July Jones, Chapter 9
Sorry for the long wait. Things have been chaos-y around here. Mom goes into surgery on Tuesday and I've been helping get stuff together and cleaning the house and doing a few odds and ends.
And I've been dying of heat. It's been over 100 degrees(F) over here for the past few days, which is very unusual in itself.
Anywho, here's the next chapter of JJ, hope you enjoy!
Author: BloodyTearsOfLife
Title: July Jones
Rating: PG-13/R
Disclaimer: All characters from The Fast and the Furious belong to Universal Studios, yada, yada, yada. I only own the ones you don’t know. And no profit is made of this, this is just for mine and hopefully your entertainment.
Summary: July Jones has just learned she's been lied to for the last 10 years. Now she is in LA trying to find the real her but it won't be easy and what happens when she moves next door to the team.
[|All Chapters|] [| Previous Chapter|]
Chapter 9: Drawing Designs
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July felt her breath catch in her throat as Vince kissed her. Even more slowly, he brushed his lips against hers again and kissed her. July felt like she was on fire. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, but then reality hit.
“Vince,” she murmured against his lips.
“Hmm?”
“Stop. We have to stop,” July said opening her eyes, pushing her hands against his chest.
“Huh?” Vince said looking down at her confused.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but I can’t do this. I’m sorry,” she added when she saw the hurt look on his face.
“You confuse me,” Vince mumbled, still resting on top of her.
“Well, I’m a confusing person. Even I’m confused half the time. I like you Vince, but I don’t know about this yet. I’m sorry,” she apologized looking away. “It just, everything else in my life is messed up, I don’t want to add to the mix yet.”
“Hey.” Vince tilted her chin up to look in her eyes. “I understand. I think,” Vince said scratching his head.
July gave him a tentative smile. “Okay monkey boy, off. We still have to clean,” July commanded, pushing at his chest with more effort. Vince reluctantly stood up and then helped her up.
“You better watch it with the monkey boy’s or I’m going to really have to get my revenge.”
“Ha! What do you want me to call you, Vincent?” July suggested, slowly backing away as Vince glared at her. “Oh I know! I can call you Vinnie!” July cried out, running away.
“Now you’re really going to get it!” Vince said, running after her.
“Truce?” July asked sticking her hand out as Vince cornered her.
“Truce,” Vince agreed. As he shook her hand, he pulled her towards him and began to tickle her.
“V! You cheater! You said truce.”
“I had my fingers crossed.”
“Okay, I give,” July conceded, trying to breath.
“Really?”
“Really really,” July said nodding.
“Okay, but no more Vinnie,” Vince ordered with disgust and shook his head in distaste.
“Why? Is it because it rhymes with mini and you don’t want us to think something?” she asked, trying her hardest to make her face stay innocent looking.
“You better be glad we called a truce,” Vince growled.
“What about monkey boy?”
“Just watch it. I’m going to have to figure out one for you then,” Vince replied starting to clean up.
“Go for it. Don’t bug me,” July replied with a wink, starting to clean up too.
Half an hour later they had finished and were taking the trash out back.
“Man, I’m so glad I don’t have parties at my house,” July commented sticking the last of the beer bottles in the recycling while Vince put the trash away.
“Yeah, well, normally I’m not the one cleaning up,” Vince replied gruffly.
“Well you should be. You guys are the ones who made the mess.” July sat down at the picnic table and tilted her head back. The moon hung high in the sky and it illuminated July’s shirt, making it shimmer. Vince sat down next to her. A gently breeze was blowing and it blew back the hair from July’s face, cooling her down.
“So what do you think of LA?” Vince asked, leaning his head back too.
“It’s different, but a good different,” July answered in a sleepy voice.
“Come on, let’s get you home before you fall asleep,” Vince said getting up.
“Fine, make me all uncomfy,” July pouted.
“I’ll walk you over.”
“Keys, keys,” July mumbled as she searched her pockets once they arrived at her door. She found her keys and unlocked the door with a click.
“Night,” Vince said.
“Night,” July replied, disappearing into the house and closing the door.
Vince turned and walked back to the house humming under his breath. He was a little bummed that she stopped him from kissing her more but at least she hadn’t pushed him away in disgust. He was definitely going to take this slow. July was such a firecracker.
Firecracker, what a perfect name for her, he thought with a wry smile. Vince went to bed thinking maybe for once, he would get the girl after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July woke up the next morning from blissful dreams of fast cars and racing. She immediately got up and sat at her desk. Grabbing a couple pieces of paper and a box of colored pencils she found in a drawer, she began to sketch different design ideas she had dreamed, her hand moving with precision.
