Chapter 27 - Running Like Hell
She looked down to where the little chain Vince had gotten her after he won that race with her car was hanging. She took it off and left it on his pillow. She pulled on a sweater cause she felt cold all of a sudden and turned to leave the room and saw Jesse standing in the door looking both shocked and scared.
"You're leaving?" He asked softly. He liked Nyssa. She didn't treat him like he was slow. Her and Leon treated him like a normal person.
"For awhile Jess." She smiled a watery smile at him.
"Why?" Jesse thought she should be happy after the night she had.
"Vince and I had a fight and I gotta get out of here while we both thing about it." She couldn't stop the tears but they just quietly flowed down her cheeks.
"Well just tell Dom and he'll let you stay upstairs then you don't have to leave."
"It's not that simple Jess. I wish it was. I'll be back. I just need some space. Don't tell anyone I left for a few hours Jess please."
"I don't know Nyssa. Dom's gonna be pissed and I don't wanna think about Vince when he finds out you took off on your own."
"I doubt he'll care too much, at least for now. It's for the best Jess. Here, this is my cell number. No one else has it ok, so it's just for you. If you need to talk to me or anything just call me." She handed him the small piece of paper she'd written the number on.
"I'll give you a 20 minute head start before I tell Dom an that's all I can promise."
"Ok Jess, you're a good friend." She hugged him quickly and headed upstairs. The party was in full swing. Dom and Letty had pulled one of their mid party disappearing acts and it would be awhile before they reappeared. Mia and Brian were engrossed in each other and Leon was talking to some blond skank in his lap. No one else looked up to see her leave the house. Just Jesse watched her small, sad form as it retreated out the front door and out of their lives. He followed her out to her car. He saw she was taking the Skyline. Not a good idea in the state she was in.
"You sure about this Nyssa?" He couldn't just let her leave, he had to try to stop her one more time.
"I'm sure Jess. Call me in a day or two and fill me in ok?" She couldn't stay. She had to get away and seeing the team was just going to be a constant reminder of what she'd thought she'd had, and what had been taken away. Of course that was Vince's heart and from what had just happened she'd guess she couldn't lose what she'd never really had. "Ok but I wish you would just stay. I'm sure everything will work out when Vince sobers up. You've never seen him trashed before and he can get kinda stupid"
"I wish I could stay Jess, but I need outa here for awhile."
With that she fired up the car and squealed out of the drive and down the street. Dom heard the car leave and knew it was Nyssa, but he was, well, busy, with Letty and he figured that she and Vince went for one of their drives. It did momentarily occur to him that they always took Vince's car for that but maybe Vince being the Coyote that he was had had too much to drink. He got back to the task at hand, he had more important things to worry about then what car his friends took off in.
Leon heard the squeal of the Skyline off down the road and looked around. He was worried someone stole his. His face cleared as he realized he was blocked in and whoever would have had to steal like 4 other cars first. But that meant it was Nyssa's car. She should be in here partying up after her big win. And where was Vince for that matter. They should be together somewhere. They were always sitting on some couch watching the people or pretending no one could see them making out in corners. Ah, the first parts of relationships were always fun, till that crazy, I have to have you now feeling went away. That was why Leon preferred to just have to have girls right now for one night.
Leon saw Jesse standing off by himself looking lost. That was strange. They normally couldn't keep him away from the racer chasers. Leon said bye to blondie for the time being and went up to Jesse to see what was wrong. Jesse filled him in.
"Ah shit." Leon ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "You tell Dom or V. yet?"
"I promised to give her a 20 minute head start."
"She'll be long gone by then Jess. What were you thinking?"
"She was cryin an shit and can't deal with that stuff."
"Aw fuck. We gotta tell Dom."
"Dom and Lett are still upstairs."
"This just gets better and better. I had too much to drink to drive. What about you?"
"Me too."
20 minutes to the second after Jesse let Nyssa go Dom and Letty came back downstairs. Dom took one look at Jesse and Leon and knew something bad was up. He dragged them downstairs away from the crowd and made them spill it. They told him how Nyssa had taken off, how they couldn't drive after her because none of them was fit to drive, how Vince was busy drinking himself into a stupor over the whole thing in the backyard none the less.
"Aw great." Dom said, throwing his arms up and his head back. Why tonight of all nights for them to fight. He guessed he was elected to go find her since he hadn't had a drink since right after they got home.
He found Mia, who didn't drink, and Brian, who hadn't, and told them the situation. Mia was clearly pissed at Vince and scared for Nyssa. Brian looked guilty for his part in the whole thing. Dom quickly reassured him he had done the right thing bringing the girl home safe and now they had to do the same thing.
Dom went to see Vince to see if he could get some idea what had gone down, other then the bit of info he had from Jesse. He found him were Leon had said he was, drunk in the backyard, passed out on the table. Dom looked at Vince with literal disgust for the first time ever. He couldn't believe what his friend had done. Dom had fucked up his fair share but he had never driven Letty to a wild ride in the night in a pimped out race car. All alone, and no doubt upset added to the mix. Dom knew that there would be no talking to Vince yet, he was piss loaded, and likely even Dom couldn't wake him now anyway, it was like he was passed out.
