Chapter 7: Letty's Birthday
Dom's PoV
I woke up to a weight on my chest.
"Dom." I lay very still hoping if I pretended to still be asleep Mia would leave. "DOM!" this time my name was accompanied with a slap to my face. Groaning I opened my eyes.
"What do you want?" I asked glaring at the small girl kneeling on my chest.
"We have to get up its Letty's Birthday!"
"So why do I have to get up?"
"Because me and dad wanna surprise her, which means you and and the baboons need to get up and help."
"Will you get off of me?"
"Only if you get up, and besides dad said that if you don't get up I have permission to use ice."
"Fine I'm getting up now get out."
"Ok, you have 5 minutes." She said hoping off my bed and walking out.
I rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans. I walked over to my dresser and open up my drawer only to find that I had run out t-shirts. I looked over at my hamper and pulled out one that wasn't too coated in grease and oil and held it to my nose. After affirming that it didn't hold any offensive odors I pulled it on giving it a quick tug to try to hide some of the wrinkles. I ran my hand over my head and grimaced at the stubble I felt. I needed to take and shave it again before it grew anymore. Walking down stairs I met Mia who was about to come back up with a glass of ice.
"Nice try shrimp." I said walking past her to the kitchen.
"Dom is that shirt clean?" she asked following me into the kitchen.
"Yeah why?" I asked pulling the milk from the fridge.
"It's wrinkly." She said watching me. I opened the milk and stopped with the jug half way to my mouth, before turning and grabbing a glass from the cupboard, "You're lucky dad didn't see that."
"Yeah, just not lucky enough that you didn't see it," I grumbled.
"Will you hurry up the other 2 are waiting down stairs, we need to go wake Letty up."
Even at 11 my sister had no sense of patience. Sighing I put the milk back in the fridge without getting a drink, "Let's get this over with." I followed Mia down the stairs to find Leon and Vince in about the same state of consciousness as myself. Mia slowly opened the door to Letty's room and walked in beckoning us all to follow. I had just stepped in behind Mia with the other two behind me when we heard Letty whimper. We all froze in our tracts barely breathing at the thought of actually waking up the bear.
"Dom.." my breath caught at the sound of my name tumbling breathlessly from her lips.
"Dude did Letty just call out your name?" Vince whispered from behind me. Mia whipped around and shushed him.
"She totally did," this from Leon, I was still frozen. Again Letty whimpered in her sleep before thrashing slightly. "We should mess with her."
"We are not," Mia said turning to face us.
"Come on Mia, even you have to be wondering what she's dreaming about? And why I'm in her dreams." I said edging closer to the bed.
"No I don't and you shouldn't either." I ignored my sister and stepped closer to the bed.
"Dom?" again Letty called out this time a little more anxiously.
"Yeah?" this time I answered her softly.
"Dominic don't." again I ignored Mia.
"Are you going to leave this time?" she asked rolling towards me.
"Why would I leave?" the despair in her voice made my chest hurt.
"You always leave after." The last came out a whisper. I froze, did she just say what I think she did, and did it imply what I thought it did?
"I'll never leave you Letty, never."
"Promise?"
"Promise." I turned to the other three in the room. "You two get the fuck out now," I walked toward my sister and dragged her to the other end of the room, "You talk."
"I have no idea what you are talking about Dom."
"Talk, or else I behead every doll you own and feed then to the dog next door. Now! Talk Mia," it might have been a little harsh but I was in no mood for the games.
"Dom I promised her I wouldn't say anything to anyone." She was starting to whine.
"Ok fine then you can just tell me if I'm right or not, got it?" I towered over my sister I tried not to intimidate her to much but I was not in the mood for her games. "Letty has a crush on me." I groaned internally to myself as she nodded, "Son of a bitch, ok listen Mia you are going to wake Letty up, you are going to start to persuade her from this thing, and you are never ever going to tell her about this whole thing understand?" again my sister nodded. I turned back to look at Letty and my heart stuttered at the sight of her, she was curled around a pillow, and the blanket and slipped down so it showed one of my old beaters as it clung to her body and yet still showing the tint of her darkened skin under it. "I'm going to go make sure those to fucktards to tell her about this and then I'm going to go help dad."
"Ok… but Dom… you should talk to her…."
"I will Mia, I swear I will." Again I glanced back at the sleeping angel before walking out of the room. I grabbed both Leon and Vince and pushed them against the wall, an arm pressed to each of their throats, "this morning never happened if I even think either of you have to0ld her about it I will beat the shit out of you, understand?"
