The Long Way Around
Disclaimer: I obviously own nothing associated with the Fast and the Furious, Universal Pictures, the directors, producers, or the cast and crew in the movie. Songs, movies, bands, or any other trademark products are not mine either. No profit is being made from writing this story, and certainly no copyright infringement is intended. I am merely a fan writing a story.
Author's Begin Note: Four chapters! Count 'em! Four! I'm excited. Who else is excited? I've never updated a story day after day after day – I usually run out of ideas.
Again, thank you to everyone that's reviewing. I'm getting more and more each day, and they just bring smiles to my face. Love you guys, keep it up. Oh! And thank you to those that helped me with the question concerning housing accommodations.
Onto chapter four!
Playlist: "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira, "Positive Tension" by Bloc Party, "Family Business" by Kanye West, "Taper Jean Girl" by Kings of Leon, "Pistol of Fire" by Kings of Leon, "I Will Dare" by the Replacements, "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers, "Why Georgia" by John Mayer, and "This is Such a Pity" by Weezer.
Chapter Four: Tension
Working in the garage with Jesse was always something Anita had enjoyed. Usually it was just Jesse and Anita because Jesse loved being in the garage, and Anita loved hanging around Jesse. If they were not getting anything done, which was often the case, they were geeking out with the radio blasted.
And that particular Sunday afternoon that's what the two were doing. They had the radio tuned into a station that played catchy beats, such as the current "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira. Vince had just taken off to go grab a bite of lunch, leaving the two alone, and they were using wrenches as microphones to wail their off-key notes into alongside the enchanting voice of Shakira.
Jesse busted a freakish-looking move, sending Anita into a fit of laughter, "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble…"
"Oh no, please stop, you're killing me, Jess," she leaned against the car they were supposed to be repairing (Spilner's, to be exact) for support – she was laughing so hard.
"I wouldn't mind touching Shakira's small and humble breasts," Jesse smirked and murmured, "Mmm, mmm, good."
Anita grinned at him and lip-synched the last line of the song into her wrench-mic. Some horrible R&B song came on, and Anita made a face at it, turning the volume down so she could talk to Jesse at a normal level voice as they worked. She handed him tools and watched him twist, turn, and tighten things.
"So…" she really didn't have much to say. She would have liked to talk about what happened with Leon because it had been bothering her all day. She successfully managed to avoid Leon that whole morning, and intended to keep it up for as long as necessary. She was still angry with him, even if she had secretly admitted that night in bed that she had overreacted a little tiny bit, but she also could not help but think about the kiss. Whenever she thought about it, she brought her fingertips to her lips and then caught herself doing it. The whole day so far had been a cycle of wanting to hit Leon, and then beating herself up instead.
"So what?" Jesse asked as he worked.
Anita shrugged, "I dunno. Carly? She seemed cool."
He nodded and shook his head, a crooked smile forming, "Yeah, she's cool and more. I found her a week ago or sometime around there."
"Oh, that's cool," she nodded slowly and drifted back into her reverie of confusing thoughts.
Jesse noticed the pained faces she was making and offered his ears for listening, "A penny for your thoughts?"
She sighed, "You don't have a penny, Jess."
"Okay, you can have the lint in my pocket. What's up?"
Snorting, Anita took a deep breath and picked her words carefully, "Just something that happened last night."
"Yeah, I saw that you convinced Leon to take you. How'd you manage that one?" he wiped his greasy hands on a towel.
Anita frowned. "I didn't convince him…he offered. And that's not what it's about, actually." She crossed her arms, "I'm thinking going to the race last night was a bit of a mistake. Either that or going with Leon."
Jesse raised an eyebrow at her, not fully understanding what she meant.
"Whatever I tell you stays between us, yeah?" He nodded and her trust in him was reassured. "Okay. Well, you know the somewhat unclear situation between me and Leon? I figured, hey, a free ride to the races. Now I'm either paranoid, or Leon was making passes at me while we were down there, but when we came back to the house, I pretty much felt blown off. He claims I was jealous and maybe I was, I'm not sure."
He absorbed all this and nodded, urging her to continue. She took another deep breath and went on, "So I met this kid. His name was…Garrison. I don't know what Leon's problem was, but he was being a complete ass to him, and then I got into it with Leon, then he tried to make out. Basically. That's just the gist of it."
She was silent in waiting for his reaction. Jesse merely rolled his eyes, "You two have got to be the most complicated people on planet Earth."