All the sober team members but Mia went looking for Nyssa. They left Mia at home to watch the party and to start to shoe people out of the place. They looked from 1, when she went missing, till 4am and never found a sign of her other then the rubber she lay down on the road in front of the house.
Nyssa drove till 3am. Then she found a clean looking motel and pulled in. She got a room. Thank god she had the half of the money from the race. It would keep her till she could decide what to do. Either move far away and start over or just move in with Manda and go back to her plain boring life, never doing anything fun, selling the Skyline and being the good girl while she waited for her Daddy to get out of jail and for her broken heart to heal, going to a good college to get a 'real job' cause it wouldn't do for her to learn cars, even though that was what she wanted to do. How depressing.
Wait a second, she thought, I can go home to daddy's house tomorrow and none of the team know where that is. She could hide and lick her wounds there. That was settled. It was home. Well, no it wasn't. Home was with the team now, and she knew it. But her old house would be familiar.
She took a scalding shower to try to wash the dirty feeling away, crying the whole time, then a freezing cold shower to try to kill the feelings in her damaged heart. She just wrapped a towel around her and headed into the main room still soaking wet.
She curled up in a ball on the strange bed and stared at the red, glowing numbers of the cheap digital alarm clock on the dresser beside the bed. It was counting down the hours and minutes that she lay there unable to sleep. She realized it was the same clock as Vince had in his room and she stood up and tore it from the wall plug and threw it across the room and then broke down in tears. She slid down the wall and sat on the floor, curled up with her legs to her chest and her arms wrapped around them and looked at the clock, lying forlornly on the floor, it's red numbers snuffed out by her violent act against it.
It was 4am. She figured that they would be glad she was gone. Maybe Mia and Letty would miss her some for awhile then life would go back to normal and they would all forget about her. She figured at one time Vince must at least care about her but she guessed she was wrong. Dom and the guys would be just as happy she was gone. One less person tying up the bathroom, one fewer girl to worry about at races every night. She'd just been starting to feel like the whole team had accepted her too. She'd even miss Leon and Brian. Letty was the first girl to ever see her for what she was and treat her like it was ok to be a girl into cars and a girl into being feminine.
She had no idea that Dom and his team had searched for her for three hours before giving up. She finally fell into an exhausted but restless sleep at 5am after she dragged herself along the floor on her hands and knees. She was so cold, after all the A/C was on in the room and she came out of a cold shower soaking wet into the room and now she was just in a wet towel on the floor. She got into the bed and again curled up on her side under the covers and cried herself into an exhausted slumber.
At 5am Vince woke up on the picnic table in the backyard. He had one hell of a hangover and a vague memory of fighting with Nyssa over her lies. The fact that she lied to him still hurt. But he knew he over reacted. He would have to tell her he was sorry yet again for yelling at her and for probably ruining her big night. Aw hell. He made it into a bigger deal then it was yet again. He couldn't count the number of times his hot temper had gotten him in shit because he just didn't think. He picked himself stiffly up off the table and headed into the house, holding his head with one hand. He was too god damn old to sleep on hard flat things. Oh man every muscle he had hurt, including his head. Everyone was still in bed. He went downstairs and figured he would crawl into bed with Nys for awhile then when she woke up she could yell at him for how he acted and everything would be fine.
He peaked into Jesse's room and Jesse was asleep with a pillow in his arms. He forgot how young Jesse was mentally even if he was not that much younger then the team in age. Jesse looked so sad. Oh well, guess he hadn't managed to pick up last night. Vince chuckled then winced cause his head hurt. He went to the bathroom and brushed the foul taste out his mouth, then went to his room.
He knew something was wrong. He hadn't been used to a made bed before Nyssa but it was something she did every day. And he knew she was not in the bed because it was still made. He walked up to the bed and the little gold chain he had bought her with the car that looked so much like hers on it was on his pillow. He walked over to the dresser that her stuff had been in and it was empty.
"God Damn It". He shouted and then winced at what that did to his head. He guessed he had fucked last night up even worse then he had thought. He went looking for any team member that was up. He found Mia in the kitchen. She had obviously just woken up. It was strange for anyone to be up at 6am on a Sunday after a party. Mia was an early riser but this was beyond early.
"Whatcha doing up this early Girl?" he asked.
"Worrying about Nyssa, you big idiot. What did you say to her?"
"I don't remember. I was really drunk. I remember us fighting but not exactly what was said."
"Well Nyssa ran away. No one knows where she went. Dom and Brian and Letty searched till 4 am and never found her. She didn't go to her cousin's or her step dads. No one knows where in the hell she is. You messed up big Vincent Joseph Casaletto, and you made her run away. She only told Jesse she left because he caught her packing her bags." Mia was staring daggers at him and she knew how much he hated being called anything longer then Vince.
"And he still let her go. WTF?"
"Wasn't his place to make her stay. But you need to find her and make up with her. You owe her a big apology. You better bring her home Vince. Even if it is just to live in our guest room. If she has to go live with her cousin that aunt of hers will slowly kill all the personality she's gained since she moved in with us. I hope you know you have it coming from Dom whenever he wakes up."
"Oh shit I messed up big didn't I?" Mia nodded and Vince hung his head. It was all coming back to him now that he had talked to someone about it and he had acted like a total ass. He was going to have to find her. He ran his hand through his hair. His hair was getting scruffy even for him. That thought made him remember that it was Nyssa who had forbid him to get a haircut just yet. She liked it scruffy. She liked to be able to grab it while he. Well he wasn't going there right now. Well someone must know where she went.
