The weeks following the car accident were very hard weeks for everyone.
Samuel didn't remember how the incident happened and eventually the police were forced to close everything.
His season on the football team was over, and the time had come to go back to school. To move he used crutches or the wheelchair. Sean and Emma had taken turns offering to pick him up and follow him during school activities.
Kelly wanted her son to return to normal even though the normal for the Walsh family was too far away but Kelly knew she had to try, for Grace, for herself and also for Brandon because that was what he wanted.
Brandon had been extubated once and things hadn't gone very well, he couldn't breathe and the doctors had to intervene to intubate him a second time.
The surgery had reduced the haematoma to the head and when his physique was strong enough he was extubated again.
Andrea supervised every activity, she prayed her God and the God of all that Brandon would begin to breathe alone and after a few seconds his lungs began to take air.
There remained the problem of awakening that could not be predicted, the human brain is an unknown and unpredictable matter. Brandon could wake up in five minutes, an hour, a day, or never and there was no way to help him.
He was moved to a specialised clinic where he received medical care and the care he needed and to lighten Kelly in turn everyone went every day to talk to him.
They had to struggle a lot to convince Kelly but her physique was debilitating from fatigue and little appetite. Every day one of them would go to Brandon's, sit next to him, talk to him, even tell him nonsense, everyday ordinary things that would normally go unnoticed but not for them. Anything that could bring Brandon back had to be told, spilled like sugar.
Only two people couldn't cross that threshold: Dylan and Samuel.
Dylan stayed out when Brenda went to Brandon. He sat in the waiting room. Sometimes he would go to the clinic alone, the nurses would see him and leave him sitting without asking him a question. Dylan couldn't get in, he couldn't look at his brother in those conditions, he felt the weight of the debt of words he could have told him but in reality Dylan talked to him when he sat in those chairs, he talked to Brandon every single day.
Samuel always postponed to the next day, he felt something unknown that burned his soul, something that no matter how hard he tried he could not decipher, and he did not want to see his father in that condition. Brandon was his rock and he desperately needed that rock to be a safe harbour again.
Steve walked into the clinic, walked down the hallway, greeted the nurses Lauren and Samantha who gave him a familiar nod.
He saw Brandon's first and last name on the door of the room, the machines pulsating Brandon's heartbeat. His eyes were no longer swollen but they were always closed, his hands were healing and there were only some faded traces of old bruises left.
Steve sighed and then took a chair to sit next to him.
"Hi Bro" smiled weakly at him and then looked better at his beard-covered face "you are good with This beard .. you Know? But I think you wouldn't like to have this."
He asked permission from the nurses who provided him with shaving soap and a razor. The bed was raised and a basin full of water was placed.
Steve began to soap Brandon's face and then gently pass the razor to shave him.
"You know, Kelly is trying to be strong but I'm afraid she might collapse at any moment, it was hard to convince her that she doesn't have to come here every day and that we are your family too but in the end a little for Grace and a little for Samuel, she allowed us to come here to you, as long as you never stayed alone. You Know Samuel is back to school, he walks around with crutches or the wheelchair, it is still not clear what damage his leg and the knee crusaders have suffered, but I am confident, I think that with a little physiotherapy and support, as soon as he removes the cast, I think that slowly he will return to play. However, he no longer drinks and does not smoke marijuana and Emma is always close to him. I think she has a crush on him but I bet you already know that. He Refuses to see Nate again. Your guy can be a very stubborn. Nate and Blanca are a steady couple and Brenda told me that Blanca wrote him a long letter but Kelly says he hasn't even read it, he keeps it there on his desk. Blanca has some problems at school, she has been targeted by some bulls and it seems that the captain of the bully team is Nate's ex-girlfriend, Janet, yes don't say it, but Janet's mine is mine, she's not so bad. These girls today are too treacherous and would you believe that Janet and Clare have great relationships anyway? I feel like a jerk".
Steve took a small break and flushed the razor to start over.
"Kelly also says Samuel has trouble sleeping at night, that he has nightmares, maybe it's because of the accident. He doesn't remember anything about what happened but maybe he's reliving the trauma in his unconscious? Do you think it can be Bran?"
Steve flushed the razor again.
