"Go on and get undressed. I'll look for something sexy for you to wear," Lisa, the owner of Lisa's Lingerie pushed me up the stairs to the actual clothes and changing rooms.

She wore a touch too much of make up and had a extremely strong southern accent. The way she talked back to Damon somehow made me like her.

Damon smirked at me and dropped on the red leather cushion in front of the changing rooms. Everything seemed to be either black or red around here.

"If you find yourself having any trouble, just call me," He said.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before going into the changing rooms.

I hesitantly opened my the sip of my jeans. Somehow I was highly uncomfortable knowing that the only thing that stopped Damon from seeing me was a slightly transparent black fabric.

Luckily Lisa pulled me out of my thoughts with a  knock against the wooden frame of the changing room.

"Try this one," She said and gave me decidingly too little fabric through the gap between the curtain and the frame.

"Thanks," I muttered sarcastically. As I changed I wondered what Stefan and Nia were doing right now. Probably sipping their milkshakes in awkward silence. Since Nia didn't want to go shopping we wanted to leave her in Stefan's company which obviously resulted in another arguement between the Salvatore brothers.

"Right. Are you guys coming?" I asked.

"I kind of wanna stay here," Nia said. I was tempted to roll my eyes. She had never been difficult but after this incident with the ghost...

"That's alright. Stefan will stay with you," Damon said and winked.

"I am not leaving you alone with her, Damon. The only reason I'm here is because I can't have you two together without supervision,"

"Brother, you out of all people should know that I do not need supervision. Especially not from you," Damon spat.

"Let's go," I said, and grabbed Damon by his arm. Stefan was still glaring at him when we left the restaurant.

"What is it with the two of you?! You act like children,"

"Stefan's just concerned about your well being," He said eloquently, but I knew he was avoiding the question.

"I'm sure he is," I'd have to find it out myself, then.

When I was changed into the black see through shirt, black lacey underwear and tight red skirt I opened the curtain and stepped out only to find Damon pinning Lisa to the wall, their lips almost touching.

I resisted the urge to slam my hand against my had really hard. "So you're a womanizer, too? Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Must be," His fingers brushed over Lisa's lower lip. "Because of my irresitability,"

"So, any opinion on this?" I asked.

Lisa glanced my way and wrinkled her nose in disgust. Damon's eyes never left her lips. Of course he didn't need to look at me to give a witty comment.

"No to number one,"

"You didn't even see it," I mumbled.

"I saw enough," He said and I swear he was refering to all the skin showing.

"Go do your job, Lisa," He said in his husky voice and let her find me another outfit.

The next two were just as bad as this one and on the fourth I came out groaning. "This is just not my style!"

"I agree," He said and then added in a louder voice. "Lisa, darling, I thought you could do better than this. I guess I'm gonna have to go look for something for you,"

"Damon?" I called after him as he stood up to go dress hunting. He turned around and cocked an eyebrow. "Preferably something that covers at least a third of my skin!"

"I'll try and keep that in mind,"

"I like the destroyed look," Lisa commented after I opened the curtain in a dress made of nothing more than black shreads. "Just not on you,"

I looked at Damon in annoyance. "Nah, she's right. Too gothic,"

"May I help you? I think the next piece might be it," Lisa said.

"Sure," With a supressed sigh I went back inside the changing room.

"Let us seduce a certain Salvatore brother," She smirked.

"Oh, I assure you I have no intention of seducing him,"

"Right, you don't need that anymore, do you? How did you get involved with Damon Salvatore anyway?"

"We're not having sex, if that's what you're implying. A series of unfortunate events caused me and my best friend to end up living with the two Salvatores,"

Without another word I slipped into the next dress that was just like the rest much too short but at least it was a whole piece of fabric and not shreads. Lisa did my make up which consisted of mascara, a blood red lipstick and black eyeliner.

I also put on my Lou Boutin heels and stepped out of the room. Without looking at Damon I grabbed the champagne glass out of his hand and chugged it down.

"If you make me do this any longer I'm gonna kill you!"

"I don't think we have to," His eyes trailed up and down my extremely tightly packed body. "Although I enjoyed this quite a lot,"

"Seeing so much skin of me or seeing me suffer?" I asked with a glare.

He just grinned at me.

"Lisa! We're done!" He exclaimed happily and got up.

"How much is it, anyway?" I asked as we stood by the counter. I had managed to squash my other clothes into my small black bag.

"It's on the house," She smiled. "Have fun," She winked at me.

"She so thought we were hooking up!" I exclaimed as we walked to the club.

"You'd have to be so lucky," He chuckled.

"You're the one who would need luck," I rolled my eyes.

/ / / / /

We met Stefan and Nia in front of the club.

