5 years, 6 months and 9 days Later

Thursday, July 4, 2013

I walk out onto my back porch holding a platter of ribs ready to be put on the grill, they're perfectly marinated and I can't wait to sink my teeth into them. My family and friends Fourth of July barbecue and beer tradition was under way, its only one in the afternoon and I am beyond ready to hit the damn pool. Mississippi summer's are a bitch and the bikini under my cut off shorts and bright green tank top are itching to be free of the my clothes.

"Hey Bonnie, where's my brother?" I yell over to Damon's wife and my childhood friend. Damon had finally asked Bonnie to marry him after dating her for four years. They've been married since last November and now are expecting my little niece Charlotte, who is due July 14th. Ten days to go and I'll be an aunt! She's lounging on a float in the pool and even though she was full term the girl is pulling off a two piece swim suit like it's nobody's business. Bonnie is freaking beautiful, no stretch marks anywhere I swear she's from a different fucking planet! "He said that he had something to take care of at the shop and he'll be over after that." She replies with a smile on her glowing face. Bonnie's radiant, being a mixed woman gives her that extra pregnancy glow and I am jealous of her tan skin. Sure I have a damn tan, but hers is natural while I had to work to get mine and I constantly nag her about it. All in fun of course.

I meet up with Matt Donovan at the grill handing him the ribs and thankfully in return he hands me a nice ice cold Bud Light. "You are a fucking life saver Matt." I pop the top off the bottle and take a long swig. "Just looking out for my girl." He jokes placing the ribs onto the ready grill. I place a kiss on his cheek, "Please tell me that your mama is bringing her ass over here today." He chuckles before taking a drink of his own beer. "Yes, Caroline is making sure she comes." i sip on the cold beverage and sigh. "Good, now if you need me, I will be in the pool." Nodding his head he says through a chuckle, "Alright, just holler at me if you need another cold one."

I nod and go over to the beautiful deck that Damon, Matt and Tyler Lockwood built around my huge above ground pool. They were my boys and as usual I paid them in food and beer, the only things they ever wanted. Besides Matt would never charge me money for his services, owning his own construction company had its perks with his friends and I am his best friend. I had introduced Matt and my college roommate and other best friend Caroline Forbes at Damon and Bonnie's wedding. They hit it off instantly and he drunkenly proposed to her down in New Orleans when went for Mardi Gras a few months later and she drunkenly accepted. I was sure that by morning they would've laughed it off but he took her to the nearest jewelry store and let her pick out her own engagement ring. By the time our hung over asses had woke up at the hotel, they came back and showed us the big diamond on her left hand.

I am beyond happy for them, Caroline swore all through college that she would never find true love after being dumped by her long time boyfriend Lance on the night of their high school graduation party. Poor Matt had seen first hand his share of failed relationships, his mother Kelly could never hold onto a man and his sister Vicky was always going through guys. The one time he had opened his heart up to a girl she broke it, that same night he sadly found Vicky hanging from the tree in their back yard. Matt was eighteen at the time and he swore off women after that night, he would say that I was the only girl he needed and even though we were strictly friends that was good enough for him, so I am over the moon that he and Caroline are together.

"Ah, so miss hot stuff is joining Tyler and I in this nice cool water huh?" Bonnie asks me laughing as I walk up the steps onto the deck, she has somehow managed to get up these steps by herself while I was talking to Matt. See from another planet, Tyler laughs along with her and I shake my head, "Sorry to break your heart Bon, but I am heading over to the grill." Tyler informs the mom to be as he's getting out of the pool and grabbing his towel. "Is Liv coming?" Tyler's dark brown eyes pierce me before shaking the water from his black hair. Sighing I shake my head no. "No, she said that she's not ready to do the whole being around you thing yet. Her words." Placing his hands on his trimmed hips he sighs loudly, "When I fuck up, I really fuck up." Placing my hand on his arm I try my best to comfort him even though he did fuck up, "Give her time, she may come around she may not, either way keep your thinking head up and the other one down." I tell him with an arched brow. He nods and sulks walking down the steps with his shoulder sagging.

