A/N: All claims over The Great Gatsby belong to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The quote below comes from the first page of this book.
This chapter helps set the stage for a bigger event that will come in the following chapter.
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I spent my entire Sunday afternoon being completely useless. I stayed in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, until I was too hungry to think of much else. It was really my only motivation for getting up. I supposed that I should have checked on Leon and Jesse at some point that morning. But, I didn't want to get up. I was tired. I was tired physically and emotionally. I was tired of trying to guess what was happening in my life.
I rolled out of bed. The sun was starting to go down. This day had been totally wasted. But, it was fine. Monday was a school day. I was going to be forced to be productive, whether I wanted to or not.
I stepped out of my room. I figured that I probably needed a shower. Before making my way to the bathroom, I passed Mia.
"Did you just get up?" she asked aggravated.
"No," I replied. I had been up once already today. That counted.
"How can you be okay with being so lazy?"
"Takes some practice. But, it's a learned skill."
She sighed, shook her head in disappointment, and then went off to do, inevitably, another extremely productive activity.
After that insult, I made it to the shower. I turned on the water and stepped in. It was cold at first, giving me a burst of alertness. When the water finally warmed, I stood under the showerhead and let the warm water wash away my problems, at least for right now. Right now, I didn't have to figure out a way to pass so that I could be promoted to the 12th grade. Right now, I didn't have to figure out a way to tell Letty how I felt. I didn't have to figure out a way to pay car insurance on another vehicle. I didn't have to figure out how to deal with Zack and the foreseeable drama that would still be there. I didn't have to figure out how to handle Tran and the outrageous competition that was beginning to build up between us. I didn't have to figure out how to be the kind of guy my dad wanted me to be. I could just be clean. That was a start.
I definitely needed some food, had to refuel the system. I went downstairs. I noticed Vince was watching television. I couldn't tell what Letty was doing, but I saw her in their too. I passed by without so much as an acknowledgement. I made a sandwich and then headed back upstairs. I figured that I'd already spent the better part of the day sleeping, why change now?
I climbed back into my bed, eating the sandwich and thinking about nothing. I wasn't really tired. I guess twelve hours of sleeping will do that to a person. I looked around my room for something to do. Nothing. I could clean up. But, I didn't want to. I could do laundry. But, that would involve me going back downstairs.
"Hey," Letty said, walking into my room. She was holding a book. I was trying to remember if I'd ever seen Letty holding a book before.
"What?"
"I need you to make me read this. Come on, motivate me."
"What is this?" I said, looking at the book she was holding in her hands.
"Some bull shit. I've got to read it for English," she said, flashing me the cover.
"Well read it then."
"That's not very motivating," she said, walking in all the way and closing the door.
"I'm probably not the one you should go to for motivation with school. Have you tried Mia? Why are you so concerned about reading it anyway?"
"Honestly, 'cause I'm gonna fail freshman English if I can't pull something out of this."
"If you're gonna drop out anyway why's it matter if you pass or not?"
"I want droppin' out to be my choice. Not because I can't do it. You're the worst motivator ever."
"I told you."
"Well stop suckin' and be good at it."
I sat up on the bed and sighed. Motivate. I couldn't even motivate myself, let alone someone else.
"Don't you got some homework?" she asked.
I shrugged.
"How're you not failing?"
I shrugged again.
I didn't want to tell her that I was. And, I was probably in the same boat as her. If I didn't do something to turn my grades around soon it would be too late. "I think the teachers just grade me on how awesome I am."
She just looked at me, and laughed. "Yeah, right."
"Well, read the book then smart ass. Open it up. Come on. Hussle." It was the best 'motivation' I could muster.
"There you go, coach. I knew you had it in ya," she said. She picked up a pile of clothes that were on my floor and threw them on another, much larger pile.
Shit, she had just ruined my laundry system. The one pile of clothes were dirty but still wearable. The other pile was dirty and definitely needed to be washed. Now they were all mixed up. I didn't know what I would be wearing this week now.
She positioned herself on a large pillow I had laying on the floor. She was moving some other small articles of crap around, trying to make a large enough area for her to spread out.
