Hey...Remember me? Yeah...so I'm sorry for being M.I.A. for a while. I didn't think my summer was going to be as busy as it has been. I expected to be able to give this story my full attention now that school is out...but that seems to be proving troublesome. I did however find some time to write the next chapter and I made sure it was longer than all the others because I felt really, really bad.

I hope you all enjoy and a special thank-you to my Beta Danni1989 for looking it over and helping me with my anxiety problem over this.

Elena

I look at this woman, Alexis she said her name was. She cannot be serious. Damon engaged? Impossible. He would never get engaged, it's just not...him. I look across the table at Alroy and Chloe, my expression surely incredulous.

I try to catch Alroy's eye, but he quite obviously avoids contact by staring down at the table top. I look to my side at Caroline and Katherine. They have no problem making direct eye contact with me. Greenish blue eyes and chocolate brown. A stark contrast yet strong in unity over this farce.

Their eyes glare at me in anger and hate. I understand why from Katherine, I mean she always hated me, but Caroline? I don't know what I've done to deserve her hate...not that I care. I didn't do anything to her before I left.

Well except for stealing her prom dress, being a bitch to her and calling her a monster...but that was so long ago and she should be over it by now, shouldn't she?

I avert my eyes from them and look back over at the brown eyed slut. I spin her words around in my head again.

Fiancée.

Alexis is Damon Salvatore's fiancée...Pft yeah right.

It's almost impossible to stop the bubble of laughter that forces its way up my throat and through my tightly pressed lips. Despite the hysterical laughter that is tricking out of me, I feel a weird sense of worry. I never felt that feeling in a long time, it makes me worry even more due to the fact that I'm worrying.

I try to lock the worry up to get back my emotionless façade, but with the hysterical laughter coming from my treacherous mouth and my worry over the fact that Alroy now looks on at me in pity, now proves it impossible.

"You-You have to be kidding me" I wheeze out, between bouts of laughter. I see Alexis cross her arms, jut her hip and raise her eyebrow through my watery eyes. When nobody speaks, my laughter gradually dies down.

"Elena..." Alroy says, his eyes wary as they look over at me. I feel a weird sensation run through my body. "Come on Alroy seriously? Damon engaged, Damon Salvatore. This is ridiculous." I say, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at this pitiful girl who thinks she's actually engaged to Damon.

"Well, you better believe it...Elena. Damon and I are engaged and I'm not going to let some tramp from his past ruin his and my happiness. You left him high and dry, so it's not my fault he moved on and fell in love with me." The she devil says, glaring down at me with thinly-veiled disdain. I stand up immediately, putting myself toe to toe with her.

How dare she.

"Wow Alexis there is no need for that language. Elena is not a tramp." Alroy says, coming to my defence. The atmosphere around us is thick with tension. "Oh so you don't call a girl who strung Damon around for years making him think he had a chance with her, that maybe she'll one day return his love, make-out with him, then crushed that hope by going back to his brother countless times, a tramp?" She hisses at him, her eyes never leaving mine.

I have a strong urge to rip her heart out of her chest cavity, right here in the grill.

"Okay listen bitch. I might have strung Damon along, but I was in love with Stefan at the time. It wasn't my fault that he fell in love with me. I saw him as a friend. Then eventually I started to have strong feelings for him, but I didn't want to betray Stefan. I'm sure you know that whole story. Then I became a vampire and Damon accepted me when no one else would. He taught me how to feed without killing people and how to accept myself and love myself. He guided me and taught me how to be the girl I was before my parents died and so I finally did what my heart wanted and chose him."

I take a deep breath, trying to stay detached as I talk about Damon.

"And anyway I had my emotions off when I left. So I never intentionally hurt him." I lean forward so my mouth is right next to her ear.

"He waited one hundred and forty five years for Katherine, still blindly loving her. Honey it has only been a hundred a fifty years since I've been gone...And he always told me he loved me more than Katherine. A love like that doesn't die." I whisper menacingly in her ear.

