The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Twenty Eight – Of Veracity and Blue Streets
"What do you think she said to him?" Dom asked Leon from their position about ten metres away, beside Dom's car.
"I think she told him that she doesn't want anything else to do with him, but I'm not sure."
"Well, we can hope."
Leon shot Dom a dirty look. He didn't get Dom's constant need to wish ill on Jesse's young cousin. "She looks upset. I'm gonna go make sure she's ok."
"You don't really have feelings for her, do you Leon?"
"Yeah, but not the way you mean." He kept up the pretence, even to Dominic. After all, he wasn't really sure how or what he felt. How was he supposed to share it with someone else if he didn't even know what it was?
"Good."
"What do you have against her anyway, Dawg?" He finally gave voice to his unspoken question, unable to keep the curiosity at bay any longer.
"Wish I knew," Dom answered with a shake of his head.
"Me too," Leon answered, before walking over to Tempest's car and leaning against the door beside her. "So, that looked like it went well." He kept his voice light and conversational on purpose. He knew she'd likely had enough of heavy words for at least a few minutes.
She snorted in sarcastic answer. "That'd be one way to put it."
"And the other way is?"
"That it sucked hardcore."
"What'd you tell him?"
"That I didn't want him no more."
"And I bet he took that real well," Leon said sarcastically, prodding for more information.
"About as well as it would go over with you if I told you I wrote off your car."
"Gee, it went that well?"
"Oh yeah, all that and better." She finally looked away from her feet, staring off over the crowd instead.
He couldn't help but notice her eyes revealed her confusion. "What'd he say when you told him?"
"It wasn't so much what he said as what he did."
"What'd he do?"
"He kissed me."
"That bastard," Leon answered with a gentle chuckle, before throwing an arm over her shoulders.
"You don't get it. He kissed me like he really meant it. Like I don't know if he's ever kissed me before. And then told me to tell him I didn't want him again, like I meant it. But I didn't mean it, so I told him again, but it still didn't sound serious because I don't mean it. And he called me on it. And I," she sighed.
"You what?" he prompted.
"I told him more, and more honestly, than I ever intended."
"How so?"
"Like I told him that I couldn't tell him I didn't want him to make him believe it because it was a lie, and he got this look on his face," she paused to look up at Leon. "You know the one, the fuckin' smug 'I'm the winner' look he does so good."
"Yeah, I know the one," Leon answered, giving her a gentle squeeze around the shoulders.
"And then I told him that it didn't matter what I wanted physically, that my heart and mind knew what we were doing wasn't right, or good for me, and I didn't want it anymore, but he could use my physical attraction to him to work around what I really wanted in my heart, if he was so inclined. That was a bit more ammo than I ever wanted to give him." Strange then, that she didn't mind giving the straight up about her feelings to Leon. She wasn't the one to want to share these things with anyone. But here she was, spilling her deepest thoughts and feelings to someone without any concern he'd think less of her for having 'female' emotions. What was wrong with her?
"And he just took that at face value and walked off?" Leon was incredulous.
"No, first he asked me if this was all because I had real feelings for you, and when I told him no, he asked if it was because I had real feelings for Craig Everett. After I told him it was over him and his expectations and me and mine and my inability to convince myself what we had was enough anymore, that was when he walked off. But he's totally right. He never once lied to me, never once told me there could be more than there was."
"But that doesn't always stop a person from dreamin' about the what if's does it?"
With his question was when her desire to keep her tender feelings and wounds to herself to lick in private returned in abundance. So she merely shrugged in answer, not returning his gaze. When he remained silent she eventually gave an audible answer. "Guess not."
"You gonna be ok?"
She thought a moment. "Yeah, I'ma be alright."
"Good. Look, Letty and Mia are talkin' to a bunch of Edwin and Hector's girls. Wanna go join them?"
"Sure," she replied half heartedly. She allowed Leon to lead her over to the group by the hand.
