"Wait!" Elena said, half rising. "What kind of things?" What had her parents been involved in? They wouldn't have done anything wrong, would they? Not Elena's parents. But the librarian only walked faster, the wheels of her cart squeaking as she rounded the corner into another aisle.
Damon gave a low laugh. "She won't telyou anything," he said, and Elena glared at him. "She doesn't know anything, or she's too scared to say what she does know."
"That's not helpful, Damon," Elena said tightly. She pressed her fingers against her temples. "What do we do now?"
"We look into the Vitale Society, of course," Damon said. Elena opened her mouth to object, and Damon shushed her, drawing one cool finger over her mouth. His touch was soft on her lips, and she half raised a hand toward them. "Don't worry about what a foolish old woman has to say," he told her. "But if we realy want to find out the secrets of this society of yours, we probably need to look somewhere other than the library."
He got to his feet and held out his hand. "Shal we?" he asked. Elena nodded and took his hand in hers. When it came to finding out secrets, to digging up what people wanted to keep concealed, she knew she could put her faith in Damon.
"Pick up, Zander," Bonnie muttered into the phone.
The ringing stopped, and a precise mechanical voice informed her that she was welcome to leave a message in the voice mailbox. Bonnie hung up. She had already left a couple of voicemails, and she didn't want Zander thinking she was any crazier or more clueless than he inevitably would when he saw his missed-cal list.
Bonnie was pretty sure she was going through the Five Stages of Being Ditched. She was almost done with Denial, where she was convinced something had happened to him, and was moving quickly into Anger.
Later, she knew, she would slide into Bargaining, Depression, and eventualy (she hoped) Acceptance.
Apparently her psych class was already coming in handy.
It had been days since he had abruptly run off, leaving her al alone in front of the music building. When she found out that a girl disappeared that same night, at first Bonnie was angry and scared for herself. Zander had left her alone.
What if Bonnie had been the one to vanish? Then she began to worry about Zander, to be afraid that he was in trouble. He seemed so sweet, and so into her, that it was almost impossible for her to believe Zander would just be avoiding her al of a sudden.
Wouldn't his friends have sounded the alarm if Zander was missing, though? And when she thought that, Bonnie realized that she didn't know how to contact any of those guys; she hadn't seen any of them around campus since that night.
Bonnie stared at her phone as fresh tendrils of worry grew and twisted inside her. Realy, she was having a very tough time moving on to Anger when she was stil not quite sure that Zander was safe.
The phone rang.
Zander. It was Zander.
Bonnie snatched up her phone. "Where have you been?" she demanded, her voice shaking.
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
Bonnie was almost ready to hang up when Zander finaly spoke. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to freak you out. Some family stuff came up, and I've had to be out of touch. I'm back now."
Bonnie knew that Elena or Meredith would have said something pithy and cutting here, something to let Zander know exactly how little they appreciated being forgotten about, but she couldn't bring herself to. Zander sounded rough and tired, and there was a break in his voice when he said he was sorry that made her want to forgive him.
"You left me outside alone," she said softly. "A girl disappeared that night."
Zander sighed, a long sad sound. "I'm sorry," he said again. "It was an awful thing to do. But I knew you would be okay. You have to believe that. I wouldn't have left you in danger."
"How?" Bonnie asked. "How could you know?"
"Just trust me, Bonnie," Zander said. "I can't explain it now, but you weren't in danger that night. I'l telyou about it when I can, okay?"
Bonnie shut her eyes and bit her lip. Elena and Meredith would never have settled for this kind of half explanation, she knew. Not even half an explanation, just an apology and an evasion. But she wasn't like them, and Zander sounded sincere, so desperate for her to believe him. It was her choice, she knew: trust him, or let him go.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, I believe you." Zander let out another sigh, but it sounded like one of relief this time. "Let me make it up to you," he said.
"Please? How about I take you out this weekend, anywhere you want to go?"
Bonnie hesitated, but she was starting to smile despite herself. "There's a party at Samantha's dorm on Saturday," she said. "Want to meet there at nine?"
"There's something peculiar going on at the library," Damon said, and Stefan twitched in surprise at his sudden appearance.
"I didn't see you there," he said mildly, looking out onto his dark balcony, where Damon leaned against the railing.