Chapter 21- The Fall From Grace.
Hey everyone- I wrote and wrote and wrote- but it was all by hand so while
I knew I was making progress, you all were in the dark. Having been
inspired by the recent updates of some of my favourite authors, I'm typing
away. I'm trying to get as much of it down as fast as I can so there may
be a few gaps. Forgive me- and encourage me with some reviews puhlease!
Chapter 21- The Fall From Grace
Introduction...
It sucked, but Dom went in and life went on. I kept a scrapbook to give to Dom when he got out. I wrote in it like I would a diary 'cept instead of dear diary, I wrote dear dom. Cheesy, I know, but shit- it helped me feel like I was talking to him and discussing stuff with him like he was here with me. I put pictures in it of stuff like Mia's prom and graduation, Vince and Jesse goofing around, stuff like that. I even drew out plans for the dream house we'd live in when this was all behind us. It was the fort, only... more. I sketched out how I'd decorate the rooms, renovate things and I don't know, rebuild. We needed to rebuild.
With Dom in prison our budget was tight. Even before he went in we were not only strapped for cash, we were behind. About $25K behind. Tony's life insurance covered some, but doctors, lawyers, taxes... it just didn't end.
I had cut costs at the garage by taking an 80% pay cut. It helped, but it wasn't enough. It was Friday and the boys were wrapping up work early. Business was slow. Mia and I were on the phone trying to balance the books. Who'd a thought I'd learn that sort of thing at an art school? We were trying to use creative math and sheer will combined with the profits from the grocery to keep the house and the garage open. Yeah that's right- in our fucked up world, it was the grocery that kept us a float.
I remember Mia saying something about summer coming up. "It'll help," she said. "We can cut back on part time staff then. I'll be able to work the counter all day and the neighbourhood kids love your Abuela's cooking so we should make bank on that."
"I know it'll suck Mi, but that'll be a big help. Shit I'm going to have to talk to Mama about transferring back. If I bag that commute, I can spend another two hours a day at the garage AND I'd save on gas." I put my feet up on the desk and tapped my pen on the accounting binder.
Mia wasn't amused. "Jesus Letty, you can't be serious about this. You know you'll be miserable if you transfer back now. Stay at the Academy."
I roll my eyes. God I love the phone sometimes. There's no way I coulda got away with that if Mia was here. "Unless you can think of another way Mi, I'm going to have to."
Of course, this is when I notice Jesse and Vince standing in the doorway looking pissed.
I sigh and tell Mia I'll call her back later.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" I ask sitting up straight.
Jesse comes in and sits on the back of the couch. "Why didn't you tell us money was this big a problem?"
"What, you didn't notice business has been down since Tony died?" I rubbed my eyes and tried not to look stressed. "Besides you guys are already working your asses off and I know you haven't been filing for all your hours. I'm just trying to do my share, carry my weight."
Jesse snorts. "You're putting in almost as much time as we are and you're in school for like 8 hours a day. You keep up like this and you're going to make yourself sick Letty. I'll come in earlier- you go to school."
I shake my head. "No man. That's not cool. You can't work for free too and I can't afford to pay you what I owe you as it is Jess. Shit we're borrowing money from the store already."
Vince rubs the goatee he's trying to pull off without much success. "How much we short?"
I shake my head again. "So much that I'm thinking of asking my mom for a loan."
"It's that bad?" Vince frowns.
I put the books on the desk and twirl the pen around. "It's that bad. I tried talking to Dom about it a couple of times before... but he wasn't ready to hear it and now it's too late. We got lucky this month with that job from Ralphie so we're okay for right now, but it's going to be fucking tight man." I stare out the window and fight back tears.
"That job for Ralphie wasn't that big. After your cut-" Jesse starts.
"I didn't take it." I sigh.
"What?!" Vince says as he cracks his neck and sits down across from me. "Your cut was almost three grand."
"Which we needed to pay down the mortgage on the garage and the house." I tap the pen against the arm of the chair as I stare back at the disbelieving duo. "Look, I don't have to pay rent. I don't have any bills of my own to pay really so it was no big thing."
Jesse says something magical and beautiful then. "Cut mine too then."
I want to say yes, but I know it's wrong so I shake my head and tell him no. "Jess I can't do that. You and Vince gotta make rent."
"I'll move back in with the Suarez's," he says simply.