"What did she tell Jesse? She must have told him something?"
"I guess not, Jesse didn't know where to start to look for her. I just hope she didn't crash that crazy car of hers into something driving in the state she was in." Mia stood up. "I can't be around you right now Vince, I just can't." She stood up and headed to her room, where Brian was still asleep. Dom had looked the other way about his baby sister sharing her room when the guy had spent three hours driving around looking for their team member.
Brian woke up when Mia got back into bed. "She come back?" "Nope, hasn't called or come back. I'm so worried about her Bri."
"I know. We sure Jesse doesn't know more then he let on?"
"No, I'm not sure about that at all. He was acting kind of guilty yesterday but I thought that might be because he let her leave you know? She liked Jesse, they're about the same mental age."
"We'll find her Mia, or she'll calm down and come back. Do we even know what they fought over?"
"Not a clue, I was talking to Vince just now but I had to leave the room I was so mad. Ever since we were kids he couldn't think before he acted. I guess he never will but this was bad."
Brian just shook his head and pulled the quietly crying Mia against him and smoothed her hair away from her face. "It'll be ok Mia. I'll find her for you and Letty, I swear, just please don't cry anymore. I'm sure she's fine." Brian was sure she wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere because he had called in her plates and had the cops check. No skylines had been in wrecks last night and she hadn't been picked up. He figured after the deception he was heaping up on the team finding Nyssa was the least he could do. Mia and Letty had been friends since they were little, even with all their differences but they had taken to Nyssa. They were like the DT three musketeerettes. He knew Mia would be heart broken if her friend never came back.
But if Nyssa couldn't forgive Vince then that might happen no matter what Brian found out. But at least he knew the girl was fine physically, where ever she was. Neither of the people in the bed saw Vince in the doorway. He had come to apologize to Mia again. He hadn't expected Spilner to be there. Dom would not normally have allowed it. He was so two faced about stuff like that. Vince didn't want Brian staying in their house either. But Vince had heard how concerned that Brain was that Mia was upset and in that moment had to face the fact that Mia was back in the role in his life she had played when she was 14, like his sister again. He still hated Brain, but he was glad Mia had someone who cared. Because while if Brian hurt Mia Vince would be right there with Dom to break his neck, he wasn't jealous of the other man over Mia for the first time ever. But he was more scared then he had ever been that he had lost his woman from his life over his own stupidity. He went to his room and crawled into his bed on 'her' side and buried his face in her pillow. He fell asleep like that.
The whole team less Vince, who was still asleep in his room hugging Nyssa's pillow, gathered in the kitchen around 11am and made search plans. They all made a pact to find Nyssa that day so that they wouldn't have to worry about her. If she had run to her uncle or her step dad even they would have known she was ok. It was the fact that they had no idea were she was that worried them all. Of course everyone but Brian thought there was every possibility she wrecked her car and was dead in some morgue somewhere. Brian thought about how to tell them she wasn't dead without telling them how he knew and told them he had called around all the local hospitals and tow truck company's and there had been no car accident victims matching Nyssa's description and no cars like hers towed anywhere so it looked like she made it where ever she went. They all split up and started to comb the city for her.
But the city of Angels was huge and the girl had a 10 hour head start if she hadn't stopped somewhere and Dom didn't know how they were going to find her if she didn't want to be found. He called Jesse on the two way.
"You sure she didn't give you any idea where she was going to go?"
"No Dom, she just left. She told me it wasn't for ever an she'd come back sometime."
"Ok Jess, keep looking. I guess one of us'll have to go see her dad and tell him, see if she went to see him since. Then at least we'd know she was safe and we could leave a message with him in case she does go see him, he could tell her we miss her and Vince is a sorry idiot."
"That's a plan Dom." Jesse didn't want to betray Nyssa and tell them he had her cell phone. If she ran away till say 3 then she had only been asleep for like 6 hours so he didn't want to call her or let anyone else call her yet. He would call her around 3 in the afternoon and make sure she was ok.
Nyssa woke up in the motel room around 1pm and got up. She threw on some clothes and looked at her face. She looked all puffy. She looked like shit, like death warmed over. She put on dark sunglasses and checked out. She got in her car and headed back toward downtown LA. Her house was on the other side of town. She cranked the tunes and rolled down the windows. She played her happy CD to try to cheer herself up but it wasn't working very well. She wondered if the team was worried. The only one who deserved to be was Vince. She thought maybe she should call Lett on her cell and tell her she was fine so that at least Letty and Mia didn't have to worry about her. But they would just try to guilt her back and she wasn't ready to go back. She was still hurt and righteously angry at Vince.
The team all met back at the house at 2 after having no luck. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack without some idea where she was. Dom figured he would have to go talk to Mark. He felt responsible for the girl, just like he felt responsible for Jesse. Even though Jesse's father had asked Dom to take care of Jesse and Nyssa's dad had not, he had opened his home to her and she was like family now. Plus her dad might know something. Dom went to get dressed. He was going back to the place he hated most, even if it was as a visitor. He shuddered and got dressed in his only semiformal outfit. Letty came up behind him. "I'll go instead Dom. I know you hate that place."
