Sorry about the wait guys, lurve ya for staying with me! Here's an extra-long chapter!
Mel and Dom are in Pennsylvania, visiting her parents. What kinds of surprises are in store for the happy couple?
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"You're paranoid, honey."
"Thanks, muffin. Anyway, look at your background, and look at mine. They'll think I'm trash."
I looked over at Dominic, nervously contemplating his fate at meeting her parents. His brow was furrowed, and all I wanted to do was grab him in a hug and just stay where we were (rounding the corner into my neighborhood). "Dom, please. They'll love you. It shouldn't matter where you come from; the only thing that matters is how you treat me- like I'm a princess. I've said it a million times, they'll adore you!"
"Note how the key word is should. Be honest, Melanie. They'll disapprove. I'm not saying hate, but admit that your parents would want someone…of higher status rather than a drag racer from the streets of LA." He took a quick look at me, his deep, soulful eyes begging for honesty. The least I could do was comply. I traced my finger along the Tiffany's necklace that had my name and Dom's engraved upon it. Love you forever, Dom was on one side, and then, on the other was Dominic and Melanie 1998. The year we'd met.
"You're right, Dominic," I confessed, "They won't exactly jump for joy when they find out about you, but, they'll get used to it. The only thing they'll be able to have against you is the stupid fact that you're not Jewish, and they won't get a wedding in a synagogue."
"Wedding?" He smiled when he said that, but I saw that he was confused- we hadn't even discussed marriage.
I grinned back, blushing, "My parents kind of have this thought that, if I bring a guy home, he's important, thus he's supposed to marry me or some shit like that. I'm not pressuring you or anything, it's just…"
"Have you thought about becoming a Toretto?" He was serious now.
"I thought I became a Toretto when I joined the team."
"You know what I mean."
"Ha, yeah…it's crossed my mind." I stared at him as we parked into the driveway.
He took the key out of the ignition, turned to me and kissed me, softly, and said, "We can talk about this later, okay? I want to know what you've been thinking. For now, let's stay on surviving this weekend. You sure you don't want to go to LA and skip this?"
"Dom! Come on!" I pushed him playfully and took a few steps ahead of him toward the barbeque already taking place in my parent's backyard. I glanced back and saw him pick up a bag and follow. He was so cute when he was nervous (which was rarely). As I took one step into the backyard, the entire splashing coming from my little cousins and cousin's-in-law stopped, whoever was manning the grill turned around, and my grandparents stopped discussing the aforementioned cook's skills. They stared at me. Finally, I had their attention. I ran a finger through my currently red-streaked hair, and said a quiet, "Hey everyone."
"MELANIE!!!!! Daragahya (dear) we haven't seen you in so long, it's like you disappeared!"
Making my smile a little bit wider, I extended my arms to welcome the incoming flood of relatives. At last, they took a step back and surveyed me. Some looks of shock were seen as some of the older people glanced at my hair, but everyone nearly fainted when they saw the big, bald man behind me. Meet Dommy, everyone, I thought to myself.
I heard one of mom's friends whisper to my aunt, "Who is that?"
I started to explain, but I was interrupted as the family pulled away from me and ran to my dearest, angelic cousin Alicia. I had a double take when I saw who she was standing next to. Who she had her arms around. That son-of-a-bitch. Mike was standing there, grinning wide as the attention was stolen from me and showered onto him.
"Dom…Dom, why's he here?" My throat closed up as I remembered our last encounter, and I hugged Dom tightly.
He threw an arm around me and let out a growl that I only heard, "I was just about to ask the same thing myself." He was steaming, I could tell in his voice, which rivaled that of an extremely angry bear.
My family all realized that I hadn't known about Mike and Alicia, and they pulled back, watching the both of us, waiting for something.
Alicia glanced at Dominic, recognizing him, and then she averted her eyes and walked over to me and hugged me, more of a gesture to the family, rather than to me.
"Mel! I missed you so much! How have you been? It's great to see you!"
I noticed a glint coming from her right hand. I gave her a fake smile, saying, " I missed you too! I haven't seen you since..." I trailed off, not wanting to say 'since you fucked things up between Dom and me'. I indicated to the ring shining merrily on Alicia's finger, "What's that?"
She grinned back at me, "Oh my G-d, can you believe it? I'm getting married!"
Sighing, I looked pointedly at Mike, who was still standing like a kid who was being fussed over by two rich grandmothers. "Who's the lucky man?"
