𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖉 𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙

𝖙𝖜𝖔

saturday afternoon, charming, california

julina woke up in a cold sweat. her hangover was surely not as bad as hunter's, but her head ached nonetheless. she should have still been sleeping as heavily as he was, but the sound of her phone buzzing on the wooden dresser across the bedroom stopped that from happening. quickly, she got up and practically lunged at it, pressing hard at the volume buttons to shut it up. the notifications on her screen varied, most she didn't care about, and she found herself laying back in bed to read them all. as she shifted, she turned to see her boyfriend, smiling softly to herself as he snored. a smile wasn't the typical reaction of a woman that slept in the same bed as a snoring, bed hogging man like himself, but she always appreciated how peaceful he looked when he was asleep.

with a silent sigh, the brunette let her head fall back against the headboard, staring intently at her smartphone. a few missed calls and text messages ending in exclamation points jumped out at her, making her heart skip a beat with anxiety. , her best friend since they were in diapers and the only person but herself that trusts to keep her dance studio afloat, had been trying to reach her for hours. on a typical day, she would have been snapped out of her sleep at the sound of her phone, or she would've just been awake and able to answer the first time around, but with all the drinking she did last night, she slept like a baby well into the day. drawing her eyes to the top of the screen, she squinted at the time ; it was one in the afternoon.

"lina, call me when you see this!"

"julina, we really need you. please call me back."

"are you okay ? really need to talk to you!!"

all of the frantic text messages started at nine in the morning and the last one she received only came in a half hour ago. there had to be something going on over at her studio - the business she worked so hard to get up and running, her baby - and she was over here in pajamas, cuddled up by hunter as if it didn't exist. looking over to hunter once more, she was unsure if she should wake him or not. it was pretty late, but he never got to rest like this. if it was an emergency, she knew he'd want to know, but if it was something she could deal with on her own, why should she bother him ? she decided to creep out of bed and into the kitchen, quietly shutting the door behind her, leaving the sleeping biker on the other side.

as soon as she was in the clear, lina returned the call to rory. she let her still groggy body fall against the heavy countertop, propping herself up on her elbow while the phone rang. it was as if her best friend was waiting by the phone for her call because her voice came through the line almost instantly. "lina ! i've been calling you all morning !" it wasn't typical of julina to sleep in, or ignore texts and calls for that matter, so she truly felt guilty. and, a little sick from all that partying last night. she wasn't a big drinker, it just never sat right with her stomach and she hated the feeling of her head spinning, so she tried to avoid it, but when the guys roped her into drinking some beers with them, she had a morning remedy that worked wonders. and so, she began to fix herself a pot of coffee as she further investigated what was going on with aurora and the studio. "i'm so sorry, rory. we had too much to drink last night and i didn't realized the time- please tell me everything is okay." she apologized genuinely, concern lacing each word that came out of her dry mouth.

as the fresh coffee smell hit her, she turned and leaned back against the counter, knowing full well she and hunter needed a new coffee pot since this one only took about twenty minutes to fill. "do you want me to lie ? because nothing is okay." the words sparked an instant sigh from the brunette. now she was worried. "the back door was busted in when i opened this morning. the safe is gone, all the mirrors are smashed." the more aurora talked, the more tears flooded to lina's eyes, "you weren't answering and i didn't know who else to call." she explained, and julina understood completely this was in no way her best friend's fault. "unser called jax and the guys over." strangely, that last part made her calm down, just a little. after all, she wouldn't even have the studio without the club, so it felt like a given that they would be there for her during something like this. but, she couldn't understand why someone would do this to her little dance studio. "wait, why ? do they think it's a club thing ?" she furrowed her brow, unsure of what she had to do with all of that business. sure, the club had a lot of enemies, but attacking a place where little girls go to pirouette didn't seem like the best move. "i-i don't really know, lina. you should just come down here, jax is worried about you."

and with that, aurora abruptly hung up, leaving julina with a rollercoaster of emotions. she quickly turned and flicked off the coffee maker, and shuffled quietly back to the room. she needed to get down there for herself and assess the damage. she didn't have insurance and she sure as hell was in no financial situation to fix this if her safe was taken from her office. of course, she knew she'd always have the club to help her out, but she didn't want to ask anyone else for anything else. she'd taken enough from them, they surely needed the money for more important things, like all of abel's hospital bills, and the warehouse being blown up really put them in a tough spot, and that was so recent. sliding into her leggings, she reached over and grabbed the keys to her car, which she didn't expect to jingle ever so slightly, and wake up hunter.

"sneaking out on me ?" his voice was still groggy, a chuckle escaping him. the crisp white comforter was wrapped all around him now that she'd been out of bed, and he was sprawled out across the king-sized mattress he'd treated them to when they bought the house. "just a little emergency at the studio, going to help rory out." she lied, downplaying what had really happened. she knew there was no point in lying, he would find out, but there was also no point in getting him all pissed off so early, especially since he seemed to be in a good mood, all things considered. "okay babe," he yawned, rolling back over and into his pillow, "see you later." it was surprisingly a lot easier to leave unsuspectingly than she thought, but she was lucky enough that hunter was so sleepy. within minutes, lina was strapped into the driver's seat of her car and down the street, on her way to downtown charming. the way she was driving, full of anxiety and honestly rage, she made it there in no time, having to park a little walk away due to the police cars parked out front.

"what the hell happened here ?" she gasped, her eyes catching a good glimpse at all the broken glass and other damages, like what looked to be gunshots fired at the interior walls. without much prior thought, she began crying. all of her hard work had been maliciously destroyed, her lifelong dream was taken from her. then, when she needed him most, his voice gently approached her, "it's okay, sweetheart," jax's arms wrapped securely around her, he was her literal shoulder to cry on. as much as she knew she shouldn't take comfort in another man, julina needed this. sure, it wasn't hunter's fault he wasn't here, it was her's, but it still made her feel better that jax was here, instead.

"we're gonna find the bastards that did this, i promise you." the blonde murmured into her, taking a deep breath into her hair. the smell made him weak at the knees, but this wasn't the time to confess that, even to himself. it made jax's blood boil that someone could do this to a dance studio, for fuck's sake, it was for little girls. but the thing that made him the angriest was that it made julina cry. she worked so hard for this and all it took was some assholes with baseball bats to ruin it for her. or maybe, the thing that made him the maddest was that hunter wasn't here for her. that arrogant fuck was what ? too busy to support her through this ? afterall, it had been jax that made sure the club secured this place for her. but what did that say about him ? all of his relationships were superficial distractions from his feelings for julina, and the fact that he couldn't have her, as much as he wanted her. but this really opened his eyes. if julina had been in her office when whoever did this broke in last night- if something were to happen to her, he'd lose his mind.

he was in love.