The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Twenty-Three – Of Closed Doors and Shattered Glass
Much to her surprise, Tempest woke up early the next day. She was awake by ten. That might not have counted as early in everyone's book, but it sure did in hers. Especially when something, or rather someone, had kept her up until four in the morning the night before. She spent five minutes trying to go back to sleep before she gave up. She was up for good.
She was sure there was an evil glint in her eyes when she looked over at Vince, where he was still snoring on his back, oblivious to the fact that the day had started around him. Carefully, she slid out of his arms and out of his bed before she got dressed in a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top. She then carefully crept over to the side of the bed where Vince was. With a leap she landed on him with a laugh, straddling his stomach with her hands on his shoulders.
He opened his eyes into surly slits and looked up at her. She knew there was a goofy grin on her face. She couldn't help it. The fact she was waking him up hours earlier than he'd appreciate, and doing so while she was in a fantastic mood, made her grin. The way the sheets rode down low on his hips and left his spectacular chest and arms bare didn't hurt either. Therefore, it was mostly his fault she was in such a good mood and she figured that it was actually his own fault he was getting woken up, based on that logic. He's gonna be so pissed, she mused, still smiling like a loon. "'Mornin'!" she chirped.
"What time is it?" he groaned.
"Just after ten. It's so nice out! I can see the sun sorta creeping around the curtains. I wanna go enjoy the day."
"I'll enjoy the day, no problem. I'll start enjoying it in about three hours, when I get up," he snarled. "It's too fuckin' early to be awake."
"Aw, you're not fun." Even his bad attitude couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She stood up off him after smacking a wet, noisy kiss against his lips and started toward the door.
"Where are you goin'?"
"I'ma go wake Jesse up and make him take me someplace. I'm up, I'm far away from home, and I don't want to spend a beautiful Saturday lying around the house."
"Have a good time," he grumbled, rolling over and pulling his blankets over his head.
"Oh, I'm sure I will. Ta ta," she called over her shoulder as she left the room, closing the door behind her. She went into Jesse's room and found him sleeping as well, curled up on his side. She threw herself back on his bed and bounced a few times before coming to rest on her back against his pillows. She knew he was awake, and pretending he wasn't in the hope she'd just go away. She sighed heavily instead.
"What do you want," he whined, when it became obvious she wasn't going anywhere.
"What every girl wants when she's in SoCal on a beautiful Saturday morning. I wanna go to the beach, or for a drive, or somethin'. I wanna get outta the house and enjoy the day."
Jesse looked at his clock. "Jesus Temp, it's only ten fifteen in the morning."
"I know! We can get to the beach before the crowd hits."
"Alright already. I'll get up and get ready. Can we eat someplace before?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Why don't you go ask Leon if he wants to come too?"
"I can't just walk into Leon's room unannounced, J."
"I can pretty much guarantee he won't mind."
"I don't know about that, and I think that Vince likely would mind."
"So?" Jesse asked, grinning.
"Good point," she said, smirking with her answer. "I'll go ask Leon if he wants to come too."
"I'll get dressed," Jesse answered. He watched her walk out of his room.
A moment later he heard Leon's startled yell and he laughed out loud.
Tempest crept into Leon's room, opening the door slowly and tip toeing into the cavernous darkness of Leon's domain. She left the door open a crack, needing the sliver of light not to trip over the debris on Leon's floor. She found he slept on his back in a sprawl which took up his whole bed. No flopping beside him with enough force to bounce him then, there was no place for her to land. There was no way she was throwing the blankets off him. She was willing to bet he didn't have much on under there, if anything.
With a chuckle she threw caution to the wind and jumped on his stomach, much as she had Vince. He came to abruptly with a startled yell.
"Mornin'," she greeted him happily.
"What time is it?" he moaned.
"Ten twenty."
"Why are you awake, and in my room, at ten twenty? And so damn happy about it," he groaned.
"Jess and I are going out for breakfast and then to hang out at the beach, or somethin'. You wanna come too?"
"It's so early," he whined.
