The Seven Pieces of a Feuilleton

Chapter 13

The thrill of the wind alongside the coast and his expertise in navigating had sucked her in to such an enormous degree that she had missed all the signs directing her to turn around.

Literal signs. Road signs.

He had not brought her to Sherice's apartment.

He had not brought her anywhere in Los Angeles.

He had kept driving until he parked in a place that she had never wanted to see again.

"Why the fuck did you bring me here?" Brenda yelled, jumping off of Dylan's bike as if it had suddenly caught fire.

It may as well have, the way he burnt her just by bringing her to the fucking place.

"Brenda," he began, climbing down from the bike, "nine years ago, I stood right over here," he steered her unbudging figure to the spot, "and promised before our friends and family to love you with the force of all seven seas. I never broke that promise, Bren."

She tried to fight the wave of memories that washed over her with his words.

"Here," he gently pushed her to another spot in the sand, "here is where I whispered to you that I was going to make you a mother before you turned twenty-six." He swallowed. "I didn't break that promise, either, Brenda."

"Dylan, don't think you can just take me to our fucking wedding venue and -"

"Here," he cut in more loudly, once again moving her, "here is where I assured you that I would never ask you to put your career on hold for me. I let my wife jet off to Paris without me for a fucking movie, Brenda, and then let her keep delaying her flight home for her show for so long that by the time she was nearly ready to come back, she'd met another fucking guy. I clearly didn't break that promise, either."

"Dylan," she tried, tears of frustration pooling in her eyes.

"And here," he finished up, walking over to turn and stare straight at her, "here is where I told your grandparents with you right beside me that no matter what happened between us, I would never just give up on you. Have I broken that promise, Bren?"

She bristled, her inner shield rising to protect her aching heart.

"You also promised me in the hospital after your overdose that you would never do drugs again."

"I haven't." He stepped closer.

"And you promised the day we got back together that there wouldn't be any other girls, ever."

"I may have broken that one," he admitted. "There's been one other girl in my life." He continued to walk forward slowly.

"Kelly," she jeered.

"No," he corrected, "Aurora. My two girls, my only two girls," he stressed. "Brenda and Aurora McKay, both of whom were, are and will forever be the center of my universe."

She began to tremble as he came closer.

"That's a fucking lie, Dylan! We weren't your universe. You fucked Kelly while you were high! So what if you didn't break any of your other promises? You broke the two most important ones. I wasn't asking you to refrain from drugs for my sake. I was trying to make sure you stayed alive. You didn't care enough about me or Aurora to stay clean, to stay alive for us. You certainly didn't care about being faithful."

"Now that," he grinded his teeth, latching onto her waist, "is the real lie."

His head tilted over hers. His eyes lined with hers. Pressed up against her body. Gazing at her with an intense fury that she could see the passion creeping in. She mentally prepared and then -