"So why don't you fuck off before I rip your heart out of your chest and shove it down your throat." I say, speaking so the whole table can hear. They all go silent, watching our exchange.

I continue to glare at her, waiting for her to reply or do something. I furrow my eyebrows and resist the urge to step back when her eyes turn into pools of liquid onyx.

"What the hell?" I whisper while blinking multiple times, wondering if I'm starting to see things. She looks like a feral animal. I look over my shoulder at Alroy to see if he's seeing this, but he looks unaffected. I look back at her, but her eyes are changed back to their regular (?) chocolate brown.

I'm guessing it's her regular eyes, because I highly doubt black eyes are a regular thing...Well at least for humans, vampires, witches, werewolves and hybrids.

"What's going on here?" A velvety voice asks. I don't take my eyes off of Alexis as she diverts hers from mine and gazes to our left at him...Damon.

I know it's him even though I can't see him. His scent gave him away as soon as he entered. He has the most unique musk I've ever smelled, it's a mix between leather, bourbon and just something so explicitly Damon.

"Hey honey, how was your bachelor party?" Alexis ask Damon in a screechy voice. I try not to shudder at the sickly sweetness oozing out of her. I turn towards them, trying not to openly gag as she wraps her arms around his waist and leans up for a kiss.

I scoff at their public display of affection.

"It was fun, so what's going on here?" He answers and then asks, looking at the group of us all congregated at the table.

The fact that he didn't deny that it was his bachelor party just went zooming over my head. "What happened was that your girlfriend over there was just insulting me for no reason at all." I say because technically it's true. All I was doing was just sitting here chatting with Alroy and Chloe and then the bitch just started insulting me.

"I never insulted you little girl, I was just stating facts. It's not my fault that you didn't like them." She says, her voice all snarky.

"Oh really so calling me a tramp was stating facts and not you being some jealous bitch?" I ask rhetorically. She gives me a withering stare.

"I was not jealous. Besides what do I have to be jealous about? Nothing." She states.

"Whoa, whoa. Okay why don't you both just calm down okay." Damon says, putting his body between both of ours. I frown at the fact that in doing this, he put his back to me. I don't know how to take this action. A feeling of insult tries to trickle in, but then the fact that he must trust me enough to be vulnerable to me pushes it away.

It's then that I notice who else came in with Damon.

Stefan, Klaus and Jeremy stand behind Katherine and Caroline, looking on at us. Oh you have got to be kidding me. Seriously? I can't believe my eyes when Stefan wraps his arms around Katherine from behind, giving her a kiss on the temple.

"I feel nothing for her Elena." Yeah, what a bunch of bullshit. I guess I kind of saw it coming. It also didn't surprise me when I saw Klaus do the same with Caroline, God like no one saw that coming from a mile away.

It's than that an overwhelming sense of anger took over my body, one that I haven't felt in years upon years. I forget all about Alexis as the now not so foreign emotion washes over me.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." I say, glaring over at Caroline.

Her eyes go wide at my sudden outburst.

Damon turns around to look at me, while holding Alexis' hand. "Oh this is rich, no seriously."

"What are you talking about Elena?" Caroline asks, her voice not as hostile as it was when she was telling me to leave town. I feel Alroy's hand touch my arm, probably trying to calm me down. He must realize why I'm pissed, because he knows all about my life before, every single detail.

"You and him!" I say, pointing between her and Klaus.

She gives me a puzzled look, probably not understanding what has me so pissed.

"You are such a hypocritical bitch!" I shout, forgetting all about the fact that I'm supposed to be emotionless.

Yeah, that definitely did it. She doesn't look so confused any more.

