| Chapter 15 Leon had barely been able to sleep that night. After planning an orchestrated crime, sleep didn't really seem like an option. His mind was spinning with 'what if's and possible outcomes of his new found endevours in breaking the law. He got up early; six, perhaps six thirty; and showered, trying to wash away the fog of lost sleep. He'd been tired. He'd been tired even when Dom, Vince and him had been sitting at the kitchen table, planning out how to proceed. He'd been tired when Skye came home, and went to bed. He'd been tired when Daron roused from a drug-induced daze enough to turn on the TV. He'd been tired when he himself had finally retired to bed, only to lie there for hours on end, sleep remaining just out of his reach. And that was why his eyelids were still at half mast when he dragged his sorry ass out the front to meet Hector, Vince and Jesse. Hector was just crossing the road to meet up with the other two when Leon got outside. "Boo dudes". Hector was grinning as he usually did, showing no signs of any hidden unpleasant feelings at all. Leon couldn't tell if he was really good at hiding his emotions, or if he was genuinely as happy as he appeared to be. "How come you're so happy?" Jesse asked, voicing Leon's question as they headed in the direction of the school. Hector shrugged, readjusting the weight of his bag, "Ma papi an' Chucho are taken the Shelby to a show for the next two days. Reckon it's gotta win somethin', eh?". Leon still couldn't work out if Hector was happy because he believed the car would do well at the show, which it probably would, or if he was happy because his old man wasn't going to be around for the next two days. Everything about Hector and his genuine emotions was like that, though. He could be smiling and happy on the outside, but Leon could never really tell if that was how he genuinely felt on the inside. "They leavin' today or tomorrow?" Vince asked, back to his old attire of an Etnies hoodie and oil stained jeans. "Today. About eleven, I think they said. An' they'll be back on wednesday, in the morning" Hector answered, walking ahead with Vince while Leon and Jesse hung back a little, not really in any hurry to get to school, and although Leon was interested in hearing about the car show, the footpath wasn't wide enough for all four of them to walk shoulder to shoulder. He hadn't seen Jesse all weekend anyway. Might as well catch up. "Do anything good on the weekend?" he asked, simply trying to make conversation. Jesse shrugged, kicking at the stones on the footpath, "Went and saw my mom". Leon nodded. His parents had been divorced for a long time now. His mother hadn't remarried, because right now, she was more interested in her business, which was really going quite well, even though Leon hadn't seen her in months. He knew what it was like, though. Having one parent in one place, and the other somewhere different. "Yeah" Jesse continued, scratching at the back of his neck, "She's got a husband now. They just got married like, two months ago. He's got two girls and a boy. Jake, Griffin an' Ella. They're my step-family. Don't see 'em that much, but it doesn't really matter to me, y'know? I like it here, jus' me an' my dad. We can, y'know, bond and stuff, coz it's just the two of us. We can be closer than we would if my mom was still around". Leon nodded again, "My Mom an' my old man've been divorced a long time. When Dad first started this thing with Skye, I hated her, y'know? I didn't want a new mom, I wanted my old mom back. But...she's really not that bad, if you give her a chance. She's alot happier here, in L.A. Her and Slim are always doin' shit together, an', y'know, it's nice for her to have someone like that, coz it's harder to make friends when you ain't at school an' shit". "I don't mind Rick" Jesse shrugged, then glanced at Leon, "That's my mom's husband. He's pretty cool. He's a car dealer. Honda. Atleast we've got something to talk about when I'm over there" he shrugged again, "An' he gets on pretty well with my dad, too. I thought they would heaps fight all the time and they would hate each other, but they're actually pretty good friends". "My mom hates Skye" Leon answered, glancing up at Vince and Hector, who were only a few feet ahead, talking about the new valve springs Vince had ordered for his Nissan, "Skye doesn't talk about my mom at all. I don't think she hates her, though. I think she understands why she left". "Why did she leave?" Jesse asked, casting his wide-eyed blue gaze across to Leon. He sucked in a breath and held it for a moment before letting every little whisp of it escape, "My dad hit her. Not all the time...jus' when he was really mad. She left, still" Leon