Disclaimer: I don't own TF or any recognizable characters, songs, movie quotes, or food I might mention. I own my OFC though. No stealy Malena.
(3)
Six hours.
Only six hours of dreamless peace before multiple rude awakenings.
First, Sam called to see if I was alright, and to apologize for last night's squabble. In spite of my aching body and still-muzzy head, I listened to him, and promised to meet him and Bee later today. We hung up and my heart felt just a little bit lighter. My head on the other hand felt like someone strapped a 20 pound weight to it, so I let it sink back onto my pillow and dozed again.
The second awakening was, of course, Jazz, calling out of pure maliciousness, blasting the most loud, eardrum-piercing music he could through the speakers. I threatened to paint him orange and hung up.
Then one of mom's friends called.
Then a salesman. By then my sister was awake and furious and I had to physically restrain her from ripping the phone off the wall.
ring!
The inhuman growl that erupted from Malena would have scared me but I was pretty much used to it. She rushed over, snatched up the phone and yelled, "CALL AGAIN AND I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN THIGHBONE!" then slammed the phone back on the hook and huffed.
Do not mess with the Banes family in the morning. Or… around noon. Yeah. Don't mess with the Banes around noon.
"Sis, what if that was my boss?" That would be just so typical to be called in on my day off… ooooh, or better yet, what if that was Prime? I had to hold in a snort of laughter just imagining his face…
"Even if it was, don't matter, you're mine for a while." She pointed at me, grinning despite her obvious aches.
Cool! "Screw it, not like he can fire me or anything." Which was true, I was the only competent tech they had at that shit-hole garage, and that said a lot. I walked off and slowly got changed, listening to Malena grumble and throw things in her own room.
Oh I'd kill for a triple espresso right now…
Twenty minutes later we were both relatively human looking and much more awake, but both dying for coffee. Malena grabbed her purse out from under the living room table and was digging through it for the keys to the car when there was another jangle of keys just outside the front door.
Ooooooooooh shit.
The door creaked open and there stood our Mom, looking the worse for wear and barely any clothing. I don't even want to know where her shirt went. Her eyes only met mine for a second before she stumbled off towards her room, trailing the scent of old booze, tripping ungracefully over the edge of the couch and nearly collapsing on it. She skirted it with the practice of a long time drunk, and then slammed the door of her bedroom. We both heard the bedsprings protest when she landed.
The scowl on my sister would make even Ironhide quiver. Her eyes burnt holes though mom's bedroom door and the fist not holding the keys was clenched so tight her knuckles were white.
"Mikaela…" she paused only long enough to toss me her car keys, "go start the car. I'll be out in a minute."
Full name means business…. "Lena…"
"Now."
I gave her a final long look before walking quickly out of the house.
She didn't even acknowledge Malena. Not a nod, not a hello, and certainly not a big maternal hug and welcome home. Nothing. Is she that far gone?
I crawled into the Nova but didn't start it, not knowing how long Malena would be in there for and residual environmentalist gleanings had me not wanting to waste gas. Rolling down both windows to get some air, I watched the house for any signs of anything. I fully expected to see the walls shake or someone to go flying out one of the windows, but for the three minutes I watched, nothing happened. I expected to hear yelling too, but nothing.
Maybe Malena took her out all quiet-like, like in the movies,I thought, and then gave myself mental shit for having that fragment of near joy at the idea. Bitch or not, she was still my mom.
"Mikki?"
I screeched hearing the voice pretty much right next to me. Jazz's hologram hopped back, hands raised, blue eyes amused. "Woah there girl, didn't mean to scare ya."
How he managed to look so damned perky this early was beyond me. It's almost one in the afternoon, dumbass. Nevertheless, his eyes were bright, he was smiling, hell, even his dark hair was perfect. No coffee needed.
He doesn't have a morning routine, the lucky shit. All he has to do is poof, appear. I thought jealously that I should get Ratchet to make me one so I could walk around butt naked all day and nobody would know. Would save on morning makeup routines before rushing off to school, that's for sure.
His eyes went from amused to concern. "Hey, what's… why are you crying?"
Huh? I didn't even notice the wet trails down my cheeks til my fingers brushed them. I wiped them away and gave him a guilty smile. Oh you wussy…
He didn't believe my sudden cheerfulness for a second, frowning at me through the open window. "Did your sister do something? Shit, I knew I shouldn't have left you alone last night. Where is she, I'll fry her ass." The Solstice behind me revved loud enough for half the neighbourhood to hear.
