"Now, why exactly did you carve my name back into the runestave, and how did you know to?" We sat at her kitchen table while I asked my questions.
"I have a proposition for you." I quirked my eyebrow at her not- too-skillfull evasion of my questions, but motioned for her to go on. She leaned forward resting her elbows on the table in a gesture I was fast learning meant she was about to say anything that was connected to the subject. I sighed and settled in.
"You were erased the first time because of your love for Jenny Thornton who never seemed to love you back. Instead, she was in love with Tom who seemed only to be able to love himself." She took a breath and looked surprised as I calmly sipped the coffee she had placed in front of me. Inside though, I was dying with curiosity.
How did this girl know how I had come to be erased? She was just human. No human should know that much about my race. It seemed almost perverted to my thinking. She had said she was a witch, I wonder exactly what sort of powers she was able to control. My strength was still returning, and until it was fully back, I could do no more than sit and watch her go through her banal life. She was a cute little thing though....
Her voice promptly brought me back to what bystanders to her odviously did best. Listening. "Now, I know you love Jenny and still want her. The way to a girl's heart is not through your silly games." She grinned slightly at this point.
"Let me guess, YOUR silly games are the way." I replied somewhat drily if I do say so myself.
"Exactly. I believe I'm having a similar problem in my life right now." The dryness of my last statement was odviously lost on her.
"You're in love with a girl named Jenny? Well, whatever turns you on, Bonnie my dear." It was childish, I know. But the look on her face..... It was now my turn to smile as she gaped at me.
"No! God, you are such a hard person to talk to! Okay, I'm calm." She took a breath before going on. "I'm in love with a man named Damon Salvatore who is equally in love with my best friend Elena Gilbert." The look on her face as she said this tore me apart inside, but I hardened myself against it.
She has the most beguiling little face that completely told what she was feeling at any given time. It was really fascinating to just watch her, because she seemed to be able to experience such a range of extreme emotions in short periods of time. I have never met anyone like her before, and she intrigued me in a way I was unfamiliar with. It wasn't really intrigue that I loved in Jenny, it was something different. Humans are really strange creatures. Able to be so different from one another, yet still be connected by their species.
"Why should I care?" Her face hardened as I answered in the only way that seemed to be appropriate to me.
"You're missing the point, Julian." She leaned over and grabbed my coffee to take a swig. I just looked on as she did this in disbelief.
"Go and get your own coffee." I took back my mug and glanced pointedly at the coffeemaker on the counter behind her.
"Don't be so uptight. We can help each other! Don't you see it?"
"How so?"
"We could use each other to make them jealous! Jenny and Damon know they have power over us because of our love for them. They would miss this power if it was suddenly lost to them."
She had a point with this, but there were some things that were bugging me about her plan. Such as, why had she chosen me for this? And there was still some question of how she had known so much about my history.
"Should I take your silence as agreeing?" Bonnie's smile lit up her face.
I nodded hesitantly. I would go along with her, for now.
"Great!" She hugged me across the table on what appeared to be an impulse. I sat there stiffly as she sat back again.
She frowned slight. "We really need to work on your people skills."
********************
"Come on Bonnie. Shoulders back, head high. Why are you so self concious?" I looked at her with curiosity. She just kind of shrugged and looked away. I sighed and waved an impatient hand in her direction.
"AHHH! No way! I am not wearing this Julian!" I frowned at her as she wrapped both arms around her now bare-midriff.
"Pull your arms away! And stop trying to pull up your pants!" I had dressed her in a dark red tank top and low slung black leather pants with her normal black skater's shoes. She seemed to find something wrong with the outfit.
"I cannot wear this in public!" Bonnie glared at me while trying to connect the pants and shirt by tugging.
"Stop that. Come over here." I motioned her over to me.
"You need to pretty much exude self-confidence if you want people to believe you and I are a couple." I explained as I pulled her arms away from herself and held both her wrists between us. She looked faintly startled as I put my other arm behind her so I could push against her lower back. She straightened up as I pushed against her like I knew she would. Letting go of her completely, I stood back to see my handiwork. She looked slightly bemused, but standing with her back straight like that made her seem taller and more confident. I was almost able to forget the feeling of holding her in my arms for that moment as I looked her over.
"Much better." I remarked to her now glaring face.
