By Your Side - Jax Teller

five

"Jules." Jax whispers, his hand rubbing her lower back. "Julianna."

"Fuck off." She says back, pulling the sheets over her head. "Let me fucking sleep."

"It's past nine. I'm late for work at the shop."

"Why the fuck are you tellin' me? You could've just left." She grumbles, sitting up against the headboard.

"Lovely as always in the morning." He says, a lit cigarette hanging from his pretty lips. "Just wanted to give you a heads up."

"How considerate." She smirks at him, pushing her hair back and out of her face. "Will you be back?"

"Not sure." He shrugs, leaning towards her, his hand on her leg over the sheets. "You should come by later."

"Okay." She nods. "When's best?"

"Whenever." He takes a drag of his cigarette. "See ya later, darlin'." He kisses her forehead.

"Okay." She smiles to herself as she gets out of bed, heading to the bathroom to finish her shower from last night.

+++

"Hey Jax." Opie says as he steps into the garage, pushing a motorcycle in. "Why were you at the cabin last night?" He asks this quietly, it's no one else's business besides theirs.

Jax's heart is beating in his throat. "I just wanted to apologize and see if she was okay." He nods to himself, that's a good lie. "Y'know about the whole crazy ex wife bullshit."

"Are you guys divorced or just separated?"

"We got divorced papers signed but we're still waiting for some shit, I don't fuckin know." He tosses a socket wrench down on the toolbox, wiping his hands off with the rag hanging off his jeans.

"Until you are officially divorced, stay away from Anna. She doesn't need to be broken hearted like she was back in high school."

+++

Jax and Opie were seniors while Julianna was a sophomore. The two didn't actually meet until Ope had invited him over to hang out, that night Anna lost her virginity to her brothers best friend. They would meet up a few times a week to hang out, get drunk or high and occasionally fuck. Soon after that, Jax basically disappeared, he stopped showing up to classes, would talk to Opie every so often but never to Julianna. He still feels so guilty, even more so now that she's forgiven him completely. His father had died that year and he never wanted to talk about it, still doesn't. She didn't find out about it until Opie had explained to her where Jax was on their graduation night. He had dropped out to help support his mother and the club before she had remarried, rather quickly, to his fathers friend, Clay. Tara had been around to offer her version of comfort. The two of them became an item, very lowkey, shortly before she had graduated. Soon, she was practically running his life, telling him lies, saying who he can and cannot hang out with, threatening to leave him if he pissed her off. Jax had gotten a girl pregnant a few months prior to him and Tara hooking up. Wendy had their son, Abel, then OD'd before checking into a rehab center. Tara got adoption papers and had the two of them sign, making her legal guardian of her boyfriends son. He never wanted her to do that but he was so distraught through out most of their relationship that he would've signed anything.

Flash forward to a year before Julianna graduates college, Jax finally had enough of Tara's toxicity. He said he needed a break, which turned into separating, which turned into finally signing divorce papers. Tara ended up with full parental rights to Abel, leaving Jax, the boys father, out of the picture. He was heart broken over it, but relieved when she agreed to sign.