She understood him.
In a relationship, their compatibility would easily transition into combustibility. They were onions and strawberries: two foods that went well together, but had to be surrounded by other foods such as mixed greens to work.
They had both befriended a world without light. They had stumbled into that world again and again; usually, without their consent.
But not always; for, on more than one occasion, they had warmly embraced that world.
That was Dylan and Valerie, and the twins were their mixed greens.
They had both come from demolished families. They both lashed out when hurt or angry. They both lied. Cheated. Stole for the hell of it. Used alcohol and other substances to numb a pain that never numbed.
They had both acquired laundry lists of regrets.
Dylan regretted hurting Brenda.
Valerie regretted hurting David.
Had regretted.
It seemed inconceivable to regret hurting someone who took no issue in spilling secrets that weren't their secrets to spill.
Valerie had thrown herself into the project, determined to help get Brenda to the point where she wouldn't run away if she became overwhelmed.
Val believed Dylan's music idea would help, but she couldn't see why she had been tasked to work with David on it.
On a rare day off, Clare joined them. Steve usually dropped in once or twice a day. Val liked when Steve joined. His boisterous laughter served as a nice change from the otherwise awkward silences between her and David.
Silence broken only when they debated on the rating of a song and whether they should have lined up an artist when they were co-managing the After Dark.
David had been staring at her for a quarter of an hour before Val finally acknowledged his stare.
"What?" she asked.
"I just can't get over how beautiful you are," he said.
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"You know what."
"Val, I'm not doing anything," he said with a laugh.
"You're trying to flirt, David. It's not gonna work. I'm not Bren. You're not Dylan. We aren't trying to repair what's been broken for the sake of the family we don't have. I'm not your great love story you fucked up along the way. Neither of us have lost memories that need to be recovered, although it could be argued that you lost your mind in other areas."
"If this is about me helping Dylan and Steve crack the truth about your false pregnancy, a. I didn't know what they were trying to expose and b. I've already apolo -"
"Try more like telling my secrets," Val interjected. "Telling Kelly, of all people, what I told you in strict confidence. If I'd known you were gonna go blabbing things to Kelly, I'da never told you."
David set down the CD case he had been holding. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"What am I talking about?" echoed Val incredulously. "I'm talking about you, telling Kelly about my father! What the fuck, David? I thought I meant something to you, and then you go and do a thing like that."
David became ashen. "She said you were completely damaged, Val. That you were always a victim, that you were inhuman."
"So you, what, decide to show Kel how human I am by telling her what my father did?"
"You were really hurt over Kel hosting Thanksgiving and getting everyone to side with her. I just thought that -"
"You didn't think. That was the problem. You wanted peace on earth or at least among the group while you were banging actress what's-her-face, so you didn't think and now Kelly knows it all. Brandon doesn't know. Bren doesn't know. Steve, someone I actually consider a friend in a world where I don't have many, doesn't know. Dylan doesn't even know, but Kelly, my mortal enemy; she knows. What exactly did you tell her?"
"Val -"
"I asked what you told her, David."
He scraped a hand over his face and released a tense breath. "I told her your father molested you and you shot him."
Val could almost hear her demons as they sprung to life inside her mind.
"Fuck you," she said. "I should've never told you shit."
"Val, hear me out."
"I don't want to hear anything from you, David. If it weren't for Bren, I'd be perfectly content to stay far away from you. You break up with me when I'm drowning, deny me a life raft, and then offer up all my dirty little secrets to Kelly? What, did you tell her about Johnny, too?"
"I didn't tell anyone about that asshole," said David. "You and me are the only people who know about your test."
"Not juicy enough for you to share with Kelly?"
"Val, are you sure you killed your father?" asked David.
Valerie was too thrown by his question to be angry at the dodge of her own question.
"Of course I'm sure," she said. "The gun was in my hands."
"But do you remember pulling the trigger?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Do. You. Remember. Pulling. The. Trigger?"
"I mean; I'm pretty sure I remember that…"
"Pretty sure isn't sure."
"What are you saying?"
"Don't you think it's a little odd that you tell Abby you allegedly killed your father and the first thing Abby wants to do is turn you into the cops?"
"It's not that odd. My mother is a stone cold bitch who was pissed I slept with her fiancé. I obviously inherited my schemes and revenge plots from her."
David's back made abrupt contact with the chair. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Kel didn't tell you about me sleeping with Carl in Vegas the night before he married my mother? I'm shocked. Thought that was exactly the kind of juicy gossip you and Kel like to dish out to each other."
"So you slept with Johnny," said David slowly, "and then you slept with Carl."