"Here," she said, throwing a book at me. "This looks like it's for school. Read this."
I looked at the cover of the book she just threw at me. I noticed it as the book that I was supposed to have been reading the past couple of weeks for English. What the hell? Maybe it would help me fall back to sleep. I recalled the teacher mentioning something about a test on it this next week. I had not even opened the book up. So, if I read a couple of pages at least I would have a shot at getting a couple of questions right…maybe.
I imagined that the book had been in the same place, under my pile of clean-ish laundry, since the day they handed them out in class. I remembered coming home and thinking that I would read it later. Well, this was much later.
"I'm not the one who's wanting to do homework."
"Oh, come on. You read yours, I'll read mine. It'll be fun."
"That don't sound like fun to me."
"What else you got to do?"
"I could just distract you." That was always fun for me.
"What happened to that motivation, man?"
I sighed and picked it up. The Great Gatsby. It looked pretty stupid. I laid back down on my bed. I turned to chapter 1:
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
'Whenever you fee l like criticizing anyone,' he told me 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'
I could hear Letty squirming around on the floor. She had her book open, but it didn't look like she was reading.
"You readin' or what?"
"Trying to," she said.
"Get up in the bed," I said, patting the spot next to me.
She looked at me oddly after making that statement.
"It's more comfortable," I clarified.
"I don't know," she hesitated. "I don't think I wanna risk catchin' all the diseases that are probably floating around on those sheets."
I shot her an annoyed look. "Just get up here."
She climbed up into the bed and laid down beside me. She opened her book back up. I took my right arm and tucked it behind my head, attempting to pick up where I'd left off on that page.
She nestled into the pillow. I looked over at her and couldn't help but laugh.
"What?" she asked, glancing over at me.
"This is something I ain't never done with a girl in my bed before," I smiled. And it wasn't really what I wanted to do with her in my bed right now. I could think of other more exciting activities we could engage in. But, she wanted to read. I don't know why.
"It's good to try new things," she responded.
"If you say so."
Just then my Dad popped his head in. He looked somewhat dumbfounded to see Letty lying in my bed. I guess it did look a little suspicious.
"What are you doing?" he asked me apprehensively.
"We're readin'," I told him, as if this was something I did every day.
"Reading?"
"Yeah, you know? Books," I said flippantly. He should be glad I was doing school work. Wasn't that what he'd told me to do earlier today?
"I know books. I didn't know that you knew books. Reading, huh? Well, good," he said, turning to leave. He was shutting the door as he walked out. But, then pushed it back open about half way. Guess he still didn't trust me completely with Letty. That was probably wise on his part.
The fact he left the door open made me laugh. I looked back over at her. She really was reading. So, I continued. Not much of the first page was making sense. But, I pressed on. I figured it would make sense eventually, or I'd just fall asleep. This narrator was really long-winded. Did he just call another man gorgeous? Oh, I hoped this wasn't a book about some dude's infatuation with another dude.
It wasn't until about the 5th or 6th page, with the introduction of Daisy, that the book began to capture my attention.
So this Gatsby character liked to party. He sounded like my kind of guy. As I turned page after page I found out that Gatsby was in love with Daisy, another man's wife. And wanted to impress her. So, he partied. That made sense. That was not extremely dissimilar to the way I tried to impress girls. He was in love with a girl that he didn't have the balls to admit it to. I could sympathize, and empathize, with this. Letty and I were Daisy and Gatsby. Maybe if this book had some type of parallel with my life, I could just read it all and figure out how things would turn out for me. Gatsby was afraid of being rejected. Yep, so far, still accurate.
I kept reading, much longer than I had intended. Letty didn't stop so neither did I. I guessed she was really serious about trying to knock this one out. Around two o'clock in the morning I noticed that she had fallen asleep. She had read pretty much the entire book, though. I only had about ten pages left in mine. And so, by the time I finally put the book down, I had read the entire thing from beginning to end.
