Chapter Five
Sunlight streamed in through the kitchen window as birds chirped happily from the Northern bayberry shrub that was located beneath the window. What should have been a beautiful sound only caused the two women sitting at the rectangular kitchen table to groan.
Forks scraped against their plates as they forced themselves to eat their greasy breakfast consisting of eggs and bacon with a side of toast. 'The Hangover Cure' they used to call it in their younger days. Obviously, they were both too freakin' old for it to actually work anymore.
Normally, Saturday mornings were a pretty decent affair in the Teller household. Nora would rotate between making huge buffet style breakfasts and just plain old French toast. While she was cooking, Jax and the kids would be stationed on the living room sofa watching Saturday morning cartoons. After breakfast, they always made sure to take the kids out and do something special with them. It was Jax's way of making it up to his family for all of the times that he had to be away for Club business. And, for the most part, life was good.
But not anymore.
No, now Nora was lucky if she was able to spend her Saturdays with Muffy.
Not that Muffy was bad company.
Quite the contrary, actually.
The only problem with Muffy was that her go-to solution for heartbreak or bad days was to get black out drunk and to be honest, Nora simply felt too old to do that every Friday night. Although, she could admit that the alcohol did help to soothe some of her pain.
After four months without the normal Teller Saturdays, Nora could say that she really missed having her family all together. She hated having to drop her kids off every weekend. She hated being alone. But damn it, she was too embarrassed by what her husband had done to simply welcome him back with open arms. How could she? What message would that send to her children?
So, no. She had to stand her ground and teach Jax a lesson that he would hopefully never forget.
Ding ding, school's in session bitch.
"What are your plans for today?" Muffy questioned as she pushed her empty plate away.
"I've got to pick up prescriptions for Mom and Piney." Nora brought their dishes to the sink. "Then, I need to go to the store and pick up some things to pack the kids' lunches for school."
Muffy eyed her from her seat at the table. Drumming her fingers on the table top, she casually leaned against her chair. "You know, tonight is ladies night at—"
"No," Nora cut her off with a shake of her head. "Absolutely not." She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms with a scowl.
Ladies Night? Ha. Their drinks were always free no matter what night it was. It wasn't like this was some special occasion that she would be missing out on. It had been four months since Nora had even stepped foot inside of the Clubhouse and she didn't plan to go now.
Muffy's brown eyes widened, "Oh, come on! Jackass won't even be there," She got out of her chair and walked over to put her hands on Nora's shoulders. "We'll have some drinks and dance our asses off. It'll be fun."
Nora's scowl deepened, "And I'll have my every move spied on and reported back to Jax. So, I'll pass."
There was no doubt in her mind that if she were to step foot inside the Clubhouse, her husband's phone would be blown up by every Patch member on site calling to inform him of his wife's whereabouts.
"Who cares? Let them report back to Jax." Muffy gave her a mischievous smile and winked, "Give him a taste of his own medicine."
Nora shook her head and raised an eyebrow, "You really want to be partially responsible for some poor guy getting murdered just so I could get revenge on your cousin?"
Muffy rolled her eyes and let her hands fall off of Nora's shoulders, "One, you're being dramatic. And two, you need some dick." Looking Nora up and down she quickly added, "Like yesterday."
They both knew that Nora probably wasn't exaggerating. Everyone knew that Jackson Teller was one protective and jealous son of a bitch. There had been plenty of times that Jax had gotten into fights when he felt like his "territory" was threatened – and that was during the good times.
Nora had no interest in seeing the results of what would happen now when things were so tumultuous between them.
A laugh escaped Nora's lips. She shook her head with a grin on her face. "My vibrator works just fine, thank you."
"Fine," Muffy threw her hands up in a huff, "No dick. No one gets laid." She clasped her hands together in mock prayer as her lower lip puckered out in a pout, "Can we at least go get some drinks and dance? Maybe kick your ass in a couple of rounds of pool?"
Nora scoffed, "Bitch, you and I both know that you can't kick my ass in a game of pool."
Muffy grinned knowing she was about to get her way. Nora would never back down from a challenge. "Loser has to pay for our next spa trip."
"Oh, you're on." Nora accepted with a gleam in her eye. She had never lost a game of pool to Muffy and she sure as hell wasn't going to start now.
The house reeked of cigarettes and stale alcohol causing Nora's nose to scrunch up in disgust as she made her way inside the little yellow house that her mother, Deborah, and her Uncle Piney shared.
The house was a wreck with trash, clothes, and God knows what else littering the floor and all of the furniture.
Nora's jaw clenched, she had this place spotless two weeks ago. How in the hell did they let it get this fucking bad?
She kicked various objects out of her way as she made herself a path to the kitchen only to stop dead in her tracks as she took in the state of the kitchen.
Every single dish in the house seemed to be piled in the sink, various foods scattered about with mold growing on it. The table was littered with beer bottles and there was a plate that held a half eaten slice of moldy pizza that had about 20 cigarette butts laying on top of it. To top it all off, there were little roaches crawling all about like this house was some kind of pest paradise – and in a way, she guessed it was.
Nora wanted to scream.
She wanted to throw things.
She wanted to cry.