"Yeah, so? If we're gonna start naming people we've slept with since we broke up, why don't we start with actress what's-her-name who tried her utmost to come between you and Steve?"
"That's not what I mean," said David. "I just don't understand why you would hook up with Carl after your scare."
"Because all I could think of at the time was getting revenge on my mother," said Val. "I didn't think of it as a casual hookup. I thought of it as Abby's just desserts. Maybe Kel's right. Maybe I am completely damaged. Maybe I am inhuman. Maybe I don't care, just like you don't care."
"Would you stop claiming I don't care?" said David through his exasperation. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about you."
"You came here to visit Clare," said Val. "You didn't know I'd be here."
"I mean, here." David swept his hand over the room.
"You're here to help Dylan help Bren."
"If that was all this was about, Val, I could figure out a way to do that without you."
"Why do you want to hang out with someone so damaged?"
"You aren't damaged. And I think you've been played."
For a split second, Val released her anger to focus on David's words.
"I've been what?"
David set his hand on Val's wrist.
Somehow, despite her desire to purge all things David Silver from her life, Val couldn't bring herself to pull her hand back.
"Played, Val," said David. "I think you've been played. I don't think you killed your father."
"Why are you doing this?" Her voice was barely audible. "He molested me for years. He fucking raped me. You know that. Killing him released me from all those nights of torment."
"Do you remember when we first got together?" asked David. "Your nightmares?"
"Again, I'm not Bren. You're not -"
"Not Dylan. Yeah, I know, and I'm hella glad to not be Dylan. Do you remember?"
"Of course I remember, but what does that have to do with anythi -"
"What were your nightmares about? Were they about killing your father?"
They hadn't been, but Val still couldn't see what that had to do with whether she had killed her father.
"They were about drowning in the darkness like he did," she said. "About finding him lying in the bathroom, in a pool of his own blood."
"But they weren't about killing him."
"No, I didn't have dreams about killing my father, but I don't see what that has -"
"And when Abby came back into the picture, did your nightmares return?"
"They did."
That time, they had been about Victor Malone's murder.
"I've known you for going on five years, Val. If you had it in you to kill anyone, Ginger would've been dead the second she blackmailed you into giving me to her."
"It's not even close to the same thing and I knew you were still mad about that."
"This isn't about Ginger," said David. "There were plenty of times you could've gotten a gun. Plenty of people you could've shot. When you and Dylan were in Mexico and your life was on the line, did you shoot anyone?"
"I held a gun on Suzanne's worthless ass."
"But did you shoot her?"
"David, what are you getting at?"
"Val, I think your mother killed your father. And I think she framed you for it."
The entrance of Brenda briefly turned Val's baffled mind to other matters.
They tried to have Brenda sit on Val's lap as Brenda had done many times over the course of their friendship, but Brenda's burgeoning belly made that difficult.
Instead, Brenda shared Val's chair and claimed Val's shoulder whilst listening to a plethora of song varieties from their childhood.
"I think Bobby liked this one," said Brenda.
It had been Bobby's sister Lottie who had liked that one, but Val didn't correct her.
"He liked this one, too," said Brenda on the next song.
Val recalled Bobby's hatred for that particular song, and how Owen Beevis had purposely played it on a loop to get a reaction out of Bobby.
"One of your cousins did like this song," said Val. "What about you? Do you like it?"
"Not really," said Brenda. "Did I used to?"
"Only enough to help your cousin annoy the cousin who didn't like it," said Val. "Is Brandon coming in soon?" she added.
"He'll be out for a while," said Brenda. "He and Dylan are out finalizing paperwork for the move."
"Are you looking forward to the new place?" asked David.
"I think so," said Brenda. "But it makes me nervous."
"What makes you nervous?" asked Val. "It's far away from the train station and even closer to the bookshop. That should be a great thing for you."
"But it's in an unfamiliar part of town, and I don't like that we're relying on Dylan and Brandon to pay for it." Brenda fingered the title of a CD. "I need a job."
"Your job is to keep getting better," said Val. "That's what we all need you to focus on right now."
"I don't mean acting." Brenda draped her arm around Val. "I know I'm not ready for that yet, and I'm not gonna push myself to do it. It involves too many people, too much noise and chaos for me to try. But I need something to do that doesn't have anything to do with my injury or my baby. I'm going stir-crazy. I'm already walking more slowly to the bookshop when my legs cramp. Sooner or later, I'll need lifts there, too."
David looked at Brenda. "Do you think you'd be okay with calling people?"
"Calling people?" asked Brenda.
"I've got this friend," said David. "Donna. She could use someone to help promote her label and well; you were always good at that kind of stuff."
"That's true," said Val. "Donna's shit at promotion."
