Daniel

Daniel:

"Ma I can work at the restaurant at night after I get out of the office."

Daniel listened to his mother ramble on about how she was scared the restaurant would go under because she hurt herself and couldn't work as much as she wanted. Daniel sighed and rubbed his hand across his face and just continued to listen to his mother ramble on about how his father was to busy with work. And, he was to busy traveling for work to help her and what was she going to do? Daniel scooped a lock of hair out of his face, he thought once again about cutting it off. But, then he remembered her playing with it and how she loved it when he was growing it out, so he always changed his mind.

His mother screeching brought him back to the present. She went on some more about how the restaurant was her dream not his fathers and his father just let her do it to indulge her, but she wished that he would help her out more. But, his father wouldn't do anything to help her and said that this was just her hobby especially since Daniel was grown and working. Daniels father felt that his wife should stay at home and be a housewife.

Daniel and his family had moved to New York right after he had graduated high school because his dad's company had given him another big promotion. Daniel hadn't wanted to leave California and his friends, but he had convinced himself that they would all be going to separate colleges and we're going to probably lose touch anyway. Plus, his dad had convinced him that he was needed to help his mother and he could save money by going to an in-state college and stay at home

"Ma, I have to get back to work this company isn't going to run itself."

Lu Yi could only stand by and squeeze his hands and listen to the bosses mother yelling about something. Daniel looked up and covered the phone. "Go get lunch while I finish up with my mother." Lu Yi nodded and was eager to rush out. Daniel went back to listen to his mother complained. But, this time about Daniel not eating enough and being too skinny. Then she started bugging him about needing a wife so that she could have grandchildren before she died. His mother was sixty she wasn't dying anytime soon, which prompted his mother into another rampage about him getting a wife and grandchildren before she was too old to play with them. After about twenty minutes of that, Daniel finally hung up the phone and turned back to his computer.

A message popped up on his computer from Facebook and then Instagram. Daniel pulled up Facebook first. It was a picture of his friend Allison smiling eating ice cream with her son. They were smiling joyously at the camera with ice cream all over their faces. He missed Allison, out of all his high school friends, she was who he missed the most.

Daniel remembered when they first met in high school. It was their sophomore year. Daniel's father had moved the family from China to San Diego because he received a promotion and his dad's company wanted to open an international division. So, here he is the skinny, pimply face, glasses wearing new kid in a new school, whose English wasn't that good. He had learned English before moving here to the U.S. but he still wasn't that good, therefore he was the awkward kid in the school.

Halfway through the year, some guys had started bulling him and even though he fought back. One day they all jumped him and there were too many of them and he caught a serious beating. Then Allison runs up like a beautiful warrior woman, pepper spraying the guys and calling the school security guards. She stayed with him the whole time he was in the infirmary and talked to him about any and everything to keep his mind off the pain. He thought she was an amazing black angel, she had this beautiful caramel colored skin, big expressive brown eyes, her hair was in long pretty braids, and she had curves everywhere.

They soon became fast friends. Allison was sort of an outcast herself being only one of twenty black kids in the whole school of two thousand kids. She was lively and happy but didn't really fit into the I want to be the next best rapper scene like some of the black kids in school. Or the I am only into white guys/girls like my friends are scene. So, she stayed to herself most of the time or hung out with maybe three other friends. A white girl named Ann, a white guy named Keith, who was also Ann's boyfriend, and another Black girl named Rasheera and now him.

Unbeknownst to Allison, Daniel started having a slight crush on her from the day she saved him. Not just because she saved him, but also because she was beautiful. She had the most amazing personality, beautiful skin that was soft to the touch, and an awesome body that he craved to hold. It always amazed him the contrast between them. She was soft, lush, and curvy where he was skinny, wiry, and imply faced, glasses wearing teenager. Not now, now he was cut up from working out every day, the pimples had long cleared up, and the glasses had given way to contacts.

He wondered what Allison would think of him now, God he missed her so much, they became best friends after his incident and he would sit with her and her small group of friends, eventually becoming one of them. They would all go out together, eat lunch together, bought each other gifts, and talked or texted every day. Daniel didn't know how he would have gotten through high school without Allison and the others. They made him laugh when he wanted to cry, Allison would study with him when his mom and dad yelled at him about his grades.

They kept the bullies away from him, mostly because Keith was on the football team and he was huge. So, no one wanted to mess with Daniel and possibly upset Allison, which would upset Ann, which would then, in turn, upset Keith. Who had no qualms about beating any and everyone up who upset Ann. He truly missed them, but it was his dad's fault that he couldn't stay with his friends. At the time Daniel hated his dad for it, but now as an adult, he understood, his dad at the time wanted the best for his family.

But, throughout his whole high school experience his dad kept moving up the corporate ladder and finally, towards the beginning of his senior year, his dad received a promotion that moved them from San Diego to Los Angeles.

It was heartbreaking to leave Allison, but he was okay because it was only a two-hour difference so they started visiting each other on the weekends. They would alternate weekends, and it surprised him how he could wait a whole week. But, he was willing as long as he knew he was going to get to see Allison. Then at the end of his senior year, his dad received yet another promotion that moved them to New York. Daniel had never seen Allison cry as much as she did that day when he went to visit her and told her that his family was moving to the east coast.

Now, eight years later he was still in New York running his own tech company that he built from the ground up in college. His company Blue Phoenix mostly specialized in apps that helped streamline your business, but those weren't the only apps they created. They also created gaming apps and apps for special needs kids. But his most popular app and the one that made him famous was the app that stopped you from drunk texting people.

He noticed a lot of his college friends would get wasted at parties and wind up texting crazy stuff to their friends and family. One of his friends actually sent a dick picture to his mom and asked her out, he was so wasted. She cursed him out when he was sober then laughed and smiled that he felt she was still attractive even though she was old. From that day forward, Daniel created the app named Don't Text Drunk or Trunk as some people called it a shortened smashed together version of text and drunk.

It garnered him a whole lot of acclaim and business, and he just hit the ground running from there. He had wanted to share it with Allison, but he hadn't really spoken to her in the eight years he had been in New York. At first when he moved they had text and called every day, but then as time went on and they both went on with their lives the calls became less and less. The text became shorter and shorter until they were almost nonexistent. Then four years ago right after she had graduated from college. He found out on social media that she had gotten married and shortly after had a son.

It had broken his heart because he had wanted to be that husband and father to her.

But, he never told her how he felt about her, scared she would reject his feelings and it would make their friendship awkward. He valued their friendship more than anything else, so he kept it to himself and tried not to get jealous when she got excited about a guy asking her out. Or tried not to kill the guy when he eventually broke her heart and left her crying on Daniel's shoulder. But, somehow he made it through especially knowing that those relationships would always be short lived.

But, when he found out that she was married, it broke his heart into a million pieces, she wouldn't come crying on his shoulder this time. It wasn't like he could be upset about it. They hadn't talked in almost eight years, an occasional hello and happy birthday, holiday, etc… on social media but nothing more.

He didn't know much of her life and she didn't know much of his. He didn't even know if she knew that he was the one who created most of the apps that she used on her phone every day. He didn't know if she had ever become the ambassador for international women's rights liked she'd dreamed of becoming. There wasn't much on Facebook about her life, just pictures of her son.

A few pictures here and there of her husband, but not even a lot of those, and even less on Instagram. He wanted to know about her now and what she was up to. He thought about reaching out so many times. But, always stopped himself because the distance was so great. Not just in miles, but the distance from what they had been to what they were now. Daniel shut down his social media pages and went back to concentrating on work. These applications wouldn't write themselves.