Smmmuuutttt

Years. It had been a total of three years the very day of February 16, 2014. Over that span of time, two crazy, strange, completely different people grew a friendship, and even a form of love. It was insane. How could two people from different corners of the world come to love each other when they've never met? In the age of computers, anything could happen. Tobias Faulk, or Tobi, couldn't keep his eyes off the image on his monitor screen. His beautiful and charming lover, Gwen Shull, held her head in her hands and she laid happily on her bed. She smiled into her webcam, giving Tobi a cheeky grin. It was a hurtful smile deep inside, though. The two teens were completely and utterly in love and their only solace was to stare at each other through a lagging and uncooperative webcam.
After the struggle of the three years, one night the two had a particularly crushing chat. Gwen, all the way in California, sighed softly as she gazed at Tobi, on the other side of the country in Missouri. The boy's weary eyes cast a downward glance. It was late where he was when he talked with Gwen, who had a two hour delay. It hurt just knowing they couldn't be with each other, couldn't touch each other, couldn't hear their voice clearly in their own ears. Tobi frowned through the camera as he placed his hand on the monitor, hoping he could somehow reach through the computer and kiss the only girl he'd ever wanted to. Gwen noticed his hand and did the same, almost actually pushing weight into her monitor. She wanted him so badly, she could feel her heart compressing tightly in her chest. They yearned for each other, beating every day challenges just to find a way to chat. Tobi winced as he saw the shine of water on the girl's cheek. He clenched his hand into a fist and grimaced.
"Soon, Gwen. We'll see each other and nothing else will matter, okay? Not even your parents," Tobi reassured, smiling hopefully towards her. Gwen attempted a smile, sobbing softly. The girl had a rough relationship with her parents. Her mother was abusive, very abusive, and her father did nothing to help. He sometimes went along with the abuse. A scar above her eyebrow showed the stories. All Tobi wanted was to take her away from them.
The next few weeks dragged by like pulling a thousand pounds of bricks. They attended school like normal, texting back and forth as much as possible, coming home to helping each other with homework, then talking for hours on end until one of them passed out. It never seemed to end. Every year was the same and was even getting worse. Tobi was falling in grades and Gwen's parents were relentless. One day while Tobi stared blankly at a wall in English class, he felt his phone vibrate. It couldn't be Gwen, she was still sleeping. No one else texted him. Who could it possibly be?
It was one of his art class friends. The text mentioned something about a field trip to an Art Institute in California. As soon as he saw the state name, he choked as he held in a yelp of happiness. After a small coughing fit, he realized the rest of the class was staring at him. He smiled nervously until they all looked back at the teacher, who was lecturing and ignoring everyone else. Tobi turned back to his phone and started reading details. It was going to be $750 for the entire trip, which included travel fee, hotel fee, and meal fees. It didn't seem like that much, but Tobi had just blown all of his money on his new car. Growling angrily, he slumped in his seat, trying to figure out a way to get that much money by...let's see...May 5th? It was already April 18th, there was no way he could make that much in that amount of time. His job didn't pay enough even if he worked overtime. His parents probably wouldn't help pay considering they felt he needed to learn responsibility and made him pay for everything he wanted. Once he got a message from the newly awoken Gwen, he told her all about the trip. She seemed excited, judging by the extensive amount of exclamation points in her texts. Her excitement drained once he mentioned the fee and how much money he had, or rather didn't have. That night, as they video chatted, Gwen gave a sudden suggestion.
"Hey, what if I paid for you? I could let you get money out of my online bank account." She smiled with bright red cheeks. Her long, blonde hair toppled into her face and she flicked it away. Tobi flinched and shook his head.
"No! I'm not using your money, Gwen." He had no intentions of using her like that. The girl quickly whacked the webcam in reply.
"This is our one chance to finally meet. That institute is just a couple hours away from my home! If you go, it'd be just like if I paid to go see you. Come on, please?? It's not illegal either, I can just add you into the account!" She held her hands together and begged, her eyes shining in the light of the sun. Tobi watched her and sighed.
"Are you sure? I don't want to waste money you could be saving..." He leaned on his desk, nervously tapping at the keys on his keyboard. Gwen screeched, startling him.
"Of course! I have enough money in there for a house. I've saved all my life, you have nothing to worry about!"
Those words were the starting point of Tobi's journey to fulfill his one and only goal in life. Because this was his only want in life, he felt something poking at him, telling him to run away from his life and stay with Gwen. He tried to ignore it though. He knew he couldn't do that. The two of them could go to the same college, which they were planning on doing anyway. It wasn't a decision they made together, they both actually had created the idea before they met.
The bus to the institute was big and comfortable. There were movies playing on each little screen on the ceiling, but Tobi wasn't paying attention. He just kept staring at a picture of Gwen on his phone. It was a photo of her posing with her friends at the beach. He was mesmerized by her body, her beauty, her everything. With every mile, his heart beat faster and faster. Across from him, a couple of other kids on the trip were talking. Tobi began to eavesdrop instinctively.
"Why do we each get separate rooms? I mean, I know there's only a few of us, but that's expensive," said one of them.
"Maybe it's a precaution because this is a co-ed group of kids? They're probably afraid we'll have sex in the rooms or something if we were paired," the other explained.
"I guess that's true. I mean, if we were paired together, I would probably totally destroy you." Tobi stopped listening to the conversation at the last sentence. Both the kids that had been talking were guys. The images in Tobi's head made him shiver and he turned away, glancing out the window. They were in California. Almost there.
He remembered the art teacher saying something about free time where the students could go off into town and go shopping if they wanted. Tobi couldn't believe the amount of freedom they were getting, but the art teacher was also one of the most lenient teachers on Earth.
As they entered the city the institute resided in, the boy had to struggle against passing out. Meeting Gwen would be the most exciting and adventurous time of his life. The tour through the institute was boring and tiring. Tobi barely even remember it. All he remembered was seeing someone paint their entire bodies blue and then roll around on a paper on the floor as well as a bunch of people on computers, rendering graphics for some video game. Exiting the building felt like heaven. The teacher, Mr. Yonti, shooed them all off into the city. At this, Tobi checked his phone and read a message from Gwen.
"Meet me at the plaza downtown!" He laughed happily and went to find a bus. The ride downtown was exhilarating. He felt the need to inspect the city for a sign of Gwen, but he knew he would find her where she said to meet her. The bus driver called out something about the plaza, sending Tobi off the bus and searching for his love. The plaza wasn't that big, but there were way too many people there. He searched high and low for Gwen, calling out her name and moving as close to the center fountain as he could. Finally, after a long search, he caught a glimpse of the long locks of blonde he knew so well. The hair whipped as the girl turned, glancing in different directions before finally settling on Tobi. They yelled to each other and pushed past people until they were feet away from each other. He was almost there. He was so close. Before he could reach out and grab her hand, he felt something sting him and his body began to go numb. Gwen's incredible smile turned suddenly to an open frown. He could hear a muffled scream and people around him yelling. What was going on? Why couldn't he see clearly? Why was his vision turning red? Then, everything disappeared.
Black. Everything was black. It hurt to think. It hurt to feel. After a few moments, Tobi could see some lights. Something yellow came into his frame of vision. It brushed his cheek as he tried to focus on the object before him.