Anita looked confused. "Huh? How so?"
Jesse explained, "Well, clearly he's not saying what he's thinking, and if you were indeed jealous, there's a reason why. You're either an attention whore, or you share the same feelings he has for you. You guys just need to kiss and make up. And then maybe kiss some more. Am I right? Tell me I'm right."
This was never pointed out to her. She turned the idea over in her head and agreed reluctantly, "Yeah, I suppose. Maybe."
"Yes, then I should be a psychiatrist. Man, did I pick the wrong occupation." He looked thoroughly smug with himself and went back to work, leaving Anita alone to her thoughts.
That evening Dom and Mia threw together a barbeque for the gang, and Spilner was invited too. Anita helped out Mia and Jesse in the kitchen, though she and Jesse pretty much watched Mia and Brian toss the salad and gather the chips and dressing and other appetizers. Anita kept taking glances out the window at Leon, who was busy playing basketball, and then back at Jesse, who was explaining to everyone in the room his future plans for Brian's car. Finally Mia finished tossing the salad and by that time Dom was yelling at her from the backyard.
"I'm coming out already!" Dom and Mia exchanged sibling love, and Anita and Jesse passed huge grins at each other as they set food down on the table. Anita took a seat between Jesse and Brian, rather than at the end by Mia and Leon. This left a spot open for Vince, if he were to come back from his little hissy-fit fest, and that way he would not have to sit by Spilner.
Anita grabbed a napkin as Dom was saying to Jesse, "Hey, hold up. Because you were the first out of everybody here to reach in and get the chicken, you say grace."
Jesse muttered an, "Oh," as everyone clasped their hands together.
"Dear heavenly, uh…" he broke off at a loss of what to say.
Leon butted in from his place at the opposite end of the table, "Spirit."
"Spirit, thank you," Jesse continued as Leon nodded in a 'you're welcome' manner, "Uh, thank you for providing us with a direct port, nitrous, uh, injection, four core intercoolers, and ball-bearing turbos, and um, titanium valve springs."
Everyone said, "Amen," and applauded. Anita patted Jesse on the back as Letty commented, "He was praying to the car gods, man."
Everybody began digging into the food and filling their plates when suddenly Leon burst out, "Look who it is, Old Coyote's 'R' Us. I thought you weren't hungry, pumpkin."
And there behind everyone Vince stood, looking sorry for himself and muttering, "You know, I gotta eat."
Letty rolled her eyes, "He's always hungry."
"Alright, sit down," Dom ushered him over. Vince kissed his best friend on the top of his bald head before sitting down. Leon handed him a beer and Vince took a swig of it, casting a dark glance at Brian, who sat across the table from him.
In an attempt to break the ice, Letty pounded him on the back, "Let's eat some grub, man."
The whole meal was filled with pleasant, cheery conversations, and Anita only had to confront Leon once. She was in the middle of a lengthy conversation about swimming pools with Jesse, and how they wanted to pitch together some money to buy one when he asked, "Anita, pass me a piece of watermelon?"
She paused and glanced at the watermelon, wondering if she could get away with spitting on it before passing it to him. Quickly she grabbed a slice and handed it in his direction. Briefly she met his eyes, and even after she had gone back to chatting with Jesse, she could still feel the glare he was sending her way.
Later on the boys stuck in a movie that Vince had rented, which turned out to be a total work of trash, and Leon and Jesse had even gone out back to grab small car parts to tune and fiddle with. Letty had cuddled up with Dom in their chair, and Anita was stuck sitting on the couch behind Leon. Again.
Occasionally she would doze off, her face in her hand, but a large explosion would wake her up again. She had just dozed off again when Vince came stomping into the room and shouted at Jesse, "Make your own goddamn popcorn!" when he had asked if there was no more.
Anita rubbed her eyes and watched Vince's retreating back. She decided she needed something to entertain her, and while scanning the dim room, her eyes fell on the back of Leon's head. Quietly she grabbed a magazine off the nightstand and opened it, flipping through the pages absentmindedly. When she was half way through the magazine, she kicked Leon's head roughly and then hastily gazed at the magazine on her lap to cover up her smug look.
Leon turned once to glare at her, shook his head, and then went back to the movie and his part. Anita smirked and kicked him once more. This time he turned fully around and gave her a nasty expression and looked as though he might say something, but didn't.
