Preface:

I thought I'd finally escaped it, the whole supernatural thing. I mean how many pointy-toothed bloodsuckers can there be in the world? Apparently a lot. It's not like they were all bad, the vampires. Stefan I respected and Caroline… well I still managed to kiss her right? I didn't run away because I was scared of them, I was just tired of the drama surrounding them. I have enough problems of my own to deal with and I don't need issues of the sangre sucking variety to pile on too. So I packed up and left, off to a better place. But this better place just so happened to be in the middle of an underworld creature party and let's just say I didn't lose my invite in the mail…

Chapter 1: The Toughest Goodbye

It was bright and sunny in Mystic Falls as I threw my backpack of T-shirts and jeans into the back of my truck. For such a gloomy place filled with disaster and death, the weather seemed so uplifting. I squinted as I stared at my house for the final time. It seems like just yesterday my mom drunkenly walked down those front porch steps or Vicki climbed up into my bedroom window, too high to realize it wasn't her room. What great memories I thought to myself as I turned the key in the ignition. It wasn't as if there weren't good memories in that house, baking cookies with Elena or lounging on the couch with Caroline. But everything was different now, so different that even the best of memories seemed to be clouded with a haze of disappointment. Elena had Stefan now. And Caroline… well she had an eternal life filled with blood and inhuman strength. Elena and Caroline had other things to worry about now, Matt was no longer a priority. But that's just the way it always went. Matt hadn't been a priority with his mother, his father, or his sister. Matt had barely been a priority with himself.

"The pity party ends now," Matt said to himself as he turned up the radio. Sweet Home Alabama came blasting through his speakers. Matt hadn't exactly thought out where he was escaping to, but he took this song as a sign of fate. Alabama it was.

Sweet Home Alabama, where the skies are so blue.

Sweet Home Alabama, Lord I'm coming home to you.

He muttered the lyrics to himself as he imagined his potential life there. He could get a job at a quaint restaurant and live in a small apartment or rent a bedroom from some sweet old lady. He'd make friends, maybe help coach one of the youth football league teams. Then he'd meet a girl, a normal girl. A purely human girl with purely human dreams and they'd get married and live a purely human life. Maybe it'd take a few years to get all of these things he wanted, but eventually he'd get them all, even the girl. The first step was this, leaving Mystic Falls. He pressed on the gas pedal a little harder, solidifying that he was leaving this damned place. Then he heard the sound of a siren and saw a familiar face behind the wheel of an old cop car. It was Sheriff Forbes. Of course he'd been stupid in assuming that he could speed pass Caroline's house without encountering either her or her mother. Though he'd sincerely hoped the encounter would be less of a ticket-giving kind.

"License and registration plea- Matt? Why were you going so fast back there!" Sheriff Forbes said to me as I rolled down my window.

"Sorry Mrs. Forbes, I guess I was just spacing out a little."

"Where are you going Matt? You seem to have a lot in the back there" she questioned.

"Well…" What am I supposed to say? 'I decided your daughter's vampirism is too much for me to handle, but I'm glad it doesn't bother you. By the way, I'm skipping town?' That probably wouldn't go over too well. "I'm leaving town for a couple of weeks, gonna visit some places down South" I replied cooly.

"Oh, I see. Well I let you off the hook this time, only because I've known you for so long and this is out of normal behavior for you. Drive safe and have a good trip Matt! I hope to see you in my living room when you get back!" She replied, smiling at the idea that maybe her vampire daughter could still have a normal boyfriend.

"Yeah sure. Thanks" I said, knowing quite well I would never be back in this town, let alone in my ex-girlfriend's living room anytime soon.

I rolled up my window and slowly pulled away from the side of the road. I turned the stereo back up, this time Life in the Fast Lane was playing. How appropriate. I sang along and thought about the long drive in front of me. I'd picked a state, but I had no idea what town I was going to.

"Let's see… How about a town that has nothing to do with anything magical or supernatural? That sounds like a start!" I said to myself bitterly. Why was I so bothered by everything? It wasn't like Caroline chose to be a vampire. It wasn't like Elena chose to fall in love with one. Yet, here I stood, or really sat, angry at both of them. Mad that they had chosen a life so very different from the one I thought we'd have back when we used to play on the swings or eat cookies together after school. Why couldn't they have stayed normal like me? And why was it that I was the one stuck leaving when I was the only one who hadn't changed?

"It's alright," I told myself, "once I get out of here, once I'm somewhere new, the past won't matter so much." It might have been a lie, but it comforted me nonetheless.

Then More Than A Feeling by Boston came on. It's as if this radio station knew exactly what I was doing today.

And I dream of a girl I used to know,

I closed my eyes and she slipped away.

Caroline. God I missed her. I missed every last neurotic thing about her. And even though she seemed the same, she wasn't. At least not to me anymore. It's true that she was still here, walking the earth. But she was dead to me. And that's what bothered me the most, that I loved her so much but never enough to look past the fact she was a vampire now. I know it's not her fault she changed, I know that its my fault we aren't together and happy. Yet somehow, I still blame her for everything. I guess it must be a defense mechanism or something.

Matt let his mind wander for the next few hours. Every bad thought brought him closer to turning around and trying to fix everything or stepping on the gas and getting as far away as possible. He wasn't quite as sure he was making the right choice the further he went. Although his resolve faltered a few times, it never faded enough to keep him from pressing on. To keep him from his new dream, a happy human life in Alabama.