Author's Notes:
Back to the cliffhanger that I left everyone at when I dropped off the face of the earth. Heh, heh. This had been a really hard chapter for me to write before my computer troubles and then I was finally satisfied but didn't have a chance to post it. ARGH! So I had to re-write it again and now it reads completely different than it used to. I'm not sure if I'm 100 happy with it, but I'm afraid if I mess with it anymore I'll become overly frustrated and scrap the whole thing. Eeep. So, rather than do that, I'm leaving it for you the reader to decide if it's good or if it's crappy. Please, be sure to let me know.
Thanks!
Usual spiel – I don't own Beverly Hills, 90210. Though I do own the first three seasons on DVD… Hum. Don't sue me. I've got three kids, therefore, I have no money. Ha, ha.
Chapter Eight
Run Like Hell
Malibu, California
The nervous tension in the room was palatable as Dylan anxiously paced back and forth in front of the large bay window of his living room. Melanie had phoned Andrea nearly forty-five minutes ago and still his friend had not arrived. Melanie had refused to leave, however. She was adamant that he should not be left alone. Her presence was driving him nuts, though, and he was desperately trying to think of some excuse – any excuse – that would make her go away.
"Look, Melanie," He began, ceasing his pacing for a moment to stand in front of her. She stared up at him with owl-like eyes. Her features were shrunken, almost skeletal and Dylan feared he was staring at what could be him in a year's time. "I really appreciate you sticking around until Andrea arrives, but you really don't need to. I'm fine, really. I'm better when I'm alone anyway."
Melanie shook her head, her lips pursed together in a firm line. "No." She stated plainly as she shook her head. "I'm not going to leave you by yourself, Dylan. I owe that much to you."
Dylan glowered. He couldn't believe she had the nerve to speak to him like she was. Especially after the news she had just delivered. "I don't need a babysitter." He stated pointedly.
"I realize that, Dylan." Melanie rose to her feet and made an attempt at a sympathetic smile. "But I have a little more experience in this than you do. You are the seventh guy I've talked to."
"Seventh?" Dylan's eyes widened slightly.
Melanie nodded. "I was very promiscuous in my youth. I made such terrible, terrible choices and now they've caught up with me. I will never forgive myself for how many people I may have brought down with me in the process."
"Everyone you've ever slept with." Dylan shuddered slightly, his thoughts immediately going to all the young women he had been with since he had been with Melanie. Kelly. Brenda. Valerie. Gina. The list was not a short one.
"And everyone that they've slept with." Melanie added grimly. "Even with condoms it's possible to become infected."
Dylan blanched, his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. Immediately after Melanie had made her announcement he had thought of the women who had been in his life. But what about the men that had been in theirs? Brandon. David. Noah. Steve. It was possible he could have indirectly exposed each and every one of his friends to the virus.
"Uh…" Dylan felt as if his head was beginning to swim again. He tore his gaze away from Melanie's face and stared out the window, his face hardening. The weight of her words pressed down upon him, his heart seizing up in his chest. "I can't believe this. I can't. This just isn't possible. It can't be happening."
"When was the last time you were tested?" Melanie asked gently, coming up to stand behind him, careful not to actually touch him though.
Dylan tilted his head back and let out a long, rueful, humorless chuckle. "High school. Before you. Before the woman who I once thought I would be spending the rest of my life with would even let me touch her, she insisted I get tested."
"Smart girl." Melanie stated, approvingly. "I wish I had been smart like that. But when I was in high school I thought the only way I would be popular, the only way guys would like me, was if I slept with every guy I dated. I was such a fool."
Melanie's words eerily echoed similar statements Kelly had made in the past. Dylan felt a pang in his heart as he thought of the beautiful woman that he had yearned after for so long. The thought of being responsible for possibly destroying her future was too much for him to bear.
"I've got to get out of here." He announced suddenly, abruptly turning away from the window. He crossed the room and pulled open a storage closet that was barely even noticeable unless one was looking for it. He yanked out one of his many suitcases and brought it over to the couch. He quickly unzipped the case, checking through his belongings that were already packed.
"You keep a packed suitcase in your closet?" Melanie queried, arching an eyebrow curiously.
Dylan nodded, shrugging his shoulders. He continued to rifle through the jeans and tee shirts that were there, checking to make sure he had packed a few warmer clothes as well. After deciding that it really didn't matter if he had everything he needed or not, he re-zipped the suitcase and stood it in front of the sofa.
"You can't just leave, Dylan." Melanie pointed out, frowning at him. "You need to be tested. There's a chance you don't have the virus. Like I said, I don't know when I contracted it myself. You could-"
"I realize that." Dylan snapped, running a frustrated hand through his short hair. "But what you don't realize is what I've done. Could have done." He corrected himself.
