Chapter 46 - You are so bad!
Vince looked in the spare room and the girl, no Chris, not the girl he corrected himself, was still asleep. He didn't know if he should just let her sleep or wake her. It was lunch time, she'd never sleep tonight if she slept in much longer. Vince wondered what Mia had given Chris to wear to bed. He didn't want to wake her and find out that she had on some skimpy nightdress. He'd told Torrie the truth, he really didn't like Chris romantically at all. She was hardly his type. Mia and Torrie were the kind of girl he liked. Sweet and kind but with a spirit inside and the ability to stand up for themselves. He didn't like women who were too passive. He knew that Chris must be if she'd stayed with that user she'd been with all this time.
He was just not as big of an asshole as people made him out to be. He had a nice side, a part of him that cared about other people in general and he hated to see a man beat on a person, any person, who was half his size. It just wasn't right. But since he'd asked this girl to stay, that made her his responsibility. Therefore he had to wake her up and make sure she was going to be ok. It occurred to him that Mia had been looking for help around the store and Chris might be perfect for that. He doubted very much that the jerk she'd been seeing had allowed her to work at all. If she saw normal couples interact she'd know that what she had wasn't normal and that she could likely do better then the jerk she was with.
Just as he went to open the spare room door a very sleepy looking Torrie walked out of Dom's room in a pair of her boxers and one of Dom's white wifebeaters. She yawned delicately and rubbed her eyes.
"Hey." She said, like that was the only word she had the energy to get out and scratched her tummy like a guy. "How's it goin' V.?"
"I'm fine. How're you? I guess you and the boss man made up huh?" Vince said with a smirk as he leaned against the hall wall.
"I don't know. I guess so. Something's still bothering him but he still doesn't want to talk about it. I guess some things'll never change huh?" She pulled her fingers through her hair to try and tame it some.
"He's trying Torrie. I mean, I can really tell that he's trying. But I mean you must have mostly made up at least." Vince was clearly hinting that surely they must be ok with each other if they'd just slept together.
"We didn't make up or not make up. I found him sitting in the car looking upset, I asked him what was wrong, he wouldn't tell me, he started, well, I think you know without details what he started, then I fell asleep. Thus preventing any sort of conversation about what was on his mind. I think he does that a lot. Rather then talk about stuff he tries to change the subject with." She trailed off, embarrassed.
"Well, maybe he'd just rather show you he cares for you rather then talk about it." Vince tried to make Torrie feel better about the whole situation the best way he knew how.
"I hope you're right Vince. So what're you doin'?" "I'm gonna wake up Chris." Vince answered.
"Why?" Torrie figured they should let her sleep.
"Cause she'll be up all night if she sleeps all day. Plus I don't know if she has anywhere to be today. We didn't get to talk much last night." Vince looked embarrassed about the whole thing.
"If you think so V. You know this was a really nice thing you did for this girl. I mean, I know what it's like to think about not having a home of your own and I guess this girl was in a different situation but it was still like if she left this guy then she had no home and that's hard. Her name's Chris huh?"
"Yeah her names Chris, and I know takin' her in was nice, I just hate to see anyone getting picked on." Reminded him of when Mia use to get picked on by the girls who hated her for being so pretty and picked on by the boys who liked her.
"I think you do like her even if you don't want to admit it yet." Torrie winked at him and gave him a gentle smile. "Don't fight it just because you've got yourself convinced that Mia is the only girl for you V. Don't sell yourself short on a chance to meet someone for you just because you think that maybe Mia'll need you again someday. If you think you might like this girl and she might like you then give it your best shot ok?"
Vince hated the way Torrie knew things about him that he hadn't even realized yet. He wanted to keep telling himself this girl was not for him because if she was then he'd be in a relationship if Mia and the punk ever broke up, and then he couldn't be there for her. "I'll think about that Torrie. You think about not being too hard on my boy. He tries hard." Vince smiled at her.
"I know he does Vince, but it's still hard."
"Well, you know, it's not like I talk like this with everyone. There's just something about you that makes me want to talk to you. Hell, I'm the tuff one. I guess I've always been the one who was a little more volatile, a little more prone to being emotional, but I don't like to talk about it either normally. Dom's always had that control."
Torrie sighed. "I know. We're so well matched V. Why is it that we never hooked up? It's like strange you know? You don't have any feelings for me that way and I don't have any for you but we're the best matched couple in the group." It was puzzling but there wasn't anything to be done about it.
