Sorry for the delay guys my computer had a virtual heart attack- PC's! Guess that's what I get for doing this at work. Back on the Mac, back in business…AJ

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So instead of talking, we watched television. I heard the phone ringing upstairs. I hadn't brought a phone down to the basement yet. I didn't even think we had a phone jack down here.

"Dom, phone," Mia said, walking down the basement stairs. I walked over and met her, taking the phone from her hands.

"Thanks," I told her. She turned around and went back upstairs. "Hello."

"D-rock, what's up," Zack said from the other end. D-rock? He was clearly still drunk from the night before. Knowing Zack, I would imagine any family he had would have a kick ass reunion.

"What's up man? How was the reunion?" I asked.

"Sucked. Big time. But, you know. I got pretty wasted," he replied.

"Missed one hell of a party," I told him.

"Yeah, I heard about the shin dig. Sounded like a good time. Heard you made out with Letty?" he asked and then started laughing. Who had he been talking to? I guess it could have been any number of people. I didn't really know how to respond. Letty was sitting right there. I didn't want to talk about it casually, as if it didn't mean anything. I also wanted to avoid peaking Zack's suspicion.

"Who you been talking to?" I asked, as I quickly got up and walked up the stairs and out of the basement.

"I got my sources. So, what's up with that?" he inquired.

"Oh, I don't know, man. We were playing fucking truth-or-dare. It is what it is," I told him after I closed the door to the basement. More accurately speaking I lied to him. It was so much more than that. What the hell did that phrase even mean? There were not words to describe the way I felt about it, thought about it.

"So you ain't got anything going on there? I always thought there were some flames flying up between you and that young vixen," he said. I wondered if he actually meant this statement or if he was just trying to give me a hard time. Surely he had not really noticed. Vince had. But, Vince was different. He had been around Letty and I for years.

"Anyway," I said. I was not responding to this right now. "You hitting up the streets tonight?"

"Definitely. You coming?" he asked.

"I'll be there," I assured him.

"Well I got to ask you something," he said. He sounded serious. This was very unlike Zack.

"What's up?" I asked suspiciously.
"So if you ain't got anything going on with Letty you wouldn't mind if I tried to hit that?" he asked.

What the hell? Where did this come from? Zack liked Letty. I was not at all okay with this. It really put me in an awkward position. I mean, we had kissed once. But, I didn't want Letty to fall for Zack. He was a senior. She was a freshman. That seemed like it had a huge possibility of killing my chances. I didn't want to tell him I liked her. He wasn't Vince. I didn't trust him like that.

"I don't know man. Give me some time to work my magic," I said. Personal translation- hell no dude back the fuck off. I wasn't exactly sure that he understood this quite like I had intended. But, I tried to maintain my composure while at the same time telling him that I did in fact have a problem with this.

"I feel ya, Dom," he replied. I didn't know what that meant. All I knew was that I needed to keep a much closer eye on Zack when he was around Letty.

"What time you heading out?" I asked, changing the subject yet again.

"Probably around nine. You racing tonight?" he asked.

"No I don't have the money right now," I said. After being beat by Tran and buying the beer for Vince's party, I had very limited cash flow. I really hoped that Tran didn't try to challenge me. "Are you?"

"I was thinking about it," he told me. Zack and I never raced against one another, not for money anyway. It was similar to how Vince and I never raced. It was pointless. You didn't officially race against your friends. Only the people you wanted to show up.

"Alright well, guess I'll see you out there," I told him.

"Peace," he said, hanging up the phone.

I felt dazed. What was going on? All of a sudden Letty was in high school and all of these guys were just coming out of the woodwork. I supposed that was not truly the case with Zack. I had introduced him to Letty- something I kind of regretted now. But, I would never have imagined that he liked her. Of course, why wouldn't he? She had always been cute and in the past couple of years had grown down right hot. Plus she was cool to hang out with, a rarity with most girls in high school. But, I didn't know the Tony guy that was following her around at Vince's party. He just appeared out of nowhere. I was not the biggest fan of this new development.

I walked back down into the basement.

"What was that all about?" Letty asked, looking up.

"Just tonight. You want to come with me to the races?" I asked. I walked up to the couch, where she was laying, and sat down on her feet. Sadly enough, this was forward as I was brave enough to be with her right now.

