Lethe Vita

Chapter 7

He expected they would create a whole new meaning of the phrase burning rubber, the way Steve skidded over the road.

He kept his eyes peeled for Val's car, which zipped so far up ahead that she may as well have been a superstar fleeing from paparazzi.

Agreeing for Steve to drive had been a horrendous decision, but as Steve had pointed out, they didn't have many options.

Dylan edged near catatonia. David varied between crying over Valerie whilst claiming icicles had embedded themselves in his eye, worrying that Val would crash, anger at Val for refusing to let him drive her over, and fear that Val would never speak to him again.

In-between, David and Steve tried unsuccessfully to assure Dylan that no, Brenda slipping hadn't worsened her head injury and yes, the whole situation would turn out just fine with both Dylan's girl and his child.

"Chicks always say they'll never talk to you again," said Steve. "Then you're hooking up in the closet at your third cousin's wedding while your father bangs the bride."

David stared at Steve.

"Point is," continued Steve, "Val's mad at you now, but she'll get over it."

"Would've been nice if you'd given me more context," said David. "Like the fact that Val was lying to protect Bren."

"Protect Bren?" asked Dylan in a barely audible voice. "Protect her from what? From me? You think," he gagged on his own air, "you think Bren needs to be protected from me?"

"You want to know what I think?" asked David. "You really want to know what I think?" His decibel increased.

"Yeah, Silver," said Dylan, gripping his seatbelt. "Why don't you tell us what you think?"

"Fine, you asked for it," said David. "I think the woman I love is pissed as hell at me for unknowingly helping you to expose her lie that probably would've never happened if you hadn't decided to fuck around with Kelly's and Brenda's lives, again. Why don't you grow the fuck up, McKay? Pick one or none and stick with it. This isn't high school. You don't get to jump around from Brenda to my sister and back again whenever you get bored."

"You're a fine one to talk about jumping around," said Dylan. "Tell me why you and Donna broke up, again?"

"Hey now," said Steve. "We're all on edge and worried about Bren and the little McKay and stinging over Val cussing us out and are probably starving; I mean, I sure as shit am -"

"Oh sure, you leave your knocked-up girlfriend behind to run after your ex, and I'm the bad guy," snarled David.

"I didn't know she was pregnant," said Dylan.

Tears clawed at the back of his throat. He couldn't let them flow. It would be admitting defeat. He would not admit defeat.

Brenda and his child hadn't died on the train.

They wouldn't die from a fucking fall.

"Like that's supposed to make it better?" snapped David. "You come back after three years, make it your mission to get Kelly torn between you and Matt, and the second you hear Bren's in trouble, you go running again. If you're so in love with Brenda, why the fuck did you leave her?"

Dylan knew everything David yelled was true. He knew how much of an asshole he had been. How much he had hurt Brenda. How much he had hurt Kelly.

How much he had hurt Brandon.

How much he had tried to hurt Matt, though he didn't give a flying fuck about Matt.

Fear and anger created the retort nonetheless.