CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY

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"Sarah's 14th birthday was a lesson to all of us to never forget it." Opie says grinning at me.

I lean my head back onto Jax's shoulder and close my eyes while Opie speaks, I remember it just as well as he does, but had hoped that my friends would have forgotten what certainly was not my finest moment.

"You obviously know that her birthday is Christmas day, she reminds everyone for at least a month prior that it's coming up. Well that only started after the year she turned 14. We were having Christmas dinner at Gemma's when there was this massive crashing sound from the front door and Sarah appeared in the doorway of the dining room soaking wet and shivering." Opie stops talking and lifts his shot glass to his mouth, swallowing the liquid and laughing "The one day of December that it rained and she ended up taking a 2 hour walk in it. She looked like a drowned rat, a very furious drowned rat. Gemma got up from the table and went with her down the hall; they came back about 10 minutes later with Sarah in clean dry clothes still with this furious expression on her face. She started by slapping both Jax and I on the arms and telling us that we needed to keep our phones with us then she curled into Clay's lap and burst into tears."

Jax kisses me softly on the side of the neck "I much prefer you on my lap."

I lean my head to the side to give him more access to my skin, nodding once as he kisses the juncture of my neck and shoulder before pulling his head back "I had never seen her as upset, none of us had. D was with her family so we thought they may have had a fight or something, it took a while before she calmed down enough to tell us what was going on."

Donna glares at Jax "Like we would have fought."

I lift my head and look at her with a grin "Yeah, we never fought with each other…much."

Jax chuckles and shakes his head, his goatee brushing across my shoulder softly "Sure sure, you believe that."

Opie clears his throat and pushes Jax's shot glass towards him "Shut up and drink that. I'm tellin' this story. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, when she calmed down enough to tell us what happened she tried to brush it off as nothing but between Jax and I we got the full story out of her. Turned out all she wanted for her birthday was a stereo and for Christmas she wanted CD's, well she got clothes for Christmas from her uncle, hideous ones at that. Her cousins gave her vouchers for CD's which she was okay with but not a single one of them did anything for her birthday. She didn't get birthday wishes from any of them which would have been bad enough if not for the fact that Jacob Juniors best friend was born on the same day. Jacob pulled out this massive present wrapped in happy birthday paper just after breakfast and Sarah thought they'd been pulling her leg about forgetting, till Jacob senior and David asked what time the birthday celebrations were."

Opie chuckles a little and I groan "Our dear wee Sarah flipped out on her family asking them if they'd forgotten something else important about the date and none of them could work it out. When she told them it was her birthday as well David managed to sever her last nerve by telling her it wasn't that big a deal that they'd forgotten." Al and Cam both turn their wide eyes to me; my inability to let birthdays pass unnoticed is well known with my friends.

Donna giggles from her position on her husband's lap; she'd only ever heard this story from Opie and Jax having not been present when it happened. Opie nods at Jax who leans forwards and drinks his shot before refilling the glasses. "She managed to convince us that she'd just left and walked off her irritation, till we saw David the following day. The bastard hadn't gotten out of her way quick enough and she'd punched him in the face. Even back then she was good at breaking noses."

I shrug casually "He learnt though."

Opie picks up his glass and nods once "He did. And we all learnt that your birthday better not ever be forgotten."

Jax chuckles as he adjusts me on his knee, pushing my shot glass closer to me "And we never did forget your birthday. I just hope that what we did that year made up for it."

I nod and look around the table at some of the members of my ever expanding family "You did baby."

Cam cocks an eyebrow "What'd they do?"

I pick up my glass and swallow the contents before leaning back into Jax's chest, the empty glass in my fingers "They cancelled Christmas dinner and turned it into a birthday dinner."

Opie laughs and shakes his head "S, you're so wrong there. It was not turned into a birthday dinner. It was always meant to be, do you really think Gemma just happened to have a huge ice cream cake made of your favourite flavour in the freezer by accident?"

Jax nods "It was just a shame that D's parents wouldn't let her come and that you missed the start of it."

Turning my head so I can glare at him he shrugs slightly "It's true babe. D was meant to be there with us. Ma asked your uncle if you could spend Christmas with us and he had Okayed it but rang her the night before and said he'd changed his mind and you had to spend the day with them. That's why we were so surprised to see you dripping in the doorway."

Jax suddenly sits up and sets me on my feet jumping up behind me with a huge grin on his face. "Pick up your shit, all of you. Come on."

He picks up his shot glass, tucking it into the inside pocket of his kutte before lifting the bottle of whiskey off the table waiting while we all get to our feet and pick stuff off the table, walking towards the door he veers into the corner and taps Juice on the shoulder "Come on bro. Put that shit away, it'll still be there tomorrow."

Juice looks up curiously at the 6 of us but sets the laptop in the cupboard before closing and locking the door "It's okay, I was done now anyway. What's up?"

Jax grins "Us."

I smile instantly knowing what he's talking about tapping his shoulder "I'll be back in a second. D, come help."

Donna follows me to the bar where I squeeze through the gap behind the bar and pick up some more bottles while Donna raises an eyebrow. Passing two of the bottles over to her I come back out from the bar and go into the kitchen, pulling one of the packs of water bottles from the fridge I grin at the still confused expression.

"Where the fuck are we going?" Donna asks as I walk back out of the kitchen, vodka in one hand and water in the other.

I jerk my head "Up."

Donna's eyes widen as she realises what Jax was talking about "We haven't all been up there since Tara."

"I know." I smile "Jax told me you guys kinda let it become his place once I left, seems he might be ready to let a few other people into the best place in the lot."

Gemma steps in front of us as we head towards the door "Where are you off too?"

"We're going to the roof Gem." I set the bottles down and wrap my arms around her hugging her, ignoring the shocked voices around me.

Gemma hugs me back "What was that for?"

I smile and pull out of her embrace, picking up the drinks again "Cause someone finally spilled the beans of a 7 year secret regarding a birthday and a 'just happened to have' cake."

Gemma smiles and nods "Can't blame me, the day you were born should be celebrated more than Christmas. The winds a bit cold out there baby, so make sure you take Jax's hoodie, you might need it."

Throwing Jax's hoodie over my arm Donna and I bounce back to the group still standing in Juice's tech corner. "Right, ready now."

Jax puts his arm around my neck, the bottle of whiskey hanging from his fingers "You sure?"

I nod and hand him the water "Yep."

Jax walks through the open door and over to the ladder that leads to the roof space we'd occupied so often as kids. "Up you go, Darlin' you wait here with me till they're all up there."