05. You're Undead To Me

With a groan Aria woke up and slowly lifted her head up from the desk she had fallen asleep on, for a moment she was extremely confused, wondering what she was doing on her desk instead of sleeping in her bed, while rubbing the back of her neck Aria's eyes landed on her laptop and at all the tabs she had open, all on one topic, vampires.

And with that everything came rushing back to Aria, quickly causing her to slam her laptop shut, it was too early for anything supernatural, it's been three days since Aria has found out about vampires, and in these three days she has looked at every website she could, but no website really answered any of Aria's questions, Aria knew if she wanted answers for once the internet wasn't the place, instead it was the person who dropped such a huge bomb on her, the person she has been avoiding going to for the past three days, Damon Salvatore.

After standing up from her seat, Aria walked over to her closet and pulled out her towel, she then went towards her, Elena and Jeremy's shared bathroom, opening it, her eyes went wide seeing Vicki brushing her teeth in their sink.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm almost done" Vicki said, with a mouthful of toothpaste.

"It's okay, take your time" Aria said, quickly closing the door.

Aria leaned her head against the bathroom door and took a deep breath, she knew exactly why Vicki was here, this wasn't the first time she caught her, but that doesn't mean it hurt any less.

After using Jenna's bathroom to get ready for the day, Aria went downstairs and into the kitchen where both Elena and Jenna sat.

Elena smiled at Aria, but that smiled immediately dropped seeing the upset look on her face, "I'm guessing you saw?".

Aria grabbed a cup of out of the cupboard for her hot chocolate while nodding her head in response, "Yeah, walked in on Vicki brushing her teeth in our bathroom".

Elena gave Aria a sympathetic smile, she had also walked in on Vicki and was hoping Aria wasn't going to see her, but she did, and even if she won't tell her, Elena knew Aria was hurt.

Elena turned to Jenna, "You have no objection to all this?".

"He could be craftier about it" Jenna replied, "At least make an effort to sneak her in and out, oh, and just so you know, I won't be home for dinner".

"Ohh, so you're actually going to do it, you're gonna go out with Logan" Elena teased.

Aria looked between Elena and Jenna in confusion, "Seriously? Your going out with that cheating douchebag, why will you do that to yourself?".

 "I'm gonna show up and torture him" Jenna defended.

Aria scoffed while making her hot chocolate, "Why do I find that hard to believe?".

Jenna ignored Aria and turned to Elena, "And have you heard from Stefan?".

"Not since he left that very vague message three days ago" Elena said, "Hi, um, Elena, I, um... I have something I have to do, I'll, uh, explain in a few days".

"You know you should be happy he even bothered to leave a message for you, if I was him and you were prying into my past that clearly makes me uncomfortable, I'll dump your sorry ass" Aria said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

Elena grabbed an apple and threw it at Aria, "Ouch women, that hurt!" Aria said, rubbing her arm where the apple had hit.

"You're my best friend Aria, meaning you're suppose to be on my side, not his" Elena complained.

"Exactly Elena, I am your friend, meaning it's my job to tell you off when your being stupid" Aria said.

"I hate you" Elena mumbled, she knew Aria was right, it was her fault, she pushed Stefan to share something he was clearly not comfortable about sharing, but Elena was to proud to admit that to Aria.

"Love you too" Aria said, blowing Elena a kiss.

Jenna laughed at the two friends, before turning her attention back to Elena, "Haven't you called him?".

"Nope" Elena said, making herself a bowl of cereal, "Not going to either".

"Idiot" Aria mumbled.

"And you're okay with everything?" Jenna asked Elena, slightly worried.

Elena slammed the milk down on the table, "No, I'm not okay with any of it, but I'm not gonna cry about it either, you know I was gonna write in my diary this morning, and then I thought, what am I gonna write? Honestly I'm not gonna be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy" she rambled, eating her cereal in anger.

"Good on you Gilbert, because if I was in your situation I would totally be sobbing in my bed right now, proud of you sister" Aria joked, in a small attempt to cheer her friend up, and it worked as a smile formed on Elena's lips.

"I'll be fine" Elena assured her aunt and friend, before grabbing her cereal and walking out the kitchen.

Aria turned to Jenna, "She's so not going to be fine".

***

After school, Elena dragged Aria to the Grill with her.

