As Elena turned to look away, Stefan angled his head to see if there was anything he could do to help. However, he didn’t want to pry or come off as nosy. They barely just met. When she turned to look at him again, her eyes captivated his. There were plenty of good looking people in town but none of them had enchanted him quite like the brunette before him. “Uhm, well, I happen to know my way around town pretty well.” As gloom as the past months had been, the young man believe he needed to try his best to carry on. Be the guy he used to be before the tragedy. Happy, popular and sociable. It was easier said than done considering he couldn’t hold a smile for more than five seconds. “I could—” The male paused, feeling a trickle of blood slide down his ankle. It turned out, he’d gotten more than just a paper cut from the edge of the paper. He set his journal on the long tree branch then rolled up the cuff of jeans to expose a small gash. “This is definitely worse than a paper cut.” A small smile cracked on his lips. Great, he was so out of touch with everything around him that he was numb to physical pain.
Elena had made it painfully obvious that she wanted Stefan to be the one to show her around, to be her tour guide. Maybe that was bold of her, maybe it wasn’t, but she’d take any excuse to be around this beautiful human that much longer. Aside from it potentially being bold though, it was also pretty stupid since she had a problem with controlling herself around blood. It definitely didn’t help that in this very moment, Stefan not only had a paper cut, but there was also a wound on his ankle that he was now exposing to her. As much as she wanted to be around Stefan, being around blood would only put him in jeopardy and that was exactly what Elena wanted to avoid. Hazel eyes blinked rapidly, not wanting him to see her red, vampiric eyes and her fangs - features that had a tendency to display themselves whenever she could see or smell blood. She wished that she didn’t have to deal with that issue, that she could be one of those vampires who’d be able to go cold turkey, but Elena simply wasn’t that lucky. She’d apparently drawn the unlucky card on that one and now she’d met someone that she actually really liked, but it was a human whose blood was almost too alluring. It was testing every bit of her self control - would she let herself slip and compel him to forget that she’d drank from him or would she try to resist her damn hardest and keep him safe? The brunette knew the world was already dangerous enough by default, so why would she want to make that worse for this innocent person? No, she had to try and control herself, the way that Lexi had taught her all of those years ago. Just breathe, Elena. You’re okay. She kept telling herself that inside of her mind, over and over, the words echoing until they had invaded every bit of her. Don’t be like Katherine. Don’t ever be like her. Her twin sister Katherine did drink human blood and shamelessly so, but Elena? She wanted to be different. She wanted to be better. And Stefan was the first human that Elena felt connected to in such a long time that she wanted to hold onto it for as long as she could, as tightly as she could. Eyes shifted away from his wound, landing on Stefan’s face that radiated in the soft rays of the sun that was shining down upon them, illuminating his silhouette. This was the hardest test she’d had to withstand in many years, but here she was, resisting temptation and focusing on his face instead. “You should take care of that. It could get infected and then you could die, which would be a shame since we only just met. Or your foot might have to come off and then how are you supposed to be my Mystic Falls tour guide?” Elena questioned, her tone of voice being lighthearted and proving that she was simply teasing him.