After walking away from Tempest, Vince found a group of people he knew and started to mix in with them. Not looking around to find where she was now was hard, but he wouldn't allow himself the luxury. Not after she told him she didn't want him anymore. And ok, she hadn't meant it, but she'd still decided to stick by her decision not to have him anymore. Seeing that he could either force her hand, as she admitted he could, or give her her way and take the moral high ground and walk away, he chose to walk away. He'd never had to trick a woman into his bed before, and damned if he was starting now. No matter how much he wanted to. Wanted her. There were other women out there. Women that he wouldn't have to work so hard to have.
And maybe that was why he was in the middle of a group of blondes and brunettes with the odd red head scattered through. It wasn't because she had seemed to give him up easily enough and it stung. No, surely it was because now he was free to go back to having things the way they should be. Now he was free to take home whatever girl he wanted, not the one he'd had once and simply hadn't been able to stop having because of who she was.
With a self depreciating snort, he acknowledged the truth. He simply hadn't been able to stop having her. Who she was had very little to do with it. How she was played a much larger role. But he wasn't going to go chasing after her. It wasn't his style and he wasn't starting now. Wouldn't let himself grin at the image of Bryce looking down her dress while she looked so intent on hitting the cue ball rather than tearing up the table top. Wouldn't let himself laugh at her telling him she might be able to get the keys to the next model up as she teased him. Couldn't let himself remember how much he liked it when she made him pay for things he did wrong around her. 'Cause she was done being mad at him, and done making up with him after. But he didn't really care that much, damn it!
He looked around the alley casually and found her in a group of Hector's friends with Mia and Leon. Leon had an arm draped around her shoulders and they were both listening to something Hector was saying. He fought down an immediate and visceral jealous reaction to seeing 'Trouble' with Leon's arm around her. Their prank was still fresh in his mind, the noises she had made and things she had said playing over and over again in his head. Damn it, she's mine! Not his. He shook his head. Not yours either anymore, remember? It didn't really seem to matter to him whether she was or not, and it really didn't once Hector reached his punch line and she threw her head back onto Leon's shoulder while she laughed. It mattered even less when Leon laughed down at her more than he was laughing at the joke Hector had told, all while twirling one of her curls around his index finger. How much truth was there to her statement she didn't have real feelings for Leon?
"Tempest, this is Hector, Hector, this is Jesse's cousin, Tempest."
"Jesse? This fine thing is related to Jesse?" Hector asked Leon, his voice full of teasing.
"Yeah, funny how genetics work, ain't it?" Tempest responded with a sly grin.
"Well, genetics sure took better care'a buildin' you than him, that's for sure. Why haven't we met before if you're related to this group of yahoos?"
"I'm not from around. I'm just in town for a few weeks to visit with my cuz."
"That's some ride you rolled up in. Bet Dom loves it you got that."
"That'd be one way to put it," Tempest smirked.
Hector laughed. "I can guess the other ways."
"It ain't hard to guess the other ways."
"Sure isn't. So, you racin' tonight?"
"Naw. I doubt I'll get a chance, I doubt Dom would let me, and my car's barely broken in."
"Let's not play like Dom sayin' no to you'd stop you Gorgeous."
"Ok, it wouldn't," she said, grinning. "But not gettin' asked sure will. So I'll just hang off this beautiful man's arm and play eye candy for the night. After all, we were very briefly married tonight and really should still be on our honeymoon."
Hector got the story out of them, and by the end of it, he and Edwin were holding their sides in pain from all the laughing they did. "So you're with Vince, but you made him, and the rest of the crew, think you just up and married Leon?"
"Was with Vince, but yeah, the rest of its true enough," Tempest confirmed. The call that Dom was about to race tore through the crowd, cutting their conversation short.
"Ok, I'm havin' a party at my club tonight after this is all over. You have to come. All of you, if you want. It's called El Gato Negro. These two know how to get there," Hector said, indicating Jesse and Leon. "Hope I see you there."
"Well see what goes down," Tempest answered, looking up at Leon.
"Whatever you wanna do, Gorgeous. We party at our house all the time after races. If you wanna go to Hector's club, Jesse and I'll go with you."
"Me too," Mia chimed in. "I never get to see the girls from his team anymore and we use to hang out all the time. It'd be fun to wreck someone else's place for a change, instead of cleaning up behind everyone else."
"That settles it then," Jesse said with a grin. "We're going to Hector's club after races."
