Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OCs and storyline...

She Will Be Loved

Chapter 4: Confidence

By Love Ink

Angela grinned when she saw the familiar phone number come on her cell phone's screen. It'd been awhile since she'd talked to Juice. She went to her bedroom, sitting down heavily on her unmade bed and drawing her knees to her chest. "Hey you," she greeted, her heartbeat kicking up with excitement. "How are you?"

"Hey! Finally! Thought I'd missed you again," Juice's voice sounded a bit relieved. They'd been playing phone tag for the past few days. "I'm good, real good. How are you? What are you up to?"

"I was just doing some cleaning," she lied, not wanting to admit she was bored out of her mind at home since he was gone and Raj was busy at his internship. "How are things? Is my family driving you crazy?"

His rough chuckle made her heart sputter. "I love your Aunt. She's fuckin' awesome. And I met your cousin and Koz a few nights back. They're...terrifying."

Angela laughed, making a mental note to call Koz and ask how the meeting went on their end. "They're mostly harmless," she said, wishing she could've been there for that moment. "Were they nice at least?"

"I guess. As nice as two outlaw badasses can be. I'm going to go to the garage tomorrow. Gotta try to prove myself to them. Dunno how I'm gonna do that, but I'm gonna try."

"Confidence, Ortiz. You got this," she scolded, playing with her ring. "Just go in there, and show them what you're made of."

Juice sighed contently, and she could just picture the smile on his face. "You think so?"

"I know so, goofy. Just be honest with them. They'll be able to tell if you're hiding shit and that'll make them mistrust you. You got nothin' to hide. All of 'em have done illegal shit. Most of 'em probably worse than whatever you've done."

"Probably," he agreed on a laugh.

"You been reading up on your mechanic stuff?"

"Oh yeah. I learned all the terms and got a basic feel for the stuff. Did some research about what kind of programs the computers in different cars have. Hopefully I can baffle them with my bullshit."

"You'll be fine," she assured him, knowing he needed it. "Have you made any new friends there?"

This time Juice's sigh was heavier, sadder. "Besides your Aunt, your Ma who mostly ignores me, and your scary cousin and his buddy? Nah. I haven't ventured outside on my own much. Mostly to go help your Aunt with the grocery shopping," he told her. "Not like I could find anyone to replace you anyway. You're the best friend I got."

Heat rose to her cheeks as she bit her lip. God, she missed him. "Right back at ya."

"How's Raj doin'?" he asked, almost as if he was trying to remind her she was with someone. "Still studying away?"

"Yeah," she answered on a sad laugh. "He's at his internship right now. They asked him to stay late to help with some law case. He was stoked. Apparently college seniors don't get that opportunity often."

"Good for him."

"Guess so," she said with a sigh. She picked awkwardly at her comforter, hating the distance between her and Juice. It just felt wrong. "I went to dinner with his parents the other night. 's why I didn't answer your call."

"Shit. How was that? His Ma still hate you?"

Angela laughed, thinking about the disapproving look on Raj's mother's face. She was her landlord, and while she'd approved of her living in the apartment, she did not approve of her dating her son. "Yep. Finally figured out why, though. His little sister said it's 'cause I'm the "wrong type of brown". He's supposed to marry a nice Indian girl. Raj almost killed his sister for saying anythin'."

"Least now you know."

"That is true."

There was an awkward pause between them that had never existed before. She hated it, hated not knowing what to say to fill the pause. "I um...I should let you go so you can get ready for tomorrow," she suggested on a frown. "But it was nice talking to you."

"Yeah," he said on a breath. "Miss you, Angel."

Her heart skipped a beat, a lump forming in her throat. "Miss you too, goofy. 's weird being here without you."

"Know the feeling. You comin' to visit anytime soon?"

Angela let out a long breath, blowing her hair out of her face. "I dunno. I hope so. Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas or somethin'. We'll see."

"Aww, man. That's almost a year away."

"I know, but I don't have the money for that right now," she said, feeling her cheeks go red with embarrassment. The money she'd been saving up, she'd given to him so he could ride across country. "Hopefully by then, I'll have enough."

Juice sighed lengthily. "I'll send you what I make. I owe you so much."

"Don't worry about it, goof," she assured him, a warmth in her stomach blossoming at his kindness. "You send me money, and I'm sending it right back."

"I'm gonna repay you someday, Angel. You can't keep shovin' money back at me forever."

Angela smiled, knowing she'd never let that happen. "You bet I can."

"We'll see," he sang. "You still gotta go?"

"I should. Need to sleep eventually."

"Right. Because of the time difference. That's so fuckin' weird." He let out another long, sad sigh. "I'll let you go, then."

