Driving in Heartbreak City
A/N: I wrote this story just see how it would pan out. I watched Drive the other day and I thought it was a great movie. I also thought that Leo could fit Ryan Gosling's "The Driver" character perfectly, especially if he were heartbroken. It's not exactly like Drive, but it runs kind of close to its plotline. Here's the full summary:
When Reyna decides to break off her too-close-for-comfort relationship with him, Leo Valdez decides to go work at an auto shop in San Francisco in his free time to keep his mind off of her. However, when Mitch, the owner of the shop and fellow son of Hephaestus, sees how well Leo can drive a car, he gets Leo what he needs to drive the tricked out Mustang Leo built for himself. Mitch then recruits Leo as and errand boy and chauffeur for his clients. Leo loves to drive until he notices how much more dangerous the jobs from Mitch are becoming, and how Mitch seems to put him harm's way. When Leo's tasked to drive a "package" to the bay of San Francisco, he makes the mistake of looking at it-and changing his life forever.
I'm not the best at summaries, but I can tell you that it's pretty good to me. And I just write. Just like how Leo just drives. Please Read and Review!
She had ruined him.
She had embarrassed him in front of everyone.
And she had finally broken his heart.
A 16-year old boy mulled over his current situation as he sat in his 2009 Ford Mustang Shelby GT with all of the trimmings.
He had rebuilt it from scraps himself.
He wore a dark army jacket. He was slightly shorter than most kids his age. His aviator sunglasses covered his brown face and sat under his straight but usually curly black hair, a testament to his Mexican heritage. He wore a black t-shirt under his fatigue jacket, with blue jeans and some beat up sneakers to match. He also wore a tool belt that seemed strangely out of place on his person; it contained several pockets and tools. A hammer that he had pulled out of the belt earlier sat in the black leather passenger seat. A pair of old black and white beat up gloves were on his hands which were resting on the steering wheel.
If you looked in the glove department, you would find a California registration that listed an address in San Francisco where an 18 year old Theo Ramirez lived. His driver's license would be under the same name, its picture showing a boy with slicked back black hair and brown eyes.
But his real name was Leo Valdez.
He was a son of Hephaestus.
A demigod with incendiary powers, a supernatural mechanical green thumb, and outstanding driving skills.
She completely embarrassed me, Leo thought as he waited in the dirt construction lot for his customers. He began to recall that morning's events: when he set his breakfast table on fire as he watched Reyna try to flirt with Jason, who for once, was eating without Piper. She had yelled at him, singled him out in front of the whole cafeteria, and kicked him out of the mess hall.
Leo loved Reyna.
He had loved her from jump-literally. From the time he had jumped off the Argo II and made the girl with the dark brown eyes laugh. From the time he had comforted her when he found her crying in her principia because Jason had chosen Piper instead of her. From the time when she'd let him sleep in her bed so that he could talk her to sleep.
Leo had been so sure about his feelings for Reyna that he had told her one day. She had rejected him completely, telling him how she only thought of him as a friend and how he had to have ruined their great friendship. That was three weeks ago, when Leo first found the Mitch, a former Hephaestus demigod and now successful mechanic in San Francisco. When he had figured out how to sneak out past curfew, just to piss off Reyna.
When he started driving.
Leo didn't really think he would be able to drive. He knew that he could pilot helicopters, etc, and he was sure that he could do the same with a car, but he didn't think he would be so good.
Well, at least good enough to get money for it.
Leo had already figured few things out about his future after the war with the Giants. If the lost, he was dead. If they won, he was a hero for fifteen minutes and then, once the hype's died down, a Fireboy freak. So he figured he's get himself a squirrel fund for when he booked it in a month or so. He needed at least one hundred thousand to do what he wanted to do; find someplace to settle down, maybe find a college for mechanics if there is one, and open a shop just like the one his mother used to work at. And then of course, he needed some money for tools for the Argo II. He bought specialty tools that could only be found in certain shops and factories to soup its engines and defenses. But they were all expensive.
Before Reyna had completely destroyed his hopes and dreams and desires, he had wanted to stay at Camp Jupiter just to be with her. But now all he could do is save up enough to pimp out the Argo and run.
And besides, he loved to drive.
It was the one thing other than fixing stuff that Leo was actually very good at it. He looked cool driving. He felt cool driving. And more importantly, he literally felt the car when he drove. Cars are machines, even after all of the upgrades and customizations, they're still just machines. Which is why Leo could be so in tune with a car the moment he lays his hands on the steering wheel or sits in one of the seats.
