*Author's Note*

Thank you for the follows, favs, and reviews. You readers are awesome.


Time Of Your Life

Austi POV:

It was now mid-July and I haven't talked to my dad since the 4th. Oh boy that phone call was something else. My life in Charming seems to be pretty good so far. Me and Donna talk on the phone when she's not pulling doubles at Lumpy's. We had a lunch get together coming up soon; most likely she'd be bringing the kids to our lunch.

Gemma wanted me to sign up for school at the community college to make sure that I could start classes on time during the fall semester. So that's what I'm doing right now. I'm sitting on the couch in my oversized Nirvana t-shirt, something I stole from Markel durin' our first trial run of dating and often used as a jammie or lounge shirt, while filing out an application for college on my laptop. Eh, boring, but it has to get done.

I had just finishing filing out the information for my high school back in Ohio whenever I heard the front door open and shut. I tore my attention away from my computer just in time to see Jax walk by. "Hey, shouldn't you be at work?"

"Got sent home." He told me as he walked into the room. He had hung his cut up by the door so he was just in his Son shirt with his jeans and white sneakers.

"Oh, so you got fucked up last night and have a hangover now?"

"Pretty much, yea." Jax told me as he sat down next to me on the couch.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Mhm, and even though you get fucked up you're always able to stumble to your dorm to nail random croweaters and sweetbutts." Shit, did I just say that out loud? Yep there goes my word vomit.

Jax gave me a smug and cocky smirk as he said, "Yea, well, that's the fun part of being a free man. Can drink what you want and fuck who you want."

"Jax, having fun and stuff is different than drowning your sorrows over somebody you think you loved."

"The fuck you talking about?" He growled as his head spun around so fast, I thought it was going to fly off his shoulders.

I looked him in the eyes while honestly telling him, "I heard a little bit about how Tara left you from both Gemma and Donna."

"Oh…" He leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes.

It's time to rip the band-aid off. He can't be crying over spilt milk forever. Yea, I'm telling him the cold hard truth. "Jax, you need to get over Tara leaving you."

"I loved her since I was 16, how do I just get over that?" Jax asked me as he stared at the rings on his hands.

"I don't think you loved her, I think you loved the idea of her cause if you truly did love her you would've left Charming with her and you didn't. You stayed and she left." I explained to Jax.

Jax just nodded his head silently at me. Yep, I guess I better just tell him about Markel so he'll understand that he's not the only on who's high school sweetheart ditched them. But things were always rocket with me and my ex, but whatever Jax needed a pick me up so…

"You're not the only person that had their sweetheart pick college over them." I told Jax as he turned his head to look at me. Okay, so I got his attention now. "My ex Markel got offered a full ride football scholarship for Texas and one for Ohio State. Ohio State is in Columbus, bout 50 miles away from Northon, but he chose to accept the scholarship for Texas."

"I'm sorry he picked Texas over you. You didn't deserve that when he could've picked you."

"And I'm sorry that Tara pulled your heart out of your ass after giving you false hope by getting your crow and taking off."

"Shit." Jax lightly smiled and let of a mix between a sigh and a laugh. "We both got royally fucked by our first loves didn't we?"

"Yep." I told Jax, popping my tongue. Suddenly I had an idea. I don't know how good of one it is, but we'll see. Here goes nothing. "Oh, I can show you Markel in my yearbook if you'd like. It's upstairs in my room."

"Yea, let's go look at it." He nodded even tho he sounded like he'd rather get shot in the head. I think he agreed to just pacify me, but whatever.


Jax POV:

I was sitting on the bed in Austi's room, waiting for her to dig her yearbook out of a box that was in her closet. Great place for her yearbook, in a box shoved in the closet. Hopefully she doesn't ask to see mine since I don't have one. I dropped out; I hated school and didn't see the need for it. I always knew that I'd patch into the club, I didn't need a diploma for that. I got my GED and I can fix cars, just enough to get my outlaw ass by on.

Austi had decorated her room nicely though. Sure, it had the girly shit in it, but it wasn't too girly. It didn't look like Tinkerbelle barfed glitter all over it. Yea, some chicks go crazy with the girly shit. Not Austi, she seemed to find a nice middle ground between girly and not girly. Her bedspread that I was sitting on was floral, but was black and white. She had some hot pink pillows on her bed too.

I noticed on the side table by her bed she had a picture framed of her and Hope. The frame was green and had gold letters on it spelling out *Live*Love*Cheer* on it. I picked up the frame and looked at it. Austi and Hope were smiling and had bear claws painted on their cheeks in green and gold. Austi's blonde hair was pulled up in a high ponytail with this big ass bow that was white with green and gold sparkles on it. Hope, the crazy bitch friend, had her blonde and teal highlighted hair pulled back in a high ponytail with a big ass bow too. They had on green, white, and gold cheerleader outfits.

