Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Author's Note: This is a prequel story to 'You, and me and our boys'.
It's my version of J/T falling in love as kids, and I think my idea is different than most stories that I've seen over the years. I wanted to post this first chapter/intro to see if there's even still a interest for this story, since there are already so so many teenage J/T stories out there to choose from.
X
This is not a story about love at first sight, because that would be weird considering the first time they've laid eyes on each other they were both still in diapers, although neither one of them could possibly even remember.
This is not a story about love at first touch either, since they've played together on the playground during their younger years too, with not a spark in sight between them at the time.
As a matter of fact, they've seen and touched each other countless times over the years since they were little, in blissful unawareness about how much they'd mean to one another one day in the not so distant future.
They've bumped into each other in the hallway and shared classes and teachers since Kindergarten, all through junior high and now high school, brushed against each other waiting in line getting on or off a ride at Fun Town year after year, or met several times in passing while fighting their way through the crowd at some random house party just in the last year alone, just to name a few.
So yeah, this wasn't that kind of love story at all, with these two it was definitely a bit more complicated than that, before they both finally realized and accepted the fact that they had feelings for each other. But eventually, they did just that, and this is the kind of story that tells you how that came to be.
How they came to be Jax and Tara! How they realized that they were in love!
X
Piney was the first of them to notice the flashing lights of the Charming police cars way off in the distance, both teenage boys were too distracted by their own conversation about the latest horror movie available at the local rental place downtown.
On a whim he decides to make that left turn and heads down that road to further investigate, instead of heading straight home. His old pickup truck slowly approaches the scene near the end of the street, and a sickening feeling begins to fester in the pit of his stomach when he recognizes the house where some crime had apparently taken place tonight.
"What do you think that's about?" Jax asks, giving the much older man beside him a quick glance, but before Piney can answer, Opie quickly chimes in alarmed, "Oh shit, dad, that's the Knowles place."
"I know." Piney grumbles when he quickly puts the truck in park, his eyes glancing over in the boys' direction for the first time since he'd spotted the flashing lights. "You two stay put, you hear me." There was an old familiar warning tone to his voice that both teenagers knew better than to argue at any given moment, so they just nod their heads instead.
Piney walks as fast as his big frame allows him to when he approaches the Chief of police, Wayne Unser. "Chief." He says, nodding his head in greeting.
"Piney." Wayne greets him in return.
"What the hell happened?" Piney doesn't waste another minute on small talk and gets straight to the point.
Wayne eyes him wearily for a moment, but at the end falters as was expected. "Break-in, Old-Man-Knowles is out of town, business trip, his daughter was home alone, perp attacked her, but she was able to fight him off."
"Is she alright?" Piney pipes up in concern.
"Yeah." Wayne nods, but then elaborates. "I mean, she's shook up, of course, but she was lucky, no real damage done, if you know what I mean?" He gives Piney a pointed look and they both nod their heads in agreement, before Wayne adds. "I appreciate you stopping by, but we've got this under control, so ..."
"What about the girl?" Piney interrupts him. "Tara, is it?"
"What about her?" Wayne replies rather dumbfounded, even though he has a pretty good idea what Piney is getting at.
"Her old man's out of town, where's she gonna stay?" Piney asks with the most innocent expression he can muster.
But Wayne can see right through him, and actually steps closer to ensure nobody would overhear what he's about to say next. "Charming PD's got this under control, Piney. I don't need the Club involved in this one, getting all up and arms and what not. Every once in a while I could use a win, you know, to keep this badge that keeps this ... this relationship going. Besides, we don't even know if it's the same guy."
Piney has to bite his tongue, which is a hard thing to do for him under any circumstance, but he knows that if he said out loud what he really wants to say, it would get him nowhere tonight. In this instance, diplomacy is needed, "Listen, Knowles and I go way back, and his kid is friends with my kid. She's been over at my place a million times. I think the girl might be more comfortable around some familiar faces until her old man gets back, instead of camping out at the Police station, don't you think?"