"I know, fate's a bitch isn't she?" Vince laughed. He then pulled Torrie into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Go do what you were gonna do and go back to that big silly friend of mine. If he wakes up and you're gone he's libel to have some sort of hissy fit."
Torrie gave Vince a grin. "Dom doesn't have any kind of fits, let alone hissy fits." With that she padded into the bathroom on her little bare feet and shut the door. Vince let himself into the spare room and found Chris still asleep. He walked up to the bed and stood beside it looking down at the girl. Should he wake her? He'd be willing to bet that she'd be upset if she slept all day. He leaned down and shook her gently by the shoulder.
Chris felt someone shaking her. She was in the middle of a mild nightmare. She often had nightmares about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her boyfriend. It was gentle for how he normally shook her but she figured that maybe someone else was in the house. She stammered out quickly, "I'm sorry I overslept. I'll get up right away." She looked around frantically as she started to wake up.
Vince wished he'd roughed the guy who did this to her up worse then he had. That guy had been doing a real number on this poor girl. "Shhh. I'm not the punk remember? You're safe here. I just didn't think you'd wanna sleep all day and it's after lunch." Vince said in his best calm voice.
"Oh god." She started to sob. It all came back to her in the second she heard his voice. It was finally over. After two years of hell it was finally over. She let herself cry all the tears for all the things he'd done to her that she'd never dared to show emotion over before. She couldn't believe she'd gotten free.
"Shhh. It's ok. You're safe." Vince sat down beside her and rubbed her back softly. "Why the tears? You're safe from him now." Vince held her tighter as she continued to sob.
"I'm crying because it's finally over. I couldn't even cry or show I was upset while I was with him cause he'd hit me for it. I'm just so happy and relieved to be away from him. I'm sorry for being such a baby." She cried harder, although Vince would have swore that was impossible.
"You're not a baby. You were through a lot and it's ok to be happy it's over." Vince kept rubbing her back.
Torrie walked out of the bathroom and heard the girl crying and Vince's deep tenor answering her back softly in the spare room. She wondered if everything was ok. The door was open. She looked like hell, her hair was in a messy bun and she was still dressed in her underwear, her garage underwear none the less and Dom's undershirt. But she didn't know if V would be ok with the girl on his own. She peeked in the door. Vince looked kinda panicked.
"Everything ok V?" She asked softly and gave the other girl a soft smile when she looked up.
"Yeah, I think so." Vince answered back and winced when the girl couldn't see him. He hated it when girls cried. Every time a girl cried he just wanted to run. "Are you ok? Or do you wanna talk to Torrie 'bout it? She's a good listener."
"I'm ok." Chris answered softly. She couldn't imagine talking about her problems to a girl as pretty as the one standing in front of her now. What would this perfect example of femininity know about being abused by your boyfriend and beaten black and blue?
"You sure?" Torrie asked. She knew Vince was a nice guy but she figured that sometimes a girl had to talk to a girl. Chris looked at her and if Torrie wasn't mistaken the other girl was giving her a dirty look. Torrie'd known that Chris was going to think she was after Vince.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris was mad at Torrie for looking so good in men's clothes and her hair not done. It wasn't fair. Chris felt like a doudy old lady next to this girl.
Torrie was both hurt and puzzled as to why the other girl didn't like her. "Ok, if you're sure. I'm sure Dom'll be wondering where I got to. Check you later V?"
"Of course baby girl. I'll see you at dinner." Vince picked up on Chris's dislike of Torrie and he was just as confused at she was. Torrie the room with her head hanging a bit. Vince heard the door of Dom's room close. "What do you have against Torrie? Do you know her from somewhere?" Vince asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice because he knew that Chris would be really upset if he showed he was mad, even though the thoughts of anyone being mean to Torrie made Vince want to just explode.
"Nothing, I don't have anything against her, I just know that me and that type of girl don't get along." Chris didn't want Vince to be mad at her. Being in his arms while he comforted her felt right.
"What kind of girl is that?" Vince wanted to understand what part of Torrie made her 'that kind of girl' and gave someone permission not to like her.
"Oh, the pretty popular girls, the girls with the perfect hair that look good in anything. They only wanted to be around girls like me if they needed help in science class. The kind of girl who never has to worry about anything because some man's always falling over himself to do stuff for her, hold her hair back when she vomits, that sort of thing." Chris stopped before anything even more catty could leave her mouth. She knew this girl was not Vince's girlfriend but he clearly cared about her a lot, he called her baby girl.
