Shayla watched as the back door of the moving truck was slid closed by Jax. He made sure it was locked up tight before he turned on his sister. He grinned his lopsided grin before stepping closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. She took in his scent of leather and the smell of the garage. She breathed nice and slow so she could savor his smell. She didn't know how long it was going to be before she was able to smell that smell again.
"You sure you wanna do this?" Jax asked her as he pulled away from her. Shayla sighed a little, but nodded her head slowly.
"I need to leave Charming for a while. College will be perfect for that." Jax let out a similar sigh and gave her a sad look. His gaze fell to her cut lip and bruised cheek. Shayla lowered her head a little to hide the injuries.
Her now ex fiance had come home fucked up and had beaten her to a pulp. It had happened a few times before, but she always talked Clay and the others out of doing anything about it because he didn't know what he was doing when he was in such a state. She hadn't seen him since that night, but she was told that he walked away.
Shayla heard the click of her mother's heels before she heard her call out her name. Shayla frowned at Jax who grinned in return. When Gemma had discovered that Shayla was going to be leaving for college, there was a huge fight that had broken out. She knew that Gemma was just worried about her since she was the one that had found Shayla knocked out on her kitchen floor. She had always been protective of her, but after that night, it was so different. Gemma had taken up residence in Shayla's spare bedroom and literally followed her everywhere. Shayla had agreed to go to college in Tacoma so she could still have protection and that had calmed the Queen enough to let her go without much more fuss.
"Do you have your gun?" Gemma asked giving her that look that said she still wasn't very happy with her choice.
"Of course. It's in my purse," Shayla replied as she faced her mother completely.
"You got your meds?" She was being short with Shayla. Shayla knew the only reason why she was doing that was because it annoyed Shayla to no end.
"Also in my purse."
"You got your emergency credit card? Money?"
"Ma, I got this. Everything is good to go and I mean everything." Clay had saw an opportunity in Shayla going to Tacoma. SAMCRO was needing to run a shipment of guns to Tacoma so SAMTAC could transport them to somewhere else. Shayla knew not to ask too many questions about what was going on, but when Clay had approached her about using her moving van as a cover to run the guns to Tacoma, Shayla agreed to do it without question. She was aware that the cops were sniffing around and was beginning to become an issue. They were making it difficult to do any kind of the "extracurricular activity" so Shayla was going to help. After all, Gemma constantly reminded Shayla that she would be inheriting the "kingdom" some day. And she was going to protect it.
"That's my girl," she heard Clay's rough voice say from behind her then felt his arm go around her shoulders. "Listen, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. It's still not too late to back out." Shayla smiled up at Clay then kissed his cheek.
"I know, but I want to do this. The ass hole cops are sniffing really close and this way it won't look suspicious." Tig walked up to them with a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. "Besides, I'm going to have Tigger with me, what could possibly go wrong?" Tig winked at her before tossing his duffle into the cab of the moving truck.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Gemma muttered crossing her arms over her chest. Shayla rolled her eyes and Clay dropped his arm from her shoulders. "Ma, I have my cell. Tig has his cell. I have money, my house is waiting for me. My utilities are taken care of. I have a couple interviews lined up for when I arrive. Everything is good to go. I promise, this will be as smooth as smooth can be." Gemma's frown deepened as she looked at her daughter. Shayla held her breath as she waited, once again, for her mother's approval.
Finally Gemma grinned and stepped forward to wrap her arms around her daughter. Shayla relaxed into her mother's embrace as she returned it. When Gemma pulled back, Shayla could tell she was looking at the injuries on her face through her glasses by the thinning of her lips. Shayla looked away from her. She hated how she felt so small when her mother looked at her like that. Almost like she was disappointed in her.
Shayla could understand why her mother was so worried about her leaving the way she was. She had never been that far from home before. Shayla had never been out of California. Gemma had told her that the only reason why she wanted to leave the way she did was because Shayla wanted to hurt her, but that wasn't true. The truth was, she was only twenty two years old and had almost gotten married and threw her entire life away. She wanted to live her life and follow her dream and become a graphic designer so she could create her own video game.
"I want you to call me every hour on the hour to check in with me," Clay said to Shayla. "If you run into any trouble, you listen to everything Tig tells you."
"I know the drill, Clay. We've went over it several times." She was getting really tired of everyone treating her like she was still just a kid. She supposed they had every right to do that since she was still just twenty two years old, but she was ready to be an adult.
