Ride or Die

“Why is there always a party here after the races?” I ask Mia, setting aside my laptop and stretching out across her bed.

“You know why Emily,” she retorts, rolling her eyes and going back to her book.

“Well I’m going down there to see if Dom won’t throw everyone out. I’d rather just watch a movie with everyone.”

“Good luck getting them to settle down,” Mia mutters as I shut my laptop and walk out the door, checking my outfit as I go.

The loud music floats up the stairs and assaults my ears as I reach the top of the stair case, and as I get about half-way down, the smell of alcohol and cigarettes assaults my nose, causing it to scrunch up in disgust. With a deep breath, I reach the bottom of the stairs and look around for my older brother, but to no avail as all I see is his loud, obnoxious friends.

“Em!” I look over to see Jesse, a kid that had come into my brother’s ‘team’ just a few short years ago, waving his hand at me, signaling me over.

“Where’s Dom?” I ask as I reach him.

He shrugs and passes me a Corona, “thanks but no thanks,” I tell him, passing the beer back to him and looking around again. My eyes stop on Dom’s best friend, a guitar in hand and girls in a lot less clothing than myself, surrounding him.

“Instead of silently pining over him, why don’t you just go over there and tell him straight up?” Jesse asks, knocking me out of my daze.

I look back at him with a grimace and reach for my previously turned away beer, taking a large swig off it and leaning back against the table that Jesse is leaning on. He chuckles and throws his arm around my shoulder, which apparently wasn’t very pleasing to someone as I could feel the hard stare before I found it.

“Why does V look like he’s going to rip you to pieces?” I ask Jesse, chuckling as he shrugs and takes another swig of his own beer.

I shrug too and turn my attention away from the guitar-wielding sex god with an attitude problem and latch my eyes onto the now open front door. Dom walks through it with a look in his eyes that lets me know I don’t want to be downstairs while he’s down here, so I stand up, abruptly dropping Jesse’s arm from around me at the same time before I grab his hand and drag him with me up the stairs. As soon as we reach the top I can hear Dom hollering at V and Letty trying to calm him down.

“So you brought me up here why?” Jesse asks as we head into Mia’s room so I can grab my laptop.

“Because I hate it when Dom gets mad like that and I didn’t want to sit up here alone,” I state, bringing Jesse and my laptop to my room across the hall.

“What about Mia?”

“Did you not hear what Vince was yelling about?” I ask him, rolling my eyes and shutting my door to the loud music and arguing.

“Not really, wasn’t paying attention,” Jesse replies, looking around at my rather spot-less room.

“He brought that guy that’s been coming into the store and hitting on Mia.”

Jesse’s eyes went wide at that bit of information as he started cracking up, “Dom brought him here? He must have hit his head.”

“If Dom trusts him then I don’t see why we shouldn’t,” I mutter, opening my laptop and going back to adjusting the specs for my car.

“What are you doing?”

“Well I was going to adjust the specs, but if you think I’m doing it wrong…” I trail off with a grin to which Jesse responds with a roll of the eyes as he pushes me over on my bed and takes my seat in front of the laptop, his hand immediately finding the mouse as he plays with the numbers.

“Thanks Jess,” I mumble, stretching out and staring up at the ceiling.

“When are you ever gonna tell V?” He asks me a while later, shutting the laptop and putting it on my desk next to my bed.

“Tell V what?” I ask, yawning and pulling my comforter up over my body as I roll over to face the wall.

“That you’re in love with him.”

I chuckle as Jesse shuts the light and gets under the comforter over as well, pulling his shirt off before rolling over; “I’ll never tell Vince. It would be like you not going to MIT… Just not your thing.”

“That’s completely different. You and Vince would be great together,” Jesse mumbles, a sure sign of him falling asleep.

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t work out. It would be more like me, Vince, and every car whore in a ten foot radius,” I mutter back, closing my eyes and drifting off as Jesse puts his arm around me and his chest vibrates his laugh against my back.

