The Funeral of a Good Girl
By – TempestRaces
Chapter Thirty Nine – Of Plans and Something to Talk About
When Tempest woke up she stretched and it took her a moment to remember where she was and why she had no clothes on. She tried to be embarrassed about what she'd done, but she couldn't. All she could seem to see was the way Leon really looked at her. The way he seemed to really care about her. She ultimately knew that she'd needed the confidence boost that his attention had given her just to restore some of her normal attitude. She understood just a small fraction of the mental process involved in staying with a man who was bad for you and treated you badly, looking back on what she had gone through over the past few days.
The good times got you so convinced things were ok that when the bad times came, you couldn't help but feel it was at least partially your fault, and that if you just worked harder and waited it out, the good times would come again. After all, the good times had been pretty good before. So if something made things bad, didn't it have to be at least partially blameable on something you had done? Wasn't that only fair and logical?
It was like because you took some of the blame for a bad situation onto yourself, you had to stand there with your little bowl out begging for more. But you didn't. Not really. However, if you never realized that, you'd stand forever taking the bad and your share of a blame. A blame that you shouldn't be responsible for in any sense. With a shake of her head, she got up and put her shorts from the night before back on. She figured with a smirk that in the grand scheme of things she didn't really wear them long enough to get them dirty. Then, today, it was Leon's drawers she rooted around in while looking for a top.
She ultimately decided on a Von Dutch work shirt that had 'Leon' embroidered over the left breast pocket and short sleeves in black on the vivid blue base of the rest. She actually laughed as she put it on, because she fully intended to head to the shop as soon as she had her laundry in the dryer, and she was also fully aware of the fact that the shop was where Vince was. She wanted him to see her wearing Leon's shirt, with Leon's name on it, and wonder why she was wearing clothing with another man's name on them. She wanted him to wonder just what had occurred, no matter what Leon had told him. She was glad to see her normal, take no shit, take no prisoners, no holds barred personality was back in full effect. There was a reason that she deserved the name 'Trouble' and she was fully ready, willing and able to start showing it to the world again. How had one week seemed so damn long with all the highs and lows?
She showered while her clothes washed, got them in the dryer, set it, and ran upstairs. She kicked her shoes on and grabbed her keys off the hall table. She slid into the Skyline and almost choked on the hot air inside. Gasping for air fit to breathe; she started the car and got the windows open in a hurry. Once that was done she backed out of the driveway and headed off down the street. And she managed not to think about Vince until the car was in first. That was when the fact that he'd designed the interior for her jumped to the forefront of her mind. He clearly wasn't brainless. So why did he act like he was? She blew some hair off her face as she shifted into fourth and shook her head. She'd never figure out men. Not ever.
When she found herself singing along with the radio, she figured she should be seriously ashamed of her self for being in such a good mood after what she'd done. She'd slept with a friend on the same night as she dropped her 'sort of' boyfriend. And now she was looking forward to rubbing his nose in it while she refused to admit she'd done anything at all. It was harsh, but it was somehow very her. She parked the Skyline around back and walked into the shop, pushing the door open and strutting in like she hadn't a care in the world. And surprisingly, she pretty much didn't. As long as she just didn't let herself really think about it too hard.
Figuring that walking straight up to Leon would be overkill, she wandered up to Jesse instead. They were working on the same car, so it was almost the same thing. "Here I was thinkin' that you were supposed to be takin' time off to entertain me, and I wake up all alone in the house. Again." She threw her arms around his neck with a grin which took the sting out of her words.
"I thought you'd sleep in until almost lunchtime. I was gonna go back to the house then and see what you wanted to do."
"That's somethin' I guess."
"Why are you up so early?"
"I dunno. I just woke up early. I got my laundry washed and into the dryer so I'll have my own clothes for tomorrow and then I was done."
"Well, I'll just help Leon finish this one up and then I'm done. Really, it's slow today anyway. There's nothing goin' on."
"That's cool. What're we gonna do this afternoon?"
"Didn't really think about it." He seemed to think about it then. "Hey! Wanna go to the Universal Studios theme park? I've wanted to see it for a while now but I haven't ever gotten around to it."
"I dunno. What is it?"
Leon finally stood up from under the hood of the Celica he was working on. "It's full of rides based on action movies." He looked Tempest up and down. He couldn't stop the grin that spread over his face. "Hey," he said softly, directly to her.
She grinned back. "Hey yourself."
He read his own name on her shirt and chuckled. "This is gonna get confusing."
"What is?" Jesse asked.
"It seems like today, we got two Leons."
"I was outta clothes. Sorry." She shrugged and failed to look anything close to sorry.
"Don't be." He leaned closer to her so no one else could hear what he said. "I like the way that looks on you. You fill it out better'n I do," he winked.
She felt her grin get bigger, almost goofy. "I just bet." She tugged at the front of his basketball tank playfully a few times. "So, what're the odds you can get outta here at lunch and come to this wild ride too?"
"I'd say pretty good, if Jess'n I get this car done." Leon shot a covert look at Vince and again leaned close enough to keep their conversation only between Tempest and himself. "Is really bad I wanna kiss you right now? In front of them all?"
