The Lift

14

As she drove home, Preston wondered how possible it would be to completely break things off... The closer they got, the more dramatic any confession on her part would be.

Her current job was done and nothing was officially lined up yet, though she did have some verbal agreements she'd have to get out of. That wouldn't be the worst, she thought. She could be back to Colorado by next week... And David...

Well, he would be fine. He was a popular guy with plenty of people trying to be his friend. (And get in his pants. Preston had seen his DMs.) She really did play it chill for him after Jason and Brandon left; it was funny at first and Preston had encouraged the ambushing. Then she came back to reality. And the reality was that David's friends and viewers would always be closely involved in their relationship, a relationship that started as part of a lie.

Preston hadn't actually dated anyone since being engaged to Blake, and David couldn't be further from who she expected to fall for. That itself was scary. And she pretended to be totally okay with the vlogs, but the thought of ever being a consistent part of them was scary as fuck. And it's not like she would ever expect David to just stop vlogging. For now it was still a novelty that Preston didn't want to be shown; it couldn't be that way forever.

So it was time to make an exit.

When she finally got back to the hotel, Preston had her plan: 1) She was going to book a flight to Colorado for as soon as possible; 2) She was going to cry; 3) She was going to call David from the airport, saying a big opportunity came up. She'd already lied, so what was this little white lie?

As she started packing and organizing her few belongings, Preston thought about how much she would genuinely miss this new life she'd started. Prompted by finding a clickbait t-shirt in her drawer that she couldn't bring herself to trash, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. I'm not cut out for this life, she thought. Preston then sat down at her computer to book her flight. Now she was fighting back tears. Why was this so hard?

There were a decent number of options that would get her home that weekend even, and she had the miles to pay for it. She found a decent flight for the next evening and was about to complete the purchase when her phone vibrated. She almost ignored it. She maybe should have ignored it...

It was a message from David with a video. No text. She definitely thought about not playing it, but she couldn't help it. She hit play and held her breath. It was a vlog clip she hadn't seen because it was from last night.

The camera was on Preston as she dribbled and juggled a soccer ball. David's friends were gathered around her, and Scott and Todd kept yelling for her to pass them the ball. She was giving them tips on trapping and juggling; they weren't great at it to say the least.

Preston hadn't even noticed David was filming them, but she could tell it was him because he kept giggling — it was his real laugh, not a vlog laugh.

He laughed extra hard when Preston kicked the ball to Scott, who then wildly kicked it and hit Zane in the head, causing him to spill a Red Bull everywhere. Zane then ran after Scott, cursing, trying to throw the soccer ball at him. Preston ended up taking a knee she was laughing so hard. Right at the very end of the clip you could see her make eye contact with David. She looked so happy. David let out an "aww," probably without even realizing it.

Now she was really crying. She couldn't leave... She had definitely overreacted, and she definitely needed to talk to David. At the very least about her actual vlog expectations. If she were sticking around, there were going to be very clear rules.

So Preston started unpacking her clothes and she closed her laptop, wiping away tears the whole time. It only took about 10 minutes to put her life back into position. She spent those 10 minutes rehearsing what she would say to David in response to the video. She wrote out and deleted so many messages. Ultimately, she settled on straight and to the point.