A/N- Sorry guys. The reason it took so long to get something up is a pretty complex story. But, not very interesting. So I'll just focus on the one below.
I felt her lips against mine. This was a nice turn of events. I wasn't expecting it. Her lips were soft. I really enjoyed kissing her. Kissing her. Who else had kissed her? Had Zack been able to kiss her? That was what he had insinuated. What if he had? Shit.
"Hold on a second," I said, pulling away. God, I sure didn't want to pull away. What was I doing?
"Hold on?" she asked confused.
"There's something I got to ask you," I said. I did not want to stop. And, I knew that regardless of the answer she would be mad at me for asking her about it. But, it had been bugging me. I didn't see that changing any time soon. I knew what I needed to do. I swallowed deeply and sighed.
"Oh boy," Letty said unenthusiastically.
"Letty," I said, trying to get her to act serious for a brief moment.
"Ask me," she said, apparently hoping to get the pain over with quickly. I didn't know what question she expected me to ask, but I didn't think it was the one she was about to hear.
I hesitated at first. Was it worth it to know? Yeah. I really thought that it was. Despite how mad she would be that I was prying into her business, yet again, I had to. I just had to know. "Did you sleep with Zack?"
"Why are you asking me that?" she said, progressively showing more disdain in her voice. I was trying to read her body language. She was smiling, somewhat. Mostly, she was just sitting there, waiting to get mad.
"Why are you avoiding the question?" I asked. She was trying to turn it around on me. I knew that tactic. It was one I used frequently, especially when a girl was getting mad at me for something that I had done. This was concerning.
"Why are you answering my question with a question?" she asked, getting audibly much louder. Her voice sounded pretty angry at this point. I couldn't tell if it was the frustration from the conversation or if she was trying to hide something. I feared the latter.
This cycle could go on forever. We were both champions at avoidance. And we had played this game of back and forth questions before. From experience, I knew that it usually didn't end in the right place.
"You know…I think I got my answer," I finally said. If she wasn't going to tell me no, then it was pretty clear what the answer was. Maybe she just didn't want to lie to me. Maybe she was embarrassed or shy about it. I could only speculate. But, if she'd slept with Zack, that would change everything. I felt like I had been sucker punched, like the rug just got pulled out from under me. Damn.
"God, don't do that!" she said exasperated.
"What?" I asked, starting to get very upset.
"Just assumin' you know," she cocked an attitude. She stood up and crossed her arms, scowling at me.
"Well, didn't hear you say no," I responded, starting to yell.
"But you heard me say yes?" she yelled back.
"I'm not doing this," I said and stood up. I wasn't going to get in a fight about this. I was hurt. I definitely felt betrayed. I wasn't sure who I felt more betrayal from, Letty or Zack. But the combination definitely killed me. I didn't want her to see how angry I was or how it was just too painful to accept. I guess it had been my own fault all along. But, I wasn't going to stand out in the yard and fight with her. It wasn't worth it.
"You self-righteous son of a bitch," Letty responded as I walked back towards the house. With that, I stopped. Did I want to turn back around? If she couldn't even be honest with me, what was the point? I didn't want to fight with her. I definitely had things I wanted to say, though. But, the things I wanted to say, my part of the argument, I couldn't articulate yet. I still wasn't ready. And, now was definitely not the time to reveal my feelings to her.
"What?" I replied angrily. I turned around and faced her. She hadn't moved.
"Have I ever asked you about the girls you've slept with?" she questioned. Was this a trick question?
"Fuck, I don't know," I said. What did that have to do with it? Well, I guess I could see the connection. But, we weren't talking about me.
"No. I haven't. It ain't my business. What makes you think who I do or do not sleep with is any of your damn business?"
"This is different."
"How's it different? How's it only different when it's me? You don't never have to talk about shit you don't want to!"
"Because it's Zack!" I yelled.
"And?"
"And, what?
"He's your friend!"
"Not anymore."
"Why're you being such a dick?"
"Why are you lying to me? Man up, Letty. Just admit it!"
"I ain't admitting shit to you."
"You know…it don't even matter. He already told me. I can't believe you'd actually have sex with him," I said throwing my hands up in the air.
"Check your sources, asshole," she yelled. With that, she turned and started walking in the opposite direction. She was storming away from the house, from me.
I supposed that she was probably running off to Zack now. She could tell him about the fight, then Zack could tell her about our fight. I was pretty angry I had created a situation where they could share something like this. I was beyond angry. I felt so out of control, again.
"Dom, come here," I heard Mia yell from the side steps.
"Not now, Mia," I called back. That was the last thing I needed. I didn't want to hear Mia complain to me about the noise or having too much company over. I couldn't take her nagging me right now.