"Not if you don't get off my feet," she threatened. I sat up enough for her to pull them closer towards her.

"So is that a yes?" I asked her, looking over.

"Sure," she said, laying her feet across my lap.

"You just got to spread out, huh?" I asked, making fun of the fact that she could never just sit on a on a couch normally. She was always either sitting Indian style, had her legs pulled up to her side, or laying down. It was really cute. She just got so damn comfortable regardless of where we were. I loved Letty because she didn't give a shit. She possessed this air of confidence that most of the world pretended to have but could never actually attain. It wasn't cocky, it was relaxed.

"Yes," she replied matter-of-factly. "You kept me up late last night."

"Me?" I asked. She was looking right in my eyes. Was she flirting with me? Probably not.

"You heard me," she replied.

"I wish," I smiled. Shit, did I just say that? I didn't really know how she would take it. Play it cool.

"I bet you do," she smiled back. Oh hell. She had no idea.

"Damn right. Maybe tonight," I said, raising my eyebrows at her. This was fun. And yet, very truthful at the same time. This was probably the closest Letty and I had ever gotten to witty sexual banter. How sad is that?

Letty laughed, "Dom, you're full of shit."

I had no clue what that meant, which made responding quite the challenge.

"We'll see. You might be singing a different tune later on," I said. She kicked my shoulder with her foot. I reached up and grabbed her foot before she could put it back down. "Play nice."

"I heard you play dirty," she said. Nice! However, it was too early for this. I was still hungover and wasn't really on my A-game. But I was loving it.

I just shot her a smile and said, "Sometimes it's good to get a little dirty."

"Get a little grease under your fingernails?" she asked, perking up her eyebrows and smiling.

"Something like that," I said suggestively.

"Guess we'll see," she laughed.

"We will indeed," I told her. Maybe I should try something tonight. Or maybe she was just joking. Was it worth a shot? I looked up at the television. What the hell was this she was watching? I hadn't even really noticed the television until now. I had been focusing on more important things. "What are you watching?"

"Shut up," she replied holding tight to the remote.

"No, you can do better than this," I suggested.

"I'm not changing it," she stated.

"Alright Mia," I joked. Mia would never change the channel to accommodate anyone else in the room either. Clearly, she had been spending far too much time around my sister.

"Fuck you," Letty said, knowing I did not mean this as a compliment.

"Letty, seriously though," I said with only a small degree of seriousness behind it.

"Dom, seriously though," she mocked.

I reached over to grab the remote out of her hands. She put both hands on it and buried it under her left side. Clearly it only left one option- to go in after it.

I leaned over, somewhat on top of her, to reach for the remote. She started laughing at my unsuccessful attempt. I continued to reach for it, despite her laughter. It was on now!

"You're not going to get it. I don't care how hard you try," she laughed.

"That's what you think," I told her, trying to act serious but really I was just enjoying this. I could care less about the remote at this point.

I continued to reach for it, using both hands to reach behind her, slightly lifting her back up off the couch. She had quite the grip on it, though. But, to be honest, I had somewhat stopped trying for the remote and was mainly just trying to touch her.

Instead, I took the most logical approach, and started tickling her. I had known Letty long enough and well enough to know that she was really only ticklish on her sides. As soon as I started tickling her, naturally, she started laughing. She somewhat dropped the remote but instead of reaching for it I just focused on my task.

"Alright, alright," she said through spurts of hard laughter.

"Alright what?" I asked still tickling.

"Fuck you, just take it," she said. I stopped tickling, realizing at this point that I was essentially laying beside her on the couch. I looked at her, into her eyes. They were deep. I felt like I could get completely lost in them. It was as if they could see right through me, past all my bullshit. She was the only person that looked at me and didn't see all the crazy shit I had pulled the past few years. She saw me as someone much better than that. Her eyes dug deeply into me. Time completely stood still. Everything else that was happening just stopped. Everything got very quiet. Our eyes were connected. I couldn't think. My mind was blank. Without a second thought, I leaned towards her. I don't know if she leaned towards me also or just froze.

