Chapter 9 – Would you still hug me?

"Thanks kid." Vince said as he went around the car and jumped in the driver's seat. "Get in Nyssa, its all ready to go. Let's go do this thing." Vince looked like a kid after a very lucrative Christmas morning. Nyssa giggled and went around to the passenger door and got into the car. "Say Dom, you wanna come with?" Vince asked his friend, out of courtesy. He was really, much to his chagrin, looking forward to more time alone with Nyssa and hoping that Dom would decline.

"I got stuff to do here Vince, and that back seat doesn't look very comfy. I'll take a rain check for now, some other time?" Dom looked Vince.

"Sure Brotha, I'm sure Nyssa don't have a problem with that." Vince glanced at Nyssa who answered.

"Of course not, some other time." With that they backed the car out of the garage and headed to the track they'd used the time before when they'd practiced. When they arrived Vince put Nyssa into the driver's seat and helped her strap in.

They worked on shifting and launching till Nyssa thought she would die of the boredom. She kept reminding herself that if she was going to get good she had to practice. But it was darn repetitive to launch the car, get up to third gear and then be made to stop and do it all over again.

"Ok, that was better. Stop and try it again." Vince instructed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Nyssa sighed. She immediately wished she could take it back because she did understand why they were doing what they were doing. It was just that they'd been at it for an hour and she was almost at her limit for what she could take.

"What's wrong?" Vince wondered what her sigh was over.

"Nothing." Nyssa didn't want to go into it because she was sure she'd have a school teacher worthy lecture about needing to work hard to succeed.

"You didn't sigh over nothin." Vince prompted. "What's the matter?"

"This isn't very fun anymore. It got kinda boring. It was fun at first, but now we've been doin it too long in a row." Nyssa admitted reluctantly, being sure to let Vince know she did know it was important and it hadn't been boring all along.

"Fundamentals come before fun." Vince answered, and then spared a look for her, meeting her gaze. He saw her weariness reflected in her eyes and decided an hour of low speed launches was enough for anyone. "Ok, one more and this time run it up to one hundred."

"You mean it?" Nyssa asked, her demeanor perking up at the chance to run the car faster then 40 and not have to stop it as soon as she'd gotten it going.

"Yeah, then we'll call it quits for the day. We can work more tomorrow."

"Ok, here we go." Nyssa put the car in gear, let it go and got a reasonably good launch out of it. Then she ran it up to 100 miles an hour at a reasonable amount of acceleration. While they were going that speed Vince pointed out what all the gages should look like at higher speeds. He still made her accelerate slower then normal and get all her shifts perfectly precise. After Vince let her stop they traded seats and strapped into the seats in their new positions. Vince picked a start line and stopped the car on it, planning on giving the poor, unused Skyline a run to remind it what it was really built for.

"You ready?" He asked, grinning.

"As I'll ever be," came her answer.

Vince was in neutral. He revved the car up to 4000 then let it drop to idle. It sounded good, ready to run. He slammed it into first and took off. He flew up to 120 then checked the gauges. He hit the NOS. Tires screamed and the force threw them back into the seats deep. The scenery was literally a blur at these speeds. She glanced over and they were now going 140. Vince hit the second shot after checking all the gauges. They hit 150 and then 160 before Vince started to slow down. That was burying the needle for the car. Nyssa had a grip on the door handle but she was smiling and breathless.

"Can we do it again? I wanna do it again!" She was almost jumping up and down in her seat. The adrenaline rush of the fast ride had obliterated her ennui with the whole driving experience. She was eager to repeat the act.

"Not today." Vince chuckled at her enthusiasm. "I think the car has had enough for the day. Let's take it back to your place, get my car and get some dinner?"

"Ok Vince. Sounds good." Nyssa sat back in her seat, slightly disappointed that she was not going to get to experience the rush again that night. Dinner with her newfound friend did run a close second.

They drove the car to her garage and got it settled in. When it was secure and cooled down they climbed into Vince's car and he took her to the restaurant. They were given a good table as Vince was a fairly regular customer. The table came with a good view as from where they were seated Nyssa could see out the window. The atmosphere inside was far more interesting to her however, as she took in the mood lights shaped like little hot peppers and the rest of the texmex SoCal flair.

A waitress took their order and they settled in with drinks to await their food. Nyssa decided to use the time to find out more about Vince and his unique family.

