Driller: Dead Ringers MC Book 1

by Deja Voss

Why was Uncle Stoney looking for Vinnie? They’re really good friends. Why would he be wrecking his apartment?

  I light up a cigarette and drive off into the night.

  “Fuck you, Dad,” I mutter.

  I might be going home, but I sure as hell am not going to bed.

  Chapter Five

  Pearl:

  Fun fact: I’ve only been drunk once in my life.

  It was my fourteenth birthday, and I was having a sleepover at the apartment. Supposed to be, at least. The only person who showed up was my friend Riley. Everybody else said they really really wanted to come, but their parents wouldn’t allow them to stay over. Apparently their parents picked up on the fact that I spent a lot of time babysitting myself while my dad was either working in the studio below or out doing who the fuck knows what with his buddies from the local motorcycle club.

  That ten percent of time I got his full attention he was either wasted or passed out, so I guess they weren’t too off on their assessment of lack of adult supervision.

  Riley and I were doing typical sleepover stuff — pigging out on frozen pizza and potato chips dipped in ranch dressing, trying on clothes — all the while the top forty blared from my radio, almost drowning out whatever screaming and heavy metal was going on downstairs in the studio.

  Genie in a Bottle was the most popular song that year, and the way Riley sang along and her sensual dance moves gave Christina Aguilera a run for her money, I knew she was going to be a famous singer someday. We had it all planned out. We were going to move all over the country together in a van. I’d do tattoos out of the back and she’d play at bars every night until she got discovered. No matter which one of us made it big first, we’d always have each other’s back. Best friends for life.

  She was standing on my bed barefoot, doing wild gyrations combined with high kicks, when there was a loud knock on the front door. I pretended like I didn’t notice, as per the usual protocol, and went back to coating my eyelids in glittery green shadow.

  “Ain’t you gonna get that?” she asked, turning down the radio.

  “Hell no,” I replied. “Probably just some asshole from the party downstairs wanting to use dad’s bedroom to fuck. No thank you.”

  “I think you should get it,” she said, pursing her lips and grabbing me by the hand. “Maybe it’s a birthday surprise. Maybe somebody snuck out and came over after all.”

  I highly doubted it. Even on the off chance one of my friends did sneak out and come over, as soon as they walked into my dad’s studio and saw the wild biker party going on downstairs, they probably would’ve turned around and took off running.

  She dragged me out into the living room. The pounding on the door got louder and louder. “You in there, Riley? I don’t got all night!”

  My face turned into a frown the instant I realized who it was. I remember trying to run back into my bedroom, but she wouldn’t let me. I was so pissed. I knew we were getting older, and Riley was totally boy crazy, but this was my birthday, and I didn’t want to mess around with any of that.

  “You invited Brad over?”

  “He was already here,” she said. “That’s his dad’s crew downstairs. I just told him to come up if he got bored.” She batted her eyelashes at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Great. Now I get to spend my birthday all alone trying not to get in the way of you two sucking face.”

  Brad was such a tool. He was that kid who always interrupted class and getting in trouble. He was so immature. His dad and my dad served in Vietnam together, and they were thick as thieves, but that didn’t stop me from pretending like I had no idea who he was when we were in school. I didn’t have to like him; in fact, I hated him.

  Riley, on the other hand, was a ‘sucker for bad boys’ whatever that meant. I’m sure my dad and his friends were all ‘bad boys’ at some point, and I didn’t find any of them even remotely attractive.

  “Don’t worry, Pearl, I promise, he brought something for you, too.” She straightened her shirt and took her hair out of its ponytail, flipping it over her shoulder so it was all full and wild. I stood there with my one green eye shadowed lid, shaking my head in disgust.

  She opened the door and Brad pushed his way in. Following behind him was another guy we went to school with, Donovan. He was a year older than us, and I didn’t know much about him other than he was cousins with Brad and he was a really good football player. He had muscles like a full-grown man, and I knew if any of my other friends caught wind that Brad Fischer was standing in my living room, they’d probably do whatever it took to break out of their parents’ house.

