Chapter 69 - Blue Bullet
"She's just not ready to talk to you yet brotha." Vince answered Dom on the phone. He cursed Torrie for making him promise he wouldn't bother her for the phone as he fielded questions from a very irate Dom.
"Well, I want to talk to her Vince. So just get her on the phone god damn phone man."
"No way Dom. I promised her I wouldn't bother her any more tonight. I can't do it to her man. I have her three quarters of the way toward trusting you and believing nothing happened. I'm not gonna force anything with her tonight. Call back tomorrow man." Vince sighed. "You should know you can't force Torrie to do anything if she doesn't want to and if you try it'll just blow up in your face."
"I guess." Dom answered and Vince could almost hear the frustration. He could almost hear the hand running over the stubble on the top of Dom's bald head. "But damn it I didn't do anything wrong this time. It's like all those times with Letty all over again."
"You didn't exactly do nothing Dom. You shouldn't have left something so stupid in such an obvious place." Vince answered back.
"I know. I know. You'll make sure she talks to me tomorrow?"
"I'll do my best tomorrow Dom. I promise." Vince moved to end the call. "I'll talk to you soon."
"Yeah, ok Vince. Talk to you later." With that Dom hung up the phone and Vince turned around and almost ran into Leon.
"We need to talk Dawg." Leon stated and Vince could tell he was nervous.
"Wha?" Vince asked.
He wasn't in the mood to deal with any of the team's problems. He had enough of his own and he'd never signed on to be their leader. It was Dom's job and Vince had never once wanted it for his own. He was more then happy to let Dom referee them all. Vince just felt he had enough on his plate with Torrie in a whirlwind of emotion and keeping her out of trouble.
"Um." Leon didn't know how to start.
"What is it Leon?" Vince asked impatiently. Vince was thinking that any issue Leon had could hold till Dom got home to deal with it.
Mia came into the room. Leon wanted to tell Vince about Chris and what the girl had seen but he didn't want to talk about it in front of Mia. Leon decided it wasn't any of his business. It would just have to play out however it played out.
"Nothin Dawg." Leon turned to walk away.
"You sure Leon?" Vince could tell that Leon had really had something important on his mind. He figured that he'd given Leon the brush off with his attitude and while Dom was gone and Torrie was out of the loop dealing with her own issues Vince figured that he had no choice but play team leader.
"Yeah, it'll keep." With that Leon went back downstairs.
Vince sat down with Mia to watch some TV.
About half an hour later Torrie came down the stairs dressed in a pair of skin tight black leather pants, a huge pair of boots, a red tube top with sleeves that were detached from the shirt, it was three separate pieces, and it left her midriff bare. The stark black and crimson red made her skin look even paler and creamier then usual and emphasized the raven black color of her hair and brows. The vampy black eyeliner and black eye shadow and deep crimson red lipstick she had used had emphasized the green of her eyes and made them pop out startlingly in her still too pale face as well as enhanced the waifish look of her high cheekbones. The shoulder baring shirt revealed the fluted bones of her shoulders and collarbones. She had a simple red velvet ribbon around her neck as a choker.
Torrie made a noise at the bottom of the stairs with her keys by mistake as she began to open the door and Vince looked up. Torrie looked back at him guiltily, her mouth a startled O of surprise, as she hadn't planned on telling him she was going out. She'd hoped before he'd know she was gone she'd have at least been in her car. She knew he wouldn't approve of her going out on her own and she knew he'd be able to tell she was going out to party dressed as she was. She started to formulate lies.
"Where you off to Torrie?" Vince asked, wondering where she was sneaking off to.
"Just for a drive V." Torrie answered and wished she could lie to Vince. She could tell from the look on his face he didn't believe her in the least.
"Dressed to kill just to go for a drive? Come clean princess." Vince stood up and started to stalk her way like some sort of jungle cat.
Torrie started to turn the doorknob, escape the only thing on her mind.
"I swear V. I'm just going for a drive. I haven't seen Nero in like 4 days." Using her car as a convenient excuse, Torrie fully rotated the knob and started to swing the door open so she could get out of the house and away from playing 20 questions with Vince.
"Not so fast. I don't know if I want you going out on your own baby girl." Vince grabbed her wrist softly in one hand and shoved the door closed again with the other as Mia looked on, curious what was up. Vince traced the hem of her shirt where it lay against the skin of her abdomen. "You're car doesn't care how dressed up you are, and it seems like you'd know better then to waste this view on a car."
Mia didn't know what would make Vince care if Torrie went out on her own or not. Mia wished she'd been invited to go with her friend but Torrie did have friends outside of the team, and Mia knew she didn't get to see them much. Vince was acting strange toward Torrie, had been since she'd gotten back and Mia hated being left out of the loop. Mia'd been watching them and they were flirting way more then they had in the past few months.
"If you must know I'm meeting Lex and we're going out for a while." Torrie answered defiantly, daring Vince to have anything to say about it.
