I'm sorry it's been a while, but I finally wrangled enough time away from my kids to write a little. Hopefully I will have a chance to update A Window to the Past as well. Thank you guys for hanging in there with me!

The Time of Our Lives – Chapter 56

The Beach House

'You did what?' Brandon says.

'Kelly, I can't believe you confronted her,' Donna says with amazement.

'I don't know what came over me. I just called her out and then took off. I don't think she's going to listen to me though, so we're going to have to be extra careful. She really has it bad for Steve and I have a feeling that she's not going to let him go that easily,' Kelly explains.

'We have to warn him, Kelly,' Donna says. 'Even if he doesn't listen to us, we have to tell him.'

'I agree. This is hard proof from the stalker herself. Maybe that will be enough to get him to come to his senses,' Brandon says.

'Well, let's go. There's no time like the present,' Kelly says and starts walking toward the door.

'I'm just going to get my coat,' Donna says as Kelly leaves the apartment.

'Donna,' Brandon says, expectantly, seeing that Kelly was not within earshot.

Donna retrieves her coat and stands in front of Brandon as she puts it on. 'Brandon, stop looking at me like that. I'm not telling you anything about my date last night,' she says with a wry smile and steps around him to the front door.

The Club

David smiles as he looks out onto the crowd of people dancing in front of him. He felt genuine pride at his ability to light up the room and get people interested in the music. He turns his head slightly to the left to see Hannah swaying to the beat and staring at him. She smiles broadly and blows him a kiss.

He can't help but smile back. He catches her kiss in mid-air and places it gently on his lips.

Kelly, Brandon, and Donna enter the club and start looking around.

'Well, he should be here,' Brandon says. 'Hopefully, his fraternity brothers are right, because I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary.'

'Let's fan out and look for him,' Kelly says, when she gets a tap on her shoulder. She turns quickly suddenly afraid, but relaxes as soon as she sees who it is.

'Oh my Gosh, Brenda?' Kelly says, hugging her friend closely to her body.

'Hey Kel,' Brenda says into Kelly's shoulder. Kelly squeezes her tightly as Brenda struggles to breathe. 'You're kind of suffocating me here, Kelly.'

Kelly lets go and apologizes.

'What are you guys doing here? I thought this wasn't your kind of place?' Brandon says, putting his arm around Dylan's shoulders.

'Brenda decided to take a break from packing and wanted to go out and have a good time,' Dylan tells him.

As Kelly, Brenda, and Donna walk around the club to find a table, Brandon leads Dylan in the opposite direction.

He tells him about Kelly's run in with Casey and that they came here to find Steve.

'This has to end,' Dylan says. 'Someone is going to get hurt.'

'I agree, let's start looking for him,' Brandon says.

After about fifteen minutes of searching the club and talking to a few people, Brandon makes his way to the table the girls found in the back of the club.

'Well, I didn't find out much, but he was here earlier. The girl behind the bar told me that she saw him walking around alone, which was very unusual for him,' Brandon says.

'Apparently, he was on a mission,' Dylan says. 'He was asking a bunch of the employees and regulars if they had seen someone matching Casey's description. He was looking for her.'

'Damn!' Brandon says. 'What are we going to do?'

'We are going to enjoy the rest of David's music,' Kelly says. 'The club closes in a half hour and then we're going to ask him if he saw anything.'

'What about his cute little girlfriend? I'm sure she's been here the entire night. Maybe she saw something,' Brenda says, not waiting for the conversation to continue.

She walks over to the balcony where Hannah was standing, still staring at David.

'Hannah, right?' Brenda says, approaching her.

'Oh, yes, that's me. You're a friend of David's, right?' Hannah says.

'Yes, listen, have you seen Steve around tonight? We're getting reports that he was here looking for someone. Did he talk to you or David at all?' Brenda asks her.

'Um, yeah, he came over and talked to me for a few minutes. He seemed very distracted,' Hannah tells her.

'Distracted? You mean, not like his usual womanizing self?' Brenda asks her.

Hannah laughs and smiles at Brenda. 'Right, not like his usual self,' she says.

'Thanks,' Brenda says. She was about to walk away when she sees Hannah nod and go back to staring at David.

'So, how are things going with you and David?'

The broad smile returns to Hannah's face as she turns to face Brenda again. 'Great,' she says in a dreamlike state.

Brenda smiles and puts her hand on Hannah's shoulder. 'Enjoy it, honey. I'm happy for you guys.'

Brenda returns to the table and stands in front of everyone. She tells them what Hannah said and moves to sit on Dylan's waiting lap. Dylan wraps his arms around her waist and nestles his head into her neck.

'So, he wasn't here looking for tail, he was definitely here to find Casey and possibly confront her,' Brandon says.

'That's what it sounded like,' Brenda says, a little distracted by Dylan's soft kisses on her neck.

'Where else would he go to look for her?' Kelly asks.

'Well, where else has she waited for him to show up?' Donna says.

'The only place other than campus was the Peach Pit,' Kelly says. 'Maybe he's contacted Andrea or something and told her what was going on.'

'Let's go, we can call her on the way,' Brandon says as he stands up and offers his hand to Kelly.

