Chapter 9 - Would you still hug me?
Vince slammed the hood closed and told her they were ready to go do it. They climbed in the car. Vince asked Dom if he wanted to come out of courtesy, he really wanted to go just him and Nyssa. Dom declined so they headed out. Vince had her drive for awhile when they first got to the track and he taught her more about shifting and when to shift. He got her up to 100 miles an hour. He showed her what all the gauges should read like at that speed. They did it a couple times from dead stop to high speed. He didn't get her to accelerate too fast yet. They concentrated on getting the shifts perfect. Fast and smooth at the exact right time. Then after about an hour of those drills they stopped and changed seats.
Vince strapped on his harness and told her to do the same, and then he checked hers over for her. He pulled up to the start line.
"You ready?" He asked?
"As I'll ever be." Came the answer
Vince was in neutral. He revved it up to 4000 then let it drop to idle. She sounded good, ready to run. He slammed it into first and took off. He flew up to 120 then checked the gauges. He hit the NOS. Tires screamed and the force threw them back into the seats deep. The scenery was literally a blur at these speeds. She glanced over and they were now going 140. Vince hit the second shot after checking all the gauges. They hit 150 and then 160 before Vince started to slow down. That was burying the needle for the car. Nyssa had a grip on the door handle but she was smiling and breathless.
"Can we do it again? I wanna do it again!" She was almost jumping up and down in her seat.
"Not today. I think the car has had enough for the day. Let's take it back to your place, get my car and get some dinner?"
"Ok Vince. Sounds good."
They drove the car to her garage and got it settled in. They climbed into Vince's car and he took her to the restaurant. From where they were seated she could see out the window. They ordered and she asked him about how he came to be with Dominic. He told her that they had been friends for as long as Vince could really remember. Vince had loved Dom's dad like his own father because he had a crappy dad himself. He said that his mom and dad fought a lot and sometimes his dad would hit his mom. Then when he was 8 his dad had left them. His mom had raised him alone from that point. Mr. Torreto had taught him about cars right along side Dom. Vince had pretty well moved in with the Torreto's from the time he was 10, then when his mom died when he was 12 they took him in.
He had called them mom and dad right along with Dom and they took that to heart and treated him just like one of their kids, punishing him when he messed up and having him work in the store and at the track with Dom. He had been at the track the day Giovanni, or Van, as everyone called him, died and it had hit Vince almost as hard as Dom. She asked him what made him think of Mia as a potential girl friend and not as a little sister. Vince told her he couldn't really tell when his feelings for Mia changed. He just knew they did at one point.
They headed back to the house. Vince went to work with Dom at the garage for awhile. Nyssa was left to her own devices. She went around 9 and got ready for races that night. Nyssa was going with the team to hang out since she was far from ready to race. She took a shower and left her hair curly. She did her makeup her own way, black eyeliner and mascara and lip gloss. She headed to Vince's room and started to pick out an outfit. Since she had been dressed similar to Letty last race night she figured that something similar would be good tonight. She was standing in the middle of Vince's room in her underwear and a towel when a knock came at the door. She called out asking the person to identify themselves. It was Mia. She told her to come in.
Mia wanted to know what she was wearing. Nyssa admitted quite honestly that she had no idea and that was why she was not ready yet. She thought maybe her blue tank top and black leather low rise pants with a funky belt. She would leave some belly bare but not enough, she thought, to be skanky. Mia agreed that she would fit in with the team in that outfit. It was different enough to be original from the other girls but the same enough she would look like she was with the team. She was not sure where Vince was. She thought he would be back by now. Of course he didn't have to get ready; all he ever wore was jeans and tank tops. And half his tank tops were camouflage print and the other half were mesh. Well it was not that bad but close. The boy did not have a lot of different styles of clothes. Tank tops, a few tee shirts, work pants and jeans.
She and Mia were lying on Vince's bed listening to music and talking when Vince came home to get ready. Contrary to what Nyssa thought he was not going to go out tonight without changing his clothes after slaving in hell's kitchen the garage all afternoon on some stupid Civic belonging to a kid with more money then brains. He walked into his room and saw Nyssa and Mia on his bed talking. He took a second to take in the sight before him. It was almost too much. He walked all the way into the room and they looked up at him. Mia got up and excused herself. Nyssa stretched like a cat, arching her back off the bed, hands over her head. She sat up then and looked at Vince.
