Title: Damage Done
Author: Carla
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rating: 13+ for language
Summary: Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye. Bon Jovi "You Give Love a Bad Name"
Mia curls her legs under her. She’s sitting in the passenger seat, and there are tools on the floorboard in front of her, so many she can’t put her feet down without stepping on them. She smoothes a paper across her legs; the edges are worn from her fiddling with it and the creases sharp where she’s folded it and unfolded it and folded it again.
“Fucking hell,” Letty curses next to her, and Mia presses herself closer to the door.
“What happened?” she asks, but she already knows. Letty refuses to read the instructions Mia’s holding, says she should know which wire goes where - says it like that, know, like it’s information that should be coded into her freaking genes - and she’ll get it and she doesn’t need no help.
“Goddamn mother fucking thing shocked me.”
Mia crosses herself automatically. Letty might have, once, when they were kids, but not anymore. Now blasphemy drips from her lips practically with every breath because she thinks - well, Mia’s not sure. That it makes her look tough. That it makes her more one of the guys.
She doesn’t want Letty to be one of the guys. She likes Letty just the way she is.
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Mia liking her isn’t enough. She’s not the Toretto whose approval Letty wants.
She shifts in her seat. Her knee bumps against Letty’s thigh. It would be an easy thing to reach over, put her hand on Letty’s bare leg - she’s wearing shorts, because it’s boiling in the garage, even with the door open - kiss the side of her neck.
She could do these things and it would be easy but the fallout - that would be hell.
#
It’s the Fourth of July and Letty’s drunk and Mia’s probably drunk too, but she doesn’t feel drunk, she just feels good, wobbly and a little light headed and hot - god, and she crosses herself, why is it so hot? It’s three a.m. and she’s sitting on the back steps and the sun set hours ago, but there’s no breeze and the air is still and heavy. Her shirt sticks to her back, and her jeans are rubbing her thighs wrong, and she’s really uncomfortable, but she still feels good.
Letty plops down next to her. She’s got a big glass of something cold, and when she hands it over, it’s sweet and heavy with alcohol. For awhile, earlier, all Letty would drink was beer, showing off how well she can handle it, how great it tastes, how much she’s like the guys.
“You’re better than them,” Mia hears herself say. She takes another gulp, and it’s so sweet and cold it burns her throat.
“Who?”
“The guys,” Mia murmurs. She’s careful not to say her brother’s name. “Vince and,” but that’s as far as she gets before Letty kisses her. Her lips are wet, and her tongue feels too big when she thrusts it into Mia’s mouth. She’s not a great kisser, sloppy, or maybe that’s all the alcohol, but Mia grabs the back of her neck and pulls her closer.
She’s practically crawling into her lap when she dumps the drink all over them both.
Letty splutters and shoves her off. Mia lands hard, cracks her elbows against the concrete steps, but she’s so far gone - drunk on alcohol, or maybe Letty’s kiss - that she doesn’t really feel it.
It’s not until Letty’s gone and Mia’s alone, sticky as well as hot, that she realizes she’s bleeding and it’s smeared on her favorite shirt.
Her chest hurts, and maybe that’s from drinking, but maybe not.
#
Letty’s sixteen, and driving, and she’s got her car rebuilt, and that stupid stereo installed.
“Wanna go for a ride?” she asks, and Mia catches her breath.
Dom shrugs, insolent, and hauls himself to his feet. He’s drinking a beer, sitting in front of the tv with the guys, but he drains the bottle dry, and hands it to Mia as he walks past. She wraps her fingers around it, and squeezes so hard she’s afraid it’s going to break and shred her skin.
When they get back - and it’s hours later, almost dark - Dom’s got his arm draped across Letty’s shoulders, and Letty’s got this strut in her walk, this swing of her hips, and it breaks Mia’s heart.
She goes and she does her homework, because that’s one thing Dom will never, ever get.
End