The bittersweet feeling a girl gets when she sees her first car is memorable. It brings back hundreds of memories. For Lauren Knowles, the sight of her '67 Impala in her driveway only managed to piss her the fuck off. It stood for the years of repairs, the unhappy memory of her ex-husband, and the smoke that only ever seemed to rise when she was already in a bad mood. Tonight, she was in the worst mood and incredibly uncomfortable shoes.
"This wouldn't happen if you bought like, a Prius or something." Lily, her fourteen year old daughter muttered from next to her. They were sat on the trunk of the car after having phoned Teller-Morrow for a tow and ride home. Lauren fought the urge to grab the smartphone the little blonde was tapping away on and smashing it onto the ground.
"Thanks Lil, I'll think about this when I sign away the money I was going to spend for your annual trip to Staten Island for a brand new fu- freaking Prius." Lauren chuckled to herself, mentally patting her shoulder as Lily glared at her.
Lauren had only been sixteen when she'd had Lily. A week into having her new (well, old but new to her) Impala when she'd snuck out for a quick bit of fun time on the backseat with her bad boy, trailer park boyfriend, Drew Garrett. Her dad was permanently drunk, her sister thought she was hot shit riding bitch on Jax Teller's Harley, and Lauren had been desperate to rid herself of the "Tara Knowles' good little sister image". So she'd fucked him and a little over a month later, she found out she was pregnant. Her father, Carl, had barely blinked.
Within eight months, she'd had her beautiful little girl and Drew hadn't ran for the fucking hills yet. Tara took every opportunity she could to ridicule her sister for it, but Lauren wouldn't have traded in being a mom for anything. She did end up finishing high school after all so take that bitch.
The tension between the two sisters had always been thick. When the idea of college came around, Lauren stuck around and went to the local community college while Tara fled for pre-med and limited communication. There was also the fact that, and to this day Lauren will fight to defend her stance on this, Tara only began dating Jax Teller because her sister had admitted to having a crush on him in the first place. Their love for one another was undeniable but Lauren knew Tara's initial intentions were to bother her then flat-chested, nerdy little sister.
This tension is what caused Lauren's bad mood this very evening. Her mother's death when she was seven had torn the family apart and had ended with the once close sisters never truly recovering from the loss. While their father drowned himself in bottles of Jack or cans of Budweiser, their mother's sister took it upon herself to check in every once in a while. When her father forgot to pay the bills for the third month in a row, Aunt May bought the house with her rich husband's money. She seemed to like that process because she ended up buying and renting out four more homes in Charming before finally renovating Lauren's childhood home when her father moved out.
"Your sister is coming back to Charming and we're letting her stay in one of the other rentals, your old house." Her aunt had commented as her Gary, her husband, smiled fondly. The prodigal niece returns and she gets a free house. Not that Lauren hadn't stuck around to take care of everyone, owned a share of Miss Viv's, the salon she worked at, and raised a daughter with a baby daddy only recently released from jail. None of that mattered because alas, she was not a surgeon.
Dressed in a thin, short romper and some albeit cute but very uncomfortable leather wedges that took her from 5'1 to 5'7, Lauren had finished her food with barely another word to either of her parents, gulped down her full glass of wine, and exited the house while practically dragging Lily by her hair.
Now, here she was, on the side of the road from her aunt's new Stockton home, miles from her own apartment she was renting from them (because they fucking charged her, despite her being their fucking niece), and smoke was coming from underneath the hood of her cursed car. The smoke only reminded her that she'd gone three months without a cigarette and right now, she wasn't exactly sure she'd make it to four.
"Oh look, the tow truck." Lily muttered without glancing up from her phone.
"How in the world did you know that?" Lauren asked as she hopped off the trunk to greet the slowly stopping tow truck driver.
"Call it blonde intuition." She snarked, standing next to her young mother.
"Call this mother's intuition, keep being a smartass and I'll send you to bootcamp." Her heels clicked on the road as she bent over and reached into the backseat of her car for her purse.
"Ah, a Knowles' ass. My favorite sight on the side of the road." Lauren stood up so quickly at the sound of that voice that she hit her head on the inside top of the car. Over the sound of Lily's snickering, she heard the chuckle that once made her knees weak get closer as a large hand settled on her lower back. "Watch out there darlin', I wouldn't want you getting a concussion because of my beauty - though it'd offer a great boost to my ego."
Now, she rolled her eyes and she turned to face the voice head on. Jax Teller, Californian God, charm that has brought down many a woman, and the body to match. People who tell you they've never found Jax attractive are lying, know that.
"Mr. Teller. I didn't know you could drive. I thought all you knew how to do was ride motorcycles and fuck English teachers for good grades." Slipping her messenger fringe bag across her body, she crossed her arms under her chest.
"Only when they're as hot as Mrs. Holt was." His smirk seemingly only got better with age.
"Mhm, I specifically remember Mr. Holt almost setting the school on fire for that. Thanks for that week off though. I spent it getting pregnant."
His blue eyes drifted to the preoccupied teenager behind her and his lips twitched into a small smile. "How are ya, lil Knowles?"
"I'd be better if you didn't call me that godforsaken name. Can we hop in the truck?" At his nod, she turned to lay a hand on Lily's shoulder and lead her towards the truck.