They both nodded their heads and I turned to head upstairs. "Dad can I talk to you real quick?" I asked seeing my dad pulling the ribs from the fridge.
"Sure, I need to head out to put these on the grill any way." I followed him outside to the grill and waited for him to fire it up; I wasn't sure how to start. "What's up Dom?"
"Dad um… what do you do when you really care for someone just not the way they do and you really don't want to hurt them?"
"Is this about Letty?"
"Yeah… Dad I think she has a crush on me… "I looked up into my father's knowing brown eyes and searched for the answers I so desperately needed.
"Dom it's more than a crush, she idolizes you more than Mia does. You've protected her when she's needed it and even when she doesn't, you always know when you've hurt her even if you don't know how and instead of pushing you just do what you can to make it better, Dom Letty doesn't just have a crush on you she's in love with you son, and you have to figure out what you feel for her and then tell her the truth."
"Dad I don't want to hurt her she isn't like the other girls.. She's different…. And it might be different but the age difference is too big."
"Dom you will do the right thing in the end I know you will, no why don't you go inside and see if the others need any help."
"Yeah… thanks pops."
"No problem, mi orgullo." I shook my head at my dad's old nickname for me and headed toward the house.
Letty's PoV
I watched has Dom walked away from me leaving me clutching the covers to my chest alone on the bed calling after him, he never looked back. He had promised me this time, he had promised to never leave me and yet here he was walking away from me. I wanted to scream at him but the only sound that would leave my mouth was his name whispered over and over again.
"Letty! Letty!" I felt someone shaking my shoulders and suddenly I was ripped from the nightmare that plagued me and was staring up at Mia's concerned face. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
I groaned and rolled over pulling a pillow across my face. "Go away."
"Not going to happen, dads already started the grill and besides I need to talk to you." I sat up and stared Mia in the face. Her tone was serious and that just wasn't Mia.
"What's wrong?"
"Well I hate to do this today but… well…. Letty, Dom knows."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE KNOWS?"
"Well he came in to help me wake you up and you were talking in your sleep and he kinda figured it out." I couldn't believe this was happening. I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment. "Letty Dom asked me to talk to you…. He was really upset."
"Mia… I don't know what to do… I know how your brother is with girls but… I …. I think I love him." I looked up with Mia couldn't believe that I was finally admitting it to someone out loud.
"Letty I don't want to see you get hurt, so the only advise I can give you is to find someone else, someone who will make you forget about my brother." With that she left me alone to get ready for the long day ahead. As I shimmied into my jeans I wasn't sure how I could ever face Dom.
The Day flew by, Papa Tony had made ribs with all the fixings and Mia had made a cheese cake. Papa Tony and the boys surprised me with a car; it was a 1975 Nissan Skyline that Dom and I had found in the junkyard a few months back. It had been in a fire so I would have to completely gut the interior and then there was the work that needed to be done under the hood but I couldn't wait. Mia had gotten me a new pair of combat boots to replace my current ones that were starting to fall apart.
After Dinner I headed out to the garage to start figuring out what I was going to do with my new baby. I pulled out a sketch pad and started to reconfigure the interior. I had just finished the basic idea when I heard the side door of the garage open. I looked up to see Dom softly closing the door behind him.
"Whatcha ya want?" I had been avoiding being alone with him all day and had hoped he would have left me alone.
"Let, can we talk?"
"I'm busy." I didn't want to talk with him, he didn't owe me anything and all I wanted was to spare myself the embarrassment.
"Letty…" I wanted to scream at him as he sat down next to me.
"Go away Dominic." I could already feel the tears in my eyes.
"Not going to happen until you talk to me." Nearly screaming in frustration I slammed my sketchpad down and turned to glare at him.
"WHAT do you want?!"
"Letty, I don't want you mad at me."
"Then leave me alone."
"Not going to happen. Listen no matter what I will always be here for you." I looked away not wanting him to see how lost I felt, "Hey," gently he grabbed my chin and turned my face toward him, "Ride or die, got it? No matter what we stick together to the end." With that he slid his arm around my shoulder gave me a quick hug before getting up to leave.
"Dom?" he stopped with his hand on the door knob, he looked over his shoulder at me, "Ride or Die." He smiled, knowing that no matter what he could always count on me to be there for him, same as I could always count on him. Pushing my hair back from my face I turned back to the sketch I had started. I went in the house about half an hour later.