  Brad stood over the coffee table, pulling bottles of beer out of his jean pockets, out of his coat pockets, and my eyes grew wide. I didn’t know how many he had stuffed in there, but watching him unload his haul was actually pretty hilarious. If he wanted beer, all he had to do was go in the refrigerator. My dad knew I had no interest in drinking, or maybe he just plain didn’t care.

  “Heard it’s your birthday,” Brad said. “You ready to get this party started?”

  “Hell yeah!” Riley shouted, licking her lips at him. Donovan stood there with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. He didn’t seem too interested in what was going on. Didn’t seem like he even wanted to be here. He probably had a million better things to do, a hundred much prettier girls to be hanging around with.

  Brad cracked open a bottle of beer and handed it to Riley and she took a sip, then spat it out and made a loud gagging noise. Brad started laughing and I couldn’t help but notice Donovan cracked a smile.

  “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Donovan said. “I don’t think these girls are looking to party, Brad.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Donovan. I’m sorry. I’m not a beer girl. I’m a vodka girl. And it just so happens, I know exactly where to find some.” She put her hands on her hips and stormed into the kitchen. I followed hot on her heels while the guys hung out in the living room.

  “You’re a vodka girl? What the hell does that even mean?” I asked. “Last time I checked you never drank anything in your life.”

  “How bad can it be? People mix it with water don’t they?” she asked. “Come on, Pearl, loosen up!!” She pulled my dad’s vodka out of the freezer and grabbed two glasses from the cabinet.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  I looked over my shoulder and watched as the guys made themselves comfortable back in the living room. Both of them had a beer in their hand.

  “What are you guys doing in there?” Brad shouted, “If you’re comparing titty sizes I’ll be a judge!”

  Riley laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her entire life while I tried to pry my eyeballs out from the back of my skull. I didn’t know how to show her what a loser this kid was. I didn’t want her to find out the hard way.

  She tipped back her glass of vodka and started to gag worse than when she tried the beer.

  “Even my dad mixes it with orange juice,” I said, handing her the gallon from the fridge.

  She filled her glass the rest of the way up and took a little sip. “Not too bad,” she said, offering me the glass.

  “No thanks.”

  “Are you mad or something?” she asked, like she just then realized how completely uncomfortable I was with the situation. “Oh my God, Pearl, am I ruining your birthday? This is supposed to be your day. I feel like such an asshole.”

  I shook my head and waved her off like it was nothing.

  I remember thinking about how it wasn’t her fault I didn’t really have any interest in the same things other girls my age did. I didn’t really have a normal childhood, so I clung to my innocence to the best of my ability. I worried that if I wasn’t ready to grow up and move on, I’d surely lose my best friend.

  “Let me get a sip of that,” I said.

  Her eyes lit up and she took the bottle and poured another drink. “Let’s do a toast! A birthday toast! To growing up and not
giving a fuck! To you and me and world domination, girl!”

  I could barely taste the vodka in my orange juice. I remember feeling a warmth inside my stomach that spread out to my limbs and straight to my brain. We laughed as we chugged down our drinks and then poured fresh ones.

  By the time we joined the guys in the living room, Riley could barely walk and I was sweating through my flannel pajamas.

  She went right over to Brad and sat on his lap. I probably should’ve stopped her there, but I was in no condition to tell her what to do. I flopped down on the couch and started cracking up.

  Donovan looked nervous as he sipped his beer and cracked open another.

  “Can I have one of those?” I asked. If two glasses of vodka made me feel this happy, I was certain a few beers on top of it would only make it better.

  “You don’t normally party, do you, Pearl? You sure you want to do this?”

  “It’s my birthday,” I remember saying. “Can’t a girl just have a beer on her birthday?”

  His smile was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I wasn’t sure if it was the booze or the butterflies in my stomach, but if he wanted to kiss me like Brad was kissing Riley I wouldn’t have been mad.

