That Girl | David Dobrik

𝐹𝓊𝑒𝓁 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐹𝒾𝓇𝑒 | 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓁𝑒𝓎'𝓈 𝒫𝒪𝒱

Getting the cold shoulder from David sucked.

I knew that I deserved it, but watching him turn away from me when I waved left a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Part of me thought that maybe he was just busy, that perhaps he'd approach me later and I could tell him I was sorry for being such a bitch, but that we could continue hanging out (on my terms)... but he didn't. He stayed close to his group of friends, didn't stray very far, and if he did, he kept his head down and made sure to mostly stay away from me.

Hours had passed, and I proceeded to get more and more drunk, and more and more angry. I wandered into the kitchen to grab another drink, to see Allison standing there, trying to sort through the mess of bottles in her fridge.

"I can't believe he's ignoring me." I said, no opening statement, just immediately venting my frustration. I leaned over her, grabbing a wine cooler and immediately cracking it open and taking a sip. "Should I just go talk to him? Honestly?"

Allison let out a sigh, closing the fridge and looking at me up and down quickly. "Depends. Are you going to be level-headed about it, or are you going to snap at him?"

"I'm not gonna snap. I know I deserve it," I said with a frown. "It just... bugs me, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it... I'm starting to not really believe you when you say you don't have feelings for him, though." She shot me a wink

"Yeah, yeah..." I grumbled, staring at my feet. "I don't know what I want to get out of it. I just want to know why."

"You already know why, though."

"I mean... I guess." I sighed, peering out into the living room, David nowhere to be found. "I don't get it. Why can't he just be like other guys who just care about hooking up? It's stressful."

Allison let out a loud laugh, and I started to chuckle along too, realizing how ridiculous that statement was. "Yeah, Marley... I think you're the only one with that problem."

"Yeah, maybe..." I laughed, wandering over to the edge of the kitchen. "I'm gonna go talk to him."

"Okay, good luck."

I walked out into the living room, scanning the room quickly for David. I saw the other members of the vlog squad sitting on the couch, but he was absent.

Finally, I spotted him in the middle of a group of Allison's cute influencer friends. The familiar pang of jealousy hit me as I saw one of them put her hand on his arm. I watched for a second, feeling almost sick, before I turned away for a second. I think my energy was apparent, because as soon as I turned around, I caught Jeff's eye. He raised an eyebrow at me, and I just shook my head, rolling my eyes.

I started walking back towards the kitchen, and Jeff followed, catching my arm in his hand before I could get too far.

"You alright?" He said quietly into my ear, so the others couldn't hear.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's whatever." I said, but I'm sure he could tell by my tone, I was in a foul mood.

"Well, David said you weren't even into him, so I don't know what this is all about." Jeff said, letting go of my arm. "Are you jealous?"

"No. I was just gonna... I was gonna go talk to him."

"Well, go talk to him then."

"He's a little busy," I snorted, shooting Jeff a 'look'.

"Marley, listen to me. He likes you, he doesn't like those Instragram girls. They're friends. He is into you. Now I don't know if you feel the same, but if you want to talk to him, I say go for it." Jeff said, putting a reassuring hand on my back.

"If you say so..." I mumbled, and he nodded, shooting me a thumbs up and walking back over to the couch.

I took a long, steady breath, before walking over to David, bypassing the girls, and wrapping my hand around his forearm. He jerked slightly, turning his head to look at me. His expression was mixed with surprise and confusion.

"Hey, Marley... uh-"

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

David nodded, saying a quick goodbye to the group he was taking to, before following me a few feet over, and hopefully mostly out of earshot of the other party-goers.

"What's up?" He asked, far too casually, jamming his hands into his pockets and looking away from me.

"I... nothing. It just feels like you're ignoring me."

David looked at me, an incredulous look on his face. "Yeah, I guess I kind of am. I'm taking a page out of your book, I guess."

All of a sudden, I was angry. Justified or not, a heat rose into my cheeks, and my entire demeanor changed. "Whatever, David. I think I was always pretty open about what I was interested in, and who I was."

"You weren't though. I thought you liked me, then you kick me out, then you like me again... that isn't clear, to me. " David ran his hand through his hair, practically tugging on the ends. "We're adults. This is high school shit."

The awkward tension was unreal. We stood a few feet away from each other, arms crossed, just staring at each other. David was right, this was high school shit. This was incredibly unnecessary. And I was the only one to blame for it. I reached out towards him, trying to put my hand on his, but he inched away.

"David... I..."

It was then that I noticed that there were several pairs of eyes on us. We hadn't attracted everyone at the party, but there were more people watching our hushed conversation than what was comfortable. David seemed to notice too, as his shoulders softened down into a shrug, and his expression calmed.

"We can't do this here. I'll go say goodbye to everybody, then I'll drive you home and we can talk there, okay?" David whispered to me, giving my arm a quick squeeze before wandering back into the party. We both said our goodbyes separately, and then I followed him out of the apartment.