::Open:: Everything I Couldn't Say

[Elena Isobel Gilbert]

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Pulling into the driveway of the lake house she turned off the engine, once again simply staring at the front of her family's vacation home. She had taken the weekend away from friends and family to come up here and do what should have done quite awhile ago. Jenna originally had been in charge of packing up all of her parent’s things but had never been able to face it. It had now been over a year and a half and still nothing had been put away. Everything was still in their same places that they had been before everything changed. This weekend she sought to put an end to that.

Stepping out of her SUV she shut the door, using her key fob to lock it, jumping as the honking of the horn signaling that the car was indeed locked rocked the serenity of the calm environment around her. She hadn't brought anything with her since she had clothing and toiletries so she was only in need of the clothes on her back, her cell phone and charger, both of which were inside her purse. Walking up the porch she took a deep breath, knowing that memories would hit her as soon as she walked in just as they had every time she had been up since her parents had died.

The scent of the wooden cabin hit her as soon as she entered. Looking around her parent's furniture still stood, pictures, candles, decorations...it all was exactly the same. She intended to fix that as well. The furniture would stay but the decorations and stuff would be changed around. She spoke with Jeremy before coming up and he said he was okay with it as long as she didn't throw anything away unless it was unnecessary to keep. They had agreed to rent a storage unit to put anything in that wasn't needed directly and then should one of them want something one day they would know where it was. She had called and hired a storage company to pick up all the boxes on Sunday which meant she had two and a half days to get this done.

Walking into her room she laughed at how childish it looked now. She had decorated it when she was thirteen and since she never spent much time up here for extended periods of time had never really thought about changing it up. The walls were white which would make redecorating easier but on them hung posters of her favorite bands, and pictures of her and her friends at all ages of their lives. She shook her head with a fond smile when she saw a picture of Matt and her at homecoming their freshman year. They looked so happy...and so very naive.

Turning away from the photos she walked over to her closet, pulling out her standard workout clothes that she kept up here since when she got annoyed with family time she would run in the woods, having never guessed how dangerous that could be. Stripping out of her jeans and long sleeve t-shirt she quickly slipped on a pink, blue and black Nike sports bra and then on top of it went a black tank top. She had always liked this particular tank top because it gave a very interesting tan line though she digressed. Pulling out her favorite yoga pants she slid them on, grinning as the roll over top which was pink and purple settled nicely against her olive skin. She pulled out a hoodie since it was still fairly chilly out and she planned on opening the windows in order to keep the place ventilated as she painted.

Making her way into the living room she decided to start in there first. She knew she was avoiding cleaning out her parents room but she had two days to do it so she would take her time. She had trash bags, boxes and rubber-mate totes lined up against the bar that led into the kitchen which would decide where things would go. Thinking she heard a car door she looked up but before she looked outside she realized she was losing it in the silence and quickly turned on the iPod dock which still held her father's iPod before walking over and picking up a trash bag and a brown box, allowing herself to get lost in the music and the work that she knew needed to be done.

Word Count:: 756
Tag:: Open
Outfit:: Click here for Elena’s Outfit
Note:: N/A

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[christian]

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Christian had decided to escape for the weekend. It was the first one he had off work and he was up to date with his univeristy assignments. He looked around his dorm. He had heard of a place to go that was quite calming. A few people owned little cabins out there but there was apparently a resort out there as well. He hadn't planned on meeting up with anyone out there though, it seems his few times of meeting up with Cordelia had gone really well. He looked around his dorm room and running a hand through his hair figured he should pack some things. He grabbed a small bag and put in the usual things that were needed. Toothbrush, deoderant, boxers and clothes. He figured he should grab some reading material as well and some of it was his uni stuff. What was wrong with getting ahead on the readings right? There was never enough that he could learn, that was just the way he was.

Picking up his keys to his car he locked his dorm room behind him. He was soo very glad that he didn't have to share a dorm room with anyone, that would drive him completely crazy. He wasn't big on people being in his personal space it was like his Autism went into over drive the moment it happened. He got into his car and put the bag ont he back seat. He had originalls printed off the map of where he was supposed to go but had spilt his coffee on it before he left. He figured he would grab another coffee when her got there and hoped it wasn't too long of a drive. He could still make out a few of the directions to most of the way there, it was a pretty straight drive until the end. Christian started the car and made his way out onto the road. He turned on his music, it was strange because he was told it was common for autistic children to either love or hate music, he personally didn;t mind. He preffered to have it on in the car but otherwise the only time he listened to it was when he wanted to loose himself in something other than his work.

