Matt hadn't bothered to get out of bed that morning.
He'd skipped class, not done his homework, and had a little hair of the dog to try and take the edge off his hangover from the last few days. Then he'd passed out for a few more hours before polishing off the rest of his bottle of whiskey. He knew that he needed to get up. Knew he needed to go check on Jeremy and Caroline, but Elena being gone had hit him even harder than he'd thought it would.
They'd been getting closer, like they had before all the weirdness of Mystic Falls took over their lives. They'd spent entire nights watching movies and hanging out and talking. She'd been human. There were vampires in his life that he loved: Vicki and Caroline. Others that he liked, like Rebekah. Others that he tolerated, like the Salvatore's.
But he knew that Elena had never wanted to be a vampire, and here her life had been -- well. Not normal, but more normal than it had been at home. And sure, Elena had overcome a lot after her transition, had wound up switching her emotions back on finally, and been more like herself, but it still just wasn't the same thing.
He hated what all of the insanity had done to their entire group at home, and he wasn't fond of what was going on with all of them here, either. But he didn't know how to change it. Didn't know how to make it better. Didn't know if it ever could be better. He didn't see how it could. Not without Elena. Being there without Bonnie and Tyler had already been weird. There had been a feeling of incompleteness. But without Elena? He felt incomplete. Whether that made him dumb or pathetic he didn't know and didn't really care.
He just didn't see the point anymore. Things for all of them had been pure shit for a long time. And that pattern was apparently going to continue. He really didn't know why he was surprised.
He was awakened by a loud knock on his door and he groaned, slinging an arm over his face and sighing before another knock happened. Only one person he knew was that persistent and impatient and in Lawrence.
Reluctantly, Matt rolled out of bed and staggered toward the door, unlocking it and pulling it open, squinting.