"Torrie sure is pretty, and she's pretty popular around here. We all love her, and she loves us all. I don't think she ever needed help in school; she's really smart on her own. I think Dom might be around to hold her hair back if she threw up but hey, that's his job. She's the nicest girl I've ever met. She tends to be impulsive and drive far too fast but other then that." Vince trailed off. "You can't judge her based on her looks. She even owns her own auto parts store and works in Dom's garage. She's very nice."
"Well I'm sorry I made a snap judgement but it's my experience that the popular kids and I just don't get along." Chris tried to be impartial and not dig herself any deeper.
"Well, give Torrie a chance ok? She's not having the easiest time with her boyfriend, my boy Dominic, right now and it's hard on her ok? She hates to have anything in the house out of order, she's just like Mia. So you want me to leave you now? Mia washed your clothes so you can wear 'em. I can take you to your house and pick up the rest of your stuff today if you want." Vince thought if the rest of her stuff was like what she had on last night it was better off lost.
"I'll do my best to give Torrie a chance. What kind of issues is she having with Dominic?" Chris did not want to watch another girl go through what Vince had just helped her leave.
"Not what you're thinking. He's not like that. But, well, when Torrie first came to live here it was just because she needed a place to stay and Dom needed another mechanic slash racer. She wasn't his girl at first and he didn't want her to be. I kinda liked her back then, I thought she liked me too but then even before she ended up with Dom our relationship just changed and we knew we were only going to be friends. But then it became obvious Dom liked her. That was fine because she's had a thing for Dom since she was like 13. But she and I already had this great relationship, like best friends. That woulda been fine but she started working on this project, a surprise for Dom. He'd written his dead father's car off and Torrie got it back and started to rebuild it. But she couldn't handle it on her own, so she asked me to help her with it. And we had to spend a lot of time together to get it done. Then he accused her of cheating on him with me. She was really upset over it. Dom has issues talking 'bout feelings. So now every time they fight Dom shuts up and Torrie throws what he said about her and I back at him to try and get some sort of a reaction out of him."
"I see. She sounds like a saint." Chris didn't know what to think now.
"Oh, she's far from. Didn't you see her dancin' wit me?"
"Just the tail end." Chris answered with a smile.
"Well, watch her dance next party. If you're lucky she'll dance with Dom. They have this great rythem together."
"So Dom must be the guy who owns this place right?" Chris had heard a lot about this Dom charater.
"Yep, he's the man, been my friend since 3rd grade. He's a good guy. I'll let you get dressed and you can start to meet us all since you're gonna be sticken around for awhile." She nodded, she didn't want to tip him off to the fact that she planned on taking off as soon as she thought it was wise.
Torrie crept back into the bedroom and saw that Dom was still asleep. He'd rolled onto his back in the center of the bed. She felt a little revenge coming on. She pulled all the blankets off the bed and stood back for a second just to admire the view. She'd ended up with this man how? She asked herself. He was perfection. She wondered every day why he picked her. He shifted in his sleep and the play of the muscles under his skin was fabulos. She carefully crawled onto the bed and then kneeled beside him. She took a chunk of her hair and trailed it down the center of his chest and over his belly. He swiped at her in his sleep but didn't wake up. She trailed the hair across his belly from side to side and he swatted at her again. She figured he might be really tired if he was still asleep. She sat back on her heels and tried to think up something else to do to him to wake him up.
She could throw cold water on him but that was hardly original. She could try to haul his ass out of bed and put him in the hall naked. Well, two problems there, one she wasn't strong enough to move him alone and two she didn't want to share this view with anyone else. So what else. She wondered if he was ticklish. She took the same part of her hair and ran it over his ribs. He squirmed around to get away. She kept it up and after a minute of this new torture he woke up laughing and trying to get away.
"'bout time you woke up." Torrie stated as she kept tickling his ribs.
"Stop." Dom gasped out around the deep laughter. "I'll do anything, just stop."
"I don't think I want to." She said, laughter glinting in her green eyes. Dom had her on her back in a half second, under him, arms pinned over her head.
"That was devious. Wait till I'm asleep to tickle the hell outta me." Dom laughed. "Now I'm up. So what'd you want me up for?"
"Cause it's supper time almost and you were still asleep. I'll have you know I thought long and hard about how to wake you."
"Oh yeah, what were some of the other ideas you had?"
