love story {afi}

close as strangers

it took charlie a solid week to work up the nerve to open the next envelope, and even then it was only because her mum told her that if she didn't open it, she would.

she shuffled through the pile of envelopes she had dumped in the corner until she found the one just titled five. she opened it hesitantly and pulled out both pieces of paper. charlie sighed deeply as she unfolded the note from ashton.

"char,

i don't know what to say about this one. it's called close as strangers. i wrote it when we were still together, but barely."

charlie's head was just a mess of curse words. she unfolded the other piece of paper, titled close as strangers, and hesitantly began to read.

when she got to the line "oh everyday we feel a little but further away" charlie felt the tears well up, because she could see the double meaning. whilst that, everyday they physically were a little bit further away, it was deeper than that. it almost meant that they were drifting apart in a different way. slowly they had been becoming different people and it was only then that they had realised.

then she got to the second verse and charlie felt the tears spill over. "late night calls and another text, is this as good as we're gonna get? another timezone taking me away from you." really hit charlie. she remembered at this point when she was really busy with school and with friends and she barely talked to ashton. she only texted him last thing at night, where there wasn't time for a conversation, and ignored his texts through the day.

as the song reached the bridge, charlie remembered one day when she wasn't busy and ashton called. they had a really long conversation about not talking and breaking up felt inevitable.  she had cried and cried and contemplated breaking it off and moving on but she couldn't bring herself to do it. she resented ashton for leaving but she loved him so much it physically pained her.

however, it was the last line that truly hit her. it had been written in a different colour and a date had been added, which was the day before ashton had flown home.

"six months since i've been away, and i know everything has changed, but tomorrow i'll be coming back to you."