Wayne shakes his head, huffing in exasperation. "Little Missy's really shook up, she's still giving her statement to one of my female deputies right now. And I mean no disrespect to your kid and you, but I think under the current circumstances it ain't too farfetched to assume the girl would be more comfortable around other females, if you know what I'm getting at? And last I've heard, Mary and you are on the outs again."
"You said she fought him off?" Piney re-inquires, wondering if maybe he misunderstood earlier.
"She did." Wayne reassures him once more, but quickly adds. "Doesn't mean she ain't scared. She's just a fifteen year old girl for Christ's sake." He lets out a staggered breath and shakes his head once more, before he finally dares to look back up and meet Piney's eyes. "Looks like a goddamn twister touched down in that living room in there, little thing that she is, she put up one hell of a fight, I tell you that."
"Good for her." Piney adds, feeling a small sparkle of pride for a girl he hardly knows.
"Yeah." Wayne nods, and clears his throat as his mind goes back to the other female victims that haven't been this lucky in the recent home-invasions that have been plaguing Charming over the last couple of weeks. "Good for her." He adds too.
Both men quiet down for a moment, their eyes glued to the house while either one of them contemplates their next move, until Piney gives it one last try, "How about you ask her?"
Wayne looks over at Piney, a puzzled look that is quickly answered when Piney elaborates, "Let her choose where she'd be more comfortable at until her father get's back. With Opie and myself? Or with you and your gaggle of deputies down at the station? Let her make up her own mind."
X
Opie pulls two big towel's from the dryer, the thickest and fluffiest looking ones he can find, yet neither one of them is very soft since his father usually doesn't see the need to invest in such trivial things as fabric softener.
He takes a second to inspect them for stains that might've not come out in the wash, before he's gripping them both in one hand, and slams the dryer door shut with a loud clang on his way out of the laundry room.
He hurries down the hall towards the bathroom, his footsteps heavy and loud with every step he takes on the worn down hardwood floor, until he comes to a sudden stop and lets his knuckles rap across the wooden surface in front of him.
The door creaks when Tara opens it, still fully dressed, looking a complete mess, a little peaked, maybe nauseous even, but the water in the shower is already running in the background, when she has to look up to meet his eyes the way he's towering over her.
"Here." Opie says unceremoniously as he holds out the two towels for her, his face as much a blank slate as he can muster at the moment, because the last thing she needs right now is pity. "They're clean." He adds in case she's wondering.
"Thanks, Opie." Tara answers in a rather uncharacteristic small voice, a faint smile tugging on the corner of her busted up lip, and she winces at the pain for just a second before she recovers and musters up a stoic expression again instead.
She's usually not this shy around him, the opposite really, and he can't help but wonder just what exactly she's been through earlier tonight to make her seem almost like a totally different person to him now.
"You're welcome." He answers, and tries to muster a smile, not sure if it looks genuine, before Tara closes the bathroom door in his face and clicks the lock in place too.
He turns and is just about to step away, when the lock clicks and the door opens once more with another creak. He looks back just in time to see her step into the doorframe, a questioning look on her face now, "You guys don't ... do you have any conditioner, you know, like hair conditioner?"
"Shit." Opie replies, scratching the back of his head as if in thought for a second, even though he knows that isn't the sort of stuff his father spends money on either. "I don't think we do. Sorry."
"That's okay." Tara nods her head, and before he can say anything else, she's closed and locked the door already behind her again.
Opie steps into his room, where he finds Jax stretched out and leaned back in the oversized bean bag, tossing a baseball in the air over head and catching it again repeatedly. He's clearly lost in his own thoughts about what has happened.
An eerie silence stretches out amongst the two friends, all the banter in the truck earlier, before Tara had joined them, has vanished, while Opie's looking through the mess in his closet, trying to find the other set of bedding that he rarely, if ever, uses.
Once he finds it, he walks over to the bed, clean sheets, pillow case and blanket in hand, tossing them carelessly on top of the magazines that sit in a pile next to his bed, before he starts stripping his old sheets and pillows off of the bed now.
