It's a Jungle, Baby

Coffee and the Super Market

"Coffee shop then?" I wonder as Axl and I walk down the hall.

"You drink coffee?" He wonders and I nod.

"Courses drag the hell out of you here." I say and he smiles.

We walk down the street to the coffee shop and we order. We sit at the table and Axl looks at me.

"I want you to tell me everything that happened while I was gone." He says and I shrug.

"There's not a lot to tell." I admit and he shakes his head.

"Liar." Axl tells me. "What went wrong?" Shit.

"Everything was going fine until you stopped writing or prick hid all the letters." I drink my coffee. "He started getting worse so the angrier he got the more he hit and..." Not wanting to say what else he did to be, I trail off. Axl gets what I mean though.

"He kept rapping you as well?" He says quietly and I nod. "Did you try telling mom?"

"Yeah and that didn't work either. It's like talking to a wall." I drink more of my coffee. "I tried as hard as I could to be any where else but home. Whether it was coaching little league soccer or studying at a friend's. I didn't want to be home."

"TJ, I am sorry about having to leave but--" Axl starts.

"You were going to get in trouble." I say and he nods.

"What did you mean by he nearly killed you?" He wonders.

"That was a fun night." I say sarcastically. "It all happened the night of graduation, I had got back late from a party and they had went into my room and saw everything packed. He flipped shit and started smacking me around, he pulled out a hunting knife I decided I was going to fight back or I was going to die and I broke a bat over his back. Mom said she was going to call the cops so I locked myself self in my room and left early the next morning."

"You broke a bat over his back?" Axl half smiles.

"What was I supposed to do? Let him but me like a fish?" I wonder with a laugh.

"It's not that it's that you are definitely my little sister." He says with a laugh. "How's soccer?"

"Good, we won state in twelfth and we have a good shot of winning a championship this year." I say and Axl claps.

"Yay!" He says and I laugh. "I'm sorry for freaking out at you."

"I'm sorry for not telling you I moved to LA." I say and he shakes his head.

"No, you're really not." Axl tells me and I laughs.

"You're right, I'm not. I knew the blow up at the bar was coming." I admit and he laughs. "Adults fighting like kids."

"You'll have to get used to that, Duff and Steven are over grown children." Axl tells me and I laugh.

Duff

"I bet she'll kill him." Slash speaks up after he hear them walk down the hall.

"That's likely." Izzy agrees. "She's pretty nuts."

"She seems so nice." Steven admits, Izzy and Chelsea laugh.

"TJ had half the town scared of her." Izzy says. "Mainly because of the music we all listened to was claimed sin by the church."

"TJ is a nice person just I wouldn't piss her off." Chelsea admits.

Taylor isn't scary, she's five foot seven and maybe weighs a hundred pounds. But I've seen Axl pissed, that's fun... I can only imagine that plus PMS. There'd be holes in walls shaped like that tiny little girl. Steven looks at me.

"What you thinking?" He smiles.

"Taylor mad, she's gotta leave holes in walls shaped like her." I admit and Izzy looks shocked.

"You got balls calling her that." He mutters and I shoot him a confused lot.

"She's never really gotten made about it." I shrug and he smiles.

"She must like you or something." Izzy says. "She'd get mad at teachers and get suspended for screaming at them for calling her Taylor."

"She likes him." Chelsea agrees.

Taylor really likes me? Huh. I really like her to.

"That works out great, Duff likes TJ to." Steven smiles and I flip him off but I feel my face turning red.

"Someone's red." Slash mutters and I flip him off as well.

Chelsea opens the fridge and instantly closes it again, she looks to all of us and we smile innocently.

"There is nothing in this fridge. You emptied our fridge." She exclaims.

"There wasn't much in it to start with." Steven admits and she points at Steven and I.

"You're coming with me." Chelsea says.

"Where?" I wonder.

"The super market." She says grabbing Taylor's keys.

We leave the building and down to the parking lot. Steven and I look around the parking lot. Chelsea walks up to a beautiful 1969 black charger with a red hemi stripe. Chelsea gets in and we rush to get the front seat. I push Steven into the back and sit shotgun beside Chelsea.

"This is your car?" Steven asks from the back.

"Are you kidding me? He's TJ's." Chelsea says like its no big deal she just called the car a he.

"He's?" I wonder and smiles as we pull out of the parking lot.

"TJ calls it a he, she didn't name it though." She admits. "She's kinda weird like that."

It's not weird, I think it's cute and quirky. It makes Taylor just that much more perfect.

We pull up to the super market and we get out, Steven has a habit of disappearing while shopping for food and doesn't show up until the checkout. Chelsea and I walk around and she's placing food in the cart.

"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" She wonders without looking up.

"Taylor? Of course not." I say and she looks at me.

"She's been through a lot and it's not my place to tell you about it but I don't want to see her hurt." Chelsea says.

What could she have possibly been through? Who'd want to hurt her? I shake my head.

"You're a good friend Chelsea, I'm not going to hurt her. Axl might just kill me if I do." I admit.

"So you talked to him?" She wonders and I smile.

"Nothing gets past you, huh?" I wonder and she smiles. "I'm waiting until Axl and Taylor make up before I make them hate each other again."

"It's going to be that bad?" Chelsea wonders.

"Whenever Axl would talk about his little sister, he'd want to protect her too much. It's going to be World War Three." I admit and she smiles.

"It can't be that bad, in the end he's going to want what's best for her." She says and I nod.

"I agree, that's what I'm worried about. I don't think I'm good enough for her, Axl definitely won't think I'm good enough for her." I admit and she shakes her head.

"You make her happy, that's all that matters." Chelsea says. "She likes you a lot."

"I like her a lot to." I smile.

Yeah, I really do like her.