"Elena loo-"

"No! I can't believe you! When I broke up with Stefan so I could be with Damon you were so against it. You said he's a monster that he did so many irredeemable things that it was impossible for me to love him. That Stefan and I were meant to be because Damon was too evil for me. You chose Stefan's side over mine because of your refusal to see past the bad things Damon did. You looked over the fact that Damon saved you, Bonnie, Jeremy, Stefan and me countless times. That he almost always sacrificed himself for us. You were hung up on what he did to you that you chose Stefan over me. Your best friend that you knew since the sandbox!"

She looks away from me, not able to maintain eye contact.

"You hated Damon for all the bad things he did, yet here you are with Klaus? He was a hundred times worse than Damon could ever be and yet your with him. You looked past all his monstrous acts because you love him right? Well why couldn't you do the same for me? Huh?"

"Elena things happened in the years you were gone, Klaus-"

"Oh what he started acting nice, doing good things. You started to fall in love with him, which made you look over all his past transgressions? Sound familiar?"

"Elena-"

"Fuck you Caroline. You were perfectly fine ruining my happiness, but now that the tables have turned-"

"Okay, everyone just shut up. We're drawing too much attention. Why don't we take this somewhere more private?" Jer says, standing up and motioning to the crowed who are trying to look like they aren't eavesdropping.

"Yes that's a great idea Jeremy, let's all go to the Boarding House." Damon accedes, putting his arm around Alexis' shoulder.

Since no one said anything against me going, I take that as an invitation. I trail behind quietly and distractedly. That little tirade I went on seems to have opened the flood gates to my emotions. Waves after waves of emotion are washing over me, like a tsunami. Grief, despair, anger, self-hate, jealousy and hatred all warring inside me. It is taking everything in me to stand up straight. My eyes burn with repressed tears. God the pain is tearing me up like a shredder.

It was bound to happen, coming back to this town and having all these memories and people show up was bound to do some damage to what was suppose to be my impenetrable wall that hid my emotions. Who would have fucking thought that this would be the straw that broke the camels back, that seeing Caroline with Klaus would be the thing to flip the switch back on.

I stumble as my thoughts drift to my transgressions.

All the people I've killed over the years, all the pointless lays, all the hurtful words I've said, everything is washing over me. My vision starts to go blurry and I have to stop walking and sit down in the booth closest to me.

This is not a place for me to break down in. I feel a warm hand on my shoulder. I look up into the warm brown eyes of my baby brother. Oh God, Jeremy!

I was so callous with him.

He looks down upon me with compassion and worry. He has to see it, the emotions warring within me. He opens his arms to me. I waste no time in shooting up and stepping into his embrace. "Oh God, Jeremy." I say in a whimper, the sobs threatening to rip from my tightened throat.

I feel wind whip my hair around and then the cool night air caress my body. I hear Jeremy shushing me as he runs his hand through my hair. The comfort I feel with him holding me, is the catalyst that makes me completely break down.

I'm sobbing wretched sobs.

My whole world seems to be crashing down around me as the years of me being a monster washes over me. I can't take it. The pain is crippling. I don't know where I am or anything. All I know is the feel of my brothers hand caressing my hair and whispering soothing words.

Soothing words that I don't deserve.

Not after everything I've done.

I don't know for how long I've been sobbing. It could have been minutes, hours, days, but eventually they subside. The pain is still there, but the tears just stop. It takes me a while longer to realize that I'm laying down on a soft bed.

I open my bleary eyes, blinking a couple of times to clear them. I sit up and move my legs, so they are dangling off the bed and expand my hearing in order to figure out if there is anyone in the house with me.

I hear light footfalls in what sounds like the room on the other side of the wall to my right. I hesitantly get up and finally key into my surroundings. My breath gets sucker punched out of me at the sight before me. I shouldn't be surprised that this building is still here, I mean practically nothing in Mystic Falls has changed. I guess I'm just more surprised by the fact that I'm in this apartment, after all this time.

I feel the tell-tale pinprick of tears threatening to fall. This is too much.

Too much.