"Dom before you make more of a butthead of yourself, come here," she insisted.
"What do you want?" I asked infuriated.
"What do you think you are doing? Are you trying to throw this out the window?" she asked, lowering her tone.
"What are you talking about?" I asked completely confused but approaching her.
"With Letty. Wait…just come with me," she said, pulling me inside the house. She closed the door behind her and led me upstairs to her room. I could hear Jesse, Leon, and Vince listening to music downstairs. I hoped this meant that they'd missed hearing any of the fight between Letty and me.
When we got up to her room, she closed the door. It was a little weird. I didn't go into Mia's room very much. It was a lot cleaner than mine. Why had she brought me in here? She didn't know what was going on. I couldn't imagine what she wanted to talk to me about. And, a butthead? She called me a butthead. It felt like 3rd grade again. This sure wasn't turning into a very successful night.
"Dom, you love Letty. We get it. We all get it. Now you need to start taking control of this situation before you damage it beyond repair," she explained clearly, sitting down on her bed.
'Love Letty'. 'All get it.' These words repeated in my mind. Who 'all' gets it? When did Mia find out that I loved Letty? 'Control'. I wish I could take control. What was Mia attempting to accomplish right now? What was she talking about? I had a feeling we weren't exactly on the same page.
"Don't act so surprised. You try to hide so much from me. I'll let you in on a little secret- you suck at it," she said, pulling me in and whispering.
"Hm." Just one more thing I was doing poorly. For a night that I won a car, my ego was really starting to plummet.
"I don't know what spawned that conversation about Zack that you just had with her but that was just stupid," she told me.
"How'd you know?"
"Dom, you're right out my window genius. You don't even have to try to hear what goes on outside. Especially when people are yelling."
"Well, sorry about the noise," I said begrudgingly. "But, Mia, I don't think you really know what you're talking about," I said. If she knew the half of it…
"Try me," she replied impudently.
"Okay," I said, knowing that she would be blown away after hearing some of the details. "I got in a fight with Zack tonight. Over Letty. He was talking shit. He said that he and Letty hooked up."
"Well I can just look at you and tell that you got in a fight tonight, Dom. You clearly haven't done much to hide that. And, yeah, I'm sure he probably did say something like that. But, when do you think Letty is having all this sex?" she asked me. I didn't like my baby sister talking about sex.
"Maybe when she ain't going to school," I said flippantly.
"That has nothing to do with sex and you know that," she said deliberately.
"Did she tell you?" I asked. I didn't want to divulge all of Letty's secrets. But, had she really been talking to Mia too?
"I know enough to confidently say that you know it was not sexually related," she said. There she went with the sex word again. I had to look past that and try to wrap my head around the statement she made. She knew enough to tell me what I knew? How did that work? I brushed it off.
"Then why'd he say that?" I asked Mia. If she knew everything, maybe she could enlighten me.
"Gee, Dom, maybe to piss you off. And, it worked so he accomplished that. Why would you believe him over Letty? When have you known her to lie to you? You're the only person she is honest with. And you are about this close to losing that with her if you keep this up," she said making about an inch long space between her index finger and thumb to, I assume, emphasize how close I was. This was unnecessary. I got it. I figured I had already lost that chance.
I nodded.
"You got mad at her because of what he said. He's a threat to you. You are scared that she will pick him over you. And, honestly, I wouldn't blame her. But, for some reason she has her mind set on you," she said.
All I could think was whether or not Dr. Mia had any other part of my life she would like to analyze? She was right. I did view Zack as a threat to my chances with Letty. But, Mia was under the impression that Letty had her 'mind set on me'. "What do you mean?" I asked for clarification.
"You aren't that hard, Dom. You know what I mean. You're like some, I don't know, mythical figure to her," she replied.
"Wow, mythical, huh?" I responded. Nice. That helped to boost up that ego a tad.
"Don't let it get to your head, Romeo. I have tried my dead-level best to stay out of your sex life. Believe me. I'm your sister. It's weird. But this sort of got thrown into my lap. And you were doing pretty good there for a while. But for some reason you have taken a drastic 180. You need to take a reality check. Letty doesn't know why you are getting so worked up over Zack. You haven't told her that you like her. For all she knows, you are just being a jerk. And, honestly, I can't disagree."
Whoa, easy now. She was getting a little sassy. And I had to disagree with them both. This may not have been my shining moment but I certainly wasn't a jerk, not to them anyway, typically.
Well, maybe I was being a little bit of a jerk.
"So what are you saying?" I asked. Mia had a way of going on and on without ever really reaching a point. I was afraid that was where this was heading.
