The next morning, I woke to a cold and lonely atmosphere. My baby girl is still not back. I drag myself out of bed and shower. When I came out of the bathroom, I noticed a Manila envelope on her bedside table, with her name Loyalty A. Hart printed on it. I opened the envelope to find medical documents, a referral to an OBGYN, and three sonogram images. I’m not really sure what I’m looking at in them, and I’m sure she would tell me if she were here… But she’s not! I stuff everything back into the envelope and toss the envelope on top of the dresser before continuing to get dressed. Everyone avoided eye contact with me this morning since they all heard our explosive argument last night. It's one of the downsides of living with so many people. But since there are whole rooms that serve as a buffer between me and the rest of the crew, no one really knows why I'm fighting with Loyalty right now. “Don’t worry”, says Brenda. “She’ll be back! She loves you”! I don’t say anything because, at
~GABE~ It’s still early in the morning, and I’m tinkering near the garage on the ATV before the Summer heat sets in, trying to find ways to increase the torque so I can keep up with Lala on it. I hear my brother stumbling around in the hallway, and I feel like he’s just been drunk for days since she left. He’s starting to remind me of our old man, so I’m just hoping Lala comes to her senses soon before he drinks himself into an early grave. As much as their relationship made me sick, having been in love with Lala since seventh grade, she was good for him. She made Spin a better person, and she never looked at me or anyone else the way she looked at him. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I learned to accept it! Spin finally stumbles into the garage from the hallway, slamming things here and there. “What the hell?” I yell at him as he continues to just toss shit around with no rhyme or reason. “Gabe, Loyalty just took off on her bike. Go get her for me please, convince her to come b
It’s just another night at the nightclub, fucking Monday nights in the Summer are the worst! Tonight I have Courtney instead of Melanie upstairs in my apartment with Stephany, since I know Simon is conducting some business here this evening. I want things to go smoothly and, ever since she’s turned twenty-one, sometimes she’s a little too careless at the bar because she is so easily distracted by the male patrons! I saw Simon waving, so I knew his meeting was about to begin and I turned my focus to maintaining the crowd around him. That’s when three dumb fucks start a fight, right in front of the bar, breaking five glasses as they crash to the ground together. I grab the card off the bartop that belongs to one of them and hand it to Melanie. “Charge this for a case of new glasses”, I tell her before tapping Bo’s shoulder. He lifts me effortlessly onto the bar where I stomp my foot and kick the broken glass to the ground before yelling, “hey break it up asshats”! The guys are stunned
I’m meeting this guy Sy from another bike club to organize a truce, since the police have really been cracking down and harassing the local bike crews. I have so many other legal issues I’m dealing with, I don’t need this too. It just feels like the right thing to do, since we all need each other right now, power in numbers and shit! I walk into the nightclub that’s very out of my element as the popish R&B music blasts through the place! Sy sits at a table close to the bar where the music isn’t so loud that we can’t hear each other. “Spin”, he calls out to me like I didn’t see his fat ugly ass, looking like a penguin as he's dressed in a suit in the middle of a club! He extends his hand out for me to shake. “Hey, what is this place?” I asked him as I shook his hand, since he too looks out of his element here. “It’s just an off-the-grid establishment I invested in since the owner wishes to stay anonymous”, he says. “Beautiful young smart girl, her dad is a persona
I woke up in a much better mood, in the arms of my best friend Charlene. Plus, it’s my favorite club-themed night, karaoke! Tonight, Courtney is at the bar while Melanie sits upstairs with Stephany. The sign-up sheet goes out to the staff first, and the first few acts are always us. Alina, a new bar girl, signs up to be the first act. Lord forgive me, but I hope she never does again… I’m not a fan of Melissa Etheridge, to begin with, but my ears are bleeding by the time she’s done. Jonny thankfully takes the stage next, always singing some boy band pop song that makes Charlene tease me about how he is trying to send me a message! Tonight it’s David Archuleta’s song ‘Crush’. “My gawd girl”, she says. “You need to jump his bones already and put that poor man out of his misery”! “Jesus Char, it’s just a song”, I tell her as I bury my face in my hand with embarrassment. “Besides, what goes in and out of my vagina is not up for discussion”. There is a loud cough from
I’m paying the twenty-five dollar entrance fee into a nightclub owned by my own damn wife, just to fucking see her because it’s clearly the only way to get close enough to talk. As I walked in, the set-up of the place had been transformed for some kind of karaoke night. The girl at the door who wasn’t here last night says that it’s a fairly slow night, and to keep up with compliance laws, every first Tuesday and third Thursday the club is transformed into a karaoke bar! She hands me a paper to sign up if I want a shot at the mic, which I’m not interested in. What catches my attention is Loyalty has herself signed up under her pseudonym Amory Williams. She’s the third act. Some girl is on stage now completely destroying some Melissa Etheridge song, and I wish I had bought headphones or earbuds or something. Her turn finally ends as the big guy Loyalty slid down off the bar yesterday takes the stage. Jonny Knight the sign-up sheet said his name is. Loyalty sits tw
I rise early to find Jonny asleep on my couch, and Stephany is asleep on his chest. Fucking guy stayed all night to comfort my daughter! I sit across from him and stare at them until Jonny finally wakes up. “Mi Amor”, (my love) he says when he sees me sitting there. “What’s wrong, Amory”? “I’m tired of hiding”, I tell him. “This was never me”, I say as I point at my hair. “I did this to hide the fact that Gabby’s hair color was from her father and not me! I need to be me again”! “Okay”, he says as he cradles Stephany so he can sit up. “What’s your next move”? “I get my look back and then I get comfortable being on my bike again”, I tell him. “You’re seriously going to go through with racing him?”, he asks. “I don’t have a choice! If I don’t, he’ll be here every day, he’s relentless. What happens when Gabby has to go to the doctor and we need to take her outside? Or when she starts school, and I have to wait for the bus with her? If I don’t shake him now
I’ve been at this damn club every night this past week, and I’m still no closer to getting Loyalty to talk to me. She’s got a lot of people on her payroll since tonight is Saturday and she is not even here, but I don’t recognize any of her staff present. The staff is easy to distinguish since they all wear crisp white short-sleeve button-down shirts, black bow ties, and black shorts. I see Charlene by the bar, so I turn back into the smorgasbord of bodies and grab a young and ditzy-looking waitress as she goes by. “Hey, do you need a drink sir?”, she asks me all flirty. I pulled her close and told her, “among other things. Can you tell me how I can reach the owner”? “She’s usually in her office upstairs. She doesn’t work in the club on weekends. If she’s not in the office, she’s in her apartment right next door! The door is always unlocked, so if she doesn’t answer when you knock, open the door and yell for her”, she tells me with a wink. “Her name is Amory Willi