A/N- Continue to own nothing. Also, I do not mean to offend anyone who is or has been affiliated with the DZ (Delta Zeta) sorority.
It's about to get a lot better. Thank God.
I repeated Vince's words to myself like a mantra. I liked the way that sounded. And, since Vince had arrived things had actually gotten a little better. Granted, it had only been several hours. There was still plenty of time for shit to hit the fan. But I had to hold on to the hope.
I reached for my beer, the bottom covered by the sand I was attempting to use as a koozie. I pulled the bottle up to my lips and let the liquid wash away some of my thoughts. The hint of lime filled my throat. It was familiar, and I appreciated that, being surrounded by an environment that was so foreign.
I leaned back against Dom, his chest hard and sweaty from the beating sun. I liked having him there. He could be my rock for a little while. I was tired of taking on so much responsibility. I missed the carefree days when none of us worried about anything, just lived for the moment. Granted, we did love the thrill of the chase. But, this type of chase was a little extreme. I felt like we were playing some sadistic game of cat and mouse. And here I was, a mouse, hiding under a damn sombrero.
"What's up guys? This is Mary Hannah," Leon said walking up with some girl.
No one responded. And, after a fast glance, I didn't even bother to make much of an effort to even look. I didn't really care who he'd found to hook up with.
"She's here with some friends on vacation," Leon continued, introducing us to a bleached blonde in a Ralph Lauren bikini. I only knew the brand because it was plastered all over her boobs. I looked up at her. She did not look like the type of girl that I would get along with.
"Hi," she said, he southern accent already extremely apparent. She smiled widely at our group.
"Mary Hannah this is Vince, Dom, and Letty," he said, pointing individually to each of us as he went.
"Hi Vince, Dom, and Letty," she repeated, still smiling. That could get really annoying.
"Mary Hannah…you didn't even have to make that up, did you?" I asked sarcastically. Got to love the southern belle.
"Excuse me?" she asked perplexed by my comment.
"Nothing. You'll have to ignore Letty. She's got an…interesting sense of humor," Leon replied.
I just smiled in return. Interesting, that was one word for it.
"Oh it's cool. No problems, we're on va-ca," she said.
Oh Lord. Va-ca? No, no, surely she did not just say that as a substitute for 'vacation'.
I couldn't help but laugh. This was too good. "So, Mary Hannah, what did Leon tell you he was doing here?"
"He said you guys were here on vacation too. Spring break. Is that…not," she started to ask, confused.
"No, vacation, yeah. We're here on vacation too. Spring break," Vince interrupted. He let out a falsely excited yell. Smiling at Leon he said, "I love spring break."
"A long spring break," Dom added, with much less enthusiasm.
I turned around and locked eyes with Dom. We both laughed. It was about time someone brought around entertainment. I had not even contemplated the idea of how much fun spring breakers could be. I was considering it now. Thanks Leon.
"You want a beer?" Leon asked her, changing the subject to avert attention away from the blatant lie that was filling their dialogue.
"Yeah, definitely," she accepted. "So how long have y'all been here?"
"Um, I guess we all sort of got here at different times," Leon said. That was one way to look at the situation. This was funny. Although, Leon was handling himself pretty well. Lying was never his strongest area of expertise. That was clearly apparent.
"Oh that's neat. Are you all from California?" she continued, prying into our business. Yeah, she was definitely going to get on my nerves.
"No," I interjected. She needed to hush. I knew that the last thing we needed to do was get into a lot of history with a total stranger. I guess I sort of opened myself up for what happened next.
"So, Letty, what do you do?" she asked me directly. Shit.
"What do you mean 'what do I do'?" I asked snidely for clarification.
"Like for a living," she specified.
"Oh, um, I'm a professional interrogator and sometimes hit man, when the situation calls for it, for the Department of National Security, west coast division," I lied. It was the fastest thing I could come up with. Sometimes the spontaneous direction that my mind tended to wander frightened even me at times.
"Really?" she asked.
Was she really that stupid?
"No," I said bluntly.
"Oh, okay. Well that's good. That would be a little scary," she said.
"Would it?" I asked, with only a trace of enthusiasm.
"So what's it like coming on vacation with all these guys, huh? Pretty fun I'll bet," she said.
