(Hi friends, sorry for everything being really delayed recently. I have no excuse except for the fact that school has made me its bitch for these last few weeks. I only have three days of that left and then I plan on spending my summer wasting away on my computer like I always do, so hopefully I can get some things done then. Also, this chapter was written in chunks over the span of like a week, so sorry if it doesn't flow like it's supposed to or whatever. Anyway, enjoy. :))
***
Joey glanced down at his phone for approximately the million and second time since he'd woken up.
12:43 Saturday, February 13th the numbers and letters on the screen glared back at him, fiercely.
Daniel had been out of the house, shopping, Joey was pretty sure all morning. But, before he'd left, in the small period of time between waking up and getting out of bed, he told Joey he'd be home at 1:00 to film their much-awaited video.
Joey couldn't have been more terrified.
He'd been trying to give himself some reasonable distractions throughout the morning. After lying face-down in bed for another few hours, he'd made himself some breakfast. (Okay, he managed to find some cereal in the cupboard and ate it dry, because they were out of milk. He hoped Daniel would pick up some more at the store.) He'd ventured outside for awhile, still in his pajamas, to play fetch with Wolf and Storm. And now he was sitting in the living room, watching some anime. Or, anxiously watching the time ticking by on his phone, while some anime played in the background.
Daniel, true to his word, arrived at the house at about 12:58. Joey stayed still on the couch as he heard the door creaking open, the dogs jumping over him in a rapid attempt to see who could possibly be at the front door this time, as they always did.
"Honey, I'm home," Daniel's ever-so-familiar voice rung out as he closed the door behind him, shutting it just hard enough that it produced that satisfying door-closing noise, but not hard enough to be classified as a slam. That was Daniel, all right, Joey thought to himself.
Joey heard the tell-tale sound of grocery bags crinkling with every step Daniel took, growing louder as Daniel made his way to the kitchen. Joey watched, silently, as Daniel sat the bags down on the counter, and turned to face him with a small smile.
"Are you gonna just sit there, or are you gonna come help me with these groceries?"
***
Once the groceries had been put away, and the dogs had been fed, and any and all plants had been watered, and the throw pillows had been fluffed, and every other household chore Joey could think of had been taken care of, it was off to the room to set up Joey's camera and get to filming their video.
Joey sat next to Daniel, unsure of what to say to the camera for the first time in his life. The camera had been rolling for a good three minutes, and neither of them had actually said anything important. There was a lot of 'I don't know what to say,' and 'Is this really happening?'
Eventually, Joey decided they needed to just bite the bullet and start the video.
He treated this video like it was any other vlog, giving his viewers an enthusiastic "Good day, everyone," before launching into a vague introduction of what was about to take place.
Now that they were actually getting started, Daniel seemed just as nervous as Joey, and they were suddenly just two very awkward gay children, blubbering about their cute little romance. The video was full of strange glances at each other, and nervous smiles, and a whole lot of Joey's voice getting really high-pitched, and Joey tried to be vague for as long as possible before he knew he was going to just have to come out and say the words that the video was meant to say.
"Daniel and I are boyfriends."
All the pressure in the room was gone.
The key to everything was those five words. A few little sounds that came out of Joey's mouth in just the right way, they made Joey feel okay.
Joey had felt a similar feeling after his coming out video was released. It was a certain weight that was lifted off of him, but there was still the hidden pressure of hiding the person he cared about most in the world. Now, he could just live the way he always did, and not worry about editing out the things that he didn't want people to see.
After Joey finally said what he wanted to say, Daniel put his arm around Joey gently, looking over at him and giving him one of those smiles that made him feel like he was melting.
Joey kept talking, explaining the basics of their relationship to the camera, which was surprising, considering he was the one who'd been worrying about this video for the whole morning. In fact, Joey ended up doing most of the talking, Daniel interjecting his little memories here and there.
They talked about how they first met on Instagram, leaving out the part about how creepy Joey was when he first started talking to Daniel. They talked about how they first met in the bar, and the first time Joey saw Daniel in person, dressed to impress in a combination of hideous tight jeans and cowboy boots. Daniel argued that he was only dressed like that because it was his friend's birthday party, but Joey knew all about Daniel's cowboy phase. He decided to show Daniel some mercy and not tease him about it too much.
They talked about their little walk outside of the bar, away from all the people, and how they bonded over all of the little similarities that seemed to make them destined to be together from the start.
They talked about the first date, and the second one, and the te iubesc, and the times when they didn't know if they could work out, and the times that they knew they could work out, and they just completely opened up to the camera for the first time.
It was the complete opposite of what Joey was expecting, which seemed to be a trend in his relationship with Daniel. Even when things seemed like they were going to be awful, somehow, they worked out just fine.
***
Joey woke up early the next day, waking up Daniel with little kisses on his neck like Daniel would usually do to Joey. He did minimal editing on the video, deciding he wanted to keep it as real as possible, with Daniel sitting beside him the whole time, his head resting on Joey's shoulder.
When it was finished, Joey uploaded it without a word, posted it on all of his social media, and turned off the computer. He turned to Daniel and kissed him, with a feeling that said 'we did it' in a way that words couldn't.
