Torn to Pieces – Chapter 10 – Brenda finds a little peace and Dylan finds someone to talk to
'Bren? Is everything okay? One minute you're at school and the next minute you're gone! What happened? Are you alright?' Brandon says, out of breath.
'Brandon, relax, I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye, but Dylan really needed me,' she explains.
'What do you mean?'
'He's having a hard time and needed some help, so we got rid of the liquor in his house and then came over here. He's in the living room with Ben right now and he'll be staying in your room tonight,' she says.
'Oh, man, okay, you scared the crap out of me,' he says as he takes a few deep breaths and sits down.
Brenda smiles at him and says, 'It's okay, Brandon, thanks for caring.'
The Walsh family gets ready for dinner while Dylan and Ben talk in the living room. Brandon and Brenda help make the salad, waiting for Dylan and Ben to be finished talking. After a few hours, Dylan finally comes into the kitchen.
'Bren?' Dylan says.
'Yeah?' she responds.
'Ben wants to talk to you for a minute,' he says. She nods her head and goes into the foyer where Ben is waiting by the front door.
'Brenda, are you doing alright?' he asks.
'Much better than Dylan, I imagine,' she says.
'I'm glad you're alright too. Listen, did he say anything while he was having the outburst in the kitchen?' Ben asks.
'Not until I called his name. He asked if it was me and where I was and I told him to please open his eyes. Then I started to shake him a little hoping that would bring him out of it, but he started saying 'no, no, no, no don't leave, please don't leave' and then he reached out,' she explains.
'Okay, well, he doesn't remember saying anything, but he does remember hearing your voice and every word you said. I just want you to know, he has some pretty strong feelings when it comes to you, so you may be dragged in a little further than you would have liked to be in this situation,' Ben says. 'Just keep him talking and make sure someone is checking up on him regularly when he goes back to his house. Call me right away if there is a problem, okay?'
'Okay, thanks so much for coming out here, Ben,' Brenda says.
'It's not a problem, remember to call me,' he says as he opens the door and leaves.
Brenda takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She turns to walk back into the kitchen as she sees the door open and Dylan come walking out.
'Is Ben still here?' he asks her.
'No, he just left,' she says as she looks down at the tile floor.
Dylan sees the look on her face. 'Brenda, please look at me,' he says.
She lifts her head up and looks at him and cannot help the tears that come to her eyes.
'Bren, I'm going to be okay, I just have some things I need to work out,' he says as he moves closer to her. She can't help but put her arms out to him as he moves closer to her and he wraps his arms around her and holds her tight.
'Oh, Dylan, I know you're going to be okay, I know it,' she says through the tears.
'Bren, please don't cry,' he pleads.
They stand in front of the door for several minutes holding on to each other.
'Dinner's ready!' they hear from the dining room.
They part from each other as they hear Cindy's call. Brenda stares up at him for a few seconds before taking his hand and leading him to the dining room table.
Dylan spends the next few weeks in and out of school. Brenda had convinced him and he agreed with her that he needed to find some help in dealing with this problem. He had contacted Ben to ask if he knew of anyone he could talk to about what was happening to him.
'Dylan, there are a lot of options here. Personally, I think the best option for you right now is just to come in to the center and talk to one of the social workers that specialize in working with alcoholics to deal with this kind of stuff. Even if you only see them a few times, it will give you some perspective and will give you some techniques to use when these attacks are eminent,' Ben says.
'Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Brenda suggested the same thing,' he says.
'Well, Brenda is a very smart woman. I'm glad you're willing to do this, Dylan. It's a good sign that you actually want help.'
'Thanks, Ben. I'll come down there tomorrow and maybe you could get me in to see someone,' Dylan says.
'Absolutely, I'll see you then,' he says.
Dylan had been seeing the social worker for about two weeks before they got to the point in his therapy that he needed to bring Brenda in to talk through a few things. He had told Mike, the social worker, everything that had happened with him and Brenda from the beginning.
He had emotionally broken down several times when he got to the parts of their history where she broke up with him several times, and when he sent her to Paris and cheated on her with Kelly. Mike told him that the only way he was going to work through this is by having a two-sided conversation.
Dylan admitted that he never really talked to Brenda about the situations because agreeing to go to the A.A. meetings with him was the only reason she was talking to him now. Mike had said that she was talking to him now, so now was as good a time as any to deal with it once and for all.
He was nervous about asking her to go with him, but he figured that she suggested he do this, so she probably wouldn't be that freaked out about going with him.
'Hey, Bren,' he says over the phone.
'Hi, Dylan, how is everything going?' she asks.
'Great, actually, it's going really great. Mike thinks I'm making really good progress.'