We kissed. It was better than the first. I would have actually been able to see her if I could have opened my eyes. Her lips were so soft. I put my hand up to her cheek to pull her closer to me. Our lips stayed connected. I opened up my mouth slightly, kissing mainly her top lip, stroking it gently with my tongue. She took this as an open invitation and slipped her tongue into my mouth. It started out light, tender, but grew more passionate. I took my free hand and wrapped it around her back. I pulled her body close to mine. Damn, she was amazing. That was the only thing my incoherent mind could think. Amazing. Her lips felt amazing. Her tongue felt amazing. She wrapped her arms around me. She was a great kisser. I gently sucked on her bottom lip before meeting her tongue again. And then, without warning, she rolled over on top of me.

I moved my hand from her cheek to behind her head. Her hair was so soft. My other hand remained on the small of her back. I wanted to reach up the bottom of her shirt but I didn't want to press my luck. This was going so well and I didn't want it to end. But, damn, the things I wanted to do to her. Her body felt incredible on top of mine. She was light and warm. Her hands snaked around my back. I could feel her nails ever so slightly but still a very present force pressing through my shirt.

I was so happy. I was exactly where I wanted to be. I couldn't think of anyone else in the world I would rather kiss…ever again. She was everything. She started kissing my neck. Her mouth found its way to a spot about half way between my collar bone and my ear. I felt her tongue smooth and warm on my neck. Her teeth grazing the skin just slightly but with enough force to drive me crazy.

"God Letty," I moaned as she continued to work at that spot. I could feel myself becoming so aroused. So, I guess she liked me? She was definitely not drunk right now. I was almost certain of that.

With that I decided to take a chance. I gently reached my hand up the bottom of her shirt. I felt her back. It was so soft, flawless. I felt her bra strap. Did I dare? No, not yet. I wanted to take things slow with Letty. She meant too much to rush anything. It felt good just to feel her, have her, hold her against me.

When she moved her mouth back up to mine I decided that two could play the neck game. I gently lifted her chin up and outlined her right ear with the tip of my tongue, spending a little more time focusing on her earlobe. I moved down to the tender area just below her ear by her jaw line, and worked my way down lower. I heard her let out a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a moan, but it sounded like a positive thing so I continued.

"Man brother, you won't believe some shit," Vince said, walking in the side door.

It took me a minute to realize what was going on. I felt Letty start to scramble a bit and pull her shirt down from where it had inched its way up.

"Oh fuck, my bad," Vince said and turned and walked back out the door. I could hear him somewhat start to laugh on his way out.

"Thanks a lot V," I called out as Letty sat up. I was pretty pissed. So far, Vince had been the exact opposite of helpful. Up to this point I would pretty much describe him as the main hindrance for me getting closer to Letty.

Letty sat up, looking slightly embarrassed. I stayed where I was, just looking at her. She looked down at me and we both started laughing. I am not sure what exactly was funny. But, I was just really happy at what had happened- minus Vince. I was still a little confused, but this had definitely help to clear up some things.

"Come here," I said, reaching up for her cheek. I leaned up slightly and led her lips down to meet mine. Our kiss was not deep, but sweet. It helped normalize the situation, as much as possible given the circumstances. I just didn't want things to be awkward any longer. I was tired of these games I had created in my head and wanted to get things out in the open.

She laid down beside me on the couch. I wrapped my arms around her. She still fit, maybe better than she did that day so many years ago. I felt down on the ground, found the remote, and changed the channel. She looked over at me giving me an annoyed look. I knew she didn't really care though. We spent the rest of the afternoon like that. It was unbelievable. I made a mental note to get some locks for the basement doors- or to at least start using the ones that were already in place.

A few hours later, Letty and I emerged for dinner. We ate and she spent the evening showering and hanging out with Mia. Vince came back over. This time, he knocked before he came in.

"Thanks for knocking," I told him as he came into the basement.

"My fault, Dom," he said remorsefully.

"It's cool," I replied, attempting to ease his suffering.

"So are you guys like hooking up now?" he asked.

"Nah, people keep opening the door on us," I glared at him.

"I left," he said defensively.

"I'm just messing with you. No, though. We really haven't done anything," I admitted. I felt a little weird talking to Vince about it. I did not think Letty would probably want me to. I wonder if she was talking to Mia. I doubted it.