"Michael! He propose- oh. Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry...but...we got to talking after you left and…the rest is history, I guess." She gave me one of her sweetest, most endearing smiles. Whatever.
While this was going on, Dom was standing stock still, getting angrier and angrier. He still didn't say anything, and this was definitely his worst form of anger. I was almost scared for them. I moved to get to his side, but Michael, who also walked over to hug me, intercepted the action. I recoiled from him.
"Mel, baby...come on, we had a good thing, but you know it couldn't last. We had problems, you just didn't love me enough..." Wow, was I pissed. Never loved you enough, you bastard? Bullshit. I bit my tongue and let him speak his last words. "But, we should put the past behind us. We're all adults. Be happy for me and my bride to be..."
I wanted, so badly, to scream "Was it an adult thing when you talked me into sleeping with you, and then I had to find out that you cheated on me?? Was it an adult thing when you came to Los Angeles to get me back and forced me to kiss you? When you offended the man I love?"
If Dominic hadn't grabbed my arm, I realized that I would've hurt Michael. Badly.
Disregarding the whole moment, Alicia kissed Mike on the cheek, "Hehe, you're a poet and you didn't even know it!"
Mike laughed back, and spoke to me, "I bet I'm just as good a poet as you are, Mel!"
My Aunt Lana, Alicia's mother, spoke up, causing me more embarrassment, "You write poems? Oh, you have to share them later!" Dom gave me a look, as if he was saying, "How could they not know that you write poems?" I shook my head in response. No one but Dom knew about what I personally wrote.
My dad decided that the awkward moment was gone, and so he figured that maybe it was time for him to bring it back. He stared at Dominic for a moment, still a stranger in his home, and said, bluntly, "Why are you still here?"
"Excuse me?" Dom looked up at the fact that someone had actually noticed him.
My dad sighed at what he thought was Dom's stupidity, and continued, "Aren't you the bag boy? Melanie couldn't have carried all of those things in on her own...thus she hired you, thus you are here. Oh! She didn't pay you, hang on..." My dad pulled a wad of money out of his pocket and handed it to Dom. "I also included tip." He waited expectantly to be thanked.
Dom was fuming. If you looked close enough, you'd probably see smoke coming from his ears. "Look, I don't think you know who I am", he growled, "I'm not a fu-"
"Dom! Wait," I whispred before he opened his mouth. "Don't be angry...they're..." he nodded, and I spoke louder, "Everyone, this is Dominic, my boyfriend...of the last three years.
Dom grinned, obviously satisfied. He stuck out a hand to my gaping father. "It's nice to meet all of you. You seem so outgoing and friendly…" he finished, the sarcasm kept to point so that only I could figure it out.
I was holding back giggles as Dom and I walked to the house to put our bags away.
~~~~~
"She can't be serious!" Melanie's mother was sporting an aggravated look as she watched Melanie and Dominic walk away, arms locked around waists.
"He looks like a gangster or a hoodlum in that- that outfit," hissed Michael's mother, Faina.
"Well, look at it this way," supplied the ever-optimistic Aunt Lana, "If she couldn't keep Mike, who was perfect, then how can she keep that wreck?"
The other ladies mumbled in agreement; Lana had a point.
~~~~~
*Dom's POV*
Later that afternoon, Mike and his friends (sons of family friends) decided that the best way to welcome me was to insult and berate him to within an inch of my sanity. This was going to be fun.
I turned away from my own thoughts and watched as Alicia, her sister, Gina, and some other girl gaped in awe at Micheal as he explained the tribulations of being in some boot-camp-like swim team that was allegedly the highest-ranking team in Bucks County when he was 17. I couldn't even begin to think of a worse fate…
Sighing to myself and muttering, "What a jackass" under my breath, I let my eyes roam over to where Mel was being interrogated by an aunt or two. I could honestly feel her anger rise from across the yard as she answered dumb questions ("No, the hairdresser wasn't angry with me." "I really did mean to have it this color!" and my favorite, "I do not need medication! I don't even think they make medication for people with red-streaked hair!"). I snickered to myself and rose to go save her when I was stopped by a whiny voice.
"Hey Dom, how'd you get your muscles so big?"
I think the girl's name was Anna, anyway, here was my chance to instill a little fear. I was tired of old Mike's bullshit. "You wouldn't want to do what I did to get this way." I left them, questioning my answer, and crept up behind Melanie, grabbing her waist.
"Hi Dommy! What's going on? How are they treating you?"
Like shit, was what I wanted to say, but instead, I told her, "Fine…I'm hungry. When are we eating?"