Well, fuck. So he professes his love. They're together for a little while until she goes back with her husband. She kills someone, Gatsby takes the blame, gets shot, and dies. That was not at all helpful for me. Would Gatsby have been better off to never attempt to initiate a relationship with Daisy? He'd still be alive. He'd be miserable, but alive. Is it better to be miserable and alive or have intense joy and die soon after? This Fitzgerald guy seemed to think it was the latter. I tended to really enjoy being alive. Women.
I looked over at Letty. She still looked sweet. We'd come a long way from the days she used to sleep on my floor. I contemplated the situation from the book for a while. And, without ever realizing it, fell asleep.
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Beep, beep, beep.
I slowly emerged into consciousness to hear my annoying alarm. I reached out, not hitting it. The beeping continued. I reached back further on my nightstand. I didn't feel it. Shit, I was going to have to open my eyes. I reached over again, feeling a cup spill over. Fuck. I popped my eyes open and looked to determine the damage. The water was rushing all over all the papers I had sitting beside it. It ran all over my wallet, my keys. I picked up the now empty glass and sat it on the floor. I grabbed a dirty shirt and started to wipe the water off of all my stuff, at least the stuff I cared about. Hell of a way to start off the week.
I remembered that Letty had fallen asleep in my bed that night. I didn't know when she'd left but she wasn't there now. Bummer.
I opened up my dresser and grabbed a clean shirt and boxers. I looked around at all the mixed up piles of clothes. I finally picked up what I thought was a clean-enough pair of jeans. They didn't look obviously dirty, so they were sufficient. I balled everything together and set out down the hall to take a shower. I opened the bathroom door to find Letty. She was doing something with her hair. It was hard to notice because my focus was captured elsewhere. She was wearing a sports bra and a pair of either underwear or shorts. It was hard to tell. I liked that. I was surprised for a second. But then just smiled and leaned against the doorframe. Nice. These were the perks of living with a girl that wasn't your sister. A hot girl that wasn't your sister. I didn't hate it.
"What?" she asked, cocking a full-blown attitude. She still wasn't a morning person.
I shook my head.
"You need in here?" she asked, almost ignoring me.
"Take your time. I'm not in a hurry," I said, still smiling.
She rolled her eyes.
"You gonna wear that to school?" I asked optimistically. If she got in my car wearing that, there was no way we were going to school.
"Well I thought I'd put a shirt on. I'm weird like that," she responded.
I just grinned. The addition of a shirt was unfortunate, but at least I could picture what was under the shirt.
"What the fuck are you smilin' about? I gotta run the mile first period, so the clothes work," she informed me. Granted in gym class girls did dress in particularly revealing clothing. This was different. This was Letty. Perhaps some of the other girls were rubbing off on her. Regardless of the rationale, I wasn't going to complain.
"Think you can make a whole mile?" I teased.
"Only if you're there to carry me, Dom," she joked. On her way out the door she stopped and turned back to face me. "I have amazing stamina, man. I could go a hundred miles."
"Maybe a hundred feet," I muttered as she walked past. I don't know whether she heard me or not. Considering the fact that I did not receive a punch or a death stare, I would venture to guess that she did not.
So that left me all alone in the bathroom. It was much less exciting. I hurriedly showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, and all the other morning rituals to prepare for school.
I went downstairs to find Vince shoveling in a bowl of cereal. I grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet and joined him at the table.
"What happened to you last night?" he asked in between bites.
"What do you mean?"
"Why'd you just sit upstairs? You depressed or something?"
"No," I told him. "I's reading something for school."
"Really?" he asked, obviously surprised. And, who could blame him?
"Yeah," I said a little irritated.
"Why?"
"Cause I can't fail nothing else or I ain't gonna pass," I told him. This was the truth, just not the whole truth.
That answer seemed to be enough to satisfy his curiosity, and shut him up.
"Where's my dad?" I asked him.
"Already left for the garage."
"What time is it?" I asked, looking up at the clock. 7:45. Oh, shit. If we were going to go to school, we needed to leave about fifteen minutes ago. I poured the rest of the bowl of cereal in my mouth and yelled out, "Letty, let's go."
Vince casually continued to eat his food, showing no rush to leave in the near future.
