Things were solid. Gus and Elize were loving each-other and the time they had together. In the following months, the duo had advanced so far in their lives separately and also together. Gus had been working and making good money, and Elize had started up her own company selling clothes, accessories, and other small miscellaneous items. Life was actually good for once, but that was going to change. A rather unnatural Saturday afternoon, Elize's phone rang. Gus tried to listen to the conversation, but he didn't pick up much besides the fact that Elize was excited. When she hung up, she jumped onto Gus and wrapped her arms around him, exclaiming something about "having a chance" and "California." After her outburst, she explained better. The fashion that she was doing as a job had picked up some heat on the internet, and it had also gotten the attention of some big-name company who wanted to hire her as a designer. The catch, which Gus thought was very shitty-romance-movie-like, was that she had to go all the way across the states to the trashiest and prettiest place ever: California. Gus didn't blame her for taking the deal, even if he was a bit upset about it. He also questioned why, in 2019, would somebody need to travel thousands of miles just to draw up some clothing ideas for some slimy company? Gus sighed at how painfully cliché this was, yet he was still excited to get to see the lovely warmth and water of the coast.
HARD TO SAY : chapter three, cont.
The distance from Virginia to California was 2,642 miles. A 39 hour trip. Gus was willing to go all that way with the girl he loved, so that she could live her dream. Yet, with life absolutely hating him, Gus couldn't go. See, the company would only pay for one plane ticket and Gus didn't have the money to afford one on his own. He, again, groaned at how stupid and unrealistic this sounded, but he knew it would be something that life would hit him with. Just unfortunate and unbelievable. When Elize realized that Gus couldn't come, she instantly started to e-mail the company to decline the offer, but Gus forced her to delete everything she had typed and to start packing. He knew it'd be better for her, she'd be living a better life. So, Gus had to deal with the reality that he probably wasn't going to see her for a while, at least not until he could cough up enough cash to pay for the trip. He had no clue when this would be, as he was already just barely scraping by with the cash he made. He couldn't find any better job, he didn't have the qualifications. Both him and Elize were just too stressed to deal with the idea of being away from each other, so Gus lit a cigarette and leaned out of his window. "You're exactly back where you started" he thought. He made sure to take it all into his lungs; the cold air and the toxic smoke alike. When he finished, he tossed the end onto the ground and shut the window. He looked at Elize packing, and walked over to the bookshelf she had bought months ago. He picked up the yellow matches and gave them to Elize, he told her that "they should stay with you, so you can remember, because I sure as hell won't forget." Instead of taking the whole book, she took out half and gave them to Gus. "Split it, 50-50 so neither of us forget for sure," she said. Gus had so much going through his mind, he really didn't know what to say back nor could he even form the words. Elize kissed him on the forehead and went back to packing her bags for tomorrow, when she was leaving. Gus, on the other hand, just slowly kept dying inside.
