by L. J. Smith
Chapter Twenty-One
"What's taking so long?" Bonnie asked, bouncing on the bal s of her feet. "Stop being so hyper," Meredith said absently, craning her neck to see over the crowd outside McAl ister. There was some kind of bottleneck by the entrance to the dorm that was slowing everyone down. She shivered in her thin top; it was starting to get cold at night.
"Security's at the door," Bonnie said as they got closer to the entrance. "Are they carding people to get in?" Her voice was shril with outrage.
"They're just checking that you have a student ID," someone in the crowd told her, "to make sure you're not a crazed kil er from off campus. "
"Yeah," his friend said. "Only on-campus kil ers al owed. " A couple of people laughed nervously. Bonnie fel silent, biting her lip, and Meredith shivered again, this time for reasons that had nothing to do with the cold.
When they final y got to the front of the line, the security guards glanced quickly at their IDs and waved them through. Inside, it was crowded and music was pumping, but no one real y seemed to be in a partying mood. People stood in smal groups, talking in undertones and glancing around nervously. The presence of the security guards had reminded everyone of the danger lurking unseen on campus. Anyone could be responsible, even someone in the room at that very moment.
As she thought about that, Meredith's view of the room shifted, the other students around her changing from innocent to sinister. That curly-headed frat boy in the corner - was he eyeing his pretty companion with something more than simple lust? The faces of strangers twisted viciously, and Meredith took a deep breath, calming herself until everyone looked normal again.
Samantha was coming toward her, a red plastic cup in her hand. "Here," she said, handing Meredith a soda.
"Everyone's on edge tonight, it's creepy. We'd better stay alert and not drink," she said, already on the same wavelength as Meredith.
Bonnie squeezed Meredith's arm in fareWelland took off into the crowd to look for Zander. Meredith sipped her drink and warily eyed the strangers surrounding her.
Despite the general malaise hanging over the party, some people were so wrapped up in each other that they were managing to have a good time anyway. She watched a couple kiss, as ful y focused on each other as if there was no one else in the world who mattered. They weren't worrying about the attacks and disappearances on campus, and Meredith found herself feeling a sharp pang of envy. She missed Alaric, missed him with a bone-deep longing that stayed with her, even when she wasn't consciously thinking about him.
"The kil er could be right here at this party," Samantha said unhappily. "Shouldn't we be able to sense something?
How can we protect anyone if we don't know who we're up against?"
"I know," said Meredith. The crowd parted, and she saw a face she hadn't expected: Stefan, leaning against the far wal . His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he glanced past her with a hopeful half smile already forming on his lips.
Poor guy. No matter what Meredith thought about Elena's decision to take a break - and, for the record, Meredith thought that Elena was doing the right thing; her entanglement with both Salvatore brothers meant that they had al been heading for trouble - she couldn't help pitying him. Stefan had the look of someone who was experiencing the same sharp pang of loneliness and desire as Meredith did when she thought of Alaric. It must be worse for him, because Elena was so close and because she chose to separate herself from him against his wishes.
"Excuse me for a second," she said to Samantha, and went to Stefan.
He greeted her politely and asked about her classes and her hunter training, although she could tel that he was burning to talk about Elena. He had such good manners, always.
"She's not here yet, but she's definitely coming," she told him, interrupting one of his pleasantries. "She had something to do first. " His face bloomed into a smile of grateful relief, and then he frowned.
"Elena's coming here alone?" he asked. "After al the attacks?"
"No," Meredith reassured him. She hadn't thought of this, and she didn't think she should tel him Elena was with Damon. "She's with other people," she settled for saying and was glad that her answer seemed to satisfy him.
Meredith sipped her drink and hoped grimly that Elena had the sense not to bring Damon to the party.
Matt spotted Chloe from across the room. Tonight was the night, he decided. Enough playing around, enough exchanging glances and gentle, platonic hugs and hand squeezes. He wanted to know if she felt the same way he did, if she felt like maybe there was something between them worth exploring.
She was talking to someone, a guy he recognized from Vitale, and her curly brown hair shone softly in the light from overhead. There was so much life in Chloe: the way she laughed, the way she listened to what the guy was saying, attentive and involved, her face focused.
