Letty's POV
We settled into a nice pattern and it was undisturbed until four months later. One Saturday night Mia wound up in Mr Toretto's old garage and she realised the Cobra was no longer there.
"Letty," Mia said gently as we sat down after dinner one Saturday night. Tradition dictated we drink tea after dinner. It was into November now and the evenings were beginning to get dark.
"Yeh?"
"Want to tell me where the Cobra went?" Her voice was gentle but poisonously soft. It was more unnerving than if she had been outright yelling at me. It was more like she knew where the Cobra was but was just waiting on a confession.
I hesitated and pretended to be unfazed by the question. "What do you mean?"
"Letty, it ain't in my Father's garage and it ain't in the garage." Her words were prepared. She knew I was going to try and deny that I didn't know where it was.
I sat back and nodded. "I know it ain't there."
"Well where is it?"
I looked up at her but didn't let her faze me this time. "I sold her, she's gone."
Mia's face turned a chalky white making her face contrast startlingly with her hair. I saw her fork shaking in her hand and I felt a bead of sweat trickling down the back of my neck. Nerves were catching up to me. I'd been hoping she wouldn't notice for a lot longer but I supposed it was better if she noticed now than in a few weeks time because then it would be Christmas. If she found out on the mouth of Christmas her first Christmas without her Father would be more difficult than it needed to be.
"W-w-hy?" She stammered. Her eyes widened as she looked at me in shock.
I needed to be honest, lies would make this worse but damn lies had gotten me into this. "We were short fifteen hundred dollars four months ago. I sold the car and used the money to make up the difference. I kept the rest of the money to use if things ever got tight again."
Tears threatened to spill over the bottom of her eyes and down her cheeks. My stomach twisted unpleasantly because I knew I'd been the one that made her look like that. I'd hurt my best friend. I was a terrible person.
"You did that for me? So I could stay here and keep the store and the garage?"
Her words surprised me. They were sad tears at all shining in her eyes but happy ones.
"Course I did. Mia, I just didn't want you to worry."
She rose from her seat and attacked me with a warm hug. I hugged her back but I still felt guilty that I'd made her cry.
Mia sat beside me in silence and I stretched my legs out a little. My legs were always sore from standing too long during the day and from not sleeping well enough at night. Part of me just wanted to go for a run or move around. I was a physical being and it was the only way I could cope with my emotions. It was the easiest way to get everything out.
Mia looked over at me and must have realised that I was ready to start moving.
"You know, you don't have to do everything all the time."
I nodded in agreement and forced myself to sit there. Boredom hit me quickly and Mia suggested we play truths. Well seeing as it was Saturday we made it interesting with a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses.
"Right just take turns?" Mia suggested. She'd laid down the rules, once asked a question you had to answer and if you refused you downed the shot. If you didn't answer honestly enough, in the other persons opinion, you did the shot. I'd probably end up shit faced, not for the first time. We downed two shots each to loosen up before we started.
We started easy, clearly testing the water seeing where this game would go.
"What are you most scared of?" Mia asked me.
"Failure," I admitted.
"Explain, if not you drink."
"I'm scared of being so much of a failure that I accomplish nothing. I'm scared that I'll be so much of a failure that I'll never know what it feels like to have a family surround me and love me unconditionally because that's just beautiful. I'm terrified of failing at this, right now and letting everyone down because I couldn't keep 1327 afloat for two years."
Mia smiled softly and gently at me.
"Right," I said with a grin, "Yeh I like that question what scares you most?"
"Being alone," Mia admitted. "I'm afraid of never falling in love and having the family that I've always dreamed of."
I shook my head. "Girl, you'll never have that problem. There will be plenty of time for boys when you finish school."
"What do you regret doing most?"
"I regret..." I trailed off. "I don't know." I downed the shot. I didn't really have many regrets and many were so insignificant that I didn't dwell on them. To me a regret was something that stuck with you and it haunted you to an extent.
"What do you believe in most?" I asked her. This always gave me a good feel for a person and was an interesting question because few could answer it well.
"Family. Family's always there." She raked her fingers through her hair and I raised an eyebrow prompting her to continue. When she didn't I pushed the shot glass towards her and she drank.
"Worst kiss?"
"That night I kissed Ethan," I admitted.
"Why?"
"Just wasn't pleasant."
"Drink!"
