Riot Girl Read Free

way across the field.
    “Alone at last,” Joel smiled at me and pulled me into a kiss.
     
    This, right here, was me in heaven.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    I stamped the snow off my red biker boots before heading into the lock up. In the months since Joel and I had gotten together winter had edged its way into our lives and now it was freezing cold, so much so that I could now see little clouds of my own breath coming from my mouth. Joel greeted me with a kiss and a big smile, warming me instantly.
    I’d thought my dream relationship would have shattered as soon as it became a reality but we were still going strong and I couldn’t have been happier. I’d had a bad throat thanks to the turn in the weather and was having to pick up extra shifts at the diner because my dad had had his shifts cut at work so I hadn’t made it to many practices lately.
    “Ah, she lives! I thought she was just a ghost of the girl we knew,” Waz teased as I settled down on the third-hand sofa in front of the kit.
    “Ha-ha,” I squeaked and coughed.
    “Throat’s no better?” Billy asked, looking at Joel in concern. We had a gig in just under a week and my voice had no sign of improving. I hadn’t managed to sing at all for a few weeks by this point.
    “You need to audition someone else guys,” I told them. I cut them off as they started to protest. “It’s fine – really. I only sang in the first place ‘cause you wanted a female lead. The band was always your thing anyway. I’ve enjoyed it but it’s your dream, not mine. Audition, okay?”
    They knew it was true. I could carry a tune and they’d wanted a female vocalist to clash with their heavy sound and I was the logical choice since they hated almost every other teenage girl in town at the time. My dream was to be an artist and I’d spent a lot of time designing posters and CD covers for them over the two years the band had been going.
    “I don’t like it,” Joel protested and came to sit on the sofa with me.
    “This gig is important man,” Billy reasoned with him.
    It was true; this was a huge event. Around a dozen bands from the surrounding areas were coming to play which had apparently peaked the interested of a label scout from LA. If all went well on the night one or more of the bands could be invited to audition for the label by the end of the year. It had caused a real buzz around school and suddenly the popular girls found Billy, Waz and Joel ‘like so awesome’, which was both funny (for them) and worrying (for me) at the same time.
    “It really is,” I agreed. “If you guys got asked to audition it would be incredible. Goodbye Shitsville, hello sunshine!” I hugged myself into Joel and smiled up at him.
    This could be our ticket out of here.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

"You really think it was okay?" Joel paced back and forth behind the make shift stage, unable to keep still.
    "You guys were fricking awesome, truly!" I reassured him for the hundredth time since they'd finished their set. "I'd definitely tell you if it sucked!"
    My voice hadn't improved enough to perform and in the end they'd decided against auditioning to replace me. They had instead gone on as a three piece and Billy had sung the vocals I usually did. He'd been incredibly good at it too, despite always insisting that he couldn't sing. I'd never been a spectator of the band before and it was a strange experience not to be up on stage with them. Tonight I was just a groupie like every other girl there; that part I wasn't overly keen on.
    "Dude, I think I blew that solo part royally. What was I thinking? We shoulda auditioned," Billy was pacing in opposite directions to his brother and the sight made me smile.
    Waz sat on the floor with his back to the wall, roll up in one hand, his head in another not saying a word. I sat down next to him with my legs stretched out in front of him. He rested his head on my shoulder and we watched the