  He didn’t, though. Just leaned back into the couch and stared up at the ceiling sipping on his beer. I chugged mine down in two big sips, thinking I definitely was a vodka girl, too. I didn’t gag like Riley did, and a part of me was gloating on the inside over the fact that for once in my life I was more mature than she was about something.

  By this time, her and Brad had disappeared into my dad’s bedroom.

  “You think they’re doing blowjobs in there?” I asked Donovan.

  He raised his eyebrow and laughed a little bit. “Doing blowjobs? I never heard anybody put it like that before.” I didn’t know why he was lying to me. I could list three of my classmates who had done blowjobs with him off the top of my head. At the time I thought maybe he liked me or something. I thought maybe he didn’t want me to think he was some manwhore like everybody else made him out to be. In hindsight I know now he was just making fun of me for being a dumb little girl.

  “What’s wrong with your eye?” he asked after a long silence. I had forgotten I was mid makeover when him and Brad showed up and I reached for my face in horror. My eye didn’t hurt, but I was starting to feel like you could’ve hit me over the head with a hammer and it wouldn’t have hurt. “You got a little…” He touched my eyelid softly with his manly fingers and my skin felt like it was charged with electricity.

  I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel any warmer than I already did, but I blushed from head to toe with his touch.

  “I was trying on a new makeup. What do you think?” My heart was racing so fast, he probably could’ve told me I looked like a damn clown and I would’ve taken it as the best compliment I’d ever received.

  “I think you don’t need that shit,” he said with a shrug.

  “It’s not shit!” I said. “I like it. It makes me feel like a warrior putting on my paint every day.” That gets a chuckle out of him, and I mentally pat myself on the back for being such a clever girl even in my state of drunkenness.

  “So what do you like to do, Pearl? Other than face painting?” he asked, leaning back on the couch. “I don’t see you around after school much. You play any sports? You do any clubs?”

  “I draw.” I slapped my hand over my mouth. Nobody really knew about my drawing except my dad and Riley, and Riley was my best friend so of course she made me feel like I was the best artist in the world. My dad wasn’t afraid to criticize me, but I expected that. He was the best tattoo artist in the state. I took his criticisms and used them to get better. I still couldn’t believe I confessed to the hottest guy in our school about my secret hobby though. I opened another beer and started chugging it down. “Just kidding. This beer must be really strong.”

  “Like your old man? You gonna follow in his footsteps and work at the studio?”

  I couldn’t tell if he looked interested or I was just that drunk, but I shrugged and turned away. My stomach started feeling weird. I probably shouldn’t have eaten all that pizza.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick,” I whispered and took off for the bathroom.

  I wish throwing up all the way down the hallway of the apartment in front of Donovan was the worst part of that night. To be honest, he was actually very sweet. He brought me a glass of water while I laid on the bathroom floor, sweating and praying for the lord to just come and take me away already.

  I don’t know how long he hung around, but when I woke up from my pass out session the hallway was cleaned up of any remnants of my mortifying explosion. I filled my water glass in the kitchen and stumbled to my bedroom, not even sure what time it was, and I didn’t care. My head was absolutely pounding. The beer bottles on the table were gone, and I assumed Brad and Donovan were as well.

  So much for my chance with the hottest guy in the school. I knew there was a reason I didn’t drink, and it wasn’t just because my mouth tasted like burnt hair and kitty litter.

  I swung open my bedroom door and nearly tripped over Riley’s body as I stumbled to my bed. She was snoring loudly, sprawled out in a pile of clothes, and I took a blanket from my bed and covered her. I fell into my bed, and everything still felt like it was spinning around me. I probably should’ve stayed in the bathroom because even though I was certain there was nothing left in my stomach, that water I just drank was working its way up my throat.

  I willed myself to fall asleep, but I awoke to the feeling of an arm wrapped around me.

