A/N: To those who were hoping for the Brenda/Val conversation in this chapter, unfortunately, you will be a little disappointed. I promise it's in the next chapter, but this one felt really disjointed and awkward trying to cram everything in and set up what I wanted to set up. So instead, I pushed that to Part Sixteen. On the plus side, I am putting both chapters up at once :D

Part Fifteen

"Your marriage is falling apart?" Brenda echoed, and Andrea could hear the confusion in her voice, which didn't particularly surprise her. Andrea had been careful to maintain the image of a perfectly happy young married mother in front of her friends, mostly because she didn't want them to see how terrified she was that marrying Jesse had been a big mistake.

Andrea nodded, not wanting to say the words again. She wasn't sure why she'd felt the urge to confide in Brenda suddenly, but something told her Brenda would understand. After all, Brenda had almost made the same mistake not long before Andrea had.

"Explain," Brenda demanded, sitting up straight and putting Andrea on the spot.

"I don't know if I can without sounding like a horrible person," Andrea started nervously. Especially given your history with Dylan, she added mentally. "It's just that Jesse works so hard. I hardly see him anymore, and now he's looking for clerkships, and he wants me to want what he wants. There's just so much pressure…"

"Andrea, what's really happening?"

"There's someone else," Andrea whispered. "Peter. I met him at the laundry mat and it was just a flirtation. I was only ever going to see him that once. But he's a medical student, and he's interning at the hospital, and he was there when I brought Hannah in, and now I'm working there…"

"Has anything happened?" Brenda asked. Andrea strained to hear the disgust in Brenda's voice, but there was none. All Andrea sensed was concern and curiosity. "I mean, more than flirting?"

"We kissed," Andrea admitted in a squeaky voice she didn't recognize. "Twice."

"Oh Andrea," there it was. Not quite disgust, but something closer to disappointment. But then she felt a hand rubbing her arm and when she looked up, she only saw worry in Brenda's face. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

"Are you ready to leave Jesse for him?"

"I don't know."

"Well, can I offer you some advice?" Brenda pulled her hand back moved it to her lap, where it began toying with the bed sheets. Andrea nodded, curious. "Andrea, it has taken years for me to even get close to forgiving Dylan…"

"That was different," Andrea interrupted immediately, wanting to justify herself. "Kelly was your best friend."

"Yeah, but Andrea, you and Jesse are married," Brenda reminded her, as if Andrea needed reminding. "And if you seriously think you made a mistake, then cheating on him isn't the way to address that. And if you really love this Peter guy and you want to be with him, then you need to start it honestly. If you love Peter and you don't love Jesse, it isn't fair to string them both along. If you stay with Jesse, you can't be with Peter, and if you want to be with Peter, then you need to leave Jesse."

"I don't think marrying Jesse was a mistake," Andrea whispered; she'd blanched when Brenda suggested it. Even though she'd thought it herself, hearing Brenda say the words aloud made Andrea realize that she didn't really believe it. Yes, they had been young, and yes, they were having problems, but she and Jesse and Hannah were a family.

"Then you owe it to him to figure out what's really wrong and try to fix it," Brenda took Andrea's hand again, and added in a voice barely above a whisper "because Andrea, if you go any farther with Peter, it will never be the same. Even if Jesse forgives you, it will never be the same."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"David," Donna greeted, sliding into a seat at the counter of the Peach Pitt, next to her ex-boyfriend. David looked over and forced a smile, but Donna knew he wasn't in the best of moods. After weeks of fighting, he and Claire had finally split up earlier in that week, with Valentine's Day staring them in the face. It had to sting.

"Hey," David muttered, sounding glum.

"You going to this dance thing at the After Dark?" Donna made a face of mock disgust.

"I don't know."

"'Cause I was thinking we could go together, if you want," she suggested quickly. "As friends, you know? A club of the recently dumped?"

"You're too good for Ray Pruit anyway," David said quietly. He took a sip of his coffee, avoiding her eyes.

"And you're too good for Claire," Donna answered. "And I have to go to this thing for my sorority, so I'm asking you to come with me and make it bearable."

David pretended to think about it for a minute before he smiled a genuine smile.

"I guess I could do that."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Steve gazed at the corkboard, brow furrowed, wondering for the thousandth time why he'd opted to take French for his language requirement. He'd had a vague memory of a French nanny when he was five or six years old, and he'd thought he remembered more of the language than "bonjour" and "merci."

Turned out, he hadn't.

"Is that Steve Sanders I see?" Claire leaned against the wall next to him, a smirk on her face. "Tell me you aren't looking for a job."

"Hey, I could hold a job if I wanted to," Steve snapped, though, thinking back on his brief tenure at the Peach Pit in high school, he realized that might not be true. He just didn't like that Claire had clearly made assumptions about him. "But no, I'm not looking for a job."

"A new place then?" Claire asked, the teasing note out of her voice. "Frat house not doing it for you anymore?"

"I love the KEG house," Steve corrected. "I'm looking for a tutor."

"A tutor? You?"

"I seem to be failing French," he confessed. "And I'd ask Brenda for help, but…"

"Well, then today is your lucky day," Claire said, throwing an arm around his shoulders as she popped up away from the wall. "I happen to parlez Fracais with the best of them. Let me tutor you," Claire scanned his flyer, then added "and I'll settle for half of what you're offering those other guys."

Steve pondered for a moment, then announced "deal."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Was that Stuart's car I saw pealing out of here?" Brandon asked after he parked his own car in the driveway and made his way across the backyard to where Val sat, staring gloomily off into the distance.

"Save it Brandon," Val snapped bitterly, "I already got the he-shouldn't-be-here lecture from your Mom, okay? I get it."

Brandon held his hands up in surrender and shook his head. "Woah, I didn't mean anything by it, I promise."

"Sorry," his old friend sighed. "I guess I'm just a little riled up."

Understatement, Brandon thought, but he let the subject drop. He'd known Val since they were children, but they'd never been close. He and Val played basketball together, and she'd been good friends with Cheryl, back in Minnesota, and she'd dated a few of his friends, and of course she and Brenda had been practically glued at the hip for as long as he could remember – until recently at least – but even though they'd always been friends, and run in the same circles, he and Val had never confided in one another.

Brandon never got the feeling Val had confided in many people at all, except his sister.

"Just one question and I'll never mention it again," he asked after a few seconds of awkward silence. "Is this real, or is it a scheme, like Dylan?"

"I swear I didn't know who he was when we met," Val met his eyes, and Brandon saw real emotion in their depths. "If it wasn't real, I would have walked away when I figured out who he was. I… I'm not trying to hurt her now. I've just never felt like this before."

Hearing her answer, Brandon decided he needed to help his sister and her former best friend patch things up, before their feud went any farther.

After all, if there were any two people out there who could use their friends right now, those two people were Brenda Walsh and Valerie Malone.