Disclaimer: Also- don't own the Rare franchise (developed GoldenEye 007 for N64)- wish I did, though…AJ
When Letty and I finally decided to get out of bed it was somewhere around two o'clock. It hadn't been my choice. I would have stayed in bed with her all day long. She got up. I just watched her as she got dressed.
"Are you going to get up?" she asked.
"Why don't you just come back to bed," I said, reaching out and grabbing her. I pulled her back onto the bed beside me. She wiggled out of my grip, though, laughing.
"I actually need to start my day," she said.
"Yeah, okay," I said, finally standing up. I found some shorts and a shirt and pulled them on.
We walked downstairs. The house had already been cleaned. I wasn't surprised but rather glad that I didn't have to deal with it. Leon and Vince had pulled out the Nintendo 64 and were playing the James Bond GoldenEye 007 game. They were so entranced by finding the Golden Gun and killing each other at this game that it was almost sad.
"Afternoon brother," Vince said, not even taking the time to glance up.
I just nodded at him and made my way to the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator. There wasn't really any food to speak of. The only thing we had was beers and some soda. Of the two, I grabbed a beer.
"Starting early," Letty remarked as I sat down beside her on the couch.
"Yeah," I said nodding. I took a swig and let it rest on my knee. Letty grabbed it and started drinking it. I just looked at her. I didn't care, but I wanted her to think I did.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you want me to get you one?" I asked, trying to sound serious.
"No, I have yours," she said sitting back against me smiling.
I didn't respond. I couldn't really pretend like I cared. Besides, she got a lot less pissed about Tran than I had thought. I figured she deserved to drink my beer.
"Besides, you shouldn't drink too much until you have my windshield fixed," she smirked just as Mia walked in. Inopportune timing, to say the least.
"What happened to your windshield, Letty?" Mia asked, coming in the front door with grocery bags.
"I don't know. Dom, what happened to my windshield?" Letty looked at me. I knew that she was throwing me the buck. Okay, what did I want to say? I didn't really feel like having Mia yell at me right now. But then when is anyone really in the mood to be yelled at? I figured, though, there was no avoiding the inevitable.
Mia perked her eyebrows at me.
"There was an accident. But, it's okay. I can fix it this afternoon," I said, trying to skip over the topic at hand. Leon and Vince were still not paying attention to our conversation. They were pretty focused on their task at hand. Leon had just picked up the Golden Gun and some Golden Bullets and was desperately trying to find Vince somewhere in the basement so he could shoot him.
"An accident? What kind of accident?" she asked accusingly.
"Here, I'll help you with the groceries," I said getting up. I handed Letty the rest of the beer. I figured this would be easier if we had some privacy. It was time that I man it up and start being honest with my family- my whole family.
She persisted. "Dom, what's going on?" she inquired as I grabbed the bags and pulled her into the kitchen.
"I messed up and made a run for Tran last night. He didn't really give me all the details and when I got there some punks were shooting at me. They hit the windshield. It was fine, though. I made it back and it's all over now," I said quickly. I was somewhat hoping that if I talked fast she would miss some of it. I doubted this would work but it was worth a shot.
"Wait, wait, you what?" she asked. I wasn't repeating this all over again.
"I made a run for Tran," I admitted.
"Why would you do that?" she asked, her voice getting increasingly louder.
"I just did it for the money," I stated. So far, so truthful.
"Just? Dom, we didn't need money that bad. That was so dumb. I can't believe you would take a risk like that. You did it for the money? What kind of reasoning is that to get sent back to prison!" she said, yelling this time.
"Mia, calm down," I said. However, this was completely ineffective.
"No, Dom, don't tell me to calm down. You could have gotten arrested and, apparently, killed," she continued.
"Mia, I wasn't going to get killed," I reassured her.
"Really? Guns don't kill you? It must be great to be you," she said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, Mia. Listen, I'm not going to do it again. I realize that it wasn't a good idea. I didn't know what all it involved before I did it or I would have never agreed to it," I explained.
"When did you agree to this?" she asked.