"Wait, what do you mean his gone?" a shocked Aria asked, as the two girls walked into the Grill together.

Apparently Stefan had asked Elena to meet him at the Grill so he could explain to her why he was missing for so long, and Elena decided to drag Aria along with her, no matter how much she protested.

"I mean his gone, Stefan told Caroline that Damon's gone and his never coming back" Elena said, confused with Aria's reaction.

"No!" Aria said, shaking her head, "He can't be gone, I have so much questions for him, I need my answers and he was the only one who could have given it to me".

"Aria relax, I know you and Damon were starting to have a thing, but personally I don't think he's the right guy for you" Elena said, "Him being gone is a good thing, be happy".

Elena walked up to the pool table where Matt was playing, leaving Aria alone with her thoughts.

"I'm not so sure it is Elena" Aria whispered, wondering who the hell was supposed to tell her about vampires now.

***  

"And there's Vicki all nonchalant in the bathroom like it's no big deal that they're hooking up" Elena said, playing pool with Matt and Aria.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, your brother and my sister, that's weird" Matt admitted.

"Yeah" Elena agreed.

Matt turned to Aria, "You okay with all this?" he asked, fully aware of Aria's crush on Jeremy.

Aria sighed, at this point she's pretty sure everyone in Mystic Falls knows about her feelings for Jeremy, everyone except Jeremy himself.

Aria shrugged, "It's his life Matt, he can do anything he wants".

Matt and Elena both shook her head at Aria, both of them had always told Aria to tell Jeremy about her feelings before it was too late, and that's exactly what happened, it was now too late.

Elena's phone vibrated catching her attention.

"How late is he?" Matt asked, seeing Elena's dejected face.

"Hitting the hour mark now" Aria said, hitting the ball with her pool stick.

"Nothing's wrong, though" Elena assured, playing her turn and looking at Matt, "Which means I'm not talking boy problems with you".

"Good, I mean, it's not like, we were ever best friends or anything" Matt teased.

Elena sighed, "Okay, here goes, what do you think of Stefan? Is he a good guy?".

"Why? What's he done?" a curious Matt asked.

"Nothing" Aria answered, "He just didn't share some personal information about his past and now Elena's pissed".

"Shut up Aria" Elena said, "It's just his so secretive all the time, I think there's something that he doesn't want me to know, which makes me wanna know all the more".

"Like that he's a serial killer and he keeps a clown suit in his trunk?" Matt joked.

"No, of course not" Elena laughed, "But what do we know about him, really?".

"He's great at football" Matt pointed out, "Little bit of a loner, and as much as I hate saying it, he might be a nice guy".

"Exactly" Aria agreed, "See even Matt sees it, Stefan is a nice guy Elena, maybe whatever his hiding is for your own good".

Aria knew exactly what Stefan was hiding from Elena, and she got why he was hiding it, if Elena found out then god only knows how she will react.

"So you both think I'm just being paranoid?" Elena asked, looking back and forth between Matt and Aria.

"Yes" Aria said.

"I think you should talk to him" Matt answered.

"Talk to who?" Stefan asked, coming up to the three friends, "I'm so sorry that I'm late".

"What happened?" Elena asked.

"I got held up" Stefan answered.

"Is everything okay?" Elena asked again.

"There's this thing with my uncle" Stefan answered.

Aria sighed, Stefan really wasn't helping his case with all these vague answers.

"You couldn't call and tell me that you're gonna be an hour late?" an annoyed Elena asked.

"Okay, you two have fun" Matt said, wanting to escape the awkward situation.

"Wait up Matt I'm coming with you" Aria said, leaving with Matt, wanting to give Stefan and Elena their much needed privacy.

***

"You okay?" Jeremy asked Elena, standing at her bedroom door and looking at his depressed sister who was lying on her bed lost in her thoughts, her talk with Stefan not gone well.

"Is Vicki in there?" Elena asked, avoiding Jeremy's question.

"Don't answer a question with another question, and maybe" a smiling Jeremy said.

Elena frowned, really hoping Aria didn't hear that.

"What's wrong with you?" a concerned Jeremy asked.

"She's miserable" Aria said, coming and standing next to Jeremy.

"Well, then she should go get something to eat" Jeremy suggested.

"I agree" Aria said, nodding her head.

Aria and Jeremy gave each other knowing smiles, they knew something Elena didn't, something that was going to make Elena extremely happy.