"What do you think they're gonna do?" Jax finally asks out loud what both of them have been thinking, the underlying worry evident in his voice when he speaks.
Opie twists around to look back at his best friend, who's no longer tossing the ball about but is absentmindedly tracing the red stitching with his thumb instead, turning the white globe over and over again in his hand.
"What do you think?" Opie replies, eyebrows raised and the look he's giving Jax makes it clear it's a rhetorical question, no need to answer or further elaborate. The Club will handle it.
"Yeah." Jax just nods, because that pretty much says it all. "I can't fucking wait to patch in." He mumbles under his breath moments later, before he begins to toss the ball up in the air again, a vain attempt to distract himself from what happened tonight to a girl he's had his eyes on for a while now.
Just then, they can hear the front door to the house open, followed by the commotion in the living room that makes it clear that the other members of the Club have arrived.
Jax gets up out of the bean bag chair, scrambling to his feet, and Opie abandons his mission to put new linens on his bed like his father has instructed him to, and they both head towards the living room instead, getting their usual greeting of slaps on the back and the mockingly inappropriate banter reserved only for them dished out by their so-called 'uncles', to which they hold no actual blood relations at all.
Shortly after, Opie's send off to let Tara know that his father's friends have arrived, and she assures him that she's almost ready, while steam's pouring out of the bathroom door when she opens it just enough to speak face to face with the much taller teenager.
She shuts the door once more, and digs through the overnight bag she'd packed that is sitting atop the closed toilet seat lid, in search of her hairbrush. It's not easy to brush through the wet hair without having used some conditioner, and she makes a mental note that should she ever make another overnight trip someplace, she'd ensure to bring her own.
Tara looks down on herself, in the most literal sense, when she takes in the clothes she's put on, and she's frustrated with her own choice that she's made, when the female deputy had helped her pack a bag in a haste to get out of the house, picking clothes straight out of the clean laundry basket that sat on a chair in the kitchen.
So now in her unflattering grey sweats, and the black oversized t-shirt, featuring none other than Johnny Cash, that actually belongs to her dad, she's feeling like she looks every bit the part, like the proverbial poster child of a battered woman, and she can't help but hate it.
But on the other hand, slipping the clothes she'd been wearing while she was being attacked back on, feels out of the question, too. The shirt's torn and stretched, and she couldn't wait to get them off of her, because there is just something about those clothes that make her feel downright dirty, to the point that she suddenly bends over and picks them off of the floor to shove them angrily in the way too small trashcan that sits besides the toilet instead.
She never wants to see those goddamn clothes again. Wish she could light a match to them right now!
She glances back in the mirror one last time, licking her tongue over the cut on her lip, wiping at her blotchy face, and her red rimmed eyes, wishing it wasn't so goddamn obvious that she'd been crying in here, but there's just no denying it, not the way she looks right now.
She pushes her still wet, long brown hair out of her face, takes in a deep breath, and for the millionth time tonight she wishes her dad was home, because he'd know just what to do in a situation like this to make her feel safe again, and then wills herself to believe that she made the right choice coming here tonight instead of going down to the police station.
She couldn't really say that she knew a whole lot about the Sons of Anarchy, or Sam Crow, how some people called them. She just knew the usual rumors and speculations that always circled around such a small town like Charming, some of them were good, some not.
But there had never been anything substantial that she had witnessed with her own two eyes that would give her a reason to feel scared of them, if anything the opposite was the case. What she did know was that Piney Winston was a part of it all, and that he was friends with her father, and he'd always seemed like a nice enough guy, a bit of a drunk, just like her dad, but nice nonetheless.
Opie, his only son, was really nice too, and even though it wasn't like they were close or anything, but she could honestly say that she felt like she knew him. She'd spend countless hours sitting on the couch with him, watching music videos on MTV, or playing videogames, while Piney and her dad hung out, laughing, drinking and reminiscing about times in the war. So in a weird way that made her trust Opie the most out of everyone else in this place.
