one of the boys » david dobrik au

forty nine

"Is he still mad?" Jeff asked as I walked into the kitchen. We agreed to wake up early for a gym session, which would only consist of light cardio for me considering I had a broken hand. That wasn't that far off from usual; I always ended up sitting next to the weights while Jeff did his thing, bothering him.

"He wasn't awake, but I don't think so," I answered. "To be clear, he wasn't mad that he had to tell you guys. He was more mad that you thought he would've hurt me."

"We didn't... Jesus, we never thought he hurt you," he tried to explain what he explained to David last night, but David wasn't really having it. "We thought he, like, tried to fight someone and you stepped in. Camilla, we obviously care about you, and when we saw you come in after a weekend alone with him with a broken hand, we're obviously going to be worried. We love you. If anyone ever did anything to you, we'd fuck you up."

"I love you guys too," I let him pull me in for a hug. "But that does not excuse your behavior."

"I know. I apologize to both of you," he sighed, arms still around me. "I never wanted to feel like I forced that shit out of him. I knew he was holding it in for a reason. I just never would've guessed that."

"Me either. When he told me, I barely even knew what to say," I said. "It just... it hurts, you know. Like, I wish I could've been there back then. To protect him. He just needed someone to protect him."

"Don't cry, Millie."

"I'm trying," I laughed, wiping the stray tears accumulating. "I'm trying. It's just... really sad."

"I know. I cried last night," he told me. "I felt so bad."

"He always tells me there's no reason to feel bad, so I feel like I should pass that onto you. None of us were there. None of us could've stopped it. The only thing we can do is make sure his life from now on is the happiest it can be."

"That's more your job," he laughed. "He doesn't give a shit about us. You're the only one who can make him happy."

"That's not true. He loves you guys. You've just been kind of off with him recently, which I get, but it really does hurt his feelings since you don't trust him as much anymore," I explained. "You should ease up on him. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

"We know. We just gotta protect you, you know? You're like my little sister."

As much as I appreciated that sentiment, I hoped the two boys would get over the whole protecting thing pretty soon, considering it was only putting a strain on David and I's relationship.

Jeff and I went to the gym and picked up smoothies on the way home. When we got back, David and Zane were sitting on the couch, laughing at whatever stupid movie they decided to turn on at eleven in the morning. All felt right in the world.

"Princess, I don't think you're meant to go to the gym with a broken hand."

"Pregnant ladies do it," I informed him as I flopped down next to him. "What are we watching?"

"Neighbors."

"...again?"

The year was slowly coming to an end. We'd have to either renew our lease or find a new place soon. The one problem I felt was still unresolved was the Natalie issue. I went to Corinna for help.

Corinna... explained a lot to me. She told me everything, and I mean everything, I never expected to hear.

Apparently, Natalie wasn't the best girlfriend to Todd. She was extremely manipulative and emotionally abusive, and at one point, she even hit him.

Todd, being a college aged student with extreme masculinity issues, never wanted anyone to know that. He told me—he was there with Corinna while she explained everything—just so that I'd know. He told me to never tell any of the others, and I kept my word on that.

Together, he and Corinna devised a plan that would ensure Natalie wouldn't want to be with him anymore. They bruised her ego with the "cheating", and somewhere along the way, they realized they actually liked each other. Natalie couldn't stand that Todd would choose someone else, and she mostly left them alone aside from snarky remarks and a few cat fights.

Hearing that information shocked me and gave me the utmost respect for Corinna. She was willing to have her friends see her as a bad person, a man stealer, just to protect Todd. It'd be more romantic if it wasn't so fucked up.

We ultimately decided that there was nothing we could do about Natalie. With her very public betrayal to me, we knew she at least lost all her friends, and that's all we could do. Anything else would probably result in a lawsuit, and that was something that none of us could take.

I took solace knowing that she was a bad person, and she'd have to live with that for the rest of her life.

With David in my life, I felt complete. There was nothing I couldn't do with him by my side. I never thought I'd see the day that Brandon didn't cross my mind, but it came. I finally deleted every trace of him from my life. I threw out the old memory box I had stashed in the back of my closet, deleted every last picture of him I could find, and eliminated his name completely from my vocabulary.

He was nothing to me now. Nothing but a memory, nothing but a joke I could laugh about whenever I felt down. His betrayal didn't sting me to my core anymore. I didn't feel lesser or weak for ever falling in love with him, for one reason and one reason only.

Every choice I made led me right to David. Every single time I felt weakened by Brandon, every single time I felt alone and hopeless, every single time he cheated on me... all it did was make me pack up shop and move. It led me to the house. It led me to David.

We sat out in the sun one of the last days of class, on the green at campus. He took my hand, still covered by a cast, and said, "I never signed it."

"I asked you to. You never did."

"I never knew what to write."

"Most people just go with their name, David," I laughed. "Except for Zane, who chose to draw a phallic image."

"Let me see it," he dug around in his bookbag and pulled out a black sharpie. He flipped my hand so my wrist was exposed and smiled lightly at the big empty spot. He knew I had been saving it for him, even if I didn't tell him.

He leaned over my hand so I couldn't see what he was writing, and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

I
WAS
HERE

"I was here?" I repeated. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I used to write I was here on stuff when I was little," he began to explain. "It's just proof. At one point, we were here. For a long time after now, we'll be remembered. I liked to think if I could leave my mark somewhere, I'd be safe. I'd never be forgotten. In 600 years when archaeologists find your cast in the ground somewhere, they will wonder who we were and why we were here. But there is no answer. We were just here. It's comforting, you know. We were alive. We left our mark. We were here."

"We were here," I repeated, and a sudden feeling of pure content washed over my body. "I like that."

I promise theres 1 more chapter okay this was supposed to be the last scene but i physically cant write a 49 chapter book so

Xoxo abby