05

Jax stepped back into his bedroom to find Ariana just where he left her ; seated on a corner of the bed with a puzzled look across her beautiful face. “She bought it and hopes you feel better. We’ll wait a couple a minutes and I’ll go distract them again and you run upstairs.”

She nodded absently. “Thanks.”

He decided to point something out that had been bothering him since they got home. “You’re nervous around me again ; it shows like a bright neon light.”

“Again ?” she searched his eyes. “You mean the days before ? Well you had stopped saying weird things and I thought we were getting to know each other and maybe be friends and now you’re acting weird again.” She tried to explain, stuttering on some words as she tried to avoid his eyes and see his reaction at the same time.

He thought she was cute when she was nervous, it made him smile. “I don’t know what you mean.” He could understand why it was weird and awkward, it wasn’t his ideal situation either but he couldn’t change the facts and the facts were he liked her ; too much.

Ariana opened her mouth and then shut it, her outrage becoming clear. “You can’t say you like my legs or my eyes or the damn rose on my underwear. You’re father is married to my mom.”

“I didn’t tell them to do that.” Her eyes became the size of the moon. “Ok I agree the timing is bad and after what that jerk Charlie did it’s too much to discuss right now.”

Mentioning Charlie quickly put out her outrage and brought back her sadness. “I’m not scared of you Jax.” She said with her voice softer. “One thing doesn’t have to do with the other.” She looked down at her knees and Jax knew she was remembering what that fucker did to her. “You would’ve kept hitting him if I didn’t say anything.” It wasn’t a question.

But he answered anyway and agreed. “Yeah. What are you thinking about ?” he wanted to know, he wanted to somehow erase that frown across her lips. He wanted to kick himself for making her think about Charlie Lowell again.

“He kissed me,” Ariana whispered, twisting her hands over her lap. “I’ve never been kissed and he ruined it.”

His heart tightened when he heard her crying. Jax stepped forward and gently titled her chin up. “That doesn’t count. You’ll get your first kiss and that’ll be the one you remember forever.” He quickly stepped back when the urge to give her that kiss became strong.

Ariana nodded and stood from the bed. “You’re right.” She took a few steps forward and gave him her back. “About the other stuff…. ?” She left the question in the air hoping he’d pick up on what she meant without having to say it.

“What I was trying to say before is you’ve had a stressful day and we probably shouldn’t talk about it now.” Jax explained, he couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear so it was best to drop the whole conversation. He couldn’t tell her that they could be friends and he’d never hit on her again. He spoke before she could reply. “Wait two minutes and then come up.”

~*~

Jax disappeared out of the room before she turned around, he moved fast and quietly she had observed times before. She had wanted to resolve her relationship with Jax and find out what exactly their relationship was but he wiggled out of answering and disappeared on queue. No wonder she was nervous around him, he went from quiet and mysterious to then this joking bright smile type of guy that was approachable when minutes before warnings bells went off.

Two minutes, just like he said the cost was clear. She went up to her room as Jax stood outside in the yard with her mom and Julie talking about who knew what. Upstairs she shut the door to her room and un-zipped his jacket. Ariana gave into the impulse and smelled the jacket. It smelled like after shave spice and pine. There was a forest of pine tress outside and he sometimes took walks out there. She set the jacket down on the bed and went to her closet to find something to change into. After pulling on a t-shirt and a matching pair of shorts Ariana examined her torn dress, once the buttons were replaced it’d be as good as new.

She hid the dress in the back of her closet then sat on the corner of her bed. She’d wait a little bit longer before going downstairs to see her mom. She hated to lie to her but it was for the best because in the long run nothing actually happened, no reason to freak mom out.

With the free time Ariana pulled her homework and school books from her bag and set them up on her desk for later. She liked to have plans and organization especially with her school work, her parents instilled that at a very young age.

When she sat back down to wait her mind drifted to Jax. She was extremely grateful that he had been there to stop Charlie and been there as a friend lately. Ariana wanted to be his friend without it being weird but that didn’t last very long. Now she wasn’t sure they could be friends at all if Jax kept making it awkward.

Why was he making it awkward ? She wondered as she nervously bit at her nails. He couldn’t be serious and actually like her more then a friend ? Could he ? Boys were confusing and until now Ariana never had to try and figure out how their mind worked.

But it didn’t matter what Jax felt or didn’t feel, their parents were married and they were family now. No matter what. Ariana didn’t let herself question what she thought about Jax in the romantic sense because again it didn’t matter.

All thoughts quickly took a backseat when someone knocked on the bedroom door. “Come in.” Ariana called out.

Julie stepped inside. “Hey I heard you weren’t feeling good.”

“Yeah it passed, nothing serious.” She offered with a small smile. “How was your day ?” it had to be a hundred percent better then her day and Ariana could use the distraction.

She listened to Julie recount her day at school and gush about the boy that sat beside her at lunch until minutes later when her mom called them down for dinner. Instead of sitting around the dinner table in the dinning room Mary wanted them to sit outside and admire the view after Jax’s suggestion that it was a nice day out.

Ariana noticed Jax hanging out by the pine trees she smelled on his jacket. She walked over to where he stood. “It was the only way to get her out of the house so you could sneak back in.” He explained as they watched their family set the large picnic style bench.

“But it is nice out here.” Ariana took a look around the bright green grass then the surrounding forest with trees as high as the eye could see. Her nerves started to get the best of her but ready to burst she said next ; “I really need to talk to you.” She wanted to clear the air and not let another minute pass with the words inside her head screaming for release.

He met her eyes and nodded before calling out to his father to start without them that he was going to show her around the yard. Jax lead her through an opening in the pine trees, following the path farther from the house. “What is it ?” he asked when they were far enough but kept walking.

Ariana sped up to stand next to him rather then behind him. “About earlier, I really don’t want things to be weird again. I would really like it if we could be friends and I don’t have to second guess everything.” It was best to blurt it out before she lost the nerve.

He stopped long enough to look down at her face. “Is that what you want ? To be friends ?” his voice was simple enough, it didn’t seem like there was a hidden meaning.

Ariana reminded herself to stop trying to analyze everything he said. “Yes.”

He nodded and extended his hand. “Ok, friends then.” She smiled and took the offering. “Then as friends let me show you the best thing about this place.” Still holding her hand Jax continued farther into the forest.