A Difficult Kind – Chapter 7
They spend the next hour drinking, laughing, telling stories, and doing shots. Each time Dylan changes the location of where the salt is on his body and tries to get to the point where Brenda might say no. She doesn't, but keeps up with him and every time she licks the salt from his body a jolt runs up Dylan's spine.
'Okay, last one guys and then I have to go,' Paige says and hands the salt shaker to Dylan. They all stare directly at Dylan to see where he's going to put it this time.
Brenda stares at him trying to figure out where else he could possibly put it that he hasn't already. She doesn't think he'll be able to out do the last one, but waits to see what he has up his sleeve. She knows that he's testing her to see what her limits might be when it comes to him, but she was determined not to let him win this battle and being drunk already gave her a boost to her confidence and her defiance.
He pours some salt into his hand, licks his lips, and covers them with salt. He stares almost through Brenda, tempting her to refuse to take the shot. As much as she was enjoying the fact that they were hanging out and having fun again, she immediately feels her chest tighten.
'Oh, this is going to be good,' Brent says.
'Yeah, make it hot and steamy. Give me something to take back home with me,' Wyatt says.
'Wyatt!' Paige says and hits him on the arm.
Brenda thinks about it for a second and then looks over at Wyatt and winks at him. 'Steamy, huh?' she says and turns her head back over to stare at Dylan.
Dylan opens his eyes wide and almost can't believe that she's actually going to do it.
'To living through this night and only needing one pair of underwear,' Paige says breathless.
'Haz-zah!' Wyatt says slowly.
'You asked for it,' she says directly to Dylan. She leans over, grabs the back of his head with both of her hands and proceeds to lick and nibble the salt off of his lips slowly.
Dylan tries as hard as he can not to grab her while she is playing with him. He begins to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea as he feels himself respond to her touch. He tightens his grip around his own thigh and tries not to bite down on her lip.
'Oh, my God, I'm going to lose it right here,' Brent whispers to Wyatt.
'You and me both, man. Damn, that's hot,' he says.
Brenda finally licks all of the salt off of Dylan's lips and finishes by running her tongue between Dylan's lip and his teeth. She picks up the shot with one hand without looking away from him. She lingers for a second and then pulls away from Dylan and downs it.
'I think it's time we got out of here,' Beau says as he stands up and turns around toward the door.
'Yeah, time to go,' Paige says quickly. They all get up awkwardly from the table and walk out onto the street.
'You guys okay to get home?' Brent asks Brenda and Dylan.
'Yeah, we're fine, thanks,' Dylan says. He holds onto Brenda's arm as she sways back and forth.
'Goodnight,' Brenda says to her friends and follows Dylan down the street.
'Bren, you alright?' Dylan says looking at her.
'Never better, Dylan, never better,' she says. She stops and looks up at him. She stares for a few seconds and then slowly smiles. 'You didn't think I was going to do that did you?' she asks him.
He looks down at her. Her pupils were dilated and her cheeks were a beautiful shade of red.
'No, I really didn't, but now I know,' he says and begins to walk again.
'Know what?' she asks following him.
'Now I know that four beers and three shots of Tequila makes Brenda very friendly,' he says with a smile.
'Shut up,' she says with a pout, 'I'm always friendly.'
Dylan laughs at her. 'Oh, I definitely like drunk Brenda. This is going to be so much fun,' he says as he wraps his arm tightly around her while they walk back to her apartment.
They finally make it to the apartment and slowly walk inside. The lights are off, save for the hallway light.
'Come on, Bren,' he says and helps her to her bedroom.
He flops her down on the bed and begins to untie her boots.
'You couldn't have worn regular shoes, huh?' he says.
'Nope, these look better with my outfit,' she says.
'You're right, they do,' he laughs at her. He finally gets her boots off and lays her down on her pillow.
'Do you want to change or do you want to sleep in your clothes?' he asks her.
'I think I'll sleep in my clothes. Nothing like waking up in the same clothes you passed out in,' she says with a drunken smile.
'Okay, but you are going to drink some water before you pass out or you are going to have one monster headache tomorrow.'
Dylan leaves her room and gets her a large glass of water. Brenda watches him turn around and walk away and starts to smile. She catches herself grinning like a school girl and tries as hard as she can to shake it off.