"You going?" I asked him.
"Not to first period. I got a test I don't wanna take."
"You think not going's gonna make you not fail it?"
"Won't fail it today."
As he finished responding, I rushed back upstairs, taking three steps at a time. I grabbed my wallet and keys off my nightstand. I turned to leave the room, seeing what I wanted to affectionately refer to as the 'bad omen book' laying face down on the floor. I picked it up. I rushed out the door, seeing Letty only a few steps ahead. She was right, she pretty much just added a shirt. So I guess it was clear now that those tiny bottoms she was wearing were shorts. If her shorts were that small, I could just imagine how small her underwear must be.
We walked out the door. The air was cool. Letty headed to my car. I looked at my car. Then I looked down at the Nissan parked in the street.
"Hey," I called out to her. "Let's take this one."
She didn't respond but followed me down to the other car. I smiled. I was going to enjoy pulling up to school in the car Tran had lost to me. So I didn't have insurance. I would have bragging rights. And, that outweighed financial responsibilities.
We got in the car and headed towards school- five minutes before the first bell. But by the time we pulled into the parking lot the first bell had come and gone. I didn't know what bell they were on by now. The fact they had so many different bells made no sense. You were tardy after the first one anyway. I didn't understand a need for the excess.
We walked into the school. Letty turned down the first hall to go to her gym class.
"Be good," I told her as I made my way to biology. I looked back, noticing her flipping me off but smiling at the same time. I didn't think that Daisy would probably ever flip Gatsby off. So, maybe we were different from them. Maybe what happened with them wouldn't happen with us. I certainly didn't make my money by breaking the law (except for the occasional street race). And, I couldn't imagine a situation where one of us would have to get in trouble for a crime, so I would risk my happiness for her safety. We were in high school. Things like that only happened in books and movies.
The day, as with all school days, moved along very slowly. For the fist time ever I didn't mind going to English class. I knew that I had done the work and would be able to handle whatever the teacher decided to throw out at us. Maybe that was why Mia liked school so much. She did the work so class was never intimidating.
During last period, I heard an announcement on the loud speaker. "Officer Mac, please report to room 307. Officer Mac, room 307."
Room 307, I knew that room. That was Letty's last period class. And they were calling Officer Mac. I wondered what she had done now. I couldn't wait for the bell to ring so that I could find out.
The seconds ticked by like minutes. The teacher told us to do something for homework. But, I was more concerned with just leaving. Mondays were always hard days. Nothing like the weekend to get you out of the habit of sitting in a classroom.
Finally, the bell sounded. And, as with most days, I was the first person out of the classroom. In order to get to my locker, I had to walk right by the office. Sure enough, there sat Letty. I saw her sitting in a chair, waiting by the principal's office. But it appeared that she was still being berated by the vice principal. I couldn't hear what they were saying, all the noise in the hallway blocked out other sounds. But, I saw her face. She didn't look scared or remorseful. She looked pissed and annoyed. I tried desperately to get her to make eye contact with me. I would have loved to get her to start laughing right now. I knew that would only cause her to get into further trouble. But, honestly, how much more trouble could she get in? She was waiting for the principal.
I dumped my books in my locker. I had learned better than to do the work they assigned me from school. I made that mistake the previous night. If what was in that book was a life theme they were trying to teach me, I'd rather just steer clear of homework.
I made it out to my car. I saw Vince. Kelly was leaning against his car. They were talking. I wondered if he was taking my advice.
"Dom," Kelly called out. I turned and looked at her.
"Yeah?" I responded.
"Did Vince sleep with Maria?" she asked me. Why did girls do that? Did they think they were going to get an honest answer from a guy's best friend to incriminate them?
Without a second thought I responded, "No. I mean I don't know what Maria you're talking about. But I know that Vince ain't sleeping with nobody else."
"See?" Vince quickly responded.
"Whatever," she said to him.
His voice got softer and I could not hear their conversation. That did not bother me at all. I hated when other people tried to involve you in their arguments.
"I like the car," a newly familiar voice said from behind me. I turned around to see Leon approaching.
"Me too," I responded.
