Thanks for the reviews! Big thanks to Kupkake for betaring for me this chapter! Almost time for season seven! How's excited? I do not own anything in this chapter, besides Savannah, everything else belongs to their rightful owners.
Chapter 5
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Savannah liked getting to class early. It made it simpler for her to set up without the guys in her way, grinning and throwing jokes at her. After the first few days of showing up before class, se realized that she wasn't the only one who liked to get in before the other. Juan, Juice, was always there too. She frowned a little bit to herself , she really needed to decide on a name for him., she was starting to confuse herself.
Today was just like the others had started out; Juice leaned over a work bench, oblivious to her coming in zipping up her coveralls. She fought back a smirk at the hideous big eyed goggles he insisted on wearing, perched on top of his jet black hair. "Hey JC!"
Juice's head jerked up, eyes searching wildly around the garage for her. Sav rolled her eyes, if she were an ax murderer, he was a total goner. She stepped out onto the deck beside his work space, pulling her dark hair into a messy bun. "Yeah you. Did you bring the tools you borrowed? I need 'em back."
He was frowning down at her like he was either confused or upset. She didn't have time for either coming from him. Sav snapped her fingers in front of his face, breaking his little space out. He cleared his throat loudly, nodding. "Where did JC come from?" He asked, bending down to grab her tools from the carry bag he had on the floor beside his boot covered feet.
She wasn't even sure where it'd come from. It'd just popped into her head when she was trying to decide on a name for him. "It just works." She reached over, snatching up her heavy steel tools.
Juice watched her walk away. Noting the little sway to her hips, and nodded. She went straight to work on the transmission that she'd been working on for a week already, refusing his offer to help her. She was so close to being done. He watched her delicate, but calloused hands working a socket around, but ignoring the one bolt he knew would cause the fluid to leak the second the prof turned the engine over. Her friend's words from the other night popped into his head "She wants you, better get a piece of that before someone else does." and saw his chance at making a move.
He reached over before he could talk himself back down, grabbing the socket from her hand, moving to press behind her. She was wedged between him and the table. "You've got a loose screw over here. If you don't tighten it, it'll ruin the entire thing." He explained while tightening up the offensive bolt.
Savannah knew a flush was creeping up her neck to rest on her cheeks feeling him close enough that all that separated their bodies was the coveralls they both wore. For a split second, she wondered if he was doing it on purpose, then knew it was when he pressed against her. She pretty sure he hadn't meant for her to feel that. "So not happenin', sweetheart." She scoffed at him, not even feeling bad when she saw the disappointment flicker in his eyes.
Did he seriously think that was going to get him anywhere? Where in the hell did he learn pick ups from? She wasn't that easy, even if she had slipped up the one time, she thought that would have been clear by now. She glanced at him, catching the slight nod he gave her scurrying back to his own project.
Sav threw him a suspicious glare, going back to her transmission. Juice watched her in silence for a moment before grabbing a torque wrench from the bench, going head on onto his carburetor. The tension was thick enough to slice with a K bar until the garage classroom started to echo with the laughs and voices of the rest of the class skulking in.
Sav waited until class started to finally speak to him again, knowing she'd have to be the one to break the silence between the two of them. "So, how did you come with Juice for a nickname anyways? Do I even want to know?"
Juice was caught off guard with her sudden change of heart, and gawked at her stupidly for an instant before saying "Uh, I'm really good with computers. Can hack into anything, well almost. Not up to the Pentagon just yet." He laughed a little like he found it amusing.
She couldn't tell if he was joking or not. She'd never figured him as the brainiac type, certainly not a computer geek. A grease monkey, yeah. But nothing so . . . complex.
He saw the disbelief in her eyes and stopped laughing, glancing back down at his greasy hands. "That part was a joke. But I am really good with computers. Its my specialty."
Now she was the one that wanted to laugh. The look on his face told her he was proud of his computer skills though, and she didn't want to step on his toes. "You know, usually, that's not something someone would brag about." She threw him an amused smile.
Shrugging, he started tightening one of the plugs. He knew she was right, but who was she really gonna tell? No one.
Savannah took the opportunity to give him a good look over while his back was turned on her. Brains, muscle, looks, and personality. Juice was the whole package if that was what she was looking for. But it wasn't, she reminded herself. She was here to get a degree and go home, nothing else. She didn't do long distance and knew from the way he talked about the city, he'd never leave Queens willingly.
But nothing bad ever came from just being friends she decided. That would just have to do since she felt drawn to him. She barely even knew him, yet here she was wanting to make friends. If her mom could see her now, she'd think she'd gone soft.
"Uh, I was wondering if you liked pizza?" She blurted out, raising the end of the sentence into a question.
He raised a surprised eyebrow at her, but didn't answer so she barreled ahead talking quickly. "Um, well, everyone likes pizza, so that was probably a stupid question. I meant . . . I was just wondering if you wanted to get pizza . . . with me? After class? Maybe?" She saw a huge goofy grin spread across his face and knew her blushing was getting even worse. "As friends, of course."
She was quick to make that clear; she wasn't hitting on him. But going for pizza as friends, that was innocent. Friends went out for pizza all of the time. Or, at least, she thought so. She didn't have any friends to back up that theory with. The kids her age in Charming hadn't been big on hanging out with the biker trash when she was growing up.
