"Dominic! Get out of the car," Dad said sternly. He wasn't yelling but his voice was cold and angry.

I didn't want to get out of the car. I knew what awaited me- trouble, lots and lots of trouble. For a brief second I contemplated hitting it into reverse and speeding away from him. But, I realized that would only end very badly. So, I turned off the car. I looked over at Vince. He wasn't smiling anymore. He had gotten extremely pale. He looked over expecting me to dictate the next move. I let out a long sigh and opened the car door. I stepped out of the car. I wanted to run. But, instead, I walked up to him, ready to face the music.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked harshly.

Oh man. There was no getting out of this one. We were caught red handed. I didn't know if Dad had noticed the blood on our shirts or not but I was sure that he would. I didn't know how to answer him. I certainly didn't want to tell him the truth. But, it was pretty obvious. We had stolen the car. We were fourteen and had taken someone else's car that they entrusted to my Dad and driven around Los Angeles. I thought that it sounded a lot worse than it was. But, I did not imagine that he would see it that way.

"I don't know," I said. I decided an ambiguous teenage answer was my best bet at this point.

"You don't know?" he said, pissed. "Son, you're going to have to do better than that."

"We were just driving around," I said.

"Mr. T, it was my idea. I suggested that we take the car," Vince said. I looked over at him. He looked like he was going to throw up. Or was that me? I was impressed that Vince admitted to this.

"I don't care who's idea it was," he started. "I can't believe you two would take this car. This is my business. This is how I support you and your sister. If something had happened to the car do you know how much that would have cost us? I never could have imaged you two would be so stupid. You could have gotten arrested or killed," he yelled.

"But, we're okay," I added.

"You aren't going to be when I get through with you," he yelled. He screamed some more, a lot more. He talked about responsibility and family and being a man. He talked about respect and trust and how he had lost both of those for us tonight. I didn't hear every word that he said, though. I tried to listen. But, I was still focused on this first part. I knew that he was going to tear us a new one tonight and I was not looking forward to it.

"What's on your shirt?" he asked.

Shit.

"We got in a fight," I admitted. There was no use dancing around anything. I knew we really couldn't get in any more trouble than we were already in.

"Damnit, Dominic! Why do you keep fighting? What do you think these fights are accomplishing?" he asked, his nostrils flaring with anger.
"This was different, Dad, I swear," I protested.

"It's always different to you! Boy, it's never different," he said.

"This guy tried to beat up Letty," I explained.

"Dominic, you're getting over your head. You're going to drowned, son," he said, speaking slightly more calmly.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I realized I was over my head. But, I didn't know exactly which area of my life he was referring to.

"It's one thing after another. All these stunts you pull, things pile up. It's not headed anywhere good," he said.

"I couldn't just let someone do that, though, Dad," I said.

"I'm not mad about you protecting Letty. I'm mad because you handled it like a child. And, you aren't a child anymore, Dominic. You're not thinking. If you want to take on adult responsibilities you best start acting like an adult. If you keep pulling shit like this things are going to get pretty ugly around here," he said.

"Dad," I pleaded.

"No, you're going to straighten up, both of you, if I have to yoke you to something, do you understand? I'm tired of this. I'm so disappointed in you guys," he said.

Disappointed. He was disappointed. That was by far the worst thing he could say. I never wanted to disappoint my Dad. I wanted him to be proud of me. That was pretty much shot tonight, though. He tanned our hides pretty good that night. And we deserved it. He didn't tell Vince's parents. He knew better than that. He knew that the punishment that he gave Vince was much fairer than any punishment he would receive from his step dad. But, he wasn't going to just let Vince walk away. I had to hold back my tears. I didn't want to cry. It hurt, and I was hurt that I disappointed him. I had just figured that taking the car would be something fun we would go out and do and Dad would never know. That was what I was hoping for anyway.

Afterwards, Dad drove me back to the house. I found out that Dad had come back by the garage, apparently not long after we had left, to see if Vince and Letty wanted to come by for dinner. He noticed that the Honda wasn't there and decided to wait. He had a good hour to get nice and steamed before we pulled back up.

