Chapter 21 Revelations

Brenda opened her eyes slowly and looked over at David who was sound asleep. She smiled moving closer to him. David moaned softly smiling not opening his eyes.

"Good morning." He murmured.

"Morning handsome." Brenda whispered kissing him softly.

David opened his eyes and smiled wickedly at her. He leaned in kissing her longer and harder as he moved his body over hers.

"I see you're awake now." Brenda giggled mid kiss.

"Yeah well it doesn't take much, not with you anyway." David said softly.

"Ok well…I'm going to make some coffee." Brenda shuffled out from under him getting up and grabbing her clothes. David looked at her playfully.

"You aren't getting off that easily." David reached up grabbing her hand and pulling her back down to the bed.

Brenda giggled again as she got attacked with kisses. "Yes…I am." She dragged out. "Come on, we have the whole day to do whatever we want." Brenda freed herself from him and began pulling on her jeans. She slipped on a tank top and looked down at him smiling. She raised her eyebrow at him and opened the bedroom door walking out through it.

Brenda made her way into the kitchen and noticed Brandon and Gina sleeping on the floor. She smiled curiously at them and walked over. She set her hand on her hip and looked down at them as Brandon opened his eyes.

"Nice." Brenda nodded giving her brother a smile.

Brandon looked over at Gina and back at Brenda. Brandon slowly got up trying to not wake her, he walked closer to Brenda and followed her into the kitchen.

"Don't look at me like that, nothing happened." Brandon said still half sleeping.

Brenda shook her head as she began to make the coffee, "Hey…I'm not saying anything, I think its good, I like Gina. She seems down to earth and she is very pretty. Did you have a good time?"

Brandon smiled lightly, "Yeah…we did…until we came back here and caught the 3 o'clock show of Brenda and David late night humping." Brandon looked at her funny.

Brenda slowly turned toward him, "You saw us?"

"No…thank god…Gina saved me from having to gouge my eyes out and live blindly for the rest of my life." Brandon sounded sarcastic.

Brenda laughed slightly and shrugged, "Sorry."

"Brenda…what's gotten into you? I mean having sex with David in the living room with the blinds open. I mean come on."

Brenda looked at her brother oddly, "We didn't purposely leave the blinds open…sorry, next time we will take into the bedroom."

"You aren't the only ones living here." Brandon got closer to her; he raised his voice slightly but still tried to keep it down so Gina and David wouldn't hear him.

"I know that Brandon…I said I was sorry, what's the big deal?" Brenda looked at her brother confused, she knew something else was going on, Brandon wouldn't make a big deal out of this.

Brandon exhaled, "What about Dylan?" he said softer.

"What about Dylan? I saw him at the club last night with some slut. He seemed heartbroken." Brenda looked away from her brother and pored herself a cup of coffee.

"He was probably doing that to make you jealous. I don't understand you…all these years it was always about Dylan. How much you loved him, how much you missed him. About helping him. And now…you just threw it away for a physical thing."

Brenda mouth dropped as she became angry, "Look Brandon, I understand Dylan is your friend, where was this loyalty to me years ago when he dumped me for Kelly. Where's that neutral zone now? I like David, and you are not my warden. Things are over with Dylan and if I want to move on with David I will." Brenda took a deep breath to calm herself. "I tried to save him Brandon…but I couldn't and I think you of all people know how hard Dylan can fall. I'm sorry if I don't want to put up with it anymore. If Dylan was smart he would have tried to show me he could sober up but he didn't, he's drinking again, going home with random girls. I would hope you would want better for me."

"He loves you Bren and you can play around with David as much as you want but I know you do too." Brandon looked at his sister.

"Well…if you like cleaning up his mess so much then you go out with him." Brenda looked at Brandon as she walked away taking her coffee and the one she poured for David into his bedroom.

Brandon took a deep breath as he looked over at Gina who had since wakened up. She sat with her knees to her chest with her arms around them. She looked down uncomfortably not meaning to spy on their conversation. Brandon walked over to her and sighed as he sat in front of her.