"So, how it is you came to be friends with Dom and the rest of the guys?" Nyssa asked, head on her hand as she stared at Vince across the table.

"Well, that's a long story. We met in the third grade. I lived down the street a ways and when we found out we were in the same class and lived within walking distance that was it, we were best friends from then on." Vince looked slightly embarrassed to admit to having a best friend. "I didn't have much of a dad to speak of at home when he was there and when I was 10 he left for good. Dom's dad use to let me stay over for dinner and stuff. He taught me all the stuff my schooling didn't. They teach you a lot of book learning in school but Van taught me all the stuff I had to know that they didn't bother to tell me there. I wouldn't be half as good with cars or racing if it wasn't for him. Plus my mom and dad fought all the time and it was nice to see a dad that was normal some of the time. Then when I was 12 my mom died and Van somehow managed to get custody of me. Saved me from the state orphanage system."

"Wow, he sounds really nice."

"He was. It got to the point that I called him Dad just like Dom. Dom's like a brother to me."

"If Dom's your brother what ever made you want to get with Mia? Shouldn't you think of her like a sister?"

"I don't know when I started to see her as more but somewhere along the line I did. I know I she shoulda stayed like my little sister but I didn't really see much I could do stop myself from falling for her. It might have had something to do with her dad being killed. I think when I had to try and be strong for her even though I was just as lost without Van my feelings for her changed, you know?"

"I think I understand." Nyssa smiled at Vince to show she really did understand where he was coming from. Then the food arrived. They ate in relative silence, enjoying the food and the company enough that talking wasn't necessary.

When they finished eating they headed back to the house. Vince went to work with Dom at the garage for awhile because they'd had some rush jobs come in that afternoon. Vince taking off left Nyssa to her own devices. She went around 9 and got ready for races that night. Races that she hadn't known about until Dom told her she was more or less expected to go if she was going to be staying in their house. Nyssa was going with the team to hang out since she was far from ready to race. She figured if she wanted to race she might as well start to familiarize herself with the scene. She also figured it had something to do with Dom not wanting to leave her in the house on her own.

She took a shower and left her hair curly. She did her makeup her own way, black eyeliner and mascara and lip gloss. She did not want to be the girl Manda had tried to make her into. She was quite happy being herself and she figured she didn't need to do her makeup like a racer girl Barbie to go to car races and have a good time. After her shower she headed to Vince's room and started to pick out an outfit. Since she had been dressed similar to Letty last time she'd gone to race night she figured that something similar would be good again tonight.

She was standing in the middle of Vince's room in her underwear and a towel rooting for clothes that were still randomly stuffed into boxes when a knock came at the door. Nyssa called out asking the person to identify themselves. Mia called back through the door and Nyssa invited her in.

"So, what are you wearing tonight?" Mia quizzed, hoping that Nyssa was more into cloths then Letty and she'd finally have someone to talk clothes with.

"I'm honestly not sure. I was just wondering what I was going to wear when you came in. That's why I'm seriously considering wearing this towel since I can't make up my mind otherwise." Nyssa giggled and gestured to her white outfit. "I thought about this tank top," Nyssa held up the top in question, "with these pants." Nyssa held up a pair of black leather low rise pants with a chunky belt. It was different from what the skanks wore, and while it was similar to Letty it was different enough not to leave Nyssa looking like a Letty wannabe.

"That's a good choice." Mia agreed with Nyssa's choices. "You'll fit right in with Letty wearing that." Mia looked slightly crestfallen that the new girl in her life was not as into skirts and flowing tops as she was. "So, where's Vince?" Mia asked out of curiosity.

"He took off with Dom, I don't really know where. I figured he'd be back to get ready himself by now."

"Get ready? He only ever wears jeans and muscle shirts! He doesn't have to get too ready for races. He'll get fawned over in his scruffy, raggedy look and he doesn't even have to lift a finger to get it." Mia laughed and Nyssa joined her.

"Yeah, I have noticed that his style doesn't run to too many extremes. He's got solid colour tank tops and mesh tank tops and a few print tank tops. Someday I may just have to try to take him shopping."

"Good luck." Mia said, frustration for all the times she'd tried to get Vince to buy new clothes and failed showing on her face. "The only time he dresses different is when he goes to work. He has jeans and tops that he's already ruined to wear then."

"That's ok. He looks pretty good the way he is." Nyssa giggled at having admitted that out loud.