I did as I was told and knocked the shot back and winced slightly at the burn of the raw alcohol before carefully refilling my shot glass. The alcohol sent a warm feeling through me and I felt myself relax.
"First impression of me?"
Mia's face changed and she bit her lip. "Tough girl." She didn't continue and instead downed the shot.
I laughed and passed her the bottle to refill her glass. She hadn't liked me. "You didn't like me?"
She shook her head and a blush crept onto her cheeks. Oh well, I'd obviously done something right. I wondered what it was.
"First impression of me?" Mia's eyes darkened as a mischievous light coloured them. She looked teasing and it was hilarious.
"Barbie doll." I thought how to explain it. "I recall thinking, she likes her makeup, doing her hair properly. She cares about clothes and painting her nails. Vain. Plastic. Maybe spoiled. But I was wrong while you like dolling yourself up you're also warm, compassionate and caring. You're motherly. I didn't realise how much I was going to love you when I met you. Damn it girl you're my sister. You're the better sister too."
Mia flushed again and murmured a thanks.
"What did I do to change that impression?" I asked Mia.
"We had a conversation and you pretended to be interested in the stuff that interested me. I think you talked about moving to the street but when I mentioned dolls you pretended to be interested. You even suffered through a conversation about clothes before I realised you were really interested in cars. When you saw the Mustang parked in the driveway you asked all about it and I couldn't answer a single question for you." She shrugged. "I liked talking to you, it was easy. I didn't need to pretend."
A laugh escaped me as she spoke. The Mustang had begun our friendship, another reason to never sell the damn thing.
"Okay, right first kiss?" I asked her. I decided make the game appeal a little more to Mia.
"James Matthews, I was fourteen," she said with a slightly dreamy look. James Matthews had been quite good looking, blonde hair and dark eyes. He was quite muscular too but only looked for one thing and that was sex. "It was at the winter dance one year."
"Cute, good or not?" I joked. I could act like a girl when I wanted.
"Yeh, really good. He knew what he was doing so he sort of showed me." I could see the colour creeping back into her cheeks but I knew, deep down, she was secretly loving telling me this.
"So..." Mia frowned and thought. "How far have you gone?"
It took a second for me to click what she meant and then I realised what she meant. "All the way." It was my turn to blush.
Mia downed the shot, I assumed in surprise that I'd gone all the way with someone. I was just hoping now she didn't ask with who.
"Who with?" She asked.
"You only get one question."
"Right, best sexual experience or best kiss with details?"
Mia refused to comment and instead downed the shot and another one. Her eyes now looked a little heavy. She was on her way to drunk and we were approaching the giggly stage of being drunk.
"Who did you sleep with?"
I bit my lip, did I answer or refuse to tell her. "Dom."
"No way! What?"
"Yeh, it was just one night. We had a bit to drink and got carried away. Next thing I knew he was carrying me up the stairs and while I knew I shouldn't I did anyways because you only live once."
"But he's my brother. Eww!" Her nose screwed up as my words sunk in but I could tell she was trying not to laugh.
"When did this happen?"
"January. The Sunday night after your Father died."
"The day before he hit Linder," Mia murmured. Her eyes grew watery once more and it hit me this game had been a loaded gun packed with trouble.
"Yeh, we were supposed to go on a date."
Her lips curved into a tight line and her eyes narrowed slightly. She looked drained. "Yous could have been a couple."
"Well, only fourteen months and we'll see what becomes of us." I pretended to shrug it off despite the fact it was part of the reason I worked so damn hard. I wanted 1327 to be as Dom had left it when he returned. I wanted the garage to be there as a business he could just waltz in to and work in, because I knew that would make him happy. I wanted the store to be there so he could manage it. I worked so damn hard so Dom could keep every piece of his Father's legacy.
Mia smiled sadly and reached across and squeezed my hand.
"Right same question?" I asked her.
"I haven't gone all the way." I could hear the honesty in her voice and so I moved along. My fingers were gripping onto the shot glass so I downed it for something to do whilst Mia thought. The vodka was beginning to taste good and I knew I had had too much.
For a bit we giggled and laughed, forgetting all about the game and everything else. Instead we did shots for half an hour and got shit faced. It felt good to forget everything for a couple of hours at least.
We wound up in Mia's room that night. The reason why we decided it would be fun to share a bed was hazy but we toppled into bed fully dressed and without shoes.