It had been Mitch who encouraged him to drive and had gotten him a fake driver's license. He had Leo work on cars to get money before, but after he saw Leo race one his best drivers in his yearly classic car race, he had flipped. For kicks, Mitch had given Leo and old beat up Dodge Challenger to drive. Leo knew it was all just for laughs for the rest of the crew; but he won anyway. He had felt how much gas was in the tank, that the oil was low, that he could only push it to about 120 mph or he'd blow up. And he knew about all of the flaws of his opponent's cars. How Kelly had forgotten to change her brake pads, so if she stopped she would skid out of control; how Alex had added heavy rims to his old blue Stang' that would only slow him down. How Mike's Camaro had such a slow ignition. He knew this without even touching their cars. He knew it just by looking at them from the driver's seat.
And that's why he won.
So, once Mitch had complimented him greatly, he had set Leo up with a few odd driving jobs around town: chauffeuring some of his wealthier customers, driving packages from his shop to his partners around Frisco. It was basically grunt work, but Leo loved driving so much he actually looked forward to it when he snuck out. But, just to make sure Leo didn't get in any major trouble, he and Mitch agreed on a set of rules. There were only four: the first and foremost rule was Leo only drove-nothing more, nothing less. That means they load the pack into his car, or they come to his car to get picked up. Second: no names. Mitch would call the clients beforehand and tell them who was coming and what car they would be in. Thirdly,(this was Leo's), absolutely no illegal activities. That means no drug running, no hostage taking, no bank robbing, nothing. And lastly, no showboating. That means Leo couldn't drive too fast or too wild on jobs that didn't require as such. And even with these rules, Leo still loved to drive. Actually Leo loved just about anything that could keep his mind off of Reyna.
The ticking of a stopwatch alarm pulled Leo back to reality. His current clients, the Beaver couple's, five minutes were up. His job today was to drive them to the airport so that Mr. beaver could catch his 2:30 PM private jet flight and drive to anywhere they requested in between those hours. Leo had showed up at one o'clock at their posh estate, only to find the two thirty-somethings yelling at each other outside the gate. The husband had thrown his suitcase in the back and yelled at Heather (his wife) to get in the backseat. Leo had ignored this and Mr. Beaver's general bad attitude and incredibly stupid surname for one reason: this job was worth ten grand. That's six for the Argo, and four for the bank.
Leo looked at the time. It was 2:10 exactly.
"C'mon, c'mon," he muttered as he peered out of the window toward the small construction trailer the Beavers had gone into five minutes ago. He was parked in a large construction lot that sat on the edge of San Francisco, near a highway that would take them to the airport. Apparently, Beaver had a few papers he needed to pick up from one of his construction projects.
"Come on!" Leo said, swearing violently under his breath and pulling a pack of toothpicks out of tool belt. He chewed nervously on one while he waited for them to come.
It was now 2:13. Just as Leo was about to leave, the door to the trailer opened, and Ms. Beaver ran out. Leo leaned over and opened the door for her, pushing the passenger seat forward so that she could sit in the back. She ran in, frantic and crying a little, with a bundle of paper in her hands.
Not too long after her, Mr. Beaver came out after her, tripping down the trailer stairs with two hands full of papers. He quickly got up and picked up as many papers as he could before running toward the car.
When he was ten feet away, three different cars rolled into the parking lot.
The Jeep wrangler with the open roof had a man with an AK47 sticking out of it. He fired at Beaver as the other cars converged around Leo's Mustang.
"JOHN!" Heather screamed from the backseat.
At least John was fast enough to make it into the car with only a few grazes. He slid into the front seat yelling, "GOOOOO!"
Leo didn't need to be told twice. He slammed hard on the accelerator and cranked up the radio in the same motion. The song that was playing was "A real hero," by College. Normally Leo wasn't into pop, but somehow the techno beat was seriously calming him down. As he accelerated he turned in a full circle to dodge the bullets from Jeep he took the time to check out the other cars he was dealing with. The other two cars were: a huge Chevy Suburban with half a tank of gas, and a brand new Dodge Challenger rocking 400 horsepower and hemi engine.
Damnit this might be close, Leo thought as he pulled the emergency brake and did a full power slide around all his pursuers. That Challenger's engine wasn't too far behind Leo's. He quickly left the parking lot and hit the side streets towards the airport.