"And what about Vince then?" I say, trying to be the voice of reason.
"I won't need to make rent either since I'm moving into the house." Vince puts his feet up on the desk and crosses his arms, trying to look all king of the hill. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you two."
Jesse makes a face. "Wait, what? You're still at the house Let? Shit, then I'm moving in too. I ain't gonna move in with the Puerto Rican Pleasantville if you all are going to have a party with out me."
I laugh and nod. "You know we should ask Mia and Dom since it is their house."
"They better say yes. I just agreed to work for next to nothing till that asshole gets home." Vince winces. "I'm gonna be getting less ass then Dom is when the girls find out I'm a scrub."
"Well, it could be worse," I say cheerily. "You could be Jesse. Even when he was getting paid, he wasn't getting laid."
"Fuck you both!" Jesse says indignantly as the three of us leave the garage laughing.
The Sht Hitteth the Fanneth
Course it was that $25K we were already short that fucked things up for Dom and I. Well I guess if we're being honest, it was how I came up with the money that fucked things up.
I have this tendancy to put off talking about it and making it into this whole big thing when really it was kinda simple. I'll try to avoid that now.
But just a warning- this all went down so long ago and everything happened so fast- I feel like if I don't talk about it long and slow I'll miss something- and I probably will. Just don't shoot the messenger. That was Dom's job. Fuck.
See, once Vince and Jesse moved in and took their pay cuts, I went into the bank and told them the leek had been plugged and that we were slowly getting back on our feet. I went dressed in a suit, with the books and projections I'd made, all business like and shit. They were surprised, amused and not a little horrified to see a 17 year old appear before them, but they listened. Then they gave me 6 months to come up with half the
Long story short: I dropped out of school, got my G.E.D. and enlisted in the Army on a two year stint.
I got my mom's permission. I told the team what I was doing and why.
I just didn't tell Dom.
I MEANT to. I swear I did. But Mia and the Team convinced me not to.
"Letty, let the man keep his pride. You're only doing this for the $10K signing bonus 'cause we need the money," Jesse said as we sat around the kitchen the night before I planned to go tell Dom what I'd done.
"Jesse, I can't do that man. I tell him everything. I told him that you and Vince moved in here and why. I even told him when I got that speeding ticket. I can't just not tell him I'm going to be around as much as I should for the next two years. I promised man." As I talk I finger the plain gold band I wear under my shirt on a chain around my neck. I promised.
"I still can't believe you're doing this chica," Vince said as he handed me a Corona. "I mean you're like, as smart as Mia and Jesse combined. You sure you wanna go play G.I. Jane for two years?"
I take the beer and tap it against his before answering him. "Vince, I'm not that smart- I'm just... unique. Not that many girls know about carburettors and shit so that makes me... a valuable commodity. So since Uncle Sam wants to pay me for being me, I figure, why the hell not."
"Jesse's right you know," Mia said as she drank her Snapple and braided my hair for me. Even though we were getting shit faced in 'celebration,' we weren't letting Mia drink since Dom would kick all of our asses if we did.
"What?" I asked, so startled I jerk forward and accidentally cause myself a considerable amount of pain. "Are you for real?"
Mia pulled my hair tight trying to fix the damage I'd caused. "I'm serious. You're gonna be at Los Alamitos- that's not that far. You're gonna be able to live here with us most of the time and just commute so what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that I'm gonna be gone for basic for almost two months. The big deal is that I'm gonna have to be out in the field sometimes and then I won't be here. Dom trusts me Mia- I don't want to fuck that up." I close my eyes and hold the beer to my temple.
The big deal Mia is that we're married, I think but don't dare to say out loud. The big deal is that I'm scared shitless that I'm doing the wrong thing and I need Dom to tell me it'll be okay and that I made the right choices here.
"You're not my babysitter Letty. You're only a year older than me." Mia is scowling and bringing tears to my eyes, she's pulling my hair so hard.
Uh, yeah I am, I think. Just ask Uncle Sam. He's paying me extra since technically Mi, since I'm secretly married to your brother, you're my dependent.
I staid silent, thinking about the fact that I had rushed into this whole Be All You Can Be thing. I'd rushed in so that it would be easier to tell Dom after everything was set; I hadn't wanted to chicken out, and I hadn't wanted Dom to talk me out of it, which I knew he would try to do. We needed the money and when I saw that recruiting poster I knew what I had to do. This was it.
