Runaway ✔

085 • Juice

TracyWWE this chapter is for you! Thank you so much for your frequent votes! <3

-----

"I didn't know you were such a philistine," Juice chuckled when Dana cut the spaghetti. 

She gave him an apologetic smirk. "I don't have the patient to roll it up, as you do."

With a hint of a smile he watched how she ruined her dinner. He liked to eat together, to notice the differences between them. Never before he'd paid attention to the way she ate, nor had she noticed his neurotic urge to keep everything organized. Even though that was much more visible in his apartment than in the clubhouse; he was used to all the others making a mess of that place. 

"Well, now we're already in a serious conversation mood; what about your dad?"

She stared at her plate. "Thought we were gonna have a nice evening."

He hesitated. Shouldn't he have asked about it? He didn't mean to ruin the evening, but it seemed something really essential. Already at their first date at the drive-in they'd talked about his family, about his mother and sister who were living in Queens, and because he'd thought her father was dead, he hadn't asked questions about him. 

"We can talk about it another day," he said eventually. 

She shook her head. "Never mind. I just wanna get over with it." She reached for the glass of water next to her plate and took a sip. "It ain't a long story anyway. I was little when it happened, but I can still picture the two cops that were at the door. My mother panicked at the sight of them; she thought he was dead. But no, he was still alive. He was." 

Her face looked tensed, her eyes seemed to darken. 

"What happened?" he carefully pushed her when she seemed to need a little encouragement to continue. 

"He'd been high while drivin', and hit two kids. Both killed instantly. Four and six years old, part of a family that lived up the same street as where we lived. It could've been me."

Juice's eyes widened and he cursed. 

"He turned out to be a dealer. He wasn't only fuckin' up our lives, but that of others too."

"And your mom didn't know?" he asked, overwhelmed. 

Dana snorted. "She was blind to his shortcomings." She laughed embittered. "Sounds familiar, huh? Oh, how I hated her for livin' with someone like that. And what did I do? Exactly the same. And now my insane ex sends my brother to the same prison my father's in. How ironic."

Juice didn't know what to say. All this seemed too much misery for one person. But wasn't that how things often went? Some people attracted shit like they were a fucking magnet. If there was a god, Juice hoped he believed Dana had been through enough by now. 

"You ever visited him, in prison?"

"Yeah, when I was a kid and didn't understood all of it too well. But it was something my mom and Happy were constantly fightin' about. I think I was eleven when I saw him for the last time. He always kept sending me letters – and I wouldn't be surprised if he still did."

"And you don't wanna see him again?" he asked, hesitating. It was a question that had kept him busy for a long time. His father had left his mother right after she'd given birth to his sister. A few times Juice had been on the verge of paying him a visit to demand answers. With his hacking skills it hadn't been hard to find his address. But he'd never taken that step. The fact that he came from a broken family had always marked him, had always given him the longing to find a place where they would accept him, where he could be himself. The club had taken the place of his family and in the end he'd decided that was all he needed. Some of the older Sons, especially Chibs, were more of a father to him than his biological father would ever be. Furthermore he didn't want to take the chance that he would lose the club when they'd find out who his father was. Then he would lose this family too. 

Juice realized his thoughts had floated away from the conversation and he had no clue what Dana had answered. 

"Sorry," he muttered. "I... got lost in my own thoughts."

"About your father?" she asked, understanding. 

He nodded, glad she wasn't pissed because he was distracted. 

"You would want to see him again?"

He shook his head. "No." There was too much at stake. He however didn't dare to dwell on it too much. No one knew about his father's ethnic background and no matter how much he loved Dana, this wasn't something he wanted to share with her. Maybe later, if he had no other choice. It just wasn't worth the risk. 

"And you? I didn't hear your answer."

"No," she said shortly. "I wouldn't know what to say."

Juice mixed the spaghetti with his fork because it had cooled down, even though cold spaghetti was fine too. "Got to be a strange idea that Happy will talk to him soon."

She sighed. "Yeah... I wonder how that will go. I'll probably never know."

Juice agreed in silence. Happy wasn't very talkative and he couldn't imagine he would confess to anybody how he felt about this father-son reunion. Not even to his little sister.