"It looks like Donna is interested in Joe, nothing official, they go out together and go to the movies, I don't think they have sex" Steve laughed loudly "Would you ever believe Joe is still a virgin? So Clare told me. You know me, I live there with sex, but I must say that I admire so much wisdom to give yourself to only one person, but I wonder if you don't taste anything else how do you know which is the thing you like the most".
Steve thought about it and then corrected himself "ok maybe the verb to taste is not the best I could use."
Steve flushed the razor again.
" David seems jealous probably because he sees Donna slip through his fingers and be interested in someone else and has given up on him but I tell you the truth as much as Donna and David are an institution, if Donna finds some happiness in someone else I would be happy and I bet you would be too. Valerie is obviously jealous, you know her, she risks making some mistake if she doesn't calm down."
Steve wiped Brandon's face with one of the clean towels.
"Kelly tries to be strong but she's suffering a lot, she missed you and she loves you a lot, that's a certainty, like we all miss you all but she and Brenda are suffering terribly" Steve approached Brandon's ear "so wherever you are, if you can hear me, Brandon please come back, come back here, you have to come back here
Brandon didn't move and Steve closed his eyes sighing.
"The only one we can't convince to come is Dylan. He stays out here for hours when he accompanies Brenda but can't get in, he says he doesn't want to see you in these conditions. I don't know everyone reacts as they can, I guess. Do you believe that he stays here Even after the visiting hours? By now the nurses know him and leave him here a step away from your door."
Steve sighed again, opened the sports newspaper he had brought with him and began reading the sports news commenting on the results of football, basketball, baseball and saying things he knew Brandon would hate, hatred was still a feeling, maybe a kind of feeling that could bring Brandon back.
"the minnesota twins sucked last week"
XX
Brenda walked into the television studios. It hadn't been easy to get back to work but the truth was that there was nothing she could do for her brother other than help take care of his family and support her parents and Kelly and that was exactly what she was going to do because she knew Brandon would do the same for her.
Her mind was flocking with thoughts when she inadvertently gave a slight shoulder to someone who dropped the paper to the ground.
"Oh I'm sorry" said a female voice.
Brenda bent down to pick up the sheets "I'm the one who has to apologise, I wasn't looking where I was going" Brenda quickly looked up and deputy Asheley in front of her.
"Ashley..." she exclaimed in surprise.
"Brenda," she replied, embarrassed and looking around.
"What are you doing here?" Brenda asked her.
Asheley couldn't find an immediate response as Brenda looked her straight in the eye.
"I came to deliver a script," she suddenly said, "and you?"
"Me? Today is the first day of filming"
"Oh sure, I wish you all the best I'm sure you'll be doing great" Asheley told her with a shaken attitude.
"Are You Well Asheley?" She asked her, raising her eyebrow.
Asheley nodded 'certainly' made half a constructed smile and then hurriedly looked at the clock.
" I have to go"
Brenda stood watching the woman as she hurried out of the main gate greeted briefly by the guard at the door.
Then Brenda finished collecting her papers and reached her studies quickly.
XX
Samuel asked Emma to take him away during lunch hours, he did not want to see the pitiful eyes the other students reserved for him, much less did he want to see Nate and Blanca together.
Nate had shown up every day since he got home and every day, Kelly, Cindy, Jim were forced to send him away. Blanca instead had written him a long letter that Emma had given him, but Samuel didn't feel like opening it, because opening it would put him in a position of having to accept the truth, Blanca wanted to be with Nate, Nate loved Blanca or something. Samuel didn't want to hear it.
'How's the workouts going?' Samuel asked her while she was sitting on the ground on the grass.
"I thought you didn't care anymore," Emma replied sarcastically.
"I deserve it," Samuel replied, "after what happened at Spring Dance..."
"You dumped me like you didn't care about anything" Emma finished the sentence.
"Emma, you know that's not true"
Emma felt Samuel's gaze on her but did not turn to cross her eyes with his.
"No," Emma replied, "I don't know."
Samuel sighed and raised her chin by stretching out with one hand"I had a hard time Emma, you know"
"I just wish you would come back to the person you were before, you just look like the shadow of yourself. You're neither the first nor the only person who was heartbroken, but you know, people react."
"I know, it's just that it was strong and very painful for me."
Emma looked down and then looked him straight in the eye "do you remember how we met?"
"Because you were friends with Blanca? "
" True but also because you were Nate's friend, I mean it was always the four of us. From the beginning, there have been better times, worse times, but since the story with Blanca began it just seems like we don't exist anymore."