"You think so huh?" Mia asked, serious.

"Yeah." Nyssa blushed.

"Good. You're nice, and pretty. Let's hope he feels the same way because then he can leave me alone." Mia smiled to take the sting out of her words. "I love Vince but he makes it hard to remember that when he's always chasing me around and beating on guys I would like to date and scaring them away."

"I bet. I don't know he feels about me but I have hope!"

"Me too." Mia giggled. The girls decided to hang out while they waited for everyone else to be ready to head down to the warehouse district for racing. They flopped back on Vince's bed and started playing some music and talking. They found out they had a very similar taste in music over all.

Vince arrived home to get ready. Contrary to what Nyssa thought he was not going to go out tonight without changing his clothes after slaving in hell's kitchen the garage all afternoon on some stupid Civic belonging to a kid with more money then brains. He walked into his room and saw Nyssa and Mia on his bed talking, Nyssa on her back with her hair fanned out all around her and Mia on her stomach, chin in her hands with her hair falling over one of her shoulders. He took a second to take in the sight before him. It was almost too much. He walked all the way into the room and they looked up at him, slightly startled as they hadn't heard him come in. Mia got up and excused herself before Vince would have a chance to make her uncomfortable. It was an old habit and it would take her a while to get over being wary of being alone with him.. Nyssa stretched like a cat, arching her back off the bed, hands over her head. She sat up then and looked at Vince.

"I wondered if you were going tonight. I was beginning to think I'd have to go with Mia and Letty." Nyssa was looking at Vince like he was chocolate and she was a chocoholic that had been denied that treat for months.

"Had to finish up a Civic for some stupid kid. He needed it by tonight and since he's paying well and in cash Dom wanted to oblige him. Now I gotta get ready then we leave."

"Ok. I guess I won't ask you how your day was then dear." Nyssa asked sarcastically, teasing him.

"Not if you value that pretty little ass you won't. You spent the rest of your day relaxing here while I slaved in a hot garage. Pointing out the differences in how our days went wouldn't be the smartest thing you ever did."

"Really? So you don't want to know how I laid out in the backyard for an hour to work on my tan," she asked, crawling to the end of the bed, toward Vince "and then you really don't want to know about how Mia and I went shopping in an air conditioned mall. And you really really don't want to hear about the cool shower I took just before I got dressed. Or how nice it is to be cool, clean and comfortable." She laughed at the look on Vince's face.

"I warned you not to talk about it." Vince walked over to the side of the bed she was on. He had already pulled his shirt off just after Mia left the room since it had been covered in grease and he didn't want to get it everywhere. He leaned down and grabbed her, and pulled her up against him. He proceeded to kiss her very deeply. She kissed him back, running her hands up his back. He broke off the kiss.

"And that was supposed to punish me how?" Nyssa asked breathlessly, not understanding how he thought he was punishing her.

"Cause I am dirty and scruffy and these are the clothes I worked in all day."

"Well you smell like, well, you. Like a big manly man. And you're always scruffy. It's part of your charm." She ruffled his hair more then it already was. She was making this plan backfire pretty well. He slapped her hand away from his hair, her ruffling felt like something that would be done to a child.

"I'll never get women. Any other time you would have been all over me about how bad I smelled. When I try to use it to my advantage I smell good."

"Pretty much. Is that what you're wearing tonight?" She asked as she took in his shirtless state and the jeans low on his narrow hips. She licked her lips unconsciously.

"No, I gotta take a quick shower then I'll get ready.

Vince went and took his shower and came back to his room to get ready. Nyssa had headphones on and was sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the stereo. Vince threw on jeans and the first two tank tops that were clean in his drawer, which happened to be a black and white camo print and a black mesh one and he was ready. He walked over to Nyssa and pulled the headphones off her head. She looked up in shock.

"Whatchya listening to?"

"21 Questions."

Vince pulled the headphone jack out and the song filled the room. Nyssa restarted the song. Vince liked rock and roll and trance when he was partying and that was about it, he wasn't big on hip hop but he listened to the song anyway.

"Who's that doin this song anyway?"

"A rapper named 50 Cent. You like? It's one of my favorite songs." Nyssa looked at him from her still seated position on the floor. Vince took a moment to the listen to the lyrics. There were a lot of parallels between what the other guy was singing about and how Vince felt when he was with girls. "If I didn't smell so good would you still hug me?" Well he guessed he knew the answer to that now with Nyssa at least. He turned off the stereo.

