after dark

Matt knew that he could have stopped working at the Grill and relied on Rebekah or his friends’ compulsion to keep a roof over his head but he knew that he never wanted to be that person. His friends had always been more of a family to him than his own family ever had been and that was something that he had learned to accept a long time ago. He never wanted to take advantage of the people around him and he wasn’t the kind of person who accepted charity from people either, even the people who meant the most to him. Instead he kept working at the Grill alongside going to Whitmore and football and he knew that it was for the best. He still did his best to juggle that with spending time with the people he cared about and he was glad that he had that balance. After Henrik brought him back to life Matt had found that he was glad to have something normal to focus on and he had been using his job to help keep him grounded.

That day he’d spent some time with Rebekah before heading to the Grill for his shift. He knew that his boss would have understood if he’d taken some time off after what had happened, after all she was a vampire and she had known Kol for a long time so he didn’t have to hide what he was or what had happened from her, but instead he had thrown himself into his work even more and he was glad that she’d given him that chance. It had been a fairly busy shift but things were starting to quieten down a little when she was called to the front and he felt a smile form on his face as he saw that Jasper was waiting for him. “Hey man, what’s up?” he asked, knowing that there had to be a reason why Jasper had wanted to see him.

JASPER ROMERO

Matt had been working at the Grill for the last few years and while it wasn’t the best job in the world it paid the bills and the truth was that he’d needed something to keep him busy after he’d found his name put on a supernatural hitlist. He had been killed by the guy that had decided the money was more important than his life and the truth was that he hadn’t wanted to spend too much time at home since then. Matt didn’t feel safe in the house that he’d once shared with his mom and sister any longer even with all of the spells and extra precautions to make sure that nothing like that happened again. He knew that he wanted to get out of there and he was doing his best to save money when he could but it was taking time and that was something that he hated right now. When the time came he knew that he wanted Rebekah to move in with him but he knew that he needed to get some money together first and that’s exactly what he was trying to do.

People always tended to come and go from the Grill and the employees were no different. Matt knew some of them pretty well but there were others that he had only seen in passing. Jasper was someone that he had become friendly with during the time they had worked together but he hadn’t seen much of the boy lately at all so he couldn’t deny that it was good to see Jasper waving him over. “Not bad, been trying to keep busy,” he admitted. “How about you?” It was easy to get caught up with school and in Matt’s case football as well but he always made time for his friends when he could and Jasper was no exception to that. “You’re probably best off speaking to Evangeline, she’s still sorting out the rosters herself. Are you bored already or are you just looking to make some cash?”

JASPER ROMERO

There was a time even after the Salvatore brothers arrived in Mystic Falls when Matt had remained in the dark about the supernatural. Vicki had tried to tell him the truth before she’d died but he hadn’t believed her. To begin with he hadn’t wanted to believe her but then when he’d started to see that she was right he had been compelled to forget. After the Dread Doctors experimented on him that compulsion had fallen away and now he remembered everything that had happened. Thankfully the memories hadn’t come back to him in one go, it had happened gradually but he had managed to piece a lot of it together and now he knew to be careful. He wasn’t a threat like some of the people in Mystic Falls were, he didn’t want to hurt anyone and yet his name had still ended up on the hit list. He was lucky that Henrik had brought him back but Matt had seen how heartbroken Rebekah had been and he knew that he didn’t want to put her in that position again so he needed to be much more careful.

“It does but I’ve never been good at sitting around and doing nothing,” Matt chuckled. He preferred to be doing something as much as possible even if that was just hanging out with Rebekah or playing video games with his friends. With his mom and Vicki gone it was too quiet at the house so he tried to spend as little time there as he could a lot of the time. “You missed us, admit it,” he teased as Jasper said that it was a bit of both. As the boy spoke again, however, Matt nodded. “Yeah, I get it. You never know what’s going to happen around here,” he admitted. “How is everything going at home?” he asked, hoping that things had settled down for Jasper now.

JASPER ROMERO

One thing Matt had learned over the years was that most who were taken by the Dread Doctors had different memories of it. Matt knew that he was one of the first people taken in Mystic Falls, he had been taken and experimented on before they had even known about the Dread Doctors and ever since he had been learning as much about the supernatural world and how to control his abilities as he could. He hadn't even known that kitsunes existed until he became one himself so it had been a steep learning curve but with the support of his friends and help from Olivia he knew that he was in a much better place now than he had been the day he had woken up in the woods and killed the creature that had attacked him and Damon. Matt hadn't liked getting blood on his hands but to this day he still knew that if he hadn't killed the creature then it would have killed them so it was something that he had learned to live with.

Matt had learned to enjoy the moments when he was able to act like a normal human for a while and most of those revolved around going to school and working at the Grill. He was still working there to make sure that he had enough money to pay his rent and he was okay with that. He knew that his mom and sister had been happy to drift through life for the most part but that wasn't Matt, he had never been afraid of hard work and that hadn't changed. He knew that he wasn't the only one, Jasper was just the same and Matt knew that that was perhaps one of the reasons why they got along so well. "Exactly. There's no point in being bored, most of the time there's usually something that needs to be done if you look hard enough for it," he chuckled. Matt had never been the kind of guy who liked to rely on the kindness of others, even those who were closest to him. He preferred to work for what he got and he tried to make sure that others had the chance to do the same. "Even if you don't say it I know you mean it," Matt grinned.

