The Funeral of a Good Girl

By - TempestRaces

Chapter 40 – Of Double Entendres and Unintentional Actions

They arrived home many hours later. Jesse was still talking a mile a minute about how great the rides and attractions had been at the amusement park and Leon and Tempest were listening to him with half an ear each while smiling at each other about the enthusiasm of Jesse's stories about rides they'd been on with him in the first place. When they walked into the house everyone else was sitting around the living room watching TV.

"Did you guys get supper?" Mia asked, after the hellos had been exchanged.

"Yeah, we ate on the way home," Leon answered, after it became obvious that Tempest wasn't going to and that Jesse was too caught up in reliving one of the wilder rides for Letty's benefit.

"We're going to watch a movie. You guys want to see it too? I can make more popcorn!" Mia offered. Her overly bright tone sounded very forced to Leon.

"When's someone going to tell me what happened to make you treat her like glass and her treat you like the dirt under her boot?"

Mia sighed. "Leon, you wouldn't understand."

A look of shock crossed Leon's face. He knew what Tempest had told him. And he knew she really believed herself to be correct about her assumptions. But until the guilty look and evasive attitude Mia showed him in person, he hadn't been willing to believe Tempest right. "Oh my fuckin' god! She wasn't being overly sensitive at all, was she? You really did flirt back with Vince last night." The guilt on Mia's face intensified. "I can't believe this. I mean, his role in the whole thing I believed, I got, because he's a huge idiot and we all know it. But you being a part of that shit." Leon shook his head. "Fuckin' priceless," he muttered.

"It wasn't intentional," Mia retorted defensively.

"Girl, you got no interest in that boy. Intentional or not, you got no call to lead him on. Not even by mistake. Because you know better, even if he doesn't."

"Don't you think I know that? The way he acts for her has me thrown."

With a sigh, Leon wished he didn't find himself in the middle of everyone's problems. Mia was upset because Vince acted better for Tempest than for her? So essentially Mia was wondering what Tempest had she didn't while the other girl wondered the same thing. And when it came to Vince, Tempest had a lot of things that Mia didn't. Like the attitude to keep him in hand and the spirit to put up with his crap. Well, his crap that didn't involve trying to pick up another girl right in front of her at least. Not that Mia would ever see that a guy like Vince enjoyed being challenged. She'd just see the attention being paid and wonder why the other girl got attention and she got single-minded focused ire and attitude fits. "You don't want him because you know he's not right for you, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, somewhere in that thick head of his, he wants her because he knows she is right for him. That's why he's different around her."

"That makes no sense." Mia shook her head.

"Take it how you will, but I'm right." And he knew it.

Before Mia could have anything else to say, Dom called out to them. "What are you two talking about that's so serious?"

"Not a damn thing Dawg." Leon threw himself onto the floor beside Jesse where he always sprawled for movies. A minute later Tempest came out of the kitchen with a glass of cola and sat down between her cousin and Leon.

"We gonna watch a movie?" she asked.

"Yeah," Dom answered.

Letty turned the movie on and they all quieted down to watch.

Conscious of Vince's eyes on her face, as soon as Tempest was finished of her drink she stretched out, her feet on Jesse's stomach and her head on Leon's, lying across them. Her knees blocked her view of Vince, and thus his of her. She managed to stay awake for the whole movie, and when it was over she excused herself to go to bed and made herself at home in Jesse's. She just wasn't willing to sleep on the couch. She knew she'd feel too exposed, and would worry about Vince deciding he had something to prove—either to himself, her or both—and bothering her in the night. She wasn't willing to risk sharing with Leon again, and repeating their nocturnal activities, thus complicating her life and situations even farther.

When Jesse made it to his room and found his cousin there he sighed. He wasn't as oblivious as people thought. He knew there was something big going on, and Tempest hiding from everyone but him more or less proved it. But in typical Jesse fashion, his mind wasn't able to focus on the issue for more than ten minutes before thinking of his cousin made him think of Skylines, which made him think of yellow and before he knew it he was sneaking back up to the kitchen for a banana, which he just suddenly had to have and then when he came back down to his room he simply poked Tempest until she moved over and flopped down beside her.

By the time he woke up the next day she was no where to be found. Puzzled about what had her up so early, he got up himself and wandered upstairs. Mia was cleaning up the kitchen and no one else was around. "Where did everyone go?"

"Shop."

"Even T?"

"Yeah, left with Leon. Well, left the house at the same time as Leon. I think they all took their own cars."

"She willingly went to the shop?" Jesse tried to figure that one out.

"I think so. I think Leon asked her to."

"Ok." Jesse sat at the table. "Why didn't anyone get me up?"

