Aevum of Itero

Chapter 7

Choices reaped consequences.

Wanted. Unwanted. Intolerable. Gratifying.

Had he chosen to spend the summer with his mother in Hawaii, perhaps he would have returned home to a Brenda whose heart had grown fonder by his absence.

Instead of a Brenda who, though she enjoyed his constant company, confessed to Donna of her indecision.

Her heart was already fond; quite fond.

It was her head, Dylan realized, that battled for dominance.

"Emilio Reina asked you out?" he heard Donna ask from his concealed vantage point near the drama classroom.

They seemed to be the only two left in the room, with even Chris Suiter having departed when Dylan had arrived to pick up Brenda.

"Shh, Don, keep your voice down," said Brenda.

"Bren, there's no one else around."

"Not true. Chris is only a couple classrooms away, and Dylan could arrive at any minute."

"Are you sure Dylan's okay with picking me up, too? Maybe he was hoping it'd just be you."

He had indeed been hoping as much, but held no resentment towards also giving Donna a ride.

"I think it's fine, but we can sneak into the teacher's lounge to call him on that phone and ask."

"Okay. So, back to Emilio asking you out. Oh my God, Bren. He's only like, one of the hottest guys in school. What did you say?"

"I told him I would think about it."

"You didn't."

"I did. I didn't dump Dylan because of not wanting to be with him, Don. There's a whole bunch of factors at play. I don't know if I want to drag Emilio into that, and I definitely don't want to hurt Dylan if I accept a date with Emilio. It feels like I'd be betraying Dylan."

"Well, what did Emilio say when you told him you'd think about it?"

"He said he understood and he wouldn't push it. He's such a sweet guy, Don. I kinda do want to see if maybe we could have something, but Dylan is; well, you know how I feel about Dylan."

Dylan didn't know whether to perform a victory dance at Brenda's reluctance to date Reina, or run to the closest bar at knowing her consideration of dating Reina.

No. No bars.

But -

No! Bars!

You suck.

And you proved you can't control your drinking, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

True, but you still suck.

"I know," said Donna. "We all know how much you love Dylan. Why did you two break up, anyway?"

His ears perked up. He leant closer to the cracked door, still out of the girls' line of vision but enough to hear Brenda's response.

"That's between me and Dylan," she said. "I don't want to betray his trust by telling anyone; not even Brandon knows the full reason, but basically, our relationship just started moving way too quickly and I wasn't ready for things to get that tense."

"Tense like how? Tense like," Donna's eyes darted from chair to chair, as if she were seeking out the invisible people that sat amongst them, "sex?" she whispered.

"Donna, you can say the word," Brenda laughed.

"Bren, if I tell you something, you can't tell anyone, okay? Not even Kelly. Strictly between us."