AN: Try not to be too hard on poor V. He might be falling for a girl who has said repeatedly that she will not be sticking around. Which means, not even for him. So not only is he confused about what he wants and feels, he's also got to be secretly wondering what's wrong with him that he's not enough to make her change her mind about sticking around. I mean, he's Vince. He's not the best at dealing with his feelings and he really doesn't want anyone to find out that he might just miss her when she leaves, or that he might just wish she wouldn't leave at all. Plus there's the whole fact he's got himself convinced that Mia is really the only woman for him and it makes him feel confused and guilty that he might just be liking another girl instead, or even both of them at the same time. Temp's not part of his master plan for his life. Mia is. And he's just not sure how to deal with how he feels about any of it. So while he is kind of being a jerk, he might just have his reasons. Try to remember that the characters are all younger than they were in the movie. So he's only 22. That's not very old for a guy. They mature pretty slowly ;)But people, the summary says it all. Two weeks of one summer is all she's got. So you'll just have to wonder what I have up my sleeve for 'book two' which is in the planning stages as we speak because I'm almost done writing this one. Not even close to done posting it, but almost done writing it. So anyway, keep reviewing, keep enjoying (hopefully) and I'll keep posting on a semiregular schedule. Besides, it's the sexual tension of them being so good together and failing to see that themselves that keeps the story interesting. If they just fell in love and made babies after a few chapters everyone would be like 'yawn yeah yeah yeah they're happy. So what?' LOL. Ciao, Tempest.
The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Twenty Nine – Of Racing Problems and Drinking Teams
The very girl who seemed to be at the center of so many conversations, despite being oblivious to it all, was sitting in her idling Skyline at the starting line of the race she was about to run. She rolled her head back on her neck from side to side, listening to the cracks from her stiff joints. It was hard to relax when you were about to run a race in an untried car on unfamiliar streets when someone else had put you up to it, and didn't even have the courtesy to let you know who they were before they paid your way in. Especially when on more than one occasion you'd had a first hand chance to see that the people of the society you were now in took the activity far more seriously than you had ever done before in your life. She had never sat in an idling beast of a car waiting for someone to drop their arm and set her off racing down a public road against three other people. She'd raced one other car from stoplights, and she'd spent time waiting for the Christmas tree to hit green at the drag strip on more than one occasion, but this was the first time she'd ever waited for a skank to start a race on a street before. She couldn't help but allow her mind to wander back over who might have given up two thousand dollars of their own money to watch her potentially fall on her face.
In her mind it all came back to Dominic. Who else had something to gain from spending a couple grand to see her lose? Nothing would give him as much pleasure as watching her stumble in front of her cousin and new friends, watching her bomb at something she was supposed to be good at. I am good at this, god damn it! Sure, she didn't know squat about any of the people she was racing, and didn't know how her car was going to handle or drive up over a hundred miles an hour—at least, not anymore—but she was a good racer. Well, good at what she did at home. She could run from behind, behind people who out carred her at that, and still end up on top. She knew she was a physical embodiment for how the old adage 'it ain't the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog' was true. She might be smaller than the guys, she might not have their strength, but when it came down to it she had something more important. Sheer stubborn will not to lose and a competitive drive that wouldn't quit.
On that thought, she revved up her engine and listened to it pop as raw fuel burned in the exhaust and caused an afterburn of sorts as it exited from her engine through straight pipes. Of course, that was another slight advantage she had over her competition. Where she lived, she had no yearly smog checks and no roadside spot checks either. So she didn't have to worry about her emissions equipment staying put and doing it's job. So her catalytic converters were mere hollow shells of their former selves. The mechanic, when doing her yearly safety check, would see they were still there. He—or she, she amended in her head—would never know there was no honeycomb of platinum and other catalysts inside the metal casings. As it revved up and fell off, the car vibrated under her with a barely controlled sort of power that thrilled her. Always had and always would. All that stood between her and about eight or nine hundred carefully tuned and racing horses was a racing clutch disk. It was sobering, yet very thrilling. All that power was under her foot. She had the control. She could do as she pleased with all those galloping horses. She watched a barely dressed chick walk out onto the road a few metres in front of the line and raise her arms high in the air.