She started to tickle his sides through his sheets. "But you're up now anyways. Are you gonna go back to sleep?"
He couldn't stop himself from laughing frantically and trying to toss her off. She hung on like a fat kid on a cupcake, and in the end he surrendered. "Ok, I'll get up and come. Shit! You always been this devious?"
"Unhuh. I don't like to not get my own way."
"No kiddin'. Why isn't Vince in on this little boot camp trip out to breakfast?"
"He wouldn't get up so I left him in bed. He can fend for his own breakfast later."
"Lucky bastard."
"You can go back to sleep, you know? Jess and I can go without you."
"How'm I supposed to go back to sleep after a human wrecking ball jumped on my gut for twenty minutes to wake me up?"
"It was hardly twenty minutes, and V seemed to manage."
"Vince could sleep through a hurricane, earthquake and world war three, even if they all happened at once."
"That's too bad for him. He doesn't get breakfast. Let's go already," it was her turn to whine.
"Well gorgeous, as good as you look sittin' there, if you wanna leave the house, you gotta get off me so I can get up and get dressed."
"You think I look good?" She arranged her hair around her shoulders with a playful smile.
"Pretty much any girl under thirty would look good sittin' there. Well, maybe just a little bit lower." He smirked with his statement, wagging his eyebrows in suggestion.
"You're a perv," she laughed.
"Naw, I'm just a guy. And you're a girl and we're in my bed. It's only natural. You're just lucky that you're Jesse's cousin or you might be in trouble."
"I think, given my sleeping arrangements for the last few nights, you'd be in some trouble too. He don't really seem like the type to share."
Leon flushed slightly. He wasn't about to tell her that he and Vince's willingness to share simply depended on the situation and the girl. She was right enough about Vince's willingness to share her, he figured. "I would rather keep my person in one piece. I guess that much is true."
"You gonna get up already? I don't wanna wait around all day."
"If you let me get up, I'll be ready in about five minutes."
"Ok, but if you're not ready to roll and in the living room in five I'ma come lookin' for you and you're leaving with us no matter how dressed, or undressed you are. Got it?"
He chuckled. "Yeah, I hear you. But I might be startin' to think you just like seein' me without my clothes on."
"A girl always likes to see nice lookin' guys without their clothes on Leo. It's just that you're practically a brother to Jess, and that makes you kinda like a relation to me. But then again, it'd only be distant, so I don't know if that'd necessarily save you."
"Get outta here and let me get dressed Temp, or we ain't never leaving."
She leaned down, put a hand over his mouth and kissed the back of her hand with a smack. "Ok already. Just remember, five minutes." She climbed off the bed and left the room, closing the door behind her. She found Jesse leaving the bathroom.
"He comin' too?"
"Yeah, he's got five minutes to get ready. I just gotta run and change into my bathing suit while he's doin' that."
"You gonna try and get the grouch up one last time while you're in there?"
"Naw, let him sleep. Who wants to listen to him piss and moan all morning?"
"Good point."
Tempest pushed into the dim light of Vince's room quietly and crept over to her duffle. She glanced at the bed, and found Vince facing the other way on his side. She quickly shed her clothes and pulled her bottoms on before pulling her shorts back on. She was reaching around behind herself to tie the back of her suit when she glanced over her shoulder and found him watching her. "I'll be gone in a second, go back to sleep."
"Sleep's not what I got in mind anymore."
His voice was low and gruff, his morning voice mixed with something more. She shook her head from side to side with her nose wrinkled, pretending she didn't know what he meant. "How so?"
"Come 'ere. I got somethin' to show you."
"I don't have time for show and tell right now. I've got other plans."
"Oh, there won't be much tell involved, and it won't take long to show you what I got for you."
"Now see, if you'd just thought of that before I woke up Jess and Leon, you likely coulda sold me on the idea. But now I got plans. I'll see you later. We'll likely be home for supper."
"Where are you goin'?"
"Breakfast, and then the beach."
"Breakfast?"
"And the beach."
He sighed. "The beach, huh?"
