Best Friend
Ch 2- Dylan
R-T
The yellow cab pulled up to a gravely driveway, "Ma'am, is it alright if I proceed fourth onto the property?
"Uhh, yes. Please do." He turned onto the property and drove a while before he landed near the front of the home. The properties in the area had large plots of land. Fruit trees filled the area and bushels of roses throughout. Virginia had one thing she missed when living in California, acres and acres of green, red brick houses and wide open spaces.
"Baby? Ahh, come hug your momma." A very sweet faced woman, with fair skin and, and long dark brown hair ran out of the house to the cab jumping and screaming with her daughter. "Now, where is that beautiful little munchkin?" The excitement echoed the quiet and open atmosphere while a tall brunette looked on smiling at Bonnie and her mother. She let go of the hand of the little boy so he could run to Abby.
"Where's my kissy poos?" She asked as the small child with dark brown hair wrapped his arms around her kissing her cheeks with sloppy wet ones.
Abigail pulled up from her grandson and looked at her daughter again, checking her face and her body for any familiar changes and when she saw the ring on her daughter's finger she narrowed her eyes. "Bonnie, he proposed...how could you keep this from me?"
"Uhh, mom, how could I-"
"Um 'scuse me! 'Mom'?"
"I mean, Momma, how could I? This visit isn't about me. It's about you and this man, whom I get to meet, when?"
"Real soon baby. I see you talk like them Westies now. I don't hear none of the little girl I raised in that accent." Bonnie shrugged her shoulders, remembering she needed to lose the California girl accent when talking to her mother. Abby smiles and turns to look at the taller brunette. "Well, well, you finally left California, huh?"
"Oh yes. I was so ready. Like... So, ready." She exaggerated her words, lifting her bags. "I just can't wait to meet this man, who somehow, got lucky enough get you."
"Oh, you California charmer, you. Come on ladies. Let me show you to the rooms."
"Rooms? Mom, Ginny can sleep in the room with me, since you insist on Dylan sleeping with you. Trust me, the bed is big enough." Bonnie said as her mother looked on suspiciously.
"Oh yeah, I don't recall you ever having no friends stay the night little miss Bonnie." Lifting the right eyebrow and forced a giggle out of Bonnie.
"Momma, stop. I know, that you know, that Doodle used to sneak in. Grams told me, a few years ago."
"Yeah, well... It was kind of hard to ignore when I saw him jumping out of the two-story window at six in the morning, tearing up my rose bushes." Memories Bonnie preferred to block out were about to be brought out life, thanks to her mother.
"Doodle?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, an old friend." Bonnie said making her mother shake her head and roll her eyes.
"Well, momma, I need to get my things put away." She said heading towards the stairs.
"Yeah let's go." Abby walked behind them.
"Bon, this house is amazing. I wish they had houses like this in Cali."
"Yeah, I'd get sick of those bungalows too. They all look the dang same." Abby laughed. "Oh, Ginny, you'll be sleeping in the old nursery... I mean- guest room."
Bonnie stopped on the stairs, mid way hearing her mothers slip up, and clearing her throat.
"Sorry, that was a slip up." She spoke nervously. "My hunny bun helped me to redecorate it. We bought a new bed and everything. I just wasn't ready to put anyone in grams' room, you understand."
"Of course. I totally understand. So, whose nursery was that?"
"Umm, I was pregnant before Dylan. Baylee didn't make it through more than seven months of the pregnancy. I lost her at twenty-seven weeks." Ginny could tell it was hard on Bonnie, because hearing her daughter's name and seeing a nursery used to be there made the reality more devastating.
"Bonnie, doll." Ginny gasped. "Sweetie I had no idea, why didn't you ever-"
"It was a long time ago, before I met you. I don't like talking about it."
Bonnie didn't say much after that. She just, kept walking towards her old bedroom. The same blanket and everything from her childhood remained in place. Including the picture of her and him sitting against her favorite apple tree with her between his legs and leaning back on his chest while he sat with one arm around her and the other propped up on his bent knee. Her hair in two familiar French braids and bangs, and he had his favorite hat tilted downward as they both slept in the shade on a summer's day.
The feeling in the air was somber, so Ginny tried changing the subject.
