bridges » david dobrik

8

"Do you ever get tired of it?" I asked, leaning my head against the window to avoid looking at him. It had been silent in the car up until this moment; we had gone a good hour and a half just sitting, enjoying each other's company. I had been thinking it for the past few days, so much so that it was eating away at me without ever speaking. I had to blurt it out, or else I'd regret it.

"Tired of what?" David half laughed at the seemingly vague and confusing question, never taking his eyes off the long, unending road. We had only passed a few cars, and it was getting hard to stay awake. "Driving?"

"Tired of..." I trailed off as I tried to find the perfect way to say it. I didn't want to offend David, and I didn't want to look stupid. "I don't know, pretending you're happy and crazy and excited all the time."

"What do you mean?" he tilted his head in confusion, flickering his eyes to my blushing face then back on the road.

"I've seen some of your videos, and you are so different in real life," I told him, trying to explain so I didn't seem mean or insane. "Like, you are so calm and normal. You don't portray that in your videos. They're very Jake Paul-esque, and each one just seems to get more and more extreme to the point where they're just about shock value and not about being actually funny. Not trying to roast you or anything; I like your videos. I just don't see how you can act so different."

"So you think the older ones are better," David smirked, his brown eyes meeting my green ones.

"They are. It feels more like a group of friends and less like... whatever it is now," I added the end of the sentence with a laugh, hoping to ease the tension I felt growing in the car. "Isn't it exhausting making content so... bubbly all the time?"

"Yeah, it can be," he shrugged, his bare shoulders reaching up to scrub the ends of his brown hair, hanging limply off his head. "I don't know. I'm definitely not like that all the time in my real life, but... I do act how I do in the vlogs."

"You play it up, though," it wasn't a question, but a statement.

"I do," he nodded.  "That's what kids like, and most of my fanbase is kids. If I filmed only things that actually happened, no one would want to watch them."

"But that's how you started off," I argued. "That's how you gained a following."

"And the faker my videos got, the faster I grew. Believe it or not, the Jake Paul-esque style you're talking about is exactly what makes the vlogs so popular. People like seeing Jonah do crazy shit," he tried to explain, but I wasn't buying it. "It's entertaining."

"No one over the age of thirteen thinks anything Jonah has ever done is funny," I said bluntly, not trying to play my statement off as a joke. David laughed, but I was serious. "That's true. People like the older stuff, the less scripted stuff. The people you should be targeting are people our age. It may not make you as much money, but don't you want to be, like, a talk show host one day?"

"Yeah, that'd be an ideal situation."

"Well, you can't have ten year old fans and a late night talk show. Their bed time is eight o'clock," I joked, and David cackled, doing a little dive like he thought it was particularly funny.

"You get sassier and sassier as the day goes on."

"What can I say?" I smugly smiled. "You bring it out in me."

It was silent for a moment, both of us staring at one another, and a feeling of warmth and contentment took over the car. "Eyes on the road, Dobrik. You can't make me change the subject."

"I know," he laughed, then added, "You're too stubborn to let anything go. What do you want to talk about?"

"Do you feel the void of being famous?"

"Jeez, I didn't know this car ride was going to be so deep," David nervously chuckled, and I noticed his hand began to tap the steering wheel lightly. "I don't."

"You don't have to lie, David," I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "It's not like I'm going to get home and make a fucking blog post about you."

"I don't think I'm as famous as you think, Parker," he laughed. "I'm— I don't know."

"I know you get tired of doing so much all the time. Everyone does. Don't you post, like, all the time?"

"Three a week," he told me. "It is hard to post that much. I want every vlog to be perfect, and it's hard to make things perfect without having some type of chaos to give me content. I go to parties and do crazy shit all the time, and I stay up late and wake up early. It's tiring, yeah, but I love it. I don't know what I would be doing if social media didn't exist."

"Have you ever done coke?" I asked, genuinely curious what he would say. I of all people knew the intense pressures of fame and how easy it was to succumb to drugs and alcohol to make yourself feel.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Not that I'm proud of it. I did it when I first moved to LA a lot, and I smoked a lot of weed. I don't really do anything besides drink anymore. If I drink, I miss getting videos of other people drunk."

I nodded along, not knowing what to say next. David spoke for me, adding, "Have you?"

"Yeah," I answered plainly. "I don't really want to talk about it, if that's okay. I know I've been kind of pushy."

"You have been," David joked, poking me in the ribs. I jerked away with a squeal, slapping him hard on the arm as payback. He swerved the car across the yellow lines as payback, only laughing when I begged him to stop. No one was coming for the miles we could see ahead of us, but that didn't matter.

"I'm too young to die."

"How old are you?" David asked. "I just realized I've never asked that."

"I just turned seventeen," I eyed him, hoping for a good reaction. His eyes nearly popped out of his head, and he mumbled a soft oh! as if he was regretting even being nice to me. I started laughing and a look of relief took over his face.

"Don't play with me like that, Parker. You had me feeling bad for suggesting we get married."

"I'm twenty one," I told him with a soft smile. "You?"

"Twenty two."

"Okay, cool."

We drove on, the sun blazing down on the car with a barely working AC system and no radio. I smiled, "Oh my gosh, David, look."

"Welcome to Vegas, Parker."

uhhh david had an oscar on his ig story which is just.... so so fitting. u will know why soon

anyways that gave me a will to live (and write) so i wrote this instead of writing the book i actually need to update! i love myself!

please vote, comment, and follow me if u enjoyed!!!! it helps me know what people do and dont like, which is super super super helpful as i continue finishing this book and starting others!!!!!!

(shallow is a SONG and i wanted a deep talk about davids career somewhere in this book, i thought "tell me something boy, arent you tired of trying to fill that void? or do you need more? aint it hard keepin it so hardcore?" was like the perfect verse for david, and honestly bradley coopers verse fits sloane well too!!! good song for this book!!)

xoxox abby