ELEANOR STIRRED WHEN SHE HEARD A NOISE IN HER KITCHEN. She furrowed her eyebrows as she sat up, listening closely. It sounded like someone was looking for food in her pantry. She slowly climbed out of bed, wondering what kind of robber thought that the top floor of an apartment building would be the perfect target. It would take forever for them to get down, there were cameras in the hallways, and there were tons of other places in town that had better items.

She stepped out into the living room that had a direct shot to the kitchen, and her eyes widened when she saw the blonde girl standing at the counter, eating ice cream with the freezer open. "Lexi?"

"Nora!" she exclaimed, looking up when she heard the girl's voice. She kicked the freezer close and ran over to her to give her a hug. "Oh, my God. I haven't seen you in forever. It took me hours to find your place. Some of your neighbors might be a tad traumatized."

"What are you doing here?" Eleanor asked with a grin once they pulled away from each other. She had not seen Lexi in decades. They had lost touch around the '90s, but the two girls and Stefan used to have the time of their lives together.

The Branson girl reminded her, "It's Stefan's birthday!"

"Oh, right. Does he know you're here yet?" the brunette questioned. She had completely forgotten about his birthday. She had met so many people in her time that she had kind of given up on trying to remember their birthdays.

"No, I wanted to come find you first, so we can get the band back together," she replied excitedly, but Eleanor doubted that that would be happening. All of the times that she and Stefan had spoken since she arrived were pretty much strictly business. "Why aren't you living with him? They've got, like, a million rooms."

The Chetwood girl shrugged, not wanting to have to explain everything. She was well aware that Stefan did not want her in Mystic Falls with him, and he definitely did not want her living in his house. He had been trying to get Damon to leave for months, and Eleanor assumed that when he got rid of his brother, she was next. If Lexi was only going to be there for a couple of days, she did not want to ruin the fun time. "I like my own space."

"Whatever," Lexi sighed, waving her off and rolling onto the couch, ice cream still in hand as she looked up at her friend with raised eyebrows. "Can we talk about this Elena girl? Does she really look like the ultimate bitch?"

"Spitting image," Eleanor responded, leaning back against the wall. She could not help but smile when Lexi was around, no matter how serious they were talking. She just radiated happiness and adventure. She had had some of the best times of her life with the girl, but part of that might have been just being free from Katherine.

The blonde nodded slowly before inquiring, "And, you don't think that's a little weird on Stefan's part?"

"Oh, I think it's really weird," Eleanor confirmed with a chuckle. She was honestly just shocked how he could see Elena as a completely separate person. Sure, she acted nothing like Katherine, but Eleanor knew that the reason that Stefan was originally interested in Elena was the fact that she looked like the Pierce woman, whether it was romantic at first or not. "I can't even look at her without seeing Katherine. She was a horrible person, and she took away everything that I loved, but—"

Lexi just sighed, cutting her off like she had heard her say it a thousand times before. "But you were in love with her, yeah, yeah. Man, that woman must have been insanely good in bed to get all of you hooked on her."

"What are the birthday plans?" the Chetwood girl asked, changing the subject. She did not want to speak of you-know-who anymore. It brought up some bad memories. She knew that the people of Mystic Falls would use any excuse to party, so it would not be difficult finding people to come if they needed to.

"I don't know. I should probably say hi to Stefan first," the younger girl concluded, climbing off of the couch and heading back over to the freezer to put the ice cream back. "He'll be livid if he finds out I came to you before him."

"I'll see you later, then."

《❂》

STEFAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY WAS AT THE MYSTIC GRILL, AND CAROLINE PLANNED IT. When Eleanor arrived, it was already in full swing. Lexi and Stefan were dancing, people were making out, and everyone was drinking. It was shocking how the adults of the town just let all of this happen because there was no way they didn't know about it.

The Chetwood girl paused when she looked over to the middle of the room and saw Damon yelling at Caroline. She seemed close to tears, and Eleanor had to take a few deep breaths not to kill him right there. She stormed over to them and offered a comforting smile to Caroline.

"Hey, Care. Mind if I borrow him for a second?" she asked, but she did not wait for a response. The relieved expression on the Forbes girl's face that she was being rescued was good enough. Eleanor then grabbed Damon by the ear and dragged him into the corner of the room. She pushed him up against the wall and held him there with one hand, subtly reminding him of just how strong she was. "You are so lucky that it's Stefan's birthday and that Lexi's here and that I'm in a good mood because if none of that was the case, you would have a hot poker sticking out of your eye right now."