"Now, come on," she laughed, pulling me towards the long picnic table across from the pool.
As we sat down, I noticed briefly that Mike was nowhere to be seen. "Babe, where'd Mike go? I don't trust him," I whispered to Mel.
She didn't answer, since, right at that moment, Mike walked out of the house with Melanie's dad. They didn't look happy as they sat down. Mike smirked at me and looked away, asking for some dish to be passed his way- the perfect model of politeness.
Suddenly, everyone sat down, and food was being sent, this way and that. About a million dishes I'd never even heard of where passed my way, and I kindly accepted one or two that looked edible. I chuckled as I noticed Mel do the same.
"So what's this about you being incarcerated, Dominic?" It wasn't a question; it was more of a cold, hard fact. I stared at Melanie's father as the woman around the table gasped, and the men tried to figure out what incarcerated meant (they didn't speak the best English, as I'd found out earlier). Melanie sat with a horrified look on her face. So she hadn't told.
"How do you know I was incarcerated?" I felt the blood heating up inside of me, and clutched onto the arms of my chair to avoid doing anything stupid.
"It's called the internet. You can look up anything on anybody, smart one," chimed Mike. He had his arm around Alicia 'protecting' her from the criminal sitting across from her. I fought back laughter as I realized that if I even raised a finger to him, he'd run screaming.
"You beat a man so badly they threw you into jail for two years?" continued Vlad (Mel's dad). "What makes you think you're capable of being a good boyfriend?"
I wasn't a good boyfriend…I was the love of Melanie's life, she always told me that. "Yes, I did that in my past, but you don't know the whole story as to why I did it, and, anyway, what makes you think that'll make me a bad boy-" I stopped. They actually thought I would hurt-abuse- Melanie.
"You think Dominic's going to hurt me? How could you?" Mel was right there voicing my thoughts. "The last person in the world to hurt me would be Dom; he loves me!"
Nodding, I went on, "Right, I'd never touch Mel the wrong way; I'd die before doing that. If you want to know about abuse, talk to your boy Mike over there."
Clearly, I'd uttered a curse, because all of a sudden, voices shut up, defending Mike.
"He's so calm!"
"He wouldn't hurt a fly!"
"That's a lie, I mean, look who's talking!"
"STOP!!!" Melanie screamed out, causing everyone to drop the noise. I smiled, that's my girl… "He's telling the truth; Dominic never lies," she sighed and continued, "about two or so years ago, literally minutes after Dom and I got together, he came into the market where we work, and said that he wanted me back. I never wanted to see Mike again, so I told him that I had a boyfriend and that I didn't want him back. Long story short, before I knew what was going on, Mike had me pressed up against the counter, and he was twisting my wrists, on purpose." She fell back into her chair, hand over eyes.
"They were red all night, and the day after," I added, staring straight at Michael, who was shrinking back into his own seat.
Vlad shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and said, slowly, "That may be true, however, I will not have a criminal and an ex-con in my family. Get out of my house. Now."
I rose up to my full height, and yelled, "This is bull! I watched my father burn to death because Linder just had to win that damn race! What I did wasn't just mindless battery, and you all think I'm some kind of maniac who beats on people for no reason. I will leave, but only because I refuse to be discriminated by people ignorant to the situation!" I lowered my voice to a growl and went on, grabbing whatever I'd brought as I walked out, "Next time, try to realize what a person's reason for crime is, rather than setting up some kind of a witch trial!"
I flung the door of our rental car open and jammed the key into the ignition.
"Wait! Dominic!" Always. Melanie was always behind me, and that's why I loved her. She was the only person to really listen when I was serious, or upset, or anything. I waited patiently while she climbed in next to me.
"That went well," she stated simply, not trying to be condescending, just trying to lighten the dark mood that had come over us like a cloud.
"Thanks for coming with me."
"I'd never let you leave without me, you know that. I love you, Dominic."
A chill went up and down my spine as I smiled again and placed my hand over hers. "I love you too, baby."
The rest of the ride to the airport was silent as I tried my best to calm down. I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd ruined something. This was the girl I wanted to marry, and how could there even be a marriage when her father would rather break his own legs than walk her down the aisle and let me have her? Storms were brewing, and I knew that, despite everything, the last person standing wouldn't be me. Call it intuition, but something; something would go wrong, and soon. I reached out to grab her hand.
Right before I touched her, she shivered and spoke one last sentence; "Something's wrong. I just feel really weird, and I don't know why…"
So she felt it too.
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TBC
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