Of the designs, there were three in total. There was a deep, dark metallic purple car that had a fairy painted on the hood, a silver car that had a ghost like horse faded down on the side, and finally a midnight blue car that had an exploding firework on the hood and a sketch of the back of the car showed the word “Firecracker” written so that it looked like a lighted fuse.
July spent most of the morning working on the designs. Finally she put the pencils down and rubbed her eyes. As soon as she stopped drawing the world came back to her. When she was drawing, everything else faded away and she was lost in her own little world. The house could have fallen down around her and she would have never noticed, but now that she had stopped, her brain began to work again.
There was so much to think about: the cars, Mike, her parents, Vince, Dom. The cars and Mike she wasn’t too worried about. The matter of her parents she wasn’t even going to touch on. There was still too much confusion and hurt, and anger.
She was really confused with Dom and Vince though. She liked both of them and then last night Vince had kissed her. She brought her hand to her lips as she remembered Vince’s lips on hers. A smile appeared on her face and she couldn’t help the feeling of euphoria; but then there was Dom. He had been really nice yesterday and July could vividly remember the feeling of his arms around her making her feel safe.
Resigning to the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to figure out anything at the moment, she got up and headed downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. Maybe that would help. As she made herself a cup of coffee, she saw the answering machine was blinking. Pressing the button, the automated voice of the machine began to talk.
“You have one new message. Message one,” it began and then Charlotte’s voice took over, “Hello July, it’s Charlotte. I was just calling to remind you about dinner tonight, just incase you forgot, and Arnold will be over to pick you up at three instead of two. Call us if you can’t make it. If you don’t call, we’ll take that as a sign that you are still coming. Hope you’re having fun. See you tonight! End of messages,” the machine finished.
After stirring milk and sugar into her coffee and grabbing a muffin, she opened the doubled French door that lead to the porch and went outside. She sat on the railing and sipped her coffee. She had completely forgotten about the dinner invite but she wasn’t going to call to tell them she couldn’t go; she needed to go. She was curious to meet Amy, her former best friend. It still baffled her that she couldn’t and didn’t remember anything about her.
Well, if you don’t even remember anything about your own parents, how do you expect to remember anything about your old best friend? she asked herself.
July picked at her muffin and drank her coffee. Crumbling the remains of her food, she tossed them out into the yard and watched as the birds came flocking to peck at it. She was so lost in thought that she never heard Letty and Mia approach.
“Hello? Is there anybody in there?” Letty asked knocking on her forehead, startling July.
“Whoa! Where did you two come from?”
“Well, I came from my mother and Letty came from her mom. You see, when a man loves a women…” Mia began.
“Oh shut up. You know what I meant,” July said rolling her eyes while she smirked.
“We came from the front. We knocked but you didn’t answer so we came around back to see if we could find you.”
“So whatcha doing out here?” Letty asked sitting on the railing next to July.
“Just thinking.”
“Sounds exciting,” Letty replied with fake enthusiasm.
“Oh, it’s a riot.”
“So what are you doing today?” Mia asked, leaning against one of the support beams.
“I’m being picked up at three to go to dinner and meet an old friend.”
“Cool.”
“Well I know something you might be interested in,” Letty taunted with an evil grin.
“What?” July and Mia asked at the same time.
“Let’s just say I saw someone,” Letty looked pointedly at July, “kissing a certain person who goes by the name of Vince.”
“What? When?” Mia exclaimed, her mouth hanging open.
“Last night, when we were cleaning up,” July admitted, a faint blush tinting her cheeks.
“Yeah, I’m surprised you didn’t hear me, I was laughing so hard. I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe, especially that whole ‘Vinnie’ thing,” Letty said and she and July began to laugh.
“What? I’m lost,” Mia mumbled looking utterly confused. Both July and Letty looked at her and busted up laughing again.
“Well, you see, July and Vince were still having their flirt session when July suggested calling V ‘Vinnie’, and you can imagine what happened. So Vince attacked, July gave up and when V said no more calling him ‘Vinnie’, July said… She said…” Letty trailed off, starting to laugh.
“She said what?” Mia prompted, desperate with the need to know what was so funny.
July took a breath. “I told Vince, ‘Why? Is it because Vinnie rhymes with mini and you don’t want us to get the wrong idea about something’,” July finished saying as they all broke into laughter. They ended up sitting on the ground with tears rolling down their faces from laughing so much.
“Okay, that one was good,” Mia remarked, finally gaining some composure but as they looked at each other, they ended up laughing again.
“Oh man, I swear I've lost weight from laughing so much,” Letty said.
“Me too,” Mia agreed.
“Ditto,” July added.
“So you and Vince huh?” Mia asked once they had finally settled down.
“I don’t know. I like him but I just don’t know yet. So what are you guys doing today?” she asked wiping the tears from her eyes, the quick topic change not going unnoticed by the other two.