"Well, there was throw cold water on you, but that was too cliché. I wanted to drag you down to the living room au natural and leave you there while no one was around and hope the team came home all at once and saw you, but I wasn't strong enough to move you."
"Oh, you're bad." Dom leaned down and kissed her. "Why are you wearing my clothes?"
"They were on the floor, and therefore easiest to pull on when I ran to the bathroom. Speaking of which, while on the way to the bathroom I ran into Vince. He was going to wake up the new girl. I talked to him for a second then went to the bathroom and he went into the spare room. When I came out the girl was crying. I know how well you guys deal with crying girls so I checked to make sure everything was ok and the girl was mean to me." Torrie looked upset.
"Mean how?" Dom asked.
"Like I could tell she didn't like me. She was all cold and gave me these nasty, dirty looks. I don't know what I did." Torrie was getting upset all over again thinking about it.
"It just musta been that she didn't want you to see her cry." Dom didn't know how anyone would just not like Torrie. She had her moments but never with people she didn't know.
"Maybe, but still, she was downright mean lookin'."
"Well, ultimately who cares baby? She's not staying forever and if she makes you uncomfortable she can leave now." Dom didn't want to see anyone being mean to Torrie in her own house.
"Well, she has no where to go. I might be over reacting." Torrie looked up into Dom's deep brown eyes and smiled. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It's nothing I'm sure."
"It'll be fine. You're right. And if you wanna eat supper we either get up now or we miss it." Dom laughed. One touch from this girl, one look and he had to have her.
"Ok then get up. I need ta eat." Dom got up with a groan.
"You're wearing my clothes." He whined at her.
"So? You have lots and they look better on me then you." She laughed. Then she started to pull the top off. "You want it back?" She asked right before she would have bared her chest.
"You keep it, it does look better on you. Plus you take that up any higher and you may never leave this room."
They walked down the stairs holding hands. Torrie bothered to pull on pants but she kept Dom's undershirt on for a top. Mia, Brian, Jesse, and Leon were already at the dinner table.
"Hey gang." Torrie said, trying to sound cheerful. They all answered her back with hellos. Dom asked the question she had in her mind.
"Where's Vince?" "Never came down from upstairs yet." Mia answered. "Why?"
"I just wanted to know more about this girl that's staying here. Like for how long and what's up wit that, that sorta thing." Dom said as he sat down and then pulled Torrie onto his lap.
"Where's Letty been at lately?" Torrie asked, the other girl hadn't been around half as much lately.
"She's been out with Brian's friend from away Rome." Mia said with a smile. "I think she likes him."
"That's the guy wit the terrible purple Eclipse right?" Dom asked.
"That's him." Brian answered. "The cops bought him that car when he did that job with me."
Then Vince and Chris joined the team at the table. Torrie gave Vince a small smile but she didn't so much as look at Chris. She kissed Dom on his cheek and leaned against his chest. She hated it when people didn't like her for unknown reasons. It didn't make sense. Dom sensed her withdrawl from the group and wrapped his arms around her waist. He tipped his head sideways to look her in the eye and asked in a low voice "Wanna go out and eat then maybe see a movie?" He thought she might want out of the house.
"Naw, Mia already cooked. But we can go to that movie if you want." Torrie knew what Dom was up to. Vince had hoped that Torrie hadn't really picked up on Chris's attitude but he could see that she had. Vince watched as Dom smoothed Torrie's hair and whispered in her ear. She whispered back and then they looked at Mia.
"It's rude to whisper." Mia said with a smile.
"You don't want to know what he said to me." Torrie said with an evil grin, even though Dom hadn't said anything at all she couldn't share with the group.
"Hey!" Dom exclaimed. "I didn't say anything like that."
"Oh, you're so bad Dommie." Torrie said with the same evil smile. Dom looked embarrassed to be called Dommie in front of the team and Leon and Vince snickered. Dom gave them a look like not one word. They wisely kept quiet. It was obvious that Torrie was ignoring Chris, who hadn't said one word at all. Mia smiled at the other girl. She felt bad that the poor thing had gotten out of that kind of relationship and now the whole team was as much as ignoring her.
Chris was jealous of the easy way Torrie had with the group in general and with her boyfriend Dom, who was the most beautiful man that Chris had ever seen. Torrie and Dom made the perfect beautiful couple. It was also clear to Chris now that Vince had not been exaggerating. His team did love Torrie and it was clear that she loved them all back. Chris figured Torrie couldn't be all that bad and that she also now owed the other girl an apology.