"This is somethin' I have to do Lett. We took her in and as the leader that makes me responsible."
"When you gonna stop feeling responsible for cleaning up behind Vince and Mia and Me n Leon? We're all adults now Dom. Might be time for you to feel a little less responsible for all of us."
"We're still a team, a family, and I'll always be the one who feels responsible Lett. I can't see that changing. I know that I am not really responsible for the guys but I guess raising Mia just put me in the place of feeling like the adult you know?"
"I know and I can't see it changing neither but it was worth a shot. You worry too much." He kissed her and smiled. "I'll be fine, and I won't be long." He walked out of the room and out to his car and took off.
Brian snuck off with his cell into the back yard and called in her plates to have her picked up for anything if a cop saw her. He told them to tell her she had one tail light brighter then the other if they had to. He went back into the house. Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table ignoring Vince. Vince was looking suitably upset with himself. Mia hoped he was thinking up the best apology ever.
Jesse snuck down to his room and closed the door. He looked around then called Nyssa's cell number with his cell so no one could pick up on another line and hear the call. She answered on the third ring.
"Hello." She almost hadn't answered in case Jesse had given her number to one of the other guys.
"Hey, you ok?" Jesse asked softly, he didn't want anyone to hear him.
"Yea, I'm aight. I'm on the move right now. How are things there?"
"Not good. The team spent the whole morning looking for you and Dom is going to go tell your dad you ran off on us."
"Dom is going to do that for me?" Nyssa figured Dom would be the least upset of the whole team.
"Yea, he feels terrible that you ran away and god knows what happened. Dom's like that, since you are young and a girl it's worse for him over you. He feels like he is responsible for all of us. I can't even tell them I called you or they'll wanna know why I didn't give 'em your number long ago."
"I know Jess. I'm sorry I put you in this position. Hey, tell them I'm fine, that I called you and I hung up before you could get anyone else or somethin'. I'm going to stay with some family and I'll be fine. I still need some time to think ok?"
"Ok, take carea you."
"You too Jess. I'll call you some time later in the week ok?"
"Sure, but I hoped you be home before then."
"Maybe I will be. It depends ok? Bye"
"Bye." She ended the call. Now he had to go tell the team he had heard from her. He went upstairs and the team less Dom was all in the kitchen. He sat down and looked around at all the worried faces. He had been going to keep the phone call from them but he couldn't.
"Nyssa called me on my cell while I was downstairs." Jesse winced in preparation for the chorus of questions that was bound to come his way. He was right.
"Where is she?"
"When's she coming back?"
"Is she ok?"
All the questions got asked at the same time. He told them that she was fine, she wouldn't tell him where she was exactly, or when she was coming back, just that she had a place to stay and she still had some thinking to do. Vince looked very ashamed of himself. But he still asked
"Why didn't you come get us and tell us she was on the phone? I need to talk to her."
"She didn't give me time to get anyone. She gonna call again in a day or two."
Vince hung his head. The girls looked relieved to know she was ok even if she was still missing. Mia took some pity on him. "She'll come back Vince. Give her time to calm down. Use the time to make one hell of an apology."
"I don't wanna wait and I don't need the time. I wanna talk to her now. I know what I need to say."
"She's only been gone one day V, better give her a day to calm down more I think." Leon added.
"Fine, see you guys later." Vince slammed out the back door and over to his car. He had to pass her mustang to get to his car. That pissed him off more. He got in and started it up. He went down to 'their' beach and faced a few hard truths. He had an issue with commitment. He had been looking for a reason to not admit how much he cared for Nyssa and he grasped that stupid story of conjecture and no fact as a reason to push her away. But in his childish plan she had only been angry for a day or two then they went back to normal, only Vince didn't have to admit how much he cared for her.
Getting her back meant telling her that. It was only fair. He didn't want to admit it. Up till three months ago he still figured he would find a way to marry Mia before he was 30. Now he had to face the fact that Mia had never liked him that way and now he didn't want Mia that way either. That was 5 years of familiarity down the drain. But Mia was happy with the punk. And he had been happy with Nyssa. Would be happy with her again just as soon as he found her. He wished he had written her cell number down. He decided to go home and see if Dominic was back yet from talking to Nyssa's dad.
He drove back to the house and the red Mazda was home. He went in and found Dom. Dom told him that her father hadn't heard from her, didn't know where she was, but if Vince really cared about her he might give her a day or two to calm down, then take a drive out to their family house. Dom gave Vince the directions that Mark had given him. "But Mark also said you hurt her again and it'll be the last time you hurt anyone's daughter. Oh and he didn't know just how 'close' you two had gotten, or how, um, cramped, the living quarters are here if you get my meaning, and I didn't tell him. But now you know where she is. You need to give her time to cool off before you go after her though."
"Dom, brotha, I owe you big for this. I mean it."
"Vince we been through a lot of stupid stuff together. I got your back, just like you got mine, but that doesn't mean you need to make a habit outta stuff like this. Got it?"
"Yea, but this old dawg might be too old to learn how to think before he acts now. I'm too damn old."
"Just don't make me buy a shock collar for you Coyote, cause you won't like where it goes, it won't be around your neck." They both laughed. Vince had a feeling everything would be fine, it might take time but it would work out. He would give her a few days to think, like Dom said, then drive out there and get her back.
