Wrecking Ball

Don't you ever say I just walked away

I will always want you

I can't live a lie, running for my life

I will always want you.

.

I came in like a wrecking ball

I never hit so hard in love

All I wanted was to break your walls

All you ever did was wreck me.

Pamela headed into her house and stood before her mother who was sitting on the couch. "Mum." She cried.

Kelly looked up at her daughter who was full-on sobbing. "Pammy, what's the matter?" She asked concerned. Pamela rushed over to her and fell into her mother's arms. Kelly held her tightly, stroking her hair.

"James found out about Tommy." She bawled. "And they both dumped me."

Kelly let out a sympathetic sigh as she comforted her daughter, "I'm so sorry, sweetie."

"It's my own fault." She continued to sob, resting her head on Kelly's chest, "I let my emotions get the better of me."

"It happens..." Kelly soothed

"By tomorrow everyone will know. The whole school will judge me!" She cried

"Hey." Kelly lifted Pamela's head up, "Look at me... This does not define you, do you hear me?" She said firmly, "Your mistakes don't define you. Only you get to define who you are."

"But... they'll think I'm a slut." Her eyes were blood shot as she faced her mother.

"Honey, if they call you that, they're no better."

Pamela started to calm down, appreciating her mother's words. "...Okay." She finally uttered

"Pam, listen to me. Never apologize for your feelings. Your actions, yes. But never your feelings." Kelly insisted. Pamela nodded and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. Kelly wrapped her arms around her once more.

"I can't believe it." Brenda shook her head as her and Dylan sat at the kitchen table. Dylan nodded in agreement "...I hope he's okay."

"He will be." Dylan assured

"I just want to take his pain away." Brenda sighed

"I know, Bren." Dylan soothed, "But don't baby him. He's gotta learn that there are things in life he can't control."

"I guess this town just reeks of betrayal." She shook her head

"Come on, they're teenagers." Dylan groaned

"Yeah, but your own cousin." Brenda exhaled, "That's gotta sting."

"Tommy's a good kid. And they'll work it out. They'll fight and then they'll make up. They're brothers." Dylan insisted

"I hope so." Brenda breathed out

"Trust me, in 10 years, they won't even be thinking about this." He announced

"Well, unless... Pamela's still in the picture in 10 years." She added

Thomas arrived home, threw his bag down and slumped himself onto the couch. Brandon looked up from reading the newspaper,

"What happened to you?" He looked closely at Thomas' nose.

Thomas cleared his throat, and drawled "I slept with this girl... her boyfriend didn't like that too much."

Brandon scoffed, shaking his head, "Way to get your act together."

Thomas groaned in response. Just then, Brandon's phone rang.

"Hi Bren." Brandon answered, his voice trailed off as he headed to talk the call in the other room.

"You slept with James' girlfriend?" Brandon headed back into the living room after the phone call. Thomas closed his eyes, exhausted

"What is going on with you?" Brandon continued. "I don't get it. I thought not going to Minnesota was enough to make you step up and shape up and yet -" Brandon exhaled deeply, "You're own cousin."

Thomas let out an exasperated sigh, tilting his head back on the couch.

"I don't know how to get through to you anymore. The drinking, the smoking and now this?" Brandon shook his head, "When are you gonna take some responsibility, huh? When are you going to realize that there are consequences to your actions?!"

"Shut up, Brandon." Valerie groaned, now standing in the doorway

"Excuse me?" Brandon turned to face her.

"Just shut up." She reiterated, shaking her head. "Stop yelling at him. Because whatever you're doing, it's not working. People make mistakes, and shaming them is not how they change! And I'm so sick of the self-righteousness. None of you are any better. Brenda cheated with Rick. Dylan cheated with Kelly. Kelly cheated with you-"

"-You and Kelly?" Thomas perked up, "What an incestuous town..."

"Kelly and I did not cheat. They were broken up." Brandon affirmed.

"Oh." Valerie scoffed, "Yeah, I recall Dylan taking it well." She said sarcastically.

Brandon was silent.

"It's time you all get off your high horse." She scolded before turning on her heel.

Tommy headed into his parents' bedroom, where Valerie had just headed over to.

"Thanks." Tommy uttered once he popped his head through, leaning on the door frame. Valerie, who was sitting at her dresser, looked up at him and shot him a warm smile.

"You know..." She began, "This summer, you haven't been drinking much."

"Well..." He shrugged, "Maybe with dad cutting my allowance in half, I couldn't afford it." He joked and Valerie laughed.

"Or maybe..." She said seriously, "It's because you were happy."

Dylan arrived at the Peach Pit to find Brandon and Steve on their lunch break from work.

"Fancy meeting you here." Dylan slid into the booth with them.

"Dylan, how's it going?" Brandon asked

"Not too well if you've spoken to the kids." Dylan sighed

"I know. It seems your daughter has gotten our boys fist-fighting." Brandon turned to Steve

"Oh I don't wanna hear about that." Steve shook his head, "I guess having a daughter is my karma for being a manwhore in my prime."

Brandon and Dylan laughed

"Come to think of it, maybe this is all of our karma." Brandon pondered

"Yeah... Your preachy attitude granted you the rebel son." Dylan teased

"Let's not go there, shall we?" Brandon warned, "Look at your own karma."

Dylan smirked in response. "Ah, well. They'll be okay."

"I hope so. I really don't know what to do about Tommy." Brandon huffed

"Give him some space." Dylan assured. "...So, how's business?" He asked after a beat

"It's going well." Brandon nodded

"Yeah, we're making the big bucks now we're collaborating with Mark." Steve grinned

"That reminds me, I better call him. See if we can head over to the news station tomorrow." Brandon got up to make the call.