"Where the hell are you going? I need to be someplace safe! What the hell are you doing?" Mr. Beaver screamed at Leo from the front seat. Leo kicked up his speed to 90 and checked his rearview to see that the Challenger was still hanging with them and Jeep wasn't too far behind. Almost as if on queue the driver from the Challenger started shooting at Leo's Mustang with an Uzi (small machine gun). Leo pulled another hard right toward the airport and pushed his Stang to 120. The engine roared in his ears as he drove, and the pop on the radio provided and oddly harmonious background to it all.
"Did you hear me? I said I need to be someplace safe! As in where I want to go!" Mr. Beaver yelled again at Leo as he ducked under his seat to dodge the Uzi's bullets. Leo eyed his attackers in the rearview mirror again and saw that Suburban had caught up and the Jeep was only a few yards away from being in firing range.
Leo wasn't going to let them get any closer.
Up ahead he spotted a street, Fifty-Fourth, that sharply turned right. The current street he was on ended at an auto mechanic shop and the only way off was to turn right or left, and right was toward the airport. It was probably half a mile away, which was more than enough time for him to do what he needed to do. Leo shifted from his first to his "special" fifth gear manually, and the Mustang revved from 120 to 150 instantly, leaving most of the other cars in the dust. Except for the Dodge Challenger, which was only a few yard behind Leo. As Leo predicted, the Jeep and Suburban tried to crank it up so they can catch up.
Bad idea.
Leo took his foot off of the pedal and let the car slow back to 135 before he pulled the emergency brake and slid smoothly into the sharp right hand turn. He ignored the screaming from Mr. Beaver's wife and the swearing form her husband as he released the brake and shifted into gear one. Once Leo was sure he was driving safely, he looked at his rearview.
The other cars hadn't fared so easily. The Challenger didn't pulled his brake fast enough, and flipped over trying to turn onto fifty fourth, crashing right through auto shop's front entrance. The Jeep tried desperately to swerve left to avoid the collision but ended up hitting the corner of the apartment building next to body shop and flipping violently into the street.
The suburban was the only car that made it out. It crashed into the Jeep that was lying in the middle of the street, and received a little damage to its front bumper, but was otherwise unharmed. Apparently, its driver decided not to follow Leo. It stayed sitting in the middle of the street.
Seeing that all threats were eliminated, Leo quickly dropped his speed back to 55 mph. Only then did he actually begin to hear what Mr. Beaver was saying.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS? You almost killed me! You almost killed me! And why the hell are we still going to the airport? And why the hell aren't you LISTENING TO ME?"
Leo rolled his eyes under his sunglasses. He was driving at a normal speed of sixty now; he was pretty sure he had lost of his attackers.
"Mr. Beaver, do you love your wife?" Leo asked as he peered at his wife from his rearview mirror. She was actually very pretty; she had long, black curly hair and sun kissed skin with deep brown eyes. The typical California hottie, but with some real beauty.
Mr. Beaver, didn't answer his question. Apparently, his wife was waiting for the yes too, because after the first minute of silence, she slapped him in the back of the head and said, "John! Answer him!"
He rubbed his head and looked back at beginning hesitantly, "Well-"
But it was too late Leo had had enough. He was disgusted with Beaver, and ten k or not, he was going to let him have.
"Ok fine let me rephrase that. Since you care so much about your selfish existence, I would think you'd shut up and let me drive, since I'm the only one who could pull something like that off without getting killed. I also need to remind you of my job: to drive you the airport. From 2:00 to 2:30, I am yours, but if you don't make it to your flight on time, I don't get my money. And if I don't get my money," Leo said as he pulled out a hammer from his tool belt, "People get hurt. Do you understand?"
After saying this he pulled over and looked at Mr. Beaver for the first time since he got in the car. Mr. Beaver was terrified of the brown skinned boy with hammer and green army jacket. Leo knew that the rich scumbag was afraid, but he needed to really make sure that this man stayed afraid.
Fast as whip Leo gripped the man's face with one had and raised the hammer over his head with the other. "Beaver. Look at me. Don't F*** with me. Don't you do it. I will kill you. Do you understand?" The man nodded and squealed. Leo let him go as fast as he had caught him and wiped his hands on his jacket. He started the car up again and continued onto the airport. He could've sworn he saw Mrs. Beaver smiling in his rearview.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at Harry Reed's international private airport with two minutes to spare. Leo parked on the landing strip and admired the plane. Mr. Beaver quickly threw Leo a wad of bill that equaled to about eleven grand. "Keep the change," he said as he hurriedly got out of the car. Mrs. Beaver didn't leave so fast however.