It was only the radio and he turned it to a station that didn't just play the new crap techno beats. He preferred things that were a little old fashioned. Christian headed up the freeway and saw he was half way there after only twenty minutes of driving. That was interesting it really was quite close then. It didn't take long for him to find the exit to pull off the freeway and instantly the first thing he saw was a huge lake. It was a beautiful sight. The morning sun shone straight down onto it and he couldn't believe his eyes. He got so distracted he realised he was veering towards it. He pulled his car back towards the road and carried on driving but kept on peeking out the corner of his eye towards the lake. This was where things got hard to read on the map. He frowned and grew frustrated at himself for not printing off another copy. He would hate to have to stop and ask for directions, talking to strangers really wasn't his thing.

He finally knew he was lost, there was no way he could know where to go from here. It was mainly dirt roads every way he looked. The resort should put out more signs. He figured he should just ring them. Grabbing his phone he attempted to make the call. However there was of course no cell signal. She let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hand through his hair messing it up. He pulled intp the first road he saw. He wondered if this was the place to go. He would check them all. It came to a dead end. He didn't want to be out here all day and the next road took him to a cabin with an SUV parked out the front. Ok so someone was here. Was this cabin part of the resort or was it just someone's house? He didn't know but figured he should at least ask for directions. The lake was so close here. Het got out his car and locking it behind him plucked up the courage to walk to the door and knock three times. Hopefully this wouldn't take long.

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Words: 749
Tagged: Open/Elena
Outfit: Click for Christian's Outfit
Notes: Had to see what he would think of her
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[Elena Isobel Gilbert]

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Looking through the photos sitting on the coffee table was hard, though she knew it would be. She wasn’t sure why she got so lost in them as most of them she had copies of at home, yet here it seemed to be harder to look at them. Maybe it was because her mother had sat down with her one weekend and they had made these albums together, or maybe it was because most of the pictures were actually taken at the Lakehouse. Either way the memories came back to her at a frightening speed and after only a few moments she had to put the album down in order to gather herself back together.

Setting the album back down she walked over to the book shelves, bringing over a rubber-mate tub with her. She would have put all the books into a regular box since they were going into storage but once she had filled it up it would have been too heavy to lift without handles hence the rubber-mate tub. Starting from the top she had learned was the easiest way that way the bookshelf didn’t tip over. Not that this one would be an issue because it was nailed to the wall but still, she had learned the hard way one time in her room while rearranging her books. Since then she had made sure to always start from the top.

Picking up the first three books she realized that were her dad’s old medical journals. Flipping through them briefly she put them into one tub, bringing a second and third over and a permanent marker. On one she wrote ‘Dad’s Medical Stuff’, on the second she wrote ‘Mom’s Books’ and on the third she wrote ‘Miscellaneous’. She knew she and Jeremy didn’t have much stuff here any longer since after their parents had died Jenna had come and gotten whatever she could to make them feel better, not that it had worked but it was a nice thought.

The first three shelves were all books that belonged to her father. The fourth was a bunch of home decorating magazines that she was able to throw away in the trash bag since they had all been from several years earlier, only leaving two books on yoga that went into her mom’s tub. The fifth shelf had a few more of her mom’s old favorites, one of which Elena set out to keep with her. It was an old copy of Romeo and Juliet that her mother used to read to her when she was a child and she made a mental note to take that home with her. The last shelf was nothing but photos in frames in which she gathered up and set on the coffee table next to the albums. She’d deal with the photos later.

Feeling the heat now she stood up, unzipping her jacket and moving to take it off when she heard three soft knocks on the front door. Furrowing her brow she stared at the door for a moment as if it would tell her who was there yet when nothing happened she zipped her jacket back up and made her way towards it. Looking out the peep hole she saw a brunette man that she had never seen before. Stefan and Damon’s voices shouted at her in her head to stay inside and not open the door, yet as she so often did she ignored them, opening the door with a smile. “Hi, can I help you?” She asked him in a friendly manner. She knew she looked lazy and all but oh well, at least she could be friendly.

Word Count:: 678
Tag:: Christian King
Outfit:: Click here for Elena’s Outfit
Note:: Nice! Sorry this took a couple of days. School and Work have been killing me.

