Author's Note: I'd like to start off with saying this is my first story, ever. I also don't have a beta, so it's not going to be perfect. I've had this idea for the longest time and finally decided to write it all down a few weeks ago.

A few important things: Throughout the whole story I reference to Eric with the word "he", not with his name (up until the last line). Just a head's up so no one gets confused. Also, I'm considering turning this into a whole series, instead of a one shot. It'd be listed under "True Blood", but I'd probably include a few elements from the books. Enjoy!

"I really need to learn to control my drinking," I said to myself as I left my friend's New York City apartment. I hadn't woken up until four in the afternoon, and I was still completely hung over. My apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey was about fifteen minutes away from hers.

The second I arrived home, via public transportation, I checked my phone. 7:42 PM. I also had several texts and one missed call. Probably Travis asking why I hadn't shown up at the studio today, since I was scheduled to work on a duet with him. Travis and I had been dancing together since we were kids. He was pretty much my stereotypical gay best friend. I was way too hung over for dancing right now. I plopped onto my couch to watch TV and checked the missed call. Maybe if it wasn't Travis, it would be my cousin from Louisiana. He tended to call me a lot too.

"Weird," I said out loud as I examined the unknown number. I knew this number. Or maybe I didn't. Maybe it just looked familiar.

My heart immediately started fluttering and all doubts about whom the number belonged to erased from my mind as soon as I glanced at the caller's location. Shreveport, LA: it read in tiny gray letters underneath the number. If it wasn't for the location, maybe I could convince myself that it had been a prank call or the wrong number; not the number that I had memorized by heart years ago. But from his city? Not likely.

I checked the time again. 7:46, that gave me a little under an hour until he would be getting up. At least I had some time to think. I grabbed my keys and purse, thought about it for a second, then grabbed my phone too. Maybe Travis would be calling me about that duet.

Owning a car when living in a city; even a small one like Hoboken, was a little inconvenient. I reminded myself of this every time I was stuck in traffic or couldn't find parking. Nonetheless, the white BMW convertible that he had bought me was much more convenient than public transportation on most days.

After driving around for a while I turned on the radio to 92.3 FM. I amused myself with Travis' reaction to my situation, if I even told him about the phone call. Was I going to tell him? Should I? Hell, I haven't even thought about returning the call yet. Maybe I should just ignore the call and continue living in the fantasy world I'd built for myself over the past year; a world where I had never fallen in love with him. It was a world where he didn't even exist on most days. I had been living in my own personal nightmare.

After driving aimlessly for a while, the lyrics to a familiar song started to pour out of the radio. It was Teenage Dream, by Katy Perry. I'm a huge Katy Perry fan, probably a bigger fan than I'd like to admit, and I'd instantly loved this song when it came out. I thought it described my relationship with him so well.

We broke up shortly after the song had come out. I hadn't listened to it much since then, but I decided now might be a good time to break out of my little dream world and reflect on our past relationship.

You think I'm pretty

Without any makeup on

You think I'm funny

When I tell the punch line wrong

I know you get me

So I let my walls come down

It was a Friday night, November 2nd actually. A week after I'd broken up with my boyfriend, Mike. Our relationship had been long and complicated, and I was still shocked that it was over. That was why I was home alone on a Friday night looking like absolute shit and refusing to answer any calls.

Maybe I could make popcorn. Comfort food sounded amazing right now, but that was way too many calories, even the low fat kind. Not that I was fat, but I'm a competitive dancer. So I've always been very weight concerned. I guess popcorn was out of the question.

Just as I popped in my all-time favorite movie, Mean Girls, the doorbell rang.

"Damn it," I cursed as I glanced at my sweats, tee-shirt, and messy bun. To top it all off I had huge bags under my eyes and not an ounce of makeup on, of course.

Opening the door and realizing who it was, I was thoroughly embarrassed with my appearance.

"Hi," I said awkwardly, standing in the doorway.

"Katie," He smiled, shifted uncomfortably, then said, "Is this a bad time?"

I managed to embarrass myself again by just standing there and not inviting him in.

"No! Come in!" I quickly tried to recover, "I was just surprised to see you, I'd assumed you'd be in Louisiana by now."

"I had a few things I needed to attend to first," he said while entering. For the first time I noticed he had a present in his arms, presumably for me. It was wrapped in a sapphire blue paper with a deep red bow on the top.

Noticing my stare, he smirked and offered the present to me.

