Foxyboxer- that is my all-time favorite scene in the movie! Hehehe
FallenAngel- Very easily, actually. Just took a lil hotwiring :-P. As for the people and Kat…you'll see…
DomLetty4Eva- Yeah, yeah, it would ruin Dom's rep. Blah blah blah, his ego will deflate ;-)
Ally- Yes, thank you, thank you :-D You know you're the second person that I actually know to have reviewed? It's just you and Kat (the other one doesn't…er…care, per se, but w/e)
To everyone else: I spoil you peoples! The last chapter was 5 pages, and this one is 4, as opposed to the other 2-3 page chapters! Enjoy!
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My RX-7 sped ahead of Chris's GT90, brandishing it's well-known speed. From the corner of my eye, I could see some of my previous opponents shake their heads at what would soon be another win on my part. I was surrounded by this monotony, week in, week out, some new chump would try and take my throne, and I would leave him to eat his words in my dust.
Chris sped up and tried to pull in front of me. Not today, kid. I hit the gas even harder and moved up even more, just as Chris made a move for what was obviously a NOS button. Too soon… I grinned to myself; this was too easy. I waited for him to pass ahead, waited to make my own move.
He wasn't in front of me. I chanced a look back at him and saw him behind me, furiously trying to stay on my tail. What was he doing? I swerved to the right, making a sharp turn in order to sway him and put myself in a better position to reach the finish line. I made a split decision to hit my NOS- the end was coming up too quickly, and I couldn't just wait for this kid to do something. I zoomed ahead, the sound of the nitrous covering the sound of the blaring music flowing from my stereo. It was at that exact second that Chris used his NOS, causing him to appear to the left of me. We were side by side, and then he pulled ahead of me. I nosed my way past him, only to have him speed up so that we were bumper and bumper. The avid racers ahead of us were cheering at a deafening rate, and the blood was pumping inside me now, coursing through my veins and pulsing behind my ears.
We passed the finish line at exactly the same time. I saw Chris slam his head against his wheel- he had clearly planned on beating me. Then again, I had done the same, the only difference being that I was supposed to be the winner. I stepped out of my car and headed over to Hector.
"Damn, I've never seen anyone get that close to you, Dom. Well, except for my favorite snowman over there" he said, indicating Brian.
"Yeah, but Chris and I tied, that's closer than Brian ever got. What do we do with the money? Split it?"
Hector nodded, handing me my $4, 000, and my team, among other admirers, swept around me.
"Man, my heart was pounding over there. Almost thought he had you!" Vince laughed, hitting me on the back.
"Yeah, yeah, V, you're so blind, can't you see that either I come out on top or else no one wins?" I chuckled in return, handing my money over to Mia who was hugging me tight. "My sister gets the money, of course…"
I felt two cool hands slip around my waist from behind, and I started to push them off, thinking it was someone else, when Mel's head popped up from behind my back. "Hmmm, Mia gets the money, and that leaves me with…" she trailed off, tiny stars lighting up in her eyes.
"You get me! How's that?" I asked, lifting her up in the air.
"Best that I can get," she whispered into my ear, pulling away from me and curling her fingers around my hand. She was looking in the direction of Chris, who was stomping over to us with his cheerleaders following. He stopped in front of her and glared into her happy face. I pushed in front of him and led my team to a dark corner on the street.
"He's a good racer," I stated bluntly, waiting for someone to do something about the comment I'd dropped before the team.
"You want him on the team?" Brian asked, perking up. If Chris joined us, Brian wouldn't be The Newbie anymore. He also wouldn't be the snowman. Chris seemed to be more of a suburbanite than Brian or even Melanie was.
"He's already got a team," stated Leon.
"Yeah, what would we do about them?" Jesse questioned looking around at the rest of us.
"They're all women, right? They could bunk with me, I don't mind," Vince stated, licking his lips.
"Don't start with that Vince," Mel said, looking in his direction disdainfully. She looked up at me, "Are they in or not? You haven't picked anyone up for the team since you got Brian, and that was years ago. You're the head of the team, the decision's yours, Dom."
The others all nodded, and I glanced at Kat and Pax. "What about you? What do you think?"
Kat looked around to make sure I was talking to her before opening her mouth. "Um. Well, you could invite him over some time, and just talk about it. You can't decide what he does with his own team. As far as it goes though, do you have enough room for another person?"
Pax looked at all of us and threw his own idea in. "If you guys really want that guy on your team, I guess he could stay with us, and his team could follow. We've got room for eight, and you could have one more live with you."
"That could work," Melanie mused, "Besides, they've probably got their own house to stay in. We might not even need to take those others in."
"So it's settled. Chris is on the team, except, first, Jess, I want you to try and find out all you can about this guy, okay?" I waited as the others agreed and moved back to crowded street. There weren't any cops after us tonight; they'd pretty much lost interest in our world.
I pulled Mel back from walking away to the team. "No cops out for us tonight, huh?"
She shrugged. "If they're gone, they're gone. Who cares, when it's just less money for them and more for us?"
I grinned and hugged her from behind, placing a soft kiss on her shoulder. "You're right."
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Huh?"
"Remember? You said you wanted to talk to me about something important earlier. What's up?" She asked, turning to face me.
"Oh, that. I wanted to ask you something."
She tensed up and her eyes flashed. She tried to brush off a squeak that had entered her voice. "Really?"
"Would you…"
"Yes!"
"What?"
"Yes, I'll marry you, Dom! I love you!"