shrugged, "Can't blame her really". Jesse was silent for a long moment, taking that piece of information and filing it away under 'Leon' for future reference. "My parents weren't like that" he said after a while, breaking the silence that had descended upon them, "They jus'....stopped wantin' to be married, I guess". Leon wasn't exactly sure what he meant, but he nodded anyway. * * * "Sup homes?" Hector being his usual self, and in doing that, ignroning the look Leon was giving him, even though he knew exactly what it meant. He'd avoided Leon's looks and questions all day. Leon had told him their conversation last night was not over, but Hector seemed determined to make sure it was. "Not alot, Hector" Jesse shrugged, rubbing one hand against his hair and using the other to sheild his eyes from the harsh L.A sun. Hector had Vince with him, and Mia and Letty were walking over from the left. Leon and Jesse were already accompanied by Dom and about six or eight of his followers, then another five or so skanks. All sitting on the ground, waiting for the last session of the day, and hoping it would come and go quickly. School again. Leon hadn't liked his previous schools much, mostly because he was never there long enough to make friends, but he had found himself happy to come to school this morning. Thankful for the weekend break, but happy to be back, all the same. "Ay, auto shop next" Vince said, directing this at Leon. He nodded, watching the two of them flop down as Mia and Letty joined them. "Yeah. Least we can finish the day with somethin' good" Leon agreed, leaning back against his bag and tilting his head back. The sun warmed his skin, but he kept his eyes closed, not aiming to be blinded any time soon. "Hey, Leon" Letty moved over to him, blocking his sun by standing with one foot on either side of his waist. He openned one eye and looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Wanna taste my gum?" Leon stared at her for a long moment. What!?! "What?" he choked out. Did he just hear right? Did she just ask him if he wanted to taste her gum? And how would she propose they do that exactly....? "I said: Wanna taste my gum?" Letty repeated, not understanding why he was so shocked. It was a simple question. "Wotchoo mean?" Leon asked. Maybe she just meant she was gonna give him some out of the packet. But when it was brought up so ubruptly like that, it had sounded like she wanted to share the gum that she was currently chewing with him. "Do" she chomped on her gum, "You" chomp, "Want" chomp, "To" chomp, "Taste" chomp, "My" chomp, "Gum?" chomp chomp chomp. "You want me to taste your gum?" Leon was getting more and more confused, and she wasn't helping by simply repeating the original question, when what he needed was more information. "Yeah. This guy Gharret showed me this thing and he put his mouth over my nose and breathed out and I could taste his gum!" Letty was grinning so widely he really couldn't say no. "Yeah? Aright then" he shrugged. Letty got down on her knees so she was straddling his waist and put her warm, wet, grape flavoured mouth over his nose and let out a breath. Leon lay there for a second, thinking about how fucking stupid they must've looked, especially with the entire twenty or so people they were sitting with watching. "Letty, it's not workin'. You're lying to m- Fuck!!" it hit him out of nowhere, and he was bombarded with grape flavour. Woah. It was stronger than it would have been if he'd chewed it himself. Letty giggled and sat back, watching him wipe at his nose. "Did it work, Leon?" various people asked, eager to know if Letty's little trick was worth trying. "Fuckin' oath. It works" Leon answered, waiting until Letty got off of him to try her trick on Hector before sitting up. Vince was grinning at him, but Dom looked less than pleased. Something like protectiveness radiated off of him, and Leon was confused by it. This was the same Dom whom Letty was pining for. The same one who kept brushing her off any time she tried to get close. And now here he was, giving Leon the evils for tasting her gum through his nose. Various people asked him all sorts of questions, most of them grotty, about his gum-tasting experience, until a teacher came over and told them they had to go to class. Leon walked with Vince, Lance and Hector, Dom lagging behind to talk to Johnny. "Wot's the deal with Dom and Letty?" Leon asked softly, elbowing Hector, having forgotten about pressuring him to talk about his father for now. Hector looked at him, seeming a little surprised, either at the question or at the relieved pressure from Leon, then shrugged. "Wotchoo mean?" he asked, stopping outside the room they had auto shop in. Leon moved to be