Chris came up from the basement and took in both Torrie's outfit and the fact that Vince had a hold of her wrist, his other hand beside her head on the door by this point, holding it closed.
"Torrie, don't do it. Stay home." Vince implored softly. He had a fair idea what Torrie was up to and it wasn't a good plan.
Torrie turned red under his scrutiny because she was well aware that Vince had keyed in on why she was going out.
"I'm going out V. It's a done deal. I haveta pick up Lex. She's waiting on me to show up at her house." Torrie looked down pointedly at the place where his hand still had a hold of her wrist. "I don't wanna be late."
"Well, maybe I'll come too." Vince said and released her. He put a hand on the small of her back to escort her out the door of the house. "Let's go."
"V, baby?" Torrie asked sweetly, turning to face her friend.
"Um?" Vince asked, not trusting where she was going with that sugary tone.
"You're dressed like a scruff. Your hair looks like it hasn't seen a comb in days and you need a shave. You look scruffy even for you. You're shirt has grease on it here," she touched his chest, "and here, and there, oh, and over there, and over here." She touched each greasy spot in turn. "And I don't even want to start on those pants." Torrie looked down at Vince's faded jeans, which had dirt up the fronts from leaning on cars and two dirty hand prints on the butt from where he'd dried his half ass washed, greasy hands on the ass of his own pants.
"Well, you can just wait right there while I go change." Vince said and with a look that dared her to leave without him Vince went to change. He didn't know what Torrie was up to going out in her state of mind but he knew it couldn't bode well for Dom and his relationship with Torrie if Torrie got out on the town without supervision in the mood she was in. Vince had a fair idea it would involve doing something with other guys in some club around LA, and Vince just questioned how far Torrie would go in a drunken flight of retribution against Dom.
Vince stalked down the stairs and Torrie threw herself down in a chair in the living room to wait on him. She knew how much trouble there'd be if she left without him. She didn't want a chaperone, she just wanted to go out with her girl. Torrie sprawled across her chair, left leg tossed over the chair arm, leaning back insolently, arms crossed across her chest and an evil glint in her eye. Mia looked at Torrie with undisguised curiosity as Chris fully entered the living room. Chris sat down beside Mia and proceeded to give Torrie a dirty, mean look. A look Torrie caught.
It was the last straw on her already stretched to the breaking point nerves. She shot off a verbal retort to Chris's unspoken insult.
"Oh hell no! I know you aren't starting this again! What are you lookin at?" Torrie asked as snottily as she could manage. Having just had her plan to get blindingly drunk and shake her ass with as many different guys as she could find thwarted by Vince's presence in her night she was in a very black mood indeed and she wasn't up to taking attitude from Chris with good humour and a smile.
Chris looked her up and down and sneered.
"Not much." She looked away as if to dismiss Torrie from her world.
Mia looked from the blonde haired girl to the black with her mouth hanging open. She didn't know what to say to diffuse the situation and she was in such a state of shock she didn't say anything. She knew it wasn't going to be good. Torrie was in some sort of strange mood and while Mia didn't know what it as over she knew it didn't bode well for how Torrie would react.
"Oh no you didn't!" Torrie stood up. "I've taken about all the shit I'm gonna outta you. You got such a problem with me then there's the fucken door. Use it!" Torrie stamped her foot in a childish temper tantrum. "Not much? Have you seen the mirror lately sweetie? I think you could be talking about yourself there." Torrie gestured to her own body. She was justifying Chris's opinion that she was a catty bitch but she didn't care at that point of her life. "I'm dating Dominic Toretto for crying out loud. Dom'd never look at you twice. Hell, he wouldn't look at you once. I could have your man too if I wanted so I'd watch who I called not much! I can have you out of here tomorrow if I want to so you'd better watch who you talk to like that!"
Mia's mouth was open in a flabbergasted O of surprise as she watched the all out verbal assault between the two women in front of her develop. She didn't know what to do or say. She'd never seen the side of Torrie she was seeing now, and the same went for Chris. Mia didn't know where Chris had found the backbone to stand up for herself or where the extreme attitude had come from in Torrie. Mia watched the two girls stalk toward each other across the living room.
"You are so full of yourself it's not even funny!" Chris shouted. "You are not all that! It's called sunlight for one thing, you might want to try going out in it some day. You look like some vampire you're so fucken pale. Are you allergic to the sun? Oh and you might want to try eating something someday so that you might get some sort of figure. I guess no one told you it's not fashionable to be anorexic anymore. You dress like those skanky girls you all hold in such contempt around races. Every time we go you and that Letty girl have nasty things to say about them but you and her aren't any better. And you have the personality of a bitch. I mean for crying out loud, your own boy had to take a month long vacation just to get away from you!"
It hit so close to home that Torrie's hand snapped out and slapped the other girl across the mouth. Hard. It snapped Chris's head to the side and brought out an angry red patch in the shape of Torrie's hand on her face. Chris put a hand to her cheek and stared at Torrie in surprise.
