Chapter 5

"So, what's up with you and Jax?" Donna bravely asks her friend on the walk home. She had to get to the point quick. Her house wasn't that far.

"What do you mean?" Tara asks. Before Donna can answer, she adds, "We're friends…I guess."

"You guess? What's up with you not being sure about friendship?" Donna cuts to the point.

"I don't have a lot….any friends." Tara admits. "So, I'm not sure what Jax and I are, or David and I, or you and I for that matter." She vents in frustration.

"Well, I like to talk to you and hang out with you." The shorter brunette shrugs. "I would consider you my friend."

"Really?" The Tara asks, trying not to focus on the scent of Jax on the hoodie. "Just like that?"

"Yeah." Donna nods. "Why make it so complicated?"

They arrive at Donna's. As she prepares to leave Tara and head up her driveway, shouts are heard from inside and the sound of broken glass. "Want to come to my place?" Tara offers, with a smile, "My drunk daddy shouldn't be home."

Donna's embarrassment soon turns to laughter. She ditches her book bag on the front porch and walks back to Tara. "Sure." She agrees. "Why not?"

"So, that shit was crazy." Opie says, sitting on a bench at the garage, sipping a beer.

The ride to the garage was silent. Jax quietly sips his beer as well. What the hell was he so pissed off about? He had a great life. How many 15 year olds could come home from school and pop a cold one without anyone caring? "I don't know what you are talking about." He pulls out his cigarettes.

"Yeah, okay." Opie pulls out his cigarette too. He knows his best friend and he knows he'll talk when he's ready.

"I just need to get laid." Jax nods. "A little pussy can fix anything, right?"

"You tell me." Opie finishes his beer.
***************

It was late evening when Tara and Donna were sprawled out on her bed. They finished smoking a bowl several minutes before and were enjoying the sounds of Nirvana blasting through her boom box. "We need food." Donna laughs.

Tara's father had already been home and showered and out the door for the night. "Ugh, don't you have to check in at home at some point?" Tara wonders aloud.

Donna, "Yeah probably." She giggles. "Let's go to the clubhouse and get food."

"No way." Tara laughs. "Why the hell would I go there?"

"Because Jax is there." The tiny brunette laughs like it is a no-brainer. "And we'll get free food."

"I have no desire to see Teller with his flock of crow-eaters. Thank you very much!" The taller, longer haired brunette says indignantly. "Free food or not."

"'Cause you like him!" Donna teases. "Well, what do you normally do on a Friday night?"

Mostly she stayed in and smoked up or got wasted on daddy's alcohol and then read or listened to music all night. But she didn't want to admit that. "Sometimes, I go into Lodi or Stockton and hang out." She informs her new friend.

"By yourself?" Donna gasps when Tara nods.

"Yeah. Why?" Tara smiles. "It's a short bus ride."

"Opie would never let me out of Charming by myself!" Donna shrieks.

"He's your boyfriend." Tara says disbelievingly. "Not your father."

Donna laughs. "He's SAMCRO first."

"What about college?" Tara asks. "You can't stay here for that."

"College?" Donna ponders. "Really? I'll probably just marry Op and be an old lady."

"But you are in the top of our class." Tara reminds her. Was this chick serious? Become someone's old lady?

"Under you, of course." Donna smirks.

"Not me." Tara huffs. "I'll never be someone's old lady. I'm on a one-way ticket out of this hell hole."

What in the fuck was wrong with him? Jax wonders as he checks out the crow-eater whose lips were steadily moving on his semi-hard cock. He had never had this trouble in the last six months since he lost his virginity. Was she not doing something right? He couldn't figure this shit out. It was ridiculous, not to mention embarrassing. Suddenly he hears Opie outside of the dorm door, "Tara's here, bro." And just like magic his cock decides to work properly. What in the actual fuck was wrong with his dick?

"Oh shit." Jax groans. "Just a minute bro." He grabs the blond crow-eater by the hair and thrusts into her mouth a few times, before releasing his load.

"Need a few minutes to recover?" She runs her hands up the inside of his flannel.

"Not tonight, darling." Jax pushes her aside gently and zips up his pants.

"Well that's too bad." She pouts. "Maybe you'll change your mind?"

"Maybe, Mona." He smirks, knowing her name was Melissa.

"It's Melissa." She huffs at his smirk still in place.

"Sorry, darling." He smiles and walks past her. As he walks out to the bar that is quickly filling up, he spots Tara immediately. His heartbeat automatically picks up at the sight of Tara at a pool table. She's playing with Piney and her hazel eyes connect with his. Her smile quickly disappears and he sees a flash of jealousy as her eyes immediately connect with Melissa behind him. And just like that it is gone. So quick Jax isn't sure it was there at all. As he walks over to her, he wonders if he misread her happiness and then her jealousy.

"Busy night, Teller?" Tara asks.

"Nah." He grins. "You?"

"Bored." She shrugs. "So I let Donna talk me into coming here."

"You talking?" Piney interrupts gruffly. "Or we playing?"

"We're playing." Tara turns and smiles at Piney. She moves around Jax. "Excuse me." She effectively dismisses him.

Jax stands there bewildered a moment before he realizes that Tara has no intention of hanging onto him. He goes to the bar and sits with Opie. Donna gives him a disgusted look. "What?" He asks.

"You're an idiot." She retorts.

"What did I do?" He asks angrily.

"Just your classy self, Teller." Donna crinkles her nose. "How much longer is the food going to take?" She asks Opie.

"Not sure." Opie shrugs, sipping his beer, while his hand sneaks up Donna's shirt. "It's getting kinda busy in here."

"Well I'm starving." She sighs. "And so is Tara."

"You two should have thought about that before getting high." Opie teases. "And she's not starving…she's whipping my old man's ass right now."

Everyone's gaze follows Opie's to the pool table where, yes, seemingly Tara is wiping the table with Piney. "You're getting better." Piney says proudly.

"It's all your lessons." Tara smiles back. Piney took to teaching her pool a few years ago when she was too young to complain about her father dragging her into bars at twelve years old. She figured Piney must have said something because that stopped about a year later. Jax couldn't help but check out her ass as she bent over the table. Tara could fill out a pair of jeans like nobody's business, he decided. None of the girls their age had an ass like that. It was definitely meant to be grabbed. And with that Tara makes her kill shot and the game is over. "I think you let me win though." She says when Piney pulls her into a sideways hug.

"Why would I do something like that?" Piney asks. "I'm nothing but a gruff old man, haven't you heard?"

"I've heard." Tara admits with a smile. "But I know otherwise." She makes her way over to the bar with her friends just as the barmaid is placing their food in front of them. "The best thing about bars is bar food."

"Hell yeah!" Donna agrees, diving into the potato skins as do Jax and Opie.

Jax goes back for his second one, which just so happens to be the last one when Tara smacks his hand. "That one's mine!"

"Really?" Jax pulls back with his signature smart-ass smirk that annoys the hell out of Tara. "How bad do you want it?" He raises the last potato skin up too high for her to reach.

Not sure what's making her so pissy, whether it's the hunger, the weed, or the beer she's been practically inhaling, she replies saucily, "Not bad enough to play these games with you." She walks around the bar to a younger guy that Jax has only seen a few times.

"Hey Kyle." She elbows him. "You busy? I need a ride home."