“We don’t know yet. We were going to see if you wanted to do something but you’re going to dinner. We’ll probably go see what the guys want to do,” Mia replied, getting up and helping the other two get up.
“We can do something until I leave, I still have a couple hours.”
The trio left the porch and went into the kitchen, July shutting the doors behind her.
“You guys can eat something or watch TV while I take a shower,” July said gesturing to the fridge and the living room. “ Or you can hang out in my room.”
“I want to finish looking through your clothes,” Mia said while Letty made a face behind her back.
“You can go through my CD Let,” July suggested. They all headed upstairs after Letty grabbed some food. As soon as they entered the room, Letty flopped on the bed and Mia sat at the desk.
“Man, your bed is comfy,” Letty commented, making herself comfortable.
July nodded in agreement, as she opened her dresser and grabbed some clothes. “Don’t break anything,” July teased, disappearing into the bathroom.
“Don’t break anything,” Letty mocked. “Do I look like someone who would break something?”
“Yup,” Mia deadpanned, going into July’s closet.
“Whatever,” Letty mumbled munching away on her food. Once she was done, she threw away the remnants of her food in the trash and she sat at July’s desk, flipping through her CDs when something purple caught her eyes. Lifting up the paper she saw the design she assumed July had drawn. It was excellent. “Hey Mia, come check this out,” Letty called out, never taking her eyes off the paper.
“What?” Mia asked coming over. “Oh wow. That’s good,” Mia said looking at the drawing. It was the purple car with the fairy drawn on the hood. July had used a lighter purple and silver mix to make it look like fairy dust was floating down the sides.
“Hey look there’s more.” Letty picked up the next paper that had the silver car with the galloping ghost pony on the side.
“I like that one.”
“There’s one more,” Letty said reaching for the last paper on the desk. As her hand almost reached it July’s voice startled them.
“What are you guys doing?” she demanded, hurrying over and snatching the drawings from Letty and lifting up the last one and hiding it between the other two.
“We were just looking at your drawing. They’re really good,” Mia explained, stunned at July’s reaction.
“Thanks but if I wanted you to see them I would have shown you.” July snapped feeling protective of the last drawing. She pulled it out and tucked it into one of the drawers. She passed the other two back to Letty. “You two can look at these but please don’t look at the other one,” July said softer, feeling guilty for the way she had snapped at them.
Letty and Mia both had bewildered looks on their faces from July’s strange behavior but didn’t say anything.
“Like I said, they’re really good,” Mia repeated looking closer at the drawings.
“Thanks,” July replied offhandedly, feeling awkward.
“What’s up with you being so protective of the last one?” Letty asked attitude in place.
“It’s just something more personal. Sorry for snapping,” July said looked at her sock clad feet.
Letty reined back her attitude when she saw the demeanor change in July and decided to go easy on her. Something about this girl made her want to protect her. She couldn’t say what it was but when she had a feeling like this, she was hardly ever wrong. “Alright but when your ready, you remember to show us.”
“I will,” July promised, smiling.
“We should show these to the guys, especially Jesse.”
“If you want. I don’t care,” July said sitting on her bed and putting her shoes on.
“Come on, let’s go see if everyone is awake,” Mia prompted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the team’s house, Jesse and Leon were eating cereal while they played video games in the living room while Dom, Vince, and Brian were sitting at the kitchen table talking. The girls came in the back door, the guys quieting instantly.
“Wow, we really know how to silence a room,” July commented, looking at Letty and Mia.
“Makes you wonder what they were talking about,” Mia side whispered to July and Letty as if the guys couldn’t hear her.
“Think we should interrogate?” Letty asked looking at the guys.
“Maybe,” Mia said going over and sitting next to Brian. “So…”
“Hi,” said Brian.
“So what are you guys up to?”
“Just talking about cars and stuff,” he said. Mia knew he was telling half the truth; he couldn’t lie to her now, not after what happened with the trucks and the undercover stuff.
“I see,” she said nodding and looking from Dom to Vince to see if their faces revealed anything, but as usual Dom’s faces was unexpressive but she caught him looking at July out of the corner of his eye. Vince didn’t seem to care much about being covert and had his eyes fully on July.
“Thanks for helping clean last night,” Dom said to July.
“No problem. It wasn’t that bad,” she replied, sharing a smile with Vince.
“So, what are you ladies up to today?” Vince asked.
“We’re hanging out ‘til July has to leave,” Letty said.
“Leave?” Dom asked.
“Yeah, I’m going over to a old friend’s house for dinner.”
“Oh, so what are you doing ‘til then?”
“No clue. We haven’t figure that out yet,” July answered.