"Is that the Donna Clare knows?" asked Brenda. "The one Clare said I used to be good friends with?"
"The very same," said David.
"Do we like her?" Brenda asked Val.
"Usually," said Val. "Though I do like to mess with her, 'cause Donna makes it far too easy."
"I didn't hear that," said David.
"You need to be nicer," said Brenda.
"Aw, Bren. Don't take away my fun," said Val.
"Speaking of fun," said Brenda, "is there anyone in our group you had fun with that I should know about?"
Val purposefully avoided looking at David, who she knew was once more staring at her. "You already know about me and David," she said.
"It wasn't just you and David, was it?"
"I hooked up with Steve a couple times," said Val.
"Something I prefer to not remem - think of," said David.
Valerie flashed him a brief smile at his attempt to censor his terminology around Brenda.
"And I kissed Brandon once," said Val. "Well, twice, actually. Once when we were kids."
David's repulsion was evident.
"Were you ever with Dylan?" asked Brenda.
Brenda may as well have kicked Valerie underwater with a steel-rimmed boot.
"Was I ever with who?" asked Val.
"Dylan," said Brenda. "Have you ever been with Dylan?"
"I -" Hooking up with Dylan when she had first moved to Beverly Hills and hurting Steve in the process hadn't been one of Val's cherished memories, no matter how ferocious Dylan had been in bed.
Talking about it in front of David; well, awkward wasn't the word for it.
Val cleared her throat.
"Why do you think I was with Dylan?" she asked.
"There's a palpable chemistry between you two," said Brenda in a tone that gave nothing away. "Not like the kind you have with David, but one that says you've either fucked before, or you're gonna fuck."
"We aren't gonna fuck," said Val.
"So you previously fucked?" asked Brenda.
Valerie inquired what Dylan had said.
"He hasn't said anything," Brenda told her. "You just did by asking what he said."
It annoyed Valerie that she had fallen for the same kind of trick she would have pulled herself.
"Bren, I -"
Dylan and Brandon couldn't have returned at a worse moment.
"What's going on?" asked Dylan, surveying their faces.
"Oh, nothing." Brenda was suspiciously cheery. "Val was just telling me about how you two fucked."
Dylan blanched. "What?" he asked.
"You didn't tell her yourself?" asked Brandon.
"I couldn't," said Dylan. "Val and Bren are too important to each other. I thought telling Bren might be too much right now." He looked at Valerie. "Why would you tell her?" he asked.
"She didn't," said David. "Bren tricked her."
"All I want to know is if Dylan cheated on me with Val," said Brenda.
Valerie watched Dylan close his eyes and presumably count under his breath.
"We didn't cheat on you," said Val.
"You were in London," said Dylan. "It was when you first moved over there."
"Dylan didn't know who I was at first," Val added helpfully. "He certainly didn't know you and me were friends."
"At first," said Brenda. "But when he found out, he continued to fuck you?"
Dylan slumped his shoulders. "Pretty much," he said.
"You also didn't know who Dylan was?" asked Brenda to Val.
"No," said Val. "I knew."
"I see," said Brenda, and stood from the table. "Brandon, I'd like you to take me out," she said.
"Take you out where?" asked Brandon.
"Doesn't matter where," said Brenda. "Just where I literally can't look at either of these two."
Dylan's voice crackled as he spoke.
"We aren't sprinting, Bren."
"I'm not sprinting," she said. "I'm spending the evening with my brother to have a chance to sort out my feelings about this. Then I'll return, you and I will talk it out, you'll read to me, we'll go to bed, and maybe tomorrow I won't care that my sister fucked my ex."
"I didn't do it to hurt you, Bren," said Val.
"Neither did I," said Dylan.
"Yeah, I might've been angry that you'd ditched me in a time I really needed you and gone all the way over to London," Val continued, "but -"
"Val, stop," said David.
"And what about you, Dylan?" asked Brenda. "Did you think I ditched you for London? Is that why you kept fucking Val when you realized who she was?"
"Brenda -"
"Bren, Dylan's always been in love with you," said Val. "Even when we were hooking up, he was lovesick over you. Don't let what he did with me or with Kelly keep you from being with him."
"Being with him?" asked Brenda. "Dylan and I will be raising our daughter together. We might continue living together for her sake, but we will not be together. We're clearly better off apart. Dylan can fuck all the women he wants and I don't have to be hurt in the process."
Val had seldom seen Dylan as disconsolate as he was following Brenda's announcement.
"Brenda," he tried.
"Did I know about this before?" asked Brenda.
"Yes," said Dylan. "You did know Val and I had slept together."
"And I still took you back?" asked Brenda. "I must have been a hail-battered doormat."