He could definitely understand why Jasper wanted to build up some money in case something happened, there was a time when Mystic Falls had seemed just like any other town but now there were lots of supernaturals around and they seemed to be facing new threats all the time so it was only natural. "That makes sense, she was studying during her breaks when we worked together last weekend," Matt nodded. "I don't get how you can do the coding, it's all nonsense to me," he added with a grin. He knew how to use a computer but other than that he didn't have a clue. He admired Jasper for being able to do it though and he seemed to enjoy it which was a bonus. "All good my end. School and football are keeping me busy and so is working here so I can't complain," he shrugged. It wasn't completely true, he was still trying to get his head around the fact that someone had killed him for money and Henrik had brought him back but he wasn't sure whether Scott or any of the others had told Jasper about that and the truth was that Matt had always been the suffer in silence type. "My shift finishes soon if you're free to hang out after," he suggested, knowing that he wouldn't be offended if Jasper had something else planned already since it was short notice.

JASPER ROMERO

As Jasper said he sounded like any other manager, Matt couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended,” Matt chuckled. “I’m not even a manager, I just don’t like being bored,” he shrugged. Working at the Grill had helped him get through some really tough times over the years, it had helped him after Vicki had died and after he was experimented on by the Dread Doctors and killed the creature that attacked him and Damon. Matt knew that throwing himself into work the way he sometimes did wasn’t particularly healthy but it was his way of dealing with things and he knew that there were much worse ways. There were so many things in Matt’s life that were often out of his control but work was a constant and it was one that he had come to depend on over the years.

“I don’t know about that, you seem to be holding your own,” Matt grinned as Jasper said that coding was mush in his brain as well. Matt had never been particularly technologically minded, he knew how to use his phone and computer but that was about it. When it came to anything else it didn’t make any sense to him at all but he still got by and he knew that he couldn’t ask for anything more than that. “I guess there wasn’t much else you could do. At least you found something productive to channel your time into,” he shrugged. He knew that it must have been awful for Jasper going through all of that but he had made some good come of it and Matt was glad about that. As Jasper said he could stick around until he was gone, Matt nodded. “Great! Sounds good to me – pizza and video games maybe?” he suggested, knowing it was something simple but effective and also something that he hadn’t done for a long time. He knew that he wouldn’t mind if Jasper preferred to do something else though, anything was fine with Matt he just knew it would be good to spend some time with his friend.

JASPER ROMERO

“That sounds about right,” Matt chuckled as Jasper said that he loved to tease. They always had fun when they worked together and it was still easy to fall back into that old routine now. Work had become a bit of an escape for Matt, at first he had taken the job at the Grill because he had needed to make some money to make sure that he wasn’t evicted by the landlord. His mom had always been flaky at best so Vicki had stepped up since she was older than he was but after she died it had fallen to Matt to look after himself and make sure that he didn’t end up living on the streets. He had never been the kind of guy who would ever take charity from one of his friends, instead he had taken to accepting every shift he could get his hands on just to make ends meet. It wasn’t ideal and it had meant that he’d had to grow up pretty quickly but that was just how his family was. Now he hadn’t heard from his mom for years, his dad had bailed before he was even born and Vicki was gone so it was just him left and Matt knew that he was doing the best he could with the hand that he had been dealt.

As Jasper said that maybe he was just a great actor, Matt couldn’t help but laugh. “Dude, you’re definitely not,” he teased, unable to help himself. Jasper definitely seemed to know what he was talking about when it came to all of the computer stuff, though, so Matt was glad that he’d found something he was good at. “That’s not such a bad thing. You and Hayden are so alike,” Matt said, a smile forming on his face as he looked over at his friend. He often caught her reading whenever she had a break so he wasn’t surprised that Jasper was the same. As Jasper asked when his shift finished, Matt checked his watch. “Twenty minutes and then I’m done. Just enough time to order a pizza. Can I get you anything while you wait?”

JASPER ROMERO

Matt knew there were always going to be people who came and went from working at the Grill, it was one of those jobs that some people used as a stop gap while they tried to find something else and others just used to build up some money over the summer and then moved on. It was different for Matt, he had been working there for years and he knew that if he wasn’t careful then he would keep on working there for years to come as well. It wasn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life but it paid the bills and that was what he’d needed. Soon he would be graduating and when that happened he knew that he was going to have to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He had never known his dad but he refused to follow his mom’s example and flit from one job to another and one relationship to another. He wanted more than that and he wasn’t afraid to work hard for it.

There were some people that Matt was pretty indifferent about working with but Jasper wasn’t one of those people. He had become a friend as well and the truth was that Matt had missed seeing him around the place so he knew that he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to catch up with him now. “You keep telling yourself that,” he chuckled as Jasper said that he was a way better actor than Matt would ever be. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he added, his tone teasing as he spoke. It was easy to joke around with Jasper and if he was honest that was something he missed. There were a few people working there who had no sense of humour whatsoever and Matt always tried to keep as far away from them as possible. As Jasper told him to bring a bottle or two with him, Matt nodded. “You got it. Text me when you’re there.”

JASPER ROMERO