Oh, that sucked. I didn't assume that my answer to this question would really help Mia to be less pissed at me.
"It was before we went to the races. He fronted me the money so I could race," I admitted.
"Dominic! Jesus Christ!" she yelled. "How can you have not learned that it's a bad idea to commit crimes?"
"Oh, come on Mia. You've got to be kidding me with that shit," I smiled. Commit crimes. Let's be honest, every time they went to races they were committing a crime. I would allow her to be mad but I wouldn't tolerate hypocrisy. None of us had led completely pristine lives.
"Dom, you can't do that to this family again. I can't handle it all. How can you be so selfish?" she accused.
"Selfish?" I asked.
"Yeah. You don't even care that you hurt the people that love you. You don't care what kind of stress you put us under as long as you can do what you want to do," she said. This made me feel so shitty. I wasn't going to deny this. I couldn't. It wasn't that I didn't care about her, about all of them, but I had not considered the ramifications of my actions. I hadn't thought about how it would hurt them.
"I'm sorry, Mia. I am," I said. She threw down the last of the groceries and stormed out the door.
Well, that did not go as well as I would have hoped. I rubbed my head. Should I go after her? Would it really do any good? I heard her car engine crank and her tires squeal as she drove off. Great. I didn't really know where Mia would run off to. I walked back into the den. Vince and Leon were staring up at me with their jaws lying of the floor. Letty was trying to hold back a laugh. Yeah, sure, it was hilarious when you weren't me.
"What was that all about?" Leon asked, dropping the controller.
"Long story," I said, joining Letty on the couch.
They just continued to look at me, waiting.
"What? I'm pretty sure you heard it," I said, not wanting to go through it for what felt like the millionth time. The walls were not that thick that they didn't hear what was said, especially after the yelling started, which was pretty early on in the conversation.
"You ran a deal for Tran?" Vince asked. I didn't know if this was rhetorical or not. Obviously, I had and he had heard me say it if he was asking.
"So that's what all that was about yesterday," he continued, somewhat to himself. I could see the pieces of the puzzle starting to connect in his mind.
"Yeah," I just commented. I took my beer back. It was empty. I gave Letty a look.
"So what happened with the windshield?" Leon asked.
"It got shot out," I said plainly.
"Who was shooting at ya?" he asked surprised.
"I don't know. Apparently someone that was pissed," I retorted.
"Alright. Well, be careful, bro," Leon said. I enjoyed the way that Leon handled situations a lot more than Mia. It wasn't that he didn't care. But, he knew better than to ride me about it.
"Aren't you pissed Let?" Vince asked, looking over at her.
"I'm pissed about my car," she said.
"What were you running for Tran?" Vince asked.
"What does it matter? It's over," I said, a little grumpy.
"Hey, chill. I'm just surprised that all this went down," he said defensively.
"I know, man. It was just a stupid deal that we worked out. He's running automatics and some coke from somewhere up in Santa Monica. I didn't know that Tran fucked with drugs. But, apparently, the person that I got them from didn't know that Tran would be getting them either. They got pissed and started shooting," I explained. I felt the abbreviated version was more than sufficient.
"Damn, bro, that sucks," Vince remarked. It had sucked, to say the least. So had the aftermath that I was currently dealing with.
"Yeah," I agreed, flippantly.
"So, you going to go after Mia?" Letty asked.
"I don't know where she went," I replied.
Vince, Leon, and Letty looked at one another. I had a feeling that I was missing something. Silence covered the room and it was heavy. I just waited. They were going to have to speak again eventually. But, apparently, not any time soon. I continued to wait. I wasn't going to speak first. The silence was deafening. I was getting very antsy. I came close to asking.
"Maybe Rick Schrader's but I don't really know," Letty finally admitted.
"I don't know who that is," I said bewildered.
"Yeah you do," she stated.
"No I don't," I insisted. The name didn't sound at all familiar.
