Prologue - Part 3

{Familiar Faces}

After arriving at my abuela's house and unloading the car, I would make good on the promise I had made to myself to go visit the Torettos'.

I was a bit nervous, to tell you the truth. My hands were sweating bullets and the skin upon my face was as pale as a ghost. There were many thoughts running through my head all at the same time, like did they still even live there anymore, or would they recognize me at all?

These thoughts raced circles around my brain as I began to traverse the brick stairs leading up to the front door. My body shook violently with anticipation and doubt, and if it hadn't been in auto pilot, it very well might have just turned around and gone back home. It didn't, however, and without thinking about it I rapped on that white wooden door for the first time in so many years.

'Oh god… what've I done?' I thought to myself as I took a few steps back to the edge of the staircase. I didn't hear anything at first, which I took as a sign that they either weren't home or no longer lived there. 'Looks like it wasn't meant to be…' Turning on my heel, I took two steps down the staircase before I heard a slight commotion from inside the house.

"Coming!" A familiar voice shouted from inside.

I cocked my head to the side. There was no way it was her. It couldn't be.

Suddenly, the door swung inward to reveal a girl about my age. It was easy to tell that this girl was of Dominican descent, and she was around my age and had long black hair and deep, brown eyes. I couldn't help but gulp.

'It is her…'

The girl looked at me with a confused look on her face.

"Can I help you?" She asked questionably. I remained silent for a moment, taken aback. "Hello?" She said as she waved her hand in front of my face.

"Mia…"

The girl narrowed her eyes for a moment, examining me closely for a moment before out of nowhere her eyes shot open in surprise.

"J.P? Is that you?"

"Estoy en casa, mi hermana." I replied with a light chuckle. Mia gasped with excitement and dragged me into a tight hug.

"I can't believe you're here!" She exclaimed, her voice barely audible with her head dug into my chest as she squeezed me with all her might. "It's been what? Four years since we last saw you?"

"Five actually, but a lot of things happened in that time." Mia released me from her clutches and eyed me suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" She asked. I told her about what had happened back in Barstow, not going into too much detail, but just enough to where she would understand the severity of it all. She closed her eyes condescendingly and shook her head in disappointment. "You boys are all the same, getting into trouble and not learning from your mistakes. One of these days it is going to put you all into a world of trouble that Letty and I won't be able to bail you out of."

She had gotten me dead to rights with that statement, and there was no arguing with Mia. When she said something like that, she meant it. All I could do was nod and agree.

"But where's your brother?" I asked, trying to change the subject as I looked inside the house to get a better view. "I didn't see his car in the driveway." Mia closed the door behind herself and stepped out fully onto the front porch.

"Dom is down at the market looking over things while I study for my finals. Its about time I took a break though, so you want to take a trip down there and see him?"

"Um, yeah!" I exclaimed a bit too excitedly. "What do you think?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you had a thing for him actually." Mia retorted with a smirk. I let out a laugh and held out my hands defensively.

"No way, perra. I like tetas way too much to like men."

"Sure you do, fool." She said as she grabbed me by the scruff of the shirt and began walking me down the steps. "Let's hurry up and get there so I can get back and finish studying."