Thanks for all the reviews! God damn that finale, that was sad. I will be continueing Savannah though, so don't worry lol. Big thanks to my beta Kupkakes, I know the Queens chapters are a pain in the ass lol. I do not own anything in this chapter, besides Savannah, everything else belongs to their rightful owners.
Chapter 20
#%^%&*^*(
Night had fallen and Juice found himself at the old park down the block from his house smoking some of the weed he'd brought with him. He'd known he wouldn't last a month with his parents without needing something to take the edge off.
"Fuck, Ortiz, this is some seriously good weed." A tanned scrawny kid said beside him, taking another hit of their blunt they were passing back and forth.
The scrawny kid beside him was his long time friend Pedro. They'd grown up in the same neighborhood, gotten in trouble together a lot. Hell, Juice had taken the blame for him a couple of times in school. Pedro had a hard time sticking up for himself, which usually ended up with him in the dumpster behind the gym.
They helped each other though. Juice helped him stick up for himself, and Pedro helped him with math and history. The old boxing gym was their meet up place, they'd spent most of their times there. Whether it be to box, or do homework. Old Man Jefferson even let them stay after hours as long as they helped him out.
Juice would keep his computers running, and then helped Pedro clean the place. Now, four years later, he learned that Pedro now officially worked at the gym, as a janitor. He'd teach a class every now and then, but he was a fucking janitor. Was that what Juice's future could have been had he stayed? He didn't know. He was hoping he never found out either.
What Soph had said really got to him. He didn't know what he was doing after he graduated from college. He didn't have anywhere to go, any job that would keep him afloat. He couldn't mooch off Mel for the rest of his life. He had no idea where his life was going, and that honestly scared the crap out of him. "Hey, man, you ever wonder what you would have done if you'd gone to college? I mean, you couldn't have always wanted to be a fucking janitor." He spoke up, taking another drag.
Pedro looked over, that was a pretty fucking deep question to come from his friend. Something that wasn't common with Juice. He could humor him though. "Fuck no, man. I wanted to be some hot shot on Wall street. College ain't for me though, man." He explained to Juice, sparing him a glance.
"Isn't." Juice blurted out without thinking. "Ain't isn't a word. It's isn't."
Fucking hell, he'd corrected him. He wasn't even sure where that'd come from. What the hell was happening to him? Oh right, he was a college kid now.
Pedro snorted bitterly. Here the big shot college boy was correcting him. "Right, I forgot you're a college genius know it all now."
Juice watched as his friend took another hit. One thing he couldn't complain about was that he definitely got better weed in New York than you could ever score in Queens. The two sat in silence, Juice not knowing what he could say to defend himself. "So, uh, this bitch you were talking about. She really as good as you say?" Pedro finally broke the silence.
Choking on the puff he'd inhaled, he hadn't expected that. Sure, he'd talked about the red headed temptress a few minutes ago, but he'd thought his friend had dropped it. "Uh, yeah. Mel's, uh . . . she's something special. Definitely knows what she's doing in bed, man. Taught me a few new moves." He chuckled, remembered the first time he and Mel had gotten together. She'd gone right to teaching him the ways of pleasuring a woman.
Pedro patted him on the back, laughing in congratulations of some sort. He'd bagged himself a cougar, that in itself was a major win. The older broads were hot, knew what to do, and all around just fucking awesome. "Moving up in the world, Ortiz. Scored yourself a cougar." He laughed.
Even if Mel wasn't in anyway his girlfriend, hell he wasn't even sure they were in a real relationship. Not how he was trying to be with Savannah anyway. But that didn't mean he wanted her to be talked about like this. Mel took care of him, granted nothing like how Mrs. P took care of him, but she did feed him and put a roof over his head occasionally. She deserved some respect.
"It's not about that, man. Mel's . . . she treats me good, takes care of me when she can. I mean, the sex is . . . crazy good, but it's not all we do." He tried to defend his friend.
That was what she was too. His friend. Granted, his fuck friend, but a friend non the less. She picked him up when he was falling behind with the crazy city of New York. He owed her a lot, and he didn't know how to make it up to her. He knew wanting to be with Sav wasn't going to end pretty between him and Mel, but he couldn't help it. He had real feelings for the brunette, whereas with Mel it was a means of survival.
