Juice Hiding His Feelings
“Could you write something that goes along the story lines of Juice having feelings for the reader but is always with other girls to hide his feelings?”
She threw her head back in laughter, the hand that was holding her beer moving around with the force of it, causing a little bit to spill on the bar next to her. Juice laughed along, looking over to see how her whole face scrunched up when she laughed. She brought life into the room around them, a thought that Juice had been trying hard to push from his mind and not focus too much on.
“You’re so dumb,” she said on a breath when her laughter died down a bit. She wiped the corner of her eyes and looked over at him, a big smile still plastered on her face.
Juice shrugged a shoulder with a little smile, taking a sip of his beer. “It’s part of my charm.”
“Oh please, don’t act like you have any kind of charm,” she teased, nudging him a bit with her elbow.
“Right,” Juice looked over at her again, momentarily distracted by his own thoughts. It wasn’t anything new, it was just her. He had these weird, confusing feelings towards her that had been quietly building up inside him for an uncomfortable amount of time. He tried exceptionally hard to not have those feelings, because it was unfamiliar and he didn’t know what to do with them. They were misplaced, he knew that, and he knew he had to try harder to forget all about this shit he was thinking once and for all. She wasn’t here to be a crow eater or fuck around, she was just here to help out at the garage. They all trusted her and wanted her around, Juice wouldn’t let himself be the one who fucked that up. If only his goddamn libido would realize that sooner.
“Stop that,” she scowled in a teasing manner and Juice hadn’t even realized he was still looking at her. How long had it been? “It’s weird,” she laughed a little more and turned her head towards the door as it busted open to welcome a few large bikers who were bickering and making inappropriate jokes.
“Lovely,” she remarked to Juice, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.
“Bailey girl!” Chibs bellowed a little too loudly when they finally made their way to the bar. He threw his arm around her shoulders and mussed up the hair on the side of her head. “How the hell are ya?”
Bailey huffed, swatting his hand away but smiling throughout the exchange nonetheless. “Just peachy. Getting into more trouble, old man?”
Chibs hummed lowly, planting a rough kiss to the top of her head. “Maybe, maybe not, no need in worryin’ about it.”
Juice stood up then, straightening his kutte and nodding at Chibs. “I was just taking a little lunch break with Bailes,” he had been calling her that ever since she started work at the garage, and if they thought it was weird, no one ever said anything.
“I can see that,” Chibs sighed and moved his arm from around her to run in through his hair. “Gonna see if I can’t get out of here early. Long day,” with that, he said his goodbyes to the pair of them and slowly made his way over to the chapel, closing the door behind him.
Juice and Bailey watched his back as he went, then turned to look at each other once again. Bailey stood up from her stool so that she was in front of Juice, reaching her hand out to straighten out the side of his kutte, despite the fact that he had just done it. “Should probably get back to work so I can get out of here too,” she remarked, looking up at him.
Juice cleared his throat, trying not to think about how much he wanted her hands to stay on him. “Right,” he ran a hand over his mohawk and nodded. “I’ll be around if you need anythin’.”
Bailey snorted on a laugh and was already turning away to walk back into the garage. “Don’t be so weird. I know where you are,” she joked. And with that, she was gone, leaving Juice to stare after her.
_______________________________________________________________________
A few nights later they were all at the clubhouse, celebrating god knows what, but it was a hell of a celebration. Bass was pumping throughout the place, and clouds of smoke were left behind from everyone puffing on cigars and joints. Everyone was laughing and already too far gone to comprehend much of what was going on, but it didn’t matter.
“Juice!” he heard her voice call for him and he turned his head to see where it was coming from. She was standing by the pool table, a cue in her hand and Tig standing next to her. “Come here!”
Knowing he couldn’t say no and knowing there was nothing better to do, he made his way over until he was standing right next to her. So close that he could smell the alcohol on her breath.
She looked up at him and bumped him with her hip, her nose scrunching. “Hey player,” she greeted. “Up for a game?”
Juice chuckled under his breath, not sure how much she had to drink already, but knowing he was probably just as drunk – if not more so. “Whatever you say,” he grabbed his own cue and chalked it up a little.
“Good luck man,” Tig clapped his hand down on the younger man’s shoulder and shook his head. “She’s a shark, I’m tellin’ ya. Think she cheats.”
“Oh fuck you, you sore loser!” Bailey laughed, smacking Tig on the side of the head with her free hand.
