the high notes

one

willa

her fingers lingered on the keys of her grand piano, hesitating on every note she played. it had been years since she had done this, not since her mother passed when she was sixteen.

crimson said her father was in a church meeting, had been for a while. so she wandered around the place she had spent the entirety of her childhood in. her heart definitely knew what it wanted, which is exactly the reason why she was doing something she swore she would never do again.

but the room was left untouched, even though she hadn't so much as glanced at it in four years. what possessed her to enter it now after all this time she had no clue, but the feeling of nostalgia that it brought to her was too much to ignore.

the music floated around her in a sweet, harmonious melody that filled the empty room.  with every single key she hit, an echo bounced of the walls making the sounds enhanced so she was sure that the clubhouse might be hearing it.

everything in her hoped that they didn't say anything, especially her dad who worried about her. he was a tough man, with tattoos and scars that littered his body but he was a softie when it came to her.

closing her eyes, she just continued to focus on the music that brought her a peace of mind that she had lost with her mom. the content that she felt with her piano was incredible, something that she was desperately searching for since she got home from school.

she would be lying if she said being home wasn't hard on her. her house, and the clubhouse as well brought back memories she wanted to forget; good and bad.

lost in her thoughts, her hand fumbled and she hit the wrong note causing her melody to stop with an intense silence.

she cursed, shaking her head at her clumsiness, quickly stood up, and shut the piano cover with no intention to ever look at it again.

"that was beautiful, lala." her father's rough voice said from behind me.

she jumped, not realizing that he had been standing there the entire time. willa turned around, a small smile on her face at the use of her nickname. no one called her that besides her family, which included all the bikers in the hell hounds.

she took a good look at him because heaven knows she worried about her old man.

it had been four years since they had both lost her mother, but she was grateful for her father. he was her rock, strong as a mountain and sturdy too. the man hated showing emotions, weakness and all that but the responsibility he had taken on with her being an angsty teenager took a lot out of him.

mentally not physically, because appearance wise he didn't look a day over thirty-five even though he'd be forty-five in less than a week.

"thanks dad."

he stepped forward and opened his arms wide, inviting her in for a hug that she had missed dearly.

"missed you lots, girl." he mumbled into her hair.

she rested her cheek on his chest, closing her eyes while listening to the steady beating of his heart. "missed you more, pops."

❁❁❁

dinner at the clubhouse was like it usually was: loud, and a huge party.

secretly, willa really hoped her father hadn't been eating this bad while she had been away. the man was tough but he was still human, one that ate like a picky child.

she took a bite of her burger, letting herself indulge since everyone seemed to want her to celebrate with them. they were all like family to her, the men and the club girls who basically all watched her grow up.

"so how's college goin'? not much for studying myself so i never got the experience but i heard the girls there are pretty wild." shiner asked. he was older than willa but a lot younger than most of the men in the room. she was pretty sure her dad had said something about his twenty fifth birthday when they spoke on the phone a couple months back.

"wild?" my father questioned, his eyes narrowing at her.

she rolled her eyes at his protectiveness, he would force her to wear a chastity belt if he could. "sorry to disappoint you shiner but i'm an all around student with no time for partying."

shiner grinned goofily. "but it does get wild?"

despite herself and her poor father who looked about ready to clock the guy over the head, she smiled and nodded.

"no daughter of mine would be prancing around at parties like some hussy when she should be studying." her father said proudly.

shiner shrugged and continued to stuff his face with french fries like they would get up and runaway.

"don't worry, daddy. boys there got a clear warning when you dropped me off in the fall." she mumbled, almost blushing with embarrassment at the memory.

ransom had made sure to pull up to the campus on his motorcycle, as if that noise machine wasn't attention enough he had his whole squad behind him too.

she wasn't going to lie and say she didn't feel like a complete bad ass hopping off the bike like she did. but still, word spread fast and the boys around campus stayed clear away when they read the backs of the leather vests the hell hounds sported.

especially since her father's had president patched into it. folks in this state knew that if you wanted to keep your limbs, you didn't mess with the daughter of the hell hounds president.

needless to say she'd die single.

when dinner was done, she went around and picked up the dishes that the men had left laying around.

"don't worry about that, hon." viv, one of the older club girls, scolded. she shooed willa's hands away and reached for the pile of plates that she begun stacking.

"it's not a big deal, i haven't been around in a while and you know i don't mind helping." she insisted.

viv shook her head, and pulled the young woman in for a hug. "glad you're back, why don't you go tend to the bar, looks like the boys are dying for a couple of drinks."

deflated, she nodded. it had been nearly a year since she had been back, she wanted to be done with school as quickly as possible and that meant skipping breaks. she didn't realize just how much she had missed everyone, and how badly she felt that she had stayed away for so long.

helping out around the place would make her feel a lot better, but if viv didn't want her touching dishes she supposed bartending would be okay too.

she went around to the back of the bar which was perpetually stocked to the max with expensive liquor bottles and the boys favorite beers.

"scotch on ice, lala." crimson said, grinning at something her father had said.

like a pro, and she might as well have been, she poured the drink for the man she saw as an uncle and slid it over to him.

he downed it in one long gulp and willa narrowed her eyes. "am i going to have to cut you off later?" she threatened.

crimson grinned at his niece, sipping the next one she poured for him-- slowly this time. "glad to have you back, little one."