So i started this storyline a while ago and then found the file again on my computer and decided to run with it again; I've actually gotten pretty caught up in it. So i edited some old stuff and continued on from there. I've gotten kind of far and i think it's going in a good direction right now, but i really like feedback so reviews are so VERY welcome

Enjoy

EVEN IF THE WORLD SAYS NO

"When your heart says yes but the world says no, don't ever give up." -A Walk to Remember

Guys Like You

Everything's going to be alright

People keep talking, they can say what they like

But all I know is everything's going to be alright

-No One by Alicia Keys

Gabrielle Hammons pulled the covers closer around her, ready to drift back into the sleep that was almost taking over. She frowned; since when was there only a sheet and a comforter? It annoyed her that she must've kicked a few blankets away In the night, but she refused to open her eyes and look for them. Instead, she cuddled back into her pillows.

….that was a pillow, right?

No. No, pillows most definitely do not have arms.

Her heart racing harder than she figured healthy, she opened her tired eyes. Sure enough, another body was next to her. One look under the sheet told her she was, indeed, naked.

And then the bed's owner made some small noise in his sleep, rolling over and wrapping an arm around her automatically. She froze but he didn't seem like he was going to wake just yet, which was probably for the best; she needed a few minutes to wrap her mind around this. This was big -- huge, even -- because she didn't even need to see his face to know who she was with. Hardly a glimpse at his tattooed arms and she knew it was Vince.

And just who was Gabrielle Hammons?f

She'd moved into 'the Fort' during the previous year, after her first college semester. It saved her money on room and board; besides, she couldn't let her cousin and friends keep suffering. Well, maybe they weren't exactly suffering, but they were pretty frazzled.

Her cousin, Leon, and his long-time best friend Jesse had moved into the Toretto house a year and a few months ago. Dominic Toretto had been sent to jail almost two years ago now, and it had taken the household a lot of work to get back on it's feet. Vince had been the only one working a full-time job, but Letty dropped being a part-time student to work full-time at the shop. Vince wasn't pleased but did welcome the money, and they all suspected Letty would've preferred this all along anyway. Still, it wasn't a lot of money, with Mia in high school and not contributing, so Leon and Jesse were more than happy to leave their apartment and come to chip-in on the payments.

So money was alright now, but the house was a little all-over-the-place. Mia had just turned 17 and had teenage things to do and, even with Letty there, it might as well have been a house of men. No one cooked reliably, cleaned readily, and they were all concerned with just getting by. Gabrielle was no miracle-worker and was only a 19-year-old student herself, but she had time and maternal sense enough to make sure there was always fresh food in the house, relatively clean living space, and enough clean clothes for the guys to make it. It might seem lame, and it was simple enough for her -- after all, she lived there, now, so she wanted things to be nice -- but it made enough difference that she stayed. She'd been doing these same kinds of things for herself for years, so it wasn't hard to expand and do it for more people.

She now lived in Leon's old room and he and Jesse shared a room; those two, she, and Vince were all in the basement. Leon had invited her on behalf of everyone. Leon, her cousin she loved more than basically any other family. Leon, whose best friend she'd just slept with…

She couldn't get her heart under control; she felt panicky. His arm was around her, now; she couldn't sneak away…

"Vince…"

"Mmm…shhh…" he mumbled, pulling her closer.

"Vince," she repeated, voice shaky. "Vince, come on," she pleaded, shaking her shoulder gently.

He groaned in a way she knew from experience meant he was annoyed; probably because he was tired and might have a little bit of a hangover. Gabrielle thought she was going to have to bug him some more, but he shifted a little and slowly opened his eyes.

They just kind of stared at each other, both processing their memories of the night before. Small hands roaming, larger hands grabbing. Their mouths had explored each other as well, licking and tasting. Groans, gasps, and small, soft cries had rent the air; they could only hope they hadn't been overheard.

Vince had been on edge lately because Dominic was coming home in two weeks and Gabrielle had had a bad week, so when she came home to him drinking by himself she thought it'd be a good idea to join in -- her age was disregarded if she was staying in. Who knows what possessed them to move themselves to his room, but that's where their clothes had come off. They'd done this without even being completely wasted…but that only meant that they were both frustrated and looking for comfort, right?

"Gabe…"

He blinked at her slowly, probably looking for some kind of reaction. She just shifted uncomfortably under his stare and secured the street around herself.

"You, um…remember?" she asked awkwardly, unsure how to handle the situation; she'd never been in anything like this.

"Yea," he answered quickly.

Gabe really wished he'd keep talking. She knew he'd done this more than once -- a random hook-up. Granted, probably not with a friend and relative of one of his closest guy friends, but he'd experienced this "morning after" before.

"Ummm…"

She didn't want to cry. She was desperate not to, but she was feeling overwhelmed. She was controlling her breathing to calm down, but she was feeling worse the longer they laid there.

