Give Me Back Whats Mine ➳ David Dobrik

Chapter Eight ➳ It Felt Like Magic And Summer Holidays

NATALIE

These were the times I lived for.

The days that started in the very early hours of the morning and bled straight into late nights.

Catch a couple of hours of sleep where you can. Get up and do it all over again.

Day after day after day.

The days and days of organised chaos felt like magic and like summer holidays and like something I didn't know I'd get to keep in my adult life.

It felt like when you went to bed after spending the day in the ocean. A delicious kind of tiredness in your bones, in your muscles. But your mind felt sharp, and more alive than ever.

The current run had lasted nine days. Nine days straight of skits and bad ideas.

In those nine days we had been on six planes, travelled from one coast to the other and back again, crossed five state lines in the tesla, been pulled over by the cops twice, been to the hospital twice and had somehow managed, miraculously, to not burn the house down, which was always a very real possibility when David got out the flame thrower.

It all came to what felt like a crashing halt at 2 AM on a Tuesday morning.

The run had ended with a small party. The house had been full of dancing and singing and laughter and fun.

And then there was silence. And even though the full effects of my tiredness had well and truly setting in, I missed the energy of it all instantly.

After I had seen the last person off and sent Taylor on her way, I found David siting out by the fire pit, a beer in his hand.

I grabbed my own and joined him.

It was really the only time I ever saw him drink. He always wanted to be of sound body and mind when it came to filming our group's antics. But when one of these rampages came to an end, it was like he could finally let himself relax.

'You did good.' I told him

'We did good.' He smiled.

He looked so completely at ease in the moments that always followed a successful stint of filming.

He lived his life at such an extreme pace, as if on a different planet.  These early morning finishes were the only times I felt like I somewhat existed in the same place as him.

These were the times I lived for.

'It's amazing, isn't it?' He asked, breaking me out of my own thoughts. 'That we get to run around like children every day.'

I couldn't help but smile, taking a sip of my beer. 'Totally amazing.'

'Every day feels momentous.' He continued, looking out over our pretty Californian view. It really was something to marvel it. It was all lights and trees and pure magic.

'Yeah.' I said. 'Too bad we don't have anyone to share it with.'

His sent a confused look in my direction. 'What do you mean? I'm literally right here.'

I laughed. 'I know we have each other, and friends that couldn't be better people. But I mean, like a partner, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a person that you wake up next to amidst all the madness.'

'We wake up next to each other ...' He trailed off.

'It was one time.' I continued to laugh. 'And you know what I mean! It's like the one missing piece to this whole damn thing.'