The Time of Our Lives – Chapter 54

Dylan's House, later that night

After a eating some food, Brenda had started to feel a little bit better about the horrible day she had experienced. After putting the dishes away in the kitchen, she walked back into the living room to see Dylan working on something.

'What are you working on?' she asks him.

He looks up with a smile on his face. 'Just that stupid extra chapter for Fanny Hill that I have to write for English class.'

'You don't seem that excited about it, yet you have a smile on your face? What's going on?' she asks, standing in front of him.

'Well,' he says, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her closer to the edge of the couch. 'I was having a little writer's block trying to figure out how to start this chapter and as soon as I started reading some of it, I started thinking of you.'

Brenda raises her eyebrows at him and puts her hands on his shoulders. 'Thinking of me? Do I really remind you of a teenage prostitute?'

'No, Brenda, not the prostitute part. This book is pretty, um, hot,' he says slowly, licking his lips and looking her up and down. 'So, it immediately made me think of how hot you are and how much I love being with you, and the words just started spilling out onto the page.'

Dylan gives her a little tug in his direction. She straddles his lap and sits down on him. 'Mmmmm, it sounds like you've had an interesting afternoon all by yourself,' she says, dropping her head down to put little kisses on his neck.

'I have, but I'm kind of stuck again,' he says with a smile on his face, enjoying her attack on his skin. 'Do you think you could help me out with that?'

Brenda begins nipping at his earlobe and pulls him closer when she hears him moan a little. He wraps his arms very tightly around her body and has a very difficult time controlling the urge to just rip her shirt off.

Brenda continues her assault, working her way from his earlobe across his face, briefly stopping at his lips before moving to the other side of his neck.

'Bren,' Dylan manages to get out, taking slow deep breaths.

Brenda lifts her head to look at him and can't help but bite her own lip at the intense look Dylan is giving her. They both begin to move at the same time, racing each other back to the bedroom and taking clothes off as they go.

Dylan starts to laugh as he hits the bed after getting tangled in his jeans. He rips them off and looks up when he hears Brenda laughing too.

She was standing in the doorway in just a bra and underwear with her hand up to her mouth laughing softly. Dylan stops laughing when he sees her bathed in the light from the living room. He slowly pushes his jeans out of the way with his foot, as he watches her slowly lower her hand from her mouth.

Dylan moves to open his arms for her, but before he can, he is launched backwards onto the bed by the force of her body as she reaches him.

The Beach

David wakes up to a soft breeze on his face. He enjoys the moment for just a second until he feels something shift next to him. He opens his eyes quickly and for a minute he forgets where he is.

'Good morning,' Hannah says with a smile on her face. She nuzzles her head into his chest and sighs softly.

David pulls her closer and stares up at the morning sky.

'I had a great time last night, David,' Hannah says, as she sits up.

'I did too,' he says. 'We should probably get you home though. Do you think your parents are worried?'

'No, I told them that I was staying with my sister,' she says getting up, adjusting her clothes and brushing the sand off of herself.

David gets up and picks up the blanket that they had been lying on. He looks up at Hannah quickly when he hears her laughing.

'What?'

'Your shirt is on backwards,' she says. She helps him turn it around and grabs his hand as they walk slowly back to the car.

David watches her face as they walk, trying to see if she was expressing any kind of regret for what they had done together. He doesn't see anything but her smile. She lifts her head and looks at him gently before moving to the passenger side of the car.

David lets out the breath he had been holding and smiles to himself.

Dylan's House

Dylan wakes up to the sound of the front door closing. He puts his hand over the spot that Brenda had been lying in and closes his eyes. He smiles as he takes in the soft smell of her shampoo from the pillow and the fresh scent that was coming out of the bathroom where she had just taken a shower.

He slowly gets himself out of bed and goes to the kitchen to make some coffee. He sees that the pot is already made and waiting for him and another smile creeps across his face. He pours himself a cup and goes to the living room to figure out where he left off writing.

He sits down and notices a little piece of paper on top of notepad.