Ah, so Austi and Hope were cheerleaders. I banged a few in high school before I dropped out and got real hot and heavy with Tara. "You were a cheerleader." I told Austi as I put her picture frame back on the side table. For some reason she just didn't come across as the cheerleader type. Her friend, maybe, but not Austi.

"Yea and I lost my virginity to the captain of the football team. Rah-Rah." Austi told me as she opened up a box in her closet.

"What?" I choked out. Damn, I wasn't expecting to hear her say that.

"Jax, cheerleaders date football players and people who date typically tend to have sexy time." Yea, I know that, but I wasn't expecting her to tell me that she screwed that jockstrap. "I found the yearbook." She told me as she walked out of the closet, a big green book in her hands.

Great, now I get to see the jockstrap she screwed in high school. Good thing I don't have a yearbook, half the girls in that thing I probably screwed or at least got head from.

"Our mascot was a bear so that's why there's a gold bear claw on the front." Austi told me as she sat down next to me on the bed and dropped the book on my lap. The book was green with a gold bear claw on it; Northon High School was printed in gold bold letters.

I opened the book and on the front page was a table of contents. Ignoring it I turned he page. On one page was a large group photo of the senior class all sitting on bleachers in the gym. The page next to it had a bunch of bullshit listed. By bullshit I mean the class song, colors, flower, and quote.

"You class song was Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) by Green Day?" I asked, I guess I was expecting her senior class to pick something sappy.

"Yea and our colors were green and gold, like the school."

"A dandelion's a weed not a flower." I told her as I pointed at the picture of the weed listed as the class flower in her yearbook.

She laughed as she told me, "I know that, but some of the class didn't."

"What takes us back to the past is our memories. What brings us forward is our dreams. Jeremy Irons." I read out loud. Nice class quote, seems like they drank up that bullshit kool-aid about following your dreams. I don't think that Austi drank up that bullshit dream kool-aid. She never talks about her future goals; all I know is she's applying for college to learn nursing so she can get a job and be our club nurse. Okay, so she never said she'd be our club nurse but I knew that Clay'd make her do it once she got that nursing degree.

Augusta turned the page, tired of waiting for me to do it. On top of the page it said Senior Portraits. Okay, so here are the senior class pictures. I noticed crazy Hope's right away. Her name was Hope Beckett. She was smiling and had long curly dark plum hair. Shit, does she always have crazy hair?

"Oh, that's Markel." Austi's finger pointed to a picture of a guy with long dark hair, a beard, and grey-blue eyes that was a row under Hope's.

Mark Bennet. Mark? She always calls him Markel. "Mark? What the fuck, I thought you said his name's Markel?"

"It's Mark, I just call him Markel." She told me as we looked at Mark Bennet's picture.

"Oh, okay." I took a good look at Mark's picture. He had this blank, lost look on his face. It's your fucking senior picture, smile dumb ass. He looks like a dumb douchebag to me. I don't like him. "He's a fucking douchebag." I told her before moving on to flip the page. She just shook her head at me.

After flipping a few pages Austi pointed to a guy with curly red hair. "That's Brad Jenkins, Hope's boyfriend." Hope actually had a boyfriend. Bet he's as crazy as she is.

"Holy shit, he's fucking creepy." I told Austi whenever I saw a picture of a guy with short brown hair that had some crazy eyes. This kid gave me the chills, the way he was looking at the camera was not normal. "That kid looks like he's getting ready to kill the camera guy."

"Jordan Kohn." Austi read the name below the creepy kid's picture. "Oh my god that creeper had a few math and science classes with me. I had to dissect a frog with him in biology; he named it Frogger before he cut it open. I just did the worksheet, he hacked up Frogger."

"He's creepy as fuck."

"Yep." Austi said, quickly turning the page. "Look, there I am." She pointed to her picture.

I looked at her picture. She was smiling, showing off her pearly white teeth. Her long blonde hair was parted down the side, falling over her shoulders in soft waves. She had on these blue earrings that made her blue eyes sparkle and pop. It was the first time I ever saw her with bold makeup on. Her eyes were smoky and lined black and she had dark pink lipstick on. Her cheek bones had a hint of blush on them too.

She looked good, no better than good she looked fucking beautiful. Why she doesn't dress up is beyond me. If she took the time to do her makeup and dress up, she would give every Son a heart attack and make every croweater madder than a fucking hornet.

"Oh, you wanna see the girl I threw into the tree?" Austi asked me before I could compliment her on her senior picture.