"Oh my who is that Bonnie?" Ginny asked looking at the picture next to Bonnie's bed.
"That's just Damon. He was my best friend, until I finally decided to grow up."
"Was? What happened to him? He's freakin' hot."
"I don't know. I suppose he's around somewhere." She said putting the picture down and sitting on her bed.
"Wait, don't tell me that's him. The guy who your mom caught sneaking out the windows. That's him? How could you be best friends with a guy like that? I bet he grew into that body."
"Ugh. Maybe. He took very good care of himself."
"Talk to me Bon. This guy... Something happened."
Abby cut in quickly. "Listen, I'll give you girls more time to settle in. I'll be back in a short while. I gotta run to the the general store. I'm gonna take Dimitri with me."
"Momma, please don't call him by his first name. You know he goes by Dylan." Abby rolled her eyes and grabbed her grandson. She closed the door softly, ensuring them some privacy. Ginny picked the picture up again.
"I'll tell you one thing Bon. You have incredible taste in men. I think I'm gonna need to meet me a southern boy while I'm here."
"Oh trust me, when I say, they are overrated." Bonnie spat, while unloading and staring at the large tree outside of her bedroom window.
"Well, I need a shower desperately. This humidity is something to get used to."
"The room my mom made up for you, has a shower inside of the bathroom."
"Okay sweetie. I'm going to take a shower."
"See you in two hours." Bonnie laughed, knowing her high Maintenance friend took forever to get ready.
8 years ago
"So you going to prom with that guy?" He twisted his face at her. His five o'clock shadow was more like sunset, and he got into this stage where he liked growing it out.
"Yeah, he's kinda cute. Besides he always asks me if I gotta boyfriend. I always say 'no.' Just as pathetic as I can be." She laughed at herself.
"You're not pathetic. You are holding off for a good guy, not just any guy. That's what a respectable girl does." Damon looked at his best friend like she was crazy. He was incredibly over protective of her. They grew up in a small town where everyone knew each other. Mystic Falls, Southern Virginia.
"So you sayin' I'm not respectable for going to prom with him?" She put a tweak in her neck.
"No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying, you don't have to go with the first guy who asks you. That sounds like desperation." Damon thought that looking out for her was his number one goal in life, but he tends to do so with some 'pot calling the kettle black' logic.
"Mind you, you spent your prom with a girl who gave it up, like a bad, trendy diet."
"Hey, you're not my prom date. You're my little Bon Bon, my little bird. Birdie. You're not the kind of girl, who loses her virginity to the first boy who asks her to prom." She rolled her eyes and looked at him suggestively.
"Damon Salvatore, who said I was a virgin?" Her thick country accent made him double take, because it came off with slight attitude.
"Pft. 'Scuse me Birdie. What's that you say?" He asked like an angry older brother, maybe even a slightly jealous boyfriend. He turned his body towards hers and took his hat off. His cowboy hat. His favorite hat.
She took it out of his hand and put it on her head then laughed. "Geez Sinatra. You sure are gullible." She said tapping his nose with her little finger and smiling. "Anyway, I gotta go. Prom dress shoppin' with grams. She insists I take her so me and my momma don't start arguin' in the store." She got up and started to walk home after kissing him on cheek. One of many places the best friends shared kisses. She took the stroll, all the way next door. Sure, the plots of lands had a little space between, but it still took her a good minute to get to her house from his.
"Wait, Birdie! You haven't answered my question."
"I'll see you at supper time Doodle." Bonnie called Damon doodle because he loved to draw. He drew all the time. He didn't do it as a profession, but he loved it. He watched her walk away, while she embedded a new image in his head to draw. Her walking across the separation of grass between their homes.
Then he began fearing what he had to tell her soon. He was leaving. He'd spent three years of his life in Mystic Falls working since he graduated high school, trying to make an honest living, but he needed to leave the town. Even if just for a bit. He was ready to make something of himself. He was leaving in one month. He already signed his life away and basic training was in less than thirty days. He was going to Ft. Benning, Ga... Home of the Infantry. He would be leaving Mystic Falls for an indefinite amount of time.