"Are you two like together or whatever?" he asked.
"I have no idea," I said. And I didn't. Despite what had happened earlier today I still didn't know if that meant we were anything. I fucking hated labels. None of them ever seemed to fit.

"Well from what I saw, I'd say she probably likes you, bro," he remarked.

"Yeah?" I asked. I didn't want to think it was something and it turn out to be nothing.

"Yeah man she was fucking all over you," he stated.

"Not really. You kind of walked in on the tail end of it," I said.

"I think she likes you, man," he said, again.

"Guess we'll see," I replied.

"Why? What are you going to do?" he asked extremely interested.

"Oh, I don't know," I said. I really had no plan. I had loved the way things worked out today. I didn't really want to sit down and have a discussion with her about it. Maybe I would see if she brought it up. Yeah, Letty bring up a conversation about something really serious. I wouldn't hold my breath.

"Take her to the race with you tonight," Vince suggested.

"I already ask her," I told him.

"Damn, boy, you got it bad," he mocked.

"Fuck you," I said. He was so right. "Did you know that Zack liked Letty?"

"Yeah, I figured he did," Vince said as if this was common knowledge.

"You knew?" I was shocked. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"It don't matter, bro. She don't like him like that," he reassured me.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because I asked her," he told me.

"What? When? How long have you known he liked her?" I could not believe this. This was like some parallel universe. How had I not realized this? I guess, until recently, I had told myself that Letty was too young to like. If she was too young for me to like, she was too young for anyone else to like. Apparently, I was completely full of shit. Awesome.

"Well he talks about her all the time. He's always asking about her and trying to hang out with her. How did you not know?" he asked surprised.

"Apparently I'm just…fucking…retarded. I don't know," I said. I was trying to get a handle on things. "So you asked her about it?"

"Yeah, I guess like right after school started. Just one day. I was curious. I knew you had it bad for her and I was just trying to help you out," he said. He seemed really sincere.

"Well let me tell you brother, you haven't been a lot of help these past couple of days," I joked.

"But, man, I was running defense for you and you didn't even know. You got to like that, huh?"

"Yeah V, thanks," I said. I guess I appreciated it. But he didn't tell me about it so it's hard to appreciate things you are completely unaware of.

After that I changed the subject. I couldn't hear anything else about this. I had been so oblivious to everything. It kind of pissed me off. I needed to chill out. I was getting pretty mad at Zack. I guess he hadn't known that I liked Letty but he shouldn't like her.

A couple of hours later Vince and I were ready to go to the races.

"Letty, you coming or not?" I called up. I hadn't seen her since dinner but I hoped she was still going to come with me.

"Chill the fuck out. I'll be right there," she called down the stairs.

I sipped my Corona with Vince and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, acting like you're annoyed with your woman," Vince laughed.

"Don't make me hurt you," I said calmly. Vince just smiled. I contemplated hitting him in the jaw but didn't want to have to explain it to Letty.

A few minutes later she strutted down the stairs. She was wearing a short, tight skirt and some tube top thing. She looked beautiful. Her hair was long and flowing down her back.

"About time," I said, trying to act annoyed.

Letty didn't respond. She sighed at me and kept walking.

"Alright, meet you there?" I asked Vince as he reached for his keys.

"See you in a few," he said opening the door and walking out.

Letty stood there, presumably waiting for me to grab my keys and walk out the door. I couldn't stop staring. This could be hazardous to my health. She sat up on the counter and just stared at me like I was an idiot.

"So…?" she asked.

"You look awesome," I said, my eyes glued to her.

She laughed, rolled her eyes, and jumped off the counter. She walked towards the door. I reached my hand out, gently touching her forearm. My hand slid down her arm until it met her hand before she could reach for the doorknob. When my hand was in hers she looked up at me perplexed. I pulled her by the hand up towards me. I looked down at her. It was about time I do something about the way I felt. Apparently, I was about to miss my opportunity and then I would never forgive myself. She was the only person who saw me for who I wanted to be, not who I was. She was the only person that I could talk to. She was the only person I was willing to tell corny jokes around. She was the only person that I couldn't stop thinking about at night before I went to sleep and looked forward to seeing first thing when I woke up. She was the only person I knew that had always been genuine.

I pulled her towards me and put both of my hands on her cheeks. I looked into her eyes. It was now or never…

TBC

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AJ