AN: Well look at this! I'm here and this is an actual post. You guys have been incredible. Something like 30 of you reviewed and told me not to give up. So by popular demand, I won't. I've got a little bit of fight left in me. I am currently looking for a beta, so if you know of anyone or if you are one. Please get in contact with me. I really need someone to help me out a bit.

To clear up some confusion; I did not mention before in the story about Anna and Jax. That was something I came up with a few weeks ago to rock the boat a little. But when it happened was probably when the two were in detention or right after they got out.

Also, someone commented that they didn't understand why Tara dressed like that. Hopefully this chapter clears that up for you.

And the last little thing before I'll let you guys read. It was brought up that Tara said in season 3 that cheating was a deal breaker for her. Maybe this is what caused her to feel that way and anyways they weren't together yet when it happened.

So here you guys are, thank you all so much for being patient and staying faithful. –Lanie x

"Did you finish the book yet Ima? " Tara didn't think she could handle this much longer.

"Just a few pages away, I can finish it really quick."

"I'll start to brainstorm some ideas then."

Ima's head bounced as she dug through her bag to pull out the book. Tara was surprised at how well they had been working together of the past few weeks. The blonde was probably only taking pity on her. It's been a rough 12 days for her. Especially since she's refusing to speak to Jax not that made him stop him from calling or showing up at her house. Not to mention seeing him at school every day.

The first couple of days, he'd looked like a kicked puppy after that the Jax that everyone knew was back. He was constantly skipping classes, he was aggressive towards other and he really wasn't all that pleasant to be around. She barely knew who he was anymore. Briefly she wondered if this was going to be how he acted once he was patched in a few years from now but she pushed that thought away. Right now she didn't even know if she wanted to be with him.

Forgive him.

Tara looked down at her paper and crushed it up before she tossed it to the side. Pulling out another piece she restarted to write ideas on what they should do and how it should be completed. This was a good distraction; working on something always was for her.

"Well I finished the book." Ima chirped in.

"That's great! Now we need to figure this all out."

"You know…You shouldn't dress like you did that day… You got the guy without acting like…well me."

"I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't need to dress like you to get along with you or make other people really notice me. It was stupid of me to try and be someone I'm not. I guess I really just was tired of you making fun of how I look, Anna doing the same." Tara played with the pencil in her hand. She was really stupid. She didn't need to change who she was for those people.

"I'd apologize but I'm really not all that sorry, the way you dress is really hideous." She brushed her hair over one shoulder. "But that doesn't mean you should stoop."

"I didn't stoop!" She exclaimed as her brow furrowed with annoyance. Maybe this would be harder than she thought.

"You totally did though." Ima shrugged and looked over at Tara's scribbles.

"Right, we need to work on this. We have like 6 days left." Tara was reminded of her work instead of all of her mistakes within her relationship.

"Oh yeah, it's due Valentine's day. God I hate that holiday." Ima wasn't the only one.

"Yeah I hate it too. Especially now." She sighed as she thought about Jax. This would have been the first year that she'd had someone to celebrate with. Now she won't even have someone to watch cheesy movies with.

"I bet. So what ideas did you have for the project?" She asked.

"Well, I was thinking that we do something like a poster and draw out some of the symbols of the book and then explain why we think that they were important." Tara explained her thought plan.

"I think that sounds like a good idea. I actually can draw pretty decent."

"That's good because I really can't. Unless it's a stick figure." She laughed a little and noticed she was laughing with her.

"It's a good thing I'm here then. How about we brainstorm why they're important and you can start on writing that all out and I can start sketches?"

"That works with me. We'd be both doing equal amount of work."

"Let's get to work then."

The girls began to work through everything in the book, once they'd chosen 8 symbols they started do work on what they were doing. Lucky they stayed quiet for the most part. Tara knew that she seemed nice enough but she really didn't want to push her luck with Ima. She was still the slut that made her life hell more than half of the time.

The silence was eating her alive though. All she could think of was about Jax.

The last time they talked should have made her happy and in a way it did. He was going to tell her he loved her. And she really wanted to believe him. She did believe him. Though she couldn't help but think that it was said just to keep her. The time wasn't right, none of this was right.

"Hi."

"Hi," she pushed passed him and continued to walk away.

"Tara!"

Slowly she turned around and looked at him, he looked like hell. That's how she felt. "Yes, Jax?"

"Are we ever going to talk about this," he took a step closer to her, at this point he'd missed having contact with her. "We needed to at some point, you know that."

"What is there to talk about? The person I was falling for fucked me over."

"We weren't together!"

"That doesn't mean anything Jax. At that point I already had a crush on you. I thought I was falling for the guy that told me he wasn't going to go away no matter how hard I push." The tears stung the back of her eyes but she refused to break. Not now. "You weren't him though."