Juice definitely wasn't the guy he'd been before, and to anyone else that would have been a good thing. Looking down at the blunt in his hands, he didn't see it that way. He just felt like he had another place he didn't belong. Four years ago, he would have been bragging to Pedro about how amazing Mel was, and how he wasn't just fucking her. He'd fuck Savannah too, among other girls. Savannah was a bombshell though, and she wanted him too.
Only he didn't tell his friend anything about Savannah, he didn't even know they were friends in class. Savannah Teller was his secret, him and his sister being the only two who knew about her. He intended to keep it that way.
Glancing over at Pedro, he saw what he could have been . The high school drop out stoner who now cleaned up other people's crap. He wasn't going anywhere in this world, but Juice was. Juice knew how to fill out a job application, how to go to a interview. He was going to have a degree in a few months. He might not have known where he was going after that, but he knew it wasn't going to be anywhere Pedro was going and he was okay with that.
Smiling to himself, he was happy about that. He had a good future. Hopefully with a good girl in it like Savannah, a job, a life. He was gonna go places. As bad as it sounded, seeing how bad Pedro was doing really helped him. "Hey, uh, I'm gonna get going, man. Last thing I need is Luke hearing me sneak back in." He said over, taking on last hit before passing him back the blunt.
Pedro shrugged, taking a hit as he watched his old friend walk off. They were going in two directions and Juice couldn't be happier to know he was going in the right one.
$%^&%^&$
Coming home at odd hours smelling like weed was nothing new to him, even before he moved out. He had it down to an art now. At least, he had. Now he might be a little rusty because he hadn't expected to find Luke sitting on the couch wide awake when he came back from seeing Pedro. "Uh, I was just catching up with some of the guys." He muttered, keeping his head down as he tried to get to the stairs.
"Don't you walk away from me, boy. You snuck out, ya little shithead."
Juice cringed at his step father's voice. This was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid. He could practically smell the beer from here. Luke was wasted, and Juice had made the mistake of coming home.
Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, Juice stood still with his head down. He knew the tricks of avoiding Luke's anger by now. No eye contact, and don't talk back. Just get the hell out of the room as fast as he could.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do that this time. Juice winced when Luke grabbed the back of his head, yanking him back. Gritting his teeth, Juice fought the urge to shove him off. He knew starting a fight wouldn't work in his favor. There was only so much he could put up with, and he knew he was getting to his limit soon.
The vial smell of alcohol hit him head on when Luke breathed on him. He tried to squirm, wanting out of Luke's grip, but it was no use. With the grip he had on his hair, Juice wasn't going anywhere. "You smell like weed. You been getting high, boy? This what you've been doing at school? Fucking around getting high?" With every question, he tugged on Juice's hair.
Juice gritted his teeth; knowing Luke was gonna pull out his hair if he didn't stop. He couldn't hit him though. Hitting him would be satisfying, sure, but not in the long run. His ma would kick him out and he wouldn't have anywhere to go. He could go back to New York, sure, but he was low on cash and wouldn't make it long on the streets.
He wasn't gonna let Luke hurt him though, not without a fight. He'd done that more times than he'd like to admit to. He wasn't the same kid he use to be. Juice wasn't scared of Luke. "I don't fuck around at-" Juice paused, pulling himself out of Luke's hold. "school."
Before Luke could grab him again, Juice hurried up the stairs, taking two at a time. He could hear Luke call him, but he kept going until he got to his room. Shutting the door quickly, he was just as quick to lock it. Something he'd installed himself when he was younger.
Once he was sure Luke wasn't gonna break the door down, he took a deep breath and was able to relax. He knew if Luke came at him again, pushed him, he'd need to push back. Not being able to defend himself was quickly getting old.
He needed to focus on something else. Something that would keep him from going down there and kicking his step father's drunk ass. Looking around, his eyes settled on his phone. He knew it's be still a decent hour over in California. Reaching over, he grabbed his phone and called the number he'd memorized.
His heart jumped in his chest when he heard her answer. Relaxing in his bed, he could listen to her voice all day. "Hey, princess. Did I wake you?'
He couldn't help the chuckle when he heard her snort. He knew she liked staying up late, and given that wasn't even midnight where she was, he should have known she'd be up. "No, I just got back from the clu-garage. There's a new guy who didn't think I could fix a car radio under three minutes." She said, laughing at how ridiculous it was.