She looked down to where the little chain Vince had gotten her after he won that race with her car was hanging. She took it off and left it on his pillow. She pulled on a sweater cause she felt cold all of a sudden and turned to leave the room and saw Jesse standing in the door looking both shocked and scared.
"You're leaving?" He asked softly. He liked Nyssa. She didn't treat him like he was slow. Her and Leon treated him like a normal person.
"For awhile Jess." She smiled a watery smile at him.
"Why?" Jesse thought she should be happy after the night she had.
"Vince and I had a fight and I gotta get out of here while we both thing about it." She couldn't stop the tears but they just quietly flowed down her cheeks.
"Well just tell Dom and he'll let you stay upstairs then you don't have to leave."
"It's not that simple Jess. I wish it was. I'll be back. I just need some space. Don't tell anyone I left for a few hours Jess please."
"I don't know Nyssa. Dom's gonna be pissed and I don't wanna think about Vince when he finds out you took off on your own."
"I doubt he'll care too much, at least for now. It's for the best Jess. Here, this is my cell number. No one else has it ok, so it's just for you. If you need to talk to me or anything just call me." She handed him the small piece of paper she'd written the number on.
"I'll give you a 20 minute head start before I tell Dom an that's all I can promise."
"Ok Jess, you're a good friend." She hugged him quickly and headed upstairs. The party was in full swing. Dom and Letty had pulled one of their mid party disappearing acts and it would be awhile before they reappeared. Mia and Brian were engrossed in each other and Leon was talking to some blond skank in his lap. No one else looked up to see her leave the house. Just Jesse watched her small, sad form as it retreated out the front door and out of their lives. He followed her out to her car. He saw she was taking the Skyline. Not a good idea in the state she was in.
"You sure about this Nyssa?" He couldn't just let her leave, he had to try to stop her one more time.
"I'm sure Jess. Call me in a day or two and fill me in ok?" She couldn't stay. She had to get away and seeing the team was just going to be a constant reminder of what she'd thought she'd had, and what had been taken away. Of course that was Vince's heart and from what had just happened she'd guess she couldn't lose what she'd never really had. "Ok but I wish you would just stay. I'm sure everything will work out when Vince sobers up. You've never seen him trashed before and he can get kinda stupid"
"I wish I could stay Jess, but I need outa here for awhile."
With that she fired up the car and squealed out of the drive and down the street. Dom heard the car leave and knew it was Nyssa, but he was, well, busy, with Letty and he figured that she and Vince went for one of their drives. It did momentarily occur to him that they always took Vince's car for that but maybe Vince being the Coyote that he was had had too much to drink. He got back to the task at hand, he had more important things to worry about then what car his friends took off in.
Leon heard the squeal of the Skyline off down the road and looked around. He was worried someone stole his. His face cleared as he realized he was blocked in and whoever would have had to steal like 4 other cars first. But that meant it was Nyssa's car. She should be in here partying up after her big win. And where was Vince for that matter. They should be together somewhere. They were always sitting on some couch watching the people or pretending no one could see them making out in corners. Ah, the first parts of relationships were always fun, till that crazy, I have to have you now feeling went away. That was why Leon preferred to just have to have girls right now for one night.
Leon saw Jesse standing off by himself looking lost. That was strange. They normally couldn't keep him away from the racer chasers. Leon said bye to blondie for the time being and went up to Jesse to see what was wrong. Jesse filled him in.
"Ah shit." Leon ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "You tell Dom or V. yet?"
"I promised to give her a 20 minute head start."
"She'll be long gone by then Jess. What were you thinking?"
"She was cryin an shit and can't deal with that stuff."
"Aw fuck. We gotta tell Dom."
"Dom and Lett are still upstairs."
"This just gets better and better. I had too much to drink to drive. What about you?"
"Me too."
20 minutes to the second after Jesse let Nyssa go Dom and Letty came back downstairs. Dom took one look at Jesse and Leon and knew something bad was up. He dragged them downstairs away from the crowd and made them spill it. They told him how Nyssa had taken off, how they couldn't drive after her because none of them was fit to drive, how Vince was busy drinking himself into a stupor over the whole thing in the backyard none the less.
"Aw great." Dom said, throwing his arms up and his head back. Why tonight of all nights for them to fight. He guessed he was elected to go find her since he hadn't had a drink since right after they got home.
He found Mia, who didn't drink, and Brian, who hadn't, and told them the situation. Mia was clearly pissed at Vince and scared for Nyssa. Brian looked guilty for his part in the whole thing. Dom quickly reassured him he had done the right thing bringing the girl home safe and now they had to do the same thing.
Dom went to see Vince to see if he could get some idea what had gone down, other then the bit of info he had from Jesse. He found him were Leon had said he was, drunk in the backyard, passed out on the table. Dom looked at Vince with literal disgust for the first time ever. He couldn't believe what his friend had done. Dom had fucked up his fair share but he had never driven Letty to a wild ride in the night in a pimped out race car. All alone, and no doubt upset added to the mix. Dom knew that there would be no talking to Vince yet, he was piss loaded, and likely even Dom couldn't wake him now anyway, it was like he was passed out.
All the sober team members but Mia went looking for Nyssa. They left Mia at home to watch the party and to start to shoe people out of the place. They looked from 1, when she went missing, till 4am and never found a sign of her other then the rubber she lay down on the road in front of the house.