Torrie snatched her hand back in shock. She didn't know what had driven her to be physically violent with another human being but she knew she had no desire to take it back now that she had. But she was still shocked at her own behaviour. Then the red haze of anger took back over and she ploughed ahead on her tirade.
"Don't you ever say things like that about me'n Dom! You understand? Not ever! You don't know fucken anything about anything around here. You'll be lucky if Letty doesn't kill you when I tell her what you said. You are nothing around here. Nothing! You understand me? When Dom gets home you'll be so sorry. You have no right to talk to me like that!" Torrie started to cry and she rushed the door.
Mia had stood up in shock when the screaming had started but she'd never recovered enough to do anything about any of it. She glanced over at the door to the kitchen and saw Vince standing in it looking just as shocked as she figured she looked, and knew Chris looked.
Vince shook his head and realized that in two seconds Torrie would be tearing off down the road in her car, which happened to have a full load of spray on board, thanks to him and his knowledge she was going to want to race as soon as she could when she got home. With a sympathetic look at Mia for what he was about to do he abandoned the shocked Chris to Mia's care and took off after Torrie. He knew he'd have lots of time to talk to Chris later but if Torrie killed herself in a car wreck he'd never get another chance to talk to her and when Dom found out he'd let her get away in such a state Dom would kill him.
"Torrie!" Vince yelled as he hit the front door at a dead run. She had just reached her car and had used her keyless entry to unlock the door and disarm the security system. She looked up with tears running down her face and just continued to try and get into her car. She managed to slide in and get the key in the ignition. Just as the engine clicked over and she went to put the car in reverse Vince got his door open. He got in and got the door closed just as she started to squeal down the drive, almost losing his leg in the process. She stopped the car with a squeal.
"Get out Vince." She growled out around her tears. "I mean it!"
"No way am I letting you drive off on your own in this state. What was that all about?" Vince asked her.
Torrie decided that if he wanted to stay with her so bad she'd make him regret his decision in any way she could. She slammed the car in first and squealed down the street, narrowly missing the Maxima where it was parked at the foot of the driveway on the street. Vince grabbed the holy shit handle with a startled look at his blue car, which had flown by out his window at an alarming rate and a very alarmingly short distance away.
"What is this all about? Are you serious?" Torrie looked at Vince in angry shock. "Did you hear what that evil bitch said to me?" Torrie asked on a hiss of anger. "I swear she is Satan's whore." Torrie snarled out and then hit third gear violently, making the car shudder and lurch.
"Here!" Vince growled. Without the story he wasn't taking sides against the girl he was, in a lot of ways, dating. But it was obvious to him that Torrie was truly angry and she didn't really get into such a state unless something really had thrown her over the edge. "What happened Torrie?"
Torrie noted Vince's lack of pet names when he addressed her and figured that meant he was pissed off with her over whatever part of what went down he'd heard. He'd normally be calling her endearments to try and calm her down. She started to recount the story of what had transpired in the living room in a voice that oozed malice for Chris.
"I was sitting there waiting for you, against my wishes I might add, and that heinous bitch walked into the room and started giving me the vilest looks, again. So I asked her what the hell she was doing and what she thought she was looking at like that. She says 'not much'. I told her if she had such a problem with me that the door was right over there and she could fucken well use it if she was so unhappy. She told me I was too pale, to thin, that I dressed like a whore, and that I was a bitch and that it was no wonder that my boy had to take a month long vacation to get away from me."
Vince sucked in a breath at the last part. So that was what had set her off.
Torrie sped up another ten miles an hour and hit her exit. She decided to drift the off ramp to the freeway. She gunned the engine more and cut the wheel, the rear end of the Silvia broke free and slid around the corner with a deafening squeal that almost drowned out the sound of Torrie's laboured breathing as she fought the all consuming rage that threatened to overcome her and make her do something truly crazy, and fought the wheel to keep the car from becoming intimate with the cement guardrail. The surging adrenaline in her system was just adding fuel to the fire.
Vince's knuckles turned white on the door handle. He'd never seen Torrie drive so violently, not even when Dom had yelled at her in front of Letty and she'd used her NOS on the freeway. He could see the crazed look in her eyes, see the set of her face, her winged brows knitted together in fierce concentration as she fought to keep the car on it's out of control, but controlled flight path sideways down the off ramp.
Torrie continued, brow still furrowed as she fought to control her dark blue bullet.
"So I slapped her and went to run out of the house when you chased after me." Torrie could hardly see around the tears in her eyes. She was dodging in and out of the other cars on the freeway, darting left and right and almost standing on the gas. Her Silvia was giving all it could, screaming and straining with the effort, the pistons pounding like her heart. She felt like her heart was going to jump right out of her chest it was pounding so hard.
"She just said all that stuff to you?" Vince asked, not really buying that as shy as Chris was she just blew up at Torrie out of the blue like Torrie was saying she had. The dirty looks he'd buy.
"Well, I said something to her when she told me I wasn't much to look at. I might have rubbed in the fact that I was the one dating Dom, not her." Torrie admitted and then violently switched lanes, cutting off a half ton truck, causing the irate driver to honk at her. She didn't seem to notice.