"That description has never once fit you," said Dylan.
"Can we go, Bran?" asked Brenda as she ignored Dylan.
"Sure, Bren," said Brandon. "But if I tell you I knew that Dylan and Val hooked up and never told you, do you still want me along?"
Brenda thought it over.
"David, did you know?" she asked.
"Kinda," said David. "I wasn't too close to either of them at the time. Wasn't too close to you, either."
"Good," said Brenda. "Then come on."
"Me and Val have some things to discuss," David began.
"If you don't come, then I'll go down the street and wait for Steve," said Brenda. "Unless he also knew?"
"Dylan and Val actually hurt Steve by hooking up," said Brandon.
"Do you ever hook up without hurting people?" asked Brenda to Dylan.
"I didn't hurt anyone when I hooked up with you or Toni," said Dylan.
"Except you did, didn't you?" asked Brenda. "Otherwise, you and I would've still been together when I was on the train and you wouldn't have been off chasing the love of my brother's life."
"Hang on now," said Brandon.
"Brenda," said Dylan.
"David," said Brenda, avoiding eye contact with Dylan.
With one more stare at Val, David cupped Brenda's back, turned an apologetic glance to Dylan, and led Brenda out of the apartment.
"You should've told her," said Val. "You've been telling her everything else. You should've told her that."
"Val, the reason I didn't tell her was so this exact kinda thing wouldn't happen," said Dylan.
"Well, it happened anyway, all thanks to Brenda's astute observations," said Val. "I'll pack my things," she added.
"You're staying put," said Brandon. "Bren never could stay mad at you long. It'll be the same this time. She'll stew over it for a bit, and then move past it. With you, anyway." He turned to Dylan. "I really don't see how you expect to be with Bren again when this kind of thing keeps happening."
"She knows about Kelly," said Dylan. "Now she knows about Val. From here on out, everything else I tell her will be minor."
"Your last breakup?" asked Brandon. "How minor is that?"
"Bren can't hate me," said Dylan. "As much as she's wanted to over the years, she couldn't. That's got to mean something."
"She's expecting you to sleep with other women," said Brandon. "You could go find someone in a club tonight, hook up with her, and Bren wouldn't care."
"The problem with that is you Walsh people always care," said Dylan. "Whether she wants to admit it or not, Bren would very much care if I slept with someone else, just like you very much care that Kelly slept with me."
Brandon tensed. Dylan shot a frantic look at Val.
"He didn't know?" asked Dylan.
"Well, he knows now," said Val. "Brilliant move, McKay."
"Bren tell you?" asked Dylan.
"I guessed," said Val. "It's the kinda thing I'd do."
"You slept with Kelly?" asked Brandon, who Val thought might physically turn scarlet.
"We were down in Mexico," said Dylan. "It just kinda happ - Bren, Bren knows. I thought for sure she'da told you."
"Kelly slept with you? After everything Kelly and I have gone through, she slept with you?" asked Brandon.
"You're mad," Dylan stated.
"I'm not mad," said Brandon. "Just tired. Tired that all this time, I thought Kel had been moving on with someone new, this Matt guy, when she was moving on - or, rather, moving backward - with you. I thought you'd been chasing her, when she was chasing you right back." He shook his head. "Bren's wondering how much you can care about her when you fucked two of her best friends. I'm wondering how much Kel can care about me if she's so willing to hook back up with you, and if you ever cared about me at all."
"We gotta talk this out, B," said Dylan. "Your anger, your hurt. We gotta talk it out. I'm not letting you keep rebuilding this wall between us."
"What, are you the only one allowed to build walls?" snapped Brandon. "Are you the only one allowed to be hurt and angry about stuff? The only one allowed to decimate bridges?"
The men had reached a similar stance to how they had stood when Dylan first flew out.
"Okay," said Val. "Brandon, you sit." She pushed Dylan along. "And you sit. The three of us, Bren, and that baby; we're a family. Can it," she told Brandon as he started to protest. "I don't care if Dylan never gets with Bren again. He's half the reason we have our niece, he's gonna be around to raise her, and that makes him family. So you two are gonna sit here until you can think of two nice things to say to each other, because adding Brandon's anger on top of Bren's doesn't work."
Val noted a precise half-hour before Brandon spoke.
"Dylan's good at surfing," he said.
"That's the only nice thing you can think to say about the guy who used to be your best friend?" she asked.
"What I mean is, Dylan's good at getting himself back up when he's been knocked down. I get rammed by a wave and never surf again. He gets rammed by a wave, breaks a few ribs, and goes right back to surfing. So he's got this incredible strength. The issue is he never realizes it until after he's let his hurt fuck everyone over."
