The first night of forever...
Letty's POV
Dom and I sat on the wall outside 1327. It was my last night in LA before I moved half way across the country for college. We'd mutually decided to put us on hold for a while. Some people said we had been too intense, moving too fast and that the distance would do us good. We were young and in love as sickening as that is to say. I'd been with Dom for a year and practically lived with him. I could see why people criticised us but when you know, you know and I knew he was the only one for me.
His warm hand held mines tightly. I stared at our entwined fingers. My olive cast skin complimented his warm tanned skin well. I could feel his eyes on my face but I refused to look up. I didn't want this moment to end. I swung my legs idly, my toes just skimming the grass beneath my bare feet.
"You know at some point we need to talk," Dom murmured in his deep, husky voice.
"I think we're alright in silence." I didn't want to talk. Dom had pushed me towards college because it was an opportunity he'd missed thanks to his crazy temper sending him to Lompoc for two years.
"You know I want what is best for you." He sounded like a parent in that second.
"I know but I don't want to leave you."
"And I don't want to blemish your reputation, hold you back. How's it gonna look at college when they find out you've a boyfriend who beat a man half to death with a socket wrench?" Dom raised an eyebrow at me as he asked a pressingly important question.
I bit my lip. "I don't give a shit what they say."
"I don't want to be the reason you don't get to experience college to the..."
I interrupted him. "I won't be missing anything. Besides the degree is pointless at this stage. I just wanna be in the garage with you."
"And you will be one day. Just not right now." His stupidly even tone was pissing me off. Sometimes I resented his patient rationality.
I forced myself to meet his gaze. His deep brown eyes met mines and I could see the pain in them. He didn't want me to go. That much was plain. Yet he was fighting his own emotions.
"I don't want to fight tonight Let. Can we just enjoy our last night?" Dom asked gently.
Reluctantly I nodded. Lasts were not as much fun as firsts. Firsts were exciting, exhilarating, incredible. Lasts were tainted with misery, sadness, nostalgia for better days. Our last drive in the Dodge Charger had been earlier today and I'd almost cried getting out. I'd miss the car. Even if it was only until Christmas but it might be my last time inside as Letty, Queen of the streets of LA. My last time in it as Letty Ortiz, badass girlfriend of Dominic Toretto. By Christmas he might have someone new... A thought which terrified me.
Dom rose to his feet and flicked through his phone for some music. The track he chose was a slow one, unlike him, but he pulled me to my feet.
"Now, unlike the rest of the world, I happen to know there us a secret part of you that loves to dance so dance with me Let."
Barefoot in the garden of 1327 I started to slow dance with Dom. I twined my arms around his neck sad pulled him close. His hands rested on my waist. Our eyes locked. Even though we stood together, I never felt further away from him.
"...Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was, I will not give you up this time
But darling just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes you're holding mine..."
Some of the lyrics caught my attention. I fell for Dom when I was a child. Ten years old. When I first moved to LA. I didn't want to give up on us, even temporarily. How could I? I'd seen him at his best and his worst. I'd watched him grow up. That wasn't something you could just erase with a goodbye. Why weren't we fighting for us?
His lips met mines in a chaste kiss. It was soft and lingering, a barely there pressure. Something I loved but rarely admitted it. It felt like goodbye, forever. It was a last. An end. Everything about tonight had a finality. Did he think I wasn't going to come back?
"...Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling you look perfect tonight..."
Dom had always seen the beauty in me when I failed to see it in myself. All those times I looked a mess when I rolled out from beneath a car in the garage covered in grease. My hair slightly sweaty. The times when I was covered in blood and grime from a fist fight. The morning after the night before, messy bedroom hair, shreds of make up and hungover. Those were the times when Dom gave me this look. This look which said I adore you, in this moment you are perfect. I buried my face in his neck and breathed in his smell. Like diesel, corona, the musky smell of his aftershave. I committed it to memory, just in case...
"...Well I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know and
She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home
I found a love, to carry more than just my secrets
To carry love, to carry children of our own
We are still kids, but we're so in love, fighting against all odds
I know we'll be alright this time
Darling just hold my hand, be my girl, I'll be your man
I see my future in your eyes..."