I had to calm him down before he literally drove through the house and flattened my family. "No! It wasn't her, she didn't do anythi…"
BAM!
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. My gaze fell on the still shuddering wall, the one sheltering Mom's room. I couldn't tell if it was from body impact or something inanimate, but it was loud enough to get Jazz's attention away from me for just a moment.
"What in the name of Primus is going on in there?"
He just might have gone in there to investigate if I didn't hit him in the gut with the driver's door getting out. His surprisingly physically-accurate hologram was bent over holding his middle, looking at me accusingly. "You did that on purpose."
"'s what you get for waking me up so early." I chirped innocently, giving him a pat on the head.
"Watch the hair, bitch!" He ducked out of the way and playfully mussed mine up.
It would have been on right then and there in the middle of the street if the wall didn't shudder again. We both stopped moving and just stared.
I headed him off before he could even open his mouth. "Don't ask…"
"But…"
"Shoosh."
"Mik…"
"No."
Jazz growled and made a show of stomping back to his real form like a brat denied candy. Just great. He's gonna just sit there and have a giant robotic pout until I tell him what's up.
I caught up to him before his holo could fizzle out and grabbed his arm. "Don't be mad." I pleaded, putting on my 'kicked puppy' face, "It's just Malena and my Mom."
"Your mom's finally home?" The disgusted look that crossed his features would have offended me if I didn't halfway agree with him. I told him a little… a lot… about the past few months with Mom, and he was understandably pissed off with her. Sometimes I thought telling him was a mistake, but it really was nice to have someone to talk to about it. Jazz was a good listener despite his front of being a 'player-tough-guy-soldier from space'. It was him that helped me dispose of all the booze in the house, which resulted in mom's current four day bender. That probably wasn't the best idea…
I should have grabbed the leftover Baileys… wait, there isn't any left over. I couldn't help but smile inside thinking that Malena had the forethought to bring her own booze. Mom drank crap anyways.
Jazz took my silence as an affirmative, and looked again at the house. "And… what, your sister's in there… doing what?"
I shrugged. She was either: kicking mom's ass, telling her off, or getting her ass kicked by mom for delaying her nap. Or all three.
"Wanna find out?" Jazz asked, suddenly grinning.
"How?" I envisioned us both tromping through the bushes like a couple of hard up perverts and choked.
"Get in." Jazz actually fizzled out right there and I looked around the block to see if anyone might have seen it, but saw nobody.
"You're not going to drive through the house are you?" I teased, whacking his door with my butt.
"Would you stop rubbing your body up against mine cuz I can't concentrate when you do that."
It took me four seconds. "Big Trouble In Little China. Bitch." I kicked his front tire lightly.
"Damn." His engine growled but he popped his door open.
Like Bumblebee, at times Jazz liked to communicate with something other than his own voice… but instead of cheesy pop from the 80's, Jazz took from everything… movies, music of all types, clips from speeches… everything. Mostly movies though. He thought using music was 'copying Bee' so he didn't do that as much. I started guessing where the clips were from for fun, and for three days now he'd been trying to stump me. Good thing my sister warped my mind with movies since, well, birth, otherwise Jazz'd have one more thing to gloat about.
I got comfortable in the 'drivers seat', wondering how the hell he somehow always smelled like 'new car' despite all the crap he did all day, including toting me around with smelly fast food.
"Just gimme a seconnnnnnd… aaaaaaaaand… there!"
Suddenly the sounds of the interior of my house filled the interior of my Autobot protector/very big brother.
"Slag it, wrong room… click… there."
"..what's going on with her lately, or have you been too fuckin' drunk to notice?"
To say I was shocked was an understatement. "WHAT THE…Jazz? How… You've been eavesdropping on me?!" I whacked his steering wheel so hard he honked.
"Heh, do that again!" I could hear the sex-fiend just oozing out of his voice.
"Oh shut up. Masochist." Damn it. I couldn't stay mad at him, not for more than three seconds. Bastard always got me either grinning or blushing like a maiden.
"I put audio sensors around the house… juuuust for security purposes." He emphasized the last part loudly to override my protest. "And no, I didn't put any in your bathroom OR your room. I'm not THAT desperate."
I almost whacked him one again, but my sister stopped me.