"Do you think we could slow down?" Vince asked as he bumped up against the door, jarred by the motion of the car.
Torrie shot him a dirty look.
"Guess not." He answered his own question then sighed. Vince wasn't sure what to do. Chris had said something silly in the heat of the moment but in all fairness she hadn't known how silly it was till after she'd said it. Vince figured he'd save passing judgement till he got the full story from Mia.
"Did Dom take this job to take a break from me?" Torrie asked in a small voice, slacking the speed off a small amount and the speedometer started to drop from 170 to 150. The fight was leaching out of her, the adrenaline wearing off and letting her mind release the fight or flight response her fight with Chris had driven her to.
"No Torrie. He didn't. You know that. He loves you."
"But he left me for a whole month." Torrie took the exit for Lex's neighbourhood.
"You told him it was ok and he didn't really want to go so far away. He only went cause you told him it was fine." Vince tried to be the voice of reason.
"But he still went. And ended up with some other girls perfume and makeup all over him while he was gone."
"We went over this Torrie." Vince ran a hand through his hair.
"But first that happens then SHE says shit about it." Torrie trailed off and heaved a shuddering sigh.
"Oh Princess, she didn't know. If she knew what you just went through she wouldn't have said anything about Dom. You and she were fighting and she just said the first thing that popped into her head. Just like you did."
Vince was back to pet names, Torrie noted. He never could stay mad at her for long. Torrie knew when he got the whole story from Chris he was likely to be rippen at her again but for now he was totally on her side again.
"I don't know if I buy that Vince." Torrie pulled into her friends drive.
Vince just sighed and got in the back seat. Lex got into the car, took one look at her friend and leaned over the center consol to grab her in a tight hug.
"What did he do to you Ro?" Lex slipped into her pet name for her best friend.
"Nothing." Torrie said and started to back up. Lex pulled the parking brake, slipped the car into neutral and shut down the engine with a flick of her wrist.
Vince thought ruefully that he wished he'd thought of that. It might have saved him some years on his life he'd lost as she'd flown from their house to her friend's.
"Oh no you don't. Something horrible happened and you're gonna tell me all about it sweetie." Lex said softly. "You know it'll eat you up inside if you don't tell someone."
"I thought Dom cheated on me and I ran away and I guess maybe he didn't but I still feel like he did and then I got home and this girl that's staying with us said some really mean things about me and Dom and how I look and act and stuff then I slapped her and I'm having a terrible day!" Torrie filled in the holes that she'd left in her story and then gasped when she finally stopped talking, her whole story to Lex had basically been one long run on sentence.
If Vince hadn't known the story he'd never have figured it out from what Torrie had just said. Lex, it seemed had understood every word and answered back in a similar fashion.
"Dom didn't cheat on you he's just a fucken idiot to leave the shirt the skanky hoe dirtied when she tried to get YOUR man, not that she ever could and this girl that's staying at your house deserved to be slapped for what she said to you and you didn't do anything wrong and it's all gonna be fine, you'll see when Dom comes home and he hears what that girl said he'll take care of her and he'll apologise to you for the misunderstanding and then everything'll be fine and in the mean time you and me are gonna go dance and get really drunk, you'll feel better then and maybe we should take a cab so you don't haveta worry about getting your car home." Lex came up for air.
"I'll drive the car home if you ladies can't." Vince chuckled despite himself. He'd forgotten what a motor mouth Torrie's friend was.
"Hot damn!" Lex exclaimed and jumped a mile. She hadn't realized that Vince was in the back seat of the car. "You scared the hell out of me. I didn't know you were back there. If you're around what the hell is this bitch girl staying at the house doing having a chance to hurt my girl like this?" Lex spun in her seat to confront Vince.
Torrie started the car and started to head toward the club Lex had picked out for them to go out to.
"It happened when I was downstairs changing so I didn't have to let Torrie drive over here on her own." Vince answered.
"I woulda been fine and if you'd stayed upstairs to be around when 'miss thing' came into the living room and she likely never would have shot her mouth off at me either if you'd been there." Torrie told Vince snidely.
"Baby girl, I couldn't let you drive alone in the state you were in, you shouldn't have been driving at all."
"Whatever Vince." Torrie answered, feeling like taking out some of her anger at Chris on Vince. After all, it was Vince the other girl stayed around to see.
"Aw Torrie. Don't start this again. Please? It kills me when we fight." Vince sighed. He couldn't take another week or more of Torrie being angry and upset with him.
"Am I missing something here?" Lex asked.
"I've kind of been seeing the girl that Torrie doesn't like that's staying with us and it's come between us all before since they don't get along." Vince answered.
Lex went to add her retort to that statement but Torrie cut her off.
"Listen, I just want to have a good time for the rest of the night. No more talking about Chris or Dom or anything else. Got it?" Torrie looked around at her two friends.
"Fine." They both answered and Torrie continued to drive toward the club.