'It's just the alcohol, Brenda, now get it together!' she says to herself. She decides that sleeping in her clothes might not be a good idea after all and starts to undress, forgetting for a few seconds that Dylan was coming back.
When he gets to the door he sees that Brenda has already taken her skirt off and is half-way under the covers.
'Oh, man,' he whispers to himself, looking at her half-naked body. He hesitates a little and then takes deep breath before walking back into her room. He sits down on the edge of her bed.
'Bren, you have to drink this. Sit up a little, okay,' he says and grabs her hand and tries to pull her to a semi-sitting position.
'Okay,' she sing-songs at him with her eyes closed.
'Bren, you have to open your eyes to do this,' he says. She slowly opens her eyes and he picks up her hand and puts it around the glass.
It takes her a good ten minutes, but she manages to drink the entire glass of water.
He takes her hand and lays her back down on the bed. He pulls the covers up over her body and goes to get up.
'Dylan?' she says.
He closes his eyes, lets out a breath, and without turning around says, 'Yeah?'
'Didn't you want me to tell you a story?' she asks him playfully, slurring ever so slightly.
'Now?' he asks her, turning around. 'I don't know if now such a good time for a story,' he says.
'Come on, you want to hear the story, don't you?' she says holding her hand out to him. 'Come lay with me while I tell you this story.'
Dylan stands in silence for a few seconds trying to decide what to do. He looks at her and takes in the beautiful body with the beckoning hand in front of him.
'Okay, Bren,' he says. He takes his shoes off and climbs into bed with her. She puts her head on his chest and her hand across it.
'So, tell me a story,' he says while rubbing her arm with his hand.
'Well, when Brandon called the first time and told me about Iris, he also asked me something else,' she tells him.
'What did he ask you?'
'He asked me to come home for Christmas.'
'Christmas?' Dylan asks, confused. 'Bren, you haven't been back for Christmas since you left.'
'I know, I thought it was weird too,' she says.
'That's what Donna was asking when I told her I hadn't thought about it. She was asking whether or not I had decided to come home,' she says.
'What's the big deal? Why would they want you to come home now? Has anyone, besides your mom, ever asked you to come back for Christmas?' he asks her.
Brenda lets out a loud sigh. 'No.'
'Well, I can see how that would take you by surprise,' he says.
'Yeah, it did,' she says drifting off.
'Are you going to tell me about Brandon now or do I have to wait until you sober up?' Dylan says.
'Later, Dylan, I don't think I could handle that conversation considering that I'm pretty drunk and kind of tired,' she says.
She cuddles closer to him. 'Dylan?'
'Yeah?'
'Would you do me a favor?'
'What's that?'
'Stay with me,' she says.
'Stay with you?'
'I'm sorry for not staying with you that night. I was scared,' she says to him.
'What were you scared of? Me?' he asks her.
'This,' she says and picks her head up a little to look at him. He looks into her beautiful eyes and his entire body tingles at every place she is touching him. She shifts her leg to rest on top of his and puts her hand around his chest.
He searches her eyes for some kind of sign that this is what she wants. He's not sure what he sees staring back at him, but realizes that she is way too drunk to be really serious about anything.
'I'm not scared of it now, but I think that has something to do with tequila and beer,' she says.
Dylan laughs at her and kisses the top of her head.
'It's okay, Bren,' he says.
'No, it's not okay. I really am sorry. You needed me and I left you out there all alone and I shouldn't have,' she says. 'I just didn't know what to do. Don't leave me all alone, okay?'
He strokes her hair with his hand and pulls her closer to him. 'Okay, Bren, I won't. I won't leave you all alone, okay?'
'Okay,' she says.
Dylan holds onto her tightly as he feels her drift off to sleep. He almost reluctantly closes his eyes. He doesn't want to forget this moment with her and he tries as hard as he can to stay awake. He looks down at her and smiles at the sight of Brenda back in his arms. He tries to keep his eyes open so that he can look at her but they slowly become so heavy that he can't keep them open any longer.
The images begin flowing in his head, just like they do every night. He watches them float by and wonders whether or not he will be able to avoid the scene where he's holding Toni's lifeless body in his arms.
He tries to focus on her walking up to him in her beautiful wedding dress with her flowers and veil. He sees her face turn and she smiles brightly at him. Her mouth begins to move, and he thinks that he can hear something, but can't quite make out what she's saying. He tries to call out to her, but does not even hear his own voice.