She sat in her seat quietly and when Leo turned to look back at her, she was nervously fiddling with her beautiful hair. The closer Leo looked at her, the more he noticed how young she was; she looked as if she could pass for thirty from a distance, but up close, she couldn't be older than twenty-three.
"Thanks," she said in a strikingly fierce voice.
"For what?"
"For doing what you did. My husband's an asshole. I'll be leaving him soon, after this stunt."
"No problem," Leo said as he pushed up the seat to let her get out. As she got out, she kissed him on the cheek and brushed his lone strand of black hair behind his ear.
"Call me sweetheart. I'm tired of assholes. I need a hero like you," she said as she gave him a card with her number on it. She was halfway out the car when Leo decided to ask the question.
"If you hate him so much, why are you with him?" She shook her head sadly and said, "We ten to love the people who hurt us and hate the people who love us. It's sick, but its true isn't it?" then she slammed the door and walked up the stairs and onto the jet, leaving Leo to think about what she had just said.
It was only 2:35 when he got the call. He had built a custom Bluetooth MP3 player into his Mustang to make sure he never got caught on a cell phone while driving, since it was worth a ticket in California. The phone began ringing, drowning out the music, and when Leo looked at the screen, he knew it was Mitch. He didn't answer. Mitch called again after that. He didn't answer. And finally on the fourth ring of the third call, Leo answered.
"What the Hades kid? I didn't give you a navigation/Bluetooth set so that you could not answer me?" a rough voice growled over the line. It was Mitch alright.
Leo cracked his neck and responded, "What the hell was that Mitch? Three cars just tried to take me out. I though you said I was only driving clean."
"Look kid, I' don't know what the hell that Beaver guy was into, okay. When I fixed up his showy piece of crap Mercedes, I ran him, and I thought he was clean. But you got your ten grand right? Isn't that all that matters?"
"No, money isn't all that matters. We have rules. You're breaking one of my number one rules. I don't have to drive for you if I don't need to. Just remember that I'm just doing you paid favors," Leo said as he reached for the end call button next to the navigation screen.
"Kid, look I'm-" Leo hung up before he could finish. Then he cranked up the radio again, and popped a toothpick in his mouth. More europop again, but Leo didn't mind. This time it was Nightcall by Kavinsky. He only had a few more stops to go, but he took his time. He let the sun hit his hood and glint off onto other cars. He watched the various types of people walk through Frisco through his aviators while he chewed his toothpick.
He was cruising through San Fran in his black Mustang with one red stripe going across the side.
In some ways Frisco was beautiful; it was a blend of old and new, from the electric railcars that still carried passengers to the modern skyscrapers that dominated the downtown area. In others not so much; Leo knew that he saw monsters of myth and man lurking in the city's darker areas, waiting for some poor demigod or mortal to terrorize. He smiled when he passed the Giants stadium. One of the kids from the Hephaestus stadium was a Giant crazy, with hats and Jerseys and a boatload of souvenirs.
I'm giving you a nightcall to tell you how I feel
I'm gonna drive you through the night down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear
Leo gazed out the window at the looming skyscrapers as he listened to Nightcall. He wanted to savor the moments when he was Theo Ramirez. When he was a driver. A badass. When he knew what he was doing.
When he wasn't thinking about Reyna.
There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same.
It hurt to think about her. Leo knew part of it was his fault; he should've known what he was walking into. A sad girl who's boyfriend didn't even remember her. Reyna, the girl who cried her eyes out at night when she was alone. Reyna, the leader of Camp Jupiter.
I'm giving you a nightcall to tell you how I feel
I'm gonna drive you through the night down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear
Leo knew he had to be back at camp by at least five, so he stopped cruising for the moment and maneuvered his way around the somewhat light midday traffic to get to Phil's, a specialty outlet store that sold the tools he needed. It only took him twenty minutes to load up on supplies for the Argo's engines and load them up in his unnaturally large trunk. Then he was off to Camp Jupiter, via New Rome.
There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same. (But you're still the same)
He took the Golden Gate bridge and turned into the hills that safely concealed the camp. In a few more minutes, he had arrived on the backstreets of New Rome, where he parked in a garage that he paid five denarii weekly for. Then he was off to Camp-and back to Reyna.
As he walked to camp, he began to turn back into Leo again. He ran his fingers through his hair so that it would be curly again; he out his aviators back into his coat pocket, revealing his brown eyes. He took the toothpick out of his mouth and opened up his army jacket. He straightened his fashionably slanted tool belt back to its normal position.