One last time she kicked him, and finally he burst out, "Is there something you want, or do you just enjoy kicking me?"
Anita flipped through more pages of her magazine and smirked, "I just enjoy kicking you. Why? Is it a problem?"
"Yeah, you're killing off my brain cells by doing it," he muttered and turned back around.
She laughed. "Leon, you never had any brain cells," she commented flippantly.
"Ha, ha, aren't you just so funny?" He narrowed his eyes at her, even though he wasn't facing her.
"Yep, I am. Too bad you're not." She faked a yawn and tossed her magazine away, "And you're also boring the hell out of me, so I'm leaving. Goodnight!"
She stood and made for the stairs, but Jesse spoke up, "Do you wanna finish that game of Scrabble with me and Leon? You know, the one without rules?"
Anita stopped and considered this. She was in a challenging mood, and she was the master at Scrabble. She was also bored and not tired at all, so a game like that would do her good. "Sure! Only if you two aren't gonna wimp out. Does V wanna play?"
They found Vince sulking on the front porch, and after a five minute debate, they managed to convince him to come inside. The four of them sat down at the dining room table as Jesse set up the board. The game really started to pick up after fifteen minutes, and the board was filled with inappropriate words, names, and words that everyone had made up.
It was Anita's turn, and by miracle she managed to use all her letters to connect to the word 'nass' which Vince claimed had a meaning, but had originally been 'ass'. She put down 'Leon is a' and formed 'Leon is an ass'.
"I wiiiin!" she threw up her arms in triumph, as Jesse burst out in laughter.
"Guess we really know what the girl thinks of you, Leon."
Vince chuckled, "Oh, buuurn."
Leon frowned and retorted, "That doesn't count, it's all one word. That's not in the dictionary!"
Anita shot back, "Well then we'll just add it! It can be a noun, and the definition can be 'the behavior of a person that constantly acts like a butthead and no one likes'."
"Can I make up my own word then? Maybe it can be Anitaisaheinousbitch? The definition can be 'an illness a person gets when they always have premenstrual syndrome'," Leon came back with and leaned back in his chair, self-satisfied.
"Ooh! That's a nice one! I'd like to see it get into the dictionary without making you look like a sexist pig!" she exclaimed and took notice of the ever-growing silent Jesse and Vince watching the scene.
Leon shrugged, his arms crossed, "It's America, honey, people could care less about the sexist pigs in our country anymore."
Anita closed her mouth, nostrils flaring, and sat glaring at him, her arms crossed also.
Jesse and Vince glanced back and fourth between the two. Jesse spoke up, "Well, that was fun. I think we'll call it quits, and me and Vince won equally."
"What?" Anita cried out. "I won!"
"Nooo, you didn't," Leon corrected her.
"Yes, I did!"
"No, you didn't!"
"I did too!"
"You did not!"
"Ugh, shut up!"
"You started it."
"Bite me, Leon."
"Gladly, where?"
Anita stood up quickly and stormed off across the room, shouting over her shoulder, "I hate you! I hate you all!" The three remaining guys sat at the table looking a bit dumfounded, but Leon was smirking, nonetheless, and Jesse looked like he might start laughing.
Soon Anita came stomping back into the room, her voice still raised, "Except you, Vince, I love you!" She placed a violent kiss on his cheek and started off in the other direction.
Jesse looked completely shocked and gasped, "What about me?"
"You too!" she came back and kissed the top of his head, "I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it!" She edged around the table and pressed her hand against Leon's face, giving it a hard shove before stalking off again.
The rest of the evening was spent in Anita's room, reading her worn out copy of Across Five Aprils and listening to the Clash. A bit of a peculiar combination, she admitted, but both were her two of her favorites, and anything that distracted her from her current situation was a saint. Around two o'clock she zonked out, book by her side, light on her nightstand still on, and music still playing. Eventually the CD in her CD player stopped, and Anita stirred in her sleep now that the only soothing sound keeping her dozing was the fan in her window.
After the second movie downstairs ended, Dom and Letty came upstairs. Letty made a right turn into Dom's room to wrap herself in the peaceful solace of sleep, while Dom wandered into Anita's room. He could not help but smile when he saw the book idle by her side. He then covered her up, and put the book on the nightstand, turned the light off, and stood in the doorway watching her sleep for a moment before shutting the door.