I woke up the next morning and rolled out of bed with a groan. I pulled my school uniform on and ran my fingers through my hair before pulling it back into a pony tail. I slipped on my polished school shoes and grabbed my back pack from the floor before running upstairs.
"Letty! Hurry up or I'll leave you here!" Dom hollered from the front porch.
"I'm comin, I'm comin." I grabbed a piece of toast from the plate in the middle of the table and kissed Papa Tony goodbye on the cheek, "See ya after school."
"Behave." he called after me.
I stopped at the door and smiled at him, "Always." I ran out to Dom's car with his deep laughter following me. I slid in next to Mia before Dom pushed his seat into place and got in. on the way to school I listened as Dom and Vince talked about girls in the front with Leon throwing his opinion in once in awhile from the other side of Mia, and Mia chattered on about the latest fashions. Dom cursed as we hit a red light about 2 blocks from the school. Next to us pulled up Johnny Tran and his cousin Lance Nguyen both on their crotch rockets.
"God look at those fuckin' fags." Vince said with disgust as both guys revved their bikes.
"Jeez V, don't get jealous because they look better then you do," I shot back. Wait did I just seriously stick up for Tran? Mia was staring at me wide eyed while the 3 guys all gave me varying looks of disbelief. "What? Everyone looks better than Vince." God I hoped they believed me. I glanced back out the window at Johnny and swore that he winked at me before tearing off as soon as the light turned green. The rest of the short ride to school was silent. When we got there Dom helped me out of the back seat and issued his normal threat to me and Mia about being late after school and leaving us there to walk home. Quickly I made my way to my locker with Mia right on my heels.
"What the hell was that?" she whispered as I opened my locker and started to pull out the books I would need for the morning and putting away the books from my bag that I didn't.
"What was what?"
"Do you have a thing for Johnny Tran?"
"Well you're the one who told me to find someone to get my mind off your brother." I shot back, closing my locker.
"Yeah but TRAN? He and Dom hate each other, and of course because Dom hates him Vince does too and I'm sure they will get Leon to agree with them."
"Well it's really none of their concern, and truthfully Mia it's none of yours. And besides it's not like we are going out or something I just said he looked better than V that's all. Why does Dom not like Johnny anyway?"
"Johnny? JOHNNY? Since when did you start calling him Johnny? And because Dom slept with Tran's older sister."
"Well Johnny is his name I mean it's not like he's James Bond or something." I rolled my eyes at the small Latina next to me as I headed toward my class, "Now get before your late to class." I said giving her a gentle shove down the hallway toward her class.
"Fine but don't think this conversation is over." She said before briskly walking off.
Again I rolled my eyes at her antics before turning to continue to my own class. As I turned the last corner I ran into none other than Johnny Tran himself. "Hey Letty." He said dropping into step beside me.
"Johnny." I tucked my books in slightly tighter to my chest. Tran and his gang had never picked on me when we were all younger, but then they had never spoken to me either.
"Saw you with Toretto this morning."
"Yeah he's my ride."
"Seemed a little cramped in there."
"Eh I guess it wouldn't hurt if we had a few less bodies in the car." It was true that since Leon had moved into the Toretto household the back seat was a little more crammed.
"Well I could always give you a ride." he said with a smile that I had to admit was rather breath taking, "My bike is never crowed."
"Well maybe I'll take you up on the offer." I said sending him a quick smirk.
"How bout I take you home tonight?" he asked as we reached my class, "We can even stop for a quick bite to eat."
"Um.. Sure sounds great… I mean if you sure it wouldn't be out of the way at all"
"No not at all," again he sent me another smile my way, "I'll see you later." Walking into my class I couldn't help the smile that started across my face.
During lunch I called Papa Toretto to make sure he was ok with me stopping for a bite to eat before coming home, after he said it was ok I headed to the normal seat in the cafeteria and sat down between Mia and Leon.
"So I have to stay after today to work on a project for Sister McArthur." I said as I started in on my lunch.
"Well I ain't waiting around for you." Dom said as he sat down next to Leon with Vince one the other side of him.
"Wasn't expecting you too," I took another bite as everyone turned to stare at me.
"Well then how are you going to get home?" Mia asked shooting Dom a dirty look.
"Well Johnny Tran and I are working on the same project together so he said he would drop me off." I said the whole story very quickly before continuing on my lunch.
"TRAN!" all four of my friends shouted at the same time.
