Loving the Buster//Brian O'Conner

Two

Tonight is a race night. We pull up to where everyone is meeting for the race. It's a large parking lot near a few abandoned buildings. Dom parks his car followed by the rest of us. I get out of my car and spot Dom with two fake blondes. I smile at Letty.

"Ready for some fun?" I ask.

"Oh, you did?" Dom sits on the hood of a car. "Of course you did. Monica."

Letty walks over towards Dom and the girls. "I smell..." She pretends to sniff the air "Skanks. Why don't you girls pack it up, before I leave tread marks on your face?"

"Okay," one of the girls says before they both walk away.

"I was just talkin'," Dom insists.

Letty rolls her eyes. "Yeah. Whatever."

I smile as I see a hideous orange car pull up towards us. My brother Jason steps out.

"Thought you were gonna miss it," I tease.

"Some of us have to work," Jason states.

"I can only imagine," I joke.

"Okay, Hector," Dom says as he points to the guy.

Hector walks towards us. "Yeah? What's up, man?"

"Yo. What's up?" Edwin greets.

"Edwin," Dom says as they do a handshake.

"How we doin' this tonight?" Edwin asks.

"One race. Two-g buy-in. Winner takes all," Dom explains. "Hector, you're going to hold the cash."

"Why Hector?" Danny, another racer, asks.

"He's too slow to make away with the money, man," Edwin taunts.

Hector pretends to laugh as others mock him.

"Okay. Good luck, guys," Dom tells Edwin and Danny.

"Hey, wait. Hold up." It's Brian. "I don't have any cash, but I do have the pink slip to my car."

"Hey, you just can't climb in the ring with Ali, 'cause you think you box," Jesse tells him.

"He knows I can box." Brian points to a very pissed off Vince. "So check it out. It's like this. I lose, the winner takes my car, clean and clear. But if I win, I take the cash, and I take the respect."

Dom laughs. "Respect."

"To some people, that's more important," Brian tells him.

Dom gestures to a green 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. "That your car?"

Brian lifts the hood so Jesse can take a look.

"I see a cool air intake. It's got a NOS fogger system and a T4 turbo, Dominic," Jesse tells him. "I see an AIC controller. It has direct port nitrous injection."

"Yeah. And a stand-alone fuel management system," Dom says. "Not a bad way to spend $10,000."

"You see that shit?" Edwin asks. "He's got enough NOS in there to blow himself up. Period."

"So, what do you say? Am I worthy?" Brian asks.

"We don't know yet." Dom smiles. "But you're in. Let's go."

"All right."

"Let's go!"

Everyone gets in their cars to get ready for the race. There's no way they're racing here in a parking lot. The streets of LA are the racetrack. We got people set up at cross streets to block the traffic. Everyone else is lined up along the starting line that two girls created with spray paint. I stand and watch with Mia and Letty.