Beyond the end

Notes

Los Angeles
Steve had collapsed on the couch along with Sammy. He had not been able to free himself from the sense of sadness that oppressed him. You could see there was something dark that wanted to take possession of him, take the space.
Brandon and Kelly didn't want to wake him up and took those minutes for them.
"What are you working on?" He asked Kelly.
Kelly glanced at his notes scattered on the desk in the living room.
"Nothing, it's just notes."
"About what?"
"For a few years I worked for a clinic taking care adolescents with eating disorders and other dysfunctions."
"Really? I didn't know."
Kelly broke a smile.
"You don't know many things Bran."
He looked at her with a little melancholy for that time that far past and that they could no longer recover.
"I know," he said.
"Anyway," Kelly resumed, "I did a study of a therapy that had several findings in the field. A solitary search full of satisfaction."
"Something you Felt close to you ," Brandon concluded.
"Yeah," she said, "I'm in there too. Abandonment syndrome, problems with eating behavior and so on."
Brandon took a few notes in his hand and gave a quick read.
"You should publish your work."
Kelly looked at him with two sweet eyes.
"Thank you for your trust."
"It's not trust. It's faith in you."
Kel realized Brandon was serious.
"Do you believe about what you did?"
"Certainly."
"And then I believe it too."
Kel caressed the idea "I don't know" shook her shy head "I would need someone to correct the drafts now I'm addicted to mistakes. The material is to be put in order. Finding the shape" Kel was evidently scared.
"Kel" he said softly as he approached her with the notes in his hand "do you believe in your work?"
She looked almost enchanted by the heavenly sea in his eyes.
"Yes," she replied.
"And then go ahead. I can help you if you want."
"Working together?" Kel laughed "do you remember how it went last time?"
"It's not like then. I am here. I'm not going anywhere."
Kel smiled but you could see that she was on the edge of a ravine. SHe was afraid he would leave. SHe was afraid that anyone would leave.
SHe tried to look away but became more and more difficult.
"We can set up the notes in the evening."
"Bran, it's not just these notes, do you see these folders?"
Kel opened the built-in closet. Five paper-swarming folders made their appearance under Brandon's gaze.
"It's okay."
"You already have your job"
"It's Okay" he repeated as he kissed her "Kel, I want to do something with you. I want to be with you."
This disarmed Kelly.
"And then if the work is good" Steve came behind "I could publish it myself. Have the exclusivity."
The two men were looking at her and Kel feels something coming up from the bowels of herself. SHe didn't know how to give it a name right away. Maybe happiness. Enthusiasm. Maybe both.
Steve had broken the moment between them but Brandon was still grateful. He wanted to support Kel. He desperately wanted to make her understand that it was all an opportunity.
Suddenly Dylan's call that afternoon came to Brandon's mind.
"I almost forgot," he said.
"What?" Kel asked.
"Can you take a week off work?"
"I could."
Steve watched the rebound between the two and began to feel unconfortable.
"Let's go to London there's the premiere of Brenda's show"
Kel lit up.
"I, you and Sammy".
Kel threw her arms around his neck "really?"
" wow great," Steve whispered, taking a few steps back, "hear guys, it's been late and I'd like to go home," he stopped before the eyes of the two, "ah, yeah..I don't have a house."
Kel disbanded from the hug with Brandon and approached him. She had known Steve for too long so as not to see his red eyes. He was suffering. Terribly.
"There's a ticket for you too," Brandon said, "come with us. You get a little distracted. Traveling is good."
"Dylan booked the flight for you too," Brandon revealed to him, "Steve we are all friends and friends what are they for?"
"I can't wait to tell Sammy" Kel looked at the sleeping son "he will be so happy."
Steve felt better too. But yes, why not.
"My parents will come too," Brandon said, looking Kel in the eyes and that's made her a little nervous. It was like sanctioning an officiality. After the missed marriage. After all those years.
Steve was watching her and he understood the unresolved things that the two were looking for a interlocking.
"Bran, why don't you give me the keys," he said, moving his hands quickly, "I'm going home. You come whenever you want. It's your home."
Brandon let the keys slip into Steve's hands "see you later," he told him.
"Don't be in a hurry," the friend whispered in his ear.
Brandon picked up Sammy and put him to bed. The day must have been heavy for him because he didn't move.
Bran and Kel shared those hours for them and she let him fall asleep, after made love. After the words. SHe looked at his profile in the dark and beyond him the window. The tips of the trees outside. Early in the morning he would get up and slipped away so as not to be seen by Sammy, even though the baby knew everything, but he didn't talk about it. Writing a book, going to London...sHe felt the happiness get entangled in his eyelashes. SHe fell asleep as she had not done in too many years. Without thoughts. Without fears.