"I bought it to make up for the unfortunate incident that happened to your shoes two weeks ago," he said, and the way he said it made it clear that he didn't believe the "incident" to be unfortunate at all. He had actually found it quite humorous when my uggs had gotten ruined during a random snowstorm in Maine while we were working together.

I guess you could say I have two jobs: my dancing one, and working for him. Well my dancing career actually involved numerous jobs, but that's not the point. Having a psychic work for you could be very beneficial to a powerful vampire; especially since I could go out during the day while he couldn't.

So occasionally I'd work with him when he needed me, and he would pay me generously in return. In this case, he had paid me, and bought me a present.

"You didn't have to do that," I said after opening my present. It was a brand new pair of uggs, and an adorable note explaining how "sorry" he was about my old ones being ruined. I could practically hear his playful sarcasm while reading it.

"No, I didn't," he mused, "but I find that you're much more agreeable when you're happy with me, so buying you these stupid boots was a small price to pay, Katherine."

I hated when people called me Katherine. Except for him, I loved how he had his own name for me. Even if that name was technically my real name. Either way, I still found the need to correct him.

"Katie. And thanks," I said while hugging him. I soon remembered what a mess I was, and self-consciously began fidgeting with a string on my t-shirt. Of course, he noticed. Damn vampire insight.

"You look beautiful."

"Thanks," I mumbled, embarrassed yet again.

"Even more so now that you've dumped your asshole boyfriend. That pretty smile of yours always seemed to be hidden when he was around."

I gave in and flashed him a genuine smile, with teeth and everything. Fuck being depressed. He eagerly returned my smile.

"What are you watching?" He asked, implying that he wanted to watch with me. I've known him for a long time, and being so obsessed with Mean Girls, I also knew that he hates the movie.

"Mean Girls," I smirked, "want to watch with me?"

"I'd be delighted to."

Before you met me

I was alright but things were kind of heavy

You brought me to life

Now every February

You'll be my valentine

It was Valentine's Day. My first one in a while being single. Three months after breaking up with Mike and I still kind of missed him.

It's not like I'd stayed home all day feeling sorry for myself, I'd had dance in the morning and then went shopping with Travis and Nicole afterwards. Still, I'd been depressed all day for more reasons than one.

There was the obvious one, me being broken up from Mike. And there were other things that had been bothering me lately- such as my mom. I was starting to feel sorry for myself again when my phone starting ringing. He was calling me.

"Hello?"

"Come outside," he said, and hung up. I found myself smiling at the surprise visit, and quickly threw on a jacket and walked outside.

"Katherine," he began, "I understand it is the human custom to give gifts to those they care about on Valentine's Day. Since you'll finally be free of your asshole ex on this one, I took the liberty to buy you something myself."

"You didn't have to," I started, but he quickly cut me off.

"I wanted to," he said while smiling and shoving the small box into my hands, "aren't you going to open it?"

I didn't bother to answer; I just began to take off the pretty white bow from the aqua box he had given me. It was Tiffany's. I took a deep breath after realizing how expensive the silver necklace probably was. It was simple and pretty, with a small butterfly on the end of it. I wasn't surprised that he had spent the money, but I was touched.

"Thank you!" I said, wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug, "I love it."

I wasn't really thinking when I kissed him, and if I had thought it through more thoroughly I probably wouldn't have done it. But he returned the kiss eagerly, and we stood out in the cold kissing for several minutes before I pulled away.

"Come in?" I asked, slightly blushing. His arms were still wrapped around my waste but he quickly released them.

"I would love to," He answered as we walked in together.

That night he stayed until about four AM. We didn't have sex; we just kissed and talked most of the night. It was cute, fun, and the beginning of our real relationship.

Let's go all the way tonight

No regrets, just love

We can dance, until we die

You and I

We'll be young forever

I had found myself getting into some weird, long-distance relationship. Living in New Jersey while your boyfriend lived in Louisiana was hard, to say the least. But I'm not sure if I'd even call him my boyfriend, we weren't serious at all yet. We hadn't even had sex.

April was just beginning but the weather was still cold in New Jersey. It had thankfully stopped snowing by now, but all the snow and hail had been replaced with rain and fog.

I'd spent this particular long weekend working with him in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Smack in the middle of Amish country. It had been an interesting weekend.

To make up for all of the work, he had taking me shopping at the outlets on our last night. It didn't take me long to find several clothing, shoes, and jewelry items that I had fallen in love with. Screw the price, they were all super cute. There was no way I could only choose a few of them. Placing my rather large purchase on the counter, I began fishing through my purse in search of my credit card.

