In Dear David, when Laras’s fantasy stories about her crush, David, get leaked, Laras reluctantly makes a promise to David, which is the perfect recipe for heartbreak. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Laras, a 17-year-old teenager, is a good girl through and through. She is a scholarship student, she is the president of the student body, she is liked by her teachers, and she goes to church with her mother. However, she has a secret of her own — she writes sexually explicit fantasy stories about her crush, David.
David knows Laras because he goes to the same church as Laras, and their families are on friendly terms. David has a crush on Dilla, a student who gets bullied and slut-shamed at school by other students as well as the authority figures.
When a student named Arya leaks a comprising picture of David and Dilla, an upset Laras writes a story on one of the school computers. She signs out of her account but does not notice that the sign-out has failed.
The next day at school, someone leaks the stories on social media. Laras sneaks into the computer room and deletes all the evidence, but the damage has already been done, as the stories have become popular among the student population.
The principal informs Laras’ class that the school is investigating the matter and that they know someone from this class is responsible. She asks the student responsible to come forward if they do not want to get expelled later on, but Laras does not own up.
David’s popularity skyrockets overnight, but the sudden attention makes him uncomfortable. He cannot focus on soccer and gets harassed by other boys in the locker room, triggering a panic attack.
David soon figures out that Laras is the writer, as the stories include mentions of their interactions. David keeps this a secret and asks Laras to help him get closer to Dilla, who has rejected his advances so far, as the two girls used to be best friends. Laras agrees to help him.
Laras tries to rekindle her friendship with Dilla; she tells her that she misses her. The two friends reconcile, and Dilla reveals that people at school call her a slut because she rejected to go out with Arya, but everyone thought that she slept with him.
Dilla was upset because Laras never stood up for her. Laras apologizes to her and assures her that she does not believe what the other students say about her.
Laras tries to bring Dilla and David close to each other, but it only makes Dilla angry. Furthermore, everyone at school thinks Dilla is the writer of the stories. She gets bullied by the students and pressured by the principal to give a formal apology.
When Dilla refuses to apologize and stands up to her, the principal confiscates her phone and suspends her for 10 days. The school starts moral policing the girls and invading the privacy of the students.
When Laras does not pick up Dilla’s calls after her suspension, an angry Dilla kisses David in front of all the students after a soccer game and starts dating him, breaking Laras’ heart. Dilla asks David to call her by the name Laras uses to address her.
Laras’ scholarship gets extended, and her mother sends her to the church youth commission retreat. David is also going to the retreat, but Laras tries to keep her feelings in check and stay away from him now that he is with Dilla.
At the retreat, David admits to Laras that kissing Dilla is not what he expected it to be, and Laras admits that she is not happy that David is dating Dilla.
The teenagers are taken into the woods for a game, and David stays close to Laras because he is sharing a light with her. When it gets darker, David starts having a panic attack.
Laras tries to calm him down, but he holds her hand and asks her to tell him a story. Laras tells him a story about a writer who lives near the sea and a soccer player who meets her there; she describes the soccer player exactly how David is.
The writer and the soccer player live together and enjoy a simple life away from the rest of the world. Their time together comes to an end when the soccer player has to leave. The writer gives him a letter and asks him to open it only when he reaches home.
Laras tells him that the soccer player has a fiancé, and the writer sacrifices her happiness for the sake of their happiness. David understands that this is more than just one of Laras’ fictional stories and tells her that the writer also deserves to be happy.
On their way home, David holds Laras’ hand and tells her that his mother often had unstable moods, and he had his first panic attack when he got lost in a forest with her. He tells her that he does not want his father to find out about his panic attacks.
Laras comforts him and shares her own issues regarding her own father, who left her family when she was young. She tries to be a good girl because she sometimes blames herself for her father’s actions. She wishes to be someone someday.
They spend the rest of the ride goofing around with each other, and when they reach home, David meets Dilla and tells her that he wants to break up with her. Dilla is confused and upset, wondering what caused his feelings to change all of a sudden.
Dear David ending explained in detail:
How does Laras’ secret get revealed?
David messages Laras to ask her what happens in her story. Laras replies that the soccer player returns to the writer’s cabin but finds her gone. He never opened the letter that she gave him, but he finally does. The letter reads “Dear David…”.
Dilla reads these messages when David gives her some time alone after breaking up with her. Dilla discovers that Laras was the writer and that David knew about it. None of them spoke up, even when she got bullied and suspended.
She takes a picture of the messages. The next day, the student body as well as the principal find out Laras’ secret. The principal confiscates Laras’ phone and gives Dilla her phone back.
Do Laras and Dilla reconcile?
Laras confronts Dilla about exposing her secret, but Dilla points out that she makes everything about herself, which leads to Laras understanding her mistakes. Furthermore, she becomes a laughingstock at school and is shamed at church.
David shows his support by sitting next to her, while her mother supports her by telling her that it does not matter if she gets expelled or she cannot go to the college that she wants to attend, as having a daughter like her is enough for her.
Laras forces her way into Dilla’s house to apologize to her. She admits that she regrets hurting Dilla the most among everything else. Dilla replies that she has been unknowingly hurting her all this while by not loving her as more than a friend.
Dilla could never be honest about her feelings because she did not want Laras to see her as a freak. Laras assures her that she is not a freak and that she is glad to be loved by someone like her. She promises to be there for Dilla, and the two friends resolve their differences.
Does Laras end up with David?
Laras loses her scholarship, but she does not get expelled because the school needs her grades. She is asked by the principal to apologize in the assembly, but Arya, who leaked the stories on social media, gets no punishment.
David has a panic attack right before a match, and his father witnesses it. He comforts his son and even takes him to get help later.
After thinking about it at length, Laras does not give the apology that her principal wanted her to give. Instead, she apologizes to David for making him an object in her writings, to Dilla, who was bullied because of her, and to herself for feeling ashamed of her writings when she is just a girl in love.
She stresses how Arya leaked her stories and how the school did not punish him for violating her rights. She states that the privacy of the students does not matter to this school. She gets expelled but receives applause from all the students.
She leaves the school with her head held high and finds David waiting for her outside. David recites the contents of the letter; Laras confessed her love in the letter. He tries to confess his feelings for her, but she kisses him.
Laras is now with David and is back to being friends with Dilla, who meets a girl at the aquarium. Laras feels being herself is enough for her and feels at peace for the first time in her life.
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