Vince looked in the spare room and the girl, no Chris, not the girl he corrected himself, was still asleep. He didn't know if he should just let her sleep or wake her. It was lunch time, she'd never sleep tonight if she slept in much longer. Vince wondered what Mia had given Chris to wear to bed. He didn't want to wake her and find out that she had on some skimpy nightdress. He'd told Torrie the truth, he really didn't like Chris romantically at all. She was hardly his type. Mia and Torrie were the kind of girl he liked. Sweet and kind but with a spirit inside and the ability to stand up for themselves. He didn't like women who were too passive. He knew that Chris must be if she'd stayed with that user she'd been with all this time.
He was just not as big of an asshole as people made him out to be. He had a nice side, a part of him that cared about other people in general and he hated to see a man beat on a person, any person, who was half his size. It just wasn't right. But since he'd asked this girl to stay, that made her his responsibility. Therefore he had to wake her up and make sure she was going to be ok. It occurred to him that Mia had been looking for help around the store and Chris might be perfect for that. He doubted very much that the jerk she'd been seeing had allowed her to work at all. If she saw normal couples interact she'd know that what she had wasn't normal and that she could likely do better then the jerk she was with.
Just as he went to open the spare room door a very sleepy looking Torrie walked out of Dom's room in a pair of her boxers and one of Dom's white wifebeaters. She yawned delicately and rubbed her eyes.
"Hey." She said, like that was the only word she had the energy to get out and scratched her tummy like a guy. "How's it goin' V.?"
"I'm fine. How're you? I guess you and the boss man made up huh?" Vince said with a smirk as he leaned against the hall wall.
"I don't know. I guess so. Something's still bothering him but he still doesn't want to talk about it. I guess some things'll never change huh?" She pulled her fingers through her hair to try and tame it some.
"He's trying Torrie. I mean, I can really tell that he's trying. But I mean you must have mostly made up at least." Vince was clearly hinting that surely they must be ok with each other if they'd just slept together.
"We didn't make up or not make up. I found him sitting in the car looking upset, I asked him what was wrong, he wouldn't tell me, he started, well, I think you know without details what he started, then I fell asleep. Thus preventing any sort of conversation about what was on his mind. I think he does that a lot. Rather then talk about stuff he tries to change the subject with." She trailed off, embarrassed.
"Well, maybe he'd just rather show you he cares for you rather then talk about it." Vince tried to make Torrie feel better about the whole situation the best way he knew how.
"I hope you're right Vince. So what're you doin'?" "I'm gonna wake up Chris." Vince answered.
"Why?" Torrie figured they should let her sleep.
"Cause she'll be up all night if she sleeps all day. Plus I don't know if she has anywhere to be today. We didn't get to talk much last night." Vince looked embarrassed about the whole thing.
"If you think so V. You know this was a really nice thing you did for this girl. I mean, I know what it's like to think about not having a home of your own and I guess this girl was in a different situation but it was still like if she left this guy then she had no home and that's hard. Her name's Chris huh?"
"Yeah her names Chris, and I know takin' her in was nice, I just hate to see anyone getting picked on." Reminded him of when Mia use to get picked on by the girls who hated her for being so pretty and picked on by the boys who liked her.
"I think you do like her even if you don't want to admit it yet." Torrie winked at him and gave him a gentle smile. "Don't fight it just because you've got yourself convinced that Mia is the only girl for you V. Don't sell yourself short on a chance to meet someone for you just because you think that maybe Mia'll need you again someday. If you think you might like this girl and she might like you then give it your best shot ok?"
Vince hated the way Torrie knew things about him that he hadn't even realized yet. He wanted to keep telling himself this girl was not for him because if she was then he'd be in a relationship if Mia and the punk ever broke up, and then he couldn't be there for her. "I'll think about that Torrie. You think about not being too hard on my boy. He tries hard." Vince smiled at her.
"I know he does Vince, but it's still hard."
"Well, you know, it's not like I talk like this with everyone. There's just something about you that makes me want to talk to you. Hell, I'm the tuff one. I guess I've always been the one who was a little more volatile, a little more prone to being emotional, but I don't like to talk about it either normally. Dom's always had that control."
Torrie sighed. "I know. We're so well matched V. Why is it that we never hooked up? It's like strange you know? You don't have any feelings for me that way and I don't have any for you but we're the best matched couple in the group." It was puzzling but there wasn't anything to be done about it.
