faking it » david dobrik

16

I left my last class of the day with a sigh of relief. We had partner work, and I ended up partnered with a girl in a gray clickbait hoodie who talked my ear off about how cute David and I were and how she still cried every time she watched the Diza breakup video. It took everything in me not to just shove two pencils up my nose and kill myself.

My walk to the parking lot was pretty uneventful until I noticed the large crowd surrounding where my car was parked. My silver car was replaced with a white Tesla, David and his little asshole self standing behind it talking to some fans.

I made a move to sprint away, but with my luck, someone whispered, "Sloane's here!" to David, and it was all over.

"Hey, babe," I smiled widely, walking forward to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I didn't know you were picking me up today."

That was code for: what the hell did you do to my car?

"Yeah, I was in the neighborhood," he smirked while half of the group aww'ed. Ugh. "The door's unlocked. I'll be there in a second."

"Okay," I sent him a fake smile and got into his car, sighing with relief once I was out of the public eye. I didn't love being stared at and judged, but with David, it was inescapable.

It took David a few minutes to take his pictures and get everyone far enough away from his car so we could leave, but when he finally entered the car, he could tell I was not happy.

"Where the fuck did you take my car?" I snapped, turning in my seat to face him.

"It's been confiscated," was the only answer he gave me, which only made my anger increase tenfold.

"I'm not your child. You can't just take away my things when I do something you don't like," I sassed and David rolled his eyes.

"It's not like that and you know it," he said.

My whole thought process went from level-headed to ???? and then to ?!?!?!.

"I literally can not with you right now," I had to laugh because he sounded so fucking stupid. "You took my spare key from the dresser, found my car in the parking lot, had someone steal it, and then parked your car in my spot. You're crazy."

"You weren't answering my calls and I had no clue where you were," he tried to justify his actions, but it only made me more annoyed.

"And you think that gives you the right to steal my car and keep its location hidden until I do whatever you say?" I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "This isn't making any sense. Make it make sense, David."

He whipped the car off the road and onto the side of the freeway, cars whizzing past us and honking while I screamed, clutching onto my seat for dear life. "We're going to talk, and if you're still mad, you can go back to whatever hole you crawled out of this morning."

I almost commented on that insult, but I channeled my inner MLK and reminded myself it wouldn't solve anything. My silence answered his statement, and he continued, "Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry that I lied to you. I shouldn't have done that, and it was never my intention to hurt you. I was being selfish and only thinking about myself when I made those decisions, and I realize we're a team now. I'm sorry."

I could have accepted his apology then; it seemed pretty earnest. I did want to make him work a little harder, though, and I wanted an explanation. "Why did you?"

"Sloane, I fucking love Liza," David told me, sitting back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling. "God, I wish you knew how it felt to love someone who isn't super shitty to you, because everyone is. It is so overwhelming to be in love with someone, especially a good someone who isn't constantly manipulating you. You told me I couldn't tell her, but I couldn't stand to see her hurt, and she deserved an explanation. She deserved to know that it was a mistake."

I didn't comment on the fact that he viewed me only as a mistake, and I didn't bring up the fact that I had thought I loved him (or at least liked him) until he did something super shitty to me. He didn't need to know that after giving me a whole spiel about how in love with his ex he was.

I said, "You should have talked to me. I would've understood."

"I know, and I'm sorry," he sighed. "And I'm even more sorry for what occurred in our bed. I bought new sheets."

"I still... how did that even happen?"

"I was explaining that it was all fake, but that you were pregnant. She got really excited and we kissed, and it just... didn't stop. And then I realized we could do it without anyone knowing and I took advantage of that," he frowned, then added, "And you. I took advantage of you."

"Yeah," I chuckled because that was all I knew how to do.

I was well aware that I was bad at forgiving people. I held grudges; I always did. It was something I was used to, but I knew it affected my relationships. Dylan knew I had a problem, and that's why he chose to manipulate me the way he did. He didn't have a problem acting like I was the one at fault; after all, I could only forgive myself. I knew David's apology was sincere. I knew he felt bad for what went down. But still, how could I get the image out of my head? How could I forget that anything ever happened?

I didn't know the answer to that, but I still had to try.

"Okay," I finally nodded, tucking a piece of black hair behind my ear. "Okay."

"So... you forgive me?" David clarified. Sending a nod his way, he nearly jumped out of his seat to wrap me in a hug. "Thank you, Sloane. You won't regret it, I promise."

Oh, promises. How little they mean to people who don't give a fuck about your feelings.

hiii! this is a bit shorter than usual, but i wanted to end it there tbh and i tried to add some to the apology but im bad at apologies so it just wasnt working out. anyways i hope u enjoy!!!

this is pretty basic, just revving up for the next chapter lol. im not sure if i told you guys, but i have a plan for each chapter of the rest of the book, and shes officially 30 chapters! the next book will probs be thirty as well

anyways vote comment and follow me if u enjoyed!! lmk what u think!!! xoxoxo abby