This was what I'd always silently envisaged for Dom and myself. Growing old together. Sharing our dreams. Our dream was the garage. The cars. Racing. Maybe going back into the stock cars. Race wars. We did share a dream, a common goal. College wasn't a part of it. College was ruining things much to my displeasure. It wasn't my real dream. Maybe I should just tell him that. I only applied because we were made to. My dream was him, the garage, the cars, a family eventually but not for a long time. I doubted he would understand. He'd say one day I'd regret it all but I wouldn't. Already I could tell college would be the biggest regret of my life and I hadn't even left for it yet.
We would be alright if I stayed. We would be alright if I left and didn't take a break but he was so stupidly determined I be immersed in every asked to of college life he didn't see that yet. We wouldn't be alright if we took a break. He'd be wickedly jealous of any guy I even attempted to date. He'd literally get on the next plane just to break fingers and reclaim his territory. It took all my might to stop him hunting down the guy I slept with before we were together because I lost my virginity to him and Dom was jealous of that. In his way he was possessive. I was his but equally he was mine... Was it right to split when we were so well matched?
His eyes met mine once again and I saw my whole future there. The kids. The laughter. The tears. The cars. The old age. The front porch with the rocking chairs. The arguments of which there would be many. I saw me. The truest reflection of myself. A reflection I couldn't even see in the mirror.
"...Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song
I have faith in what I see
Now I know I have met an angel in person
And she looks perfect, I don't deserve this
You look perfect tonight..."
Dom's lips moved as he sang along to the last verse.
A tear rolled down my cheek. Lasts sucked. They were amongst the hardest things. I wasn't leaving LA. My mind was made up. I wouldn't be moved now.
"I'm not going," I said softly into the silent night.
"Don't do this Let, please go. Try it. If you don't like it you can always come home." Dom's voice was pleading.
"No, I'm not going." My resolve strengthened.
"Don't waste your future on a criminal..." Dom's voice was wheedling. Trying to get what he wanted.
Suddenly it struck me. That was what he was worried about. Me wasting myself on him. Him doing something stupid which would get him locked up again and me being left with nothing. Didn't he see that that wasn't going to happen. Even if he was locked up again I think he'd forgotten who kept 1327 alive and going for two years, Letty Ortiz.
"You think I'm wasting my future on you?" I asked him slightly stunned.
He nodded mutely his eyes clouding over with pain. His jaw tensed and my stomach churned. A life with Dominic Torreto would never be a life wasted. It would be a life lived and enjoyed. A life of love and laughter and loyalty. He had these admirable qualities which he failed to see in himself. It is truly amazing the qualities that people fail to see in themselves.
I placed my hands on both sides of his face, cupping his cheeks. I forced his eyes to meet mine as only then would he hear the sincerity in my voice, only then would he understand my conviction that he wouldn't be wasting my life. He'd be giving me the life I'd always wanted. A life with him.
"A life with you would never be a life wasted. For my whole life I'd be safe, protected, loved, adored and cherished. What about that life is wasted? To me that's a pretty damn great life."
"But I'm a criminal let, who trusts the man who almost killed a man?"
I blinked in surprise. "I do..." My voice was little above a whisper. I trusted him with my life. I couldn't ever prove that to him but I did. I implicitly trusted him above all others.
Dom's eyes widened and he tried to pull away. Prove I shouldn't trust him.
Dom's next words surprised me. "Let, I don't want to be the person who holds you back. I don't want you to be shunned. Even if you do trust me. Others don't."
"Who gives a shit about the others?"
Dom's eyes twinkled with something. Something I couldn't place. Pride or surprise. It was hard to tell.
"Then go but we won't take a pause. I want you to go though, try it. That way when we're old you'll be able to look back and I say I really did do it all."
"I don't care about doing it all. I care about losing my time with you." I was trying to wheedle like Dom.
Dom cupped my cheek. "As do I but it won't be long."
"Damn right it won't because I ain't going."
He chuckled, a rolling, deep sound, at my words. "That your final decision?"
"Yeh, I ain't going anywhere."
Dom pressed his lips to my forehead. "Neither am I."
I sank into his embrace and he took me in his arms, bridal style, and carried me up the staircase to his bedroom. I still had to cancel all my college shit because I was no longer going but in that moment I thought, "fuck it, it'll still be there tomorrow..." Instead I let myself get caught up in Dom. Forgetting everything. Even my own name. The first night of our forever...