Matt wanted to kiss her, more than anything.
So he started working his way across the room toward her, nodding at people he knew as he passed them. He didn't want to look too uncool and eager, not like he was making a beeline for her, but he didn't want to stop and lose her in the crowd, either.
Matt.
Matt jerked as if he'd been stung as the silent greeting hit him. Twisting around to see where it was coming from, he found Stefan standing right behind him and frowned irritably at him. He hated when Stefan got into his head like that.
"You could have just said hi," he told Stefan, as mildly as he could. "You know, out loud. "
Stefan ducked his head apologetical y, his cheeks flushing. "I'm sorry," he said. "That was rude of me, but I just wanted to get your attention. It's so loud in here. " He gestured around, and Matt wondered, as he sometimes had before, how the life of a modern teenager seemed to the vampire. Stefan had experienced more than Matt probably ever would, but the loud rock music and the press of bodies al around him seemed to make him uncomfortable, showing the cracks in his disguise as someone young. He tried hard, for Elena's sake, Matt knew.
"I'm waiting for Elena," Stefan said. "Have you seen her?" The lines of his face were anxious, and, just like that, Matt's picture of Stefan as someone too old, too out of place here, snapped. Stefan looked achingly young, lonely and worried.
"Yeah," Matt said. "I just saw her at the library. She said she was coming here later. " He bit his tongue to keep from adding that he'd seen her there with Damon, of al people.
Matt wasn't quite sure what was going on between Elena and the brothers, but he figured Stefan didn't need to know that Elena and Damon were together.
"I'm supposed to be staying away from her," Stefan confided sadly. "She feels like she's coming between Damon and me, and she wants some time for us al to work things out before the two of us can be together again. " He glanced up at Matt, almost beseechingly. "But I thought since there are so many people here, it isn't like we'd be alone. "
Matt took a swal ow of his beer, his mind working furiously. Now he knew he'd been right not to mention that Damon and Elena had been together. What game was Elena playing now?
It was a shock, too, to realize how far out of the loop he'd gotten. When did al this happen? Since Christopher's death, he'd been avoiding his friends, spending so much time focused on the Vitale Society that he missed this big development in their lives. What else was he missing?
Stefan was stil looking at him as if he was seeking some kind of approval, and Matt rubbed the back of his neck thoughtful y, then offered, "You should talk to her. Let her know how unhappy you are without her. Love is worth taking the chance. "
As Stefan nodded, considering, Matt's eyes sought out Chloe in the crowd again. The guy she'd been talking to was gone, and she was alone for the moment, biting her lip as she looked around the room. Matt was about to excuse himself and head toward her when another voice spoke in his ear.
"Hi, Matt, how's it going?" Ethan came up beside him, his golden brown eyes focused on Matt's. Matt felt himself
straightening up and pul ing back his shoulders, trying to look loyal and honorable, a promising candidate, everything the Vitale wanted him to be. Matt saw this reaction to Ethan in the other pledges as Well: whatever Ethan wanted them to be or do, they wanted, too. Some people were just natural leaders, he guessed.
They chatted for a minute, not about the Vitale Society, of course, not in front of Stefan, but simple friendly stuff about footbal and classes and the music that was playing, and then Ethan turned the warmth of his smile on Stefan.
"Oh, uh, Ethan Crane, Stefan Salvatore," Matt introduced them, adding, "Stefan and I went to high school together. " Stefan and Ethan started making conversation, and Matt looked for Chloe again. She wasn't in the last place he had seen her, and he started to panic, until he found her again in the crowd, moving to the music.
"I can't help noticing just a slight accent, Stefan," Ethan was saying. "Are you from Italy original y?" Stefan smiled shyly. "Most people don't hear it anymore," he said. "My brother and I, we left Italy a long time ago. "
"Oh, does your brother go here, too?" Ethan asked, and Matt decided the two of them seemed happy enough together and that it was okay for him to leave now.
"I'l catch up with you guys later," he said. Taking another swal ow of beer, Matt strode through the crowd, straight toward Chloe. Her eyes were shining, her dimples were showing, and he knew the time was right. Like he had told Stefan, love was worth taking the chance.