"It's not just one or two women that I could have infected. It's everyone. Every last person that I've ever trusted. Ever loved. The same people who always encouraged me to be better than I was. The same people who were the only reason I could pull myself out of whatever slimy pit I had fallen into.
"Don't you see, if I've infected one of them, I've probably infected them all!" He exclaimed, tears streaming down his face unchecked. "I can't live with that! I can't! I just can't! Which is exactly why I've got to leave. Once again, I'm going to take the coward's way out. I'm no different than the loser I was six years ago. No different."
Suddenly, the telephone that Dylan had left sitting on the coffee table after Melanie had phoned him earlier began to ring. Andrea was here. It had to be her.
"Do you want me to get that?" Melanie inquired after the phone rang several times without Dylan making a move to answer it.
"Whatever. I don't care anymore." Dylan mumbled, wiping his nose on the back of his hand as he attempted to gain control of himself.
"Hello?" Melanie answered the phone, her voice uncertain. She paused as the person on the other end spoke. "One moment."
She then turned to Dylan, her eyes questioning. "It's Andrea." She announced. "I don't know the code to let her in."
"Star seven, nine, four." He informed her before walking out of the room and heading into the bathroom. He shut and locked the door, turning on the water so there would be no chance that he could overhear Melanie and Andrea talking once his former lover let the one and only person Dylan hadn't possibly infected in to his nightmare.
Andrea stood at the ornately carved wooden door of Dylan's Spanish-style bungalow waiting for someone to answer her knock. She couldn't help be impressed by Dylan's little hideaway that Kelly had described as his private retreat he could always run to when he was feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or just needed to get some work done and didn't want to be interrupted.
According to what Kelly had told her the other night, Dylan still maintained his penthouse suite at the BelAge Hotel, but lately he had been spending more and more of his time in Malibu. Andrea could understand why. Given the choice, she would have chosen the bungalow over the hotel any day.
After what had felt like an eternity, the door to Dylan's house was finally opened and Andrea found herself staring at the most peculiarly dressed woman. At least for Southern California. She wore a dark, floor-length skirt paired with an obviously heavily-starched, long-sleeved white blouse with an exceptionally high neckline. Andrea was mildly surprised that she wasn't wearing a matching bonnet and black, button-up shoes.
"Hi, um, I'm not sure I have the right house." Andrea began uncertainly. "My name is Andrea Zuckerman. I'm looking for Dylan McKay. I got a phone call from a woman…" She trailed off, staring at the woman expectantly, refusing to let her always quizzical mind ponder the nature of this woman's relationship with her long-time friend.
"Andrea, hi." The woman smiled and though the gesture did not make the woman appear beautiful by any means, it did help her appearance some. "My name is Melanie. I called you. Please, come in." She motioned Andrea inside.
Andrea stepped inside the house, glancing about the tiled entryway of Dylan's house. A large mirror hung opposite the door and she hesitated to check her appearance before turning her full attention to the woman who introduced herself as Melanie.
"When you called you said Dylan needed my help. That it was very important." Andrea stated, peering past the woman's shoulder in an attempt to see if Dylan was in the room beyond the entry. "Where is he?"
"Bathroom." Melanie explained.
"I see." Andrea frowned. "Well, I suppose I'll wait for him in the living room, then." Andrea brushed past the woman, feeling as if she had more right to be in this house than Melanie did even though it was Andrea's first time ever being there.
Melanie followed Andrea into the living room, shifting her gaze about nervously. It was clear that she was extremely uncomfortable with the situation and was just as anxious for Dylan to exit that bathroom as Andrea was.
"So…" Melanie began, her tone betraying her anxiety. "You and Dylan been friends long?"
"Very." Andrea confirmed. "Since high school."
Melanie forced a smile. "I see. He, um, well, he hadn't ever mentioned you. Not that we ever really did much talking." She paused before continuing. "You're very beautiful."
Andrea was taken off guard by the woman's comment. It wasn't often that she was complimented by strangers. "Uh, thank you, I guess." She hesitated, not wanting to seem overly nosey but suddenly needing to find out just who this woman really was. "How did you say you knew Dylan again?"
"I didn't." She replied cryptically. "But I think that's something Dylan should tell you. Not me."
Andrea frowned. Dylan couldn't possibly be cheating on Kelly with this sallow-looking woman, could he? She was not at all Dylan's type. Whether she had blonde or brunette hair, Dylan always favored very beautiful women. She could never see Dylan with this Plain Jane.
"Look, I promised myself I wouldn't leave Dylan alone, but now that you're here, I should probably be going. I'm sure Dylan isn't exactly thrilled that I'm still around anyway." Melanie murmured. "Take care of him. He's going to need it."
