sirens - david dobrik

chapter twenty four

"Babe, does this look fine? Should I roll up the sleeves?" David wondered, staring at his reflection anxiously.

"I don't understand why you're freaking out." Sophia laughed, rolling up the sleeves of his sweater for him.

"Because I want them to like the guy their daughter is dating."

"David, they're gonna love you. My mom is already obsessed with you because you made an effort to talk to her in Spanish."

"Not enough. And your little sister watches my videos which makes me feel weird because she's like twelve." David said defensively, crossing his arms.

"Since when are you this high strung? Seriously, I've never seen you not smile for this long."

"Not funny."

Sophia giggled and kissed his mockingly pouted lips, making him break into a wide smile. He pulled her closer by grabbing her belt loops, kissing her hungrily.

"Baby, we have dinner in like twenty minutes."  Sophia groaned, pulling away from the embrace.

"I was hoping you'd forget."

-

"Sophia, David! It's so nice to see you." Her dad said excitedly, opening the door to let them in.

"Wow, is that a Tesla?"

"Yeah! I completely forgot, Sophie told me you like cars. Do you wanna give it a spin?" David asked, smiling nervously.

"Sure! We'll be back, Mumi." Her dad smiled, clapping her back playfully as he said her family
nickname.

The two guys headed down the front steps as Sophia entered her house. She greeted her mom happily when she heard her sister charge down the stairs,
emerging into the kitchen with a screech and throwing her arms around her big sister.

"Mumi! I missed you!"

"Missed you more, nena. How's school?" Sophia asked, ruffling her hair lovingly.

"Boring. Where's David?" She asked, jumping excitedly.

"Luciana Isabella, you better behave." Sophia scolded her, shoving her lightly.

"Am I supposed to act like I don't know who he is? He has like 10 million subscribers and half of them are my age. That's just not realistic."

"No, but don't be weird about it either. He's just like you and me."

"Except he's cute and funny! And he's rich." Luciana shrugged, her mom laughing loudly from the stove.

"Lucí, I'm gonna kill you if you say any of that in front of him."

"Ugh, fine. I'll be good."

"Thank you." Sophia exhaled in relief, pulling her into a side hug.

"I need to get myself one of those. Sophia, buy me a Tesla. I want one." Her dad chuckled, walking into the kitchen with David following closely behind him.

"Papi, if I had the money to buy a Tesla I'd have one." Sophia laughed, shaking her head.

"You have the money. You're just too cheap to splurge like that." Luciana shrugged, putting a hand on her hip sassily.

"Is this your sister? Hey, I'm David." He smiled, bumping his fist against hers.

"I'm Lucí. Do you really hate Corinna's dog Carl?" She wondered, David's face flushing in embarrassment.

"No, it's just a bit for the vlog."

Luciana liked that answer. She just nodded and smiled triumphantly. They helped Sophia's mom set up the dinner table before sitting around it comfortably. David didn't really like holding hands, especially not when he was nervous, because his hands got really sweaty. Sophia decided to rest her hand on his knee in attempts to make him feel more at home. He really appreciated her efforts to increase his level of comfort.

"So, David, explain to me what you do." Her dad said inquisitively, taking a sip of his wine.

"So, I started on this app called Vine. It ended up turning into me posting videos a few times a week with my friends and I also have a podcast. It's mainly an online thing like what Sophie does."

"No, his videos are way cooler than Mumi's!" Luciana perked up, Sophia laughing loudly.

"Wow, thanks."

"I think her videos are pretty cool." David smiled, Sophia blushing appreciatively.

"But you make more money than Sophia." Her mom joked with her thick accent, sending the table into laughter.

"You know, this Youtube thing was new to us when she started, but it's a huge thing now. I saw this boy made like 22 million dollars from looking at toys." Her dad commented, taking a bite of his food.

"I feel like it's so profitable because of a lot of brand deals. So like, a brand will approach you and basically pay you to talk about their company. That's where most of the money comes from." David explained with a shrug.

"Yeah. The money from the ads used to be a lot higher, but Youtube is demonetizing anything even slightly inappropriate." Sophia shook her head, playing with her nails absentmindedly.

"So all of your videos are demonetized, David?" Luciana wondered, making the entire table crack up.

"Damn, Lucí is on a roll. She should be on the vlog."

The little girl squealed excitedly, practically tipping her plate over.

"No! That's scary. Wait, maybe. Is it?" She blabbered, David chuckling in amusement.

"Not scary at all."

The rest of the dinner flew by as they enjoyed their food and each other's company. Sophia could tell that her family really liked David, which was all that really mattered to her. The relationship she had with her family meant a lot to her and she couldn't see herself dating someone they didn't approve of. David helped her mom clean up the dishes as Sophia said bye to her sister and dad.

"Es muy buena gente, lo escogiste bien. Espero que lo haremos otra vez. El quiere venir al viaje que tenemos planeado?" (He's a really nice guy. You chose him well. Would he want to come to our family trip?)

"Donde vamos este año? El no puede irse del país."  (Where are we found this year? He can't leave the country.) Sophia wondered, crossing her arms inquisitively.

"El es DACA? De donde es el?" (Is he DACA? Where is he from?)

"Si, el nació en Eslovaquia." (Yes, be was born in Slovakia.)

"Bueno pues, nos vamos a Miami y también a Los Cayos. Le gustaría?" (We're going to Miami and the Keys. Would he like it?)

"Yes, he'd love it. Thanks for dinner guys."

Sophie and David said their final goodbyes before heading out to the car. Sophia looked at David expectantly, waiting of any words to come from his mouth until they finally did.

"I fucking love them." He sighed happily, drumming his fingers agains the steering wheel.

"Me too."