"It's so rare for you to sleep in, and you are supposed to be on vacation," Mia reminded. "You want me to get you something to eat before I leave?"

"I don't wanna make you dirty everything again for me. I'll run someplace on my way to the shop."

"You sure? I don't mind."

Mia's overly bright, overly conciliatory tone bothered him. Much as Mia did like to cook, and mother everyone, she normally would have been put out to dirty her kitchen over again after just having cleaned it. Everyone was acting funny, and he was going to find out why. "Yeah, I'm sure. See you later." Jesse got up and headed for the door.

"See you."

Jesse arrived at the shop a short time later and pushed through the back door into the cool, dark air. The smell of oil, both new and burnt, and the various other chemicals in use around the place always made him feel at home. Some of his anxiety over what was up between all his friends and his cousin left him the moment he stepped into the shop. His eyes scanned the room and finally came to rest on Tempest. She was prone on her back under a car, a dirty white wifebeater and a pair of Leon's stained navy work pants her attire of choice, showing that when she'd gotten dressed this morning, she'd known where she was going and why. There was a rag around her hair, which was fastened on the back of her head in a messy knot of rioting curls.

"Damn that's a tight fit! Harder Leon. You have to push it harder if you want it to go in there!" Tempest instructed Leon, who was crouched in the mostly empty wheel well of a late nineties Civic. Jesse fought back his outright laughter at her words with a snort of amusement. His eyes found Vince, who was obviously trying to pretend he hadn't heard even though he clearly had. He wasn't doing a great job of his pretending, as his face was sporting a sneer.

"That is hard. I'm pushing as hard as I can. You sure it's lined up with the hole?"

"I'm the one under here aren't I? Yes I'm sure. Put the purse down and put your back into it."

Jesse watched as Vince got a little more angry and Leon gave whatever he was pushing on another shove.

"I'm gonna break something if I push it any harder."

"No you're not. You've got to give it a sharp thrust if it's going to slide all the way in and hit bottom."

"I have replaced a CV axle before!"

"Really? I never woulda guessed," Tempest drawled sarcastically. She was secretly glad the car hid the grin on her face. When she heard Jesse greet Leon, and was thus fairly sure that now Leon wasn't looking at the axle he was trying to pop in place, she turned it a quarter rotation, thus allowing the master spline to line up with the transaxle case. She rolled out from under the car with a sigh, forcing herself to sound frustrated in the extreme. "Boys! You want something done right, you may as well do it yourself." She pushed Leon out of the way before he could try again, took hold of the axle shaft and popped it into place. "See! One sharp jab and it slides right in." She smirked. The glance she'd spared Vince which had showed his anger with their double meaning tech talk only added to her satisfaction with the joke she'd perpetrated. She stood up next to Leon, between he and Jesse.

Leon growled at her menacingly. "I know you were up to something under there!"

"I was not. What could I have done? You could see yourself it was started. If you had done it right it would have slid right in, just like it did for me." Leon crowded her, looking angry and like he had something to say. She crowded back, still smirking evilly.

Jesse looked from one to the other. "Leon doesn't know that some of these cars have a master tooth, does he?"

"Jesse!" Tempest whined.

"You evil witch!" Leon said, looking at Tempest.

"It does not have a master tooth. It was how you were doing it."

"I should have known you were up to something devious."

"It's really not my fault you're just not good at getting shafts into the holes they go into. Don't make up reasons why it's someone else's fault just to make yourself feel better about it."

Leon rolled his eyes, her double meaning easily apparent to him. "I'm gonna put this car back together and put it outside. You go be evil someplace else."

"Fine. I was ready for a break anyway." Tempest turned to Jesse as Leon went back to work on his own. "You didn't sleep in long."

Jesse took her forearm in a loose grip and started to lead her over to the couch in the back. He snagged two cans of Pepsi on his way by the fridge. When they got to the couch he pushed Tempest onto it. She landed with a quick exhale and a dirty look his way. The dirty look left her face when the can of Pepsi made it into her hand.

"What's up Jess?" She took a long drink of her soda and watched as Jesse plopped down on the floor in front of her and looked up into her face earnestly.

"That was going to be my question. What's up? What's up between you and Vince and you and Leon, and you and Mia?"

"Nothing. Well, you know what's up between me and Vince. I'm pissed at him and he doesn't think I got call to be pissed. Me'n Leon just ran into each other in the basement this morning and he asked if I wanted to hang out with him until you woke up so I did."

"There's nothing weird between you'n Mia? Nothing? Cause it seems like you won't look at her, or talk to her, and she's being awful good to me today."

"Mia's a fuckin' saint every day so how would you see the difference in the first place?"

"Oh, she's a fuckin' saint but you're not having a problem with her, right?"

