"I'm coming!" Jax yelled from the other side of his front door, making Emma let out a small giggle. She had been knocking on the door for about a minute straight, knowing that Jax always took his time to answer the door. She liked to hurry him up a bit.
The door finally swung open to reveal Jax, an exasperated look on his face. "It was unlocked, Em."
Emma offered him a charming smile, showing off her dimples. She shrugged her shoulder. "I didn't want to be rude, Jackson," she teased, walking past him into the house.
He let out a low chuckle, following her down the hall to his bedroom. "Well that's new."
Emma threw herself onto his bed with a sigh, making herself comfortable as she had a tendency to do. She let her eyes close, and heard Jax scoff to himself. Opening one eye, she peeked up at him.
"You just got here. Don't tell me you're already thinking about sleeping."
Emma laughed a little, pulling one of the throw blankets up to her chin. "Just getting ready for that great movie you promised me."
Jax had invited Emma and Opie over to watch a movie at his place that night. Opie was supposed to be there the same time she was, but unsurprisingly, he was running a bit late. Jax was over by the TV he kept in his room, looking through his DVD's.
"Sure you are," he murmured, mostly to himself, too concentrated on looking for something to watch.
A few moments of comfortable silence fell, and Emma let her eyes close again, smiling a little to herself. This is what she loved. Getting to spend time with Jax and Ope, just like they used to do so often when they were kids. As the years passed, the three of them became more and more busy, and it was becoming more difficult to come across times when all three of them could get together like this. Of course, that was if Opie even planned on showing up in the next hour.
"Where's Ope?" She asked quietly, keeping her eyes closed.
Jax hummed, and she could imagine the look on his face as he thought about it. One corner of his mouth turned down, rolling his eyes as if it didn't really matter. "Maybe things are running late at the garage."
"Huh. You would think that you would be affected by that too, but here you are, lazy ass."
Jax turned around to look at her, picking up a pillow and throwing it at her face. She let out a loud laugh, finally looking at him. "Don't be mean."
As if on cue, they heard the front door open, closely followed by the opening of Jax's bedroom door. Opie stood in the doorway, offering Jax a nod before glancing at Emma on the bed. He toed off his boots, throwing himself onto the large mattress next to her. She let out a tiny yelp, bouncing up a little as his weight was added to the bed.
"Oh shut up," Opie commented on her exaggeration, pulling on the ends of her hair.
She snorted at him, moving a little closer. "You're warm, Ope."
"We live in California, Em," he stated as though she was dumb.
She moved over to lay her head against his shoulder, not acknowledging his comment. Things like this were normal between them. There was no romance or hidden intimacy in the act, Emma had been doing it for so long that it just seemed normal.
"Don't you dare fall asleep," Opie muttered to her, although she could feel him moving around under her, already getting more comfortable.
Jax finally spoke up, plopping himself onto the bean bag next to the bed. He must have put the movie in already. "No kidding. You can't miss this, Em."
"Okay, okay," Emma half-heartedly agreed, still keeping her eyes closed. She knew they'd still be hanging out long after the movie, even if she did decide to take a little nap.
She felt herself dozing only a few minutes into the movie, the vibrations of Opie's laughter lulling her to sleep.
The room seemed to be getting louder, slowly waking Emma from her short sleep. She could occasionally feel a hum under her, and she remembered that she fell asleep on Opie. He must have been talking. Letting her eyes open slightly, she squinted at the TV that was still playing the movie.
"You guys," she complained, laying her forehead flat against Opie's chest so she didn't have to see the light again. "Are so loud."
"C'mon, Em. I invited our newest victim, I thought you'd be glad," Jax laughed, rather loudly, probably just to annoy her.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to process his words. "What the hell are you-" she cut herself off mid-sentence, turning her head to look at him. Sitting next to him was none other than Ortiz himself. Emma fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Oh."
"Don't sound so excited," Juice chuckled lowly, holding her eyes when she looked over at him.
Emma nodded at him in vague acknowledgement, turning her head against Opie to look up at his face. "You let this happen?"