"Thanks, man," said Dylan, both surprised and touched. "Brandon rarely gives up on people," he said. "It takes a lot for him to give up on someone."
"Seems to me to be more of a character flaw than a nicety," murmured Brandon.
"Keep at it," encouraged Val. "I want you two to hash things out before Bren gets back because you already know how tired she'll be when she gets in and there's no reason she needs to hear you two at each other's throats. Brandon can be as mad as he wants, but not to the point that it affects Bren."
"So I take it you changed your mind about leaving," said Brandon.
"The only way I'm leaving is if Bren kicks me out," said Val.
"She won't," said Brandon. "Silver's texting updates," he added, holding up his phone to let them read the screen.
"Five steps forward, fifty steps back," said Dylan.
"If you think this is bad, you should've been here the day Bren burnt herself on the stove," said Val.
"I would've been here," said Dylan. "I woulda hopped the first plane over to Australia if I'd had the chance."
"You did have the chance," said Brandon. "And you chose to stay behind; that is, until you chose to walk out on Brenda without so much as a note."
"Hash it out!" Val commanded. "You don't have to be friends, but you do have to be civil."
Dylan uncrossed his arms and sat forward. "I left Bren a note," he said.
"And Steve didn't copy my essay," said Brandon.
"I'm serious," said Dylan. "I did leave a note."
"Really?" asked Brandon. "'Cause when your neighbor boxed up Bren's stuff, she said you hadn't left anything when you got the hell out of Dodgington."
Dylan asked which neighbor.
Brandon answered.
"Holly?" asked Dylan. "Holly said I didn't leave a note?" He clenched his fist. "I told Bren Holly had a thing for me. Bren said I was imagining things."
"Is now really the time for an ego boost?" asked Val.
"You don't understand," said Dylan. "I one hundred percent left Bren a note. Not just a note; a whole fucking letter. In her copy of Balzac, beside one of her scripts. Leaving the way I did was wrong, I'll freely admit that, but I absolutely did leave a letter."
"This all could've been avoided if you'd texted Bren, or maybe sent her an email," said Brandon. "You know, like people do in this decade."
"Because texting or emailing the girl you love to tell her you're leaving is such a great idea," said Dylan sarcastically.
"You're right," said Brandon. "Leaving a letter she'll never read is much better."
"The London crew has her stuff, don't they?" asked Dylan. "They can bring it over, I'll take out Balzac, and you'll see that I ain't lying."
"I guess that's what happens when you tell so many lies," said Brandon, eyeing Val. "It's hard to know when you're being honest."
"Don't bring me into this," said Val.
"I'm sorry," said Brandon, "did you or did you not fake a note sent to Kelly from Dylan to see if Kelly would go back to him?"
"I wasn't even there for that one," said Dylan. "When did that happen?"
"Shortly before graduation," said Val.
Dylan said he had happily been fucking Brenda at the time, which caused Brandon to remind Dylan that Dylan was talking about Brandon's baby sister.
Dylan pointed out that if he hadn't fucked Brenda, she wouldn't currently be carrying Brandon's niece.
Brandon couldn't argue against that.
"You didn't have to leave behind the letter I wrote you about Kelly," said Val. "She had everyone thinking I was the reason you called off your wedding."
"I called off the wedding?" asked Brandon. "Val, you were sitting right there in the church when Kelly said it was a mutual calling off."
"Yeah, well, you might want to remind Miss Perfect of that," said Val. "Because she's been blaming you ever since you left, and she got the others on board with it."
"I called off my wedding to Kelly? Then I guess Indiana Jones over there secretly showed up to it," said Brandon.
"How the hell do you secretly show up to a wedding?" asked Dylan. "I was in London, and you were - you were -"
Val could see the moment Dylan's brain spun faster than a fairytale creature at a spinning wheel.
"That's why she was with me," said Dylan. "Kelly's mad at Brandon and she wanted to get back at him by being with me. That's why she reiterated B's excuse about the chandeliers."
"Mad at me for what?" asked Brandon. "Calling off the wedding? Again, it was mutual!"
"For cheating on her," said Dylan. "She's mad at you for cheating on her."
"You aren't seriously going there," said Brandon. "Or do I need to bring up a certain summer?"
"I'm not judging you," said Dylan. "Honest."
"Kel being mad at you for cheating and for leaving would explain how she was able to move on so quickly with Matt," said Val.
"Why is she mad at me for leaving?" asked Brandon. "Kel told me to go!"
"Oh Bran, it's amazing how you still can't grasp the female brain despite fucking too many chicks to name," said Val. "How many times did you and Kelly try and fail to be with other people? Hell; the last time you tried, I had to say goodbye to a friend. And you know how few I have of those."