"What's that about?" Dylan asked Steve

"We've got our story running on TV thanks to this guy I knew from college." Steve paused, "Hey, you might know him, he's an LA native. Mark Reese."

"Yeah..." Dylan mumbled. He knew him, alright. He knew that Kelly was seeing him. "His dad and my dad ran in the same circles back in the day." Dylan's tone wasn't very chirpy.

"Sounds you have some fond memories." Steve said sarcastically.

"Did you know he's seeing Kelly?" Dylan didn't want to ask, but he just blurted it out.

"Yeah... Donna wanted to set them up when she found out we were working together."

"And you're okay with that?" Dylan struggled to hide his annoyance

"The guy had a thing for her in college. But we were married... he was always respectful though." Steve insisted

"Sure." Dylan scoffed.

"Do I sense a hint of jealousy?" Steve teased

"Shut up." Dylan groaned, looking over his shoulder to make sure Brandon hadn't overheard.

"What's going on with you two anyway? Kelly said you're supposed to be meeting Cameron for dinner soon?"

"Yeah... we're just... co-parenting I guess." Dylan shrugged

"Hmm..." Steve paused, "Guess it's never too late to change." After 17 years, he was glad Dylan was finally here, getting to know his other son, and Kelly got to have Cameron in her life.

The time had come for the family dinner with Cameron. All 5 were hesitant to go, but they had to do it for Cameron. They decided to do it at the Peach Pit, neutral ground, so that they could all leave when necessary. As both families head into the peach pit, only Brenda and Kelly exchanged the awkward hellos. Dylan remained silent, still unable to get past Kelly's new dating life, Brenda still felt uncomfortable around Kelly, knowing she still had feelings for Dylan, and James refused to talk to Pamela.

Cameron arrived late as usual, leaving the 5 of them to sit in awkward silence.

When he arrived he spotted Dylan, Brenda and James on one side of the booth, and Pamela and Kelly on the other. He slid in, beside Kelly. The adults all put on the brave face and smiled as they greeted him. The teenagers weren't as good at hiding their issues.

"Can I take your order?" The waitress asked

"Burgers?" Dylan looked across the table. Cameron and Brenda nodded.

"Veggie burgers for me and Pam." Kelly quietly interjected.

"Not the over-easy eggs, Pam?" James scoffed in a whisper.

"Give it a rest." She glared at him.

Cameron realized that the truth had come out for the couple.

"Hey, you two." Dylan warned them to be quiet, "James, that's enough."

"I can't do this." James stood up. "I'm sorry Cam, maybe some other time."

"Sure thing." Cameron assured

"No." Dylan said firmly, "No one is going anywhere."

"I'd rather go too, mum." Pamela turned to Kelly

"James, just sit down. Eat something." Brenda whispered to her son.

"Look." Kelly finally spoke, rubbing her forearms, "I get that you both don't want to be doing this right now." She looked at the kids. "But can you put your issues aside for one dinner. This is for Cameron. And it's far bigger than what's going on between the two of you. Okay? So let's not make rash decisions and do something we'll regret."

Dylan scoffed at that last remark.

Brenda turned to face him.

Kelly ignored him.

"Guys, it's not that deep." Cameron chuckled, "We can do this anytime. If you've got some personal stuff going on, we'll just reschedule, okay?"

"Thank you Cam." James appreciated. He got back up. "See you at home." He turned to his parents before heading off.

Dylan got up and followed his son outside.

"Well..." Cameron sighed, "Since we're rescheduling, I might as well go catch The Hunger Games on at the movies."

"Is that out yet?" Pamela asked

"Yeah... you wanna come?" He invited

"Sure!" Pamela turned to her mother, who nodded.

Pamela kissed her mother's cheek and waved goodbye to Brenda before heading out with Cameron.

"Well..." Kelly sighed, once Cameron and Pamela walked out "At least they're bonding."

Brenda was silent. The scoff that Dylan made at Kelly had her feeling uneasy.

"Kelly..." She finally spoke

"yeah?" Both women were tense, frigid in their seats.

"I don't want to ask you this... But I have to ask you this." Brenda began

"Okay..." Kelly nodded slowly

"Are... Are you two sleeping together?" She finally breathed out. Before Kelly could speak, she started up again, "Because it seemed like you two were in the midst of a lovers' quarrel, and... if there's something going on between you and Dylan, I'd really like to know."

"No." Kelly said kindly

"No?" Brenda asked

"No... we're not sleeping together." Kelly assured softly, "I'm dating someone."

"...You're dating someone." Brenda repeated. She realized now what the scoff meant. Maybe they weren't sleeping together, but Dylan definitely had an issue with who Kelly was sleeping with.

It was time for the Miller's annual mixer. To celebrate, the seniors' final year in high school, they invited all the graduating class' parents to their event.

Dylan was already in no mood to go, but his feelings only grew worse when Kelly arrived, and not alone.

Dylan tensed up as Kelly walked in, hand in hand with Mark Reese.

She caught Dylan watching her. She scowled at him and turned to face Mark, who wrapped his arm around her. Dylan turned away when she kissed him.

And the hits keep coming... He groaned to himself.

I never meant to start a war

I just wanted you to let me in

And instead of using force

I guess I should have let you win

.

I came in like a wrecking ball

I just closed my eyes and swung

Left me crashing in a blazing fall

All you ever did was wreck me