"She's just not ready to talk to you yet brotha." Vince answered Dom on the phone. He cursed Torrie for making him promise he wouldn't bother her for the phone as he fielded questions from a very irate Dom.
"Well, I want to talk to her Vince. So just get her on the phone god damn phone man."
"No way Dom. I promised her I wouldn't bother her any more tonight. I can't do it to her man. I have her three quarters of the way toward trusting you and believing nothing happened. I'm not gonna force anything with her tonight. Call back tomorrow man." Vince sighed. "You should know you can't force Torrie to do anything if she doesn't want to and if you try it'll just blow up in your face."
"I guess." Dom answered and Vince could almost hear the frustration. He could almost hear the hand running over the stubble on the top of Dom's bald head. "But damn it I didn't do anything wrong this time. It's like all those times with Letty all over again."
"You didn't exactly do nothing Dom. You shouldn't have left something so stupid in such an obvious place." Vince answered back.
"I know. I know. You'll make sure she talks to me tomorrow?"
"I'll do my best tomorrow Dom. I promise." Vince moved to end the call. "I'll talk to you soon."
"Yeah, ok Vince. Talk to you later." With that Dom hung up the phone and Vince turned around and almost ran into Leon.
"We need to talk Dawg." Leon stated and Vince could tell he was nervous.
"Wha?" Vince asked.
He wasn't in the mood to deal with any of the team's problems. He had enough of his own and he'd never signed on to be their leader. It was Dom's job and Vince had never once wanted it for his own. He was more then happy to let Dom referee them all. Vince just felt he had enough on his plate with Torrie in a whirlwind of emotion and keeping her out of trouble.
"Um." Leon didn't know how to start.
"What is it Leon?" Vince asked impatiently. Vince was thinking that any issue Leon had could hold till Dom got home to deal with it.
Mia came into the room. Leon wanted to tell Vince about Chris and what the girl had seen but he didn't want to talk about it in front of Mia. Leon decided it wasn't any of his business. It would just have to play out however it played out.
"Nothin Dawg." Leon turned to walk away.
"You sure Leon?" Vince could tell that Leon had really had something important on his mind. He figured that he'd given Leon the brush off with his attitude and while Dom was gone and Torrie was out of the loop dealing with her own issues Vince figured that he had no choice but play team leader.
"Yeah, it'll keep." With that Leon went back downstairs.
Vince sat down with Mia to watch some TV.
About half an hour later Torrie came down the stairs dressed in a pair of skin tight black leather pants, a huge pair of boots, a red tube top with sleeves that were detached from the shirt, it was three separate pieces, and it left her midriff bare. The stark black and crimson red made her skin look even paler and creamier then usual and emphasized the raven black color of her hair and brows. The vampy black eyeliner and black eye shadow and deep crimson red lipstick she had used had emphasized the green of her eyes and made them pop out startlingly in her still too pale face as well as enhanced the waifish look of her high cheekbones. The shoulder baring shirt revealed the fluted bones of her shoulders and collarbones. She had a simple red velvet ribbon around her neck as a choker.
Torrie made a noise at the bottom of the stairs with her keys by mistake as she began to open the door and Vince looked up. Torrie looked back at him guiltily, her mouth a startled O of surprise, as she hadn't planned on telling him she was going out. She'd hoped before he'd know she was gone she'd have at least been in her car. She knew he wouldn't approve of her going out on her own and she knew he'd be able to tell she was going out to party dressed as she was. She started to formulate lies.
"Where you off to Torrie?" Vince asked, wondering where she was sneaking off to.
"Just for a drive V." Torrie answered and wished she could lie to Vince. She could tell from the look on his face he didn't believe her in the least.
"Dressed to kill just to go for a drive? Come clean princess." Vince stood up and started to stalk her way like some sort of jungle cat.
Torrie started to turn the doorknob, escape the only thing on her mind.
"I swear V. I'm just going for a drive. I haven't seen Nero in like 4 days." Using her car as a convenient excuse, Torrie fully rotated the knob and started to swing the door open so she could get out of the house and away from playing 20 questions with Vince.
"Not so fast. I don't know if I want you going out on your own baby girl." Vince grabbed her wrist softly in one hand and shoved the door closed again with the other as Mia looked on, curious what was up. Vince traced the hem of her shirt where it lay against the skin of her abdomen. "You're car doesn't care how dressed up you are, and it seems like you'd know better then to waste this view on a car."
Mia didn't know what would make Vince care if Torrie went out on her own or not. Mia wished she'd been invited to go with her friend but Torrie did have friends outside of the team, and Mia knew she didn't get to see them much. Vince was acting strange toward Torrie, had been since she'd gotten back and Mia hated being left out of the loop. Mia'd been watching them and they were flirting way more then they had in the past few months.
"If you must know I'm meeting Lex and we're going out for a while." Torrie answered defiantly, daring Vince to have anything to say about it.