facing him so that he could speak softly and Dom wouldn't hear what he was saying, let alone the rest of the class. "He woz givin' me the evils after Letty did her nose trick on me" Leon replied, glancing across at Dom to make sure he couldn't hear, but he was engulfed in conversation with Johnny. "Yeah...he says he doesn't like her, but I think he's jus' shittin' everyone. I reckon he does like her, he's jus' too scared to say anything or some shit. Or maybe he thinks chicks dig assholes. Not true, by the way, jus' in case you were wondering" Hector answered, still in the same mood he'd been in when they'd left for school this morning. Leon still couldn't work out what he owed the happiness to. "Is Marc puttin' the Charger you told me about in the show that yer dad's goin' to?" Leon asked, more interested in the answer to the actual question than getting Hector to talk about his old man. "Don't think so" Hector shrugged, "The Shelby's a show car, more than a racer, but the Charger is the other way round. Hasn't Dom shown you it yet?". Leon shook his head, "Nope. But it's been pretty busy at the garage, y'know?". "Yeah. I know. I work at the shop where my papi gets the parts for his Shelby for. My brother's shop there too. All high performance parts and shit. Shop and garage. It's been real busy an' shit coz'a Race Wars. It's on soon" Hector replied. Leon almost felt his ears prick up, "Race Wars? What's that?". He hadn't heard anything about this 'Race Wars'. Sounded pretty cool though. Hell, anything to do with import cars was cool in his books. "It's like this massive car show out at this old naval base" Hector answered, eyes lighting up, "There's thousands and thousands of cars and there's races and shows and they had two bands and a DJ last time. There's so many chicks and everyone stays there overnight. It runs over a weekend. It's so fucking awesome, there, man. I've been to every single one since I was five. It never ever gets boring". "When's it on?" Leon asked, unable to hide his interest, even if he'd wanted to. He'd never been to anything like that before. "Um...this weekend coming, I think" Hector answered, a smile spreading, "Yeah. Must be. Been waitin' for months. You lookin' to get in?". "Yeah, but my old man ain't exactly into that shit" Leon answered, heart sinking a little. He really wanted to go to Race Wars, if only to check out what it was about. Why it had everyone so excited. "You can come wit three cars anyway, so it's not like we ain't got the room" Hector offered. Leon grinned, "Cool. Thanks." Chapter 16 "Ready or not, here I come" Leon called, loud enough for Jason to hear, where ever he may be hiding, but not so loud that Skye would tell him to shut the hell up from where she was sitting in the kitchen. He did a quick once over of the house. Spotted Jason behind the couch in the lounge, but decided to leave him be for now. Leon escaped Jason's never ending game of hide-and-seek by sneaking out the front. His brother would get bored after a little while and go watch some cartoons on TV, so Leon didn't think much of it. He walked down the porch steps, considered who he should go bug for company, when his own question was answered. "Hector" Leon called from his weed-infested front lawn, "Where you goin'?". Chucho's Celica was on the driveway, still clean from when Hector washed it. Chucho had left it behind when he and his father took the Shelby to the car show. Hector looked up as he reached for the car door handle, and grinned with a shrug. "The washin' machine is broke. Water pissed out everywhere. I gotta go pick some shit up from the laundromat" he glanced at the racer on his driveway, then looked back over to Leon, "You wanna come for a ride?". "To the laundromat?" Leon asked sarcastically, "Hell yeah". He crossed the road, figuring his Dad wasn't home, and Skye was busy talking to Slim in the kitchen to be bothered with where he'd gone. And it wasn't like they would be gone a long time. It *was* only the laundromat. "So, you get Chucho's car till he comes back" Leon remarked as he climbed into the passenger seat. Hector shut his door, and shrugged, "Yeah. I guess. Not like he needs it, is it?". Leon nodded as Hector put the keys in the ignition then turned, instantly rewarded with the heavy beats of rap in a language Leon couldn't understand. Spanish, he supposed. Mexican hip hop. Hector turned it down slightly, and glanced across at Leon, "Don't s'pose you know wot they sayin', eh homes?". Leon shook his head. He was happy to just listen to the music. To the heavy underlying bassline. To the way the Spanish words ran together like liquid, even though the artist had a gravelly voice. "*You* know wot he's sayin', though, right?" Leon asked as Hector threw the car into reverse, then roared down the street, earning himself cheers from three massively built Mexicans playing cards on their front lawn. "Yeah. I knew Spanish a'fore I knew English" Hector answered, pulling a sharp right the made the tyres squeal, "He's talkin' 'bout his girl. 