She pushed the clutch in, engaged first, and revved the car up to just over four thousand RPM, letting off on the clutch just enough for the duel between clutch and throttle to hold the car still on the line, snarling about being held still at such high revolutions while ready to run. She laughed. "Just wait until we launch from four grand and they all sit there spinnin' their tires, baby," she crooned to the car. It was a huge advantage for her to have all wheel drive. It allowed her to launch from a rev line that rear and front wheel drive cars couldn't match. And if they tried, they would do just as she imagined in her mind; sit on the line and smoke the tires. If they didn't fishtail right out of the race.
As it always did, the thoughts of the coming race, now that it was so near, made her nervous. But in a good way. Her breathing accelerated and she got the familiar sensation of butterflies in her stomach. She felt the skin of her face flush as heat skittered along her nerves, radiating out from her solar plexus to terminate in her limbs. Her arms and legs felt heavy with latent adrenaline. That would go away the second her gas foot passed clutch on its way down and she knew it. She felt hazy right now, while she waited for the light to go green, such as it was, but she'd be all business when the time called for it, and she knew it. Until afterward, when the effects of the adrenaline on her blood would make her wish she hadn't just dropped her only chance to go work it off with some sex wild and rough enough to rival the wildness of the ride she was about to take down the stretch of Glendale they had blocked off.
She licked her dry lips, waiting for the girl to drop her arms and start the race. She might be the rookie, and she might be the girl, but she wasn't loosing. It wasn't an option. Failure wasn't an option. It was one thing she would not accept for herself ever again. If she didn't come in first, fine. But it wouldn't be because she didn't give it one hundred and ten percent of her effort. Not ever again. She'd heard it time and time before, but now she took it to heart. If something was worth doing in the first place, it was worth doing to your full ability. No matter what it was.
Va grande o va a casa, Angelo. The words of an old friend echoed in her head. A very dear, old friend who was the reason why she spoke Italian almost as well as English. Angelo—angel—his term of endearment for her. It was funny and ironic all at once, he always imparted, uncaring that he was repeating himself over and over again, because an angel was the last thing she was. Go big or go the fuck home, Angel. And so she would now because she always did.
The girl bisecting the four cars on the tarmac shared a look with Hector, and at Hector's almost unperceivable nod, dropped her arms. Four cars squealed off the line in unison. A red 200sx lurched to the left as it got underway, and immediately slipped behind the other three straining vehicles. Tempest had to wonder what the heck he'd been thinking in the first place, getting into a race against her Skyline in a 200sx. She reminded herself sanguinely that because he had, she would definitely be spared from coming in dead last, no matter what else happened.
A silver Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder with an elaborate decal of vines around the Mitsubishi logo on the doors took the lead just off the line. A black Civic Del Sol ended up just behind Tempest and off to her left, a simple yellow strip running from one front wheel well to the other across the hood it's only ornamentation. She was in second, sitting just behind the Spyder. She had the guy in the Mitsu for the first half second, but he caught her right off the line and took the lead. He was only half a car in front of her and she wasn't really worried.
Her syncros clinked as she shifted from second to third. There was a fluid grace to the movement, her short throw shifter making sure the required gear change was made with a minimum of effort being expended. She gained on the Spyder. A quick glance to her left showed the Del Sol had gained fractionally on her as well. "Got an C5 under that hood, don'tcha boy?" she asked out loud, obviously rhetorically. No way was a Honda 1.6 keeping up with her and the Spyder for even as long as he'd managed. He had to have something way better than the stock engine under that hood. She was willing to put money on the Del Sol having a B18C5 Acura engine. There were a multitude of options the Civic owner could have used, but the C5 was the one she would use herself. Well, if I was ever caught dead driving a Honda, she mused to herself with a smirk.