Morning rolled around too early for Anita, who was usually a morning person, and she stumbled down the stairs to fix herself a bowl of oatmeal and read the newspaper. Dom and Letty were still sleeping, as was Mia, which was odd if you knew Mia well. Anita sat down at the dining room table where the other three boys were. Vince was sitting with his cereal pushed the side, untouched, and face down on the table. Jesse was currently trying to tape a 'kick me' sign to his back. Leon had to stifle his laughter every time Vince would raise his head to glance around whenever Jesse tried to press the tape down on his shirt.
Finally he could not hold it in anymore when Jesse missed and taped the sign to the back of Vince's head on accident when he raised his head to see what Leon was laughing at. "What the fuck are you doing, assface?" He grabbed at the back of his head and read the sign. "Ha, ha, you're gonna pay, Jesse. As soon as I get some sleep."
Anita shook her head without taking her eyes off her newspaper and commented, "You guys are immature,"
Leon turned to face her and asked, "Did you get over your Anitaisaheinousbitch disease?"
Other than flashing a sarcastic smile at him, she ignored his question and asked another, "How was your girls' sleepover?"
Vince answered from his face-to-the-table position, "Don't ever spend a whole night with Jesse. It's enough to kill a guy."
Jesse objected, "Hey man, I wasn't the one who gave me all that caffeine! You're the one that kept yelling at me to chug all those Dews!" Leon smirked and nodded, "Yeah, that was your bad, dog." He shoved his half-eaten eggs away and pulled out a toothpick, placing it between his lips.
Anita stood to go rinse off her bowl, and Leon took his dishes and followed her into the kitchen. They stacked their dishes by the sink, and for a moment they were out of Jesse and Vince's sights. Leon saw this as an opportunity to say something to her, so he stood behind her and murmured in her ear, "Better take your pills. I wanna cure you of that little virus you have."
Slowly she turned around and came face to face with him. And they were literally face to face – sort of. Her nose was touching his shoulder – he was that much taller than her, and being this close to him made her want to squirm. She looked up at him and said, "Leon?"
"Yeah?"
She gave him a huge shove, sending him back a good few steps, "MOVE."
Anita spent the next few hours driving with Dominic to buy some last out of town parts for the ten-second car of Spilner's. She listened to the music Dom wanted to listen to all the way there, and then watched, listened, and carried parts to the car once they got there. Dom let her drive on the way back, which was a shock to Anita – he had only let her drive his car once, and that was after she had gotten her license.
He made small talk with her for about ten minutes before getting serious and saying, "Look, Anny, I know I've been a little out of the loop lately. We've got some stuff happening on the side, and I've been more focused on that more than anything. Sorry if you've felt that I'm not around as much to talk and stuff. 'Cause you know you can talk to me, yeah?"
She made a small smile and turned her head briefly, "Yeah, I know I can. And it's okay, really. You're still around. It would probably only bother me if you were never at the house." She appreciated her brother's sibling love at that particular moment. She knew she couldn't talk to him about the thing with Leon because he'd freak out if he found out, and quite frankly, her behavior hadn't changed too much. She was usually that snarky and sarcastic. It was when she was quiet that Dom worried about her. The conflict with Wyatt and Tran had made her turn that way, and she and Dom had sat down and had a long talk about that. He explained most of the story behind the Tran versus Torretto squabble, and she had explained to him the saddening story behind Wyatt Durden. It had felt good to reassure her source of love and comfort in her older brother.
As they drove along, Anita couldn't think of anything else she really wanted or needed to share with Dom. And he was satisfied knowing she was not uncomfortable with his lack of parental figure, so they rode the rest of the way home in silence, except for the casual spur of conversation and stopping at McDonald's for lunch.
The long drive tired Anita, so when she got home, she decided to curl up on the couch with her Scooby-Doo blanket, which she had to search for and found in Jesse's room, and take a nap. She snoozed for an hour or so and drifted off to dreamland. She dreamed about the day Dom taught her to drive. She had been twelve years old, and she had naturally been good at it. He only raised his voice once, when she almost side-swooped a car parked on the street. It was an extremely fond memory, and the remaining two hours of the afternoon Anita spent aimlessly wandering about the house, stuck in Memory Lane.
Vince had always been a part of Anita's life. He was Dom's best friend, and therefore always around. He practically lived at their house and Anita fell in love with him when he snuck into the kitchen and stayed up all night with her baking cookies after her parents had told her she couldn't.
