Elena

I sat at my desk, impatiently tapping the end of my pen against the sheet of paper with not nearly enough words on it before me. 'This is what I get for being a creative writing major, I chose this misery.' I thought. I scribbled down another sentence only to stare at it for a few seconds. I aggressively erased the sentence I just wrote and let out a growl.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wildebeest, I must be in the wrong apartment. Don't attack, I'll just go." I heard a voice coming from my bedroom doorway and turned around, although I already knew it was my best friend and roommate, Damon.

My eyes briefly assessed him, finding him in his usual attire, black v-neck, dark jeans, and black boots. His striking black hair was styled in its usual messy casual way, and I smiled at his consistency in style. His piercing blue eyes broke up the black and shone with a playful glint as he stared back at me with that panty-dropping smirk of his.

"Ha-ha, you're so funny." I deadpanned to him, trying to conceal my own smile, not lasting long at all. He let out a small chuckle and flopped down on my bed.

"I still don't understand how you don't join the current century and type out your work!" He started the same playful argument we had at least once a week. I sighed.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you I always type up my work before submitting it. I just prefer to have the rough drafts handwritten, it's more personal, and writing is very personal." I told him matter of fact.

"Is that so?" He asked, playing along.

"It is very so." I replied, holding my head high in air before bursting out into a fit of giggles. I decided to take a break from what I was working on and went to lay with him on my bed. I cuddle up into his side, resting my head into the crook of his shoulder, letting out a deep sigh.

"Hey try not to stress out too much. Only a week before it's all over." He reassured me.

"A week is too long to be in this hell hole." I answered.

"Stop, we both know you love it here." He laughed, and I felt his chest shake slightly beneath me and closed my eyes to the comforting sound and feel.

"I only love it so much because it's where all my most important people are, and after this summer, that's not going to be true." I told him, a hint of true sadness in my voice at the thought.

I felt him frown against my head before he said something in response. "California is far, I'll give you that. But it doesn't have to change everything, we'll still talk when we can and you'll have Caroline, Bonnie, Jeremy, and, and Matt." He argued, and that was all true, he was the only one graduating this year that I would truly miss, most of my friends and my baby brother would still be with me.

"Our last summer together before you head off to Stanford." I sighed. Suddenly, he sat up, and I was forced to too.

"Okay we are not going to be all doom and gloom about this okay? I refuse to let you ruin your own summer. You're going to come to California to visit me all the time! In fact, I have a surprise for you." I immediately got excited, he knew I loved surprises. He paused a little while longer, waiting for the anticipation to build up before he told me like the drama queen he was. "How would you feel about spending the summer in California?" His eyes shone with excitement, mirroring mine, I was sure.

"Are you kidding? I'd love to!" I yelled, way too pumped at the idea of spending the entire summer in the sunshine state. "Oh, but I feel so bad about leaving everyone else behind." I frowned, Caroline would not be happy about me ditching her for this long.

"I already thought of that, I talked to everyone and they all agreed to spend the summer there too. We're renting out a big beach house for the season, their plane leaves a week after the last day of finals."

"I stared at him, wide-eyed, and jaw dropped. "You really thought all this through didn't you?" He laughed, nodding his head.

"Well, yeah, I kind of did. I wanted you to have an amazing summer to get you through the depression of the school year without me." He smirked at me, winking, and hit him over the head with a pillow jokingly. He put up his arms, trying to defend himself against my attack, when I suddenly realized something.

"You said their flight leaves a week after finals? When do we leave?" I asked him, confused.

He smiled smugly at me once more before saying a word. "We're leaving right after your last final next Thursday. I thought we needed a week more of living together and best friend time before you had to come back to Emory all alone. Plus, Alaric and Jenna still have finals a week after that and I didn't want to wait for them!"

I instinctively tackled him onto my bed in graditude, speechless at everything he had done to make me happy. Damon always spoiled me like this, we had been best friends since before I could remember. I had a feeling that that summer was going to be amazing, and I was right. It just wasn't at all what I expected.

Damon

I was beyond relieved at how excited she seemed about our summer plans. I was a little worried about how she would react to the time alone with me in California, but she seemed to like the idea. She kept thanking me, but really it was as much for me as it was for her. I was going to miss her like crazy next year, so much so that a couple months ago I was looking into grad schools here in Georgia, convinced I couldn't make it at Stanford, not without her there with me.

But, as soon as Elena found out I was even considering it, she flipped out. Yelling at me about how hard I had worked for it and that I couldn't just throw that all away because I was scared. She seemed to feel a bit bad about it afterwards, assuring me that I was going to do great in California and make her really proud. She didn't know the real reasons I had to stay in Georgia, all of them being centered around not wanting to leave her. She just thought I was nervous about moving across the country and pretty much starting over completely new.

She didn't get how much I loved her, because I do, I love her. And not just as friends, not the like the love I knew she had for me, I was completely and irreversibly head over heels in love with that girl and she had no clue. For the past twenty years I convinced myself it was better that way, her not knowing. I didn't want to lose her, plain and simple. If I told her how I felt, things would be so weird between us, she's just feel guilty constantly for not feeling the same way and I didn't want to put her through that. So that's why I became the walking cliché I am, the guy who's in love with his clueless best friend. The only one who knew how I truly felt was Alaric, my other best friend, second to only Elena. He made fun of me for it a lot, but at the end of the day he was there for me when I needed to mope about it and get drunk the nights I happened to be home and heard Elena in her room with then boyfriends. God, that was the worse. Whenever she was dating someone and I went home to hear them in bed, I would almost always do the same thing. I'd call Ric, tell him we were getting drunk that night, and ultimately end up at with another girl next to me when I woke up the next morning. It wasn't exactly a healthy coping mechanism, but it was what kept me sane when she was seeing someone.

I just, I couldn't help being in love with Elena, she was the perfect girl. She knew me better than anyone else, but more than that, she just got me in a way that no one else did. She was crazy smart, funny, sweet, and dear god was she sexy. She doesn't even realize it either, it would be incredibly frustrating if it weren't so damn cute. We'll be out somewhere together and every guy in a twenty mile radius will be drooling over her, and she doesn't even notice. Of course, I never point it out to her, the last thing I need is for her to realize her affect on men, then things will never happen between us. Not that I really think they will. She's too good for me, I know. But that doesn't ever stop me for wishing I was good enough for her.

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