He kept watching her as she walked away with his hat on, and her boots. Her tank top and those teeny tiny shorts, that he never argued about because she had great legs. But, if he saw her going anywhere outside of home in them, he could rely on grams to correct her and grams could rely on Damon to shut her down as well.
"Bonnie Sheila Bennett, you got some beautiful legs on you." He said to himself. He smiled and stood up from his porch, until the long green thistles in the grass helped half of her body disappear as she trailed. The sun shun on her cinnamon skin, and she looked like she was dipped in a barrel of sweetness. He grinned to himself when she looked back to him still watching her. She waived him off and, but he stayed until she made it inside of her house. Most days he walked her to the door, but today was one of the days he watched her walk away. It was a beautiful sight.
He stared on... She's going. Going. Gone.
.X.
"Momma, I don't wanna wear one of those fluffy dresses. It's not my style." Bonnie leaned against the dressing room mirror as her mother argued about every dress she wanted to wear.
"If you think, I'm letting my daughter go to prom in some backless number, or something with a slit, you must be out your mind child. It ain't happening!"
"Grams, she's impossible. She wants me to look like holiday Barbie. I'm not a doll. I'm almost eighteen."
"Almost eighteen! You hear me? You're seventeen, and you live in my house. Under my roof." Abby insisted. Bonnie's dad died several years ago and Abby took it hard. Harder than Bonnie. Or so it came off that way. No one saw Bonnie cry about her father but Damon. He was the only one she cried to, and sometimes grams. So needless to say, Bonnie tried to take Abby with a grain of salt, because she knew being a single mother was a struggle. Abby was a young mother, and her and Bonnie struggled with the generational age gap being not so far apart. While Bonnie was seventeen, Abby was thirty-six. She had Bonnie right out of high school. Her father was joined the Army and he was gone most of the time. Bonnie and Abby didn't move around with Rudy. They wanted stability for Bonnie. But his last tour he was deployed on, never made it back. He was a few months short of retirement. That was several years back, and her father would have been barely 42 this year.
"Momma, I understand. I just want to feel good in the dress I wear. It's my first and only prom." She began hanging all the dresses back up at the dress boutique. Sheila chimed in, trying to keep things fair.
"Now wait a minute, Abby, I don't recall the dress you wore to prom was one of my favorites. I distinctly remember, you wore a dress with no straps, and no bra." Sheila's admittedly told on her own child to her grandchild.
"Mom, that was a style. What Bonnie wants is some sin cloth, wrapped around her like a suggestive young woman."
"It's just a backless dress. The straps are elegant and it really looks like something out of a romance novel."
"Exactly, we all know what romance novels are suggesting."
"I'm a virgin momma, and my date ain't my boyfriend. I don't even like him in such a way."
"Hush your mouth, talking like a fast ass."
"Abby, watch your language. Besides, she gets one prom." Sheila and Bonnie both gave Abby the look.
"Fine, but your home at midnight. You're still seventeen."
Bonnie's eyes lit with excitement. "Yes, momma of course. Thank you. Thank you." Her hugs were filled with love and she squeezed Abby, lovingly.
"Okay try them on again. Let's narrow down a color."
Her eyes sparkled with delight. "Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Momma!"
.X.
Bonnie lie in her bed that night talking to her father. "I'm going to prom Daddy. In three weeks. I wish you were here to see me. I got the dress I wanted. And momma... She smiled a lot today when she finally relaxed. It was good to see her smile. It's been five years. I miss you. Even though you were always away, I knew you were there. But... Somehow it's different now. Anyway, my dress is like a champagne color. That's what momma called it. I can't wait to have it on, and be at prom." Her voice got softer. "I know you keep watch over me. Please don't worry about me, watch momma. She's so lonely, she barely goes anywhere. I just want her to be happy again. Anyway, I love you daddy. Good night."
She turned over in her bed to get comfortable. If anything, her father always taught her to be strong. Her mom was strong all those years her dad was away. Her dad always told her, look after your momma. She may not show it, but it's not easy raising you on her own. Her eyes shut and her hands clapped together as her cheek rested on them. Comfort was a distant memory when she heard a knock on her bedroom window.
