Authors Note: I own nothing. No ownership rights to Beverly Hills 90210.
Chapter Twenty Four
As I walk over I see my girl successfully avoid Silver's attempt to steal a dance, by the time I'm behind her she's just finishing greeting the girls. I immediately place my hands on the sides of her exposed waist and lean in hovering just above her shoulder, "can the birthday boy have this dance?"
I see Kelly's eyes squint at my words even if she's in Colin's arms, I have no idea what Brandon was thinking inviting her. Donna tilts her head as if she would be better able to read the situation between us with her head at that angle. Bren turns her head slightly to look over her shoulder at me. "Only because it's your birthday." She's clearly not thrilled by the request but she still agreed, it's all the incentive I need to quickly spin her away.
When I have her firmly in my arms I try and lighten up the mood by teasing her for her clipped response, "only because it's my birthday, really?" Neither of us are concerned about being overhead, even if we are still in the gangs vicinity the music is loud they won't be able to hear us.
Her eyes don't even lighten up a little at my light teasing, instead they cloud with more frustration. "Yeah, after questioning the integrity of the only person who has ever solely had my best interest at heart I'm definitely only here right now, still in this club because it's your birthday."
I pull her tighter; okay joking isn't going go make this better. "I'm sorry, I don't trust anyone when it comes to you and me. With our history, of people and mixed messages getting between us, I'm sure you can understand that I'm going to question-"
She all but stops dancing and from her expression she is clearly not interested in my reasoning. "Roy, I trust him absolutely, he is the only person in my life that I do; he has no divided loyalty. He loves me and only wants the best for me but above all he respects me and supports all my decisions. I said I'd try this so he will support it, support me."
As I respond I can hear my tone, this woman has me begging to be let in. She has always been the only one who can bring that out of me; this bone aching need I have for her. "Baby, I love you. I want you to know, to feel that you can trust me too; he's not the-"
Her frustration at me immediately is overshadowed by discomfort, her whole body is tense screaming; she's feeling pushed outside of her comfort zone. "Dyl, it's your birthday let's not get into this, I'm not ready for this. You know I'm trying, can't that be enough?"
The slamming up against this block she has permanently placed between us all but takes my breath away. It reminds me of Monday when I imagined her feeling this for months on end in senior year but not knowing what it was; its that thought that has me remembering I've got little space to move here. This fear she has about me and her, has been made by me, by my actions. "Yeah, yeah it is and I know it's more than I deserve." I pull her closer, "I'm sorry for the Roy comment, him bringing a guy along to my birthday so he can get to know you better it made me lose my head and think the worst, and on top of that it annoyed me, I mean we already have hardly anytime together I just miss you."
"Look Roy doesn't think like that he won't undermine my choices, and as for bringing work here, he is obsessive about his work he likes himself and his actors to be over prepared."
I try again to bring us to a lighter place. "No wonder you both get along so well you are exactly the same. The workaholic director and the over prepared actress; the girl who would read the same chapter ten times to ensure she understood it from every angle."
"I wasn't that bad." I pull back and raise my eyebrow; she pinches me in response and grumbles out. "Fine maybe five times but we all can't be naturally brilliant like you."
I spin her out and bring her back in close. "You say that like it's a bad thing, you didn't seem to mind my brilliance this morning. Actually you were praising some of my talents quite loudly."
She laughs and just like that I know we've got over this hiccup, if they all can be like that I know we will be fine. "Dyl you are very talented in the bedroom though dancing…" she looks me up and down, "you really have not expanded your dance moves at all since junior year."
"Hey, I've got moves."
"You've got four and that's it." With that I do only what I have ever done in a Baja Cantina with her I dance like it's just the two of us. I have her spinning and swinging around the dance floor for the next four songs.
We walk back, hot and laughing to our standard reserved tables in the VIP section that are now full of the gang. "Dylan they were horrible I mean what restaurant musicians walk around playing Feelings?"
"You loved them, they were hilarious."
