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"Matt," she said, slowly, "don't you think it would be a good thing if somebody did get behind that
wall? A good thing for Stefan, I mean? Don't you think that would be the best thing that could happen
to him?" She looked up at him intensely, willing him to understand.
He stared at her a moment, then shut his eyes briefly and shook his head in disbelief. "Elena," he
said, "you are incredible. You twist people around your little finger, and I don't think you even know
you're doing it. And now you're going to ask me to do something to help you ambush Stefan, and I'm
such a dumb sucker I might even agree to do it."
"You're not dumb, you're a gentleman. And I do want to ask you a favor, .but only if you think it's
right. I don't want to hurt Stefan, and I don't want to hurt you."
"Don't you?"
"No. I know how that must sound, but it's true. I only want – " She broke off again. How could she
explain what she wanted when she didn't even understand it herself?
"You only want everybody and everything revolving around Elena Gilbert," he said bitterly. "You
only want everything you don't have."
Shocked, she stepped back and looked at him. Her throat swelled, and warmth gathered in her eyes.
"Don't," he said. "Elena, don't look like that. I'm sorry." He sighed. "All right, what is it I'm
supposed to do? Hog-tie him and dump him on your doorstep?"
"No," said Elena, still trying to make the tears go back where they belonged. "I only wanted you to
get him to come to the Homecoming Dance next week."
Mart's expression was odd. "You just want him to be at the dance."
Elena nodded.
"All right. I'm pretty sure he'll be there. And, Elena… there really isn't anybody but you I want to
take."
"All right," said Elena after a moment. "And, well, thank you."
Matt's expression was still peculiar. "Don't thank me, Elena. It's nothing… really." She was puzzling
over that when he turned away and walked down the hall.
"Hold still," said Meredith, giving Elena's hair a reproving twitch.
"I still think," said Bonnie from the window seat, "that they were both wonderful."
"Who?" Elena murmured absently.
"As if you didn't know," said Bonnie. "Those two guys of yours who pulled off the lastminute
miracle at the game yesterday. When Stefan caught that last pass, I thought I was going to faint. Or
throw up."
"Oh, please," said Meredith.
"And Matt – that boy is simply poetry in motion…"
"And neither of them is mine," Elena said flatly. Under Meredith's expert fingers, her hair was
becoming a work of art, a soft mass of twisted gold. And the dress was all right; the icedviolet color
brought out the violet in her eyes. But even to herself she looked pale and steely, not softly flushed
with excitement but white and determined, like a very young soldier being sent to the front lines.
Standing on the football field yesterday when her name was announced as Homecoming Queen,
there had been only one thought in her mind. He couldn't refuse to dance with her. If he came to the
dance at all, he couldn't refuse the Homecoming Queen. And standing in front of the mirror now, she