AN: Was that it? Heavens no! There are about twenty more chapters already written, waiting to be edited and proofed, and about ten more chapters to write. But soon, this is where the story gets a bit 'huge'. I'm doing my best to keep the reactions of the people and the other factual stuff realistic. But the situations that I'm dreaming up and putting the characters into are a bit far fetched. I'm also going to do something with Tempest that some people will hate. I'm sorry in advance, but it had to be done, in my mind. But still, I'm sorry:D Yet, that's a chapter for another day. But on the subject of the grandiose nature of the things that are going to start being done, I warned everyone from the start this was going to be a 'popcorn flick' and I wasn't kidding. Also, I know Vince is being an idiot, but he has his reasons. It's a balancing act of when to reveal them, and how, for me. Too early and it won't be as effective. Too late and I'll have lost people because they'll be too busy wondering where I went wrong with the character to keep reading. She's not an innocent either. She makes situations worse with her attitude. So it's not all on him. Just know the fact that they are each very good at emotionally wounding the other will become important later. That's all for now. Please review if you have absolutely anything to say! Frick, just please review. :D T

The Funeral of a Good Girl

By – TempestRaces

Chapter Thirty Four – Of Rules and Breaking Them

The ride to the diner was quiet. It was clear Tempest was lost in her own world and the guys didn't know if it was smart to try and engage her in conversation so they just didn't. While perhaps more in tune to the feelings of others than their thick friend, the were also not in tune enough with the thoughts and feelings of females to attempt to say the right thing to one they didn't want to hurt. So it was easier to remain silent and let her attempt to work out whatever was bothering her on her own. It was Jesse who decided to break the silence first.

"You musta been some sick when you woke up this morning, huh?"

"Yeah, mostly thanks to you!" Tempest answered, a ghost smile lifting the corners of her mouth. "I said I'd buy and then you started feeding me drinks. You know I could hardly walk by the time we left?"

"But you had a good time. Especially when you and Letty decided to learn the fine art of stripping."

Leon laughed. "I thought Dom was gonna have a heart attack. But in that 'I'm so happy I could just die content right now' kinda way."

An incredulous frown wrinkled Tempest's brow. "Dom was pleased to see Letty get up and dance like a stripper?"

"Well," Leon thought a moment. "Not pleased, so much as very interested."

Tempest laughed. "Well, it was kinda fun, really. But athletic. I'd really never attempt it again unless I was sober."

"I'd just rather if the phrase ended 'I'd never attempt it again', thanks." Jesse added with a groan. "But watching Vince try not to watch was funny."

"There was no happiness in Vince for having to watch me do that."

"No, just a lot of jealous rage," Leon added with a chuckle.

"A lot of jealous rage he had no right to have," Tempest huffed and threw herself back into her seat with a frown.

"Again, you say those things, and then you sleep with him some more," Leon reminded with a touch of reproach in his tone.

"It turns out I'm stupid. Who knew?" she asked with a one shouldered shrug and a self depreciating smile. "'Sides, you guys sleep with inappropriate girls all the time. Why can't I sleep with inappropriate men?"

"No reason why not, if you were just sleepin' with them. It's the fact that you get in over your head with your feelings that I object to," Leon answered, making a show of concentrating on the road.

There were statements and questions on the tip of her tongue but she bit them down. Not with Jesse in the car. Leon was concerned about her feelings and what her involvement with Vince stood to do to them? How much of what they had done in his room the night previous had been out of his real feelings and how much had been out of the heat of the moment?

Leon glanced over at her, like he knew she was biting back something she wanted to say. His eyes darted to the rear-view and it was clear he got it, why she wasn't talking. Within another few moments they were pulling into the parking lot of the diner and parking the car. They piled out, some of their camaraderie restored by the thought of good food. They got a booth, menus and sat down to peruse them.

"Wanna get some movies to watch when we leave?" Jesse asked the table in general.

"That, some weed. One or the other."

Jesse looked at his cousin in shock. "You wanna smoke?"

She shrugged. "Why not?"

"You barely ever smoke up. That's why."

"I rarely ever totally fuck my own life either, but what're ya gonna do?"

"I have some in my room," Leon tossed out. "It's no thing, if that's what you wanna do."