"I wondered if you were going tonight. I was beginning to think I would have to go with Mia and Letty." Nyssa was looking at Vince like he was chocolate and she had been denied that treat for months.
"Had to finish up a Civic for some stupid kid. He needs it by tonight and since he is paying well and in cash Dom wanted to oblige him. Now I gotta get ready then we leave."
"Ok. I guess I won't ask you how your day was then dear."
"Not if you value that pretty little ass you won't. You spent the rest of your day relaxing here while I slaved in a hot garage. Pointing out the differences in how our days went would not be the smartest thing you ever did."
"Really? So you don't want to know how I laid out in the backyard for an hour to work on my tan," She said, crawling to the end of the bed, "and then you really don't want to know about how Mia and I went shopping in an air conditioned mall. And you really really don't want to hear about the cool shower I took just before I got dressed. Or how nice it is to be cool, clean and comfortable." She laughed at the look on Vince's face.
"I warned you not to talk about it." Vince walked over to the side of the bed she was on. He had already pulled his shirt off just after Mia left the room since it had been covered in grease. He leaned down and grabbed her, and pulled her up against him. He proceeded to kiss her very deeply. She kissed him back, running her hands up his back. He broke off the kiss.
"And that was supposed to punish me how?" Nyssa didn't understand how he thought he was punishing her here.
"Cause I am dirty and scruffy and these are the clothes I worked in all day."
"Well you smell like, well, you. Like a big manly man. And you are always scruffy. It is part of your charm." She ruffled his hair more then it already was. She was making this plan backfire pretty well.
"I'll never get women. Any other time you would have been all over me about how bad I smelled. When I try to use it to my advantage I smell good."
"Pretty much. Is that what you're wearing tonight?" She asked as she took in his shirtless state and the jeans low on his narrow hips.
"No, I gotta take a quick shower then I'll get ready.
Vince went and took his shower and came back to his room to get ready. Nyssa had headphones on and was sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the stereo. Vince threw on jeans and the first two tank tops that were clean in his drawer, which happened to be a black and white camo print and a black mesh one and he was ready. He walked over to Nyssa and pulled the headphones off her head.
"Whatchya listening to?"
"21 Questions."
Vince pulled the headphone jack out and the song filled the room. Nyssa restarted the song. Vince liked rock and roll and trance when he was partying and that was about it, he was not big on hip hop but he listened to the song anyway. He asked who was singing and Nyssa told him the guys name was 50 cent. Nyssa loved the song. Vince thought about the lyrics. There were a lot of parallels between what the other guy was singing about and how Vince felt when he was with girls. "If I didn't smell so good would you still hug me?" Well he guessed he knew the answer to that now with Nyssa at least. He turned off the stereo.
"Let's go, Dom'll be pacing upstairs waiting on us as it is."
Vince was right and Dom was in fact pacing around waiting for them to be ready.
"Could you two not have waited till after races to get it on?" Dom assumed that was what kept them.
"We were waiting on Vince to clean himself up cause you made him work all evening, not on us to finish up what you implied." Nyssa was embarrassed to talk about this in front of everyone. "Let's go if you're in such a rush."
They headed out and climbed into their cars. Dom in his Mazda, Letty in her Nissan and Mia went with her, Jesse in his Jetta, Leon in his Skyline, and Vince and Nyssa in Vince's Maxima. They headed down to the alley and were the last ones to arrive. They pulled in and were enveloped by the crowd. Her cousin Manda saw her climb out of Vince's car. Then saw Vince walk around and put an arm around her when another racer tried to talk to her. Manda still did not know how Nyssa had ended up on the Team just like that.
If Manda had asked Dom she would know that Nyssa was far from on the Team. She was tolerated now; she had a long way to go before she would be on the team. And Dom had to see how well she learned to drive. She could be a team member even if she never raced but she would have to be useful somehow. Like she would have to work in the store with Mia or go to school and learn mechanics.
Nyssa wondered where Mr Serial Killer was. She didn't see Brian anywhere but she saw Mia looking. Of course she had heard from Vince who heard from Dom that Brian's car had been destroyed by the Trans and he had no car. He still owed Dom a car from last race night. Nyssa doubted that Brian would come around tonight. Even though Dom seemed to accept him. She didn't think you could completely disregard Vince's unease about Brian's story. She was standing beside Vince, who had his arm around her since that other guy talked to her.