Jesse. She had known Jesse all her life. She had gone with him to school, and though she had thought he was a freak at first, always fidgety, obsessed with cars, a bit of a loner, she grew to like him when he stood up for her on the playground one day. As they grew up, Jesse got more and more into cars, and Anita grew even more fond of him because of her familiar background with cars. In the rough years she spent with Wyatt Durden before he stopped tormenting her and started having an attraction to her, Anita had been stood up by the boy at a school dance, and Jesse had been there to take her. The following week she brought him home, he fell in love with her brother, and never ever left her life.
That same year, when Anita was fifteen, Leon walked into her life. She was still somewhat shy and insecure around strangers, and she hadn't liked him at first. Even though he was usually nice to her, she was wary of him until the day she learned how to change the oil in a car. Dom had been grumpy that day and raised his voice to her when she asked him to change it for Mia, and she had moped around for a while before Leon dragged her into the garage and showed her exactly how to do it. He had been sweet and encouraging about it, but he was also had a joking manner.
As she thought about this, Anita was sitting at her mother's neglected piano in the dining room, and she felt a little guilty for overreacting to that night and treating Leon badly afterwards. She frowned, pounding her elbows down on the dusty keys, which created a large, foul-sounding chord, and decided she had better make it up to him somehow.
That night after dinner Dom and Vince had scurried off to their cars and took off, saying something involving Brian and his whereabouts. Later they received a phone call from Dom, asking Jesse to accompany them on a trip to raid Johnny Tran's garage. Leon had wanted to come, but a smug Jesse argued with him that Dom had only called for him and not Leon. After Jesse took off, Leon laid sprawled out on the couch, his arms crossed, looking glum.
Letty came ambling down the stairs, paused halfway down when she saw that the only other two people in the house were Anita and Leon, made a confused face, and went upstairs again.
'And then there were two,' Anita thought. Her eyes grew wide, 'Whoa, déjà vu!' and she wrinkled her nose.
She sighed aloud and stood, "You want something to eat?"
Leon didn't take his eyes off the television, which was showing Spongebob Squarepants. "If I say yes, are you gonna make something and then eat it in front of me?"
Anita shook her head stiffly, "Maybe…No, I won't."
"Then, sure," was his vague reply.
She sauntered into the kitchen and grabbed the bag of Cheetos and a beer for Leon. She sat down and handed him the beer, opened the bag, took a handful of Cheetos, and passed it to him. He ate a few while watching Spongebob and then rolled over onto his stomach so he could see her. "What's with the mood change? I'm starting to think you're mentally ill."
Not really sure what to say, she just shrugged. "Whatever, Leon. I'll be fine as long as you don't hook up with anymore hookers."
He blinked once, "Fair enough." He sat up and motioned for her to take a seat on the couch instead of on the floor. She slowly stood and then sat down again, this time quite close to Leon. She reached around him to grab the remote and began flipping through channels for something interesting to watch. Finally she decided on Saturday Night Live, even though it was a rerun. She sighed and let her head rest on his shoulder.
Leon tensed up for a moment, but relaxed again. He looked down his nose at her and saw that she was looking up at him. Something clicked, and his pressed his lips to hers. She sat up straight and kissed back. Her arms rested on his shoulders and he held her waist. Seconds turned into minutes, and after more than five minutes, they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening, followed by loud voices.
Both Anita and Leon quickly pulled away, and he immediately brought his beer bottle to his lips while she scooted over a bit, remote in hand. In under a second they looked like they had just been enjoying SNL.
Jesse took his shoes off in the hall and came stomping into the living room, an annoyed look on his face. Anita could tell why – Dom and Vince soon entered, hollering at each other. "I'm telling you, he's a cop!" Vince was saying, and Dom just waved it off as they took the argument into the kitchen. Jesse grabbed Anita's Scooby-Doo blanket off the armchair and squashed between Leon and Anita. He snuggled up to Anita and sighed, "So what's on the tube?"
Anita grinned and rested her head on Jesse's, "There is absolutely nothing on, Sugar Booger!"
Leon stared longingly at her for a long time before watching the TV as Jesse flipped through the channels. Channel after channel after channel. It was all a blur, but Leon didn't care. He was hardly thinking of anything but her.
Author's End Note: Whee! If you've followed this story this far, please please please, PLEASE review! I'll love you for it, promise!
And, dude, you guys are lucky you got this chapter as soon as you did. I worked on it for an hour and then accidentally deleted it all. Good thing I have a photogenic memory, though, right? Right.
Exeunt.