She threw her head back and laughed. When she could control her breathing it was her turn to lean into him. "Is really, really bad I wanna let you?"
"Yeah, it is," he answered, but he was laughing as he said it. "Why don't you go chill with a Pepsi on the couch and Jess'n I'll finish this up?"
Noting that she'd have to walk past where Vince was working to get to the couch she nodded her agreement, lower lip caught between her teeth to prevent her from cracking up laughing. They were both fighting very dirty. Like it wasn't bad enough they'd done what they'd done and then denied it, now they were rubbing in something that they supposedly hadn't even done. And enjoyed, both the doing and the rubbing in of. They were both being very, very bad. But it seemed they were both very, very good at it.
She sauntered off toward the couch at the back of the shop, grabbing a cold can of cola out of the mini fridge on her way by. She looked over her shoulder long enough to see Jesse giving Leon the third degree about what was up between them before she finished crossing the shop. She reclined lazily onto the couch, picked a back issue of Import Tuner up out of the pile of them on the floor, popped the top of her Pepsi and started to flip through the magazine. She had gotten almost to the middle of the magazine when she heard a masculine throat being cleared beside her. She lowered the magazine onto her chest so she could see who was standing beside her. She'd somehow known it wouldn't take Vince long to make his way over to her side to give her the third degree about what had happened after she'd dropped from his sight last night.
Once he had her eyes on him he waved to the end of the couch. "Mind?"
"Knock yourself out," she answered back, cool and serene. Like thoughts of having him so close to her didn't still make her pulse accelerate. Knowing it was stupid and it not still being true were two different things.
He sat with a sigh. "I owe you another apology."
"Don't sweat it." She offered absolution in an offhand manner, like it wasn't anything. "I'm not."
He shrugged, like it wasn't anything to him either. He ignored the fact looming large as life that he wouldn't have come over to say he was sorry if it wasn't anything to him. He looked down at her and stretched his arms out along the back of the couch in a casual fashion. "So, you'n Leon, huh?"
"Me'n Leon what?" she asked, sounding like she honestly had no idea what he was talking about.
"Just you'n Leon. Two of you seem awful cozy."
"If there's something you wanna say Vince, just spit it out already. Dancing around it like a pussy isn't really your style." She took a sip of her drink and watched his face expectantly. The look of angry distaste that past quickly over his features at her words didn't disappoint, nor did his quick removal of it in favour of bringing back his carefully light look, complete with fake but small smile and slight softening of the skin around his eyes.
"Did you hook up with Leon last night?" He kept his tone light, like he didn't really care. Just casual.
"Now, I know we had this conversation already. From now on, what I do with my life isn't any of your business," she chided with an almost teasing tone.
"So that's like saying yes."
"No, that's like saying it's none of your business. If I wanted to say yes, I'd say yes. If I wanted to say no, I'd say no. If I don't think you get the right to ask me either way anymore, I'd tell you to mind your own business." She smirked. "You can think whatever you wanna." She shrugged. "It ain't no thing to me anymore what you think. Or what you do. Or who you do. You won't catch me askin' you if you hooked up with some whore. 'Cause after yesterday, it's none of my business. I told you I didn't want anything else to do with you last night, but you told me you didn't really want anything to do with me long before that, just by the way you treated me, so it ain't no thing. Not anymore."
"It wasn't supposed to be like that."
"But yet, it was, so now what're ya gonna do?"
"Not a damn thing, I suppose," he answered, standing up. He knew the right answer was 'fight to get you back from my best friend and spend the rest of forever making it worth your while to pick me' but he had too damn much pride for that one. So letting it go like he didn't give two fucks would have to stand. But not without a caveat or two. "But you should know, I never wanted to hurt you."
She lifted one shoulder dismissively. "But yet you did. And now you don't have the power to do it anymore. Like I said, don't sweat it. It happened, it ended badly, and now it's done."
He nodded with a contemplative look on his face before walking back over to the car he was working on.
Tempest fought to keep the grin off her face. Her set down of Vince had gone far better than she had even dreamed. She knew he was going to be wondering all day what the real answer to 'did you sleep with Leon' was. And she also thought perhaps her 'it ain't no thing' attitude toward what he'd done to her had thrown him a small amount of the hurt he'd been dealing to her. After all, before last night it certainly had been a something. A big something that she'd flipped out about. Now it was nothing, and she seemed like she really meant it too. He was bound to be confused. And if she was lucky, a bit hurt at her rapid recovery over losing him.
She finished her magazine, singing along with the radio the whole time. She was about to pick up a second one when Leon and Jesse walked up to her. "We're ready if you are." Leon grinned down at her. He was fully aware of what she was up to and he couldn't wait to get the details out of her what he conversation with Vince had been about.
"I'm ready." She stood up. "Let's go."
"So, Jess and I took the Jetta here together this mornin' but I'm thinkin' I'll ride with you," Leon said as he threw an arm around Tempest's shoulders in a friendly manner. They wandered across the shop that way, walking behind Jesse toward the door, which Jesse held open to allow them to follow him through.
