"Oh, just..." She waved one hand vaguely at the crowd.
"There's hardly anyone I know here besides you and Ethan.
This whole party's completely stuffed with freshmen." Matt's heart sank. He had forgotten that Chloe was a junior. It shouldn't be a big deal, real y, should it? But she sounded like she thought freshmen were beneath her, or something. Disdainful, that was the word he was looking for to describe her tone.
"I thought the party seemed okay," he said weakly.
Chloe pursed her lips teasingly, then socked him gently on the arm. "Well," she said softly, "there's only enough room for one freshman in my life. Right, Matt?" That was more of a hopeful sign. The problem was, Matt realized, that his only dating experience had been in asking out girls who he either didn't real y care about, but was just thinking of as potential dates for dances or whatever, or who were Elena. Who, yes, he cared tremendously about, but who he knew for long enough and Wellenough that he could tel she was going to say yes.
Stil , he thought he could see an opening here.
"Chloe," he said, "I was wondering if you would - " Matt broke off as Ethan joined them, smiling widely. For the first time, Matt felt a flash of irritation toward him. Ethan was so smart with people. Couldn't he see he was interrupting a moment here?
"I liked your friend Stefan," Ethan told Matt. "He seemed very sophisticated for a freshman, very Wellspoken. Do you think it's because he's European?"
Matt only shrugged in response, and Ethan turned to Chloe.
"Hey, sweetheart," he said, putting an arm around her and kissing her lightly on the lips.
And yeah, wow, maybe Ethan had realized he was interrupting a moment. It wasn't a long kiss, but there was definitely a possessive air about it, and about his arm flung across Chloe's shoulders. When it ended, Chloe smiled up at Ethan, breathless, and Ethan's eyes flicked to Matt, just for a second.
Matt wanted to fold right over and sink into the sticky, beer-stained floor beneath his feet. But instead he eked out a smile of his own and tipped his beer to Ethan.
Because Chloe - adorable, sweet, funny, easygoing Chloe - had a boyfriend. He ought to have anticipated that he wouldn't be the only one who saw how amazing she was. And Matt would have backed off no matter who Chloe's boyfriend was. He didn't want to be that guy who sleazed al over other people's relationships; he never had been.
But since Chloe's boyfriend was Ethan? Ethan, the Vitale Society leader, the one who had made Matt feel like he was special, like he could be the best? Since it was Ethan, Matt was just going to have to grit his teeth and ignore that hol ow feeling in his chest. He was going to be strong and keep himself from even thinking about what he wished could have been with Chloe.
There were some lines he just couldn't cross. Ever.
Chapter Twenty-Three
"I don't know how it got so late," Elena said for the third time as they hurried down the path by the quad. "Bonnie and Meredith are probably worried about me."
"They know you're with me," Damon said, pacing along unruffled beside her.
"I don't think they'l find that comforting," Elena said, and bit her tongue as Damon shot her an expressive look.
"After al the time we've spent fighting side by side, they stil don't trust me?" he said silkily. "I'd be terribly hurt. If I cared what they thought."
"I don't mean that they think you'd hurt me," Elena said.
"Not anymore. Or that you wouldn't protect me. I guess they worry that you might ... might make a pass at me. Or something."
Damon stopped and looked at her. Then he picked up her hand and held it, running one finger down the inside of her arm, tracing the vein that led from Elena's wrist to her elbow. "And what do you think?" he asked, smiling gently.
Elena snatched her hand back, glaring at him. "Clearly they have a point," she said. "Knock it off. Just friends, remember?"
Sighing deeply, Damon started walking again, and Elena hurried to catch up.
"I'm glad you decided to come to the party with me," she said eventual y. "It'l be fun." Damon shot her a velvet-black glance through his lashes but said nothing.
It was always fun to be with Damon, Elena thought, listening to the clicking of her own heels and watching her shadow grow and disappear as they walked beneath the streetlights. Or at least, it was always fun when Damon was in a good mood and nothing was trying to kil them, two circumstances she wished coincided more often.
Stefan, sweet, darling Stefan, was the love of her life.
She had no doubts about that. But Damon made her feel breathless and excited, swept up in something bigger than herself. Damon made her feel like she was special.
And he was more easygoing than usual tonight. After Matt left, they'd searched the library some more, and then Damon treated her to chips and soda in the basement vending-machine room. They sat at one of the little tables and talked and laughed. It wasn't anything fancy or elegant, nothing like the parties he'd escorted her to in the Dark Dimension, but it was comfortable and fun, and when she looked at her phone, she was startled to see that more than an hour had passed.
And now Damon even volunteered to come to a col ege keg party. Maybe he was trying to get along with her friends. Maybe they could real y be friends, once things somehow worked out between Stefan and him.
Elena had reached this point in her musings when she suddenly got the unmistakable creepy-crawly feeling that she was being watched. The little hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
"Damon," she said softly. "There's someone watching us."
Damon's pupils dilated as he sniffed the air. Elena could tel that he was sending out questing tendrils of Power, searching for an answering surge, for someone focusing on them.