T H E    P R O L O G U E

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"Why do you want to go to New York, anyway?" I ask, flipping through the embossed brochure in front of me, courtesy of Columbia. "Their winters are ridiculous, it's all so expensive, and New Yorkers are mean."

"New Yorkers are not mean, Savannah," Carter laughs, glancing over at me with a small smile. "And yeah, they have rough winters, but that's why you buy a coat and a scarf and gloves and a hat," he reminds me.

"Well, yeah, but what about how expensive it is?" I wonder. "Stuff here is, like, a thousand times cheaper."

"There's not much I'll have to buy out-of-pocket," he shrugs. "And I'm sure my parents will help me out."

"But I'll miss you," I sigh, closing the fancy blue brochure and putting it away in his glove compartment.

Out of sight, out of mind, right?

"And I'll miss you, but that's okay," Carter tells me. "I promise I'll come home and see you all the time."

"So, like, once a week, right?" I ask, even though I know the idea of him coming to visit that often is absurd.

Carter and I have been technically dating for about six months now, but we've always been best friends. Our moms are friends and have been since their childhood, so once they had us within a few months of each other, they decided to force us into friendship. And so even though we've always known each other, we only really decided to give the whole dating thing a go a few months ago. Now that I think about it though, that was horrible timing on both of our parts, considering the fact that it's time to leave for college.

Carter's going to Columbia University in New York City and I'm going to the University of Alabama just a few towns over in Tuscaloosa. So that's a pretty huge chunk of distance, obviously. I mean, there'll be a time difference and everything. And I know that a one-hour time difference doesn't seem bad, but when you factor in the time we're both going to have to devote to classes and friends and everything, it's pretty bad.

But the thing is, Carter's dad (and his dad and his dad and his dad) are all Columbia alumni and while his father didn't outright tell him he had to go to Columbia, it was pretty well implied. From taking trips up to Manhattan every fall for Columbia football games to having Carter tour the campus our freshman year of high school, Mr. Matthews has always made it known that he expects Carter to keep the Columbia tradition.

"Yeah, exactly," he replies and I know that he's just placating me, but in this moment, I really don't care.

"What about once a month?" I suggest. "I can fly up one month and then the next month you can fly down."

"Yeah, I think that's probably a better idea," Carter nods. "You'll probably get sick of seeing me, though."

"Don't be silly," I chuckle, letting out a small sigh as he turns down my street. "I'll never get sick of you."

"Hey," he says, clearly picking up on my sad tone of voice. "It's gonna be okay, you know that, don't you?"

"Yeah," I nod, even though that's not true. I just don't want to spend our last few minutes talking about it.

Even though I've known for years now that Carter was going to Columbia, I don't think I ever really thought that the day for him to go would actually come. But here it is. We went on a really fancy date last night and I stayed the night over his house (which would have been fun, if I didn't have to stare at his empty bedroom and boxes and bags of stuff to prepare for the move), just so we could have a little more time together. But now it's really time for him to go and just as soon as we get to my house, he'll be on his way to the airport.

I guess he doesn't buy it though, because he pulls over on the side of the road, just a few feet from my house. Then he puts the car in park, unbuckles his seatbelt, and grabs my hand, interlacing our fingers together.

"Nothing's going to change," he swears. "You and me, we're gonna be fine."

"Everyone knows long distance never works," I grumble, blinking back tears.

"It'll work for us," Carter assures me. "We'll talk so much every day that you won't even have time to miss me. And on the off chance that you do start to miss me too much, between making new friends at Bama and going to class and doing homework and working, I really will come down from New York every week if that's what you want me to do. I don't know how I'll make it work, but I will. So please don't be sad, okay?"

"Your parents would be pretty pissed if you came back down to Alabama every week just for me," I laugh.

"Yeah," Carter chuckles, nodding in agreement. "But they would love all the frequent flyer miles," he says.

"Well, yeah, I guess that's true," I agree. Carter's dad spends something like 100 days out of the year, non-consecutively, out of the country on business, so I'm sure he'd be pretty happy to get all of those miles. Not that it really matters though, since I know Carter could never do that and is just trying to comfort me

"It is true," he says and then kisses the back of my hand before letting it go. "So try not to worry, yeah?"

"Yeah," I reply, letting out deep breath as Carter puts the car back into gear and heads towards my house.

Just about a minute later, he pulls up in the driveway of my house and puts it back in park. And even though I don't want to get out of the car, I force myself to unbuckle my seatbelt because I know that if I don't get out now, I'm going to start sobbing like a baby and he'll try to comfort me and he'll miss his flight and it'll be my fault. So, in the hopes of avoiding having a mini breakdown in his car, I just lean over and kiss him.

"I love you," I say once I pull away, willing myself not to let the tears spill over.

"You too," he says with a sad smile.

"You'll call me when you get there?"

"As soon as I'm off the plane," Carter confirms. "You'll be the first to know."

"Okay," I nod and sigh yet again before forcing myself to get out of his car.

"Hey," he calls, before I close the door. "You mean the whole world to me, you know."

"You too," I respond, mimicking his words from just before. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

Carter nods and then I give him one last fake smile before closing the door. Just like he always does, he waits until I've walked up the driveway and made my way up to the front door. After I've got it unlocked, I turn around and give him a small wave. He lets down his window and does the same and then I go inside.

I hear my mom calling out from some part of the house, asking if it's me, as if it would be anyone else though. I ignore her though and hurry over to the window, yanking back the sheers and curtains. Carter always has been a bit of a fast driver though, so I don't get to see him backing out and all of that. Instead, I just get a small glimpse of the back of his car speeding down the road and heading away from my house.

I just need to remind myself that it's not the end of the world — it's only college. Sure, every single couple I know who ended up at different colleges were broken up by the holiday break, but whatever. I'd like to think that Carter and I are different. We're not just boyfriend and girlfriend; we're best friends and that has to count for something. And sure, it'll be so, so, so hard not getting to see each other, but it'll be alright.

At least, I hope so.

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A U T H O R ' S   N O T E 

Hi everyone! I've been gone from Wattpad for quite some time, but I'm back with a new (short) story. I've been listening to a lot of music lately and one song in particular (The Water Fountain by Alec Benjamin) really inspired me, so I decided to write a short story based off of that song!

So here it is! Well, here the prologue is. I'm going to be posting a new chapter of this short story every Monday (I promise I'll do better at sticking to a schedule this time around lol). So if you're interested in seeing how the rest of the story plays out, be sure to check out the first chapter. It will be up this Monday, February 13, 2017. And be sure to check out Alec's music on YouTube!

See you guys next week,

Millie ♡