Some old Volkwagen*Fast and Furious*

Chapter 2 - Some Old Volkswagen

When Nelly's alarm clock rang the next morning, all her tiredness was blown away by anticipation for the talk that was to come today. Finally, she would find out all about Mia. Nelly got up quickly and had a shower, as if her hurrying now would make time speed up as well and her last lectures at university end quicker. While making herself a cup of coffee, Nelly turned on her phone. It was already light outside and some birds were singing, enjoying the chilly air before the sun would heat up the city once again. Summers in LA were really hot, Nelly had found that one out pretty soon. Her phone buzzed, indicating she had received a message at some point during the night. Strangely enough, it was from Mia. Hey, I know what happened last night was weird and unexpected – yeah quite, actually – and I should have told you sooner – maybe, yes, that might have been nice – but I thought he was going to call and I had planned to tell you when I knew when he would be here. It's complicated, but if you come to see me at work this afternoon, I promise I'll explain. Hope you're not too cross with me.

It was perhaps strange, but Nelly was by no means cross with Mia. At the moment, she was just really curious. After having finished her cup of coffee, Nelly grabbed her car keys and left the house – not, though, before having very quietly glanced through a gap in the door into the living room, to see whether Mia's brother was actually sleeping there: he was, he hadn't changed or anything, he had merely taken off his shoes. And he was really as muscular as Nelly remembered from last night. Nelly tiptoed back into the kitchen and out of the house towards her little green car. Normally, she would have gone by bus, but if she wanted to see Mia at work, she had no option but to take the car or prepare herself for a one-hour bus-trip including three times changing busses. Which, really, wasn't actually an option.

As common in such cases, the morning crept past unusually slow and Nelly felt her lecturers could've had some more mercy with their students on the last day of the semester. When finally the last lecture was over, Nelly ignored her grumbling belly and went straight to her car. She could eat at the Toretto's. By now she had been there so often, she couldn't imagine how she'd ever gotten lost and needed Betty's instructions. Nelly parked her car some yards away and went inside. It was early afternoon and the hot sun combined with the car drive left her sticky with sweat. Nelly fanned herself some air with her hand and sat down on a bar stool. Mia appeared out of the little room that was generally called "the office", as Nelly now knew. – "Hey, there you are," Mia began somewhat shyly and then continued, even more hesitantly: "Are you mad with me?" – Nelly smiled. "No. I knew you were keeping some secrets, so seriously: I should have been expecting something like this." – Mia laughed. "Well, maybe you should have. Even though it would have been strange enough if I told you before my brother appeared – without him turning up in the middle of the night and scaring you to death, you having no idea he was even existing."

Nelly nodded, helping herself to a can of coke from the fridge behind the bar. Since Nelly had moved in with Mia, Mia had insisted on not selling anything to her. For some reason, Mia did have money. Nelly opened the can and sat back down, watching Mia expectantly. Mia leaned on the counter opposite Nelly. "So obviously, Dom's my brother. He has always been interested in cars, just like my dad, but when Dad got killed in that accident... The accident was someone else's fault and when Dom met that man next, he almost killed him. So they banned him from racing and he had to go to jail. Mum... she never got over it all." – "I'm sorry." – Mia looked up, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. "It's alright; it's just the first time in a long while I've been talking about this." She sighed. "When Dom had sat his sentence, he couldn't leave his hands of racing cars; he wanted to be as good as our dad – with or without the official permission." – "So he took to street racing?" Nelly finished the train of thought. Mia nodded. "They were a bunch of car-crazy guys and Dom's girlfriend – 'our family', we called them. They were always coming over for barbecues and I loved it, our house hadn't been so lively since my mother died – since my father died, actually." Mia hesitated before continuing: "Last year though, they got into trouble with the police and an antagonised group of bikers. Dom almost got caught by the police and one member of our family was... he was shot dead." – Nelly could see Mia was fighting back tears, and she would have hugged her, had there not been the counter between them. So she reached out and took her hand. This was so... surreal, things like that happening to people. Nelly heard it every day on the news that people were murdered, but to have it happen to a friend of hers... that was so close. – "They all went off to hide in different countries... sometimes Dom wouldn't call in weeks, I wouldn't know where he was..." – "They just left you?" Nelly was shocked, even though she had known that Mia had been alone, since that was what she had been when they had first met. "I thought they were your family?!" – Mia shrugged. "That was their way of protecting me. This is why I was looking forward to July so much, Dom had promised he would come and see me then. I had expected him to call, though." Mia smiled.