"Gabe, hey…" Vince encouraged after a little while, shaking the arm around her so she'd look at him.

He looked curious, trying to assess her.

"…I've never done this before…"

He nodded slowly, unsurprised with the news.

"…we should probably talk about it with clothes on," he suggested.

Gabrielle nodded quickly, almost missing the heat when he rolled over and untangled from the blanket to get himself clothes. She looked away and sat up, trying to spot her own clothes. Her bra was near the bed and her t-shirt near the door, so she pulled these on first, snatching her shorts from near the end of the bed, looking around for her panties.

Vince had been trying not to watch for her sake, but stole some glances. Maybe it was wrong but he'd always thought she was hot, so he couldn't help it.

"What?" he frowned, looking over his shoulder to see she still wasn't all dressed.

"Ummm…I don't know where my underwear are," she explained sheepishly, tugging her shirt down to cover herself, trying not to notice he was shirtless; she felt kind of dirty just stating her problem like that...or having the problem in the first place.

"Do you seriously need them right now?" he snapped without meaning to, wincing inwardly.

"Uh, yea…yea, you're right," she nodded, pulling her shorts on quickly.

"Look…"

"I'm gonna take a shower or something," she announced before he could finish; she just wanted to get her head together.

He didn't protest and she slipped out, thanking the Lord Leon and Jesse had partied so they'd be sleeping-in. No one was there to see her as she hurried over to her room, which was in the basement with the three guys. She grabbed a change of clothes and padded back over the worn carpet to the bathroom.

The water was hot but she enjoyed it, scrubbing herself down, feeling so much better as she did so. It woke her up and she felt much fresher. It wasn't Vince; she had no problem with Vince. In many respects, she had no real problem with sleeping with him, either, except that it was just some random, fluke, thing. First of all, she'd never hooked-up like that before. Plus, Vince was a good friend and someone she lived with. Okay, so he was also someone she had an intolerable crush on, and this was all very embarrassing for her. Would she ever be able to look at him again? She was going on 20 but she was suddenly feeling a lot younger. She didn't know what to do and who was there -- really -- to talk about this with? So awkward.

Her time in the shower started getting slightly excessive, so she cut it off and dried herself, dressing in jeans and a white t-shirt. She surveyed herself in the mirror very closely, making sure there were no visible marks of the previous night. There was a small hickey on her collar bone and a soft red mark on her side from his teeth, but both were easily covered by her shirt. Satisfied, she towel-dried her auburn hair and pulled it up in a damp, messy bun.

Back in her room, she tossed her old clothes in the hamper and almost immediately noticed her black, red-trimmed panties from the previous day sitting nicely on the corner of her bed.

"They were on my side of the bed"

Vince was now leaning in the doorway, surprising her with his quiet entrance. His bulky form filled most of her doorway and she had to push away thought of parts of said body filling anything else of hers.

"Thanks"

"Well they're yours"

"Yea…"

"I'm kidding, Gabe," he sighed.

Gabe nodded but looked away, diverting her eyes from him.

"So I dunno if you wanna talk right now but I gotta know…earlier, when you said you'd never done this before or whatever. You just meant…well, you didn't mean you were a virgin, did you?" he asked a little awkwardly.

"Oh…no. There was a guy in high school a couple times," she muttered.

"Okay, I just wanted to know cuz, ya know, your first time shouldn't have been like that"

"Don't worry"

He nodded and heaved a sigh.

"So I'm at least better than this other punk, right?" he inquired, smirking.

Gabrielle blushed and nodded with a tiny smile, still unwilling to look at him for long. Vince grinned a bit but sobered up again pretty quickly.

"Look," he sighed, stepping through the doorway. "I'm older, I'm more…experienced. Whatever. This is my fault."

"…fault?"

"Not fault," he corrected quickly. "I'm…responsible. I should've known better, that's all, ya know? I don't want you to feel --"

"I wouldn't have let you if I didn't want to," Gabe spoke up, stopping him.

"Still. We'd been drinking a little. I feel like I took advantage just because…" he sighed again, trailing off.

"Because what?" Gabe frowned, unsure if she liked where this could go -- just because she was there?

"I don't want you to think I don't care or it was just another random fuck or somethin'. I don't look at you like that," he muttered, feeling very awkward talking like this.

"…then how do look at me?" she inquired, stealing herself for his response.

Vince blanked. He hadn't expected this, especially since she was all shy and quiet right now. He'd figured she'd just nod and let him leave ASAP.

"You just…mean more than that," he ventured with a shrug.

Gabe frowned, unsure what this really meant and how she should be taking his words. Did she mean more because she was a friend and cooked and helped get the groceries, or because he liked her? The later was probably wishful thinking, but it caused uncertainty nonetheless.