"First off, you need to go find her. You need to apologize. You need to tell her why you acted like such an idiot. You need to bring her back home, Dom. If you aren't ready to tell her how you feel, that is your deal. But, you need to fix this. Now," she said, pointing to the door.
"So you think she likes me, huh?" I asked. I was stuck on that. That was all I had gotten out of this. Mia thinks that Letty likes me. Vince thinks that Letty likes me. Interesting.
"No, don't get fixated. Go fix it," she said. "Right now. Go. What are you waiting for?"
As she pushed me out the door I said, "alright, I'm going. Geez. When did you get so nosey?"
"The day everyone all of a sudden started living here. Now go fix it," she said, closing her bedroom door behind me.
I think that was what they call an intervention.
Super, now I had to go find Letty. In the middle of the night. In L. A. And, I had to apologize. This was going to suck. I had no clue as to where Letty might be. When she was upset, she ran to my house. I didn't know where else she would go. But, I guessed that the search would give me plenty of time to figure out what I was supposed to say. I sure as hell didn't want to tell her that I liked her. And I was pretty sure she wouldn't accept something as simple as 'sorry, let's go back home'.
Maybe she did like me after all. Other people thought so. She hadn't told me anything about it and I hadn't said anything to her. All I knew for sure was that I didn't want to be turned down by her. That would make things really awkward. I would feel like an idiot. And, as much as I hated to admit it, that would hurt me. I needed to tell her. Not now, though, not under these circumstances. I didn't want to tell her because I had to. I wanted to tell her because I wanted to. Because I wanted her to know.
Letty might like me.
This was an abstract concept for me. I liked it though. I liked this idea. Letty might like me. Yeah.
"Letty," I called out. I was only halfway down the block and I saw her. She was sitting on the curb talking to Hector. Great.
"Dominic, I'm tired. It's late. And, I sure as hell don't want to get back into it with you right now. I'm mad at you. Leave me alone," she said, standing up and walking away from both Hector and me.
"Um, I'm gonna go inside, ese. If you guys need anything just let me know," Hector said, politely excusing himself from an awkward situation. So far tonight, that had made two of our friends that wanted to run away from our conversations.
"Thanks, man," I said, nodding. I appreciated that he was there for Letty. But, I wanted to be the only one that was there for her. I guessed that I was a little jealous. A little.
Letty continued to walk down the street, her stride getting longer as she noticed me following her.
"Dominic, I said leave me alone," she reiterated.
"Yeah, that's likely," I said. I wasn't going to leave her alone. I certainly wasn't going to let her wander the streets of our neighborhood at night. I knew the kind of things that went on. Typically, I was a part of them. I didn't want her to be.
"Dom!" she yelled back, turning around to face me. Stopping.
"Got you to stop didn't I?"
"Ugh."
"Letty, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It was a dick thing to do. I know you better than that. I was mad at Zack and I took it out on you. That wasn't right," I said, probably forming the most sincere apology I ever had. And, it was even premeditated. I was good.
"Damn right," she said, completely unyielding.
"I got in a fight with Zack tonight. I know you asked about it. I wasn't going to tell you. But, I told you that I wouldn't ever make you a promise that I couldn't keep. And, I said that if you told me what you'd been doing, I would tell you. I owe you the truth."
"Okay, let's have it," she pushed.
"From earlier this morning Zack was talking about trying to get with you. I asked him to back off and he said he would. But, when we got to the races, he clearly wasn't. You can't deny that. He was flirting with you pretty hardcore. And then he started talking to me about having hooked up with you. And I know that it was just to piss me off. It worked. I ended up beating his ass pretty hard. But, I should've realized that I know you better than that. And you wouldn't do that. I'm sorry," I said. Those words tasted pretty bitter in my mouth but I knew they needed to be said. I was glad no one else was around to hear this.
"You should be," she said, arms folded.
"Come on, Let, cut me some slack. This wasn't exactly an easy thing for me to do."
"I know. I appreciate it. Why did Zack use me? Why didn't he use Mia? I'd think that anyone wanting to piss you off would say they got with Mia," she said, relaxing her stance just slightly.
"Because…it's different. And, I really don't want to get into why or how or anything right now. But, trust me when I say that it is very, very different."
She started laughing.
"What?"
She continued to laugh, providing no response to my question.
"What? What the hell are you laughing at? I just fucking opened up. That's not how we play this game," I said, starting to get a little pissed at this disrespect.
"Oh, Dominic. You got it bad. It's okay. It'll be our secret," she said, turning around and walking back towards the direction of my house.
Wait. What just happened?
TBC
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AJ