When I went in the house, Mia was sitting on the couch watching television and doing homework. She looked confused by the whole situation. She followed me upstairs and asked what happened. I was still trying to fight back my tears. I didn't answer her. I closed my bedroom door and crashed on my bed. Dad had banned me from working at the garage for an unspecified amount of time. He also grounded me. I guessed that I wasn't going to make that double date with Vince this weekend.

I was mad. I wasn't mad that I got in trouble. It was a dumb move. I knew that my Dad was a fair guy and let me get away with a lot of stuff, probably more than I should have. I was mad that we got caught. I was mad that we had done it to begin with. But, I was glad that we had found Diego. I knew that, regardless of what had happened to me tonight, Letty would not have any more problems with him. In the end, I guess it was all worth it.

I ended up falling asleep. I think I had been emotionally drained. I woke up in the middle of the night. Letty was sleeping on the floor by the bed. She looked happy. She must have been having a good dream. I tried to fall back to sleep but I couldn't. I kept wondering why she told Vince where the kid was.

I jumped out of bed, careful to not land on her. I sat down on the floor beside where she was sleeping and shook her arm.

"Letty, wake up," I said softly.

She opened her eyes and looked up.

"You got in trouble, didn't you?" she asked sleepily.

"Yeah," I said. "How did you know?"

"You look sad. I told you not to," she remarked.

"It's not like I wanted to," I said. She sat up beside me.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"We took one of the cars from the garage and drove to find Diego. That was what Dad got so mad about," I told her.

"That makes sense. That was pretty dumb," she said smiling.

"I know, I know. Trust me," I said. I didn't need anyone else to tell me this.

"Did you find him?" she asked.

"Yeah. I don't think you'll have any more problems with him," I said.

And then, much to my surprise, she hugged me. She had never hugged me before. Her arms were small but her hug was tight. She pulled me really close and put her head on my shoulder. I was taken back by this. It took me a minute to respond. But, I returned the hug and placed my arms around her. I am not sure how long we hugged but I didn't want to break it. It felt nice to get a hug. It felt nice to hug Letty. She could be really sweet when she wanted to. At that moment, I realized that I had done the right thing- not in taking the car, but in making sure that she would be safe at school. I felt no regrets. Finally, she let go and sat back.

"Thanks. I didn't think I'd ever have anyone else that would do anything like that for me," she admitted. I knew who and what she was talking about. She thought after her brother died that she was going to be on her own forever.

"I may not be your brother, but I've always got your back," I told her. She smiled.

"So, let me ask you something," I said.

She rolled her eyes, "alright."

"How did you know where Diego was? And, why did you tell Vince?" I asked.

"We've got these huge projects due in Spanish tomorrow. They are partners. I knew he'd be over there working. We had to talk about it in class. And, why did I tell Vince? Well, I wasn't going to. I didn't want you to get in trouble. But, I knew that you were going to do it eventually. I figured if I couldn't change your mind I may as well make it easy for you," she explained.

I laughed. "How did you know I was going to?" I asked.

"Oh come on, that was pretty clear. That is who you are. You and Vince, you like to fight. I'm not going to try to change who you are. Besides, I don't think I'm one to judge anyone on the way that they deal with their problems. And, I thought it was kind of sweet," she said somewhat bashfully.

"Yeah, I'm kind of a knight-white-horse kind of guy," I said smiling at her blushing.

"Dominic, you couldn't be further from that. But, you do help me fight my dragons. And, you can be sweet when you want to. But, don't worry. I won't tell anyone," she said, crossing two fingers like it was a secret.

"So, what are you doing here? Is your aunt back?" I asked.

"No. I just…got lonely," she admitted.

"Oh, well it's cool," I said looking at her. She looked really sad. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said in a very humdrum manner.

I let out an irritated laugh. "Letty, you're killing me with that. Come on, what's wrong?"

"Today's my birthday," she said quietly.