"Ok, if you wanna," she answered. She couldn't wait to fill him in what Vince had said and how she'd replied. And if Jesse was around she wasn't as likely to tell him all the gory details. She pushed out of the shop and walked over to her car.
"We'll meet you at home," Leon called to Jesse.
"Ok," Jesse called back, clearly confused by his friend jumping ship to ride with his cousin.
"Jesse's as puzzled by the whole situation as Vince," Tempest observed once she and Leon were both seated in the car.
"He was pushin' me pretty hard to tell him what's up."
"What'd you tell him?"
"The PG-13 version. Of what Vince did to make you take off with us, what Vince said to you in the kitchen after we got done in the backyard, and what happened last night after we closed my bedroom door."
"Was he ok with it all?"
"Until I decided to ride with you. He's pretty easy to lead, poor kid," Leon grinned. "He'll live. Enough about Jess. What'd you say to V?"
"He came over goin' on about how sorry he was and shit. And I was like don't worry about it 'cause it ain't no thing." She glanced at Leon. "And you know what? It wasn't, anymore. So that threw him way off. He was expecting me to be pissy and upset and he really didn't know what to do when I wasn't. So, of course, that made me saying it didn't matter all the more realistic."
"How'd he take that?"
"He hinted around about me'n you. He was so vague about it. So eventually I told him it wasn't his style to hint around something he wanted to say like a pussy."
Leon cracked up. "Seriously? You said that to Vince just like that?"
"Yeah, I said if you have something you wanna say just say it already cause it isn't your style to dance around it like a pussy. So he came right out and asked me."
"What'd you tell him?"
"That we already had the conversation about what was his business and what wasn't. To which he said that was like me telling him yes. So I corrected that me telling him that it wasn't any of his business was me telling him that it wasn't any of his business. He got this look on his face like he sucked a lemon and then he just gave up. Well, after he told me it was never his intent to hurt my feelings." She rolled her eyes. "I somehow doubt he had plans."
"Why do I get the funniest feeling you have plans? Plans to make his life confused and miserable for the foreseeable future."
"Because you know me better'n you think?" She grinned.
"I'm not half as mad at ol' Coyote as I was. I think I'm feeling a great deal of sorry for him though."
"You should be. By the end of this, he's going to need your pity."
"I almost hate the sound of that," Leon said, but he grinned as he said it. He watched as she only winked in reply.
"But for the record, what are we doing?"
He had to think for a moment before he answered. "We're friends. Friends who've shared certain benefits." Her abrupt change in topic had thrown him.
"Ok. I know that much. But do we ever intend to share those certain benefits again, or was it a one time thing?"
"It was whichever you want it to be Gorgeous. I won't even try to lie and tell you that I wouldn't be interested in, well, continuing the benefits. What about you?"
"I don't ever want to treat someone the way he treated me. I don't know if I'm over him enough to not turn around and end up treating you like he treated me. And I know he's all wrong for me," she punctuated her sentence with an irate hand gesture in the air, "and that I ultimately dodged a huge bullet, but now—just right now," she glanced at him quickly before turning her eyes back on the road, "I can't see any of that." She shook her head, a look of deep concentration on her face. "I just see how great it coulda been, and how big an asshole he was, and how much it hurt. And how I never want to do that to another person if I can help it.
"And what we did wasn't a mistake. I don't want you to come away feeling that that's what I think because it isn't. If it wasn't for me'n you, I'd still be moping around wondering what exactly Mia has that I don't. What she has that's so great that even the very great sex we were having wasn't enough to overcome it. But I know that it's not anything wrong with me now. I likely always knew, but it took someone like you taking an interest in me to remind me. And I'm glad you showed me. So don't think I'm not, or that I'm upset it happened. But I don't want to get in too deep with you and not be able to feel the same way about you that you feel about me. And maybe we could both keep it on the same level, the same friends with benefits level. But maybe not. And I don't think I'm ready to really fall for someone else right now."
Leon nodded. He understood where she was coming from. "I guess I understand."
"I'm glad." She grinned. "So, we do still get to play it like we're totally into each other, right?"
"Yeah, if for no other reason than you're hot when you're being evil."
"I must be hot a lot of the time."
He only smirked at her in answer.
"So we're really chill? No hard feelings, no awkwardness, no weird feelings being hidden?"
"I think I could really like you Temp. But some of what I thought I was feeling could have just been a protectiveness because of how V treated you and also from the fact I knew you deserved better than you were getting. And contrary to what you've no doubt heard, if I was interested I could settle down—some—and give you better than he seems capable of."
"I believe you. But there's no sense in you throwing away your little black book over me. If anything, this whole thing's shown me that I have a lot more growing up to do before I'm ever gonna be ready to deal with someone as," she found herself at a loss for an appropriate word to describe what Vince was. She gave up with a huff. "Vince as Vince is."
Leon couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. "I get you."
"So now we're gonna go do whatever it is Jess wants to do at this theme park and gonna keep on givin' 'em somethin' to talk about, yes?" Leon only nodded as they parked at the house. "Is this place full of those water rides?"
"There's a few I think. I don't think you'll get soaked or anything."
"Ok. Let's get this show on the road."