Was she really still talking to me? I wondered how much she was willing to bet.
She stared at me. Damn, what did this bitch want? I wasn't about to start having a private, girls-only conversation with her, that was for sure. I looked over at Leon. I saw him mouth the words 'be nice'. You've got to be kidding me!
"Yeah, I mean it has its advantages. So long as you don't mind a little herpes," I started. Of course, as soon as I dropped the h-bomb, Leon chocked on his beer. He coughed, trying to catch his breath.
"So what do you do, Mary Hannah?" I asked. I was really just trying to fuck with her, and Leon, at this point.
"She was just kidding," Leon finally managed to chock out, still coughing. Vince was laughing as hard as his busted up insides would allow. Dom was just smiling and shaking his head. 'Vacationing' with these guys definitely had its moments.
"Um," she started, a little flustered. "I go to the University of Alabama. I'm an elementary education major. So, I'm going to be a teacher. I just love kids, you know?"
"Hm, that's adorable," I stated sarcastically. Kids. Good luck with that Leon! He deserved whatever he got with this girl.
"So Leon, when did y'all get here?" she asked, positioning herself right beside him in the sand.
"I got here a couple days ago," he replied, placing one arm around her.
"What hotel are you staying at?" she continued with the twenty questions.
"We're staying at a buddy's house. Well, more like a friend of a friend I guess."
"Hey Mary Hannah, come here a second," someone called out.
"I'll be right back," she said, jumping up and bouncing over towards the voice.
Leon nodded at her as she ran down the beach towards a gaggle of bleached blondes that were busy working on their tans.
"Herpes? What the hell, Let? She gonna think I got that shit. Why don't you chill with the VD card, aight?" he asked me.
"Hey, Chatty Cathy, why don't you shut the hell up before you blow our cover?" I told him.
"She's like nineteen and lives in Alabama. I don't think she's much of a threat," Leon corrected me.
"Nah, bro, I think she's right. Why don't you quit talking with your dick before you say too much," Dom added.
"So, nah, that's bullshit. We ain't even allowed to talk to people down here?" Leon asked, obviously a little irritated by all the criticism he was receiving.
"Talk all you want. But since when's lyin' to a chick ever been an issue for us before?" Vince asked. That was true for all of them, even Dom. If they could lie to get out of anything, they would. It was an easy option. We were a group that chose the easy road every single time. This was no different.
"Shh, here she comes," Leon said to Vince.
"Shush? Don't shush me," Vince replied aggravated.
"So what did I miss?" she asked, bouncing around like a cocker spaniel.
"I'm getting in the water. Hand me a beer, Dom?" I asked, downing the one in my hand quickly.
He grabbed two and stood up. He handed me one and we both made our way down to the water. The sand was hot. I hadn't really been in the ocean yet. I imagined that it felt nice. Hopefully it would cool me off, both from the heat and my temperament.
I made my way down to the shoreline and let the water rush up against my toes. It was warm. I began walking in, feeling the wake crash against my ankles, calves, knees, and thighs as I got deeper. I wanted the water to wash me away too.
I stopped when I was about waste deep. Dom had followed me in all the way. It wasn't nearly as deep on him as it was on me. I sank down, allowing the water to touch my shoulders. I floated, slowly getting a little bit deeper.
"Had about enough of that, huh?" Dom questioned, motioning towards where Mary Hannah was still drilling the guys about their past.
"Are you kidding, man? I love her. I hope she sticks around," I said, completely full of sarcasm.
"Eh, Leon's done worse."
"Oh, I know. I've met them. Or at least seen them sneak out in the morning. Skanks."
Dom chuckled, pulling me closer to him.
"I just don't think we should be letting anyone in right now. Too much's at stake," I told him.
"It don't matter where we are. You don't never want to let no one into our team anyway," he stated, calling me out.
"It's different now," I told him.
"I know," he said. I saw the early signs of guilt rushing to his face. Shit. I didn't mean to make him feel guilty. This was not where I'd wanted this afternoon to go. I didn't think I could be the moral support for anyone else, anytime soon.
So, in an attempt to pull him out of any negative feelings, I leapt towards him in the water.
"Oh," he said, somewhat surprised. "Hello."
