A Boy Can Dream ... Drew Gooden x Danny Gonzalez

🔪 one 🔪

Danny sits on his desk chair staring into his monitor. He's been sitting there for practically the past two hours refreshing the page for his new Youtube video. Ten views. Refresh. Twelve views. Refresh again. Still twelve. He knows it's silly to expect the numbers to jump all of a sudden. What's that old saying? 'A watched pot never boils?' But he so desperately wants, no needs, his channel to grow. Just a little.

He's been posting videos for the past year and still can only get a max of 100 views per video. Sure, it's something, he couldn't even name 100 people off the top of his head, but it's not enough. And it's not like he's posting crap videos either, these are videos he poured his heart into and spent hours editing. Apparently he's the only one who can really appreciate that.

He sighs and clicks to the Youtube homepage. He'd probably be better off watching someone else's content to pass the time. And that's when he sees it. God, it makes his blood boil. 'Drew Gooden Funniest Vine Compilation,' the first video in the recommended tab. 'Drew Gooden' is some a-hole in Danny's English class, actually he's in his gym class as well. Anyway, the guy got really big on Vine back when it was still a thing and everyone is still totally obsessed with him online. If he's being entirely honest, Drew isn't that bad of a guy, he's not a bad guy at all in fact, just a little strange. The only reason Danny hates him so much is because of his success. Danny would do anything to have that kind of success.
He sighs and clicks on the video, feeling a little cynical.

"Road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!" blasts out of his computer speakers. He turns the volume down with a groan. He's heard that one countless times. It got old a long time ago and everyone seems to think it's so funny. Danny's made jokes better than that in his videos, why can't those jokes get repeated thousands of times on end?

The video keeps going, mediocre joke after mediocre joke. Danny finds himself asking the same question he always does when he watches these stupid videos, how the hell did this guy get so much clout from this? But this time, it sparks an idea.

🔪🔪🔪

It's Monday morning and Drew is trying his best to sit through another English class. It's always hard for him to resist going to the bathroom to skip class and vape, which is what he did for most of freshman and sophomore year, but it's been especially hard for him ever since Amanda went missing.

He sighs loudly and looks out the window. Amanda. His beautiful girlfriend. They met right before Drew starting blowing up on Vine. She commented on one of them saying he looked cute. He still remembers the exact comment. "Drew Gooden? I know you from school! Wow you're so funny and cute too..." and then she put her Snapchat. He replays that moment in his head a few times.

It's a shame what happened to her... It really is. The police have been searching for weeks now. No signs of her or her body. The image of her out there in the woods or something, scared and alone, flashes into Drew's mind. He shudders. He's visited her mom a few times since the incident. A lovely middle aged woman, quite attractive as well, he must admit. She seemed so afraid, but she also seemed to greatly appreciate Drew's company. At least he could help someone. At least he could do one thing right... His mind continues to wander.

"Drew? Drew Gooden! Are you in there?" The teacher's voice snaps him back into reality. He looks up at her wordlessly. "Not paying attention I gather...?" She doesn't wait for his response. "Kurtis, why don't you help Mr. Gooden out a little bit?"

A guy in the back of the class with a head of curly brown hair speaks through his face mask: "I'm gonna be real with you Ms. Allen, I didn't read the chapter."

That's Kurtis alright. He and Drew used to smoke together before Drew quit. He was a really chill guy, but Drew couldn't stand to be around him once he discovered the evils of smoking marijuana from watching an anti-smoking ad on TikTok. It was all the guy did. That's probably why he didn't do his homework, too busy smoking weed.