You don't feel anything. You don't feel her strawberry icecream lips. You don't feel happy.\n\nHAPPY NEW YEAR!\n\n"You gotta open your eyes, you won't be able to feel my lips, but you can see them touching if you look while we kiss."\n\nThat's not what you want. This isn't real. You take your glasses off. Penny looks at you and snuggles into your lap. She's real. Penny knows you're sad and cares. That what you really want. Someone real who actually cares. Not some subscription to a girl sitting in front of her webcam all day just to make you feel better about being alone. \n\nThis isn't making you happy. Not really.\n\n[[Cancel your subscription to "Diane's Love".|Cancel]]

"Mmm, I knew you were ready to get serious. The balls about to drop, put on your glasses." On the screen you see Diane sliding on her glasses and you see them flicker on. This is really happening.\n\nWhen you get yours on you feel like you are in her room. Sitting on the couch next to her. Her lips are shining from the gloss she smacked onto them a minute ago. They look like strawberry icecream. You can hear the countdown in the background.\n\n10\n\n9\n\nThis is real.\n\n8\n\n7\n\nYou are finally going to kiss her.\n\n6\n\n5\n\n4\n\nYou are finally going to be able to be really happy.\n\n3\n\n2\n\nYou close your eyes and lean in.\n\n1\n\n[[Kiss Diane.|Nothing]]

"Aww, babe, thanks for putting that on for me! The counter says 5 more minutes till the ball drops!" Diane loves New Year's. Even though she seems to have a nasty habit of falling asleep every year. Not this one though. Guess that's already a good start.\n\nPenny runs over and leaps into the couch when she hears Diane's voice and sniffs all over your screen and tries to lick it, but you laugh and swoop her into lap before she can.\n\n"Hi Penny! How does the screen taste?" Diane laughs.\n\nPenny always has loved Diane, even though she never gets to smell her. You wonder what Diane smells like. Maybe clean laundry. Lavender. Probably more like Earl Grey given that's all she drinks.\n\nMaybe you could ask her to send you that Godzilla shirt she's always lounging around in. Probably has her smell branded into it. Goddammit, you are thinking like a perv again. DO NOT DO THAT. Asking her that would make you look insane.\n\n"One more minute till the New Year! You wanna kiss, babe?"\n\n[[Ask for a kiss.|Kiss]]

You startle awake as Penny, your old sweet terrier, licks your toes. The room is dark, curtains drawn, the only light in your apartment is coming from the glow of your computer screen. Just ten more minutes to the New Year. At least that's what what's-her-face is saying on the livestream. And the little counter on the video. Happy 2033. 'Happy', you think. Maybe that's a good resolution. Just try to be happy. Make other people happy. Make Diane happy.\n\nNot that 2032 was a bad year. But you could always be happier, right?\n\nYou look onto your screen and you can see Diane sleeping. She couldn't stay awake either. The poor girl fell asleep with all the lights again. She always is doing that. You feel a like a little bit of a perv watching her sleep on the monitor, but she's just so damn cute when she drools.\n\n[[Wake up Diane.|Awake]]\n\n[[End the Video Session.|Let Sleep]]\n\n

You know you should probably wake her up. She was kinda mad last year when she missed the New Year. So you say "Diane's Phone, play Sunday Morning" and then you can hear guitar notes of the song slowly wake her. Then she suddenly springs up and almost knocks over the webcam.\n\n"DID I MISS IT?!? I missed it didn't I? I miss it every damn year." Diane sighs.\n\nYou point to the window with the livestream video still playing on your screen and [[move it into her window.|Countdown]]

"Honey, you know if you want a kiss you have to upgrade! I know you've really been wanting to take this to the next level and it's a New Year so why not! Just go to my site and up your subscription to the Diane Romance Package. If you do that I promise you'll be the first one I kiss in the New Year, babe." And she winks at you.\n\nGod, you fucking hate it when she talks about the site. "Diane's Love" she calls it. You stumbled upon it a few years ago and have been buying her time ever since. You really don't like being reminded that you are paying to talk to her. Paying her to act like your girlfriend. And it's not that you don't want to upgrade. You really, REALLY do. But you kinda were late on your last contract and it's usually really slow after Christmas. Also you were trying to convince yourself that you would actually try and meet a real woman that has real feelings for you. But...\n\n"How about it, babe?" Diane twists open her lipbalm and slides it over her lips then smacks them together. Pop.\n\n[[Sign up for the Diane Romance Package.|Sign]]\n\n[[Cancel your subscription to "Diane's Love".|Cancel]]

Diane's Love\n\nA Future Fiction Love Story

"What??!? You wanna cancel on ME? After all we've been through? You are just gonna cancel? You know I have bills to pay too! This might not be the most honorable line of work but there's not much else I can do with BFA in English. Tell you what I'll make you a deal I'll throw in the kiss for free if you stay with me. I'll even---"\n\nDiane's voice cuts out and her face dissapears after you say "End Session". You're alone. Well except for Penny. She looks at the screen where Diane's face used to be and whines a bit.\n\nThe ball dropped a couple minutes ago. On the livestream there is a close up of a couple kissing. They look happy. You want to look that happy too. Even if you hadn't canceled with Diane you still wouldn't have been happy. Not really.\n\nSo you decide your New Year's resolution. Be happy. Make a real connection. Kiss a real girl.\n\nIt can't be that hard, right?\n\nRight?\n\nTHE END

Cassidy Aquilino-Berg

Just as you are about to say "End Session" Diane lets out a yawn and sits straight up.\n\n"DID I MISS IT?!? I missed it didn't I? I miss it every damn year." Diane sighs.\n\nYou point to the window with the livestream video still playing on your screen and [[move it into her window.|Countdown]]