Her heart was broken and she felt a rage swirling within her that they were living this way. The fact that they were living this way meant only one thing.
Her mother had relapsed, again.
Deborah had moved in with Piney six years ago to help him due to his emphysema. Debbie had been a nurse since she was 24 years old, so it made sense that she would take care of her big brother. A year after she moved in, Debbie was in a severe car wreck that injured her spine and caused her to slowly, but surely develop an addiction to pain pills and alcohol. She had been in recovery for the past 8 months – until now apparently.
"Hey sweetie, are those for me?"
Nora whipped her head around to see her mother walking into the kitchen. Debbie's red hair was matted, likely it hadn't been brushed in at least a week. She was wearing a light green robe that had various stains and cigarette burn holes in it. Hazel eyes that matched her own were lined with dark circles, looking as if her mother hadn't slept properly in days.
"What the hell, Mom?" Nora's eyebrows pinched as she narrowed her eyes. She threw the prescription bags that she just remembered she was holding onto the table. "Are you abusing pills again, too?" Nora demanded as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
Debbie had the audacity to look affronted. She grasped the opened part of her robe over her chest. "Just because I had a few drinks does not mean that I've turned back into a raging addict." Eyebrows creased, She narrowed her eyes and pointed a boney finger at her eldest daughter, "And I would appreciate it if you would remember that I'm your mother and I deserve more respect than you coming here and making baseless accusations."
Nora's eyes widened, her eyebrows raised in disbelief as she threw her arms out and gestured to the mess around them, "Baseless? Mother, this house is disgusting!"
Debbie let out a groan of annoyance as knocked a couple of beer bottles off of a kitchen chair and plopped herself down. Ignoring the fact that those beer bottles were now broken on the kitchen floor, she reached her hand inside of her robe pocket and pulled out her packet of Pall Mall cigarettes and her zippo lighter. Placing the cigarette between her thin, chapped lips she took a deep drag as she eyed Nora who was standing there glowering at her with crossed arms. "You let Jackson come back home, yet?"
Nora's response was brisque, the word seeped out from behind clenched teeth. "No."
An amused laugh left Debbie's lips before she took another drag of her cigarette. "Have you at least talked to him about everything?"
Nora raised a brow and gave her mother an unimpressed look. "Whose side are you on?"
"Hey!" Debbie pointed her cigarette at her daughter in accusation, "You knew what life you were signing up to live the moment you decided to date him. I tried to get you to think long and hard about what you could and couldn't accept. It's not my fault that you got dicked down by him and started to look at him as if the sun was shining out of his ass."
Nora could feel the heat creeping up neck, her manicured nails dug deep into her palms, "The life that I signed up for did not include some pass around from out of town showing up at my house looking to shack up with my husband!"
Debbie frowned as she flicked some ashes on top of that plate of pizza, "Yeah, that's fucked up." Taking in another lung full of smoke, she tossed her head from side to side as she ignored the sound of disgust coming from her daughter. "We both know that Jax had nothing to do with her coming to town. It's against the rules. Everyone, even the sweet butts, knows that." She held her hand up before Nora could make a smart ass comment, "That man would move Heaven and Earth for you and those kids. Even you know that. He would never do something that would be rubbed in your face so disrespectfully."
Nora hated having this conversation with her mother, especially standing inside of this filthy ass house. Like hell was she going to be lectured about her marriage by Debbie who obviously threw her sobriety out the fucking window. What did she know about commitment anyway?
"Whatever." Nora rolled her eyes before glaring at her mother, "How about let's get back to the topic of your drinking? You could also tell me why you're currently living in a fucking hazard zone."
Deborah's shoulders slumped as she buried her face in her hands. "What do you want me to say?" Her eyes held remorse as she looked up at her daughter. "I fucked up, Nora. It was only supposed to be a six pack, but once I started I just couldn't stop."
Nora wanted to grab her mother by the shoulders and shake some damn sense into her. It wasn't a secret that Deborah Winston couldn't just have a few drinks and call it quits — once she started, she didn't stop until she passed out. This wasn't new and the fact that she even thought for a second that a six pack would be enough made Nora want to rip her own hair out.
Nora scoffed, "Well, that's just perfect." Placing her hands on her hips, she stared her mother down. "What are you going to do about it? And I'm not cleaning this shit this time."
Debbie rolled her eyes exasperated, "I wasn't going to ask you to clean it." She took one last hit of her cigarette before stubbing it out on the pizza. "I'll call up Al on Monday and get back into AA."
Al Tyson was her mother's sponsor. He had helped her stay sober during the hardest parts of her recovery. Hopefully, he could do it again.
Nora ran an agitated hand down her face. "There's y'all's prescriptions," she gestured to the bags. "I've gotta go, I've got plans with Muffy." She wrinkled a nose at her mother, "You need a shower."
Debbie glowered as she pulled out another cigarette. "Love you too, ya little bitch."
"Guess I take after my mother." Nora sassed back before abruptly turning on her heels and leaving.
Thank you to all of my reviewers, and to everyone who has favorited, followed, and read this story so far. I appreciate all of you and I definitely appreciate any and all input and opinions! Sorry for the wait, life just gets hectic and these past two years have been pretty hard. I hope to have a new chapter up soon!