If I listened to them then I wouldn't have to tell Dom. I'd be safe from his hurt, his anger, and his possible disappointment. I was doing this for him, but I knew he wouldn't see it that way. It had taken three hours of screaming with Mia to get her to see that we needed the money. I'd had to show her the books. She'd thrown up. It was nasty because we'd had spaghetti for dinner.
I thought about how hard it had been to tell them. We'd been sitting around the table, the four of us, just like this. I'd done the bank thing a couple of weeks before that and on my way home I'd stopped at school to pick up some books from my locker. I'd seen the recruiting poster in the hallway a thousand times before but that day I actually walked over to it and read it.
Instead of going home to the Fort, I'd gone home to my mom's house. I told her that even with the scholarship, she was paying too much money for an education that I just couldn't take advantage of right now. I told her that if she wanted to help make me happy, that what I'd really like would be for her to loan me the money she would have paid for the Academy cause I really needed it to keep Team Torretto on it's feet. I told her about what I was thinking of doing that doing and that this whole Army thing was my way of doing my part.
She'd nodded, called my aunt, and got Tia to promise to do everything in her power to get me stationed here.
I'd put off telling the team till that night with the spaghetti. I'd already dropped out, taken the G.E.D. and found out that according to the U.S. Army I was a fucking genius.
Jesse had taken it the best. My adopted little brother had taken my hand and given me a squeeze. Without saying anything he told me that he understood. I guess having to deal with his own shit with his dad going up state made him get it.
If I took Jesse and Mia's advice, I'd be able to put off a similar incident with Dom until he could see that it had all worked out...
I took a long sip and finished off my beer. "What do you think Vince?" I asked.
Vince let out a big burp and scratched his belly. "I can't believe I'm gonna say this but don't tell him. Jesse and I will hold down the Garage. Mia will cover the counter. Your new pall Uncky Sam'll get the mortgage. We know you're gonna be here, so it's not like you're abandoning us. Maybe it won't be an issue."
I let them talk me out of it. I wrote it all down in the books for Dom- I told him the truth there even if I didn't when I went to visit him...
We almost pulled it off. It was hell, but for two years I was all I could be and more.
It wouldn't have been an issue if Dom had served his whole term. But he got out early.
Chapter 21- The Fall From Grace
Introduction...
It sucked, but Dom went in and life went on. I kept a scrapbook to give to Dom when he got out. I wrote in it like I would a diary 'cept instead of dear diary, I wrote dear dom. Cheesy, I know, but shit- it helped me feel like I was talking to him and discussing stuff with him like he was here with me. I put pictures in it of stuff like Mia's prom and graduation, Vince and Jesse goofing around, stuff like that. I even drew out plans for the dream house we'd live in when this was all behind us. It was the fort, only... more. I sketched out how I'd decorate the rooms, renovate things and I don't know, rebuild. We needed to rebuild.
With Dom in prison our budget was tight. Even before he went in we were not only strapped for cash, we were behind. About $25K behind. Tony's life insurance covered some, but doctors, lawyers, taxes... it just didn't end.
I had cut costs at the garage by taking an 80% pay cut. It helped, but it wasn't enough. It was Friday and the boys were wrapping up work early. Business was slow. Mia and I were on the phone trying to balance the books. Who'd a thought I'd learn that sort of thing at an art school? We were trying to use creative math and sheer will combined with the profits from the grocery to keep the house and the garage open. Yeah that's right- in our fucked up world, it was the grocery that kept us a float.
I remember Mia saying something about summer coming up. "It'll help," she said. "We can cut back on part time staff then. I'll be able to work the counter all day and the neighbourhood kids love your Abuela's cooking so we should make bank on that."
"I know it'll suck Mi, but that'll be a big help. Shit I'm going to have to talk to Mama about transferring back. If I bag that commute, I can spend another two hours a day at the garage AND I'd save on gas." I put my feet up on the desk and tapped my pen on the accounting binder.
Mia wasn't amused. "Jesus Letty, you can't be serious about this. You know you'll be miserable if you transfer back now. Stay at the Academy."
I roll my eyes. God I love the phone sometimes. There's no way I coulda got away with that if Mia was here. "Unless you can think of another way Mi, I'm going to have to."
