faking it » david dobrik

24

"don't it feel fucked up we're not in love?"

Sloane Carlisle was, in a word, a trainwreck.

Aaliyah had seen her best friend a million different ways, no makeup, crying over Dylan, stuffing her face with popcorn, but never like this. Sloane had makeup dripping all down her face and a bright red nose, raw from how many times she had wiped it. Her hands were shaking and her whole body seemed frail and pale. What she noticed most were her sounds: sobs that seemed to rack her whole body, hiccuping that took her breath away, and hyperventilating to the point where Aaliyah thought she could pass out at any second.

"Oh, my baby," Aaliyah wrapped her in a hug in the driveway, allowing Sloane to cry on her shoulder. "Oh, my sweet, sweet baby. Shh, shh, it's okay, Sloane. You're going to be okay."

"I messed up," the other girl whined back, taking in a shaky deep breath. "I wrote about him for one of my classes and he found it and he said he doesn't trust me and I was using him and—"

She couldn't continue, but even if she did, Aaliyah could only understand every other word. Sloane was slurring and shaking and looked near death, if you asked Aaliyah. She was debating taking her to the hospital.

"I love him," she cried, her desperate tone bringing tears to even her strong willed best friend's eyes. "I love him, and he left me."

"Sloane," she whispered in her ear, rocking her back and forth in the middle of her driveway. She was more than aware her dad was watching the pair from the dining room window, but she didn't care. Her friend's heart was broken beyond repair. "I love you. It's going to be okay, sweetheart. I'm here. I'm here."

"We were just working," she gasped like she couldn't fill her lungs. Aaliyah didn't doubt it. "We were just starting to work it out and holy fuck, my chest hurts. Why does it hurt so bad? Why—why does it feel like I'm going to die?"

"Listen, Sloane," Aaliyah began slowly stroking up and down the hysterical girl's back. "I know you're hurting. I know what it feels like, trust me, I do. I know you feel like you could cry for the rest of your life, and even then, it wouldn't be enough. I know how that feels, I do. But you have a baby, a beautiful, lovely little baby boy growing inside of you, and this is not good for it. I know you want to cry right now, and I want to too, but we need to think about the baby, okay? Can you calm down for me? We're going to get through this, Sloaney, we always do. I love you, yeah? I love you."

Aaliyah always knew what to say. Sloane was still shaking and on the verge of tears, but her heart rate was slowing down and her chest didn't feel like she was being crushed anymore, so that was a good sign.

"I have ice cream. Do you want to come inside and eat some ice cream?" Aaliyah was babying her, but Sloane didn't care. She needed it. "Come on, Sloane. We're in this together, baby. If you happen to have a copy of the contract, my dad would be happy to look at it."

Sloane nodded, "Okay."

It was all she could manage.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

David Dobrik was distraught. After a few hours explaining everything to Jason and Alex (and throwing some things around his old apartment) ((and punching a hole in the wall)) (((and breaking a few glasses))), he decided it was time to return home.

He knew he kicked Sloane out of the house, but he found himself half wishing she'd be sitting on the couch waiting for him when he walked in. She wasn't. He pretended his heart didn't break when he glanced into his half empty closet and realized all of her things were gone. This was what you wanted, David, he reminded himself. She lied to you.

He took a seat on the couch, unable to do anything except stare at the wall in front of him. David could say for a fact that he didn't know Sloane would ever have this kind of effect on him, and he was scared. The second he started yelling and she flinched away with tears clouding her beautiful blue eyes, he almost took back everything he said and told her he loved her. Almost. Then he remembered what she did.

David couldn't believe it. He genuinely couldn't believe that Sloane was using him for the past few months for an article, but at the same time, it didn't surprise him. His whole life in LA, he had been used over and over again. His friends hung out with him to get a thumbnail for their videos, his acquaintances were always gassing him up just to get a shot of him for their videos. Hell, even his old teachers were sharing stories about him to get clout.

That's not to say he didn't do the exact same things to other people. He never had a vlog with his popular ex-girlfriend where she wasn't in his thumbnail, and he asked to hang out with his friends whenever his vlog was a couple minutes too short. It was how social media worked, and he was used to it.

Sloane had thrown that all off. Of course she had always been in his presence against her will, but she was never fake and she never had a second agenda (or so he thought). She was always honest, and sometimes mean, but never in a bad way. She had changed the way he saw people, and he wasn't used to that. He was used to being betrayed and lied to and talked about behind his back, but never in a million years did he think Sloane would end up the same as everyone else. She was supposed to be special. She was supposed to be different.

David avoided the counter at all costs for the next few days, even when Natalie urged him to read the paper (and even when she tried to read it out loud to him while he was in the shower and couldn't get away). He couldn't bare to read it, knowing Sloane had only been using him and lying to him the whole time they were together. He trusted her, but now he wasn't even sure if his baby was his. He thought back to his encounters with Dylan and how he said she was his and she would always come back to him. Was he trying to warn David to get out while he could? David had no clue.

It was the third day after Sloane left that he finally cracked. Jason was over to record the podcast, and he only mentioned Sloane's name and David broke down. They were still "dating" to the world, and they had to talk about her, but David couldn't. The podcast turned from a funny story about Sloane and David going to a strip club to David crying about whether or not he should just read the letter.

"I fucking hate this," he sighed, pressing the button to stop the recording process. "I can't do this. That's my fucking baby, and I love Sloane but I don't fucking know what to do."

"Maybe you should read the essay," Jason's fatherly advice side came out. "I could read it first, if you want. You never know what she could've written. She might've written that she loves you or something."

David snorted, "That's unlikely. She fucking hates me."

"No, she doesn't," Jason placed a hand on David's shoulder. "At least she didn't when she was writing the essay. The fact that you guys couldn't even tell... it was so obvious, David. Everyone knew, and everyone talked about it."

"She didn't like me..." David trailed off, but a spark of hope lit up in his eyes. "Did she?"

"I don't know her super well," Jason answered. "But the way she looked at you was so something special. It was like she was trying to tell you and you just couldn't get it. It was like you put the stars in the sky, David. It was like you changed her life. Ask Corinna; she's better friends with her."

David didn't need to ask Corinna. He left Jason sitting in the podcast room and grabbed the papers off the counter, reading for the first time the note on the top.

Please read this, David. Please. You're my best friend. I would never hurt you, not in a million years. Love, Sloane.

what does the paper say hmmmmmmm who fuckin knows

i was gonna update tuesday and let the suspense of the last chapter linger but im honestly just BORED and want to stir the pot so here u go lol

vote comment and follow me if u enjoy!!! let me know what u think!!! are they gonna get back together???????? xoxox abby