"Goddamn, Perse! I didn't know you could look that good. You should let Damon pick clothes for you more often,"

"Don't even go there. Once was enough, " I said with a glance at my shopping partner.

"You're so right...not," She replied sarcastically.

"Talk to the hand," I sighed.

"Shall we, ladies?" Damon asked and offered me his arm. I turned away from him and faced Stefan.

Instead of Damon's I took the other brother's hand and let him lead me inside.

"You seem to think he's such a hottie. Go spend some time with him and you'll see," I murmured as I passed Nia.

"You seem to have a very low opinion on Damon," Stefan said with a smile on his face.

"So do you,"

"Well, that's true. But he's usually quite the ladies man,"

"I can see that," I glanced at him escorting Nia to the bar.

"Come on guys, let's have some fun," Damon said, ordering the four of us two rounds of shots.

I gladly took it and even Stefan grabbed the small glass. Nia lifted it up and while me and the brothers drank shots the way they were supposed to be drunk, Nia only took a little sip before placing it back on the counter.

Damon rolled his eyes dramatically and after drinking his second shot he also drank hers.

"I'm going to dance. Does anyone want to come?" He gave me a meaningful look.

"Do I have a choice?"

"You can stay here and drown all your sorrows or you can come with me and dance it off," He shrugged.

"Why not do both?" I said and took my second shot. The alcohol ran down my throat and left it slightly burning but it was better than the first time.

"I like this girl," Damon said with a look at Stefan who had his usual unreadable expression on.

I pushed myself into the crowd and started dancing. There was a lot of contact with other sweaty bodies but I guess that was a club's charm.

I tried to find Damon and spotted him surrounded by a group of girls swinging their hips and trying to look all sexy when they were really just embarassing themselves.

Nia was sitting at the bar and I was debating whether to go and get her to dance or just not. I decided to leave her. Her way of dealing with things was burrying herself in her mind and thinking about it.

Stefan was sitting next to her, glaring at Damon.

I walked towards them and dropped on the stool next to him.

"Are you guys having fun?" I asked as if I didn't already know the answer. Nia didn't even look up and just kept staring into her glass.

"Damon seems to,"

"You should, too," I replied with a little annoyance swinging in my voice.

"I don't really like dancing," He admitted.

"So? I can't dance but I was having fun 'cause that's why we're here,"

"Are you indirectly asking me if I want to dance with you?"

"Do you want to?"

"This isn't really my type of music," He said and I nodded. I understood that Elvis Presley was too talented for some people. The question is, why were they playing Elvis in the first place? Something more modern would have probably attracted a lot more people.

"You could still dance with me,"

"Fine," He said and smiled. "And Nia?"

"I'll tell Damon. Wait for me." I walked to the group of girls and tapped Damon on the shoulder.

"Perse! Having fun?" He asked.

"Go stay with Nia for a while. I wanna dance with Stefan,"

"Dance? With Stefan? He absolutely despises dancing!"

"Just go keep an eye on her, alright?" I said and without waiting for a reply I went back to Stefan.

"Goodbye, ladies! Duty calls," He said and waved at the group of girls that were probably still under eighteen.

After a quick glance at Damon and Nia I took Stefan's hand and pulled him on the dance floor.

For a person that hated dancing he sure was a pretty good dancer.

I was having fun until I noticed Nia being in the company of a man that wasn't Damon. Who wasn't anywhere in sight, by the way.

The man was brawny, with broad shoulders which suggested that he spent a lot of time in the gym. He had short blonde hair and dark eyes, from what I could tell in the dimmed light of the club.

She turned to the other side probably to give him a not very subtle hint that he should leave her alone. With a super quick movement of his wrist he poured something into her drink.

He said something else and shifted closer to her, his hand running up and down her arm.

I decided enough was enough and walked over to them, leaving Stefan on the dance floor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, dude?" I exclaimed, narrowing my eyes at the greasy guy.

"Perse, he was just being nice..." I looked at Nia, baffled. She wasn't defending this pervert, was she?

"Nice? He put something in your drink when you weren't looking. I'd hardly call that nice," I glared at him.

He gave me a disgusting smirk. "We were just talking. She enjoyed it,"

"I bet she'd enjoy the drugs in her drink, too. Honestly, the only one enjoying anything is you because apparently the only chance you can get a girl to sleep with you is by drugging her,"

"But she likes when I do this," His hand brushed through her long, dirty blonde hair. "And this," His fingers traced the outlines of her collar bone. "And..."

He was about to touch her again but my hand shot forward and grabbed his wrist. I didn't let go and I could tell that my grip was hurting him at least a little. I squashed it a little harder.

"Touch her one more time and I swear, you'll regret it," I snarled through gritted teeth.

