each other from across the table, like knowingly smiling that I would get to kiss him when everybody was asleep and he would sneak up my bedroom. It was childhood innocence, stolen kisses, lust at its finest. Damon's kiss felt like our first kiss.

   There was something else mixed into that kiss, other than the feeling of being human. I tasted hate, despair, wanting, forgetting. It was right then when I figured out that I was no longer in love with Damon. Of course, I loved him, and I would continue to love him for the rest of my existence, but I wasn't in love with him. The deep feeling of want, the hunger, was no longer present.

   Laughter coming from outside of the car, kids cheering and laughing over the dance. We pulled away from each other, slowly, as if we didn't want the kiss to end. I looked up at him, biting down on my lower lip. He was staring down at me, his lips slightly parted. Slowly, his hand fell from my neck. "We should go in," he said.

   "Yeah," I breathed, turning away from him. I got out of the car, took a deep breath, and ran a hand through my hair. Damon stood in front of the car, watching me. I gave him a small smile and followed him inside. 

   A soft romantic ballad was playing, everyone dancing slowly with their partners. I had to stop and take a good look at everything as it reminded me of my time in Chicago during the Twenties. When I saw Stefan dancing with Elena in the centre of the room, I remembered dancing with him at Gloria's. I remembered him staring at me with a smirk, an arm around my waist as we slowly moved to whichever song the band was playing on the stage. As he dipped her, I remembered him dipping me. As he gave her an underarm turn, I remember him doing the same to me. It felt weird, strange, and I decided to ignore that feeling and follow Damon towards them.

   Stefan was the first to notice us walking towards him, his smile fading. Elena turned then, her smile fading as well. Damon glanced at the pair. "We four need to talk," he told them. He began to walk out of the gym, directly to the hall.

   We stopped in the hallway, where Damon told the pair about what we had figured out during the day. He told them about Alaric, about how he never took the herbs Bonnie had given him, and how he was currently missing. 

   "If Alaric is sick then we need to find a cure," Elena said. "Something."

   "We tried medicine," Damon said in an annoyed tone. "We tried magic."

   "Why don't we get him off vervain?" Stefan cut in. "Compel him?"

   "What?" I looked at him and shook my head. "To pretend to be Alaric?"

   "The guy that we know is gone," Damon continued. "We're talking about someone who not only hates vampires but vampire sympathizers. Which makes one of his most obvious targets–I don't know, you!" He was looking at Elena.

   "What, you think he'd go after Elena?" Stefan asked, earning an annoyed look from his brother.

   "So, wait," Elena joined. "What are you suggesting we do?"

   "I'm suggesting that we put him out of his misery," Damon said, eyes hard and tone deep.

   "What?"

   The youngest Gilbert suddenly appeared from behind his sister. "No way in hell!" he snapped.

   "Oh, come on," groaned Damon. "It's what he would want. It's a mercy killing."

   "You're out of your mind," Jeremy spat at him.

   "Jeremy..." Elena tried to reason. 

   The boy raised his hand at her, stopping her from speaking. He let out an angry breath from his nose then sauntered out in anger. Elena turned and glanced at us, a look of deception in her face. She took in a deep breath then turned to follow her brother. I was left alone with the Salvatore brothers, which made me feel strange. They stared at each other, having a silent battle with their eyes. So I wouldn't meddle in their war, I leaned against the lockers and crossed my arms. 

   Jeremy suddenly ran in, heavy breaths escaping his mouth. "It's Esther," he breathed, glancing around to all of us. "She's here."

   Stefan, Damon, and I looked at each other for several seconds before hurrying out of the hallway and straight to the entrance of the school. There were countless of people coming in and out, all of them dressed in the Twenties attire. We walked out of the school but were suddenly stopped in one area as Jeremy continued. It felt as if I had just hit a wall, which made me confused. When I looked down, I saw a big line of salt in front of us, going around the school.

   "Salt," I uttered loud enough for the brothers and Jeremy to hear me. "It's a binding agent for a spell."

   "We're trapped here," Damon said, annoyed. 

   "Great," I breathed, throwing my head back in annoyance. "This is fantastic."

    "We have to get Bonnie," Stefan said. "She might know what to do."

    "I'll get Witchy." Damon turned around and walked inside the school. 

   "And I'm gonna get something to drink," I announced as I pointed back at the entrance with my thumb. I turned and began to walk in, only to be stopped by someone grabbing my hand.

   "Are you ignoring me?" Stefan asked, keeping his hold on my hand. "I feel like you're ignoring me."

   I looked down at our hands, then up at him and forced a small smile as I shook my head. "No, I'm not," I answered. "I'm just giving you space, Stefan. It's something you need."

   "Something I need?" he asked, confused. "What are you talking about? I don't need space from you."

   I rolled my eyes. "You need space to clear your mind, just like I do as well."

