Venomous (Jax Teller)

twelve

Julia and Jax sat down in a shaded area, just a little away from all the noise. She honestly preferred watching from the sidelines.

"You know, back in Nevada, I picked up this girl. Her douchebag boyfriend was sitting on my bike and she had bruises on her face. Beat the shit out of him and took her to Jury's place."

Julia put her hand up, "Ok, Jax, I don't wanna hear about your sex life. You wanna have that chat, do it with Opie or one of the other boys."

Jax laughed, "I'm getting to a point, if you'd just listen."

"Fine. I'm listening."

"She was pretty. And, uh, she definitely liked me," Jax smirked, "But I couldn't do it. When it came down to it, I just kept thinking about you."

Julia was silent for a few moments, "I don't know if i'm supposed to be flattered or offended that you couldn't get your rocks off because you were thinking about me."

"I'm trying to tell you that I'm serious."

Julia sighed and rubbed her temples, "Jax, this is not a conversation I want to have at a school fundraiser around a bunch of kids."

"What? 'Cause me talking about my feelings isn't 'age appropriate' for a bunch of 8 year olds?" he sounded annoyed.

"For fuck's sake, Jax. That's not what I meant. I just mean...this is a private conversation. A conversation that I would rather have when it's just you and me. Preferably when we aren't dealing with the shit storm known as Kyle. Ok?"

Jax stood up, "Fine. I'm gonna go check in with my mom and find Ope."

"You do that," Julia said, letting her head drop into her hands when he walked away.

Feelings were always too stressful for Julia. Neither of them were raised by people who were exactly welcome about that kind of stuff. Gemma was the closest they got to an emotionally intelligent adult. Even then, she always just told them to suck it up and deal with it. It was safe to say that Julia's usual motto with hard feelings was to just put them away until the very last second.

She didn't get even a minute to deal with that storm when another rolled in and took a seat where Jax had just been.

Julia looked up and saw her Uncle there with a bowl of chili in his hand, "Does that shit even taste good?"

Vince took a spoonful, "Not as good as what you make, but it passes. You and Jax have a little lovers quarrel? He stomped away like a little kid."

"It's fine, Vince. Nothing to worry about."

"Always something to worry about with you two. You fight like an old married couple sometimes," Vince said.

Julia gave him a look, "And what would you know about that? You haven't been married once."

"Neither have you," Vince pointed out, "What's going on this time?"

"He wants to talk about his feelings. I don't know how to deal with it."

"Sounds about right. You're shit at those kinds of talks. Always shut down."

"Hmm. I wonder why that is," Julia's voice was thick with sarcasm.

"Yeah, I wonder. Just lay it out like you usually do. Straightforward. Blunt. Honest," Vince suggested.

"I mean...it wasn't that hard the other day when I told him about Ryan," Julia let out, watching Vince closely for his reaction.

She hadn't exactly told Vince that Jax knew. Vince and her mom were always pretty strict about keeping it a secret. Every part of it. She wasn't even really allowed to talk about it with them, and that somehow made it even worse.