"I was laughing at you and your very loud horrible singing."
"Hey I can sing, remember karaoke?"
"Oh my God, that was not singing, that was you basically reading the words."
"Woman it's my birthday, you are supposed to be nice to me on my special day; you taught me that."
"Well being nice means not telling lies, you can't sing."
"What happened to me being naturally brilliant?"
"Not at everything, understanding dead poets from a hundred years ago you are gifted, French philosophers you have a knack, dancing you can just get by, but singing nope no talent at all."
He moves his hand off my back the one that he has been guiding me through the crowds back to our end of the table and immediately is tickling my sides, "take it back?"
He knows my sensitive spots and I'm immediately squirming in his hands, "Dylan stop. Come on stop."
He doesn't. "Not until you take it back."
I don't answer immediately, he doubles his efforts. "Yes yes, you are brilliant at everything you jerk."
He stops and moves his hands down and squeezes my hips. "Now see that wasn't so hard Baby." I push my elbow immediately into his gut in retaliation.
"That was mean. Tickling directly onto skin is cruel."
"Hey, I didn't tell you to wear only part of a top. Not that I don't appreciate the view, but you will have to accept showing off all your tats leaves you open to direct skin tickling from me."
Shawn, who I can tell has taken Roy's homework seriously and has been studying mine and Dylan's interaction since we arrived back at the tables speaks up. "Are they all your Tattoos Brenda?"
I smile, but Dylan moves a little closer he's strangely protective of them like they are ours; anytime they have been raised in conversation since I was staying at Casa Walsh he changes the subject, trying to protect them from being closely examined. "No."
Steve gives me his cheeky smile and then slowly looks me up and down, "future wife you have more in other places, I can't wait-"
"Whatever, you are going to say Sanders consider if it's worth the pain I'll inflict."
"McKay, I'm the jock remember. I think I can take you."
"Shall we go outs-"
"D sit down just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can hit Steve. Steve, stop picturing my twin with all her tattoos. And Silver, stop smirking." I roll my eyes at Brandon's heavy handed nature that instantly cuts off the conversation and has all three complying. No wonder he has developed such a big head from these people.
I move to take the seat between Roy and Dylan, the one the latter is currently holding out for me. "You have fun Love? Your ankle okay?"
"Yes, and it's fine; wearing the boots is keeping it secure. Though I am starting to get tired now."
"Well you went to bed after midnight last night because of your need to bake and then you were up before this club was probably shut. We should get you home so you can try and take advantage of your late start tomorrow morning, hopefully you can catch up on sleep, though you do remember Scott wanted you to have another 150 grams of protein tonight before bed."
Brandon looks at me with confusion, "you hate eating before bed well unless it's ice cream."
"Yep it's not nice, but being out of training for nearly two weeks means some of my muscles have weakened. I'm doing a lot of weight and resistance training to build them back up. It means regular consumption of protein to help them repair between training sessions."
Kelly squishes up her nose, "like you have to go home and eat chicken or something?"
I smile at her obvious discomfort, "yeah some people in training do but I'll just eat some Greek yoghurt mixed with almonds and add some vanilla protein powder on top. If I squint I should be able to pretend it's melting ice cream."
"Wow Brenda you must be really committed to this role to do all this, I mean all the training and everything."
"Yeah Don, I am. It's a big opportunity but it's also kind of fun learning all these new skills seeing what my body is capable of."
Donna leans in like she is actually interested; we've not really connected since I got here back in LA, she has been too hung up being angry at Kelly to address the real problems in our relationship. "What have you liked learning the most?"
"The silks are my favourite, though it's pretty cool to be able to throw knives and sword-fight, and the martial arts is really calming, you feel pretty centred at the end. And then there is stupid fun stuff that you would never get to do unless you were doing the movie, like tomorrow at ten I'm going out to do some laps around a bike track-"
She tilts her head in confusion. "Like a bicycle track?"
"No a motorcycle track."