"Settled then. There's a picnic table in the backyard right?"

"Yeah, why?" Jesse asked in confusion.

"Because we will sit outside, enjoy the beautiful night and get high, that's why. Now let's eat." Her demeanour showed that to her, the subject was closed, settled and decided. She went back to studying her menu.

Jesse and Leon shared a look. It was clear each thought the young woman sitting across from Jesse and beside Leon was slightly unbalanced. They also knew they were likely right, but that it was just how she was. She was just slightly more out there than ever, now that she had met Vince and put up with his moods, and flaws.

When the waitress came back Leon ordered, then Jesse. Finally when Tempest ordered she ordered a huge breakfast of pancakes and waffles with various toppings on them. And a large Pepsi to wash it all down.

"You're gonna eat all that?" Leon asked.

"No. Not likely. But I'm going to enjoy trying to eat some of everything, and trying to eat as much of it as I can."

"You asked for two different kinds of pancakes and three different waffles." Jesse couldn't get the look of shock off his face.

"Umhum," she answered absentmindedly. "What did you order?"

"A hamburger and fries."

"That's good."

"T, you ok?" Leon murmured into her ear.

"Fine, why?"

"You seem really spacey all of a sudden."

"Oh, well, I guess I am. But I'm fine. Seriously."

"Seriously?" Leon questioned.

"Seriously. Let's eat, and go home and just veg out."

"Just chill?" Jesse asked with a grin.

"Just be like broccoli."

"Corona?" Leon questioned.

"You may have as much Corona as you want. I wouldn't touch it if I were dying of dehydration in the desert and it was the only liquid there to drink."

Before Leon could answer her, their food arrived.

By the time they were done eating, all the food was gone. Jesse and Leon helped with the vast amount of breakfast Tempest had ordered herself and all that they left behind were some puddles of syrup on the tabletop.

"We goin' straight home?" Tempest asked Leon on the way back to the car.

"Unless there's somewhere else you wanna go," he answered.

"Not really. What about you Jess?"

"Nope, nothing comes to mind."

"Home it is then." She sighed. When Leon parked the car in the driveway a few minutes later she sighed again, in relief. The Maxima was gone which meant she wouldn't be avoiding Vince for the first while they were home, at least. She strutted into the house, nose in the air. Damned if she was being nice to Mia, either.

Since Mia was watching TV in the living room, it would have been hard for Leon to miss the nervous, scared look on her face when Tempest walked into the house. It also would have been hard to miss the hostility rolling off Tempest in waves. He looked between the rapidly retreating back of Tempest and the shocked face of Mia a few times. He held his arms out to his sides, palms up in the universal gesture of 'what the fuck?' Mia simply shrugged in answer, unwilling to explain what she, and Vince, had done. Leon looked back at her, clearly not buying her implication she had no idea what the damage was.

By the time Leon caught up with Tempest she was in the backyard with a four pack of coolers, laying in the grass pulling one of them down like water.

"What the fuck is goin' on around here now?" he growled.

"Nothin'. We're gonna veg in the backyard right?"

"Ok, sure. But why are you pissy with Mia?"

"I'm not pissy with Mia," she said, looking up at him from her prone position in the grass. "Why would I be pissy with Mia?" she growled sarcastically, a sneer twisting her face expressively.

"That's my question. You're a pretty good liar, but you're not very good at hiding your anger. And you were very angry with Mia just now."

"I'm not angry with Mia. I'm just fed up and I just wanna lay here in the cool grass with my coolers and chill. Is that so wrong?"

"No T, it's not," Jesse answered from someplace beyond Leon. He walked over to his cousin, sat beside her and popped the top off a Corona before shooting a look at Leon that clearly said 'let it go'.

Leon gave up with a sigh, took one of the ice cold beer for himself and plopped on the lawn on the other side of Tempest. They managed to joke and chat until eleven, just drinking sociably and being friends. Eleven was when Jesse gave up and went to bed.

"Ok, so now that Jess is gone, you're gonna tell me what the fuck happened between you, Mia and Vince that fucked you up so bad before supper."

She sighed. "Do I have to?" she whined.

"Yeah, you have to."

