Ruins || The Vampire Diaries [2]

12: For Whom the Bell Tolls

   In the morning, Elena and I had spent it together in the kitchen with boiling hot coffee and tiredness in our eyes. We couldn't sleep, though. We were anxious since Stefan had no memory of anything. Almost two hundred years erased from his mind, the precious past that could be so nice and torturing at the same time. Every time I thought of that, my chest ached as it appeared on my mind. I wanted nothing more but to have him remember me, both our past and our present, and maybe to think about the future if we were together, or not. If I were to be completely honest, I wouldn't mind if we didn't end up together, because I just wanted to be in his life, romantically or not, although I did prefer romantically.

   Elena cleared her throat and looked over at me. "Can I ask you something?"

   "You already did," I said, giving her a teasing smile, although still a bit uncomfortable. "But, you may ask me another one."

   She hesitated for a few seconds, scratched the back of her head, and let out a breath. "How did you, uh... How did you fall for Damon?"

   The question was out of nowhere, and it surprised me. I straightened my posture and scratched the back of my head, searching in my head how to answer her. It was a strange question coming from her, but I was expecting it to come up for quite some time. What surprised me most was how long she took to ask. 

   I took a deep breath and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know," I told her. "I wish I could give you an exact answer, but the truth is that I don't know how or why." I leaned against the counter and looked down at the cup of coffee between my hands, deciding not to look at her face. "Back then, he was this charming boy that brought flowers and kissed hands. He charmed his way through situations, and he always had this alluring stare that made you smile or look away in embarrassment." I smiled to myself and glanced up at her quickly. "I don't have an exact answer of why and how, because it just happened."

   "And Stefan?" she asked. "How did you fall for Stefan?"

   I shrugged my shoulders. "The same way, probably," I said. "It just happened."

   "Do you still have feelings for Damon?" She asked cautiously, as if she didn't want to know the answer but at the same time was desperate to know.

   "I love him," I told her. Her face dropped at that moment; her eyes widened and her mouth slowly fell open. I smiled at her and shook my head. "Not romantically, Elena, not anymore. I love him like you love Matt, as a best friend that I would do anything for."

   "But, h-he's your first love!" she said.

   "Do you still have feelings for Stefan?" I cut her off, raising a brow. She slowly shifted in her seat and looked down at her cup of coffee. I nodded. "Exactly. You never forget your first epic love, Elena, no matter how hard you want to. You'll always have feelings for them, but you know you can move on because you have somehow fallen for another person." I sat up and shrugged my shoulder, giving her a tight smile. 

   Elena nodded, slightly leaning back as she let my words sink into her head. She brought her mug up to her lips and took a big drink of coffee, then slowly brought it back down to the table. "Where do you think they are now?" she asked, referring to the brothers that left the night before and didn't come back. Damon had taken him out, wanting to help him remember his past, and so far I had gotten a text message that told me nothing, only "so far, so good," and nothing more.

   "It's Remembrance Day," I said as I pursed my lips and racked my head for a solution. "So, either the cemetery or The Grill. I think, they're at The Grill, because what better way of bonding than alcohol?"

   She pointed at me and nodded. "True, true."

   "We should go," I said. "Make sure Damon is actually trying to help him remember."