Of course, this is when I notice Jesse and Vince standing in the doorway looking pissed.
I sigh and tell Mia I'll call her back later.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" I ask sitting up straight.
Jesse comes in and sits on the back of the couch. "Why didn't you tell us money was this big a problem?"
"What, you didn't notice business has been down since Tony died?" I rubbed my eyes and tried not to look stressed. "Besides you guys are already working your asses off and I know you haven't been filing for all your hours. I'm just trying to do my share, carry my weight."
Jesse snorts. "You're putting in almost as much time as we are and you're in school for like 8 hours a day. You keep up like this and you're going to make yourself sick Letty. I'll come in earlier- you go to school."
I shake my head. "No man. That's not cool. You can't work for free too and I can't afford to pay you what I owe you as it is Jess. Shit we're borrowing money from the store already."
Vince rubs the goatee he's trying to pull off without much success. "How much we short?"
I shake my head again. "So much that I'm thinking of asking my mom for a loan."
"It's that bad?" Vince frowns.
I put the books on the desk and twirl the pen around. "It's that bad. I tried talking to Dom about it a couple of times before... but he wasn't ready to hear it and now it's too late. We got lucky this month with that job from Ralphie so we're okay for right now, but it's going to be fucking tight man." I stare out the window and fight back tears.
"That job for Ralphie wasn't that big. After your cut-" Jesse starts.
"I didn't take it." I sigh.
"What?!" Vince says as he cracks his neck and sits down across from me. "Your cut was almost three grand."
"Which we needed to pay down the mortgage on the garage and the house." I tap the pen against the arm of the chair as I stare back at the disbelieving duo. "Look, I don't have to pay rent. I don't have any bills of my own to pay really so it was no big thing."
Jesse says something magical and beautiful then. "Cut mine too then."
I want to say yes, but I know it's wrong so I shake my head and tell him no. "Jess I can't do that. You and Vince gotta make rent."
"I'll move back in with the Suarez's," he says simply.
"And what about Vince then?" I say, trying to be the voice of reason.
"I won't need to make rent either since I'm moving into the house." Vince puts his feet up on the desk and crosses his arms, trying to look all king of the hill. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you two."
Jesse makes a face. "Wait, what? You're still at the house Let? Shit, then I'm moving in too. I ain't gonna move in with the Puerto Rican Pleasantville if you all are going to have a party with out me."
I laugh and nod. "You know we should ask Mia and Dom since it is their house."
"They better say yes. I just agreed to work for next to nothing till that asshole gets home." Vince winces. "I'm gonna be getting less ass then Dom is when the girls find out I'm a scrub."
"Well, it could be worse," I say cheerily. "You could be Jesse. Even when he was getting paid, he wasn't getting laid."
"Fuck you both!" Jesse says indignantly as the three of us leave the garage laughing.
The Sht Hitteth the Fanneth
Course it was that $25K we were already short that fucked things up for Dom and I. Well I guess if we're being honest, it was how I came up with the money that fucked things up.
I have this tendancy to put off talking about it and making it into this whole big thing when really it was kinda simple. I'll try to avoid that now.
But just a warning- this all went down so long ago and everything happened so fast- I feel like if I don't talk about it long and slow I'll miss something- and I probably will. Just don't shoot the messenger. That was Dom's job. Fuck.
See, once Vince and Jesse moved in and took their pay cuts, I went into the bank and told them the leek had been plugged and that we were slowly getting back on our feet. I went dressed in a suit, with the books and projections I'd made, all business like and shit. They were surprised, amused and not a little horrified to see a 17 year old appear before them, but they listened. Then they gave me 6 months to come up with half the
Long story short: I dropped out of school, got my G.E.D. and enlisted in the Army on a two year stint.
I got my mom's permission. I told the team what I was doing and why.
I just didn't tell Dom.
I MEANT to. I swear I did. But Mia and the Team convinced me not to.
"Letty, let the man keep his pride. You're only doing this for the $10K signing bonus 'cause we need the money," Jesse said as we sat around the kitchen the night before I planned to go tell Dom what I'd done.
"Jesse, I can't do that man. I tell him everything. I told him that you and Vince moved in here and why. I even told him when I got that speeding ticket. I can't just not tell him I'm going to be around as much as I should for the next two years. I promised man." As I talk I finger the plain gold band I wear under my shirt on a chain around my neck. I promised.