Toni smiles at him again and then continues to speak. He strains to hear anything at all. The image begins to fade and he finally hears, 'Dylan, wake up,' in Toni's soft voice.
'Dylan, wake up,' he hears again, but his mind seems to have melded Toni's voice with Brenda's.
'Dylan, wake up,' Brenda says louder. He finally opens his eyes and stares at her as if she's not really there.
'Bren?' he says confused.
'Dylan, are you alright?' she asks him.
He looks around the room and realizes that not only is he not on the pull out couch, but that Brenda is sitting up and leaning over him in nothing but a corset and underwear.
'Dylan, say something, please,' she begs him.
'Your not going to puke on me, are you?' he says with a smile.
She play hits him in the chest. 'Dylan, you scared me. Now is not the time to be joking around,' she says and flops back down on the bed.
'Bren, I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself,' he says looking over at her. She had not pulled the covers back up and he can't help but stare at the sliver of skin between where the corset ends and her underwear begins. He breathes in sharply and closes his eyes.
She turns her head slowly to look at him. 'Are you sure you're alright?' she asks him again.
'Yeah, I think so. I've just been having some really strange dreams,' he says. 'I'm sure it's nothing.'
'Do you want to talk about it?' she says.
Dylan shakes his head at her.
'Well, let's make a deal then,' Brenda says.
'What deal?' he says suspiciously.
'I'll tell you about Brandon and then you talk to me about these nightmares you've been having,' she says.
'They're not nightmares, Bren,' he says.
'Dylan, anything that wakes you up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and causes you to gasp loudly is a nightmare,' she says.
He looks at the defiant look on her face and knows that he will not be able to get around her stubbornness tonight.
'Okay, Bren, fine, let's do it. This way we both get to talk about something we don't really want to, which will lead to both of us being extremely uncomfortable,' he says mockingly.
'Fine, Dylan, make fun of me all you want. I'll just keep my mouth shut,' she says and closes her mouth dramatically.
'You're not going to be able to do that, Bren, and you know it,' he says.
She looks over at him with her mouth clenched tightly shut.
Dylan laughs at her. 'Okay, fine, we'll see how long this lasts,' he says.
She turns on her side away from him and pulls the covers up over her body. She can hear him laughing at her and can't help but smile a little herself.
They drift off to sleep again and don't wake until they hear the whistle of the tea kettle.
Brenda tries hard to open her eyes and when she finally gets them open she realizes that at some point she must have rolled back over. She had her head on Dylan's chest and her leg strategically placed in between his legs. He had one arm wrapped tightly around her back and the other resting on her knee.
Brenda smiles to herself, realizing how comfortable she is at this particular moment. She tries to not move at all and just enjoy this feeling. She closes her eyes and tries to store this feeling of being wrapped up with Dylan in her brain before it's gone. She opens her eyes as she feels him shifting a little. He tightens his grip around her body and tries to pull her closer to him. She lets him move her and feels his lips on her forehead as he turns his body to face hers.
She begins to feel her body responding to his touch and wants so badly to kiss him again and be able to lay here with him here forever. She immediately curses herself for thinking about it and decides that if she doesn't get up now, she may do something she'll regret later.
She shifts her weight and pulls back from him. She lifts her head up slightly and puts her hand on her forehead.
'Oh.'
'That's what you get for drinking too much tequila,' Dylan says with his eyes still shut.
Brenda looks at him for a few seconds. His eyes are still closed, his arm is still wrapped around her, and he has a slight smile on his face.
'Yeah, I'll remember that next time,' she says. She rolls out of bed, only just realizing that she's not wearing any pants. She was so caught up in the feeling of being next to him, that she didn't realize that she was half naked.
To hide her shock, she casually walks to her dresser, pulls out a pair of sweatpants and puts them on. She grabs a tee shirt from the drawer and walks out in the hall and into the bathroom.
Dylan gets up and walks out into the kitchen to see Iris sitting at the table, reading a book and drinking a cup of tea.
She looks at him for a few seconds, smiles, and then looks back down at her book.
'Not a word,' he says to her and begins to brew a pot of coffee.
Brenda comes out from the bathroom and walks into the kitchen.
