First off, I have to say that this chapter is short. That said, I'm hoping that the next one is longer.

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Chapter Five

It was hard. The entire lunch which was meant to be a friendly happy time, was spent in awkward silence, and it was Dylan who felt the most pressure. He had seen the look Brandon had shot Melissa and now all he wanted to do was leave. But he didn't want to leave because he wanted to see Brenda. He wanted to hear her voice speak to him in more favorable terms other than her little "It's good to see you" she had given him at her arrival.

The lunch Melissa had prepared was predominantly salad with some cold chicken and steak. Melissa tried making small talk, and Brandon even attempted a light hearted quip about how Dylan and Kelly had been together for six years and they hadn't married, or even got engaged. This seemed to attract Brenda's attention, although she attempted to hide it.

Dylan just shrugged in response to Brandon's question, saying that it wouldn't have been right. Brenda glanced at him, but when she looked away Dylan continued to watch her.

The moment Dylan had eaten a plate, he excused himself and bolted from the house. Outside he stood on the grass leading to the street breathing for a few moments, before he walked away.

He wasn't familiar with Washington, so he just walked where his feet took him. After about an hour of walking nowhere, he found himself in a wide park. He wandered wearily to a bench and collapsed onto the hard wood, then rubbing his face.

Dylan ignored the sound of feet approaching him, and didn't look up when he heard them stop and the bench shuddered as someone else sat down.

"I haven't seen you in ten years and yet you're exactly the same." Her voice sounded.

Dylan looked up, stunned to see her sitting next to him, staring out at the open park with the city skyline appearing above the distant tree-tops. But he couldn't help but suppress a laugh.

"I'm not the same person I was ten years ago." He asked her skeptically.

At this she turned her head to stare at him. "Oh you are. Ten years have passed and you still don't know when you're being followed." She faced him, and there was a look of something in her eyes that he wasn't used to seeing from her.

At her words he had to emit a chuckle as he remembered all the times she had followed him from her apartment in London, to some park bench or café.

"I have changed Bren." He said quietly.

At this she smiled at him. "Yeah, you've grown up, and thus you no longer need me to save you from drinking or drugs, which was the reason why you ended up on my stairs in the middle of a snow storm." At this she smiled, stood and walked away.

Dylan remained sitting on the bench, watching her back retreat from him. He had half a mind to follow her, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he remained in the park, thinking about what she had said to him.

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