And then there was Jax Teller, Opie's best friend through thick and thin for as long as Tara can remember, and even now they were practically joined at the hip. He was the son of the founder of the Sons, and the step-son to Clay Morrow, who was the current boss or president of the Club, and despite all of that, he always seemed like any other teenage boy to her.
Just like Opie, he was nice to look at, handsome even, but also friendly and down to earth, or at least so he'd seemed as far as she could tell. But then again, unlike Opie, she didn't really feel like she knew him much at all.
X
Tara appears timid at first when she's greeted by the rambunctious lot of men in the Winston living room, but the tone and demeanor changes instantly when the gruff looking older men try to make her feel more at ease and feel more comfortable to speak her mind in front of them.
First impressions can be deceiving, Tara thinks to herself as her eyes drift from one tattooed biker to the next, when they usher her to a comfortable spot on the sofa, and fawn over her like she holds the key, or rather the last missing piece to a puzzle they've been trying to solve for weeks.
She's a smart girl, and it doesn't take long for her to understand their intentions, when they press her on the details of the break-in to her home, and every minute piece of information she can manage to conjure back up in her head to describe what the intruder looks like. And their eagerness to get to the bottom of it all, soothes her in a way she hasn't expected. It actually makes her feel a little bit safer knowing these rough and gruff looking mountain of men are on her side and are trying to help her in the midst of a horrific evening, while her dad is a plane and car ride away.
Tara's got a feeling that from here on out she'll never look at them the same, when she'll see the fleet of motorcycles rush past her down the streets of Charming.
X
Meanwhile, the boys have been send back to their room, and Opie goes back to the task of fixing up his bed for Tara, while Jax leans against the dresser, refusing to help, even though he's feeling antsy at the moment. He's on edge, tapping his foot to an imaginary beat in his head to Opie's obvious annoyance, while he's looking through one of his friend's magazines he's pulled from the pile near the bed.
The scene that is currently taking place out in Piney's living room is nothing too unusual. The Sons coming to the aid of someone in this town is a common occurrence to the boys, but so is being shushed away, told to keep quiet and send to their room like they were still little children, just when things were starting to get interesting.
Both of them hate this so much. After all, they weren't little kids anymore, and if it weren't for their still slightly youthful facial features they could easily be mistaken for grown men, because at six feet four, Opie was already standing as tall as his father, and Jax, at six feet has also outgrown the majority of his fellow sophomores before the last school year had ended just a few days ago.
But not only that, thanks to a strict weight lifting and workout regimen that both have followed since eighth grade, at the tender age of sixteen they both not only stood just as tall, but were almost as strong and brawny as most of the men currently residing in that living room just down the hall from them, too.
Jax wishes he could turn his brain off, make his mind stop wondering and worrying about everything, about Tara Knowles. He wishes he would've known what to say to her earlier, but he'd been too shell-shocked himself, not just at the news of what had happened, but at how she looked when Piney had brought her with him to the truck. She looked nothing like the girl he'd been secretly pining after for a while now, and it broke his heart as much as it rendered him speechless.
In yet another attempt to distract himself, he turns the magazine he's holding sideways, folding the top part open, but letting the bottom part of the center poster fall and unfold on its own, before he looks it over from top to bottom with an appreciating smirk. "Where 're you gonna hide all these, huh? I can take 'em off your hands, you know." He actually cracks a real smile for the first time since they've pulled up to the Knowles home earlier, and turns the magazine he's looking through towards his friend, for Opie to see.
"Would you cut that shit out." Opie lets out a frustrated grunt, feeling just as sickened by what has happened to Tara, when he snatches the playboy out of Jax's hand and tosses it under the bed, before he begins to kick the whole pile until they've all disappeared out of sight, letting his agitation out on the stack of magazines instead of his best but obnoxious friend, and the fucked up situation that's out of his control..
He starts to gather some of his dirty clothes off of the ground, and along with the dirty sheets and blanket, he begins to shove them all into the closet in an attempt to hide them out of sight as well.