'That's good to hear. You definitely sound better today,' she says.
'Listen, we've reached the point in my therapy that we're talking about my relationship with you, and Mike suggested that you come to the next few sessions to kind of work through some of that stuff with me. Do you think you'd be alright with doing that?' he asks nervously.
Brenda pauses for a few seconds before answering him. 'Um, yeah, sure, I would. I didn't know that you were talking about us in there,' she says.
'Well, I kind of couldn't avoid it, since our relationship is weaved in and out all of the issues I'm trying to work through,' he says.
'Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Tell me when and where and I will be there.'
'Look Bren, aside from talking about what happened in your kitchen that day and the A.A. connection, I'd kind of like to talk about our relationship as a whole, you know, from the beginning,' he says slowly.
Brenda gets a little anxious at that suggestion. 'Dylan, I,' she starts.
'Bren, I know that you might be a little nervous about it, but what I've figured out is that I was being haunted by the past, not the present. I was still internally trying to deal with everything we had been through together, and there are a lot of things that I never got to say out loud, that I think you should have heard. There are a lot of things that I never dealt with,' he says. 'I need to do this and I'm hoping that deep down inside, you realize that maybe you need to do this too.'
She thinks for a few seconds about what he is saying. She sighs out loud and says, 'You're right, Dylan. I think you're right. We do need to do this.'
He breathes a sigh of relief at her words. 'Thank you, Bren, thank you.'
He was so happy that she had agreed to go with him and was willing to talk about their relationship in front of someone who could maybe help them figure it out.
As the weeks go by the gang slowly figures out what's been going on between Dylan and Brenda. Little comments here and there between them lead Donna to be the first to broach the subject with them.
'So, I know that it's really none of our business, but we're worried about you guys. What is going on?' Donna asks them one night while the gang is hanging out at the Peach Pit.
Brenda and Dylan exchange looks and decide that it can't hurt to tell them a little bit about what was going on. They already knew that Dylan and Kelly had broken up over something that was going on between Dylan, A.A., and Brenda.
As Brenda and Kelly had started talking to each other again, Donna figured at least that things weren't that bad and had actually started to go back to normal. They all started to notice the fact that Dylan was in and out of school and couldn't help but notice that when he was in school that Brenda was always checking in with him to make sure he was alright.
'Well,' Dylan begins, 'I've been struggling a little with keeping my addiction under control. I've started seeing a social worker to work through some of my issues and he's also helping me repair some broken relationships.' He looks over at Brenda when he says that and she meets his gaze and then looks down at the table.
'Wow, that's great that you're getting help, Dylan,' Donna says.
'Yeah, is that working out alright for you? I mean, we don't really mean to pry, but we're worried about you,' Steve says.
Dylan smiles at his friends' concern for him. 'Yeah, you know I think it's helping a lot. Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm really much better off now than I was a few weeks ago,' he says.
Kelly begins to fume in her seat. She cannot help but notice the looks that Brenda and Dylan are exchanging with each other. 'There has got to be a way to stop this before it goes too far. They are just going to hurt each other again and I will not have him taking Brenda away from me again. I lost a best friend once over him, I'm not going to let that happen again.'
'Actually, I really have to thank Brenda for convincing me that it was a good idea,' Kelly hears Dylan saying as she comes back to the conversation.
Brenda smiles at him and her face begins to get a little red with embarrassment.
'Dylan, stop, I just nudged you in the right direction, I didn't do anything else,' she says.
'Don't sell yourself short, Bren. You've been a rock for me and I can't tell you how much that means,' he says.
The gang watches the scene in front of them. They switch back from watching Dylan and Brenda over to watching Kelly when she starts to shift in her seat.
As uncomfortable for Kelly as it was seeing Dylan trying so hard to repair his relationship with Brenda, she begins to steel herself to it. She decides that she no longer wants to be a part of this triangle and that she was going to end it once and for all. She just needed some time. She decided that getting close enough to Brenda for her to feel comfortable to talk to Kelly about Dylan was the new end goal. She needed to get as much information about their interactions with each other as possible, so that she would know when the right time to strike would be.
Over the next few weeks, Kelly does everything she possibly can to get Brenda to open up to her about Dylan.
Brenda begins to spend some more time with Kelly. She's amazed at how much Kelly is really trying hard to build a foundation with her again. She let's herself enjoy the attentiveness that Kelly is paying to her and begins to feel like there is a chance for them to fall back into the comfortable friendship they had before.
The gang falls back into their comfort zone with each other and they all enjoy a few drama-free weeks. Brenda and Kelly were getting along, Dylan was in therapy and not in the middle of some romantic Bermuda Triangle at the moment, and everyone was content with the way things were going.