My brother has always had a knack for finding trouble. It had been our mother's hope that joining the Army would give him some discipline. Luckily, she died before ever seeing him get arrested as an adult. During the time she was alive he was still in the Army and doing it wasn't for the motorcycle club that he was joining, I would have bailed him out five times since he was discharged. The one time I did bail him out, he paid me back immediately. I had not talked to him in several months before he called me up talking about getting an implant for the testicle he lost in Iraq. It was enough to spoil my appetite and get me down from Seattle.
I pulled into his driveway and shook my legs out before stretching my back. His truck was in the driveway but the house seemed empty. Normally he would have already come outside if he were home. To be sure, I knocked on the front door several times. When there was no answer, I used my phone to search for the address of the garage he worked for. The map showed it was less than 10 minutes away, so I put my phone back in my jacket and pulled on my helmet.
The garage wasn't hard to find. When I pulled in, there was a line of motorcycles on the left and several cars parked on the right in front of a chain linked fence. My bike didn't belong beside all the choppers and Harley Davidsons, so I opted to park next to one of the cars instead. The cat calls started as soon as I took my helmet off. I rolled my eyes as I swung my leg off the bike. Cat calls were nothing new, I had started riding motorcycles when I was fifteen and men were still surprised to see a woman ride a bike by herself. My keys even had a fabric key tag that read, "I don't ride bitch". Kip had given the tag to me for Christmas several years ago.
"Kat! What are you doing here?" Kip asked, jogging out of the garage. I gave him a tight hug before stepping back and looking him over. He had some bruising on his cheekbone but otherwise looked healthy. His hair was all over the place but that had been the case since we were toddlers.
"You texted me about getting a surgery on your junk, Kip. You think I wouldn't come down here to talk you out of it?" I shook my head as if to say he should have known better. He sighed as several other men walked up. I looked around, feeling confined.
"Aren't you going to introduce us, Sack?" A man with sunglasses and wild black hair asked. I resisted the urge to scoff at the nick name he had gotten. Kip had told me about it before and he was fine with it, I just hated the idea of it. He looked nervous as he looked around the group.
"Uh, this is my twin sister Katerina." He paused and rubbed the back of his neck. "Kat, this is Tig, Chibs and Juice." By the names I assumed they weren't just mechanics but part of the motorcycle club as well. I raised my hand in a silent hello.
"Twin, huh? Sweetheart you should be happy you got the pretty genes." I looked to my right. The man had short black hair with light wisps of gray in it and deep scars on his face. His Scottish accent reminded me of several Scotts that I had met on deployment. I smiled at the compliment since it didn't specifically target my boobs or ass. The man with wild black hair took a step forward and pulled his sunglasses off. I immediately took a step back.
"I understand it was probably tough growing up with this twat as a brother. If you need to talk about it, I'm here. You don't even have to use words." I narrowed my eyes and took a step closer to him. He smiled broadly.
"You want me to use my body? Is that it, big boy?" I asked in a whisper. Kip snorted but the man ignored him and nodded enthusiastically. I slowly unzipped my leather jacket a couple inches and gave him a smirk. He was eating it up until I pulled the zipper back up and shot him the bird. "Never going to happen."
"See, I almost like you for a minute." He pouted. The third man shook his head and clapped him on the back.
"Nice way to crash and burn, Tig." He laughed with a boyish smile before looking over at me. "I'm Juice. That's Chibs."
"Pleasure." I said flatly. I wasn't in the mood to meet everyone and I was still feeling confined. Chibs answered his cellphone and stepped back towards the garage. I breathed a little easier and moved so that Juice and Tig were in front of me instead of to my side. "Kip, I can go wait at your place if you want to give me a key."
"I'm about to leave, Kat. Just sit tight for a minute." He darted back into the garage and I was left with Tig and Juice. Juice looked like he was going to say something until three Harleys rolled onto the parking lot. I glanced over the bikes and did a double take. The graphics on the side of one bike in particular was familiar.
"I'll see you at your house." I threw over my shoulder as I walked towards my bike. Without hesitation I pulled my helmet on, started the bike and left the parking lot towards Kip's house. I rode past his house and up towards the mountains, needs some curves to settle my nerves. As the first sharp right came up, I dropped a gear and leaned my bike into the turn. The turns were simple and spaced apart but it was better than all the straight highway I had ridden on my way to Charming. The sun was setting as I pulled back into Kip's driveway. He was outside before I even had my helmet off.
"What the hell, Kat? You took off like a bat out of hell." Kip said, throwing his hands up. I brushed past him and walked inside. The house looked clean with minimal furniture or decoration. I sat my helmet on the kitchen counter before walking over to the couch. "Kat."
"Kip." I said mockingly. He sat down in the recliner across from the couch and stared at me. "I just felt confined with everyone standing around me. I rode up through the mountains for a little bit and then I came back."
"Have you been seeing anybody?" He asked, searching my face. I raised an eyebrow, confused why he changed subjects to my love life. He sighed. "I mean about Iraq."
"No, why? I was cleared over a year ago." I didn't expect Kip to push the question but he didn't look too convinced. I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. You're the one that wants a fake ball."