With those final words, the strange woman turned on her heel and let herself out of the bungalow, leaving Andrea alone in the living room. Before taking a seat on one of the rather comfortable looking sofas, Andrea took a look around the room. The room was very tastefully decorated and had a soothing ambiance to it. Andrea particularly liked the artwork on the walls. Monet, she believed.
After several long minutes, Andrea heard a door open down the hall. She quickly rose to her feet and awaited her friend's appearance in the living room.
"Andrea." Dylan stated her name as greeting as he entered the living room. His expression was guarded, his eyes dark, though it looked as if he could have been crying only moments before. Andrea had never witnessed Dylan crying, though, and she hoped she was mistaken in her assumption.
"Hey Dylan. What's up? Your friend hinted that it was extremely important I come here right away. She said you couldn't be left alone. You okay?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine." He was obviously lying. "It wasn't really that important, I guess. Melanie just worries."
"Who is she?"
"No one important." He avoided answering her question. "No one for you to worry about, anyway. Look, I need to ask a favor of you."
"Anything." She answered immediately.
"Don't say that." Dylan grinned mirthlessly at her. "Not before you know what the favor is."
"But I would, Dylan." Andrea protested. "You're one of my oldest friends and I would do anything for you. Especially if you were in some sort of trouble. You're not, are you?"
"Not exactly. But I've got to leave for a little while."
"Leave?" Andrea echoed, taken completely off guard by his words. "You mean, leaving California?"
Dylan nodded. "Yeah. Hence the packed bag." He motioned to a suitcase that Andrea hadn't noticed earlier. "Could you call Kelly and if she answers, tell her that I'm not going to be able to make it tonight but I'll explain, um, well, I'll explain later."
"And if she doesn't answer?" Andrea furrowed her brow, not understanding what was going on with her friend.
"Then I'll leave the message." He stated smoothly. "I just can't talk to her right now. I'm afraid that if I do, well, I'm just afraid that I wouldn't be able to if she actually answered."
"Dylan, what's wrong? What's going on? Why'd you have Melanie call me, not Kelly or David? Something is the matter. I can tell."
Dylan said nothing for several minutes and Andrea was afraid she had angered him. His face was an expressionless mask as he stared at her. Finally, he broke the silence, though not his façade. "Yes, something is the matter. But I can't talk about it right now. Like I said, I need to get out of here for a little while. I need you to help me out here, Andrea. Please. There really is no one else that can."
"Fine." Andrea frowned at him as she picked up the phone. She quickly dialed Kelly's phone number and after four rings hear her voicemail pick up. "Answering machine." She stated, tossing the phone to Dylan.
Dylan caught the phone and held it to his ear. After a couple of seconds he began speaking. "Hey Kel, it's me. I thought I was going to be able to make it tonight, but I can't. You go on and have a good time, though. I actually have to be going out of town for awhile. Something has come up. I'll call you and explain more later, though. I promise. I love you."
Andrea nodded, glad that he was intending on actually Kelly later to explain his mysterious actions. "Is that all you needed?"
"Yeah. For now." Dylan smiled. "Just, well, just look out for Kelly while I'm gone, okay? I'm not sure how long I'll be away but if Brenda comes back before I do-"
"Brenda isn't expected for another month." Andrea interrupted. "You're not planning on being gone that long, are you?"
"Honestly, I don't know." He admitted. "I really don't."
"Don't be." Andrea suddenly felt very angry with Dylan, though not entirely sure why. "Kelly really needs you right now. I don't know if you noticed or not, but she's running herself into the ground with this whole Martin House thing. She's taking too much on herself. Right now she needs your support not you bailing on her when she needs you most."
Pain flickered in Dylan's eyes and for just a moment Andrea thought he might begin to cry. He quickly masked the emotions, however, and shook his head. "If I stick around things will be worse. Trust me on this one, Andrea. If I don't leave, things will get very ugly very quickly. Now," He reached behind Andrea to grab his suitcase. "I need to get going."
Andrea accepted her cue, heading towards the doorway, though not pleased at all with Dylan's excuses for leaving with little to no reason. "Where are you going?" She asked him just as she was about to go out the doorway.
"Baja. Where else?"
Author's Notes:
I don't have too much to say here, but please, please let me know what you guys think. I'm really rather anxious over this chapter. Probably because it's such a heavy subject matter. Actually, my entire story is becoming quite heavy. Though the next chapter will be quite a bit lighter… Speaking of...
!! SPOILERS !!
Coming up in Chapter Nine: Radio Ga Ga
Homesickness
DC's Pit
If you can't be with the one you love…
Okay, so the spoilers kinda suck this time around. Sorry. Maybe I'll give some better ones next time.
Cheers!
Jianna