'Dylan, you weren't kidding when you said that you were thinking of me and how hot we are. I just wanted to tell you that your writing is really good and that you are going to ace this project. Love you always, Brenda. P.S. The slow teasing in the story is my favorite part.'

Dylan smiles for the third time this morning and looks back at what he had written. He noticed, just as she did, that the teasing part of what he had written was over very quickly before Fanny and her man get busy.

He picks up a pen and starts adding some detail to the encounter, using some of the moves Brenda used on him the night before.

Campus

Kelly holds her bag close to her body and tries to walk between classes as fast as possible. She still felt like there was something not right and wasn't entirely comfortable being by herself.

She was so preoccupied with being followed that she wasn't paying attention to what was in front of her.

'Whoa, Kel,' Brandon says, catching her as she falls forward into him.

'Oh, Brandon, I'm sorry, I guess I was a little distracted,' she says.

'Yeah, I would say so. I just came to walk with you to your next class. I don't want you to have to walk by yourself,' he says.

They start walking and Kelly smiles at him. 'You are so sweet to me,' she says.

Steve sits at the café waiting for Andrea to show up. She had called him the night before and asked if they could get together before class today.

'Hey, Steve,' she says, sitting next to him. 'Your eye looks much better today.'

'Thanks,' he says with a quick smile. 'So, Andrea, what's going on?'

'Well, I had an experience the other night and needed to talk to you about it. I just want you to listen, okay? You don't have to say anything and I'm not looking for you to respond, I just want you to hear me out,' she says quickly.

Steve stays quiet, while he looks at her with confusion.

Andrea recounts the incident with as much detail as possible and the feeling about being followed to Steve. She was hoping that maybe her story would stir up some unsure feelings in Steve to help him admit that it could be happening to him too.

He sits emotionless listening to her story and nods his head occasionally. He doesn't say anything as she finishes her story.

'But you know, Steve, that's not even the worst part,' Andrea says, setting him up for the big one.

He turns his head slightly and listens.

'The same thing that happened to me also happened to Kelly,' she says slow enough to make sure that he heard every word.

As soon as Andrea says Kelly's name, Steve sits up a little straighter in his seat and leans in to her.

'What do you mean the same thing happened to Kelly?' he asks her.

Andrea smiles to herself and tells him Kelly's story, watching his face the entire time. 'So, she thinks that maybe someone is targeting our group for some reason. What do you think?'

'I have no idea. Maybe it's some sick perverted guy wanting to work his way through our friends. Has anyone talked to Brenda? Is she being followed too?' he says quickly.

Andrea realizes that he hasn't made the connection with the stalking to himself, so she tries again.

'I don't think it's just the women, Steve, since it started with you,' she says.

The confusion comes back to Steve's face for just a second before his conversation with Brandon outside of the club comes rushing back into his head.

'Nah, come on, Andrea, that's ridiculous. Maybe you and Kelly are just overly paranoid,' he says, brushing it off. 'Look, I have to go now. I'll talk to you later.'

Steve gets up from the table and walks out of the building. He didn't think that Andrea's words really meant anything, but a little part of him was quite bothered by the prospect of something bad happening to Kelly and Andrea because of him.

The Old Globe Theatre

Brenda stands on the stage waiting for everyone to be ready. The director was working through some of the scene changes with the other actors. She starts running through her lines quickly in her head just to keep herself fresh and doesn't notice when the theatre door opens and someone takes a seat in the back.

'Okay, Brenda, sorry to keep you waiting, are you ready?' John asks her.

Brenda nods her head and takes her position for the start of the scene. They start playing the scene as John makes his way to his seat in the audience. Something catches his eye and instead of sitting down he goes to the back of the theatre.

'Dude, what are you doing here?' John says in a low voice.

'I just wanted to watch,' Phil says.

'Get out of here, man, I'm not in the business of providing you with eye candy when you don't have anything better to do. We're rehearsing here man, come on, go,' John tries to usher him out.

'She's not just eye candy, John, she's something more than that,' Phil says lustfully.

'She already has someone that she's living with, so just keep dreaming and get out of here,' John says.