"Think back a couple of years. Think back to one night at Anthony's. Remember the guy that peed in Edwin's cup?" Vince reminded, somewhat laughing but really trying to hold it in. That had been a dick thing to do, but I remembered what he was talking about. We thought it was hilarious- afterwards. Edwin was our boy, for the most part, so the guy had been in some serious shit at the time. But, looking back, it was even funnier.
"That guy? Are you serious?" I said. I recalled him now. "He was a fucking poser."
"Still is," Leon added.
He was the type that had a good looking car with a large exhaust but nothing worth mentioning under the hood. He talked a lot of shit that he couldn't ever back up. Why would my baby sister be running to him? I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to hang out with him when forced to, let alone out of choice.
"Shit," I sighed. "Well, hell yeah I'll go after her. Where does he live?" I felt like this may be a good opportunity to kill him for being such a dumbass and having the nerve to try and get with my sister.
"No, that's not a good idea," Letty remarked.
"Hey, you suggested it," I stated. "Is she dating him?"
Letty just shrugged. No one wanted to answer this question. God damnit, why didn't they just give me a straight answer.
"How long has she been hanging out with him?" I asked.
"A couple of months I guess," Letty said.
"A couple of months? Someone could have mentioned this," I said, looking around at all of them, especially Letty.
"You know it's best not to mention something until it's already happened," Letty said. What a damn smart ass. I knew she was referring to the stunt I had just pulled with Tran.
"Dom, you're never going to like anyone that Mia dates," Leon commented.
"So she is dating him," I said.
"No, you know what I mean," Leon corrected.
"That's not true. I'd like them so long as they didn't suck," I said. This wasn't true. I would never like anyone that Mia dated. No one was ever going to be good enough for her. And, I would always want to seriously injure anyone that touched her or worse, hurt her. I guess it was best that I was in prison during Mia's prime dating years.
I got up and started towards the door.
"Where you going?" Letty called out.
"To fix your damn windshield," I stated angrily. I was in no mood for them right now. I wasn't used to petty drama and this was really gripping me. I figured working at the shop might help to calm me down before I did something stupid.
So Mia was mad at me for lying but she had never even mentioned that she was dating someone. Let alone someone as lame as this guy. Had she learned nothing about racers and especially those who pretended to be racers? They were clearly not the type of guys that were fit for dating. I thought she could just look around and me and my friends and tell that much.
Then I started getting really mad at myself. I had essentially just pushed her into the arms of this prick. She wouldn't have gone over and seen him this afternoon if it hadn't been for me. I made her mad. She didn't have anyone around that she wanted to confide in so she had to go find someone else. I thought she was close enough to the team to just talk to them. But, apparently, she needed to find someone else. I loved Mia. I loved having a sister. But, sometimes it was so stressful.
I stayed at the shop for a long time. I fixed Letty's windshield, replaced all her fluids, and even did an alignment. I did everything that I could think of to do at the shop. When I finished sweeping the floors and alphabetizing the work order history I decided I had to go back home. By the time I got back Vince had gone out. Jesse and Leon were watching television. Letty was asleep. Mia was still away. I decided to watch television and wait up for Mia.
A couple of hours and way too many bad movies later, Mia came strolling into the house. She glanced over at me but failed to make eye contact.
"Where were you?" I asked, trying to keep my cool.
She just sighed and didn't answer.
"Mia, where did you go?" I insisted.
"None of your business, Dom," she said turning around to go upstairs. With this intense awkwardness that was building, Jesse and Leon immediately fled the room.
"Are you dating that guy?" I asked. I decided, regardless of the intelligence behind the choice, to just get right to the point.
"Who?" she asked.
"Rick Schrader," I stated.
"What does it matter?" she said, clearly not answering the question at all.
"Because he sucks," I said.
"Well you know what, Dom? He's nothing like you and I like that," she yelled. Ouch.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I yelled back. I knew what it meant but I asked anyway.
"He doesn't lie to me and he doesn't hurt me," she said, starting to tear up. He may not hurt her but I was going to have to hurt him. He was an easy scapegoat. And, if he were out of the picture, the problem would be gone too.
TBC
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AJ