Her shift from third to forth made it irrelevant as she pulled away from him like a freight train. She put her nose out front of the silver Mitsubishi while she was on a roll. "This all you got?" She tossed the car into fifth on that note and floored it. She felt her nitrous kick in, felt her car fly ahead. At that point everything looked like she was seeing it from a slip stream warp speed drive. She knew the Spyder had to be close by, but she had no time to glance over to see how close he was, not if she wanted to make keeping her car on the road and going straight down it her priority. She streaked over the spray painted finish line going one thirty five in fifth, listening to her car roar someplace very close to its eight grand red line.
By the time she got stopped and turned around, Jesse was right there waiting for her. "How's it feel to win your first race out in a place like L.A. cuz?" he asked, grinning like a mad man.
"Like it's only what I deserve," she answered, smirking arrogantly. It wouldn't do for anyone to know she'd had her doubts if she could win before she started to race, and had similar doubts if she had won once she'd finished. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, she'd always known what the outcome would be. Take that, asshole! she said in her mind, picturing Dom standing in front of her so she could rub it in to him that she hadn't lost.
"Well, you are my cousin, driving a Skyline that me'n Leon built, and staying in Dom's house, so I'd say that's a fair assessment of the situation," Jesse said, still unable to wipe the smile off his face.
"I don't think you and Leon built my car without assistance."
"Ok, you built it and we helped."
"Better." She grinned at her cousin, throwing an arm around his neck and squeezing.
"Let's get back to the warehouse and get your money, cuz."
"I really like the sound of that." She couldn't keep the grin off her face at the thought of getting eight thousand dollars, none of which had ever been hers. "I just wish I knew who bought me in so I could rub it in."
"Rub what in?" Jesse asked, clearly confused.
"Rub in the fact I didn't lose, duh." She shook her head, eyebrows knit together over her nose and arched at the outside corners. Didn't Jesse see that the whole thing had been a setup to see her fail?
"Why do you think you were meant to lose?"
"I dunno really. I just assumed the whole thing was a set up by Dom to watch me crash and burn so he could rub it in how I wasn't good at racing."
"That's one way to see it I guess," Jesse admitted. He really hadn't thought of that angle. It could be true, he figured. "I just assumed Vince did it as his own, twisted way of saying sorry without saying sorry."
"Didn't Leon tell you I told Vince I didn't want another thing to do with him back at the first of the night?"
"No! You did what?"
"I told Vince that I didn't want anything else to do with him." She shrugged to show she didn't understand why this was such a shocking concept to Jesse.
"And he was ok with that?"
"No, he was pissed the fuck off. But what was he really gonna do about it?" She didn't give Jesse time to answer her question. "But due to how well that whole situation didn't go, I somehow doubt very much that Vince had anything to do with getting me into that race."
"Why'd you decide to give him his walking papers anyway?"
She shrugged. "Just had enough of his shit I suppose."
"I guess I saw this day comin' anyway. The two of you couldn't be civil to each other for more than ten minutes in a row."
"True." Well, not with all our clothes on, at any rate. But she didn't figure Jesse wanted or needed to hear that. "We goin' back to the alley or what? I wanna go to Hector's party at some point in time, and I guess, due to my nameless, faceless benefactor, I'm buyin' tonight."
"Yes! We'll have to get someone to drop us off at the club so we can all drink as much as we want."
"Will Mia really drink?"
"Not likely, and if she does it'll only be one or two girlie cocktail drinks, so she'll likely be ok with takin' her car. Let's go already."
"Ok, ok. Shit."
