Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rewrite)

Chapter 18: When Funday Comes

As Vic woke up the next morning, he stretched and yawned as he got out of bed. He washed up in the bathroom, got dressed, and ate breakfast. As he stepped outside, Vic then heard his pager buzzing again and took it off his belt to read the message. It was from Louise.

"Drop by, if you get time..." the message read.

Vic sighed. Louise was such a beautiful woman who was in an abusive relationship for Lord knows how long, and she seemed very miserable in her sister's apartment. So Vic decided to meet Louise there.

Vic made his way to the apartment building in Little Haiti Louise moved inside of after yesterday. Louise had given Vic the number of the apartment, which was 21. So Vic walked into the building and saw that there were a row of doors inside and an elevator and set of stairs as well. The doors came in single digits. So Louise must have been on the third floor.

Vic decided to take the elevator to the third floor and made it to the hallway, where he found doors 20-29 through the hallways. He finally approached door #21 and knocked loudly.

"Come in!" Louise called from inside.

Vic turned the knob and opened the door to find Louise sitting on the red sofa feeding Mary-Beth her bottle. Inside, there was also a red armchair right next to the sofa, a small kitchen, and the wall with the door was green with chartreuse stripes.

"Hey, Louise," Vic greeted Louise.

"Hey Vic," Louise greeted back, facing Vic. "How are you?"

"Getting better," Vic answered, walking up to Louise.

"Well alright," Louise replied.

Vic looked at the baby and gave it a love tap.

"Hey there," Vic told Mary-Beth softly as he made a slight chuckle.

"You deserve good things, honey," Louise told Vic.

"Eh, maybe," Vic replied hesitantly.

"Better than this shit," Louise grumbled.

"Hey, come on," Vic said as he took a seat adjacent to Louise. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... everything... It's bullshit," Louise stammered, wearing a despondent look on her face, on the verge to break out in tears. "I'm a... I'm a fucking mess. Didn't finish high school. Got a kid by a god damn prick. Living on my sister's couch. No hope."

Vic was starting to feel a little sorry for Louise. She just didn't seem to have an optimistic bone in her pale body, and by the looks of it, it seemed to Vic that Louise was even contemplating suicide. So he had to say something to cheer her up.

"Come on, you're just going through a bad time right now," Vic coaxed. "Things'll improve. You'll see."

"Show me a way out," Louise said as her voice began to crack. "Just show me a fucking way out."

"I don't know..." Vic shrugged, trying to think of what else to say. "Look at it this way. I've been kicked out of the military, thanks to some flippant sergeant who never takes his job seriously, I try to get a job at the catering truck and airport, only to get that ambushed by some Mexican gang during both of them. Now I'm working with jerks, robbing people, all to pay for my brother's medical bills, while my mother freebases half the money I send anyhow. I am not one to ask for advice."

This somewhat cheered up Louise as she chuckled slightly. "Look at us," she declared. "What a pair!"

"Pathetic, huh?" Vic laughed.

"Worse than pathetic," Louise replied.

Before they knew it, the two were laughing together. Vic's former math teacher in middle had always told him and the other students that a negative number times a negative number equals a positive. In this case, Vic and Louise were seeing positivity thanks to their negative traits as well.

"Hey, you wanna go out?" Vic asked Louise. "Maybe... get some fresh air? Have some fun?"

"Sure, sounds good," Louise agreed. "Say, Phil said there was a quad bike race at the trailer park."

"There you go!" Vic cheered as he hopped out of his seat. "Hey, great. Quad bikes and moonshine... Let's go."

Louise rose out of her seat as well as Mary-Beth started fussing. Louise stored the now-serene baby into her crib in the other room. Mary-Jo was asleep in the bedroom next to it, meaning Mary-Beth wouldn't be disturbed and was currently fallen asleep.

Vic and Louise then took a stroll outside. It was nice outside. The sun had barely risen in the sky, and the sunlight bounced off the palm trees.

"It is beautiful out here," Louise told Vic during the stroll.

"Yeah," Vic agreed. "Too bad the peace out here won't last though."

"Eh, things happened," Louise shrugged.

"Will the baby be okay back at your sister's?" Vic asked Louise.

"Sure," Louise answered. "She'll be just fine. I'm looking forward to having me some fun."

Vic decided not to worry. At least Mary-Beth wasn't alone with Marty, that was for sure. The two didn't say a word as they strolled through the city. it was a lovely morning to walk after all.

The stroll lasted for a good 10-12 minutes until they finally made it to the trailer park. After a while, Vic, Louise, and two more guys were each on their own quads, preparing to race each other.

"Good luck Vic... you'll need it!" Louise bragged smugly.

The race then began, and everyone began to race. Vic was still trying to get used to riding a quad since it was the only vehicle he had never driven on before.

The race had the racers drive straight out of the trailer park, around the ares across the street from the airport, and back around the trailer park. It was also two laps as well.

Vic and Louise were neck and neck of each other during the race since Louise was a much better quad racer than Vic due to experience.

"Oh, Yeah!" she cheered as she zoomed past Vic once the two rode back to the trailer park where they started.

Louise passed through the starting mark, finishing the first lap. "C'mon Vic!" she called. "Act like a man!"

So Vic went as fast as he could with the quad and attempted to zoom past Louise. He went around through the dirt surface and made his way back to the starting checkpoint of the trailer park. Louise came in a close second.

After the race, Louise felt so satisfied. "That was great!" she cheered as she hopped out of her quad. "I had the best time!"

"Glad to hear it, Louise," Vic replied. "Look... er, I'm a little worried about your baby."

"Oh, Mary-Beth?" Louise asked. "She'll be fine... but maybe I'd better get back."

She turned to leave. "Wait up," Vic called. "I'll take you."

"That's okay," Louise told him, and she continued walking. "Will you call on me sometime Vic Vance?"

"Uh, sure," Vic answered awkwardly. "Just be careful out there, Louise!"

Vic watched as she walked away, and he let out a satisfying sigh. He was glad to cheer Louise up and make her feel more optimistic somehow. At this point, he was wondering if this would be his chance to form a relationship with her.