“Yeah, we just came over here to show you these,” Letty said, leaning over Dom to put the drawings on the table in front of him. Her arm rubbed against his and she unconsciously pulled her arm back slower, prolonging the contact. She immediately felt guilty at feeling pleasure from touching Dom when Leon came into the kitchen. Once he spotted her, he came over to her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
“These are good,” Dom commented, passing the drawings to Vince.
“First one’s too girly for me but I like the second one,” he said passing them to Brian.
“But V, I made that one especially for you. I know how you love purple,” July said teasingly and Vince just gave her a look like “you better watch yourself.”
“Do you think you could ever really paint these?” Brian asked scrutinizing the papers.
“Of course. I’d have to buy a good airbrush but I could do it. I’ve done others back home. None like those but I’ve done a couple custom paint jobs. Why?”
“It’s just they are really detailed. I don’t know if I know anyone who would be able to do these.”
“Well now you do,” July replied, slightly offended that Brian didn’t believe her, but then again, Brian didn’t know her.
“Let me see those,” Leon demanded, taking them from Brian. “Wish I could draw like that,” he said looking at July with envy.
“You could if you really wanted to. How about we make a deal. You help me master how to drive stick left handed and I’ll teach you how to draw,” she offered, sticking out her hand.
“Deal,” he agreed, shaking her hand. “Jesse should see these. He’s going to be chewing your ear off afterwards talking about different styles and whatnot. Jesse!”
“What?” Jesse asked coming into the kitchen and putting his bowl in the sink.
“Check it,” Leon said holding out July’s drawings.
He eagerly snatched them up, his eyes scanning over them. “These are good. Who did them?”
“I did,” July said, waving her hand.
“Where did you learn to draw like this?” he asked curiously.
“Practice and took a lot of art classes and programs, including one on car painting. Learned a lot from that one. There were a couple guys at the shop that taught me a thing or two too, but I’ve always been okay at drawing.”
“Come on, I have to show you some of my stuff downstairs,” Jesse said starting to go down to the basement. July looked at everyone to find them smiling. Mia told her to go on, that they could do something later that week. She shrugged her shoulders at them and started to walk downstairs.
“Do you think that was to greatest idea? She is going to be down there a long time,” Letty asked Mia.
“Yeah, but don’t you realize that’s the first time since the accident that Jesse has immediately taken to someone? Ever since, he’s always been distant with people and this is the first time in six months he hasn’t. Maybe she’ll help him be the Jesse he was before,” Mia said and everyone nodded their head gravely, each feeling their own guilt about Jesse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Downstairs, July followed Jesse to a room towards the end of the hall and into what appeared to be his room. The room was cool and held the lingering smell of cigarette smoke. There was a bed and a dresser and various magazines were scattered on the floor. In the corner of the room was a desk that was overloaded with computer stuff. Jesse sat an extra chair at the computer and told her to sit down. He turned on the computer and a few minutes later had a car up on the screen.
“This is your basic 1991 Toyota Soarer and this is what we are going to do to it,” Jesse started.
He spent the next hour explaining everything he had told her to buy and how it was going to help her out. Then he showed her all the different car designs he had, including the ones he had for the team. He blew her mind on how much he knew and it finally made sense why they called him their ‘Mad Scientist’. By the time she checked her watch again she saw it was a half past two.
“Crap, Jesse, I’ve got to go.”
“Oh,” he said sounding disappointed.
“Thanks for showing me everything. I’ll have to get myself a computer so you can show me how to do all that.”
“Sure,” Jesse immediately agreed.
“Well, I’ll see you later,” July said walking out of his room.
“Bye,” Jesse called after her as she walked out the door. July made her way back upstairs and found Mia in the kitchen and they said hello to each other.
“Man, Jesse’s a smart one. Even I learned a thing or two,” July said with a smirk on her face.
“Yeah, Jesse’s something,” Mia agreed with a slightly maternal look on her face.
“Well, I better get going. I want to change before I go,” July said opening the back door.
“Okay. Hey, why don’t you stop down at the store tomorrow for lunch, we can hang out? It’s usually pretty slow.”
“Sure. I’ll see ya tomorrow!” July closed the screen door behind her. She waved at Mia through the kitchen window and headed over to her house. She went up to her room and changed into a sky blue tank top that accented her eyes and a pair of black pants. She pulled back her hair into a high ponytail but she didn’t put on any makeup.
She thought about dressing more fancy but decided against it. She wasn’t going to present a false impression of herself. There had been enough lies in her life already and she wasn’t about to start doing it herself. Soon enough the doorbell was ringing. She smoothed out her shirt and headed downstairs. She opened to door to find Arnold.
“Hello July. Are you ready to go?”
“Sure, do you want me to follow you, that way you don’t have to drive me back tonight?” July asked trying to be courteous.
“Oh no, don’t worry about that,” Arnold said smiling.
“You sure?” July asked closing the front door and locking it.