As I start taking my shorts off Bonnie gets off the float and swims over to where I'm standing. "He has to know by now that us girls aren't going to forgive him so quickly." I furrow my eyebrows at her while folding my shorts. "I may have said something similar to him yesterday. I love Ty, but he's an idiot." Yeah, Ty had fucked up alright, sleeping with your girlfriend's roommate when your drunk off Patron is a horrible move. I slide my top off and put it with my shorts on the lounge chair, then throw my hair up in a cute messy bun.

"Is it ok for you to get in the chlorine?" she asks me just before I get in. I look over to my new tattoo that I had just got two weeks ago. Two sparrows on the inside of a heart on my ribs, my parent's song they danced to at their wedding reception was 'Two Sparrows in a Hurricane' by Tanya Tucker. They danced to it every year on their anniversary. Back when I was fourteen they were murdered by one of my dad's enemies, the guy was sent to prison, but that wouldn't bring my folks back. It took me forever to decide what to get on my body in memory of them because I wanted it to be perfect, then I heard the song playing in a bar one night and I knew what I wanted. I miss them everyday, I think about the day they were taken from us and I want the murderer to suffer still. My family isn't known for being upstanding citizens, but we're not horrible people. My dad had dealings with drugs and stolen parts from various machines, but still had a real job. I'm not saying it's right nor do I make excuses for his actions and choices, however he and my mom were my life. The guy who took them from my brother and I was an old friend turned enemy when my dad cut him from his dirty deeds business because he was running his mouth about what they do on the side. Dad called him out one night at a barbecue some mutual friends of my parents were having and there were words said, then they were killed the next day. I had a thought once if that happened to them because of the way the lived their lives, it sucked thinking that because they are the ones who gave me life and raised me, but still I wondered.

"Oh yeah, its been two weeks so we are all good." I hear my brother's car pull up, not that you could miss it. The damn thing is loud. "Looks like my man is finally here." Bonnie giggles her hazel eyes sparkling, she loves my brother so much much that you can see it all over her face. "Did he tell you that we finally picked out a name?" I nod my head yes, I thought my niece was going to be born nameless, I tole Bonnie and Damon that if they couldn't decide on a name that I'd do it for them. " Yeah, Charlotte Marie Pierce." Bonnie gives me her perfect smile and I return it. "After my mom and your gran, I think its perfect Bon." She smiles brightly answering with a, "Yep." Charlotte was my mom's middle name and Marie was Bonnie's grandmother's middle name, she died back in April and its been hard on my sister in law. The woman who raised her is gone and I can sympathize in her sorrow. " I'm so happy for you and Damon."

Bon's smiling face turns into a frown instantly. "Elena, turn around now." Her tone of voice is low, she looks like she has just seen a ghost, so I turn around and squint my eyes, thanks to the sun. I look over to see Damon, Ric and Stefan fucking Salvatore walking through my wood fence door and into my back yard that just seemed to get really small. A burning sensation spreads throughout my stomach and I get the urge to throw up, I haven't seen Stefan since his arrest at the mechanic shop. Five and half years have passed and now he's walking in my backyard, walking in my direction. I'm in a fucking string bikini of all things and its not like you can miss me, its bright neon orange with tiny sparkly purple palm trees on it. This is how we have to meet again? I want to pass out. "Fuck." I whisper as he gets closer, I don't want to seem like a statue so I walk over to the table, light a cigarette and take another drink of my now warm beer. "Hey Bonnie, congrats on the baby." I hear Stefan say and my heart skips a beat, its been so long since I've heard that smooth voice that sounds so sexy to my ears. I take a drag off my cigarette and place my sun glasses on my face, sure I am trying to hide myself like a child, fuck it.

"Thanks Stef, only ten days to go. Oh and I'm glad you're out, it's good to see you again." Bonnie tells him quietly and then for a split second there is silence. "Elena." He says my name and I shiver, I shake my head and turn to face him, the man I loved with all my heart when I was seventeen is finally out of prison and standing just three steps away from me. Stefan's wearing dark jeans, his black biker boots, and a gray V-neck t-shirt, I can see some of his chest tattoo peaking out of the top of his shirt as well as the sleeves on his arms. He was able to maintain his figure while in prison I notice, lean yet very toned with defined muscles. He has always had a sexy body that made the girls drool over him and that fucking perfect V that had black and green stars tatted on each side of it used to drive me insane just looking at him.