Nyssa drove till 3am. Then she found a clean looking motel and pulled in. She got a room. Thank god she had the half of the money from the race. It would keep her till she could decide what to do. Either move far away and start over or just move in with Manda and go back to her plain boring life, never doing anything fun, selling the Skyline and being the good girl while she waited for her Daddy to get out of jail and for her broken heart to heal, going to a good college to get a 'real job' cause it wouldn't do for her to learn cars, even though that was what she wanted to do. How depressing.
Wait a second, she thought, I can go home to daddy's house tomorrow and none of the team know where that is. She could hide and lick her wounds there. That was settled. It was home. Well, no it wasn't. Home was with the team now, and she knew it. But her old house would be familiar.
She took a scalding shower to try to wash the dirty feeling away, crying the whole time, then a freezing cold shower to try to kill the feelings in her damaged heart. She just wrapped a towel around her and headed into the main room still soaking wet.
She curled up in a ball on the strange bed and stared at the red, glowing numbers of the cheap digital alarm clock on the dresser beside the bed. It was counting down the hours and minutes that she lay there unable to sleep. She realized it was the same clock as Vince had in his room and she stood up and tore it from the wall plug and threw it across the room and then broke down in tears. She slid down the wall and sat on the floor, curled up with her legs to her chest and her arms wrapped around them and looked at the clock, lying forlornly on the floor, it's red numbers snuffed out by her violent act against it.
It was 4am. She figured that they would be glad she was gone. Maybe Mia and Letty would miss her some for awhile then life would go back to normal and they would all forget about her. She figured at one time Vince must at least care about her but she guessed she was wrong. Dom and the guys would be just as happy she was gone. One less person tying up the bathroom, one fewer girl to worry about at races every night. She'd just been starting to feel like the whole team had accepted her too. She'd even miss Leon and Brian. Letty was the first girl to ever see her for what she was and treat her like it was ok to be a girl into cars and a girl into being feminine.
She had no idea that Dom and his team had searched for her for three hours before giving up. She finally fell into an exhausted but restless sleep at 5am after she dragged herself along the floor on her hands and knees. She was so cold, after all the A/C was on in the room and she came out of a cold shower soaking wet into the room and now she was just in a wet towel on the floor. She got into the bed and again curled up on her side under the covers and cried herself into an exhausted slumber.
At 5am Vince woke up on the picnic table in the backyard. He had one hell of a hangover and a vague memory of fighting with Nyssa over her lies. The fact that she lied to him still hurt. But he knew he over reacted. He would have to tell her he was sorry yet again for yelling at her and for probably ruining her big night. Aw hell. He made it into a bigger deal then it was yet again. He couldn't count the number of times his hot temper had gotten him in shit because he just didn't think. He picked himself stiffly up off the table and headed into the house, holding his head with one hand. He was too god damn old to sleep on hard flat things. Oh man every muscle he had hurt, including his head. Everyone was still in bed. He went downstairs and figured he would crawl into bed with Nys for awhile then when she woke up she could yell at him for how he acted and everything would be fine.
He peaked into Jesse's room and Jesse was asleep with a pillow in his arms. He forgot how young Jesse was mentally even if he was not that much younger then the team in age. Jesse looked so sad. Oh well, guess he hadn't managed to pick up last night. Vince chuckled then winced cause his head hurt. He went to the bathroom and brushed the foul taste out his mouth, then went to his room.
He knew something was wrong. He hadn't been used to a made bed before Nyssa but it was something she did every day. And he knew she was not in the bed because it was still made. He walked up to the bed and the little gold chain he had bought her with the car that looked so much like hers on it was on his pillow. He walked over to the dresser that her stuff had been in and it was empty.
"God Damn It". He shouted and then winced at what that did to his head. He guessed he had fucked last night up even worse then he had thought. He went looking for any team member that was up. He found Mia in the kitchen. She had obviously just woken up. It was strange for anyone to be up at 6am on a Sunday after a party. Mia was an early riser but this was beyond early.
"Whatcha doing up this early Girl?" he asked.
"Worrying about Nyssa, you big idiot. What did you say to her?"
"I don't remember. I was really drunk. I remember us fighting but not exactly what was said."
"Well Nyssa ran away. No one knows where she went. Dom and Brian and Letty searched till 4 am and never found her. She didn't go to her cousin's or her step dads. No one knows where in the hell she is. You messed up big Vincent Joseph Casaletto, and you made her run away. She only told Jesse she left because he caught her packing her bags." Mia was staring daggers at him and she knew how much he hated being called anything longer then Vince.
"And he still let her go. WTF?"
"Wasn't his place to make her stay. But you need to find her and make up with her. You owe her a big apology. You better bring her home Vince. Even if it is just to live in our guest room. If she has to go live with her cousin that aunt of hers will slowly kill all the personality she's gained since she moved in with us. I hope you know you have it coming from Dom whenever he wakes up."
"Oh shit I messed up big didn't I?" Mia nodded and Vince hung his head. It was all coming back to him now that he had talked to someone about it and he had acted like a total ass. He was going to have to find her. He ran his hand through his hair. His hair was getting scruffy even for him. That thought made him remember that it was Nyssa who had forbid him to get a haircut just yet. She liked it scruffy. She liked to be able to grab it while he. Well he wasn't going there right now. Well someone must know where she went.