"We goin' to the finish or what?" Tempest asked as they all headed for their cars.
"Yeah, let's head out to the finish." Jesse answered. They all piled into Leon's car and drove out to the end of the quarter mile. Once the race was over, and Dom had collected his winnings they headed back to the alley. It was still early, as the first race had been called more quickly than usual. As they stood around talking and checking out each other's rides, a rumour started to go through the crowd that another race was going to be run.
"You should get in on this one V. You haven't run in forever," Leon said, trying to start a conversation that would help Vince get over his lingering anger about the joke that had been perpetrated largely against him. He failed to realize that starting any conversation while he still had his arm wrapped around the woman who had essentially dumped Vince earlier in the evening likely wasn't the best way to endear himself to his friend.
Vince thought about Leon's suggestion for a moment, wondering if he wanted to race or not. He did and he didn't. He looked around the group of his friends and finally allowed his gaze to rest on Tempest last of all. She stood against Leon's side, his arm draped around her shoulders still while Jesse was holding her hand on her other side. She was looking at her car, and he wished she'd look at him again with half the longing she had in her eyes looking at that damn Skyline. He was puzzled for a moment why she didn't just go race since she clearly wanted to. The bond she felt between herself and her car was almost palpable it was so strong. Cars were as much a part of her as they were of the rest of the team and how much of her sense of self she had wrapped up in the thirty three hundred pounds of Japanese engineering sitting over beside Leon's yellow beast wasn't hard to see. In fact, she likely felt even more tied to her car than they did. Well, all of them but for Dominic.
Then the reason why she might not step up to race dawned on him as he remembered her telling Jesse she had no money to trick out her car. That likely meant she had no money to throw down on a race either. "Maybe I will," he said to Leon, before wandering off through the crowd.
"I'd like to see Craig get to race Dom," Tempest told Jesse and Leon after Vince had left the group. Without his presence stifling her, she felt free again to open up and be herself. When he was around, she continuously felt the need to run every word she was about to utter through her mind first, to ensure that nothing about any of her statements could instigate in Vince a need to answer to her directly. She knew she couldn't handle talking to him just yet.
"Why's that?" Jesse asked.
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Tempest asked with a smirk. "Craig's got a Cosmo under the hood."
"Really?" Jesse was clearly shocked.
"Um hum. I think he'd give Dom a good run for his money."
"You know, if Dom thought there was something between you'n that other guy, he likely would race him, just to pound him into the ground to stick it to you," Jesse mused.
"Craig'll get his chance all on his own in time. He's pretty good so sooner or later he's gonna beat the right people and make a name for himself. Then Dom won't be able to say no to the challenge when the day comes."
"True," Jesse conceded.
Before anyone else could pick up a new conversational thread, Vince rejoined the group, followed by Hector and Dom. "Well, aren't you gonna go to the line?" Hector asked Tempest.
"For what?" she asked, shaking her head from side to side and wrinkling her nose in confusion.
"To race," Hector prodded.
"I'm not racin'."
"Than why'd you have that guy come and tell me you were and give me this money?" Hector asked.
"I didn't tell any guy to tell you that, and I sure as hell didn't give anyone any money."
"Well someone did, and it was your name they told me. You're the only Tempest around here girlie."
"It wasn't me," she insisted.
"Who cares cuz? Why wouldn't you wanna go race if someone else put up the money? I'd do it in a heartbeat."
"I guess, but it feels wrong," she said, frowning. She shot a glance at Vince. She wouldn't race against him. She just wouldn't. She couldn't handle hearing about it if she beat him, and she couldn't handle hearing about it if she didn't. She had some worries on that front about who put up the money too. She'd bet all the money she had left that it had been Dominic, looking to see her fall flat on her face. Well fuck that. He was in for a rude surprise.
"Yeah, you might as well, since there were already four by the time I got over there," Vince growled, looking around the area rather than at her, as if he was upset about getting cheated out of his chance to race.
"Take my place," she offered.
"Aw cuz! I wanna see you race. I wanna see your car run! We can see Vince race any night of the week. Go!" Jesse whined.
