Chapter 11

Two weeks had passed since the girl at Race Wars, and Brian was at the end of his wits. The dreams of Mia had gone past pure lust and loneliness, and had progressed onto dreaming of what would happen when he met her again. It was only Edwin, Hector and Brian who were working on the Eclipse that day. The other guys had shown up in the morning, but Brian had told them they could go. He wasn't in the mood for swarms of people all around him. He was sat in the car, fittin' in his new sound system. The sweat had saturated his T-Shirt and turned it dark grey. He wiped his brow. "This heat's killing me man!" stating the obvious to the others. Edwin and Hector were in the back. Edwin was securing the passenger seat, while Hector was fine-tuning the Nos Deck. They were in the same state, except Edwin had taken off his shirt. His muscles rippled as he fought with the bolt, to tighten the seat to the floor, that extra bit. They muttered their "Mmm Hmm's" in agreement. "We gonna take a break?" Hector sounded from the back. "I'm havin' a cravin for a few Corona's. "Got you there brother", Edwin sat upright and slapped hands with him. "Sure. We're nearly there anyway!" Brian approved. As the guys stepped out they looked at the paintwork. "Of all the designs, you choose the same one you had before." Hector tutted disappointedly "Yeah, I know" Brian ran his hand along the side wing, feeling no bumps or grooves. "We've done a good job," he thought to himself. "Why man?" Edwin asked. "I had some great designs for ya an' all." Brian didn't look up, but paused before answering. "It just felt right. If I'd crashed it or blown it up, then it would've been changed. But it was Tran shooting it up. It's my way of saying 'Fuck you'. Know what I mean?" He looked at the guys for their opinions. "Yeah man. Although he's dead, it's like sayin', 'I won'" Hector agreed. Edwin just looked at it. The Kawasaki green shone in the sun. The graphics of lightning caught the sun and reflected it back. "Yeah well, I have to admit" he finally spoke. "It looks hot". He nodded at Brian to tell him that he also understood. They stood for a few more minutes, admiring their handiwork. It was unbelievable. This burnt down piece of shit, had been transformed into possibly the best and quickest car in L.A. To look at it, no one would have thought that it had been shot to hell, and then threw up into the air by exploding NOS. "Tell you what though." He turned to his friends. "It's gonna go like hell". They all laughed, knowing that he wasn't mistaken. It was probably twice as god and quick a car, as it had been when he first raced Toretto. "C'mon, lets go grab those beers!" The three guys turned and headed into the apartment.

Since the night of the race, it had been all quiet in the Toretto household. It was only really Letty and Mia who spoke to each other. Everyone else either got pissed and fell asleep, or spent most of their time at night clubs. It was late on Monday night when Letty came into Mia's bedroom. She found Mia sitting on the bed, staring at her cell phone, with tears rolling slowly down her face. "Mia, what's wrong?" Letty asked. "Nothing. I'm fine" She didn't look up or away, just kept staring at the phone. Letty walked around the bed and leaned over her shoulder. The name 'Brian' and a cell number was flashing on the blue screen. Mia quickly wiped away the tears and turned to face Letty. "You think I should call him?" she was hoping for advice. "Mia c'mon. Why you wanna do that? He doesn't know where we are and he ain't gonna!" she spoke softly, but intentionally firm. "He will if I tell him" Mia shot back. "Don't be so fucking stupid Mia. You know what Dom what do to him if he showed up here. You want that to happen to him?" Letty got up and snatched the phone out of Mia's hand. She put it on the dresser and turned back to Mia, only to see her head was buried in her hands. She looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. "Mia. I'm sorry" she apologised. "It's just. Well. Give Dom time to come around." Mia lifted her head and dried her eyes with the sleeve of her top. She paused to stop her voice from shaking. Her cheeks were flushed red with the tears and her eyes were badly bloodshot. "Letty you know just as well as I do that Dom's gonna keep racing Tyler till we have nothing left." Letty considered what Mia just said and put a hand on Mia's shoulder. "He hasn't got any cars to bet. And ours aint even worth the trouble. Tyler's Evo is just to damn fast." She tried to sound like she believed every word. "That won't matter to him. He won't settle for second place, even if it means bettin all we have. If we phone Brian, maybe he can get something on Tyler that we can use against him. You never know Let!" "It's just too dangerous. Dom's been talking to Chris, they'll take care of it. Don't worry!" She hugged Mia, then got and started to leave the room. "Letty, just listen to wha.." Mia had began to say something but Letty cut her off. "That's it Mia. End of discussion!" She hated being so harsh with her best friend, but she couldn't risk putting any of them, including Brian, in danger. She picked up the phone then left the room.