   "Clear my mind from..."

   "Whether you're going to choose Elena or me," I snapped, cutting him off. Stefan stared at me with surprise, his mouth slightly open. "I'm not going to be some rebound for whenever you feel sad that Elena also loves your brother. I am not going to be that, Stefan, because that's cruel of you. Do I not have feelings? Or you know that I do and just enjoy playing with them?" I let out a scoff and pulled myself away from him. "At least Damon had the decency to chose who." 

   I turned and noticed Damon staring at me, his hands in his pocket and his lips in a straight line. He nodded, then told us that Bonnie was working on a spell in a classroom. I followed behind him, pushing my hands inside the pockets of my sweater. Bonnie stood over a few lit candles, eyes closed as she chanted. I took a seat beside Damon, ignoring every look I got from Stefan. When he left the room, I felt like I could finally breathe again. 

   "What was that about?" Damon quietly asked, leaning his head closer to me.

   "Nothing," I answered, turning to watch Bonnie and the boy that stood behind her. 

   "You and Stefan were fighting," Damon continued, "about your unresolved feelings for each other. As fun as it was to hear, and as adorable as you looked angry, I think you should give him some time."

   "You would know a lot about that," I scoffed and rolled my eyes. 

   "It's not me that you're angry at, Clara," he chuckled. "Remember? You're angry at my brother because he can't decide who he wants." He scooted closer to me, his lips now being too close to my ear. "It's hard being in love with two people at the same time, Clara. You want both, and it feels like you need both, and that's what Stefan's feeling at the moment, what you and I are feeling at the moment. It's a big, messy love line where we're all in love with each other and can't choose who we want."

   Damon tried to make light of the situation, and that made me smile. I pushed him with my shoulder and rolled my eyes. "Listen to you," I said, "trying to give love advice when you're supposed to be the least expected person to give it."

   He pressed his finger to his lips and winked. "Don't tell anyone."

   It was then when Stefan walked in with Klaus. The hybrid looked angry, annoyed, yet there was a spark of something else in his eyes that I couldn't decipher. Klaus being Klaus, everything he did was hard to decipher. He looked at me, then looked at the chanting Bonnie in annoyance. "What's taking so long?" he asked. "All spells have a loophole."

   Matt Donovan then walked in, glaring at Klaus. "People are walking right out of the dance," he announced, "past the barrier."

   "So, it's just a vampire thing," I said, crossing my arms and shrugging my shoulders. "Great."

   "Matt and I can leave," Jeremy broke in. "We can stop Esther ourselves. We just gotta find out where she is."

   "It's suicide, Jeremy," Stefan told him. 

   Klaus rushed over to the boy behind Bonnie and grabbed him by the throat, strangling him. "Suicide would be disappointing me!" he said, turning his head to the witch. "Now, work your magic, Witch, or I'll start killing people you fancy."

   "Let him go!"

   "Not until you get us out of here."

   "Ah, don't be stupid, Klaus," Stefan joined in, walking over to him. "Bonnie doesn't give a damn about us. The only reason she's helping us right now is to save Caroline and Tyler. You start killing the people she cares about, she'll tell us all to go to Hell."

   Klaus looked at the boy as if he were thinking of what to do. After several seconds, he let him go. He glared at everyone, especially Stefan, then took a step back. Bonnie decided that it would be best to do a locator spell, so she made everyone split up. I went with her, wanting to ignore the youngest Salvatore brother and Klaus. I helped her look for an empty classroom, one with a map. As soon as she saw the map, she ripped it from the wall and laid it on top of the desk.

   Damon walked in then, Klaus behind him. "Here," Damon said, lifting a vial of blood. "Jeremy made a little Gilbert blood donation for your locator spell."

   Bonnie glanced from the vial to him. "I don't mind Clara, but do I have to do this with you two lurking over me?"

    "You're still mad at me for what happened to Abby," Damon sighed. "Let me apologise: I'm sorry Elijah forced us to turn your mother into a vampire to save Elena's life. Didn't exactly have a choice."

   "There's always a choice," Bonnie and I said in unison. She glanced at me for several seconds, then looked back at him and said, "Whenever you make one someone else suffers."

   "Let's cut the dramatics and begin, shall we?" joined Klaus. 

   Bonnie grabbed the vial out of Damon's hand and poured the blood over the map as she began to chant. When the scent of blood came over me, I took a deep breath and ignored it. It was not a good time for me to get suddenly hungry, to ravish some innocent person that walked around the school. Instead, I ignored the delicious scent and paid attention to Bonnie and her chanting.

   "Esther is fighting me," she said, eyes closed and an annoyed look in her features.

   "Esther couldn't possibly have this much power," Klaus softly said. "Unless she's channelling something."

   "A hotspot," Bonnie deducted.