'She might have someone in L.A., but she's got no one here,' Phil says, getting up slowly. He flashes John a devious smile and leaves the building.

John hears the actors stop talking and rushes back down to the stage.

'Sorry, everyone, sorry, I missed that entire thing. Can you go back and do it again?'

Brenda tries to shield her eyes from the stage lights to see what was distracting John from watching the scene. She doesn't see anything as she walks to her position on the stage for the beginning of the scene.

Dylan's House

Dylan writes a quick note to Brenda before he leaves the house. He was going to meet Monica to see what she had come up with for their project and wasn't sure when he would be back.

He sighs loudly as he looks at the note and shakes his head. Her father had called again and since he failed to tell her that he had called the first time, he was a little nervous about not being here to tell her in person that he called again.

He reluctantly leaves the house and drives over to the campus. Dylan walks in to the café and sees that Monica is already there waiting for him.

He walks over to join her and she pushes a cup of coffee in his direction.

'Straight up, right?' she asks, looking up at him.

'Right,' he says, taking a sip. 'So, did you come up with anything?'

Monica shuffles in her seat a little and stares down at the table. 'Um, yes, I did, but I think it is more Judy Blume than it is 'Fanny Hill' material,' she says.

Dylan laughs a little and puts his hand on her shoulder to soothe her obvious embarrassment.

'That's okay, Monica, a little Judy Blume is a good start and a great introduction for the 'Fanny Hill' type material,' he says, trying to rebuild her confidence a little.

She leans into his touch a little and finally lifts her face to show him a small smile.

'Okay, let's see it,' Dylan says, putting his coffee down and outstretching his hand.

Monica hands over her pages and then hides her face in her hands. Dylan reads her paragraphs and almost can't believe how very prudish it is.

'Okay,' she says, after he is done reading, 'now, show me what you have.'

Dylan feels his heart skip a beat and starts to feel a little embarrassment himself thinking about what he had written. He's not sure if Monica would even be able to get through the entire thing without dying from shock, but he hands it over anyway and continues to drink his coffee.

She begins to read his story and he notices immediately the color rush into her face and the tips of her ears. She fidgets uncontrollably as she reads and Dylan tries very hard to stifle a laugh. He found it very difficult to believe that someone could be so sheltered, and then he remembered when he first met Brenda.

Monica finishes reading and looks up to see Dylan looking off into space and smiling.

'Why are you smiling?' she asks him.

'Ah, it's nothing,' Dylan says quickly. 'So, what do you think?'

'Well, it's very, um, provocative,' Monica finally gets out. 'Where do you come up with this stuff? It took me forever just to write those three paragraphs and then you come in with something that is one hundred times better and three pages longer.'

Dylan shrugs and finishes his coffee as she looks over his work again. Monica tries as hard as she can to calm herself down by breathing slowly in and out. She didn't realize it at the time, but her body had responded quite quickly to Dylan's writing and she was now having a very difficult time focusing on anything else.

'Listen, let's go make a copy of it and you can take it home and use it and the book as inspiration to beef this up,' Dylan says, handing her back her work.

The only thing Monica can do right now is nod her head. She is terrified of what her voice might sound like, so she gets up, grabs her sweater from the back of the chair, holds it just above her waist and follows Dylan to the library.

Steve stands behind a few trees as he watches Andrea leave a building after one of her classes. He looks around at the people milling about and tries to see if he notices if someone is watching her.

He doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, so he starts walking across campus to see if he can catch Kelly after her class. He was now completely obsessed with determining whether Andrea was right or not. He still didn't believe that it applied to him, but he was increasingly more worried about the girls and was going to make sure that nothing happened to them.

Steve gets closer to the building where Kelly has class and sees that Brandon is waiting outside for her. The class hadn't let out yet, but there he was pacing slowly.

Steve decides that maybe he didn't need to watch Kelly and begins to turn around when he sees something move out of the corner of his eye. He turns and hides behind the trees as people begin to exit the building.

Kelly comes out right behind a group of people and almost misses Brandon as she tries to blend in.