“Positive, now let’s go before Charlotte starts calling and asking why we’re late.”
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tbc…
And I've been dying of heat. It's been over 100 degrees(F) over here for the past few days, which is very unusual in itself.
Anywho, here's the next chapter of JJ, hope you enjoy!
Author: BloodyTearsOfLife
Title: July Jones
Rating: PG-13/R
Disclaimer: All characters from The Fast and the Furious belong to Universal Studios, yada, yada, yada. I only own the ones you don’t know. And no profit is made of this, this is just for mine and hopefully your entertainment.
Summary: July Jones has just learned she's been lied to for the last 10 years. Now she is in LA trying to find the real her but it won't be easy and what happens when she moves next door to the team.
[|All Chapters|] [| Previous Chapter|]
Chapter 9: Drawing Designs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July felt her breath catch in her throat as Vince kissed her. Even more slowly, he brushed his lips against hers again and kissed her. July felt like she was on fire. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, but then reality hit.
“Vince,” she murmured against his lips.
“Hmm?”
“Stop. We have to stop,” July said opening her eyes, pushing her hands against his chest.
“Huh?” Vince said looking down at her confused.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, but I can’t do this. I’m sorry,” she added when she saw the hurt look on his face.
“You confuse me,” Vince mumbled, still resting on top of her.
“Well, I’m a confusing person. Even I’m confused half the time. I like you Vince, but I don’t know about this yet. I’m sorry,” she apologized looking away. “It just, everything else in my life is messed up, I don’t want to add to the mix yet.”
“Hey.” Vince tilted her chin up to look in her eyes. “I understand. I think,” Vince said scratching his head.
July gave him a tentative smile. “Okay monkey boy, off. We still have to clean,” July commanded, pushing at his chest with more effort. Vince reluctantly stood up and then helped her up.
“You better watch it with the monkey boy’s or I’m going to really have to get my revenge.”
“Ha! What do you want me to call you, Vincent?” July suggested, slowly backing away as Vince glared at her. “Oh I know! I can call you Vinnie!” July cried out, running away.
“Now you’re really going to get it!” Vince said, running after her.
“Truce?” July asked sticking her hand out as Vince cornered her.
“Truce,” Vince agreed. As he shook her hand, he pulled her towards him and began to tickle her.
“V! You cheater! You said truce.”
“I had my fingers crossed.”
“Okay, I give,” July conceded, trying to breath.
“Really?”
“Really really,” July said nodding.
“Okay, but no more Vinnie,” Vince ordered with disgust and shook his head in distaste.
“Why? Is it because it rhymes with mini and you don’t want us to think something?” she asked, trying her hardest to make her face stay innocent looking.
“You better be glad we called a truce,” Vince growled.
“What about monkey boy?”
“Just watch it. I’m going to have to figure out one for you then,” Vince replied starting to clean up.
“Go for it. Don’t bug me,” July replied with a wink, starting to clean up too.
Half an hour later they had finished and were taking the trash out back.
“Man, I’m so glad I don’t have parties at my house,” July commented sticking the last of the beer bottles in the recycling while Vince put the trash away.
“Yeah, well, normally I’m not the one cleaning up,” Vince replied gruffly.
“Well you should be. You guys are the ones who made the mess.” July sat down at the picnic table and tilted her head back. The moon hung high in the sky and it illuminated July’s shirt, making it shimmer. Vince sat down next to her. A gently breeze was blowing and it blew back the hair from July’s face, cooling her down.
“So what do you think of LA?” Vince asked, leaning his head back too.
“It’s different, but a good different,” July answered in a sleepy voice.
“Come on, let’s get you home before you fall asleep,” Vince said getting up.
“Fine, make me all uncomfy,” July pouted.
“I’ll walk you over.”
“Keys, keys,” July mumbled as she searched her pockets once they arrived at her door. She found her keys and unlocked the door with a click.
“Night,” Vince said.
“Night,” July replied, disappearing into the house and closing the door.
Vince turned and walked back to the house humming under his breath. He was a little bummed that she stopped him from kissing her more but at least she hadn’t pushed him away in disgust. He was definitely going to take this slow. July was such a firecracker.
Firecracker, what a perfect name for her, he thought with a wry smile. Vince went to bed thinking maybe for once, he would get the girl after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July woke up the next morning from blissful dreams of fast cars and racing. She immediately got up and sat at her desk. Grabbing a couple pieces of paper and a box of colored pencils she found in a drawer, she began to sketch different design ideas she had dreamed, her hand moving with precision.
Of the designs, there were three in total. There was a deep, dark metallic purple car that had a fairy painted on the hood, a silver car that had a ghost like horse faded down on the side, and finally a midnight blue car that had an exploding firework on the hood and a sketch of the back of the car showed the word “Firecracker” written so that it looked like a lighted fuse.
