A short, bittersweet story of friends turned lovers, turned strangers who find their way back together and attempt to get it right. AU: Jax, Tig, Juice, Kozik and Kip are still alive, otherwise basically follows the rest of the show.
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Sixteen:
I waved goodbye to the pair of brown eyes watching me from our dining table, ensured that I had my keys in my pocket, and stepped out of my front door to get to work.
What I'd expected to be a smooth morning was quickly thrown in my face when I glanced towards the biker sitting on the curb beside my house, glaring at the blue Holden that was parked next to my car in the driveway.
"What are you doing here?"
Happy managed to turn his narrowed eyes from the vehicle to me, his glare lessening slightly but not completely. I knew that he wanted to ask who the car belonged to, but it wasn't a conversation that I was ready for or willing to have, so I asked again. "What are you doing here, Happy?"
"Thought we could go for a ride."
He stated it so simply, like he wasn't asking me to do something that would feel the equivalent of tearing my heart out and stomping on it in the process. "I can't, I've got to get to work."
Happy had never taken the word 'no' very well, and he clenched his jaw tightly before he looked back at the car and then over my shoulder at the door I'd just walked through. I could read the thoughts going through his mind plain as day: He wanted to stomp the door in and figure out who the fuck was in my house.
"Take the morning off and take a ride with me." He finally huffed out when he met my gaze again. I could see that it was taking all of his self control not to storm past me and kick my door down.
"I can't, Hap." I shook my head and walked towards my Impala, thankful to have it back safely in my driveway. "I work two days a week, I'm still entering the data into the system to make it easier when I'm not there. I've got to go to work."
He stood in front of me and blocked my path so that I couldn't pull the door open. "You know that we need to have this conversation as much as I do, and you know that you want to have it. So what's stopping you? You're brave, Free Bird, so what's scaring you?"
"You are." I gripped my hands tightly together to try and ground myself. "You're scaring me because you won't just let me be, Happy. I'm trying to get everything sorted for Jax so that the office isn't so hard to run, as soon as I get it fixed I'm quitting and I'm out of there. Why won't you just leave me be until I get it done?"
He clenched his jaw and stared down at me so harshly that I almost took a step away from him. "Because I don't want to leave you alone, and you don't want me to leave you alone. What the hell is really going on here, Free Bird? Is it your man-"
"Shut up." I snapped to get his eyes off the house and back on me. "If I agree to talk to you, will you leave?"
Happy nodded his head once and I sighed in defeat. In order to save myself from him rushing inside, I would have to sit down and speak to the devil, something I wasn't sure I was ready to do.