"Well yeah like I said he has to stay after too and he offered, I mean he really isn't that bad of a guy once you get to know him."
"Yeah and a shark is just a misunderstood goldfish." Dom snorted.
"Yeah well Dom I'm pretty sure you would be an ass too if he had slept with Mia." I shot, "But then again since you are such a man-whore I'm sure most guys are asses to you." I stood up grabbing my lunch, "I'll see you guys at home latter." Tossing the rest of my lunch in the trash I walked out fuming.
The rest of the day was uneventful and I easily avoided everyone. Before heading out to meet Johnny, I watched to make sure that Dom had pulled out with the other three in the car. Quickly I walked over to where Johnny was standing with Lance near the bikes. "Hey" I said as I walked up with a smile.
"Ready?" Johnny asked me with a smile.
"Yeah."
"Great" he handed me a helmet to slide on before I swung my leg over the bike to settle in behind him. I wrapped my arms around his waist as he pulled out of the school parking lot. As we drove I slowly relaxed against him and laid my head between his shoulder blades. After about 20 minutes we pulled up outside a small burger stand on the beach. As we walked toward the small stand Johnny slid his arm over my shoulders. After a moments surprise I slowly relaxed into him.
Dom's PoV
I paced back and forth in front of the window at the house. It was already almost 6 o'clock and Letty still wasn't home. I didn't like the idea of her being alone with that jackass, especially not on that flimsy crotch rocket. As I paced my father sat in his chair reading the paper sending me a weird smile every few minutes while Vince and Mia argued over the TV, I wasn't sure what Pops was smiling about but it was starting to annoy me. Suddenly I heard the sound of a bike approaching and stopped in the middle of the window to peak out of the curtains. Sure enough it was the fucktard Tran with Letty on the back of that damn bike. Her arms were wrapped around his waist, her bare legs pressed against his, and she had her head on his back. She looked way too comfortable. As he pulled to a stop in front of the house I watched as she skillfully slid from the bike and pulled the helmet from her head. As she went to hand Tran the helmet I saw red as he grabbed her arm and pulled her in to press his lips to hers.
Letty's PoV
We pulled up to the house and I slid off the bike. I couldn't believe how good of a time I had had with Johnny at the beach and was excited as he assured me he would pick me up the next morning so I wouldn't have to ride in the backseat of Dom's car. I pulled off the borrowed helmet and went to hand it back to him. Instead of taking the helmet Johnny grabbed my wrist and pulled me against him pressing his lips to mine. Slowly I relaxed against him as he slid his arm around my waist and his other came up to cup my jaw gently. After a few minutes he pulled back and smiled one of his slightly cocky smiles that at one point of time had pissed me off but now made me melt where I stood. I smiled back at him for the first time in my life feeling shy around a guy. Slowly he pulled his arm from around my waist and took the helmet from me. I walked up to the house and smiled back at him before walking inside.
"What the hell was that?" Dom asked as I closed the door behind me and heard Johnny pull away.
"What was what Dom?" and as suddenly as my good mood had started I felt him ruin it.
"THAT! Since when did you mack on a Tran?"
"Oh jeez Dom. GROW UP! Just because you can't open your eyes and see that I am a girl doesn't mean no one has. And just FYI there was no project at school, it was more like a burger on the beach." I spat at him before storming down the stairs to my room. I had just started pulling my books from my bag when the door opened and Mia walked in. "Mia I really don't feel like arguing with yet another Toretto."
"I don't want to argue but why didn't you at least tell me? I mean I don't like Tran but I still thought you would tell me."
"I know you don't like him and I didn't want to listen to it at the time. And besides you're the one who told me to find someone who would make me stop thinking about Dom and I did. The entire time I didn't think of Dom once… well not till I walked in the door that is."
"Well I'm not going to pretend I like him. BUT! If he makes you happy and makes you forget about that idiot I'm related too; then hell, I guess he can't be all bad can he?"
A/N: ok guys so sorry it took so long to get this up but I'm pretty sure I didn't get a full five reviews. Seriously people I know that its being read, is it that hard to give your opinion. And I don't mean just a "good chapter" that's plain lazy. I am taking my time to try to write the best story I can but I can only make it better with real feedback so please, please help me out so this story can be the best it can be… and also if there are ANY guys reading this please correct me on Dom I am so not a guy which means he probably sounds just a little girlie… this is not my intent I just don't know how to write any different than from a girls POV so please help. Thanks :D