Chapter Four: Loneliness

Brenda finally had the house to herself. She desperately need some alone time. Instead of going back to London and wasting money on two plane tickets (for there and back) she decided to have her neighbors, whom she trusted, ship all of her belongings to Beverly Hills. She would put all of her furniture and such in a storage locker and save it for when she'd buy an apartment.

Then the phone rang. Normally when Brenda was a guest in someone else's house, she wouldn't answer the phone, but answered it anyway. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Donna. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm alright. They just left for Costa Rica, so I have the house all to myself."

"You sure sound happy."

"Are you kidding? I'm a wreck. I'm a guest in his home and I'm still in love with him! I am such an evil person I don't deserve this kind of treatment! I should be like, locked away in jail or something. I don't deserve—"

"Brenda, calm down. You do deserve to stay with Dylan at his house. He cares about you as a close friend and a person and he's doing you a huge favor by letting you stay at his home. Just appreciate it and try to be happy for him and Kelly."

"You think I'm trying to do that? I have tried so freaking hard to keep a smile on my face 24 hours a day, and it's just so stressful."

Donna sighed on the other end of the phone. "Well, if you want, you can spend some time with me and David. We don't have anything planned. Plus, maybe with Dylan not being around, it will help you to get over him."

Donna did have a point. "Yeah, you're right. Come over for dinner. I'll cook something for you guys."

"Okay, cool. Listen I got to go but we'll be over there around 6. Is that good?"

"Sounds great! See you then."

A few hours later, Brenda was moping around the house in her sweats, and her eyes were wet from crying once again. She was watching some dumb infomercial on television on how there was a new love potion to make your one love, love you back. However, she dismissed this as bullshit, and she found it a coincidence that she was experiencing the condition of unrequited love.

Just then she saw a very familiar creamy-yellow '65 mustang convertible pull up in front of the house. Two people emerged from the car. Her brother Brandon, and their friend, Val.

Valerie Malone was an old family friend of the Walshes who came to live with them shortly after Brenda moved to London. She was doing all sorts of drugs and she even slept with a few members of their main group of friends. However, she was clean and sober now, and was married to a guy named Victor.

Brenda actually-for-real-smiled and opened the door for her brother and friend. "Hey guys..." she hugged them both. "What brings you here?"

Brandon smiled, and then quickly turned serious. "Donna told us," he began. "We wanted to see if you were okay."

She breathed heavily. "Honestly? I'm alright...I guess. Yesterday was a different story. I could not stop crying when I went to sleep last night. Just seeing him with her...it's like high school all over again."

Val slowly wrapped her arms around Brenda. "Bren, it's okay. But you're going to have to accept the fact that you and Dylan are never going to happen. He's married."

Brenda nodded in agreement. "I know. I keep telling myself that, but I know truly that I won't accept the truth. I still love him." She began to cry and the tears slowly dripped off her face and landed on the floor.

Brandon sighed. "Do you want to see a therapist?"

Brenda, still in Val's arms, nodded while still crying. "Yes, make it for tomorrow; I'm cooking dinner for David and Donna. You can join if you want."

Val let go of Brenda. "We will of course join you. We're your friends."