<human>: I live in Texas and leased an apartment for a year but left to study abroad so I subleased it (which did not give up my deposit) for the last month or two. Anyhow this meant that I was not there the day the lease ended.

In our contract it states that our deposit would be mailed as a jointly payable check (600 each, for a total of 1200 dollars). When I called my apartment company why I had not received any communication about it, they said that my roommate had already picked up the check. I messaged the roommate and she has ignored my messages so far. The problem is that I am studying abroad until December so I can't (I assume) take any action in the time being. Additionally, she is currently in Virginia and it may be permanently.

Can you condense the text into a few key points?
<bot>: Paid $600 in rent deposit and so did roommate. When lease ended, roommate took both deposits as a joint check but it refusing to talk to me so I can get my half back. What can I do?