Oh and those stunning green eyes so damn memorizing in the sun with sandy colored hair gelled and sculpted to perfection as always and it pisses me off that my body is betraying me just by looking at him. Betrayal, hmm, yep I know that word all to well, which reminds me that Stefan betrayed me. It was never said that he really was guilty, that he just pleaded guilty. In my book he did betray me, he lied about where he was the day he worked for Enzo and then he got arrested for GTA. I later found out that he was also charged with possession of Marijuana, a small amount that was just a misdemeanor and that was nothing compared to his felony charge. "Stefan, you're out." I state the obvious, but hell its the only thing I can say. This is the first time I've seen him in five fucking years, I hope he wasn't expecting something else to come out of my mouth. He smiles showing his perfect white teeth and my knees grow weak but they don't buckle. His k-9's have always made him look like a vampire and he used to bite my neck all the time, I loved it. "Yeah, I wasn't supposed to be out until October, but they took mercy on me at my appeal I guess. Good behavior and all." He says with a chuckle and a shrug, he would've had a longer sentence than five years, but Ric has an attorney friend that owed him a favor. He got him to represent Stefan on for free, we thought he'd have a longer sentence due to his past record, but since those were misdemeanors and Stefan's theft crime was his only felony offense he got his time lessened. Pleading guilty helped him too. I give him a small nod. "Our boy's out!" I look over to see Tyler sprinting across the yard towards us with Matt running behind him Stefan smiles as he turns to see them. Yeah, their boy, not my man, not anymore.

Bonnie gets put of the pool and walks over to stand by me, I turn to ground out my cigarette just as Tyler and Matt reach the top of the deck. "Welcome back buddy." Ty says pushing him into the pool and I get pulled in by Stefan.

Gasping for air as I come up, I am so fucking pissed watching Tyler, Matt and Stefan laughing their asses off. I swim over to the side and get out, smiling so innocently at the two laughing jackasses I manage to walk behind them and let them join their 'buddy' in the pool. "Hey I think I broke your glasses Elena." Matt says holding them up and I can't stop the smirk that appears on my face and I shrug, "They're not mine." I walk down the steps and cross over to the large picnic table. "You where them all the time, so who the hell do they belong to?" He asks, I can hear the confusion in his voice, so I take pity on him. "They were Stefan's!" I shout while grabbing a towel from the table. Yeah, I may have kept his shades along with his ring, but in my defense they looked really great on me. Aviator glasses on him was another thing that made me hot for him way back when, but when I wore them he had no problem stripping from my clothes. "You mean that those pair of sun glasses survived five years with you only to be broken now?" Stefan asks standing with his wet sculpted chest almost touching my damn bare back, I didn't even see him get out of the damn pool. I nod my head and hand him a towel over my shoulder as I wrap myself in one. "Guess it was meant to happen after all this time."

Stefan clears his throat while I do my best to avoid making eye contact with him, this is weird for me. Isn't it for him? "I've got a bag of clothes in Damon's car, can you direct me in the right direction to get changed?" I bite my lip forcing my eyes to look at him. "Yeah, just come in the house through the garage door and I'll meet you in the kitchen. No wet boots on my floors Salvatore." I tell him walking towards the back door, I can't get my breathing right when I'm around him, the truth is I never could. I was in love with Stefan from the moment I met him, he was seventeen and I was thirteen at the time. Even at a young age the thought of me being in love with my brother's best friend excited me, hell everything that involved Stefan Salvatore back then excited me. Well, everything except him being a little bit of a male slut, still I had been in deep with this man at an early age. He never once looked my way until I was older, which was probably a good thing considering my age and also my big brother.

Over the years he became a memory, now he's back in the flesh and I don't know if I can handle his presence