The Talk

Background/Context

The story takes place in their real lives but differs in some areas. It is situated almost two years after David's break-up with Liza, the week before thanksgiving and goes on from there.

David Dobrik is a 23 year old youtuber with over 14 million subscribers. 

Natalie Mariduena is a 22 year old who has been best friends with David since middle-school.

They both grew up in the Suburbs of Chicago, Vernon Hills. David moved out to Los Angeles after finishing High-school and Natalie moved out with him after graduating from college at the age of 21. 

Natalie is a shy girl around new people but has gotten very comfortable around David and all of his friend (the vlogsquad) over the past two years. Her and David have been closer than ever over the past six months and they both realised it. However, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. 

Much like any other social media influencer, David was used to being "shipped" with every girl that he was seen with. After his breakup with Liza, may of his fans kept on insisting that they would et back together after three or six months and he thought it was a possibility. He still held tremendous love for her but after their split, they had both become increasingly busy with Liza leaving for Canada to film a new movie. They had remained good friends but without the close contact, they became more distant to the point where they both knew that their relationship would most likely never live up to the way it once was. David had also become extremely busy over the past few months with the added stress of interviews, shows, award ceremonies, and keeping up with all the videos. As a result, Natalie also had a lot on her plate trying to keep up with David's schedule. 

In the last month or so, "Datalie" had become a word they had become accustomed to seeing. It was funny to them because neither of them felt that way about each other. Natalie knew that David had had a crush on her back in Vernon Hills towards the beginning of high school. In fact, all of their friends knew and now the fans did too after his recent interview in New York. Natalie had also held a slight crush on David back then but he was not aware of it. However, a long time had passed since then and they had both overcome their feelings and now were just best friends. 

Lately, the entire group had become accustomed to using "Datalie" as clickbait for their fans. They knew that although it wasn't real, it brought up the view count and it was more like a joke to them all. Deep down, their friends wished that they would get together as it would feel like the plot of one of those cliché romantic comedy movies where two childhood best friends overcome some sort of struggle and end up dating. 

Not only had this become a constant joke within the friend-group, but their family too. Back in high school, their parents had joked that they would get married someday. They had let it go after David moved to LA and only started joking about it around  a month ago. Their families found it amusing how a small inside joke between the two families from years ago, had now become the source and clickbait for many of their videos.