Not Meant to Be

A Dylan McKay (BH 90210) and Brooke Davis (One Tree Hill) one shot.

She supposed the allure of him was that he was older and a bad boy by nature. It didn't hurt that he was sexy as hell either...

They had met in New York where she had set up the home office for Clothes Over Bros. He came into the store ostensibly to buy a gift for some random girlfriend and he kept coming back once he knew Brooke owned the place. She was flattered by his attentions and attracted to him immediately. She sensed with him she could really go crazy, really let go, even if meant free falling until the ground eventually rose up to meet her. But she was willing to give it a try. She was twenty-three; he was thirty-five. There was a big age gap and yet, she relished it. He didn't seem like a dirty old man hitting on fresh meat. He seemed far too rebellious for such a stigma. He was not the kind of man one could really put a label on or shove into any specific category. He was all over the place, as unpredictable as that clichéd gale force wind. They were just alike in that way.

The sex was great - no, amazing - but problems started cropping up right away. She needed to go to fashion events almost every week and he was always too drunk or high to accompany her. The one time he did show, he embarrassed her with his drunken ranting. She resented him for that and he resented her for resenting him. After all, he had said at least a hundred times, you knew what you were getting into. His addiction would always rear its ugly head. He had informed her of that from the beginning. Did she forget what he was just because they went to bed? Nope. She hadn't. But she wished things could be different. And that was the basis of their whole relationship - wishing they themselves were different, wishing the other was different, and wishing they were with different people. For Dylan, it was always going to be that Gina girl he talked about. He could deny it until he was blue in the face but it didn't change the fact that he was crazy about her. No amount of drowning his sorrows in Patron would change that or that he had messed things up big time by letting her go.

For Brooke, of course, it was Lucas Scott. Always Lucas. She had loved him for so long that she simply didn't know how not to. It would hurt a hell of a lot less if she didn't care so damn much but she couldn't deny what her heart wanted. He was with some girl named Lindsay now though and Brooke wouldn't dream of trying to break them up because she knew, she still wouldn't get the guy. It was always going to be Lucas for her and someone else for Lucas.

XoXoXo

One night Dylan convinced her to get high with him and she knew she should say "no" - someone had to try to be the responsible adult here, right? But he insisted she was too uptight and that she needed to relax. She agreed even though it was against her better judgment. Next thing she knew, she was waking up in a hospital room and Dylan was nowhere to be found. He didn't come in for another hour and his excuse was that he couldn't stand to see what he'd done to her. Maybe it was true - she did see regret clouding his beautiful blue-gray eyes - but she knew she had to call it quits. Or she was going to die. Or she was going to kill him. Either way, someone would end up in a pine wood box if this "relationship" progressed any further.

She explained that. He understood where she was coming from. He knew that they weren't soulmates and that his addictive behavior was only going to keep hurting them. Besides, they agreed, they were always going to be looking over their shoulders hoping Gina and Lucas would come back for them. That was no way to "do" a relationship. Ironically, it was the most adult and responsible thing they ever did. They agreed to part ways as soon as she left the hospital the next morning. For now, they would just talk. And they did talk. All night about their crazy fantasies, their crazy relationship histories, their fucked up parents. It was the one time they had really communicated without using their body parts. Dylan's hand rested on hers a few times but that was it.

The morning came seemingly too soon and Dylan pushed her wheelchair to the curb (the nurses had insisted though she had balked, naturally). He teased her about being a little old grandma and she hit his arm at least four times. Then they both started to instinctively go in for a kiss but Brooke pulled back in time, reminding him that they had called it quits. Dylan nodded. He remembered. Brooke instead gave him a hug and surprisingly tears burned the back of her eyes as she let go of him but she held them back somehow. Dylan lightly touched her cheek and then wished her all the best and more and then was gone. Right out of her life. She knew it was for the best but she also knew she wasn't going to ever see that elusive man again and some part of her knew she was going to feel so empty without him screwing up her life at every turn. Simply put, she was going to miss the bastard.

FINIS