"Sure." After flipping a few pages Austi pointed at this brunette butter face with the name of Allison Webber. No wonder this girl was picking on Austi, ugly butter face knew she wasn't going to be pretty like Austi when she grew up. "She's a butter face."

"Yea…well…Markel didn't think so…" Austi sighed through gritted teeth.

"He cheated on you with her?" Why would he do butter face when he had Austi? Austi's a pretty girl while Allison's a girl you gotta take from behind and shove her face into the pillow cause she's fucking ugly.

"No, we weren't together." Austi told me as she quickly flipped the page. "Look at the superlatives." She told me as the page I was now looking at was filled with students in pictures showing off their personalities and shit.

I saw Hope and she was in a striped high neck tank and her hair was pulled half back, making her look like some kind of '90s fashion model. The superlative under her picture said: Most likely to become a fashion designer. Markel was in his football jersey and had his hair pulled back into a bun. His superlative said: Most likely to join the NFL. Wow big surprise there. I didn't really care about the other kids and their superlatives.

I flipped the pages until I found Austi's picture. She was wearing a black and white floral shirt and had a half smile on her face. That picture captured her perfectly. I can't pinpoint why, but it seemed to show her personality or at least the one I've gotten to know while she's been living with me. Under her picture it said: Most likely to run away. "Yea that fits."

"What?" She asked before looking at her picture. "Oh that, yea guess it does." She chuckled, the apples of her cheeks round and turning a slight red shade.

I flipped through the pages until I got to the homecoming week section. It was full of pictures of different students dressed up as different shit. The week 's list was: Monday-Halloween, Tuesday-Superheroes, Wednesday-Twin Day, Thursday-Loser Lionell Day, Friday-Spirit/Game Day, Saturday-Lovin' The 80's Homecoming Dance.

"What's Loser Lionell Day?" I asked Austi, a bit confused since I was never into the homecoming week bullshit before I dropped out of school. Tara never wanted to go to football games or dances either, she was always studying or with me. And when she was with me we were getting into shit; getting busted by the cops for disorderly conduct or underage drinking; other dumb shit too.

"Lionell High's our rival and Loser Lionell Day's when everybody dresses up in Lionell colors and looks like dorky losers." She explained, which just caused me to nod my understanding at her.

I spotted a picture under the game day section that was of Markel, Austi, Hope, Brad all dressed up in their uniforms on the sidelines. The way Markel had his arm over Austi made it look like he was trying to force it to look like they were happily posing for the picture. At least Hope and Brad really did look happy.

Yea, I've had enough of this shit. I'm just going to flip the pages and glance at the pictures.

"Look, it's the prom stuff." Austi told me as she pointed to a page I tried to flip by.

"Yea, I didn't go to that shit." I dryly told her as I read the title of the page, Enchanted Forest Prom. Enchanted Forest Prom, what the fuck shit is that? "Looks like it was bullshit." Pink fake trees, glitter, and lights were all over the place and students were all crammed together dancing.

"It was bullshit."Austi agreed with me. "I went with Markel cause we had already paid for the couple ticket, but we weren't actually together anymore." She told me as she pointed to a picture that was of her and Markel standing in front of a pink backdrop with a white tree painted on it. They must've been a popular 'couple' to make it into the yearbook a few times.

"Fuck that, I would've stayed home." I told her as took a better look at the picture of Austi and Markel at prom. He looked like Harry from Dumb & Dumber with his powder blue tux. All he needed was the top hat and cane. Austi tho looked hot in her blue dress, one that hugged her in all the right places and had a side slit in it. Hey, I know I don't know her that well, but I'd have to be blind not to notice that she's smoking hot whenever she dresses up.

"Jax, no, you can't not go to prom. You know what kind of people don't go to prom?" She gasped.

"Yea...me..." I told her since I didn't go to prom.

"Oh, hell, you don't count. You dropped out." She said as she rolled her eyes at me. "Now let's skip past the underclassmen and go to the sports and club stuff."

"Sure." I told her, even to I could care less, and then flipped the pages until I found the sports section. Of course, the first page was the football team. The team was sitting on the bleachers of the football stadium. How stereotypical.

On the side of the page were the headshots of the captain and co-captains. Mark Bennet had captain under his picture along some bullshit about how he got a scholarship for Texas. He had on a muscle shirt in the picture, it showed off his ugly ass tribal arm band tattoo. Everything about this guy screamed douchebag, bet he uses Axe body spray too.

I flipped the pages until I came across the cheerleading page. A group of 10 girls were all lined up in their uniforms posing with their pompoms and big smiles. I bet Markel got around with this cheer team. Except Hope, I doubt he went near her since she's annoying.