   "Get the humans ready," Klaus said, straightening himself. "I know where she is." He told Matt and Jeremy, who immediately went to the old cemetery with weapons. I wanted to join in on their conversation, telling them that they were fighting against a thousand-year-old witch and not just some simple vampire. A rifle and a crossbow wasn't a good idea against a witch, especially the Original witch.

   I leaned against the lockers in the entrance of the gym hall with my arms crossed. Stefan and Klaus stood in front of me, close to the salt line, and they were fighting. Klaus blamed him about freeing his mother, and Stefan countered him with the old, "we stopped her before, we can do it again," speech. And then Klaus became amused, just like he always did whenever something un-amusing happened.

   "We're strange bedfellows, you and I," he told Stefan. "You know, all of this reminds me of our time together in the Twenties."

   Stefan scoffed. "You say that like I'm supposed to have happy memories about it." That little sentence hurt. Although he was a ripper then, something he disliked, there were small but happy moments. Maybe, he wanted to ignore those moments as much as he could, deny their existence.

   "Well, there were moments," smiled Klaus. "Real friendship. Brotherhood."

   Damon appeared out of nowhere, took my hand, and pulled me to the bickering duo. "Well, he already has a brother," he cut in. "Not to be, you know, territorial or anything."

   "Oh, oh, of course, the Salvatore's," Klaus mused, glancing between the brothers. "And their unshakable bond. I wonder what will happen when Elena finally makes her choice." He glanced at me, his smirk fading for a bit, it reappeared when his eyes moved on to Damon. "Will we see you shake just a little bit?"

   I decided to ignore his words. Everything that escaped his mouth was filled with taunts, with nothing else but annoyance. No wonder everyone hated him. I began to wonder how could I have spent so much time with him yet never notice what a shit attitude he sported. Maybe it was because I used to have the same attitude, the same I-rather-be-a-bitch-than-have-someone-see-how-I-really-feel attitude.

   Bonnie walked out of the school, her head held high. "It's done," she said with a hard tone. "Esther's not fighting me anymore. The boundary spell is broken."

   While the brothers turned to look at the witch, I stayed behind and looked at Klaus. He stared at me, his hands behind his back and a small smirk on his lips. "My offer of you coming with me still stands, Clara," he told me. "Or if you'd rather leave, that also stands. You have the key."

   "Greece," I nodded. "I know."

   "What can I say?" He tested the boundary with his hand, swinging it up and down slowly. "I'm a romantic." He rushed away before I could say anything else.

   The three of us went to the old cemetery, where Alaric and Elena were. When we got there, the only people we saw was Jeremy and Matt. According to them, Klaus had arrived earlier than us and took Esther's body. Jeremy then filled us in on what happened with Elena and Alaric. Elena was okay, no harm was done to her except a cut in her hand. Alaric, on the other hand, was almost turned into a weapon that could kill all vampires in the world but was a failed experiment.

   As Jeremy and Elena were inside the Salvatore tomb, the rest of us stayed outside and listen. Alaric decided that he didn't want to go through with the transition. He said his dark side was dangerous as a human, and he couldn't imagine it when he became a vampire. I didn't know him for long, but I felt a connection to him. He was a friend, someone who had helped me when I didn't deserve it. We were never the best of friends, but our friendship had progressed over alcohol and saving Elena's life. 

   Jeremy was the first to come out of the tomb, hiding his face so none of us would see his tears. Minutes later, Elena and Alaric came out. Elena had on a façade; she showed the face of a strong girl when she was absolutely wrecked over what was happening. Alaric did the same, his eyes hard and lips set into a straight line. He reminded me of Damon, who never wanted to show that he was in pain.

   Alaric's eyes travelled among the group, staring at each and every one of us for several seconds. Each one of us—human, vampire, witch—sported a look that said that we were strong. It was as if none of us wanted to show him that we were truly sad over him parting, over him deciding that it'd be best for him to not go for the transition. Alaric's façade broke for several seconds as he gave us a small and saddened smile. He then turned, walked into the tomb, and closed the gate behind him.

   I sniffed and reached down to grab Damon's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Alaric was his best friend, the man that helped him through a lot even though he was killed by him in several occasions. Deep inside, I knew that it was breaking Damon. Even though I wanted nothing more but to go back to the boarding house, take a hot bath, and go to sleep, I decided that it'd be best for me to stay with him, to comfort him, just like he had done to me so many times before.

   Everyone else left. Bonnie went home with her fate, Caroline went home with Tyler, Jeremy and Matt decided it'd be best for them to stay together and go to The Grill. Stefan and Elena went back to the high school since Elena wanted nothing more but to pack Alaric's things in a bag before a janitor took them.

   Damon and I sat outside the tomb. I had my head on his shoulder as he held on to a white oak stake and a bottle of whiskey. He said nothing, I said nothing, and the two of us just stayed in the silence of rustling leaves and the distant sound of a dog barking.

