Long distance

It´s been difficult for them both; he hates long distance and having to constantly be online, she hates unreliability and staring at screens.

´They've been texting less and less, and last Saturday they were on a video chat and they blew up at each other for being terrible at long distance dating. He yelled at her for always cutting video chats short and never visiting, she yelled at him for never replying quickly and missing calls. They knew the points were unfair, they were both busy and conflicting schedules made things hard, but they made the points regardless.

Even though they had both regretted what they had said to the other, the words had left their mouths and the damage had been done. They ended their call in a flurry of “f**k you” s and immediately regretted it, as they retreated to care for their wounds, they wondered why they had hurt the one closest to them. They desperately wanted to call out to the other, apologize and hold them tightly as possible, but they were thousands of miles away.

In the end neither of them could build up the courage to face the other, and the chat between them which had been active almost constantly now stood quiet. “when they text, me I’ll apologize” they thought, but the anticipated text never arrived, and all was quiet.

The next day they went on with their lives. He went to his trade school and she went to her university, they thought about each other all day and were upset and troubled. When his friends asked him, what was wrong he said it was nothing, when her friends asked her what was wrong, she just said relationship problems and refused to get into it. That night they sat in bed waiting for a text that never appeared, and neither got any sleep. Some days into this they spilled to their friends who told them to either move on or make up. Making up seemed impossible now, they had gone several days without talking to each other, something that had not happened in years, but moving on was worse, how could they ever leave the one that had been there for them through all the rough time, when his grandmother died, when she got kicked out, when he couldn’t pass, when she couldn’t get the internship. Who else would be there for them like that?

By Friday they started carrying battery packs because their phones died midday from overuse and their friends had had enough. And with careful planning they concocted the perfect solution: get the lovers hammered. His friends took him to his favorite bar, and her friends did the same. Despite being thousands of miles apart they drank together. He cried about how beautiful she was and how her hair felt like angel feathers and she cried about he was the most gentlemanly person alive and no one deserved him. They both cried about how they had f***ed up their beautiful relationship. With their friends help they called the other sobbing and crying. They stayed on that call for hours with each other, before passing out in their beds which their friends had carried them to.

Waking up she remembered nothing after entering the bar the previous night. He only remembered vague phrases from their call, he got up and drank a cup of water and took some aspirin and she did the same. She got her phone from the counter where it had been charging and she took in the new crack on the screen, presumably from where she had dropped it last night, then she realized in horror what she had done last night. She quickly went to messages where she saw an extensive back and forth between him and her, she looked on calls and saw a call that was hours long. After she took it in she sighed thinking the damage had been done and called him.

When he first got the call, he wasn’t looking at his phone, he was instead looking at his glass trying to remember how badly he had screwed up when his phone went off. His phone was across the room on his end table, he misjudged the length, hit his hip and bruised it while making a mad dash for his phone. When he did get it, he nearly dropped it, but managed to keep his grip. He nervously swallowed before answering.

This call also went on for hours, almost as if to make up for the one they forgot. They talked about life and how much they missed each other, they apologized for last night and realized neither of them properly remembered and they laughed. He complained about his headache and she grumbled about homework. He promised that he would reply to messages faster and she promised to visit more. He told her he loved her, and he was sorry, she told him that she loved him, and she was sorry. They couldn’t hold each other, but despite that, they felt as if they were holding each other.

After that they were back to normal, his friend called him a wimp for not messaging, her friends called her an idiot. He thanked his friends by buying a round of for them and she thanked her friends by helping them with study. And every night they texted each other, it wasn’t as good as it was in person, but it was far better that the alternative.

A month later she visited and after she spent time with her family, they went on a date, just the two of them. She was reminded how much she loved his smile and how he held every door for her, he was reminded how much he loved her hair and the way she laughed. They were inseparable for the next week, when it was time for her to go there weren’t tears or upset goodbyes, because they had already gone through it, and they would do it over again a million times if it meant being able to be together. Because no matter how much he hated long distance or she hated screens, they hated life without the other more.

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I hope it's okay this the first time I've written a full length short story, I've also never been in a relationship before much less a long distance one so... :\