"I still can't believe you're doing this chica," Vince said as he handed me a Corona. "I mean you're like, as smart as Mia and Jesse combined. You sure you wanna go play G.I. Jane for two years?"
I take the beer and tap it against his before answering him. "Vince, I'm not that smart- I'm just... unique. Not that many girls know about carburettors and shit so that makes me... a valuable commodity. So since Uncle Sam wants to pay me for being me, I figure, why the hell not."
"Jesse's right you know," Mia said as she drank her Snapple and braided my hair for me. Even though we were getting shit faced in 'celebration,' we weren't letting Mia drink since Dom would kick all of our asses if we did.
"What?" I asked, so startled I jerk forward and accidentally cause myself a considerable amount of pain. "Are you for real?"
Mia pulled my hair tight trying to fix the damage I'd caused. "I'm serious. You're gonna be at Los Alamitos- that's not that far. You're gonna be able to live here with us most of the time and just commute so what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that I'm gonna be gone for basic for almost two months. The big deal is that I'm gonna have to be out in the field sometimes and then I won't be here. Dom trusts me Mia- I don't want to fuck that up." I close my eyes and hold the beer to my temple.
The big deal Mia is that we're married, I think but don't dare to say out loud. The big deal is that I'm scared shitless that I'm doing the wrong thing and I need Dom to tell me it'll be okay and that I made the right choices here.
"You're not my babysitter Letty. You're only a year older than me." Mia is scowling and bringing tears to my eyes, she's pulling my hair so hard.
Uh, yeah I am, I think. Just ask Uncle Sam. He's paying me extra since technically Mi, since I'm secretly married to your brother, you're my dependent.
I staid silent, thinking about the fact that I had rushed into this whole Be All You Can Be thing. I'd rushed in so that it would be easier to tell Dom after everything was set; I hadn't wanted to chicken out, and I hadn't wanted Dom to talk me out of it, which I knew he would try to do. We needed the money and when I saw that recruiting poster I knew what I had to do. This was it.
If I listened to them then I wouldn't have to tell Dom. I'd be safe from his hurt, his anger, and his possible disappointment. I was doing this for him, but I knew he wouldn't see it that way. It had taken three hours of screaming with Mia to get her to see that we needed the money. I'd had to show her the books. She'd thrown up. It was nasty because we'd had spaghetti for dinner.
I thought about how hard it had been to tell them. We'd been sitting around the table, the four of us, just like this. I'd done the bank thing a couple of weeks before that and on my way home I'd stopped at school to pick up some books from my locker. I'd seen the recruiting poster in the hallway a thousand times before but that day I actually walked over to it and read it.
Instead of going home to the Fort, I'd gone home to my mom's house. I told her that even with the scholarship, she was paying too much money for an education that I just couldn't take advantage of right now. I told her that if she wanted to help make me happy, that what I'd really like would be for her to loan me the money she would have paid for the Academy cause I really needed it to keep Team Torretto on it's feet. I told her about what I was thinking of doing that doing and that this whole Army thing was my way of doing my part.
She'd nodded, called my aunt, and got Tia to promise to do everything in her power to get me stationed here.
I'd put off telling the team till that night with the spaghetti. I'd already dropped out, taken the G.E.D. and found out that according to the U.S. Army I was a fucking genius.
Jesse had taken it the best. My adopted little brother had taken my hand and given me a squeeze. Without saying anything he told me that he understood. I guess having to deal with his own shit with his dad going up state made him get it.
If I took Jesse and Mia's advice, I'd be able to put off a similar incident with Dom until he could see that it had all worked out...
I took a long sip and finished off my beer. "What do you think Vince?" I asked.
Vince let out a big burp and scratched his belly. "I can't believe I'm gonna say this but don't tell him. Jesse and I will hold down the Garage. Mia will cover the counter. Your new pall Uncky Sam'll get the mortgage. We know you're gonna be here, so it's not like you're abandoning us. Maybe it won't be an issue."
I let them talk me out of it. I wrote it all down in the books for Dom- I told him the truth there even if I didn't when I went to visit him...
We almost pulled it off. It was hell, but for two years I was all I could be and more.
It wouldn't have been an issue if Dom had served his whole term. But he got out early.