Elena nodded and with a huge sigh, got out of bed and walked downstairs towards the kitchen where a surprise was waiting for her.

Aria and Jeremy stayed upstairs, seeing Elena go downstairs, both Jeremy and Aria high fived each other.

"Mission accomplished" Aria said.

"You know that was really nice of you" Jeremy said, smiling at Aria.

"What was?" Aria asked confused.

"Helping Stefan plan all this, Elena's going to be really happy" Jeremy clarified.

"That's the plan, I can't see my friend miserable for too long" Aria replied, glad to be having a proper conversation with Jeremy after such a long time.

Before Jeremy could continue their conversation, the door to his room opened and out came Vicki, wearing only Jeremy's shirt, "Jer you coming?".

"Uh yeah, just--" Jeremy turned around to say goodnight to Aria, only to see her already gone in her room, making Jeremy frown, usually Aria will never leave without saying goodnight, even if Jeremy was ignoring her, Aria will always say goodnight, but today she didn't, making the fear in Jeremy's chest grow further.

Jeremy looked at Aria's now closed door with a sort of longing look on his face, he was debating whether or not to go and say goodnight to Aria.

"Jeremy come on" an impatient Vicki said.

Jeremy sighed and decided against going to Aria, instead turned around and went into his room with Vicki.

***

After seeing Vicki come out of Jeremy's room, Aria had quickly ran to her room, she had no interest in seeing Jeremy and Vicki be all loved up, there was only so much heartbreak she could take in one day.

Aria laid in her bed with her lights on and just stared at the ceiling, for some reason her mind kept drifting off to a certain blue eyed Salvatore, she doesn't know if this is her mind trying to distract her from what's happening next door, or this is her mind wanting answers, all she knows is that she can't stop thinking about Damon and what Stefan did to him, because that much was obvious to Aria from the way Stefan has been acting and talking about his brother, Damon didn't just leave, Stefan did something to him.

Aria sighed and got up from her bed and went to the bathroom, she turned the tap on and splashed her face a few times with cold water, she then stared at the sink for a few seconds, trying to calm her mind down from all the Damon thoughts.

"Aria", Aria looked up hearing her name, and through the mirror she saw a pale and sick looking Damon standing behind her.

Immediately a terrified Aria turned back, only to see no one there.

Now both terrified and paranoid, Aria quickly ran to her room, she let out a small scream when she saw a crow sitting at her open windowsill, Aria grabbed her pillow and used it to scare the crow away, "Shoo, shoo!".

After much difficulty the crow finally left Aria's room, letting her close her window, the Connor girl then looked around her room, extremely creeped out by recent events.

"What is happening?" Aria whispered, running a hand through her hair.

***

"No friend discounts, no freebies, no pay-you-laters, we are not running a charity here" Caroline explained to Elena and Aria the next day at the car wash.

"No we are not" Elena agreed.

"Hi" Stefan said, walking over to Elena and Aria.

"Hey" Elena said, smiling at Stefan, things between them finally solved.

"Hey Stefan" Aria greeted, giving the youngest Salvatore a wave..

"Uh, the event is called Sexy Suds, you know?" Caroline said looking at Aria, Elena and Stefan, all three who have yet to strip down to their swim suits.

"Did we just get scolded?" Stefan asked, looking highly amused, after Caroline had walked away.

"Yeah, we did" Aria said, laughing at Caroline's antics.

"And judged" Elena added.

"Wow" Stefan whispered.

"I'm sorry, but I guess you're gonna have to take that off" Elena told Stefan, a teasing smile on her face.

"Uh, I think you have to go first" Stefan said.

Aria shook her head at the two lovebirds, she knew if it was up to them they will keep doing that all day, so instead she focused on getting out of her own clothes and showing her red hot bikini to everyone.

Elena let out a low whistle when she saw Aria, "My bestie is hot".

"Well, I try" Aria said, giving Elena a cheeky smile.

"Looking good Aria" a smiling Stefan said.

"Careful Stefan, your girlfriend might get jealous" Aria teased, making Elena lightly slap her arm.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry, no need to get violent, you two lovebirds enjoy, I'm going to go ruin some cars" Aria said, running off to where Matt and Bonnie were.

"Aria!" Elena yelled, after registering her best friend's words.