They wave to David and Hannah and leave the club.

The Campus Café

'Well, I think it's time to go to the police or something,' Andrea says, after Steve tells her what happened with Kelly.

'Andrea, we can't do that. If I could just talk to her, then I could make her stop,' Steve says.

'Come on, Steve, if she wanted to talk this out, she would have shown herself to you already and wouldn't be hiding the fact that she was following you in the first place.'

Steve sighs loudly and puts his head on the table. 'I'm not afraid of her hurting me, Andrea. I'm afraid of her hurting you guys. It's not just about me anymore. I have to find her.'

Andrea puts her hand on the back of Steve's head and starts stroking his hair with the other one. 'I know this is difficult for you, Steve, but we're all here for you. No one wants to see anyone get hurt, but there's a line between obsession from afar and aggression and I think Casey's about to cross it,' she tells him.

'I can fix this,' he says firmly, raising his head up off of the table. 'I just need a little time.'

'Steve, you know that I would never do or say anything to hurt you, but I'm scared that if you don't tell the police about this and let them handle it, you could be really hurt,' Andrea says.

'I appreciate your concern, Andrea,' Steve says as he lays his hand on top of hers. 'She won't hurt me and I'm the only one out of our group that I can definitively say that about. I have to try.'

Andrea nods in defeat. She knows that he has already made up his mind and there was nothing she could say or do to stop him at this point.

'Just promise me that you will take as many precautions as possible to protect yourself. I know you think that she won't hurt you, but if she believes for a second that you are not willing to be with her, I have a feeling that she will try to make sure that you can't be with anyone else either,' Andrea tells him.

'I promise, now stop worrying, everything is going to be fine,' he assures her.

'Just tell me your plan so that I know when to start worrying that you might be dead,' Andrea says with sadness in her voice.

Steve smiles at her and pats her hand.

The Peach Pit

'Sorry, kids, he hasn't been in here at all tonight and neither has Andrea,' Nat tells them when they arrive.

'Well, dead end, guys,' Brandon says. 'What now?'

'I called Andrea and she's not answering. Do you think that they're together somewhere?' Brenda asks.

'I don't know, but I could use some food. Let's order and think about what our next step is,' Brandon says.

As they are eating and discussing what to do next, Dylan looks over at Brenda and sees that she is not entirely engaged. He grabs her hand under the table and stares at her until she looks up at him.

He leans in and whispers into her ear, 'What's wrong, Bren? Not the evening you had planned in your head when we left the house?'

Brenda gives him a small smile and squeezes his hand. She leans up to his ear and says, 'I miss this.'

She begins to look around the table at her friends talking excitedly with each other and smiles again when the door opens and David and Hannah join them. While everyone explains what is going on to David, Brenda turns to Dylan.

'Not that I don't love every minute we spend together, Dylan,' she begins and gives him a wink, 'I just miss this too.'

They turn back to their friends and listen. Dylan removes his hand from hers and puts his arm over her shoulder. She leans into him and sighs.

'I'm going to try Andrea again,' Brandon says, getting up from the table. He comes back a few minutes later with concern all over his face.

'What?' Donna asks nervously.

'We picked the wrong place,' Brandon says. 'He was on campus with Andrea. She just got back from being with him.'

Campus

Andrea hangs up the phone and stares it guiltily. She didn't like lying to Brandon for any reason, but she knew that if she told him the whole story, he would overreact and may put Steve in more danger than he already was.

She slumps into the couch and puts her head into her hands. 'It's a little white lie. It's just a little white lie.'

Steve promised her that he would contact her as soon as he knew what he was actually going to do about Casey. He was still formulating his plan and she didn't want to compromise his ability to tell her what it was by telling Brandon anything.

Steve left Andrea at her apartment and went back to the fraternity house. He paced the length of his room for an hour and was still no closer to figuring out what to do. He was sure that he was the only one who could do anything and that in order to save his friends from harm, he would have to confront Casey by himself. A jolt runs through his body so fast that he barely has time to react to it.

Was he actually scared? Maybe it was just nerves or excitement at the danger of the situation. He wasn't about to let his feelings of self-preservation get in the way of making sure that Kelly and Andrea were safe. He pushed that feeling as far down into himself as he could and sat at his desk, determined to stop Casey once and for all.

The Beach House

'So, we're all going down to San Diego to see Brenda's new apartment tomorrow, right?' Donna asks Kelly and Brandon as they enter the house.

'Yeah, I wasn't sure she would be receptive to the idea, but she seemed pretty happy when I suggested it to her,' Brandon says.

'I'm sure she's just nervous,' Kelly says, hanging up her coat.

'Nervous about what, Kel? The play?' Donna says. 'Shouldn't she be over her nerves by now?'

'Not the play, Donna,' Kelly says with a smile, 'Dylan. They really don't have a great track record when they're apart for long periods of time. Five days is going to feel like a year to them. The weekend won't come fast enough and then the week of the show, she won't be home at all. What do you think that's going to do to them?'

'Kel, come on, don't you think that they've been through this enough times to know how to handle it by now?' Donna says, wanting to give Brenda and Dylan a chance.