"Hi," I said. I leaned in and kissed him. I could taste the salt water on his lips.
I felt his hand grab hold of mine under the water. He turned me around so that my back was leaning against his.
"It feels awesome in here," I said, as he started slowly kissing my neck. That felt pretty awesome too.
"Mm hmm," he replied, somewhat. It was more of just a noise. He had stopped listening. He was focusing elsewhere. I wasn't about to interrupt that focus.
As his lips slowly inched their way down my neck and across my shoulder, I felt his arms wrap around my stomach. He pulled my body completely flush with his. His right hand moved down towards my bikini bottom. I felt him rub my lower abdomen. He traced his fingers around my hip bone, down to my pelvis. His fingers inched closer and closer towards my waistband. Suddenly, I felt my bikini bottom start to come off. I was a little surprised. The shock caused me to jump slightly. I smiled and looked at him.
"What are you doing?"
He shrugged. "What?"
"We can't do that here," I said, turning around and facing him.
"Why not?" he said, not really stopping. I could feel his hands still edging the bottoms down, despite my efforts to grad a hold of them.
"Gee, I don't know. Common decency?" I said, still looking at him. It wasn't that I didn't want to.
"Decency? Since when you give a fuck about decency?" he said, reaching back down for my bikini bottom.
"There's kids right there," I said, pointing over about 10 feet. I took his hand, before it wandered too far, and interlocked my fingers with his.
"It's Tijuana," he responded, as if that was some sort of an excuse. "There's some girl down the road that just brought a horse in getting ready to…"
I stopped him. "Dom." I knew what he was getting ready to say. That didn't have anything to do us, thank god. How other people opted to express their sexuality was their own business. Don't ask, don't tell.
"Fine. But I ain't giving up," he smiled. I knew he wouldn't. And I knew that I wouldn't resist forever. But, I would need a couple more drinks before I had sex with him in broad daylight, on a populated beach, in the ocean, in front of children. At least then I'd have an excuse.
"You're bad," I said. I took my free hand and splashed him with water.
"Yeah, that's what the LAPD thinks, too," he smiled, almost cocky.
"Man, fuck the LAPD," I said.
"Not really my style," he said moving back in towards me, smiling.
"Yeah, guess that's more Mia's thing," I said. With that, he stopped moving closer.
"Oh, that was below the belt, Let."
"What, down here?" I asked, reaching 'below the belt'.
He smiled suggestively and nodded.
I moved my hand back up, out of the danger zone, and laughed. "Oh you Torettos. You're either fucking the law or being fucked by it."
"Alright, that's about enough of that," he laughed, holding his hand up and covering my mouth.
Dom never actually wanted to admit that his sister had sex. Maybe it was denial. Maybe it was just so he didn't try to kill all the guys she dated. Regardless, it was fun to joke with him about it.
We spent about an hour in the water. I made sure that the new tail Leon was chasing had dragged him off elsewhere before I was willing to resurface. The heat was excruciating outside the water. I realized that it was a completely different kind of heat than we had in Los Angeles. It was not one that I wanted to grow accustomed to.
Dom and I slowly made our way back to the shore. I noticed that Vince hadn't changed positions. He could not get in the water because he was not supposed to get his bandages wet. So instead he buried himself in the sand like a sand crab, or a two-year-old. It was a pretty humorous sight. He looked fast asleep. It was times like that, I really regretted not having a Sharpie marker. It would have been pretty funny to permanently write the word 'herpes' on his forehead, just to keep up with the theme for the day.
"You ain't supposed to leave a fallen man behind," a half-asleep Vince peeped out.
"That's in the army, or navy, or something," I replied. "I don't think they'd even take you right now."
"Besides, we came back," Dom added.
"How you feelin'?" I asked him.
"Think I'll live. It's gonna hurt like hell to stand up, though," he muttered.
"Well ain't no need to stand up right now," Dom said, making himself comfortable in the sand, right beside the cooler. "Beer?"
"Think I'm all set right now," Vince replied.
"Whoa, you ain't drinkin'? You sure you're okay, man?" I asked him. Vince turning down a beer. That was a monumental event. To my knowledge, that had never happened before. It was like seeing Halley's Comet, only happened once every 75 years.