They drove back to the alley and Tempest got her money. Shortly thereafter the cry of 'cops!' was heard, indicating the imminent arrival of law enforcement. They all tore away from the alley and the whole team arrived back at the fort without incident. Jesse, Leon and Tempest all left again right away in Mia's car, with Mia driving. Letty and Dominic headed out to a different party and Vince seemed to decide to go with them. At the very least, he didn't head to Hector's with the rest of his team, and he never liked to stay at home alone.
They rolled up on Hector's club in Mia's Acura a short time later. The club wasn't large. It was in a squat, square building painted with blue and orange squares all over. The name was proclaimed on a large, blue neon sign out front, the image of a glowing blue cat reigning over the words arranged vertically on the sign. There wasn't much to see in the front, but as Mia pulled the car around to the rear, it was clear to see why. Everything happened around the back, in the parking lot. The lot was full of tricked out cars and people.
Tempest really had to think there were more people outside than in. The lot was teeming with cars and humanity. She saw Hector in the center of the lot with a girl under each arm. She also noticed that odds were good they were going to be the only group of people around the entire place who weren't Hispanic in decent. There were a few people scattered around that were black and Caucasian, but they were the definite minority.
Mia parked and they walked up to Hector. "Glad to see you made it," he told their group with a big smile. "Make yourselves at home. Drinks in the club, dancing in there and out here. Feel free to check out the rides, have a drink, whatever you want."
"Thanks man," Jesse answered before turning to his cousin. "Wanna go get a drink?"
"You're just anxious to start drinkin' before I change my mind about it bein' my treat."
"I'm always anxious to start drinkin'. It doesn't have to be someone else's treat. It's Saturday night cuz! Let's get drunk!"
She laughed at his insistent exclamation. "I guess I can't argue with that. Let's get drunk."
They went into the club and walked up to the bar. There were a few people inside too. Enough that the place looked quite happening, not at all deserted. "Why don't you guys go get a table?" Tempest asked the rest of the people with her.
"Sure thing," Leon answered, leading Mia and Jesse over to a booth in a corner. Tempest walked up to the bar and leaned onto the polished surface on her elbows.
"Get you something?" the very hot, very Latin bartender asked her almost right away.
"Yeah," she answered, smirking with her eyebrow cocked. She could think of several things he could get her, and none of them were alcoholic right off the top of her head. Deciding that she really didn't want to go there so early in the evening, she decided to just order some drinks for the time being. She quickly counted herself and those with her, coming up with four people. "I want four shots of tequila, two Corona, one double gin and orange with a splash of grenadine, and one Long Island Ice Tea."
"You gonna drink all that yourself?"
"No. Well, not all at once," she amended with a smile. "By the end of the night, it's anyone's guess what I'll be doin'."
He started to make her mixed drinks and pour her shots, grinning at her words. "You're not from around here?"
"No," she cocked her hip to the side and wrinkled her nose. "Is it that obvious?"
"Just in your accent. What're you doing down in California, let alone in Hector's bar?"
"Well, my cousin lives down here with Dominic Toretto, so I guess that answers both your questions. I'm stayin' with the team and we were racin' tonight."
"Ah, you musta did ok if you're buying."
"Yeah, I did a'ight." She grinned saucily. Are you flirting with the Latino bartender? Are you crazy"So, you work for Hector full time?"
"No. During the day I'm a personal trainer in a gym. I do this for fun and some extra money on the side. Meeting hot chicks is just a fringe benefit," he said, smiling as he put all her drinks but her two beer on a tray for her. "You want glasses for the beer?"
"God no. They'll swill them right out of the bottle before they so much as hit the table top."
He popped the top off the beers, set them on the tray and took the money for her order. She left him a generous tip and headed back to the table. She set a shot in front of each of their places before setting a beer in front of each Leon and Jesse, and the Ice Tea in front of Mia. "I'll hear no arguments about doin' the shot. I won, I get to pick the first drink, we're each doing a tequila shot." Mia opened her mouth to protest. "Yes, that means you too Mia. One won't kill you and you're gonna be here for hours before you have to drive us home."