Chris came up from the basement and took in both Torrie's outfit and the fact that Vince had a hold of her wrist, his other hand beside her head on the door by this point, holding it closed.
"Torrie, don't do it. Stay home." Vince implored softly. He had a fair idea what Torrie was up to and it wasn't a good plan.
Torrie turned red under his scrutiny because she was well aware that Vince had keyed in on why she was going out.
"I'm going out V. It's a done deal. I haveta pick up Lex. She's waiting on me to show up at her house." Torrie looked down pointedly at the place where his hand still had a hold of her wrist. "I don't wanna be late."
"Well, maybe I'll come too." Vince said and released her. He put a hand on the small of her back to escort her out the door of the house. "Let's go."
"V, baby?" Torrie asked sweetly, turning to face her friend.
"Um?" Vince asked, not trusting where she was going with that sugary tone.
"You're dressed like a scruff. Your hair looks like it hasn't seen a comb in days and you need a shave. You look scruffy even for you. You're shirt has grease on it here," she touched his chest, "and here, and there, oh, and over there, and over here." She touched each greasy spot in turn. "And I don't even want to start on those pants." Torrie looked down at Vince's faded jeans, which had dirt up the fronts from leaning on cars and two dirty hand prints on the butt from where he'd dried his half ass washed, greasy hands on the ass of his own pants.
"Well, you can just wait right there while I go change." Vince said and with a look that dared her to leave without him Vince went to change. He didn't know what Torrie was up to going out in her state of mind but he knew it couldn't bode well for Dom and his relationship with Torrie if Torrie got out on the town without supervision in the mood she was in. Vince had a fair idea it would involve doing something with other guys in some club around LA, and Vince just questioned how far Torrie would go in a drunken flight of retribution against Dom.
Vince stalked down the stairs and Torrie threw herself down in a chair in the living room to wait on him. She knew how much trouble there'd be if she left without him. She didn't want a chaperone, she just wanted to go out with her girl. Torrie sprawled across her chair, left leg tossed over the chair arm, leaning back insolently, arms crossed across her chest and an evil glint in her eye. Mia looked at Torrie with undisguised curiosity as Chris fully entered the living room. Chris sat down beside Mia and proceeded to give Torrie a dirty, mean look. A look Torrie caught.
It was the last straw on her already stretched to the breaking point nerves. She shot off a verbal retort to Chris's unspoken insult.
"Oh hell no! I know you aren't starting this again! What are you lookin at?" Torrie asked as snottily as she could manage. Having just had her plan to get blindingly drunk and shake her ass with as many different guys as she could find thwarted by Vince's presence in her night she was in a very black mood indeed and she wasn't up to taking attitude from Chris with good humour and a smile.
Chris looked her up and down and sneered.
"Not much." She looked away as if to dismiss Torrie from her world.
Mia looked from the blonde haired girl to the black with her mouth hanging open. She didn't know what to say to diffuse the situation and she was in such a state of shock she didn't say anything. She knew it wasn't going to be good. Torrie was in some sort of strange mood and while Mia didn't know what it as over she knew it didn't bode well for how Torrie would react.
"Oh no you didn't!" Torrie stood up. "I've taken about all the shit I'm gonna outta you. You got such a problem with me then there's the fucken door. Use it!" Torrie stamped her foot in a childish temper tantrum. "Not much? Have you seen the mirror lately sweetie? I think you could be talking about yourself there." Torrie gestured to her own body. She was justifying Chris's opinion that she was a catty bitch but she didn't care at that point of her life. "I'm dating Dominic Toretto for crying out loud. Dom'd never look at you twice. Hell, he wouldn't look at you once. I could have your man too if I wanted so I'd watch who I called not much! I can have you out of here tomorrow if I want to so you'd better watch who you talk to like that!"
Mia's mouth was open in a flabbergasted O of surprise as she watched the all out verbal assault between the two women in front of her develop. She didn't know what to do or say. She'd never seen the side of Torrie she was seeing now, and the same went for Chris. Mia didn't know where Chris had found the backbone to stand up for herself or where the extreme attitude had come from in Torrie. Mia watched the two girls stalk toward each other across the living room.
"You are so full of yourself it's not even funny!" Chris shouted. "You are not all that! It's called sunlight for one thing, you might want to try going out in it some day. You look like some vampire you're so fucken pale. Are you allergic to the sun? Oh and you might want to try eating something someday so that you might get some sort of figure. I guess no one told you it's not fashionable to be anorexic anymore. You dress like those skanky girls you all hold in such contempt around races. Every time we go you and that Letty girl have nasty things to say about them but you and her aren't any better. And you have the personality of a bitch. I mean for crying out loud, your own boy had to take a month long vacation just to get away from you!"
It hit so close to home that Torrie's hand snapped out and slapped the other girl across the mouth. Hard. It snapped Chris's head to the side and brought out an angry red patch in the shape of Torrie's hand on her face. Chris put a hand to her cheek and stared at Torrie in surprise.