"Fine. But when I lose because I wasn't ready and barely know my car anymore, I don't wanna hear about it. Got it? Not from anyone, unless whoever brings it up wants to see how they look with a Canadian smile." She hinted around about how she would knock out their teeth, making them look like the hockey players of her native land.
"You ain't gonna lose Gorgeous. Jesse built your engine," Leon reminded.
"I'm glad you have such faith in my car. You run him then!"
"I know that I've started to learn that your family ain't all that fast when it comes to the actual blacktop," Leon started, smirking at Jesse and Tempest in turn. "But maybe you could change our opinion on that if you manage to move a car faster than ninety mile an hour."
Leon's teasing coaxed a reluctant chuckle out of her. "Ok, since it's someone else's dollar if I lose, I'll give it a shot."
"That's my girl," Leon said, squeezing her before pushing her toward her car. "Get a move on."
She simply flipped him off before sliding into the driver's seat and backing the car around to pull out of the alley. Jesse darted off to the Jetta, wanting to be at the finish when the race ended. Dom and Letty were no where to be found and Mia was driving to the starting line with some of her friends from Hector's scene.
"So," Vince drawled, heading over to the Maxima to help line the race route.
"So what?" Leon asked as he got into the passenger seat of Vince's car. He knew the conversation was just starting, and that it would be easier on his head if he just got in and let it take its natural course right away.
"What's up with you'n her anyway?"
"Nothin' dawg," Leon insisted. "I told you from the first that I don't see her like that. She's like a sister to Jess and I ain't never gonna wanna go there with a girl that close to the kid. Not to mention she's not the kinda girl for us to pass around." Leon didn't beat around the bush. There had been girls in the past that jumped from one basement bed to the other from night to night and none of guys really cared. Those kind of girls were only good for one thing anyway and if it wasn't one of their beds they were in, it'd just be some other guy's anyway.
Vince growled at Leon, despite Leon saying basically the right thing. "You better believe she isn't. And if I ever find out what happened today wasn't a prank, I'll kill you."
Leon laughed. Even knowing laughing at Vince when he was so riled was the height of stupid couldn't stop him. The urge overtook his common sense. He figured he could laugh, or he could get angrier than anyone knew he could get. Laughing was the lesser of the two evils, because he really didn't want to have to fight Vince at races. And contrary to Tempest's constant worry about him getting his ass kicked, he knew he could hold his own. "Dude, she got sick of your shit and dropped you like you was hot." Leon continued despite Vince's outraged growl. It was clear—while he might have been basically dumped for the first time—since he and Tempest technically hadn't been dating, the rest of them weren't supposed to look at it that way. "You got no call to be upset about who she sees or what she does from now on. You better start gettin' the hell over her. 'Cause she's the hell over you, or she will be. She's fed the fuck up."
"There's nothin' to get over. But I'd still be more pissed than you ever seen me if I found out the two of you went behind my back before her and I were finished."
Leon sighed. Vince was jealous, big time. This was serious. Which called for some serious conversation, much as he hated to think about it. "You know," he started. He pushed a breath out through his nose forcefully. Talking about serious things like how they felt almost never went well when one of the conversationalists was Vince. "You know, you could be honest with yourself and with her and admit you're treatin' her bad 'cause you're worried about what you're feelin' for her. It's kinda obvious that you didn't keep it as casual as you wanted and now you're trying to drive her away by being a prick. That you're just trying to make her be the bad guy so you don't have to feel bad about dropping her. If she does the dumping, it's all on her not you and you don't have to admit how much it pissed you off to be seen as an asshole, and you don't have to admit you had feelings for her."
Vince's growl turned to a snarl. "All I feel for her is a desire to fuck her brains out. Don't kid yourself otherwise. And I didn't want her to 'drop me' as you put it. I wanted her to keep on fuckin' me until she went home, and then drop me. I wanted to keep getting what I wanted from her, the sex."
Leon shook his head in disbelief. Vince must really think they were all as thick as he was. "Do tell why you took her out not once, but twice if that's the case. She was givin' it up to you already. You didn't have to treat her like she was special just for the fuckin'. She woulda been smarter to play a little hard to get with a guy like you, but she didn't even do that. So you can't play it off like that dawg. You can't play like you had to charm her into your bed 'cause we all know you didn't. So don't front like that."