Mia shook her head with a grin. She felt like she had an evil devil on one shoulder and its twin on her other one. It was anyone's guess where the good one had gone, or who had done what to her. She was likely tied up in the back of some dirty, dank warehouse waiting for a rescue that would never occur. They each picked up their shot. "To friends and family," Jesse said and with a nod, they all agreed and shot their tequila.
"Oh my god, that burns," Mia gasped, her eyes watering.
"Just a little," Jesse answered.
Leon laughed. "Only if you're a sissy."
"True that," Tempest agreed. "It was so good I want another."
"I wouldn't argue with another one," Jesse interjected. "But that doesn't change the fact that it burned on the way down."
"It slid down as smooth as silk. You're just not much of a drinker." Tempest smirked. "We gonna add anything else to the list of things I do better'n you while I'm down here?"
"Oh, anything is possible," Jesse answered with a smile.
Mia took a sip of her much tamer mixed drink and looked around the room. "We should finish our drinks up and go mix outside for awhile. That's where everyone is anyway."
"Won't get an argument outta me," Tempest answered and promptly downed the rest of her bright orange drink. "There were some nice cars out there and I wouldn't mind takin' a closer look."
Jesse and Leon finished their beers quickly and Mia elected to carry her drink outside with her, citing the fact that if anyone cared about liquor laws, she and Tempest wouldn't even have been served in the first place as her reason for thinking it was ok to take open liquor out of the bar and into the public. In the end she was right. Half the people standing around the lot had beers in their hands.
When Hector saw them outside he walked over to them, shaking the hands of Jesse and Leon in that manly way that guys so often did. He pointed out some people and rides of interest to them.
They wandered around for half an hour, checking out cars and meeting people. After that they headed back into the club and got some more drinks. Some of the girls they had met since arriving came in and sat with them, much to the delight of Jesse and Leon. Some of them got up to dance and Mia elected to go with them as they were friends of hers from around racing and around school.
Tempest reclined into the booth, declining to get up and dance just yet. She felt like she had a few more drinks to get down before she'd be feeling relaxed enough to get up and dance. She was still wound too tight from her 'incident' with Vince and her race. She was more laid back than she had been, but still not back to normal and she knew it. But she figured a few more drinks in her system would take good care of it. She looked up to scan the room just as Jesse returned to the table. Since she hadn't even been aware he was gone, his return caused her head to cock to the side in question. As if to answer it, he replaced her empty glass with a shot of tequila and another gin and juice.
"More tequila? You're not supposed to try and get me loaded. You have nothing to gain from it," Tempest teased.
"Sure I do. I might get to see you make a fool of yourself in front of all these people." Jesse grinned. Tempest had made the mistake of telling him about the time she got drunk off tequila and what she had done. Tequila was one liquor she couldn't hold her own with. She didn't know why. Everyone told her it was because Tequila had an extra kick to it, like it had a drug in it. She knew that was a myth, but she didn't know why she could handle any liquor in large quantities but tequila. It made her drunker than drunk, and the next day it would make her sicker than sick. With a shrug she tossed the shot back, and listened to Jesse cheer. Drunker than drunk sounded like a plan. She's worry about sicker than sick tomorrow.
By the time she got finished with her drinks, those already in front of her and those that Jesse kept appearing on the table as well, Vince and his drama was finally the last thing on her mind. When Mia came and grabbed her by the forearm to haul her up onto the dance floor, she finally went without a protest. She was hauled into the middle of a group of gyrating girls and felt into step, slinking and sliding in time with the rest of Mia's friends. After several songs, she was just getting into the tempo of the night and starting to feel very at home in Hector's bar. She hit the floor in front of one of her new friends before sliding back up in a undulating motion and dropping down again. Many of the other girls were doing similar movements.