Torrie snatched her hand back in shock. She didn't know what had driven her to be physically violent with another human being but she knew she had no desire to take it back now that she had. But she was still shocked at her own behaviour. Then the red haze of anger took back over and she ploughed ahead on her tirade.
"Don't you ever say things like that about me'n Dom! You understand? Not ever! You don't know fucken anything about anything around here. You'll be lucky if Letty doesn't kill you when I tell her what you said. You are nothing around here. Nothing! You understand me? When Dom gets home you'll be so sorry. You have no right to talk to me like that!" Torrie started to cry and she rushed the door.
Mia had stood up in shock when the screaming had started but she'd never recovered enough to do anything about any of it. She glanced over at the door to the kitchen and saw Vince standing in it looking just as shocked as she figured she looked, and knew Chris looked.
Vince shook his head and realized that in two seconds Torrie would be tearing off down the road in her car, which happened to have a full load of spray on board, thanks to him and his knowledge she was going to want to race as soon as she could when she got home. With a sympathetic look at Mia for what he was about to do he abandoned the shocked Chris to Mia's care and took off after Torrie. He knew he'd have lots of time to talk to Chris later but if Torrie killed herself in a car wreck he'd never get another chance to talk to her and when Dom found out he'd let her get away in such a state Dom would kill him.
"Torrie!" Vince yelled as he hit the front door at a dead run. She had just reached her car and had used her keyless entry to unlock the door and disarm the security system. She looked up with tears running down her face and just continued to try and get into her car. She managed to slide in and get the key in the ignition. Just as the engine clicked over and she went to put the car in reverse Vince got his door open. He got in and got the door closed just as she started to squeal down the drive, almost losing his leg in the process. She stopped the car with a squeal.
"Get out Vince." She growled out around her tears. "I mean it!"
"No way am I letting you drive off on your own in this state. What was that all about?" Vince asked her.
Torrie decided that if he wanted to stay with her so bad she'd make him regret his decision in any way she could. She slammed the car in first and squealed down the street, narrowly missing the Maxima where it was parked at the foot of the driveway on the street. Vince grabbed the holy shit handle with a startled look at his blue car, which had flown by out his window at an alarming rate and a very alarmingly short distance away.
"What is this all about? Are you serious?" Torrie looked at Vince in angry shock. "Did you hear what that evil bitch said to me?" Torrie asked on a hiss of anger. "I swear she is Satan's whore." Torrie snarled out and then hit third gear violently, making the car shudder and lurch.
"Here!" Vince growled. Without the story he wasn't taking sides against the girl he was, in a lot of ways, dating. But it was obvious to him that Torrie was truly angry and she didn't really get into such a state unless something really had thrown her over the edge. "What happened Torrie?"
Torrie noted Vince's lack of pet names when he addressed her and figured that meant he was pissed off with her over whatever part of what went down he'd heard. He'd normally be calling her endearments to try and calm her down. She started to recount the story of what had transpired in the living room in a voice that oozed malice for Chris.
"I was sitting there waiting for you, against my wishes I might add, and that heinous bitch walked into the room and started giving me the vilest looks, again. So I asked her what the hell she was doing and what she thought she was looking at like that. She says 'not much'. I told her if she had such a problem with me that the door was right over there and she could fucken well use it if she was so unhappy. She told me I was too pale, to thin, that I dressed like a whore, and that I was a bitch and that it was no wonder that my boy had to take a month long vacation to get away from me."
Vince sucked in a breath at the last part. So that was what had set her off.
Torrie sped up another ten miles an hour and hit her exit. She decided to drift the off ramp to the freeway. She gunned the engine more and cut the wheel, the rear end of the Silvia broke free and slid around the corner with a deafening squeal that almost drowned out the sound of Torrie's laboured breathing as she fought the all consuming rage that threatened to overcome her and make her do something truly crazy, and fought the wheel to keep the car from becoming intimate with the cement guardrail. The surging adrenaline in her system was just adding fuel to the fire.
Vince's knuckles turned white on the door handle. He'd never seen Torrie drive so violently, not even when Dom had yelled at her in front of Letty and she'd used her NOS on the freeway. He could see the crazed look in her eyes, see the set of her face, her winged brows knitted together in fierce concentration as she fought to keep the car on it's out of control, but controlled flight path sideways down the off ramp.
Torrie continued, brow still furrowed as she fought to control her dark blue bullet.
"So I slapped her and went to run out of the house when you chased after me." Torrie could hardly see around the tears in her eyes. She was dodging in and out of the other cars on the freeway, darting left and right and almost standing on the gas. Her Silvia was giving all it could, screaming and straining with the effort, the pistons pounding like her heart. She felt like her heart was going to jump right out of her chest it was pounding so hard.
"She just said all that stuff to you?" Vince asked, not really buying that as shy as Chris was she just blew up at Torrie out of the blue like Torrie was saying she had. The dirty looks he'd buy.
"Well, I said something to her when she told me I wasn't much to look at. I might have rubbed in the fact that I was the one dating Dom, not her." Torrie admitted and then violently switched lanes, cutting off a half ton truck, causing the irate driver to honk at her. She didn't seem to notice.
