She groaned, flopping onto her side as the glow of her phone lit up the dark room. Her attention was locked on one thing—your contact photo, lit up at the top of the screen. She stared at your photo for too long, thumb hovering just over it, grinning like an idiot.

Long distance was the worst. There’s no other way to put it. It didn’t matter how often you talked or how many calls you squeezed in during the week. When the lights were off and everything went quiet, it just wasn’t the same. It never was. She missed you, missed the weight of you beside her when the night got too loud.

Now it was late, past 1 in the morning, her brain too wired to sleep but too tired to do anything else. You were probably sleeping, but..

She bit her lip, thumb finally moving to open the chat window. The blank message bar blinked back at her. a quick text wouldn’t hurt, right?

Just something small.

‘you awake?’