There was a group of about five poles spanning from floor to ceiling at the front of the dance floor, all surrounded by mirrors and lit by multicoloured, flashing lights. Some of Mia's friends went up onto the dais and started doing dancing tricks with the poles. They attempted to get Mia and Tempest up to join them, but both demurred, fighting the grips of the other girls off to get away, laughing frantically about how there was no way they were dancing like strippers in front of a bunch of strangers, let alone Jesse and Leon.
"Suit yourself," one of the girls replied with a shrug.
Tempest elected to go back to the table to have few more drinks, and she threw herself into the booth beside Jesse with a laugh.
"You havin' a good time there, Gorgeous?" Leon asked, chuckling.
"Yeah, but I need another drink. Be right back." She got up again and headed to the bar. The same hot, dark bartender from before walked up to help her right away.
"What can I get you?"
"A shot of tequila, make it a double, and a double gin and orange."
"You reached the point where it's all for you yet?"
"Oh hell yeah. That place's a distant spot in the rearview at this point." She grinned. "I'ma pay for it tomorrow no matter what I drink now, so I might as well go all out. It's kinda a motto of mine. Go big or go home."
"I'd say you went big enough to stay where ever the hell you wanna," he laughed.
"Yeah, I know you're right," she answered, laughing back. She tossed down her shot. "Why don't you fill that up again, and gimme two Corona too?"
"You're the boss." He started to get her drinks. "So, you gonna be out there on the floor again at any point? You're pretty good."
"Thanks, and of course I'm gonna be out on the floor again. I don't come to a place like this to sit around on my ass. That's what I brought Leon and Jesse for."
"Which one's your cousin?"
"Jess. Leon's my husband, soon to be ex." She grinned.
"'Cuse me?" the bartender asked, a look of incredulousness on his face.
"We pretended to get married this afternoon to play a little joke on Dom and the rest of his friends. That's what's up with the white outfit."
"You sound like one crazy chica."
"That'd be one word for me, I guess. I better get back to Jesse and Leon."
"See you around."
She headed back toward the booth her friends were still holding down, carrying her tray of drinks. She set the tray down. "Ok, drink up."
"Thanks cuz," Jesse said, picking up his drink as he wrapped an arm around Tempest's shoulders and kissed her cheek. He looked into her eyes. "You are so loaded right now."
"It's about to get even better." Tempest shot down the second double tequila before picking up her gin.
"So this is where you guys got to," a voice broke in from beside the table. They all looked up to find Dom and Letty standing beside their table. "What are you guys up to?" Letty asked.
"You're lookin' at it," Leon answered, holding up his beer.
"How fuckin' drunk are you guys?" Dom asked.
"Pretty drunk," Jesse answered.
"It's ok though," Tempest said, looking up at Dom and trying to keep a grin off her face. "It's what we do. We're a drinking team with a racing problem."
The three of them cracked up laughing. Letty joined them, and even Dom couldn't keep the smile off his face. Drinking team with a racing problem indeed. Her win had been delivered neatly; a pretty victory. It was more than he had figured her capable of. He didn't put too much stock in the kind of racing education she would have been able to obtain living where she lived. Who would have taught her how to race well? The cows? She was from the middle of no where. She'd only ended up with such a great car as a by-product of being from no where, of course. But still, in his mind it wasn't like there were likely to be a lot of great racers just hanging out waiting to teach her to shift and launch either. Of course, he had yet to figure out how she had gotten in the race. He had her figured for almost out of money. Where she had gotten the two grand to buy in from he didn't know.
"Let's go dance some more," Mia broke in, addressing Tempest.
"Yeah, ok." Tempest allowed herself to be hauled out of the booth and out onto the dance floor into the middle of Mia's friends. Even if she hadn't wanted to get up and hit it some more, she would have anyway for an excuse to get away from Dom's presence. Letty allowed herself to be dragged out with them. The found the beat and started to dance, the three of them in the middle of a group of other girls that Mia and Tempest had been hanging out with all night.