"Do you think we could slow down?" Vince asked as he bumped up against the door, jarred by the motion of the car.
Torrie shot him a dirty look.
"Guess not." He answered his own question then sighed. Vince wasn't sure what to do. Chris had said something silly in the heat of the moment but in all fairness she hadn't known how silly it was till after she'd said it. Vince figured he'd save passing judgement till he got the full story from Mia.
"Did Dom take this job to take a break from me?" Torrie asked in a small voice, slacking the speed off a small amount and the speedometer started to drop from 170 to 150. The fight was leaching out of her, the adrenaline wearing off and letting her mind release the fight or flight response her fight with Chris had driven her to.
"No Torrie. He didn't. You know that. He loves you."
"But he left me for a whole month." Torrie took the exit for Lex's neighbourhood.
"You told him it was ok and he didn't really want to go so far away. He only went cause you told him it was fine." Vince tried to be the voice of reason.
"But he still went. And ended up with some other girls perfume and makeup all over him while he was gone."
"We went over this Torrie." Vince ran a hand through his hair.
"But first that happens then SHE says shit about it." Torrie trailed off and heaved a shuddering sigh.
"Oh Princess, she didn't know. If she knew what you just went through she wouldn't have said anything about Dom. You and she were fighting and she just said the first thing that popped into her head. Just like you did."
Vince was back to pet names, Torrie noted. He never could stay mad at her for long. Torrie knew when he got the whole story from Chris he was likely to be rippen at her again but for now he was totally on her side again.
"I don't know if I buy that Vince." Torrie pulled into her friends drive.
Vince just sighed and got in the back seat. Lex got into the car, took one look at her friend and leaned over the center consol to grab her in a tight hug.
"What did he do to you Ro?" Lex slipped into her pet name for her best friend.
"Nothing." Torrie said and started to back up. Lex pulled the parking brake, slipped the car into neutral and shut down the engine with a flick of her wrist.
Vince thought ruefully that he wished he'd thought of that. It might have saved him some years on his life he'd lost as she'd flown from their house to her friend's.
"Oh no you don't. Something horrible happened and you're gonna tell me all about it sweetie." Lex said softly. "You know it'll eat you up inside if you don't tell someone."
"I thought Dom cheated on me and I ran away and I guess maybe he didn't but I still feel like he did and then I got home and this girl that's staying with us said some really mean things about me and Dom and how I look and act and stuff then I slapped her and I'm having a terrible day!" Torrie filled in the holes that she'd left in her story and then gasped when she finally stopped talking, her whole story to Lex had basically been one long run on sentence.
If Vince hadn't known the story he'd never have figured it out from what Torrie had just said. Lex, it seemed had understood every word and answered back in a similar fashion.
"Dom didn't cheat on you he's just a fucken idiot to leave the shirt the skanky hoe dirtied when she tried to get YOUR man, not that she ever could and this girl that's staying at your house deserved to be slapped for what she said to you and you didn't do anything wrong and it's all gonna be fine, you'll see when Dom comes home and he hears what that girl said he'll take care of her and he'll apologise to you for the misunderstanding and then everything'll be fine and in the mean time you and me are gonna go dance and get really drunk, you'll feel better then and maybe we should take a cab so you don't haveta worry about getting your car home." Lex came up for air.
"I'll drive the car home if you ladies can't." Vince chuckled despite himself. He'd forgotten what a motor mouth Torrie's friend was.
"Hot damn!" Lex exclaimed and jumped a mile. She hadn't realized that Vince was in the back seat of the car. "You scared the hell out of me. I didn't know you were back there. If you're around what the hell is this bitch girl staying at the house doing having a chance to hurt my girl like this?" Lex spun in her seat to confront Vince.
Torrie started the car and started to head toward the club Lex had picked out for them to go out to.
"It happened when I was downstairs changing so I didn't have to let Torrie drive over here on her own." Vince answered.
"I woulda been fine and if you'd stayed upstairs to be around when 'miss thing' came into the living room and she likely never would have shot her mouth off at me either if you'd been there." Torrie told Vince snidely.
"Baby girl, I couldn't let you drive alone in the state you were in, you shouldn't have been driving at all."
"Whatever Vince." Torrie answered, feeling like taking out some of her anger at Chris on Vince. After all, it was Vince the other girl stayed around to see.
"Aw Torrie. Don't start this again. Please? It kills me when we fight." Vince sighed. He couldn't take another week or more of Torrie being angry and upset with him.
"Am I missing something here?" Lex asked.
"I've kind of been seeing the girl that Torrie doesn't like that's staying with us and it's come between us all before since they don't get along." Vince answered.
Lex went to add her retort to that statement but Torrie cut her off.
"Listen, I just want to have a good time for the rest of the night. No more talking about Chris or Dom or anything else. Got it?" Torrie looked around at her two friends.
"Fine." They both answered and Torrie continued to drive toward the club.