"Sorry." He said looking down, "You know, brother…sister quarrel."

Gina nodded, "Yeah." She said softly. "Brandon? I don't want to intrude and I don't know Brenda that well. Of what I have seen of her, now and back when her and Dylan first got back. She seems a lot happier, I mean her and Dylan were cute and I agree they are probably made for each other but she lost herself with him these last 6 months. I mean she is 24 years old, I know you don't want to think about it because you are her brother but there is nothing wrong with enjoying a physical relationship and having a little bit of fun."

Brandon looked at Gina and shook his head, "You don't understand her and Dylan though, they are connected and Dylan is drinking because of this David thing."

Gina shook her head, "No…he's drinking because he is an alcoholic and needs to figure stuff out. The only person Dylan should be blaming on his addictions on is himself."

Brandon looked at her and thought about what she was saying. She did have a point, "I know…Bren and I have been looking out for Dylan for as long as we have known him. He is a brother to me; he's part of the family."

"But that's the point, sometimes you have to let go to save someone and Brenda did that. You can't knock her for it just because you want them to be together." Gina smiled lightly at him.

Brandon smiled back and sighed, "You're trying to get me to apologize to my sister aren't you?"

Gina playfully shrugged, "What can I say; us girls stick together…especially us brunettes. Didn't you know, you have to watch out for us dark haired girls?

Brandon laughed as he leaned in and kissed her softly. "Yeah something I learned when I was two." Brandon joked leaning back into her lowering her to the ground.

**

Dylan made his way through Promises; he felt weird being there, seeing the same people that were there when he was there and here he was out and carrying around a small hang over. He took a deep breath as he gently knocked on Susan's door. He swallowed hard hearing Susan call out to come in. Dylan slowly opened the door and peaked his head in.

"Well…well…I am shocked you showed up." Susan said with a smile. "Come on." She motioned with her hand getting up and moving into a different chair. "So how's life on the other side?"

Dylan sat down and shrugged with a straight face.

Ooook…are we regressing? What's going on? Did you relapse?" Susan asked worried.

"No." Dylan shook his head, "I have been drinking a little though."

"Dylan." Susan looked disappointed, "Why?"

"Let's just say I came home to some less than exciting news and leave it at that."

"With Brenda?"

Dylan sighed, "Yeah."

Susan swallowed hard, "Ok well lets take it where we left off, we were talking about Jim, Brenda's father. You not feeling good enough for her…"

Dylan thought back to that point of his life. How complicated it was with Brenda and with her father. It seemed so miniscule now. "Well yeah, her father hated me. I let them in and he threw me out with one little mistake." Dylan took a deep breath.

"What happened?"

"Things were going really well with Bren, we were getting along great and I invited her down to Baja with me. I had been going down to Baja for years. Take in some surf, some sun and some good food. It was a personal escape for me and I wanted to share it with her." Dylan paused thinking about the trip and how much fun he had. "Brenda didn't think her parents would ever let her go, but I talked her into asking them. I thought hey, they like me, things are going good, it can't hurt right?"

"They said no?" Susan said guessing.

"No…actually they said yes." Susan looked at him surprised. "But Brenda and her parents had been going back and force at that time about being an adult and staying out too late. One night we were watching Grapes of Wrath on tv for school and we fell asleep. By the time we realized it was 4 in the morning and long story short she got in trouble for being late again and he told her she couldn't go."

"Seems reasonable."

Dylan rolled his eyes at her. "Jim is a little over dramatic. I don't think he was that keen of the idea of Bren and I being together overnight alone down in Mexico anyway. He was waiting for something like this to happen believe me."

"Ok so what happened?" Susan tried to get him to continue.

"I have always told Brenda there comes a time when she needed to stand up to them. They had looked at her like she was a little girl for too long. Plus when it came to Brandon, he got away with murder. So she came down to Mexico with me anyway. The problem was she lied about it and told them she was spending the night at her friend's house instead of just standing up to them and telling them she was going. I found out after we got down there."

Susan got the point, "So they found out I take it…and blamed you…your influence?"