"Kelly's mad at me, so she fucks Dylan," said Brandon.
"Dylan's mad at Bren, so he fucks Kelly," said Val.
"Val's mad at David, so she?" questioned Dylan.
"She will not tell you what she did," said Val. "But considering how mad at you Bren is right now, you'd better be thankful she's knocked up, or this pattern coulda continued."
"With who? Silver?" asked Dylan. "Bren wouldn't sleep with Silver."
"Are you insulting David right now?" asked Val. "I'll have you know he's got way more stamina than you, and a more sizeable packa -"
"I doubt that," interrupted Dylan, "but this doesn't have anything to do with Young Silver's alleged virility, or lack thereof. I just mean that Bren wouldn't do that to Donna; or to you, Val."
"Then Bren's better than all of us," said Val.
"That she is," said Brandon.
Dylan and Brandon continued to hash out their issues with Valerie as their unexpected mediator.
They were still hashing it out when Steve walked in with Clare.
"Where's Bren?" he asked, looking around. "Me and Clare found some stuff for her when we went shopping."
"You went shopping together?" asked Dylan.
"Steve showing up while Kai and I were picking up stuff for the office doesn't count as shopping together," said Clare.
"Can we go one night without talking about Kai?" asked the irascible Steve.
He set about unpacking the shopping bags whilst Clare followed along to Val's room.
"I really don't know what he has against Kai," said Clare.
"It is bizarre," said Val.
"Steve isn't a homophobe, is he?" asked Clare.
"More like Sanders has the worst gaydar on the planet."
"Are you saying he thinks Kai's straight?"
"Maybe."
"So Steve's jealous," said Clare. "Interesting."
"Guess you'll tell him about Kai?" asked Val.
"Oh no," said Clare. "Nope. If Steve's jealous, who am I to tell him he's been wrong all this time?"
"Isn't that what you usually do?" asked Val.
"Harsh," said Clare.
"Sometimes you need some tough love from your girls," said Val. "You probably didn't get enough of that from the Blondes."
"The Blondes?" asked Clare. "Is Donna a blonde again?"
"Donna's always a blonde," said Val. "She can change her hair to every color of the rainbow; it doesn't make her any less of a blonde."
"Where's your girl?" asked Clare. "We thought Bren would be here."
"She's with David, blowing off some steam."
"Blowing off steam?"
Valerie told Clare of the afternoon's events. Clare said she had the opportunity to tell Brenda about Valerie's tryst with Dylan, but that Clare had chosen to remain mum.
"I kinda wish you had told her," said Val. "It seems Dylan was never going to, which means -"
"He was trying to keep your relationship with Bren intact?" asked Clare.
"Unfortunately," said Val.
"So you'll slag him less?" asked Clare.
Valerie would have been confused, had it not been for the British words infused in Brenda's vocabulary.
"Oh, sweet Clare," said Val. "Slagging Dicklyn is half the fun of knowing him. Isn't that why you slag Steve?"
"Calling out Steve's chauvinistic tendencies isn't slagging."
Steve bumbled into the room. "Bren's back," he announced.
Val and Clare looked at each other before darting to rejoin the others.
Val was puzzled to see Brenda clinging to Dylan.
"Is she okay?" asked Val.
"Uh, I might've told Bren something she didn't know," said David, sliding his hand over his neck.
"What'd you tell her?" asked Clare.
"He told me that Dylan almost died this year," said Brenda, barely lifting her head from Dylan's chest. "They had to resuscitate him and everything. My daughter would've lost her father, and I never would've known."
Looking like he would be perfectly content to remain in that position until the end of time, Dylan enveloped himself around Brenda.
"Bren was pretty upset about it," said David.
"When did you become such a gossip?" asked Val.
David scowled at her.
"I'm glad he told me," said Brenda.
"Yeah, see?" said David. "She's glad."
"That doesn't mean I am," said Val.
Brenda asked why Valerie was upset David had told her about Dylan's overdose. Val told Brenda that hadn't caused her upset.
Then, to Valerie's stunned gratitude, Brenda hugged her.
"You're not mad at me?" asked Val.
"I'm too relieved you're okay to be mad at you," said Brenda.
Val looked to David as if to telepathically ask what secret he had spilled this time.
If he told Brenda about Johnny and the HIV scare, Val would slaughter David without a moment's hesitation.
"David told me you raced off to the hospital way past the speed limit when I slipped on the ice," said Brenda. "And that you'd been drinking."
"I didn't drink that much," said Val. "David had much more than I did that night."
"Still," said Brenda, "you should know better than to drink and drive. I couldn't take it if you'd ended up in a snowbank because of me."
