The Anarchy Princess

9. "Thankgiving Dinner"

Dean
~
I sat across from July, Kyle by her side. We had all been eating when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it." Gemma said but Jax had stood up. "No ma. Dean will. After all, it is his guest." Jax smirked down at me. "Yeah, please. Stay seated." I said as I walked to the door. I opened it to find Cheryl. She was in a shirt way too small and a black skirt. "Hi" she greeted as she stepped inside. I coughed my thoughts away and led her towards the table. She took the empty seat next to me, sitting across from Kyle. The four of us had ate angrily. Staring each other down between bites. Kyle, what does she even see in him. I thought as I scraped the fork against my teeth forcefully, staring over at him as he stared elsewhere. The girls were no less angry. Lord only knows what's running through their minds. Me and July would glance at each other for a moment before staring back to the left, at her guest. I mentally groaned. "So." Jax killed the tension between the four of us. 'Watch this.' He mouthed to me. "Hey Cheryl, do you like AC/DC?" He asked. She perked up and nodded. "Yeah! Of course I know the alphabet silly. Abcdefg-" she had started to sing out the alphabet. "Okay, thank you." I said as I mentally cringed. I thought that was bad. Then Kyle had just topped it off. "Woah! You know what comes after C?!" He asked amazed. Happy had choked on his beer and started to cough away his laughter. I looked over at July. Her expression mirrored mine. That we were both in hell. After I had finished dinner, along with everyone else. "So, who's ready for dessert?" Gemma asked, as she was walking to the kitchen. "Oh no please, I can't eat any more ma, swear I'm gonna pop." Jax groaned. We all protested. "It's all of your favorite, it's apple pie!" She said as she brought it out. I looked up at July, her eyes held misery as she stared right back at me. I wanted to take her hand. Tell her it would be ok. But instead, I smiled sadly back at her. "Yeah Dean. I made it just for you." Cheryl said as she squeezed my bicep with her hand. "You, you made it?" July asked. Her body had tensed at Cherry's sentence. She only laughed lightly, "of course I did, I know Dean loves apple pie." She stated. July had inhaled deeply as her chair scraped against the tile flooring under us. "I-I need to take a drive." She said shakily as she walked away from the table. Tyler was too busy eating the pie to follow her. I stood as well, excusing myself. I found her in the open door to the garage, admiring a '67 Camaro, it sat shining under the dull light. "Hey." I said as she jumped slightly. "Hey." She replied quietly. "Wanna take a drive with me." She asked as I nodded and jumped into the car as the engine roared to life. "Woah." I sat, surprised. She had quietly laughed, "throw in a tape" she said as she backed out of the driveway and onto the empty street. AC/DC started to play. We cruised down the open road when the song suddenly stopped and static had filled the car. "What the hell?" She asked as she started to mess with the radio. "Hello? Is this thing on?" A voice rang through her speakers. She gasped and hit the brakes quickly, pulling over. "What? What's wrong?" I asked her worriedly. "I'm not sure." She replied. "Hey there Julie Bug, I hope this thing is still yours because it'd be pretty damn weird right now if you had sold it." He laughed lightly. She smiled through her tears. "Wow. Um, ha, where to start." He sighed. "Ok." He said as he took a deep breath in and exhaled, he did it again. No doubt he was crying. He had taken another breath in and let it out with a sigh.

"If you're listening to this at all, it means that John Teller is dead."

"And uh, this is tape number 8, by the way. There's 13 total." His voice, it was just quiet. So pained. "And if you are hearing these, it also means that I've missed over 16 years of the holidays, birthdays, fathers days. I'm so sorry, Julie Bug." He said. The emotion in his voice was so raw. "Now, I'm sure you both have so many questions, and way less answers, so. I've decided to give you some." His voice held much determination. "I love you Julie bug."