disclaimer. I don't own these characters this is called 'fan' fiction for a reason. ;)
"Jonah Griggs when was the moment your realised Taylor had your heart?"
Raffaela leaned forward. Her eager eyes catching in the firelight. He wasn't one for this. Talking wasn't his strong suit. He wasn't one who wore his heart on his sleave. Most times it was hard enough just getting through the day. Sharing it was another matter.
Maybe it was the boxy they had been swigging or the perhaps the way Taylors eyes flicked up to him that made him change his mind.
He put his marshmallow on the end of his stick into the fire trying not to look at any of them.
"The day she landed me in shit."
Chaz laughed muttering about it being everyday since the moment they meet.
"No literal shit."
Taylor was fighting back a smile.
"I swung over that river and landed in fucking shit and I told her this means war."
Chaz was laughing so hard he was rolling around in his sleeping bag.
"And she shoots back with at least I am dressed for it." He looked up at her then, the grooves in her face so deep it reminds him of the boy in the photo. The Father she never got to have.
"That Raffy is how she got me."
He wasn't sure but that didn't seem to impress their mother hen.
"That was it?"
He shrugged with a smile.
"What did you expect? When she or I had a break down and bared our souls to each other? That's I looked at her and thought wow she is the most beautiful girl in the world. This isn't Hollywood. This isn't your cheese ending with fireworks. Love isn't all roses and daisies. Love is going to my little brother footy game despite the fact it's raining and fucking freezing and no chance they are going to win. It's sitting through a episode of Home and Away without complaint. Love is talking me out of being stupid and driving around a city looking for a needle in a haystack. Love is coming back when it's so dark you can feel the devil, when you would rather let the house burn to the ground. So that's the day I pick. When she showed me she had the guts not to back down from me. When she could look me in the eye knowing who I was and I who she is without judgement."
He looked down at blackened marshmallow. Part of him felt like he should be embarrassed but he wasn't, not with these three. They all knew what he did and they were all still here. The judgment was the thing that hurt him the most. Even his Mother couldn't look at him the same. Even though he did it for her.
"So when was the day you realised Chaz is still the only one who gets your motor rolling?" Jonah smirked back at her. She choked on their cheap wine. Spluttering about him having it all wrong.
"So why is it that neither of you can keep a partner?" Taylor moved over to sit next to Griggs smiling at them.
"Fuck off Taylor Markham." Chaz spat.
"Defensive much?"
"Bitch much?"
Jonah started to laugh. Even with Taylor elbow shoving him in his side he couldn't help but smile. At fourteen standing on the train station waiting for the train to Yass he couldn't dream of an future but now a few short years later he was living the dream. To steal Taylor's word he had found his solace. He had found his home on the Jellicoe road.