July spent most of the morning working on the designs. Finally she put the pencils down and rubbed her eyes. As soon as she stopped drawing the world came back to her. When she was drawing, everything else faded away and she was lost in her own little world. The house could have fallen down around her and she would have never noticed, but now that she had stopped, her brain began to work again.
There was so much to think about: the cars, Mike, her parents, Vince, Dom. The cars and Mike she wasn’t too worried about. The matter of her parents she wasn’t even going to touch on. There was still too much confusion and hurt, and anger.
She was really confused with Dom and Vince though. She liked both of them and then last night Vince had kissed her. She brought her hand to her lips as she remembered Vince’s lips on hers. A smile appeared on her face and she couldn’t help the feeling of euphoria; but then there was Dom. He had been really nice yesterday and July could vividly remember the feeling of his arms around her making her feel safe.
Resigning to the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to figure out anything at the moment, she got up and headed downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. Maybe that would help. As she made herself a cup of coffee, she saw the answering machine was blinking. Pressing the button, the automated voice of the machine began to talk.
“You have one new message. Message one,” it began and then Charlotte’s voice took over, “Hello July, it’s Charlotte. I was just calling to remind you about dinner tonight, just incase you forgot, and Arnold will be over to pick you up at three instead of two. Call us if you can’t make it. If you don’t call, we’ll take that as a sign that you are still coming. Hope you’re having fun. See you tonight! End of messages,” the machine finished.
After stirring milk and sugar into her coffee and grabbing a muffin, she opened the doubled French door that lead to the porch and went outside. She sat on the railing and sipped her coffee. She had completely forgotten about the dinner invite but she wasn’t going to call to tell them she couldn’t go; she needed to go. She was curious to meet Amy, her former best friend. It still baffled her that she couldn’t and didn’t remember anything about her.
Well, if you don’t even remember anything about your own parents, how do you expect to remember anything about your old best friend? she asked herself.
July picked at her muffin and drank her coffee. Crumbling the remains of her food, she tossed them out into the yard and watched as the birds came flocking to peck at it. She was so lost in thought that she never heard Letty and Mia approach.
“Hello? Is there anybody in there?” Letty asked knocking on her forehead, startling July.
“Whoa! Where did you two come from?”
“Well, I came from my mother and Letty came from her mom. You see, when a man loves a women…” Mia began.
“Oh shut up. You know what I meant,” July said rolling her eyes while she smirked.
“We came from the front. We knocked but you didn’t answer so we came around back to see if we could find you.”
“So whatcha doing out here?” Letty asked sitting on the railing next to July.
“Just thinking.”
“Sounds exciting,” Letty replied with fake enthusiasm.
“Oh, it’s a riot.”
“So what are you doing today?” Mia asked, leaning against one of the support beams.
“I’m being picked up at three to go to dinner and meet an old friend.”
“Cool.”
“Well I know something you might be interested in,” Letty taunted with an evil grin.
“What?” July and Mia asked at the same time.
“Let’s just say I saw someone,” Letty looked pointedly at July, “kissing a certain person who goes by the name of Vince.”
“What? When?” Mia exclaimed, her mouth hanging open.
“Last night, when we were cleaning up,” July admitted, a faint blush tinting her cheeks.
“Yeah, I’m surprised you didn’t hear me, I was laughing so hard. I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe, especially that whole ‘Vinnie’ thing,” Letty said and she and July began to laugh.
“What? I’m lost,” Mia mumbled looking utterly confused. Both July and Letty looked at her and busted up laughing again.
“Well, you see, July and Vince were still having their flirt session when July suggested calling V ‘Vinnie’, and you can imagine what happened. So Vince attacked, July gave up and when V said no more calling him ‘Vinnie’, July said… She said…” Letty trailed off, starting to laugh.
“She said what?” Mia prompted, desperate with the need to know what was so funny.
July took a breath. “I told Vince, ‘Why? Is it because Vinnie rhymes with mini and you don’t want us to get the wrong idea about something’,” July finished saying as they all broke into laughter. They ended up sitting on the ground with tears rolling down their faces from laughing so much.
“Okay, that one was good,” Mia remarked, finally gaining some composure but as they looked at each other, they ended up laughing again.
“Oh man, I swear I've lost weight from laughing so much,” Letty said.
“Me too,” Mia agreed.
“Ditto,” July added.
“So you and Vince huh?” Mia asked once they had finally settled down.
“I don’t know. I like him but I just don’t know yet. So what are you guys doing today?” she asked wiping the tears from her eyes, the quick topic change not going unnoticed by the other two.
“We don’t know yet. We were going to see if you wanted to do something but you’re going to dinner. We’ll probably go see what the guys want to do,” Mia replied, getting up and helping the other two get up.
