Collide / David Dobrik

16 / Medicine

Jason arrived at David's house to film their podcast at around 11pm. He knocked on the door to no answer, and decided to try to open the door. It was unlocked, and he walked in thanking god that the alarm system didn't go off. The first thing he was greeted by was the sound of music blasting from somewhere in David's house. He looked around and saw takeout containers littering the counter in the kitchen, and David's laptop and camera equipment strewn around the living room. Jason walked towards the sound of the music, which was coming from the podcast room. Jason entered to find David laying on the ground, staring at the ceiling and tossing a crushed up piece of paper up and down and catching it. Jason stopped and listened to the music that was now blaring from the surround sound in the room.

Thought that I was cool but now i'm fucking freezing, never felt alone now i'm staring at the ceiling feeling what goes around comes around, i'm tasting my medicine, tasting my medicine now

"David" Jason said, but to no avail. The music was too loud. "DAVID" He tried again.

Finally he walked over and waved a hand in front of David's face. David looked up with his black and blue eyes before rolling over and pausing the music on his phone with his unbandaged hand.

"Hey, sorry" David said.

"What the fuck is up with you? This is some dark shit"

David sat up.

"It's fine, let's start the podcast"

"It's not fine, you clearly got the shit kicked out of you and you're throwing yourself a pity party. Seriously, what's wrong? Also, where's Natalie?"

"I told her to go visit home for the week"

"Why?"

"I need space"

"From what? David, come on, tell me what the fuck is going on? I'm starting to get worried"

David breathed deeply, getting up and sitting on the couch.

"Can we film the podcast first?" David asked. "You're not gonna want to film the podcast after I tell you, and I really need to keep up a facade that everything is normal, at least for another week"

Jason rolled his eyes.

"Fine"

They filmed a 40 minute, relatively mundane podcast. Jason shut the equipment off and shut his laptop.

"Now you better fucking tell me" Jason warned.

David told the whole story from start to finish, from asking Caroline out up through Alex punching him and Sam telling Liza.

"You don't need to say anything, you can just leave" David said, gesturing to the door. "I get it, seriously"

Jason stared at David in silence, not moving from the chair he was sitting on.

"That's a lot" He said.

David nodded.

"I think you know what you did was abhorrent, right?"

"Absolutely"

"You're making things right with Caroline?"

"I mean, as right as they can be"

"Then there's not much more you can do. If people are finding out and refusing to talk to you, you can't do anything. You shouldn't be worrying about that, you should be worrying about the fact that it took you three fucking years to make sure poor Caroline is ok, which I take it she's not really"

David shook his head.

"So you need to focus on that, and you need to be there for her now. You weren't there for her before and there is nothing you can do about that, but you can be there for her now"

David nodded.

"Thanks, Jason"

"I'm still here for you, David. I did some stupid, stupid shit when I was young and I still do some stupid shit now. Obviously that's really disappointing to find out that you ever treated another person like that, but I think it's something you have learned a lot from and will continue to learn a lot from. Sometimes hurting someone else teaches you more than getting hurt does."

David nodded, tearing up again.

"I fucked up so badly and I can't believe it took me this fucking long to come to terms with it"

"Yeah, you did. But... it's in the past"

"Is it, though?"

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The lyrics were in the middle of the chapter so I didn't feel like re-typing them hahaha but this song is soooo good