She felt a lump form in her throat for some reason; she didn't want to let him go. "Yeah. Good luck tomorrow. You're gonna do great."

"Thanks. Night, Angel."

"Night, Juice," she murmured, expecting him to hang up. She didn't hear the click and smirked. "Hang up, dude."

He chuckled. "You first."

She smiled, shaking her head at him. "No, you."

"Not gonna happen."

"Goof," she said with a laugh. "Good night."

"Sweet dreams."

"I'm gonna hang up now."

"Go for it."

"Night!" Angela laughed, hanging up the phone and falling back on the bed. Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much, but for some reason, she couldn't stop. As happy as she was with Raj, she hadn't laughed or smiled so much in weeks. All it took was just a phone call from Juice to make her feel that way. She sighed, shaking her head. No, she wouldn't let her thoughts take her down a route she had turned off of so long ago. Juice was her friend. Her best friend. That was it. It had to be.

Juice rode into the Teller Morrow Compound on his piece of shit Harley, his stomach churning anxiously. He had to make a good impression if he wanted them to keep him around. Confidence, Ortiz, Angela's voice echoed in his head. Taking in a deep breath, he did his best to straighten his shoulders. He looked around the compound, taking in the large Reaper and skulls that decorated the building across the way. Sons of Anarchy. He was familiar with the outlaw motorcycle club mostly because the mob boss he used to work for hated them. The Sons in New York refused to sell guns to the Giannone family as they were aligned with the rival family. Juice had never had a problem with them, though. He honestly had never had any interaction with them save for Angela mentioning them every once in awhile. She'd done her best to keep him out of that part of her life until now.

" 'ey Juicer!" Kozik shouted as he came out from the garage's side of the compound. "Over here!"

He nodded, jogging over to him and trying not to smile with excitement. "What's up, man?" he greeted, shaking Kozik's hand.

"Nothin'. You talk to our girl at all? Haven't heard from her in a minute," he asked, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

Juice fought against a blush at Kozik calling Angela 'their girl'. She didn't belong to him, no matter how much he wished she did. "Oh um...yeah. Talked to her last night. She's doin' well. Said she wants to visit but doesn't have the cash for it."

"Yeah, we're workin' on that," Koz stated on a sigh.

"I'm up for pitchin' in once I get somethin' in my pocket," he offered, knowing he'd done the right thing when Kozik smiled.

The blonde slapped him on the back. " 'ppreciate that. C'mon, got people I want you to meet."

Juice followed him around the garage as he introduced him to the mechanics. He noticed none of them were wearing the same cut as Kozik. Looking across the lot, he saw most of the Sons were lounging at the picnic tables in front of the other building. "So where's the computer I'm supposed to look at?" he asked, not seeing any sort of technology in the garage bays.

"Ah. That would be over here," he said, opening the door to the office.

An older woman sat at the desk in front of a large computer monitor. There were a few ledgers open in front of her that she was going over with a pen in her hand, glasses perched at the end of her nose. When the entered, she looked over the top of her glasses at them, her hazel eyes narrowing slightly. "Can I help you, Kozik?" she asked, looking a little irked to have been bothered.

"Hey, Gemma. This is Juice. He's good with computers and shit. Thinkin' he could look at that hunk of junk and fix it for ya," Kozik replied, the smallest hint of amusement in his eyes. "Juice, this is Gemma, our lovely matriarch."

"Juice? What kind of a name is that?" she asked, sitting back in her seat as she took off her glasses.

Juice shifted uneasily under her scrutinizing gaze. "Oh, it's just a...a nickname."

"Yeah, no shit," Gemma said with a smirk. "What's the name your mama gave you?"

"Juan Carlos, ma'am," he told her quickly, his cheeks feeling hot. He had a feeling he had to impress this lady if he ever wanted to earn his place at the shop and one day earn a cut.

"Gemma," she corrected flatly. She exhaled loudly, turning her gaze to the computer. "How good are you with this tech shit?"

"He's real good, Gem. Fixed Hap's mom's satellite. Got it to pick up like ten more channels by hacking into shit," Kozik answered, trying to help.

Gemma smirked, shaking her head at Kozik. "You got a crush or somethin', Koz? What's in this for you?"

"Nothin'," he answered, hands in his pockets again. "Just think he'd be a real asset to this place. Help us get some of that techie shit in here. You know as well as I do the new cars all run on computers."

She stood up from the desk, tossing her glasses on the table. "All right, Juice," she began, the way she said his name making him feel about two-feet tall. "Let's see what you got."

Juice sucked in a quick breath as he nodded. "Right. So what exactly is wrong with it?" he asked, sitting down in her seat and waking the computer up.

