Ride or Die

I can’t stop the tears from running down my face if I tried. It’s hard enough holding in the small sniffles as I try to breathe slowly and deeply. When I feel him stand up, I want to reach out, grab his arm and pull him back to me, but I feel paralyzed; frozen in time by the pounding of my heart and the deafening roar of thoughts inside my head. But as I hear the door handle turn, I find my voice, “Vince.”

“Em?”

I sniffle a few times and sit up, tears streaming down my face as he comes back to the bed, “are you crying?”

I reach out to where I can see his dark silhouette standing out against the rest of the dark room and wrap my arms around him when I can finally feel him. As soon as he feels my arms, he pulls me towards him and into his lap, allowing me to bury my face in his neck and cry.

“Em please don’t cry baby, I’m sorry. I’m so, sorry.” He mumbles into my hair.

“This is all so fucked up Vince. Dom warned me. He told me not to lead Jesse on and now I’ve gone and ruined it. I ruined it all and there’s nothing I can do to change it.” I mutter through my tears.

“Stop; don’t talk like that. I’m not going to step in where I don’t belong. Give Jesse a chance. He’s good for you.”

“He thinks I’m his property,” I mumble, sniffling miserably.

“Em, I would have said the same thing in his shoes and I was egging him on.”

“But he left.”

“Because I was in his face and Dom had hold of my shoulder. Dom told him to scoot so things didn’t get worse than what they were. It’s my fault Em, and I’m sorry.”

I sigh and take another deep breath. I nod my head and feel my eyelids get heavy. With a light chuckle he lays me back on the bed and kisses my forehead, “get some sleep.”

My eyes flutter shut before he even leaves the room.

The next morning I wake up with puffy eyes and a pounding headache, so I hop into the shower, washing off the grime from the day before and clearing my head. When I get out, I change into a pair of my loose khaki’s and a fitted t-shirt before heading downstairs. When I get there, I see Dom, Mia, Letty, Vince and Leon, but no sign of Jesse.

“Anyone see Jess this morning?” I ask as I put a bagel into the toaster.

“Hey.”

I look up to see him walking in through the living room, his gaze on the floor and hands shoved into his pockets. I can’t help but smile at how down he looks, so I walk over and wrap my arms around his shoulders and pull him into a hug. He chuckles and wraps his arms around my waist, lifting his head to look at me at the same time that I slightly pull away to look at him. He grins at me and leans in, his lips lingering on mine for a fraction of a second before we pull apart.

“We need to talk,” I mumble to him.

He nods his head and pulls away from me, taking my hand and leading me back towards the living room.

“Hey, where are you two going?” Dom calls.

“We’ll be back later!” I shout as we walk through the living room and out the front door.

Jesse leads me to his car, so we get in and he heads towards the impound lot to pick up my car, “so talk,” he states as we start down the road.

“So Vince came into my room last night,” I start off, staring out the window.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, after you left. Letty talked him into it. He gave me a big speech, said he’d back off, got me crying, the whole shebang,” I mutter, turning to look at him, only to find he’s wearing a big grin, “you think this is funny?”

“What’s wrong with that? Isn’t it what you wanted?” He asks me, still grinning.

“Not quite. I really screwed up Jess. I didn’t think this through, where do we go from here?”

“He said he’d back off right?”

“Yeah, that doesn’t help the problem.”

He chuckles as he pulls into the lot, parking the car and getting out, “but it does. If we keep this up at least until Race Wars, we can plan some kind of break up,” he explains as he walks towards the booth, “one that doesn’t involve someone beating me up.”
I laugh as we walk up to the booth, “hey I’m here to pick up a Mitsubishi Evolution.”
The cop working the booth looks up at me and laughs, “good luck getting that one out. Say’s here that they’re keeping that in an ongoing investigation.”

“Look, I’ve got a lot of cash in that car. You let me go get it, it’s yours.” I state, smiling brightly.

“While I could really use the cash, I can’t just let you walk in there and take it,” he tells me, shrugging and looking slightly apologetic.

I look over at Jesse and nod my head towards his car, “why don’t you take off Jess, I’m gonna be here awhile.”

He takes a deep breath and nods his head, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walks back to his car. As soon as I he sits down, I notice him pulling his phone out and then pulling out of the lot. With a sigh, I turn back to the guy in the booth, “so, how much to get you to let me in there?” I ask him.

“How about you come back here in two hours, lunch, and I’ll show you.” He tells me, looking around.
I sigh, but I flip him off, giving him a slight hardly noticeable nod as I turn around and walk away, pulling my cell phone out and faking a dialed number before making a scene of how I can’t get my car back. After I walk around a corner of the lot, I notice Jesse’s car sitting across the street, with him in the driver’s side, his face covered by his hat.

“Jess!” I call to him, jogging over.

He shakes his head and moves his beanie back up and laughs when I jog over to him, obviously car-less. I get into the passenger side and lean back, “alright let’s go grab some lunch and then you can drop me back by.”

“Why?”

“I’m getting my car back,” I tell him excitedly, as he pulls away from the curb.

“Not going to ask.”

“Better if we do it that way. But I’m going to need another favor from you.”

“Oh what’s that?” He asks as he pulls up to the market.

“We’re not going to tell anyone what we’re doing.”

“You’re just looking for me to get my ass kicked,” he mutters before getting out of his car.
I can’t help but laugh at him as I get out of the car and walk up to the market and head in, looking for a bag of chips before heading back and grabbing a soda. I set them on the counter and take a seat on one of the stools as Mia comes around to the front, “you and Jesse seem to be getting along good,” she states.

“Yeah who knew? Best friends really do make great boyfriends,” I state, rather loudly when I notice Vince in the back with Dom.

“You know, this isn’t one of your best ideas,” she tells me as she leans forward on the counter.

“Well it’s the only one I’ve got right now. I need you to do me a favor.”

“You ask a lot of people for a lot of favors you know,” she points out as she looks over to see Jesse hanging out with Leon.

I shrug and stuff a chip in my mouth, “I’m going to get my car, but it’s going to be messy.”

“Emelia…”

“Don’t start with me Mia; I just need you to keep Dom and the other’s here.”

She sighs and looks back to where Dom and Vince are arguing about something before looking back at me, “and how do you suppose I do that?”

“Easy enough; tell them I’m going to be meeting them here and they can’t leave until I get here.”

She rolls her eyes but nods her head anyways. I grin at her and signal to Jesse, “I’ll be back!” I call out to everyone before I head back over to Jesse’s car, bag of chips and my soda in hand.

“Drop me off a block away and then go somewhere Jesse.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” he mutters as he pulls away from the market.

“I mean it Jess; you need to stay away from the market and I need you to stay far away from the impound lot. Just get lost for a few hours. I’ll call you when it’s safe.”

“Be careful Em,” he tells me as he pulls up to the curb.

I laugh and look over at him, “I’m a Toretto, Jess, we don’t do careful.”