Vampire Diaries Blood Brothers

~Chapter Thirty One~

Elena's favourite song hummed through my radio as I danced around my bedroom, pulling my hair brush from the shelf before spinning across the floor to my closet for sneakers. Yesterday had been an emotional day, first with seeing Elena (or imagining seeing Elena), and second with seeing Damon after he almost killed my best friend.
   As much as I hated Damon for what he did, seeing him cheering me on yesterday at the show and helping me afterwards made me remember something my mom had told me when I was young. She'd said, 'When we meet people, we're walking into their lives midway through their story. If we stick around long enough to see all sides of them we can be quick to judge but the truth is, we don't know their past. We don't know why they are the way they are. In most cases, the worst people we meet have been through something, or seen something so horrible which has made them the way they are. Now when we meet those people, we have a choice. We can love them anyway, take the good with the bad and try to understand. Or, we can judge them solely on their mistakes, ignore all the goodness we used to love and shut them out of our lives. The decision is ours but remember Eva, these kinds of people, they're usually the ones who need our love the most. And nine times out of ten, they're the ones who have so much love to give, they just need someone to show them how.'
   A few days ago I made the decision to shut Damon completely out of my life because what he did to Bonnie was so terrible and cruel that I could never forgive him, but maybe my mom was right. After all, Damon lost the chance to be reunited with the love of his life. I liked the old Damon, or at least the Damon who was kind, considerate and caring. The human side of Damon. If the other night taught me anything, it was that Damon was capable of love. I wasn't ready to forgive Damon just yet, but maybe I could give him a second chance. Maybe. 

Miniature beads of sweat lined my glistening forehead as the gravel of the Salvatore's driveway crunched beneath my shoes. Breathing heavily, I bent over with my fingers coiled around my knee caps, trying to slow my heart rate before I saw Stefan. Wiping the sweat from my forehead with the sleeve of my gym shirt, I tilted my head to the side and pulled my earplugs out, breathing in the fresh and familiar scent of pine. 
   One thing I loved about going to the Salvatore Boarding House was the location. Sure, it took me a while to get here by foot, but it was surrounded completely by nature. No wonder Stefan loved it here. He could be himself without risk of anyone noticing how fast or strong he was. If he lived in my neighbourhood he would have to be as human as possible all the time, but his house was so private and so wonderful. It was like the Salvatore Boarding House was in a completely different universe to the rest of the town and I loved it.
   Pulling the band from my hair, I took a second to finger comb my hair as it fell down my back, the ends drifting to the side with the breeze. Taking a breath, I knocked on the door. Footsteps echoed down the hall before the door swung open.
   Damon leaned against the door, his muscly arm outstretched as his hand sat atop the wooden rectangle. He smirked, his eyelids fluttering. I groaned, folding my arms across my chest. "Is Stefan here?"
   "Yup," he replied slowly, his smiling mischievously as he remained in the doorway, not bothering to move or invite me in.
   "Where is he?" I tried again, my hands dropping to my side.
   "And good morning to you," he bowed his head slightly in a nod like motion, his voice infuriatingly slow and slick. "Little Miss, I'm on a mission," he raised his eyebrows, that infuriating half smile returning to his face. 
   I gritted my teeth. I had come here to see Stefan, and maybe give Damon a second chance after attacking Bonnie, but he knew how to get under my skin and I hated it. "How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything that you've done?" I demanded.
   "And how can you," he tilted his head, that same provoking, Damon like tone coming back. "Be so brave and so stupid," the pitch of his voice went up as he raised his eyebrows. "To call a vampire arrogant and glib." He tilted his head again, his eyes dark and narrowed as if to point my idiocy out to me.
   "If you wanted me dead I'd be dead," I pointed out, my tone just as stern as before.
   "Yes, you would," he nodded, his eyebrows raised as though it were an obvious fact.
   "But I'm not," I smiled.
   "Yet," he grimaced in annoyance. 
   As I pushed past Damon and headed down the hall, I felt him watching me as I started up the staircase. Though I wasn't a fan of the fact that he was scrutinising my every move, I couldn't help but smile to myself. Damon had gotten under my skin and gee, he knew how to annoy me, but I could play that game too. He hated the fact that I knew he wouldn't hurt me, despite everything he said. He always had to highlight the point that if he wanted to hurt me he could and that my life was in his hands, but I knew, despite everything he had done, he was no danger to me. In fact, Damon had helped me more times than he'd threatened me since moving to Mystic Falls. 
   There was something about me, something which Damon liked or cared about which stopped him from hurting me. He had many chances to hurt me, but he never had. Maybe coming to my performance yesterday was his way of telling me that he was sorry about what he did to Bonnie, or at least his way of trying to rekindle the relationship we had before he attacked her. Damon wanted me around whether he wanted to admit it or not and the fact that I knew made him furious.