"I had to get to you," said Val. "It was hard to think about anything else when I didn't know how bad your fall was."
"Dylan, don't let Val drink and drive again," said Brenda. "Val, don't hook up with Dylan again. And Brandon -"
"Yes, Bren?" asked Brandon.
"Don't date Alina if you're still hung up on Kelly," she said.
"Another piece of gossip from Davey?" asked Brandon.
"Nope," said Brenda. "It's the way you twitch every time you hear Kelly's name."
"I do not," said Brandon.
"You do," said Val, and snickered.
Brenda asked Dylan if she could do anything to aid in his continued recovery. Dylan told Brenda she could come along with him to his meetings, if she thought she could handle a room full of strangers. Brenda asked if anyone else would be along, which resulted in David asking Valerie if she would also come to the meetings. Valerie asked David if he thought she was an addict of some kind just because she enjoyed recreational drugs here and there. Brenda asked if she had partaken in drugs herself. Dylan said the most Brenda had done was smoked. Brenda became anxious over whether she had smoked during her pregnancy. Dylan assured her she had quit whilst still at RADA. David explained to Val he had meant if she would accompany him to his own meetings.
However upset she was with him, Val couldn't deny David the support, just like Brenda couldn't deny Dylan her support.
Steve announced that he had no desire to attend a meeting and was happy to continue drinking as many kegs as he wanted to drink whilst supporting his friends' recoveries from the sidelines.
"What do you say I pop us some popcorn and we get to watching these tapes of Dave's?" suggested Steve.
"Unless Bren would like to try to get into her old dress again," said Val.
"That's not a bad idea," said Clare.
"It's a horrible idea," said Brenda. "There's no way I'll be able to fit in that dress, even if I wanted to."
"That's the kind of fashion show I could get into," said Dylan. "Think I saw a couple other dresses in there. Might as well try all of them."
"Come on," Val grabbed Brenda's hand. "Clare and I will help you."
"You said it makes me look like a newspaper," said Brenda.
"The dress looks like a newspaper," said Val. "You could pull off anything."
"I second that," said Dylan. "We'll order food while you ladies see if you can help my girls into those dresses. Then we'll start on the tapes."
"Your girl is the reason I won't be able to fit any of the dresses," said Brenda. "I might rip them."
"If I remember correctly, at least one of them is already ripped," said Dylan smartly.
Brandon groaned.
"Get used to it," Dylan told him. "Oh, and Bren?"
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Wear this." He dug out an item from his pocket and chucked it in Brenda's direction. "Intact."
Valerie wondered about the meaning of the split heart as she secured the chain around Brenda's neck. She had seen one piece of the necklace emerge from Brenda's box.
She didn't know where the other piece had come from.
Brenda had been incorrect. Although the women couldn't get any of the dresses zipped, Brenda was able to fit some of them enough to show the men, which included a white and gold dress with a bow in the front, an orange dress styled in the 1920s era, and a metallic gold dress.
The box also contained a shirt; a berry-colored, velvet shirt with long lace sleeves that Brenda liked so much, she added it back to her wardrobe following Dylan's visceral reaction to seeing it on her.
The one dress Brenda couldn't fit whatsoever was a tight black number with shoulder pads.
Brenda asked for details of the occasions where she had worn each ensemble.
The men answered for all but one, the one that no one could tell Brenda about except Dylan.
It was a red dress with a buckle, another outfit Brenda reclaimed that she had to unbuckle in order for it to barely fit.
"That's the," Dylan choked on his own air and received a frenetic tap on his back from David, "you wore that to the last dinner we had with your parents before they sent you off to Paris." Dylan scrutinized Brenda. "I always knew you looked damn good in red."
"Reds always look good on brunettes," said Val. "It's a known fact."
"Red looks good on Clare," said Steve. "Though she's pretty damn foxy in every color."
Val set about to nudge Clare into thanking Steve, which became unnecessary when Clare chose to thank Steve without prompting.
"So it's a cursed dress?" asked Brenda, looking down at the dress. "Is it bad I still like it?"
"I still like it on you," said Dylan. "It was my favorite then and it might be even more now with how it shows off your belly like that."
"It does, doesn't it?" asked Brenda, turning to display the full breadth of her stomach.
"I don't think you've ever looked sexier," said Steve.
Dylan whacked Steve's shoulder.
"What?" asked Steve. "She does."
"Quit ogling my girls," said Dylan.
"I'm just showing my appreciation for a beautiful woman," said Steve.
"A beautiful woman who, I'll remind you, is my sister," said Brandon.
Valerie expected Dylan to tack on and my future wife, but he didn't.