"You… …" he groaned and ran a hand through his already-messy hair, looking for his words, "make me feel good, you know? Like you actually care."

"I do care"

"See? That's not something that happens often….at least to me. So that makes me care about you even more. I'm supposed to be lookin' out for you and instead I -- I'm suppose to keep you away form guys like me," he told her, clearly upset with himself.

"Guys like you?"

"Yea. Player, drinker, racer, temper…take your pick," he told her obviously.

"But you're more than that, Vince; you've changed so much since Dom…has been gone. You've grown up a lot, you're taking care of everyone. Mia and Letter were both a mess when he got sent away; you're the one who pulled everyone together," she reminded him. "Don't sell yourself short. It's why I like you."

She hadn't really thought her last sentence through completely, but Vince caught it and was eyeing her very carefully. Now she was the one with uncertainty in her words and he had the questions on his mind.

"Ah, my favorite cousin's up…waffles? …please?"

After a minute or two of Vince and Gabe just staring at each other, Leon popped up in the doorway, looking between tired and alert.

"Ummm…sure," she agreed quickly, startled by his appearance.

"Alright, good…and put your unmentionables away. Vince might notice and get all hot and bothered," Leon added before calling over to Jesse that they'd be getting waffles; it was past noon, but breakfast never line-up with proper morning hours on the weekends in their house.

Gabe threw the underwear in her hamper, a blush invading her face, before Leon faced the room again.

"Sup with you two?" he asked the pair, looking between them.

"Nothin', just talking," Vince shrugged.

"Good. Then you can start the food now."

"Maybe I don't want to"

"Gabrielle Hammon's, don't make me make you…I'm older and bigger; I can do it," Leon tried to threaten.

"I'm joking. Don't be such a baby…and go shower or something; how late were you out yesterday?"

"Eh, not that late…you two and Mia were nowhere to be found, though, so I guess pretty late," he shrugged.

"Mia stayed over at a friend's but, yea, we weren't up late -- at least I wasn't."

"Hit the sack early, too," Vince nodded, rubbing his hands over his face.

"You gotta chill, dawg. Stop stressin' about Dom comin' back. Things'll be cool," Leon assured him, clapping his shoulder. "Well, they'll be cool if I have waffles some time soon."

"Yea, yea. Go shower," she ordered, rolling her eyes at his antics and pushing both men from her room before going upstairs.

Letty was, surprisingly enough, awake and sitting at the table with coffee in front of her.

"Morning"

"Sup girl?" she greeted with a short nod.

"Nothing out of the ordinary; what're you doing up?' she asked, glancing over when Vince stomped upstairs and all the way to the top floor for the bathroom; the main floor had no shower.

"I dunno; haven't been sleeping great. Dom's back in two weeks. Just two. It seems like it's been forever. I want him to come back, don't go getting it twisted, but I don't think it'll seem real. Plus, I'm nervous," she rambled.

Letty and Dominic had been on the rocks, as far as their relationship was concerned, when he beat up Linder and was sent to Lompoc. She was paranoid he wouldn't want her anymore, or something, and fretted about it whenever she thought about him coming home.

"Letty, you know that's not gonna happen."

"Yea, yea"

It was the one bad thing about Dom not letting anyone come visit -- except Vince a couple times. He rarely wrote, either, just to say he was alive and safe and missed them. It was good because Mia and Letty didn't belong at a prison, but, still, they missed him so much it hurt.

Letty wallowed in her thoughts and Gabe kept cooking. It was a good thing she didn't mind working in the kitchen, really, because the guys loved fresh cooked meals; they grilled, though, so it was a pretty fair trade in the summer and spring. The waffles were nearly done when Vince hurried down the stairs in just a towel, heading straight to the basement to change.

"Ugh! V, get clothes on!" Letty complained, happy for any kind of distraction of her own mind. "Yea, and I saw you tryin' not to look," she added once he'd been gone a few moments.

"Don't know what you're talking about," Gabe denied, though she had taken notice of his bare body, still slightly damp looking and his hair wet and sticking out and around.

"Shut up…are you crushing on him?" Letty asked, intrigued.

"No," she denied half-heartedly.

"Awww, girl," Letty chuckled. "You're lookin' at him the way I used to look at Dom, like you don't want him to notice but, really, you do…"

"Shut up"

Footsteps were pounding up the stairs now and Gabe gave Letty a look before Leon appeared with wet hair and an appetite. Vince was next and Jesse was last, still looking half-asleep. They were all hungry, though, and willing to eat as much food as she'd push in front of them. She didn't meet Vince's eyes and he never addressed her directly.

Well that's the end of that chapter. I don't know what you think as far as too long or too short...some other chapters are pretty long right now and i don't know if i should try and change that or just let them be...i'll figure it out when i get there i guess; i'm a longer-chapter kind of gal usually.

Anyway, letting me know what you think would be a great idea.

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