Too Much To Dream

Chapter Three


The next morning, Brandy awoke to a loud pounding on her front door. Opening one eye tenatively, she glanced at the clock. Groaning she pulled the covers back over her head. She'd only been asleep for four hours if what the clock was telling her was true. Tossing the covers to the foot of the bed, she reluctantly got up. It had been late when she finally got home from Matt and Jeff's house and later still when she finally fell asleep, thoughts of hers and Matt's shared kiss playing over and over in her mind. Groaning again at the incessant banging on the door, Brandy made her way down the hall, pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she went. She didn't give a second thought to her clothes: the red, white and blue flannel pajama bottoms that were too big and the red tank top were her normal nighttime attire. If whoever was at the door didn't like it, well tough shit.
"I'm coming, dammit! Gimme a sec!" Brandy shouted as the loud knocking began once again. Throwing the door open wide, she prepared to give whoever it was the riot act. "What's the big idea? Do you know what ti--" Her tirade was brought to an abrupt halt as a very angry-looking Shane stormed into her house.
"Are you out of your fucking mind? What possessed you to walk home from Matt and Jeff's? And why is your phone off the hook? I've been trying to call you all morning!" He turned to face her, hands on his hips and a lock of green hair falling into his eyes. She looked at him skeptically.
"You've been trying to call me all morning? It was one o'clock before I left Matt and Jeff's...how come you aren't hung over?" Shane rubbed a hand tiredly over his face.
"Someone had to be the DD, and usually that job goes to me, since I hardly ever drink." He plopped down on Brandy's sofa and looked up at her through bloodshot eyes. "I was really worried about you, Brandy." She sat down next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. He sighed and moved to wrap his arm around her.
"I'm sorry ,Shane."she said ashamedly. "It's just that...well, I had to leave. I couldn't wait for you and Jeff and Shannon to get back." Shane rubbed her back soothingly and tried to understand what she was talking about.
"Why? What happened that you had to leave so suddenly that you didn't even have time to call a cab? That was so important that you had to walk the five miles home?" Brandy took a deep breath and told Shane about what had happened the night before at the Hardy's house. Shane sat silently throughout the story, nodding ocassionally and eyes widening at the conclusion. "SO, you left because Matt kissed you?"
Brandy sighed and got up, going into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. "No, Shane. It wasn't just because he kissed me...it was because of what I felt when he kissed me." Gesturing for Shane, who had followed her into the kitchen, to take a seat at the table, Brandy pulled out eggs, bacon and pancake mix. "My God, I've never felt like that before. It felt like someone touched a live wire to my lips!" Shane sat watching Brandy prepare breakfast for the two of them. He noticed that she automatically assumed he'd be hungry.
"I'm allergic to eggs." Brandy stopped, midway through cracking a second egg.
"Beg pardon?" Shane grinned.
"I'm allergic to eggs." Brandy shrugged and went ahead, cracking the eggs into a bowl. She turned to face her new best friend as she beat the eggs.
"Do you want something instead of eggs? I'm gonna make bacon and pancakes..." Shane shook his head.
"No, no, no. That's fine. You don't even have to make me breakfast, really." Brandy looked at him with impatience in her eyes.
"I'm fixing myself something, so fixing extra isn't a problem. Just shut up and let me do this." Shane laughed, causing a little smile to cross Brandy's face. "So anyway, I'm just not sure why Matt kissed me in the first place. Maybe he's trying to prove something to himself. Maybe now, since he kissed me and I kissed him back, he thinks I really am a gold-digging tramp." She turned to pull out a frying pan and start scrambling the eggs. Turning them with a spatula, Brandy focused on mixing the pancake batter. Getting up and crossing the room, Shane dug around in the cabinets until he came up with another skillet. Tossing the bacon in the pan, he looked over at Brandy.
"Listen sweetie. I've known Matt practically forever. yeah, he can pretty stubborn and hard headed sometimes. And he's VERY protective of his family. But he's not the kind of guy to try and test your emotions to see if they're real." Brandy rolled her eyes, took the skillet off the stove and raked the steaming eggs onto a plate. Turning back to the stove, she poured the pancake batter onto the griddle.
"Look, Shane. I'm okay. Nothing happened to me. I'm sorry I scared you and I'm sorry I accused Matt of anything. Now can we PLEASE drop the subject?" Flipping the pancakes, she accidentally flipped one too hard, sending it flying through the air. It landed behind them with a resounding *plop*. Shane burst out laughing at the frustrated look on Brandy's face. he held his hands up in surrender.
"Okay, okay. I'll drop the subject. Could you do me just one favor, though?" Brandy looked up from where she was squatting on the floor, cleaning up the mess the pancake had left.
"What?" she asked warily. Shane smiled and gestured toward the floor.
"Try not to drop anymore of our breakfast..." Shane took off running, a laughing Brandy on his heels.

