Torn to Pieces – Chapter 2 – Dylan starts something he isn't sure he can finish

Dylan wakes up the next morning with an ache in his lower back. He rubs his eyes and realizes that he didn't make it to the bed last night, he only made it as far as the couch. He groans and curses himself.

Kelly arrives at school a little ticked that Dylan didn't call her back the night before. 'I shouldn't be mad at him. He said that he didn't want to see me last night after his meeting, but why didn't he call at least?'

She walks into the building and goes to her locker to drop off her books.

'Hey, Kel,' Donna says.

'Hey Donna,' Kelly says with a somber tone.

'What's wrong, Kel?'

'Well, I'm just a little irritated that's all. It's nothing.'

'Kelly, do you realize that this happens every month? Every time Dylan goes to the open meeting you come in here the next day irritated. Don't you find that a little coincidental?' Donna asks.

'Donna, come on, am I really that transparent?'

'YES, Kelly, you are. Now get over yourself and just deal with this already. You are starting to get on my nerves,' Donna says and walks away.

'Wow, what got into her?'

Dylan gets to school in time to see Brenda leaving her locker with her head in a book. She doesn't notice him staring at her, but he watches her walk all the way down the hall and turn the corner before he dares to move. He gets to the end of the hallway looks in the direction that she went and turns to walk down the opposite hall. He gets closer to his locker and sees Kelly standing near it facing in the other direction.

'Hey Kel,' he says.

'Hey, how was your meeting? You didn't call me back last night,' she says with a slight pout on her face.

'Yeah, sorry about that, I got in late and just crashed on the couch,' he says as he kisses her forehead. 'Well, let's go or we're going to miss class,' he says.

They walk down the hall together and Kelly smiles at him. 'Is he just trying to brush me off or am I just being paranoid?'

Brenda breathes a sigh of relief as she turns the corner of the hall. 'Thank God he didn't follow me.' She was at her locker and caught a glimpse of him at the end of the hallway. She saw him stop almost as if he was frozen to the spot and then try to hide when he saw her standing there. She carefully opened a textbook, closed her locker, and pretended to read the text all the way down the hall and around the corner. She hid in the doorway to the women's bathroom and peeked out to see if he was following her. She watched him get the end of the hall, look in her direction, sigh, and then walk the other way to his locker. Brenda lets the tension that had built up in her shoulders go and breathes out loud again. 'Okay, time for class. I better hurry or I'm going to be late!' She runs from her hiding place to her first class.

Brenda manages to avoid Dylan for the rest of the day. She sits alone eating her lunch away from everyone else in hopes of just having a little time to herself. She tries to figure out how she could deal with this situation better each time it happens, but had yet come up with anything that has worked. 'I've been going to these meetings with Dylan for the last six months and every time he seems to get closer and closer to doing more than just grabbing onto my hand. I know that holding onto my hand makes him feel safe, as it did the first time he did it,' Brenda begins to think back. Dylan had spoken that night in front of the group. It was the first time that he had dared speak in front of everyone while she was there in the audience. Before that he was never willing to get up on the stage and talk about himself. He started talking about his father's death and by the end the tears were streaming down his face. He came back to sit with her and she offered him her hand as some kind of comfort. He took it and never let go. Ever since then, he would automatically grab her hand at the start and not let go until it was over. 'Now I just have to get him to disconnect when the meeting is over. Last month he did almost the same thing he did today. I just don't understand it.'

Brenda picked up her lunch bag, which she had barely touched, and got up off of the grass. She began to walk back to her locker to put her lunch back into it and as she turned the corner to enter the building, the door opened and Kelly and Dylan walked out.

'Oh, hi, Bren,' Kelly said with a little apprehension.

'Hi, excuse me,' she brushed past them and into the building. She did not have the strength to even look at Dylan.

'Guess she's still not talking to us, huh?' Kelly says. 'How long do you think it will take her to get over seeing us together?'

'I don't know, Kel, maybe never,' Dylan says as he contemplates the thought in his head. 'How can she be so supportive and warm one day and so cold the next?'

'Dylan, come on, she can't ignore us forever,' Kelly says smiling at him.

'Yeah, Kel, she can.' Dylan shakes his head and stares at the ground.

'Okay, let's change the subject, so that we can eat our lunch in peace, okay?' she says trying to be cheerful.

'Yeah, sure, whatever you say,' he says as Kelly sits down on the grass, Dylan sneaks a look back at the door where they bumped into Brenda.

Brenda hurries inside to her locker and puts her lunch away. She grabs her books for the last few classes and runs upstairs to the newspaper office.

'Hey Brandon, do you, um, have a minute to talk to me?' she says as she peeks her head into the office.