   Dr Fell walked out of the tomb, her hands around herself so she wouldn't be cold. "I gave him a sedative," she said, stopping in front of Damon and I. "He'll fall asleep first. He'll go comfortably."

   "Well..." Damon sighed, putting the stake inside his jacket. "I offered to snap his neck, put him out of his misery, but... He didn't take me up on it." He reached behind him and took the bottle of whiskey.

   "You seem surprised," Dr Fell noted.

   "Well, you just think a guy so used to dying wouldn't want to drag it out." He let out a small scoff and took a swig from the whiskey.

   "Well, it was nice of you to give him an option."

   "Hmm," he hummed, "apparently my choices have been a little controversial lately."

   "You shouldn't leave him alone in there," I quietly told him as I reached down for his free hand and entwined my fingers with his.

   "That's what he wants," he told me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

   "Is it really what you think he wants?" Dr Meredith concluded before walking away.

   It was as if Damon didn't know what to do, so he stayed outside, dragging his goodbye longer than he should have. I stayed by him, my head on his shoulder and our hands connected. Ever so often I heard him take a swig from the whiskey, but then I began to hear nothing. I looked up at him, seeing the deadpan look in his eyes as he stared at the forest in front of him. He needed to have his time with Alaric, I decided, so I stood and forced a smile down at him. 

   "Go," I softly told him. "Go with him."

   "You make it sound as I was in love with him," he let out a short laugh and took a swig from the bottle. He was trying to make the best of the situation.

   I chuckled and looked down at our hands. "Well, your friendship with him makes it seem as if you were," I told him. "He's your best friend, Damon, and he needs you right now. Just like you need him."

   "I thought you were in love with Stefan," he said, trying to change the conversation. "What are you doing trying to comfort me?"

   I let out another chuckle and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, I was in love with you first. It would be rude if I just left you when you need someone." I brushed my hand down his cheek, giving him a small smile. "If you need me more, I'll be there to talk."

   "I don't talk," he said, taking another swig from the whiskey.

   "By talking, I meant drinking," I corrected myself. "I'm not looking to be your replacement as a drinking buddy, but I'll be there if you need me."

   I left Damon alone in the cemetery and went back to the boarding house. As soon as my feet touched the warmth of the house, I let out a breath that I had been holding for so long. Along with the breath, tears came down. It felt strange, crying over a man I didn't really know yet felt close to. I let out a breath, calming myself down, and went to serve myself a glass of whiskey. It tasted bitter yet sweet on my tongue, just like my day. 

   "Clara..." Stefan's voice rang throughout the living room. I turned to see him walking in, his hands in his pockets.

   "Oh, you're here," I said, my tone sounding ruder than I intended.

   "I live here," he stated, shaking his head with a small on his lips. "Clara, we need to talk."

   "Can we not do this now?" I asked, laying the glass on the table and crossing my arms. "I don't want to hear anything right now, yeah?"

   "I think you should hear this tonight." He walked closer to me, his hands still in his pockets.

   I sighed and shook my head. "I don't want to listen to it," I stopped him. "I know you're going to tell me about how it's Elena and it will always be Elena. I get it, Stefan; I'm well aware of how love works. I was just your rebound, the girl that helped you forget about her for a while. You don't have to tell me something I already know."

   "Clara, no–"

   "I get it, Stefan," I cut him off. "I do, honestly. I get how you just needed to forget about Elena for a while, and I was there, and I was vulnerable, and you took advantage of that. It's what people do when their heartbroken; it's okay."

   He walked over to me and laid his hands on my cheek, making me look at him. "Clara, I would never take advantage of you. When we kissed, I definitely felt something there. I've felt it before, and I know what it is, but I don't want to go through with it because you're Clara Forbes. I've known you since I was ten, and I've been there for you for so long. Do you know how strange it is to feel these emotions for someone your brother was engaged to? To someone that taught me how to dance?"

   "I'm well aware of how that feels," I said, pushing his hands away from my face. "You're Damon's brother, the boy I comforted when his mother died and his father told him not to cry, the boy who told me that he would come along if I decided to run away. I shouldn't have these feelings for you, Stefan, because you're you. You're Stefan, and these feelings shouldn't exist."

   "I shouldn't have these feelings for you either," he said, staring at me. "They shouldn't exist, but they're there."

   I swallowed hard and pushed back the tears that threatened to fall. "So, what now, Stefan? Do we just ignore this? Go on like nothing, like we have absolutely no feelings for each other? Do we ignore everything?"

   Stefan stared down at me, his face filled with confusion. Just like I was, he was considering every little possibility. He shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know what to do, Clara. I don't know whether I should go forward with what I'm feeling or if I should ignore it."