"He cheated on me. They cheated on me."
"Stupid asshole. No, it's not true, for years he tried to stifle what he felt so as not to give you any displeasure. Because you mattered more than anything else. Nate tried, I knew it and I saw it. He was always a step behind you, he always protected your blind side, why is it now impossible for you to give him a chance? What is it that crushes you like this? "
Samuel shook his head "I don't know..."
Samuel looked at Emma "...Sorry I didn't come to train with you"
Emma shrugged "it doesn't matter"
"It's important , I made you a promise. You've always been there for me"
Emma turned to look at him.
"Read that letter Samuel, go further, and we can still be a group"
Samuel sighed "I have nightmares at night"
Emma stopped eating and looked at him again "what nightmares?"
"I dream of being in the car with my father, and I'm angry, I'm so angry that my vision is blurred and my heart goes up in my throat. I dream that my father doesn't have his hands and that I put my hands on the steering wheel to try to stop the car."
"Samuel you suffered a trauma maybe you're just trying to rework it"
"Yeah, maybe it is"
At the bottom of the yard Samuel saw Blanca hand in hand with Nate. He watched them pass by and found that deep down his heart had anaesthetised and that it didn't hurt as much as he thought it should. It was a surprise.
He knew she had problems at school, that someone had put garbage in her locker, and that someone was definitely Janet.
He should have felt compassion for Blanca and anger for Janet but in reality he was so anaesthetised that he was devoid of feelings.
The only one he's been missing lately was Emma and she didn't even know it.
"Let's go to class," Samuel said to Emma who was also looking in the same direction as him.
XX
Dylan came home earlier than usual.
Brenda was sipping a tea and reading the script.
She kissed him and immediately after the kiss was reciprocated by getting deeper.
"The kids?"
"Blanca went out with Nate" when she said Brenda raised her eyebrow scrutinising her husband's reaction but it didn't arrive. He liked Nate. He was a smart guy and had known him since he was no taller than a metre.
"The twins are at my mother's with Grace"
"Yes, I know that... I went to the clinic and Kelly was there too"
Brenda laid down the cup of tea.
"Did you come in?"
Dylan shook his head.
"No, I can't."
Brenda nodded. Dylan had a sensibility that they could explain in a few. Unlike the others he never entered but went every day where Brandon was hospitalised, as if it were a sanctuary.
"The nurses told me that Kelly is always over time, sits next to him, strokes his hair, talks to him for hours on and on. She reads the news to him or remains silent to hold his hand and they have no heart to send her away."
"One day he will wake up" said Brenda "I feel it"
Dylan looked at her with a shy smile.
"Sorry if I've been with a thousand thoughts in these weeks and I haven't dedicated myself to you," Brenda told him.
"Your thoughts were mine too"
Brenda approached him, always looking him in the eye.
"It's time to shut the world off and dedicate ourselves to the two of us, even for a moment."
Brenda stroked his hair, kissed his forehead, temples, nose, then his lips. He opened his and let her tongue in urgently.
It took little for passion and frenzy to take over.
She clung her legs around his body which walking led her to their room.
She undressed him in an erotic ritual that the two of them knew, then slowly undressed, unbuttoning his shirt and running her tongue over his chest.
He grabbed her by the hair and forced her to look him in the eye.
Brenda came up with a light, perfidious, very sweet smile.
Dylan knew exactly where she wanted to go and let his wife go through his entire shot by dwelling on his hot spot.
Dylan totally relaxed and began to moan.
It mounted the urgency and mounted the desire.
A minute before coming she interrupted Brenda, took her and turned her around spreading her legs, he began to push quickly. Brenda felt an electric shock that was renewed every time. He would cut her in two and put her together repeatedly.
"God, baby" she sighed almost in a plea.
Dylan bent over her, slicing her breast .
Everything was gone. Every sad, rabid, disappointing thought was outside that closed door, which they had closed.
They were making love.
Dylan let Brenda go on the bed, her legs rested on his shoulders, and he continued to kiss her hottest spot, made her come a second time with a voracity that was almost unsustainable for Brenda. She wanted him terribly.
"Dylan," he whispered.
He gave fast and uncontrolled thrusts until he reached orgasm the. kissed her gently and deeply. All that voracity had satiated him. He just wanted to curl up inside her the time he had been allowed, possibly forever.