Once he left, Bailey raised an eyebrow and Juice, gesturing towards the table with her cue. “You’re up. Let’s see it,”
With that, their game had started. A game that consisted of laughter, teasing, Juice missing more than a couple shots, and Bailey making fun of him for sucking so much. They might have taken a few more shots of vodka that Tig came by occasionally to offer them, but if the alcohol was hitting them they chose not to acknowledge it.
It was getting down to the last few turns of the game, and they had somehow drifted closer together, even while they were shooting. Juice leaned down to take what looked like an easy shot, but ended up missing and cursing under his breath.
“Wow, Ortiz,” Bailey laughed. “Didn’t know about your unmatched pool skills. You should pull those out more often,” she teased.
He stood back up and when he faced her they were practically chest to chest. Neither of them said anything about it, and the alcohol made them feel warm inside.
“Don’t tease. It’s not nice,” Juice said with a goofy smile on his face, low enough so that only Bailey would hear. They were close enough that he didn’t need to speak much louder than that anyway.
“Oh really? Don’t be a 5 year old, Juice. It’s not a good look on you,” she shot back, somehow getting even closer to the man in front of her.
“Not a good look on you,” he mocked for lack of better words. His hand somehow found itself lifting up and running along the hair at her temple and going around to the back of her neck to tangle there. How did that happen?
If his heart was beating faster and harder, he would choose to blame that on the multiple shots they had taken. Not her. That wasn’t happening. He didn’t even like her, just as he had been telling himself for months.
Bailey’s lips parted, the teasing spark still alive in her eyes. They were inching closer and closer to each other and it was almost like torture. When they were practically breathing the same air, Baileys tongue slipped out almost unconsciously to wet her lower lip. They were so close that Juice felt it against his own mouth and had to suppress a sound that he was sure that he would embarrass himself with.
Finally, right before anything could happen, Juice snapped out of his trance. This was putting everything he worked towards and everything he talked himself down from to hell. He couldn’t do this. It wouldn’t be right. He shouldn’t feel this way about her. It was bad.
He jerked away when the realization hit him, tugging on the hair at the nape of Bailey’s neck as he did so. A scrunch formed between her brows and she tried not to look like a wounded puppy at the hands of the sudden rejection. “What-“
“I have to go,” Juice interrupted quickly “Sorry,” he explained shortly before letting go of her and hurrying away.
Bailey shook her head at the sudden change of whatever the hell was happening, and turned her head to follow in his direction. Juice had gone over to one of the couches, and leaned down to whisper in the ear of one of the crow eaters that was seated there. Bailey’s mouth opened a little in what felt like shock and maybe even hurt as she watched the scene play out in front of her. The crow eater giggled at whatever Juice had said before standing up and taking hold of his hand. He made quick eye contact with Bailey one more time before throwing his arm around the woman and walking her back to the dorm rooms.
Bailey had no idea what had just happened, but she felt like shit. She suddenly felt stupid and foolish, wondering if anyone else was paying attention to whatever the hell that was.
As if reading her thoughts, Chibs appeared at her side, shaking his head. “Sorry about that, lass. Kid doesn’t –“
“It’s fine,” she forced out a strained laugh and waved her hand. “Um, I actually have to get going, I’m waking up early for a shift tomorrow, so…” she trailed off, already making her away over to the door to get the hell out of there. Suddenly she felt so embarrassed that she couldn’t breathe and she knew her flushed cheeks were probably giving her away. “Bye Chibs, see you around.”
With that, she was gone, leaving Chibs with the sudden urge to beat the shit out of his idiot brother. He needed some straightening out, one way or another.
_____________________________________________________________________
It was the end of Bailey’s shift the next day, and she stood up straight, wiping the sweat off her brow and throwing her wrench in the toolbox next to her. She hadn’t seen Juice all day and had been actively avoiding him, which was working out for her so far. The only people she had talked to today were Half Sack and Jax for a few minutes. She was thankful that she didn’t have to deal with any of the shit from last night, or at least not yet.
Chibs was watching Bailey from the window of the clubhouse, and saw that Juice was sitting on the picnic table outside. The young man seemed to be watching her as well, not doing a very good job about being as subtle as he may have wanted.
With that, the older man made his way out of the clubhouse and across the parking lot into the garage where Bailey was working. “Hey girly,” he greeted in typical fashion.
