and i’ve lost who i am.

“Yeah, but they think he’s still missing,” Matt said. “You can’t just go missing and then show back up like nothing happened. People looked for him. They spent money on searches.”

“I know,” Carrie mumbled. “But that’s on him not me or you.”

Matt nodded. “Do you think we should tell the others?” he asked. “I’m sure they’d want to know.”

“I think we should physically see him before we tell them anything,” Carrie stated.

“Good point,” Matt said. “I know Brian and Jimmy will be pissed. Johnny’ll probably be fine either way.”

Carrie nodded, wishing she could just tell Matt that Zack was actually back and a vampire.

Matt smiled softly at her and gently ran his fingers through her hair. He was so happy to have her here with him, even if it was temporary. It was something he’d wanted for so long.

“Can we go out and do something,” Carrie asked. “It’s really nice outside.”

Matt smiled and nodded his head. “Yeah, you wanna go to the beach?” he asked.

Carrie nodded. “We haven’t gone to the beach in a long time.” The redhead had probably avoided going anywhere including the beach for a long time because of Zack disappearing.

Matt smiled and nodded his head. “Let’s change and get a bag ready,” he said.

Carrie nodded again, grabbing a swimsuit from her duffel bag and walked into his bathroom to change.

Matt got up and walked over to the dresser, opening the drawer where he knew his swim trunks were and grabbing a pair out. His vision was slowly clearing up, so things were getting a bit easier for him. He quickly changed before grabbing a beach bag out of his closet. “Suntan lotion is under the sink!” He called out to her.

Carrie quickly changed, biting down on her bottom lip as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was pale and she had lost a lot of weight while Zack had been gone. She honestly didn’t look like herself and she hated it. The redhead grabbed the suntan lotion from under the sink, carrying it and her now dirty clothes into Matt’s room with her.

Matt looked at Carrie and smiled. “Wanna bring some snacks?” he asked.

“What kind of snacks did you have in mind,” Carrie asked.

“Maybe we could make some sandwiches and bring a bag of chips,” Matt suggested.

Carrie nodded. “That sounds good.”

Matt nodded and walked into the hall, opening the hall closet to pull out two beach towels to add to their bag.

Carrie watched Matt as he kept getting things ready, smiling as she did. He really did care about her and it meant a lot to her especially now that Zack had randomly shown up and acted like it wasn’t an issue the way it was.