"Nyssa, hey earth to Nyssa?" Vince could see that she was in another world.
"Huh, what? Sorry. I was thinking about something."
"Obviously. We were talking to you for like 5 minutes and you never once looked up." Vince wondered what she had been thinking about.
"Sorry bout that. I was just thinking about my car. We should bring it next time just to park it and show it off some."
"Good idea. Anyway, Dom wanted to know if you have any thoughts on Spilner." Vince had mentioned to Dom how Nyssa seemed to have an almost uncanny knack for picking up things about people and since Vince was still so sure Brian was not how he appeared Dom wanted to know what she thought of him. Especially since she was a slightly impartial third part. She answered them after making sure Mia was off talking to the girls around Hector's team.
"Just that he is too pretty to be real almost. He seems kind of Valley to me for someone who is supposed to be from Arizona. But he is also hiding something. I don't know what so don't ask but he is. Sometimes I just know stuff and I know that Brian is hiding something. Same as I know Dom doesn't trust me totally yet, Letty isn't sure I am not after Dom, Mia is totally honest and she doesn't hide anything. Leon and Jesse ran from something really scary before they ended up here with you all." She always said she was just a bit more in tune with feelings people projected then the average person.
"That's freaky. You got that all figured out how?" Dom wanted to know. Normally when he turned on the charm people didn't know he didn't trust them at all.
"Don't know. It's just something I have always been able to do."
Vince thought that was freaky as well. He wondered if she had picked anything up from him. He decided to ask her. "You figure out anything about me?"
"Nope." The look she gave him said different and he pushed her for more info. He knew she had thought of something.
"Come on. I can tell you have something."
"Vince, trust me, it's nothing." She knew he was still more into Mia then he was letting on to her.
Dom called the start of races. He got Hector to hold the money and it ended up that Dom, Hector's cousin Jose, and this other guy named Steve were going to race. Dom raced and won the 6 grand. There were more races and they had to rush off to different streets every time to confuse the cops. Then the met up back at the alley. They hung out there for awhile then headed home.
Vince slammed the hood closed and told her they were ready to go do it. They climbed in the car. Vince asked Dom if he wanted to come out of courtesy, he really wanted to go just him and Nyssa. Dom declined so they headed out. Vince had her drive for awhile when they first got to the track and he taught her more about shifting and when to shift. He got her up to 100 miles an hour. He showed her what all the gauges should read like at that speed. They did it a couple times from dead stop to high speed. He didn't get her to accelerate too fast yet. They concentrated on getting the shifts perfect. Fast and smooth at the exact right time. Then after about an hour of those drills they stopped and changed seats.
Vince strapped on his harness and told her to do the same, and then he checked hers over for her. He pulled up to the start line.
"You ready?" He asked?
"As I'll ever be." Came the answer
Vince was in neutral. He revved it up to 4000 then let it drop to idle. She sounded good, ready to run. He slammed it into first and took off. He flew up to 120 then checked the gauges. He hit the NOS. Tires screamed and the force threw them back into the seats deep. The scenery was literally a blur at these speeds. She glanced over and they were now going 140. Vince hit the second shot after checking all the gauges. They hit 150 and then 160 before Vince started to slow down. That was burying the needle for the car. Nyssa had a grip on the door handle but she was smiling and breathless.
"Can we do it again? I wanna do it again!" She was almost jumping up and down in her seat.
"Not today. I think the car has had enough for the day. Let's take it back to your place, get my car and get some dinner?"
"Ok Vince. Sounds good."
They drove the car to her garage and got it settled in. They climbed into Vince's car and he took her to the restaurant. From where they were seated she could see out the window. They ordered and she asked him about how he came to be with Dominic. He told her that they had been friends for as long as Vince could really remember. Vince had loved Dom's dad like his own father because he had a crappy dad himself. He said that his mom and dad fought a lot and sometimes his dad would hit his mom. Then when he was 8 his dad had left them. His mom had raised him alone from that point. Mr. Torreto had taught him about cars right along side Dom. Vince had pretty well moved in with the Torreto's from the time he was 10, then when his mom died when he was 12 they took him in.