She looked at him and smiled, taking a sip from her water bottle. “Hey, geezer. What’s up?”
Chibs took a quick glance at Juice, who was still trying to discreetly watch from the picnic table, then back at Bailey. She didn’t seem to notice anything, and was still looking under the hood of the car she was working on.
“Ya look good today,” he started, moving a little closer to her.
Things like this weren’t too out of the ordinary for Bailey, especially with Chibs and Tig, so she laughed a little at his comment. “Thank you, I know that the mechanic’s shirt must really do it for you.”
Chibs leaned next to her against the car and laughed as well. “That it does,” he continued, taking a deep breath. Hopefully she didn’t kick him in the balls or anything. Carefully, he reached out to tug on the ends of her hair before running the tips of his fingers through the hair that framed her face.
She took a slow look at him, raising her eyebrows. “What are you doing,” she said flatly.
“Just admiring ya,” Chibs stood so that he was over her and she was looking at him like he was crazy.
“Chibs, this is stupid. What’s wrong?” She reached up to put her hand on his wrist, his hand still in her hair.
He leaned down so that their faces were closer, and from across the lot, he heard a door slam loudly. He straightened up and smirked a little, taking a step back and shoving his hands in his pockets. “You should head home early, lass. I can cover yer shift.”
Bailey still looked more than a little confused, but let her face relax as she ran her hand over it. “Okay, whatever you say I guess. You’re so weird today,” she let out an exasperated laugh and shook her head, unbuttoning her shirt on her way to put it away and clock out.
When he stepped into the clubhouse to go to her locker, she was met by Juice’s brown eyes and a scowl. “Juice-“
“What? Didn’t expect to see me here?” His chest was practically heaving with his breaths and his fists were clenched. “That why you were planning on fucking Chibs in the garage?” his scowl deepened.
The comment and his sudden attitude set Bailey off and she pushed him backwards. “First of all, I was nowhere near fucking him, thank you very much. Secondly, you don’t have any right to be mad about who I choose or choose not to hook up with, quite frankly it’s none of your business! Don’t be such a dick, don’t act like you’re all macho and have some type of claim on me because you clearly don’t,” she started, her own chest heaving now. “You don’t get to act like an asshole and try telling me who I should or shouldn’t fuck, you don’t own me, and it’s clear that you want nothing else to do with me otherwise. You’re not in charge of me,” Bailey practically shouted, fuming. “You embarrassed me, Juice. It was fucked up,” she shook her head. “Don’t start acting like this, you’ll embarrass yourself too.”
“Well you made it pretty damn obvious, didn’t you!?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Stop acting like this, I can fuck whoever-“
He took two large steps towards her and grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and tangled the other one in the hair at the back of her head. “Shut up,” he groaned before bringing his lips down on hers in a rough kiss. She responded in kind, kissing back just as hard and biting on his lower lip. He groaned at the feeling and tried to bring her as close to him as he possibly could.
They were all over each other, their bodies practically melding together in the heat of it all. “You’re so annoying,” she complained against his lips.
He laughed and ran his tongue against hers. “You like it.”
Bailey let out a small moan against his mouth and he put his hands under her ass so that her legs lifted up to wrap around his waist. Juice let his feet carry them back to his room, and he pressed her against the door, grinding into her before they even went inside.
Bailey let out a harsh breath and a small whimper. “Don’t tease,” she warned.
They had barely made it inside the room when she was stripping his kutte off and he ripped open her half-buttoned work shirt. She gasped and practically tore his remaining clothing off while he planted rough kisses along the top of her chest. When he had finally gotten her out of all her clothes, he took a second to pause and look at her. Their breathing was hard and the anger was still like a living thing between them. Despite that, he shook his head and met her eyes again. Her cheeks were flushed red, her mouth swollen and lips parted.
“I can’t stand you,” he said, swallowing to wet his dry throat. “So beautiful,” he finished, running his finger down the side of her face and across the top of her flushed chest.
Bailey shook her head and let out a quick laugh. “Shut up, Ortiz,” she pulled him down into another kiss. Neither of them could believe what was happening, but all that mattered was that it finally was.
They spent the rest of the evening together, kissing, laughing and fucking. Nothing else seemed important, even when Bailey made fun of Juice for trying to bury himself in crow eaters and being such a pussy about his feelings.
“Doesn’t matter,” he had said, grabbing her ass so that she was mounted on top of him. “It’s you now. Always known that.”