I let go of his wrist and pushed it away. Immediately his other hand closed around the hopefully sore spot.

"Now," I shot him the scariest glare I could manage. "Go,"

"You can't tell me what to do, bitch!" He raised his hand to grab a strand of her hair and pull it, but before anyone could react, Damon was there.

He held the guy's wrist and twisted it in a similar way I had. Only that he had way more force.

"Don't you ever touch a girl like that again," Damon snarled. The guy gave him a short and frightened nod.

"Leave us." They were holding eye contact the whole time, none of them moving the tiniest bit.

But he finally did. He turned around and walked quickly.

Well, that turned out easier than I'd thought. 

"You didn't need to make it such a big deal," Nia snapped. Whenever she was drunk or even just slightly tipsy she would get irritable. She'd snap at me, which she never did.

I snorted and turned around, only to see Stefan looking in our direction. His jaw was clenched and I could see all his muscles losening up as soon as greasy-pervert left.

"You okay?" He asked Nia as soon as he reached us.

"I'm fine," She glared at him. "I don't need either of you protecting me,"

"It looked like you do," I shot back.

"I think we should go," Stefan said, suddenly appearing next to me.

<><><>

"I'm going to bed," Nia announced and went into the bathroom to change.

I rubbed my tried eyes, forgetting that I had makeup on. "Fuck!"

"Oh, I like the new look," Damon commented.

"Shut up,"

"Uh, mean,"

"All of this could have been avoided if you had just stayed with Nia like I said you should," I snapped.

"Sorry that I don't take orders from a panda,"

"For once in your lives; please stop bickering!" Stefan entered the living/bed room. He looked somehow tired, too.

"I'll stop if he does,"

Damon shrugged and turned to his bed, pulling his shirt over his head. He was pale and didn't have the brawny build of his brother. He was lean yet undescribably muscular, with pretty nice back muscles.

"Like what you see?"

I snapped out of it. "I've seen better,"

"No you haven't." He grinned at me conceitedly.

"Guys." Stefan groaned.

I was debating to change right there, but decided against it. I didn't need two hungry bastards staring at my new black lace underwear. Or did I?

In this moment, Nia stepped out of the bathroom; her hair neatly tied into a braid (who sleeps with braids?) and in her pyjamas. I took that as a sign and with one last glare I dissapeared into the only room where you had privacy here.

When I was all done I walked back out.

"Where's Stefan?"

"He has something to do, regarding our ghostly problem," Damon said, putting emphasis on the 'ghostly'.

He was sitting on his bed with his legs crossed, drinking something that looked like red wine, still shirtless.

"Oh, wine. Can I?"

"I think you've had enough for today. Plus this is from Stefan's personal supply and he gets pretty cranky when it comes to his liquor,"

"Fine." I rolled my eyes.

"You know, you could have gotten yourself killed today. That guy had bad intentions and you just walked up to him. Some thinking might help, you know?" He chuckled lightly. Every smirk, laugh or even just a look would seem mocking with this guy.

Pretty sure it's the eyebrows.

"He also could have raped my best friend. Since you left, I didn't have much of a choice, did I?" I snapped. Surprisingly he was quiet after that.

"Shut it, Perse." Nia stuck her head out from under the covers.

"Excuse me?" I was ready to snap at my best friend. She was acting like a spoiled brat, making me responsible for this whole mess. News flash? I didn't wanna be here either.

She just scrunched her nose in disgust and turned away, hiding under her blanket.

I scoffed quietly and pulled out my paperback, reading it silently.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" I looked up from my book.

Damon grinned widely, as if to cover up his uncomfortableness. "I shouldn't have left Nia."

"Damn right, you shouldn't have,"

"What do you want me to do? Beg you for forgiveness?" His eyes twinkled with amusement. "That isn't gonna happen, Persephone. And you know that,"

"Fine. I guess fake regret is a start." I put down my book and layed on the bed.

"What makes you think it's fake?" I think he asked quietly, but I was already drifting off to sleep.

My dreams were the same as always. I woke up from a nap in one of the classrooms but nobody was there. I felt someone stare at me, a presence. I could feel the pair of black eyes follow my every movement, but everytime I looked to where I suspected it to be, there was nothing.

I ran outside through the deserted halls of NYU and instead of the actual wide meadows I walked onto the pavement of a narrow path that seemed to raise and lower itself in waves. Each side of the path was cut off from the meadows by blood red roses. The grass seemed to be more white than green.

The vines of the thorny roses were doing their best to make me trip and a few times they did as I ran over the path.

The white meadow was covered in flowers of every possible colour, but it all looked red and white to me.

Chapter sucks but it was necessary for the story I guess. Sorry.