I flipped through some more pages until I got to the end where all the signatures are. I read a few of them.

Make sure to watch my college games on tv.-Mark

Only a douchebag would tell the girl they dumped for football to watch his football shit on tv.

You know they say if you get arrested together you'll be BFFL. At least my mugshot was prettier than yours, BFFL-Hope

Wait, Austi and Hope got arrested? Oh this I got to hear. "What did you and Hope get arrested for?"

Austi just shook her head and smiled, I assumed she knew that I read what Hope signed her yearbook with. "Truancy at the IHop during a blizzard in March."

"You got arrested for skipping school?" I skipped school all the time and never got arrested, but my mom is friends with Charming's chief of police so that might've been why I never got booked for that. I got booked for other shit tho.

"Yep and the cop was a total dick. He tossed all my shit out of my purse, made me pick it up, slammed me on the hood of his car and cuffed me. I got tossed into the back of the squad car, but Hope got treated much nicer." She grumbled as she told me the details of her arrest. "I normally don't like cops, except Unser's cool."

"Of course, Unser's cool, he's SAMCRO family." I told her before I went back to reading the yearbook signatures.

The last one was written by that creeper with the crazy eyes.

I'll be seeing you-Jordan

I closed the book and handed it back to her. "You spent your senior year with a douchebag."

Austi POV:

"Markel's not a douchebag. He's just a dumb jock." I told Jax as I placed my yearbook on the end of the bed. "You got any pictures of you and Tara? I know you dropped out so no yearbook."

"No, my mom took all the Tara pictures and had a bonfire with them." He told me and I can tell that he was serious.

I can just picture it now, Gemma loading the firepit with wood and pouring an entire bottle of lighter fluid on it before tossing in every single picture of Tara (who she hates with a passion) into the larger then life flames.

"Oh…so how did you meet Tara? I met Markel at a football game." I asked Jax, even though I already knew how he met her. I just figured he might want to tell me himself. That it might help him move past his weird hang up on her.

Jax played with the rings on his hands as he told me, "I 16 and was failing geometry, my teacher and school counselor arranged for Tara to be my tutor."

"Okay. So did you date long? I was with Markel for maybe a year and a half with a few breaks."

"On and off with Tara for 3 years." Jax told me with a shrug as he randomly looked around my room.

"Damn, no wonder you're a complete wreck." I can't imagine how much crap he went through with her.

He quickly protested with, "I'm not a complete wreck."

"Sure, if you say so…"I sighed. "You know Markel drove me nuts at first. He just got under my skin, I'm not sure why, but then he grew on me. I went out with him to get away from my house."

"What'd you mean?" Jax asked me, his brow hitched up with curiosity.

"My dad's an emotionally absent functioning drunk and my step-mother's a cold and cruel woman who's a selfish wino. Cheerleading and Markel kept me occupied." I explained without going into too much detail about my childhood.

I never liked talking about how I was raised. I was raised to respect your parents, so I wasn't going to bash on my dad and step-mom. I was never beat or anything like that. I just didn't get a lot of hugs growing up. Me and Asher grew up together and somehow, she was the cheery corky girl and I was the jaded one with the guarded outlook on life.

Jax nodded his head in understanding. "I hooked up with Tara a couple months after my dad died. Tara understood; her mom took herself out when she was 9. My mom was getting close to Clay and I felt alone. Tara's dad was the town drunk so she was alone too. We hooked up cause she needed me and I guess I needed her too." Jax told me, showing me a bit of his vulnerability that he always hid behind his badass biker bravado.

"You needed her for a time, but you don't need her anymore. She left, you stayed, and you're fine. You're still standing strong. You're the club's V.P., but you've only moved on halfway with your life. Let go of the puppy love bullshit and you'll be much happier."

"Is that what you did, let go of the puppy love bullshit?" He asked me a bit dryly, his blue eyes boring into mine.

"Difference between me and you is you let yourself believe the puppy love was going to last forever and I never believed that. I never made myself believe that it was going to last forever, I went by the whatever happens happens outlook." I explained to Jax and we sat together on my bed.

It hurts less when you get left behind if you don't let somebody in all the way. Making future plans and shit makes it real, real gets you hurt. Planning too far ahead leads to disappointment. I learned that all too well with all the broken promises from my dad and step-mom about vacations, trips, and other shit growing up.


AN: Whoo-hoo Jax and Austi had some bonding time. Now remember Jordan, even though he's just mentioned now he's going to be a pain in the ass much later on. Jordan looks like Pope from AK, complete with creepiness and crazy eyes. Now this is going to be a bit of an angsty slowburn with some drama here and there, but Jax is now on his way to letting go of Tara. Yay!