In Time / David Dobrik

11.

TW: Mention of sexual assault

3 weeks after meeting the Antonyans, David and Elise had hung out a grand total of 10 more times. Each time they hung out longer and longer, learning more and more about each other. He was now facing a daunting task; meeting her roommates. Elise lived with 3 of her best friends, all of whom appeared to have strong personalities through the stories Elise told about them. David approached Elise's apartment with a double bottle of wine and bouquet of flowers in hand, ready to ring the buzzer to her apartment when he heard a voice from his right.

"Flowers, I love that"

"Bella" David said, turning to face her.

She was leaning against the wall, smiling at David.

"You look so tense, loosen up, they're gonna love you"

"You think?"

"Absolutely"

Although David had seen Elise a total of 10 times, he had seen Bella a total of 18. She was around less frequently than she had been in the past, but certainly still present.

"Seriously, Dave, you got this" Bella smiled.

David turned again and pressed the buzzer to Elise's apartment, the door unlocking a few seconds later. He opened it and checked his phone again, taking the elevator up to the 5th floor. He knocked on the door to Elise's apartment, hearing a lot of noise coming from inside, including some muffled yells and a lot of shuffling. About 30 seconds later, the door opened to reveal Elise, casually standing there.

"Hey!"

Her 3 roommates, all peaking out from behind her.

"Hey!" He parroted, giving Elise a hug before handing her the flowers. She blushed as her roommates made some variation of "awww".  "And this is for everybody" He said, holding up the bottle of wine.

"A man after my own heart" Her shortest roommate said, taking the bottle of wine from David's hand and placing it on the counter.

Elise and her roommates moved away from the door, allowing David to officially step inside. The apartment was spacious and well decorated.

"You guys are good at decorating" David commented.

"It was all Hannah" Elise said, motioning to a tall girl with black hair, who bowed. "Oh yeah, so this is Hannah, Kate, and Naomi"

"Hannah, Kate, Naomi. Got it" David smiled.

The roommates had made dinner, a weekly tradition, and explained that they don't often invite outsiders.

"I don't even bring my own boyfriend" Naomi explained. "But you treat Elise really well and we wanted to meet you"

Elise rolled her eyes as David smiled a little.

"Well, i'm honored"

"So when are you gonna ask Elise out?" Kate, seemingly the loudest of the bunch, asked as everyone was eating.

Elise turned bright red.

"KATE" Elise exclaimed.

"Holy shit Kate" Naomi laughed.

"I'll talk to her about it" David said smoothly.

Elise's roommates all reacted animatedly.

"I like him" Naomi said. "You were right, he's adorable"

Elise turned redder than she already had, if possible, and David laughed, putting his hand on hers.

"I tell my friends you're adorable, too" He assured her.

After dinner, and a declaration from Elise's roommates that they approved of David, Elise and David went to her room.

"Before we talk about dating" Elise said, putting her hand up as David opened his mouth to speak. He closed it. "I want to talk to you about something else"

David nodded slowly.

"Ok"

"I, um, ok so I get if this is too much for you to want to deal with" She started.

David furrowed his brow.

"I know we haven't like... had sex yet... or done a lot of stuff like that...but..." Elise had trouble getting the words out.

David put his hand lightly on her back.

"I need time to be ok with sexual things" She finally said.

"Ok" David nodded. "Of course, as much time as you need. It's important that you're comfortable"

Elise nodded.

"I, uh, I was sexually assaulted sophomore year"

David's face dropped.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I am now" She smiled at him a little. "I know that's a lot, and it's something I still deal with so I wanted to be up front with you. I just feel like i'm weird sometimes and like I have this fucked up past thing that's still with me, and I don't like putting any of it onto other people, but I kind of inherently would if we were dating"

"Can I be up front with you?" David asked.

"Yeah, of course"

"What did JC tell you about my ex? Like, about what happened to her?"

"That she had an aneurysm"

"Anything else?"

"No..."

"I woke up next to her, and she was dead. She had a brain aneurysm in her sleep and I didn't wake up when it happened. She was dead for about 3 hours, and I woke up and she didn't"

Elise's eyes widened.

"Holy shit, David, i'm so sorry"

He shook his head.

"I deal with that still. It fucked me up a lot, so don't ever think that something that happened to you in the past makes you weird, or that I wouldn't want to be with you because of that."

Elise and David talked for a few hours, both opening up about their experiences. It was cathartic for both of them.

"About dating..." Elise started.

"You want to wait a little, right?"

Elise nodded. "I like getting to know you, and I'd like to get to know you a little more if that's ok"

"Absolutely"