It'd been better in theory. Before they'd left, he'd been confident that he could do this, that he could leave whatever happened between them on the road where it belonged and carry on with his life in Mystic Falls. It wasn't supposed to follow him back here, wasn't supposed to catch up with him and nag at him every time she walked into the Grill. Things had escalated between them when they were traveling across Europe and Asia. He'd kissed and made out with and eventually had sex with Rebekah in the some of the greatest sights the world had to offer. How many people could say they'd done that? Why wouldn't he want to say that he'd done that, that he'd had an amazing summer with a girl who treated him like a king when he was nothing more than a dirty poor nobody from a nowhere town in Virginia?

He wasn't ashamed. He was... scared, more than anything. Afraid of what his friends might think, even though they were all off at college. Rebekah had offered to compel him a scholarship, to get the college everyone else was attending to let him in too, but he'd declined. Matt loved his friends, but he needed to breathe without them and their drama around. It was nothing against them, but things had been chaotic for a while now. He needed to get his bearings before he thought about college, before he thought about following them. He was the human of the group, the one who got to live. Did he want to live his life with the supernatural surrounding him all the time?

Did he want to live with it by his side, sharing his bed? Of course, that question only applied to the girl who he shared a bed with abroad, who showed and taught him things he never knew existed, much less imagined.

"I thought you would've been off in New Orleans by now." He'd seen all those text messages from Elijah, knew her brother wanted him to join them.