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[christian]

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Christian loved to get away, it was the entire reason he had left home and come to a small town such as this one. However it didn't mean that he didn't miss the rush and the thrill of the city life sometimes. The city had it's own perks as did living in a small town. Here however hs social therapist knew that if he mae a mistake wyhilst talking to be people or if someone saw him have one of his Autistic meltdowns, well then he would always be remembered as that person. Which was he was extra careful to avoid the things that he hated the most, the things that set him off. Jackasses who were likely to call him a freak he really avoided. However escaping was his thing, just getting some time to himself where he didn't have to worry if he was behind at uni, not that he ever was, or if someone was looking at him weird or if he had to try harder to interact with people.

Getting lost however hadn't been a part of the plan. How did someone get lost, well simple, go to a resort with no signs and in the woods and nothing was able to be seen for miles around. He let out a sigh, this was not going as planned and generally he was all about plans and trying to interact with people as best as he could. He firgured that he woldn't be able t ask for directions or even speak to someone very well. Maybe he should ask someone when he found them to use their phone, that was a reasonable question right? He just needed to get to the resort so he could chill out by the lake get ahead on his reading and actually just relax for once. Of course the likeness of that actually happening now seemed to slim down next to nothing if he couldn't talk to someone, which he normally couldn't.

Standing at the cabin door he waited for someone to answer. He heard shuffling from the inside, part of him had hoped that no one had been there. A young girl answered, she was younger than him and yet she seemed to be the only one home. Well he would have to speak to her now wouldn't he? He smiled politely towards her but was a little lost for words at first. "Hi, i'm sorry to interrupt your day but i'm seriously lost, I was wondering if I could get directions to a resort unless of course it's no longer open which wouldn't surprise me as there are no signs?"

[/color] He asked and let out a deep breath of air. That was harder than what people gave it credit for. He knew his cheeks were slightly red but he was trying not to get anxious about talking to a complete stranger. His therapist would be proud.

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Words: ---
Tagged: Open/Elena
Outfit: Click for Christian's Outfit
Notes:Sorry its short!
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[Elena Isobel Gilbert]

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She noticed immediately that the man standing in front of her seemed nervous when she answered the door. She wasn’t sure what it was but something about her seemed to make him blush, though she doubted it was her exactly since he didn’t seem to be eyeing her in a way that normal guys would. In all actuality he didn’t seem to be looking directly at her at all, instead she watched as his eyes moved around, not ever making eye contact. On someone else this would make her uneasy yet with him for some reason it seemed as if this was just his person. As if he was a nervous person by nature.

Hearing what he was asking she thought for a minute before smiling apologetically. "Actually I haven't been up here for more than a day or two in years, and this is the first time in over a year I've been here at all. If you want to wait for a minute I can grab my laptop and look up the number so we can call and ask?" She asked, opening the door and motioning for him to come in, though never truly saying the words. She had learned in the past year that she should never actually say the words ‘come on in’ to someone she didn’t know, or even to some that she did. She had learned the hard way that once a vampire was invited in that they could never be uninvited, meaning that they would have access to her home twenty four hours a day.

She had learned this with Damon last year, after inviting him in without understanding why it was such a bad thing (though looking back on it she should have listened to Stefan since back then Damon still could have easily killed her), doing it without a second of hesitation. Now she knew better, she knew that if she invited a stranger in that it could easily be the end of her life or the life of someone that she loved, so she was much more cautious about this, as well as a lot of other things. She knew had Stefan or Damon been around right now they would call her out on her being too nice to a man that she had never met, but something about him told her that she could trust him, so she did what she always did and went with her instincts.

Turning on her heel she motioned once more for the man to follow her, assuming that he would, and headed back towards the kitchen. “Can I get you a drink?” She asked him, holding up a bottle of water from the refrigerator that she had just been about to open up when she had heard the knock on the door.

Hearing him decline she went to her laptop she quickly keyed in the name of the resort and found that he had only taken a wrong turn down the road she dialed the number, verifying that they were still open. Upon hearing that they were she hung up and walked back into the living room. “You missed the road, that’s all. The road right before this one? That’s the one you needed to turn down. If you make a right out of here and then take a left at the first exit after this one you’ll be good to go.” She told him, waving as he made his way out.

She took another drink of her water before heading back to her original task of cleaning out the Lakehouse.

Word Count:: 657
Tag:: Christian King
Outfit:: Click here for Elena’s Outfit
Note:: Originally posted this on March 26th. However after it sat for so long I just decided to end it since it wasn’t that huge of a plot or anything. After 12 days I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to post to it again.

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[ADMIN BRITT]