"Did you even know she was out last night, walking alone down the fucking highway? No? Didn't think so."
"Sheza grown girl nowwww, she take care of herselfffff…"
"Let's hear you say that when you find her in a ditch after some asshole truckers get a hold of her."
I couldn't say a thing, and Jazz being, well, how he is, knew to keep his mouth (or whatever it was in alt-mode) shut and just listen.
My sister sighed. "You know what? Nevermind. We'll talk when or if you ever sober up long enough for a decent conversation. Til then, I'll see about temporarily moving Mikki in with me."
"My ass you will!"
"It's her choice, as you said she's a grown girl now. And I'll do everything in my power to encourage her to leave your ass here to rot in your booze til you smarten the fuck up. Girl has enough on her shoulders as it is. You should be taking care of her, not the other way around," my sister practically yelled.
Jazz growled. "Amen, sista."
"Shhh."
There was the sound of creaking bedsprings and another sigh. "Look, mom, I love you, I do… but…she's had to grow up too fucking fast… what with dad… and you… and hell, I wasn't exactly the most reliable bitch either when we were growing up… she needs some sort of stability right now. And she's not going to get it staying here. I'm not the best choice but at least I'm sticking around for a while. Long enough for her to get off to college and get the fuck out of Tranquility. She's better than this place, and better than you or me…"
I felt the tears this time.
"Just… please… for both your sakes… sober up. Get cleaned up. Get a job. Do something. You owe her that at least." Another creak of bedsprings. Mom kept silent, my sister went on, her voice fading as she got farther away from the receiver Jazz had planted. "I'm going to pack a bag for a couple days for her… we're… here… just ask for room 114, after that I'll have my own place. We'll talk then."
A door shut, softly instead of a slam, and a sob was heard. Jazz wisely shut off the speakers and his interior went deathly quiet.
"Mikaela?"
Mom…
"Your sister'll be out here in a minute…"
With a bag… with my stuff…
"Mouse?"
"Don't call me that." I said on auto-reply.
The AC turned on full blast suddenly and he shook my seat, jolting me immediately out of la-la land. "Sorry, but if she sees ya cryin' and she'll know we were listenin' in."
Shit… he's right. Thank goodness for his logic processors. I used the rear-view mirror to wipe off the mascara trails and did my best to not look like I'd just overheard…whatever that was… I hadn't fully digested it yet.
"Thanks Jazz. I owe you a wash."
"Nah, just doin' my job."
"You're getting a wash anyway." I patted the dash.
"Mmmmm. Okay… but only if you get your sister to help. Rawr!"
"Jazz!" Insatiable pile of rusted metal…
"Gotcha smilin'!"
I groaned and popped his door open, getting out just in time to see my sister exit the house. She gave me a wary look, quirking an eyebrow at the car. Jazz's hologram reached out and shut the driver's side door, grinning like a lunatic. Oh god it looks like I just got off his lap!
"Explain THIS one away."
"Slaghead." Once again I kicked his tire, harder this time.
Malena glared at Jazz all the way down the front sidewalk, around the car, the entire time she was throwing bags into the trunk (including my schoolbooks and my suitcase) then shifted her glare to me once we were both safely inside her Nova.
"Just what in the fuck were you just doing?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, he was in the passenger seat til a minute ago."
"You sure?" Malena quirked a suspicious brow at me. "I don't have to go up there and destroy that beautiful car cause the owner's a cradle-robber, do I?"
"NO! Lena, please, he's just a friend, a very good friend. Like you but with a penis." Did they even HAVE penises? Or… whatever? Something to add to the 'stupid shit to ask Ratchet' list.
"Oh… okay then." If there was anything my sister understood, it was friendship between males and females. Her best friend through high school was a guy and mom was always on her ass about it, even though they'd never even kissed, just tinkered with cars and blew stuff up in videogames.
She cranked it and we zoomed off together with Jazz lingering behind us. He texted a minute later, asking if he could come when I met up later with Sam so he could gossip with Bee. I had no problem with that and told him so.
He caught up alongside us again, revved his engine, winked at my sister again, and shot off ahead of us, disappearing around a corner four blocks down. Exit stage right, bye bye pimp-daddy bot. I had to grin.
My sister just shook her head. "Mr. Boneable's gonna get in a wreck if he keeps driving like that."
"Like you drive any better."
That shut her up. For about four seconds.
"Mikki… we gotta talk."