"I know, fate's a bitch isn't she?" Vince laughed. He then pulled Torrie into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "Go do what you were gonna do and go back to that big silly friend of mine. If he wakes up and you're gone he's libel to have some sort of hissy fit."
Torrie gave Vince a grin. "Dom doesn't have any kind of fits, let alone hissy fits." With that she padded into the bathroom on her little bare feet and shut the door. Vince let himself into the spare room and found Chris still asleep. He walked up to the bed and stood beside it looking down at the girl. Should he wake her? He'd be willing to bet that she'd be upset if she slept all day. He leaned down and shook her gently by the shoulder.
Chris felt someone shaking her. She was in the middle of a mild nightmare. She often had nightmares about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her boyfriend. It was gentle for how he normally shook her but she figured that maybe someone else was in the house. She stammered out quickly, "I'm sorry I overslept. I'll get up right away." She looked around frantically as she started to wake up.
Vince wished he'd roughed the guy who did this to her up worse then he had. That guy had been doing a real number on this poor girl. "Shhh. I'm not the punk remember? You're safe here. I just didn't think you'd wanna sleep all day and it's after lunch." Vince said in his best calm voice.
"Oh god." She started to sob. It all came back to her in the second she heard his voice. It was finally over. After two years of hell it was finally over. She let herself cry all the tears for all the things he'd done to her that she'd never dared to show emotion over before. She couldn't believe she'd gotten free.
"Shhh. It's ok. You're safe." Vince sat down beside her and rubbed her back softly. "Why the tears? You're safe from him now." Vince held her tighter as she continued to sob.
"I'm crying because it's finally over. I couldn't even cry or show I was upset while I was with him cause he'd hit me for it. I'm just so happy and relieved to be away from him. I'm sorry for being such a baby." She cried harder, although Vince would have swore that was impossible.
"You're not a baby. You were through a lot and it's ok to be happy it's over." Vince kept rubbing her back.
Torrie walked out of the bathroom and heard the girl crying and Vince's deep tenor answering her back softly in the spare room. She wondered if everything was ok. The door was open. She looked like hell, her hair was in a messy bun and she was still dressed in her underwear, her garage underwear none the less and Dom's undershirt. But she didn't know if V would be ok with the girl on his own. She peeked in the door. Vince looked kinda panicked.
"Everything ok V?" She asked softly and gave the other girl a soft smile when she looked up.
"Yeah, I think so." Vince answered back and winced when the girl couldn't see him. He hated it when girls cried. Every time a girl cried he just wanted to run. "Are you ok? Or do you wanna talk to Torrie 'bout it? She's a good listener."
"I'm ok." Chris answered softly. She couldn't imagine talking about her problems to a girl as pretty as the one standing in front of her now. What would this perfect example of femininity know about being abused by your boyfriend and beaten black and blue?
"You sure?" Torrie asked. She knew Vince was a nice guy but she figured that sometimes a girl had to talk to a girl. Chris looked at her and if Torrie wasn't mistaken the other girl was giving her a dirty look. Torrie'd known that Chris was going to think she was after Vince.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris was mad at Torrie for looking so good in men's clothes and her hair not done. It wasn't fair. Chris felt like a doudy old lady next to this girl.
Torrie was both hurt and puzzled as to why the other girl didn't like her. "Ok, if you're sure. I'm sure Dom'll be wondering where I got to. Check you later V?"
"Of course baby girl. I'll see you at dinner." Vince picked up on Chris's dislike of Torrie and he was just as confused at she was. Torrie the room with her head hanging a bit. Vince heard the door of Dom's room close. "What do you have against Torrie? Do you know her from somewhere?" Vince asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice because he knew that Chris would be really upset if he showed he was mad, even though the thoughts of anyone being mean to Torrie made Vince want to just explode.
"Nothing, I don't have anything against her, I just know that me and that type of girl don't get along." Chris didn't want Vince to be mad at her. Being in his arms while he comforted her felt right.
"What kind of girl is that?" Vince wanted to understand what part of Torrie made her 'that kind of girl' and gave someone permission not to like her.
"Oh, the pretty popular girls, the girls with the perfect hair that look good in anything. They only wanted to be around girls like me if they needed help in science class. The kind of girl who never has to worry about anything because some man's always falling over himself to do stuff for her, hold her hair back when she vomits, that sort of thing." Chris stopped before anything even more catty could leave her mouth. She knew this girl was not Vince's girlfriend but he clearly cared about her a lot, he called her baby girl.
