Take the small-town feel and clever dialogue of Dawson’s Creek mixed with the hot high school vampires of Twilight and the murder-mystery of Scream, and you have the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, which was recently picked up for a full 22 episodes. Zach Roerig, 24, plays football hero Matt Donovan, the hottest guy (without fangs) in Mystic Falls. Zach, whose character is still pining for his ex Elena (Nina Dobrev), knows all about dragged-out love stories from his years on As the World Turns and One Life to Live. But the Ohio native — who also lassoed girls’ hearts as rodeo star Cash on Friday Night Lights — is hoping Matt won’t be single for long. “There are a lot of very attractive girls on this show, so I certainly wouldn’t mind Matt getting into a relationship with one of them,” says Zach, coyly. “But his heart will always belong to Elena.”

People in Mystic Falls — including your character’s sister Vicki (Kayla Ewell) — are dying left and right. Does that scare you that you could be killed off at any time?
Are you kidding? Any time I read a script that says, “Matt goes into a room followed by Damon [Ian Somerhalder],” I get worried. But on the very first table read for the show, our supervising producer said, “We love you all, but this is The Vampire Diaries — it’s not Stefan’s Diaries or Elena’s Diaries or anyone else’s diaries, so everyone stay on your toes.” We all knew then and there that we could go at any time. I mean, come on, anything’s possible when you have vampires around!

When Matt finds out Vicki’s dead, is he going to go after Damon and Stefan [Paul Wesley]?
Matt’s definitely going to seek redemption. I’m not sure he’s going to know what direction to go in, but he won’t stop till he figures it out. It may not mean staking a vampire in the heart, but he’ll do something. I’m just waiting to see what’s in store for the rest of the series. It started out focusing on Elena, Damon and Stefan, but Bonnie [Katerina Graham] and her witchy ways are going to become a bigger part of the show; the town’s people who are trying to secretly hunt for vampires will be out in force; there are new characters popping up, so there’s a lot more to come. I’m just as excited as the viewers to see it unfold.

Read 10 Sexiest Vampires

Elena has moved on with Stefan. And now Matt seems to have formed an unlikely bond with Caroline [Candice Accola]. Will we see Matt get with another girl soon?
Matt will always be there for Elena and she’ll probably always be the number one girl for him. But at the same time, he’s 17 years old and in high school, so the truth of the matter is that he’ll probably go for another girl. But we’ll have to see how the writers feel about that.

As a viewer, do you think Matt and Elena should be together?
I think it would be a nice little twist — eventually. Would I want them to stay together? Probably not, because I think it’s always more exciting when you don’t have a happy couple. The struggle is the fun part to play and watch.