The door opens without so much as a warning knock and Piney steps in, taking in the remaining mess around the room, which isn't all that bad considering how it looked just moments ago, yet the older man still curses under his breath. "Jesus, would you boys clean this shit up?"
The boys share an annoyed glance that Piney seems to miss completely, but they remain quiet, and the older man quickly reaches in his pocket, pulls out a handful of bills and hands them to his son, before he adds gruffly. "Here, order a pizza or something, I don't think she's eaten yet."
"Sure thing, pop." Opie replies, counting the money his dad has just handed him, but he can't bite his tongue, even though he already knows he won't be told much in return, "Where are you going?"
"Got some Club business to handle, son." Piney replies per usual, but then there's a flash of something in his eyes for a moment that neither Jax or Opie recognize, before the man glances cautiously over his shoulder as he steps further into the room and quietly closes the bedroom door behind him.
Piney runs a hand over his chin, as if deep in thought for a moment, before he finally meets their eyes. His focus going back and forth between the two teenage boys standing before him as he speaks. "Listen up, Clay and Gemma took Tig and the prospects with them up to Rogue River, so we're already shorthanded, which means I'm counting on the two of you to help keep an eye on the girl. Don't let her out of your sight, you understand?" There is a seriousness to the tone of his voice that can't be missed and the atmosphere in the room practically changes along with his words.
Jax and Opie glance at each other, both with a mixture of intrigue, but also puzzlement in their eyes, and Opie's the first to shrug his shoulders, "Sure, okay, pop." He's feeling a sense of excitement rush through him, yet not really understanding why they're being brought into the loop all of a sudden. "But ..." He glances back at Jax wondering if he's getting that same eerie feeling too, before he meets his fathers' eyes again. "I mean, what's going on?"
Piney clears his throat, and holds up four fingers in the same moment he begins to speak. "Four women have been attacked in home-invasions over the past month, not a single one of them made it. Left for dead in their own homes. Tara would've been number five. She's seen the guy, can identify him ... so like I said, don't let her out of your sight, keep her safe. Do you think you two knuckleheads can manage that?"
"Of course, Piney." Jax chimes in for the first time, pushing away from the dresser and rising to full height, like a soldier called to action. His tongue-tied reaction earlier might've not been one of his finer moments, but he's more than ready to make up for it now. He can protect Tara, he knows he can. "Nothing touches her." He says, it's a line he's heard Tig utter a thousand times to Clay in reference to keeping his mother safe, and deep down he's reveling in the feeling of using the words himself for the first time.
"Don't worry, we've got this, dad." Opie adds, and at that Piney gives them both an approving nod.
X
The Sons have disappeared just as quickly as they'd appeared, leaving her back to her own scary thoughts in someone else's house.
So Tara sits rather awkwardly on Piney's comfy old recliner, her bare feet pulled up on the chair under her, a cup of tea in her hand that's no longer hot, barely even warm at this point, but it keeps her hands busy, keeps herself from fidgeting too much, so she continues to hold the cup even thought she has no intentions of drinking it.
She's so lost in her own thoughts that she doesn't even notice Jax stepping into the doorframe, leaning against it and watching her, until he suddenly speaks up. "You doing okay, darlin'?"
She looks up at him now, meeting his eyes and the innocent smile he's giving her, and despite the gravity of her current situation, she can't help but smirk at him a little when she recalls his words just now. "Did you seriously just call me 'darling'?"
That is not at all how Jax has expected her to react, so it catches him off guard and he lets a chuckle escape against his better judgment. "Yeah, I did ... sorry, force of habit, I guess." He swipes a hand down his face, when he steps further into the room now, eyeing her wearily across the room.
He takes a seat on the armrest of the sofa, and his face is more serious again as he really gets a chance to look at her now in the light. It had been dark when Piney had kicked him and Ope out of the truck and had ordered them to sit back in the truck-bed instead, so she could climb into his seat in the truck without being gawked at, and not be bothered by the two of them.