The only thing that had saved her from taunting had been Jax and Opie being older and popular. No one wanted to mess with either of them, much less the two of them together. That wasn't the point of this though. It was opening herself up, just the slightest of bits, and making an actual friend, even if said 'friend' had fucked her up against a wall behind some random night club.
Juice had never wanted to say yes to someone so badly in his life. He wanted to take her out for pizza, show her around the city some, hang out. Make another small move maybe. He'd be an idiot if he didn't. Unfortunately, he knew it couldn't happen. Not today anyways. He had to work right after class and he'd be stuck there until closing.
Scratching the back of his neck, he didn't know how to tell her that without it looking like he was blowing her off. He was hoping he wasn't about to lose his only shot, it'd just came at a bad time. "I've got a shift tonight at the diner, how 'bout a rain check?"
He knew it'd taken a lot for her to even ask, to break down that wall. She was almost too strong for her own good, but that was how you had to be in this city. If you didn't have thick skin, you wouldn't make it.
"Uhh . . . no. That's fine. How about we just get back to this now?" She said, walls coming back up even stronger.
She turned away from him, going back to her transmission ending the conversation obviously. He signed under his breath wishing like hell he could blow off work and go with her. He knew he couldn't afford to though, he needed the money he'd make tonight even if it wasn't much. He'd try again, and again. No way was he giving up that easily. He had a month and half of this semester working in his favor.
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Savannah decided to stay in that night. Skylar had invited her to go out, but she didn't want to run the risk of seeing Juice out. It had been mortifying enough to be turned down by him, she didn't want him thinking she was desperate and stalking him too. So that had left her with the only option of staying in with the tube for the night. Hell, if she really wanted something to do, she could call home and check in. She was starting to miss it more than she'd admit.
Things were so much more simpler there. She didn't have anyone to mess with her head like Juice was. She could still remember getting the god awful sex talk from Jax and Opie. Her ma had the real 'talk' with her a few months later, but by then she was already terrified of anything to do with the opposite sex.
She could remember the day plain as ever in her mind, Jax and Opie cornering her in the old tree house that their dad and Clay had built years ago. She was starting middle school and had hit puberty. Meaning her boobs were showing and she was turning more heads than either of them liked.
"Sav, we want to talk to you about boys." Jax said sitting down beside her on a small plastic chair in the corner.
She looked up at him with those big, innocent doe eyes. She had no idea what this was about. She didn't even like boys at that point. Sure, she thought some were cu te and all, but she wasn't the type to have an all out crush. She wasn't attracted to those types, she knew exactly what made her feel warm and shy, a Son. That was what she was really attracted to. It was in her blood, the only thing holding her up was the fact they were all ancient compared to her.
That didn't stop the heads from turning though when she was walking down the hall at school. "What about them?" she asked looking between the two of them.
Jax ran a hand through his longish blonde hair. "Bein' in middle school is different than elementary. Different crowds. And um, I know you're . . ." He glanced away from her, scowling at the wall. "Starting to feel different about guys. I just don't want some asshole trying to take advantage."
Savannah could tell he was uncomfortable by the way he was shifting around in the plastic chair. This had to be the most embarrassing conversation they'd had yet. This was her brother for crying out loud, she didn't want to talk to him about guys, or god forbid, the things guys were going to want when they took advantage.
She could remember wishing she was anywhere but there. If she thought she stood a chance of outrunning them, she would have bolted then. What came out of their mouths next scarred her for life. "Listen, some guy starts pushing up on you, grabbing at your . . ." Jax's face tightened up in a grimace. "Tits, or trying to kiss you or some shit, don't let it happen." He looked like he wanted to choke on his own words, and he did. This was his baby sister he was talking to. She wasn't supposed to have tits.
"Sex is bad, Sav. Remember that. Its awkward and uncomfortable and hurts like hell. You'll never like it. So don't ever do it. Ever." Ope chimed in.
Savannah had never felt so mortified in her entire life.
Of course, she'd learned for herself that only the first time hurt, and was awkward. After that, it got good. Really good. Granted, she'd only done it a handful of times, all of which they knew nothing about it. The night she'd hooked up with Juice on a whim had definitely been the best, but she wasn't about to let Juice know that. It'd go straight to his already inflated head and that was the last thing she needed.
God, she really needed to get laid. Maybe that would help get him off of her mind if she moved on to someone else. She hoped so anyways. Besides Juice though, she'd never done a random hook up in her life. It made her nervous and paranoid and she wasn't about to risk catching some disgusting std for a fuck.
Reaching over, she grabbed her phone. She knew just what she needed to distract her. She dialed a number that was permanently etched into her brain, counting the rings until it clicked. She smiled sadly at the sound of the voice that answered. "Hey big brother, long time no talk."
"Hey sis, I need to come kick someone's ass or what? You sound down."
She couldn't help but let the laugh escape her lips. Leave it to Jax to think she needed him to run to her rescue. Sure, the guys in class were horrible, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle on her own. Growing up with the club had toughened her in a way no female should be by any rights, but she was ready for anything. A few jerks were small change to her.
"Nah not yet, I just missed you." She said wiping a stray tear that ran down her cheek.
"Missed you too, baby girl."