Daniel: "So.. my agent just called. He wants me to stay for another two weeks."
Joey: "Another two weeks? You've been there for two weeks already."
The sad truth about relationships is, sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to.
Almost immediately after their perfect fairytale date on the mountain, Daniel had packed up and left Joey to go to New York. Joey hoped that didn't become a trend, being apart for two weeks and then having a few hours together.
The end of the two, horribly lonely weeks had almost come, but now Daniel was stuck there for another two weeks?
Daniel: "I know, I know, I'm really sorry, Joey. I can't change it, my job kind of depends on it."
Joey: "I know, Daniel, I just, I miss you so much."
Daniel: "I miss you, too. I wish I could see you, I really do. I don't know, I've kind of missed being over here anyway. Maybe we could look at the good in this situation?"
Joey: "You miss being over there?"
Daniel: "Yeah, well, the east coast. LA's been kinda all over the place since I moved there."
Joey: "You don't like LA?"
Daniel: "I don't know. It's been hard to adapt. You and Hope are the only two solid friends I have there."
Joey: "You can make friends, you're a really great person."
Daniel: "I don't know about that, Joey."
Joey: "You don't wanna like, move back over there or something, do you?"
Daniel: "Maybe? I don't know. I guess I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it?"
Joey: "Oh."
Daniel: "It's nothing to do with you, Joey. I'm just homesick."
Joey: "Okay."
Daniel: "Right now, I'm just focusing on work, okay?"
Joey: "Yeah."
Daniel: "Joey, don't be like that. I told you, I don't even know for sure what I'm doing yet."
Joey: "I can't, Daniel. I can't do it."
Daniel: "Do what?"
Joey: "This, I can't do this."
Daniel: "What's that supposed to mean?"
Joey: "I can't do long distance, Daniel. It never works. I just need a solid relationship right now, and do you really think we can do that if we're on opposite sides of the country?"
Daniel: "I never said I was moving."
Joey: "You implied it."
Daniel: "I told you, Joey, I'm not sure. I just said I missed home. Isn't a guy allowed to miss home?"
Joey: "Whatever."
Daniel: "Don't you dare whatever me, Joseph."
Joey: "What else am I supposed to say if my goddamn boyfriend is contemplating moving away before we've even had our second date???"
Daniel: "Wait, I'm your boyfriend?"
Joey: "I'm not really sure right now."
***
Joey felt awful, but after that text message, he stopped answering Daniel.
He knew he was probably being ridiculous, but he had finally gotten a boyfriend who loved him, and wasn't a complete creep or a jerk, and was nice to him, and he was already basically gone.
He went through the texts from Daniel, chewing on his bottom lip as his eyes scanned his phone screen.
Daniel: "Joey, don't do this."
Daniel: "Please, Joey."
Daniel: "Joey, I love you."
Daniel: "C'mon, Joey, please answer me. We can talk about this."
Daniel: "Please."
Daniel: "Joey."
There were even more than that, but they all basically said the same thing. Joey sighed, closing his eyes for a minute as he thought about it. It had been almost an hour since Joey started refusing to answer.
An hour.
That was as long as Joey could stay angry at Daniel.
***
Joey took a deep breath as he pressed the button and held the phone up to his ear. Daniel picked up on the third ring.
"Where the hell have you been?" was the first sentence out of Daniel's mouth, followed by, "I love you so much."
Joey felt himself tearing up. Goddamn tear ducts, why must you betray me so? He made it his mission to not let Daniel know he was crying over this. That mission ended a few moments later when Daniel started crying, too. Joey instantly felt even worse about being so mean to Daniel.
"I'm sorry," Joey murmured, lying down on his bed and staring up at the ceiling.
"I'm coming back to LA, as soon as I possibly can, and we're going to talk about this, okay, Joey?" Daniel responded, a mixture of pain and hope in his voice.
"Okay. Talking is nice, yeah," Joey whispered back, taking a few more deep breaths.
"I love you, so, so much, Joey, you know that?"
***
Daniel, true to his word, flew back to LA as soon as he could, and took Joey camping.
Joey might have called it a date, but they spent most of it either not talking, or arguing.
"I don't think I'm gonna move back home," Daniel whispered in Joey's ear, at around midnight on their last night camping.
"You don't? I thought you were homesick," Joey replied, his voice sounding flat.
"I don't think I could leave you behind, Joey. I love you so damn much, and I know you know that already, because I tell you it a lot. But, I want to be with you. You said it yourself, long distance relationships aren't ideal, and I don't think we would work out. We miss each other so much when one of us goes away for a week or two, what do you think would happen if we lived away from each other? I personally think we would both explode," Daniel sat up a bit as he talked, leaning on his arm and looking over at Joey.
"I love you, too, Daniel, but you can't make such an important decision based on what I think," Joey told Daniel, a small sigh escaping his lips after he said it.
"It's not just based on what you think. I've really thought about it. You and Hope may be the only really close friends I have here, but you two are the closest friends I have, period. You two are closer to me than all of my other friends, combined. It's hard to adapt to LA, but it'd be harder to adapt to life without you, Joey Graceffa."
