david dobrik imagines

the beautiful things in life

the wall that was up around her was built from broken promises, the little too lates and an absent father that was probably better off somewhere far, far, away.

it was glued together by her overbearing mother who tried too hard to make up for the absence of the someone who was supposed to give you a little too much money for back to school shopping and crack the corniest jokes that weren't supposed to make you smile but did. it was glued together by her new step father, that did everything in his power to win her over but she was used to being alone and she liked it that way.

boys had come and gone, some trying harder to knock the bricks down than others but the outcome was always the same: they left because they tried too hard. the harder they pushed, the more she pushed back and the stronger the bricks became and eventually the boys got too tired of pushing and gave up.

she hated the word broken but maybe that was the word best suited for her. maybe that's what she was. broken. sometimes, that's how it felt. sometimes, it felt like some people tried to put her back together and fix her but the only person that could fix her was herself and only after she fixed herself would she be able to let someone in. or so she hoped.

it didn't quite happen that way, however. after years of pushing and fighting and the boys that just weren't good enough, she met david. david: who never pushed, never pried, never took a hammer to the bricks.

david was kind and gentle and always let her have the final say. he never overcompensated and never tried to win her over like her stepfather and he loved her so much that maybe he did fix her.

david was like the sun, big and bright and everyone wanted a taste of the sunshine. his whole world seemed to revolve around david and the relief of having eyes on someone other than her was more than enough to keep her around.

when she was younger it was always about her. how are you feeling? what do you want to do today? was school good? she was the center of her mothers universe and maybe that was because she wanted to make up for her dad or it was because her mother didn't have anything better to do but it was exhausting and david gave her a break.

they met in town outside a coffee shop and it seemed so cliche she almost didn't give him her number but he had a boyish charm that made her cave in so she wrote it on a napkin and tucked it in his back pocket of his jeans and he called her later that night.

now, every time she passes that coffee shop she thinks of him and her vanilla latte she was holding and how she cleaned out the cup and kept it. she didn't know that he kept the napkin she gave him in his wallet even after all this time.

she was hesitant and careful, even after weeks of late night phone calls and inconspicuous text messages and she didn't know how she could trust him but she knew that she could. maybe it was his doe-eyes that gave her a childlike impression. that he could do no wrong. how could someone that innocent do her wrong? how could someone that innocent understand her pain?

the first time he introduced her to his friends he knew that she was nervous so he held her hand. that was before he started calling her his girl but the gesture was proof enough that she was all he could think about. that night, the attention went to her brain and swallowed up any common sense she had and she wanted to run. everything in her said run because he had too many friends that asked too many questions and the whole world cared about what david dobrik was gonna do next and if it was her, how would she handle that? would she be able to handle that?

her finger hesitated over the call button that night, shaking at the thought of pressing it and telling him she was done but when he answered, he told her to come back over because now he was alone and wanted her.