"It's slow as hell and all the accounting shit keeps quittin' on me. Had to go back to paper 'cause it stopped savin' all my work. That and the printer stopped workin' a couple months ago. Customers think we're back in the Stone Age."

He nodded his head, only half listening to her as he started clicking around. It didn't take him long to find out what the problem was. "There's one hell of a Trojan on here. You ever download a program from the internet?"

"Well, yeah. Got an e-mail sayin' we had to update some program," Gemma said, hands on her hips as she looked over his shoulder, watching him like a hawk.

Juice cringed, shaking his head slowly. "Yeah, don't do that anymore. You didn't update the program, you downloaded a virus that's been eating at all of your files and making it slow."

"No shit," she commented, an impressed note to her voice. "Can you fix it?"

He nodded, fighting the urge to smile. "I can do you one better. Fix it and install a Firewall, so it can catch these fuckers before they start messing up the computer."

"Smarter than you look," Gemma scoffed, nodding at Kozik. "You can leave him here for now. You do well here, 'n' I'll send you over to the clubhouse. Dunno what those boys do with 'em but those things are slow as hell."

"You can blame Tig for that. He's always lookin' up weird porn shit on 'em," Kozik said on a chuckle. "I'll leave Juicer to it, then. When you're done, I'll introduce ya to the rest of the guys."

He headed out, leaving Juice alone with Gemma. He kept quiet for the most part, focused on his work and trying his best to look confident in it. She took a seat in one of the couches, angling herself so she was facing him. "So how did you meet Kozik? 's rare one of the guys pull in some random kid off the streets."

"I um...Hap's cousin is a good friend of mine. I got into some shit back in New York, so I came out here."

"And he asked Hap and Koz to give you an in."

Juice smirked; clearly Gemma had never met Angela. "She did."

"She, huh? Can't imagine what she's like bein' Hap's cousin 'n' all."

"Oh she's...she's the best," he said, for lack of a better thing to say. "She's studyin' for a degree in mortuary science right now. She's crazy smart and just...nice. Funny too. And caring. She...she gave me some cash and told me to come out here, that she'd hook me up with people to help me out. "

"Of course Hap's cousin would be into dead people," she said on a short laugh. "She pretty?"

"Beautiful," he blurted out before he could stop himself. He blushed, clamping his mouth shut and cursing himself for being such an idiot.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Old girlfriend of yours?"

"No," he said on a laugh. "No, Ang is...she's just my friend. Best friend."

Gemma narrowed her eyes at him, the smallest hint of a smirk pulling up the corners of her mouth. "Guys and girls can't be just friends."

Juice couldn't count how many times he'd heard that one before. He shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. "We are."

"Bullshit. Girl saves your ass and hooks you up with a safe place to stay and her killer cousin. There's feelin's there. And I can tell just by the way you talk about her, that friends shit is bullshit."

He shrugged a shoulder. "I love her like a sister and she loves me like a brother. That's about it," he lied, thankful he had the computer in front of him to keep him from looking at Gemma. He knew if he made eye contact with her, she'd see right through him.

"Uh-huh. Sure," she said, shaking her head at him. "So New York, huh?"

"Queens."

"What'd you do there?"

Juice knew this conversation was more than a casual 'get-to-know-you' moment. He got the feeling Gemma was the matriarch, the gatekeeper, and what she said, went. If he could impress her, get her to like him, there might be some hope he could get into the club's good graces and be accepted into their fold. He remembered what Angela had told him about being honest and open and decided to dive in head first. "Computer stuff. Hacking into police records, changing warrants, getting into bank accounts, shit like that."

"Illegal shit," she assumed, though she didn't seem at all surprised. "You working with the New York charter? That how you got hooked up with Hap's cuz?"

"Nah. We ran into each other one night. Was workin' for one of the mob families over there," he explained, working as he did so. "Helped them get back at another family, which they loved me for. Then they made nice with the other family, and offered me and another guy up for retribution."

Gemma clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "Stupid assholes," she muttered before getting up off the couch. "Well, their loss is our gain. I'll leave you to it. Don't touch any other shit in here."

"Yeah, no, I won't. Promise," he assured her. She patted his shoulder before heading out the door. Once she was gone, and he was alone, he let out a long breath of air and relaxed a bit. He had a feeling he'd passed the first test Gemma had for him, though he knew there would probably be more in the coming days. Angela's strategy of being open and honest had worked in his favor this time, and once again, he found himself thanking whatever God had sent her to him that night in New York.

Sounds like these two are in denial... 😉

Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to read about! Especially if there's something on Angela's end you're curious about.

I will say this story's origin of Juice's mohawk and tattoos will be coming soon...

Let me know what you think!

~Love Ink