"Torrie sure is pretty, and she's pretty popular around here. We all love her, and she loves us all. I don't think she ever needed help in school; she's really smart on her own. I think Dom might be around to hold her hair back if she threw up but hey, that's his job. She's the nicest girl I've ever met. She tends to be impulsive and drive far too fast but other then that." Vince trailed off. "You can't judge her based on her looks. She even owns her own auto parts store and works in Dom's garage. She's very nice."
"Well I'm sorry I made a snap judgement but it's my experience that the popular kids and I just don't get along." Chris tried to be impartial and not dig herself any deeper.
"Well, give Torrie a chance ok? She's not having the easiest time with her boyfriend, my boy Dominic, right now and it's hard on her ok? She hates to have anything in the house out of order, she's just like Mia. So you want me to leave you now? Mia washed your clothes so you can wear 'em. I can take you to your house and pick up the rest of your stuff today if you want." Vince thought if the rest of her stuff was like what she had on last night it was better off lost.
"I'll do my best to give Torrie a chance. What kind of issues is she having with Dominic?" Chris did not want to watch another girl go through what Vince had just helped her leave.
"Not what you're thinking. He's not like that. But, well, when Torrie first came to live here it was just because she needed a place to stay and Dom needed another mechanic slash racer. She wasn't his girl at first and he didn't want her to be. I kinda liked her back then, I thought she liked me too but then even before she ended up with Dom our relationship just changed and we knew we were only going to be friends. But then it became obvious Dom liked her. That was fine because she's had a thing for Dom since she was like 13. But she and I already had this great relationship, like best friends. That woulda been fine but she started working on this project, a surprise for Dom. He'd written his dead father's car off and Torrie got it back and started to rebuild it. But she couldn't handle it on her own, so she asked me to help her with it. And we had to spend a lot of time together to get it done. Then he accused her of cheating on him with me. She was really upset over it. Dom has issues talking 'bout feelings. So now every time they fight Dom shuts up and Torrie throws what he said about her and I back at him to try and get some sort of a reaction out of him."
"I see. She sounds like a saint." Chris didn't know what to think now.
"Oh, she's far from. Didn't you see her dancin' wit me?"
"Just the tail end." Chris answered with a smile.
"Well, watch her dance next party. If you're lucky she'll dance with Dom. They have this great rythem together."
"So Dom must be the guy who owns this place right?" Chris had heard a lot about this Dom charater.
"Yep, he's the man, been my friend since 3rd grade. He's a good guy. I'll let you get dressed and you can start to meet us all since you're gonna be sticken around for awhile." She nodded, she didn't want to tip him off to the fact that she planned on taking off as soon as she thought it was wise.
Torrie crept back into the bedroom and saw that Dom was still asleep. He'd rolled onto his back in the center of the bed. She felt a little revenge coming on. She pulled all the blankets off the bed and stood back for a second just to admire the view. She'd ended up with this man how? She asked herself. He was perfection. She wondered every day why he picked her. He shifted in his sleep and the play of the muscles under his skin was fabulos. She carefully crawled onto the bed and then kneeled beside him. She took a chunk of her hair and trailed it down the center of his chest and over his belly. He swiped at her in his sleep but didn't wake up. She trailed the hair across his belly from side to side and he swatted at her again. She figured he might be really tired if he was still asleep. She sat back on her heels and tried to think up something else to do to him to wake him up.
She could throw cold water on him but that was hardly original. She could try to haul his ass out of bed and put him in the hall naked. Well, two problems there, one she wasn't strong enough to move him alone and two she didn't want to share this view with anyone else. So what else. She wondered if he was ticklish. She took the same part of her hair and ran it over his ribs. He squirmed around to get away. She kept it up and after a minute of this new torture he woke up laughing and trying to get away.
"'bout time you woke up." Torrie stated as she kept tickling his ribs.
"Stop." Dom gasped out around the deep laughter. "I'll do anything, just stop."
"I don't think I want to." She said, laughter glinting in her green eyes. Dom had her on her back in a half second, under him, arms pinned over her head.
"That was devious. Wait till I'm asleep to tickle the hell outta me." Dom laughed. "Now I'm up. So what'd you want me up for?"
"Cause it's supper time almost and you were still asleep. I'll have you know I thought long and hard about how to wake you."
"Oh yeah, what were some of the other ideas you had?"