Brenda moved to sit by Dylan, who whispered something incoherent in her ear. Brenda giggled and lifted herself from her spot to relocate to Dylan's lap. Dylan looped his arms over Brenda.
Val hurried to sit by Brandon before David could get any ideas, as Steve had with Clare.
Undeterred, David sat on the floor so that Val's legs almost touched his back.
Brenda's head rested against Dylan's neck as she watched the footage David had captured of their junior year.
"Who's that?" asked Brenda, pointing to the screen.
Brandon looked at David before answering, "That's Scott."
"Who's Scott?" asked Val.
"He looks kind," said Brenda. "Is he kind?"
"Was kind," said David. "The kindest." David swiped at his face. "He had a massive crush on you, Bren."
"Did he?" asked Brenda.
"I knew it," said Brandon.
"Was I kind to him?" asked Brenda.
"You were one of the only ones who was," said David.
"Brandon wasn't kind to him?"
"I barely knew the guy," Brandon defended.
"Knew him enough to make out with Emily Valentine at his birthday party," said Steve.
"That name makes me furious," said Brenda. "Why am I furious?"
"Because Emily Valentine was psycho," said Dylan. "I'll never get over how she almost killed you. I still get nightmares from it on occasion."
"She almost killed Bren?" asked Clare.
"Might be a slight exaggeration," said Dylan, "but you try standing there while your girl talks down someone messing around with a lighter on a float covered with gasoline."
"I don't think I like Emily," said Brenda.
"None of us do," said Steve, "except maybe your brother over there."
"Hey, Dylan went out with her, too," said Brandon.
"Before or after the float?" asked Brenda.
"Before," said Dylan. "Definitely before. I know what you're about to ask and no, I didn't cheat with her, either. You and I were broken up during the one date Emily and I went on. It made you so jealous, you freaked out on her."
"Okay, I can forgive you for that one," said Brenda. "Freaked out how?"
Valerie asked Brandon if Brenda had freaked out in the way she had when Bobby's old girlfriend had dumped him after his accident.
Brandon said it had been similar.
"But then Ems drugged Brando, so you had a good read on her from the beginning," said Steve.
"She drugged you?" asked Brenda.
"Drugged like Josh drugging," Val asked Brandon, "or drugged like Kelly with Colin drugging?"
Brenda asked who Colin and Josh were, before announcing that she thought the entire group was cursed.
"We might just be." Dylan's voice came out muffled behind Brenda's hair.
"Cursed by Emily Valentine," said Steve.
Whilst David informed Brenda of Colin's role in Valerie's and Kelly's lives, he did not tell Brenda about Josh Hunter.
It didn't make up for telling Kelly about Victor Malone, but it did help ease a bit of Val's mistrust.
"So, what do you think?" asked David as Val lowered herself to sit beside him.
"About?" asked Val.
"What we were talking about earlier," said David.
"I think if there's even a smidgen of truth to that," said Val, "I'm gonna need you to help me figure it out."
David smiled in a way Valerie hadn't seen in months and quickly kissed her cheek. "Gladly," he said.
Val caught Dylan glancing at her. He winked before turning his attention back to Brenda, who maintained her focus on their visual past and slipped her hand through Dylan's when the teenaged Brenda on the screen did the same.
Whatever Dylan told her then had Brenda raising their intertwined hands for Dylan to kiss.
"This doesn't mean we're sleeping together," Val added under her breath to David. "Or that I'm not still mad at you."
David told Valerie to be as furious as she wanted.
Because, he said, to be furious was to have feelings, and to have feelings meant Valerie cared.
Which, he said, meant Val was neither damaged, nor inhuman.
And with that, to Val's frustration, her walls began to granulate.
Bit by bit, inch by inch, slower than the pace of an injured snail, Valerie Malone's bandaged heart reopened to David Silver.
As Val watched Brenda Walsh's begin to do with Dylan McKay.
Neither woman could control it, for love and who one fell into it with was uncontrollable.
Especially when a history existed that, even when forgotten, made it impossible for the girls from Minneapolis to guard their hearts against the boys from Beverly Hills.
Perhaps Clare would be more successful, though knowing Steve the way she did, Valerie very much doubted it.
-x
BK fans, new vid up on YouTube and WISHUPONAMILLIONDREAMS on Instagram.
(Shout-out to KJ to express my continued gratitude and appreciation. David and Val definitely deserved a better ending than they got! David was enjoyable with Donna in their early days, but by the end of the series, he needed someone less like Donna and more like Val. I'm also bitter that Donna and D'Shawn weren't given a shot whilst she kept being with lousy wooden characters like Noah.)
Thanks a million! x