faking it » david dobrik

26

I was dreaming of better times, a white sandy beach and my son sitting just at the edge of the tide, grabbing whatever seashells were in his reach whenever they happened to wash up, when I was suddenly jolted out of my sleep. I opened my eyes to find Aaliyah straddling my hips, using all of her power to shake me awake.

"What?" I groaned, using my hands to block my eyes from the blinding flashlight placed directly in my face. It had been three days since I got to her house, and all I'd been doing is sleeping and eating. I had no clue what time it was, or why she was forcing me to wake up in the middle of the night, but I wasn't too happy about it.

"Sloane," she sounded ecstatic, which wasn't very common for Aaliyah, but I could only assume that Dre had proposed, which only made me feel shittier. "Open your damn eyes, Sloane, before I cut your hands off."

"What?" I snapped, removing my hands from my eyes with a huff. I probably should've been nicer to Aaliyah; she was putting me up in her house for free, but it was so hard to be nice to anyone when all you wanted to do was stab someone (or yourself).

"I think you should see this," her grin peaked my interest, and I sat up to see what the hell she was talking about. She slid her laptop towards me, rolling off of my lap to sit next to me on the bed. She had Youtube pulled up, and the first and only thing I saw was David's name and profile picture. I looked up at her with a glare, unwilling to read any more.

"Are you trying to torture me?" I tilted my head to the side in mock confusion, frowning when she slapped me on the arm. That was more like the Aaliyah I knew and loved.

"Read the title, dipshit," she snapped, and my eyes travelled the page until I reached the title of the video, EXPOSING MY FAKE GIRLFRIEND!! (she's pregnant!).

"Exposing me," I had to laugh. My life had gone too far downhill to turn back, and all I could do was laugh. I sarcastically added, "Good. I love being exposed for being a fraud, even when I'm fucking not. I love David."

"Can we watch it?" Aaliyah was entirely too happy for the situation at hand, but I nodded anyways, knowing she wouldn't let it go if I refused. She was crazy like that.

"Let's get it over with," I tapped the play button and felt my nerves growing as the video buffered, then finally played. The intro was him chasing Zane with a flamethrower a few days ago, which was pretty common for his vlogs. The slide with the do do do dos played, and I huffed, pausing the video. "I don't think I want to watch it. I am already devastated. I might go insane and kill your dad in his sleep."

"Jesus," she laughed, shaking her head at my crazy words which she knew to be an exaggeration. "I've seen it."

"You watched it?"

"Yeah," she nodded almost solemnly, her finger hovering over the play button. "Trust me, you're gonna want to watch it."

I sighed, getting comfortable on the bed while she played the video once again. It cut from the title card to a video of all of us sitting in the living room the day I announced I was pregnant. I still had my jacket on, so all you could see was lively conversation. The video freeze framed directly on me, and David's narration began.

"Do you see that girl?" he said. "That's Sloane Carlisle, my fake girlfriend."

I gasped at the implication of his words. He wasn't just telling the world it was all bullshit; he was also risking his reputation for me. My heart swelled as he continued, "We met about five months ago at a USC party where she asked me to be her fake boyfriend for a few minutes so her ex would leave her alone."

The vlog cut to clips from that night, me talking to David in the house and dancing in his car and chugging a milkshake while he cheered me on (ew). You could tell we were both intoxicated; we were practically all over each other in half of the videos. He said, "I didn't think I'd ever see her again, but two weeks later, she's knocking on my door telling me she's pregnant."