Why would Jer bring me here after I just turned my emotions back on? It's like adding salt to an already festering wound. The pain is almost unbearable. With everything already so raw, this is like torture.

Did he do this on purpose?

Does he want me to suffer more?

No Jer wouldn't do that, there has to be a perfectly logical explanation for why he would bring me to...Ric's apartment.

Although he was dead for quite a while before I turned my emotions off, the pain was always there. I hesitantly step into the room, trying not to cry (even though it seems I shouldn't have any tears left after what happened this morning) as I look at the living room that hasn't changed since the last time I was in here with Ric.

"Great you're up." A voice says from in front of me. I look up to see Jeremy standing behind the island counter. He has the fridge open, a cup in one hand and a bag of blood in the other. I'm surprised I didn't notice him right away since the kitchen is directly in front of the bed.

"Hungry?" He asks holding up the blood bag to show me. I nod my head, not sure my voice would work after all my crying last night. I wouldn't be surprised if it does, I mean with vampire healing and all I shouldn't have a sore throat. Still it doesn't change the fact that I don't feel like talking.

I look at the time on the stove.

10:29pm

Holy shit, I've been out of it for...more than twelve hours.

I look back over at my brother and my jaw goes slack.

His face transforms before my eyes and his canines lengthen. He uses them to rip open the bag. "You're a vampire?" It came out as a question when I meant to make it a statement because obviously he's a vampire. How could he have survived this long looking like a twenty year old? God I feel like such a bitch not knowing how old my brother is. Well not knowing how old he was when he turned that is.

"Yup" is all he says as he pours the red liquid into a white coffee cup that has vampire fangs on it, dripping blood. Then he reaches into the cupboard and takes out another white coffee cup, this time it has a saying in red letters "bite me."

"Seriously do you have some kind of vampire style cup fetish?" I wonder, catching a glimpse of more cups with quotes and pictures of vampires on them. He bursts out laughing at this, which I find confusing. "It looks that way, but no. Damon for some reason just loves buying me cups in relation to vampires." He explains, "it happened a couple years after...Bonnie died." He stops talking for a second and I feel guilty for not being there for him throughout all this. I also feel grief over my best friends death. "He did it as a joke and I guess it kind of stuck. I mean whenever he sees one he buys it. Soon I'm going to have to get a storage locker in order to keep them all." He tells me, while putting the cups in the microwave to heat them up.

My mood that was sort of gradually lightening, starts to dampen as he continues to talk about him. Jeremy notices immediately and his face morphs into one of remorse. "Elena I-"

"So why did you bring me here?" I ask, cutting him off. He looks down at his hands, probably not knowing what to do with them in this awkward situation. We haven't talked to each other in years, so obviously we don't really know who each other are any more. I feel deeply saddened by that.

"I thought that after your...breakdown that you would rather be somewhere other than...you know...the Boarding House." I nod at that because yes, the last place I want to be right now is there.

The microwave beeps, signalling that the blood is ready to be consumed. He takes them out and hands me the cup that says "bite me" on it. We head over to the couch on the far left and sit down. "So after we finish breakfast and you get freshened up, do you want to head over to-"

"No, why don't we just...stay here and get caught up. I've missed so much while I was...you know and I would really like to get to know you again. I missed you Jer." I say,

"I missed you to Lena" he says, putting his left arm around my shoulder and pulling me into a side hug.

"So what have you been up too the past hundred and fifty years?" I ask, trying to get the conversation flowing.

"Oh God, where do I even start? Oh okay I got it. You'll never believe what happened-"

I can't help the tears of joy that slip down my cheeks.

God It's good to be back.

A/N: So...is it terrible? It's terrible isn't it...I'm having major anxiety issues over this. Please if you hate it...don't be to harsh. I didn't know if having Elena turn her emotions on this chapter is too soon or not...I hope some of you aren't pissed if you wanted to see an emotionless Elena for awhile. I hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone. Please review, whether it be positive or not...I think I can take it. :S