He just smirked. "You know, you're really hot when you're threatening me." She slammed him into the wall again, not in the mood for his smug, flirty comments.

"Stay the hell away from Caroline, or I will make the rest of your time in Mystic Falls a living hell," she ordered, and she waited for him to nod before releasing him and heading over to the dance floor to join Lexi and Stefan.

After a while, she stopped for a breath, glancing over to the bar, but she did a double take when she saw Caroline slumped at the counter, swirling her straw and staring down at her drink. She told Lexi that she was going to get a drink before heading over and sitting next to the Forbes girl.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, gesturing for the bartender to bring her a drink.

Caroline did not answer for a second, and Eleanor did not know if she was drunk or confused or just wondering if she wanted to open up to her. She finally asked, "Do you think I'm shallow?"

"No," the vampire answered almost immediately, and Caroline looked up at her in shock. Almost everyone she knew would have answered differently, and they were her friends that had known her since diapers.

She sighed, shaking her head. She didn't believe it herself, and that broke Eleanor's heart. She wondered what kind of awful friends were telling her otherwise. "Don't lie to me. Matt already made it very clear—"

"I don't give a crap about what Matt says," the brunette groaned, and she turned in her seat so that she was looking directly at Caroline. She had known her long enough to know that she had feelings and she cared so much about her friends. She would do anything for them. "You're deep, and you have deep feelings. You're sensitive and strong, and you have so many levels to you that no one could even understand. You're not shallow, Care."

Caroline looked like she was about to cry, and a small smile made its way onto her face. Eleanor had been the first person in her entire life that made her feel like she was worthy of love, and she had only known her for a couple of months. "Thanks, Ellie. And thanks for talking to Damon earlier."

"Now, you need some coffee and a ride home," Eleanor concluded, reaching into her pocket to grab her keys. She didn't mind leaving early.

"Matt's taking me home," Caroline told her, stopping her. The Chetwood girl raised her eyebrows, asking if that was okay with her, especially after he said that she was shallow. The blonde girl just nodded before repeating, "Thank you for everything."

Then, she leaned over and gave the girl a kiss on the cheek. Eleanor tensed up and went into shock for a moment as Caroline turned around to leave, and she was already out the door when the brunette replied, "Yeah, of course."

About a half hour later, Eleanor decided that she was going to head home too. Stefan and Lexi were nowhere in sight, so she figured they had moved the party elsewhere. She furrowed her eyebrows when she saw police officers standing in the entrance, turning people away. Something was happening outside that they didn't want them to see.

She went over to the door on the side of the restaurant that led to this alley, and she walked up the stairs to get to the front so that she could see what was going on. She ran faster when she heard gunshots, and she froze when she got to the top just in time to see Lexi standing with a shocked expression and cops surrounding her.

Standing in front of her was Damon, holding a stake that had been driven through her heart.

It took everything in Eleanor not to let out a sob right there and reveal herself. She just stood there, her mouth open with tears in her eyes as she watched her friend crumple to the ground. She pressed her back up against the wall that was on her left and stared ahead so that she did not have to watch anymore. She slid to the ground and put her head in her hands, crying quietly as her body shook. Once she finally stopped crying, rage filled her. She stopped by her apartment before heading to the Salvatore Boarding House.

Damon was sitting in his living room, drinking some bourbon when all of a sudden, a wooden arrow came flying through the window. He turned slightly and groaned when it impaled him in the shoulder. He ripped it out of his chest and stood up, heading over to the window and leaning out to see Eleanor standing at the bottom with her bow in her hands. He called, "You missed."

"It was a warning. I told you to stay away from Caroline," she reminded him, following up on their conversation from earlier. She had warned him to stop bothering the blonde girl multiple times, and he did not seem to be comprehending that she was serious. "You know damn well I could hit your heart if I wanted to."

"Oh, Eleanor. I never thought you'd be stupid enough to care for a human," he chuckled, and the sound of his smugness made her blood boil.

She fired again, and he tried to catch it without much success. It landed right next to his heart, and he moaned loudly in pain because that arrow had been coated in vervain. She told him, "That was for Lexi."

He caught the next one right over his heart, but he was not dumb enough to think that he was just that fast. She wanted him to catch it. The vervain burned his hand, and he gasped, dropping it and shaking his hand off. When he looked up, she was gone.