Brandon turns around to see Brenda's head poking through the doorway opening. He sees the look on her face and recognizes it as the same look she had on her face when she came in her last month. 'Must be Dylan acting weird again.'

'Sure, Bren,' he says as he gets up and joins her out in the hallway. 'What's going on?'

'Brandon, I think it's getting worse. He did it again this morning, except that he lingered for a lot longer than he did last month. I know that he needs support and he appreciates the fact that I am still willing to go the A.A. meetings without tearing his head off, but I'm not sure if this is very therapeutic for me. Actually, I think it's detrimental for me. What do I do?' Brenda asks with a pleading look to her brother.

'Oh, Bren,' he says as her puts his arm around her, 'I'm not sure what you can do. Maybe you need to have a talk with him about it. Obviously he's either projecting, like you thought last night, or he really is thinking about acting on his feelings. You need to know. You can't keep going like this if he's got ulterior motives to wanting you to come to his A.A. meetings.'

She looks at him and knows that he's right. 'Yeah, I figured that's what you were going to say. But, Brandon, how do I do that without you-know-who finding out? I mean, he's not by himself a whole lot.'

'I'll take care of that part, okay? I'll get him to go out, you know, just guys, and when he comes to pick me up, you can grab him for a few minutes.'

'How about I talk to him when he drops you off instead? I mean, who wants to ruin a good night out, right?' 'And besides, I'm going to need the night to work up the nerves to talk to him about this.'

He smiles at her. 'Right,' he says.

Brandon runs into Dylan right before the last class of the day.

'Hey man, how are you doing?' Brandon asks.

'Not bad, B, not bad, how are you?' Dylan asks him.

'Well, I think I could use one of those 'guys-only' nights out, you know what I'm saying? How about you?' Brandon says with a smile.

Dylan returns his smile. 'Yeah, man, I think that's a great idea. How about Friday night?'

'Sounds good, bro, thanks! Oh, hey, you're going to have to pick me up though, Brenda needs the car on Friday.' Brandon slips in.

'Oh, sure, no problem.' Dylan says slowly. 'What would Brenda need the car for on Friday night? No, no, no, who cares right? Why am I even thinking about that?'

Brandon passes Brenda in the hall on his way to his last class. He winks at her and gives her the thumbs up sign. She laughs at him and goes into her last class of the day.

Brenda did her best to stay away from Dylan for the rest of the week. She thought she saw him lurking around a corner as she came out of her Biology class and then again as she left her Math class, but she couldn't be sure. As Friday approached, she began to get a nervous pit in the bottom of her stomach. 'Maybe I'm just hallucinating. No, Brandon confirmed that Dylan was being weird too. I just have to be strong and tell him how I feel about this. Strong.' Brenda tightens her fist as she thinks.

'Bren, what are you doing?' Donna laughs and asks as she watches Brenda's determined face and clenched fist.

'Donna! Um, I didn't see you there,' Brenda says quickly then laughs nervously.

'Are you alright?' Donna asks.

'Oh, yeah, of course, I'm fine. Just giving myself a pep talk, you know, need to do well on that, um, math test,' Brenda stammers out.

'Yeah, sure, Bren, look if you need to talk, remember that I'm here for you, okay?' Donna says as she puts her hand on Brenda's shoulder.

'She must be thinking I'm gearing up to see Kelly or something.' 'I know, thanks Donna.'

Brenda walks to her next class clutching her books to her chest. 'Everyone must be thinking that I'm going crazy or something. I've got to be more careful.'

Brandon knocks on Brenda's side of the bathroom door and waits for her to respond.

'Come on in, Brandon,' he hears and opens the door.

Brenda is standing in front of the mirror getting ready to go out with Donna. Donna offer to take her to a movie to get her out of the house and Brenda was glad that she now didn't have to ask Brandon to lie to Dylan about where she was going to be that she needed to take his car.

'So, you're not really going to take the car, right?' Brandon asks.

Brenda smiles and laughs out loud. 'No, Brandon, Donna is coming to pick me up. Don't you worry about your precious little car.'

'Good, I was getting a little nervous. Does she know not to show up until after 7:30?' he asks.

'Yeah, she's actually coming around 8:15, we're going to a late movie, but we should be back by midnight. Is that okay? Do you think you'll be back before then?' she asks with a little trepidation.

'Yeah, I'm sure that's fine. I'll make sure we come back right at curfew okay? So, what are going to do?' he asks her.

'Well, I figured that I'd wait in the living room until you guys pulled up and then stand outside the front door on the porch. Then you can tell him to hang on because it's unlike me to be waiting up for you. Do you think that would work?' Brenda asks. 'I'm not really full of ideas on this one.'

'Don't worry, we'll make it work. I'll come up with something. It'll be fine, I promise,' he says as he hugs her and kisses her on top of her head.

'If you say so,' she says sheepishly.