"Very funny," he responded, eyes still closed. "I'm just bronzin' over here."
"Suit yourself," Dom said, pulling a beer out of the cooler for himself. No sooner did he twist off the cap that the head of the bottle was to his lips.
"You gonna share one of those?" I asked Dom, hands on hips.
He shook his head no.
I just rolled my eyes at him. He smiled, still not allowing the bottle to leave his lips. With that, I took my hand and tipped the bottom of the bottle up, causing some of the liquid to spill out the sides. It dripped down his cheeks, most landing on his shorts, but some hitting the sand. He quickly pulled the bottle away from his mouth. Dom took his hand and wiped his mouth, shaking the excess liquid from his hand at me.
"Letty, now that's just wasteful," he shook his head at me, trying to be serious. I wasn't going to buy into it.
"Just give me one," I demanded.
He hesitated. Smiling. Looking down at the spilled liquid on his shorts and on the ground.
He looked up at me and perked his eyebrows.
God, sometimes he was so exasperating. It was precisely these times that I remembered why I loved him so much. He knew how to get to me, exactly what buttons to press. And he pressed them so well. When he was trying to drive me crazy, it made me love him even more. It reminded me of the Dominic I knew as a child, not the cocky, arrogant man he pretended to be most of the time. But the one who's world centered around me, around his friends, around his family, and around infuriating all of us. So much had gotten blurred in our lives. But, it was these moments that reminded me of what we used to have. Of the way things were before money and image became so important.
Reluctantly, he handed me a beer, refusing to wipe that ridiculous smirk off his face. It made me want to slap him and kiss him all at the same time.
"Your welcome," he said as I received the beer.
"Yeah, yeah," was all I said in response to that. I wasn't mad, just slightly annoyed. I hated that I cared about him so much, relied on him so deeply.
We spent a couple more hours drinking and shooting the breeze. I didn't know what time we had gotten out to the beach, but I knew that we hadn't seen Leon in a while. That made me smile. How he managed to find skanks in only a matter of hours in foreign countries was beyond me. But he had in fact succeeded. It's too bad that talent couldn't be translated in developing a plan for where we were supposed to go from here. No one had even started talking about that yet.
As the sun started to dip a bit lower in the sky, I decided to call it a day. I'd had just enough beers to get a little tipsy and just enough sun to almost be burnt. Now, I just wanted a shower.
I went back into the house. Without Mia, I knew it was going to be pretty gross very soon. I ignored the mess and made my way into the bathroom. Turning on the water, I adjusted the temperature knobs. I stepped in, the warm water hot against my skin. It felt wonderful.
When the hot water began to run out, I figured I had been in there for ample time. I got out of the shower and dried off. I wiped the condensation off the mirror. My cuts and bruises were starting to fade. Thank God. I grabbed the comb that was sitting by the sink. I didn't know who it belonged to but it really didn't matter. I knew it wasn't Dom's. I ran it through my hair and wrapped the towel around me. I opened the door and felt the cool air hit me.
I heard music coming from the den. But, not good music. What the hell were they listening to? I walked into the bedroom. I shut the door and opened my suitcase. I pulled on a tank top and a pair of shorts.
I threw my wet hair up in a messy bun. I couldn't wait to go out into the den and criticize the guys for the lame music they were listening to. I really hoped that Dom had put it on because then I could rag him for days. Vince was impaled so that took a little bit of the fun out of giving him a hard time about stuff. Oh, and if it was Leon, I would never stop giving him shit about it. This was going to be fun.
I walked out of the bedroom and into the den. I was shocked. I stood there, stunned. It looked like a sorority house, or a brothel, if there was a difference. It was almost like an after-race party full of skanks but all of the girls were wearing shirts with Greek letters or other college paraphernalia. I was pretty sure that this was my version of hell.
"What the fuck is this?" I asked Dom as he approached me. I noticed some random bottled-blonde following him. This could get ugly.
"What? This ain't your scene Letty?"
I raised my eyebrows at him. "Um, no."
"Here," he said, handing me a beer.
"Hey Dom," the girl came up from behind, touching his arm. I looked at her. I wondered what this bitch needed to say to him. I dared her to try something. Double dared. "Want to dance?" she asked him.
