Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 2027

Author's Note: All I have to say is that this series absolutely flew by. I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

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Tyler: Officially out of Columbus

You read the text, but decided not to answer, at least for now. The message was simple, but sent a pang of sadness through your chest nonetheless. He was officially on tour and each passing minute would only put more distance between the two of you.

You tried not to think about it too much.

"Carter!" you called as you walked out of your room.

"What?" he answered, matching your volume level.

From the sounds of it, he was in his room. That shouldn't have come as a surprise, now that you thought about it. You backtracked and grabbed your phone from the bed before shuffling down the hall to his door, knocking on it twice.

"What do you want?"

"Carter, please!" you whined. It was dramatic, but it would get your point across.

"Fine, you can come in."

With a smile, you pushed open the door and confidently walked into his room, stopping right at the foot of his bed. He rotated in his desk chair so that he could face you, just in time for you to flop face-first into his mattress and let out a dramatic groan.

"Alright, what happened?" he asked.

You grabbed your phone from your pocket and handed it to him without another word. The power button clicked as he turned it on to read the message.

"Tyler's gone," he said plainly. It was a statement, not a question. You nodded into his comforter. "How are you feeling?"

You rolled onto your back so that Carter would be able to hear you clearly. His hearing was bad enough as it was, so there was no way he would be able to tell what you were saying if it was muffled by the bed.

"I'm not sure."

"You're not sure?"

"Yeah. It's like if all the emotions were on the edge of a circle, I'm right in the middle of it."

Carter's eyebrows furrowed, but he seemed to mostly understand what you were saying.

"Well, maybe I'm leaning a little more towards sad," you added.

"Because he's gone?"

"Yes. It's like - I'm not really sure how to explain it, Car, but these last few weeks with him were different. He was different. For awhile there I thought he might even feel the same way about me, but now he's gone so I guess I won't ever really know."

"Y/N, you're acting like he's gone forever. You two are probably still going to talk every day and before you know it, he'll be back again."

"Yeah, you have a point."

"I know I do," Carter smiled. "I'm really good at that."

"Yeah, you are."

Carter reached over and gave you a light punch in the shoulder, "What do you say we make some lunch and play video games to keep you distracted? I wouldn't want you leaning too far towards sad."

You sat up and turned to face Carter, "What are we going to make?"

"Whatever you want."

"How do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sound?"

"I think they sound delicious."

You practically jumped off the bed and went running down the stairs, temporarily forgetting about the fact that Tyler was gone. At least for now, you could just pretend that Tyler was only away for a weekend and he would be back before you knew it. The reality of it all would set in - especially when school became particularly stressful - but for now you would ignore it all as long as possible.

"You want anything else besides sandwiches?" Carter asked once he finally caught up to you in the kitchen.

"Can you grab some juice from the fridge?" you asked.

"Sure thing."

While Carter grabbed your drinks from the fridge, you collected all the things you would need for the actual sandwiches and laid them out along the counter.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Car," you laughed. "You know what I mean."

He grinned, "I know. Go for it."

"Do you think that - um, maybe - Tyler felt the same about me?"

"What do you think?"

You shrugged, "I could never really tell. Like, last night, he said that he liked me laying on his chest and, I don't know, it felt right. But maybe that was just me."

"I think Tyler is a complicated guy. There's probably a lot more going on in his head than he lets on."

You shot Carter a look, "That doesn't answer my question."

"Honestly, Y/N," he sighed. "I think that's a question that can only be answered by him."

"I can't just ask him, Car. Especially now that he's gone."

"Then I guess you just have to wait three months."

Your jaw clenched, even though that was the answer you should have been expecting. Carter had a point.

"Sorry, that's probably not the answer that you want to hear."

You shook your head, but tears were already welling up in your eyes. Apparently your wall against everything that was happening was crumbling faster than you had expected it to.

"It's ok," you said, but your voice cracked on the last syllable.

"Oh, hey, no, Y/N. I'm so sorry. Come here."

Carter walked over and pulled you into his chest. You wrapped your arms around him tightly and squeezed your eyes shut, hoping that it would keep you from breaking down entirely.

"I'm sorry, Carter," you murmured. "I was trying to stay positive about this."

"No, no, it's ok. It's hard to have someone that you care about leave. You can be as upset as you want."

You swallowed the lump in your throat, "I just don't know what I'm going to do without him. We've never been apart for this long before and - I don't know - what if things aren't the same when he comes back? What if he likes Josh better? Or what if he gets distant again? Carter, I'm so scared. I don't like growing up."