"Ok." She took a bracing breath and blew it out through her nose. "Last night, Vince didn't meet me in the hallway and start a conversation."

"Oh no?" Leon asked.

"No. He happened to look down the hall to the bathroom as he was standing at the bar, saw some guy with his hands all over me and came down the hall to tell me off for daring to pick up someone else on the night I dropped him."

"You did what?" Leon roared.

"Shut up fool!" Tempest looked around to ensure Leon's roar hadn't brought the rest of the house running. They never had heard the sound of the Maxima returning home, so she was sure she wasn't going to be dealing with Vince any time soon. But that didn't go for Dom, Mia or Letty. "I said he saw some guy with his hands on me, not that I was an active participant. This dude grabbed me when I left the bathroom and pushed me into the wall. I was too drunk to get him off. When Vince realized that I wasn't exactly willing to be where I was," she paused with a shudder, remembering both the feeling of the other man's hands and mouth on her skin, and the look of pure rage on Vince's face. "Let's just say Vince was almost on the run from a murder one charge."

"What did he do to the guy?"

"Threatened his life if he ever came around again."

"And that's it? He didn't hit him or cut him or throw him into solid objects?"

"No. I think he knew I just wanted the whole situation over. That I didn't want the guy around me any longer than he had to be."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Leon seemed mildly annoyed and it was pretty much the strongest angry reaction she had ever seen out of him. She shrugged. "Didn't seem to be much point. What could any of you have done? Like I told Vince, if we weren't gonna call a cop and report it for assault or whatever the fuck, there wasn't much point ruining everyone's night. Nothing really happened. Vince scared him off in time. And I'll never, ever drink to the point I can't use the skills I learned—in case I ever found myself in that situation in the first place, for fuck's sake—again."

"So that's why you were ok with Vince again. Because he played Knight to your Damsel?"

"No, it wasn't. Not really. It was more because he respected my wishes not to tell you guys and came up with a believable story. That and the way he clearly wanted to kill that guy for daring to touch me like that went to my head, I guess."

"But then what happened? I mean, you slept with him last night, and then this evening you hate him again."

"I didn't sleep with him last night. We were both too tired. It was funny, really. We were going to and then it was like, 'we can just sleep.' And then it was like, 'yeah that'd be ok, sleep.' It wasn't anything I ever expected Vince to admit he was ok with," she said on a chuckle. "I fucked him this afternoon when I woke up. And then we came upstairs to go get something to eat and Mia looked at us like we were dirt because I guess she knew what we'd just done. And I just got the feeling she was jealous of the fact that Vince and I had been doing what we were doing."

"No way. That ship's sailed. She has no interest in being with Vince. Trust me."

"I do, and I know she doesn't. But in that moment? Just in that moment, when she saw that I was happy and likely when she heard just how happy the two of us were? She thought about changing her mind."

"Come on Gorgeous. Be serious."

"I am being serious! How do you figure I got out of the kitchen without Vince if they weren't so wrapped up in staring at each other they didn't notice me walk out of the room?"

Leon sighed, an agitated sound. "I don't know," he finally admitted. He turned his head to the side to look at the profile of the woman in the grass beside him. "I don't know."

"I'm an idiot. Seriously. I have the IQ of a horsefly. And all I keep coming back to is that I just want to slap her and kick the shit outta him."

"Now Gorgeous, be serious. Mia you could take. I mean, you'd kill her. But Vince would snap you in half like a dry twig."

"Don't count me out so fast, Leo. I can take care of me."

She sounded really confident. He was really worried she'd try some shit with Vince out of her anger and end up hurt. He tried to wrap his head around how to make sure she didn't ever get herself in over her head with his hot-headed friend. Well, she thought Vince a great deal tougher than him, right? So if he showed her she couldn't even hold her own against him, she'd know she couldn't stand a chance against Vince, wouldn't she? "On your feet, green eyes."

"What are you up to?" she asked, her eyes narrowed into slits of suspicion.

"I'm gonna show you that you couldn't even hold your own with me. Now, on your feet."

She did as he asked, standing up out of the grass with the aid of the hand he offered her. "We're gonna fight?"

"Yeah."

"Rules?"

"Just defend yourself against me. If you can."