"Of course…he claimed we were getting too serious and our relationship was getting out of hand and that we should take a break from it for a little while."

"Did you?"

Dylan shook his head, "No…we couldn't."

"And how did this stuff with Jim make you feel?"

Dylan looked at Susan like she was crazy, "Good…Susan it made me feel fantastic." Dylan said sarcastic. Susan looked at him seriously, Dylan looked down, "It made me feel like shit. I mean this was a man I respected; I looked up to…like a father. He made me feel like every other adult did my whole life. My mom…my dad…teachers, like a failure. Not good enough, won't amount to anything."

"What about Brenda?"

"She…stood up to her parent s finally. She left home, she caused a scene. She fought for me." Dylan looked down sadly, shaking his head.

"Why do you look sad, isn't that a good thing? She was finally doing what you wanted her to do all along."

Dylan stayed quiet and continued looking down at the ripped carpet.

"Dylan?" Susan leaned forward wondering what had gotten into him.

Dylan finally looked up at her with tears in his eyes, "I gave up." He whispered, "After giving her a hard time, I gave up…I didn't fight for her." Dylan shook his head bringing it down again. He got up abruptly and left slamming the door on his way out.

Susan sat there stunned not really sure what made Dylan so upset or why he left like he did. She had hoped he would come back and tell her soon.

Dylan shook his head and fought back tears his whole way back to the hotel. He had never even realized it before. Why he had shown a sudden interest in Kelly after never once even thinking about her like that. Well…maybe he thought about it but she was like every other girl he had met. He couldn't believe he had never made the connection. With Kelly he had no one to impress, Jackie lived her life worried about herself, making sure she was staying sober, fighting her own demons, especially at that time, with a new husband, a new baby. What Kelly was doing was far from Jackie Taylor's main concern. There were no complications and most importantly there was no Jim. It hit him that that's exactly what Brenda was doing. David is easy, no intense feelings, no heartbreak and he's never let her down. He is new and exciting and…it's totally physical, just like him and Kelly were. Dylan walked quickly to the room. He stuck his key in the door and looked around.

"Val?" Dylan yelled walking around not seeing her.

"Val?" Dylan called out again walking into the bedroom hearing her in the shower. Dylan knocked on the bathroom door, "Hey Val."

"Yeaaah." She called out.

"Hurry up; I have to talk to you." Dylan heard her turn off the water. After a minute or so Valerie came out with a hotel robe on her and a towel wrapped around her head.

"What?" she said as she took a seat on the bed.

"Ok…I have been thinking about your idea."

"And?" Valerie leaned forward.

"I'm in." Dylan said with a nod in a serious tone.

Valerie smiled, "What changed your mind?"

Dylan shrugged, "I'm not giving up on her this time." He looked at Valerie intensely.

"Alright…good." Valerie tossed her hands up as she stood up.

"But…we do this my way. No throwing us together in their face, they will see right through that. We hang out, we make appearances together. We show them that we are filling that friend void that we had with them. No making out and flaunting each other in front of them. We show them we can move on as well and we are finding comfort in each other. If we do it right…I mean I cant speak for David because I don't know how he feels about you but Brenda…it will drive her crazy. Especially is she knows I'm attending AA, NA, my sessions, getting better, without her help." Dylan nodded and smirked.

Valerie walked toward him and held out her hand, "Deal."

Dylan smiled, "Deal." Dylan's hand met with hers.

"So what do we do?" Valerie crossed her arms.

"You call Steve, you tell him you are in town. Knowing Steve he will get the gang together, you go and we will start from there. Let David see you are back. See how he reacts."

"Will you be there?" Valerie said liking the idea so far.

"Of course…on my best behavior and sober." Dylan raised his eyebrows and smiled.

Sooo what are you guys thinking? Good idea? I couldn't picture Dylan playing this kind of game. And most of your reviews were dead on. Brenda and David would never fall for a fake relationship thrown in their faces when Dylan and Valerie hadn't even seen each other for three years. So it's the kill them with kindness approach. *wiggles eyebrows* that's all I'm saying. Don't forget to review!