London.
Brenda and Dylan had fallen asleep late. They had played in bed as children. Dylan was trying to defuse Brenda's anxiety for the premiere. And in the end he had collapsed and she along with him. Like two teenagers at the first love, they had held tight as if the night could tear them away at any moment. As if the night could hurt them.
They didn't hear the bell ring right away.
They knocked harder and Brenda opened her eyes.
"What time is it!? It will be JT."
"I'm going," Dylan said, slipping out of bed. She put on his underwear and a T-shirt. Brenda turned to the other side.
Dylan still kept his eyes closed when he opened the door convinced that he was in front of JT with a couple of croissants and a party air.
"I'm coming," he said.
The door click put Jim and Cindy in front of him. Cheerful and colorful. They were followed by Brandon, Kelly, Sammy and Steve. There was a moment of silence.
"Oh God," he said, "but weren't you supposed to arrive this afternoon?"
'Surprise!' Chirped a cheerful Cindy as always. SHe didn't notice that Dylan wasn't even dressed.
'Dad!' Sammy came out around the corner and cling to his legs. This hurt Brandon a little. He never attached himself to his own. And how could he have? She saw him in the evening. He sneaked away early in the morning. Sammy was talking to him but that half-life didn't allow him to get to know him and make himself known. He was not the father. The father was Dylan. And that would never have changed. Brandon tasted for a moment a distant memory he had often thought of. That unborn son clinging to his legs. Kelly was a mother. She was satisfied with her being a mother. And they lived in different apartments. And millions of other things. Brandon wanted his son. His daughter. He wanted to be a father. And he noticed it every time he saw Sammy cling to Dylan.
That stumped was almost immediately lost by the hand of Kelly who unwittingly squeezed to his.
Dylan said Brenda was sleeping. He invited them in.
He would have gone to wake her up.
"Was it JT?" Brenda asked when she heard him return to the room.
"Not really."
Brenda raised her head out of the pillow "so who is it?"
A surprise," he kissed her in the morning light, " but you'd better get dressed, whatever you want but don't go naked in the living room."
Brenda didn't decipher Dylan's stupid smile. He put a suit on his bare skin and went out.
What she saw was her world concentrated in her apartment.
She wasn't sure she really saw them also because none of them were moving. Except Sammy who was putting his hands everywhere.
"Dylan?" Brenda asked.
'Yes?'
"Do you see who I see too? I mean I'm also in your field of vision?"
"Do you mean your mother, your father, your brother, Steve, Kelly and Sammy?"
"Yes"
"Yes," he replied, laughing, "I see them too."
"Oh my God!" Brenda burst into a liberating cry and ran to hug Jim and Cindy especially. Her brother. Her family. Together in her house. SHe kissed Steve and Kel. Salutó Sam.
Kelly looked at her move inside her apartment, her life. So that was the place where Brenda had hidden herself while she was serving her pain. Those were the objects she touched, what she saw from the window. It was there that he moved his solitary steps. She had never really stopped to think about what Brenda's life was like away from BH. As much as her final was winning. She had left. SHe had found courage and strength. Alone. For herself. As Kelly had tried to do but only years and years later.
Kel greeted Dylan under Brandon's watchful eyes. She let Sammy overwhelm his father. They hadn't seen each other for a while. By now Sammy had gained some awareness on the figure of his father. Something that other children didn't have the burden of having to create.
JT really arrived with two croissants and was speechless, brandishing the bag and hot coffee.
"The famous JT," said Cindy.
"There is none for everyone," he said, referring to the croissants, unleashing general hilarity.
"We just came to say hello," Jim said, hugging his daughter tightly, "we'll go back to the hotel and see you later."
JT kept his eyes on Brandon. He found him extremely attractive and looked very closely at the famous Kelly. So that's how she was done. That was the form she had. She was very beautiful. A mixture of an ancient sadness and a new light.
He greeted Steve energetically with whom he exchanged pleasant jokes.
Steve himself felt like a fish out of water, what was he doing there? With them? What did he have to do with it?
His discomfort went up until he was broken by JT. He was a nice guy, ready joke. Steve Just like him.
Maybe those days wouldn't have been so terrible. And then it was in London. Maybe some beautiful girl would have met him. He had to find some nice place. He asked JT.
"Do you want to know if I know any places?" JT laughed "ah you Americans."
Steve didn't understand right away but that big boy put him at ease, who knows why he liked him. It didn't take long to record how he watched Brandon and he understood the rest of the luggage that JT carried with him. He did training not to say stupid jokes that in other times he would have melted in the air.
"See you later," said choirs as they walked out of the apartment.
Jim and Cindy were still holding hands and this did not go unnoticed to either Brenda or Brandon. It made them smile, it made them feel like a family again.