Lies for Truth

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Ariana began to visibly freak out, her breathing came hard and again she avoided looking at him. Jax reached for her hand but then thought better of it and dropped his arm back to his side. “Come on let’s get out of here.”

She nodded and went to the passenger side. Wasting no time Jax got in and drove away from the police station, he never wanted to see that place again. “We need to talk.” He said.

She sighed and sank into the chair from embarrassment. “I didn’t want to get you involved with Charlie because I didn’t think it was that serious and I didn’t want you to get in trouble.” Her voice was frantic as she rushed to get those words out and forget he had heard her confession to Jolene.

“He’s already tried to hurt you, it is serious Ariana. I thought we agreed to be friends and friends tell each other these things.” He knew before the kiss in her bedroom she would’ve told him about Charlie. She was avoiding him and it hurt like hell.

“I didn’t want you to get in trouble. You were arrested today.”

“Let me worry about that. Promise me if he says anything to you you’ll tell me.”

“Fine!”

“Promise me.”

She glanced his way for a split second. “I promise.”

Jax knew what had her on edge but he decided against bringing it up. What would be the point? They had feelings for each other but they could never be, at least not enough in her eyes. She was putting their family first and he admired that but wished it didn’t have to be at the expense of what they could have. “Thanks for coming to get me. I will tell my father just probably not tonight.” The day was already one of the worst he had, why add to it?

“They’re going to want to know why you’d beat up Charlie. It’s not fair for you to take this on alone when you were trying to defend me. I’m going to tell my mom what happened.” Ariana explained, her voice softer now as some of the intensity cleared.

He couldn’t argue with that because it would help his case with his father. The guy was going to be furious. “Ok. We should talk to them together.”

She nodded. “Tomorrow after dinner.”

Their parents were waiting for them when they got home. Dinner was out of the fast food containers and set up on the kitchen table. Thankfully they hadn’t been waiting too long and asked no questions about where they had been.

After dinner Julie wanted answers and followed Ariana up to her room. “Did Jax tell you anything?” she asked quietly.

“He got into trouble helping me out. We decided to sit Mom and Mitch down tomorrow after dinner and explain everything. Please don’t say anything until we talk to them.”

“I won’t. I can keep a secret. I’ll be in my room if you need anything. I know you want to get your homework done.” Julie said, slightly teasing her step sister about her dedication to school.

“Thanks.”

Ariana sat on her bed and took a minute to breathe. She was overwhelmed with relief that Jax didn’t want to talk about her slip up to Jolene. She shook her head and sent her focus back to important matters. She walked over to her desk and sat to get her homework done.

An hour later when she was done a question nagged at her. She didn’t want to cause more trouble with Charlie, should she do his history paper? Did he expect her to after the fight with Jax? It was times like these she wished she had a better spine and could stand up for herself.

No, she decided, she wouldn’t do his school work ever again. She gathered her notepads and books and placed them back into her bag.

Ariana had made a promise and intended on keeping it, no matter how bad it made her heart race. She left her room and went down to the basement to talk to Jax. She knocked on his door. “Jax?” with no answer she chose to try the handle and found it unlocked. “Jax?” he had to be home, it was dark outside and almost bed time.

The door that led outside to the yard opened. Jax stepped inside wearing only a pair of jeans, his feet where bare and he held his t-shirt in his hand. It was cold out but that didn’t seem to bother him.

Ariana was going to ask him what he was doing outside barely dressed in the cold but then her eyes took notice of his naked chest and she couldn’t form any words. He was really in great shape, far better then someone his age would normally be.

“What brings you down here?” Jax asked then pulled his shirt back on.

“I promised you I’d be honest about Charlie. Today he gave me trouble in class and I agreed to do his paper if he’d leave me alone.” She hadn’t told Jolene all those details therefore he couldn’t have overheard it. “I’m not going to do it and he’s going to be mad.”

“I hate that you’re scared of him.” His blue eyes darkened leaving them almost black. “It’d be pretty stupid of him to expect anything from you after today.”

The dark look in his eyes and the ripped muscles she had seen now firsthand, no she didn’t doubt Charlie was hurting. “Ok, I’ll leave you alone now.” she turned toward the door.

“You could never bother me Ariana.”  

She paused for a second at the door but then thought better of it and continued back upstairs. Tears glossed her eyes and again she prayed for strength to survive the aching in her chest.

She showered and changed for bed. She held Jax’s jacket close again because it helped her sleep but she tried not to think about him at all. Guilt wasn’t letting her sleep that night. He was in trouble because of her, it wasn’t fair. She had never liked Charlie but now she really hated the guy, he was a jerk that only cared about what he wanted and what he considered important, everyone else be damned.

Jax couldn’t go to trial that she was sure of, she had to get Charlie to drop the charges.

One way or another.