"You can still shove as hard as you want to. I'm not going to leave you. I screwed up."

"Yeah you really did Jax. I don't…I don't know if I can get over this."

"Can't you just try for us?"

"What us?" She countered back.

"How can you just walk away? I've never trusted someone the—" He couldn't finish, she was too angry to deal with what he was saying.

"Really? Jax, I never gave my heart to someone before, gave you everything to anyone. I do and this happens."

"Tara I lo—" She stops him again as she shook her head.

"You cannot say that to me…Not after this. You can't say that for the first time like this." At this point she let the tears fall from her eyes, not caring if he saw her break.

"It's true, that's how I fell. Let me prove that to you." He stepped forward and was about to wrap his arms around her when she stepped back and put her hands up in warning.

"Don't." She whispered. "And stop showing up at my house. I don't want you there."

He backed away and she could help but feel her heart tug at the sad look that he was giving her. Jax was hurting as much as she was in an entirely different way.

She dropped the pencil and looked over at Ima, who knew that they'd be able to work well together. It was kind of nice. Different and unusual but it was still nice. When she was around other people it made it easier for her to avoid for he invaded her every thought.

"Well I think that we're done with it for today. Say meet up on Wednesday to finish it all up?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Great. See ya Ima."

"Later."

The girls parted ways, not seeing the Cutlass; she knew that her dad had forgotten about her. He probably went out to get drunk. Pulling her jacket closer to her to her, she started to walk. It wasn't too far from her house though it was starting to get chilly out.

About five minutes into her walk she heard rather than saw SAMCRO ride past her. Seeing the two trail behind, she knew it was Jax and Opie. Tara hoped that they were making the right choice with patching into the club once they were old enough. They were too good of people to end up with their lives tangled into a mess.

As she kept walking, she noticed a bike come towards her; of course she knew who it was. Tara was thankful that he'd recognized her and decided to turn around. Stopping in front of her, he took his helmet off and handed it to her. Getting on the back, she smiled. No matter what happened she loved to ride. Tara wrapped her arms tightly around his torso as the engine roared back to life. The wind brushed against her skin as the bike sped up.

Her eyes closed and she just felt. The feeling of the wind on her face, how free she felt on the bike. It was times like these that she let all the weight of her problems fly away. It was then that she was a careless teenager like she should be. She pressed herself closer to him, her cold cheek, resting against his back. When she felt the bike stop, she opened her eyes to look at her home. Releasing her grip, she hopped off the bike. Before walking up the driveway she smiled at him. "Thanks Ope."

"Not a problem Tara." He nodded and she handed him the helmet and went inside.

…

"Hey..." She smiled at Opie as she walked up to the two of them. She hadn't been meeting up with them in the mornings but she was really missing those moments between them. Tara wanted to try and push all of the issues to the side. "What's up?"

"Hey Tar, long time no see." He reached down to give her a quick hug.

Tara noticed the rush of jealousy rush through Jax as he watched their exchange. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that." She was sure that he knew about last night.

"Don't worry about it. " He laughed.

"Jax." She smiled a bit.

"Hey." He smiled back but his eyes wandered around the room.

Maybe this wasn't the best idea. The tension was rising between the two of them. She just wanted something to be familiar right now. To stop feeling like she was lost everything. Even if she did in a way. None of this was easy for her to deal with.

"So what have you guys been up to?" She tilted her head to the side.

"We got to go on a run last night." Opie gave her a wide grin.

"Sounds like fun. All went well? No one looks bruised."

"Yeah everything Is just fine." Jax replied.

"Uh… I meant with— actually nevermind. This was a really bad idea. Thanks for proving that."

"What did you think you could just act like nothing happened between us?"

"I'm well aware of everything we've been through. I can't help but feel heartbroken though. Sorry that I just wanted to be around you guys." Tara shook her head and turned to walk away.

"Are you going to walk away from us?"

"Jax c'mon. You need to stop." Opie looked around and noticed that they were starting to get an audience.

"Oh right. You two are all buddy buddy. You gonna fuck her?" Tara whipped back around when she heard that.

"Leave me out of this. I don't want to be a part of your games Jackson. If you can't even trust your best friend then who are you going to trust? I screwed up thinking we could be civil. It won't happen again."

With that she walked away, pushing past all of the people that watched that unfold. If the school didn't know then, they certainly know now that there's trouble in paradise. She walked to her class and sat her in seat before the bell rang. It wasn't until then that it really hit her. Without Anna and without the boys, she had no one. There was no one for her to be around and talk to.

Pulling out her book, she started to read in the last few minutes she had. This class is what started everything with her and Jax. She dropped the book and looked over at his seat. It was too hard being here. Tara got up and walked out of the room and continued out of the school. That was the last place she wanted to be.