I took a second to think. Holy shit. She thought I was going to propose. How could she- Of course! I'd been dropping hints, telling her that we still had to have 'the talk' about marriage, and just the other night I'd asked her about kids. Our kids. Shit, this isn't how I'd planned on proposing. I started to back my way out of this.
"Baby…that's…that's not what I was going to ask you." I looked meekly into her eyes. Please don't cry; please don't cry.
Tears sprang from her eyes. "You don't want to marry me?"
I think I actually saw her break down inside. "No, I mean, yes, I do, but… look, if I were to propose, I wouldn't do it here. I'd do something really great, I promise."
She stared at me. Not working, Toretto, she's still upset.
"Okay, I wanted to ask you something else, it was important to me, but I wasn't going to propose tonight," I paused to wipe her tears off with my thumb. "I love you so much, though."
She pushed my hands back and covered her eyes, groaning for a second and then quieting down. Her fingers spread a little bit, giving her a tiny view of me, and then she let her hands slip from her face completely. She offered me a weak smile. "Sorry about that. I… I don't know; you were talking about it more and more. I guess I got a little caught up. I didn't mean to put you in a tough spot."
I tugged at her elbow, inviting her into my arms, and kissed her nose lightly. "Don't be sorry, it's kind of my fault. When I really propose, it's going to be perfect."
She kissed my chin in return and mumbled, "I don't want perfect, I want you."
"Thought I was perfect," I smirked, nudging her gently.
She slapped my chest lightly and said, "You're so egotistical, Dom. Ask me what you wanted to ask me before and then let's go get Chris. I want to go home, I'm in desperate need of a massage."
"Oh please, that's Melanese for 'I want sex'. Not that I'm complaining."
"Ask now, or I'm gonna stop speaking Melanese."
"Fine." I stared at her seriously, bringing back a quiet atmosphere. "I was just wondering if you'd still love me if I wasn't Dominic Toretto, King of the Streets."
She didn't even think before she spoke. "I'd love you no matter what, Dom."
"If something bad happens in the future? Would you still want me?"
"Absolutely." Another no-brainer.
"Do you believe in soul mates?"
She hesitated for a second, chewing on the latest question. "I do now."
"Are you mine?"
"I think that that's something you have to ask yourself," Melanie said, locking her hand around mine as I asked for it. "Am I?"
"Yes." I smiled, gazing back at her as I asked my last question. "Am I yours?"
She said something, but I couldn't hear it over the sudden sound of a team of street racers flying past us.
"What? I didn't hear you," I shouted over the noise.
She shook her head from side to side and kissed my cheek. "I'll tell you later, when things get quieter," she said in my ear.
"Okay," I said, following her out into the busy street ahead of us.
* * * * *
I sat, sipping a Corona, when I saw Mel and Dom walk out from the alley where we'd all been a little earlier. How the hell did he manage to keep her so happy? She so was devoted to him. All of the girls I'd ever actually been with had cheated on me or left me for dumb reasons. Before Melanie, Dom and I joked about that, about how we were the guys destined for lust, not love. Except, I'd always had it worse than him. Ever since we were teens, girls wanted me, but only so that they could get to him. I was Vince, Dom's right hand man. You had to fuck me so that you could get into bed with Dom. Sometimes, I wish that I was Dominic; I wish that I had all of the advantages, and then he was the one who had to catch up with me.
When Dom and I were little, we told people that we were twins, but that whole thought process was gone by the time we were thirteen, when he shot up three inches and started building both muscles and a following of girls. Dominic the Golden Child, the-
"Hey bro, wanna go get a new team mate with me?"
I growled to Dom for hitting me on the back and replied, "Yeah man, I'm up for it."
I followed him to where we'd last seen that team and stopped when I noticed they were gone.
"Where'd they go?" he asked, turning back to me.
"I don't know, maybe if you hadn't been in the alley fucking your girlfriend we'd now," I snarled. So what if I was out of line? I didn't care that night.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? We were just talking!" He growled back.
"It means that ever since that chick came into your life, you've gone all soft. You're all about love and caring. Where'd my best friend go?"
"Take that back, it's not true," he said calmly. He was always like that now. Always quiet and calm, always thought shit through. "I still chill with you and the guys, I've just got a girl in my life now. It's not like I'm ditching you."
I shrugged and started to speak again when his cell phone rang.
***Phone Conversation***
"Hello?" said Dom when he flipped on his phone.
"Toretto?"
"Yeah, who's this?"
"It's Chris," said the voice on the other line.
"Hey man. Where'd you go? I wanted to know if you wanted to join my team," said Dominic, his voice becoming friendlier.
"We thought you'd be having a party, so we stopped at the house to change. We can talk about the team then. It'd be great if I could join you guys."
"Cool, we'll be there in about half an hour. See you then."
"Later, man."
***End Phone Conversation***
Dom flipped the top of his phone down and placed it back into his pocket. He glanced at Vince who had already wandered off to the other guys. What's up with him? Dom wondered, following Vince to the rest of his team. If Vince were really pissed at him, then it would be a long ass night for sure.
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Hello, my lovely reviewers. I have an idea. I've started writing a little something extra to go with the end of this story as a treat for all of you. Here's the trick: I want to have 100 reviews on this story.
Don't worry though! I'm not nearly finished ATV, I just wanted to give you all a little heads up- 40 reviews by the last chapter of ATV so that you can all get your hands on MBFFW (you won't find out what that means till it comes :-P). In any case, I promise you that it will be nice and sweet. :-D
Lot of love,
Mel
P.S. I know that the last bit with Dom and Mel sounded a little bit like 21 Questions by 50 Cent. I realized that after I wrote the scene, however, so, just so you guys know, I haven't copied or taken any ideas from that. J