I perked my eyebrows up at him. Ball was in his court now. I couldn't wait to see how he was going to handle this. I crossed my arms and stared at him. Waiting.
"I don't think so," he said, locking eyes with me. I didn't budge.
"Oh come on. Just one? Please," she said as she used her index and middle fingers to trace up the side of Dom's arm.
I will cut this bitch up. What the hell did she think she is doing?
"Nah, nah, I can't. But I'm sure one of these other gentlemen would love to dance with you," he said, removing her hand from his arm. He let it go gently, still looking at me. What did he want? Did he want me to say that he could dance with her? That wouldn't happen in this lifetime. Did he want to prove to me that he wasn't going to dance with her? Well, sure he wasn't. Not while I was standing right there within tackling range.
The girl stopped, stunned. She looked at me and cocked her head. She thinks she doesn't like me now…I could make her really hate me. She let out an annoyed sigh and turned around abruptly.
"Yeah, you better turn around before I make a carpet burn on your face," I muttered low, but loud enough for her and Dom to both hear me.
"What?" he asked, questioning the look that I was giving him. He shot me an all too familiar, and annoyed, look. "I said no."
"How's she know your name Dom?"
He shook his head at me. "Seriously? Letty, come on."
He always acted like I was completely ridiculous for getting mad. But I knew he flirted with these girls when I was not watching. He liked the attention. I knew that they would not come over to try to get with him if he hadn't given them some indication that they had a shot. I wasn't ridiculous. Dom hadn't ever acted on it, that I knew of, but he did still flirt. He was a guy. I guess it was just innate. Or at least it was innate with him. Flirting came as natural as breathing. But that was no excuse. And after all we had been through, not just the past few days, but the past few years, it was getting really old.
He knew just as well as I did that none of those girls would stick by him the way that I had. They didn't know him. They wanted to get with some guy that was solely a façade, a reputation, an exterior. If they knew Dom, the real Dom, and all his baggage, they would not come with in 100 yards. He wasn't exactly the kind of guy you wanted to take home to meet Mom and Dad. Luckily, that was a non-issue with us. I always figured the definition of true love was just finding someone that could put up with all your shit. Guess Dom and I were made for each other. At least right now.
"Hey yo, killer," Leon called out. I didn't even respond until he said it again, much closer to me. "Killer."
"Me?"
He nodded. "What are you doing?"
I was confused so I just shrugged. Too bad it wasn't multiple choice. I couldn't tell what he was looking for.
"That's Mary Hannah's little sister. Be nice to her," he reprimanded, indicating the girl that had just tried to dance with Dom. I couldn't give two shits who she was. I would have said the same thing to anybody.
I just shot him a look. What was he asking me to do? Oh Leon. I was disappointed. He was getting hung up by the short and curlies by some 'Easy DZ'.
"Leon you brought these skanks in our house, man. You control 'em and I won't have to."
"Jesus, Let, a little hospitality would be nice," he joked.
"What are you trying to do here, bro?" I asked.
"Just have fun. Can we just have fun right now? We can all go back to being miserable real soon. But, come on girl, let's just chill for a second," Leon pleaded.
"Whatever," I said, turning around and somewhat blowing him off.
Have fun? Sure. I could have fun. I just had to remember how to have fun. I tried to remember back to the last time I had fun. I smiled when I remembered exactly when it was. The day we finished working on the Supra. That was a fun day. I wondered how long it would be before we had a day like that. Looking around, I could help but think it would be a long time.
I made my way into the kitchen. Fun. Apparently I thought I would find 'fun' in the kitchen. Nope, didn't look too fun in here. I saw Dom's cell phone laying on the countertop. I picked it up. I walked back into the bedroom. Lying on the bed, I opened it up and called the only other person I was sure was not having fun.
"Hello?"
"Mia, it's Letty."
"Letty! Thank God," her voice full of desperation.
"What's wrong Mia?"
"It's Jesse. He's not doing very good. They, well, I don't know. They said he's lost of blood." I could hear panic and concern in her voice.
"Wait, I thought he was okay. What happened?"
"I don't know. They won't tell me anything."
"What do you know?"