Lauren stopped for a minute to turn to Jax and call back at him. "You know she's coming back right?"
"Who is - Oh." Realization hit Jax before Lauren could even answer his question. The two had never been close but they knew the damage the older Knowles sister could cause. They'd both experienced it firsthand.
The tension in the rattling tow truck was palpable. The minute Lauren broke the news to the blonde biker, he'd gone silent. Within the cab of the truck, the air was thick and there was no sound except the quiet hum of the engine and the occasional rattling of the Impala. That is, until a sound came from the middle seat.
Lily had begun making a schlick-ing sound. Lauren turned to look at her daughter with curious eyes and Jax mimicked this look. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Cutting the tension. See," she held up a clenched hand. "butter knife." Her giggle rang out and echoed through the truck.
It was silent once more before Lauren let out a small chuckle which turned into a full blown cackle. Jax himself was struggling to not laugh as well and failing. Soon, the cab was full of laughs from the three parties taking up space. Tears formed in their eyes from their laughing and Lauren was clutching her side in pain.
They were still laughing as they pulled into the Teller-Morrow lot.
Gemma Morrow was always suspicious of joy in her lot. It rarely meant anything good for her so it couldn't possibly be that funny. Unless a bitch was laughing at her because then the sight of her fist pummeling into her nose would be hi-larious.
She spotted the younger Knowles hopping out of the cab and despite not being a particularly big fan of the original, the replica did a bang up job with Gemma's hair so she didn't mind her nearly as much. A small blonde head followed her, giggling alongside her and heading right for the Old Lady.
"Hi Gemma. Workin' late?" Lauren asked. Her hairdresser brain went into overdrive and she immediately mentally pointed out where Gemma needed to touch up her roots.
"Always. If I don't, these dipshits won't." Gemma's eyes flickered to Lily. "Sorry."
"It's fine, I've heard worse from her in the mornings." Lily shrugged then patted her mother on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go get something from the vending machine."
"Okay Lils. Don't take forever, Jax is gonna give us a ride home."
"Is he now?" Gemma was admittedly a little on edge. News spreads fast in small towns, that cliche was true, and she'd heard earlier that Tara was coming back into town after the death of the girls' father weeks earlier. Carl's death hadn't even brought a tear to Lauren's eye when she'd heard about it. He'd moved out of the house six years ago and had settled into some garage apartment in Lodi and then gotten behind the wheel while drunk off his ass. Luckily for everyone else, he was the only victim that night if you didn't include the tree he'd smashed into.
"Yeah, my car fucked me over just outside of town." There was a pause. "I want her back here probably as much as you do Gemma."
"She broke my son's heart."
"I know. She also abandoned her only sister but that was long before she even looked at Jax." Lauren crossed her arms.
"You two didn't have a good relationship?" Gemma asked as she lit a cigarette and, like the fucking lady she is, offered one to Lauren who shook her head begrudgingly. Make it to four fucking months you weakling.
"That's an understatement. She wanted to save lives and I want to save split ends & roots. It's like we were operating on two different wavelengths and as much as I wanted her to be my big sister, she just wanted to fuck Jax and fuck me over. When I got pregnant, she only seemed to get worse." Lauren inhaled deeply and let out a dry chuckle. "Listen to me talkin' to you like you're my fucking therapist. You should be charging me for this."
"Knock a couple bucks off my next visit to the salon and we'll call it even." Gemma laughed just as Lily started to walk back over to them. "You made a gorgeous kid there Lil' Knowles. Don't let some croweater tell you different."
Lauren nodded as Lily reached them, scarfing down the chocolate bar. "Hey, chill out there Lochness. No one's chasing you."
"Alright, come on girls. I've gotta get this truck back here in fifteen or I'm gonna miss the fight." Jax announced after he'd finished unhooking the Impala. Cheers could be heard from the bar where presumably, they were watching the UFC fight on pay-per-view.
After a quick goodbye to Gemma and one hop back into the tow truck, they were off. Lily had begun dozing off on Lauren's shoulder so when they arrived at their house less than ten minutes later, she headed straight inside. Lauren spun to face Jax who had hopped out to walk her to the door. What a gentleman.
"Thanks for the ride Jax."
"It's not a problem there darlin'. All part of the job." They reached her door and she smiled up at him, one key already in.
"I'm sorry about earlier." At Jax's confused expression, Lauren clarified. "For springing the information on you about Tara."
"Oh. Right. It's no problem Lauren. Thanks for the warnin' though."
"Hey, we single parents gotta stick together right? Congratulations, by the way. I heard your ex is ready to burst." Lauren pushed his shoulder lightly. He scoffed, shaking his head a little.
"Yeah, then I'm stuck with her for the rest of our lives but at least one good thing comes out of it right?" Jax smiled down at her and somewhere inside of her, Lauren's fourteen year old self did a somersault of glee. The grown twenty-eight year old remained calm and returned the smile.
"Well, I better get in there and make sure everyone's in bed. Thank you, again, Jax." Without really thinking about it, Lauren leaned up to wrap her arms around his neck for a hug. He took a second but eventually returned it.
"My pleasure darlin'."
The hug lasted a couple more seconds before she pushed the door open then quickly shut it behind her, biting her lip lightly as she leant her head back against the white wood.