He had called them mom and dad right along with Dom and they took that to heart and treated him just like one of their kids, punishing him when he messed up and having him work in the store and at the track with Dom. He had been at the track the day Giovanni, or Van, as everyone called him, died and it had hit Vince almost as hard as Dom. She asked him what made him think of Mia as a potential girl friend and not as a little sister. Vince told her he couldn't really tell when his feelings for Mia changed. He just knew they did at one point.
They headed back to the house. Vince went to work with Dom at the garage for awhile. Nyssa was left to her own devices. She went around 9 and got ready for races that night. Nyssa was going with the team to hang out since she was far from ready to race. She took a shower and left her hair curly. She did her makeup her own way, black eyeliner and mascara and lip gloss. She headed to Vince's room and started to pick out an outfit. Since she had been dressed similar to Letty last race night she figured that something similar would be good tonight. She was standing in the middle of Vince's room in her underwear and a towel when a knock came at the door. She called out asking the person to identify themselves. It was Mia. She told her to come in.
Mia wanted to know what she was wearing. Nyssa admitted quite honestly that she had no idea and that was why she was not ready yet. She thought maybe her blue tank top and black leather low rise pants with a funky belt. She would leave some belly bare but not enough, she thought, to be skanky. Mia agreed that she would fit in with the team in that outfit. It was different enough to be original from the other girls but the same enough she would look like she was with the team. She was not sure where Vince was. She thought he would be back by now. Of course he didn't have to get ready; all he ever wore was jeans and tank tops. And half his tank tops were camouflage print and the other half were mesh. Well it was not that bad but close. The boy did not have a lot of different styles of clothes. Tank tops, a few tee shirts, work pants and jeans.
She and Mia were lying on Vince's bed listening to music and talking when Vince came home to get ready. Contrary to what Nyssa thought he was not going to go out tonight without changing his clothes after slaving in hell's kitchen the garage all afternoon on some stupid Civic belonging to a kid with more money then brains. He walked into his room and saw Nyssa and Mia on his bed talking. He took a second to take in the sight before him. It was almost too much. He walked all the way into the room and they looked up at him. Mia got up and excused herself. Nyssa stretched like a cat, arching her back off the bed, hands over her head. She sat up then and looked at Vince.
"I wondered if you were going tonight. I was beginning to think I would have to go with Mia and Letty." Nyssa was looking at Vince like he was chocolate and she had been denied that treat for months.
"Had to finish up a Civic for some stupid kid. He needs it by tonight and since he is paying well and in cash Dom wanted to oblige him. Now I gotta get ready then we leave."
"Ok. I guess I won't ask you how your day was then dear."
"Not if you value that pretty little ass you won't. You spent the rest of your day relaxing here while I slaved in a hot garage. Pointing out the differences in how our days went would not be the smartest thing you ever did."
"Really? So you don't want to know how I laid out in the backyard for an hour to work on my tan," She said, crawling to the end of the bed, "and then you really don't want to know about how Mia and I went shopping in an air conditioned mall. And you really really don't want to hear about the cool shower I took just before I got dressed. Or how nice it is to be cool, clean and comfortable." She laughed at the look on Vince's face.
"I warned you not to talk about it." Vince walked over to the side of the bed she was on. He had already pulled his shirt off just after Mia left the room since it had been covered in grease. He leaned down and grabbed her, and pulled her up against him. He proceeded to kiss her very deeply. She kissed him back, running her hands up his back. He broke off the kiss.
"And that was supposed to punish me how?" Nyssa didn't understand how he thought he was punishing her here.
"Cause I am dirty and scruffy and these are the clothes I worked in all day."
"Well you smell like, well, you. Like a big manly man. And you are always scruffy. It is part of your charm." She ruffled his hair more then it already was. She was making this plan backfire pretty well.
"I'll never get women. Any other time you would have been all over me about how bad I smelled. When I try to use it to my advantage I smell good."
"Pretty much. Is that what you're wearing tonight?" She asked as she took in his shirtless state and the jeans low on his narrow hips.
"No, I gotta take a quick shower then I'll get ready.
Vince went and took his shower and came back to his room to get ready. Nyssa had headphones on and was sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the stereo. Vince threw on jeans and the first two tank tops that were clean in his drawer, which happened to be a black and white camo print and a black mesh one and he was ready. He walked over to Nyssa and pulled the headphones off her head.