“We can do something until I leave, I still have a couple hours.”
The trio left the porch and went into the kitchen, July shutting the doors behind her.
“You guys can eat something or watch TV while I take a shower,” July said gesturing to the fridge and the living room. “ Or you can hang out in my room.”
“I want to finish looking through your clothes,” Mia said while Letty made a face behind her back.
“You can go through my CD Let,” July suggested. They all headed upstairs after Letty grabbed some food. As soon as they entered the room, Letty flopped on the bed and Mia sat at the desk.
“Man, your bed is comfy,” Letty commented, making herself comfortable.
July nodded in agreement, as she opened her dresser and grabbed some clothes. “Don’t break anything,” July teased, disappearing into the bathroom.
“Don’t break anything,” Letty mocked. “Do I look like someone who would break something?”
“Yup,” Mia deadpanned, going into July’s closet.
“Whatever,” Letty mumbled munching away on her food. Once she was done, she threw away the remnants of her food in the trash and she sat at July’s desk, flipping through her CDs when something purple caught her eyes. Lifting up the paper she saw the design she assumed July had drawn. It was excellent. “Hey Mia, come check this out,” Letty called out, never taking her eyes off the paper.
“What?” Mia asked coming over. “Oh wow. That’s good,” Mia said looking at the drawing. It was the purple car with the fairy drawn on the hood. July had used a lighter purple and silver mix to make it look like fairy dust was floating down the sides.
“Hey look there’s more.” Letty picked up the next paper that had the silver car with the galloping ghost pony on the side.
“I like that one.”
“There’s one more,” Letty said reaching for the last paper on the desk. As her hand almost reached it July’s voice startled them.
“What are you guys doing?” she demanded, hurrying over and snatching the drawings from Letty and lifting up the last one and hiding it between the other two.
“We were just looking at your drawing. They’re really good,” Mia explained, stunned at July’s reaction.
“Thanks but if I wanted you to see them I would have shown you.” July snapped feeling protective of the last drawing. She pulled it out and tucked it into one of the drawers. She passed the other two back to Letty. “You two can look at these but please don’t look at the other one,” July said softer, feeling guilty for the way she had snapped at them.
Letty and Mia both had bewildered looks on their faces from July’s strange behavior but didn’t say anything.
“Like I said, they’re really good,” Mia repeated looking closer at the drawings.
“Thanks,” July replied offhandedly, feeling awkward.
“What’s up with you being so protective of the last one?” Letty asked attitude in place.
“It’s just something more personal. Sorry for snapping,” July said looked at her sock clad feet.
Letty reined back her attitude when she saw the demeanor change in July and decided to go easy on her. Something about this girl made her want to protect her. She couldn’t say what it was but when she had a feeling like this, she was hardly ever wrong. “Alright but when your ready, you remember to show us.”
“I will,” July promised, smiling.
“We should show these to the guys, especially Jesse.”
“If you want. I don’t care,” July said sitting on her bed and putting her shoes on.
“Come on, let’s go see if everyone is awake,” Mia prompted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the team’s house, Jesse and Leon were eating cereal while they played video games in the living room while Dom, Vince, and Brian were sitting at the kitchen table talking. The girls came in the back door, the guys quieting instantly.
“Wow, we really know how to silence a room,” July commented, looking at Letty and Mia.
“Makes you wonder what they were talking about,” Mia side whispered to July and Letty as if the guys couldn’t hear her.
“Think we should interrogate?” Letty asked looking at the guys.
“Maybe,” Mia said going over and sitting next to Brian. “So…”
“Hi,” said Brian.
“So what are you guys up to?”
“Just talking about cars and stuff,” he said. Mia knew he was telling half the truth; he couldn’t lie to her now, not after what happened with the trucks and the undercover stuff.
“I see,” she said nodding and looking from Dom to Vince to see if their faces revealed anything, but as usual Dom’s faces was unexpressive but she caught him looking at July out of the corner of his eye. Vince didn’t seem to care much about being covert and had his eyes fully on July.
“Thanks for helping clean last night,” Dom said to July.
“No problem. It wasn’t that bad,” she replied, sharing a smile with Vince.
“So, what are you ladies up to today?” Vince asked.
“We’re hanging out ‘til July has to leave,” Letty said.
“Leave?” Dom asked.
“Yeah, I’m going over to a old friend’s house for dinner.”
“Oh, so what are you doing ‘til then?”
“No clue. We haven’t figure that out yet,” July answered.
“Yeah, we just came over here to show you these,” Letty said, leaning over Dom to put the drawings on the table in front of him. Her arm rubbed against his and she unconsciously pulled her arm back slower, prolonging the contact. She immediately felt guilty at feeling pleasure from touching Dom when Leon came into the kitchen. Once he spotted her, he came over to her, wrapping an arm around her waist, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
“These are good,” Dom commented, passing the drawings to Vince.