Why wouldn't Leon let it go? Couldn't he see that was what he really wanted? Just to let the subject drop. "I mean, I did like her. Do, I mean. As a person, as a friend," Vince scrambled to clarify. "But it's not like I ever thought about makin' things with her about more than two weeks of company and some really hot sex." He couldn't stop the smile that crept over his face. Really hot sex.
"If it helps you feel better about the situation to compartmentalize things that way, go right ahead. Just don't expect me to buy into the load of horse shit you'll likely manage to sell Dom and the rest of the people around here. And for god's sake, don't tell Jesse you were only nice to T to get in her pants. He'll hit the roof."
"Like I'm scared of Jesse."
"Jesse's like all of our kid brother. Scared of him or not, you shouldn't wanna fuckin' hurt his feelings like it would for him to find out you used his 'baby girl' for some easy sex that you coulda got eight ways to Sunday from easy girls that knew the score."
"It wasn't like that," Vince sighed, parking the car about half way down the race route.
"No?" Leon questioned, starting to get seriously angry. "How was it then?"
"I dunno. Do we have to talk about this?"
"No, we don't," Leon said, shrugging. Leave it to Vince to take the easy way out and just force the dropping of the subject. There was no easier way to ensure he never had to talk about anything the least bit difficult for him. Rather than answer to his actions and words, he could just insist he didn't want to talk about it. What a wonderful way to get out of his share of the responsibility for the issues in his life. Leon wasn't quite ready to let it go that easily this time. "I guess I'm just puzzled why it is you say you'd kill me if I was really interested in her, when you're not and apparently never will be. She don't deserve to be happy with a guy who'll treat her right and want her, not good sex with some conveniently handy chick? She shouldn't have the chance to be happy with a guy like me, a guy that'd see her for what she is and treat her like the lady she ain't but still deserves to be thought of as?"
Thinking about the answer to Leon's question made other uncomfortable thoughts come to the forefront of his mind. If she was just another girl he had slept with, why couldn't Leon get with her next if he was so inclined? The fact their girls all ran from bed to bed had never been a problem in the past. Those girls were never your friend as well as the girl you were sleeping with, genius, he answered his own question using her insults for him against himself. He shook his head with a rueful smile. Maybe he was going crazy. "Listen," he sighed. "If this ever goes any farther than this car, I will kill you and that's a promise." He shook his head, unable to believe he was about to admit what he was about to admit, even just to Leon. "I do like her. But I don't know just how much and I'm not willing to make it more permanent or serious than I did already as far as she knows, ok? I don't know what I want and I do know that wanting more than two weeks of fun with a girl who's not going to be here after the two weeks, and won't move down here for at least another two years when she's done of her licence hours isn't smart. So no matter what she wants, or what I want, we can't have it anyway." He lifted one shoulder sanguinely. "So what difference does it make?"
"I think you shoulda told her that, instead of throwing how you feel about Mia at her fifty thousand times. When you're sleepin' with a girl repeatedly isn't the most appropriate time to mention how you feel about another girl over and over again. You coulda did a better job of hiding it until she went home. She already knew, you didn't have to throw it in her face to remind her every second breath."
Vince was saved from finding an answer by the beeping of the Nextel on Leon's belt. Leon snatched up the phone and barked into it.
"What is it?"
"Shit Leon, don't take my head off," Jesse said. "You ok?"
"Fine Jesse. Sorry, I was just busy is all. What is it?"
"They're about to start the race. We clear?"
"Yeah, I got nothin' on the scanners. Should be good."
"I don't want anything to happen to my cousin."
"She has raced before Jess. She'll be fine. The race is a go. It's all good."
"Ok, I'll let Hector know."
Leon snagged his phone back on his belt and let silence reign in the car. He had nothing else to say on the subject, and it seemed Vince didn't either. It was too late now to say 'I told you so'. The damage was done. But Vince was too stubborn not to be fine with the status quo by the next day and Leon knew that Tempest was a fighter. There was a hardness in her eyes she did a good job of hiding most of the time, but it showed she'd been down and out before. But she was still alive and kicking and this situation wouldn't be any different than the tough times she'd faced down and survived before.