"I meant clean!" Aria yelled back, making both Stefan and Elena chuckle and shake their heads in amusement.

***

Aria was helping Matt and Bonnie clean a car, when another red car pulled over.

"Oh, Tiki, this one's yours" Aria called out.

"Why do I always get the homely ones?" Tiki asked, looking at the man and his car with judgy eyes, "Just to be clear, your car's a POS, I mean, we can wash it, but it's still a POS".

"Stop being rude Tiki" Aria snapped, not liking Tiki's tone or words.

"No, rude is uglying up the road with that junker" Tiki retorted.

Tiki grabbed the hose and put it in the soap bucket, Aria glared at Tiki then put her full focus on the bucket she was filling, when suddenly the water erupted all over Tiki, making her scream in shock.

"What the--? Oh, my god, what the--?" Tiki yelled, freaking out when the water wouldn't stop, while Aria just looked at her with a  huge smile on her face.

"Whoa, hey" Matt said, going to help Tiki, seeing Matt near the water made Aria stop whatever the hell she was doing, "Whoa!".

"What the hell?!" Tiki yelled.

Once the water stopped and Matt gave his towel to Tiki, "Wet and wild, Tik".

Aria smiled, she looked at Bonnie who was already looking at her, silently asking if she did it, Aria shrugged nonchalantly and went back to cleaning the car, making Bonnie laugh, because she knew Tiki deserved what Aria did to her.

***

After cleaning a bunch of cars, Aria decided to go help Caroline at the register, while the two best friends were messing around together, Elena walked over to them.

"Hey, we're out of towels and those shimmy things" Elena informed.

"I'll go get some more, you help Care" Aria said, standing up and letting Elena take her spot.

"Your the best!" Caroline called out to Aria.

"I know I am" Aria yelled back, missing the crow that was sitting on the lamp post looking at her.

Aria walked through the empty school corridors and went towards the janitor's closet, reaching it she frowned when the door wouldn't open, no matter who hard she pulled it.

Suddenly Aria heard a whoosh from behind her, turning around she frowned when she saw there was no one behind her.

Aria stepped forward and looked towards the end of the corridor, seeing nothing there, she turned around but was shocked seeing the same sick and pale Damon she saw in her mirror, now standing behind her.

"Aria help me, help me Aria" Damon whispered, before disappearing again.

Aria quickly ran out of the corridor and towards her car, for some reason, despite not even being compelled, Aria had this sudden urge to help Damon from whatever problem he was in.

*** 

Aria parked her car outside the boarding house and ran inside.

"Aria", Aria kept hearing Damon call out to her, and everytime she heard him, the more she wanted to help him, Aria ran into the house, she realised she had come but now she had no idea where Damon was, as Aria passed a door she heard her name, "Aria".

Aria followed her instincts and quickly opened the door and ran downstairs, "Damon?", Aria reached the cellar door, "Damon?!", looking inside, Aria was shocked seeing how weak Damon looked, he looked way worse than the time she saw him in her mirror, "Oh my god, Damon?".

"Aria" Damon whispered.

"What the hell, how did I know where to find you?" an extremely confused Aria asked.

"Because we have a connection Aria" Damon said, slowly standing up.

"Connection, what connection?" Aria asked.

Damon walked up to the door and looked at Aria, "Let me out of here and I promise I'll answer all your questions, please Aria, let me out".

"I'm so confused" Aria whispered, "I don't know what's happening, why am I here? Why could I see you? Why did I know you were in trouble?!".

"I know all of this is extremely confusing, and if you let me out of here, I swear I will explain everything to you" Damon said.

Aria nodded and then proceeded to open the door when she heard a yell.

"No!" Zach yelled, rushing down to the basement.

Zach held the door shut, while Damon tried opening it, a panicked Zach turned to Aria, "Get out of here, now, run!".

Aria looked between Zach and Damon and realising the situation was getting messy, Aria quickly sprinted up the stairs.

Just as Aria reached the front door, a hand was wrapped around Aria's mouth and she was dragged away.

***

Presenting 1x05 of Cold Hearted!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Aria researching about vampires?

Thoughts on Aria encountering Vicki?

Thoughts on Aria not being happy about Damon leaving?

Thoughts on Aria rescuing Damon?

Published: 30th August 2020
Edited: 25th February 2024