Dylan cuts in then. "You've always hated bikes. Well maybe not the first time you rode one in sophomore year but-"
"Dyl, it wasn't the bike I hated it was riding at night on the freeways. LA driver's are crazy enough when you are in a car with doors. Since that woman ran into me to claim insurance I don't trust any of them, riding at night in LA traffic just seems like an invitation for injury."
"Oh I always thought it was a general dislike of bikes." He honestly seems surprised but I guess he is, he only started riding again senior year and back then he never wanted to connect, to talk to me about anything.
"Well you never asked why, when I said no you just assumed I hated bikes and then stopped offering." I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice that talking about those months brings up but I know he can sense it when he discreetly reaches out under the table to lock our fingers together.
"Maybe we could go riding this weekend then, out of LA of course?"
"Sorry Dylan but Brenda and I are away this weekend, our friends are opening a play on Broadway on Saturday night so we promised we would fly in for the weekend to attend. Speaking off New York, Darling did I mention that Robert rang today and left a message. They'll be at our apartment on Saturday which makes twelve for lunch."
Our gentle finger interlocking had become a death grip the more Roy spoke. I try and relax him by placing my other hand over our joined ones and gently rub his fingers to lossen them up. "Great, it will be wonderful to catch up with everyone it's been months. I'll finalise the menu tomorrow and then ring our doorman to see if he can put the grocery order in for me; after getting off the red eye I'd rather go for a walk in the park than spend the morning grocery shopping in Manhattan."
"Oh New York, I'm so jealous I loved it there over the summer. I didn't realise you had been there."
"Yeah Kel, Roy keeps an apartment there and we popped over a couple times last year to attend friends openings or closing nights."
"Twin you were State side last year? Mum and Dad never said anything-"
Dylan is frozen like a statue not even my touch is calming him. "They didn't know, they were just quick trips across the Atlantic, a few days at most. Anyway enough about New York, tell me Donna how's the next round of Rose Court tryouts going?"
Throughout Donna's recount he stays quiet, he remains that way while Shawn and I break off into a discussion about the worst acting advice we have ever got, and he is still quite when Brandon and Susan get into a disagreement about politics. It's only when I discretely yawn for the second time does he lean in and whisper in my ear.
"You are tired Baby, can I take you home to ours to sleep?"
"Sorry I have a car coming at 9am to take me out to the track, and I still need to have that protein; I know your fridge it doesn't have anything there that's easy to put together." I'm not looking at him but I feel the disappointment rolling off him; I give myself a pep talk, it's his birthday I can try harder. "If you are comfortable with it you are more than welcome to come back to the Bird Street house and sleep there."
"Roy-"
"Roommates Dylan, we are allowed to have company over."
He almost growls it, "Patrick-"
"No. Roy and him didn't get along the couple of times they met, and he and I… it wasn't serious for me anyway, I wouldn't bring him home."
Whatever I just said flips his mood like a switch, I can feel him smile. "Yeah, I'd like that."
I follow Bren and Roy up the hill, I left a few minutes after them trying to prevent the others from finding out about our secret serious relationship. Okay so she didn't declare our relationship that, but the inference of Patrick never staying in her houses with Roy and me being invited to stay tells me like this mornings slip, that she sees a future with us that we are important.
Roy has disappeared by the time I arrive a few minutes behind them. An hour later after her yoghurt that isn't bad but is nothing like ice-cream, and her nightly shower that I insisted on joining her in to help wash her back, we are snuggled in her bed. I never stayed over like this in her room at Casa Walsh, it's a nice feeling being in her space. As I hold her close I start to imagine what the merging of our rooms together will feel like, when we are like this every night. It's that future promise that has me smiling as I close my eyes on my birthday.
The next morning I lay in bed as she runs around the room getting organised. We managed to sleep in till seven thirty, which she swears is a sleep-in, and while we woke with plenty of time for her to get ready the quicksand that is us together has left her running late. When she's almost ready and has glared at me twice for getting to lay in bed past her, I get up and grab a quick shower. Fifteen minutes later we walk into the kitchen to find Roy drinking tea and reading the newspaper.