"They took him out of the ICU this morning. But not long after that he started crashing. They put him back in and that's really all they told me."
"So what does that mean?"
"I don't know. Nothing. I don't know anything. I'm sorry. I don't want to upset you. I should have waited to say something until I knew more information."
"Nah, Mi, it's cool. I want stay up on what's happenin' with you guys there. Do you need me to come back?"
She laughed. "Letty you can't come up here. It's fine. I can handle this. You need to stay down there. At least I know that you guys are safe. How's Vince?"
"He's…" I started, looking out the bedroom door, down the hall, into the room they were partying. I caught sight of Vince and noticed some girl handing him a beer and kissing his cheek. "He's surviving."
"How are you?"
I wished that I'd kept count of how many people had asked me that.
"Fine," I let out bluntly.
"How's Dom?"
"Oh, he's doing great. He's loving all the imported talent here," I said unable to hide the annoyance in my voice.
"What do you mean?"
"The house has been taken over by sorority sluts," I informed her.
"What?"
"Yeah. Exactly. Compliments of Leon."
"Well listen, Letty, don't kill anybody. I think enough people have gotten hurt for a little while. You hang in there. Keep an eye on them. Make sure Vince is taking it easy," she responded.
"Oh, he's taking it easy," I chuckled.
"And try to keep Dom in check," she said.
I scoffed. "Don't know about that?"
"What happened?"
"Nothing. Nothing unusual anyway."
"What did he do?"
"Just being Dom. Listen, Mia, I got to go. Keep me up on Jesse. Okay?" I didn't want to get into it with her. She needed support, not to hear me complain about my relationship problems. And, I didn't want to giver her anything else to be concerned about.
"Yeah, sure. I'll call as soon as I know anything."
"Take it easy, girl," I told her.
"Bye," she said.
I clicked the phone off. I leaned up against the wall in the bedroom. Jesse. He had to be fine. Poor Jesse. The kid had been through too much to let it end like this. I remembered the day that I knew Jesse was part of the family. The day that I realized we would have to take care of him. Images of the day the cops came and took Jesse's father away flashed through my mind like a bad acid trip:
"No! Dad!" Jesse yelled as the police officer held Mr. Rauch at gunpoint.
A younger policeman came up and grabbed Jesse. I ran in from the other room. I had been there helping Jesse with his Spanish homework, by chance. I pulled the cops arms, trying to get him to release Jesse. It was useless. Another cop grabbed me before I could make any headway.
"Get on the ground, Jake. It's over," the officer stated boldly.
I noticed Mr. Rauch looking down at Jesse. Jesse was fighting with the cop, tears running down his face. I heard him continue to yell.
"It's ok, Jess," Mr. Rauch stated, slowing getting to his knees. He placed his hands behind his head.
"Jacob Rauch you are under arrest for armed robbery, battery, possession of stolen property, and grand theft auto. You have the right to remain silent…" the cop continued.
"No! Let him go. Dad!" Jesse yelled. He struggled to run after them as they locked handcuffs on Mr. Rauch.
With that, Jesse wiggled free from the cop's embrace. In the blink of an eye, the gun that had previously been pointed on Mr. Rauch was pointed directly in Jesse's face.
"Son, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You decide," the cop said, cocking the gun.
Jesse's face went pale.
"Damnit, Jesse, stay back," Mr. Rauch yelled.
The cop slowly lowered his gun. He took a hold of Mr. Rauch and led him out the front door.
I watched. I was too stunned to fight the cop. I supposed that he still had a hold of me. But, I was just watching Jesse. I watched his tears. I watched his anger. I watched his sadness. His life was being changed, right now. It's strange how there were moments in each of our lives that we know forever changed, forever shaped the people that we became. This was Jesse's.
"No," he cried, falling to his knees, holding his face in his hands. He leaned forward, his back arched as the sobs spilled out.
"Who was on the phone?" Dom asked, interrupting my memory. Thank God.
I stared at him. Like he cared. I thought they wanted to have fun.
He perked his eyebrows, waiting for a response.
"Mia," I told him.
"What did she say?"
"Jesse. He's not doing too hot. Hope you guys are having fun because the people who are actually dealing with all this ain't having nearly as good a time," I stated solemnly.
TBC
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AJ