Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Beck

A mischievous glint flashed in Misty’s eyes.

“I’ll tell you what, Seǹor Oso, you get up there and show them how it’s done and I’ll tell you whatever you like,” she said with a conniving grin, her eyes dancing with mirth.

“So, that's how it's going to be?”

“I’ll do you one better,” she said standing up. “I’ll go first.” She didn’t even let me agree, as she wound through the tables as someone butchered a Christina Aguilera song. The woman was going to force my hand. Little did she know I could handle it.

She slipped back to the table and batted her lashes at me in a dare. I grumbled, pretending to be annoyed and put in for a song.

When I came back Misty smiled. “Looks like the bear has cojones, alright, I see you, Senor Oso, let's see what you got. Just then they announced Misty and she got up and walked to the stage. When the music started I was surprised as “Unwanted,” by Alanis Morissette, began playing. I rested my chin on my hand and fell into the  haunting sound of Misty’s voice bringing the song to new life. To say I was stunned, would be an understatement. She came off the stage with a round of applause, and I looked at her as she sat across from me.

“What?” she asked.

“You can sing?”

She shrugged. “Adelaide and I started doing karaoke when I was pregnant with Cricket, it's the best therapy really. When I was little, my parents used to make me sing at church. I guess I should count it as a blessing, because now I don't embarrass myself. Now come on, you owe me.”

I cleared my throat having already decided what to tell her when she walked away to sing. “When I was about eight, I got it into my head to jump my bike off a ramp way too high that I had instructed the neighborhood kids to build. I wanted to fly, but that wasn’t the problem. I stuck the landing just as ole Mrs Johnston, who could barely see over the dash, came around the corner, and I couldn’t stop. I went head over ass over her hood and she ran over my bike. I broke my arm in three places and my bear wasn’t fully with me yet so I was in a cast for weeks. I dented her hood and my mom made me, cast and all, do Mrs. Johnston’s yard work for a year as payment. She was a particular woman and sat on her porch hollering at me about every leaf I missed raking up or how to prune her roses. Let's just say I never tried to hit a ramp again.”

Misty chuckled, her eyes bright as she imagined it. “Now that's hardcore consequences.” She laughed as I was called up. She was sipping the last of her drink through her straw, giving me a ‘Let’s see what you got ,Mr bear,’ look when she sucked up the last of it and frowned at her drink. On my way up to the stage I waved down our waiter and asked her to give her a refill. As I got on stage I decided to pretend I was back in the band I was in when I was in high school and pretend I wasn’t in a bar with a girl almost half my age playing karaoke dare as a way to get to know each other. Metallica “Fade to Black, streamed through the speakers around me and I let my mind fall into the rifts of the intro. A few whoops lit up across the crowd and I let my voice go. It came out much deeper and more gravely than it had in my youth. However, I felt it added to the movement of the song as I worked through it. When it was over the crowd applauded, but I was only looking at Misty who stood making a big scene of hooting and hollering. I felt lighter just then. It was the first time in a long time that I experienced a little niggle of joy, of actually living. She had pulled this crusty old bear out of his cave. And so the evening went on. We ate and sang and learned more about each other for a few hours before Misty insisted, a little bit tipsy as she finished her fifth drink that she wanted to go get Cricket. I on the other hand only had two whiskeys that I had casually sipped, knowing I needed to drive. I was carrying precious cargo, I never drank outside of my limitations.

We collected Cricket and Mrs. Gonzalez gave me a warm smile as Cricket bombarded Misty with telling her all the things they had done. She seemed relaxed though, not the tightly wound ball of stress she usually was. Valentina patted my arm before taking her leave and we went back to the apartment. Misty got Cricket ready for bed and tucked her in. I was putting their helmets into the closet by the front door when I heard her come back down the hall. I looked up as I shut the door.

“Thanks for tonight, it was nice,” she said with a small smile.

“It was, wasn’t it,” I agreed.

“Yeah,” she said quietly before striding over to the computer and sitting down. I pulled up a kitchen chair next to her.

“Ya know, I never would have guessed a big, tough, burley biker like you would have the guts to sing karaoke. Most guys I’ve known are too cool to even think about it.”

“Well, I’m not most guys,” I told her.

She peered at me over my shoulder, glanced me up and down and smirked. “I suppose you aren’t. There was a bit of heat in her gaze but I just chalked it up to the alcohol. She turned back to the computer and began clicking keys and checking hidden tabs she had running.

“So you know my story with the singing, what's yours?" she asked.

“Garage band, we thought we would make it big one day. We all got older, went our separate ways. I met Alley at one of our shows and well, you basically know the rest,” I told her.

“When do you start living for yourself though?”

“I don’t know, I suppose for a long time I considered I was done living when Alley passed.”

“And now?”

“I don’t know if I know how too. Living on the road and doing what I do is the only way I know how to keep going. It’s the only purpose I’ve had to put one foot in front of the other.”

“But it doesn't make you happy, it doesn’t fulfill you. Don’t you think if she loved you, she would want that for you?” Misty asked.

“I can’t say I’ve thought about it. It’s hard to forgive yourself after something like that,” I let her know.

“Not that what I think matters, but I’ve had to forgive myself a lot over the years, I have to do it everyday because, well, I’m a far from perfect mother and add in all the other shit and I can’t keep my head above water most days. I can’t imagine how hard it is to live still drowning in guilt like that. Maybe try, so happiness, even a little of it, can find you,” she suggested. She didn’t look at me as she spoke. Clearly letting those words be taken as I liked. Maybe she was right.

“Ya know, I think given the hand you’re dealt, you're not doing so bad at the mom thing Misty. That little girl is blessed to have you,” I said.

She smiled and glanced over at me. “I miss Ads, she keeps my head above water, but I have to say, you're a great substitute,” she pointed out.

I chuckled and Misty got up to go to bed. She paused just before the hallway. Her eyes ran over me before she sighed.

“Good night, Beck,” she said and I watched her trail down the hall. She had gotten more out of me in a few hours than I had given anyone, even people I had known for years. Was this being ‘friends’? Had she won me over that much already?

I kicked my boots off and tucked myself in on the couch only to be woken by the sounds of a bike at three in the morning. I crept, staying in the shadows, to the window that overlooked the fire escape and the parking below. There he was, leaning down by Misty’s car near the rear wheel well. He straightened and looked over at my bike, pulling his phone out and snapping a picture before typing away as he went over to his own bike, pulled something out of the bag strapped there and crouched next to the bike. Fucking idiots, placing trackers on our vehicles as if I wouldn’t hear them coming. He took his dick out and peed on the wheel of Misty’s car; marking it as if he was staking a claim. He left after that. I let him go, not wanting to confront him if he had others around and they could slip in after the girls. It was time to tighten up security. They just poked the wrong bear.