Opie shrugged one shoulder. "Don't know what to tell you, sweetheart."
She grunted, giving up whatever she was trying to convince herself she was upset about, moving closer to the big ball of warmth next to her. Her eyes wandered to the TV and tried to interest herself in the movie. Despite her best efforts, she could feel her eyelids getting heavy again, once again giving into the sleep that had been tempting her.
Juice glanced over at Emma, a little surprised to see that she had already fallen asleep again. Her head was pillowed against Opie's chest, his hand resting lazily on her arm. Juice looked away, trying to push away the absolutely ridiculous feeling of jealousy that was rising in him. The feeling didn't even make sense. Ope and Em were friends, there wasn't a more platonic relationship than theirs. There was nothing to feel "jealous" about.
"Jesus," Jax scoffed. "She's missing the whole damn movie." His laugh made it obvious that he wasn't mad, and that he wasn't surprised either.
"Hey, shut up," Opie shushed him quietly, looking down at Emma to make sure the loud sound hadn't woke her up.
Juice felt that feeling again, but made sure to push it down even further. He cleared his throat. "Do you guys know who that Jim guy from school is?"
Jax made a disgusted sound at the mention of the name. "Jim Michael's? I can't fuckin' stand that guy.
"Nothin' but bad news," Opie agreed, toying with the ends of Emma's long hair as though he was looking for split ends.
Their distaste towards Jim confirmed Juice's suspicions of the guy. "Thought so."
Jax eyed him from the corner of his eye. He had a feeling he knew why Juice was bringing him up at all. He had seen Jim at the shop a week earlier, and noticed Juice walking out of the office a few minutes after he had gotten there & started talking to Emma. He couldn't tell what Juice was thinking at the time, but now he had a better idea.
He looked back at the TV, humming in agreement. "Yeah. He's had a thing for Em since like the 8th fucking grade though. Poor bastard."
Juice raised his eyebrows, sparing a quick look towards Emma before looking at Jax. "No kidding."
"Rumor has it they hooked up sophomore year," Opie nearly whispered, his eyes on the side of Emma's face, as though he was scared to wake her from the peaceful sleep. "But when we asked her about it she would never say anything. You know how she can be."
Juice did know. In the short time that they had known each other, he had gotten a feel of what kind of person Emma was. Somewhere deep inside he hoped that the rumor wasn't true, but he tried telling himself that it didn't fucking matter what she did with some guy 2 years ago.
After that, the boy's conversation fell off, and they all just sat and paid attention to the movie. It was only about 20 minutes later that Juice heard a quiet snore coming from the bed. Looking over, he saw that Opie had fallen asleep too, his head leaning back against the pillow, his mouth open. He must have been the one snoring.
"Charming," Juice joked to Jax, nodding at the large guy on the bed.
Jax half-heartedly nodded in agreement, although Juice was sure he was used to it by now. Juice's eyes unwillingly found themselves wandering to Emma again, looking at her peaceful face as she slept. Just thinking about watching her while she was sleeping made Juice feel like a creep, but he couldn't help it. He had no idea what he was even thinking. He didn't like Emma. No, not even close really. They were friends, and barely even that for that matter. They had only spoken a handful of times, and she always seemed to strike up some sort of attitude with him. But for whatever ridiculous reason, he always found himself thinking about her at random times, or paying attention to her whenever she was around. God, when did his high school life become a cheesy Hallmark movie?
"Think you should go for it," Jax's low voice interrupted his thoughts.
Juice's head snapped in his direction, his brows furrowed out of what looked like a mix between confusion and anger. "What are you talking about?"
Never taking his eyes off the TV, Jax acted as though he didn't even hear Juice. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"
Juice slowly looked away when he realized Jax wasn't going to say anything else or answer his question. He didn't understand. Just a month ago, he had been warning Juice to stay away from Emma, telling him she wasn't cut out for a guy like him. Shaking his head to clear it of all the thoughts swirling around, he decided that Jax couldn't have been talking about Emma. That'd just be plain stupid.