'bout how she's this pretty lil' thang an' how all these cholos want her an' how he'll fuck 'em up if they touch his woman". Leon nodded slowly. Sounded like all the rap songs he'd heard. "He's talkin' so fast. How can you even un'erstand wot he's sayin'?" Leon asked, trying to make out some of the words. He couldn't tell when each one stopped and the next one started. Hector shrugged again, pulling into a street lined with stores, "If it woz in English, you'd be able to tell wot he woz sayin'. You jus' get use to it". He grinned and nodded at some chicanos and their women, calling out and waving to him. Leon sighed. They had to crawl along the street, stuck behind some old fucker goin' for a Sunday drive. Except it was Monday, and he wasn't actually going that slow, it was just that Hector insisted on speeding everywhere, and Leon liked it when the car was opened up. Driving as slow as this made him feel like they were holding her back. He could still hear the latinos calling out to Hector. Leon wished he wasn't 'white' sometimes. His father was Italian, but he was still classified as white in his own eyes. He loved the way that the latinos and the blacks and the asians and all those ethnic groups stuck together like peanut butter and fluff. Loved the style they had. Loved the way they were all like a massive extended family to each other. Like being the same race as someone made you their friend. "This's it" Hector pulled to a stop, right outside the laundromat. Leon wondered how the hell he'd gotten a parking spot, right outside the place he'd wanted, against the curb, at this time of day. He must've had his own personal angel or something. "How'd you do that?" Leon asked as they exited the Celica. Hector looked at him over the roof, shutting his door. He didn't seem to know what he was talking about. "How'd you get the parkin' spot, right where you wanted?" he elaborated. Hector shrugged as the armed alarm pipped at him, "Lucky, I guess". He didn't seem too fazed about it. Didn't seem to want to make too much of it. Leon dug his hands into the pockets of his baggy jeans. Hector was dressed cholo-style. Massively baggy cargo shorts, socks up to his knees, white Nike Cortez sneakers, and a red and white Fubu jersey. Leon sighed softly, again wishing he was anything but what he was. "Ay Hector" a latino called at him as soon as he got in the laundromat. He was sitting on a washing machine in the corner, a black guy with him who Leon recognised as Edwin's brother, Tove. He didn't say anything though. Just sat there, face blank, watching the two of them come in. Hector grinned, "Sup homes? How you livin'?". He listened for an answer, but headed towards the machine he'd left his mother's washing in an hour or so earlier. "I'm a'ight, esae" the Mexican replied, scratching at his raven black hair, then waved a hand at Leon, "Wot's wit the white boy, homes?". Leon tried not to look openly disappointed. White boy. He was growing to hate that label. That was what Edwin had called him too. "He ain't white" Hector answered, still not looking at the latino he was talking to, instead opening the machine he'd stopped at, "He's a wog. An' doan give 'im none'a yer shit, coz he's cool" Hector glanced up finally at the two, "Ain't dat right, Tove?". Leon waited to see what the massively built black guy would say. Tove wasn't exactly his best friend. "Dat's fuckin' right" he answered, looking across at Leon. His face didn't give away any emotions, but Leon didn't think he seemed angry. Didn't seem like anything. Wasn't happy, wasn't angry, wasn't sad. Total blank. "Yeah, a'ight" the Mexican sighed, "Slim tells me shit 'bout 'im sometimes. Says he's tight". Leon knew Slim was fairly young, early twenties, but he'd never really made the connection between her and the other Mexicans in their neighbourhood. He'd always just imagined her being kind of detatched, like Skye used to be. Her being latino hadn't really affected his assessment of the situation. "Slim" Hector grinned, dragging some washing out of the machine, "Where's dat gurl at anyways?". He put the washing into a platic bag that was sitting on top of the machine, and moved to grab some more. Leon leaned against the machine next to the one Hector was emptying, and listened to the conversation, finding his que in Hector's question. "She's at my place" Leon answered, digging his hands further