"What did she tell Jesse? She must have told him something?"
"I guess not, Jesse didn't know where to start to look for her. I just hope she didn't crash that crazy car of hers into something driving in the state she was in." Mia stood up. "I can't be around you right now Vince, I just can't." She stood up and headed to her room, where Brian was still asleep. Dom had looked the other way about his baby sister sharing her room when the guy had spent three hours driving around looking for their team member.
Brian woke up when Mia got back into bed. "She come back?" "Nope, hasn't called or come back. I'm so worried about her Bri."
"I know. We sure Jesse doesn't know more then he let on?"
"No, I'm not sure about that at all. He was acting kind of guilty yesterday but I thought that might be because he let her leave you know? She liked Jesse, they're about the same mental age."
"We'll find her Mia, or she'll calm down and come back. Do we even know what they fought over?"
"Not a clue, I was talking to Vince just now but I had to leave the room I was so mad. Ever since we were kids he couldn't think before he acted. I guess he never will but this was bad."
Brian just shook his head and pulled the quietly crying Mia against him and smoothed her hair away from her face. "It'll be ok Mia. I'll find her for you and Letty, I swear, just please don't cry anymore. I'm sure she's fine." Brian was sure she wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere because he had called in her plates and had the cops check. No skylines had been in wrecks last night and she hadn't been picked up. He figured after the deception he was heaping up on the team finding Nyssa was the least he could do. Mia and Letty had been friends since they were little, even with all their differences but they had taken to Nyssa. They were like the DT three musketeerettes. He knew Mia would be heart broken if her friend never came back.
But if Nyssa couldn't forgive Vince then that might happen no matter what Brian found out. But at least he knew the girl was fine physically, where ever she was. Neither of the people in the bed saw Vince in the doorway. He had come to apologize to Mia again. He hadn't expected Spilner to be there. Dom would not normally have allowed it. He was so two faced about stuff like that. Vince didn't want Brian staying in their house either. But Vince had heard how concerned that Brain was that Mia was upset and in that moment had to face the fact that Mia was back in the role in his life she had played when she was 14, like his sister again. He still hated Brain, but he was glad Mia had someone who cared. Because while if Brian hurt Mia Vince would be right there with Dom to break his neck, he wasn't jealous of the other man over Mia for the first time ever. But he was more scared then he had ever been that he had lost his woman from his life over his own stupidity. He went to his room and crawled into his bed on 'her' side and buried his face in her pillow. He fell asleep like that.
The whole team less Vince, who was still asleep in his room hugging Nyssa's pillow, gathered in the kitchen around 11am and made search plans. They all made a pact to find Nyssa that day so that they wouldn't have to worry about her. If she had run to her uncle or her step dad even they would have known she was ok. It was the fact that they had no idea were she was that worried them all. Of course everyone but Brian thought there was every possibility she wrecked her car and was dead in some morgue somewhere. Brian thought about how to tell them she wasn't dead without telling them how he knew and told them he had called around all the local hospitals and tow truck company's and there had been no car accident victims matching Nyssa's description and no cars like hers towed anywhere so it looked like she made it where ever she went. They all split up and started to comb the city for her.
But the city of Angels was huge and the girl had a 10 hour head start if she hadn't stopped somewhere and Dom didn't know how they were going to find her if she didn't want to be found. He called Jesse on the two way.
"You sure she didn't give you any idea where she was going to go?"
"No Dom, she just left. She told me it wasn't for ever an she'd come back sometime."
"Ok Jess, keep looking. I guess one of us'll have to go see her dad and tell him, see if she went to see him since. Then at least we'd know she was safe and we could leave a message with him in case she does go see him, he could tell her we miss her and Vince is a sorry idiot."
"That's a plan Dom." Jesse didn't want to betray Nyssa and tell them he had her cell phone. If she ran away till say 3 then she had only been asleep for like 6 hours so he didn't want to call her or let anyone else call her yet. He would call her around 3 in the afternoon and make sure she was ok.
Nyssa woke up in the motel room around 1pm and got up. She threw on some clothes and looked at her face. She looked all puffy. She looked like shit, like death warmed over. She put on dark sunglasses and checked out. She got in her car and headed back toward downtown LA. Her house was on the other side of town. She cranked the tunes and rolled down the windows. She played her happy CD to try to cheer herself up but it wasn't working very well. She wondered if the team was worried. The only one who deserved to be was Vince. She thought maybe she should call Lett on her cell and tell her she was fine so that at least Letty and Mia didn't have to worry about her. But they would just try to guilt her back and she wasn't ready to go back. She was still hurt and righteously angry at Vince.
The team all met back at the house at 2 after having no luck. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack without some idea where she was. Dom figured he would have to go talk to Mark. He felt responsible for the girl, just like he felt responsible for Jesse. Even though Jesse's father had asked Dom to take care of Jesse and Nyssa's dad had not, he had opened his home to her and she was like family now. Plus her dad might know something. Dom went to get dressed. He was going back to the place he hated most, even if it was as a visitor. He shuddered and got dressed in his only semiformal outfit. Letty came up behind him. "I'll go instead Dom. I know you hate that place."