  Riley was a chronic cuddler, and whenever we had sleepovers I usually had to go sleep on the couch because she’d always manage to end up laying right on top of me while she thrashed around and snored. This didn’t feel like a Riley cuddle, though. I blinked my eye open and the arm wrapping around me was thicker than my thigh.

  “What the fuck!” I screamed when I realized I was pinned to the bed. I turned and looked, and Brad was laying there with this demented grin on his face. “Get the fuck out of here, Brad!” I shouted. “You’re like basically my cousin, you sicko.”

  “That’s not what you were saying earlier,” he said, blowing me a kiss. “You were all about getting me back here in your bed, baby girl.”

  Riley groaned from the floor, and I pushed myself out from underneath him, grabbing my knees to my chest.

  “I said no such thing, Brad,” I whispered. “Now get out of here before you wake up Riley. Go buzz off.”

  “Come on, Pearl. I got a birthday surprise for you.” He grabbed my hand and put it on the crotch of his jeans and I ripped my arm back so fast I nearly flew off the side of the bed.

  “You’re a fucking sicko,” I said. “I don’t want to touch your sad little dick, Brad. Now get out of here.”

  “What’s going on?” Riley asked, her voice husky with sleep. She flipped on the nightstand light and leapt to her feet, recoiling in horror at the sight of me and Brad in bed together. “What are you doing, Pearl?”

  “I’m not doing anything.” I jumped up from the bed and pointed my middle finger right at Brad. “This scumbag thought he could just help himself to whatever he wanted.”

  “Don’t get it twisted, Riley,” Brad said, shaking his head. “This dumb bitch was begging for it. I told her no, but she just wouldn’t stop.”

  “Pearl! You’re supposed to be my best friend!”

  I wrapped my arms around her and she shook me off, her face so red it looked as if I’d just slapped her. She hugged her arms in her hands and stormed over to Brad.

  “Riley, I AM your best friend. Do you really think I’d throw away our friendship for a guy?”

  “Bitches are crazy,” Brad said with a shrug. “You never know when somebody is gonna show their true colors.”

  “Shut your mouth, Bradley!” I insisted. “Riley, come on. I don’t even remember anything from the time I started puking. I was just trying to go to sleep in m
y own bed.”

  “You don’t remember. Boy, that’s low coming from you. If that’s the case, then I don’t remember why I was friends with your loser ass to begin with.”

  Tears stung my face. I knew I was a loser. I didn’t have many friends. I didn’t have much going for me. I wasn’t the smartest or the prettiest, and Riley was the only person in this world who made me feel like anything but a burden. And now, because I was stupid and decided to get drunk, I had hurt her. I was so stupid.

  “Please,” I begged as she haphazardly gathered up her clothes and makeup and stuffed them in her backpack. “Please forgive me, Riley. I didn’t mean to. I swear. No guy would choose me over you. I know that.”

  “That’s why you had to be sneaky about it, didn’t ya?” she hissed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I chased her through the apartment, screaming and pleading for her to come back and talk to me, cursing Brad the entire time. My dad barely stirred from the couch where he was passed out.

  “Well, this was fun, cousin,” Brad said with emphasis as he winked at me.

  I slammed the door in his face.

  In that instant, I realized I had absolutely zero control over what everybody else in the world did.

  I couldn’t help that my dad drank himself into oblivion, or my best friend chose to side with some stupid teenage bad boy. I couldn’t control the fact that people like Brad saw unlocked doors as opportunities.

  The only thing I had control over was me. My actions. My thoughts. My body.

  Putting alcohol into it was just handing my control over. If I hadn’t taken that first sip, none of this would’ve ever happened.

  Riley and Brad dated for a solid three years. They were a lonely three years for me. I guess I could’ve went out and found some new friends, but instead I shut the world out and focused on my art. My grades suffered, my teachers gave up on me, and anyone I was friends with before the fallout just kind of fell out of my life. I was depressed and didn’t even know it; I just figured life was hard and that was the way things were going to be.