"Yeah."
"When is all this fun occurring?"
She glanced at the clock. "In about three minutes. As long as Leon gets ready as fast as he said he did."
"Fine," he sighed. "I guess since I gotta eat anyway, I might as well come too."
"Not if I'll have to hear you whine about hating the beach all day. If that's gonna go down, you're not invited."
"I guess if you don't kill everything blonde in a bikini within a ten mile radius it won't be so bad."
"Oh I won't. But if that's the case, and I wanna stare at the surfer dudes, you got no call to get uppity."
"You can stare all you want." He rolled out of bed and stalked her way. "But if you do anything more than look, you better be sure you don't like the guy you're doin' it with all that much."
"As if any woman could handle more than one guy in her life if one of 'em was you. It's like havin' three kids and a dog to take care of. Three kids, all the same age at the same time."
"And listenin' to you is like havin' ten angry, jealous girlfriends in your face at once."
"Than I guess we're even. And as if you'd know what it's like to have a girlfriend!"
"Way to low blow there, T."
"What? You're the one who told me you'd only really had the one, back in high school. How's that my bad?"
"It's not. Never mind," he growled. He wasn't going to tell her how it had seemed like she was throwing his inability to get Mia to date him in his face. The last thing he wanted was another discussion about Mia and his chances in that regard. Hearing her shoot them down once had been quite enough. More than enough. He stalked over to his dresser and threw the drawer open violently.
"Oh, for fuck's sake! Are you gonna mope and whine all day now 'cause I said somethin' that made you think about somethin' that pissed you off?"
"Maybe."
"Ok, stay home and be petulant. You don't need to come with us and drag everyone down with you. Sometimes you can be such an over sensitive baby."
"How would you know? You barely know me."
"I know enough," she said, her growl a close imitation of his. After everything, how dare he imply she didn't know him? She knew him intimately, wasn't that enough? More than enough? "I know," she started. And then she stopped. No where she could take this discussion wouldn't turn into a huge fight. She gave up with a sigh. "Listen. I'm still in a good mood right now but if I stand here and fight with you about whatever it is I said to cause something to crawl up your ass and die there I'll just end up in a pissy mood like you. So I'ma let it drop right now and leave with my cousin and his friend. I suggest you stay home if you won't end up being happy to be out with us. Understand?"
"Go where ever the fuck you want. I don't wanna go with you anyway."
"Good!" she roared, finally losing some of her good humour. "As if we really wanted to listen to you bitch and whine all day about everything under the sun in the first place." She pulled her tank top back on almost violently and slapped a pair of sunglasses onto her face before pushing them up into her hair. "Try not to martyr yourself while we're out!" She turned to the door. Before she could get it open and escape through it, he had a hold of her arm.
"What do you mean by that?" he growled, low and dangerously.
You got him real mad now. The thought gave her some sort of perverse pleasure. "I mean, since you seem to take yourself so seriously, and me telling you I don't seems to piss you off so much, try not to pretend that I actually did something to you to set this off in the first place. Try, for once, to put the blame on your own shoulders where it belongs."
"What would you know about it?"
"I know I simply said something that happens to be a fact, a fact you provided me with at that, and then you acted like I was the world's biggest bitch for talking about something you told me about. My god, why do you think everyone should have to ok every topic they ever think about talking about with you first, just to make sure it's not gonna piss you off?"
"I don't think that. I just think it was low, what you said."
"Why? Because now you're pretending that it isn't your fault you've never had any serious girlfriends? Because now you're acting like the women of the world just won't have you, no matter how you try? Because the way I see it, instead of trying to meet nice girls and have a real relationship, you've been content to have sex with everything that won't expect more than that, and glad when you were right about their expectations. So forgive me if I don't get why that subject is off limits, and don't think talking about it shoulda really pissed you off this bad."
"You know what? Fuck you. You're right, you don't understand why that subject should be off limits. What would you know about wanting something you'll never have?"
"Gee, what would I know about that?" She smiled derisively, unable to believe that he had such a skewed view of his situation. He honestly thought he was the only one who had ever been in the situation of having unrequited feelings for someone else?