"It isn't a fake ball. It's a prosthetic. If I lost a leg you wouldn't call it a fake leg." He went to the kitchen and returned with two beers in each hand. I took two and he returned to his recliner. "The VA is going to pay 100%."
"That's not the point. Why do you need it? It's just cosmetic." I took a drink of the beer and pulled it away from my mouth quickly. "Pumpkin beer? Really?"
"Shut up." He's cheeks reddened a little. "How would you feel if some guy you were hooking up with dropped his pants and just had one ball?"
"Is he hot?" Kip rolled his eyes. I finished the beer off and leaned forward. "If everything still worked, I wouldn't care. Most women don't care if you're circumcised or not. We don't exactly stare at your junk in the heat of the moment."
Kip opened his second beer and turned the television on. He was done with the conversation and I couldn't really complain. I understood how awkward it was to discuss testicular and sex with your sibling. I returned the second beer to the refrigerator in hopes of finding one less offensive. The shelves were pretty barren of any food. He had a half empty carton of eggs, several bottles of water and three neatly arranged lines of beer. I replaced the pumpkin beer and took an Octoberfest in its place. It was still a little too festive for my liking but almost anything was better than pumpkin.
"Hey, your phone was vibrating." Kip said, motioning towards my jacket. I shrugged and sat down without checking the missed call. If they needed something, they could call back. I settled in on the couch and started watching the comedy Kip had turned on. Once my beer was finished off, I took off my boots and stretched out on the couch. At some point, I must have fallen asleep. I woke up with a pillow under my head and two blankets covering me. Kip was no longer in his recliner. My phone was vibrating again. It must have been what woke me up. When I finally got it out of my jacket, the screen showed four missed calls, all from a blocked number. There was no question in my mind about who it was. I turned the phone off and shimmied out of my jeans before turning over and going back to sleep.
"Morning. You want some breakfast?" Kip was always chipper in the morning. It had always been annoying. I grunted and rolled onto my stomach to block some of the light from assaulting my eyes. "Pancakes or waffles?"
"Fuck you." I groaned. He turned a radio on and cranked up the volume on some metal station. "Coffee, you inconsiderate ass."
"Pancakes and coffee it is." He called over the music. I pulled one of the blankets over my head. When we were little, Mom always woke me up before Kip. She said she could guarantee that I would be at least twenty minutes behind Kip in the mornings, even if she woke me up half an hour before him. It only got worse the older we got. There were many mornings that I was doing my makeup in the car on the way to school because of how late I made everyone. Oddly enough, I stayed at school once we were dropped off. Kip was the one that would skip class.
After breakfast, Kip headed out to the garage. He offered for me to come by and check out the clubhouse but I declined. I was still tired from the ride down from Seattle and I needed to make a few phone calls. I took residency on the couch and turned the television on for background noise as I searched the internet for information on testicle implants. If Kip was really set on doing it, I wanted to make sure he was at least well informed and safe. By the time my stomach started growling, I was surrounded by sticky notes and papers that I had printed off about surgeons and the procedure itself. I picked up my phone off the coffee table and realized I had never turned it back on. It was almost five o'clock in the evening. I was surprised Kip hadn't freaked out and come to check on me.
"You've got to be kidding me." My phone turned on and immediately started vibrating with voicemail notifications, text messages and missed calls. Most of the notifications were from the same, blocked number. I didn't bother opening those notifications and gave Kip a call. He had texted about dinner plans. He answered almost immediately. After convincing him that I had not in fact slept all day, we agreed to meet at a diner in an hour. As soon as I hung up, I dashed down the hall for a shower. I had been in the same clothes for way too long.
"You're late." I said as Kip sat down across from me. He looked exhausted and practically fell into the booth. I raised my brow but didn't ask. The waitress took our orders quickly, spending a little extra time flirting with Kip. I smiled and motioned after her as she walked away. "She's cute. Why don't you ask for her number?"
"I don't have time to date anyone." He muttered. I hated seeing him down. He was normally upbeat and lively.
"I spent the day looking up information on your procedure." I said, hoping to bring him out of his mood. He just nodded. "Apparently the implants are pretty realistic. They're not just metal balls dangling in your scrotum."
"Katerina, really?" He looked around the diner, no doubt hoping no one overheard me. I smiled, proud to have gotten a rise out of him. "I thought you were against it."
"I was against you doing something without really researching it. There's a doctor in Oakland that has a lot of experience. He actually helped develop a new, natural-like implant. He's published in a lot of medicine journals and hasn't had any malpractice suits." I kept going with the information I'd learned until I saw the waitress approaching with our food. Kip gave her a toothy smile as she sat his plate in front of him. Just like that, he was back to being my goofy brother.
"So, are you going to stay to nurse me back to health?" Kip asked, stealing a French fry off my plate. I scowled at him and pulled the plate closer to me.
"I'm going to stay to make sure you don't die from hemorrhaging out of your ball sack." I retorted. He chuckled and reached for another fry. "Next attempt costs you a finger."
****First story in a long time. Please let me know if you have any interest and if you catch any grammatical mistakes. I've been writing this while working. I don't own any characters you recognize, so on and so forth.