Carter gently rubbed your back. "You're going to be ok, Y/N. I know things are hard right now, but everything is going to fall into place. I'm sure Tyler won't be any different when you get back, especially if you're talking every day. Feelings or not, it's easy to tell that you mean so much to each other. I don't think I've ever seen two people care about each other as much as you two do. That's not going to change in a matter of months."

You turned a little so that you could at him, "Do you really think that?"

"I don't think a lot of things, but that's one of the few that I do," he laughed.

"Shut up," you laughed.

Carter held you at arm's length, "I know I've told you this before, but I'm going to keep telling it to you until you get it through your head. I'm always going to have your back, no matter what happens, ok? Even if I don't understand you in quite the way that Tyler does, I'm always going to take care of you. You're my little sister and you mean the world to me."

You pulled him into another hug, "Thank you so much, Carter. I love you."

"I love you too."

After a couple deep breaths, you finally stopped hugging Carter. He smiled and gave you a reassuring pat on the shoulder before returning to pouring out two cups of juice. You wiped away a few tears with the back of your hand and looked at all your sandwich ingredients.

"Car?" you asked.

"Yeah?"

"Can you make the sandwiches? I kind of want to just sit for awhile."

"Sure thing. Here you go."

Carter handed you your drink and you took a seat on one of the stools. The juice tasted good, despite the fact that your nose had started to run a little bit from crying. You were glad that Carter had let you cry, it had released a little of the tension in your chest.

"How many sandwiches do you want? Just the one?"

"Yeah, one is fine."

You watched Carter as he carefully spread out equal parts peanut butter and jelly on the bread. He had always been very specific when it came to sandwich ratios, although you had never entirely understood why. All you knew was that Carter was the best at making sandwiches out of all the people in your family.

"One peanut butter jelly and sandwich for Ms. Y/L/N," he said, sliding a paper towel topped with your lunch over to you.

"Thanks," you smiled, picking it up and taking a bite.

Carter made himself two more sandwiches while you finished off your own. Once your lunch was made and all the materials were back in their places, the two of you headed upstairs to the den. Your heart still felt heavy, but Carter was doing a good job at keeping you from spiraling too much.

"When are you seeing Marenna next?" you asked.

"Tonight," Carter answered. "I'm taking her on another date."

You groaned and leaned your head back against the couch cushions, "When are you two going to be official again? I want to see her."

Carter's mouth curled up into a smile, "Soon, Y/N. I'm trying to think of the best way to ask her."

"What if you took her on your first date again? You know, get food and go on a picnic, but instead of a kiss at the end, you get a girlfriend!"

Carter nodded, "That's not such a bad idea."

"I know. I'm full of great ideas."

"What did you and Tyler end up doing for your not-date yesterday, anyway?"

"We went out to the lake and hung out for awhile, then got our favorite thai food since he won't have it for three months, then came back here and ate ice cream out in the backyard."

"Is that how you managed to snag his sweatshirt, then?" Carter asked, gesturing to you.

You looked down at your torso, as if to confirm that you were, in fact, wearing Tyler's sweatshirt that he had given you. It just seemed like a fitting thing to wear on the day that he was leaving, especially since it would lose his distinct cologne smell before long.

"I was shivering!" you said, growing a bit defensive. "I offered to go get one of my own sweatshirts, but he insisted on giving me his. Then he just said to keep it while he was gone."

"That was very sweet of him."

"That's because Tyler's sweet. Well, most of the time, at least."

"Hey, can I ask you a question now?" Carter said.

"Sure."

"If you think that Tyler shares your feelings, why don't you just ask him?"

"I have." You picked at some loose strings on your jeans. "That's what caused our big argument the other week. I almost asked him again last night, but it just seemed like bad timing with him leaving and I really didn't want to cause a huge argument between the two of us before he left."

Carter nodded, "That makes sense."

"Yeah," you shrugged. "I'm just hoping this time apart will actually let us clear our heads. If something is destined to work out, it will work out."

"That's a good philosophy to have."

"Yeah, I just have a hard time sticking to it," you laughed. "I'm impatient."

Carter started to stand up, patting your shoulder as he did so, "You don't have to tell me twice."

You swatted at Carter's arm before he got too far away for you to do so. Once he disappeared around the corner, you leaned back on the couch so that you could stare up at the ceiling. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't quite seem to keep Tyler out of your head. Not that it was anything new.

Three months felt like a long time, but, just like everyone said, it would be over before you knew it. Tyler would be back, and things between you would be - well - you weren't entirely sure yet. You would just have to wait and see about that part.

END OF BOOK ONE.