"This is somethin' I have to do Lett. We took her in and as the leader that makes me responsible."
"When you gonna stop feeling responsible for cleaning up behind Vince and Mia and Me n Leon? We're all adults now Dom. Might be time for you to feel a little less responsible for all of us."
"We're still a team, a family, and I'll always be the one who feels responsible Lett. I can't see that changing. I know that I am not really responsible for the guys but I guess raising Mia just put me in the place of feeling like the adult you know?"
"I know and I can't see it changing neither but it was worth a shot. You worry too much." He kissed her and smiled. "I'll be fine, and I won't be long." He walked out of the room and out to his car and took off.
Brian snuck off with his cell into the back yard and called in her plates to have her picked up for anything if a cop saw her. He told them to tell her she had one tail light brighter then the other if they had to. He went back into the house. Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table ignoring Vince. Vince was looking suitably upset with himself. Mia hoped he was thinking up the best apology ever.
Jesse snuck down to his room and closed the door. He looked around then called Nyssa's cell number with his cell so no one could pick up on another line and hear the call. She answered on the third ring.
"Hello." She almost hadn't answered in case Jesse had given her number to one of the other guys.
"Hey, you ok?" Jesse asked softly, he didn't want anyone to hear him.
"Yea, I'm aight. I'm on the move right now. How are things there?"
"Not good. The team spent the whole morning looking for you and Dom is going to go tell your dad you ran off on us."
"Dom is going to do that for me?" Nyssa figured Dom would be the least upset of the whole team.
"Yea, he feels terrible that you ran away and god knows what happened. Dom's like that, since you are young and a girl it's worse for him over you. He feels like he is responsible for all of us. I can't even tell them I called you or they'll wanna know why I didn't give 'em your number long ago."
"I know Jess. I'm sorry I put you in this position. Hey, tell them I'm fine, that I called you and I hung up before you could get anyone else or somethin'. I'm going to stay with some family and I'll be fine. I still need some time to think ok?"
"Ok, take carea you."
"You too Jess. I'll call you some time later in the week ok?"
"Sure, but I hoped you be home before then."
"Maybe I will be. It depends ok? Bye"
"Bye." She ended the call. Now he had to go tell the team he had heard from her. He went upstairs and the team less Dom was all in the kitchen. He sat down and looked around at all the worried faces. He had been going to keep the phone call from them but he couldn't.
"Nyssa called me on my cell while I was downstairs." Jesse winced in preparation for the chorus of questions that was bound to come his way. He was right.
"Where is she?"
"When's she coming back?"
"Is she ok?"
All the questions got asked at the same time. He told them that she was fine, she wouldn't tell him where she was exactly, or when she was coming back, just that she had a place to stay and she still had some thinking to do. Vince looked very ashamed of himself. But he still asked
"Why didn't you come get us and tell us she was on the phone? I need to talk to her."
"She didn't give me time to get anyone. She gonna call again in a day or two."
Vince hung his head. The girls looked relieved to know she was ok even if she was still missing. Mia took some pity on him. "She'll come back Vince. Give her time to calm down. Use the time to make one hell of an apology."
"I don't wanna wait and I don't need the time. I wanna talk to her now. I know what I need to say."
"She's only been gone one day V, better give her a day to calm down more I think." Leon added.
"Fine, see you guys later." Vince slammed out the back door and over to his car. He had to pass her mustang to get to his car. That pissed him off more. He got in and started it up. He went down to 'their' beach and faced a few hard truths. He had an issue with commitment. He had been looking for a reason to not admit how much he cared for Nyssa and he grasped that stupid story of conjecture and no fact as a reason to push her away. But in his childish plan she had only been angry for a day or two then they went back to normal, only Vince didn't have to admit how much he cared for her.
Getting her back meant telling her that. It was only fair. He didn't want to admit it. Up till three months ago he still figured he would find a way to marry Mia before he was 30. Now he had to face the fact that Mia had never liked him that way and now he didn't want Mia that way either. That was 5 years of familiarity down the drain. But Mia was happy with the punk. And he had been happy with Nyssa. Would be happy with her again just as soon as he found her. He wished he had written her cell number down. He decided to go home and see if Dominic was back yet from talking to Nyssa's dad.
He drove back to the house and the red Mazda was home. He went in and found Dom. Dom told him that her father hadn't heard from her, didn't know where she was, but if Vince really cared about her he might give her a day or two to calm down, then take a drive out to their family house. Dom gave Vince the directions that Mark had given him. "But Mark also said you hurt her again and it'll be the last time you hurt anyone's daughter. Oh and he didn't know just how 'close' you two had gotten, or how, um, cramped, the living quarters are here if you get my meaning, and I didn't tell him. But now you know where she is. You need to give her time to cool off before you go after her though."
"Dom, brotha, I owe you big for this. I mean it."
"Vince we been through a lot of stupid stuff together. I got your back, just like you got mine, but that doesn't mean you need to make a habit outta stuff like this. Got it?"
"Yea, but this old dawg might be too old to learn how to think before he acts now. I'm too damn old."
"Just don't make me buy a shock collar for you Coyote, cause you won't like where it goes, it won't be around your neck." They both laughed. Vince had a feeling everything would be fine, it might take time but it would work out. He would give her a few days to think, like Dom said, then drive out there and get her back.