Steve sees them talking to each other and a look of relief flashes across Kelly's face. They walk together near where he is hiding and for a brief second he sees a face pop out from behind some bushes behind Kelly and Brandon.

A bolt runs through his body as he recognizes the face. He sinks down to his haunches behind the tree and tries to calm his heartbeat down.

Dylan's House

Brenda comes through the door and drops her bag on the floor. She calls out Dylan's name and then goes searching for him when he doesn't answer. She finds a note that he left her on the dining room table.

'Bren, working on my English project, don't know when I'll be back. Your dad called…twice. Love, Dylan'

'Damn,' Brenda says out loud. She had tried not to think about her father and the fact that she had to talk to him about moving out.

She sits down at the table and stares at the front door for about ten minutes without really moving. She finally sighs and wills herself to get up and move to the phone.

'Hello?' she hears her mother's voice.

'Um, hi Mom,' Brenda stammers.

'Brenda,' Cindy says flatly.

'I was just calling,' Brenda starts to say.

'Yes,' Cindy cuts her off, 'I'll go and get your father.'

The line goes silent and Brenda feels a sharp pain in her chest. Her mother didn't even want to talk to her at all and she gets a sinking feeling that her father will be no different.

'Brenda?'

'Hi Dad,' Brenda says, completely deflated.

'I'm glad you called. How are you doing, honey? How is your play going?' Jim asks with sincerity.

Brenda pauses for a few seconds trying to figure out if her dad was for real. Her mother had to have told him about their conversation and he certainly isn't reacting if he already knew what she was going to say.

'Uh, I'm fine, Dad. The play is going really well, only two and a half weeks until opening night,' Brenda says, still a little wary.

'Well, that's great honey. Listen, your Mom mentioned the conversation you two had the other day and I'd like to talk to you about it. Do you think maybe you could come by for a little while?' Jim asks her.

Brenda really didn't want to actually face her father, but based on the way he was acting on the phone, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. His tone was not forceful at all and it kind of made her more nervous.

'Uh, sure, Dad, I'll be there in a little while,' Brenda says.

After hanging up with her father, Brenda starts pacing from the front door all the way to the kitchen and back. She finally decides that she just needs to get this over with and jumps in the car to drive over to her parent's house.

Brenda pulls her car up the driveway and walks up to the door. She hesitates for a second about knocking or just opening the door. She decides that she wants to walk in on her own terms and goes in without knocking.

'Mom? Dad?' she says as she comes through the door.

'Brenda?' Jim says coming out of the living room. He puts his arms around his daughter and holds her close.

'It's nice to finally see you. It's been a while,' Jim says.

'Yeah, sorry about that, I've just been really busy,' Brenda says. She starts to wonder if this nice attitude that her father has right now is just to give a sense of calm before the storm hits.

'Why don't you make yourself comfortable in the living room and I'll get us something to drink,' Jim says.

'Okay,' Brenda says quickly. She sits down on the couch and waits for her father to come back in.

Jim comes back a few minutes later with two glasses of water and Cindy in tow. He sits down next to his daughter and hands her a glass.

Cindy sits down in one of the chairs and holds on tight to the coffee cup in her hand. Brenda steals a look at her mother and doesn't see anger, just maybe a little disappointment.

'Okay, Brenda, why don't you tell me what you told your mother?' Jim asks.

'Well,' Brenda starts, 'since the drive back and forth to San Diego is really long, the director offered me a place to stay for the last few weeks of the show. I'm going to be staying there during the week and coming back on the weekends for the next two weeks. Opening night is coming up and I think that just being able to focus on that instead of trying to stay awake coming back here every night is a good decision.'

Jim wrinkles his forehead a little and nods his head. 'So, you're going to be staying in San Diego for pretty much the next two weeks or so?'

Brenda nods her head. 'Dad, this play is really important to me and to my career. This is a professional theatre and to be able to perform without worrying about what's going on in the rest of my life is critical.'

'I understand. I do have the same concern that your mother does though, are you sure you are comfortable enough around these people to be staying there alone? You are a beautiful young woman, Brenda, and I wouldn't want you put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation just for this play,' Jim warns.

