Stefan saving her, taking her in his arms. Her whole world changing.
She couldn’t let it happen again.
“Congratulations, girls,” Mrs. Halpern said to Meredith and Elena as the speaker clicked off. “There’s a meeting for all the Homecoming Court nominees with the faculty sponsors in the office third period.”
Elena raised her hand. “Mrs. Halpern,” she said. “I don’t want to be on the Homecoming Court. Is there something I have to do to drop out of the race?” She heard Meredith’s gasp of surprise behind her.
There was a moment of utter silence as everyone contemplated the thought. Elena Gilbert, queen of the school, refusing to compete? She was sure to win, they all knew that.
“Uh, no,” Mrs. Halpern said, her forehead crinkled in a puzzled frown. “If you’re sure, Elena, I can just let the sponsors know.” At Elena’s nod, she made a note on her clipboard.
Ignoring the whispers around her, Elena waited out the rest of the period. When the bell rang, she pretended not to see Meredith striding toward her and slipped out the door alone. She would have to figure out some kind of explanation to give Bonnie and Meredith.
Outside, Matt was waiting, a smile stretching across his handsome, all-American face. “Congratulations,” he said, pulling her close and kissing her easily, just a sweet press of his lips. “You’re a shoo-in for Queen. Tell me what color dress you’re wearing, and I’ll make sure to get the right kind of corsage.” Despite his words, there was a wary look in his eyes, as if he was bracing himself for a blow.
“Oh, Matt,” Elena said, feeling stricken. She’d been avoiding him, avoiding this moment, and of course he’d noticed.
Whatever happened, her relationship with Matt was over, and she couldn’t keep him hanging on. She needed to let him go, kindly, before she went after Damon.
The smile slipped off Matt’s face, and he bowed his head. “I’m guessing you’ve got something to tell me, huh?”
Elena pulled him aside into a little alcove past the lockers, ignoring the curious looks of students passing by. It wasn’t nice—it wasn’t fair—to spring this on him here, right in the middle of the school day, but she couldn’t string Matt along any longer.
“I do love you,” she said in a fierce whisper, when they were as private as they could be. “I do.”
Matt flinched a little and then gave Elena a smile that was almost a grimace. “I guess that’s why you’re dumping me, huh? Because I’m just that loveable. I should have realized before.” His voice was hoarse and, spontaneously, Elena wrapped her arms around him, pushing her face against the rough fabric of his letterman’s jacket.
Unbidden tears rose in her eyes. “Oh, Matt,” she said, muffled against his shoulder. “You’re my friend. My true friend. Don’t love me like this anymore.”
Matt sighed and stroked the back of Elena’s head, running his strong fingers through her hair. “It’s not that easy, Elena. I can’t just stop how I feel. But I won’t try to hold onto you, not if you don’t want me to.”
When she lifted her head to look at him, there was devastation on his face, beneath the steady eyes and the crooked grin. How had she not seen this the first time? She barely remembered this conversation. It had just been a means to an end: getting Matt squared away so that she had an open field to go after Stefan.
A curl of self-disgust twisted inside Elena, and she lowered her head again, wiping her eyes against Matt’s shoulder. She’d gone through this part of her life with blinders on. And poor Matt, once he’d gotten over her, his next girlfriend had become a vampire and finally killed herself. All the craziness here—Fell’s Church, Dalcrest, all along the ley lines—had ruined so much of Matt’s life.
When she pulled back from their hug, Matt was staring at her, his forehead creased with concern. “Are you all right?” he asked.
Elena bit her lip to keep back a hysterical giggle. If she kept up with these mood swings, remembering the future that might not come, everyone was going to think she was having a nervous breakdown. “Listen, Matt,” she said, “we’re good friends, we really are. I love you so much. But there’s nothing for you here. As soon as we’re out of school, you should go. Take a football scholarship. You’re bound to get one.”
He had been offered one, hadn’t he? A good one, at some big football school. And he’d turned it down. He’d come to Dalcrest to help them protect the innocent.
Elena thought of Jasmine, with her easy smile and soft eyes, her fiercely loyal heart. “You’ll meet the right person for you someday,” she told him, trying to make him believe. “She’ll be smart and kind, and it’ll be so much better than we could have been together.”
The smile was gone from Matt’s face. “You’re the only person I want to be with,” he said flatly. His eyes narrowed. “Does this have anything to do with the new guy? He’s always watching you.”
“Stefan?” Matt had always seen more than she’d given him credit for. Elena met his gaze squarely. “I don’t want to date Stefan Salvatore,” she said honestly, and after a moment, Matt nodded, his shoulders slumping.
“I guess there doesn’t have to be someone else for you to break up with me,” he said. “You always know what you want, Elena. And what you don’t.”
“You’re one of my best friends,” Elena told him. “I just want the best for you.”
Matt shook his head, confused. “You’re different since you came back from France,” he said. Then the corners of his mouth tilted up in a small, sad smile. “Maybe the trip was good for you, too.”
“But if you broke up with Matt, who are you going to go to Homecoming with?” Bonnie asked after school, as they turned down the walk to Bonnie’s house. It was a warm afternoon, and Bonnie had invited Meredith and Elena over to hang out.
“I don’t know,” Elena said. “Does it matter?”
Meredith and Bonnie stared at her with identical expressions of shock.