"Whatchya listening to?"
"21 Questions."
Vince pulled the headphone jack out and the song filled the room. Nyssa restarted the song. Vince liked rock and roll and trance when he was partying and that was about it, he was not big on hip hop but he listened to the song anyway. He asked who was singing and Nyssa told him the guys name was 50 cent. Nyssa loved the song. Vince thought about the lyrics. There were a lot of parallels between what the other guy was singing about and how Vince felt when he was with girls. "If I didn't smell so good would you still hug me?" Well he guessed he knew the answer to that now with Nyssa at least. He turned off the stereo.
"Let's go, Dom'll be pacing upstairs waiting on us as it is."
Vince was right and Dom was in fact pacing around waiting for them to be ready.
"Could you two not have waited till after races to get it on?" Dom assumed that was what kept them.
"We were waiting on Vince to clean himself up cause you made him work all evening, not on us to finish up what you implied." Nyssa was embarrassed to talk about this in front of everyone. "Let's go if you're in such a rush."
They headed out and climbed into their cars. Dom in his Mazda, Letty in her Nissan and Mia went with her, Jesse in his Jetta, Leon in his Skyline, and Vince and Nyssa in Vince's Maxima. They headed down to the alley and were the last ones to arrive. They pulled in and were enveloped by the crowd. Her cousin Manda saw her climb out of Vince's car. Then saw Vince walk around and put an arm around her when another racer tried to talk to her. Manda still did not know how Nyssa had ended up on the Team just like that.
If Manda had asked Dom she would know that Nyssa was far from on the Team. She was tolerated now; she had a long way to go before she would be on the team. And Dom had to see how well she learned to drive. She could be a team member even if she never raced but she would have to be useful somehow. Like she would have to work in the store with Mia or go to school and learn mechanics.
Nyssa wondered where Mr Serial Killer was. She didn't see Brian anywhere but she saw Mia looking. Of course she had heard from Vince who heard from Dom that Brian's car had been destroyed by the Trans and he had no car. He still owed Dom a car from last race night. Nyssa doubted that Brian would come around tonight. Even though Dom seemed to accept him. She didn't think you could completely disregard Vince's unease about Brian's story. She was standing beside Vince, who had his arm around her since that other guy talked to her.
"Nyssa, hey earth to Nyssa?" Vince could see that she was in another world.
"Huh, what? Sorry. I was thinking about something."
"Obviously. We were talking to you for like 5 minutes and you never once looked up." Vince wondered what she had been thinking about.
"Sorry bout that. I was just thinking about my car. We should bring it next time just to park it and show it off some."
"Good idea. Anyway, Dom wanted to know if you have any thoughts on Spilner." Vince had mentioned to Dom how Nyssa seemed to have an almost uncanny knack for picking up things about people and since Vince was still so sure Brian was not how he appeared Dom wanted to know what she thought of him. Especially since she was a slightly impartial third part. She answered them after making sure Mia was off talking to the girls around Hector's team.
"Just that he is too pretty to be real almost. He seems kind of Valley to me for someone who is supposed to be from Arizona. But he is also hiding something. I don't know what so don't ask but he is. Sometimes I just know stuff and I know that Brian is hiding something. Same as I know Dom doesn't trust me totally yet, Letty isn't sure I am not after Dom, Mia is totally honest and she doesn't hide anything. Leon and Jesse ran from something really scary before they ended up here with you all." She always said she was just a bit more in tune with feelings people projected then the average person.
"That's freaky. You got that all figured out how?" Dom wanted to know. Normally when he turned on the charm people didn't know he didn't trust them at all.
"Don't know. It's just something I have always been able to do."
Vince thought that was freaky as well. He wondered if she had picked anything up from him. He decided to ask her. "You figure out anything about me?"
"Nope." The look she gave him said different and he pushed her for more info. He knew she had thought of something.
"Come on. I can tell you have something."
"Vince, trust me, it's nothing." She knew he was still more into Mia then he was letting on to her.
Dom called the start of races. He got Hector to hold the money and it ended up that Dom, Hector's cousin Jose, and this other guy named Steve were going to race. Dom raced and won the 6 grand. There were more races and they had to rush off to different streets every time to confuse the cops. Then the met up back at the alley. They hung out there for awhile then headed home.