In the morning I wake up and groan, stretching out and rolling over when I notice the spot next to me is empty. With a shrug and a yawn I head over to my closet and pull out a pair of jeans and a tank top that I’ve had probably since I was in high school. Throwing those clothes on after stripping my old ones off, I head over to my desk and open up my laptop, checking out the specs that Jesse had changed. As I wait for it to boot up, he slips back into the room with a bag of something good smelling.

“Hey there sleeping beauty,” he mutters, dropping the bag on my desk before he falls onto my bed.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I state, opening the bag and pulling out a bagel with onions, cheese, bacon and egg on it.

“V caught me coming out of your room this morning,” he states, “and asked me what the hell I was doing in here.”

“What you tell him?” I ask through a mouth full of food.

“I told him that I was just waking up and going to get you some breakfast.”
I raise my eyebrow and look over at him, “you told him what?”

“Yeah and he didn’t like that at all. He said to me, ‘who the hell do you think you are sleeping with Emilia? What do you think Dom would say about that?’ and so I just kind of shrugged and said, ‘well you know.’”

I almost choked on my food with laughter as he glared over at me, “it’s not funny. Dom came up behind me and told me he didn’t know, so then Vince started laughing at me and Dom just clapped me on the shoulder and told me to be safe.”

“He said what?! What the hell is my brother on?” I shout, putting my food down and swirling the chair to see Jesse full on.

“He knows we didn’t do anything, cause we’ve slept in the same bed before. But it sure did shut Vince up. Now he’s being all moody down at the garage.”

“Great, well come on, gotta get down there before Dom throws a fit and doesn’t let me race tonight.” I mutter, standing up and grabbing my laptop.

The ride down to the garage is quick, Jesse took his car and I took mine, both of us pulling into our respective spots. I watch Jesse walk in and head quickly to his little office room with his computer set up for his work, and I quickly spot Vince heading in that direction. With a growl, I hop out of my car and jog into the garage, “hey V!”

He stops short of Jesse’s office, where I can see Jesse looking out the door, relief spreads across his face as Vince turns and looks over at me, a frown on his face. I smile brightly at him and walk over to him, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards my car, wanting to get him away from Jessie to avoid any confrontations.

“What do you want Emily?” He asks me, sounding something like a whiny child and a hormonal woman.

“I need help,” I mutter, pouting at him for a minute before cracking a smile.

“I’ll say,” he mutters under his breath as he huffs and pops open the hood on my car.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I snap, suddenly feeling agitated.

Vince looks over his shoulder at me, but continues to ignore me as he goes back to fiddling with things around the engine. Feeling more agitated than before, I lightly shove him, not hard enough to knock him over, but enough to get his attention, which I succeed in as he stands up and glares at me, “what’s your problem?”

“My problem? Are you kidding me V? I asked you for a hand and you’re being a total ass about it. If you didn’t want to help me out then you could have just said so,” I snap, crossing my arms.

Vince opens his mouth to say something but shuts it and shakes his head, “why don’t you just go ask Jessie to help you?”

I couldn’t help but snort out a laugh, “are you kidding me right now? Is that really why you’ve got your pretty little panties in a bunch?”

Vince glares harder at me and starts to turn around, so I choke back my laughter and grab his arm, “Vince, I didn’t do anything with Jesse. He’s my best friend and when Dom came home looking like he was ready to rip someone’s head off, I went back upstairs and didn’t want to be alone.”

The look on Vince’s face softens but then the agitation comes back just as quickly as it had faded, “you could have asked me. I would have come hung out with you.”

“Dom had eyes for you last night V, it would have done me no good to hide you,” I mutter, rolling my eyes and grabbing a rag off the shelf behind me.

“Aw come on Em, I didn’t mean to be like that,” Vince states quietly as I turn my back on him and stick my head under the hood of my car.

I ignore him as he leans against the car next to me and go ahead and start checking my oil and my wiper fluid, mindless things to keep up hiding the fact that I can’t even think straight with him so close to me.

“Emily, I’m sorry I got jealous.” He mumbles before patting my shoulder and walking away.
My stomach twists and my heart clenches as I throw the rag down and stand up, slamming my head against the hood of my car.