"Let me pay," he said, credit card already in hand.

"No way, you paid for me this whole trip," I protested, "I can buy it myself."

"Please?" He half begged me. I took a few seconds to think about my chances of winning this argument. Slim to none. Plus, I couldn't help but succumb to his child-like smile and sapphire eyes. It was also nice to get all of this expensive stuff for free.

"Fine, but next time I work for free."

His smile got even bigger with the mention of next time. I wasn't really sure why, since it was obvious that I'd be working for him again.

"As long as I still cover your hotel and traveling fees," he agreed while handing his credit card to the lady behind the counter, who gave us a knowing smile.

When he walked me to my room that night and hugged me, I kissed him. He eagerly returned the kiss and we were soon making out in the hotel hallway. After several moments I broke the kiss and stared up at his eyes. He gazed at me hungrily with his fangs extended; something I never realized was such a big turn on. I thought over what I was about to say, all of the pros and cons. After 20 seconds of inner debate, with a Viking sex-god lustily staring at me, I made the decision that I think most people would make in my situation.

"Would you like to come in?" I asked him.

"I thought you'd never ask," he answered in a husky voice, his lips pouncing on mine again.

You make me

Feel like I'm living a teenage dream

The way you turn me on

I can't sleep

Let's runaway and don't ever look back

I traced my pointer finger along the lines of his well-defined abs and chest in bed. I had the luxury of actually seeing his body as it glowed under the moonlight that was seeping in through the open window. It had to be at least 90 degrees out on this particular night in early August, but I felt perfectly comfortable with my warm body wrapped around his cold one. I smiled when I realized that I was pretty much using his body as an air conditioner.

"Something funny, lover?" He turned over onto his side and looked down on me. He could sense my amusement through our blood bond.

"No, not really," I answered while playing with a strand of his blonde hair. We actually had very similar hair colors, mine being slightly lighter than his.

"A woman shouldn't be living alone in an apartment in the city, especially not a young, pretty one such as yourself," he said off-topic. I wasn't completely blindsided by the remark, he'd been trying to get me to move to Louisiana all summer.

"I can handle myself," I answered. It was kind of a short answer, so I tried to make light of the situation, "and I don't think I'd really fit in with all the rednecks down there."

"You wouldn't have to fit in with anyone, just Pam and myself," he said, taking me seriously. Were we really having this conversation right now, for the fifth time?

"I have friends here, and family. I dance here," I answered.

"You have me in Shreveport," he said. Our relationship had been hard, and involved a lot of traveling on both sides. I constantly had to put up with all the people back at the studio being pissed off at me for traveling so much, and he had his Queen to answer to. We both made sacrifices to make the distance work.

It wasn't really about friends and family so much, he was more important than them. But there was dance, too. I'm not saying that I had considered dance more important than my boyfriend, that wasn't true at all. It's just that dance had come first in my life ever since I was two years old. It felt odd having a new first.

If I moved to Shreveport, it's not like I would give up dance. I wouldn't dance competitively, but I could still work as a teacher or choreographer. It'd be similar to what I was doing now.

Maybe I could use a change. Moving would be the perfect escape from my hectic life in New Jersey. I wouldn't have to deal with stress from dance, or my mother. And my cousins did live in Louisiana, right in Monroe.

"Well, you are more important than all those things," I commented. Seeing the huge smile on his face made me happy with the way I had worded it.

"I'm sure Pam would love to see you every night."

My heart stops when you look at me

Just one touch

Now baby I believe this is real

So take a chance and don't ever look back

Don't ever look back

"I can't believe you're actually doing this," Travis said for the third time as he lifted a heavy box into my car. Today was moving day for me, and I couldn't be more nervous. "Move" wouldn't be the best way to describe what I was doing, more like "experiment" or "transition". I wasn't even selling my apartment; my college-aged brother would be living in it for now. And I wasn't going to take all of my stuff to Shreveport, just the essentials.

"I think I'm in love with him," the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. This was the first time I had ever said it out loud to anyone. Travis looked shocked, but quickly smiled.

"Whatever makes you happy," he said, "and if things don't work out, you'll always have a dance partner up in dirty Jersey."

"Thanks," I said, "for everything."

"Don't mention it. Anything else left to do?"

"I guess that's it, I already said good bye to my family and everyone else," I answered.