"Not a one," Tempest replied as her face took on a mutinous cast. I am not telling Jesse why I'm mad at Mia! I'm just not going there.

Jesse saw the look on Tempest's face and gave up on that line of questions. She wasn't going to tell him what he wanted to know about whatever was up between her and Mia. "Ok, so, what's with you and Leon then?"

"Leon's a good friend," Tempest answered. She then fought to keep a smirk off her face. She tried to remind herself that Jesse wasn't to know just how good a friend Leon had become. "He watched out for me the night I fought with Vince, that's all. You know me, I was seriously looking for a fight and Leon made sure it wouldn't happen. At least, not between me and Vince."

Jesse looked incredulous when she told him she had attempted to start a fight with Vince. "What did Vince do to make you do something so stupid as to think about starting a fist fight with him?"

"Just more of the same shit Jesse. Listen, it's over and done. Why does it have to be a big deal now? It wasn't a big deal when it started. You seemed almost happy about it. Well, now it didn't work out. End of story, end of it mattering, end of it being a big deal."

"Just like that?" It was obvious that Jesse didn't think the situation was that cut and dry.

"Yeah," she replied. "Just like that," she finished softly.

"Is this one of those subjects I should just let drop because even though you won't tell me the truth you just don't want to talk about it?"

"Jesse," she whined. "It's not that I don't want to tell you the truth or that I don't want to talk about it. There just isn't anything to tell ok?" She sighed. "Listen. We were going out to dinner night before last and when we came upstairs he forgot I was alive over Mia, again. And she participated this time. So yeah, I'm a little pissy with her, I'm totally done with him, and the issue is closed. But it's just not that big a deal."

"How can you say it's not that big a deal? I'm gonna give him a clue!"

"No, you're not, because I'm workin' it out on my own."

"By not talking to him and having perverted little conversations disguised as car talk with Leon? Because I don't consider that worked out; not for something like this."

Jesse was very angry. More angry than she'd ever seen him. She was touched, but not touched enough to let Jesse go start a fight with Vince. She wouldn't have Jesse hurt on her behalf. And even if Vince kept his cool enough not to start a physical fight with Jesse, he would most definitely end up saying something cruel to him. "Trust me, it's worked out well enough. Just let it go, ok?"

"Ok. You're sure it's over and done with?"

"Positive."

Jesse didn't look convinced, but he did let it go. "So is this what we're doing today? Working in the garage?"

"Not necessarily. I didn't know how long you'd stay asleep so I decided to leave with Leon. If you want to do something else, I'm open to suggestions."

"As a matter of fact, I want to go get breakfast because I missed my chance at home. And then, a certain older business owner who took a huge liking to my cousin asked me to swing by his place and look at a car he has there and is thinking of buying. Wanna come?"

"Sure. I'm starving, now that you mention it."

"Why didn't you eat at home with everyone else before you left with Leon?"

"It was a combination of not being hungry quite that early in the morning and refusing to eat any food that Mia cooked."

"You'd be catty to the exception of anything else, wouldn't you?" Jesse laughed.

"I wasn't being catty. I have a right to be pissed off. She messed up my life, and she's only messing Vince up worse by acting like there's a chance she'll ever have feelings for him. She deserves to be treated like something other than 'Saint Mia' for a change."

"Ok, I get it at least." Jesse stood up before he took Tempest's hand and tugged her to her feet. "Let's go eat so we can get to Harry's already." He started for the door, dragging her with him. "Can we take the Skyline?"

"Only if you've accepted the fact that I'll be the one driving the Skyline."

"Fine. Let's just go already."

"J?"

Jesse turned back to look at his cousin. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For the thought, at least. It's nice to know you wanted to avenge my honour."

"I love you like a sister. I still don't agree with doing nothing other than making him think you're sleeping with Leon instead of him, you know." Jesse took a good look at Tempest's face. "Oh my fucking god, you're not just making him think you're sleeping with Leon. You are!"

"No I'm not. Well, I mean, I did stay in his room once, so I guess if Vince were to ask point blank if I slept with Leon and I said yes I wouldn't be lying, but I'm not having a relationship with Leon."

"I know I don't come off all that smart, but if you think I didn't notice how you neatly sidestepped giving me a straight answer about whether or not you and Leon had sex, think again."

Tempest rubbed her suddenly tired eyes with the sides of her fists. She didn't want to lie to her cousin. But it seemed like he'd be angry with her if he knew she'd slept with two of his best friends, not just one. Much as she loved him, and much as he was her relation, it also wasn't totally his business. In the end she figured that she and Leon had decided what they'd done was their business and had agreed not to tell anyone. And anyone included Jesse. "I didn't go all the way with Leon, Jesse." He seemed to take her words at face value and they left the garage to head to Harry's.