Chapter Text
Brian Chapter Sixteen
By Rosa241
Walking into the bar I scan the crowd and smile when I catch his eyes. Walking over to where he's stood with the others I can feel my smile growing. Even after three months with them this still feels so weird.
"Hey!" Wrapping my arms around him he kisses me soundly and pulls me into his side. "What took you two so long?"
"Please we've barely been twenty minutes." Leon protests as he accepts the beer Letty passes him. Leon and I had closed up the shop whilst the others went on ahead. It's strange to think of how normal this has become. Scanning the group I see on of our number missing.
"Where's Rome?" With a grin Letty looks over her left shoulder and, following her eyes, I spy my friend in the corner.
"Your boys about to get turned down again." Romes lack of luck when it comes to picking up women has become almost comical at this point. He's the kind of person who can say exactly the right thing and have people eating out of his hand. However he's also the kind of person who can also very quickly say the wrong thing and get himself slapped in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for Rome the latter is more the way his luck has been running of late.
"Maybe this time he'll actually get a date out it." Watching them it takes less than a minute for her smiling face to turn sour and she walks away from him with purpose. "Then again maybe not."
"How can one guy be so unlucky?" Mia questions as he wanders back over towards us with a kicked puppy look.
"I don't even know what I said! All we were doing was talking about her family." Letty shakes her head as Mia grins and quickly points out the flaws in his plan.
"Wait so let me get this straight, you're talking to a girl, trying to get a date and in order to do that you decide to talk about her family? Why not talk about her? Or I don't know ask her out?" As always Rome shakes his head and utters the infamous words.
"No you see I had a full proof plan." The people around me groan and I can't help laughing. "What? What?" Those words had become somewhat immortal by now. Rome always had a full proof plan which never went the way that he was expecting it to.
Leaning against Vince I can feel the happiness seeping into me. It's only been three months since that day at the race, since the day my fractured world became whole once again, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I can't believe that I ever managed to get along without him for all that time. That whole time we were separated feels like another life time. I felt so alone back then. Having Rome come along helped a lot, he's my best friend and I'll always be grateful for the light he brought back to my life. But Vince is something else.
He's my soul mate.
Being without him just feels like a part of me is missing.
But it's not just Vince.
It's everything, it's everyone.
Letty has become the sister I always wanted. She acts and talks exactly like I always imagined a sister would. She gives me crap and teases me all she wants but she's the only one allowed. If someone outside the family tries then she'll be on them in less than a second. Believe me when I say that she is one girl whose dark side I would absolutely hate to get on.
Dom is the older brother I craved so much growing up. I always wanted someone to look up to. Someone to be there for me and to protect me. I never had that. As strange as it sounds there were so many moments when all I wanted was for someone to place a hand on my shoulder and tell me not to worry. Someone to take over and be the one to deal with it.
Rome was never like that.
Honestly I think that I'm that person for him. To Rome I'm the older brother at times and, as much as I love that, I always felt like there was something missing from the equation. Rome will always be, and always has been, my brother. I could never ask for a better one. Never.
Leon has become a brother as well. Not just to me though but to Rome as well. It's weird but he gets along so easily with everyone that it almost feels like I've known him for a lifetime. Having Rome here helps him as well. It's hard for him. Vince and I have each other, Dom and Letty are together before he had Jessie to bounce off. The two of them had each other when us four were being romantic as Jessie liked to put it. Without him he looked a little lost at times. Then he and Rome started hanging about and now they're pretty good friends. Rome will never replace Jessie but he makes a perfect addition to our little unit.
"Okay. I'm going to head home. It's been a long day." As has been a common theme Mia wastes no time in making her excuses to leave. Until two weeks ago she'd avoided hanging with us completely. Now that she's here she sticks around for a little while before taking her leave. It's hard. On the one hand she's part of the family, I'll never deny that, but on the other hand…
I can feel the tension in Vince's body right up until the moment Mia walks out of the door at which point he relaxes.
"Be nice." I say as he shakes his head.
"She's family but…" He trails off and I can hear the unsaid sentence in my mind.
He'll never forgive her.
Honestly I'm not sure that I will either.
She's family but she hurt us both. A lot. It'll be a long time before that stops being all that goes through my mind when I look at her. As for Vince well…I'm not sure he'll ever see her the same way again.
"I know. I know." For a moment the awkwardness returns but it lasts for only a few seconds before it's over. As soon as it came the shadow leaves and like that normality returns.
Watching them together a feeling comes over me that I craved growing up. A feeling I've come to accept and love these last three months.
"You okay?" Turning to my boyfriend I smile at him before kissing him soundly.
"I'm great. I'm home."