"Darling you are up, wonderful I was worried that you had slept through your alarm. I made you coffee it's in the pot and I have put together your breakfast, you can eat it in the car. She goes over and lays her hands on his shoulder and then leans down and kisses the crown of his head, he reaches up and covers her hands with his.
"Thank you, you are an angel."
"My pleasure. I'll have craft service put your lunch in the hair and makeup trailer for when you arrive at midday. Shawn will be onsite by one to warm you up for your green screen work today, I've already spoken to him at length this morning he thinks we should be about to film the full scene from all angles today. Though I still feel it maybe pushing you, it's going to require a lot of strength even if I have you harnessed for some of the takes."
While they had been talking she had poured herself a coffee in a travel mug and another for me in a normal mug, she then had retrieved her breakfast from the fridge putting it in her bag, before moving back beside me to lean against the bench as we sipped our coffees together. "Relax Roy if it gets too much I will let you know." He gives her a look as if he doesn't believe her, "I promise I won't risk an injury."
The buzz from the intercom has her moving to kiss his cheek, collect her bag and then come back to me to kiss my lips. "Oh sorry you haven't finished your coffee-"
"Darling there is no rush, Dylan is more than welcome to stay here with me and finish his cup."
My girl turns and winks at her roommate, "okay but be good. Not everyone is as chipper as you in the morning, and Dylan is especially grumpy before his second cup of coffee."
"Hey I'm not that bad."
She turns and kisses me again, "yes you are."
I whisper against her lips, "nope I've figured out the cure from my morning grumpiness I just need to wake up next to you."
She rolls her eyes and moves away, "okay let's see how long that cure lasts for. I'll call you later."
When she's gone Roy and I stay quiet long after the sound of the front door closing has finished vibrating through the air, it's uncomfortable, "Dylan you may sit. I was asked to be good and I never break a promise to her." I move over to the table with my coffee, we are quiet till I sit down. "Actually this time alone gives me a chance to thank you for taking care of her around those disgusting human beings." I frown knowing Roy's dislike of the gang that description could cover many people. He chuckles understanding my confusion, "please that gang of yours are blind, selfish and incestuous but I wouldn't go far as to describe them as disgusting. No that title is left for Danielle and Patrick. Thank you for being with her at the studio, I tried to fly back and was all ready to rent a private jet but she told me that she'd be okay and that you'd be there with her."
I try and keep my smile from forming, she trusted me enough to decline Roy. Another promising sign. "No need to thank me, he's an asshole and even not knowing their history I can tell I wouldn't want her alone with him, and Danielle seems too sweet, I've never trusted people like that."
"Yes, neither of them are good people; I'll be happy when they are completely out of her life. Though if the industry rumours are true then this movie that is using their song for the soundtrack is set to be a hit, it could mean the song becomes one as well."
"Wouldn't that help with your release?"
"I'm not willing for success at any price. If her ongoing connection with them is the price then the success is not worth it." That's a big statement it makes me even more concerned about what they put her through. We are a quiet for another minute, "now I'm not going to apologise or start to withdraw from the life her and I have together. I saw your face last night when we were discussing New York this weekend, Brenda and I have made a life together. It may not be a romantic partnership but it's just as connected and in many ways stronger as it's not so fickle. She is giving you two a try, but as I told you before, until she tells me to make room include you in our life our plans then I won't factor you in."
"She will. Bren and I are meant to be together and above all we want to be. She just needs a little more time to trust that again, trust me. We just need more time together and she'll get there sooner."
I thought I hid my resentment at him claiming all her free time but his laugh tells me I didn't, "every now and then I wonder how you are friends with those people and then you say something like that and it's blatantly obvious." He stands up, "I should really finish getting ready for my work day, and I'm sure you need to head out to whatever activities you have planned to fill your time up with."