Brenda listens to what her father has to say. 'I trust them, Dad, I really do. They wouldn't want anything to happen to me either and besides I know how to take care of myself,' she says.

'Brenda, I hope you understand that we're just worried about you,' Jim says, looking toward Cindy as he says it.

Brenda follows his gaze toward her mother and tries to read the expression on her face, but can't quite make it out.

'You're my parents and I know that you're going to worry about me. I expect that from you guys,' Brenda tells them.

Cindy sits up straighter in the chair and waits for Brenda to tell her father that she's moving out.

'Just promise me one thing, okay?' Jim asks. 'Please calls us and let us know that you're okay once in a while. I don't like the idea of you being down there by yourself.'

'Okay, Dad,' Brenda says with a slight smile, 'I promise.'

'Good, now tell me about this moving out business,' Jim says, very calmly.

Brenda breathes in and out very slowly. 'Well, I have decided that I'm going to move in with Dylan. He asked me quite some time ago to do it and I've decided that this is a good time. I spend practically every night there as it is and I'm going to be spending the next two weeks in San Diego. I'm never here anymore and who knows where my next job will take me,' she explains.

'Brenda, honey, this is a very big step for you and Dylan. I know things seem pretty cut and dry right now, but it's not always going to be like that. I don't disagree with your reasoning for moving in with Dylan, but I worry that if this job takes you away, and the next job takes you away, that you're going to feel somehow trapped there,' Jim says.

'I understand what you're trying to say, Dad, I really do, but this is what I want,' Brenda says.

'Brenda,' Cindy chimes in, 'this is what you want right now, but what are you going to want three months from now?'

Brenda starts to feel the frustration simmer in her stomach. 'Mom, I know it's difficult for you to understand all of this and I know that you're disappointed with me, but I need to do this. I need to live my own life,' Brenda says, 'starting now.'

'Of course you do, sweetheart,' Jim says quickly. 'You have to understand that you're still our little girl, no matter how old you are. Dropping out of college, joining a professional theatre, and moving in with your boyfriend are a lot for your mother and me to handle in a very short period of time.'

'We just don't want to see you rush through this part of your life, Brenda,' Cindy pleads. 'You're still young and have so much to look forward to.'

'Mom, Dad, I don't want to fight with you about any of this. I just want you to support me in the decisions that I make and be there for me when I need you. I still need you, both of you, and I don't want me moving out of this house to be something you say is okay, but really hate me for it,' Brenda pleads.

'Oh, Brenda, honey,' Jim says, putting his arm around her shoulders, 'we will never hate you and we will always be here for you.'

'Brenda, we just want you to trust us enough to talk to us like you used to. You used to tell us what you were thinking and involved us in some way in your life,' Cindy says.

'We know that things are quite different now than they once were, but that doesn't mean that you have to stop talking to us,' Jim says. 'You know that we haven't always been big fans of Dylan, especially me, but when you said this time would be different, well, you were right and I was wrong.'

Brenda softens as the frustration within her dissipates. 'I,' Brenda begins, 'I had no idea you felt this way.' She looks at both of her parents and tries to continue.

'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,' she says.

Cindy embraces her daughter and kisses the top of her head.

'Brenda, it took me a long time and several discussions with your father to be okay with the fact that you are growing up so fast and are so independent. I know that we can't tell you how to live your life, but you're still our daughter and I can't stand by and say nothing when we can maybe help you through some of these things,' Cindy says.

'But Mom, you were so angry with me. I was terrified to tell you because of the way you would react. You guys haven't exactly reacted well to any big news I have had to tell you over the last few years,' Brenda says.

'I know, sweetheart,' Cindy says. 'I was pretty angry, but after talking to your father, this is my problem, not yours. I miss my little girl and I just have to find a better way deal with that as you move through life.'

Jim smiles and embraces both his wife and his daughter. 'My two favorite girls,' he beams.

Brenda wipes a tear from her face and lets out a deep breath. She looks at both of her parents and smiles brightly.

'I'm still moving in with Dylan, you know,' Brenda says with a laugh.