"Let's go, Dom'll be pacing upstairs waiting on us as it is."

Vince was right and Dom was in fact pacing around waiting for them to be ready.

"Could you two not have waited till after races to get it on?" Dom assumed that was what kept them.

"We were waiting on Vince to clean himself up cause you made him work all evening, not on us to finish up what you implied." Nyssa was embarrassed to talk about the topic in question in front of everyone. "Let's go if you're in such a rush." She pointed to the door.

They headed out of the house and climbed into their cars. Dom in his Mazda, Letty in her Nissan and Mia with Letty, Jesse in his Jetta, Leon in his Skyline, and Vince and Nyssa in Vince's Maxima. They headed down to the alley and were the last ones to arrive on the scene, just like Dom planned. They pulled in and were enveloped by the crowd.

Nyssa's cousin saw her climb out of Vince's car. Then saw Vince walk around and put an arm around her when another racer tried to talk to her. Manda still didn't know how Nyssa had ended up on the Team just like that.

If Manda had asked Dom she would know that Nyssa was far from on the Team. She was tolerated now; she had a long way to go before she would be on the team. And Dom had to see how well she learned to drive. She could be a team member even if she never raced but she would have to be useful somehow. Like she would have to work in the store with Mia or go to school and learn mechanics.

Nyssa wondered where Mr Serial Killer was. She didn't see Brian anywhere but she saw Mia looking around for him. Of course she had heard from Vince who heard from Dom that Brian's car had been destroyed by the Trans and he had no ride. He still owed Dom a car from last race night. Nyssa doubted that Brian would come around tonight. Even though Dom seemed to accept him. She didn't think you could completely disregard Vince's unease about Brian's story. She was standing beside Vince, who had had his arm around her since that other guy had tried to talk to her.

"Nyssa, hey earth to Nyssa?" Vince could see that she was in another world. He waved a hand in front of her face and looked down at her, trying to get her attention.

"Huh, what? Sorry. I was thinking about something."

"Obviously. We were talking to you for like 5 minutes and you never once looked up." Vince wondered what she had been thinking about.

"Sorry bout that. I was just thinking about my car. We should bring it next time just to park it and show it off some."

"Good idea. Anyway, Dom wanted to know if you have any thoughts on Spilner." Vince had mentioned to Dom how Nyssa seemed to have an almost uncanny knack for picking up things about people and since Vince was still so sure Brian was not how he appeared Dom wanted to know what she thought of him. Especially since she was a slightly impartial third part. She answered them after making sure Mia was off talking to the girls around Hector's team.

"Just that he is too pretty to be real almost. He seems kind of Valley to me for someone who is supposed to be from Arizona. But he's also hiding something. I don't know what so don't ask but he is. Sometimes I just know stuff and I know that Brian is hiding something. Same as I know Dom doesn't trust me totally yet, Letty isn't sure I'm not after Dom, Mia is totally honest and she doesn't hide anything, and Leon and Jesse ran from something really scary before they ended up here with you all." She always said she was just a bit more in tune with feelings people projected then the average person.

"That's freaky. You got that all figured out how?" Dom wanted to know. Normally when he turned on the charm people didn't know he didn't trust them at all.

"Don't know. It's just something I've always been able to do."

Vince thought that her ability to 'read people' was freaky as well. He wondered if she had picked anything up from him. She'd seemed to purposefully avoid telling the group anything about him when she'd gone through her little list. He decided to ask her. "You figure out anything about me?"

"Nope." The look she gave him said different and he pushed her for more info. He knew she'd thought of something.

"Come on. I can tell you have something." He cajoled.

"Vince, trust me, it's nothing." She knew he was still more into Mia then he was letting on to her but she wasn't sharing that in front of the whole team. Vince huffed but let it go, seeing she wasn't going to cave to him in this either.

Dom called the start of races. He got Hector to hold the money and it ended up that Dom, Hector's cousin Jose, and this other guy named Steve were going to race. Dom raced and won the 6 grand. There were more races and they had to rush off to different streets every time to confuse the cops. They always met back up at the same alley after each one. Nyssa was careful to stay close to Vince, refusing to be separated from her escort at races ever agian. They hung out at the warehouse for awhile when races were all over then headed home.