Not About You

Chapter Twelve

It was a cool Saturday evening when Damon dropped Lucy at the Grill to have an early dinner with Caroline. They were just finishing up when Damon shuffled in and made his way to the bar where a red head immediately started hitting on him. Lucy frowned as she took him in. Something was wrong. It went beyond him not coming over to greet them. It was in the way he held himself, the look on his face. Something had happened since he dropped her off a couple of hours ago. Leave it to Damon to get into trouble in that short period of time.

Lucy tapped the table as she thought. "I'll meet you at the car, Care. I need to talk to Damon for a moment."

"Sure, no problem," the bubbly blonde answered and Lucy couldn't help the smile that curled her lips in response to the girl's normal demeanor.

Lucy walked over to Damon and rested her elbow on his shoulder. "Hey, Salvatore. What's up? You good?"

He barely glanced at her, simply grunting in answer. She scowled in response. This was so out of character for him. At least when it came to her.

Before she could drag him off and make him talk to her, the woman that had been talking to him piped up. "Who's this? Girlfriend?" Her gaze flitted over Lucy before arching a brow in dismissal.

"No," Damon said with a huff of a laugh before he drained the rest of his drink. "This is just Lucy."

And damn, that hurt but she clenched her teeth and did her best to keep her face neutral. "Well, just Lucy, we were kind of in the middle of something," the other woman said.

Damon licked his lips. "Yeah, I'll see you later, Luce." Again, he barely glanced at her as his dismissed her.

Lucy said nothing as she stepped away and went outside to find her ride. She slipped into Caroline's car. Once Lucy buckled in, she turned her head to stare out the passenger window so her friend wouldn't see any stray tears that might fall. They were halfway to the boarding house before Caroline spoke. "Are you okay, Lucy?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She wasn't sure how believable her answer was as her voice was rough with emotion. When they reached the house, they both got out. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be in later."

"Okay. Be careful," Caroline instructed before heading inside to see Stefan.

Lucy wrapped her arms around her middle as she tromped across the grounds and into the trees. She just needed some time to herself. Some time to remind herself that Damon made her no promises and they were friends, nothing more. He was obviously in a pissy mood and taking it out on her as he was prone to do when his brother wasn't around to be the target. It wasn't his fault she caught some pesky feelings along the way and took it personally. She sighed and swiped the tears from her cheeks. Stupid.

After ten minutes or so, she turned to head back to the house only to find an unfamiliar man blocking her path. Before she could react, four more figures surrounded her. Lucy held her hands out to the side. She could fight but not five on one. Especially because she was fairly certain they were vampires. She opened her mouth to scream for Stefan when something hit her on the head and everything went black in a rush of pain.

***

Damon felt bad for dismissing Lucy as he had, but his ego was hurting after finding Pearl and Anna in his house. They wanted him to spy on the council for them. When he refused, Pearl shoved her thumbs in his eyes just to remind him how much older she was. He'd apologize to Lucy later when he could manage to talk to her without being an asshole.

Right now, he needed a pretty woman to fawn over him for a few hours with no strings attached and no expectations other than great sex. The red head fit the bill perfectly even if he'd already forgotten her name. They stumbled in the door of the boarding house. His lips found hers as he lifted her. Her legs wrapped around his waist and he carried her over to press her back against the wall.