Then she'd disappeared straight into the bathroom when they'd gotten here, but now here she was, and he'd be lying if he said it didn't piss him off seeing her in this fragile looking state, because even though he barely even knew her, he knows enough about her to know that this isn't who she is at all.
Tara Knowles is outspoken, she's confident, she's popular. Last school year she was a Charming high cheerleader for crying out loud. He can still vividly picture her walking down the hall in her cheerleading outfit, laughing and talking to her friends without a care in the world. She had undoubtedly caught his eye a time or two in that cheerleading get-up.
"You okay though?" He asks again, but is not surprised when she simply nods her head, even though the look in her eyes tells a whole different story.
She's not okay, far from it, that much is clear, but if she's not up for sharing he won't pry, and who can blame her, it's not like they're friends or anything. He knows her, knows who she is, and vice versa. And yeah, he's always thought she is kind of hot, maybe even a little out of his league if he's being completely honest, but all that considering, they haven't exactly spend time in the same circles, or hung out together like this ever, ... until now!
Opie appears in the doorframe now, a little notepad in hand, and to Tara's relief, he changes the subject altogether and with it freeing her from Jax's scrutinizing gaze. "You hungry? We were gonna order some pizza."
She's not hungry at all, simply has no appetite after her ordeal, but she also knows it's just her nerves and if her dad was here he'd probably make her eat something, so she reluctantly agrees, telling only half a lie. "I'm not real hungry, but I'll eat a slice." She shrugs her shoulder at the last word, as if to come off as more at ease, which she doesn't feel at all.
"Any preference on toppings? Anything you can't stand at all?" Opie asks, tapping his pen against the little notepad in his hand, coming off either nervous or impatient, which, she's not really sure.
But Tara just shrugs her shoulders again, she won't make a fuss and will just pick off anything she doesn't want, it's not like she feels much like eating in the first place. "No, I'm fine with whatever. I'm easy."
A smirk appears for a fraction of a second on Jax's face, he's quick to hide it biting down on his own lip and turning his head away from her towards Opie behind him, but she's caught it and it almost makes her want to shrink further into the seat in hiding. "I'm easy, too." He replies to a question Opie didn't direct at him, and Tara can feel the blush rising in her cheeks, wishing she hadn't giving him a chance to tease her.
His reputation as a bit of a flirt proceeds him, although she can't say or recall ever having been on the receiving end of his so-called charms. And right now, under the current circumstances she's not really amused, but rather annoyed by it.
"Alright." Opie replies clearly un-amused as well, shaking his head at something, before he disappears back into the kitchen around the corner where the phone is mounted on the wall, when Jax turns his attention back to her now, noting the untouched cup of tea in her hand, before he asks. "Want something else to drink?" Tara shakes her head no.
He looks over his shoulder at the blanket draped over the back of the sofa, "Are you cold? Want a blanket?" Again, Tara shakes her head no, but Jax rambles on, feeling slightly guilty for making her blush, so now he's trying to make up for his insensitivity. "You know, if there's anything you want, need, whatever, just ... just let us know, alright?" He sounds sweet, and she can tell he's being genuine this time when he looks over at her, fiddling with a lighter he'd pulled out of his pocket moments ago, and Tara simply nods her understanding.
He seems almost nervous to her now, sitting there, not sure what to say or do with himself, and strangely his uneasiness makes her feel more at ease, like she's not the only one feeling awkward in the room for the first time tonight.
A silent beat or two passes, and they both look at everything but each other, taking in the countless knick-knacks Piney has sitting on every inch of free space around the room, when Jax finally tries to break the ice with small talk. "So, how old are you?" He suddenly asks out loud, but then adds, "I mean, are you a Sophomore or a Junior?" He wants to groan inwardly at his own stupid attempt to pry some words out of her, because he already knows the answer, knows she's going to be a Junior, just like Ope and him.
