Authors Note: I own nothing. No ownership rights to Beverly Hills 90210.

Chapter Three

Steve finds me at my locker the next morning.

"Hey Brando. How is she?" He says it as he looks down the hall trying to see her.

"She's not here. She's in her room listening to REM and staring out the window. She's not got enough control yet to face them. Bren will hide out until she feels like she won't crack in front of them." I push my locker a little too hard shut. "She won't let me tell Mum and Dad the full story, she doesn't want them to know about the summer."

"Why the hell not?"

"Displaced loyalty, embarrassment, the fact that Dad may feel like he was right after all. Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know how much we would even know, about the extent of it, if you didn't find her."

"Bran is she going to be okay?"

"Yeah she's Bren she'll bounce back, though maybe not the same as before. She really loved him, and she really thought our friendships were strong. She assumes David knows the full story, she doesn't know about Donna. Bren thinks she's a fool for not making the connection. He told her before they broke up that there had been a girl that summer, she hadn't known for sure till then. She went through the last few months of their relationship last night trying to look for signs. He really tried to hide it; lied when she found earrings, at first tried go get her to avoid Kelly and even Kelly changed her whole timetable to avoid the three of them together. Then when that didn't work, it was both of them on her case; remember the documentary, the college talks, the smoking? Bren couldn't understand why instantly she would think the worst of her, or he would avoid supporting her."

"Guilty conscience, it's easy to think she made them do this than admit that he is a lying phoney. Faking all his bullshit honour, I don't kiss and tell man. How dare they say I cheated on my SATs, I don't cheat. McKay is so full of shit. The way he looked at me after the legacy key like I had no honour, and the whole time he know's he is lying to everyone."

"Steve, tone it down. Look I know it's bad and I'm not defending him or her, but she doesn't want this to be a war. She doesn't want this going around the school. She just wants to get through the semester and avoid the both of them."

"So what he get's to keep his reputation? Your parents don't find out, no one at school know's, he just walks around looking like he's some kind of good guy?"

"Do you really want everyone to know? It's not on him alone, Kelly was in this as well. I know you are aiming the blame squarely at him but if everyone finds out then Kelly-"

"She wanted him from the start. She told Bren they had flirted all through Freshman year, he flirted with everyone he was a sleaze even back then. Kelly though… we were together. Bren last night may have been reviewing the last few months with you, but I've been going over the last few years. She would have dumped me if he showed one proper bit of interest, I completely believe that. She was always giving him eye's even in junior high, but he never engaged. He never cared about her or any girl here. He never cared about anyone until you and Brenda."

"I don't fucking get it man, I've known him since… well we were babies. Occasionally, back in the day our parents would have dinner together, our Dad's used to invest in the same businesses, we've both been members of the Beach Club since birth. Hell we were even in Little League together, and McKay has been a loner all that time. Didn't let anyone close; in kindergarten he used to sit and read rather than go near any of the play equipment where everyone was. It was the same in every grade. He wasn't rude just didn't invite company, gradually he began to flirt with anything in a skirt. Jack McKay had a reputation for being a charmer, Dylan was the same, he'd go though girls- well not at school he hung out in Hollywood or at the beach, but we all knew his reputation. Him flirting with Kelly, man it was nothing to him he flirted with everyone. He probably doesn't even remember doing it. And here I thought she was in love with me, she's telling me she loves me and she's off excited thinking it's special that the guy known across Beverly Hills for paying interest to any skirt that walked past was giving her a crum of his time, the same crum he's feeding to the next girl and the next."

"Steve maybe she didn't fell that way. How do you even know, maybe it was nothing to her as well?"

"At the girls sleepover in sophomore, Kelly admitted to trying to get a date with Dylan even after he and Bren had started their relationship. She went after him, even after everything Bren and your parents did, how they were so supportive of helping Jackie into rehab. It meant something to her, his flirting. She justified her going behind Bren's back because they had flirted the whole year before, the whole year she's supposed to be in love with me." His mocking on her motivation and the underlying hurt is clear. Fuck this was a mess. He must see that this is all news to me. "You didn't know?"

"Nope. Bren wouldn't want me thinking bad of her friends, especially if she had forgiven them, and I was still a bit nervous of her dating him. I was scared he'd do something to hurt her-"

"Nope. Not hurt, destroy. Fucking McKay, I can't believe Brenda's just going to let him off scot-free."

"I don't know about that. Dylan he trusts me, but Bren she's… when he realises it's over over, that she wants nothing to do with him-"

"Well it's about time that spoilt prince gets to see he can't have everything." With that the bell rings and we go our separate ways.

David and I cross paths in the hallway he looked uncomfortable, I barely nod. It's not his fault, but he knew. As a brother I get his loyalty to his sister, but he'd have to have known that this was messed up; that this wasn't the way to handle it, any of it.

It's not till fourth that I see Dylan, as I'm leaving the newsroom with Andrea he's walking in the opposite way. It's not a busy hallway he knows that I see him, I walk past.

It's the scoff that has me wanting to react, that he's the hard done by one. "That's how it's going to be Jones, I don't exist?"

Andrea knew Kelly and him where together, even before knowing Bren wasn't on campus today he was seen making out with his new girlfriend for all to see. By first break everyone knew, but only Steve and I knew the full story. I'd have kept it that way too if it wasn't for the scoff, the arrogance.

I turned.

"Well it seems my sister and I only exist when it's convenient to you, other than that we are forgotten about or is that just Bren?"

"B, it wasn't like that. They told me to choose I chose."

"No this isn't about that, it isn't about your sick need to drag out choosing for nearly four months just because you couldn't be honourable and let her go."

My anger radiates, his swallow is pronounced, "she told you."

He's surprised by that, he knows my sister well, too well, he was counting on her not to fill in all the blanks. "What I want to know is did you give me the lecture about girls should never come between best friends, that you don't go after other people's crushes, before or after you started messing around with your girlfriends best friend over the summer?"

The gasp from Andrea is loud, "Brandon it wasn't like that. It just happened, it wasn't intentional, you know I'd never do anything on purpose to hurt your-"

"Just stop. You don't get to cheat on her with her best friend, lie to her repeatedly since, and then have secret private hangouts with Kelly at your house this year when you supposedly are still in love with my sister, still in a committed relationship with only her… you don't get to claim that months of lying and cheating on her, hurting her, wasn't done with purpose that it was just an accident. Like you fell into it."

"If you wanted Kelly so badly break up with Bren, tell her as soon as she got off that plane, tell her when she found the earring from your make-out sessions at your house with Kelly, when she broke up with you don't entertain for months the idea of taking her back. But you didn't… Fuck you let me side with you, you let me think my twin was being harsh because she was upset that you wanted to innocently date Kelly, you let me think you still cared about her that she was still safe with you." He goes to interrupt, but I know it's just going to be more bullshit, "she doesn't want me doing this, she doesn't want me to involve myself. I'll stop, because she should know that at least one of us she can always count on, one of us respects her."

It's only when I'm outside wanting to punch a tree do I realise Andrea has caught up to me. Her hand on my shoulder calms me just enough that I stop my violent thoughts, "Brandon, is she okay? Can I do anything for her?"

A deep breath marginally settles the anger, "Steve and I have got her, she'll be fine, but she doesn't want anyone to know. If you could make sure of that, keep this between us."

"Yeah of course. Brenda would hate to be gossiped about, of course I'll do my best to keep it from getting out."