"I dunno. What would you?" he asked sarcastically.
Guess he really does feel that way. Wonder what he'd say if I told him that I want him the way he wants Mia? Might not be true, but might be worth it for the shock value. Or not. He'd blow the fuck up then, for real. "More than I'm willin' to tell you. You know Vince, you can't always get what you want. More often than not, you will get what you really need. But only if you open yourself up to the possibility."
"Like I care what someone who's never been there thinks about it."
"Oh my fuckin' god! Have you heard a word I said?" She answered her own question. "No, of course you haven't, because I'm sayin' things you don't wanna hear. Ok, home truth time," she started. She had finally figured out this was about Mia, in some way, and she was so angry she didn't even care at the moment if she was giving him ammo against her in the long run. He could be as fucked up angry as he wanted to be about her playful quip about girlfriends, but how did he think it was ok for him to keep on sleeping with her night after night, and keep on throwing the fact it was Mia he really wanted in her face? As mad as he was, she had to bet she was more so, and he was about to find that out. The hard way. It was fine for him to want her for one thing and wish he could have Mia in the end. It was not ok for him to continually make no secret of the fact he would drop her like a hot potato if his best friend's sister just gave him the time of day.
"There was a guy once that I really liked. I mean, really liked. Liked so much that if he had said to me 'let's go get married and have babies' I woulda fell over myself to do it. And I was only like seventeen at the time. I was head over heels. Mooned around after him every chance I had. Wrote his name on my notes, my books, my skin. I wanted him so bad that I couldn't tell you if he called me up tomorrow and asked me to meet him someplace I wouldn't run outta here as fast as my legs would take me. But me'n this guy had been friends for a long time. And the sad fact was he didn't see me in any capacity other than as a friend. And he never would have either. Because he didn't want me that way! Shit, did it suck? Yeah, it sucked hardcore. I mean, when I finally accepted it I," she shook her head. There were limits to how much truth she was willing to tell. "I didn't take it well," she amended. "But I did accept his feelings on the subject, even if he never did come right out and tell me what they were, and I moved on. I did not live my life in some fantasy world where he suddenly changed his mind one day. So you can't even play the whole 'oh poor me, no one gets it' card with me. Shit won't fly."
"You were just a kid! It's totally different. You didn't go through the shit we did!"
She fisted her hands in her hair in frustration. Her grip on her ability not to rush him and start whaling on him was hanging by a tenuous thread. "In the end it's all the same thing. She might love you V, but she'll never be in love with you, and if you keep tryin' to force her hand, she's just gonna figure she needs to be far, far away from you and then she ain't even gonna be your friend. And you not wantin' to hear that doesn't make it any less true." Again, she just wanted to cut him verbally and watch him bleed. She wanted him to hurt the way she hurt. Slash at him with the only weapon she had in her arsenal, her ability with words. When she saw the anger on his face intensify, and be joined by something more, she had to bet she'd succeeded. She was happy about that, but not happy enough to stop being white hot angry. "So now you can sulk in here alone because I'm goin' out with my friends. I sure ain't hangin' around to have some other woman thrown in my face any more today. See ya around."
"You ain't goin' anywhere until we finish this!" he growled, taking hold of her wrist.
"We are finished. I ain't never gonna see it your way, and you are never gonna believe me when I tell you I do understand what it's like but that you ultimately need to decide on your own to get a life. We have nothing else to talk about. We're done." She twisted her arm free of his grip.
He looked at his empty hand in shock. How the hell did she do that? He shook his head. It didn't matter. "Don't you dare walk away from me."
She pulled the door open. "See you around, V," she said softly and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. She forced a fake cheerfulness to her tone and face. She couldn't stop herself from jumping a little in fright when something shattered off the back of his door, but her fake happy look stayed firmly in place. "Ok guys, let's get outta here." She was still wound so tight it didn't occur to her that, due to the thinness of the walls, her friends had likely heard every word said in anger, as well as the shattering glass.