"I'm gonna be a Junior after the summer break." She bites her lip for a second, contemplating, before she adds, "We actually had AP English together last semester." They've had several of the same teachers and classes over the years, but AP English was the most recent one she can recall.
Jax snaps his fingers as if he just now remembered the same thing, as they both blurt out "Mrs. Rice." at the same time.
They nod in unison, before Tara surprises him when she adds, "I don't think she likes me."
"Why'd you say that?" Jax replies without missing a beat, relieved that they found something to talk about that doesn't seem so utterly forced.
Tara shrugs again, she's doing that a lot tonight, and meets his blue eyes that are focused solely on her now, making her almost want to hide away again, because a boy shouldn't be allowed to be this pretty to look at. "I don't know, I think that class just isn't really my strong suit."
Jax smirks a bit at that, finally settling all the way onto the sofa, leaning back and propping his feet up on the coffee table, clearly much more relaxed now. "It's AP, as in advanced placement, darlin', so something about it must've suited you just fine."
Is he teasing her, or is he serious? Tara can't tell, but there's that word again, 'darling', and the way it flows so easily from his lips this time makes her forget to call him out on it.
She leans to the side and finally releases the cup of tea she's been holding this entire time from her death grip, putting it on the small side table beside her, before she looks back at him and crosses her arms in front of herself. "I think I just do better with facts, factual stuff, you know, like science, and math, ... concrete stuff, that sort of thing. With the books she picked last year, and had us write those god-awful essays on them, it just gives you too many different ways to interpret what's going on, and I don't like that." She shakes her head along with her last words. "And god forbid she doesn't agree with your interpretation, then you're screwed."
"Hmmm." Jax looks at her almost puzzled, "That's my favorite part, the interpretation, I mean you can pretty much come up with anything, bullshit your way through it as long as you can back it up with something in the story or book."
"I don't know." Tara shakes her head to herself, meeting his eyes again, "It's just not that easy for me. I guess not everyone's as good at bullshitting as you." She smirks, glad for the lightheartedness of this conversation, and he smirks right back, too. It amazes her how easily he is to talk to.
"You've got that right." He agrees suddenly, "Bullshitting is a skill in itself, but hey, I'm free to tutor you if you want, honey." He opens his arms in a welcoming gesture and gives her the biggest tooth baring grin she's ever seen on him.
But before Tara can reply with some smart-aleck comment in return, Opie appears back in the room, "Giovanni's running behind on delivery's, said it'll take up to an hour, but we can pick it up sooner. So, I'm gonna go get those pizzas real quick?"
"Alright." Jax nods and chimes in, content in his spot on the couch, not moving a muscle. "Pick up a movie too, man. Something funny."
Opie looks back at her as if he's just about to say something when Tara beats him to it, "Can I come with you?"
"Um." Opie seems a bit unsure for a moment, looking from her back to Jax for a second, before he nods at her in return, "Yeah, sure."
Tara gets up without missing a beat, slipping on her shoes that are sitting in front of the recliner, before she starts following Opie out the room.
For a moment Jax hesitates, but then he quickly gets up too. "Guess we're all going then." He mumbles under his breath, just as he's catching up with them, falling in step right behind her, as they all trail after Opie out the front door.
Jax can't recall a girl ever dismissing him in the middle of a conversation to leave with Opie instead, and even though he could never admit such a thing to his best friend out loud, it bothers him somehow that Tara Knowles did just that. Choosing Opie's company over his ... it stings, to say the least, and it definitely has bruised his ego just a little, too!
X
End Note: I've pretty much said it all in my Author's note at the top, but please leave me a few words/comments to let me know what you think of it this far. I'd really appreciate it so much, and it would give me an insight if there's still a Jax and Tara audience out there interested in yet another teenage story of them, and if I should keep working on this (eventually), or just let things be as they are and focus solely on my other story and my series of one-shots instead. If it turns out that you guys want me to continue this, then I certainly will, but my main focus right now is still on 'You, and me, and our boys', so I probably won't update this story regularly until that other one is complete. Thank you for your for your input.