She sat up and walked over to it rubbing her eyes. He always came to her room when he had a hard time sleeping. He climbed the tree next to her window just get to the second story room. She slid the window up and let him in, before walking to her bedroom door and locking it.
"Everything okay?" She whispered.
"Yeah. I just couldn't sleep, is all. Can you do the thing you do?"
"Of course, but take those boots off, you're not getting my bed dirty." He smiled, she was so reliable. The most reliable person in his world. She always sang to him when he couldn't sleep. Something about her melodic voice helped him to ease into dreamland easily. Maybe it reminded him of his mother, who left years ago. Sometimes she sang the songs his mom sang him, sometimes she sang her own. Maybe it was that she sang the way he liked. Who knows. He just knew Bonnie was his comfort, his home, his best friend.
She got under the cover and he lay on top of the covers. She rubbed her fingers through his hair and started singing facing him. He kept his lids low and always watched her lips when she sang.
You made me love you, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it.
You made me love you, and all the time you knew it. I guess you always knew it.
You made me happy sometimes, you made me glad.
But there were times you made me feel so sad.
Her fingers twirled through his hair as his eyes slowly began to shut. She felt his heart beat slow down. As she kept singing, he kissed her forehead.
You made me sigh for, I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to tell you.
I want some love that's true, yes I do. Indeed, I do, you know I do.
Give me, give me, give me, what I cry for.
You know you got the brand of kisses, that I die for.
You made me love you.
They were soon asleep, and she melted under his arm and into his chest. This had become almost a routine. He missed his mom, and she missed her dad, and this commonality, brought the best friends closer over the years of bonding. He slept in her room every other night sometimes.
...Present Day...
Bonnie snapped out of her thoughts when her mom got back home. Ginny was still getting herself ready, for God knows what. To meet a southern man, maybe. When Dylan walked in crying, Bonnie walked down the stairs to see what was wrong.
"Ya know, he was fine, then suddenly on the way on home he just got fussy. He wouldn't calm down at all. Crying the whole way home."
"Oh, he sleepy momma. I'm sorry, I should've told you when he gets that way he's just exhausted. Jet lag."
"How do you calm him down? I tried everything."
"He likes his head rubbed or to be rocked and sang to." Bonnie grabbed her son to comfort him, but words didn't do much, it was her singing that put him at ease. "It's okay. Momma's got you now. Relax. Let's go lay down. It's gonna be okay." She walked back upstairs to her bedroom and lay down with him and rubbed her fingers through his hair, as she sang.
"You made me love you, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it.
You made me love you, and all the time you knew it. I guess you always knew it."
Abby watched Bonnie sing to Dylan, feeling like this trip may mean much more to her daughter than her daughter realized. She closed the door and sighed. This was go into be a long month.
Excerpt from Pt 3:
"Man, Birdie. It's easy to get you riled up. I mean... You just can't take a joke. Besides, your corn bread ain't that bad. But, I sure can help you with them eggs. I mean, even I do not burn eggs" She hit him on his shoulder while he laughed it off. "It's all love though. You know I love you. More than food." His remark made Sheila smile, and it made Abby squint her eyes at him. She always suspected something more between the two, but they sure wouldn't allude to anything. She watched them closely though. Damon was an older boy, and he had slight influence over her little girl. Bonnie was in fact, very influenced by her best friend. His opinion meant more to her than anybody else's. "Besides, your future husband is gonna have to go through me anyway. Screw the food. I'll be his problem." He said with a serious face, but by this point Bonnie was ignoring him. She was tired of him scaring all of the boys away from her. Abby, however, appreciated that Bonnie had Damon for that. If she could, she'd lock Bonnie away forever.
A/N - I'm sure you guys didn't see Dylan coming. I have a few big surprises. So, this story is BAMON, but the few key important people will all have a story to tell. It's some drama, and messiness but it's also going to be reflective and have a lot of heartfelt moments. Hope you're enjoying it. And Bonnie's best friend is Ginny Baker (Pitch). I kind of just wanted to have more Characters of color in this story, since Mystic Falls doesn't have many. I debated about who I wanted to write as her friend, but I have plans for Ginny. Other character favorites will be in the story.
Song Cred: Patsy Cline/ You made me love you