“First one’s too girly for me but I like the second one,” he said passing them to Brian.
“But V, I made that one especially for you. I know how you love purple,” July said teasingly and Vince just gave her a look like “you better watch yourself.”
“Do you think you could ever really paint these?” Brian asked scrutinizing the papers.
“Of course. I’d have to buy a good airbrush but I could do it. I’ve done others back home. None like those but I’ve done a couple custom paint jobs. Why?”
“It’s just they are really detailed. I don’t know if I know anyone who would be able to do these.”
“Well now you do,” July replied, slightly offended that Brian didn’t believe her, but then again, Brian didn’t know her.
“Let me see those,” Leon demanded, taking them from Brian. “Wish I could draw like that,” he said looking at July with envy.
“You could if you really wanted to. How about we make a deal. You help me master how to drive stick left handed and I’ll teach you how to draw,” she offered, sticking out her hand.
“Deal,” he agreed, shaking her hand. “Jesse should see these. He’s going to be chewing your ear off afterwards talking about different styles and whatnot. Jesse!”
“What?” Jesse asked coming into the kitchen and putting his bowl in the sink.
“Check it,” Leon said holding out July’s drawings.
He eagerly snatched them up, his eyes scanning over them. “These are good. Who did them?”
“I did,” July said, waving her hand.
“Where did you learn to draw like this?” he asked curiously.
“Practice and took a lot of art classes and programs, including one on car painting. Learned a lot from that one. There were a couple guys at the shop that taught me a thing or two too, but I’ve always been okay at drawing.”
“Come on, I have to show you some of my stuff downstairs,” Jesse said starting to go down to the basement. July looked at everyone to find them smiling. Mia told her to go on, that they could do something later that week. She shrugged her shoulders at them and started to walk downstairs.
“Do you think that was to greatest idea? She is going to be down there a long time,” Letty asked Mia.
“Yeah, but don’t you realize that’s the first time since the accident that Jesse has immediately taken to someone? Ever since, he’s always been distant with people and this is the first time in six months he hasn’t. Maybe she’ll help him be the Jesse he was before,” Mia said and everyone nodded their head gravely, each feeling their own guilt about Jesse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Downstairs, July followed Jesse to a room towards the end of the hall and into what appeared to be his room. The room was cool and held the lingering smell of cigarette smoke. There was a bed and a dresser and various magazines were scattered on the floor. In the corner of the room was a desk that was overloaded with computer stuff. Jesse sat an extra chair at the computer and told her to sit down. He turned on the computer and a few minutes later had a car up on the screen.
“This is your basic 1991 Toyota Soarer and this is what we are going to do to it,” Jesse started.
He spent the next hour explaining everything he had told her to buy and how it was going to help her out. Then he showed her all the different car designs he had, including the ones he had for the team. He blew her mind on how much he knew and it finally made sense why they called him their ‘Mad Scientist’. By the time she checked her watch again she saw it was a half past two.
“Crap, Jesse, I’ve got to go.”
“Oh,” he said sounding disappointed.
“Thanks for showing me everything. I’ll have to get myself a computer so you can show me how to do all that.”
“Sure,” Jesse immediately agreed.
“Well, I’ll see you later,” July said walking out of his room.
“Bye,” Jesse called after her as she walked out the door. July made her way back upstairs and found Mia in the kitchen and they said hello to each other.
“Man, Jesse’s a smart one. Even I learned a thing or two,” July said with a smirk on her face.
“Yeah, Jesse’s something,” Mia agreed with a slightly maternal look on her face.
“Well, I better get going. I want to change before I go,” July said opening the back door.
“Okay. Hey, why don’t you stop down at the store tomorrow for lunch, we can hang out? It’s usually pretty slow.”
“Sure. I’ll see ya tomorrow!” July closed the screen door behind her. She waved at Mia through the kitchen window and headed over to her house. She went up to her room and changed into a sky blue tank top that accented her eyes and a pair of black pants. She pulled back her hair into a high ponytail but she didn’t put on any makeup.
She thought about dressing more fancy but decided against it. She wasn’t going to present a false impression of herself. There had been enough lies in her life already and she wasn’t about to start doing it herself. Soon enough the doorbell was ringing. She smoothed out her shirt and headed downstairs. She opened to door to find Arnold.
“Hello July. Are you ready to go?”
“Sure, do you want me to follow you, that way you don’t have to drive me back tonight?” July asked trying to be courteous.
“Oh no, don’t worry about that,” Arnold said smiling.
“You sure?” July asked closing the front door and locking it.
“Positive, now let’s go before Charlotte starts calling and asking why we’re late.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tbc…