Juice knew personally how fast Savannah could fix a car. Fixing a radio was no problem for her, he knew that to be a fact. "So, how much you win? You scam the loser blind?"
That made her laugh. Juice knew her too well. On the downtime in class, the guys and Savannah would do little contests to keep things interesting. Savannah was hands down the fastest in the class. She more often than less robbed the guys blind. "Eh, only a couple twenties. The guys know better than to bet against me." She said, smiling as she looked at the cash laid out in front of her.
"So what did you want, Ortiz?"
What did he want? That was the question. He didn't want her to know how bad it was for him here. He didn't want the pity. Why else would he call her though? He wasn't sure if he could tell her he missed her. He missed her a lot. It was too early to admit that though. They weren't even together. He could miss a friend though, couldn't he? He hoped so.
"Whatcha wearing?" He blurted out.
He wanted to hit himself for that one. What was she wearing? What kind of question was that? There was no way she'd wanna do this with him. Fuck, now he was trying to think of what she could be wearing. Damn, this wasn't gonna end well for him. Hearing her laugh only made it that much more clear. "That is so not happening, Ortiz."
Dropping his head, he knew she was gonna say that. "Yeah, I figured. Can't blame a guy for trying though."
He smiled weakly hearing her laugh. He missed seeing her smile, as cheesy as that sounded. He missed a lot of things from New York actually. It didn't hit him until he heard her voice. He missed her, he missed the Perelli's, the city itself, their school. He missed Mel. Clearing his throat, he definitely shouldn't be thinking of Mel when he was on the phone with Sav. "So, uh, you got plans for Christmas?" He asked, not wanting the conversation to end.
Savannah had the family he wished he did. She talked about her uncles all the time, her brother even more. They sounded like great guys. She'd mentioned once they were bikers stuck in the fifties, and that got him curious. They couldn't be all bad. Savannah always talked about them with so much respect and love. He was almost envious of how much she loved her family. Her life was perfect.
She had a family that loved her, encouraged her decision to be a mechanic. Hell, they threw her a party when she got back. He was welcomed back with scowls and disgust. He already knew his Christmas was going to be horrible, he'd be lucky to get one present. "My ma usually throws a big dinner. Bobby usually belts out some Elvis songs for the kids. It's pretty funny. Last year was definitely the best. Tig got the turkey stuck on his head trying to make a joke, Ma was ready to beat his ass for it." She laughed, interrupting him from his thoughts.
Hearing how happy she was made him both bitter and happy for her. He liked her a lot, he wanted her to have a good time, but then he felt bitter over the fact not one of his Christmas', he could actually remember, were like that. "So, are you chilling out for once? Spending time with your family? I always pictured you as a mama's boy, Ortiz." She asked, knowing there was a reason he called besides wondering what her Christmas plans were.
Juice tensed, looking around his room. He couldn't tell her he just had a run in with his step father. His drunk step father, to make it worse. He couldn't tell her he hated it here and wished he'd never come. That would be letting her in more than he was comfortable with doing. So he lied. "Uh, yeah. Soph came to see me, we hung out. Caught up. Saw some old friends from the neighborhood. Ma's working a lot still, so I haven't seen her much." He said, hoping she'd drop it there.
Savannah could tell he wasn't comfortable with telling her that. He sounded miserable, not his usual joking self. She wasn't about to call him on it though, if he keep his family stuff to himself. Who was she to push? She was doing the same thing when it came to the club. "It sounds like you're having fun. Want me to let you go? It's got to be late there." With a glance to the clock, she knew it had to be the early morning hours back in Queens.
As if feeling the tiredness hitting him, he let out a yawn. He didn't want to hang up just yet though. This was the first time in a long time he'd had someone he could really have a conversation with. There was his sister, yeah, but this was Savannah. There was just some things he couldn't tell his sister that he could a friend. "Nah, princess. I'm good, just talk. I wanna hear more about this turkey incident."
The next hour went by with more laughter than he'd let out in the past month. From one funny story to the other, Juice really hoped he could meet these guys Savannah loved so much. They were a real family, even if they weren't blood related. Juice even had a couple stories from his high school days. They got Savannah to laugh, and he couldn't help the smile from playing on his lips when she did. This was what he needed, and he couldn't wait to have it back when he returned to New York.