into his pockets, waiting for someone to say something that would make him look stupid. "Yeah? Yous live nex' door to 'er, ay?" the Mexican asked, and though surprised that he'd been taken into the conversation willingingly, he nodded, "Yeah". The Mexican nodded slowly, then let go of a smirk, "She's ma cousin, Slim. I'm Nacho Perez. People call me Smiley, butchoo can call me wotchoo want". The Mexican got up off the machine he was sitting on. He was considerablly older than Tove, perhaps mid-twenties, and had a neat trimmed moustache, tattoos down both arms, and a stronger Mexican accent than even Hector's old man. He walked over to Leon, and Hector watched on somewhat warily as he continued to empty the machine, but the older Mexican simply offered his fist. Leon stared at it for a moment, then reached out his own and touched fist with Smiley. "A'ight, if yous're done gettin' all touchy feely, I got better things to be doin' than hangin' wit you lot" Hector playfully elbowed past Smiley, who gave him a shove for his troubles. Hector stumbled, but aimed a grin at Smiley and kept walking. "Tell yo brother if he gonna let *you* use his car, he's a fuckin' moron" Smiley called after them, "Yeah, yeah" Hector muttered, then glanced over his shoulder, "Check ya, Smiley. Tove". "Yeah, see ya, homes. Leon, make sure you drive his stupid ass home. Chucho don't want no smashed up ride, homes" Smiley called. Leon smiled back over his shoulder. Tove was just watching him. Didn't look glad that he was leaving, didn't look like he was trying to intimidate him either. "Hey, how'd you get Tove offa my ass?" Leon asked softly as Hector threw the clean but still damp laundry in the back seat of the car and looked at him over the roof, then gave him a shrug. "A little cock suckin' goes a long way, homes." Leon gaped even after Hector had gotten into the car. His friend leaned over from the driver's seat, "You gettin' in or you gonna walk yo ass home?". Leon, still stunned, got into the car. He'd barely shut the door before Hector pulled out of the parking space with a scream of tyres. "Were you serious?" Leon asked after a long moment of driving in relative silence, save for the sounds made by the car and the music playing. Hector grinned and laughed at him, "Wotchoo care? You worried I'ma hit on you or some shit?". Leon stared at Hector, horrified, which only made him laugh more. "No, I wozn't serious. It's jus' a metaphor. I do somethin' for him, he does somethin' for me" Hector explained. Leon stared at the dash, trying to make sense of their conversation, "Wot exactly did you do?". Hector grinned, pulling into their street, "Wot's it matter? I got 'im offa yer ass, didn't I?". "Hector, I will sleep better tonight if you tell me what you did" Leon was still trying to get over the shock of Hector's first implication of what he'd done to get Tove to leave Leon alone. "Nothin', man. I jus' told Edwin he woz bein' stupid an' he told Tove to back off" Hector shrugged, pulling Chucho's car onto their front lawn, "He owed me coz I got some good shit for him the other week. South'a the border shit is usually pretty crap, but my cousin, he gets some top'a the range weed, and kinda cheap too. I jus' hooked 'em up, so Edwin owed me one". "Thanks" Leon said as they exited the car. Hector shrugged, leaning back in through his door to get the laundry off the back seat. Leon closed the car door and moved around to Hector's side of the vehicle. Hector leaned back out of the car, dropping someone's sock in the process, and shut the car door. Leon crouched to pick up the stray laundry just as Hector did, and it was only because he had his face down close to Hector's arm that he noticed the bruising around his wrist. "Wot's that from?" Leon asked, letting Hector pick up the sock, instead pointing to the bruise while he tried to work out how he'd missed it earlier. It was pretty dark, looked pretty painful. He didn't know how he hadn't seen it. Probably because he didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Hector's wrists. "Wrestlin'" Hector answered after a moment, turning towards the house with the laundry. "With who?" Leon called after him. He hadn't pressed this issue with Hector all day, but now, when the evidence was right there in front of his face, he couldn't just stand back and say nothing. "Chucho" Hector said over his shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow, Leon". Leon knew Hector had chosen Chucho out of his three brothers to blame because he wasn't here to be asked about it. "Hector" Leon tried. "I said I'll see you tomorrow, Leon" Hector answered pointedly, then gave him a quick, forced smile, and closed the front door behind himself. |