"Well, there was throw cold water on you, but that was too cliché. I wanted to drag you down to the living room au natural and leave you there while no one was around and hope the team came home all at once and saw you, but I wasn't strong enough to move you."
"Oh, you're bad." Dom leaned down and kissed her. "Why are you wearing my clothes?"
"They were on the floor, and therefore easiest to pull on when I ran to the bathroom. Speaking of which, while on the way to the bathroom I ran into Vince. He was going to wake up the new girl. I talked to him for a second then went to the bathroom and he went into the spare room. When I came out the girl was crying. I know how well you guys deal with crying girls so I checked to make sure everything was ok and the girl was mean to me." Torrie looked upset.
"Mean how?" Dom asked.
"Like I could tell she didn't like me. She was all cold and gave me these nasty, dirty looks. I don't know what I did." Torrie was getting upset all over again thinking about it.
"It just musta been that she didn't want you to see her cry." Dom didn't know how anyone would just not like Torrie. She had her moments but never with people she didn't know.
"Maybe, but still, she was downright mean lookin'."
"Well, ultimately who cares baby? She's not staying forever and if she makes you uncomfortable she can leave now." Dom didn't want to see anyone being mean to Torrie in her own house.
"Well, she has no where to go. I might be over reacting." Torrie looked up into Dom's deep brown eyes and smiled. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It's nothing I'm sure."
"It'll be fine. You're right. And if you wanna eat supper we either get up now or we miss it." Dom laughed. One touch from this girl, one look and he had to have her.
"Ok then get up. I need ta eat." Dom got up with a groan.
"You're wearing my clothes." He whined at her.
"So? You have lots and they look better on me then you." She laughed. Then she started to pull the top off. "You want it back?" She asked right before she would have bared her chest.
"You keep it, it does look better on you. Plus you take that up any higher and you may never leave this room."
They walked down the stairs holding hands. Torrie bothered to pull on pants but she kept Dom's undershirt on for a top. Mia, Brian, Jesse, and Leon were already at the dinner table.
"Hey gang." Torrie said, trying to sound cheerful. They all answered her back with hellos. Dom asked the question she had in her mind.
"Where's Vince?" "Never came down from upstairs yet." Mia answered. "Why?"
"I just wanted to know more about this girl that's staying here. Like for how long and what's up wit that, that sorta thing." Dom said as he sat down and then pulled Torrie onto his lap.
"Where's Letty been at lately?" Torrie asked, the other girl hadn't been around half as much lately.
"She's been out with Brian's friend from away Rome." Mia said with a smile. "I think she likes him."
"That's the guy wit the terrible purple Eclipse right?" Dom asked.
"That's him." Brian answered. "The cops bought him that car when he did that job with me."
Then Vince and Chris joined the team at the table. Torrie gave Vince a small smile but she didn't so much as look at Chris. She kissed Dom on his cheek and leaned against his chest. She hated it when people didn't like her for unknown reasons. It didn't make sense. Dom sensed her withdrawl from the group and wrapped his arms around her waist. He tipped his head sideways to look her in the eye and asked in a low voice "Wanna go out and eat then maybe see a movie?" He thought she might want out of the house.
"Naw, Mia already cooked. But we can go to that movie if you want." Torrie knew what Dom was up to. Vince had hoped that Torrie hadn't really picked up on Chris's attitude but he could see that she had. Vince watched as Dom smoothed Torrie's hair and whispered in her ear. She whispered back and then they looked at Mia.
"It's rude to whisper." Mia said with a smile.
"You don't want to know what he said to me." Torrie said with an evil grin, even though Dom hadn't said anything at all she couldn't share with the group.
"Hey!" Dom exclaimed. "I didn't say anything like that."
"Oh, you're so bad Dommie." Torrie said with the same evil smile. Dom looked embarrassed to be called Dommie in front of the team and Leon and Vince snickered. Dom gave them a look like not one word. They wisely kept quiet. It was obvious that Torrie was ignoring Chris, who hadn't said one word at all. Mia smiled at the other girl. She felt bad that the poor thing had gotten out of that kind of relationship and now the whole team was as much as ignoring her.
Chris was jealous of the easy way Torrie had with the group in general and with her boyfriend Dom, who was the most beautiful man that Chris had ever seen. Torrie and Dom made the perfect beautiful couple. It was also clear to Chris now that Vince had not been exaggerating. His team did love Torrie and it was clear that she loved them all back. Chris figured Torrie couldn't be all that bad and that she also now owed the other girl an apology.