"That's awesome. Happy birthday. You're thirteen, a teenager," I said excitedly. But, then I realized why she was upset. She didn't have anyone to celebrate with her. She didn't have anyone to wish her happy birthday. She didn't have anyone to make her a birthday cake. Well, she did now.

"Yeah, whoopie," she said unenthused.

"Hey, thirteen is going to be a great year. Just wait and see. It will kick twelve's ass!" I said, trying to reassure her that things were going to get better.

She just gave me a skeptical smile and said, "thanks Dominic."

"Anytime," I said jumping back up in my bed. She laid back down and was asleep within minutes.

Today was her birthday. Well, I definitely knew that I wouldn't fall back to sleep now. We were going to have to do something really special for Letty. Mia loved birthdays and decorating and baking and all that stuff. She would be really excited. I stayed up for a little bit longer trying to figure out what you were supposed to give a thirteen-year-old girl. I had no clue. Especially a thirteen-year-old girl like Letty. Boxing gloves? A gun? Those both seemed to fit her personality but be pretty bad ideas. I started thinking about what I would get Vince- beer. That didn't seem like a good idea for her either. What would really mean something to her?

I woke up to my Dad yelling, "Dominic, you better get up. Don't think you're not going to school today."

I looked down on the floor. Letty was gone. I don't know how she always managed to leave before the house woke up. But, she did. I rubbed my eyes. I needed to tell Dad and Mia the big news. I rolled out of bed and jumped into the shower. I pulled on a clean shirt and pants. I walked downstairs to the kitchen. Mia was cooking breakfast and Dad was reading the paper. When they both sat down I decided to tell them.

"So, today is Letty's birthday. And, since she doesn't really have anyone to celebrate with I was thinking maybe we could give her a little party or something," I said, trying to act casual.

"Oh that'll be fun. Can we Dad? I can bake a cake after school today. And, I still have those decorations left over from Dominic's birthday," Mia said, getting very excited.

"Sure, I think that would be a nice thing to do," Dad said to Mia.

"Great, let me go see if I can find them," she said, jumping up from the table.

Dad just looked at me. "What?" I asked.

"We can do this. But, you're still in trouble," he said.

"I know," I said defensively. "But, that doesn't mean that Letty should spend her birthday alone. I promise not to have fun, okay?" I said. He just shot me a look that told me to watch my attitude. "Sorry."

"Dominic," he started, putting down the paper and looking over at me. "My biggest concern is that you don't ever think about the consequences of your actions. You don't think about the people that you could hurt when you do things like you did last night."

I just looked down at my plate. I didn't feel like hearing another lecture.

"But, I think that what you have been trying to do for Letty is good. Maybe there is hope for you yet," he finished.

"Maybe," I said. "I wasn't trying to," I started but he stopped me.

"I know. I don't want to get into it. I don't want to hear any excuses. You take your punishment like a man. Everything is going to be okay. I love you and I just want you to learn to be responsible," he said.

"I know," I responded.

"So, what are you going to get Letty for her birthday?" he asked. I was embarrassed by this question. How did he know that I was thinking about getting her something? I hadn't really planned on telling anyone that I was going to get her a present.

I just shrugged.

"You could clean all the trash out of the guest room so she could stop sleeping on your floor and have a real bed," he said nonchalantly, picking the paper back up.

My jaw dropped. He knew. All this time, he knew. How did he know? I was dumbfounded.

"What? You think I didn't know?" he asked, smiling. He knew how surprised I was.

"Um," was all I could say.

"You may be good, son, but you're not that good. I used to be the king of sneaking girls in and out of my parents house," he said.

"No, it's not like that," I said. I knew what he was talking about and I certainly didn't want him to think that Letty and I were, well, like that.

"I know. That's why I didn't say anything," he said. "I've seen the things that go on at her house. I don't blame her for leaving. But, it might mean something to her if she had a place to go and didn't have to sneak around."

That was a really good idea.

"Besides, you'll have plenty of time this afternoon since you aren't coming to the garage," he added.

TBC

---

AJ