“FUCK!”

Tears spring to my eyes as I put a hand to the back of my head and rub it, trying to take the pain away; but the tears keep coming, regardless of the physical pain fading, because the pain in my chest as I see Vince flirting with a girl who had probably just walked in makes my everything else disappear. I feel a hand on my shoulder but I shrug it off and slam the hood of my car down, throwing the rag on the ground and walking around the side of my car.

“Hey Vince!”

He turns and looks at me, his eyebrows raised and his hand on the hip of that pretty little blonde, waiting for me to say something.

I just smirk and get into my car, throwing it in reverse and romping on the gas as I cut the wheel sharply, slamming my car backwards into the driver side of his car. Everyone comes running out to see what happened and the look on Vince’s face is priceless as I slam my car into park and shut it off, slowly getting out.

“Oops.” I mutter, walking around to the back of my car to inspect the damage.

“What the fuck was that for?!” Vince hollers as he runs over.

I try to hide the satisfied smirk on my face as I see the crease in the middle of his door; when I look at the back of my evo, only the taillight is busted and there’s a bit of a dent on the corner of my bumper.

“That should come right out,” I state, looking down at the bumper.

“What the fuck Emilia. I can’t believe you fucking did that,” he snaps, grabbing my arm which causes me to look up at him in surprise.

“Get your fucking hands off of me Vince,” I state, keeping my voice steady as I notice Dom walking over.

“That’s some shit payback if this is what it’s all about,” he snaps, his voice low.

“In case you didn’t notice, I was crying and visibly upset when I got into my car.”

“That’s no excuse for backing into my car.”

“Get your hands off my sister,” Dom states coolly while glaring at Vince.

“Look at what she did to my car!” Vince shouts all the while letting go of my arm.

“Grab her again and that’ll be your face,” he mutters before turning to me, “you’re paying for that.”

“Oh I planned on it,” I retort, smirking at him.

Jesse walks over and surveys the damage done to my car, “send that kid over to Henry’s to get the taillight and paint and I can have that fixed up in time for the races tonight.”

“Sounds good Jesse,” I state before tossing him my keys and walking back into the garage to use the phone to call over to Henry’s.

I can see Dom shaking his head as I look back over my shoulder, Vince however catches my eye and starts walking towards me. I chuckle and jog over to Dom’s office, picking up the phone and dialing before Vince can reach me.

“Henry’s.”

“Hey Henry, it’s Emilia, I need a taillight for my evo.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah some paint; you remember that plum color I have? Send that over here with what’s his face when he gets off work and put it on Dom’s tab.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks Henry.”

As soon as I hang up the phone and turn around, I notice Vince leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. I choose to ignore him and move to walk passed him when he sticks his arm out, blocking my path.

“Let me through Vince.”

“What’s your problem Emily?” he asks me, with a condescending tone.

“None of your damned business Vince, next time park your car elsewhere and we wouldn’t have these issues.”

He growls lowly and starts to walk towards me, effectively backing me against a wall. I put my hands against his chest, ready to shove him when he suddenly leans down, locking his lips against mine and putting his hands on my waist, gripping my hips tightly.

I pull away and turn my head to the side, “back off Vince,” I mumble.

“Wha..what?” He asks, sounding genuinely confused.

“I said back off,” I state again, only louder.

He drops his hands and backs away from me, a look bordering on hurt and anger on his face as I step towards the office door. When I look back over my shoulder I see him staring at the wall where I had previously been standing, “I’ve loved you for a long time Vince, and trying to purposely make me jealous was a stupid move. That hurt more than you can imagine. It’s completely different from you being oblivious and flirting with all the girls at the races and the parties; this takes it to a whole new level. Sorry I busted your door; I’ll pay for it and replace it myself.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but I shake my head and walk out the door and directly to Jessie’s office, slamming the door shut and startling Jesse. He looks up and frowns, putting his arms out and allowing me to plop down onto his lap and rest my head against his shoulder as tears start to fall down my face.

“What’d he do now?” He asks quietly.

“He kissed me.”