The Salvatore Sister

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Helping Elena shove flowers into a vase, Arabella tries her best not to overhear every conversation in the backyard of Tyler's house. Although heightened hearing can be a blessing, Arabella has been finding it to be more of a curse lately.

"Has Stefan told you about what happened?" The new vampire asks quietly.

Arabella lifts an eyebrow as she peers at a beautiful sun flower. Her long silver hair blows back a bit in the wind as she brings her gaze to Elena. "No," she responds. "Why? Did something happen between you two?"

Releasing a sigh, Elena picks up another random flower from the pile. "We broke up yesterday."

If Arabella hasn't been paying attention, she would have just dismissed it as a normal statement. She raises her eyebrows in confusion. "You guys broke up?"

Elena nods her head. "I had to break up with him because of my feelings for Damon."

Eyeing the doppelgänger in interest, Arabella tucks away her sunflower into the vase. "You don't seem too heartbroken about it," she observes.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Elena shakes her head. "Even though I still have feelings for Stefan, I can't just ignore the ones I have for Damon." Elena pauses to look at the hybrid. "He snuck up on me."

As the pair finish up their work, Arabella can practically smell the faint scent of cologne and forest on her shirt. No matter how many times she's washed her clothes, the scent seems to stick with her. "I understand the feeling," Arabella responds.

When Elena furrows her eyebrows at the girl, Arabella makes quick work of finding Caroline in the crowd. "Come on, let's see if Caroline has more work for us to do," she states as she drags the vampire towards the blonde.

Caroline quickly finishes up her phone call and produces a light smile. She points the two girls to a table to work on shoving more flowers into a vase.

An awkward silence settles over the three friends before Caroline decides to pipe up. "Look, I'm your best friend, and I would never pick sides," she begins. With a starter like that, it's obvious to both Elena and Arabella that she has already picked sides. "But are you sure this is what you wants."

Elena glances up from her task to look her friend straight in the eyes. She gives her a look that says 'you're picking sides'. "Because Stefan is your soulmate!" Caroline exclaims.

Both Arabella and Elena raise their eyebrows at the blonde vampire, causing her to back down. "Sorry, I'm picking sides."

Sighing loudly, Elena aggressively shoves a flower into the vase. "It's not that I don't love Stefan anymore. I can't deny that ever since I've turned my feelings for Damon have become more... intense."

Rolling her eyes, Caroline stomps her foot. "Yeah, I know. Stefan filled me in on all the gory Damon details."

Trying not appear offended, Arabella glances over at her friend. Stefan would rather turn to his ex-girlfriend's best friend than his own sister? Does he not trust her?

"He did?" Elena asks with a confused look on her face. She narrows her eyes on Caroline. "Is he okay?"

"No, he's heartbroken!"

The doppelgänger shakes her head. "Well, what was I supposed to do, lie to him?"

Arabella places a hand on Elena's arm. "No, of course not," she states reassuringly.

"But you weren't supposed to let Damon weasel his way into your confused newbie vampire heart!" Caroline adds.

Having the feeling that her friends are playing good cop bad cop on her, Elena feels backed into a corner. "Yeah, well he did! And that's exactly what I am. Confused. I need to figure out what these feelings actually mean."