The Distance Put Between Us

Karina's POV

"Brandy, Cherri! I'm here!" I shouted as I slammed my dorm room door closed. I threw my backpack to the side of my bed, crashing down onto cool, soft sheets. Today had been a long day, not to mention it was fucking hot as hell too, and I had to spend the day cooped up in a classroom all day while Brandy and Cherri both got to go to swimming at Connor's house.

Allow me to explain my entire life to you as quickly as possible, because I'm guessing you're confused as hell right now. I'm Karina Gaskarth, I'm 21, and I'm currently attending college here at Yale University. Yes, my brother is Alex Gaskarth. No, you won't get any info out of me because we're siblings. Anyways, Brandy and Cherri are my roommates here. They've become my best friends ever since I moved out of Baltimore and I love them more than anything. Connor was a friend of ours but graduated a few months ago, so he lives around the area. He invites us over all the time when we're not busy with college stuff, you know? Parties and shit.

Oh yeah, and one more than we should get straight before we continue any further: I've got a boyfriend of 5 years.

Yes, it's Jack Barakat. No, I don't really care what you have to say about me for that. Thank you anyways.

I sighed, pulling out my iPod from my bag and popping it into the surround sound we all shared. I had the volume turned almost all the way up, since it seemed that neither of my roommates were here at the moment, pressing the play button. Almost suddenly, you could hear the guitar and the sound of Alex's voice fill the entire room.

"I'm lost in empty pillow talk again."

I jumped up from off my bed, bouncing around the room, echoing every word my brother sang.

"I'm lost in empty pillow talk again!"

It was one of my favorite songs on my iPod at the moment, mainly because the new song hadn't been released to the public, and if anyone found out that Alex had given it to me before he even had it released, he'd be in deep shit.

I had grown extremely close to this song, probably more than any other one my brother and the rest of his band had put out, mostly because I could relate to it directly. I remember one day in early June when he called me up, telling me about this brand new song he and his band had written.

"It's called 'If These Sheets Were States' and it's about how far away we both are." I could almost instantly tell me was smiling, wherever he was right now, so many states away. "I'll email you the song, just don't give it out to anyone or we're in deep shit, got it? I think you'll like it, since I kind of.. wrote it about all of us."

I giggled. "Thank you, Alex, it means a lot."

I smiled as I thought of it now, a couple of weeks later. Alex didn't lie to me when he told me I was going to like it, in fact like was kind of an understatement. I loved the new song. It described my feelings for the four boys I went to high school with back in Baltimore perfectly. They certainly had a way with words.

"You make me better every day!" I shouted, smiling as I jumped off of the bed I was bouncing on. that line held a special place in my heart, seeing as how much those four knuckleheads helped me back when I was in high school.

It was.. it was a tough time. But it was so long ago after all, I don't really like to talk all that much about it now.

The second chorus was just about to play when Brandy walked through the door, her brow lifting up slightly.

"Well well well," She said, bursting into laughter as I turned the volume down almost instantly. I didn't want to get into trouble by any of the roommates around us. "Someone seems to be having a lot of fun while we were out!"

"I guess so!" I said, moving my hair out of my face, laughing. "Hey, where's Cher?"

"She's on the phone with someone outside," Brandy said, pushing the question off like it was absolutely nothing to worry about. "Says it's someone important. Probably family or a cute boy or something."

"Oh," I said, sitting down on my bed, opening up my laptop. Twitter was open in a browser, the new tweets popping up almost instantly.

@AlexAllTimeLow: Nothing beats the California sun. Ventura, I'm excited to be in you today.

I smiled to myself, closing my laptop instantly.

California. He was in fucking California.

How many miles away was that from Connecticut again?

I sighed, fetching my earplugs from my bag, plugging them into my iPod and putting on If These Sheets Were States again. This song couldn't apply more to me now more than ever. My brother and best friends were across the fucking country.

I checked my phone screen, pressing a random button.

No new messages.