"I'm going to miss you," I hugged my best friend, tears falling freely from my face.

"I'll miss you too," he said, and I could tell from his voice that he was choked up. We'd be friends since we were about five or six, and had never lived more than ten minutes away from each other.

"I'll see you Thanksgiving, take care of yourself."

"You too hon, I love you."

"Love you too!" I called out as I hopped into my car and drove away. I was still in shock that I had made this decision, only two weeks after my conversation with him. But it was definitely time for a change, and for a break from my family. Even a break from dance would be good right about now.

I'd miss Travis and Nicole informing me of their latest boyfriends and dance drama, but I guess that was what Facebook was for. At the moment, all I could think about was my decision to move down to Louisiana. I wouldn't exactly call the decision stupid or irrational, I mean I had cousins living there if worse came to worse with my boyfriend and me. Either way, I was taking a huge chance, and hoping to never look back.

We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach

Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets

I finally found you

My missing puzzle piece

I'm complete

I drove twelve hours to Knoxville, Tennessee. I usually don't mind driving, but twelve hours was a little ridiculous. Luckily I would be meeting him at a gas station on the highway at 9:30. I pulled in exactly on time to find him already there, waiting for me.

I ran out of the car and jumped into his arms, squeezing my own arms around his neck and kissing him. I normally hate PDA, but no one was around us at the time. And I hadn't seen him for two weeks.

"I missed you," he stated. I was about to answer when he continued, "I find myself growing more and more attached to you each day, it's like you're an addiction; a drug."

"Good," I replied half-jokingly and kissed him again.

"I missed you too."
We soon got back into my car and started on the four and a half hour drive to our next destination. I felt like I was on a tour of the south on our little road trip to Birmingham, Alabama. I slept for most of the ride, but would occasionally wake up and just gaze at the southern scenery through my window. Or at least what I could see of it at nighttime.

I was exhausted beyond belief once we got a hotel, but my amusement with everyone's accents managed to keep me up and functioning. Once we got to our room, I ran to the TV and put Mean Girls in before he could stop me.

"I don't think I'll ever understand your obsession with this stupid movie," he spoke up about halfway through the movie.

"Hey!" I mocked annoyance, and shifted out of his arms to smack him playfully. Afterwards I snuggled even closer to him on the bed we were laying in.

"I've been alive for a long time," he said out of the blue.

"I know," I answered, not sure where he was going with this.

"About 1,000 years."

"That is long," I answered again, not bothering to correct his definition of "alive".

"In all the years I've existed, I don't think I have ever met someone quite like you."

"I'm not sure if I should take that as a good or bad thing," I replied.

"No, I'm certain that I've never met someone like you," He continued, almost talking to himself and completely ignoring my remark. I was too tired to care.

"I've had too many lovers to count, but none that make me feel the way that you do," he continued. That was cute, I guess. It could be cuter if you got rid of the part about all his lovers.

"You make me feel complete," I finally spoke up as I caught onto his train of thought.

"I was just about to say the same thing," he smiled. I returned his smile, glad that we were on the same page. We continued watching the movie for a minute or two.

"I love you," he said out of nowhere. I nearly choked.

"Excuse me?" I stupidly asked. He did have the tendency to say things out of nowhere, but this was completely unexpected.

"I love you," he repeated himself, but with more confidence this time. He tilted my face so I was looking into his eyes. I smiled like an idiot.

"I love you too."

I'ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream, tonight

Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream, tonight

Life with him was great. We'd been living together for a month, and it was amazing. I honestly couldn't ever see anything breaking us apart. We had an incredibly strong bond; both emotionally and through our blood. I had finally found my missing puzzle piece. He made me feel complete.

The final chorus of the song faded out as I pulled over the car onto the side of the road. I had driven out of Hoboken a while ago and found myself in a nearby town, Secaucus. At the moment I honestly didn't care about my location, I was too busy crying. I missed him so fucking much.

Calming myself and looking out the window, I realized it was dark out. I made up my mind. Hell, I made up my mind the second that song had blared onto the radio. I picked up my phone and dialed in his number with shaky fingers. The same number I had deleted over a year ago when I had erased him from my life. My heart was pounding so hard I swore it would come out of my chest. I impatiently sat there, shaking like an idiot, waiting for something to happen; anything.

"Hello?" Said a familiar, deep voice that I thought I'd never hear again. I had dreams about his voice.

"Eric," I said, "um, hi."