'You would think so, but only time will tell,' Kelly says, walking toward her bedroom. 'I'm exhausted, guys. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed.'

'I'll be there in a few minutes,' Brandon says. He watches Kelly get her pajamas and go into the bathroom. He waits for the shower to turn on and then swings back to face Donna.

'Brandon, I swear, if you ask me about my date with Chase one more time, I'm going to punch you really hard,' Donna pauses, 'right in the face.'

'I wasn't going to ask about that, Donna. I swear,' Brandon says, putting his arms up in surrender. 'Do you think Kelly is right about Brenda and Dylan?'

Donna shakes her head slowly. 'I don't know, Brandon. I would like to think that she's not right and that they've grown up a little, but I really just don't know.'

'Yeah, it's a little hazy to me too. Maybe I should remind her of their tendencies right before we leave to come back here tomorrow, just to make sure she's aware,' Brandon suggests.

'Oh, I'm sure she's aware. It's not just her you have to worry about, Brandon. Dylan has done plenty of drifting himself. It seems as if it's some kind of mechanism for them to deal with being apart or something. Whatever it is, it's kind of sick,' Donna says.

Brandon laughs and puts his arm around Donna's shoulder. 'Yes, yes it is,' he says. 'Goodnight, Donna.'

''Night, Brandon,' she says, walking to her room.

Dylan's House

'It was a nice gesture, Brenda,' Dylan says, trying to convince her. 'You seemed pretty happy about it before, what's the matter now?'

He moves closer to her as they enter the house, but she evades him and walks into the kitchen without saying a word.

Dylan sighs in frustration and drops down onto the couch waiting for her to get over her little tantrum and come back to him.

She slowly exits the kitchen with a glass of water and meets him in the living room. She curls up on the couch next to him and puts her head in his lap. She turns her face to look at him and sees him looking firmly back at her.

'It's not the gesture that's the problem, Dylan, and I was happy about it before. It's great that they want to come and see the place where I'm going to be living for a few weeks. I just don't think it should be the big deal that they're making out of it,' she tells him.

'They're happy for you, Bren, and they just want to be a part of it. Weren't you just saying that you missed them at the diner?'

Brenda smiles up at him and nods her head. 'Yes, I was. I feel like if everyone is there, including you, it will be real. I don't want to get attached to this place. I don't want to know any more than I have to about the city. I just want to be there, perform this part, and come home,' Brenda says, emphasizing her last word.

Dylan closes his mouth and nods slowly. Brenda recognizes the understanding in his face and she sits up. She puts her hand on his cheek and slowly moves her fingers down his face and to his neck.

'It's not forever, Bren, it's only a couple of weeks,' Dylan whispers to her.

'I know I shouldn't be worried about it, Dylan, but I am,' she says so quietly, he had to lean in closer to hear it.

'Oh, baby,' he says as he pulls her closer to him. He kisses the top of her head as her hand wanders across his chest.

'I love you, Bren, and nothing is ever going to change that. I won't let anything happen to us,' Dylan whispers into her hair. He inhales to take in her scent and his eyes involuntarily roll back into his head. She had put on a little perfume before they left the house and she smelled so good. It was getting more and more difficult for him to control the urge to ravage her.

He thought for a second that he heard her say that she loved him too, but her voice was so small, that he couldn't quite make it out.

Her hand moves from his chest to his hip, where she holds on tight. He feels his pelvis lurch forward as she puts pressure on his hip bone. He definitely hears the stifled laugh that comes from her lips and bends his head quickly to kiss her head.

She finally begins to lift her head up and as soon as she does, he grabs her arms and swings her to the opposite end of the couch. In seconds his body covers hers and he begins playfully kissing and sucking at her neck while she tries to stop laughing at the sudden movements.

'Brenda,' he warns, removing his lips from her body, 'it's very difficult to seduce you when you are laughing.'

'I'm sorry,' she manages to get out and tries to focus on the sensations of each place his body is touching hers.

The Beach House

Donna sits on her bed trying to figure out why she was feeling so apprehensive. She had figured out that she started feeling this way as soon as David and Hannah entered the diner. She tried not to stare at them, but it was very difficult to see the subconscious little touches they were giving each other throughout the meal.

She tried to convince herself that it was because Chase wasn't around and that maybe she was just feeling a little lonely. When that didn't work, she tried to find another reason for it, but failed to come up with one. There were two other couples there besides David and Hannah and she didn't get this feeling until they came in.

Brenda and Dylan were always finding some way to keep contact with each other in public and that didn't seem to bother her at all. She had watched Kelly and Brandon curl up together and even make out on the couch in front of her while they were watching movies and that didn't bother her either.

'It must be David then.'

She stared at her desk for what seemed like hours until she finally mustered up the courage to stand up. She opened the bottom drawer and rummaged through until she found what she was looking for.

She took the box back to the bed and set it down. She stared at it and tried to keep the tears back. She slowly opened the box and as she looked at the picture on the top of the pile she started to cry.

There he was, smiling back at her with that goofy grin that she had loved so much at one point in her life. She lifted the picture up and tried to remember every detail about it when it was taken. She reaches for a tissue as the tears flow freely down her cheeks.