"Hey thanks for letting us crash the other night, dawg," Leon said.
"No problem, man."
"You hear what happened to Letty?"
I shook my head no.
"She fucking had it out with Zack in chem lab."
"Why?"
"Don't know. I wasn't in there. That's just what I heard. I think it got pretty bad."
"Well they called Officer Mac. So, it couldn't have been good."
"I hear that. So, anyway, when you want us to come by the garage?"
"Um, how 'bout like Wednesday? We'll kind of walk through everything and see what we can come up with."
"Sounds good, dawg."
"Alright, man. I'll see you later," I said as I saw Letty approaching. I couldn't wait to hear about what had happened.
"Peace," Leon said, noticing Letty coming forward. He shot me a grin and started off in the other direction.
I smiled as she got closer. She looked angry. I wanted to laugh but figured that wouldn't do much to help anything.
"Let's get the fuck out of here," she said to me.
"Bad day?" I asked, jokingly.
She knew I knew. She didn't respond. Obviously, she wasn't feeling very chatty.
She went around and stepped up to the passenger side of the car. I unlocked it and she quickly got in and slammed the door. I wondered if I really wanted to get in the car and jump into this hornets nest that was Letty's mood. I guessed that I didn't really have a choice. Without further hesitation, I got into the drivers seat, turned the key in the ignition, and pulled out of the parking space.
"Where are we going?" she asked as we headed down the same roads we took everyday.
"The garage," I responded. Where else would we be going?
"Can we go, just, some where else? Please. Just anywhere else," she asked, flustered.
I looked at her oddly. What was the issue with the garage? I hadn't asked her about the fight yet. I sensed, from her immensely hostile attitude, that she did not want to get into too many intimate details yet.
"Um, where do you wanna go?"
"Anywhere. Somewhere not around any other people."
Where in LA was I supposed to take her that wouldn't have a lot of people? This situation was set up for me to fail. I tried to think quickly. No place came to mind. The only places I could think of that we went to had people, that was typically why we went there. No people. Where wouldn't have any people? I didn't want to drive way far out of the way if I didn't have to. I knew that I'd have to get to work pretty soon. But, if she needed a breather I was totally down with giving her some release. I understood what it was like to be frustrated. I knew what it was like to have an issue that everyone wanted to ask you about but you didn't actually want to talk with anyone about. It was conflicting.
I made a sharp left and headed towards Santa Monica. It was winter. Maybe there wouldn't be too many people off the pier. Or, if there were, maybe we could find somewhere close to the pier that was fairly deserted.
She did not say another word throughout the drive. I pulled up in a free parking lot near a public beach entrance. I put the car in park. I didn't do anything. I figured this was her baby, I'd let her dictate the moves. I looked around. There was only one other car in the parking lot. I thought I'd done a pretty good job of finding a low population area for her to runaway to.
I sat there, unsure of what to do. Should I say something? I glanced over at her. Her facial expression still looked pissed. I opted out of talking. I looked around. I wondered how long we would sit here until something happened. Why had she needed to get away from other people? What had happened at school?
She opened the car door. I followed suit. She walked down to the beach. I wondered if she wanted to be alone. Should I follow her? Or just give her some time? I noticed her turn back around. She looked at me, nodding her head, indicating for me to come to her. I took my shoes and socks off and stepped into the sand. It was cold. I walked towards her. Her hair blew in the salty beach wind. She had, unfortunately, changed out of the small shorts she had worn to gym class. She was wearing camo cargo pants and a tank. I didn't care what she was wearing. She always looked beautiful.
I walked up to her. As I stepped up to her, she started walking slowly. I just walked along side of her. Her hands were dangling at her sides. That was unnecessary. Although I typically would never want to hold a girl's hand, I reached down and wrapped my hand around hers. She grabbed hold and wrapped her fingers in mine. It was a perfect fit, just like she had always been. We just walked.
TBC
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AJ
So just one more chapter. What happened at school? Will Dom finally profess his love? What do you guys think of this story, as the saga comes to a close? Anything that needs to be changed or added to the last chapter? Feedback is always appreciated.