She had set everything up on her own, she had found her house, found her potential jobs, even went and filled out the FAFSA applications by herself and that shit was confusing as hell. She was a big girl and they weren't letting her put on her big girl panties and handle shit on her own. It was all so frustrating.
"I just want to make sure you remember. You were stoned every time I tried to talk to you about it," Clay defended raising his eyebrows at her. Shayla giggled. He wasn't wrong. Clay and Shayla had a good relationship with each other. He may not have been her real father and she knew that he and Jax didn't really get along most of the time, but he was a good father to them whether Jax liked it or not. It took one hell of a man to step in and help raise children that weren't even his especially since he wasn't even a father himself, but he always tried to do right by them and Shayla was always grateful for that.
"That's fair, but I'm usually good at remembering things when I'm high," Shayla shot back. Jax scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, unless it's the food in the oven," Jax teased. Shayla pointed a finger at him.
"That was one time, Jackson, and I only forgot because you were pissing me off," she snapped. Jax held his arms out like he was innocent.
"I can't help that I was better than you at Mortal Kombat!" Jax said with a laugh on his breath.
"Everyone is better when they keep using Scorpion!" she hissed.
"Oh, come on, everyone knows that Sub Zero is better," Tig said as he stepped in between Jax and Clay. Shayla narrowed her eyes at Tig.
"Don't make this trip any harder than it has to be," she said in a threatening tone that sounded eerily similar to her mother's tone. Tig grinned at her completely unfazed by it.
"We're all ready to go. You ready, Princess?" Tig asked leaning back against the truck. Shayla took a deep breath as she looked around the parking lot of Teller-Murrow. Everyone went on about their business as if nothing else was going on in the world. She had already said her goodbyes to everyone, but they were on the clock so they had to get back to work.
She watched as one of the latest prospects came out of the garage rolling a tire alongside him. He was a Puerto Rican from Queens. His name was Juice. She liked him well enough and she really hoped that he got patched in. He was tech savvy just like she was. He spoke her language. It was actually really nice to be able to talk to someone about programming and software and not get glazed over eyes as a response.
"Hey Prospect!" she called out. Juice stopped and looked at her across the parking lot. The tire kept on rolling, but he paid no attention to it. Shayla smiled at him and he immediately returned it. "You better be patched in by the time I get back!" Juice laughed.
"You can count on it!" he replied and gave her a fake salute. The forgotten tire was suddenly remembered when it rolled into a trashcan and knocked it over only to send trash everywhere. Shayla laughed as Juice gasped and ran over to pick the mess up.
"Now I'm ready to go," she said with a shake of her head.
"Fucking Prospects," Tig said with a shake of his head and made his way up to the passenger side of the truck so he could hop in. Shayla made her way to the driver's side when she heard Bobby call out. She watched him as he hurried to the truck as best he could. He carried a huge paper bag. He handed it to her.
"Little care package for the road. Got some cookies, muffins, and brownies in there for you." Shayla's eyes lit up as she grabbed the bag.
"Special cookies, muffins, and brownies?" she asked happily. Bobby chuckled and shook his head no.
"Like I would give you three pounds of that shit. We'd find you and Tig in Hawaii wondering how the hell you got there in the truck." Shayla laughed as she opened the door and handed the bag to Tig as he climbed into the truck.
"Well, thanks Bobby especially if you threw extra chunky chocolate chip in there." Bobby smiled and there was a twinkle in his eye that he got whenever someone complimented his baking.
"Of course, Princess," he said with a wink. Shayla stepped forward and gave him a tight hug.
"I'm going to miss you, Bobby," she whispered and squeezed him a little tighter before letting him go. He held up another paper bag that was much smaller than the other.
"This is the special cookies and brownies I made for you guys. Didn't have enough for muffins," he said as he tossed the bag to Tig. Tig laughed triumphantly and opened the bag to peer inside.
"Thanks, Bobby! You're the man!" he said cheerfully and took out a cookie.
"Bobby!" Gemma scolded like a mother.
"Go, go, go, go," Bobby said in a hurried tone as he practically forced her into the truck. She shut the door and looked down at Bobby who was smiling at her. Shayla hurried and started the truck and started to on her way out of the parking lot before Gemma could take away their goodies. She bit her lip as a little anxiety gripped her.
She had done it. She had managed to leave. She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to do it or not. She talked of big game, but there was still that little whisper in the back of her mind that said she really wasn't going to be leaving. But here she was leaving and the whisper in the back of her head was silent.
"Are we there yet?" Tig asked as he munched on half of a pot cookie. Shayla slammed on the brakes.
"Get out."