"Matt? Could you come up here for a minute?"
Matt dropped the weights he'd been lifting and swiped a hand across his forehead. He'd been up since four o'clock, unable to get Brandy out of his mind, or her taste off of his lips. At first he thought he'd watch TV and just veg out, losing his thoughts on some mindless drivel. But the first thing that caught his attention was a movie about a woman who goes to take care of an older man and winds up falling in love with his son. He quickly shut off the TV and had goownsownstairs to do some conditioning. Jogging up the stairs almost 5 hours later, Matt still hadn't been able to go one minute without thinking of her. He stopped and saw his father sitting in his favorite recliner, a book opened on his lap.
"Have a seat, son." Matt walked over and dropped heavily onto the sofa. Putting his hands behind his head, he stretched out on his back, facing his father.
"What's goin' on, Dad?" Mr. Hardy looked at his son, from head to toe. Looks more like his mother every day, Mr.H. thought, taking in the dark hair and eyes, the facial expression he wore right then...that air of impatience that always seemed to hang around him. Tilting his head to the side, Mr. Hardy posed a question that had weighed heavily on his mind for the last two days.
"Matt, has your impression of Brandy changed since you first met her?" Matt shrugged, closing his eyes and effectively cutting off Mr. Hardy's way of knowing whether or not his oldest son was lying. "What I mean is, she seems like a fairly normal person, right?" Matt opened one eye to peer curiously at his father.
"Dad, I have Jeff as a brother...I need you to define normal." Mr. Hardy laughed at that, growing serious again quickly.
"What I mean is, she doesn't seem skittish around other people. She seems well adapted." Matt shrugged once again and closed his eyes.
"Yeah, I guess. Why?" Mr. Hardy sighed and got up from his chair. Making his way to the old desk sitting in the corner, he picked up a legal pad and tossed it to Matt. Matt lifted the pad and saw nothing but blank pages. He looked up at his father, confused. "What's this?" Mr. Hardy sat back down, shoving Matt's legs out of the way to sit on the sofa.
"Well, Brandy used that notepad when I was in the hospital. She wrote several letters to her friends and her aunt." Matt looked at his father, impatiently waiting for the rest of the story.
"Yeah, and?" Mr. H took the pad from Matt's hands, angling it so that you could read what had been written on the previous sheet of paper, by the pressed down marks of the pen. Looking closely, Matt could vaguely make out words like, "jail", "abuse" and "broken". Matt looked up at his father. "So, you think she was thrown in jail for abuse?" Mr. Hardy, smiled grimly.
"No, Matt. I know Brandy was married before she moved here. I also know that her husband was killed in a car accident. But something is bugging me." he shook his head, as though trying to clear it. "When I ask her about her husband, she's very quiet, almost to the point of sounding afraid. And sometimes I'll catch her flinching when people raise their voices." Matt sat in silence, trying to comprehend everything. He knew what his father was getting at, but just couldn't see the spunky little brunette he'd held in his arms last night falling victim to some abusive man.
"I don't know, dad. I mean, what does it matter to us anyway? And even if she was in an abusive relationship, she isn't now, so why worry about it?" Color flooded Mr. Hardy's face as he stood abruptly, angrily shoving away from the sofa.
"I worry about it because I worry about her, Matt." Holding up a hand to silence his son, Mr. Hardy continued. "She was there for me when I needed her, even though I was a complete stranger. She has never hesitated to help me in anyway she can. I just want to make sure that no one is hurting her." He sighed heavily, suddenly looking very old. "There's nothing I can do about the past...but I can assure her that in the future I won't let anything happen to her." Nodding at Matt, Mr. Hardy slowly made his way out of the room. "I'm going to lie down. Think about what I said."
Matt sat on the couch for another minute or so. Just the thought of someone laying their hands on Brandy made him want to start bashing skulls. If she really has been hurt before...that would explain why she left last night! Matt thought. He jumped up, taking the stairs two at a time as he flew to his room. He started rummaging around, trying to find a pair of jeans. He was going to clean up, then go see Shane. He and Brandy seemed to be getting awfully close the last week and Matt felt sure that if anyone could get the informantion out of the little brunette it would be Shane. And when I find the answer to that question, I'll have the answer to my question, Matt thought. Why did Brandy run away from his kiss? He was soon to find out that he was closer to the truth than he realized.