Oh wow, did I miss being close to them. I missed being able to talk to them every single day, missed being able to tell them anything. Missed their stupid actions, missed the witty banter. I missed everything.

"Oh my god!" Suddenly Cherri walked in, practically jumping up and down. She made a waving motion to me, smiling.

"Hi Karina! You look so happy today, as usual!" She bounced up and down before running straight to Brandy, whispering in her ear. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped a little.

"You what?" Brandy gasped, putting her hand over her mouth like they were sharing some huge secret that they obviously couldn't tell me.

"Hey, hello," I waved, frowning a little. "I live here too you know, Cherri! Spill it."

"Not now, I can't tell you the whole thing yet!" She squealed, her lips parted in a huge smile, winking. "But, what I can tell you is..."

Brandy looked like she was about to cry.

"What?" I began to smile, shouting. "Speak girl!"

"I'm going on summer vacation!"

My face dropped a little. "But what about our fantastic group? What are Brandy and I supposed to do for the rest of the summer?"

Brandy got up, stretching her arms. "Well, you'll have classes to take this summer, so you'll be pretty busy, for the most part at least. I can always go visit a friend or my parents," She said, walking over to the little fridge in the room and getting out a bottle of Coke.

"True," I stated, sighing. Summer courses. I didn't really want to take them, but after talking to my mom and brother about it, they had decided that it would be best for me if I took them, just to get them out of the way now. The sooner I was out of here, the better. "So, where are you planning on going?"

"Uhm," She stated, giving me a blank stare. As if she didn't know where she was going. "Just down to, like, Florida and stuff for a little bit, you know? And then my parents told me I might be going to England, how exciting is that?"

"Oh," I said, twirling my hair. I decided not to mention about how I had lived in England when I was little, and I didn't see what was all that great about it. Americans were stupid when it came to their fascination about England. There was literally nothing special about it at all.

"I know!" She clapped her hands together, jumping up and down. Cherri was the kind of girl who could never get upset or angry or mad about anything. She was literally smiling all the time and looking at the brighter side of things. It was kind of annoying and hard to get used to at first, but it got easier as time went on. You just can't hate someone like her.

I got up and patted her shoulder. "Well, I'm happy for you, not everyone gets to travel a lot, and everyone needs to get out of here once and a while."

"Where are you planning on going if you're ever free this summer, Kar?" Brandy piped up, still rifling through the fridge.

"I don't know, actually," I said, thinking long and hard about where I might wanna go and who I might wanna see. "It'd be nice to see my brother and his friends again."

"Oh! His name's Alex, right?" Cherri spoke up. "I was looking at his band yesterday Kar, they're soo good!"

"Thanks I guess," I smiled at her, playing with my hands. The conversation had taken a turn to the awkward. I had no clue what to say next.

"Aren't they on tour right now?" Brandy said something for me. I sighed with relief.

"Actually, they are. Have you guys ever heard of Warped Tour?"

"I think I have," Brandy turned around, sipping her drink. "Is that what they're on right now?"

"Yeah, they're in California today." I sighed, looking away before whispering something.

"I wish I could've been there."

"That's so cool!" Cherri stated as I walked over to my bedroom table, opening the single drawer and pulling out a rough piece of crumpled up paper. The crinkles were still so new after having the piece of paper for so long.

I unfolded it carefully, making sure not to rip any parts of it. Inside the yellowed notebook paper was a tiny scribbled out note, written in chicken-scratch handwriting. Cherri and Brandy were still chatting, but I completely tuned them out as my eyes read over the writing and a smile appeared on my lips.

Stay strong for me. I love you.

Jack

"Hey Karina, you alright over there?" Cherri said before standing on her tippy toes to look over my shoulder at what I had in my hands.

"Oh, Karina, dear. I know exactly how to fix this." She said instantly, patting my shoulder. She must've read the last word on the paper.

"You said they were going to this, uh, 'Warped Tour,' right?"