If We Had Met First

Chapter Thirty Three

Chapter Thirty Three

            Elena had jerked awake around six in the morning so she was pretty sure that her dad would be asleep when she got to her house, she was right. Before he mom had died she wouldn’t have been able to get away with any of this. Not staying over at Damon’s place or disappearing for the weekend to go on a road trip with him. Granted even now she wasn’t actually telling her dad any of that, as far as he would know she would be staying over at Bonnie’s to finish a project for school.

            Her parents had always been able to see through her lies immediately, maybe her dad had lost that ability when he lost his wife or maybe he was too withdrawn to care. If she hadn’t been so focused on everything supernatural that was going on in her life Elena didn’t doubt that she would be spending all her time worrying about how her father was doing.

            Lately he had taken to spending most days at his office sometimes not even returning until her and Jeremy were asleep. He always had bags under his eyes and looked as though he was sick. Elena hadn’t seen in father eat in weeks and was certain that if he kept that up he would have a nervous breakdown.

            After she finished packing a few things in the back pack she usually used for school Elena went through the bathroom she shared with Jeremy and peeked into his room. He was still fast asleep and she couldn’t help but smile as she watched him just lay there peacefully.

            Before leaving she wrote a note for her dad explaining that she was going to spend the weekend at Bonnie’s house and then after thinking about it wrote a note for Jeremy. It explained where she really was and told him to watch their dad and try and help him. The thought of leaving her dad alone made her feel incredibly guilty but she wouldn’t be gone for long and she knew that Jeremy would be able to handle things while she was gone.

            It only took her fifteen minutes to get in and out of her house and before she knew it she was sitting in the front seat of Damon’s car as they drove out of Mystic Falls.

            “So where are we going?” Elena asked as she watched the trees they were passing blur by the car.

            “I was thinking Georgia, Atlanta to be specific.” Damon replied.

            “What’s in Atlanta?” Elena asked.

            “I guess you will have to wait until we get there to see,” Damon answered with a smirk.

            Elena couldn’t help but smile as they effortlessly bantered back and forth. When they were alone in the car it was like none of the problems outside of it even existed. This was the first time in ages she had really let go and had fun without worrying about something in the back of her mind.

            It was hard to believe that she had never thought of doing something like this just to get away from it all. Talking to Damon was always effortless and she was completely relaxed as they sped down the highway.

            Damon had just finished telling her about New Orleans in the 40’s. He had been telling her all about the various decades sans the parts he spent murdering people. However no matter what he said about being a monster most of the times his thirst was kept in check even back then.

            It was easy to laugh at his stories and it was amazing to hear about those time periods from someone who had actually been alive during them instead of just reading about them out of a book.

            With the couple stops they made it took them about seven hours until Damon was pulling into a parking lot just outside of an old brick building just outside of Atlanta. The words over the door said ‘Bree’s Bar’.