CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
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It doesn't take Jax long to fall asleep but it feels like hours later that I'm still lying beside him wide awake. I know that I'll need as much sleep as possible due to the amount of work to be done, even with the knowledge that Mandy has arranged a plumber for me first thing in the morning doesn't help the enormity of the task I'm taking on.
I start making mental lists of what has to be done, starting with the plumbing work which can be done while we remove the curtains that were left behind, I'm sure that there isn't much else in the way of trash and if there is, the skip that was delivered this afternoon will be of use quicker than I thought.
Sighing I readjust the pillow under my head and close my eyes again, the train of stuff to do is still rolling through my head, but I know if I don't sleep then the train won't even get rolling tomorrow.
I must have eventually fallen asleep because when I regain consciousness it's to the smell of coffee, a quick glance at the clock shows that it's almost 8am, and I'm grateful that I got a decent amount of sleep in the course of the night, but now I have to really hurry to be at the house before the plumber shows up at 9.
My eyes follow the smell and find Jax sitting on the edge of the bed a cup in his hand, propping myself up I steal the drink from him and take a few mouthfuls, surprised when I realise it's exactly as I take it. The smile that spreads over his face causes an involuntary clench of my heart and the wish that things will settle down flicks through my brain.
Jax prods at my leg, the ink is still obviously tender, but the scabbing has formed over the heavier inked parts of it, which I'm happy about this morning, it would be hard cleaning and doing all that needs to be done if I was stuck in shorts all day.
I shake my head, "Thanks for the coffee. I'll be up in a few."
Jax picks up his cup, "It's cool, Hap's on a breakfast run and won't be back for a little while." Leaning against the baseboard of his bed he lifts his cup to his mouth and draws a mouthful, the muscles in his throat working as he swallows.
Dropping his cup back to his lap his mouth twists into a smile and he shakes his head.
"What?" I ask, sitting up further and propping his pillow with mine behind my back.
"Nothin' just thinking about how domestic you've got me." Jax says his mouth still curled in a half-smirk.
I raise an eyebrow and he motions towards the cup in my hand, "Bringing you coffee in bed. I've never done that for anyone...apart from Ma on mother's day once or twice years ago."
I giggle, "Before you discovered that girls didn't have cooties."
He nods once, "That's it, how much time I wasted with worrying about cooties."
"Jax you were a kid! Everyone had cooties in primary school. I'm not sure if I could be glad that you were out of the cooties stage when we became friends, or horrified that you were past it so young."
"Hey now," Jax chuckles, "I wasn't that young when we met."
"You were 13, and only just." I remind him laughing.
"Yeah, but if you believe the tales he tells he was already sleeping with seniors." Opie's voice is full of humour from where he's propped against the doorway, his tiny wife hiding behind him, the only evidence of her being there is the occasional flash of brown hair I see as she struggles to move him to get past.
Jax waves his hand in the air in a 'what can I say' gesture.
Donna finally wiggles past Opie and smacks him in the chest, "You really do make a good door." Turning to me she plops down on the bed beside me. "So the seniors at 13 were exaggerated, but the teacher at 14 wasn't. Fuck, we all heard about that...repeatedly."
Jax snorts, "Like I was going to keep that a secret. Do you remember Miss Barry; she was eye candy of the sweetest, even if she was almost 30."
Opie nods, but then sees the glare that Donna is shooting at him, he shrugs, "Well, she was."
"30! She told you she was almost 30? God, she was at least 38 when she was teaching us 9 years ago. Imagine what she looks like now." I splutter out. When we were in high school she may have been gorgeous, but now that we're in our 20's she'd be in her late 40's.
"Really?" Opie seems a bit shocked.
"Yep." I nod, the science teacher and I had a love hate relationship from my first year of high school, and it never got any better when I opted to take biology. She loved to hate me and used any opportunity she could to make my life hard.
Jax cringes, suddenly the accolades he gave himself for bedding a teacher in her '20s' aren't so great when it's put to him the teacher was in her late 30's. "Oh well, least I passed science." He comments running a hand through his hair.
I don't mention a single thing about it, the only reason I passed that particular year was due to the tutoring I was pushed into, the tutor who became a friend, then managed to run me out of town.
I can see Donna knows exactly what I'm thinking, "Hey, we all passed." She points out, poking her tongue out at Jax.
Jax opens his mouth to respond, but the thundering sound of Happy's bike returning cuts him off before he can speak. I smile, "Right, out people so I can get dressed."
Opie turns and heads back towards the kitchen and the smell of coffee. Jax doesn't look like he's going to move and as the front door opens Donna grabs hold of his arm and attempts to drag him off the bed. She gives up after a couple of seconds and looks at me.
I just shrug, "He's not gonna see anything he hasn't already."
She walks out the door laughing, "True that."
Flicking the blankets off my legs I climb out of the bed and go to rummage through the clothes I have, eventually finding a pair of leggings and an t-shirt for the day that I don't mind getting filthy I head into the bathroom, emerging minutes later dressed with my hair in a tidy braid down my back, entering the kitchen I find Happy at the table with a pile of containers from Lumpy's, Jax and Opie are both missing but Donna's by the coffee pot, freshly ground beans by the ancient machine.
"My giant oaf emptied the pot." She sounds irritated, and I make a guess that she's yet to have any caffeinated beverage this morning. Handing her my cup she sighs and wraps her hands round the half full it while I work on refilling the water and adding some more coffee grounds.
By the time Opie and Jax return from wherever it was that they went Donna's got a fresh cup of coffee and I've refilled mine, we're both sitting at the table picking at the bagel's Happy brought back.
Opie laughs when he sees the things brought back but a quick look at Hap makes him realise that if he mentions the bagels and muffins occupying two of the boxes he'll be going without any of it makes him snap his mouth shut and mutter a thank you as he picks up a tray loaded with hash browns, bacon and sausage.
The room is strangely quiet while they stuff their breakfast in and with 30 minutes of forcing myself out of bed we're out the door and on the bikes. I give quick directions of the 4 blocks to my new house, passing Donna and Opie's as we go I see the boards covering the front door and the area where the windows had been and add a note to the bottom of my to-do list to organise a skip for the trashed stuff and a glazier to replace the windows, after all the destruction is my fault, as we pass Miles appears from the back of the house so the formation slows enough for him to get to his bike and join the tail end, even if we're only travelling past another few houses.