Chapter One
I wasn’t exactly Miss Goodie Fucking Two Shoes. It was more like Miss Wild and Reckless. Highschool suspensions became a norm and it never even phased me. Mom said I carried a big heart, but a hard as hell shell. She tried hard to be patient and deal with my wild antics but I guess everyone has their boiling point. She didn’t want me back after all the trouble I got into on my last year of high school. Looking back, I can’t really blame her; it was a miracle they let me graduate.
She put up with me for another year and then she shipped me off to live in Altanta with Dad. Dad? It was so weird to call him that. I hadn’t seen him in almost a decade, and he was practically a complete stranger until the day I was loaded onto a bus and sent to live with him. It wasn’t the best parenting decision on my mom’s part but she didn’t know what else to do with me.
Soon after moving ship, I dropped the name dad and referred to him by his first name, Mike. Mike preferred it that way. He said dad made him feel old. He was crude and I was pretty sure he was involved in some illegal shit, but he was never home so I didn’t know the details. I preferred it that way.
I’d been here for about two years now and the relationship between the two of us hadn’t gotten any better. We were still estranged since we spent little to no time together, though I learned to expect nothing less from him. He proved to be the type of guy who didn’t care about anyone but himself. It was better that way though; at least he never got my hopes up anymore.
Mom sent me to live with him to show me that life could be worse. She wanted me to experience the hard life my father lived and she expected I would call her crying and begging her to take me back, but that little plan backfired. Here I am two years later. My family situation may be far from the Brady Bunch, but atleast I liked it here. To be honest, I liked my freedom here and I was too stubborn to go back. I had freedom like I’d never had with my mother. Mom could be a real hard ass. She became tougher as I reached the age of maturity and I assumed it was because she was afraid of losing another person in her life. I loved her with every fiber of my being but we never seemed to get passed our screwed up communication. We were two stubborn women under one roof and it was a bad combination.
I missed her everyday. If only I could tell her that.
I’m just a few months from my 21st birthday now. Mike managed to remember all my birthdays, leaving me a cupcake on the dining room table and a weird gift I never really understood. Alteast he tried when it came to my birthdays, even if it was half ass.
He had a habit of buying me presents that I’d never use. For the longest time it was nail polish, all kinds of nail polish, mostly in baby blues and pinks; colors I would never dream of wearing. He finally got the hint at some point and he bought me black. Now it was black everything, which I didn’t really mind.
I rolled onto my stomach and glanced down at the hard wood floor, running my hand over it for a moment, almost wincing at the heat that emanated from it. I liked the south, but I didn’t like the heat. Not one bit.
The sun was high in the sky now, and I figured I ought to get out of bed. I was up all night cramming for finals the night before and luckily didn’t have to be to work today but that wasn’t an excuse for me to lay in bed. I changed into black skirt and a shirt that I got at some concert I could barely remember. I threw on some boots and then I placed a black beanie over my blonde hair.
Just as I was grabbing a Pop-Tart from the sparse pantry my phone began to buzz. I pulled it out of my back pocket and answered without looking at the screen.
“Yo,” I gave my standard greeting.
“Alex?”
“Hey Gina! What’s up girl?”
Gina was my best friend. A Southern girl through and through with a kick-ass punk attitude. I loved her dearly. Being around Gine made this heat almost bearable.
“Are you working today?” she asked.
“No ma’am. I actually just got out of bed,” I hummed, popping my breakfast into the toaster. “Why?”
“There’s a big biker rally this weekend! People are coming from everywhere, even as far as Nashville. How fucking rad is that?”
“A biker rally? What would be so fun about a biker rally?” I grumbled.
I had an aversion to bikers as it were. In my mind bikers represented a community of bad news. They were dangerous, unpredictable, and had no redeeming qualities as far as I could see. I had goals of paying my way through college and graduating on time. That meant going to community college at night and working full, so I wasn’t stupid enough to get tangled with bikers. Not like my mom in her wild years. She ending up regretting every minute of it and that made a lasting impression in my life.
“Don’t be such a baby, Alex. It’ll be fun,” Gina whined.
“I don’t think so.”
“God, you’re such a downer. Fine, let’s go grab lunch and hit up some bars? That sounded like a better idea. I could use a break.
I grabbed the Pop Tart as it popped from the toaster and stuffed it in my mouth. “Where are we going to meet?”
“Did you really just ask me that?” she drawled.
“Majestic?”
“Duh. I want a milkshake. See you soon boo.”
I chuckled and hung up the phone, tucking it away in my pocket. Let’s see where this takes us.